Frozen Soul, and other works: Epilogue

(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

Everyone in the virtual control room was silent, holding their simulated breath as they watched what was playing out before them. It was an event that had been virtual months in the making, as the various guilds geared up and prepared to face some of the toughest fights available in the game. The race had been close, but it looked that, finally, things were about to come to a conclusion.

“N-no, this cannot be! Not again! Lord Deus, have mercy upon me!”

Cheers broke out in the control room! That line, spoken between bloody gasps for air as False Emperor Travis was cut down for the first time since becoming a raid boss in Dreams Amongst the Stars, signaled the end of the first ever World First race for DAtS. It hadn’t been an official event run by the company, but rather something that the guilds themselves had put together, as the Chaos Brigade, Limitless, and Dohtem fought it out, clearing progressively more and more of the raid version of the Star’s Vigil dungeon. The entire gaming sphere of the internet had been on its toes as the three powerful guilds raced for the prestige of being the first to clear the dungeon, and claim the rewards.

Chaos Brigade had gotten the early lead, having arrived on Star’s Reach first, but Limitless and Dohtem had quickly caught up, being far more organized in structure, despite having fewer people than the Chaos Brigade. It was a quality versus quantity situation. In an open fight, the Chaos Brigade could likely take down both guilds on their own, but their tactics did not translate well to raids. Even so, they had made it closer than anyone thought it would be.

But now it was over. Dohtem had finally killed the boss, and claimed the reward, a unique sword that gave the user immunity to Mental Psy powers. That alone would be something to celebrate, but they had also gained a great deal of other gear and crafting materials, as well as recipes and blueprints for new craftable gear over the course of the raid. Dohtem was looking at a substantial potential power increase, and everyone saw it. No doubt, that would make the competition for the next World First race even fiercer.

That suited Morgan just fine. While Isaac and his geek squad might get caught up in the spectacle of the race a bit too much for their own good, she was more pragmatic. And that pragmatic side of her was doing all it could to keep from jumping for joy as she watched the stream viewer numbers, and the other metrics showing that this was one of the most popular events in the game’s history. From a public relations standpoint, this was literally the best free advertising they could possibly have. And they didn’t need to do anything for it, except let the players have fun!

Isaac was laughing with some of his GMs as they watched a replay of a particularly funny blooper during the boss fight, a mistake by one of the Dohtem players that threatened to wipe the raid, but they had managed to recover quickly. Tapping him on the shoulder, Morgan smiled, and said, “So, now that the race is over, what next? You said that project was about to kick off, right?”

“Hmm? Project? Oh! Oh, yeah, that project. Well, as you know, there were some big potential problems with something like that getting kicked around, especially so soon after all the other crazy shit the players have been up to. Coldana and this World First business has been good for that, allowing things to get lost in the shuffle for a while. It won’t last too much longer, though.”

He shook his head. “The Nomad influence is going to force the major powers to start pushing out and expanding again. We’ve already seen some of this in the Empire and Confederacy. Ships are being built for exploration once again, instead of being in the holding pattern things have been in for the last hundred years.”

“So, how long before someone finds it?”

“Depends. I give it a year, in game, at the outside. At this point, it looks like it will be a group from either the Confederacy or the Consortium that comes across it first. What happens when they find it, though, is going to be a major problem. We’ve already had one facility found, but the guy who found it basically suppressed the knowledge, so it will be another in-game decade before we see results from that.”

“That was Star’s Reach, right? OK, so is this another ‘Enrichment Center’? Something that can be used to jump start tech?”

“Ah, no. It is a little bit more worrisome. Now, I don’t want you to worry, or anything. There’s only a remote chance that it can be a problem, but that site was designed when we’d been having a little to drink, and were rather pissed that some game companies have trouble counting to three, and just cut series off at the second instalment. Anyways, the Black—”

“OH SHIT!”

Isaac’s head whirled around as someone’s yell cut him off. “Who said that? That wasn’t the fun kind of ‘oh shit’. I’m not liking the bad kind of ‘oh shit’ showing up without some kind of explanation, so lay it on me, people!”

One of the GMs sheepishly coughed, and raised his hand. “That was me, sir. Sorry about that. I wasn’t paying too much attention, because of the World First race, but I think that we have a new problem. It’s the Black Stars, sir.”

Isaac sighed. “What did Mollen do now?”

“Not him, exactly. Black Star sent out their Starhunter ships again, exploring the area around Nuevo Edo and Star’s Reach. No one had even gone near any of those systems before, so we never checked the game files for those locations too closely. There were too many other fires to put out and plates to keep in the air, after all.”

“I understand that. What happened?”

“Well, sir, the BSS Nephilim entered the Beta Darconyx system, and they found something big.”

“Oh, shit.”

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
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X