(A virtual room in NERV HQ)
Everyone was stunned. Even Isaac, usually the first to cheer
at moments of badassery, was silent at what had just happened.
On the screens in front of them, they watched as the ‘Technophages’
began spreading through the Senate chamber. The Emperor and the entire Senate
screamed in pain and tore at their faces where the implants were, as tiny
nanomachines began eating the very metal from their bodies, going up into their
brains, and using every last inch of the advanced technology in their implants
to make more of themselves. They were brain-dead long before the rest of their
bodies caught on to the fact. It was, perhaps, the most horrific thing anyone
had seen in a game that wasn’t set in the Horror genre.
After seeing the devastation of the Senate, Isaac shuddered,
and once again reaffirmed that he had no idea how anyone could stand to play
those full VR survival games, like the Denizen Evil series. ‘Eaten alive’ was
NOT on his list of ways to kick the bucket!
Morgan looked over to him, and said, “How will this affect
Earth in the game?”
Taking a deep breath to keep from thinking too much about
what he just saw, and so he wouldn’t embarrass himself in front of Morgan, said,
“We ran the numbers once we saw that his teams had grabbed the Luddite Bomb. If
they get fences up and keep them powered, the enclaves will be fine. The rest
of the world? Well, have you seen those ‘life after people’ shows? That’s the
kind of thing that Earth is going to have, from the wildlife and ecology side
of things. But with the technophages eating all the post-Industrial tech, which
probably includes the better part of most of the ultramodern buildings, I
wouldn’t be surprised if the only things left are old stone buildings, like Notre
Dame. Might be able to rescue the art and stuff if you make mobile fences, or
go full low-tech to haul things, but…”
“Yeah, that’s a big change from the way things are on the
planet now. How many are going to get killed?”
“Depends. In-game population is roughly 20 billion, on the
planet surface. More on various space stations, and then you have the lunar
population and the rest of the solar system. But Earth? Say 20 billion. The
cult had something like 35% of the planet at least partway through the conversion
process. They’re pretty much all a write-off. They’re setting up… twenty-four
enclaves around the world. Probably be able to hold maybe twenty million each,
so that’s roughly 480 million in the enclaves. Maybe more if they Judge Dredd
it, but not much more. So you’re left with twelve and a half billion people.
You’re lucky if only half of those die, mostly from panic and chaos, but also
because cultists aren’t the only ones with implants. The Empire is going to
have a MASSIVE refugee crisis on their hands, worse than the Confederacy did
after Jagloth, since most of Jagloth’s population was dead.”
“But the cult threat is contained, right?”
Isaac sighed. “Yes and no. The threat of the AI taking over
the Empire? That’s done and dealt with. Even if we see Travis again thanks to
the AI’s fake immortality, he’s mostly powerless now, as are his minions. The cult
on other worlds and in the fleet will get hunted down, of course, so that’s
good.”
Morgan just looked
at him. “But?”
“But the AI itself escaped, and apparently as a fuck you to
the universe, spread the fake immortality tech to several different tech forums,
though given the source it probably is corrupted to tie the users to the AI.”
“Damn, what does the game controller AI think?”
“Given the actions so far, we’ve decided that the best course
available is to have the places these ‘immortals’ pop up turned into the game’s
first respawning Dungeons. Deus is now officially the final Raid Boss of the
game.” He paused, and said, “Well, once someone finds his lair, that is.”
Morgan breathed. “All right, we can work with that. People
have been complaining about there not being dungeons, so spinning this as the
way to add them into the game without breaking immersion, and to give people a
bit of a reason to go after the one responsible for the destruction of Earth…
yeah, I can work with that. Add in the stuff our favorite beta tester was
saying to the cameras, and we can actually come off looking pretty good. Better
than I thought we’d be when this whole debacle started, anyways.”
There was a flash on one of the screens, and it went black,
filled with the ‘You are Dead’ box. Everyone looked up at the sudden change,
and Isaac said, “Whoa, someone actually killed him! Roll the footage back, I
want to see this!”
They rewound the footage in the beta tester’s stream, up to
the point where he dismissed the Destroyer of Worlds title box, and then slowed
it down just as he got a mail from another player. Morgan frowned. “Requiesce-in-Pace?
That’s a rather unusual name. And why does it say ‘Notice of Termination’?”
Isaac chuckled. “That guy is the game’s top assassin
character so far. His crew were the ones that flew the shuttle into the palace
and kicked off the civil war.”
They saw the figure on the rooftop, with the big gun.
Mirikon was on a rope, hanging from a shuttle. Pretty much a sitting duck.
There was a flash, and then the screen went black.
“And THAT would be the termination, our boy got ‘Notified’
about. Man, I think this is his first death since the start of the game! Boy,
is he ever going to be pissed about the death penalty!”
Morgan narrowed her eyes at him. “Isaac, what did you do?”
“Uh, would you believe ‘nothing’?”
“NO! What. Did. You. DO?”
“Well, it is like this…”
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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 GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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