by Tom Larcombe
And hopefully finish cleaning out that lair and get the quest rewards. Then I'll be first level and maybe I can actually do something, he thought. Hell, with all the bunnies we've been killing, Karl should be close to first level after that as well.
He drifted off to sleep and the next thing he knew, he was reliving his day. Even before he got to the end of his day and the darkness, he was abruptly woken, snapping into a sitting position on his bed.
The bunkhouse was well lit by a globe hanging in midair near the roof. Freyja stood nearby, staring at a man. The man was standing in the middle of the bunkhouse looking from one to another of the farmers. As he looked at each one, he closed his eyes for a second and the man he was looking at snapped awake.
Eddie stared at the man for a moment. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. There was writing across the t-shirt which read: 'There are 10 types of people in this world, those who know binary and everyone else.'
He chuckled briefly as he read the shirt, then got out of bed.
“Hello?” he asked.
The man held up a single finger, as though asking for a minute. He finished his rotation of staring at each of the farmers. While he did, Eddie tried a quick Evaluate.
Aaron Opman:
Level: 100
Class: Developer
You are currently unable to obtain more information about Aaron Opman with Evaluate.
You have upgraded the skill Evaluate to (2).
I don't recommend you try that again with this target. Seriously, this time I mean it.
Eddie gulped and tried to compose himself. The man finished his rotation and cocked his head.
“I thought there were six of you?”
“One's standing guard out in the fields to keep the bunnies from eating everything,” Eddie said.
Aaron glanced at Freyja quickly. She took on a distant look for a moment.
“Yes, there is an anomaly still occurring and the instability is increasing.”
Aaron dashed for the door. As he did Eddie called out.
“To the right.”
Aaron ran out of the bunkhouse, turned right, and disappeared. Eddie turned to Freyja.
“What's going on?” he asked.
“You are mightily blessed, the devs have come to investigate your anomaly,” she replied.
What, a coder geek gets the respect of the gods here? Eddie thought. It figures though, after all, they're the ones that created these gods. Of course they'd give them respect. Or maybe it's that they can give themselves any powers they want. Play it cool Eddie, remember that and don't lose your temper.
“The only blessing I'm feeling is yours,” Eddie said. “The devs coming to investigate means there's something really wrong here. And I, plus these others,” he said, nodding to the other farmers in the room, “are at the center of it.”
“Perhaps there is a reason for your fears, but you should still respect the devs. They are the creators.”
“I've got the utmost respect for the developers,” Eddie answered. “This place is incredible. I know I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag, so they've got my respect. I'm just scared shitless as to why they might be here since I'm part of the reason.”
“Ah, I see, your respect is overwhelmed by your fear. It is wise to fear the devs,” Freyja said.
That's weird, that's the first thing I heard from her that sounded like a scripted response, Eddie thought.
A moment later the door opened again. Aaron entered the room with the last farmer in tow. The farmer was on his back, floating in the air at about waist height. Aaron gestured towards a bed and the farmer ended up in it.
“He'll be a while longer waking up,” Aaron said, “he was already through the download and entering the darkness portion when I found him.”
“Excuse me?” Eddie said, “Darkness portion? You know what's happening to us?”
“In general,” Aaron said. “I don't have all the specifics yet, which is why I am here.”
“Come on then, tell us,” Eddie said.
The others finally spoke up, chiming in to reinforce Eddie's question. Up until now each and every one of them had been staring at Freyja. As far as they were concerned the Dev was just a geek, but Freyja was a woman more beautiful than any most of them had ever seen in person.
“As best as we can tell, you six are experiments.”
“What? We were just hired on to farm this place in LTI, that's all.”
“Except your form of LTI is not the one we offer on Light Online. Someone's been playing with the code.”
“Meaning?” Eddie asked.
“Well, you know these dreams you've been having?”
Eddie nodded.
“That's the altered code downloading your memories back to your bodies, on a nightly basis. The only problem is, Light Online shunts that download process to separate servers since it's CPU intensive. Whatever code is causing your downloads tries to use the general server resources instead. It's nearly crashed the game twice now.”
“What's that mean for us?” Karl asked, stepping up along Eddie.
“Well, normally we would've just ejected you from the game, but we were unable to do that.”
“Yeah,” Eddie said, “We have to be online for at least 144 hours before we can log out. Our log out buttons are grayed out.”
“See, that's their code again. Light Online has nothing like that built into it. Any more at least...”
“Is that the reason we're zero level and didn't have player flags too?”
“What?” Aaron asked, the look on his face convincing Eddie that he hadn't known.
“Freyja didn't tell you? She gave us all player flags when she discovered we didn't have them.”
“Sorry Master Aaron,” Freyja said. “Since that action did not fix the anomaly, I did not think to mention it.”
“Damn, that's dangerous,” Aaron said, “as in to your real bodies. Good thing none of you died while without those flags. And zero level? We talked about that as a hardcore option for a long time, decided not to implement it after surveys showed there wouldn't be enough interest.”
