Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (11 page)

BOOK: Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds
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Toby stretched his neck. The VR gear wasn’t exactly heavy, but after extended use it would be a problem. The company had done all they could about the weight but at the end of the day it was still a monitor strapped to his head.

He wandered back out into the hall. He didn’t know how long the night would be, or how much more exhausted he would be when it ended. He could take a minute to brush his teeth now.

The pit was still mostly empty, a few computers manned and a few VR stations running.

Paul was sitting in the center of the room looking up at the projected screens.

9

Paul didn’t seem to notice when Toby entered.

He quietly walked to his backpack and opened it up. Everything was where he had left it. Really though, nobody here had need of any of his junk.

He closed the bag and glanced at the screen as he stood back up.

All manner of statistics were laid out. Tables. Charts. More than a few things Toby couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Paul stared ahead, his face emotionless.

“Anything good?” Toby sat down beside Paul.

Paul seemed surprised to be awakened from the charts. “Not really.” He pointed to a line graph. “That spike there is the bugbear incident. The line is charting experience gain for the entire server, trying to chart the general level of progression.”

“How far behind are we?”

“Less than you’d think given the time everyone else has had. The bugbear made up some for other people taking on safer tasks. We’re behind but we’re not that far behind. The curve is just pushing level ten.”

Toby scratched at the back of his neck. “And you can read that? From up there?”

“Really just a matter of knowing what to look for.” He shrugged. “You eat?”

“Yeah. You?”

Paul shook his head. “Meeting with the feds up stairs. They don’t have much. They want us to try and goad Miller into revealing something. As if we can do that without jeopardizing everything by pissing him off.”

Toby nodded. His eyes were drawn to a few people at the far end of the room on computers, but not using VR. “What are they up to?”

Paul glanced aside. “Our three functioning GM accounts are trying to keep the whole damn game from imploding. I doubt Miller would let them help us much, so we’re having them continue their normal duties for now. Tickets, people stuck in walls, or who destroyed a quest item. That sort of thing. The rest are running stats to monitor the servers.” He pointed to the projections on the wall. “Trying to keep us appraised of the situation.”

Toby nodded. “Cool.” There was a map, but it was all greek to him. There was one spot he recognized. “That’s the church?”

“The Morblina ruins, yes. We’re keeping people logged in there all the time.” There was a light blue circle around the area, in contrast to different colored circles elsewhere on the map. “We’re claiming the territory. We get a lock on the grounds and we’re safe further out. We can have some things built too, if we gather the resources.” He shrugged. “Not a problem for you or me, really. We don’t have time for that sort of thing. But having others work those systems for us will help immensely.”

“Starting up a sweatshop?”

“Well… I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“That’s what it sounds like.”

He shrugged. “From a certain cynical point of view, sure.”

Toby grinned. “Only one I got, man.”

“How terrible for you.” He shook his head and raised his chin at the screen. “There are four GM accounts capable of logging in. Three of those are stations in this room, which makes it pretty simple to guess which one is Miller. We’re keeping tabs on him and making notes every time he pops up. He can do a lot of things, but escaping the monitoring programs isn’t one of them.” He pointed at the map. “Every place he has been seen is marked, but so far… he hasn’t actually
done
much. Honestly I would prefer he did, just so we would understand what he’s up to. We really only get blips when he uses a GM ability. If he walks somewhere he’s under the radar. If he stands there watching, under the radar. Annoying.”

Toby tilted his head. “You don’t think he’s trying to blow stuff up?”

“He was always a bit on the greedy side, but there’s greed and then there’s explosives. Handing over the power to blow up your house to someone else is just foolish. He was never a fool. He might know more than we do about his patrons, of course. There’s the off chance they try something as the feds fear they might. It’s not very likely, but no matter the odds they can’t afford to ignore the possibility. Meanwhile, we are concerned with Miller himself.”

Toby hadn’t even stopped to consider any of that. “This is all well beyond me.”

Paul nodded. “But we’ve been tossed into it. So we make due. Can’t just roll over and let him win.”

“Fuckin’ A.”

Paul didn’t look away from the screen. “Such a refined young man.”

