Admin: Angels and Demons (6)

The following days passed under the aegis of ‘normalcy’, as far as that word can be used for the game. The Players displaced from the districts in the Broken City retreated and began developing something resembling a proper plan. The seriousness of which, and by that I meant the seriousness by which the Players took part in it, gradually increased day by day. Leading till the point where they created a round-the-clock mob surveillance system, distributing work hours and creating uninterrupted shifts complete with a procedure for changing shifts. 

As periodic forum checks informed me, along with the ability to dance around the ‘protections’ for personal data, since there’s no way for the court to discover nor punish my law-breaking. Plus, even if they did, since [Titanomachy] pays most of the judges’ salary, nothing would happen.

Still, with my ‘spying’, I could tell that the Players were taking the game so seriously that they were starting to talk about involving real-life currencies in the game's infrastructure.

Of course, I know many professional teams, especially those training for esports or those that play major, and popular MMORPGs ‘seriously’, have more financial involvement with the game above from just buying the game. They have their own internal logistics level, payments for various managers and professional Players. 

But I never thought my game would become a breeding ground for such ideas. 

After all, I have no idea how the other games do it. I always thought that it arises either from various patrons planning to subsequently use the Player's performances’ for advertising. Or by the whales, who simply wanted every possible trinket available in-game and had far more money than desire to invest and distribute it across assets; things that would actually give them tangible returns.

As it turned out, I underestimated the Players' desire to use their very real money, with just as equally real value, in virtual space. It does give me a sense of pride and accomplishment. 

My own virtual reality proved so attractive to Players that they were quite ready to start paying real money to resolve in-game issues. 

A quick inspection informed me what I'd previously considered a normal in-game situation of capturing an island with mob spawner after the previous group left it completely depleted, was actually quite the market event for rather decent money. Not island-purchasing-in-reality money, but such a purchase could at least secure me an excellent dinner event at an expensive restaurant.

In fact, even without me knowing, such events were already happening.

They aren't happening regularly yet, but the Players are quietly beginning to trade territory, resources, and even future rights to various properties for real world currency. Which, in turn, meant faction leaders began amassing money they could use to encourage their Players. 

And, as always, when money enters the equation, though for now the transactions are more like pocket change, the situation would soon spiral into something more serious.

That was why, I in turn, was interested in dealing with it.

I probably should have seen this coming; the issue wasn't just whether I should offer players paid addons, microtransactions, or gacha systems, but that the Players themselves weren't against paying money into the game if they had it. And the fact I hadn't yet offered them a spending method didn't mean they wouldn't find one independently.

The question was what I needed to do with this information.

I wasn't born yesterday, so I know that my bosses would leap at the chance to earn more profits. That they didn’t tack on such a thing when they already asked something as ridiculous as creating space from millions of Players meant that they didn’t know about this situation. It was no surprise after all, there’s no way that the forum administrators, undoubtedly under the payroll of [Titanomachy] could breach the restriction of reading personal messages, or collect personal data without permission.

Such was the real situation of the no less real world, even if transferred to virtual space. 

Plus, it is equally unlikely that they would read the millions of daily messages on the forum personally; AIs were most likely involved, reading the messages before turning them into dry statistics and reports. And even then, there’s no way that they could understand and report things with personal details. 

Proven, once again, by the fact that no messages from up top have arrived, ‘asking’ me to take advantage of the current sentiments. That the Players wanted to spend even more money. 

I had no doubt that the big shots would want their piece of the pie. Even if they were the most honest and angelic people on earth, nobody became head of one of the world's largest megacorporations through philanthropy, pure thoughts, and letting potential profits slip through their fingers.

So the real money transactions weren't yet massive enough to be noticed by the company; meaning, initiative was on my side… Unlike having a clear plan for the future.

What should I do about it? On one hand, I wasn't against a Player spending more – if they wished to spend more of their own money, who was I to determine how they should manage their money? Their personal financial consultant?

On the other hand, personally speaking, mere monetary sums or gains impressed me little now. My monthly bonus didn't depend on the individual Players spending more money, nor did profit growth charts contribute to my good mood. What concerned me far more were the conditions of my current existence, my creation, my world.

