The locations he always wanted to meet at were, to put it simply, a bit cliche. I get it, he’s an information broker, but meeting at the abandoned ruins of a temple, now that feels like a stretch. Information wasn’t that hard to come by back when this was just a game, youtube guides, blog posts, Facebook groups you name it. But now that word of mouth was a bit tighter kept and secrets were truly being guarded as just that, a secret. This hadn’t been the case when the game first became reality. Everyone actually came together and helped each other out. We were all scared and being there for each other was the most humane thing we could have done. My hope for humanity and our struggles in this new world were looking on the brighter side back then. And then like most cases, greed, fame, and hunger took over. Once the reality of us not going back set in, then people began to see this as a new home, something to conquer. The big guilds began barring entry to anyone who wasn’t in the guild. No more help, unless you were within their ranks. People began looking over their shoulders more and then the PKs started sprouting out of the ground.

Player Killers were a problem that seemed to have no solution. With death not being an end, most players thought it better to simply try to avoid it as much as possible. But if you took that approach, then leveling and progressing would be stopped in their tracks. Most leveling and farming grounds were guarded by anywhere from a few PKers, to a whole guild of miscreants. Things were not looking good, and with what Marty had told me, well damn things had really begun to accelerate. What was once bad was now worse.

But what could I do?

I was a solo player, yeah I had experience, but to say everything that I had learned playing the game transferred would be a lie. This new world was based on the mechanics of our former MMO, but it came with new troubles and complexities that I have still yet to unravel.

Well enough worrying over it, that wouldn’t do me any good.

Just as my mind was beginning to become clear of those thoughts, he appeared from around the corner. His body seemed to drift, almost wraith-like. To call the blacks of his outfit dark would be an insult to the sheer voidness of their appearance. This set would have caused many players to stop and screenshot to show their friends later, this was how rare mythic raiding sets were, and in this new world, they were breathtaking.

“Before anything, you know the deal,” his words etched out in a spray of blue frost.

I tossed him the amulet I had brought as payment. His eyes bulged in surprise, this was the first time I was able to break past his stoic nature.

“You know what this is going for on the auction house right?”

“I do.”

The amulet was named, Thor’s Renewal.

It was an epic item that is only dropped by creatures found in the ice biomes, the drop rate increasing with the higher the level/ overall difficulty of defeating it. Even then the highest drop rate was only around 3%. I had gotten a bit lucky in my last farming session and had exploited some potion bugs still found in the game, but that wasn’t here or there. The item essentially mimics one of the ice mage's (core) abilities: Ice block. Essentially, while wearing this item if your health would ever drop down to anything below 10% health, it would trigger the user to be turned into a block of ice, becoming invulnerable for a set time and gaining half of their life total. After which the item breaks, becoming unusable or sellable, but disaster was averted, hopefully, or else your death was merely prolonged. This item was sought after back then, but not to the degree that it is now. You can see why an item that essentially gives you another chance at life would be wanted, especially with the surge of PKers. The item had not only been completely whipped out of the marketplace, I may have had a hand or two in that, but now the players selling were asking for exorbitant prices.

At the time I didn’t feel bad, simply because I was making a killing, but then with the rise of PKers and the state of the game becoming more and more unsafe, I soon started to regret my actions a bit. Fallen into the greed, into the hunger I had begun to resent.

I was no better than them.

He grinned at my response, “You must have been one of those savvy investors that made a killing.”

He smirked as my face told him the answer he was looking for, “I don’t know about you, but that would kill me, man, knowing how many people these,” he said as he dangled the icicle amulet by the string, “would have saved, damn what a shame, but that’s capitalism, ain’t it, look at me,” he laughed, “I could just hand out my information and help the world as well, but I am a subject of my greed,” he let out a loud laugh, tears began to roll down the side of his cheeks, he wiped them and proceeded, “God, I think one day I’m actually going to start believing the bullshit I spout.”

There was a silent moment that filled the air, floating on the discomfort of the air and then rested as he began once again, “Alright, well this is more than enough for this,” His eyes seemed to gaze off at the distance. This was how we used the menus of the game in this world, it appeared in front of us like some large curved floating Ipad. He was sending me a message, I presumed, and then a click, and a notification of a new message appeared.

“Those are the details of all the new items that were dropped in the newest completed raid,”

Damn, so they had completed the first raid already.

My eyes looked over the list of new mythics that 99 percent of the population of players would never have the luxury to own. Only one caught my eye, “These are all only normal difficulty mythics correct?”

He laughed,” Yeah, as it was the dungeon not only killed more than half the party but also drained their resources like a drought. They won’t be taking on the mythic, hell they won’t be touching the heroic raid for a while now.”

