“You two enjoy your dance?” came a voice from behind them and Jace turned to see Diana pushing through the crowd with a knowing look on her face. She still wore her glasses which gave her a very “sexy librarian” look.
“Yes,” answered Mika with a huge grin. All three of them moved closer together so they could speak more softly.
“Any luck?” he asked the two girls, but both shook their heads.
“Nothing,” Diana frowned. “Are you sure these glasses work?”
“I’ve used them before,” Jace told her. “And one of the nice things about the game is, there are no counterfeit magic items. If you look at any secret door while wearing the glasses, you’ll see a bright glow around it. It’s really hard to miss.”
“Are you sure they won’t have some counter charm or whatever it’s called that might block them?”
“I don’t see how. NPCs can’t see the Help Desk or the door that leads to it. I don’t see how they put any sort of anti-magic spell around it.”
Diana seemed to consider that. “That makes sense - in the real world. Let’s hope it makes sense in this game world.”
“Did you find someone to give you a tour?” Mika asked.
“No, dear one,” Diana replied. “Though I may have identified a few prospects. If we’re done with this room, I can go see if I can charm any of them.”
“Yes…” Jace began but then looked down and didn’t see Luna. He scanned the room but there were too many people to see where she might be.
Reaching out with his mind, he spoke to her. “Where are you?”
“Fishes!” came Luna’s response.
“Oh no,” Jace sighed and the girls looked at him in alarm.
“What?” Mika demanded, her eyes darting around the room, looking for danger.
“I think Luna is going to attack one of the fountains,” he told them.
The three of them rushed outside and looked around the gardens, trying to spot the wayward feline. But there were at least a half dozen fountains and not all of them were visible.
“There she is!” Diana pointed. Jace followed her finger and saw Luna just as she pounced onto a tiny dolphin illusion. His familiar passed right through the dolphin and disappeared into the fountain with a splash. A moment later, she scrambled out of the water like it was boiling lava and came running towards them.
As Luna reached them, she stopped and shook herself off. The soaked cat looked up at him mournfully. “Bad fish!”
Jace chuckled. “Yes, bad fish. Are you done chasing things in the fountains now?”
His familiar looked chastised and began to lick herself dry. Jace turned and began to head back to the room when an odd figure caught his eye. It was a dark elf male and a tall one at that. Dark elves were one of the evil races and generally killed on sight in any of the good lands. And yet, the guards paid him no more attention that they paid anyone else.
“Do you guys see that…” Jace started to say to the girls but then stopped as he got a closer look at the elf. There was something very familiar about the elf. The long pointed ears and ebony skin weren’t familiar, but the face was. It was slimmer than it should be, because it was an elf, but it was a dead ringer for someone he knew. Someone he worked with. Damian Sangrey.
He took a hard look and really scrutinized the face as the dark elf stepped up to the entrance to the ballroom. The face was a little different because it had the dark elf template applied to it, but Jace was sure that had to be Damian.
They’d talked about their characters at work and Jace knew Damian had a dark elf warlock who was a couple of levels above Jace, something Shadetalker or Shade-eater or something like that. It couldn’t be a coincidence. But then, what was he doing on this side of the continent? He must have spent weeks building up the faction to be able to walk into Whitecliff, let alone in the Royal Palace. Funny he’d never mentioned that.
“What is it?” Diana asked.
Jace ignored them as his excitement grew. If it was Damian, he could help them! Maybe he could help them find the Help Desk. Maybe he could even speak with support in person and escalate the issue!
A whole world of possibilities opened up. Suddenly, things didn’t feel quite as hopeless. Jace took a step towards the elf and then heard the herald as he announced the dark elf.
“Ambassador from Shiedrigish, Duke Alalorn Shadegazer,” the herald bellowed, and the dark elf stepped through the door and paused, as if giving everyone a chance to gaze upon him. Even from here, Jace could see the haughty airs the player put on, so similar to the real Damian.
Then Jace’s step faltered as he registered the titles he’d just heard. Ambassador?! Duke?! Jace brought up his HUD and scanned the elf right before he disappeared in the crowd.
Name: Alalorn Shadegazer
Race: Dark Elf
Class: Warlock
Level: 97
Shadegazer. That had to be Damian. But how could it? Ambassador was a lot like a title in that you could purchase it for a specific country and gain immediate faction with them. But it cost a ton of money. And Duke? That was the highest noble title there was in the game. It cost tens of millions of dollars. How could Damian possibly afford it?
The answer hit him like a freight train. Damian couldn’t afford it. Not on his salary. There was no possible way. And if the senior programmer really had that sort of money, there was no way he wouldn’t be throwing it in everyone’s face every day.
“Holy -” Jace gasped but Mika suddenly gripped his chin and twisted his face to look at her.
“Jace,” she said slowly. “Are you okay? We’ve asked you three times.”
Jace blinked. Three times? He hadn’t even been paying attention. And now his brain was reeling from this new realization. Pieces were falling into place in his mind. Suddenly, things made sense.
“I think,” he muttered, trying to think it through. Trying to connect all the dots. “I think… I just figured out who is responsible for all of this.”
