Anyone who walked into the lecture hall could be forgiven for thinking that Erika Berg was listening and diligently taking notes. After all, the brunette in the back of the class was squinting through her glasses at a notebook, working through what looked like complicated calculus and rate-of-change curves. But as the professor droned on about something completely unrelated, Erika continued to calculate diminishing returns over time--not that she could hear him in the first place.
A closer look at her notes would reveal a string of unfamiliar abbreviations -- FD, ND, ID, DPS--various types of Damage calculations. It was very rare for Erika to actually be attending class on the day a new raid was dropping, but she could do the math there almost as easily as she could at home. Plus, her character at home was ready to mount up and ride into the new dungeon alongside the rest of her guild. Her parents had made it very clear when the previous semester's grades had arrived that she would be paying for her own room and board if she didn't start going to class. So, with a heavy sigh and as much to distract her as she could, she packed her backpack with notebooks full of in-game calculations and sat in the back of the lecture hall.
When 3:50 p.m. finally rolled around, the professor turned off the projector and waved them out. Erika piled her books into her bag and slipped out the door without stopping to let anyone out in front of her. She walked back to her dorm as fast as her short legs could carry her. Erika dropped her backpack in the corner of her room and nodded at her roommate, who waved.
With classes finally over for the week, Erika settled into her computer chair and put her headphones on. It was an old second-hand pair that she'd purchased for forty cents years ago and they hadn't worked in years. But that didn't matter to Erika, who had been deaf from birth. She just needed something to signal that she was in the middle of something important and not to be bothered. As much as she longed to purchase one of the full-VR rigs that the game was starting to support, the price made it a pipe dream and they still had visual lag anyway, so she settled for a big monitor. It wasn't as good as really being in the game, but she could leave full immersion to people who were more into the lore and the graphics--Erika cared about two things, and two things only. Loot and Glory.
Her guild was going to get World First on this raid, like they had on the previous three--or, at least, they were going to grind until they decided it was impossible or someone else took the spot. Having to attend class was a real hassle and Erika hoped that they wouldn't be too far behind when she finally did log on. But they'd dealt with adversity before -- It wasn't the first time she'd been late to a raid, and they'd almost always managed to finish the encounters before any other group anyway. They'd tried substitute raid leaders in the past, but no one could come close to Erika's deep knowledge of the game and skill at leading the encounter.
As the update installed over the slow dorm internet, she read through the patch log. Most of it matched up exactly with what they'd practiced on the test server, and they'd successfully completed the encounter there. But there was one extra section at the bottom of the notes that hadn't been there previously.
>Added a bigger variety of monsters to starting zones, including some that will be a challenge for even the most seasoned players.
>Other surprises.
Erika frowned. She knew that "even the most seasoned players" wasn't likely to be a subset of the population that included her. It simply wouldn't make sense to put anything in the game that challenged her, because it would be literally impossible for anyone else. And why would they put those in the starting zones? She shook her head. Probably an error by whoever compiled the patch notes, especially because this wasn't something they'd seen on the test server. Just as she finished reading the notes, the download finished and she logged in.
>ERIKONE the PALADIN-100 Has Rejoined the Realm.
Almost immediately, another message flashed on Erika's screen:
>DECKBOX has invited you to a Party.
She accepted.
>ERIKONE has joined the party.
>FRED: bout time
>DECKBOX: yeah, we almost just went and ran it without you.
>ERIKONE: No you didn't.
>DECKBOX: yeah, you're right
>DECKBOX: fred tried to get everybody to, but we all wanted to wait.
>FRED: that is not even close to true
>DOTTTT: Can we hurry, please? It's a five-man and there's always a chance someone will beat us to it.
>ERIKONE: Yeah, I know. Sorry, was stuck in class. I've got cooldowns and pots ready, we can go now. Summon?
Erika accepted the summoning spell from Spoil, the group's Sorcerer. With the five-person group together, they rode into the dungeon.
>FRED: so much trash
>DECKBOX: it's the exact amount of trash it was on test realm.
>FRED: yeah
>FRED: SO MUCH
>ERIKONE: I'm so glad you guys saved your complaining for when I was here. We can AOE pull this stuff, btw, at least make it a little faster.
