MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (43 page)

They were good. In fact, they were so good that they were lying in wait for her at the border crossing between Sholazar Basin and Borean Tundra. They knew she was unable to use her flying mount, because Shard, the hunter in their party, had managed to keep her flagged as in combat all the time. It had been a close call, but he succeeded, with considerable help from his tiger pet.

The rest of the group had disengaged at the lake and simply waited for their flying mounts to become available again. If only she had known that there was only one person pursuing her, she would have stood her ground. But she didn’t, and kept on fleeing blindly toward the border.

The road took a turn and started to ascend, becoming rather steep soon after. There was an impenetrable mountain range between the two zones, and the road led through the only pass there was.

“I’m almost with you,” Robert said. He was approaching the border from the other side, but conveniently on the back of his flying mount. “If crossing the border doesn’t allow you to mount, let’s try to reach Warsong Hold on foot. We’ll be safe there, too many Horde guards for them to follow you inside.”

She just nodded and kept on running.

Robert started to descend, noticing several characters below. He idly wondered what those people were doing there. He was so preoccupied with Rebecca’s escape that he simply didn’t grasp the situation until it was too late.

“Watch out!” he yelled, just as Killermage was hit by a Frost Bolt, a Chain Lightning Bolt, and a Curse of Agony, all at the same time. Instinctively, Rebecca refreshed her Ice Barrier and dispelled the curse, but she got no chance to hide under an Ice Block again. This time, the warrior’s Charge stunned her, rendering her powerless. She used her Medallion of the Horde, escaping the effects of the stun, but her Blink accidentally brought her right in the middle of her enemies.

“Fuck you!” she screamed in powerless frustration. Robert realized her death was inevitable.

Gunslinger swooped down and landed behind the melee. Robert understood perfectly that he was going to get killed as well, but he was determined to send at least one of those bastards to the graveyard as well. He focused on the enemy warlock, a cloth wearer and thus most vulnerable to the bullets of a hunter like him, and opened fire. His pet lion charged immediately.

A hunter could inflict spectacular damage in a short time, especially against targets with little armor. By pure chance, all of his shots were critical hits, meaning they hit for almost double damage. He commenced with an Arcane Shot, followed by a Silencing Shot. The last rendered the Warlock defenseless, as he couldn’t cast any spells for the duration of the silencing effect. By the time Gunslinger pumped his final Chimera Shot into the Warlock, two ordinary bullets had left the barrel of his gun as well. The warlock died without even realizing the damage had come from behind. He did warn his guild mates, however, and this provided the distraction Rebecca so desperately needed. She was almost dead, with only a tiny sliver of her health remaining, but as her attackers looked around to face this new threat, she was finally able to cast Ice Block and find temporary shelter.

Robert targeted the mage now. He’d be overwhelmed in seconds, but he also knew that he’d be able to hurt that mage seriously before he died himself. He used Readiness, resetting all his cooldowns, and opened fire again. This time, he started with his Multi Shot, simply because it would do damage to two others as well. Again, as if the Gods were on his side, he seemed to score only critical hits.

A sound. A new window in his screen. What was that all about? If he was ready to enter a battleground?

“Just do it!” Rebecca yelled at him. “Now!”

Suddenly, he understood. Rebecca had put them in the queue for the next battleground. Their slot had come up at the most fortunate moment imaginable. If Robert pressed
Accept
now, he’d be transported there instantly, no matter where he was, or what he was doing. It was brilliant. Nobel prize winning genius.

Smiling, he glanced at his own health bar and that of the mage. It was a judgment call. He disobeyed Rebecca’s order and continued firing. Four people were attacking him now, but he was dressed in PvP gear and hunters are hard to kill. The enemy mage died just before he did. The main difference between them was that the mage fell down on a road somewhere in the mountains between Sholazar Basin and Borean Tundra, and that Gunslinger was whisked away just in time to be restored to full health in Warsong Gulch instantly.

