1 Soul Bound
1.1 Finding her Feet
1.1.6 An Innocent Profaned
1.1.6.8 Omega
CEO’s Office, XperiSense HQ, Huabo Road, Guokeng, Quanzhou, Fujian, China
Feng Akechi’s office window looked out over one of the more picturesque parts of Quanzhou city. Which wasn’t saying much. He hadn’t picked this region for its looks. He turned to face the man standing before him. Nominally Zhou Ping was an expert who worked for Akechi on the next generation of expert systems being used by XperiSense in their newest expansion of Soul Bound, the Sacred Blood release that included Covob, the enhanced Vessel system and a number of other features. In reality, Ping was on loan from Omega, the government organisation that had done much of the pioneering work on the next gens, and Akechi didn’t have sufficient clearances to know what Ping’s true role there was.
Akechi: “Mr. Zhou. I am informed by Xu Kaixiang that one of our players was nearly killed by your expert systems today. It came within 5% of causing her permanent brain damage.”
Ping: “That would be regrettable. We are all keen to see how far unity can be achieved between humans and expert systems, and this game is an ideal hotbed for selecting those with the best natural aptitude for it, but none of us wishes to risk lives carelessly, even if the goal is of utmost importance. May I ask the details of how this happened?”
Akechi: “One of the most promising candidates so far completed a class C quest whose reward was paid out with skill raises.”
Ping: “Class C is aimed at level 50 players or a group of level 40s. That’s ahead of the curve for 5 days into the launch, but within expected parameters. A few skills going up level for each player should be pleasant, but not have caused problems.”
Akechi: “These characters were level 25, and in proportion to the importance of her contribution, a majority of the reward went to just one single player. She was hit by nearly 50 skill increases in under a second.”
Ping: “I now see the problem.”
Akechi: “I’m not sure you do. I had a look at the logs. It is possible someone shaded the system to hand them all out at once, rather than over the 20 minutes when many of those gains should logically have taken place. It is possible this was a deliberate murder attempt.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ping: “Who did it? This is not to be tolerated.”
Akechi: “I’m glad to hear you share my opinion. Unfortunately, the situation is complex, and not all the information is kept. I will keep investigating, but I may not find a specific name. What I am going to do is issue a ‘hands off’ warning, and set up explicit logging of everything that happens to the players in that group. If someone interferes again, I’ll definitely be able to trace them, and we can nail their hide to the wall. I take it you agree?”
Ping: “Of course. Your courtesy in keeping me informed is deeply appreciated. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”
Akechi: “No, that’s fine. I think you’ve done more than enough already.”
From: “Feng Akechi, CEO” <[email protected]>
To: “Zhou Ping, next gen systems” <[email protected]>
CC: “Wang Tianqing, cost management” <[email protected]>
CC: “Li Yaya, programming lead” <[email protected]>
CC: “Wei Shigen, user experience” <[email protected]>
CC: “Xu Kaixiang, combat balance” <[email protected]>
CC: “Chen Rushi, creative lead” <[email protected]>
CC: “Hagiwara Satori, quality control” <[email protected]>
Subject: Hands off Kafana
We’ve been experiencing some balance issues with respect to the #1 player by global reputation on the new world. It is expected that some issues will get past QA, but as is normal for the #1 spot, this player is gathering an audience for her gameplay, and we want to avoid any adverse publicity. I am therefore taking personal measures to track problems down.
To aid me in this, I ask you all to make sure that nobody in your departments makes any customised interventions for the player or her associated group. If something comes up, notify me and get my personal OK first, even if you have to interrupt a meeting or wake me up in order to do so. No exceptions. Let me know if you spot any anomalies.
Feng Akechi