Stunlocked

by Black, Shane Lochlann

  “This is the bullpen,” Brace began. “We have a team of 81 artists working on in-game assets, advertising, video production, print production and designs for our licensed merchandise. We sometimes produce as many as two dozen finished works a day. Everything you see in KNC starts right here in this room.”

  Jordan was speechless. He had never seen anything that so efficiently merged technology and creativity before. Coogan motioned across the hall.

  “And this,” Coogan continued, “is our broadcast studio. I expect this will be the most interesting part of the tour for you. From here we produce three different series. One is a continuous broadcast of our in-game cinematics, instructional and tutorial videos and announcements of new updates.”

  As Brace spoke, a show was in progress. The “ON AIR” sign was lit, even though the show was being streamed online instead of transmitted via television or radio. A young woman was interviewing a rather important-looking young man who Jordan guessed might have been a project lead of some kind. Two board engineers were watching the show carefully and controlling a bank of four automated cameras.

  “The other two shows are weekly features, each focusing on a different part of the game. One is audio-only. The other is a video series. We release new episodes on our site, but they are also distributed to Videowall and Lion Share.”

  “I want a job,” Jordan said. “I’ll give it all up to work here.”

  “You’ll have an easier time with the game. We bring classes of high school and college students through here every week. We get thousands of applications.”

  Coogan led Jordan into the next room. This one was quite dark. What appeared to be floating screens connected to nothing hovered in the air at various heights and distances. Each displayed color-coded lines of various programming languages, from C to Python to SQL. Lights from the floor lit the faces and desks of the developers as they worked. Jordan recognized some of the tools in use. One developer held football-shaped objects in each of his hands. They were connected to his PC tower. He activated the long slender buttons built into them with his fingers, sometimes pressing several at a time.

  “What’s that?” Jordan whispered.

  “Chorded keyboard. The shape of the appliances helps reduce muscle and tendon stress. The user can produce any typeable character by simply pressing the right combination of buttons instead of a single key. I’m told once you get good at it, a chorded device can increase your typing speed by 10% to 20%.”

  “Wow.”

  Brace introduced Jordan to several of the KNC team leads. He was presented with a wealth of new information about how the game was being developed and when the first major expansion was expected. As he was shown back to the limousine, his head spun with everything he had seen. It hadn’t even been two hours.

  As the chauffeur navigated the sleek black car into traffic, Jordan re-examined his copy of the signed option agreement, his new top-of-the-line phone and black credit card. He was having more than a little trouble getting used to the idea he was now a multi-millionaire, even though the funds he had access to were dwarfed by the value of the Fairly Unusual stock he controlled.

  Based on what he suspected was happening elsewhere in the KNC realm, he was going to need every penny of his smaller fortune to protect the larger one.

  Chapter Five

  “Who among you can challenge me?!”

  Rednar’s shout punched through the stuffy underground air like the impact of an out-of-control locomotive. Fires burned, filling the cavern complex with maddening orange light, heat and stinging smoke. The mighty hammerman slammed his weapon against his shield again and again, absorbing the dense metal shocks and the echoes of chaos the way thirsty animals take sustenance at the edge of a stream. His preparatory actions ratcheted his attack power to 165, then to 170.

  The muscular lizard-like humanoid that lunged at him wasn’t prepared for the sheer inertia of a 275 pound human wearing 100 pounds of iron armor. Its scaly body crunched against the blunted spikes fixed to Rednar’s plate. The beast screamed in rage and pain, flailing at its adversary with blood-soaked claws. The weight of the hammerman’s protection made him slow, but it also made fighting him the combat equivalent of attacking a bank safe.

  Devin Oliver calmly activated his shield rush ability. His character’s massive triangular footman’s shield shoved the reptilian horror back, knocking it off balance. Devin followed by driving the head of his hammer weapon into the creature’s midsection. It was thrown clear. The larger numbers of a critical hit registered 41 points of damage, enough to have killed the creature twice. It landed hard on the rocky surface of the Gorian Caves and didn’t move again.

  Rednar quickly gathered 11 copper monarchs and a length of Gorian twine from the creature’s pack. He estimated he was perhaps three fights away.

  Rumor had it that high level cavern complexes like the one Devin was exploring had extra treasure caches with relatively high chances of finding something unique or even valuable. He knew locating a unique treasure would gain him close to ten thousand additional experience points, which was one of the reasons he was spending time in the Gorian Caverns instead of joining a group and running a dungeon or some kind of player vs. player challenge. Granted, dungeons were largely auto-pilot for a competent team, but in order to minimize risk, players like Devin had to focus on adventures with a near-guaranteed success rate. He couldn’t risk letting Rednar get killed because of idiots in the dungeon queue, largely because he had a unique limitation. Devin’s character was currently the highest level player-owned character in the world.

  Rednar slowly made his way around the lava pool in the next cavern. He had learned to be particularly careful around dangerous locations. A geographical hazard had claimed his level 11 ranger-like character. Devin had invested almost two weeks in that disaster, and he wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. Especially now, since Rednar had consumed the balance of his almost three-month career in Kings and Conquests.

