Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds (32 page)

He tried to ignore them. There wasn’t any way he could reply to them all anyway. Besides, his name was well know, where had all these people been before?

Probably leveling. They had been progressing at a ridiculous pace, at least for this game. Everyone else was levels behind, even if they had been working their butts off.

The text flew by in the bottom left corner of his vision. Just a purple blur. It was mildly distracting.

The town was in full swing when they arrived. People were running errands every which way. Toby had to hop out of the way of a wagon.

Paul nodded. “Guess they heard.”

“How could they not?” Toby shook his head at the fleeing wagon. “The game told the whole server.”

Jesse tilted her head. “ ‘Server’ is kinda the wrong word. We only have one realm. So, it told everybody who has an active account that was online, regardless of where they are. Because mega-server.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “That is such a silly term.”

“But it’s accurate. It’s a bunch of servers working together Voltron style. Or like Captain Planet, if you prefer.”

So, it was only
everyone
that knew. No wonder the text box kept humming. “I don’t think I prefer that, no. Not unless I’m the fire guy in this analogy.”

“Pfft.” Jesse snapped and a small burst of fire climbed from her fingers. “Hardly.”

“Yeah, but you’re all the elements. I don’t think anyone had the hit-it-with-a-sword element.”

Paul shook his head. “You people are crazy. Half the time I swear you’re making all this crap up.”

“Have you seen Krull?” Jesse smiled. “I saw Krull last night. I missed the first bit, so I understood like maybe a third of it? It was still glorious.”

“Of course I’ve seen Krull.” Paul scoffed. “It’s a classic.”

“Really? Huh.” Jesse tilted her head. “I need to watch more classics.”

Claire elbowed Toby. She was smiling when he looked over. “I think we created a monster.”

“
You
picked Krull. I blame you.”

Jesse had matched her pace to walk beside Paul. “Can we make one of those spiky throwing things?”

“It’s called the glaive. Though… it’s not much like a glaive at all, really.”

“Cool.” She nodded. “Can we make one?”

He shook his head. “In addition to being incredibly impractical, we don’t have much in the way of thrown weapons, and they’re all short range.”

She pouted for a moment. “What about the one Xena has?”

“Just as impractical. Same problems.”
Amos shrugged. “Except that chakrams, which is what that was, were a real thing in India.”

“Really?” Paul raised his chin. “Huh. Still thinking ‘no,’ I’m afraid.”

Jesse sighed. “That sucks. I want to throw stuff.”

“You throw
fire
.”

“That’s not the same.” She threw up her hands.

Paul opened the door to the church. “Maybe someone will throw things in an expansion, or something.” The party crossed into the church and Paul let the door shut behind him.

“We have the first expansion plotted out. Nobody throws stuff.”

“I must admit, I didn’t think you’d planned that far ahead.” The small bearded form that Miller had worn before was standing at the far side of the room. “But I’ve seen some of the groundwork for myself.”

Paul and Toby where the first to draw their weapons but the others followed suit.

Miller didn’t wear his Mitchel disguise, so he had some other agenda.

He turned casually. “My my, so hostile.”

The party moved to their common offensive positions. Paul was in front, shield held high. Toby was behind and to his left, Claire behind and to his right. Jesse, Amos, and Carol were arrayed further back, prepared to make use of their range.

Miller’s eyes played over the group. “Oh, poor Tim.” He shook his head. “But I knew there would be consequences when I set all this in motion.”

Paul sneered. “What do you want? Go hide on your mountain, we’ll be along shortly to stab you.”

“That’s what passes for diplomacy around here? What happened to parlay?”

The words left Toby’s mouth before the thought had even crossed his brain. “The code is more like
guidelines
than actual rules.”

Miller’s eyes shifted to Toby. “Your tenacity is inspiring, kid. Unfortunately, it’s also problematic.” He sat on the large chair put in place for Toby. “You see, you weren’t supposed to make it this far. Certainly not so swiftly.”

Paul scoffed. “Did what you asked, you’re complaining that we did it too well?”

“Something like that.” Miller shrugged. “I asked for an empire, and that you do not have. There are several guilds just as large and a few with more control of the world. In that regard, you’re a disappointment.”

