Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Another Friday, another chapter!

This one sets up the conflict that Pax is facing and provides a little bit more clarity on why Jason is acting like a sociopath… or more like a sociopath that had normal. We also get some foreshadowing of Jason's solution to the population problem and the role of the relics they stole from the vault in the Crystal Reach.

In hand news, I had another MRI on Wednesday and this one came back showing a partial tear of my UCL. So I guess my doctor misdiagnosed me for the last year. No big deal, right? Although, it goes a long way toward explaining why my hand hasn't healed. So, a good news bad news sort of situation, I guess.

Anyway, happy reading and I'll be back next Friday!

Chapter 3 - Layers

Karen stood there speechless, staring in abject horror at the gory remains of her guildmates and their children… which seemed like a perfect opportunity for Jason to finish his stream.

With a wave of his hand, a bright blue camera orb appeared at his shoulder and he pivoted to face it, making sure Karen and the corpses were still in frame.

“And that’s a wrap!” Jason exclaimed, clapping his hands.  “We solved the mystery of the Suicide Shoplifters.  It turned out it was a bunch of soccer moms turned mercenary that had trained their elementary-aged children to lie, cheat, kill, and steal.”

He paused, his expression growing solemn.  “They even taught them the most important lesson for any aspiring villain, one that resonates with me in particular… to kill themselves before they get caught.  A+ parenting if you ask me.”

Jason pivoted toward Karen, the camera shifting with him.

“Anything you want to say as our lone survivor?” he asked.

“Uuuuuhhhhh,” she managed.  Probably because she was still covered in her children’s blood.  Also, her friends’.  There were some chunks mixed in too.  Seriously, it was everywhere.

“Right.  There you have it folks, the face of consequences,” Jason continued, the camera twisting back to him suddenly, his smile going far too wide far too fast – almost feral.  “Let this serve as a lesson to anyone who tries abusing the tether system again.  I will hunt you down and have your own children murder you violently.  That’s a promise.”

Then he abruptly straightened.  “Record cancel, edit, and post.”

The camera orb pulsed three times and then winked out.

Which left Jason standing there and feeling suddenly tired.  Recording always took it out of him, his mana still pulsing through his skeletal frame, the cold almost… Warm.  There was a time when covering an alley in the grim remains of a hundred zombie children would have required that numbing anesthetic.  Yet even as he reluctantly dismissed the mana, he felt nothing.

Almost like stripping away his flesh and muscle had taken something else with it.

Or maybe it was just a testament to how many people he’d had to kill lately.

“What.  The.  Actual.  Fuck,” Karen growled.

Ahh, right.  It looked like they were moving on from denial to anger.  It was important to let his victims fully process their utter defeat…

“What in the psychopathic hell was that?” she demanded.

“A deterrent,” Jason answered with a shrug.  “I doubt you’ll be the last to use that mechanic – still a really clever trick, by the way.  Brilliant really.  I wasn’t lying about that.”

She was wavering between angry and mildly flattered now.

“Was that really necessary?  Using our kids?”

“Uh, of course?  I’m a professional,” he offered with a small and much more normal smile.  “I have a reputation to maintain.  You know, amoral edgelord?  It’s important to open strong for the views.  Plus, I don’t know why you’re so upset.  Out of respect for our personal history, I killed them all quickly.  I could have had the kids slowly rip them apart.”

Huh, she was looking angry again.

“Besides, do I need to remind you that you stole upwards of 100,000 gold worth of loot – not counting the cost of repairing all of those buildings that you blew up,” he added dryly.  “And with the current conversion rates, that comes out to what?  A few million dollars?  So, in a way, you broke into my home and stole from me.  I didn’t have to be so nice.”

He emphasized his point with a pulse of his dark mana, the alley growing darker.

Karen opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again… then gave up.

“So, I take it there was a point in keeping me alive?” Karen asked finally, letting out a sigh and rubbing at her temple.  There it was – acceptance.

“Of course.  I’d like to have a chat,” Jason offered.

She looked at the blood-soaked alley skeptically.  Indeed, a few passersby had glanced down the lane, only to scurry away quickly – most at a dead sprint.

“Ahh, right.  Here, does this help?” Jason offered.

With a wave of his hand, his undead swarms surged down the stone walls of the alley in undulating, skittering waves.  A hundred thousand undead insects.  They surged across the ground in a foot deep mass – Karen using the rest of her considerable willpower to remain perfectly still.  They swiftly stripped pesky chunks of flesh from precious bone, retrieved the fragments, and pushed the remaining blood down the alley until only smooth cobblestones remained.

