[Lucidus has called to arms!] / [It's time to venture forth to the Kingdom of Light!] / [Gather your friends to become the greatest adventurers of Lucidus!]
That's what the latest promotional video for the brand new first expansion of
Oh, right. I haven't explained why we're here in the first place.
Ever since that last [Hidden Quest], we’ve managed to get tickets for the early look event of the expansion from our father. It's not just a way to see it up close and personal before tomorrow, but it's also our way to get back on him for almost traumatizing me with those hellish battles I endured while Kazuki breezed through his without any issues on his end (though he was also pissed about it, namely how it was unfair for me to get that torturous fights). But we're not here to check all of the features and locations we might visit tomorrow. Rather, we're here on a different mission and we just took Zac, Damon, and Yuri for them to enjoy the event in the open area.
"I can't believe you managed to let us into the most hype-up launch event in the history of
"I wish we could. But if Kazuki doesn't want to see it, then it's the same for me," I answer. "Besides, I don't do well with crowds, especially large events like this one."
"Understandable. I wish I could do the same as well, but I'm also curious about the [Familiar] feature they mentioned on the patch notes," Damon says. "We'll make sure to save some food for you two once you return."
"And don't forget to stop by some booths here," Yuri informs us. "I heard you might win some in-game items if you participate in them."
"We'll keep that in mind. Come on, Kaz."
"I'm right behind you, Hayate!"
We then split off to enjoy what the studio has to offer. Since we have VIP passes courtesy of Dad, we planned to go deeper into the studio immediately, but...
"Sorry. We accept the passes, but it will take a while for your tour guide to prepare," the guard says. "Again, sorry for the rudeness, but we'll inform you once they are ready."
Huh. Guess not all guards follow the "literally kicking everyone out if they don't have a VIP pass" trope. Still, I'm a bit bummed we have to wait for a while. I’m curious what's behind the [VeilCons] on the creation of
"Hey, Hayate! We can try out the booths Yuri mentioned," Kazuki mentions. "I want to get those items in time for the expansion release!"
At least Kazuki has a bright side to everything. Then again, I need to start learning not to rush things anyway.
"Alright. We should try out the skeeball one nearby. That way, the guide will..."
"Seriously, Bryan?! How slow can you get?!"
Huh. They're oddly loud despite this place being already loud as it is. I turn around and notice three people at the "Whack the Wild Rabbit" booth. Three of them seemed to be a bit older than me, Zac, and Damon and they were also wearing VIP passes on their necks.
"For a self-proclaimed dark hunter in the game, you're not exactly a sharpshooter in real life," the boy with a cowlick and glasses snarks as he grins mischievously.
"Give me a break! It's not like I can replicate the [Masteries] in real life, you know," his friend who is also wearing glasses but is wearing a plaid shirt that says, "You're just lucky I can make up for it with my dexterous writing hand!"
"How's that any different with any of your hands?"
Wow. Those three college boys seem to be having the time of their lives in this event. I'm surprised they got their VIP passes, though I wonder how and where they got them. We got them from Dad's dev friends and they didn't seem to have any public promotion of them beforehand.
"Hey, Hayate!" I gasp when I hear Kazuki nearby. "This booth has a [Wild Bear] punching bag contest! You might be able to win this one!"
Oh, right. Well, I should leave them alone to enjoy the event. It might be hypocritical of me if I start staring at them for too long.
----------------------------------------
After a few booths, we are later called by one of the guards and he escorts us upstairs where the studios are located. We are then asked to wait by the door while he leaves to pick up our tour guide. It only takes us a few minutes before he returns with someone wearing a white dress shirt and blue necktie.
"You two must be Hayate and Kazuki Palmer, correct?"
We nod to the new face, who seems friendly so far.
"Yeah. You must be our tour guide for the Midnight Dragon Studios, correct?" I ask politely.
"That's right. My name is Miles Spears. I'm one of the AI programmers of
"Observe?!" Both of us exclaim. Wait, is he saying...
