Loading archive B-1994-2934C , Executive Committee Meeting
"Utopia burns." a greying chairman comments looking at the screen mounted on the wall of the conference room.
"Tell us something we don't know." a waspish middle aged woman snorts as she taps her pen on the long table everyone is seated at.
Dour silence fills the room as the committee watches the footage being displayed in silence. The screen displays a massive riot taking place in a medieval castle town in full UHD glory, with several buildings already set on fire and the guards retreating into the castle itself. Peasants are busy looting the town and carrying off everything they can carry.
"Report." the chairman sighs and turns to a bespectacled, plump man sitting at the other end of the table.
"As you have noted Chairman, Utopia has reached its tipping point." the engineer peers over his notes, "The system has lost complete control over the situation and Utopia's inhabitants have turned on each other."
"This is terrible." an grandmotherly lady in a nice suit murmurs regretfully, "Didn't the system provide everything the residents needed?"
"I keep telling you, Utopia could never work." the waspish woman crows.
"Enough." the Chairman snaps, "This bickering avails us nothing. Continue your report, chief engineer."
"We have identified a series of tipping points in the timeline, possible factors in the system's loss of control." the engineer continues in his indifferent voice, "The first being the appearance of magic in Utopia."
"Utopia was never designed to have magic in it." the grandmother muses.
"Doesn't matter, the residents "discovered" magic on their own." waspish woman shrugs, "Of course its all just various exploits based on loopholes in the system."
"As can be surmised, this brand of magic further weakened the system's ability to maintain stability." the chief engineer pushes up his glasses, "If everyone can turn to page four of the report I've prepared, engineering has just developed a means to address this issue."
"Formalizing magic in the world?" the chairman raises an eyebrow, "And spreading knowledge of magic to all the residents?"
"The less system resources Utopia expends on fruitlessly suppressing these exploits," the engineer explains, "the easier time we'll have in restoring stability."
"That's like saying we've solved the problem of crime by decriminalizing everything." waspish woman grunts.
"Letting the residents self police will free up valuable resources needed elsewhere." the Chairman nods reluctantly, "I'll keep your suggestion in mind, Chief Engineer."
"Wait, are we going to deal with the finger of death crisis?" waspish woman raises a hand.
"I never heard of this?" the grandmother frowns.
"Its a system oversight that completely blew up." waspish woman goes through her notes, "Some residents manage to work out and manipulate the damage values of certain weapons."
"I still don't see how that would spark a crisis?" the grandmother furrows her brows.
"The system doesn't track location specific damage." waspish woman glares at the grandmother, "Understand now?"
"Oh, dear god." the grandmother holds her hands to her mouth in shock.
"Imagine being able to kill someone just by scratching their arm." waspish woman folds her arms, "All because you manipulated the damage values far beyond a resident's natural health."
"That's how the first harem king came to power by the way." the Chairman rubs his temples, "We thought the situation would settle down after that but other residents managed to discover that loophole for themselves."
"Leading to our current situation." the engineer returns to the topic, "The finger of death exploit is relatively easy to fix, but we can't do so just yet. Not when there are more serious issues to handle."
"Alright, what could be more serious than an exploit that makes mass murder easy?" waspish woman demands.
"Two things actually." the chief engineer dourly replies, "First, we have the Puppetmaster."
"I recall something about him in the report." the Chairman muses.
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The engineer bites his lip in consternation, "As everyone knows, the system employs autonomous defenses both to maintain stability and to protect itself."
"You promised us that those defenses were foolproof." waspish woman says.
"They are. System defenses are formidable and for all intents and purposes, unbeatable." the engineer rebuts, "No resident of Utopia, no matter how powerful they are personally, can best a fully deployed system defense force."
"Even with their so-called magic?" the grandmother asks.
"Yes. Fighting off a system defense force simply triggers an escalatory response." the engineer proudly explains, "And the system can escalate harder and faster than any resident."
"But there's a problem." the Chairman points out.
The engineer takes a deep breath and flicks to another clip of footage on the screen. A man dressed in black is shown walking down the street before drawing a sword and tearing into the people around him. Several heavily armed knights burst out from the houses and begin pursuing the fleeing figure.
"As you can see, the Puppetmaster deliberately provokes the system by committing several crimes in quick succession." the engineer explains.
"Then what happens?" the Chairman queries with an index finger to his chin.
The screen shows the man in black fleeing into another crowd and waving his arms about. There's a flash of orange light and the crowd goes crazy, attacking anything in sight with abandon, including the armored knights.