Another tilt of Jason’s hand and the swarms flattened out into a thin layer, coating the ground and walls of the alley before cascading up over top of the pair.  They formed a makeshift ceiling, one that soon solidified.  And as Karen looked on with wide eyes – a mixture of horror and fascination warring for dominance – the walls and ceiling turned to smooth ivory.  The insects could interlock, much like they formed his Skeletal Illusion.  Except, this time, they created the flawless white walls of a small room, a few air mana gems sound proofing the barrier.

After all, Jason had access to an almost endless supply of mana crystals.

And he’d had plenty of time to level up his Interior Design skill.

It turned out it wasn't as useless as he’d originally thought.

x10 Skill Rank Up:  Interior Design

Skill Level:  Intermediate Level 1

Effect 1:  Customizable room design, the number of Undead Swarms required scales with room size and volume.

Effect 2:  The room may be modified to provide sound proofing, heating, cooling, or basic illusions.  You may currently choose one.  Undead Swarm needs to be modified with the appropriate mana crystals.

Skeletal chairs soon emerged from the ground.  A table.  A few lamps, clusters of fire mana crystals perched at the top and illuminating the enclosure.  That wasn’t strictly necessary with his Night Vision, but it didn’t hurt to be polite.

Only moments later, they were standing in a room built entirely of bone.

“What… what the unholy hell is this?” Karen muttered in awe.

“Oh, just a fun idea I had,” Jason explained as he took a seat upon what appeared to be a throne built of human skulls.  “It turns out pretty much anything can be a skeleton.  Furniture.  Walls.  Lamps.  Even rugs.  Although, those last few aren’t exactly comfortable.”

Jason waved at the chair across from him.  “See for yourself.”

She was hesitating… for obvious reasons.

“Trust me, if I wanted you dead, I would have done it on camera.”

Karen snorted in amusement as she gingerly took a seat.  “More bullshit.  I was right.  You’re subject to the Respawn Field too.  If the others hadn’t moved, they would have been fine. Everyone thinks you’re all powerful – some sort of cheat class.  But, at the end of the day, you just use tricks in mind games,” she insisted, respect coloring her voice.

Jason’s brow furrowed.  “I could see why you might think that, but it’s objectively false.”

“What do you mean?” she shot back, hesitating.

He watched her carefully, smiling now.  “This is the problem with most of the travelers.  They lack imagination.  I was hoping for more from you after that novel heist strategy.”

“Big talk,” she retorted. “What could you do if they didn’t move?”

Jason just shrugged. “I already told you the answer.  I can make anything with my swarms.  So, what’s to say I couldn’t cover your body and then solidify it?  What then?”

Karen’s mental wheels were spinning fast now, her smirk twisting into a confused frown. Jason just had to wait. He was sure she would get it.

“Oh… oh, shit,” she muttered in horror.

Ahh, and there it was.   It was nice to be appreciated.

“Yep, you wouldn’t be able to move without damaging the swarm.  Also, fun fact, even if you log out, you come back in the exact same posture.  So, there’s no escaping it that way either.  And it’s not like I need to stay within range of my summons.”  He cocked his head.  “I guess it would be sort of like entombing a player.”

His explanation was met with a brief silence.

“There’s something wrong with you,” Karen muttered finally, shaking her head.

Jason leaned forward, grinning.  “Maybe, but we’re not here to talk about me.”

Karen let out a long sigh.  Realization shone in her eyes.

“You want to know why I did it, don’t you?”

Jason spread his hands wide.  “See?  I knew you were special.”

“What makes you think it wasn’t just for the loot?”

He nodded in understanding.  “Except there have been many other attacks – by players much less talented than you and your crew, of course.  However, they didn’t steal anything.  Which begs the question – what was in it for them?”

“Why not just ask them?” she insisted.  “Maybe use that entombing thing?”

Jason cocked his head.  “Tried that.  They were… less than helpful. It mostly just cussed and shouted a bunch – something about reporting me.”

“Maybe because you publicly tortured them?” she muttered, glaring again.

“Fair enough.  But we share a bond, don’t we?  What’s a little light torture between friends.”  She frowned skeptically.  “Besides, I think you know what’s at stake here.”