“I don’t care. We’re going to take on your raid whether you’re happy about it nor not. And we’re going to win.”

“Bravado, I like it.” Miller smiled. “And you might beat me, sure. But what happens to the rest of the world while you do?”

“What?” Paul narrowed his eyes.

“I want an
empire
. Not a raid group. What happens in the raid is really just the public face of what I have set up. As soon as you cross through the door events will trigger the world over. I’ve perfected creating them wherever I wish. And I can tailor them to my whims.” He wiggled his fingers. “How do you think people will react when dying doesn’t just lock them out for a few days, but deletes their characters? Including all those that already died.”

Paul ground his teeth.

“I’m thinking the PR nightmares might be problematic. It might not
end
the game, you can claim a server fuck up or something, but the people asking for refunds are sure to put your corporate backers into a foul mood. And let’s be honest here, they’re not reasonable enough to wait for an explanation.” He hopped up and started pacing in front of the chair. “They start pulling their money out, and suddenly you’re in a real bind. Reviewers are upset that this event screwed up the time they needed to get their work done, so you get shitty reviews. Players are understandably upset, so they concur. You won’t stay afloat long after that. A few months, tops.”

Paul turned his head slightly, as though listening to a distant voice.

Toby lifted his sword.

Miller noticed. “So, how do you like the sword?”

“Come closer. I’ll let you sign it.”

Miller smiled. “Have you figured it out yet?”

“It grows stronger by killing players.”

“Indeed.” He nodded. “But not just that. It’s tied to the world. Did you think events just kept happening to favor you randomly? There’s an algorithm running that decides where events should be and when. I helped write it, so of course I know how to
lie
to it. The sword’s head count isn’t just increasing its damage. All those it cuts down, player and mob alike, are tallied and fed into that algorithm as if they were players standing next to you.”

Toby’s eyes shifted to the sword. That… kind of made sense. Events kept popping up near them while the scouts working without them had trouble finding anything. He was a walking raid group as far as the game tracking him could tell. Hell, a few raid groups at this point.

The game was trying to give him appropriate challenges.

He blinked a few times as he recalled his dream where the dead were working for him… he’d just thought it was referencing Soulbreaker growing stronger as it killed players.

Paul’s attention snapped back to Miller. “Your objections are noted. You can leave now.”

Miller shrugged. “I could, sure. But I don’t think I will. As I see it, you’ve already failed. Why draw this out?” He lifted his hand.

Everyone vanished from the room except for Miller and Toby.

Miller let his hand drop. “Sorry, kid. I was pulling for you. Really.”

Toby shifted his stance but he didn’t lower his sword. It was still the only thing in the game that would hurt Miller… of course, it had been Miller that said as much.

“That why you took out Mitchel?”

Miller tilted his head a smiled a bit. “Didn’t fool you for a second, did I?”

“Not really.”

A voice appeared beside Toby’s ear. “Distract him. Keep him talking.”

“But you let me wander around.” Miller raised an eyebrow.

“We had eyes on you the entire time. Also arrows.”

Miller nodded a few times. “Practical.”

“Why save me?”

Miller sighed. “That’s… complicated. And I don’t really see why I should go into it. It won’t matter to you in a few seconds.” He raised his hand again.

“So, just like that you’re going to cheat. You won’t even give me a fair fight?”

“Don’t see the point. We’re not vying for head Klingon, here. I kill you, you all lose, I win.”

Toby smiled and poured all the sass he could find into it. “It’s no wonder they badmouth you that way, now that I’ve had a chance to talk with you myself. Hell, I even tried to defend you once or twice, but you really are just a self centered prick.”

Miller’s eyes lost their mirth. “Get that out of your system? Good.”

Toby threw the sword. He hadn’t really been planning to so it wasn’t his best throw, but it crossed the open space and struck the solid wooden chair… because Miller had just managed to twist himself out of the way.

He scowled at Toby. “You know, I only picked you because you were the first one I came to that lacked beta experience and picked a stupid class. But maybe I doomed this thing from the start by picking such a moron.”

Black electricity played over Miller’s hand as he lifted it once more.

“An error easily corrected. Goodbye, kid.”

Soulbreaker returned to his hand. He held it up to defend himself.