“Pfft.” Toby shrugged. “Old enough to vote. Go to war. Buy alcohol and cigarettes.”

“And how often do you do those things?”

“Uhh…”

The door to the pit opened. Amos, er, Jerry was the first to enter and held the door. The rest of group one and their alternates followed him in. Claire was carrying a pizza box and nodded at Paul with narrowed eyes.

“Uh-huh. I told them you’d be here.” She held the box out. “Mangia, mangia.”

Paul held up his hands in surrender. “If I must.” He took the box. “Pepperoni. How original.”

“Feds were not super innovative with their order.” She held out a bag to Toby. “You, too. Mangia.”

“Whatever that language is, I don’t speak it.”

“It’s Italian like the pizza. Eat.“

Jesse rearranged her hair into a ponytail. The bun probably wouldn’t fit under the headset. “She saved you an egg roll. Almost took off Phil’s finger in the process. We might need to update the ‘days without incident’ sign in the break room.”

Phil shook his head. “Like managing a daycare sometimes.”

Jerry nodded as he glanced up at the projections. “What’s the plan, boss man?”

Claire glared at Jerry. Phil had to stop eating to answer him, after all.

“We’re still behind the experience curve, but with Toby’s help we can probably close the gap and pull ahead. There are no other incidents like what we saw being reported, so we have to assume for now that our bugbear encounter was unique and Miller’s doing.”

“Bad guy with GM powers. Pretty shiesty.”

Toby shrugged. “Gave us all a few levels.”

“True, but you can’t think that was his intention.”

“Only know what I see. Guy is a stranger to me.”

Paul nodded. “Whatever he’s up to, it’s hidden from us. I doubt he would try to take us out so early, though. Maybe he meant for us to lose a few members, show us he means business.” He rubbed at his chin. “Regardless, the plan is to head back in when the scouts find something of note.”

Tim waved at them as he walked up. “Jenkins says he’s got something. They’re scouting it out.”

Paul nodded. “And there we go.” Paul picked up a second piece of pizza. “Alright, lets get suited up people.”

They dispersed aside from Paul, who was still devouring his pizza, and Toby who was literally feet from his station.

The younger man shook his head and kept his voice low. “This doesn’t seem like rich guy behavior.”

Paul glanced aside at him, his mouth full of pizza. “Oh?”

“Just hire people to handle it, that’s rich guy behavior. You’re in the thick of this.”

The older man nodded a few times as he ate. “People used to hang these silly charts up when I took business classes. A ‘leader’ versus a ‘boss.’ It may seem silly but I took the lessons to heart. Without my people I’m nothing. They aren’t cogs because this isn’t a machine. We’re a team. I’m just the public face.” He set the pizza box aside and stood up. “Truth is, if all this goes south I’ll be fine. I have plenty of money. But the company would go under and everyone else here would suffer for that. I’d prefer that didn’t happen. I built this team, and I
like
my team. So far, you’re on a ride along. Do your best to help with this situation and help my team, and we’ll have no problems.”

Toby gave a nod. He could understand the sentiment. Him showing up to work was the bright point every day for Mr. Stevens. It was when all the teenagers who just wanted a paycheck went home and he could stop fussing over everything they were probably getting wrong. Toby had considered his work simple, even boring. But that was because he knew it so well he could barely manage to screw it up if her tried.

And Paul had a team just like that.

Mr. Stevens would have bailed Toby out of jail tonight if he needed to. Toby had no doubt about that. Paul seemed like the type that took care of his people, too.

“Go team, rah rah.”

“Indeed.”

 

The church was just as Toby had left it… except that it wasn’t.

The roof was being repaired. There were new banners emblazoned with crowns hanging on the walls inside. Well, those that didn’t sport windows, which were kind of rare. Chairs had come out of nowhere as far a she could tell. It was turning into a respectable place.

“Huh. Someone’s been busy.”

Claire nodded from beside him. “Gotta keep up appearances. Looks like this is Kingsmen territory now.”

“Uh-huh.” He tilted his head as he looked around. “Wait, I’m ‘in charge,’ right? Cause I’m thinking about dress code. Can we get top hats?”

