Jinyoung took a deep breath and let it out slowly. So in other words… it didn’t go well.
Hana’s recap of the night before notwithstanding, Jinyoung felt exhausted. Ever since he unlocked the new aspect to [scan], use of the skill required more focus and energy.
During their shift, Willow had practiced drawing mana into her hands to use higher level spells. With [scan], Jinyoung could guide her movements and tell her when she needed to use less mana or more.
Using [scan] repeatedly for such a long period of time was draining. And under normal circumstances, he would’ve stopped but… Willow’s hands were scarred. There were telltale burns reaching from her fingertips and up her wrists underneath the sleeves of her jacket.
Willow shrugged when he brought them to her attention.
“They’ve faded a lot and they’ll probably be mostly gone in a few days,” Willow said.
Instead of lingering on her burns, Willow focused on the precarious balance of mana and will required to learn the intermediate set of spells.
By morning, Willow was able to at least start casting [frost bolt], [shock lance] and [ash burn]. Holding the spells took effort, but the battle with the wraith had widened the breadth of her knowledge. The experience was like being thrown into the deep end of a pool and slowly swimming out.
Once morning arrived, Seunghyo spread out a crudely drawn map on the dirty floor of the outpost.
“We’re here,” he pointed at a small outpost drawn on the edge of a river. Then he traced his finger along the map following the dried riverbed which was dotted with trees. “We need to walk through here to get to Pyong-gang about a day to the east.”
Hana and Jinyoung looked at one another. Based on Seunghyo’s intel, their father was in the city along with fifty or so civilians who were barely hanging on. They’d have to make it to the city and then somehow get about four dozen non-combatants out of the north and down south while avoiding hordes of Frostbitten players and other potentially lethal threats.
“There’s something else,” Seunghyo said.
Seunghyo drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Henry had made it clear that he was to keep everyone else in the dark, but the chances of them making it out alive were slim to nil if he kept Hana in the dark.
The northern barony wasn’t just a separately governed settlement, they were an enclave of scientists established shortly after the Break. The goal was to research and explore the effects of the Break on our world.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“That explains all the labs we’ve been seeing,” Hana reasoned. “But, there’s no way that the barony was able to fund all this.”
Jinyoung thought back to the miles of underground structures and well-designed facilities. It would’ve taken years and thousands of people to build it all, not to mention all the lab equipment that populated the entirety of it.
“Corporate sponsors.”
Seunghyo only spoke two words, but Jinyoung could feel the weight of them. In hindsight, corporations were an obvious consequence of the Break. While most people were trying to survive the end of the world, others saw it as an opportunity to consolidate power and resources.
Corporate sponsored clans and quests were common enough, but there were always rumors that corporations were starting to exert influence on the interim governments, guilds, and even the Player Society itself.
Even Jinyoung had to admit that Seah’s position as a director in the Player Society and her marriage to the heir to a corporation didn’t look good.
Willow fought back the concern in the pit of her stomach. “That could mean anything, right? It’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
The silence that followed made her stomach twist in knots.
It didn’t take long for everyone to catch on. The northern barony was isolated and separated by mountains from any colonies to the north or south. Here, the corporations were free from prying eyes.
“As far as I can tell,” Seunghyo continued, “They started off researching the corruption and miasma we see in dungeons. They were researching the effects of extended exposure.”
Corruption.
Every player, regardless of pedigree or education, learned what corruption was. It was the thing that ate away at the concrete foundation beneath your feet or the steel beams holding a building together. It put buildings inside of caves and caves inside of buildings.
Willow thought to ask why, but the answer was obvious. She knew better than most that corporations would do anything if there were a profit to be had.
Undeterred, Seunghyo watched his companions carefully as he spoke. “Eventually, they settled on the effects of corruption on the environment. I’m sure you’ve all come across things in dungeons that don’t belong there. Chairs growing out of walls or sudden changes in the environment. But occasionally, you come across something that doesn’t fit in our world.”
Jinyoung thought back to the Black Shrine. The dungeon where they had discovered the Black Shrine 20 years ago wasn’t just transformed into a natural cave system, it was transformed into something from another world altogether. Something alien.
“Eventually, they realized that corruption was a result of the breaks. But only a minority of breaks resulted in useful resources, the rest were harmful. And the resources required to check each break was daunting.
“It would be easier, they realized, if they could create their own breaks. If they could control the when and where.”
It took a moment, but the realization hit Jinyoung and Hana like a ton of bricks. Hana looked away in disgust while Jinyoung cursed.
“Wait,” Willow said. “I don’t understand. They wanted to control breaks?”
Hana clenched her jaw and spoke through her teeth. “He means dungeons. They were researching how to create their own dungeons.”