The black energy coalesced into a ball and flew at Toby. It got bigger as it moved, growing to the size of a small car. It destroyed every object it hit, just deleting them from existence.

He couldn’t get out of the way. He couldn’t hide behind anything.

A burst of white light appeared before his eyes… was this what dying looked like? Fade to white? Happy clouds? No. Death wasn’t supposed to be permanent here.

The light faded to reveal a figure in flowing white robes standing a foot in front of Toby. He held up his hand, the black ball of electricity stopped dead. It spun in the air and sent off electric tendrils, but it wasn’t moving anymore.

Miller narrowed his eyes. “That’s hardly fair.”

“You threw out
fair
, asshole.”

The figure’s hand collapsed into a fist. The ball of energy condensed into nothingness, its last wisps of energy escaping between the tightly clamped fingers.

The white figure swiftly turned and laid a hand on Toby’s shoulder. It pulled his hood up.

The church disappeared in a burst of white light. It was dark outside when his eyes readjusted. He stood on an unfamiliar beach facing a churning ocean.

Toby blinked a few times. “Tim?”

The white hood turned to regard Toby. Tim’s face was inside. He grinned. “Sup?”

“You’re… dead? Right? Locked out?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “But as Miller showed you, GM accounts can look like anybody. Guy in charge of this one stepped out for a minute. So I figured, what the hell?”

Toby laughed. “It’s good to see you.”

Tim nodded and rubbed at his chin. “Of course. But we can’t stay long. He’s sure to follow.” Tim leaned in close. “In fact, that’s the idea.” He winked and grabbed hold of Toby’s shoulder again.

White light washed over him and the world faded away. The light faded to reveal a mountain top covered in deep snow.

Another figure in white robes stood only a few feet away. Toby didn’t know this one, but Tim nodded. “Your turn, Greg.”

Greg nodded and held out his hand. “Off we go.”

“Uhh…” Toby glanced aside at Tim.

He nodded. “Quite safe, I promise.”

“Kay?” Toby took hold of Greg’s hand and the world was a wash of white again.

They appeared to be deep in a forest now.

Toby blinked a few times. “That’s going to blind me before long.”

Greg chuckled. “Like a flashbang. Close your eyes when you see it start up.”

Toby nodded. “Probably a good idea.” He glanced around. The forest was quiet. “What’s the play, here?”

“Quite simple. Miller tipped his hand. He’s planning to be done with this, so we’re making sure he can’t.” He pointed at Toby’s hood. “You’re missing from search results, but we’re not. So we’re playing hot potato. Miller has to search for us, then pick who to follow. So we’re all moving about at the same time, and each time one of us is moving you.”

“I… see?”

Greg shook his head and grabbed hold of Toby’s arm.

As the world turned white again Toby clamped his eyes shut.

It helped. A little.

They were inside a stone structure now. There were no windows to light the place, only a few sputtering torches. Yet another white robed figure stood waiting. This one was shorter and had long dark hair spilling out of the front out her hood. “Hi.” She waved. “Steff.”

He nodded. “Toby.”

She held out a hand. “It’s my turn. Don’t worry, I pick nicer places than this.”

Greg crossed his arms. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s dark. Damp. Claustrophobic.”

“And secret.”

“As secret as any place we can go.” She shrugged.

Toby glanced back and forth between them. “Can you fight later, maybe?”

Steff nodded. “Sure.” She opened and closed her outstretched hand. “Come on.”

Toby took hold of her hand.

Greg nodded. “Two jumps, then it’s Tim’s turn again. I’ve got the rest for now.”

“Righto.” She nodded.

Toby guarded his eyes against the light. He opened them again to see a vast desert. “Yeesh, you guys have an underwater city, too?”

“Working on that one.” She nodded.

He shook his head. “So, I don’t get it. We just keep jumping around until, what? I’m the only one that can hurt Miller.”

“Oddly enough, that’s actually true. I peaked at your sword. It’s actually a hard coded item, like he made it back when he worked here. It can ‘kill’ game masters.”

“What? How’s that work?”

“You know what a DDS attack is? Whole bunch of people trying to connect to one thing, usually if it’s an ‘attack’ it’s simulated because people don’t really care that much. But people can actually kill websites unintentionally if they aren’t prepared for the traffic. Hug of death. Anyway…”