"The duskgnomes are as good as dead. There's no chance they'll survive."

Invisible to the inhabitants of the virtual world, a golden figure hovered high above the plateau. The senior moderator with the Gamertag "Erzbengel" cast one last disdainful glance at the doomed clan. Rocks and earth did not obstruct his moderator's view, so he could quickly assess the number and strength of all the groups present. He gestured with his left hand, and a virtual tablet appeared. Glancing at the display, he checked the time shown in his field of vision.

More figures appeared at short intervals. Within a minute, thirty more Invisibles had gathered. Erzbengel glanced at the clock, compared two lists, and then ticked off another point on a list: "Improvable, but acceptable. Everyone has visited the waypoints in the correct order and arrived here within the allotted time. With that, you have successfully completed the orientation and navigation training."

He fell silent as another voice drowned him out. One of the newcomers chatted with his neighbor without a care in the world: "... besides, we should rename ourselves guardian angels. At the moment, there are enough of us for everyone to hover over a player and keep an eye on them."

Erzbengel coughed. When that didn't help, he became more direct: "Herbert_Mueller! If you want to chat, please at least go to a private channel."

"Sorry..."

"Good, everyone here should understand that we are still in beta. There are just a thousand players in the whole world. There are currently almost five hundred moderators. That's a completely insane ratio, even if most of them aren't even active. But when the beta phase ends in four weeks, and hundreds of thousands of players flood into the world... Trust me, you won't have a moment's peace. Even with the help of the AI, which can solve all the standard problems."

One of the prospective moderators raised his hand: "Will there also be AI-controlled moderators?"

"No. The AI does a lot of work for us but only intervenes via text messages from the world's voice. So, we're not in a Q&A session here; that was yesterday. We'll be happy to have another one after lunch. Now I'd like to show you our biggest problem in the next phase. The quest system."

The trainees looked at each other in confusion, but everyone just shrugged their shoulders and didn't understand.

"Yes, I know. Of course, we haven't published anything about that. You won't either. Please just read your NDAs carefully before you even say hello to anyone outside the virtual world. So, the quest system. This is a graphical representation of the timeline with the planned course of the world quest."

He tapped something on his tablet, and the sky filled it with a straight line of timestamps. "The main plot revolves around the emergence of followers of a once-banished god: Quorll, the Devourer. You can read his backstory later. The idea was that the desert tribes join forces to conquer the world in the name of Quorll. Players can choose a side and help determine how the entire virtual world will develop. With an open ending and multiple possibilities." The timeline branched out into several arrows at the end. "And numerous decision quests. Large circles appeared at regular intervals along the timeline. Before branching out, they got bigger and bigger.

"There were hundreds of ready-made quests for beginners, especially at the beginning."

Numerous small circles appeared around the upper third of the timeline.

"Then there were the automatically generated quests, which the Nemesis AI's quest system was supposed to generate independently. Distributed by Questgivers everywhere."

More and more circles appeared along the timeline, spreading out on both sides.

"Clearly outlined. Understandable. Controlled. Prior to that, we aimed for the world to progress after the war against the necromancers. We wanted to simulate a period of peace and recovery before players embarked on the next world quests. The AI was meant to simulate approximately twenty years without player intervention during the four-week downtime before the beta phase. All players were removed from the system since human brains cannot be accelerated to more than five times the speed, even with a neural link in a full immersion pod. Then, the AI operated independently. The programmer in charge did not set an endpoint, assuming there would barely be enough time to complete twenty years. However, the AI progressed much faster than expected due to internal evolution and self-improvement in syntax and formulas. Much faster. Nearly two hundred years passed here!"

Murmurs echoed through the open channel, and the moderator noticed a significant increase in discussions on the private channels, although he refrained from eavesdropping out of politeness.

"Cultures emerged. New traditions and groups formed. Among them were the Krigesti. And that's when the confusion began."

The systematic arrangement of quest symbols on the timeline vanished. The major quests, positioned at regular intervals, disappeared entirely, replaced by a chaotic jumble of various small and large circles scattered across the timeline.

"The initial forest quest was still fairly organized. The defenders fell, and the attackers claimed the forest. But then came the downfall of the god Fliedabarr, whose resurgence was supposed to be pivotal. His demise came with the burning of his final temple. His few NPC followers lost their divine abilities, and the Krigesti now present an entirely different challenge than anticipated."