Karen hesitated another moment before caving.  “Fine, it all started a few weeks ago…”

And, a few minutes later, she was finished with her explanation.

Karen had even been helpful enough to show him the quest prompt the Nephilim had created.  Jason had to admit, his respect for her had only grown.  Not only had she used her children to loot the merchandise, but she’d tripled her own quest rewards per building.

However, that wasn’t the most troubling part of her explanation. The issue was the old avatars – the “Originals.”  They clearly weren’t ordinary residents.

Karen seemed to anticipate his concern.  “They’re different,” she offered quietly, her expression unusually somber.  “Not only are they acknowledging that we’re travelers – something the other residents tend to overlook or ignore – they’re also—”

“Admitting the existence of our world,” Jason interjected.

That was the only explanation for this plan.  How else would they know about Pax than by talking to the other travelers?  They also seemed to understand the quest and reputation systems that Cady had implemented as well as the placement of the shops in the outer sections.  Which implied that the Originals were interrogating the travelers.  They understood that the players had information on other parts of the game world. Which made the next question easy.

How could travelers trapped in the Crystal Reach know any of that?

Jason’s eyes shifted toward Alfred where the cat lounged on a small bone bed nearby, those foreign, feline eyes staring at them with unblinking focus.

The residents were evolving – that much was clear.

And, right now, he was kicking himself for not anticipating his next question.

“Can they see the streams?” he asked, his dark gaze darting back to Karen.

Respect was reflected there.  “Some of the more desperate travelers tried bargaining with them – it was either that or our avatars were essentially trapped at the respawn point in the Crystal Reach.  We were surprised they could see our UI.  But was that really so strange?  I mean, they can review our Character Status.  Then someone thought to try showing them video…”

She shrugged, her hands going wide.

He took her point – that’s when the Originals changed their strategy.  And it was safe to assume that if the former Avatar of Light – the so-called “Empress” – had figured this out, then the others had too… or they would soon enough.

“Which means we may as well treat them like travelers,” Jason murmured.  “This changes things,” he continued, lost in thought.  His entire strategy really—

“Do you have a plan?” Karen asked gently.  “For how to fix this?”

Jason looked up sharply to see her watching with a mixture of curiosity and… was that hope?  Not that he blamed her.  Her situation wasn’t ideal.  She’d just made the best of it.  She’d learned to survive.  Just like the Originals.  Just like Alfred.  Just like Jason.

Which is why he needed to be careful.  There was no assurance she wasn’t recording this conversation – that she wouldn’t sell this information to the highest bidder.

After all, that’s exactly what he would do in her position.

“Because this isn’t sustainable,” Karen continued, waving at the bone walls – at the city that lingered just beyond that thin barrier.  “We’ve been in Pax long enough to know that.  There are just too many people for one city.”

Jason sighed.  “We’ve helped relieve some of the population pressure.  We refurbished the Mile High Club and parked it above Pax,” he replied, pointing overhead.  “The PVP arenas have proven to be extremely popular and help to give the travelers an outlet to vent their frustration.”

Apparently, there had been a lot of demand to play through the Gambler’s weird death games.  Jason personally didn’t see the appeal, but he might be biased.

“It’s not enough,” Karen replied bluntly.  “We’re talking about millions if not billions of players.  Even the relatively small number that escaped is way the hell too many people.  And the total player population isn’t going to go down.  Sure, the VR tech is spreading slowly around the world due to hardware shortages, but tens of thousands of new players are still joining daily.”

She was right.  Prices had already skyrocketed in response to the supply bottleneck.  Jason suspected George Lane wasn’t too unhappy about that, though.  And it gave him a way to artificially slow the influx of new players.  But it wasn’t a long-term plan.

“Frankly, I don’t understand how this wasn’t an issue before,” Karen continued in bewilderment.  “The entire game world sometimes doesn’t feel big enough for all of the travelers – not counting the residents that already live here.  And it’s only going to get worse, right?  It’s not just the game – the fantasy.  It’s the time compression.  The real world benefits.  How are you supposed to compete with someone who can complete four days of work in one?”

He wasn’t surprised that people had begun to catch on.  It was inevitable.  Jason had seen the news broadcasts – people protesting the game and the effect on the real world economy and society.  The increasing reliance on bots and the lack of human labor.  That problem had been growing in the background for decades already, people escaping from the real world into their own fantasies.  Their own narratives.  Religion, gaming, politics, it didn’t matter.  AI could generate whatever content they wanted to believe.  But AO had poured gas on the fire.

