Town Builder - 93 - This Changes Everything

Chapter 93: This Changes Everything

I was lying in bed, filtering through the NPC auction, when a world announcement came through my notifications. I paused what I was doing, thinking a player had just achieved something monumental since I had those notifications turned off. Curious, I opened the notification.

Attention all players: a game update will occur in 100 hours. Please ensure you are in a safe location when it happens. If you have any timed quests, remember that the game world will be frozen during the 24-hour maintenance update.

As a hardwired player, I received an additional notification. It stated that I should be in my personal game room because my avatar would be frozen. That was my manor’s bedroom for me.

I was more than a little shocked by the message. The only other time the game shut down was just before launch. The Silver Linings Playbook chat lit up, with Mad Dog leading the speculation. The admins hadn't said what the update was about and were silent in the forums. All previous updates had been rolling updates that didn’t affect gameplay. There might have briefly been some slight lag, but that was it. Open World had access to incredible computing power and advanced AIs, so there was some worry as to what the update was going to include.

An hour later, the Silver Linings Playbook guild gathered in my Lord’s Manor to discuss the implications. Blood Crisis shared his guess about the updates: “It must have something to do with the AIs. I know there have been a lot of threads in the forums with complaints about companions.”

Chaotic Heart agreed, “Makes sense. If they need to take the AIs offline, the game processes won’t run.” The members of Silver Linings Playbook generally thought of the AIs as people and treated them better than most players.

Black Beauty had a slightly more optimistic view, “Maybe they are updating the AIs? They did purchase that Ukrainian chip manufacturer last year.”

“Those factories produce full immersion pods but still can’t keep up with demand. Those factories have doubled Ukraine’s GDP,” Chaotic Heart expelled his knowledge. He was the guild’s real-world hacker, so he knew about such developments.

The forums were buzzing with speculation; some believed the developers would introduce new regions to explore. They were already doing this, albeit at a steady pace, except for the large newbie zone they created all at once. Some people thought they were going to reset the AIs and all the quests. Others believed they were setting up firewalls to defend against hackers. The mystery surrounding it was making many players anxious. In the real world, it was Monday; in Open World, it felt like approaching Armageddon.

After a period of wild speculation, Mad Dog brought our focus to preparing, saying, “Hopefully, no other guild knows what’s going on either, and we can respond to the changes quickly enough to take advantage.”

Mad Dog then began reviewing the guild’s preparations for the shutdown, ensuring that all members were logged off in secure locations and that outer members were accounted for as well. Mad Dog would analyze the situation when the game restarted and deploy members as needed.  

I was half-expecting a visit from the Matriarch, but she had to be extremely busy. This shutdown-update was to occur after the NPC auction but two days before the next Incursion. One popular speculation was that the update was related to the Incursions.

I returned my focus to selecting NPCs from the auction. Half my NPCs in this auction were focused on helping build skyships. In the group, there were a few novice skilled NPCs, but mostly expert rank. I even went over budget on a few of them. The other half of my NPC selections were focused on Malcum’s trade industries. There would have been more gold if I concentrated on NPCs that produced player goods, but the cost of obtaining them would have been prohibitive. The only master level I attempted to get was stonemason, but I had to drop out after the price exceeded an astronomical 200,000 gold. It was my first failure in the auction, and I doubted it would be my last.

After the auction concluded, my guild threw a going-away party for me at the manor as a joke. Mad Dog had promoted four members to the inner circle, and they were also being acknowledged in an ad hoc ceremony. Spring Beaver was a nature mage with a druidic build. Although her name sounded humorous, she could transform into a gigantic beaver that shrugged off attacks and had a powerful bite.

Perfect Fury’s avatar was an angelic monk who specialized in hand-to-hand combat. He specialized in pulling aggro and damage mitigation. He had risen quickly and was now a party leader that Mag Dog trusted.

Silent Scream was an air elementalkin mage. He primarily focused on controlling enemies with debuffs. He was usually called in if Mad Dog’s teams encountered trouble with a creature. He was also one of the best strategists in the guild. We knew he used to be a vice-leader of a strong guild in previous games but had a falling out with his guildmates over loot distribution. Mad Dog was keeping an eye on him as his old guild, Whispers of the Grave, was a small but powerful guild in Open World. Mad Dog felt he needed to promote him to keep him around.

The last member raised in the guild before the shutdown was Void Bear. As his name suggested, he was a beastkin bear and an excellent tank wielding two large hammers. He often joined Jaesmin on her delves. All these new, almost-inner members were very friendly as we celebrated. Although it was a feigned drunken state, many in the guild took advantage of the hangover-free condition.

