MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (12 page)

He was right. There were so many quests in The Barrens that he remained there until he was level eighteen: in other words, until four o’clock that night. When he finally logged off, he’d been playing nonstop for nearly twenty hours. During that time he was invited to join a guild. This happened when he came to the aid of another player, who was beset by four lions about to chew him to pieces. Robert happened to be in the same remote place and together they fought the animals off, both of them surviving the encounter by a hair. The player was an officer of a rather large guild and Robert entered the guild at the rank of initiate.

Although Robert was sometimes called a loner in real life, in the virtual world he appreciated being a member of a guild. Three guild members were also active in the Barrens, with whom he formed a team to tackle challenges together. In a group Robert didn’t receive as many experience points for his kills, but that was made up for by the advantage of rapid progression and quest completion.

On top of this his new friends taught him how to care for his pet, feeding it and training it. He became the object of much admiration and jealousy as he pulled one after another piece of equipment out of his mailbox. Rebecca had sent him a pile of leather clothing and also several guns. This meant that he could put on new gear when he reached higher levels, constantly improving his character statistics. Others told him that he was wearing the best gear imaginable. Especially the enchants that Rebecca had added seemed to be quite outrageous. Some people asked him for money, thinking he must be extremely rich to be able to afford such gear with expensive enchants on such a low character.

Finally, when he felt that he had seen every nook and cranny of the dreary zone called the Barrens, he was sent on a mission to another zone, called Stonetalon Mountains. Even though his eyes burned from the many hours of staring at a computer screen, he didn’t want to go to sleep before he’d reached his new destination. Another long and hazardous journey eventually brought him to a place called Sun Rock Retreat. He acquired the flight path and took Gunslinger to the inn for some well deserved rest. For the last time he checked the whereabouts of the Hammer of Grimstone. Still there was not a single member online.

He opened the door and sneaked into the corridor, quickly checking the door of his neighbour. The hair was still there.

He awoke early, feeling stiff and tired. After playing for so many hours in a row the game had haunted his dreams. It was as if it had taken over his head. While he walked to the shower he stretched, trying to remove the most bothersome kinks in this body. Only after he’d brewed a large coffee and stretched himself out on the derelict couch in the communal room did he begin to feel a little better. There was no one around yet. It wasn’t even nine o’clock on Sunday morning, so it would remain quiet in the large house a little longer. He felt something hard poking in his back and, fumbling behind him, pulled out a remote control device. Sitting back, he used it to turn on the television, tuning to BBC World.

The news was the same as ever. His thoughts wandered back to his eighteenth birthday, when his mother had presented him with the newspaper of the day he was born. They had studied it together and compared it to the paper of that present day. It had been appalling to see how little had changed over the years. People were still getting killed in more or less the same wars and for the same reasons, and the scandals in politics were interchangeable.

His interest waned, and he idly started to browse a women’s magazine that had been left on the sofa. His awareness slipped away until he was almost dozing when he suddenly registered the words ‘The Hammer of Righteous Justice’. It took a millisecond for these words to sink in, after which he bolted upright, pressing the remote control like a maniac to turn up the volume.

A female reporter was standing in front of an obviously expensive home. The camera panned to the right and he saw that it was situated quite secluded, like in the middle of a forest. Something seemed to be wrong with the sound. He finally noticed that he was pressing the wrong button on the remote control and corrected this. The sound came up again.

“...
from the police. So that’s all we know for now, Richard.”

“
Thank you, Kathleen. Please wait for us to come back to you. That was Kathleen Jones, our reporter on the scene in Jezus Eik, Belgium, where the body of Israeli top banker Benjamin Natale was found this morning. There were six body guards in the house with Natale, who have all been killed as well. The police found a painting on the scene that links the brutal murders to the same terrorist organization that bombed a train station in The Netherlands eleven days ago. Let’s go back to the brief press conference that the Belgian Police gave half an hour ago.”

There were images of a bald man behind a table, talking into several microphones. The sound was muted.

“
Kathleen, you were at the press conference. What did the police say exactly?”

“
Not much Richard. It happened only hours ago. At 2 a.m. to be exact, according to one of the neighbours who heard the sounds of shooting.”

“
Benjamin Natale had six armed body guards in the house, who were all killed by the attackers. What does that tell us, Kathleen?”

“
That’s exactly what worries the police so much, Richard. These weren’t just some hired body guards, all of them were suspected former protection officers of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service. They’re considered the best in the world.”

“
So what does that tells us?”

“
That this was probably a military operation, most likely executed by special forces. There’s no doubt that this operation has been prepared and trained for well.”

“
Kathleen, who was Mr. Natale exactly? What do you think made him a target?”

“
Well, Richard, nothing is certain yet, of course. Some sources think it must be connected to the work of Mr. Benjamin Natale. He wasn’t just a banker, but he was generally seen as a man behind the scenes who financed all kinds of clandestine operations against Arab interests. I just heard a rumour that insiders even connect him to a failed assassination attempt against the president of Iran.”

“
What can you tell us about the organization that claims responsibility?”

“
They’re called The Hammer of Righteous Justice and are believed to be an extreme right wing Muslim terrorist group. They claimed responsibility for the bombing of a train station in Holland not even two weeks ago. On that occasion, they left a painting on the scene with their signature on it, just like today. The police have not yet revealed more about the painting, just that they found it.”

“
Thank you, Kathleen. We’ll be hearing more from you when there are new developments. Now we go over to Norway, where scientists claim to have found proof that the climate is warming up even faster than we thought.”

