Virtualization - 1. Unpleasant and Unexpected

BunnyAce grins and turns his his spiral menu as he moves, equipping his main gauche over his dagger mid parry. The goblin attacking him staggers, its damage reduced to a measly few points. His grin sharpens as he flash steps, seamlessly equipping his dagger again while striking the goblin’s blindside, instantly defeating it.

His partner, Tall&Zxy, wears a more determined expression as he spins his own spiral menu. He turns to parry another goblin’s attack, his long sword blurring to a knife. With the damage reduced, he goes on the attack. By equipping his sword again mid swing, he retains the range and speed of the knife with the sword’s higher damage. The familiar, reddish blurry animation of the goblin’s defeat follows. “Yes!” He yells at the victory window showing their soul energy gains.

BunnyAce, still grinning, shakes his head; amused at his friend’s exuberance over their meager winnings, “No drops that time, and the soul energy has been crappy for awhile.”

Tall&Zxy returns a cocky shrug, “Not much time left to use it anyway.”

BunnyAce scratches his head, his avatar’s hair too short to twirl, “Yeah. It’s too bad there wasn’t enough time for a Temple run.”

Tall&Zxy reaches up to put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Despite his screen name, BunnyAce’s avatar is all around larger than his, “It just wasn’t in the cards.”

BunnyAce nods, “Yeah.” He looks up at the blue sky. His eyes dart from cloud to cloud and he realizes the clouds are surprisingly non uniform. He wonders if there are just that many renders, or if they are formed from an algorithm of some kind. Rather than ruminating further on that, he shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. It’s amazing. He can smell the trees, the grass, even the vapor in the air.

Tall&Zxy tilts his head to the side, one eyebrow raised, “I still don’t get why you do that.”

BunnyAce kneels and runs his palm over the grass, “This might be the last time I get to experience this.”

Tall&Zxy kneels beside him and does the same thing, but he still doesn’t understand, “When the home version comes out, you’ll be able to do this whenever you want.”

BunnyAce snickers, “They aren’t going to ship giant tubes to people’s houses, and it’ll be a long time before even a suit is this immersive.”

Tall&Zxy ponders this, “Doesn’t that make this false advertising?”

BunnyAce rolls his eyes, “I’m sure it’ll still be miraculous, but can’t you smell the wood?” He runs Tall&Zxy’s palm over the grass again, smiling as his friend shudders, “Doesn’t that feel real?”

The smile he gets back says it all, “Yeah. It really is amazing.”

“And in thirteen minutes, this’ll be over, and who knows if we’ll ever be able to experience it again.” BunnyAce feels the grass again, “I want to experience this at its fullest.”

Tall&Zxy shakes his head in amusement, “You enjoy the weirdest things.”

BunnyAce chuckles, “Says you. We must have fought over a hundred goblins today and you were excited to beat every single one!”

“I guess we’re both weird then.” He stands up and looks around, “The post combat lull is about to end.”

BunnyAce stands up, “Yeah. Should we head to the shrine? Or fight more goblins?”

Tall&Zxy turns to the shrine, “I think I’ve had my fill of goblins for now.”

BunnyAce follows him, but can’t help looking at the mountains in the distance. Everything is so amazing, he can’t help wondering what they did for the Temple. Given its importance, it has to be incredible.

Tall&Zxy notices his friend staring at the horizon, “What are you looking at?”

“Just wondering what the Temple is like.” He grins, “The landscape is so awesome, the climax has to be even better!”

Tall&Zxy is about to respond when a red border and announcement banner covers his HUD. “What?” He raises an eyebrow, “An urgent system message now?”

BunnyAce thins his eyes, “This makes no sense. There’s only ten minutes left.”

Tall&Zxy nods, “If it was just a ten minute warning, it wouldn’t have this kind of urgency, would it?”

BunnyAce shrugs, “Maybe? I dunno.” He opens the message and his eyes widen, “Whoa! This is way to long to be a ten minute warning.” Tall&Zxy turns to him as he reads, “It says to go to a safe zone and read the message as soon as possible. The shrine is the nearest safe zone.”

Tall&Zxy turns towards the shrine with an urgency that wasn’t there before, “Yeah.”

When they reach the shrine, they find it oddly deserted. Tall&Zxy thins his eyes, “Everyone left?”

BunnyAce thinks for a moment, “The NPCs are supposed to be more interactive, maybe the shop keeper knows?”

Tall&Zxy nods, “Maybe.”

“What can I do for you?” The elf behind the counter asks.

BunnyAce selects [ Talk ] off the menu, “Do you know what happened to everybody?”

He nods, “The other players left a minute ago.”

BunnyAce is surprised at how realistic this is, “Do you know why?”

The shopkeeper shakes his head, “Nope.”

When BunnyAce hits the [ Back ] button he returns to his previous stance, “What can I do for you?” BunnyAce selects [ Nothing ] and he returns to the animation of rummaging around his shop.

BunnyAce scrunches up his face, “Everyone must have gone back to town.”

Tall&Zxy’s eyes dart around the forest at the edge of the safe zone, “We should to. Being alone here is giving me the creeps.”

BunnyAce walks over to the teleporter, “Great temple or town square?”

Tall&Zxy hurries over to him, “Town square.”

They find the square full of players, most of which are reading their menus. They open the message and do the same.

