Happy April 1st, Players!
You will now all see another round of zone changes and, for a lucky few, Special Events.
Congratulations on the surviving (79,865,412) players!
Also, please welcome the 595,212 children born into the world since October 1st, 1 A.G.
Please see your map for Zone Change details.
I blinked away the notification as I sat up and stretched. Zone Changes? Again? It had been almost 3 months since the last one, so I guess we were due for one. Every time I got a system notification, I was reminded that something…somewhere…was watching this. We were entertainment for someone out there.
I walked over to the small hut that served as Graham’s house and knocked on the door. The hut had been finished last week and Graham happily paid the 800 Gold Fee for the rights to the small structure. “Graham?”
I heard rustling inside. “Just a minute!”
I raised an eyebrow and waited. I was mildly surprised to see Sally Welder leaping out of the back window and heading back to her own hut. Graham opened the door shirtless with a grin. “What’s up?”
“You uh….you see the zone change notification?”
“Yeah…yeah I did. Come on in.”
I nodded my head and walked inside.
Graham had every adjacent county mapped out by that afternoon. As soon as he was ready, I called a combatant meeting. We had received a few more travelers into our little town over the last couple of weeks, and I was happy to say that I had finally passed Graham and reached Level 19 before he did. Graham had stayed behind to help with maps while I took the new fighters out to train.
Due to the growing number of fighters, now 14, we rearranged the structure of the meeting room. The table and chairs had been replaced with several rows of chairs facing one wall of the room where a posterboard was nailed to the wall. Myself, Graham, Cain, Jerry, and Theresa sat in chairs adjacent to the posterboard while the other 9 sat across from us. The two groups formed relatively naturally, but no votes had been taken. I was sure that was going to change at some point, but the leading five had been decided by default for the time being.
Graham unfurled the map while I pointed to it with a stick like a teacher in the 1900s. “8 counties touch us. 3 of those counties are territory of the Abilene Crusade. We don’t want to mess with them and I’m hoping they respect that enough to not mess with us. Shackleford remains a Level 11-20 zone for this change. Jones County has moved from 1-10 to 11-20 as well. Haskell County remains as a level 1-10 zone. Throckmorton has moved from 11-20 to 21-30. Stephens county has also moved from 11-20 to 21-30. Young County has gone down from 11-20 to 1-10. It is the only adjacent zone to move down instead of up.”
Everyone nodded at the analysis. I continued. “So! What does that mean? Most of you are high enough that you can safely move freely through almost all of these zones. Throckmorton and Stephens County have increased to the point where parties are required. Please do not go visit these counties without a proper team.” The requests for common sense were the farthest we had gone towards codified rules as of so far.
“Also! There’s something else to note from these maps. Anyone know what it is?”
Nick raised his hand with a concentrated look. “Levels are going up.”
“That’s correct. Out of 6 zones, only 1 has gone down while 3 have increased and 2 have stayed the same. It looks like, if this trend continues, things may get more difficult moving forward. We know the 1st Zone Change by the system seems to have been October 1st with the start of the game. The second one happened 3 and a half months later on January 15th. Now, on April 1st, 2 and a half months after the second, we have our 3rd Zone Change. If this pattern stays roughly the same, we can expect a new zone change between June and August.”
“What do we do if this zone goes to 21-30?” Bill brushed his fingers through his mustache.
I shrugged. “Whatever we can do, I guess. The goal is for us to have a fighting force capable of handling that by that time.”
Jackson raised his hand. “Why don’t we clear Albany out before that happens? That way we're only dealing with small groups of enemies. All of the established enemies in Shackleford are either in or around Albany.”
I replied only by giving him a smile and flipping the first map page up to reveal a map of Albany.
Jackson put his hand down. “Ah.”
“Way ahead of you, Jackson. Over this next week, I want combatants focusing on Albany and the areas around it. Taylor! You’re a Shifter-Class right?”
The young blonde girl had shown up a few days prior as a survivor from a destroyed camp. She had escaped the Red Liberty after they conquered her small group of five. She was only 16, but seemed to have taken to this world a lot like Nick had. “That’s right.”
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“Do you know any forms that would be useful for scouting?”
She shook her head. “I can turn into a horse or a wolf.”
I nodded. “Alright. That’s fine. Elsa…you have [Stealth], right?”
She gave me a simple nod in return.
“That’s good. I want you to scout out what you can of Albany proper tomorrow. Can you do that?”
She gave a non-commital shrug.
“Alright. Works for me.” I sat down and turned the floor over to Cain.
Cain smiled and stood up, waving to the group. “Hi. Uhm…okay…so.”
I had a small amount of second-hand embarrassment, but this was his first time. It’s not like I’m exactly the expert on public speaking.
“So! The plan originally was for me to make contact with the Finfolk. As you all know, I was unable to find them. I was, however, able to find another Rabbitfolk village in Stephens County by Breckenridge. The Zone Change has made the idea of securing a trade caravan up there difficult. We expect the caravan to encounter a Level 25 or so boss at the end. In order to prepare for that, I’ll be leading lower-level training parties around Shackleford and the borders of other counties. Everyone under Level 17 will come with me. Those between 17 and 19 will go with Jeremiah to hunt things in Stephens or Throckmorton County.”
