by Prax Venter
Lex hooked her arm through his as they waited for the people of Blackmoor to gather, and her touch, her warmth, her scent, and her soft gaze all forced him to question if telling her now was the right thing to do.
The walk from the Inn to the Fountain was short. The time had come to deposit the items and upgrade the Town, and he wished he would have thought of a good speech first. He looked up and into the eyes of those gathered and said the only thing that really mattered.
“This world is ours.”
Cheers went up as he initiated the transfer, but everyone was instantly silenced when the blackness of night was replaced with a town-wide flash of brilliant light. Jack blinked, fully expecting his pupils needing a moment to unclench, yet he found that not only could he see but clearly saw the soft glow of a neon sign “Our World” above and behind the expanded Eye ‘o the Storm.
The sign was magnificent with a soothing deep-blue hue and could easily be seen from the gate or from anyone sailing into the cove below.
“I may have been too flamboyant with the lighting, but of all the data I have access to, aesthetically pleasing lighting design happens to be a complete set, and again, since there are no tangible benefits as far as the videogame logic is concerned, I was able… I’m rambling again, aren’t I?”
Jack wasn’t really paying attention. Lex had since lifted his arm so his knuckles were against her lips as they both took in her Arcade, glowing softly in the night.
“Alt, you are amazing,” Haylee whispered near Jack and the effect on the AI’s mind was tangible.
“W-what is it?” Ryea asked, not taking her brown eyes off the glowing letters. “I mean…it’s beautiful, but what’s it do?”
“Let’s go see!” Lex shouted. She took Jack’s hand and pulled him toward the new building.
Alt spoke again as they circled around the Inn with the entire Town behind them.
“I’ll remind you that you’ll need to assign Townsfolk to these buildings. A few people came via boat today, but two of them stormed out with Andor, so I don’t know if they are staying. Also, I don’t think many people noticed, but the General Store did spawn and is located on the other side of the Inn. The third building slot spawned a Carpenter’s shop. It’s on the road between the Townsfolk Homes and the Lumbermill.”
Jack looked down when Alt mentioned the word road and noticed that the stone brick path they were jogging on was much wider than it had been a moment ago. To his right, it ran right up to the glossy black wall of the Arcade stretching up for about three stories before an enormous, slanted roof took over. The darkness still shrouded its size, but the building appeared to be medieval fantasy architecture, maybe something with sweeping curves he’d see made by elves and then put into a blender with a futuristic casino. The thing had to be as big as a stadium.
“It’s 75 yards by 75 yards,” Alt said in his mind. “Had to fit the safe combat zone you wanted inside- Oh! And I added some surprises for you to find.”
A few more steps down the road and, the crowd of Townsfolk reached the front of their new custom building with no tangible benefits. The words “Our World Arcade” were displaced over the door in much smaller size when compared to the enormous letters on the roof.
“This is not what I expected,” Demi said as she caught up. “But oh my will this draw people to our Town. Upstages my Inn a fair bit, but I’m going to get a fair bit busier.”
“We all are,” Sol agreed with a whisper.
Meri’s child burst forward in front of the crowd, his sandy-blonde hair shining with a deep blue from the work of art softly lighting the smooth new street. Now that Jack was facing it, he could see the curves of the building and the placement of the lights gave him the impression of rolling waves about to crash down on this tiny person gawking up at it.
“Somebody has to tell me I’m not dreaming,” he said.
That drew some uneasy chuckles from the adults in the crowd, probably thinking the same thing. His mother called out, “Perix!” and the child stepped backward into her arms.
Jack gently pushed Lex forward ahead of everyone and toward the set of double doors.
“This was your idea. You go first.”
The Bastion took a deep breath as she moved to the door but let out a confused grunt when it didn’t budge.
“Oh- I think I need to assign someone,” Jack muttered to himself as he tried to picture who would be the best fit, then felt Sol grab his shoulder from behind.
“Assign me,” he said. “I have worked many Jobs in this Town, yet I have been a merchant before. You started me on this path, Jack, now let me continue to grow. Besides,” the owlish man continued. “I believe I understand the intricacies of maintaining such a complicated structure for its intended purpose. Drawing a crowd.”
Jack looked him in the eye and saw the reflection of the arcade as if they were two smoldering blue fires deep within the man.
“Make it happen,” he said as he pulled up Sol’s reallocation screen.
Reassign Townsfolk: Sol
Fisherman
Wharfmaster
Guard
Captain of the Guard
Combat Master
Lumberjack
Carpenter
Merchant
Farmhand
Grain Miller
Game Master
Inn Keeper
Inn Staff
Worker
Jack tapped the appropriate selection and said, “Or should I call you Game Master?”
Sol brought a hand to his head and cracked a big smile.
“The doors to Our World Arcade are now open until One after Open!” he said in a booming voice and Jack had to replay that once or twice until he understood. Haylee’s father just set the hours of operation. He pulled up the Tower timer interface and saw they had about three hours.
Everyone pressed forward, and Jack noticed Farah jogging up from the Wall. He shot her wide-eyed face a grin as most of the Town poured into the dazzling arcade.