BunnyAce reads out loud, “The following change will be implemented… Changes? The event ends in five minutes.”

Tall&Zxy scrutinizes the message, “According to this, the changes will be implemented when the event ends. But… shouldn’t the event be over?”

BunnyAce continues reading, “Soul energy gains, shop costs and item drop rates will be adjusted back to the standard amounts. Soul energy costs for setting orbs into the fate wheel will be re-enabled. Locations that were off limits will be enabled over time, as well as new locations that have never been in the game before. So far it seems to be undoing all the things that were enhanced or limited to facilitate the event.”

Tall&Zxy reads further, “Okay, some of these are getting weirder. Your avatars will be adjusted to facilitate a more realistic experience. All player re-spawn points will be removed. Those who are defeated will be removed from the server.” His eyes widen, “All players PK settings will be set to on!? What is this?”

“Yeah. It’s even asking us to ‘Please be careful, as all methods of revival have been removed from the game.” BunnyAce continues reading, “The game clock will rotate every twenty four hours, with an unalterable twelve hour day and night cycle. Though visibility and enemy spawn rates will change, skill effects will not be altered during the night time hours.” He shakes his head, “What exactly is the point of this? We’re all being logged out in less than a minute.”

Tall&Zxy thins his eyes, “I thought so.”

A moment later, BunnyAce’s senses go haywire. His vision blurs. He hears a mixture of ringing and static. He feels a strange tingling. He even tastes and smells an odd cocophany of things he can’t quite put into words. He can’t pinpoint where he feels these things, like the senses exist but he doesn’t have a body to feel them with. Then they collapse into disorientation.

They return more slowly, starting with the tingling in his skin. The tastes and smells come next followed by the static and ringing. His vision comes back last, blurriness replacing the disorientation before everything comes into focus.

He steps back in surprise. A moment ago Tall&Zxy was half a head shorter than him, and now he finds himself staring as the middle of his chest. When he looks up, his eyes widen. The equally wide eyed face looking back at him is Luke, Tall&Zxy’s player.

“BunnyAce, you look like-!” Tall&Zxy cuts himself off.

“Me right? Because you look like-” BunnyAce cuts himself off too, not wanting to announce Luke’s identity to the square.

“I look like Luke.” Luke finishes.

“Then I look like Asa.” Asa uses his name in game for the first time.

Luke nods, “Yes. You do.”

It only takes a moment for Asa to realize that Luke doesn’t look exactly right, more like an artist’s rendering than a photo. His hair is still dark and short, but his features are more angular, particularly his blue eyes, and his skin is blemish free, missing the small number of scars he’d build up over the years.

Asa wants to look in a mirror to see if he’s the same, but that’ll have to wait. He doesn’t bother mentioning this to Luke. Even if he notices, Luke has never cared about irrelevant details.

While Asa watches him, Luke looks over Asa’s head at the rest of the square and its immediately obvious whose a player and whose not. The NPCs still have their over the top stylized looks, even the humans are larger than life, while the players all look mundane. If that wasn’t enough, their clothing has reset to the default for their equipment.

Luke looks down when he hears Asa, “This must be the changes to your avatars to facilitate a more realistic experience.”

His eyes widen in realization, “That must mean the rest is true too. So death is… permanent?”

Asa sighs, “Yeah.” Luke isn’t surprised that Asa isn’t shocked by the revelation. He probably realized it before Luke did.

A mature yet amused female voice cuts in, “It’s a harrowing thought, isn’t it?”

Asa and Luke turn to find a spry middle aged woman, probably in her late thirties or early forties. Her purple hair is somewhere between a bun and a top knot, making it’s length hard to determine except for her bangs which split down the middle and hang down to her shoulders on both sides. She’s tall enough to meet Luke’s gaze evenly.

“Your hair is dyed?” Asa asks, causing Luke to roll his eyes. That is the sort of thing Asa would lead with.

The woman chuckles, “I’m so glad I touched it up before I came here. I wouldn’t want to be trapped here forever with my roots showing.”

Luke thins his eyes, “Is that really that important?”

The woman raises an eyebrow at him, “Perhaps not, but getting angry won’t help matters. A bit of levity can sooth the soul even in the most dire of circumstances.”

Luke can’t think of a response to that, so he grumbles, “I guess.”

The woman puts a supportive hand on Luke’s shoulder, “I understand your anger and fear, but we can only speculate about what’s happened. Think before you make any rash decisions.”

Luke sighs and then shuts his eyes, “Yeah.” He smiles at her sheepishly, “Thank you.”

The woman looks around the square, “So, I heard you two talking. Asa and Luke are your IRL names?” They both nod, “Then I will tell you mine as well. I’m Ardine.” She offers a hand shake to Luke then Asa, “I am going to assume you didn’t check my SN?”

Luke raises an eyebrow, “No.”

Asa shakes his head, “It didn’t occur to me.”

Ardine nods, “I’m Bonehead Throkdar.”

Luke’s eyes widen, “You’re B.T?” Given how B.T. acted, he expected his player was an immature teenager, not a mature, composed woman.

Ardine laughs, “Bonehead Throkdar hates that nickname.”

Luke sighs, “I’m sorry.”

Ardine shakes her head, “Don’t worry. I’m not offended. Bonehead Throkdar is a character I play when I want to put intellectualism aside and yell while smashing things with my ax. He hates the nickname, I find it amusing.”

