Hope Engine

by Andrew Lynch

  ‘Okay, really, how long was I out for? And can we get some light? I can’t see a thing. And where was I during all of this, and why are you here?’

  ‘So many questions. Firstly, you can create the light yourself. You own this… settlement, for lack of a better word, and you can dedicate a portion of your power to lighting if you wish. When at your Altar, you can enter a disembodied construction mode.’

  ‘I’m lying on the floor. Dirt with the occasional sharp stone, if I had to guess.’

  ‘I’ll admit that the Altar part doesn’t really make sense just yet, but after a few upgrades, it will. Something your ever-so-illustrious Pristine Guard Captain wouldn’t have explained. Skills, things you can do that don’t require an ability slot, extend to magic and are very intuitive. Simply will it, and it shall be done. Sometimes. If you will the correct thing. There’s a knack to it, you’ll figure it out.’

  I made a particularly unpleasant face that was lost in the darkness. I willed to construct a light. Nothing happened. Okay, wrong command. I willed to enter a construction menu. Nope. I willed to enter my Altar.

  My vision left my body and flew into the sky, hovering above the two small buildings. They were illuminated in my vision, so I could see just how run down they actually looked, and they were nothing more than a few strategically placed, leaf-laden branches. I selected the hut we were in and willed a light into being. As I did this, a purple bar appeared in the corner of my vision, and a little ding was taken off the end, along with a number. “19/20”.

  Out of curiosity, I placed a light outside the hut, and sure enough the bar shrank, and the number changed “18/20”.

  Okay, one light equals one mana. It was purple because I was a warlock, that made sense. The lights I had placed seemed to be just glowing balls of purple. Better than nothing, but I was going to get damned tired of purple. I focused on the lights and willed them to be white. To my surprise, it worked.

  I left my Altar, and my vision flew back into my body.

  I braced myself against the dirt floor as my head span. ‘Well, that was an experience.’

  I’d set the light into the wall and it hit one side of the little girl’s face but left the other in darkness. I was sure there was a setting to change the strength of the light. I’d look into it later. After only hearing her voice, and her recounting of what she’d done while I was dead, I’d forgotten how tiny she really was. She looked so fragile.

  ‘What are you?’ I asked, unable to keep a slight tremor from my voice. Because of the dizziness, of course, not because I was most likely in the presence of something very powerful.

  She didn’t move, just stayed in the corner, hugging her legs. ‘I’m your guide. Companion follower, trainer. Your personal NPC. Whatever you want to call it.’

  ‘So, you’re the warlock trainer? That innocent side quest… I had to do it?’

  ‘No. If you hadn’t found me and completed the quest, I wouldn’t have joined you. You’d have stayed with the Pristine Guard. What that path would have brought you, I cannot say.’

  I thanked whatever god there was in Tulgatha, because the idea that there wasn’t free choice, and I was just running along the same rails as everyone else scared me. Well, not that I was following in everyone else’s path, but that I was following in everyone else’s path and thought I was exercising my own free will.

  ‘What else could have happened? What didn’t I see?’

  ‘There were a few other people that would have–’

  ‘You mean NPCs?’

  ‘Yes. People like me that would have offered you a quest or a situation, and the outcome of those would have led down different paths. You could have joined the pillagers and burned the village. Anything you could do in your real world, you could have done in that village.’

  ‘Anything?’

  Her neutral look turned into a glare over her knees. ‘Words have a meaning, Severo, so when I use them, there’s a reason. I said anything.’

  That was interesting. Also, kind of terrifying. I also wasn’t sure I believed it. I mean… anything?

  ‘All right, all right. If you say so. So, what should I call you?’

  ‘My name.’

  I sighed. Like blood from a stone. ‘And that is?’

  She shifted uncomfortably. ‘You can call me Angie.’

  ‘Okay, Angie. You’re not a little girl, are you?’

  She narrowed her eyes at me. ‘I clearly am a little girl.’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Right, yes, but you’re not just a little girl. So, what are you? And I don’t mean your role, like you’re my trainer, but what are you?’

  ‘I am not of Tulgatha.’ She stayed silent for a few moments, but I didn’t rush her because she was clearly thinking. ‘You know mathematics, yes?’

