Chapter 10 Part 3
The Council
I take you away from the fray. For only a moment listen closely to a conversation that occurred many weeks ago. In a room vast in size yet with a mere 4 seats, and in each, a member of this game.
In one a character who can only be described as distinguished. He sat amongst the round table of folk, unlike the others. His chair was covered in regal white. He wears a white trench coat, and suit, with a sharp white dress shirt. Over his wrist were two silver cuffs that floated over his wrist like the moon does the sun. He then put his shoes on the table. Although his attire was best dressed his boats were silver-hardened, to which would be heavy armor. “I’m glad you could all make today’s meeting of the “Reeves”
Another in a seat plants her hands on the table and yells. She wears cyber goggles constantly changing on the front portion like a Rorschach test. She wore slim futurist leather armour that exposed her belly. On her waist lay 4 holsters. On her back floated a cape, as well as her character's hair that constantly went from visible to electric white. “Can you hurry up? I don't get all day Vice!”
Another lowers their hands onto the table. “I am eager to know why you have called us here today.” This character sat in a chair engulfed in flames. He was engulfed as if he was dressed in fire. He crossed his arms. “Well, do you know why we're here?” The person said to his right.
The last person sat in a chair made of brass and gold. It was marked with crosses and hilts as if it were made from many swords. His hair, red, was held parted by a golden headband. Around his back, sat a crest of an eagle. His Shoulders are with 2 golden pauldrons shaped like bears. His chest was covered in a cloth armour that went past his legs, like a priest's robe. He pulled his hand into the air and summoned a golden eagle that flew and landed on his finger.
“That's a Goldmancer for you.” The woman said.
“Mandy, I can teach you sometime.”
Mandy points her fingers at the man. “Aluxan! You think you're so cool with your tricks.” She then pulls off from her holster with one hand a gigantic rocket launcher. Meet “Sammy Sosa.”
“Aluxan waved his hands back, submitting to Mandy, but only to look at Vice. “Vice, please let's speak about the upcoming Patch 2.0.” Mandy put Sammy Sosa away and sat as quietly as she could, but was still jumping in her seat, which also played animation noises as she did.
Vice got up and placed his hand on the table. A virtual model of Asper online rose in the middle. Several markers were marked on the world. “First, there will be several hotfixes to Gandora.”
“Isn’t that where the Great Wogen spawns?” Mandy asked the man Vice nodded. “There were issues with the animations of the water. It glitched when you’d run past it. Some players were said to crash.”
Vice then pointed to another area and began explaining the patch notes. Finally, he got to the final patch note. He looked solemnly at the note. “The final tidbit we have here is that GM Seismic has passed away.” The room went silent. Mandy put a sad emoji in the air, and her goggles emulated the emotion as well. “What! Diggy, Seismic was one of the good ones.”
“It’s not like I'm saddened by that but…” Diggy said. “Wasn’t he in charge of …”
“Vice then poked the world map and the focus on the Aspar model rose. “Yeah. He was in charge of the next feature. Realm ownership.”
‘In Asper online, there were 5 main servers. Jun and the players we knew played on Peppermint. The 4 other servers were Impact, Fantasy, War, and Gorgon. Even still from these servers in the Global rankings, their ranking still held. Players could hop from server to server, but only one thing couldn’t occur.
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“Seismic last wish with this next patch was to create the strongest characters. To do so, he made it so that you could Realm Transfer. But when you did you had to disband your guild…”
“Do you think that's why…”
“It is definitely why Borealis disbanded,” Aluxan spoke. “But how were they privy to this information…”
“They must have insider information. Maybe a relative in the Asper Development team or even worse…” Mandy surmised. “They’re Hackers?
Diggy finally chimed in. “We can sit here and trash on the strongest guild to ever be in the game, but if we know one thing. The strong like to fight the strong.”
Vice agreed. “Which is why our realm is most likely where they'll come.”
“And with skills we have never seen,” Maddy said.