Asa smiles at her, “That’s something I understand.”

Ardine’s smile flattens, “But I’m no longer a seven foot tall orc, and we’re trapped in a game of death, so it seems prudent to drop the facade.” Luke’s smile flattens at that.

Asa sighs, “You think they’d really kill us?”

Ardine looks between them before responding, “I do think that’s unlikely, but not implausible enough to be worth risking.”

“Particularly since we’ll probably have no way of knowing either way.” Asa concludes.

Ardine nods, “Yes.” Her expression turns serios, “I have a confession. Though being in the same place was a coincidence, I did not approach you two randomly.” She looks at Asa, “BunnyAce,” then turns to Luke, “Tall&Zxy. You are two of the most skilled players in the game, but you are also known for being aloof with other players. I don’t think that’s a good idea given our current situation. Outside of the fact that even the most skilled person can make mistakes, I think top players ignoring everyone else will exacerbate an already volatile situation.”

Luke thinks for a moment, “So you don’t want us to abandon everyone else?”

She nods, “Precisely.”

“That’s fine,” Asa says, “But what should we do?”

Ardine smiles at him, “I’m not entirely sure, which is why I think we should hold a meeting as soon as possible.”

Luke raises an eyebrow, “A meeting?”

She nods, “Yes. We can’t be the only people thinking this, and I think people will need a forum to discuss the situation. Since the in game forums are still disabled, an in person meeting is our only option.”

Asa nods, “Meeting in person is probably better anyway. Forums can be so impersonal, people are more vocal there.”

Ardine shakes her head, “Perhaps, but that might be for the better. People are scared, nerves are high. This is as much a place for people to vent and argue as it is for people to discuss.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Luke asks, “Couldn’t a flame war make things worse?”

Ardine sighs, “I did consider that, but there really isn’t a right answer here, because not giving people a place to vent their feelings won’t make those feelings go away. You are a perfect example.” Luke’s eyes widen at that, “I can tell you’re angry and afraid, but you’re trying to hold it all in. If that’s maturity in a crisis, then I applaud you, but can you really say there isn’t any machismo involved?”

Luke’s eyes droop a little in realization, “No. I can’t.”

She turns to Asa, “You’re also more afraid then you’re letting on, aren’t you?”

Asa looks down and sighs, “Yeah.”

Ardine waves around the square, “Assuming most people are feeling like you, what do you think would help them more? Being told to calm down? Or being allowed to speak on their worries?”

Luke scrutinizes the ground, “I don’t know.”

Asa thinks for a moment, “Maybe it won’t help everybody, but there have to be some people who’d need that.”

Ardine nods, “I agree. And even if that isn’t true, we need to discuss our situation, if only to decide what to do.” She shrugs, “It isn’t as if we can make people go anyway. Being there is entirely voluntary.”

Luke turns to her, “You’ve convinced me. But how do we do this?”

Ardine smiles, “I think that’ll be the easy part. Fortunately, I friended most of the people I ran into, in case I wanted to play with them later, so I think once we find a place to do this, getting the word out should be as simple as DMing my friend list.”

Asa thinks for a moment, “That still leaves us with the issue of where to hold the meeting.”

Ardine nods, “Indeed. It has to be someplace safe, but large enough to potentially hold a large number of people.”

Luke shakes his head, “The only place I can think of is here.”

Ardine sighs, “I’d rather avoid that. It’s a bit close to the entrance to town. I know it’s a bit irrational, but I think that might make some people uncomfortable.”

Asa shrugs, “I didn’t spend that much time in town, maybe there’s something we missed?”

Ardine ponder this, “I didn’t either, so that seems plausible.”

“And if all else fails, there’s always the backstreets.” Luke suggests.

Ardine nods, “It’s not ideal, but it might be the best option.” She sends both of them friend requests, which they accept. “Why don’t we meet up at the tavern in an hour if we don’t find anything?”

Asa nods, “That sounds good.”

Luke nods too, “Sure.”

After she leaves, Luke turns to Asa, “What do you think?”

Asa blinks, “I think there’s gotta be a better place than the backstreets.”

Luke shakes his head, “I meant about her.”

Asa nods, “Oh. I don’t know what to think, but her reasoning was sound.”

Luke looks in the direction she went, “I don’t know whether to trust her or not.”

“Did she give you any reason not to?” Asa asks.

Luke sighs, “Not really.” He looks down, “I think it was how easily she read me. It was like I couldn’t hide anything from her.”

Asa chuckles, “Yeah. I can see how that might make you uncomfortable.”

Luke thins his eyes, momentarily irritated at his friend’s nonchalance about his feelings, before rolling them and moving on, “Should we split up?”

Asa nods, “Yeah. We can cover more ground that way.” The two wave at each other before they part ways.

As Asa searches around, he finds that, for the most part, the town is the same. The main entrance opens to town square, where some merchant stands and the fountain is. On the side opposite the merchants is the city temple, where the main teleportation hub is. Past the square is a road which goes past the bank on one side and the tavern on the other.