That was good to know, they weren’t that ahead after all. For those of you who didn’t know, the raids in LKO were giant dungeon-like campaigns that required guilds, or at least large parties to band together and attempt trials and boss fights that are more often than not the hardest content the game has to offer. But not only is the raid hard as it is, but there were also three different difficulties, normal, heroic, and mythic. The idea that they had actually defeated the normal raid already with it only being out for a week, was a surprise, but the cost seemed to outweigh the actual rewards. He had said that half the party was wiped, meaning they wouldn’t be back for at least another week, if not more, the death penalty scaled with how strong you were in the game, ie, character, weapon, and armor lvl.

“How was it though?”

I had been in a few raids since the game had become more than a game, and they had been terrifying, to say the least. The raid bosses tended to be monsters the size of skyscrapers, and they scaled to par in this world.

“Oh it was great, the healers were getting their ass chewed out for not being able to keep up with the damage being dealt, the warriors were frustrated from lack of DPS, and the leaders, oh god the guild master and lieutenants were scared shit-less. They had placed all their resources into this raid, they needed this clear, they needed the title, the gear, and the fame. If they failed, well they would be the world first for that at least,” He laughed a genuine laugh of a sadistic madman.

“You make it sound like you were there,” I questioned almost laughing at my own question, there was no way, they would have checked every nook and cranny, every potion, and amulet possible to avoid anyone else acquiring the knowledge they lost so much to obtain.

He looked down at his care and back at me as if saying, come on, do you really think I couldn’t get it done?

“Let’s just say, this,” he lifted the amulet once again, “Covers the fees for what you want to know today, but for the other info, well the patrons for that expedition, well they paid for the full disclosure package.”

“How’s the raid finder situation, are they any close,” I asked, but I knew the answer. Raid finder was a mechanic in the game that let players without guilds or smaller guilds find other players to help tackle the game’s larger raids, like the one that had just released, Ghost’s Shell. The problem with Raid Finder was that for raids you typically need synergy and communication, everything that a group of rag tag’s lacked. The system was made for players to get a taste of what raiding was, hopefully hooking them and getting them to join a major guild, and hopefully prolonging their game time and with it their monthly membership fees.

Sweet, Sweet Capitalism...with a capital C!

“As much as I want to laugh and call you an idiot for even suggesting the idea, they are actually not far off from completing it. There is this new group that I am assuming branched off from one of the bigger raiding guilds and they’ve started taking on raids in raid finder,” He didn’t hack a spec of ridicule in his voice, what the hell?

“Wait, but why would a group purposely leave a larger raiding group to take their chances on raid finder, that doesn’t make any sense.”

He looked at me and shrugged, apparently, none of it made sense to him either.

“Who knows, with what’s happened people doing crazy seems like it has become the norm. That brings me to the next point of business.” Once again he seemed to stare off into space, only to be followed by the familiar buzzing sound and bing that notified me that I had received a message.

“He had attached an article pdf in it, my mouth dropped at what I was reading, “What the fuck is this, this can’t be,”

He stopped me before I could continue, “It’s a police report from guards a coupling of towns over, they are asking for assistance from the City Major. A group of bandits has been killing and looting the houses and farms around the area”

“This can’t be, it must be a quest or..”

“No I’ve looked into it, this group is comprised of all “real” world players. Without the fear of death, and with this power gap between NPC’s and us, well they seem to feel like they can do whatever they want.” The manner in which he said it was cold, but it didn’t seem to me as if he agreed with it as well, why wasn’t someone doing something?

“Has this been brought up to anyone important’s attention yet?”

“Everyone with some resemblance of power in this world is currently struggling to get more. The big guilds are focusing on the new raid, the merchant guilds are manipulating the market day in and day out, and anyone else is busy with their own trials and tribulations this new world has brought us. If anything this should be seen as a good thing,”

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“How in the hell can this possibly be seen as a good thing?” My voice raised at the thought, I apologized quickly after.

He just laughed it off.

“Well, it just goes to show that no matter the world, we, humans, only care for ourselves.” And with that, the conversation ended with the exchanging of private messages and brief goodbyes. I left that abandoned temple with more information, but also much more worried about what the future held, I was never one to take this upon myself, but if no one would, I guess I should at least try, but first, I had to try my luck with Raid Finder.

After the meeting with Victor, the odd, but effective information broker I made my way down the market area, and grabbed some dinner, while eating I went over the pdf once again. The document was written like an official police report, the guards were struggling and worse of all, terrified.

The “real” players could not be stopped, not without help, and if they would receive any, I hope they did at least. As I ate I overheard the NPCs talking, one of them was complaining about the rise in the price of a sack of potatoes, and the other replied with a shrug, saying that the town that provides them is having some trouble with the crop. I called them over and asked what town provides potatoes, they looked at me quizzically, I was too far away to possibly hear, they would be right, but I wasn’t a regular person in this world after all.

