The Player Plague

by Lucas Flint

  Even more importantly, however, was Bryce’s role in the Blackout. He had allied with Dark Kosmos, forming a Team with other Villain players that went around kidnapping low-level players for Dark Kosmos to torture. Unlike me, Bryce used Capes Online as a way to indulge his grossest vices. Sadly, Bryce had escaped justice before we could finish him off and his current whereabouts were unknown. I hadn’t seen him since the Blackout, but still kept my guard up anyway in case he decided to come after me at some point.

  “Yes,” said Chuck. “The point is, Bryce’s role in the Blackout was extremely troubling, made even more troubling due to the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be in the game at all.”

  “Yeah, about that,” I said. “Have you guys managed to find him yet?”

  Chuck shook his head. “I am sorry to say that he still eludes our grasp. A joint team comprised of some of the best programmers and hackers in both the Department of VR and SI Games have been searching for him day and night, but understand that Capes Online is huge, nearly as big as the real world, and somehow Bryce has figured out a way to avoid detection from even our most advanced tracking systems. Even his Sidekick Giggles has vanished off our radar, which is shocking because SI Games can tracks Sidekicks even easier than Heroes or Villains due to their status as NPCs.”

  “I hope you guys find him fast,” I said grimly. “The longer that monster is free, the more people he will torture and kill.”

  “Exactly,” said Chuck. “And that is the problem. All five charter members of the United Nations want answers from us as to how Bryce got into the game despite not being on the list of Project Second Life candidates. It’s straining America’s relations with those other countries because they are afraid Bryce will continue to target their citizens, both those in Project Second Life and those merely playing the game for fun. It doesn’t help that other countries have started putting up in-game bounties on Bryce’s head in order to expedite his capture, meaning we now have hundreds of Mercenary players trying to find him as well.”

  “Do they think that shutting down Project Second Life will get rid of him or make Capes Online safer somehow?” I asked.

  “Some do,” said Chuck, glancing down at his half-full cup of coffee. “In particular, I have heard that China is seriously considering taking their Project Second Life participants and spinning them off into their own project. But it isn’t just Bryce. You are also at the center of these discussions.”

  “Me?” I said, putting a hand on my chest. “What did I do? I killed Dark Kosmos myself. Why would they be worried about me?”

  “Because of the unique circumstances surrounding your enrollment in the Project, plus your relation to Bryce and Dark Kosmos setting every player in the game after you,” said Chuck. He sipped his coffee again. “In short, the other countries believe that if you were in Project Second Life, Dark Kosmos might not have done what he did.”

  “What?” I almost shouted. “That’s ridiculous. Dark Kosmos would have taken over the game and tried to kill all the players regardless of whether I was here or not. Dark Kosmos had a deep hatred of players in general.”

  “I know that, but the other countries don’t,” said Chuck. “Even President Nelson is having second thoughts about the Project, although so far Director Johnson has managed to convince the President to keep it going.”

  I couldn’t say I was surprised. One of the victims of the Blackout had been President Nelson’s daughter. She was safe now, but even though I wasn’t a dad myself, I could easily see how the Blackout could have soured President Nelson’s opinions on games in general. “What about Capes Online itself? Has SI Games faced any backlash over their role in the Blackout?”

  “Not as much as you’d think,” said Chuck with a shrug. “Their PR department has been working in overdrive to try to convince everyone that the Blackout wasn’t their fault and that the game is still safe to play. Even so, hundreds of lawsuits all over the world have been leveled at the company. The government of the United Republic of Korea has even sued them on the basis that the Blackout put a lot of their citizens’ lives at risk and some countries, such as Germany, are debating banning Capes Online and VRMMORPGs entirely.”

  I gulped. “Will SI Games be okay?”

  “Probably,” said Chuck with another shrug. “They have gigantic cash reserves and some of the best lawyers in the world. Yet all the money in the world cannot keep you safe from everything. I could easily imagine the Blackout spurring countries to put more regulations onto VRMMORPGs, although right now no country has passed any laws about this.”