The end of the road is where the first obvious new edition to the city is. Though the lodge existed before, during the event it was a one story building containing a cafe, a quest board and little else. Now it has a second story, and when he enters it, he finds the entire first floor layout is completely different. Rather than being at the entrance, the cafe is off to the right and a desk with an NPC has taken it’s place. The quest board is in the cafe, but next to it is a door labeled, “Adventurer’s Society Guild Hall.” He doesn’t see any place that would really work for their meeting, so he doesn’t give it much more than a quick once over, but the changes are too palpable not to be noticed.

Past the Lodge to the west is a valley between two cliffsides containing the residential district, the back streets Luke had referred to. Rather than players, the residential zone is full of houses where the various NPCs in town live, and aside of viewing the scenery and a few quests, players have little reason to go there. Though player owned houses exist in the game proper, that feature was unimplemented during the event and nothing of note seems to have changed since then. Though he does find a few players wandering about.

On the east side of the lodge lies the second new edition to the town. What was previously just a steep impassable cliff side has been opened up to form a beautiful park area. Beyond that is a small shed that is apparently for growing things, but he doesn’t check that out because he thinks this is the place. He messages them.

[ BunnyAce: Luke, Ardine, I found a place for the meeting.

Bonehead Throkdar: Oh?

Tall&Zxy: Where?

BunnyAce: Near the lodge there’s an entirely new zone. A park area with a garden. It’s open, spacious, and connected only to town so it should be totally safe. It’s pleasant too, so it might help keep people at ease.

Bonehead Throkdar: That does sound ideal.

Tall&Zxy: I think I know what you’re talking about. I’ll be right there.

Bonehead Throkdar: Where exactly is this? I must have missed the entrance.

BunnyAce: East of the lodge. It was innocuous before. It stands out a lot more now.

Bonehead Throkdar: Ah. That explains it. I admit, I didn’t scour the area for stuff that wasn’t there before. I will hopefully be there soon. ]

Luke finds Asa sitting on a bench looking through the urgent message again, “Find anything?”

Asa shakes his head, “No. I was hoping there’d be some hint hidden in here to what’s actually going on, but it’s all pretty straightforward.”

Luke nods, “Yeah.”

Luke sits down, “This place is calm.” He looks around and notes that, while there are a few players here, its far less than he’d expect if this place existed in game.

Asa sighs, “The calm before the storm.”

Luke shakes his head, “I suppose it is.”

“Very nice.” They look over to see Ardine looking around, and she isn’t alone. Walking with her is a redhead about half a head taller than her and a dark skinned man with ear length scraggly hair whose half a head shorter. As they approach, he can see the redhead has a splattering of freckles across his nose, which he notes is strange considering Luke is missing his scars, but perhaps that was considered a facial feature rather than a blemish. While the dark skinned man, outside of his hair, lacks a similar distinguishing feature, his expression is bleak. Asa can tell the man has some complicated set of feelings, but he can’t tell what they are.

“Hey.” The redhead says with a joyful smile, “BunnyAce right?”

Asa nods, “Yeah.”

The man snickers, “It’s nice to meet you. I always appreciate a clever SN.”

Asa looks down, embarrassed, “It’s not that clever.”

“It’s clever enough.” He says, then he turns to Luke, “Is he always like this?”

“Only with people he doesn’t know.” Luke responds flatly.

The readhead’s smile flattens and he sighs, “Look, I’m sorry if I was ever an ass to you. I used the game to take out my frustrations and darker impulses.”

That causes Asa to check the man’s SN, and is not surprised at all to find he’s GoldenrodBoy. Aside of the fact that GoldenrodBoy was kind of a jerk, he has a boy next door charm that explains the name. It makes Asa both relieved and nervous at the same time, “You’re GoldenrodBoy?”

GoldenrodBoy nods, “My name is Collin. I agree with you guys on using our real names. It’s a show of good faith.”

Luke raises an eyebrow at him, “How can you be so happy?”

Collin sighs, “I’m trying to be positive. We’re all in a bad spot, and there will be loads of people who are angry and scared. I’m hoping to help alleviate some of that fear. A smile can go a long way.”

Asa looks at Ardine, “She did say we need some levity.” Luke sighs in response.

Collin nods, “We do. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take this seriously.” That causes the scruffy haired man to harrumph. Collin turns to him, “I know. I’m not saying you need levity too.”

The man shakes his head, “I have nothing to be happy about.”

Collin rubs his shoulder supportively before turning to Ardine, “So this looks like a great place, but what did you have in mind?”

Ardine nods, “Nothing in specific. Just a place to talk about what’s happened to us. Give people a chance to speculate and talk. Perhaps make a plan, perhaps not.”

Luke looks around, “This is a great place for that. Now all we need are people.”

Collin nods, “I sent a massive invite to my friends list. Hopefully people will show up.”

Ardine nods, “We have no time table. We can wait as long as it take for people to get here.”

At first people trickle in, but they are all surprised when a sudden huge influx of players occurs.

“I’m glad we chose such a big location.” Collin says.

Ardine nods, “Yes. I must admit, I’m having second thoughts. I don’t want to cause a panic.”

Collin puts a hand on her shoulder, “I think this is good. We can help contain a panic now.”

Ardine smiles at him, “Perhaps with you here, we can.”

Collin motions towards the crowd, “This was your idea.”

Ardine chuckles nervously, “Indeed it was.” She steps forward, “Hello. My name is Ardine and I am a college professor. I say that because most of you would not expect that of the player of Bonehead Throkdar, and yet, that is who I am. I’m sure there are a lot of us who played a role very different from who we are. I do not intend to tell anyone what to do, but given our situation, I will shed that persona.