The girls shared concerned looks. Diana waved a hand in front of his face. “Are you okay Jace? What did you figure out? Responsible for what?”
Shaking his head to clear it, he took the girls by the arms and led them through the garden until they were out of sight of the ballroom. Finally, he let go of their arms and then turned to face them.
“Jace,” Mika looked worried. “You are acting very strangely. Are you alright?”
Diana’s hands were on her hips and she was giving him a motherly look. “She’s right. Is there something wrong with you?”
“That dark elf Duke,” he started. “I think it’s my co-worker, Damian. And I think he might be responsible for all of this.”
Chapter 55
“Wait? What? Who is responsible for what?” Diana asked, clearly not understanding what Jace had meant. Even Mika looked confused.
“That’s what I thought,” Jace explained, taking a sideways glance back at the ballroom where Damian had disappeared. “I thought it was a bug and that WorldCog was covering it up while they were trying to quietly get it fixed.”
“But now you don’t think that?” Diana asked.
Jace shook his head. “No. I just saw one of my co-workers, a senior programmer on my team, go into the ballroom.”
“Can he help us?” Mika asked hopefully.
Again, Jace shook his head. “No. In fact, I think he’s the one who created the ‘bug’ that sent us all here.”
The two girls glanced towards the ballroom and then back to Jace. Diana cocked an eyebrow. “And how do you know that?”
“Because they just introduced him as Duke and Ambassador,” he told them. “Duke is the highest royal title you can buy. I’m guessing it’s in the tens of millions of gold range.”
Mika whistled softly and even Diana looked concerned. “And I take it this…”
“Damian,” Jace supplied.
“I take it this, Damian, doesn’t have that sort of money?” Diana finished.
“No
way,” he explained. “He’s a bit of a jerk and really loves to flaunt anything he does better or something more he has. If he had that much money, even in-game, he would have bragged about it every chance he had.”
“And you suddenly think this Damian fellow is the cause for all our troubles?” Diana asked skeptically. “How is that even possible?”
Jace took a deep breath. His mind was still catching up with his theory and he was struggling to put it into words. It was hard for him to believe, but it all made sense. The last memory he had of the real world was finding that obfuscated code. Damian had acted really strange and even hostile. At the time, Jace just thought that it had just been Damian being Damian and just acting like a self-important jerk. That was before Jace had seen him in-game.
Damian was a Duke. That would have cost millions and millions of gold that Damian didn’t have. And the likelihood of him having stumbled into the title like Jace did was unlikely - especially the highest and most valuable title in the game. It just didn’t seem possible. And even if he had, there was no chance he wouldn’t have bragged about it to everyone on the team.
The only way Damian could have gotten that much gold was to have stolen it. And while Jace might have thought it was possible that he could have somehow done it inside the game, it was too coincidental.
Damian just happened to have the insertion code signed out. And the code he had signed out just happened to have obfuscated code that hid its true purpose. And the people being inserted into the game just happened to be inserted into monster bodies - without any of their money. And Jace just happened to have tried to be killed the same day he discovered the code? That seemed like too many coincidences. He remembered hearing that there were no coincidences, only the illusion of coincidence.
Is that what Damian was doing? Taking the assets of people who were inserted into the game when they died? And then covering his tracks by somehow changing their entity type to be an AI, forever trapped in a monster body and unable to communicate with anyone?
And when Jace had discovered it and told Damian that he was going to bring it to Phil’s attention, suddenly he’d been hit by a car and “killed”. Problem eliminated. And then Damian must have known or guessed that Jace would have been willed into the game - Jace was sure he’d mentioned it in some of their conversations. Damian must have done something to flag Jace’s account for the same treatment.
It all made sense now. The code. Damian’s actions. Jace’s near death. His being marked as a monster AI. It made sense to him.
And as he thought about, he realized that every single person he’d saved had been rich to some degree. Mika had just inherited money. Diana was a successful author with who knew how much in royalties. Even Duglas and Yosyp had talked about having money. And who knew how many other people had the same thing happen to them.
“Jace… earth to Jace,” Diana said, waving her hand in front of his face. “I asked you three times about this Damian fellow.”
“Sorry,” Jace said. He’d been so wrapped up in his own thoughts he hadn’t even heard her.
“You think this man is the cause of all of our problems?” Mika asked with a fierce depression.
Nodding, Jace cast a glance back at the last spot he’d seen the dark elf. He’d thought Damian had been his friend, or at least, friendly. Well, at least, as friendly as Damian could get. They’d even gone out after work a few times.
“I think he killed me,” Jace told them. “Or, I mean, tried to kill the real Jace. And I think he believes he succeeded.”
“And all this because he has a title?” Diana asked, again showing her skepticism.
“Right before I ‘died’,” he started. “I discovered some hidden code in the insertion routine. That’s the routine that takes people who have died and ‘inserts’ them into the game. It also transfers all of their marked assets into the game so they can start a new life.”
“Damian got really upset when I brought it to his attention,” he told them. “Damian can be really moody, and I didn’t think much about it. Then, the next thing I know, I’m dead. Or at least, I thought I was dead.”