Herbert raised his hand and spoke up immediately, "Couldn't it all be debugged or reset?"

"The Nemesis OS is an Omega-class AI, one of only five worldwide. Just to remind you, these systems were built entirely by the slightly less sophisticated Phi and Chi-class AIs. Humans can no longer fully comprehend their workings and motivations. They can be negotiated with, but there's no way to externally manipulate them besides complete destruction. The system oversees nearly two million AI hardware cores of different classes for NPC characters spread across an area equivalent to Earth. Everything is built upon the history of past campaigns and countless player interactions. Starting from scratch isn't feasible. And even if a reset were possible, it would result in bland, uninteresting AI characters. Nobody invests in that. While not all NPCs possess sentient-class Kappa and Lambda AI cores, those with whom players regularly interact do. Numerous drones in the background, non-sentient Alpha-class AIs performing mundane tasks like cleaning or crafting. If a player engages with a drone extensively, it awakens spontaneously. Nemesis assigns it a backstory, personality, and a higher-level AI core. It's a spontaneous awakening, so to speak."

One trainee interjected a question: "Which AIs are sentient again?" The silly question led to a few groans from the others present. The moderator rolled his eyes: "Everything from grade Kappa upwards is fully sentient. Did you miss elementary school or what?"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He gestured downwards, directing their attention to the plain below, just south of the pass near Mulnirsheim. "Here's an example of the issue we're facing. A player faction has aligned themselves with the god Nistrul, who has issued unplanned and unforeseen objectives to his followers through questgivers. They're causing havoc completely outside the bounds of the normal storyline. Currently, they're pursuing the last dryad princess and her escort of player heroes. Most of those involved on both sides have only just returned after a week of real-time downtime. Nemesis has provided both groups with Questbanners."

He glanced briefly at the puzzled expressions of the trainees, anticipating their questions. "No, you wouldn't have heard of this yet. Nemesis devised the concept of Questbanners specifically for this chase without consulting the plot designers, of course. These are three-meter-long poles topped with the group's emblem, functioning as mobile spawn points. However, they're only accessible to players who were present at the start of the journey and haven't used another spawn point since. Like regular spawn points, they're indestructible but can be stolen and can't be stored in extra-dimensional containers. If a player logs out nearby, their avatar doesn't disappear but becomes colorless and follows the group, controlled by a drone AI. It's risky, though, as they remain vulnerable. Killed players in the party respawn near the spawn banner."

The moderators discussed wildly for a while and rushed in with questions. Erzbengel let them go at it for a while and then told the whole group: "I know. That's what happened when we found this in the server log. Questbanners are revolutionizing the entire structure of our quests. Now, mobile campaigns are also possible. Crusades, wandering travel groups and ships. Nemesis gave us no warning, of course. Why would it?" He looked up briefly, annoyed, but as the AI didn't respond, he continued: "But on to the current situation: the leader of the followers of Nistrul has used a spawn point near Mulnirsheim and is lying in wait for the Dryad's group. It looks like he is currently summoning a horde of undead from the remains of a battlefield."

The moderators saw the pentagram light up and used their interfaces to analyze the exact nature of the ritual. Impressed murmurs quickly shifted to private channels.

The moderator continued: "Be careful if you mess with him. Umbramar's player name is, of course, confidential, but I can tell you one thing: He is solely responsible for NEMESIS putting a limit on how much real money you can spend on perks in VR. Any issues or complaints from him or about him must be escalated directly to a senior moderator. You do not touch him."

"Did the board agree to this? Surely they don't mind if someone invests huge sums in the game?"

Erzbengel grinned: "They were pissed off. But as already mentioned, the AI doesn't take orders. The NPCs are very close to its artificial heart. Players can use money to gain advantages but must not upset the balance of the game world."

One of the moderators raised his hand: "What happens if one of the players goes crazy and goes full-murder-hobo and just kills NPCs at random?"

"The game world reacts to murders in a completely realistic way. Investigations are carried out, witnesses are questioned, and the city guard is called. The perpetrator is arrested and sentenced. In the hinterland, it can take a while for something to happen, but this seems to be acceptable for AI. A player will soon lose interest in the game if immediately arrested everywhere. In prison, a player can log out, but his body remains in prison until he is released. The AI itself does not become active in any of these cases. An exception is when it comes to NPC children. There, the AI intervenes directly."