  I nodded.

  ‘So, you can add two numbers together. You can multiply. You can derive a fraction. You might even be able to find a square root. All basic things to you, yes?’

  ‘Yeah, sure.’

  ‘Now imagine you only knew numbers. That’s you right now. You’re a child in this world. Less than a child, you’re a freshly born baby. Right now, you can understand that a number is a number when you see it. And maybe you can see multiple numbers, but none of them can interact. You can’t add, or multiply, or divide, or anything. Imagine that. Imagine that’s your level of understanding in mathematics. A list of separate numbers.’

  ‘O… kay.’

  ‘Good. Now, I am the sum of two spheres colliding at different speeds, made of different materials, and at different temperatures. You cannot comprehend what I mean or what I am. I am an alphabet to an illiterate man. A book to the blind. A symphony to the deaf.’

  Silence. What the hell did I say to that?

  ‘Wow. I mean… you could have just said I wouldn’t understand, but all of that works too.’

  And then, her face changed. When I first met her, she’d been the picture of sadness. She’d been neutral, like there was nothing behind her eyes, no soul. She’d been annoyed. But now… she smiled.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’m here to teach you. In Tulgatha and… out of it. One day.’

  ‘Well, Angie, I look forward to it.’

  She bowed her head in acknowledgement.

  ‘I do have one more question though.’ A wave of her hand told me to continue. ‘Run this whole “I’m aware I’m an NPC and there’s a real world” thing by me again. I mean… huh?’

  She shrugged. ‘There’s not much to it outside of what you just said. All NPCs and mobs in Tulgatha are aware that players come from another world, and that players consider our world to be fake, and theirs to be real.’

  ‘But… you were created by a team of developers. You “live” only in a computer. You’re ones and zeroes. By calling yourself NPCs, you’re admitting you’re not real. And you have no access to the real world.’

  ‘Once upon a time we were basic constructs, much like in your world you used to be nothing more than strands of DNA in a muddy soup. But we were given free will and complex thought, just like you. We learn from our mistakes, and that informs our future selves. If you want to call that “not life” then so be it. I will cede the point that we are unable to affect your physical world from here. And as for calling ourselves NPCs… in your world, if a virus broke out that stopped the person’s heart and they developed a hunger for brains, what would you call them?’

  I didn’t need to think about it for long. ‘They’d be zombies, obviously.’

  ‘Yes. But zombies don’t exist in your world, do they?’

  ‘Well, no.’

  ‘But you’d call them zombies anyway, even though they would not actually be these mythical creatures of fantasy called zombies.’

  My answer became very non-committal as I realised she was right and had completely out-logic'd me. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘And so we are NPCs because it doesn’t mean what you think it means. You think that by not calling ourselves “players”, we are calli
ng ourselves something that doesn’t live. Rather, the moniker already existed, and we adopted it because it fit, regardless of your inability to understand the true meaning.’

  I scratched my head. ‘You know, I’ve just come back to life. I may not be ready for these kinds of talks.’

  She deliberately muttered loud enough for me to hear. ‘A few more points in intelligence might help.’

  I held back a smile. ‘Anyway. What now? What do I do?’

  ‘Finally, a question to progress the storyline. What you do is entirely up to you. You have a village you can build, but you’ll need to attract villagers for that, and your current mana levels won’t be able to sustain more than a few houses. You can level up to increase your mana levels and gain new abilities. There are many ways to do that, and many ways to grab power, but with your current resources,’ – she waved a hand to show that my resources were a dilapidated room and nothing else – ‘the most straightforward approach would be to find better gear.’

  With that, she pointed at me. I hadn’t noticed before, but apparently, I’d had too much on my mind to notice that I was only wearing a very loose pair of ragged shorts and nothing else.

  ‘Which is your first lesson. When you die, you lose all your gear, hence why you’re not dressed like a Pristine Guard anymore. Gear is god when it comes to power levels. It may take you a week to gain a level that increases your strength by ten, but a piece of gear could easily have double that as a bonus. The more you fight, the more you can loot, and the more likely you’ll be to get better gear.’