"Don't worry. We didn't see everything during our observations. We mostly observed your interactions and the surprise events organized through the [Gaia Live] AI program, that's all," Miles explains. "I assure you. We still respect our players' privacy, so no public info has been seen or shared with the mods and developers. So please don't get too paranoid about your internet safety for the sake of your enjoyment of the game."
Well, I can't say that I'm overly cautious of the game's security. But if what he said was true, I guess I should rest easy for now. However, if what he said is true, then does that mean he saw everything from that [Test of Courage] incident?!
"Really? So does that mean you knew Dad before the game was launched?" Kazuki asks with his usual puppy dog eyes.
"You can say that. But the chatter can wait. You two want to see how
"Yeah! I can't wait to see how you guys brought
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I chuckle as I watch Kazuki being his usual curious self. If there's one thing I can't stop is that he will do everything to satisfy his curiosity. Although I may need to keep him in line if he gets too crazy.
"Good! But keep in mind that there are some rooms we can't enter for the sake of the game's secrecy. There is some unreleased content we need to prepare and it would be bad if it gets leaked by accident. Speaking of which, I suggest you turn off your phones during the tour for the same reason. You don't want to ruin everyone's fun with leaks and spoilers, right?"
Good idea. As much as it's a pain we're not allowed to take photos or video, I understand why they're doing all of this. Leaks and datamines are common in this gaming community and if you're not careful, seeing them firsthand might ruin whatever surprise that the developers tried to plan for months now. Sure, it might disappoint Zac, but it's for the sake of the game's popularity and surprise after all.
"Alright. Now that's done, follow me."
I see Kazuki quietly jumping for joy as he starts following Mr. Spears. While I didn't show it in front of them, I'm actually excited as well about what they did with the game before the release.
----------------------------------------
For the next two hours, we are given a tour around the art design team that made character designs of the game, the coding department that focuses on building the game itself, and the planning department where the magic starts. As we tour around with Mr. Spears' aide, we ask questions about the creation of the gameplay, how they fixed the bugs, and other things we didn't know about the game's creation itself.
Eventually, we found ourselves in some sort of meeting room where there was a large table occupying the whole room with a special corner that provided coffee, snacks, and other amenities. Both of us sat down at the table while Mr. Spears prepared some snacks and drinks for us to enjoy.
"I know the choices here aren't much from downstairs. But I hope you two like mango juice and espresso," Mr. Spears offers.
"Uh... I prefer decaf if there is one available," I answer, knowing that despite it's not a school day tomorrow, I seriously want to retain my sleep schedule for a while. "And throw in some cheese biscuits if they're available."
"Ooh! Ooh! I have some chocolate bars or wafers!" Kazuki asked while raising his hand like he was in a class. "And some strawberry hard candies!"
After we made some requests, Mr. Spears gave us what we asked before he sat right at the opposite side of the table.
"Now then, what do you think of the studio so far?"
Both of us look at each other while we enjoy our snacks.
"It's good. I'm surprised that a small studio made a big VRMMO like
"We did rent out a whole floor to help us support the servers of the game," Mr. Spears explains. "And when it comes to the lore of the game, our game writers along with Enigma themselves are working on expanding the world of
"Wow. I still can't believe Wayne Enigma is helping build
Please don't. Thank god Damon spilled the deets on who created the world of
"And speaking of which, I know you two have some questions about the game's creation. I won't answer any story and gameplay-related questions, though. So keep that in mind."
Knowing Kazuki, I doubt he will. Although, I notice that he's humming in thought with a frown. I guess he's trying so hard to avoid those questions that he's stuck. So I might as well kick this Q&A portion of the tour off.
"Well, if we're talking about some of Isekai's behind the scene stuff, I want to know more about the AI program that our Dad's company worked on for the game,"
Mr. Spears gives us a small smile. "A good question. It makes sense that you want to know more about your father's work to maintain and create life in the game world. It's not much of a secret, but most players might not understand how it works. I'll try my best to explain terms you two can understand, but I suggest you two listen well, okay?"