“Not only am I dead,” he continued. “But I’m in a monster body where I can’t communicate to anyone else about what I found. Then I find other people who are in monster bodies who, as far as I can tell, were all rich before they died.”
Diana’s eyebrow went up at that. “Everyone was rich?”
“I’m not sure how much money you had, but Mika inherited money just before she died. Douglas was some sort of investor and even Yosyp mentioned money and million dollar life insurance policy.”
Mika was nodding. “He is right, I had just inherited several million US dollars before I died, plus a sizable estate in Tokyo.”
“Hmm,” Diana muttered. “Maybe you have something there. After all, greed is a powerful motivator.”
“He is a graverobber,” Mika spat. “He is despicable.”
Diana turned to Mika. “Technically, you’re right. He’s robbing from the dead - which happens to be us. That’s an apt analogy.”
“Except it’s worse,” Jace cut in. “Not only is Damian robbing graves, but he’s bulldozing the grave so no one knows the grave was robbed. And he’s killing to cover it up.”
Diana put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, dear one.”
“Except he didn’t quite kill me,” Jace smirked. “At least, not the real me. I’m alive and in a coma back in the real world. Or… he is… geez… I don’t even know what I am anymore!”
Mika took his hand, “You are our Jace.”
Diana smiled and nodded. “It’s true. You’re ours. After all, we’re married.” The older woman held up her hand and wiggled her signet ring and then gave him a seductive smile. “Or did you forget.”
He chuckled despite himself. “How could I forget?”
“If Damian is the cause of all of this,” Mika narrowed her eyes. “Can we just kill him?”
Jace chuckled again but shook his head. “He’s level 97. I doubt we’d be able to damage him, even if we tried. Plus, it wouldn’t do any good. It’s just his character. If he somehow managed to kill him, he’d just respawn. The only difference would be, he’d know about us.”
“He already knows about us,” Diana said bitterly, her mouth twisting into a mask of disgust. “He stole our money and trapped us in monsters.”
“I don’t think so,” Jace said. “I mean, the knowing part. My guess is he has it automated. He must have programmed some criteria into the routine to pull out certain people with a certain amount of money. I don’t know. But I doubt he’s picking people specifically. That would take too much time and probably expose him to more risk.”
“But he singled you out,” Mika pointed out.
“You’re right. But I think that was because he was trying to silence me after I saw the code,” he reminded them. “I wasn’t rich, so he probably manually added me to the code so I would be affected.”
“So, then what do we do?” Mika asked, clenching and unclenching her fists. “We can’t let him get away with it.”
“We won’t,” Jace said. “We stick to the plan. We find the Help Desk and contact support and tell them what’s going on. With what we know, they should hopefully be able to do something about Damian and fix you guys.”
“And what about you?” Mika furrowed her brows. “What if they delete you?”
“I have to take that chance.” He tried to sound brave, but the thought terrified Jace. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to keep living. He tried to take solace in the fact that he was really alive and that his real self would keep living. Provided his real self actually woke up from the coma.
“So, back to the original plan,” Diana said.
“With one exception,” Jace said. “We need to avoid Damian at all costs.”
“But why…” Diana started.
“Because if he sees me,” Jace replied. “He’ll recognize me. Not only do I look like the real Jace, bu
t I was stupid enough to change my character name to my real name. I don’t know exactly what he could do to us, but let’s not risk it.”
“He hasn’t seen either of us,” Mika said, gesturing to Diana.
“But we changed our last name to Burton,” the older woman sighed.
Jace nodded. “Best if he doesn’t see any of us. Hopefully, that won’t be too difficult, considering he’s the only dark elf in attendance.”
“That should make it easier,” Diana agreed.
Mika nodded too, but Jace could see the anger painted on her face.
“Mika,” he told her. “The best revenge we can get is to contact support and report him. He’ll face real consequences in the real world that will be much worse than what we could do here.”
That seemed to pacify her, and she nodded curtly. “Then let’s find the Help Desk.”
“Yes,” he told them. “And we need to do it as soon as possible and then leave before we accidentally bump into Damian.”
They turned to go but Mika put a hand on his shoulder. “He knows what you look like, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You have the hat that changes your appearance,” she pointed to the circlet he wore. “You can disguise your appearance.”
“Good idea,” Jace said and with a thought, he was a plain looking elf, wearing the same outfit he’d been wearing. He held up his finger to make sure the signet ring was still showing. “Hopefully, none of the NPCs question me about the change in appearance.”
“We should stagger our entrances,” Diana said. “So it doesn’t look like we’re together. Then, meet back here in an hour unless you manage to find a way past the guards or manage to get a tour. We’ll plan to meet back here or, if we see Damian anywhere outside, we meet on the opposite side. Agreed?”
Jace and Mika both agreed.
“Good luck,” Jace told them as they began to spread out. He waited until the girls were out of earshot before he finished. “We’re going to need it.”
Chapter 56
Jace held back and waited until the two girls had entered the ballroom. Once they had disappeared inside, he entered. He immediately scanned the crowd to try and determine where Damian was. At first, he didn’t see him but eventually spotted him talking with the king.
Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 35