They told me the city of Bails was a small farming village not no more than a few days trek from the main city and they provided most of the country, mainly us, with potatoes, but as of late, they have been having some internal trouble within their city. I thanked them again, telling them that I was just curious and wanted my curiosity sated, they looked at me peculiarly and went back to their discussion.

Bails, it had to be, I opened the pdf once again and looked at the name of the town being ransacked....Bails. Not only was this a problem on an ethical level, but now this was also becoming an economical one as well. This was much bigger than we could have thought of, because this world is no longer just a game, and we have yet to realize the ramifications of our actions.

I spent the walk home running all my options, but no matter what I thought of, nothing got past the big dilemma at hand. No matter what I thought of it all came back to the one problem, that problem being the lack of a death penalty or real prison setting in LKO. No matter if we killed them and forced them to respawn a week later for their actions, they would still respawn, simply taking note of their newfound enemies and go on to commit atrocities somewhere else. This cycle would repeat until a rift too wide would be formed between the people of this world and us the “new” people. The whole thing was draining, so I did what I tended to do when stuck on a problem, I moved it to the back of my mind and began to focus on something I was better equipped to handle in the meanwhile.

This might not be the best of solutions, hell, some might see this as a form of procrastination, but I found that usually, answers come to you when you aren’t necessarily looking for them.

Before long I found myself at the front steps of my home. My “apartment”, I call it that not because it looks like an apartment found in the old world, but because I’ve been living in one for my whole life and haven't gotten accustomed to changing that. What it really was, was a rather large estate with a fountain and all the other items you would find in the manner of some old duke from a fantasy series. I had done well for myself when this was all just a game, and took pride in owning property, even though many players saw it as a waste of gold back then, but now, I guess I was rewarded for taking the game a bit too seriously. This the next point that hadn’t bothered me before, but now was weighing on me, I had housekeepers. Now when this was a game, it was whatever they were just NPCs, but now having a primary housekeeper who lived in the manner, a Gardner in the mornings and a couple of hands that came in during the day was all odd to me. Don’t get me wrong, I paid them and never did anything wrong to them on a moral level, but still, it was weird seeing these NPCs that would fill my halls, things I once saw as decorum, now become living, breathing people with personalities, problems, good days and bad ones.

The other day the gardener was complaining about his back, so I told him to take it easy for the day and go home, but he rebutted that it was okay, and he could manage. I knew it had to do about money and pride.

So I gave him his pay for the week and told him I wanted him rested and in tip-top shape for when he returned from the weekend, he gave me a great smile and went on his way.

As I entered the front door of the manor I always stood and took it all in for a second, this giant mansion was all mine. The people in town regarded whoever lived here as a lord, so I had acquired that title in the game. Most players would have worn it proudly, like a badge of honor, I just found the whole thing a bit cringy. Titles were essentially badges of honor earned for completing achievements, raids, and obtaining a certain weapon or level in the game, point is they can be earned a lot of different ways, and to the more hardcore players they were coveted. The second I was done taking in everything around me, they were already hurrying down the stairway to greet the lord of the manor.

The first to approach me was Glenda, a thin, but beautiful half-elf that had been my maid for as long as I’ve had the place. She offered to take my coat, I had learned it was better to go along with it all, even though it made me uncomfortable. Better yet, seeing her in the flesh was still something of an embarrassment, just the sight of her made me blush. She was after all picked solely for the fact that she reminded me a lot of my ex-girlfriend and now here she was, well with some elvish features, but it still looked just like her. Her aubrey hair and green eyes made for a fierce combination that still left me at a loss. My head is filled with questions of morality at the sight of her, she’s just an NPC what am I getting so worked up over? But rather in this world, she was as real, if not more real than me.

“Everything goes well my lord?” she asked as she went over and hung my coat on the rack.

“Sort of, but I’ll work it out,” I said as I began making my way up toward my room on the second floor.

“You sound stressed, do you want me to fix you a bath to relieve yourself of the day's worries, my lord?” A bath did sound great, right now, but I would rather do that myself.

“No it’s fine, Glen, I can manage on my own.”

She took my hand suddenly, “NO, no I object my lord, it is my duty as the head maid to make sure your life is as easy as I can possibly make it. Is it that Math class again? I am sure you will do better next time!” She smiled and nodded her head as if that would turn things from a measure of goodwill into absolution.

Here was the other embarrassing thing about Glenda, back when this was all a game I would tend to vent about everything with her, and those memories seem to have pertained. Well, at least that proved that the world was exactly the LKO we played and not just a copy of the game if that was any better.

Crash, Boom, Break!

A shockwave rippled down the steps, causing me to lose my balance holding on to Glenda for stability. She didn’t seem to mind but rather was shocked at the sudden explosion.