“I thought we should have this meeting to discuss our situation, perhaps make some decisions, but even just airing our woes should do a lot for us. I want to reiterate: I do not intend to tell anyone what to do, nor to intimidate anyone, and I would strongly encourage everyone else to avoid that as well. One thing I do believe is that, whatever happens, we must stick together and that means listening to everyone. This is meant to be an open forum. Have a suggestion? That’s great. Want to vent? As long as you don’t take up too much time, that’s fine. We all deserve to speak and be heard.”

A bunch of people stand up and start talking all at once, and Collin steps forward before an argument can break out, “I understand you all wish to speak, but talking over each other or arguing won’t help anything.” He smiles at the crowd, “Everyone will get a turn, however, Jerome, who you might know as Talyris, has something to say which I think we all need to hear.”

Jerome shakes his head before addressing the crowd, “Death is permanent now. I know the system message basically said that, but I can confirm it.” He looks at his feet and takes a deep breath, “I didn’t look at the message when we first got it. I assumed it was a ten minute warning and wanted to make the most of the last ten minutes of the event. Right near the end I found a player who clearly wasn’t very skilled. I’d been avoiding PKing weaker players before, to not ruin their enjoyment of the event, but as there was less than a minute left anyway, I didn’t think it would matter.”

He shakes his head and takes another calming breath, “The time ended and we were transformed just as I made my killing blow. When I came to, I saw the damage my attack did and I saw my target disappear. But he didn’t disappear like a player normally does, leaving a soul light. He disappeared like an enemy would, leaving nothing.”

He puts his face in his hands for a moment before looking up again, “I waited to see if he’d come back, but he didn’t. After this I returned to a safe zone and read the message. It didn’t take me long to realize that I might have murdered somebody.” He sighs, “I just wanted to make sure everyone understood the gravity of the situation. And anyone who still wants to PK after hearing this? Well… I don’t care what decision we come to. I will personally hunt down and kill anyone who PKs. We started with only a thousand people, there are less than that now, and many are not skilled enough to protect themselves against more skilled players. I will not give people a second chance to PK, and I hope that the other top players agree with me.”

Luke’s eyes thin, “May I speak?”

Ardine nods, “Of course.”

Luke steps forward, “I agree with Jerome. I think, on the topic of PKing, we need a zero tolerance policy.”

A heavy set college aged man with long scraggly hair stands up, “It sounds to me like you guys want to run the place. What gives you the right to decide what we can and can’t do?”

Jerome looks at him, “Does that mean you want to PK people?”

The man shakes his head, “We don’t know that people who die here are dead. They’re probably just taken out of their tubes and sent home!”

Ardine steps in before Jerome can respond, “I agree, they probably are. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that they aren’t. Let’s say that whoever kidnapped us is quite insane and is killing people who die here in the real world. Even if that is extremely unlikely, shouldn’t we act like it’s true as long as there’s any chance that it is?”

The man rolls his eyes, “So what? PK once and get executed? How is that fair!”

Ardine shakes her head, “I’m not sure fairness has anything to do with it. I would like to point out that, unless something has massively changed, we have no way of incarcerating an offender. Short of assigning another player to follow them around forever, there may be nothing we can do to protect ourselves, or the more vulnerable members of our community, from PKing except removing the offenders.

“At some point it would be prudent to create some kind of justice system, but this is a very immediate problem. Until we have proof that people killed here are in fact still alive outside, PKing should be treated as murder and dealt with accordingly.” She frowns, “That said, there is another thing that is worrying about this. I doubt that PKs are the only things that can kill us right now. Dying to monsters and NPCs is likely just as deadly. We need to consider this as we move forward.”

The man shakes his head, “I’m just saying, you guys have a lot of power. You guys organized this meeting. What’s to stop you from enforcing whatever else you want on the rest of us?”

Asa stands up. He agrees with Jerome and Luke about PKers, not because he thinks it’s fair, but because he can’t see another solution to the issue, but he also doesn’t want this to become a tyrannical meritocracy. “You’re right. We all have to check each other.” He turns to Jerome and Luke, “Please don’t take things into your own hands. I can’t see another solution to PKing, so I agree with your proposal, but we have to come to a consensus or we could end up in a digital civil war.” He turns to the man, “But at the same time, you should know that we do need some kind of justice system, and we can’t lock people up.”

This time a girl stands up, “You are treating this so seriously. This is still a game.”

Collin raises his hand and waits for people to quite down, “I wish I could say this was all going to be okay, but listening to what people are saying, I think we all need to take a step back and stop clinging to delusions or false hopes. We have been kidnapped, incarcerated against our will. We have no idea if we will ever be let out of here, to say nothing of when. I notice all the people who stood up are adults, young perhaps, but definitely adults. Consider that the minimum age to take part in this event was thirteen, that means there are young people here, young people who are probably just as worried as you are. We need to stay strong for their sake.”

He turns to face the girl, “It’s hard to know if this is a game anymore, but it’s definitely not the game we signed up for.” He then turns to the man, “At the moment, there is nothing that is preventing any powerful person from abusing their power. That’s part of the reason why we are having this meeting.” The two of them sit down as the crowd goes silent.