And here my personal aspirations collided with my employers' desires.

I wasn't against creating an economy; as all AIs are my witness, I'd tried creating one from this game world's very first days. But that is inside the game, with EXP, gold coins, and resources. 

When a Player could use resources that they didn’t earn in game to gain an advantage; it seemed dishonest. In the sense that some bored major company heir could easily crush any alliance opposing him simply by buying their best Players with pocket change, even interesting clashes could become simple fights of who has the deeper wallets. 

Such things were already a common occurrence in other games, at least in other games there’s nothing I could do about it, so I could only swallow my disappointment.

But here lay the main ‘but’; because in this world I was specifically the tsar, god and supreme law.

Therefore, intervening in the forum’s operations as an administrator, I sent each participant in such transactions a warning, indicating their actions were considered ‘attempts at game condition manipulation’. And that further violations could result in game bans. The Players, receiving such warnings, heeded them immediately without complaints. After all, they decided to spend money because they liked this game, losing the ability to play the game so that they could continue spending money on it seemed counterproductive.

As for the fact the big shots surely wouldn't agree with my actions banning real money transactions, something that would earn them more money?

Well, what they didn’t know certainly wouldn't disturb their sleep, so I subsequently erased all information about my intervention, along with the Players' personal messages with each other. Wiping the logs and metadata clean, while putting the Players involved in the trade in my list for future observations. 

The Players that were given the warning, clearly came to some kind of idea, reaching their own conclusions, and unexpectedly began hoarding gold, silver, and copper coins, buying them from Players at decent prices, with in-game resources of course. The Players that sold their ‘worthless’ coins were more than happy to sell it, and finally, the first proper economy with semblance of supply and demand began taking shape in the world.

I, in turn, tried not to think too much about the divergence between my plans and my employers' desires. After all, I was absolutely certain that if company bigwigs learned I'd ruined a decent monetization method, nobody would write me a thank-you letter. Well, as long as I kept doing my job, and continued cramming the millions of Players as they ‘asked’, no pressure for increasing profits should come. 

Speaking of the Players… The new locations, even as they closely copied the old ones, quite satisfied the old Players. I have, after all, figuratively speaking, broken my back making sure that they have ample space to play around, so everyone could do what they wanted as if it was the first time they did it.

As for the new Players stuck Underground, I wasn’t too worried about them either. The locations were completely new for them, so interest was maintained at a higher level. The Underground was simultaneously similar enough to the Sky Islands that some basic concepts and the Old Players' stories still proved useful, but different enough to give the new Players the chance to be pioneers.

Right now, they were doing their best to hit their head on a rock wall, and trying to win. Still, they were doing their best to dig a tunnel, this time using a semblance of planning and mathematics. But, since there’s still no professional engineer, this attempt too would end in failure, even if that failure is delayed by the stone columns placed randomly along the tunnel. 

Overall, such an action wasn't the most rational use of their attention or time, but who was I to prevent the Players from finding ways to occupy themselves? I was ready, in my spiritual generosity, to add even more piles of rocks in their excavated tunnel, to let them flounder in the sandbox until they got bored themselves.

As for my first batch of Players, that is, the main portion of both pioneers and my main opponents, the people on my list, preparation for fighting the Mad Prophet was, as stated before, seriously ongoing. Players not only leveled together efficiently on unfortunate imps, long since transformed from opponents to pitiful punching bags, but established proper material production for equipment; outfitting full combat groups that, thanks once again to Jabberwocky's intervention, even began undergoing something resembling training and combat coordination, all preparing for battle with the demonic hordes.

Of course, I suppose in reality, these training sessions were more severe, more disciplined, where no soldiers could leave mid-session using a stupid reason like ‘damn, mom is demanding that I walk the dog’. Still, the very fact they are undertaking such actions already spoke to how seriously the Players prepared for the battle with the raid boss and his many adds. And rightly so. 