The odor of spices, incantations gone astray, this was his handy work. Smoke began to fill the halls and a thick substance that powdered black began to bubble and burst. I grabbed Glenda and took her out back into the patio. I began opening the windows and we waited as the substances seemed to harmlessly dissipate back into the air. I checked my HUD, but the substances simply registered as either question marks or harmless.

Glenda seemed a bit shaken up, but that was my doing, I knew this was bound to happen, I should have warned her sooner.

Before I could head over and explain, a man in a tattered robe with what had to be soot and other remnants of a science experiment gone wrong made his fabulous appearance.

“You almost killed us, you damn foolish man! What were you doing, how did you do that…” Glenda burst out in a fit of anger, swaying her arms in accordance.

“Sorry, my lord, but why is this man staying with you again? A man who doesn’t take anyone else’s life in accordance, should not be fit to be anyone’s roommate.”

“I know, Glenda you make a good point, but he is a friend and I promised to help him, it’s the least I can do for everything he has taught me.”

“The old man smiled a sporadic smile of teeth and gaps, mostly gaps.

“I apologize, Glenda, I didn’t mean for that, er, um outcome, well certainly I knew it was a possibility, but I thought today might be the day the odds would be in my favor.” He offered her an apologetic grin, and she seemed to simmer down a bit. I didn’t really need to know the details. His experiment went wrong that’s all that happened, which wasn’t something shocking, rather I knew this would happen more often than not. The crazy man with a knack for failure is none other than Whisker Jack and he is for better or worse my alchemic instructor.

In LKO you are allowed to explore a plethora of different occupations and studies, such as cooking, blacksmithing, and all the other typical fantasy side hustles.

Whisker Jack was the trainer for the alchemy tree and back during the launch of the expansion “Fundamental Growth” in which he was introduced, he was given a unique quest in which he finds himself without a home, and the players are given the option to invite them to live with them.

The role-playing community loved the idea and most players thought his quirky lines were a fresh of breath air. I had simply done it out of practicality. Not having to trouble myself with porting to his ends of the woods seemed like a win. But now, it wasn’t such a decisive one.

Glenda had asked if it was safe to go inside and he nodded and said it was merely an odorless gas and by now most of it had been lost to the wind.

“Careful, Jack. Another one like that and we both will be on the hunt for a new home.” He didn’t smile, rather he stared back at me coldly. Turning to make sure Glenda had made it inside and was out of earshot, he continued.

“The world is changing, Rene.” He peered out into the night sky with a gaze that a man pondering matters far greater than ourselves could only have.

“I know it is, but what are we to do,” I said with a shrug as if I myself wasn’t losing myself to the rapid change, and harm going on in our new world. The worst part was, the answers were not as easily found in this one compared to the last.

“The laws are changing, Rene. Values that were once set in stone are now being warped and morphed into variations of their former selves. From the view of an alchemist, a man who lives by obeying laws, cringing at the thought of ever detracting, this scares me. No, not just scares me, this sends chills down my spine and fears throughout my heart. A darkness of uncertainty is spreading across this land I had once thought I knew so well,” He paused suddenly, as if collecting his breath or better said, had restrained from worrying me even further. Then he continued.

“Something is coming, Rene, something big. Bigger than me and maybe even bigger than yourself. I don’t know if there's anything else I can help you with, but know that this old man will do his best to try.” He gave me a smile much different, then the former, this one felt a bit forced, the sadness slipping into the corners.

A sadness born of uncertainty and fear.

“I know, I know, Whiskey. It’s just now, well ever since the change, this world and all its problems, many of which being my people’s doing, just seem too large for me or anyone for that matter to tackle.” He looked at me and grinned. “It’s all a matter of perception my boy, and you, you have done things that I would have ruled impossible years ago, but time after time you prove me wrong. So now that I feel the very essence of this world bend, destroying my very understanding that I worked years on years to grasp, I still believe you can do this. Why, because the situation seems dire, impossible, and you, my boy are known for doing the impossible

As if those words had not done enough, a notification appeared overhead, a new title was awarded.

“Whiskey’s Hope”.

At first, it felt like more weight was added onto my already crushing burden, but the way whiskey believed in me, well damn, it all most made me believe in myself.

He was right, I hadn’t changed. I was the same character that had done everything he deemed impossible, the only thing that was different now was my perspective.

I sighed, picked myself up, emotionally, “Thanks, Whiskey that was exactly what I needed to hear. Maybe you are the wise sage the rumors made me believe after all.”

We both shared a laugh that only two people out of their minds could do. Some say only the crazy ones defy the odds; I like to believe it's because only those out of their minds have the nerve to even try.

The rest of the night was more reminiscent of my old college days.

I simply laid in bed thinking that there was no way I could possibly sleep with so many things going on in my life. But just as my head hits that pillow, my eyes grow heavy and my final thoughts are always the same.

I’ll do it in the morning