The inside was cavernous and saturated with softly throbbing lights of every color. The people of Blackmoor Cove gasped and murmured as they spread out into a main carpeted concourse that ran around the building. Pinball games and other assorted devices Jack couldn’t recognize backed up to the wall all along the edges with plenty of open spaces for benches or future games. Then the floor angled downward into a shallow pit in the center of everything. It was filled with a layer of sand. Four rows of benches lined the slopes and the angle appeared to allow the fighting ring to be visible from any location within the arcade. Gazing upward, Jack saw massive crystals hanging downward like stalactites. Their soothing glow shifted his perception of what a casino or an arcade should feel like. There was no flashing insanity or obnoxiousness.
Jack focused back down on the pinball games around the glossy black wall and even their dormant chirps, thunks, and hums were different. Everything felt as if it fit this world better than his old one- fantastical.
“Thank you, Jack,” Alt said in his mind. “I take that as a compliment.”
“Come look at this, everyone!” Lex called out, standing over by a nearby pinball table.
“There are no words,” Ryea murmured as most of the crowd gathered around the glass box on legs. Jack was going to try and respond, but he caught the backboard on the one the Bastion had chosen to show off.
“It’s about my Inn?” Demi asked, a hand on her hip.
“It seems that way!” Lex said, summoning a golden coin into her hand, and Jack tried to remember if he’d ever physically seen a coin before. The pointed-eared woman held it down by the receptacle, but she used an interface to insert it. The coin vanished from her hand, made the clicking noise anyway, and began to emit what sounded like light rain- maybe a rotating drum filled with seeds? His thoughts were scattered when haunting player-piano music Jack had never heard before began as the scoreboard lit up with zeros.
Everyone gasped, mesmerized by the magic unfolding in front
of them, but Lex knew what to do. She’d done this before. She spread her stance, squared her hips, and launched the first ball with a fully drawn plunger.
From his position further back, Jack couldn’t see what was happening, but the muffled dings and solid clacks the machine made were slightly off to him, but again, this place appeared to be crafted by the type of tree-dwelling elf who’d spent a thousand years mastering magic. It all somehow oozed tranquil excitement.
“What’s it doing?” Harrak asked, pushing close to the table.
“It’s scoring me points!” Lex shouted as she sent the ball around the table.
“What good are points?” Ryea asked.
“They tell me how good I did,” Lex said, seeming to stall the ball. She gazed around the layout and smiled when she found her target. “I bet I can get more than you.”
A group of guards peeled off to go check out some of the other open tables while Jack walked along the edge, leaving Lex to explain what she was doing. After a few steps, he noticed Sol had come with him.
As they walked, Jack saw a pattern in the themes of the pinball tables. They passed one called ‘Deepwater Nets’ that seemed to be set in Blackmoor’s titular cove. Then there was ‘Sage’s Study’, and a wizard smiled on the backboard that held striking similarity to Thymus. Jack took a moment to search, but he didn’t see the time-lost Sage anywhere. He made a note to check on him later.
More games featured themes found in this Town and of System Sana as they strolled down the line and around the corner. There was a particularly epic table covered in throbbing purple crystal called ‘Corruption’s Doom’, and another titled ‘Snoozing Blevins’ and seemed to be themed around trying to grind wheat without waking him up.
Jack sent the AI a clear message of awe. This was the very definition of creativity.
“I’m finding it hard to keep silent about the things you haven’t found yet,” Alt responded as a huge vertical machine came into view.
“What?” Jack mumbled as he scanned up what had to be 20 miniature Floors of a Tower, and some looked familiar.
“You mean you don’t know?” Sol asked, his hands clasped behind him. “To me, it’s clearly meant to tell some story about climbing the Tower.”
“Think of it as reverse gravity Tinko Tinko,” Alt said, “but with coins.”
The AI felt Jack’s deepened confusion, and he continued. “Did your Earth not have a game where you dropped metal balls into pegs? It came about after the second Canadian-American war when the nation’s factories had a surplus of ball bearings and a deep need for entertainment. It’s random chance and already tuned the payout to roughly 1 in 47. The game will need to be primed with a jackpot before working as intended.”
Jack tried to filter out what was important and then sent back a question about how to fill it. But Sol held his hand out to the machine and appeared to open an interface.
“This inventory is requesting a minimum of 20 coins,” the new Game Master said.
“Here,” Jack said opening his interface and transferring the money. The 11,771 coins he still had seemed plenty.
“Thanks, Jack,” Sol said with a grin. “Now let’s see how this contraption is designed to operate.”
A display lit up at the top of the magical monolith of a machine. Jackpot: 20 Coins!
Jack shrugged, willed a physical coin into his hand as Lex had done, and then slipped it into a slot at the end of a tube standing next to the machine. As he did, he couldn’t help but notice a pulsating orb and an iron handle next to the slot.
Once the coin was in, it traveled to the bottom left of the machine and popped out of a wooden door. Jack watched in awe as it jumped over snails and the “Player” advanced to the right side of the machine. It was an automated puppet show made with obscene attention to detail. Even the bamboo in the background scrolled at a different speed, and the extra layer gave the whole scene an eerie three-dimensional feel.