Ardine steps forward, “After thinking about it, Collin and I believe we should get as far in the game’s content as we can. There is a chance that whoever put us in here will let us out if we complete some arbitrary amount of content, but even if that is not the case, there are a number of practical reasons for us to engage with the game.”

A man stands up, “But isn’t that dangerous? If death is permanent, shouldn’t we all stay in safe zones until they decide to take us out of here?”

Collin stands up, “Unfortunately, we can’t assume that will remain true forever. While it is true that the safe zones are constant at most times, there have been special limited time events which negated one or more safe zones, such as the zombie apocalypse event last Halloween. While there’s no guarantee such an event will happen, if such a thing does happen and we aren’t prepared for it, it would be disastrous. I’m not suggesting we rush the game, in fact, I think we should tackle the challenges as safe and methodically as possible. But the sooner we gain access to later areas, the sooner we’ll be able to get more powerful stuff, and the safer we’ll all be.”

The first man who spoke speaks again, “You mean the safer it’ll be for the people who get strong!”

Collin looks at him, “It’s not that simple. Even though we might not be playing it for fun, the fact remains that this is a game and has specific rules we must abide by. One of those rules is that the Fate wheel and equipment systems limit what any single person can do. The entire game is designed to force people to work together in groups.” Collin then grins, “But there is more than that. We actually gain a lot for working together. Rare drops are going to be a hot commodity, but most of us will get drops we aren’t set up to use. If we create a repository, or just make sure to get the stuff we get to people who can make use of it, we all benefit. On the other hand, if people hoard things they can’t use, it hurts everybody, including them.” The man sits down, seemingly satiated.

A boy raises his hand, “So… I don’t know if this is good. But what that guy with red hair just said gave me an idea...”

Ardine looks at him, “Go on.”

“It sounds like auctioning would work against us right? But if we put up things with a buy now price of one soul energy… couldn’t we use auctions as a communal bank?” He asks nervously.

Collin’s eyes widen, “That’s an amazing idea! In fact, that’s such a good idea that I think maybe we should treat it as a suggestion and have a vote on whether to implement it!”

Ardine nods, “I agree. What’s your name?”

The boy looks down, “Brandon...”

Ardine addresses the crowd, “So then! What does everyone think of Brandon’s suggestion?”

“What if we want to sell our stuff?” A man asks.

Ardine looks at him, “To what end?”

“To make soul energy off our hard work.” His tone tells them he thinks this should be obvious.

Collin steps in, “Let me take this one. There is going to be enough soul energy moving around that the amount you’d make out of auctioning is likely to be irrelevant. I know I am going to grind more soul energy than I can use. That way I can give energy to players who aren’t powerful enough, or lack the skills, to get it themselves. I think many of the other top players will be doing the same thing.”

The man scoffs, “Well, what if I don’t want to give my hard earned soul energy or drops away?”

Collin shrugs, “We can’t really force you to, but don’t expect anyone to help you, or even party with you, with that attitude.” The man doesn’t respond to that.

Ardine steps up, “So, back to Brandon’s proposal. Collin suggested we vote, does anyone have a problem with this?” No one says anything. “So those of you who are for using the auction system as a communal bank, raise your hands.” Nearly everyone in the group’s hand goes up. “Well then. I think we can safely say that we agree to that. Does anyone else have anything they’d like to discuss?”

A Few Hours Later

While most of the meeting was people airing their woes, they reached few conclusive decisions by the end. Though no one is happy about it, they realized there really isn’t a solution for PKers aside of eliminating them. They at least decided that accidental PKing should be handled on a case by case basis, but that repeat offenders would be treated as threats.

Collin reminded everybody that even though they are all PK flagged, they can still set their friendly fire options off, and he urged everybody to turn them off immediately, stressing that there’s little reason for anyone to have them on.

Other things that are agreed upon are, should a major change to the game occur, everyone should be informed, and that anyone could call another meeting if they wished to discuss things, no matter who they are or what they want to discuss. Despite this, tensions are still high and the only thing that’s clear is that everyone would have been exhausted at the meeting’s end had that been implemented.

“What do you think?” Asa asks Luke as the last people trickle out of the park.

Luke sighs, “Ardine was right. We needed this.”

Asa nods, “I think so too.” He turns to him, “What now?”

Luke thinks for a moment, “I think we should go out there. Get a drop on content.”

Asa raises an eyebrow, “You don’t think that’s rushing?”

Luke turns to him, “I don’t know if you realized, but we’re in a great position, maybe the best position, to do that.”

Asa ponders this, “I mean. We are two great players. But we’re hardly alone in that regard.”

Luke shakes his head, “That’s not what I mean. Remember the skill roulette? You complained about it enough.”

Asa blinks, “Wait. Are you saying we still have the skills we got from that thing? I thought that was just for the event?”

Luke nods, “We do. I tested mine out, and it works exactly the same: 5 seconds of invincibility with a 10 minute cooldown.”

Asa opens his menu to look at his skills and, sure enough, his skill is there. Automatically survive being reduced to 0 HP and regain HP in relation to your guts with a cooldown of 12 hours. “Huh. That’s not good at all for a six hour event, but now it’s seeming a whole lot better.”

Luke smiles, “Don’t you see? We can go out there and safely do content that other people can’t. And if we do it together, we won’t have to drag anyone else into it!”