  “If SI Games goes out of business and Capes Online goes offline, what will happen to me and the other Project Second Life participants?” I asked.

  “The same thing that will happen if we shut down Project Second Life entirely,” said Chuck. He looked me straight in the eyes. “Namely, that you will cease to exist.”

  I tried not to look afraid, but it was hard. “Is that why there’s talk of shutting down the Project? So that Bryce will get deleted?”

  “Exactly,” said Chuck. “Of course, we are not entirely sure that shutting down the Project will get rid of Bryce—it’s possible he’s become completely independent of it at this point—but that seems to be what the other countries believe. They think that shutting down Project Second Life will result in Bryce’s deletion and thus prevent him from harming any of their citizens again. It would also, of course, delete you and thus ensure that other people won’t try to drag you into their problems, either.”

  “Wouldn’t that be murder, though?” I said. “As a US citizen, don’t I have certain rights before they issue the death penalty on me?”

  “That’s the main reason President Nelson hasn’t shut down the Project yet,” said Chuck. “President Nelson is a fairly progressive president in that he thinks digital people like you count as actual citizens. As a result, he doesn’t want to shut down the Project and delete all of you due to the legal and ethical complications involved. Even so, President Nelson is under tremendous pressure from the other countries to do something and Director Johnson, as I said, is working overtime to ensure the President that everything is under control.”

  “Is that why you’re telling me this?” I said. “Because I’m at the center of the controversy?”

  “Pretty much,” said Chuck. “Technically-speaking, I am not allowed to divulge this information to Project Second Life test subjects such as yourself. It’s even possible that nothing will come out of this and Project Second Life will continue apace. But I thought you deserved to know and I intend to inform the other test subjects about this as well so they will be aware of it. They deserve to know that much, at least.”

  I bit my lower lip. The idea that I could be deleted because of the actions of Atmosfear and Dark Kosmos both angered and terrified me. It angered me because it was unjust. I didn’t even sign up for this game and yet now I was getting blamed for the actions of other people who were only tangentially related to me. It terrified me because I knew that I didn’t have the power to stop this. I wasn’t a powerful politician, a cunning government agent, or a wealthy and influential video game developer. I was just a small town cop who was often in over his head. It boggled my mind to think that I was now an object of international interest and that my actions had put pressure on the President himself to do something.

  “Regardless, I will keep you updated on this issue as it develops,” said Chuck. “For now, I would recommend to keep doing what you’re doing. It is not healthy or wise to spend time worrying incessantly over things outside of your control. And should they decide to shut down Project Second Life … well, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  With that, Chuck disappeared, leaving me standing all alone on the balcony outside my room, my feelings of trouble and confusion deeper than ever.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Despite what Chuck said, I couldn’t just ignore the news he gave me. Perhaps I didn’t have the power to influence what was going on in the ou
tside world, but how else was I supposed to react to the news that might my new life might end very soon and I would have no say in the matter?

  I guess it was appropriate, in a way. I didn’t have any say in the way I came into this world and soon I might have no say in how I went out of this world. It was almost like real life birth and death, only much worse because you knew none of it was natural.

  I couldn’t say I was surprised to hear about SI Games’ legal troubles, though. Ever since SI Games got control over Capes Online again, I had finally gotten access to the Capes Online message board, where players could talk, post tips and tricks, and discuss all things Capes Online. It was an interesting resource, especially when combined with the official Capes Online Wiki, but I found most of the information ranged from very useful to outright false depending on the person posting it.

  In any case, that was how I found a 300+ post-long thread in the General Discussion section titled ‘SI GAMES IS SCREWED!!!!’ I was kind of surprised that SI Games didn’t shut down that thread, but maybe that was for the best, given how negative the mood was to the company at the moment. I couldn’t imagine the players reacting well if they weren’t allowed to discuss SI Games’ legal problems in the wake of the Blackout.