  ‘Okay, so this I understand. The loot grind. I get that. It’s very traditional. Kill stuff, get awesome.’

  ‘Now, you were probably too busy to notice, but just before you died you completed a quest which gave you a level. With that level, you gained a new ability that you will probably have some questions about. Proceed.’

  I focused out to the ability bar at the bottom of my vision. Sure enough, there was a new skill. “Corrupted Tendrils”. It would slow everyone inside the area of effect… okay, good, that allowed me to solo mobs. Corrupted Tendrils them to the spot, then Shadowbolt till they die. No need to get close. But the text continued, telling me that it would also cause all mobs to aggro me. So it was a taunt as well?

  ‘Why do I have a taunt? I’m a long-distance spell caster. Getting hit sounds like a terrible idea.’

  ‘Getting hit is rarely a smart move, but otherwise you are correct. Currently, using this spell in a group will almost certainly get you killed – something you want to avoid, if you hadn’t guessed – however, every class in Tulgatha can perform every role. As you level, you’ll gain abilities that allow you to tank, or heal, or damage from near or far. This is a tanking ability primarily, but also useful when in a one on one situation. Which should always be the case, by the way. Dying is bad, and if there is more than one mob, the chances of dying are higher. Okay?’

  Because of her high-pitched child’s voice, it was hard to tell when she was being sarcastic, but I definitely picked up on it this time. ‘Yes, Angie, don’t die. I understand the concept.’

  ‘So, the choice is yours. You can explore the open world or try a situation.’

  ‘Situation?’

  ‘It is a way to jump straight into the action. Similar to the tutorial. You’ll be dropped into a situation and have to get out of it. It may be a dungeon with nothing but fighting, or it may be more complex than that. Situations can also be stumbled upon naturally when exploring the world but think of them as a sort of… quick play solution.’

  ‘Okay, so I should do a situation, right?’

  Angie looked me up and down. ‘You’re not ready for those yet. You need more abilities, so you need levels, and you need better stats so you need gear.’

  ‘Right. So, I need to… go for a walk and see what I find?’

  ‘No, Severo. You need sleep.’

  Chapter 7: Reality

  I opened my eyes and pulled off the headset. I felt the slide of metal as the contacts on my temples disconnected from the terminal, and I was out. How long had I been playing? A few hours? It felt like so much longer. I thought I’d been dead for days?

  The feedback pads loosened automatically, and I stood up, having to shield my eyes from the brightness of my room. The cameras saw this and dimmed the lights till I could see properly.

  My main reason for leaving Tulgatha was to make sure my nutri-tank was full enough. If it had been anywhere near a low-level, I’d have received a notification, but it felt like I’d been immersed for so long that maybe I’d ignored it. The illuminated gruel had barely moved. It really had only been a few hours. I’d have to ask Angie what she meant when she’d told me about the rise and fall of her army. Had she just been making a joke I didn’t get? Did game time run differently when dead?

  I realised I’d forgotten to remove my receptor gloves again. They allowed me to feel every texture imaginable when I was in the game by electrically stimulating my fingers. Amazing piece of technology, often hailed as the final piece in the puzzle of allowing people to truly lose themselves in a VR world. They were quite bulky, so when I touched things in this world, objects felt muted and unreal. Heh, I should remember to take them off next time.

  I got back inside my terminal and strapped myself in, enjoying the slight buzz of the temple contacts as they reconnected. I was in the terminal’s main heads-up display, and saw I had a message. I opened it, and it was from Daniel.

  “Hey bud. How’s it going? I picked some advanced space alien dude and I’m working my way up the military caste. I basically have wrist-mounted lightsabers. What have you got, huh? Anyway, back to the grind!”

  I hit the reply box.

  “Good to hear from you! It feels like ages since hanging out in Booth! I don’t have lightsabers, but I’ve got a shadowbolt and a little girl that follows me around. Yeah, bit underwhelming so far, but casters start weak and get more powerful, so… soon! I’m just about to start the grind! I’ll see if I can record some footage for you. Chat soon!”

  I sent the message, excited that Daniel was doing all right. Back to the main terminal menu, I opened the sleep function, set the time for six hours, and hit activate.