Asa ponders this, “I don’t know Luke. I want to get the lay of the land first. Try and figure out what people need.”

Luke’s smile fades, “I can see I’m not gonna win this one.”

Asa sighs, “Luke I…”

Luke puts a hand on Asa’s shoulder, “No. I understand. I’m not mad.” He pulls his hand away, “But I think I’m gonna get that head start. Go solo.”

Asa nods, “Be careful.”

Luke nods, “You too.”

A young sounding voice calls his attention, “Um… Are you sure you shouldn’t go with him?” Asa turns to find Brandon standing behind him. From his voice and timidity, Asa had assumed he was one of the youngest people in the game. Now that he sees him, he’s not sure that’s true, and he decides to take a closer look.

Though half a head taller than Asa, Brandon’s clearly not fully grown. He has that awkward lankiness that comes from one's height outstripping their musculature, but his physique is more developed than one would expect of a thirteen year old. He has olive skin and short brown hair except his bangs which are slightly longer. He probably spikes them in the real world. Asa guesses he can’t be older than fifteen or sixteen as his features look young, almost like someone had grafted a twelve year old’s head to a teenager’s body, and he feels somehow larger than Brandon despite his shorter stature.

He looks up into Brandon’s earnest hazel eyes before responding, “I’m not sure of anything right now, but that’s why I can’t just go with him. I don’t want to make a mistake and get one or both of us killed.”

“Aren’t you worried he’ll get himself killed?” Brandon asks.

Asa shakes his head, “A little, but Luke isn’t like me. He’s always been decisive in a crisis.”

Brandon steps up alongside Asa, “Then what are you worried about?”

Asa looks down, “I’m not sure, but part of me wonders if he’ll be the same person the next time I see him.”

Brandon sighs, “I have a feeling none of us will be.” He turns to Asa again, “I heard what you were talking about and...” He hesitates, his timidity returning.

“Are you okay?” Asa asks.

Brandon looks down, “Look, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was just walking past and...”

Asa shakes his head, “Think nothing of it.” He thinks for a moment, “Did you want something?”

Brandon looks into his eyes again, “You’re BunnyAce, right? The spiral master?” Asa nods in response, waiting for Brandon to continue. “Well… I was hoping you’d party with me. See, I’m not the best, but I think I could be really good. But I’d need to tackle stuff that challenges me, and well, if I do that without a good safety net, well...”

Asa cuts off his babbling, “I’d be happy to. I was hoping to find a group of people, and your goal is admirable. The only problem is, I’m primarily a DPSer. What you really need is someone who can take the heat off you and take a few hits. That’s not me.”

“What about your skill roulette… skill?” Brandon asks.

Asa shakes his head, “It would let me survive a big attack once, but it’s not sustainable.”

Brandon sighs, “So… should I ask someone else?”

Asa smiles, “We should ask someone else. I didn’t mean you should find someone instead of me. I meant that we should find at least one more person.”

Brandon grins, “Really?”

Asa nods, “And I think I know who we can ask.”

Brandon raises his eyebrow, “Who?”

Asa has already started walking off, “Ardine. She ran the meeting, oh, and she used to be Bonehead Throkdar.”

Brandon’s eyes widen, “You really think she’ll help?”

Asa smiles back, “I think she’ll be happy to party with us.”

Brandon seems bewildered, “Thank you.”

“What’s wrong?” Asa inquires.

“I’m just overwhelmed. I knew asking one of the best players on the server for help was a long shot. I never expected to team up with two.” Brandon responds.

“Well, we haven’t gotten Ardine’s help yet, so don’t jump the gun, but she is known to party with newbies, and I’m happy to help.” Asa grins at Brandon, “And you are the first person to approach me, so really, this is all you.” That earns Asa a return grin in response.

It doesn’t take Brandon and Asa very long to find Ardine talking with Collin; a tall dark skinned, short haired guy and a sun tanned, curly haired girl in the lodge.

Ardine waves at them, “Oh! Asa! I was hoping you’d show up here.” She turns to Collin, “These are Collin’s friends. They apparently party together commonly, and intend to continue to do so now.”

Collin smiles, “We’ve been friends for a long time.”

The girl scoffs, “Drop the act Col. You aren’t the type to brag. I just wish we could get back to having fun. This is the only time I get to be a jerk without repercussions!”

Asa frowns at her, “You know online bullying actually does have repercussions right?”

She looks down at him with an irritated expression, “Of course I do! I meant get back to PKing people not belittling them!”

Asa shakes his head, “You better not PK anybody in here.”

The guy looks down at him, equally irritated, “We don’t intend to, but we also didn’t sign up for this! Give us a break!”

Collin steps forward, “Tracy, Lloyd cut it out. None of us asked for this, and he’s right. You guys do need to lighten up. RPing a jerk in game is one thing, but I’ve had to apologize for your forum behavior more than once.” Lloyd and Tracy grunt at that, but don’t have responses.

Collin turns back to Asa, “I’m sorry. They’re both cantankerous in real life, but you won’t find two more loyal friends.” He shoots them a grin, “Even if they’ll complain about it the whole way.” They both roll their eyes.

Asa nods, “It’s okay. I’m just a little distraught. Luke went off on his own.”

Collin nods, “I had a feeling he would. Jerome did also.”