“It’s because the game world is actually heavily instanced,” Jason explained slowly, choosing his words carefully.  “It’s just subtle.  The game’s AI dynamically forms instances even in the open world.  That’s how it’s able to provide so many individualized quest lines.  Otherwise, how could ten thousand people get a quest from the same NPC?  It’s just that most people don’t notice since those instances overlap enough to show active travelers.  At peak hours, more than half of the player population is actually in a private or nearly private instance.”

When he glanced up, Karen was watching him in surprise.

“But that’s part of the problem,” he continued.  “As long as the population is relatively distributed, the AI can maintain the illusion.  However, with everyone in one spot, it’s impossible to create enough instances.  Ironically, the travelers should stay in the avatar cities – putting aside that the Originals are using them to actively sabotage Pax, of course,” Jason added with a chuckle.  “Because if they do manage to make it to Pax, it just makes the problem worse.”

“So, what’s the solution?” Karen muttered.  “Are we just screwed?”

It was Jason’s turn to hesitate.  Because he had an answer, but…

“Did you ever play old MMOs from the early 2000s?” Jason asked instead.

She gave him a sour look.  “Just how old do you think I am?”

Using the corpses of her own children to manipulate and psychologically torture Karen was one thing… but Jason was smart enough to avoid that question.

“I didn’t mean any offense,” he continued.  “It’s just that the introduction of AI and dynamic storylines and soft-instancing and impossibly realistic graphics have made people forget how we used to tackle these problems back in the day.  The original MMOs dealt with the population issue with layering.  Pax would have had dozens of repeating instances to spread out the population.  Many games even let you ‘layer hop.’”

“Doesn’t sound very realistic,” she replied slowly. Karen shook her head.  “And if that was a viable solution, why didn’t the game developers and AI do it already?”

Alfred was still watching Jason, his expression knowing.  Obviously, he could have implemented a similar system, but it would go against his design goals.  He favored realism.

However, Jason suspected his true goal was more complicated than that.

“Why didn’t the devs originally introduce the elemental cities?  Or a waypoint system?” Jason shot back.  “Why make us discover those things?  Find the gatepieces?  Create our own cities? Wasn’t it a traveler that caused the Reckoning?”

Realization suddenly shone in Karen’s eyes.

“They want us to build it?” she asked, her voice incredulous.

That was Jason’s conclusion too.  From a design standpoint, it made a certain sort of sense.  Creating a system for the players – attempting to anticipate their every need – was hard.  Almost impossible, even simulating an impossible number of circumstances. It also wasn’t really how AI learning models had originally been developed.  They were designed to adapt to inputs.  Not unlike people.  And Alfred’s information had been limited, so here was only so much he could anticipate.

So, why not have the players build their own systems?

Jason could see that Karen had arrived at the next question.

“Even if you’re right, how the hell are we supposed to create these layers?” she muttered.  “I mean, we’re just players.  The powers you’re describing are crazy.  Overpowered really.  Your average traveler can’t act like… like a game developer.  The only people that could are…”

She trailed off, watching Jason.  The answer was obvious.  The avatars could.

“Can… can you actually do that?” she asked hesitantly.

“Me personally?” Jason asked with a laugh.  “Not exactly.  But with a little help, it might be possible…” He trailed off and then shook his head.  “At least, that’s the hope.”

Karen chewed on her lip.  “Is that why the Originals are looking for these relics?”

She asked it so causally, she almost caught Jason off guard.

Luckily for him, his facial expression wasn’t technically real, which is how he was able to remain stoic.  Because no one should know about those relics – no one except for him and Cady.  After all, they’d gone through hell to raid the Vault in the Crystal Reach to recover those seemingly innocuous and heavily guarded items.

“Relics?” Jason asked, cocking his head and feigning confusion.

Karen nodded.  “Yeah, the Nephilim kept asking about them.  I guess they’re some sort of item?  At least, that’s what most people assume.  They were vague about what they looked like or what they could do, but they seemed very interested in recovering them.  They have a bunch of the travelers hunting through the wreckage in the Crystal Reach – digging through mountains of rocks looking for… something.  But the reward for any info is huge.”