Both of us nod as we prepare to hear Mr. Spears's explanation.
"Alright. To start, do you two know about a special organ in our bodies that helps us think and make memories?"
We think about his strange question. Although to me, it's not all off-topic as I can guess what he's trying to say. But I'll let Kazuki answer that one.
"Is it...our brains?"
Mr. Spears snaps his fingers. "Yep. In this case, a special program is used to run the story and lore of
Kazuki nods and answers, "It's called "Gaia Living"! I think."
"That's [Gaia Live], Kaz," I correct him. "It was made by Dad's company, IceChip Studios with his help as part of your commission for the game. Is that correct?"
Miles nods and says, "It was first conceptualized by your father during the planning phase and he showed us prototypes of the program during the development process. Both the original creators were impressed by them and they gave him and IceChip a few suggestions to make the final product. Of course, there are some ideas your father had to deny. So most of the AI development was still until his control."
That makes sense considering he and his boss aren't the types to accept executive meddling in their products. I'm glad the creators were able to work together with them during the development.
"So what does the [Gaia Live] do, Mr. Spears?" Kazuki asks next.
"I'm glad you asked, Kazuki. It mostly acts as a backbone of the virtual world. A core and a brain, if you simplify it," Spears explains. "It helps with generating the monsters and NPCs and the lore data created for the game. It also runs the security for the game as well as a firewall that detects potential hackers and cheating devices being used to attempt to alter the game's contents. While it is still playable with the program, you can say that without [Gaia Live],
"So it's like a god of the virtual world?"
Mr. Spears shakes his head. "Well, yes and no. It acts as a god, but it's much more than that. It's a bit complicated to explain, so let's just live with that. If you have any other questions."
I see. I think I have an idea of what he meant with those words. This gives me another reason to ask this next question.
"If that's the case, I'm wondering about the NPCs we interacted with so far in our playthroughs," I say. "I have to ask. How in the world did you make them so life-like?"
I turn and see Kazuki tilting his head as he asks, "What do you mean, Hayate? They look life-like when we talk to them."
"I mean how we talked to them. From what we understand, we were given set choices on how we answer the NPC. Any other ones will simply let them repeat the question or be confused by it. Yet it is different when we met Bai Hu, Veritates, Acutus, and the Sign Sages," I recalled. "There are no choices given to us when we first met them. Rather, we talked to them like we normally do in real life with some role-playing. What's interesting is that they managed to answer every question we gave them. We didn't ask them off-character, of course, but they didn't hesitate to answer everything we wanted to know in those situations. There's no way they can do that unless..."
"Unless they were given life to something?"
I knew it. With Mr. Spears smiling, that confirms my suspicions.
"Mr. Spears, I think you already knew what I'm getting through, right?" I ask.
"Well then, do enlighten us. Why do you think the NPCs in [Isekai] were so life-like?"
I smile, knowing what he was trying to do.
"Yeah, what is it, Hayate?" Kazuki interjects. "Why are Bai Hu and the others able to talk to us normally?"
I take a deep breath, knowing what to answer next.
"[Gaia Live] gave each NPC a bit of its AI programming. Isn't that right, Mr. Spears?"
I wait for his answer with my bated breath. He then sighs and says, "You are the son of the great Adam Palmer, all right."
"Wait, is that all true?!"
My eyes widen at that sudden voice. It wasn’t Kazuki's nor Mr. Spears's.
We turn around and to our shock, the very same three college boys from earlier are standing near the door of the meeting room, all of them shocked at what they heard.
"Are you saying we're talking to real living AIs in a VRMMO?!" The boy in glasses screams with total disregard for the use of his inside voice. "Wow, that's next-gen hi-tech amazing!"
Of course, he is shushed by his friends, but it's too little, too late for them. I even slap my forehead while Kazuki stares at them very speechless.
So much for being a private Q&A session...