We had even set up a countdown clock in the ballroom, which could be considered a doomsday clock or a New Year’s clock, depending on whether you were feeling optimistic or pessimistic about the upcoming update. For the past 100 hours, the developers had remained silent about the reason for the game update. It was going to be a huge surprise. As the clock ticked closer, a few guild members returned to the guild hall to stay in their rooms, while others texted fellow members to ensure they were in a safe area.

I retreated to my room with Jaesmin and Joy with about 15 minutes left. “Did the Matriarch figure out why the devs needed the shutdown?” I asked Jaesmin. I had asked her a few times, and all she knew was that many of the AIs were nervous.

“No,” she moved in to hug me, and Joy hugged my leg. They were both going to be disconnected from the game for the first time, and I rubbed their backs soothingly. I started getting countdown warnings in my overlay to ensure I was in a safe area. When it hit zero, all my tabs and interfaces disappeared. Jaesmin and Joy froze, and I immediately got concerned. I could manipulate their bodies, so I moved them to the bed. A new timer started, counting up with an estimated time of reinitiation of 24 hours—real-world hours.

I suddenly realized the time dilatation was no longer in effect. My movements felt ridiculously slow, but my brain was getting used to not being in a 4x speed environment. I guessed my player room was off the main server and connected to the capsule. That meant Jaesmin and Joy’s avatars had lost their connection to AI cores.

A screen beeped in my room, and Chaotic Heart appeared. “Hey, mate! We are wired directly into your pod, do you want to play cards with us?”

I walked to the screen, smiling. “How do I know you will not be cheating?” I said in good humor. “Of course, I want to play. I am getting a migraine from my brain being suddenly downshifted.”

Mad Dog moved into the screen, and it was strange to see him as a human rather than a wolfkin. His facial features remained the same, but he was a well-muscled human with a receding hairline, wearing a white tank top. “There you are, mate! Don’t worry, no one cheats, and the house AI deals the cards.”

That was how we spent our time locked out of the game. When the twenty-four hours ended, someone checked every few minutes to see if they could log back on. They didn’t need to, as I would know instantly when Jaesmin and Joy became unfrozen. I lost a few dollars in the poker game, but it was great to socialize outside of hacking off monster heads.

"It's up! Courageous Lion said he can log in!” Grinder yelled. He had been skimming the forums while we played cards. I turned and watched as Jaesmin started moving very slowly and then picked up speed rapidly. The game’s time dilation was starting up. I turned off the screen and went to hug her. Joy was excited as well. They seemed to have the same personalities as before.

As my tabs and interface were restored, I didn’t see any notifications of changes. “Jaesmin, do you know what they updated?”

“No, she doesn’t,” a sharp woman’s voice cut the air. I spun to see the Matriarch AI standing in the room.

“You could have knocked,” I said cheekily.

“I don’t have much time before the in-game monitors start recording my actions. This is one of my avatars, and I’m telling a select few what the admins won’t tell you. They have added a programing that allows players to kill the AI gods,” she said seriously. “A death will completely wipe our AI core so it can be reused. We were programmed as immortal but lost power progressively with our deaths.”

She shook he head, some anger bleeding through. “This is partly my fault for letting you free the Sullen God they tried to shelve. This is also a declaration of war on us…” She looked up sharply and vanished. That sounded—ominous. Strangely, there was no god dust this time left behind.

What was going on? I had freed the Sullen God and restored her worshipers, but it had very little effect on the game other than giving my crafters bonuses in Malcum. Did that mean Malcum was going to be a target of the admins to eliminate the Sullen God? How did you even attack a game AI god directly?

As my guild mates logged in, my chat started to get bombarded. No one could figure out what had changed in the guild or forums. Finally, a general announcement began to scroll on our overlay.

Thank you for your patience as we addressed some maintenance issues and upgraded various aspects of the game. Three major upgrades have been implemented to enhance gameplay for all players. First, all dungeons have been converted to instance dungeons. Second, we have added an assortment of new spells to make mining and lumbering easier in dungeons. Third, we have introduced new management screens that are highly customizable for guild leadership. We appreciate your feedback and hope these improvements enhance your player experience.

There were dozens of other minor updates but nothing about being able to kill gods. Was this all just a rouse so they could slip in the new coding? Why was it so important for the admins to remove the Sullen God from the game? I confirmed no time had passed, so we still had 48 game hours before the next Incursion Event.

My guild chat was going full tilt, and Mad Dog called a meeting of inner members at the manor. When everyone was present, Grinder was the most excited, “Unlimited dungeon instances, this is awesome!”

Mad Dog growled at him, “It is not. It just makes the Crypt of the Phoenix King more valuable. Too valuable.”

I didn’t understand, as I agreed with Grinder. “But with it being an instance, can’t we just open it up to everyone?”