Dotttt sprinted around the cave, drawing aggro from the small goblins that littered the first room. He led them back to Erika, who taunted and healed through the damage as the DPS specs took the mobs out with ease. She quickly healed up and they moved through a couple more rooms, quickly dispatching the rest of the trash.
>ERIKONE: We should be making up time here, next room is the mini-boss. Pop cooldowns and let's slide through quick.
Erika dashed to the mini-boss. temporarily stunning it.
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME. SELF-DESTRUCT IMMINENT. PLEASE PROVIDE THE KILLSWITCH PASSWORD.
>ERIKONE: That's new dialog, right? I don't remember that from test.
>FRED: yeah
>FRED: they do that sometimes
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN THIRTY SECONDS.
>ERIKONE: Uh.
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN TWENTY-SEVEN SECONDS.
>ERIKONE: Any ideas? We're not going to beat this enrage timer, if that's what it is.
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN TWENTY-ONE SECONDS.
>FRED: omg
>FRED: can i mute mobs
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN SIXTEEN SECONDS.
>ERIKONE: No clue. Uh...
>ERIKONE: GOBLINSRULE
>ERIKONE: NOSAFETYGOGGLES
>ERIKONE: GOLDGOLDGOLD
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN ONE SECONDS.
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN ONE SECONDS.
>CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET: THAT PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. SELF-DESTRUCTING IN ONE SECONDS.
A bright flash on the screen hid everything, including the control bars. When Erika finally gained control she saw that the party had wiped.
>ERIKONE: Okay. Looking at combatlog now.
As she went through the process of resurrecting herself and then the party, Erika combed through the combat log, finding the relevant section and posting it in the party chat.
>ERIKONE: Pasting now.
>ERIKONE: CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET SELF-DESTRUCT hit CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET for 980312 damage.
>ERIKONE: CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET SELF-DESTRUCT hit ERIKONE for 80122 damage.
>ERIKONE: CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET SELF-DESTRUCT hit SPOIL for 2140325 damage.
>ERIKONE: CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET SELF-DESTRUCT hit DECKBOX for 879871 damage.
>ERIKONE: CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET SELF-DESTRUCT hit FRED for 1012351 damage.
>ERIKONE: CLURKANK THE POORLY-DESIGNED ROBOROCKET SELF-DESTRUCT hit DOTTTT for 977851 damage.
>FRED: nice
>FRED: im looking back at the test logs now
>FRED: that ability wasnt even present
>FRED: can we tank thru it somehow
>FRED: how much life does it have after that
>ERIKONE: Unsure. I wasn't watching its health bar and it's hidden in the log. You're recording, right, Dot? Can you clip it and check?
>DOTTTT: sec
>DOTTTT: Yeah. LOL. Anyone want to guess?
>DECKBOX: 1%?
>DOTTTT: 98%.
>DECKBOX: not much of a self destruct.
>ERIKONE: I'll say. Those numbers are stupid high, we can't beat that countdown, and even if we blow everything and tank through it we probably have to DPS for another five minutes plus. So if it destructs again and we don't have CDs up then we're screwed. Just a second.
She tabbed out of the game and checked the forums. Other groups had taken longer to get through the first couple areas, but they were starting to reach the mini-boss and complain about it. She looked at the progress-checking website and was pleased to see that no one had beaten the fight.
>ERIKONE: Well, good news. Nobody else has managed to get past this guy either. Let's give it another few tries. We're still live for world first on the main boss even if someone beats this, and we should be able to figure it out by the time somebody else does. So I'm not worried, but if anybody feels like they want to go eat or something while we're waiting, go for it.
>FRED: dont have to tell me twice
>FRED: brb 30 or so
>FRED the ARCHER-100 Has Departed from the Realm.
>ERIKONE: I guess, while we're waiting, did anyone else look at the patch notes?
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
>DECKBOX: yeah. not really, i mean, i saw that it was some lowbie zone stuff and didnt look too much closer.
>ERIKONE: But did you see that there's something that's supposed to "challenge the best adventurers" or something?
>DECKBOX: i figured it was some joke. why would they put the best adventurers stuff in a 1-15 zone or whatever?