“I’m afraid we’re just not that classy,
sir
.” She inclined her head to the doors where the others were gathering.

“Damn.”

He slowly followed her over to the doors where the others were waiting. He didn’t mind making them wait a bit… he was royalty, after all.

“Good day, my loyal peasants. Love what you’ve done with the place. Certainly feeling more in keeping with my station.”

Paul raised an eyebrow.

Amos groaned. “So now this is a thing.”

Tim shrugged. “Took longer than I thought. Besides, we don’t need him forever. One week, then regicide.”

Toby placed a hand over his heart. “I say. That sounds treasonous, good sir.”

“Oh, you know it.” Tim rolled a dagger around his fingers. “And you won’t even see it coming. Just bamf. Dead.”

“Dreadful. Perhaps I shall yet fall on the field of honor.”

Paul rolled his eyes. “Yeah, about that. We’ve got a location, so we need to get rolling. You can gloat on the way, if you’d like.”

“Perhaps I shall, should the whim take me.” Toby nodded. He glanced about. “Uh… we’re short? We already alternating?”

Jesse was missing.

Paul shook his head. “No. And we won’t rotate Jesse out anyway, she’s a healer.” He pointed down to Toby’s right.

He looked down to see a wolf seated beside him. It looked back up at him.

“Woof.”

He blinked. It had Jesse’s voice. “Oh man, that has got to be disorienting.”

She laughed. “At first, yeah. You get used to it. It shifts my view down, but its neck is sort of my neck and… you know, I can’t really explain it very well. Trust me, it’s cool.”

He shook his head repeatedly. “No, no no no. One special displasmoid encounter for me is enough.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “Spacial dissonance.”

“Yeah, that.”

Paul held up a hand. “We’re full. Carol and Bill are already moving to check out the position for us and assist the scouts if needs be. They’re our alternates. When the time comes Tim and Amos will swap out and scout. Everyone up to speed? Good.”

 

It took twenty minutes to travel to the location on foot, but they manged to hack at a few monsters along the way to kill time to allow the second group to show up. They were still using the buddy system for groups just in case things got bad. They didn’t know what Miller was up to, but there were plenty of players out there who were up to trying to find and murder them. Made sense to run in numbers. Like wolves. Or girl scouts.

Carol and Bill were waiting when they finally arrived. She was a mage with a wide brimmed Gandalf hat over her curly brown hair. He was a ranger decked out quite similarly to Amos, though he seemed to favor melee weapons. He only had a short bow on his back and a small quiver that couldn’t have had more than a dozen arrows.

Paul gave them a nod. “How’s it look?”

Carol shrugged. “Pretty standard. Bandits on the road here and we scouted their trail back to a lair in some ruins.”

“Perfect. Reliable experience that shouldn’t be too risky.”

Tim rolled his eyes. Carol’s eyes shifted to him, but she didn’t say anything. Apparently he wasn’t as on board with safe and routine.

Bill nodded up the road. “The other group isn’t far behind, and their alternates are already here.”

Paul turned and gave a wave. “Good. Let’s get rolling. We’ve no time to waste.”

The bandits on the road had a menacing look. All leather and bandannas like a cheesy spaghetti western. It was the first time Toby had fought human enemies in this game. Until now they had all been creatures of some sort. It wasn’t really different… except that it was. His first attempts at fighting them missed entirely because they moved faster. They blocked more and actively tried to dodge attacks. It made plain just how careless the monsters had been in fights.

His attacks were slower than most and his intentions more obvious as he held the sword ready to swing with both hands. It was difficult to land blows. He worked with Paul or the others when he could, trying to strike at unaware opponents. When he couldn’t he ended up using the shock wave attack. They thought they were safe outside the reach of his sword, and so were not expecting an attack. It was weaker than his normal strikes, and far weaker than the combos he could build with multiple swings… but it hit them.

That’s what was important.

The road was cleared out half an hour later. There were abandoned carriages off the road where the bandits had been keeping their spoils. Or so the scene was made to look. It was unlikely anyone else had been by because the bandits had still been there.

It was a veritable treasure trove of loot. There was a barbarian only weapon. Ironic.

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