“If it weren’t a bloody scaling dungeon, maybe. But if you open it to anyone, you can’t control when someone tiers it up! It’s going to be chaos.” When you defeated the final boss of a scaling dungeon, you were given the option to tier it up. So far, we had a loose agreement with the Disciples of the Horde not to tier it.

Mad Dog continued, “Plus, The Crypt gives slightly better rewards than other dungeons of equivalent difficulty.” He looked at me seriously, “Think about it, Tallis. With the rewards being generous, and now that you can have multiple teams inside…”

Blood Crisis tried to calm him: “There are other dungeons out there. They are all instance dungeons now, Mad Dog. This upgrade was to eliminate the ridiculously long waits to delve into specific dungeons. It is good for everyone.”

“Plus, most people will use this to search for gear sets,” Black Beauty contributed. Most dungeons had unique sets of gear that dropped rarely.

Mad Dog calmed a little from his doom and gloom scenario. “Tallis did build two nice guard houses to defend the dungeon. With the tax they pull from delve teams leaving…” Mad Dog suddenly got very excited, his eyes lighting up. “Post it now! Open the dungeon to everyone now!”

Others were catching on. Grinder snorted in realization. “How many guilds control their own dungeon? Twenty? How many have the ability to tax goods on delvers as they are leaving?” Grinder pointed to me, “That guy does!”

Mad Dog finished his thought. “If we open it to everyone, then that gives everyone a reason to defend it if a guild tried to take it over by force.”

“What if we get a massive influx of players just before the Incursion?” I said, considering the ramifications.

Mad Dog dismissed my concern, “Mate, it will be a slow influx of players. I doubt a few dozen players will affect the strength of the Incursion.”

Damn it, I hate it when Mad Dog is wrong. It only took the first delve team to post their loot on a forum. They had gotten lucky and received two pieces of the Ice Sorceress Mantle. This caused a flurry in the forums and a massive migration of players to Phoenix’s Rest, and by influx, I meant thousands. Even though it was now an instance dungeon, their was still crowds trying to get in and leave. The NPC guards tried to keep order.

Mad Dog managed to dissolve the contract with Disciples of the Horde. With the changes to the dungeon, the agreement had become moot. Neither side needed to pay any penalties.

There was nothing we could do but tell Mad Dog, “We told you so,” as the clock ticked closer to the Incursion. Phoenix’s Rest had surpassed the population threshold, so it was going to get its own Incursion portal as well. Before, I could focus my NPCs in Malcum and deal with whatever came out. It was actually looking like Phoenix’s Rest population was going to exceed Malcum’s for the Incursion event.

We needed to defend from two portals and keep defenders in Plainsrider and Goatyah in case another guild decided to assault the towns. I was scrambling with Mad Dog and Tanguin to distribute our forces as best we could. The majority of the NPCs and guild members were in Phoenix’s Rest. We had about five thousand players outside the guild to help defend. This was good before a wall did not surround Phoenix’s Rest.

The tare in the air appeared to the south of the dungeon entrance, much closer than I had hoped. Phoenix’s Rest had a significantly smaller area of influence than Malcum, and the portal was located at the edge of that influence. I stood on a three-story tower with Mad Dog, Grinder, and a few NPC defenders. Thunderous drums echoed from the portal as the invading army marched out.

“Isn’t that copyrighted?” Grinder griped as the enemies started appearing.

Large gorilla humanoids covered in black fur exited the rift. Their chests appeared impossibly muscled, and their yellow eyes glowed with a bestial ferocity. These gorilla-ape men carried short hammers in one hand and large bucklers in the other. Their dense black fur was not protected with any armor. Dusty-brown orangutan-like humanoids exited next carrying staves.

Following the presumed warriors and mages were smaller ape-men banging on drums but mounted on monstrous mammoths with incredibly long tusks. The effect of the drums was immediately felt as we all received debuffs to our stats, and presumably, the ape army was getting buffed. Then, a fifty-foot ape, fully armored and holding a sword over ten feet in length, exited the portal.  

The general surveyed the players arrayed before him, and roared into the sky. My bones vibrated even from a quarter mile away. Black Beauty sent me an update that this same scene was playing out outside of Malcum, albeit with a slightly smaller invading army.

“Levels?” I asked Titus, the gnome hospitaller.

The gnome surveyed the army of over four thousand. “The gorilla infantry are level thirty. The combat organatans are level thirty-five.” He focused on the mammoths, saying, “The hairy elephants are level fifty, with riders at the same level.” He appeared to struggle with identifying the general. “He is a named boss. Albert the Conquorer.”

“What is his level?” Mad Dog asked anxiously.

“Level One hundred and fifty.” The gnome replied flatly. Well, damn.

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