Robert muted the sound again and sat looking at the screen with unseeing eyes. When he finally got up, he noticed that his coffee had gone cold. He threw it into the sink without bothering to make a new one.

He left the door of his room slightly ajar so he would hear Khalid if he returned. He called Rebecca’s cell phone, but got her voicemail. He left a message and sent her a text message as well.

Not knowing anything better to do, he switched on his computer, first browsing some news sites. When they didn’t tell him anything new, he logged on to World of Warcraft. The first thing he checked was the status of The Hammer of Grimstone. They were still offline, all of them.

He checked his phone several times for a reply of Rebecca. Should he call her again? He decided not to, not wanting to give the impression he was stalking her.

The members of his guild were probably still in bed, so he started doing quests by himself. There were a lot of quests available in Sun Rock Retreat, so there was plenty of work to be done.

Around noon he hit level twenty. He let out a loud whoop, slamming his fist on the table. Finally, his walking days were over! As expected, he found a message in his mailbox from some Kar Stormsinger. It invited him to come back to Bloodhoof Village in Mulgore to learn the riding skill. He went immediately, and afterward bought a mount. The Kodo was a monstrous animal. It was huge and bulky and moved with a peculiar rolling gait. Nevertheless, it took him around a lot faster and that improved life considerably.

Now that he was so much more mobile, he wanted to make use of this. He discussed his options with some members of the guild. Again, he was finding how helpful it was to be in a guild. All those people together formed an enormous pool of knowledge, and yesterday a level sixty-six warrior had even come over to help them out of an impossible fix. All in all, it made virtual life a lot easier.

There seemed to be a number of options to choose from. Several zones accommodated players levelling from twenty to twenty-five. In the end, he decided on going to the Hillsbrad Foothills, simply because it was on the other continent and he was eager to explore a little more of the world.

So he took the zeppelin to Undercity. On the Internet he had found a website that contained an incredible amount of information about the game, including interactive maps. These helped him to his destination. Once there, he followed the main road to the village of Tarren Mill and was killed three times on the way. A level twenty-one player had to keep far away from a level twenty-five creature around here. The most stunning lesson, however, was that from now on he had to be aware of other players as well. The place was crawling with members of the Alliance, who seemed to attack every Horde player they came across. Still, he reached his destination in the end, adding Tarren Mill to his flight paths. Looking at the map, he saw that he now had one connection in the Eastern Kingdoms, from the flight point at Tarren Mill to the one he had acquired in the Undercity, when he was there with Rebecca briefly. For now, it would do.

~~~

CHAPTER XI

It
was much harder than before. He was taking a lot more time to progress to the next level. He watched his experience bar all the time, getting frustrated by how slowly it was progressing. After he made it to level twenty-four, he tried to call Rebecca again. Still no answer: it just rang without being picked up. He left another message on her voicemail.

Annoyed he tried to call Andy, who happened to be at his parents’ for the weekend and promised to drop by the next day. Feeling a little down, he stood to go to the toilet. Just when he was about to open the door of his room, he heard stumbling noises in the corridor. His heartbeat went up with a hundred beats a minute. Stealthily, he moved his eye to the tiny slit he had left by not closing the door entirely. It was Khalid, carrying a small sports bag in one hand and a plastic sack of some weekend store in the other hand.

Robert sprinted back to his computer and checked the friends window. He felt excited and scared at the same time. None of the Grimstones was online. He sat back in his chair, eyes fixed on the screen. He didn’t have to wait longer than three minutes before he got the message
Drimm has come online
. He checked the window again and saw that Drimm was in Dalaran. A few seconds later, that changed to Ogrimmar. Another ten seconds later, Gunslinger was airborne, on his way to the zeppelin station at Undercity. He suppressed the urge that had him going to the bathroom earlier.

In his hurry, he lost his way three times in the maze called Undercity. He became so desperate that he asked a random player for the way out. When he declined, claiming he was too busy, he paid him an outrageous twenty gold just to show him to the zeppelin.

To make things worse, the zeppelin departed right before his nose. He had to wait a long time for the vehicle to make the entire return trip. When it finally berthed again, Pharad had come online also. He was in some place called Borean Tundra. Robert stepped on board, keeping the screen with the members of The Hammer of Grimstone open. Finally, the zeppelin began to move again, taking him to Durotar, the zone where Ogrimmar was situated.

Robert didn’t wait for the airship to stop, but jumped Gunslinger onto the platform as soon as it came alongside. He rushed down the stairs of the zeppelin station and speeded to the city. When he went through the gates of the city, the location of Pharad changed to Ogrimmar as well. He smiled.

It was busier than it had been at his earlier visits to Ogrimmar. No doubt this was because it was Sunday, and many people had time to play. He despaired how he was ever going to find two specific players in these crowds. In the end, it was easier than he thought.

While looking at the mass of players, his eye was drawn by a movement that stood out from the rest in some way. Looking more closely, he saw it was Pharad. He also noticed what made him stand out. Most players had their name and guild designation in dark blue and some in bright green. Pharad was the only one who had a light blue text above his head. He deduced that this must be because he was in Gunslinger’s friends list. To test the concept, he selected a random other player and added him to his friends list. Sure enough, his tag color immediately changed to light blue.

Meanwhile, Pharad was standing in front of the bank some distance from the mailbox. Watching the scene, Robert suddenly noticed some people on the roof of the bank building. That would make a perfect spot for him as well, because it would allow him to keep the entire square between the auction house and the bank under surveillance. He ascended the road around the bank building, discovering that on the backside of the building the roof met with the steeply rising rock bottom. He jumped onto the roof.