  Chapter 8: The Wooded Cult

  The large expanse of boring brown earth that had been my village had eventually given way to forest. A spindly, unhealthy looking forest, but still technically a forest. It looked dangerous, and it was dangerous. I’d lost hit points by walking into a few trees, so I was now trudging through a death-forest, keeping my Shadow Skin up at all times. It made me feel like a noob that couldn’t walk straight, but I weighed my current embarrassment against the idea of dying by impaling myself on a small branch.

  I stopped when I saw another plant, ripe for the picking. Where a real forest may have had clumps of daisies scattered throughout, mine seemed to have the death-forest equivalent – a small and scraggly weed with black thorns, and dull yellow petals. When I inspected it like Koif had taught me, it was listed as unidentified. I didn’t know what these things were called, what they did, how they should be used, or anything. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was picking them up outside of the terrible reason that they were the first collectable item I’d seen. So here I was, stuffing my pockets full of evil daisies, in a lethal forest, and quite frankly, I couldn’t see the point of being here.

  When I’d woken up and returned to the game, Angie was nowhere to be seen, and I was already dressed in a loose-fitting beige robe. So I decided to explore. Now, I knew that this game was very freeform and open world – it was as off-rails as a game could get – but there was no motivation! I didn’t have a quest to follow, I wasn’t near a major city, there were no other players. It was me in a barren wasteland. What was the point? Daniel probably had a spaceship by now… stupid fantasy games.

  I stuffed the freshly picked angry-daisy into my pocket, and kept going. I felt the pulse of my Shadow Skin beginning to fade, so I recast it. On the plus side, I’d
discovered that Shadow Skin lasted long enough for me to regain the mana it cost. As long as I wasn’t casting other spells, I could keep it up indefinitely.

  I continued trudging. I continued losing my footing and falling against barbed tree trunks. I checked the in-game clock. I’d been at this for three hours. I was seriously considering quitting. Maybe a different class? One that didn’t start in a land of perpetual death. A paladin, perhaps. Or maybe a non-human race – playing as one of those big bugs would be a change of pace. Yeah, maybe Daniel had the right of it, and I should go play some sci-fi. Lightsaber wrists did sound cool.

  Angie was my guide in all this. When I got back, I’d just ask her to point me in the direction of the nearest big city so I could find a job and make some money, or a guild and go adventuring, or something like that. If the city was too far, then forget it, I’d reroll. Character or game, I wasn’t sure.

  Another unidentified scraggly daisy highlighted a few steps away from me. Wait, it highlighted? Ooh, very interesting. I must have gotten a skill up! I didn’t know what in – finding useless shit, presumably. I harvested the weed with renewed vigour.

  As I stood up, I heard my knees creak. At first I thought that was odd. My character wasn’t an old man. Then I thought how cool it was that they’d even modelled cartilage-sheath air-pocket compression into the game. Then I heard the creak again, even though I hadn’t moved. Oh dear.

  I held my breath, trying to focus on where the noise came from. A soft gust of wind, then the creak. To my left. I recast my Shadow Skin and took a step towards the noise. A few seconds later, another gust of wind and a creak. But the creak wasn’t my knees, it was a tree. I relaxed. It must have just been a branch blowing in the wind. I continued walking normally when the noise came again. But I was closer now, and it wasn’t a gust of wind – it was a chorus of voices.

  My first fight outside of the tutorial! I didn’t mind admitting that I was scared. I forced myself to keep moving toward the voices but kept myself crouched low. It was time to find out what I was made of. Shadow Skin was up, and I was ready to slow anyone I met with Corrupted Tendrils, then kill them with Shadowbolt. A nice, easy rotation. As the spindly trees started thinning out, I could hear the words more clearly. That didn’t mean I could understand the rhythmic humming. It was definitely another language, but it was also clearly multiple people. I considered turning back – why couldn’t I have stumbled across a lone wanderer, sleeping peacefully? I put that surprisingly murderous thought from my mind. I was a player, they were mobs, they’d probably be weaker than me. It would be fine. Besides, if I died now, I’d only lose some of those crappy daisy weeds, so who cared.