The group seemed to respond well to the idea. I didn’t exactly want to tell anyone what to do, but it made the most sense. The only ones over Level 16 were myself, Graham, Nick, Theresa, Jerry, Cain, Elsa, and Taylor. With Cain leading the other 6, we’d have two groups of 7. Cain would also be able to have the leadership position he was wanted. The only downside from the plan would be Cain falling behind the rest of us in terms of experience gain. He assured us several times that he’d be able to make it up in no time.
Cain smiled to the group one last time and sat down, letting Theresa stand up and speak.
Theresa stood in front of the crowd and took a deep breath before talking with all the enunciation and clarity of a professional representative to the U.N. “Our gatherers are working hard. We are bringing in hundreds and hundreds of pounds of food, lumber, stone, and other surface level items daily. Those are being sent out via the trade caravans and bringing a massive amount of wealth into Harehill. As of today, the town population of Rabbitfolk is nearly 90. The game seems to be spawning in new rabbits on the caravans, as well as having the rabbits already here reproduce somewhat naturally. We are moving forward fast, but it’s time to implement the 5% tax we’ve been discussing. From here on out, 5% of all silver from crafter sales and hunted loot will be divied up and given to the civilians. Children who are not yet operating as independents will have their portions given to their parents. We expect this to total to a small sum for the gatherers, but will reward them for their efforts. None of us would be where we are without them.”
Everyone in the group nodded. We had taken a vote on this just a few days ago and it came to 11-3. Almost everyone was in favor of the new policy.
Jerry got up next, following Theresa. “Okay, last one. I know y’all are tired. Just wanted to say that we are getting close to filling up on space. Harehill is only build to accommodate 150-200 people, including the rabbits. Expanding the wall will likely take time and resources that we don’t have yet. In response, it’s my suggestion that we start looking at other options. What do y’all wanna see work? Keep in mind, if we split the group up, that cuts our numbers in half. It also effectively puts us all in twice as much danger. We’ll be taking in ideas as they come, so come up with something good.”
I stood up as Jerry sat down, admiring the professionalism everyone here was exhibiting. It felt like we were a real Fortune 500 company in the old world. “Alright, everyone. That’s it for today. Thanks for showing up.”
They all nodded and talked amongst themselves, some drinking random assorted drinks or eating snacks. As time went on, more and more luxuries started hitting the market. Players could spend their hard earned money to buy beer, cigarettes, weird soda-like drinks, jerky, and all types of luxuries off the market. It appeared as though a few had found drug-like things they could purchase. Far be it from me to stop them.
“Oh! Just to let y’all know, Gruppit is in town today from Whispercreek.” I smiled at the scattered cheers and clapping from the group. It seemed like the every one of the Rabbitfolk villages we had attached to the trade network had lute-rabbits to send to Harehill. The lute-rabbits made the most money in tips here and so it made sense for them to keep coming back. Gruppit had a knack for singing his weird fantasy/country hybrid music genre. Almost everyone in town loved it. Everytime he came in, in felt like all 40 of us were packed inside the Pony along with a few dozen of the Rabbitfolk. There had been some really and truly horrible days since the start, but things seemed to finally be improving.
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Danny watched as the purple flag of the Abilene Crusade was lowered halfway down the mast and a new crimson flag was placed on top. The giant black L insignia of the Crimson Liberty flew over Eastland. The Abilene Crusade had been downgraded to a vassal of the Red Liberty. The Liberty had allowed the guild to keep its name and its lands, on the condition that it would serve as a vassal force to High Lord Armistice. Danny wasn’t sure how much medieval history Armistice had taken at whatever college he had gone to, but he had certainly nailed the art of feudalism down to a T.
Despite what the Guild Leaderboards would suggest, the Liberty were not the 8th highest guild. They were most likely 5th or higher. The Liberty owned several vassal guilds, a fact that was made known to him when the Liberty troops had arrived in Eastland with Dr. Riley.
Dr. Scott Riley was a PhD holder who had graduated from Texas Tech in Lubbock and taught a course on political science before the start. Now, he had been introduced as Zone Overseer, or "Advisor" as he liked to say, for Eastland County. His first act had been to appoint the highest-leveled member of Eastland’s original population as head of the guard. That had happened to be Danny.
Danny was now serving as the Captain of the Guard for a vassal guild to the Red Liberty. The levels of political complexity were starting to make his head spin. How did he get here? How does he get out of this?
Luckily enough, Dr. Riley wasn’t cruel. He was very matter of fact with everything. The only real conflict came when Mayor Woodford was caught attempting to stage an escape attempt to head north to find Jeremiah. This had accomplished two things. The first of which being Mayor Woodford’s arrest and subsequent sentencing to the Westfield Slave Camps. Danny tried to fight Dr. Riley on this, but the Overseer's authority was clearly much higher than his own. Danny quietly watched as his father’s best friend and someone who had helped raise him was chained up, placed in a wagon, and sent west. The other result of this escape discussion was Dr. Riley inquiring Danny what was located north of Eastland. Danny had lied and told the Overseer that there were rumors about a safe zone in Oklahoma. He wasn’t sure if Dr. Riley believed him, but he had done what he could to try to make up for all the damage he had caused so far.