"I see." waspish woman mutters, "He provokes the system, then uses that "magic" to drive the other residents berserk."
"And the system is forced into putting down innocent residents?" grandmother scowls, "How awful."
"The Puppetmaster has managed to generate riots capable of razing entire sectors of Utopia using this method." the engineer leans back in his chair, "The system tries to put down the berserked residents, more residents join the fight to protect themselves, the system escalates and finally decides to cleanse the entire sector as eventually all the residents within it are marked as deviant."
"And how do you propose dealing with this problem?" the Chairman groans, head in hands.
"We'll need to perform a root and branch review of the system defenses, though letting the residents self police should ease the problem somewhat." the engineer answers.
"The Engineering Department seems to be abdicating plenty of responsibility lately." waspish woman notes.
"I have to agree with my colleague." Grandmother purses her lips as she observes the engineer, "All your suggestions, how do I put it?"
"Aren't very good." waspish woman finishes the sentence with relish.
The engineer's face flushes and he looks to the Chairman to support.
"What's the other issue you were talking about?" the Chairman quickly focuses the meeting back on the agenda.
"The warlord." the footage on the screen shuffles through several pictures, eventually landing on a leonine woman bearing a massive double handed sword, with several additional weapons strapped all over her body.
"She's a ferocious looking one." waspish woman comments.
"The warlord began by taking over several outlying sectors of Utopia." the engineer picks up the thread, "She has since declared herself dictator for life and ceaselessly wages war against the Harem King Coalition."
"I don't see how a psychotic woman is any more dangerous than the other lunatics already rocking the boat." the Chairman points out.
"She's invincible." the engineer coughs apologetically.
"What?"
A single word from everyone else's mouth. The engineer plays with his shirt collar nervously.
"The warlord has managed to find an exploit which makes her invincible. She's managed to single handedly steamroll entire armies by herself."
"This ... this is certainly a crisis, isn't it?" Grandmother mutters.
"What about the system defenses?" the Chairman leans forward, "Shouldn't they have dealt with this warlord by now?"
The onscreen footage shifts to a different sector, this time displaying a massive army of system spawned knights doggedly pounding away at the single mad woman. Graphical artifacts pop up into existence periodically and the footage occasionally chugs to a crawl.
"The system has the warlord contained in the northern sector." the engineer elaborates, "But since she is invincible, the system has no way of dealing with the problem for good."
"So how is the warlord a problem?" the Chairman fidgets slightly in annoyance.
"Such a heavy deployment of system resources has turned the northern sector into a black hole." the engineer slumps back in defeat, "The warlord is draining the system dry without even knowing it."
"Meaning a hard collapse is imminent." waspish woman concludes.
"We've slowed down the deployment of system defenses in the other sectors and let the riots run their course," the Chairman picks up the explanation, "But it isn't a long term solution."
"In fact," the Chairman turns to look squarely at the engineer, "I suspect there are no solutions to Utopia's problems, is there?"
The mood of the conference room turns unpleasant and all eyes stare at the engineer.
"We have a number of solutions, but they can't be implemented. Not in the current circumstances." the engineer finally admits.
"Meaning Utopia's finished and we're all screwed." waspish woman grits out, "We should have never greenlighted Utopia in the first place."
"It is too late for regrets." Grandmother consoles, "We owe it to both the residents and ourselves to find a way to save everyone."
"There is a way." the engineer immediately says, "A final contingency we developed when the foundations of Utopia were laid."
"Go on." the Chairman urges.
"Turn to the appendix of my report." the engineer says, "The answer is there."
"No." waspish woman breathes.
"It is the only option." the engineer insists, "This is the sole way we can salvage something out of this mess."
"We must institute the Purge Cycle."
Recording ends
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"Buh." I grunt, blinking owlishly as sunlight assaults my eyes.
"Good morning Robert." a familiar voice greets me, "I've prepared breakfast for you."
"Mom?" I groan, lifting my face from the dirt. Why in the world was I sleeping in the bushes? What's going on here?
"I'm a mother," that voice laughs, "But no mother to you."
A cheap packet of biscuits lands right in front of my face as a pair of tiny coal black eyes stare back at me.
"Maus?" I mutter. Shit my face hurts like crazy.
"The one and only." the rodent squeaks back.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Robert." Maus grins, "Things have certainly been busy while you were asleep."
I look up in silence, the clear blue sky greeting me. Dawn has broken and I can no longer see the stars. But I know that the stars are still there, sitting in their abode high in the heavens.
Watching me.