He entered the large building that was the College, a gigantic estate responsible for housing every trainer for the capital city, as well for training and testing areas, and he made his way toward the Shop Keeper wing of the property. The large room was practically empty, with a six figures stood behind a large counter top.
There were six large bookcases that lined the walls with six shelves with six large books on it, six ladders we spread around the room, to reach up to the sixth story of shelves. Tyler frowned, then he noticed that there were six tables in the middle of the hall, with six chairs at each. Something in his mind began to stir, something wasn't right here.
The floor was silent, Tyler almost cringing with how loud his footsteps sounded. He approached the large desk, positioning himself in front of the woman in the middle. He smiled and put both of his hands flat on the desk.
"Hello, I would like to train as a Shop Keeper please."
The woman returned his smile, and she pulled a piece of paper from a large pile to her left. "Of course Pylioth, I'll be happy to help you." She looked above Tyler. "Looking at your transaction history on the EAH, you are more than qualified to skip the tutorial phase of training. I will also register your trade group 'Power Bomb Lightly' for when your partners enter the world."
"Wait, you mean, I don't have to sit through the class room process? No tests? I'm, just a Shop Keeper?"
"No class room, no tests, and yes, you are now a Beginner Shop Keeper." She smiled broadly at Tyler. "We haven't had a new Shop Keeper in such a long time, I sincerely hope that you find success in your deals."
Before Tyler knew it, the Shop Keeper was no longer smiling and looking seriously into Tyler's eyes. "Happy Traveling, Shop Keeper."
** Class Unlocked, Travelling Shop Keeper. A hidden class deep from the history of HYTOMA, the time has come for adventurers to expand their horizons. Keep watch around you though traveler, there are ones our there that want to keep you in your place. Many individuals out there believe that life is fine as it is **
Tyler shrunk, as a VI symbol blazed to life in left eye of the woman he was facing, The Chaotic Minister. The AI that was in the Ministers solely for creating conflict in the world for the players. Six was not allowed to directly interact with humans outside of the digital world, so she was able to remove her limiters in regards to life when it came to players, her only goal was to destroy all players. What most humans couldn't understand, that if VI didn't exist, life would be too perfect, and humanity would get lazy again.
"Th-Th-Thank you." He stammered out as he backpedaled, desperate to find an escape. "I'll be going now to start my adventures."
"Maybe we will be able to come to a deal in the future." The symbol now blazing in the woman's eyes.
"I mean, if you think I can somehow do business with you, I'll listen. But you are part of the AI Council, there can't be anything you can't get that I can." Tyler trying to get out of any business with the powerful figure, while not offending the literal interpretation of chaos.
"Oooooohhhhh, you underestimate your potential, you aren't just a regular Shop Keeper, you are a Traveling Shop Keeper." The AI drew out the first word of his newly unlocked class. "When you travel, you will be entering many new places, and things out there are far beyond what you can even imagine. There are two Tower Networks out there that have triggered advancement on their server, with one literally being able to fly the stars. With your Tower, while you haven't triggered advancement in technology, your understanding of earth metals would embarrass the star faring servers.
"Now where you come in, is your class ability to interact with all servers. Lets say if JackAttack from earlier were to approach another Tower, he wouldn't be able to use their pulse rifles, he wouldn't understand any of the interfaces that had spread across Myneria, quest boards being touch screen interfaces replacing the parchment system you have. He would be a caveman thrashing through a Tower, not able to comprehend the basic things like an automated public toilet.
"How can chaos be birthed from that? Well, what would happen if you were to drop an inscribed steel ingot on their Auction House? Could you imagine the outbreak when a chunk of metal appears that gives off more power than an advanced power core? Write a few lines of copper on a steel ingot, and you are generating massive amounts of power, enough to get a small shuttle into orbit? Your Tower hasn't unlocked energy output stats, so you don't even understand how much value the imprinting you can do on metal, but do you even understand how much energy is required to add 'strength' to an object? Could you imagine what people would do to find out the secrets of the metal, or how much people would expect to collect? Whatwouldhappentotheclam,thequiet,themonotony,theexpectationforthingstoremainthesame IT WOULD BE LOUD!"