Since this is the very first raid boss, both the Players, and even me, couldn't evaluate how effective, how powerful the raid boss actually was. Well, too bad for the Players, I wasn't going to make it any weaker, just so the Players could actually easily defeat it… Well, until the point where the boss turned out too strong that they are going to quit. 

Strong enough to be a challenge, but not so strong that the Players couldn’t beat it no matter what they do. Balanced, as all things should be.

So, if I wasn't making it weaker, it would be like I’m pitting an army of my own creation, against Jabberwocky's; it was an event that I wouldn’t miss. Of course, there’s every possibility that my army would lose, they’re not monsters capable of dropping meteors, or are of the millionth level or something ridiculous like that. If I want to destroy the Players without any chance of remittance, I could just ban them permanently from the game. 

So, with every chance that they would lose, I still hoped the best for my soldiers and rooted for them.

Speaking of my Raid Boss and his future confrontation with the Players, Sturm and Double no longer attempted to skip story parts through exploits and destroy the boss ahead of others. A victory to be sure, but a very hard-earned one.

A couple of times, they, and by that I mean Signia’s airship, had appeared near the central square, surely planning to profit from boss victory rewards without needing to defeat the boss himself as they were doing something. But, before they could attempt one bullshit or another, the Prophet would always appear near their hovering airship and drove them away with warning fireball shots. 

Considering that along with many spawned mobs appeared numerous flying demons, also presenting problems for the significantly larger and less maneuverable airship, the pirate crew mostly shifted to waiting mode, just like other pirate crews on broken airships. Whose existence, need for spare parts, and seemingly required confrontation and destruction of other ships had been forgotten by the Players.

Well, with Jabberwocky’s gateway, their function, and ability to transport Players have been forgotten.

Something that suited me just fine. 

On one hand, as long as the Players were more than occupied with the old toy, that being the Ruined City, there was no point in me giving them a new one now. And even if the old toy was discarded and forgotten, then I shouldn't worry too much about it either, less work for me figuring out how it all works and tying it to some non-existent setting and meta-plot.

On the other hand, if my world was so realistic, justified with everything in it having its own reason for existing, down to the respawn system, and who knows, maybe even the leveling system? Then, the fact that pirates who once demanded help fixing their ships now sat like good boys waiting for the Players to deal with their problems fit poorly into the setting's realism.

I should deal with that… Only to find that I didn’t need to.

To my, relatively speaking, of course, fortune, for what even Jabberwocky has forgotten while concentrating on the raid boss, didn't pass unnoticed by the Infernals and Ja-Raja. After all, not long ago they themselves were one such guild gathered around another pirate vessel, wanting to capture another ship and repair it. It was exactly the chain of decisions on this path that led them to their current position as the game's first official demon worshipers.

And now, with no one paying attention to them, the Infernals had leveled up quite well. While Ja-Raja himself, fearing how quickly his followers and their appetites grew, especially after realizing that they leveled best through internal strife, suddenly discovered the pressure on him and his faction had decreased. Many combat-capable units, particularly those previously guarding pirate airships, had departed for the Broken City to prepare for the raid boss fight. 

Considering the Broken City was off-limits to the Infernals, as Jabberwocky controlled the only passage there, and Sturm and Double would never allow them passage on their ship, the Infernals found that they now have a lot of free time, and a target and resource that are not guarded at all. 

I was only pleased by this; the Infernals were my ace in the hole if I needed to clip the wings of other overfed players, but they remained Players, and therefore also needed entertainment to avoid feeling abandoned. Also, to prevent them from massively abandoning the Infernals the moment an opportunity arose, disrupting my plan to use them when needed.

Endless PvP with undefined conditions among each other was certainly entertainment, possibly quite interesting, but went stale quickly enough.

Therefore, watching Jabberwocky rub his hands maliciously, figuring how best to gain profit ever the Raid Boss fight; while Ja-Raja himself was also equally maliciously rubbing his own, gathering his difficult-to-control horde to strike at pirate ships forgotten by all the Players. I could only rejoice. 