  In that thread, I read post after post by players—all of whom had been affected by the Blackout—talking about how much they hated SI Games for not keeping them safe and how gleeful they were whenever someone posted a link to an article or video announcing yet another lawsuit filed against the company. The posts ranged in content from relatively mild—such as one guy who said he wanted to short the company’s stock—to practically deranged. There was at least one poster in there, who went by the username ‘SI GAMES SUCKS,’ who seemed to be making thinly veiled death threats to the company, although I noticed that his posts tended to get deleted or edited by the forum staff.

  I would have posted as well, but for some reason I was denied access to posting privileges on the forum. Nor could I edit the Wiki, even when I saw blatantly incorrect information in some of its articles. It was probably because Project Second Life test subjects like myself were not allowed to communicate with the outside world, which I guess included CO’s own forums and Wiki. It seemed dumb to me, but I guess they really didn’t want anyone knowing about Project Second Life.

  But I sympathized with many of the posts in that particular thread. Although thankfully no one had died during the Blackout, tons of people had received psychological damage like you wouldn’t believe. Doctors and therapists were still trying to figure out exactly what kind of damage had been caused, but I saw more than a few people throwing around PTSD and other terms like that when describing how they felt about the Blackout. Normally I found any claims of suffering PTSD from a video game of all things ridiculous, but given how realistic CO was and how their lives had actually been at risk, I was more inclined to believe the people claiming PTSD and similar disorders than I otherwise would be.

  Quite a few people even claimed that they were going to close their accounts and stop playing Capes Online entirely. At this point, though, it wasn’t clear to me how many players had actually stopped playing for good versus how many were simply taking a very long, extended break from the game. Capes Online’s revenue came from the various subscriptions and in-game purchases made by millions of players every day. If enough players decided to stop playing, then it wouldn’t matter if SI Games won each and every lawsuit leveled against them. A company with no customers was not destined to last, no matter how big it was.

  I suppose that was one of the reasons I had bought so much furniture for my Base, even though I really didn’t need it that much. I had a vested interest in ensuring the continued survival of Capes Online, although I knew that even my many purchases were a drop in the bucket of the game’s overall revenue.

  Between the mass anger at SI Games, the hundreds of lawsuits leveled against it, and the possible termination of Project Second Life, it was starting to look like digital immortality was going to remain just that: A pipe dream thought up by some philosopher in the early 21st century who probably had never worked a day in his life.

  Even worse, if Project Second Life was shut down, I wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to my friends and family, almost all of whom still thought I was dead. The only person back in the real world who knew I was really alive was my fiancee, Sally, but even she didn’t know where I really was and what my current condition was. Thinking about Sally still made me sad, even though I had come to accept I would never return to the real world.

  But I was mostly angry at Atmosfear. I couldn’t be angry at Dark Kosmos—who was dead—but Atmosfear was still out there somewhere. So long as he existed, he would always pose a threat not just to me personally, but to the whole game and every player within it. A part of me wanted to drop everything else and spend my days hunting him down wherever he was, but at this point I knew it made more sense to level up my character, increase my Powers and Stats, and build up my Team. Just because I beat Atmosfear once didn’t mean I could do it again. I was determined to make our next fight our last, no matter what.

  That was when Cy suddenly burst out of my room and shouted, “Boss! You’ve got to get in here! Riku is killing himself!”

  In the wake of Chuck’s bad news about the potential shut down of Capes Online, I had completely forgotten about the ninja civil war that was about to develop. Without asking questions, I shoved Cy aside and ran into my room as quickly as I could.

  Riku and Aimi were still in the places I had left them before leaving. Aimi, in particular, was still restrained by her Ice Shackles, but Riku had somehow wriggled one of his arms from his ropes and was trying to slit his own throat with one of his knives. No idea where he got the knife, but his position on the floor meant he was having a hard time drawing the sharp, deadly-looking knife across his throat.