  A repulsive creature that looked like a cross between a warthog and a serving of raw rancid hamburger charged at Rednar from the entrance to the next cavern. The hammerman’s first rushed attack missed, and he paid for his haste with six points of biting damage delivered to his right foot. Rednar’s second attack crashed into the side of the disgusting beast’s head, scoring 14 damage and stunning the monster. A third attack ended the battle. 60 more experience points. Rednar gathered up the creature’s skull. He knew the weapons masters in Sunshire would pay a premium for an intact skull, especially if it could be put to use in constructing a shaman or witch doctor’s bludgeon.

  His next discovery made Devin’s heart race. In the next cavern, situated on the floor between two bronze firepots, sat a treasure chest. With no monsters in the vicinity and none likely to wander in either, Devin had time to perform an extensive examination of the container. His decidedly amateur appraisal skills put the cash value of the chest itself at roughly 40 silver monarchs. His common ability to sense danger didn’t help him discover any traps, but he was experienced enough to know the more dangerous a trap was, the less likely it would be discovered by someone lacking specialized skills.

  Rednar’s weak but consistent regenerative spell gradually restored his health to normal. When Devin had started his character, he had invested the minimum number of skill points necessary to establish and level regenerative magic. As long as he either won his fights outright or retreated before all his health was gone, he was practically guaranteed to survive. He couldn’t heal grave damage quickly, nor could he cast anything more powerful, but the spell he did know was permanent, put no burden on any of his other abilities, and couldn’t be defeated by an opponent unless they could detect, counter and dispel it.

  The chest was locked, so in order to discover what was inside, it was going to be necessary to damage it. Although Rednar was rather more well-rounded than most of the “smash and bash” fighter varieties, his Quickness and Insight characteristics, at 41 and 43 respe
ctively, didn’t really give him much of an advantage when it came to precision work like lockpicking, burglary and the like.

  Devin backed his character away and used his “controlled attack” ability to reduce his effective weapon power. If he unloaded at full strength, the chest would splinter and be ruined. This way, he had the potential to break the lock without destroying the chest itself. He was going to have to return to town anyway, so he figured this would be the best chance of putting an exclamation point on his session. He also needed something to carry the rest of the treasure in.

  His first attempt cracked the lock open and only did four points of damage to the chest. It was almost an exactly perfect outcome. No traps were sprung, which was just fine with Devin. Traps on treasure containers were usually designed to end a player character’s career rather abruptly.

  What he found was more than a little exciting. The top-line item in the chest was a rare book of mechanical designs. There were more than two dozen of them, and the book granted any player the ability to learn machinery as a crafting skill. The book would easily be worth thousands of gold monarchs in the game world and possibly hundreds of dollars in the real world, but Devin, being an experienced gamer, knew the devices he could build with the book would be even more valuable than that.

  The chest contained 317 copper monarchs, 12 colorful stones and a bronze torc which Devin supposed represented the lizard creatures’ tribal fortune. There was a scroll which the game referred to as “unreadable.” Devin knew this was KNC code language for “someone else has to identify this treasure for you.” The possibilities were encouraging. Most scrolls contained either one-time buffs or permanent enchantments for everything from a plot of land meant to grow magical crops to crafting materials for even more powerful versions of items created by weapon and armorsmiths, shipwrights, architects and woodworkers.

  But the star of the show was the machines book. If it contained even mediocre plans for saleable objects, this find represented a massive advantage over other players.

  The moment he claimed the chest and gathered its contents into his inventory, Devin pumped a fist when the leveling animation appeared. All the fires went out and his character exploded in an ethereal blue glow, lighting up the cavern from floor to ceiling. A unique sparkle and animation around the character continued as the notification appeared like a title at Rednar’s feet.

  “Congratulations! You have reached level 20"

  “Realm and World First Achievement Commemoration”

  "100,000 bonus experience awarded”

  As Rednar stood basking in the glory of yet another world first, Devin picked up his phone, dialed a number he had told nobody else about and listened to the quiet sound of the line ringing. After a moment or two, a man answered.

  “What’s the good word, Devin?” he asked.

  “Mr. Griffin, Rednar is now level 20. I’m ready to start work on my club weapon specialization and I’ve unlocked a bonus profession you may find interesting. I’ll have more details about it tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to do some research on what machines can do in the KNC game world.”

  “Fine work, Devin. What about your companions?”

  “We are all going questing tomorrow night. I expect they will all be level 16 or higher by the first of the week.”

  “Excellent. We will launch our attack on Shon Cloud in seven days. I will have some equipment for you shortly. See to it you are all ready by then.”

  The line clicked and the call app closed.

  Seven days. More than enough time to gather the necessary knowledge from the machines profession book.

  In the game world, Rednar hefted the closed treasure chest and began making his way back through the Gorian caverns to his camp. He was still at less than 100% health, but he wasn’t worried. After all, he was the highest level player character in the entire world. Who could challenge him?