>ERIKONE: That's exactly what I figured. Some inside joke with the programmers, or something. I might fly over there if we're going to be waiting on Fred to get back, you want to come?
>DECKBOX: eh. I’m so lazy lol. If there’s an encounter that you need me for or anything just ping me, i’ll hang out here.
>ERIKONE: Roger that.
Erika summoned her flying mount, a prestigious bird she'd obtained for finishing a previous raid before anyone else on the server. She flew straight up until she saw her model start to clip in the skybox and then pointed back to the starting area and activated autorun. Because of the geometry of the realm, the higher she was, the more ground she covered flying straight. Some troublemakers had exploited this in early versions of the game, finding a way to get through the skybox wall and effectively teleporting anywhere in the game world.
But Erika played mostly by the rules, keeping herself in bounds and making her way back to Neo Phyte, the first town in the game. She started her descent, unable to see anything that was out of the ordinary at first. But as she crept closer, she noticed a stream of characters walking toward the inn, spilling out into the streets of the town. She dismounted, falling 20 or 30 meters to the ground but shrugging off most of the damage. She walked through the crowd, character models easily clipping through each other--of course this game hadn't implemented collision, she thought thankfully.
She eventually made her way through the inn and found what everyone was looking at. Where there had previously been a bare wall near the back fireplace, there was now a door. Erika right-clicked on it, bringing up an actions menu and choosing "open".
>YOU ARE NOT SUFFICIENT LEVEL FOR THIS INSTANCE.
In the real world--Meatspace--Erika's jaw dropped. It had been years since she wasn't high-enough level for an instance. Her character had been max level as long as anyone on the server. If she wasn't high enough level for this, nobody was. But as she looked around in-game, she saw characters walking in, and they certainly weren't a higher level than ERIKONE.
She thought for a minute, and sent a message to her party.
>ERIKONE: Hey, I'm logging into an alt to take a look at this thing in NP. LMK if you guys want to try running the new boss again.
>ERIKONE the PALADIN-100 Has Departed from the Realm.
>ERIKBANK the WIZARD-1 Has Rejoined the Realm.
Just as Erika had suspected, her level 1 bank alt was able to pass through the door. It led to a stairwell down into the basement of the inn, somewhere she'd never seen before. She walked down to see another door, this one with a wooden sign outside it that read "KEEP OUT!!!! - FIXXA"
Naturally, she tested to see if she could open this door as well. She could. Walking inside, she saw a workshop, with a single enemy. The mob's level was hidden, and the only way Erika could interact was to attack. From the corpses that littered the ground, she figured that her bank alt (who had very few skills) would be very unlikely to successfully fight. So she continued to look around. One of the shelves in the workshop held a pile of books, and she was able to click on and read one.
"Fixxa the Mechanic's Project Log," it began. Erika clicked NEXT to continue reading.
"Boss asked me to make a ROCKET MONSTER to guard his new treasure. Paid great, too! Submitted some prototypes and he took two of them. Clurkank and Blurkank, I called 'em. Clurkank is way too strong, if you ask me!"
In the real world, a smile crossed Erika's face. This was great. She continued reading.
"Blurkank is almost as strong but he's got a few weaknesses. The only way anyone's going to beat Clurkank, though, is by shutting him down. And I'm not giving the password to nobody! Over my dead body! You're gonna have to defeat me first!"
So it was like that, Erika thought. She turned and clicked on the goblin walking around. For science, she initiated combat.
>FIXXA THE FIXXER DUAL WRENCH THROW hit ERIKBANK for 20 damage.
>FIXXA THE FIXXER DUAL WRENCH THROW hit ERIKBANK for 21 damage.
>ERIKBANK MELEE hit FIXXA THE FIXXER for 3 damage.
>ERIKBANK FIREBOLT hit FIXXA THE FIXXER for 11 damage.
They went back and forth, but Fixxa's damage was too much for Erika to heal through, especially on a level 1 without much gear. She looked back over the combat log as she went to retrieve her corpse and came to the conclusion that the fight was probably impossible. Not just for her current character, but for anyone at level 1. There was only so much a player could do to increase their strength, and they were capped by only being able to wear level 1 gear. Unless... Nah. She thought about it for a minute and put it out of her head.