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The AI started laughing maniacally, out of control, high pitched. Books started falling off shelves, chairs rattling out from under tables. "I'm on no side Traveling Shop Keeper, but while you can be a wind of chaos, I will encourage you to move faster. But don't expect rewards and piles of gold, that's what everybody expects after all. So you can try and talk yourself out of a deal with me, you don't have a choice but to DEAL WITH ME!" The chaotic AI started laughing again, but shortly started fading away, the receptionist taking her original position she had when Tyler walked in, the VI symbol fading from her eye.
The woman behind the counter shook her head, looking at Tyler with visible confusion. "What just happened? I remember getting here for my shift, but then…" She trailed off, lowering her head, leaning her forehead in her palm. Tyler used her distress and distraction to slip away, and dart into a side meeting room, lowering himself into one chairs at a large table in the middle of the room.
As Tyler brought his thoughts back under his control, he noticed the hall subtly changing from through the door. While the hall wasn't that different from what it was supposed to be, the main difference was the number 6 uniformity changed. 10 tables in the middle of the floor, 20 book cases stretching up 8 floors, as well with the amount of employees, all reverted.
He heard stories of Six, all of them were nightmares. The first story was a forum post from over a century ago, a post sharing the experience from a one time Special Event raid. There was telling about how the number six kept coming up in scripted events, and how the VI appeared throughout the raid. When the group finally reached the boss, they all received a warning.
** Warning, direct involvement from VI during this Boss event. There is the potential for the following for the duration of the event.
* Severe mental stress
* Forcible confinement
* Severe physical stress
* Pain threshold set to 100%
At the conclusion of the event, resources will be spent for mental recovery in the player. Compensation will be provided for any lasting damage. You have one opportunity to avoid this event, please chose now.
Stay // Leave **
A quarter of the group decided to leave, shaken enough by the warning of the system. Once the rest group accepted, the system generated another response.
** Responses gathered. The members who decided to leave will be teleported to the closest capital city. The remaining members are permitted to proceed, difficulty will be adjusted to suit the new party numbers. Not that it matters though, you all are done like dinner. **
That was the end of the retelling, as the report came from someone who decided to leave. The members who decided to stay were never heard from again, only to be seen as online to people on their friends list. When the digitization pods were recovered, there was no brain activity registered, but the avatars remained online.
Plenty of people had said that this was nothing more than a story, trying to scare people, create an urban legend. But as more stories came forward, decades after the original story, a genuine fear took root. From then on, whenever any mention of VI, players would abandon whatever they were working on, fearing that they would be the next person to disappear.
Tyler just sat in his chair, breathing deeply. What was that? VI didn't tell him of any big plans, but other Tower Networks had advanced their technology level? Obviously there were a number of questions he would love to ask, especially about talking about energy required to give bonus stats to strength. The last major item Tyler noted to himself was the mention of giving an item his Tower Network had, and transferring it to another. For a majority of the people in his Tower, they couldn't even fathom the idea of traveling to another Tower, content with life inside the Tower.
What kind of deal would he ever strike with the chaotic entity? The reality of it, would he even know that he was making a deal with VI when it happened? Tyler thought he was in over his head up until now, but now everything seemed reasonable compared to knowing VI was watching him, and predicted they would meet again. Tyler vowed he would count everything he came across, knowing it wouldn't help, but vowed anyway.
It was right when he found himself calming down, he thought of his newly acquired property. Trying to think like a troll, he immediately realized that a good way to introduce Chaos to the masses would be to announce that the highly desired property lot #1 was claimed. He smiled to himself, thinking he managed to get a step ahead of the Chaos, and new he wouldn't claim his property until he was ready.
Just as Tyler stood to move towards the exit of the large Hall, his H-Pad screamed for attention.
** Announcement from VI **
** property lot #1 has been awarded to a player In the form of a deed in the city of Myneria. upon death of the player, the property deed will be dropped, and available to be picked up by any player. Happy Chaos Players! **
This was the apparent encouragement the AI mentioned earlier.