Now that was interesting.  Were the Originals unsure whether Jason and Cady had managed to steal the relics?  The destruction from those floating islands crashing into the ground would have been extensive.  Or perhaps with the Caretaker’s disappearance – no, with Rachael’s disappearance – maybe they were laying the blame at her feet?

“Interesting,” Jason murmured, cocking his head.  “But why do you think they’re connected?  The relics and the changes to the game world, I mean.”

Karen shrugged.  “If the devs and AI are delegating those abilities to the travelers, why not the residents?  And the Originals were the ones that created the gate pieces, right?  They were also the first to build these elemental cities – at least, if they’re telling the truth.”

Shit.  He’d underestimated her again.  Karen was watching him like a hawk now.

“That does make sense,” Jason murmured, his dark eyes pulsing ominously.  “If you happen to find any information about these relics, I’m sure I could make it worth your while – or at least offer you more than the Originals.”

She watched him, as though looking for some telltale sign that he was lying.

A few more seconds passed, then Karen heaved out a sigh.  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Her UI chimed and Karen glanced to the side, letting out a sigh.  “I guess we need to wrap this up. The kiddos are hungry.  Like actually hungry.  I should use their respawn window to handle some real world chores, so we don’t lose any game time.”

She rose slowly, Jason following her lead.

“I’m still not sure how you convinced them to blow themselves up,” he offered.

Karen just scoffed.  “Are you serious?  They’re little sociopaths.  Seriously, they scare me.  And the gore filter doesn’t help.  They think everyone is full of candy now.  Which is great for them, but utterly horrifying for me.  You can’t unsee your child drinking blood out of a man’s skull.  I have no idea what the developers were thinking.”

Jason could have sworn he heard Alfred laugh at that one, but when Karen glanced in the cat’s direction, the sound transformed into a light cough.  Then he rolled over, suddenly fast asleep.

“Well, if you do decide to stop blowing up buildings and stealing shit, there’s a place for you here,” Jason offered, suppressing his own laugh.  “We could always use more help.”

Karen just grinned back at him.  “Not sure you could afford us.”

She probably wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t hurt to offer.

Her expression sobered and she met his eyes.  “Whatever you’re planning, you need to figure out a solution to the population problem and quickly.  I was just the first to figure out how to manipulate the old avatars’ quests.  But I’m old enough to know that there are always others that are stronger and smarter than me.  I sure as hell won’t be the last.”

Jason grimaced.  Again – not wrong.  Even if he wished she was.

Karen picked up on his expression, a gentle hand landing on his shoulder.  “Plus, at the end of the day, you’re just one person.  You can’t be everywhere at once.”

“More parental wisdom?” he asked in amusement.

“From the A+ parent of two future serial killers.  Hell, someday, they might even be strong enough to take you on,” she added with a smile.

“I look forward to it,” he shot back with a grin of his own.

Another sigh and then she turned away from. “Anyway, please make it quick—"

Even as she spoke, Karen stomped down hard enough to crack the floor.

There wasn’t even enough time for the tag to form or a flare to launch.

In a blur of motion, Jason’s arm whipped forward, a half stave emerging from his skeletal wrist and a Soul Blade arcing from the tip in an instant.  The blade impaled her heart.  An instant kill.  He managed to grab Karen’s body as it fell back, settling it gently into her chair.  The swarm soon enveloped the fresh body and stripped it clean, even as the floor and walls began breaking apart and the other swarms scurried back up the walls of the alley.

Alfred let out a frustrated huff as his bed disappeared, sparing Jason a glance.

“She’s observant,” the AI noted.  “Maybe too much for her own good.  Are you sure you didn’t go too far?  Tip your hand?  She’ll likely relay everything you told her to the Originals.”

“I didn’t give away anything that won’t be public knowledge soon,” he replied quietly.

He knew how it must look to Karen – that he was just playing defense.  Simply reacting while the Originals adapted to this changed world.  Fumbling around for a plan.

In fact, he hoped that was the case; that she told the Empress exactly that.

Because that lie would disguise the truth.  That Jason already had a plan for dealing with the population problem; had already stolen those precious relics.  That he hadn’t wasted the last couple weeks in-game.  No, he’d just been biding his time.

With a wave of his hand, a notification appeared, ticking down in his peripheral vision.

System Timer

Time Remaining: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes

Jason’s eyes pulsed ominously and his mana responded to the savage anticipation that rippled through his body – creating a torrent of pure power that vibrated his limbs.

Because it was almost time to make that plan a grim reality.