>ERIKBANK the WIZARD-1 Has Departed from the Realm.
>ERIKONE the PALADIN-100 Has Rejoined the Realm.
>ERIKONE: Hey, I found out how we're supposed to get the killswitch password for that machine.
>DECKBOX: i read about it on the forum, yeah. the goblin mechanic lady?
>FRED: i heard the fights impossible
>FRED: did you check it out eri
>ERIKONE: Yeah--it feels impossible. Especially since you have to do it on a level 1 character.
>DOTTTT: Maybe there's another secret, one that lets you beat THAT fight so you can beat the rocket machine mini-boss.
Erika rolled her eyes. There was definitely a chance Dot was right.
>DECKBOX: ...
>DECKBOX: ...
>DECKBOX: you know what you could do
>ERIKONE: Yeah. I thought about it.
>DOTTTT: ???
>DOTTTT: Someone want to clue me in?
>FRED: ya
>FRED: you ever do pvp dot
>FRED: specifcly level capped
>FRED: so like
>FRED: level 39 and below only or level 49 or below or w/e
>FRED: dming you a link to some of the best players at those levels
>FRED: lmk if you notice anything weird
>DOTTTT: Ok.
>DOTTTT: Uh, everyone has red armor?
>FRED: whys it red
>DOTTTT: Because they're not high enough level for it, I'm assuming. But how do they get it on in the first place? Glitch?
>FRED: not a giltch per say
>FRED: a feature kinda
>FRED: if you get gear and put it on and then get level drained you get to keep the gear and stats as long as you dont take it off
>FRED: you cant modify or repair it but you keep stats
>DOTTTT: So how do you get down in levels?
>SPOIL: keeps.
>FRED: look whos suddenly talkative
>FRED: i think thats ur first message ive read today
>SPOIL: i’m intrigued by this level 1 door and i want to get to the point; sue me
>FRED: lmao
>FRED: kk so
>FRED: dot
>FRED: you know how theres the shadow pvp zone
>FRED: the one you have to specificly opt into and click the extra TOS and all that
>DOTTTT: Yeah, I looked at it once. Said something about permanently losing character progress. Not interested.
>FRED: most folks arent
>FRED: its the ‘playing for keeps’ zone
>FRED: or just keeps
>FRED: super risky BUT
>FRED: defeated players have a chance to lose experience
>FRED: so peep this
>FRED: youre lvl 100 and full gear
>FRED: suddenly you lose a buttload of xp
>FRED: now youre 70 or 50 or 39 or w/e
>FRED: but same gear
>FRED: most people would just go grind up again but if you WANTED to be 39 in epics then youre unstoppable against other 30-39s
>FRED: or in this case…
>FRED: if you wanted to be level 1
>SPOIL: for the record, i think this is dumb as hell and we should absolutely not try it. XP loss is controllable to an extent but we might overshoot or something. Remind me what happens when you go below 0 total xp fred?
>FRED: segfault
>FRED: toon gone period
>FRED: maybe account
>FRED: thats supposed to be fixed tho
>SPOIL: you volunteering??????????
>FRED: no f chance
>ERIKONE: Ahem. So, everyone is right. Deck is right, this is what I was thinking of. Spoil is right, it’s a terrible idea. Dot is right that we might not be getting the whole picture, maybe there’s another quest chain we don’t have.
>FRED: and fred is right because...
>ERIKONE: That’s all our time, folks. Seriously though, we should not do this. Let’s take a break and see what happens with this mini-boss over the next few days. I’m okay not getting the occasional world first. If anyone has the guts to try draining to lvl1 to beat Fixxa they can go for it. I’m not playing that game.
>FRED: yeah youre right
>FRED: what if we dont have to drain down from our 100s tho
>FRED: can i take some alt i got tired of leveling at 50 or whatever and try it
>ERIKONE: I’m not stopping you. Make sure you’re logging it, I want to read the aftermath.
>FRED: lets get crazy
>FRED the ARCHER-100 Has Departed from the Realm.
>FBLUE the ARCHER-50 Has Rejoined the Realm.
>FBLUE has joined the party
>ERIKONE: Why do you have two archers?