Dazed, Khalid was staring at the corpse of his warlock. Crumbled next to him was the dead body of a mage.
Pharad’s mage
.

Their enemies had just vanished into thin air. Alive. How on earth had they accomplished that?

He knew what was coming. The howling began loud, but soon became unbearable. His door was kicked open, and Pharad charged into the room. His face was a red mask of uncontrolled fury. He kicked the table and tore Khalid’s computer out of the socket in the wall.

“You’re all incompetent losers!” he screamed. “What the hell is going on? Do I have to do everything by myself?”

He kicked again, this time destroying an Ikea drawer. He looked at the pitiful remains of the piece of furniture and seemed to calm down a bit.

“We’ll never speak of this again,” he said. His sudden calmness was even scarier than his anger. “I don’t care about your Robert and Rebecca anymore. Let them be. Let them gloat. We have other priorities.”

Khalid nodded wordlessly.

“Good.” Then, as if to emphasize his words, he tossed the computer away as if it were a piece of useless junk.

~~~

Chapter XXXVIII

If
not for the serious expressions on their faces, it could have been a cozy social gathering, like a birthday. The six of them were in the living room of the villa in Wassenaar. Robert and Rebecca were sitting next to each other in one of the luxurious leather sofas. Broerse and Fitzgerald occupied the matching chairs, while the other two were seated on chairs that belonged to the set in the adjoining conservatory. A fire crackled in the hearth and a coffee table had been set in the middle. Drinks for everyone. There was even a crystal can filled with orange juice. Robert longed for a nice chilled Sancerre.

The woman was talking. She was in her early forties, pretty but businesslike with carefully blown blonde hair and meticulous makeup. She was a psychiatrist.

“We must consider that this was essentially a totally unproductive endeavor,” she was saying. “Even if they had managed to kill you in that virtual world a hundred times over, it would have accomplished nothing. Not really.”

Rebecca nodded in confirmation.

“Would you say that they invested much time and energy in capturing you?”

“Yes,” she answered. “They had one, maybe more people on the lookout for us. We did the same to them before, and I can assure you that it’s time consuming to monitor WoW all the time.”

“And they were able to lay a pretty elaborate ambush in a short time,” Robert added. “They must have had a team on standby all the time, just in case we showed up.”

The woman looked meaningfully at the other men. “It’s as I thought. Now let me ask another question. If being killed inside of World of Warcraft doesn’t really mean anything, why did you put up such a fight? Why didn’t you just let them kill you, and be done with it? Wouldn’t that have been easier? Don’t tell me you didn’t suffer virtual death numerous times before!”

Robert sought Rebecca’s eyes. She flexed her shoulders and answered for both of them. “Because this has
become personal, you know. One of those monsters lived only a few yards away! All other players are ordinary people just like you and me. They may be a school kid behind a computer in Stockholm, a lawyer in Madrid, or a nurse in Auckland. And being killed by a computer-controlled monster is a nuisance, nothing more. These guys are terrorists. They blew up a train station and shot God knows how many other people. They invaded our home and killed someone we knew!”

Robert took over, surprised by the sudden clarity of his feelings. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life. I can’t even describe it. I was certain I was going to die that night. When I was climbing that wall and a bullet missed me by a hair, I was expecting the lights to go out forever.” He leaned forward, looking the psychiatrist straight in the eye. “They reduced me to a blubbering bag of fear. I wanted to surrender to them, do anything to please them, if they just let me live. They took something away from me that night, and I won’t let that happen again.”

“How does the victory in WoW make you feel?”

He hesitated. “Better,” he said slowly. “By beating them there, we balanced the scales somewhat.”

Now Fitzgerald entered the conversation. There was compassion in his eyes as he addressed Robert and Rebecca at the same time. “I understand how you feel. It’s only natural. I can assure you that your escape that night was an incredible achievement. Two of the people killed by the Hammer of Righteous Justice were protected by professional bodyguards with guns. It didn’t help them a bit. As far as we know, you two are the first to survive an attack by them. You showed courage and initiative. You outsmarted them. Be proud and thankful, instead of feeling lessened.”