“I was told that having us start at zero level made it cost less to have us in the game,” Eddie said, “in case that helps at all.”
Aaron growled.
“Marketing, they must be responsible for that. I bet I can track down that contract though, find out who it was with. We're trying to find the altered code that affects you, but it's not on the Light Online servers. It's either resident in your pods, or hosted on a different server. Do any of you remember the address your pods are at?”
“Yeah,” Eddie said, “Sure thing.”
He gave Aaron the address and then paused in shock as Aaron reached into his inventory and pulled out a laptop. He set it down in mid-air, opened it, and started typing. Once he was done, he beckoned Eddie over.
“That the place?” he asked, gesturing towards a street view picture on his screen.
“Yeah, that's it,” Eddie said.
“Good. It may take us a while to determine what's going on and get you all safely out. I've been authorized to offer you all a stay in the capital, all expenses paid, while we figure this out.”
Eddie's first thought was Lucky and he was the first to answer.
“Not for me,” he said. “I came to adventure when I wasn't working, and I don't think that'll work very well in the capital. Plus... I've got another reason too.”
Aaron looked at him strangely, the look only intensifying when Karl stepped up next to Eddie.
“I'm with Eddie. We've about got this zero level thing beat already, I want to finish that out at least before doing anything else.”
Aaron shook his head, then looked at the other four. The last farmer had woken up while he was speaking and was now nodding vigorously. The four accepted the offer and disappeared in a flash, Aaron stayed behind.
“They'll be well taken care of. Now, what's this other reason? You aren't more than a victim in this, are
you?”
Eddie laughed and shook his head.
“One second,” he said.
He walked to the door and opened it, calling Lucky's name. A moment later, the bobcat was standing at his feet, rubbing against his legs.
“Oh,” Aaron said.
Freyja let out a long, happy laugh. When Lucky heard it, she turned to Freyja and, despite her being inside the bunkhouse, went racing to her feet, rubbing against her legs next.
“By the way Freyja, thank you again for your blessing. I'm pretty sure that's why Lucky there decided to stay with me,” Eddie said.
Freyja bent over and, without a care in the world, picked the bobcat up. She cuddled the cat against her bosom as she turned to Eddie.
“Cats are some of the best judges of character that I know,” she said. “I'm sure there was more to it than my blessing.”
She leaned over and whispered in Lucky's ear, then set the bobcat on the floor. The cat made a beeline for Eddie, writhing around his legs once she reached him.
“I get it, you got a unique pet and didn't want to leave it behind?” Aaron asked.
“I think you've never actually played this game as a player, have you?” Eddie asked.
Aaron looked confused.
“No, why?”
“It feels as real, maybe more real, than real life. I could no more abandon Lucky here than I would a pet in real life. It would just be wrong.”
Aaron's confusion still showed in his eyes.
“You should try it sometime. Take some time off and try to enjoy this world as a game,” Eddie said.
“Time off?” Aaron said. “You must be joking. I'm a debugger coder. The game has been open for almost a year and I'm still working ten hour days, six days a week.”
“There's that many bugs?” Eddie asked.
Aaron nodded.
“Everything from typos, to misplaced decimal points, to entire objects that don't exist once a player tries to store them, items that get stuck taking up a slot in a player's inventory and they can't manipulate them. And those are all just from yesterday's bug reports. Today's is you and these other farmers. You got priority because it endangers server stability, but there are thousands of things going wrong every day in this game. We'll never catch them all.”
“Damn dude, chill for a bit,” Karl said. “Really, you're gonna bust a blood vessel if you don't lighten up.”
Aaron puffed his cheeks and blew out a long breath.
“When you're right, you're right, but I've got to get this one taken care of. If the game crashes? I don't even want to think about the consequences and the chairman of the board of directors for the game is the one that set me this task.”
“Well, just sit down for a minute and catch your breath. You'll be able to think better after you do,” Eddie said. “At least, that normally works for me.”
“What works for me is kicking off my shoes and making little fists with my toes in the carpet,” Karl said, snickering.
Eddie snickered himself a bit while Freyja and Aaron looked confused.
“There is no carpet,” Freyja said.
Aaron just gestured with a hand, a throw rug appearing on the floor beneath his feet. He slipped his shoes off and start kneading his toes in the carpet.
“Son of a bitch,” he said after a moment, “fists with your toes, it really works.”
Eddie and Karl both burst out laughing. Aaron looked confused.
“What? It worked.”
“It was a quote from a cult classic movie,” Eddie said. “I figured you knew that since you replied the exact same way that character did.”
Aaron shook his head.
“Juvenile delinquents, both of you. With the stability of the game at stake you're joking around?”
“And you're now a lot more relaxed because of it, aren't you?” Karl asked.
A look of amazement passed across Aaron's face.
“I am. I don't get it,” he said.
“Doesn't matter,” Eddie said. “Did you have any more questions for us?”
“Oh yeah, three others have been in this zone the past few days. Do you think they're involved?”