  Devin’s phone beeped. It was his editorial contact at Orbit’s Gamer with an interview invitation. He should have been surprised, but then again, the moment he dinged 20 practically the entire world had likely been notified. Orbit’s was fast, but they certainly wouldn’t be the last interview invite.

  There was also the possibility he could get a few more followers on Blibber and Videowall just by announcing his world first, but there were some who believed that was a cheap way to capitalize on what should be a routine matter. Then again, most of the people who complained the loudest about so-called “cheap” publicity were the ones least likely to have accomplished anything themselves.

  One thing that was rather fun was that because of the realm and world first achievements, Rednar was already 3% of the way to level 21.

  The rich continued to get richer.

  Chapter Six

  Jordan Hall awakened the next morning after nearly eighteen hours of sleep. It was early. Far too early to expect any of his adventuring companions to be awake. The pale blue light of morning filled the curtained window. Far in the distance, he could hear the low swishing sounds of traffic passing on Pacific Coast Highway.

  It was even too early for coffee. So Jordan just reclined in the circular king-sized bed and watched Alyssa sleep. She looked angelic, as usual. Despite the urgent No-Name-Games quests and the general stress level around getting everything in-game situated so they could defend Highwayman’s loot, the highest-level character in the guild seemed to be taking everything in stride.

  The black Partner’s Club card was sitting on the nightstand, right where Jordan had left it the night before. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, and he was more than a little surprised Alyssa hadn’t noticed it.

  He wondered how Brace Coogan had gotten so far ahead of the rest of the game community, and why he was so insistent Jordan maintain his lead. Was it because of Wyland’s choice to provide Jordan with the authentic quest information? Was there more to the former CEO’s message still hidden in the Safekeep map? Would Jordan be able to find the suddenly reclusive millionaire and tell him how much his contributions to video games meant to the fans?

  They were all important questions, to be sure, but the matter at hand was more urgent. There were a ton of crafting quests that needed to be done, and Highwayman’s new ship that had come with his claimed keep had to be fitted and provisioned for her vital journey south to Yarshire and its rendezvous with the rest of the No-Name Guild. Jordan was eager to get the rest of his team under his protection. Once everyone was together, an eventual mission to transport the platinum ingots from Shon Cloud to the quest NPC in Rook would have a much better chance to succeed.

  What awaited them beyond level 20? Jordan knew the Niners would do everything in their power to see to it he and his guildmates never made it that far. That didn’t reduce his anticipation of the wonders that would reveal themselves if he managed to overcome those who opposed him. But the more prescient problems were still competing for the lion’s share of his attention.

  The presence of a faction targeting players level nine and up was more than a little unsettling. If they sent a high-level assassin after him, Highwayman didn’t stand a chance. He had overcome the disadvantage of a woefully low Might score with his choice of class and correspondingly high levels of Quickness, Insight and Charm. Jordan carefully reached across Alyssa, trying to avoid waking her. He hadn’t quite decided whether she was more attractive awake or asleep yet, so he didn’t mind watching her sleep. She fidgeted and made a noise like she was dreaming but didn’t wake up.

  After pulling up the Kings and Conquests Augmented Reality app, Jordan selected the Gathering of Heroes tab and entered the search parameters to pull up Highwayman. After a few moments, the familiar screen showing him light a cigarette and then vanish into its smoke appeared, followed by a mobile-phone-formatted mini-report on his stats.

  Might: 28

  Brilliance: 60

  Insight: 82

  Charm: 92

  Quickness: 87

  Will: 61

  A player pursuing the Cloa
k specialization in what most role-playing fans would call the “thief” category of skills didn’t necessarily require a great deal of strength. Far more important was Quickness, which governed most, if not all of his combat modifiers. A Cloak operated in the shadows, focusing all of his or her skill on being quite literally invisible. To obtain the highest possible experience bonus from a victory in combat, a Cloak was required to make it appear he was never there. No witnesses. No residual presence. No sound.

  Jordan pulled up his skill table. He had accumulated 16 points in knifecraft, which currently gave him a 2% initial attack power bonus if he was armed with one knife. 3% if he were dual-wielding. Those two numbers were set to increase to 4% and 7% respectively at level ten, when his newest combat option would unlock, provided he earned the remaining four skill points by then.

  Unlike other characters pursuing skills other than knifecraft, Highwayman could theoretically turn any one-handed long blade into a thrown weapon, including short swords. Most didn’t give him much damage potential, but they could serve in a pinch. The power curve required him to obtain two skill points for every level, culminating in a minimum 20 points at level ten. The 20th point gave him at least the potential to reach the first of seven skill “tops,” one corresponding to each complete set of ten levels. A player had to focus all of their points in climbing a particular branch of the tree in order to hit a top at level ten, but for those players who considered it a necessity, that more powerful ability was often worth it.

  For a Cloak, the ability to attack from range dovetailed perfectly with his camouflage and stealth. Highwayman had a ranged attack power bonus, a ranged accuracy bonus and, depending on how surprised his opponent was, a one percent chance per level to proc a second opening attack. The proc could allow him to open with a combo, which could have any of six different effects on a single opponent, or allow him to hit up to three different opponents with a single attack each.