“So,” said Neil Munroe. He looked sternly between Angus, Effie, Fergus and the others, where he’d had them all sit down and calm down. “Something or someone, with powers beyond any of us, have made us part of their game. Game or not, the deaths are real. We have no phones, no cars, no electricity, no news outside of the village, nothing more than some announcement from nobody-knows-who. There must be no more fighting among ourselves, or where will we be?
“Until we find a way out of this game, we must do our best to succeed at it. In the video games that you know, Young Angus, how do you win?”
“Well, multiplayer games you don’t really win, you…” He lurched sideways as Effie elbowed him. “Uh. Grinding, loot, quests, PvP- Effie, stoppit!” He glanced at the sea of uncomprehending faces. “Uh. Yeah. Sorry. You win games by fighting monsters, getting stronger and completing quests. And teaming up. And fighting other players.”
Angus took a breath and looked right back at Neil’s disapproving expression. “You don’t want to do that, but… look, other people play games too. And they'll know about that part. We might not want to fight them, but they may want to fight us.” The two soldiers both made sounds of agreement, nodding for emphasis. Neil waved Angus to continue. “There’ll probably be things that can help. We can make sure we’re alll allies. Make as many allies as possible. Allies can form things like Guilds and… huh! Hey! If they don’t have Guilds already, I’m a Programmer now, I could-”
His head turned as movement caught his eye, along with that of several others, interrupting his train of thought. The largest viking had reappeared from across the field. Ignoring the looks turned her way and oblivious to the few muted greetings, she made a beeline for the smallest viking, who enveloped her in a hug.
"I didn't go through all those years of medical training and A and E to be told I have 1% in Healing," the biggest viking grumbled, with a waver in her voice hinting at tears held back. "Nothing I could really do anyway."
"Wait, you're a doctor?" Effie asked in surprise.
"And I shouldn't be?" the largest viking demanded.
Effie held up her hands. "I thought about training for that, too," she explained. "But mostly… you're a viking."
"That's just a hobby," the smallest viking said.
"Awesome hobby," Young Angus piped up. "I saw you cut an antbeetle head right off!"
"But what about 'First do no harm?'" Effie asked.
"I'm a doctor, not a bloody vet," the biggest doctor snapped.
The smallest viking pulled her closer and shook her head at Effie over the woman's shoulder.
"Sorry," Effie apologised. "I made things worse, didn't I? I don't know how to… you know. All this. Did it really say you only had Healing at one percent?” She caught the searing glare of the smallest viking, then recoiled, rubbing her chest. “Ow!”
The smallest Viking’s expression flickered into confusion. “If Looks Could Kill? What the Hell? It says I learned a spell!”
Effie shot a look towards Neil, but the man was silent for the moment. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, okay? But this is Cheat Mode, or whatever it called it, and it made me a Programmer, so maybe I can… give you more Healing or something? Not that you should need it, so it’d be giving you what you’re supposed to have anyway. Right?”
“And if you get it wrong, what then?” demanded the smallest viking. “What if it takes it away altogether and doesn’t give it back again, or something?”
“There’s got to be a, a manual, or a help text or something?” Effie glanced around, half expecting something to appear in reaction to the thought.
Angus started talking, but to most of the others it sounded like gibberish, and it made it no better to have the older of the two soldiers, William joining in. Abruptly, Angus stopped. Effie carefully poked him in the shoulder.
“Shh!” Angus said. “I’ve opened a chat window. There’s a Programmer chat channel! Hang on, hang on… okay, got it. Effie, you need to use central:chat/general@PS8.”
Effie stared at Angus as though he’d just grown an extra head- although the chances of that actually happening had probably gone in the last couple of hours. “What? Use it how?”
Angus shrugged. “Just think it. It’s not how I did it, but 8Programmer17 says it’s the quickest way. Just try, okay?”
Welcome to Data Central Chat Client 54.4
CentCore Version 96.7008.300095
You are entering Forum: Octonary Programming Sector
You are entering Room: General Chat
@EPProgrammer2 has entered the chat channel
@8Programmer17
@EPProgrammer1 Yeah, sorry Ef, he’s fanboiing a bit. He? She? What do aliens have anyway?
@EPProgrammer2 8&^%dhhxj8 uuuuu sory sorry sorrrrry 99898982iiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!11111111111
@8Programmer17
@EPProgrammer1 Hi @8Programmer17, we were hoping there’s a manual or a help text? We’ve basically been shat on from a great height and don’t know anything.
@8Programmer17
@8Programmer18
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
@EPProgrammer1 Huh?
@EPProgrammer2 Mrrrmbee theyree nt suppppposed to he;;p us?
@EPProgrammer1 We won’t tell. We just want to help our planet. You can delete the chat record afterwards, right? Promise. We’d owe you a favour?
@8Programmer17
@EPProgrammer2 Weeeeeeeeeeee want to know th code to give some9ne a ski;; ;eve;.
@EPProgrammer1 Maybe just leave it to me, Ef. Can we have some basic codes for modding skills, spells, levels, that sort of thing? Your code’s a bit like ours but not the same. The, um, Initialisation should have given people some stuff they already knew, but it didn’t.