Especially considering that Ja-Raja's actions indicated he didn't plan to stop there, he’s already contemplating capturing more than one ship and forcing the pirate crews to cooperate, creating a fleet of his own. The Pirates were certainly a serious threat against the Players, even considering the Infernals were a statistical outlier in the average level of Players; growing through constant mob and mutual extermination. 

But, there were simply immeasurably more Infernals than the Pirates; so press ganging the Pirates to cooperate was quite possible.

Though, of course, it was not yet a done deal. After all, if the Pirates refused till the bitter end, Ja-Raja would be shit out of luck; after all, the Players couldn’t repair the ship themselves, and certainly couldn’t operate the ship themselves. 

Well, not that they could; a system allowing for Players to control the ship doesn’t exist yet, and until the issue arises, it’s not a problem requiring my attention. 

It seems that Ja-Raja has a plan at least, as relying on luck doesn’t seem to be a bright idea, Ja-Raja clearly planned to coerce the pirates; and he'd likely succeed, judging by the AI's reaction to the preliminary messages I'd sent.

So far, it seems that the Players were happily playing around in the sandbox, not violating the rules that I’ve hastily created. Some are urgently moving around, creating a functioning economic system, others are running around poking mobs with their swords, while some are establishing proper metal production. All the while I flew around observing such a picture, engaged in two extremely important things.

First, preparing more content for after the Players dealt with the Prophet and took the Child into their care, that is, new locations, new opponents and new resources.

Currently, the Sky Islands have practically exhausted themselves as a theme for my ‘incredibly large and detailed game, with a million locations hidden around the corner, just step around it, honest!’. 

I simply didn't know what to stuff there. I've created an invasion site, archaeological camp and a grandiose, but completely destroyed sanctuary, that's all. I could proceed realistically, and create more plains, one plain blending into another, add more cities, basically bury the Players in familiar landscapes with changed names and new artifacts; this would be the more ‘realistic’ resolution. 

But danger lurked in such an approach. 

‘Realism’ was interesting only to a point, as even in the most ‘realistic’ shooters where one stomach bullet would and could mean inevitable death from bleeding in fifteen minutes, it was limited. None such games calculated all the medical consequences of a bullet wound, the sepsis development probability, instead using miraculous rescue or emergency operation logistics, with no life support costs and the possibility of permanent disabilities. Because realism was interesting only up to a point. 

Otherwise, any business tycoon-type game lover could simply try opening a real business where realism was absolute, including something as boring as product shelf arrangement.

Therefore, the Players clearly wouldn't want the ‘same thing but different place with different name’ as expected in large continents. There’s a reason games had either one city per race demonstrating their race’s style, or several strongly differing types of cities; like a rich trading city, a small village or fortified fortresses. 

Which in turn meant two things for me.

First, I needed to create a proper ‘transition’ before the Players could enter Togra, a new fully ‘different’ location with a heap of other locations revolving around it, with quests, NPCs, and everything else.

Second, I needed to ensure the Players wouldn't reach my Togra until I finished it, ideally speaking. This meant I must ensure that clearing the three remaining major locations took the Players as much time as possible.

And I had done this, or rather, hoped that I did.

Firstly, in each location I placed its own ‘mega-quest’, something that rewarded the Players with… That’s right, the chance of fighting another raid boss! More precisely, three of them.

The archaeological camp was divided into three excavation zones, the camp itself and its logistics zone, complete with a weathered dock for sky ships, something much larger than pirates' small airships. And besides the Players' beloved demons everywhere, including some new mobs, the Players were tasked with finding the records of the archaeologists' last expedition, before they had abandoned the camp. 

Fortunately for the Players who'd otherwise destroy these records playing with newfound abilities and fire, the records were marked as ‘quest items’, justifiably enchanted against accidental destruction, so the Players couldn't accidentally, or on purpose, simply destroy them. Unfortunately for the Players, however, there were no quest markers or any indications as to where these record parts could be located. Have fun, and good luck finding them!

After finding these records, what awaited the Players was the thrilling game of ‘dig up buried objects and perform the ritual described in the records’, quickly followed by meeting the new raid boss, the ‘Last Guardian of the Heavens’. This time not a mage but a full Paladin instead… Well, as much as I could imagine a Paladin without giving the boss overly strong abilities. He’s still counted among the ‘starter’ bosses, after all.

