(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)
“YES!”
Isaac was not alone in cheering as the virtual report from
Ziunov began playing across the galactic networks in game. It had taken a
little bit of work to arrange things with the main game AI, but he’d managed to
get one of CNN’s main Ihm Imperium correspondents to get out to the border,
intending to report on the tragic crash of a freighter, and doing a feel-good
piece about strengthening FTL safeguards to prevent something like this from
happening in the future, putting him in the right place at the right time to
report on the news coming out of the southern continent and send it to the
galaxy.
Turning to one of the technicians, he said, “How are the
metrics looking? Is it getting visibility on the populated worlds?”
“Yes, the translation of the Latin text has caused several
high-level members of various governments to call emergency meetings. They’re
managing to keep the people calm so far, as this was an isolated incident on a
remote planet.”
“Good, just as intended, then.” Isaac turned to the tech who
was focused on the forums. “How are the players taking the news?”
“Between the CNN report and the message posted to the
forums, they’re going wild. The first actual dungeon in game is something
they’ve been waiting for, and the Ihm players are excited. They’ll probably be
flooding the place as soon as a base camp can be established by the entrance to
the dungeon.”
“What are we rating the difficulty as? I don’t want elites
just steamrolling the place.”
“Mid-level difficulty for experienced teams, high-level
difficulty for solo players due to numbers and variety of enemies. Instances
are in place, so no more than six people in an instance.”
“In-game reason why the discoverers only lost two, compared
to the Nomads going in who will be losing more?”
“Dungeon was not fully set up yet, so they were able to
storm the base before all the mobs had spawned and the traps were set. Later
groups will get the same basic layout, but the difficulty will be as intended.”
Isaac nodded. “Excellent. And the players have been informed
that this is merely the first dungeon discovered, and more are out there, yes?”
“Yes, but the information is propagating slower than we
projected in the Free Worlds Alliance and Confederacy. Local events are causing
competition for space in news cycles, both in game and on the forums.”
Isaac looked like he had been personally attacked. “What the
hell is competing with my dungeon rollout? Don’t tell me some damn fool found
the X’thari Gateway address and invited them in!”
Morgan laughed as she walked into the virtual room. “You
ought to know that by now, Isaac. No good deed goes unpunished, it seems. The Black
Star Company has been dealing with quite a few attacks since they helped beat
off the X’thari attack on Nuevo Edo.”
Isaac took a deep breath. “So he didn’t go and invite the
X’thari into Known Space?” Morgan shook her head, and Isaac sighed. “Fine, fine.
I can handle it. What did he do now that kicked my carefully planned
masterstroke off the news cycles?”
“Well, first you should know that his tactic of ‘making
examples of people so that everyone else is too scared to move against him’ has
been working wonders so far. Our analysts say he probably prevented about
sixty-three percent of the potential attacks just through his actions against
the pirates who attacked his people and the groups that tacitly supported them
in the Badlands. He’s also worked well with those people who have treated him
with respect, and that’s kept other groups from joining in. The syndicates on
Dimiya refused outright to attack him, or let their people attack, and the
military also refused, unless they got written orders signed by the President,
since attacking immortals with WMDs is a really stupid idea in their book,
especially when there’s no security need for hitting them.”
“So who was after him?”
“Senators and business interests. They were upset that the
Civil War ended before they could drag the Confederacy into it and get some
spoils, and then he went and made Nuevo Edo a free port on top of that,
preventing them from establishing a controlling presence in the other arm of
the galaxy.”
“And Black Star isn’t one of the companies that responds to
‘normal’ tactics. Got it.”
“Yeah, so when they convinced the Kul’tirans to send their
‘mercenaries’ after his ship, he blasted two ships to dust, captured the
fragment of the one that was left, and ransomed the crew, including the
daughter of the leader of Kul’tiras, for north of four million credits, plus
what he sold the scrap for. THEN, he went back to Dimiya and publicly seduced a
Senator, before apparently taking her place at a meeting of the conspirators
and killing them all. By the way, he’s still playing the shapechanging thing as
a ‘unique psy power’.”
Isaac humphed in disgust. “Fine, I guess the fallout from
all of that is almost equal to my dungeon rollout. But only because it is local
news!”
“Yes, yes.”
“So, our boy solved one crisis by making a bigger one, and
we’ve given the players something to take their minds off Black Star for a
while as they start exploring looking for dungeons. We’ve announced that First
Clears of a newly discovered dungeon will get enhanced loot, so that will
convince people to go looking.”
“That about sums it up.”
“Good, good. Well, it is five o’clock, so I think this
deserves a night leaving early. Want to go check out that new movie that just
came out?”
“I already bought us tickets.”
“I swear, you are the perfect woman.”
“And don’t you forget it!”
The two of them politely ignored the sounds of giggling and
mock gagging from the technicians in the room watching their ‘moment’.
Previous Chapter Table of Contents Next Chapter
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
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rules-free-vrmmo-life-stuart-grosse/1128941349?ean=2940161995297
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rules-free-vrmmo-life-omnibus-i-stuart-grosse/1128953195?ean=2940162052081
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
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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