@8Programmer18 <17, did you forget to run the pre-Initialisation evaluation again?>
@8Programmer17
@8Programmer18 Add.Skill_Entity [Name](“Skill Skill_Name”) Set.Skill_Entity [Name](“Skill_Skill_Name #”) Trigger.Skill_Specialisation_Entity [Name](“Skill Skill_Name”) That’s the one to use if you want them to select from the System-calculated list, or Set.Skill_Specialisation_Entity [Name](“Skill:Skill_Name" "Specialisation:Specialisation_Name"). There’s no skill level restriction on the command, but if you set a Specialisation that’s above the skill level they won’t be able to access it until they level the skill high enough.> @8Programmer17 Add.Spell_Entity [Name](“Spell Spell_Name”)> @EPProgrammer1 Is there a way to see other, uh, to view the stats of an, uh, entity? @8Programmer17 @8Programmer18 @EPProgrammer2 Thatsss rea;;y usefu;; thank you @8Programmer17 @8Programmer17 has left the chat channel @8Programmer18 has left the chat channel @Uknow8Iam has left the chat channel You have been disconnected | 8Programmer17 8Programmer18 Uknow8Iam EPProgrammer1 EPProgrammer2 Effie and Angus both needed several moments to work out that they were still inside their bodies, sitting on the ground, with an audience. “Did we… just talk to aliens?” Effie asked, disbelief clear in every syllable. Murmurs of surprise and unease began to ripple through the crowd. Effie simply sat, blinking and flexing her hands, head half-turned towards Angus and her eyes unfocussed. Angus shrugged, but seemed to be shaking off the disconnect more quickly. “I guess so. Useful aliens.” Someone behind him gave an audible snort. “Friendly aliens, kind of. Helping us instead of fighting us. Bother. I was going to ask them how to set up a Guild, and I forgot.” Effie shook her head, as if her hair were wet and she were ridding herself of excess water, and looked over at Angus. “They had to hurry off. I don’t think they’re supposed to be helping us. I expect you can work it out. We’d better explain.” “Aye,” Neil said dryly, “That would be appreciated.” Angus opened his mouth. Effie snapped her head around to Neil and started talking quickly, drowning out whatever her fellow Programmer might have said. “Angus managed to, kind of, text message a couple of the programmers working on… whatever this is. There was some sort of problem, one of them spotted it and is trying to fix it. They’re not really supposed to be helping us, so they had to go when their… supervisor, I guess… showed up. But we know how to give people the skills they ought to have.” “We know more than that,” Angus said loudly, glaring at Effie. “We know how to change the skills of anything. Even the monsters!” “Not all the monsters,” Effie argued. “Not Quest monsters, or whatever Swarm monsters are.” “We never found out how to change stats either,” Angus said with sad realisation, then brightened. “I can try to figure it out using a monster. Then it doesn’t matter if I get it wrong.” “It does if you make it tougher,” William pointed out, “but good work. If I can make a suggestion, Mr Munroe sir? I’ll take the Lance Corporal and a couple of the vikings, as bodyguards to these two computer wizards. We’ll track down whatever isolated monsters we can find, and they can try out what they’ve learned. Best they not try anything with any of us until they’ve had some practice.” “Aye, that sounds like a good plan,” Neil agreed. “Look after them. They may be the key to our survival.” “That’s a worry,” grumbled Fergus. “I don’t trust any of this. We have to assume any outsider is a threat. We should’na be using anything these aliens give us.” A few voices lifted in agreement with Fergus. Neil nodded slowly. “You have a point, but we are being cautious. We are not blindly trusting.” “I’ve used an enemy’s weapons against them before,” Lance Corporal Bain said, and took a breath before sweeping his gaze around the group. “If it’s a weapon, I say we learn how to use it. If we don’t understand it, we can’t fight it. If we do understand it, we know whether we can use it for ourselves.” “And what if we don’t want to go?” Effie asked. Her voice was quiet, but Alistair Bain’s words had silenced the others. “Oh come on, Effie-” Angus began. “You’re trying to persuade everyone else, without ever asking most of the people you’re expecting to go,” Effie rushed on. “Either you’re persuading everybody, or you’re giving orders and expecting people to obey them. But you can’t order some people and persuade others. We’re not in the middle of a fight right now, it’s not life or death right now. Someone has to be in charge. But how are they being in charge?” “This isn’t the time to be holding an election,” Fergus stated, but William shook his head. “No, it’s a good point,” the Sergeant said. “We need to be organised. How we do it isn’t as important as having everybody agree on the how. I propose Neil Munro as Chieftain,” Fergus opened his mouth, a frown on his face, but William kept talking. “...Fergus Taylor as his deputy, our viking doctor over there as head of Medical, and myself as head of the Military. We’ll want someone as Quartermaster or Stores, and probably someone else to get accommodation sorted out for everyone. Catering and so on. Who’s the police officer? Maybe put him or her in charge of intelligence gathering.” Fergus had closed his mouth when William put his name forward as deputy. “Aye,” he said at the end, thoughtfully. “I could second that.” Discussion broke out. People broke away to draw others into the conversation from across the field. There was no formal vote, but it was clear that the general feeling had swung in favour of the proposal when a message appeared in front of everybody’s eyes. [Authority Claimed! The indigenous inhabitants of this Subsector have declared that the area is under the command of Neil Munroe of Earth. Change of command now requires formal Challenge or the voluntary resignation of this commander.] ♩♪♫♩♬♪