>FBLUE: i like arrows
>FBLUE: mind your business
Erika watched his profile page, refreshing it in a web browser to see if he was actually going through with this crazy stunt. A few F5s later, she saw that FBLUE the ARCHER had been flagged for Shadow PVP combat. She rolled her eyes and tabbed back into the game.
>ERIKONE: Good luck.
>FBLUE: dont need it
>FBLUE: thx tho
>FBLUE: ill report back
>FBLUE: dropping group to go
>FBLUE: seeya soon
>FBLUE has left the party
>ERIKONE: Do you need pots or buffs or anyt
>ERIKONE: Oh.
>DOTTTT: Yikes. I mean, it’s just an alt, right? What’s the worst that can happen?
>SPOIL: character goes below level 0, memory corrupts, unrecoverable, can’t log into account, GMs can’t fix
>DOTTTT: Okay, that is indeed the worst. Why is that still in the game?
>SPOIL: they don’t care--shadow pvp is super niche and the players generally like having that danger anyway.
>SPOIL: most of them aren’t risking world-first raiding accounts tho.
>DOTTTT: Fred is just a maniac then?
>DECKBOX: i dont think that’s news to anyone.
>DOTTTT: Indeed. Well, I guess we’ll see what happens.
>ERIKONE: For sure. I’m watching his account. I’ll keep everybody posted.
>DECKBOX: roger.
>DECKBOX: go get em, fred.
Erika tabbed out of the ZRealm client and went back to checking Fred’s status. After ten minutes of refreshing, the only change was that he’d lost half a level of XP, down to 49.5. It was going to be a long night.
>ERIKONE: Okay, I can see that he’s getting drained. I can’t wait to see how this turns out, but it’s going to take a while either way. Going to make some coffee and get snacks since we’ll probably be on all night, brb 20 or so.
>DOTTTT: Enjoy. I’m still trying to see if there’s another link in the quest chain before Fixxa. I’d really like to see if we can do this without risking an entire account.
>DECKBOX: same.
>DECKBOX: i’m not psyched about this and it feels like it’s kind of against the spirit of the game. even if it works, who knows, maybe we’ll get banned?
>SPOIL: no, draining to wear high lvl armor in pvp is tacitly okay, there’s gm tickets on record about it. i don’t know why it wouldn't be acceptable here. almost feels from the lvl gate that this is what they want us to do.
>ERIKONE: It does all feel a little “wrong”, agreed. Okay brb for real.
>ERIKONE the PALADIN-100 Has Departed from the Realm.
Erika stood up from her chair and took her headphones off, looking around the room. Her roommate had gone out like most normal college students did on a Friday night. It was barely past 7, though. She grabbed her key, thermos, and digital notepad, stepping out into the dorm hallway. She could feel the bass from someone playing music as she made her way to the kitchen.
She put a pot of coffee on in the shared dorm kitchen, watching it impatiently. The room temperature changed as cold air rushed in from the hall and she turned to see one of the other girls from the dorm walk into the kitchen. Erika waved as Brittany walked to the counter with her and grabbed the digital notepad Erika carried.
“Any plans tonight?” she wrote.
Erika grinned and wrote “JUST GAMING”. They both laughed. Erika hit the clear button and the notepad went black, allowing her to start a new message. “YOU?”
Brittany took the stylus. “Frat party? idk”
“COOL BE SAFE”
“we’ll see!” Brittany wrote, laughing. Erika offered the coffeepot to Brittany, but she waved it off. Erika shrugged and dumped the entire thing into her massive thermos. She cleared the notepad again and tucked it under her arm as they left the kitchen together.
Brittany tapped her shoulder as they walked down the hall and waved goodbye, ducking back into her own room. Erika sat back down at her computer and checked in on Fred's status. He was still in the mid-40s. She grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled some quick calculations. Based on how lower levels required less XP than higher ones, he was probably going to be down to level 1 (or... less) in an hour or so. She took a deep breath and put her headphones back on, smiling at the familiar feeling of the cheap foam against her skin.
>ERIKONE the PALADIN-100 Has Rejoined the Realm.
>DOTTTT: There you are! We have something to show you. Take summon!
Erika pulled up her friends list, nearly spitting her coffee out as she discovered that her guildmates were in an area of the game she'd never seen before. She eagerly accepted the summon.