The coin Hero defeated a giant frog by bouncing off its head and causing the familiar golden chest and wooden door to appear. Instead of the number two, the door was labeled with a number five. A melodious fanfare sounded and the top display above it all changed.
‘Exit now for 1% chance at Jackpot. Next Floor, 5%’
Then, the mock Exit Orb and door handle lit up, prompting Jack to pick.
A loud, “Ha!” from someone back near the entrance pulled his attention, and he saw Harrak really getting into one of the pinball tables while a wide-eyed Thymus stood next to him, the light from the game lighting up their grinning bearded faces.
“Aren’t you going to pick?” Sol asked.
Jack chuckled. “Why don’t you take this round. I play this game at work all day.”
The robed Game Master narrowed his eyes at Jack for a moment before a smile cracked on his owlish face. “Every nonsense thing you and Lex have said about this place could have never done it justice.”
Jack turned to the square pit of sand in the middle of the Arcade. “And we haven’t even seen the half of it.”
A black rectangle that looked like a big-screen TV caught his eye near the back of the place, but there was so much to see, he moved right past it as decoration.
But Alt couldn’t help himself anymore. “Alright, you looked at it, so I’m just going to tell you. That back there is a world map of System Sana. Because this Arcade is so huge and innocuous, I was able to hide a faint connection back to myself.”
Jack’s eyes moved back to the six-foot display and noticed a small blue and green spot near the top left with a tinge of purple around the bottom edge.
“Yes,” Alt continued, “that illuminated section is the part of the world you’ve seen; Blackmoor and the nearby patch of ocean. But as you travel, I will be able to update this map with correct geography and even show where the Corruption was last seen. There might be a point in the future when I’d be able to show live, systemwide updates to the Corruption’s hold on the simulation.”
Jack was halfway to the World Map when he heard Lex’s melodious laughter from across the techno-fantasy arcade. At first, he felt the excitement drain from his body over the thought of telling her the truth, but he was growing tired of that emotion weighing him down.
This was her world, and she deserved to know what it was.
- 9 -
The Eye ‘o the Storm was still mostly empty, and the silence that filled Jack’s ears after he shut the door to their room felt both heavy and intense.
“Today was the longest day of my life,” Lex said, sitting heavy on her side of the bed.
Jack nodded at his boots, his hand still holding the doorknob.
“Jack?” she asked, and he snapped up to face her big golden eyes. There was no point in dragging this out, and he still hadn’t thought of a good way to do it, so he just started talking.
“Lex, I love you more than anyone I’ve ever met in any universe. I will die before leaving your side, but because of the way I feel there is something I must tell you. It’s about your world… our world, and I think you are finally in the right frame of mind to understand.”
All the light drained out of her face. Jack moved to the bed and took her hand. She squeezed it, letting him know that she was prepared for more mind-numbing insanity, so Jack continued.
“Alt is from a universe that was similar to mine, but the people there were far more advanced than either of us. They made ships that could explore the stars, crafted artificial minds, and were able to fabricate whole worlds for entertainment- like shrinking down and stepping onto a pinball table.
She interrupted him. “Are you about to tell me my world is a game again- after you made that speech yesterday about how it isn’t?”
“It’s both, Lex. Let me just tell you everything and then we can go from there.”
She nodded, so he continued.
“ARV Alternis was created in his universe as one of these… let’s just call them magical minds. I’m not going to get into the difference betw
een technology and magic, but he started his life as a mind inside a boat that flew from star to star.
“One day, he and his crew of explorers came to a blob of what we all now know of as Corruption. A substance that consumes entire universes. Alt became infected while studying it and ran back home, but Alt’s ship body ended up in my world, many thousands of years before I was even born.
“They crashed to the ground where there was no one around to help them, and most of his crew died. What was worse was that a portion of Corruption came back with them. Alt and the surviving crew were being consumed and all they had to work with were these artificial world machines mostly undamaged in Alt’s core. Games inside machines the size of a pinball table but that held entire worlds.
“Alt discovered that the Corruption could be distracted by these virtual worlds, but since they were hollow playthings, our universal enemy ate through them quickly, or lost interest and it started to consume physical reality once again.
“In a final desperate attempt to hold the Corruption back from killing them all and this neighboring universe they’d crashed into, Alt put everything he had left into creating a vastly complex living world to trap the universe-eating monster. He called it System Sana.”
Lex let go of his hand and her dark eyebrows came down hard.
“I’m sorry, but you deserve to know the truth,” Jack said.
Her golden eyes looked deep into his. “I- What does this all mean? My life is a pinball game?”
“It means that your world was generated specifically to trap and fight the Corruption. But I want you to understand that although this universe follows certain game-like rules, you, me, and everything inside is real. Lex, a lot of this is over my head- beyond my understanding. But the part I understand is that if System Sana weren’t real, the Corruption wouldn’t pay any attention to it. Everything that happens here is both deadly serious and a game.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“And you came to Alt to play this game?”