He turned the group's attention back to what was happening below the plain: "The followers of Nistrul are pursuing the Dryad's group underground. The princess is completely devastated by several days of light deprivation." The ground became transparent for the moderators. Red circles marked the individual groups.

"Then here's the next complication, which is not part of our original plan. The duskgnomes did not die out in the war of the necromancers as originally planned. One clan survived and tried to dig up one of their old cities. Only that a whole horde of undead were still locked up there, which are now free. The current player groups are not skilled and equipped for fighting the undead but should be able to cope with the few undead if the necromancers wipe out the gnomes, raise their corpses into more undead and then attack the villages of the plain. So that's not a catastrophe. But both groups immediately come up against the player group with the dryad princess. The quest that our plot designers had worked out after the Battle of the Shieldwood gave them several options. A fight against the pursuers, a chase to Mulnirsheim through the tunnels or a breakout onto the plain and then a fight at the exit or on the open plain. There is also a tunnel that leads to Mulnirsheim, which ends in a dead end below. But the players have done their homework and discovered the trap by researching the capital's archives. We have a lot of players who are really into research, and there are always important tasks for them. If no one had found a map of the Deep Paths, they might have walked right into the dead end."

He took a deep breath and pointed back down to the level: "A player blocked the exit, so that's okay. But the second group of enemies full of undead is complete overkill. There will be a lot of complaints because the quest was impossible to complete. Hard is okay; impossible is not." He looked down disapprovingly.

One of the apprentices raised his hand: "Can't we intervene? Have another NPC group show up or at least a few crates of healing and mana potions?"

Erzbengel winced and looked around nervously: "Please, never suggest anything like that again. That would be cheating for the benefit of a group. NEMESIS hates that. If the AI finds out that a moderator is giving players information or equipment outside of the game or otherwise interfering in favor of a player, they're out. Permanently. If the AI bans someone from the virtual world, no one can do anything about it. Incidentally, your contract automatically provides for termination without notice in this case."

He wanted to take the opportunity to go into the subject further, but a message in his field of vision distracted him. He groaned: "What's going on now?" He scanned the data displayed in his field of vision and frowned: "Several NPCs have just emerged from the heart oak, which is a focal point of the druids' teleportation network."

The moderators watched as the three new arrivals chatted.

After looking at the levels of the new arrivals, the moderators quickly agreed that the three would be irrelevant for the course of the ensuing battle. One of them thought of another question: "Are there any Perms involved here?"

"Good question, but we don't know that. All parties have NPCs with them. Any one of them could be a perm. Perms have to live permanently in the game world. Nemesis has, therefore, decided not to make them recognizable. Players can only distinguish between NPCs and other players by their behavior, which significantly increases the immersion effect. Distinguishing players and Lambda AIs is practically impossible without having a conversation about off-world topics. No NPC can answer questions about the music charts or the current president of the World Council. Moderators can, of course, identify players, including their real identities. But not perms. They are managed exclusively by the Nemesis AI. They can identify themselves and make requests to moderators, but this will rarely be necessary."

"Are they also subject to the rules for players?"

"If you mean the age check, yes, it's fully active. Nemesis also introduced it to all NPCs during the downtime. Remember, the restrictions depend on the age of the chosen persona, not the age of the player. However, players cannot create characters that are older than themselves. As far as I know, this also applies to Perms. As of this update, only Perms can receive noble titles from Count and upwards. So, if you see such a noble, then he is also a Perm. The best known are currently High King Cariolus, Federova the First and Othello, the new Patriarch of Mulnirsheim. Noble Perms can request a group of hunchbacked servants from the system. You won't find them anywhere else. Iota class AIs are just below sentient in terms of complexity but very good at carrying out orders. Good for simple helper jobs, but absolutely pacifist. Remember: If you think a perm is completely out of line, cheating or breaking the rules, come to me or one of the other senior moderators. Under no circumstances do you make contact yourself."

"What do we have to expect?"

"Well, last time we had players fight clubs, monster girl brothels and gambling dens where people played for real money. None of that should happen again. But above all, you need to keep an eye on the AI quests. Add any quests you see to the database so we can keep up to date."