“Two of them are hired muscle, but I wouldn't be sure that one of them isn't involved. Gary spends a lot of time with Ross. Ross is the overseer here, if anyone knows anything about it, it would be him. The last guard? Tim? He's a good guy, he just wanted to be in the game and couldn't afford it, so he took the job.”
“So, you think Ross has some idea of what's going on?” Aaron asked.
“If any of them do, it would be him.”
“Well, regardless, the pods that you guys are interacting from are registered to Star Suppliers, which is also the owner of the commercial account that claimed the land for this farm. They'll be forfeiting this farm for the actions taken on it. We aren't holding you accountable, I want you to know that, and we'll continue to support your pods until we can solve the issue of you logging out. But Star Suppliers may be in trouble.”
Aaron glanced at the screen of his laptop, still floating in the air in front of him.
“They've got eight other farms in various portions of the game world. We're checking those out right now. If there are any problems other than the ones here, they'll forfeit all their game world holdings and we'll auction them off. I've got to go soon, but can you tell me anything else about their operation?”
“I can tell you that the pods are an older model, L.O. POD Mark IIIs,” Eddie said. “Are the older ones easier to support?”
Aaron slapped his forehead.
“Are you sure about that? I thought all the Mark IIIs were recalled.”
“What?” Eddie asked.
“We used non-proprietary parts on them, just off the shelf, so people were experimenting with them on their own. We pulled them and did the Mark IV with all proprietary parts so people couldn't kill themselves screwing around with them.”
Who the hell would mess with a pod that's tasked with keeping them alive? Eddie thought.
“I never heard anything about that,” Karl said.
“We kept it very hush-hush and offered free upgrades to those with the Mark IIIs. Evidently we missed some. That does explain their experiments then, those pods are much easier to access and alter than the later ones.”
Aaron looked around the bunkhouse and shook his head.
“Okay, anyhow, this place will be auctioned in a couple of days. You're more than welcome to stay here until then. If you can keep it operational, maybe the auction will get a better price. We'll be splitting the auction proceeds among the six of you that have been affected by this.”
“Cool,” Karl said.
“Also, you may not see this Ross, or Gary, if we determine they had knowledge of what was going on. Tim was the third one you said? We'll check him out also, but if you're right, he'll still be able to log on, we won't prevent that.”
“Tim has been an open book to me,” Freyja said. “He has no idea of anything but what he's supposed to be doing for his job. Even there, he's taken it easier on the farmers than he was instructed to. The other two have things I can't read. I had to check all three to see if they were affected by the anomaly. They weren't, but that doesn't mean I didn't find some things they might have preferred to keep hidden. These pods you speak of, are they the transport for the World-Traveling Mortals to come to this world?”
Aaron grinned, a little lopsided.
“Yes, that's what the pods do.”
“The other two knew something about pods and extending maximum time used. I couldn't make much of it without context, but now it sounds like what you're speaking of.”
“Thank you Freyja,” Aaron said. “It's good to know that they were in the loop. Now, I must leave. I've been informed that the company has a strike team in the real world, and they're going to hit the location you gave us in a little over half an hour.”
Damn, the game company has a real world strike team? What the hell do they need that for? Eddie thou
ght. But maybe this is a chance to answer the question that's been bothering me.
“One last thing?” Eddie interjected as Aaron looked like he was ready to leave.
Aaron sighed.
“What?”
“There's nothing in this zone apparently, why is it in the middle of all these higher level zones?” Eddie asked, remembering the conversation he'd overheard from the players on the road.
Aaron cocked his head as though accessing information through the game.
“The Meadowlands, huh? I guess no-one ever figured out that indirect clue in the help files about it. But, you mentioned one last thing. I have to say something else also. Tell no-one about any of this, don't even talk about it with the NPCs in case you're overheard, present company excluded of course,” he said, gesturing towards Freyja.
“The last thing we need is a panic,” he added. “Which is what we'll get if people worry that their pods have been tampered with.”
He winked and waved, then his image shimmered and disappeared, his laptop going with him. The throw-rug was still on the floor though. Freyja looked between the two remaining men.
“You both have the heart of an adventurer, I approve. Aaron has requested I continue to keep an eye on you, so should you find yourselves experiencing the anomaly again, I will be there to protect you.”
It was Freyja's turn to leave and there was no shimmer, one moment she was there, the next she was gone.
Eddie and Karl looked around themselves. If it weren't for the lack of the other farmers, and the throw rug still on the floor, they might've believed that they'd dreamed it all.
Eddie was still tired, so he crawled back into bed. Karl stared at him like he was crazy.
“If you get the well-rested buff, you'll have plus ten percent experience if we finish the quest first thing tomorrow,” Eddie said.
Karl was in bed in a flash, pulling the covers over his head. A moment later the ball of light that Aaron had left behind flashed out, leaving the bunkhouse in darkness. Eddie felt it when Lucky hopped up on the foot of his bed and curled around his lower legs. When the bobcat started purring it was too much, and Eddie was out like a light.