“I hear. They have skills GM Seismic himself programmed for the update…And before his death he allowed them to try them in the PBE Server.” Vice finally turned the world and then made a gesture touching his hands for the layout to expand. It showed the 5 worlds in orbit of a single Sun. “Right now it is us who manage all the lands in our realm. The only reason these players would come here is to.”
“World Domination!” Mandy yelled out looking into space, with sparks glowing from her goggles. “Not just that…” Vice said solemnly.
“I hear their leader, Madder, is a very tricky character. He has the highest level in the game yet it is said he's not the strongest character in his guild.”
Diggy opens up the leaderboards and scrolls to the top players. “It’s still showing him at number-uno.” He then squinted his eyes, making a note of something. “Wait what is going on here? His Infamy is lower than I thought it’d be.”
“You don’t think he would?” Vice stated, peering into the globe.
Aluxan then gets up and pokes the model. “Well, I don't know what the Borealis would think if he did that…”
Finally Vice closed the model. “Well, this is just it. Borealis has disbanded, which means. Borealis is on its way in parts. Madder is going to show up, as well as the rest of the guild. They’ll be easy to spot though because of their Infamy. So everyone keeps watching your cities. I have a feeling Borealis will revive in our server, to take everything we've built.”
“Not on my dead body,” Mandy yelled.
“It’s over. Not over your dead body.” Diggy whispered, correcting Mandy.
“Aw yes yes, Over!” She sighed.
“There’s just one problem for their guild.” Aluxan looked into the patch notes once again and something surprised him. “3.21, it reads. Players who wish to Realm Transfer must disband their guild. Any member from that guild cannot create a guild for 90 days.”
“If Borealis would come here then they wouldn't be able to simply create a guild and then go nuts?” Mandy yelled in question. “They’d have to…”
“The quickest way for them to start their guild would be to get someone to make the guild and then that player could transfer leadership.”
“The person they’d choose to do so would have to be a very powerful character.” Aluxan posed.
“Probably one of us,” Vice stated
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There is then a flashback of another time when Madder first ran through Aluxan City. She was inspecting players, over and over. “I don’t like his name. His class is not spec’d correctly. Where are the true players of this Realm?” She then looked at a character portal into the world. She inspected his name. “Yggsalad.” She laughed. “I think I found my guy.”
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Back in the Meeting. Each player would receive a message. It was from GM-Rumaine. “Dear Elite Players of Asper. As you know our 2.0 patch is going live in 5 hours. To those top players, you will notice that The level cap has been increased to 750. Also, Players past Veil 5 will be able to acquire these items. In Seismic's name, he wished for you to see what this game’s future was to be in store in his mind.”
In each of their inventories, an item appeared.
The item was the “Realm Broken Class Change.” Aluxan read over the description and he immediately turned to vice. “To obtain a Realm Broken Class Upgrade, you must hit level 750 and also, be part of the guild that owns the realm. “Is this a declaration of war?” Diggy stated, looking at each of the players in the room. “Why do we have to fight amongst each other? Vice said menacingly.” It was as if he had a plan, and it was finally starting to come to. “If we know Borealis are coming or are already here, why don’t we join forces? I am asking for us to join under one flag.”
“If we do that, what would all our members think?”
“All our members would be part of this guild.”
“You mean a guild with hundreds of players? That’s…That's”
“Would be enough to take down Borealis,” Aluxan stated. “I second this plan. “I will discuss it with my guild, and hopefully they'll understand.”
“I’m not scared of anyone but, if creating this bond now will allow each member of our guild to get the Realm Broken Class Change, then I think it's not a bad idea.”
“Aluxan, I think it's only fitting that you will lead us,” Vice said with his hand on his chest.
“Old man Aluxan, if you can bring together the other top guilds of our server.”
‘What about the other servers? Aren't there any other guilds that are on our level?”
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” Vice said. He displayed a picture on the screen of a player. “Lucky enough, they too are not too fond of Borealis, and have recently hopped into our server.”
—-------------------------------------------
Back in the White Market with the Unveiled Crypto, a single portal opens, and the shadow that Madder is in shakes. ‘It can’t be. I know this portal signature.” Out of the portal emerges a player, standing before the defeated Tradesmen.