The blonde woman was nodding vigorously. “That’s the whole point!” she said. “What you’re feeling is nothing compared to the humiliation they must have felt. The only reason they’ve gone to such lengths to punish you, for that’s what it is, is because you defeated them. You shattered their confidence. You provoked them into irrational behavior.”

It remained silent in the room for some time. Rebecca took Robert’s hand in her own and stroked it softly. He looked up and gave her a little smile. She squeezed in response.

“You’ve given me some important insights,” the woman said finally. “I think most of this is good news for us.”

At this, the other man spoke for the first time. He had an American accent. Robert had never seen him before, not even when they had been taken to the headquarters of the AIVD. “What’s the good news?”

“Robert and Rebecca have seriously distracted them from their main goal, whatever that may be. The terrorists dedicated lots of time and resources to get back at them. By trying to kill them in Leiden, they took a terrible and unnecessary risk. By sticking to that computer game as their vehicle for communication and training, they took another risk. They went to great lengths to change their appearances, only to reveal themselves again to kill Rebecca virtually.”

“Will they continue to use World of Warcraft?”

Anja shook her head. “In my opinion, no. They might return to it later or switch to a comparable game. For this moment, I think they’ll avoid it. The pride of Muhammad al-Moutti has been wounded seriously. He’ll be telling himself now that he doesn’t need WoW after all, and that Robert and Rebecca aren’t worth the attention of a lofty terrorist like himself.”

Rebecca sighed. “So you think he’ll leave us alone now?”

“Yes, but that’s the end of the good news. The bad news is that they’ll concentrate and focus on their next operation now.”

The analysis of the psychiatrist proved to be right, as far as they could tell. Rebecca and Robert kept up their vigilance as watchers of the virtual world, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. They were playing, but their heart wasn’t in it. They leveled their characters to eighty-five, but couldn’t bring themselves to start collecting some of the new epic gear available now. They didn’t even explore a single one of the new end game dungeons.

Two days later, Broerse came to tell them that Blizzard Entertainment had cooperated willingly with the authorities. They had handed over all available information pertaining to the accounts the various characters belonged to. Sadly, all the accounts had been closed just before. There seemed to be little to go on, because playtime was paid for with anonymous game cards, and of course, the identities were all fake. Still, a full investigation was going on, focusing on the location of the IP addresses that had been used to access the game servers. Even if that yielded something, it would probably only lead to more abandoned places.

Broerse had also come to take them home. He drove them to Leiden first, where Andy was waiting for them. They didn’t say much. Their friend went up to the all too familiar room with them, where Robert and Rebecca quickly packed their bags. The air was stale, and the place felt cramped after their sojourn in the large villa. Still, he felt a pang of regret to be leaving. They embraced Andy with the usual promises to keep in touch. Only this time, Robert thought the promise would be kept.

As Broerse’s car set off for the airport, Robert silently said goodbye to the house at the Pieterskerkhof. He was also looking forward to being in the warm safety of his family. It would take some time for his mother to calm down, though. His parents were frantic with worry, and he hadn’t been able to reassure them on the phone yet.

It was near the end of the afternoon when Broerse dropped them off at the main terminal of Schiphol, the airport of Amsterdam. Robert found a trolley for their luggage, and they entered through the same hall where he had arrived when he picked up Rebecca only a couple of weeks ago.

Terminals One and Two were attached to either side of a big hall that served as the train station as well. It was a smart design, because it encouraged travelers to take the train to and from one of the busiest airports of Europe.

It was busy in the hall, but mostly with train travelers dressed in identical red and white shirts. Robert recognized them as supporters of AFC Ajax, one of the prominent soccer clubs of Holland. Apparently, there was a big match tonight.