Frozen Soul, and other works: Epilogue

(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

The destruction of Jagloth was horrifying to watch. Even though they knew such weapons were in the game, the gamemasters and others who worked to try and make sure that the code and hardware kept working smoothly were stunned to see one actually in use.

“Deus meus, ex toto corde poenitet me omnium meorum peccatorum, eaque detestor, quia peccando, non solum poenas a Te iuste statutas promeritus sum, sed praesertim quia offendi Te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super omnia diligaris. Ideo firmiter propono, adiuvante gratia Tua, de cetero me non peccaturum peccandique occasiones proximas fugiturum. Amen.”

Morgan wasn’t sure who said the prayer, but she mumbled an amen after it was finished. She wasn’t even Catholic! But she was more a once a month type of Baptist, if that. There was always so much work to do. She simply stared, dumbly, at the screen, watching a planet burn. She simply didn’t have the words to express what she felt at the sight.

Isaac, however, did, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Morgan blinked, and turned to look at the man. He was clearly in shock as well, his infinitely refilling plate of nachos forgotten in front of him. “What?”

The head GM of DAtS looked sheepish as he noticed that Morgan was talking to him. “It is an old Hindu text, translated by an American. He was one of the ones that made the first atomic bombs.”

Morgan nodded slowly. “I guess that fits. But how did you know that quote?”

Isaac shrugged. “I was watching Hunt for Red October last night. Never was there a more Scottish Russian naval captain, I assure you.”

A cough came from behind them. “Um, sir? We have an update on the Jagloth situation.”

Isaac laughed, “Yeah, I think we all just saw the last ‘update’.”

“N-no. We have an update on who likely started the Jagloth situation.”

That got Morgan’s attention, fast. “WHAT? We’ve been looking through the logs of everyone on the damn planet? Should have taken another few accelerated weeks before we could comb through everything, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. But one of the techs was listening in on the bridge conversations of the Starlight Raven. A player identified on the forums and chat logs as LeashLord implicated himself as being either behind the Legion, or being somehow able to affect it.”

Isaac nodded. “And once you had a single person’s logs to run through than God knows how many, the search sped up considerably, yes?”

“Yes sir. We found proof of what happened. He didn’t hack the game code, or use any kind of illegal exploit, so the AI didn’t flag his actions for review.”

Isaac sighed. “Damn. Another exploit caused by players doing things we never expected. All right, how did this one happen?”

“It appears that he gained access to both the highly restricted Hundeherstellar nanites, as well as some medical gear and nanoware implant tech. If Jagloth’s police were still around, they’d be arresting him for all manner of ‘illegal use’ and ‘illegal modification’ charges, even before the charges he’d face for actually creating the Legion. But he used in-game tools and in-game knowledge to do so.”

Morgan nodded. “Meaning we wouldn’t catch on until it was too big to stop. Asshole. What are we going to do about making sure this doesn’t happen again?”

A second tech spoke up. “We can put a patch in the monitoring code that flags people with the in-game skills and knowledge, so we can keep a closer watch on them. Having the governments in-game use this as a point to crack down on the illegal nanite trade would probably help make sure anyone with the ability to cause a disaster like this would be noticed and caught either in game or out of it before they can cause another calamity.”

Morgan nodded. “I like that. We can spin that easily, in game and out. We’ll even get some of those people who are complaining to shut up if they realize it was an extreme griefer using in-game tools rather than illegal hacks, which is why we took so long to identify the culprit. We’ll frame it as a privacy issue. ‘Just because we have logs of everything that happens in-game, we do not and will not invade our users’ privacy by actively monitoring everything they do…’ Yeah, that’ll work…”

As Morgan went off into PR spin-space, Isaac turned and looked at the others. “All right. We’ve got a patch to write, and when Morgan comes out of her happy place, she’s going to want to know what penalties we’ve slapped on LeashLord for trying to break the game.”

“The AI apparently already has taken steps. LeashLord’s character is locked, so it cannot be traded or deleted, and his respawn has apparently been locked to the center of the crater that used to be Jagloth City. As soon as he runs out of food, water, and air in the Gubernatorial bunker he was hiding in when the attack started, he’s going to die, and then be respawned on the surface of an airless, lifeless world in his underwear. Every time.”

Isaac whistled. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the AI was angry at him. All right, that works. Write it up so it looks like one of you came up with it, instead of the AI. And check all email, social media, and bank accounts associated with the player’s account, so he cannot just try and make a new character or get around the ban in other ways.”

One of the techs who was observing the situation elsewhere in the galaxy groaned. Isaac looked over there, “Hendly, what did you find?”

“Daft bastards intent on making the Empirie go into all kinds of strangeness, is what I found, sir. Don’t know what is going on, but the word from the Imperial fleet is that the Emperor got involved in something on the planet, and no contact with them since.”

“DAMNIT!”

End of Book V.

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Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/

Volume 3 - Wyrmwood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072QKVBYV

Volume 4 - To the Deeps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073QSD9S4