“Do you think they’ll party together?” Asa asks, though he knows the question is really rhetorical. Even if Jerome asks, he’s certain Luke won’t accept.

Collin shakes his head, “I doubt it.”

Brandon clears his throat and everyone turns to him, “So… Asa agreed to party with me, and since you guys are here. I was wondering if you guy’s would party with us?”

Ardine smiles, “Sure! I was planning to formalize a guild anyway, and I could do worse than having GoldenrodBoy and BunnyAce as my guild mates.”

Collin puts up his hands, “Sorry, but I’m gonna have to pass. It’s nothing personal,” he motions to Lloyd and Tracy, “but I want to improve their skills, and having two additional top players around would make that more difficult. But if you guys form a guild, I’d love to collaborate.”

Brandon gulps nervously and looks up at Ardine, “So… I guess we’ll be joining your guild?”

Asa shakes his head, “Seems to me like you invited us to join yours.”

Ardine grins, “Sounds about right to me.”

Brandon looks down, “Really? But I thought you said you were going to formalize a guild?”

Ardine lifts Brandon’s chin so he’s looking up at her again, “So let’s formalize one! I never said I had to be the leader of said guild, and you are the one who asked us. You leading us is only fair.”

“But both of you are older and more experienced and better at the game and...” Brandon stutters.

Ardine cuts him off, “So consider us your supporters and advisers. Leaders don’t do everything themselves or make all their decisions alone.”

Tracy steps forward, “Look kid. You clearly were afraid to talk to them.”

Brandon looks down, “Yeah. I know. I’m a coward.”

Tracy shakes her head, “That’s not what I was saying at all! You were scared and you talked to them anyway.” She grins at him, “That’s not cowardice. That’s courage!”

Collin grins, “The kind of courage a leader needs.” Brandon smiles sheepishly in response.

Asa smiles, “I’m in as long as there’s a place for Luke in our guild.” He sighs, “If he ever decides to I mean.”

Brandon nods, “Of course.”

Ardine grins, “Then it’s settled! No time like the present to formalize our guilds right?”

Collin nods and turns to Lloyd and Tracy, “You guys wanna go set up our guild?”

“Sure.” Lloyd says disinterestedly.

Tracy shrugs, “Why not?”

Collin turns to them, “Then let’s go!”

The room with the guild sign up has a single NPC and a desk. The NPC doesn’t even have a talk option. Asa supposes that makes sense, as the NPC has enough to say already with the guild explanations and tutorials, even though in truth there’s not much to them. You just name your guild, add members and maybe create and assign jobs. Starting a guild is a really fast affair. Or it would be, except neither group can decide on a name.

“This shouldn’t be this hard.” Collin says frustratedly, “We can even change the name whenever we want!”

Brandon turns to them, “The A team!” He decides, “That’s what we’re gonna be.”

Asa shakes his head, “I mean, that’s a pretty good pun. But what about you?”

Brandon blinks in confusion, “Pun? What do you mean?”

Asa blinks at him, “I mean the fact that Ardine and my names start with A.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Brandon says, “That’s even better! After all, you guys are much better than me.”

Ardine frowns, “Can we not start by putting ourselves down?”

Brandon smiles, “That’s not what I mean. BunnyAce and Bonehead rocked! Partying up with you is a dream come true.”

Asa blinks at him, “It is?”

Brandon nods, “Yeah. I’ve always wanted to team up with you. And GoldenrodBoy too. All the greats.” He looks down, “But I was eager and a kid and I said stupid stuff and...”

Ardine laughs, “As if we weren’t kids at some point! You should have asked me. I’d have gladly teamed up with you.”

Asa nods, “Yeah, you shouldn’t let a few assholes ruin things for you. And if you realize you said something stupid, don’t give up, learn.”

Ardine puts a hand on Asa’s shoulder, “I couldn’t have said it any better.” She then pulls Brandon into a side hug, “Besides, that’s the past. Right now, we’re…” She thinks for a moment, “Brandon, BunnyAce and Bonehead Throkdar… but the B team doesn’t have the same grandeur." She grins at him, “The A team it is!”

Collin laughs, “Somehow, the C team doesn’t sound as cool.”

Tracy sticks her tongue out, “No it doesn’t. And why are we naming our team after you?”

Lloyd rolls his eyes, “It was a joke. But at this point I’m fine with the C team just to have this over with! As Collin said, we can always change it later.”

Asa thinks for a moment, “The Indecisive Ones?”

Collin grins, “That’s perfect!” He turns to Lloyd, “That’s perfect right?”

Lloyd shakes his head, “Man. You know if we go with that we’re never allowed to change it.”

Tracy laughs, “Allowed to change it? I’d never want to! It’s just so good!”

Collin types it into the console. “So, what do you want to do now?” He asks them.

Ardine responds, “If I may. I wanted to see what the new addition to the lodge is about. It’s actually what I approached you about to begin with. It appears that there are personal rooms we can access. I wanted to explore them, but I didn’t feel like doing it alone.”

“That sounds fine to me.” Collin responds, “You guys?” Tracy nods and Lloyd shrugs.

“That has me curious too.” Asa says.

Brandon grins, “Then our first joint adventure will be to search the lodge!”

The group bursts out laughing. “Yes!” Collin yells, “It’s perfect!” And then they head out to the lobby.