  Without even thinking, I ran over and kicked the knife out of Riku’s hand. The knife flew out of his grasp and came to a fall on the floor several feet away, well outside of Riku’s reach even if he jumped.

  I grabbed Riku by the collar of his Costume and raised him off the floor, glaring at him in the face. “What the heck was that about? Why were you trying to kill yourself?”

  “Because I dishonored my family name by revealing Miss Aimi’s secrets to you,” said Riku. He sounded depressed. “It is the way of the ninja.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You mean you thought it made more sense to kill yourself than to try to free yourself or Aimi?”

  Riku opened his mouth before closing it with a thoughtful look on his face. “You know, that never really occurred to me.”

  I sighed deeply and dropped Riku onto the floor, which he hit with a soft “Ow.” I rubbed the back of my head and looked from Riku to Aimi, wondering if everyone in this game was crazy or if it was just me.

  “We heard you speaking with someone out there,” said Aimi swiftly. “Who was it?”

  “None of your business,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “You should just be grateful I haven’t killed either of you.”

  “Does that mean you have finally decided what to do with us?” asked Aimi.

  I folded my arms across my chest. “No, I haven’t. I’m really leaning toward killing you both and getting this over with, though, because right now I am very tired and angry and want to go to bed.”

  “Then perhaps I can help you with that decision,” said Aimi.

  I looked at Aimi with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. “Help me? How? If you plan to debate the issue with me—”

  “I am no debater,” said Aimi without missing a beat. “Debate is the least convincing form of rhetoric, as my Sensei used to say. Especially to you Heroes and Villains. But I do know one thing you Heroes find convincing: A mission. With rewards.”

  I frowned. “A mission, huh? What kind of mission are we talking about here?”

  Aimi looked at me directly, again showing no fear in her eye
s. “A mission to aid the Ninja Guild in defeating the Stalking Shadows. Normally, I would not even consider offering such a mission to one like you, but after you defeated Riku and me, I believe you might have what it takes to defeat our mortal enemy.”

  A new prompt suddenly appeared in my vision:

  MISSION: Defeat the Stalking Shadows I

  Elite Ninja Assassin Aimi, the daughter of Grandmaster Yamamoto of the Ninja Guild, requests your aid in defeating the Stalking Shadows, a rival ninja organization whose leader has sights on ruling Adventure City with an iron fist. If you accept this mission, Aimi will ensure that no members of the Ninja Guild will attack you or your friends until you complete it.

  ALIGNMENT: Hero

  DIFFICULTY: Hard

  RARITY: Unique

  SUCCESS: Defeat Master Haru of the Stalking Shadows

  FAILURE: Die at the hands of the Stalking Shadows

  REWARDS: Higher reputation with the Ninja Guild, plus a complete set of Ninjutsu Armor [Rare] and 10,000 credits. Other rewards dependent on how well one completes the mission

  ACCEPT? Y/N?

  Whoa. Aimi certainly knew how to make an appealing mission. Despite being an NPC, she clearly understood the appeal that missions had to players. I made a mental note to avoid underestimating her. Aimi was not a Mastermind for sure, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t clever and intelligent in her own right.

  The question now was whether to accept the mission at all. I found it surprising that an Anti-Villain character was offering me, a Hero, a mission to complete, especially a mission with a Hero Alignment. It was even more surprising when you considered that my current rep with the Ninja Guild was Unfriendly, which I thought meant that they wouldn’t give me missions. Then again, Unfriendly was not the same as Hostile. Perhaps Unfriendly NPCs could still give you missions.

  Although I still didn’t trust ninja, I saw no harm in accepting this mission. It was clearly a Unique mission, meaning no one else would get it and I would never get another shot at it if I said no. Plus, I thought it made sense to increase my rep with the Ninja Guild. If I could raise it even to Neutral, then I wouldn’t have to worry about getting killed in my sleep anymore.