Similar events were prepared in each of the locations, though, of course, slightly different to avoid reducing everything to simple fetch quests. In the ruined sanctuary, the Players would reassemble a huge altar from personally gathered resources and slaughter demons upon it, then concentrate the ‘corruption spirit’ of the sky gardens into an over-inflated common demon to finish off. As if re-enacting a ritual of destroying the demonic corruption source  The Mob respawn timer wouldn't stop, of course, but without the ritual, uhm… Something, something, demons and corruption, doesn't matter, I’ll think of the lore explanation later, just kill the boss while maneuvering between six internal sanctuary locations.

It would be a fun, and most importantly, time-wasting activity!

Finally, for the last location, the location from where the Demons invaded, I’ve prepared something fun as well. The Players liked killing Demons, right? That’s why in this location, the Invasion Site, I’ve added countless Demon hordes across four locations, an endless Demon horde, where the Players’ job was to destroy the spawner. Oh, and the more spawners were closed, even more and stronger Demons would spawn. Until finally, after closing the last spawner, the Raid Boss would appear. 

The ‘Lesser Demonic Mother’, a grotesque creation, capable of infinitely generating hordes of Demon, delighting the Players who totally weren't tired of killing mob hordes in endless attempts to stem the Demons, like plugging a leaking ship.

Overall, it was something that would most definitely occupy the Player for quite some time, during which I planned to handle completing Togra, its mobs and everything else remaining in-game.

But even with all my plans' extensiveness, this was only one thing on my list of things to do. Thankfully, it wasn’t something as tedious as taking care of the Child’s future quest progressions. 

It was something far more pleasant.

The ice cream in my hands perfectly copied the appearance of a dessert I'd once tried at an expensive restaurant to celebrate my degree. Except for the fact that it didn't melt, the appearance, smell, even the taste matches my memory of the frozen confectionery; even better, since after becoming digital existence, my memory, and my sense of taste paradoxically improved. 

And, even without a medical degree, I could somewhat tell the reason. All of a human’s senses are nothing more than electrochemical signals sent to the brain, after all, what difference does it make if all the signals were digital instead? Moreover, enhanced by unknown numbers of supercomputers capable of viewing millions of variables simultaneously, I could transform these signals into the sensations understandable to me.

In other words, I wasn't so much remembering how the ice cream looked and tasted, but literally recreating it in my mind and re-taste it, only better. No brain freeze, no stomach limitations, and all at zero costs. Well, minus the literal fraction of a cent for the electricity running the supercomputers, but I don’t think my rich bosses would mind.

Moreover, with AI helpers' assistance even if I erred somewhere, they could intervene anytime and help recreate my memory with perfection; they’re already, with their inexpressible thought algorithms, decently replaced my attempt to recreate real objects in the surrounding world's virtual conditions, after all.

That is precisely why, as I sent an endless ice cream spoonful to my mouth, I observed with such a patronizing gaze the Players dealing with their current problems and didn't worry about their probable actions. Even daring to bet on the luck that had failed me so many times before.

Yes, without any doubt, I could say the Players were the real demons sent to this world to create the most effective method of tormenting me.

But it seems that I'd finally encountered the angels capable of easing my existence burden for long years in this world, my AIs providing me with an endless supply of ice cream supply.

And however amusing, in childhood I'd imagined heaven roughly this way, as a place in the skies after death, with endless ice cream and many helpers waiting hand on foot for me, nearby.

And since now? I was, effectively, dead, possessed endless amounts of ice cream, with helpers that would do everything I command, hanging in the sky, in the air, invisible, gazing at the world around me… Not sure I could call these truly ‘heavenly conditions’ yet… But if younger me could see me now?

Well, the literal bout of torments would disqualify this as Heaven, but it was as close as it could get. 

It could've been worse, a lot worse.

I could've gotten stuck in-game exclusively only with Jabberwocky with no other Players around I could torment.

Then my current life would become immeasurably sadder, and no amount of ice cream could fix that.