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Seeing him overtaken by gloom, I promptly changed the subject. "This clan of yours, what's it about?"
Eric cheered up a bit. "Combat vets. Mainly the two Chechen wars, the second Georgian campaign and the Far East conflict. But we also have a few military advisors, foreign intelligence people, special forces, and even a few handicapped Afghan vets. No internal shit—no police or anti-riot men. They have a clan of their own. There's some sort of cold war going on between us. So you see, it's not much we can do with this chick. But we need to find her a place and something to do before she gets into trouble. Things aren't as easy as they seem here. We're now talking about building a nursery to train new players for the clan. We're short on healers and buffers. Normally we only get true blue warriors, if you know what I mean."
Honestly, I was quite surprised. I didn't expect to find so many professional military in the game.
Eric gave me a crooked grin. "I can't tell you how many of us are here. It's classified. Let's put it this way, it's a three-figure number. And as for why we're here… D'you know how I used the bathroom after the second Georgian campaign? You pull your pants down and clamp the drip. Then you unstick the plastic container from your hip, pour its contents down the toilet and stick it back on again. A frag in my stomach, half the bladder down the drain. Shit happens."
He paused. "Some motherfuckers made billions in army supplies. Those in the arms industry got their cut, too. And those on top helped them carve up the budget. And all the while young lost-eyed kids kept fertilizing the ground in strange lands with their blood. That's the way it goes…"
He turned to me. "D'you see that guy over there flirting with girls—blond hair, blue eyes? If you met him in the real world, you'd have had nightmares for a week. He spent twenty minutes keeping the enemy away from his APC, not letting them get close enough to finish off his guys. He was so burned that dogs pissed themselves with fear when they saw him. Do we still sound too many to you? Each of them here is a bodiless, soulless stump…"
He was right. Shit happened. But I had another question to ask him, too. "I've noticed a fu
"Oh, dude. You sure you read the Terms and Conditions? Or did you just tick the box? Relax. No one does. I didn't. I had it explained to me, too. The game localizes users using their IP addresses, their interface language, their address and credit card issuer. They know who we are and where we are from. So they throw us all into one language cluster using an algorithm that only the admins know. This is mainly a Russian-speaking zone. We have some Eastern European players, a handful of unidentified immigrants, but not many, just within statistical error."
"Wait a bit. And what happens if some Frenchie wants to play for the High Elves? What's he go
"P-lease. AlterWorld is quarter of the size of the globe. Plenty of Cities of Light to go around. I have a fu
I gave it some thought. Actually, he could be right.
Overall, our conversation proved quite productive. As night approached, I walked upstairs, slightly swaying. I sleepily looked over the clean and comfortable little room, pulled off my clothes and shut out, ending my first day in the new world.
* * *
Strictly confidential
Experiment Log 425 of the Globe 4 classified facility.
Subject: male, 35 year old, healthy. Digitized in the virtual world New Amazons Build 0.827.
The player 'went perma' after 70 hours of full immersion. Further consecutive disco
All attempts to log into the same account resulted in a brief message:
Co
On the fifth day after going digital, the player reached level 12. But none of his achievements were logged into the server database. Manual changes to the database, including account removal, did not affect the digitized subject. This allows us to conclude that the perma effect creates an independent copy of a game character not covered by the game world's database. All our attempts to directly manipulate the player have failed. The only possibility to do so is by indirectly controlling him via the game world and other characters.
Chapter Seven
I lounged in bed enjoying that blissful weekend feeling. No alarm clocks, no hasty breakfast before rushing off to work alongside equally sleepy and grumpy—never knew why—fellow citizens.
Birds' songs poured in through the open window. The heavy door all but blocked out the ground-floor sounds: quiet voices and the rattling of plates. Someone burst out in cheerful laughter. The smell of fried bacon tickled my nostrils. I stretched with a happy smile—my joints made no cracking or clicking—and sat up in one smooth motion, enjoying the sensation of a perfectly healthy body. The thought of its potential use intoxicated me. Enough larking about. Time to kill some gnolls. They had to be missing me.
Before I left I decided to spend my last gold piece on another night. The i
"Not before nighttime, I suppose. Time to let some gnolls' blood."
He nodded his understanding. "Wait a sec. I'll arrange for some sandwiches."
Shit. I kept forgetting to eat. This wasn't real life where you could skip a meal. Here, once you're hungry, you'd better quit whatever you're doing double quick before you're flat out of mana.
"Thank you, Sir. I completely forgot."
The i
The red-faced waitress rushed in from the kitchen and handed me a sizable packet and a still warm flask. I looked inside.
Three Little Pigs Sandwich, courtesy of chef. Amt: 5.
Use: +3 to Strength, +3 to Constitution for 2 hrs.
Strong Herbal Tea
Use: Speeds up mana regeneration 3% for 2 hrs.
Surprised, I looked up at the i
He gave me a wink, gri
I thanked him again, wistfully packed up the delicious-smelling goodies and headed for the door.
On my way to the Gnoll Hill I checked my friend list. Cryl was offline. But the sad Taali girl was there. I sent her a toothy smiley, just to cheer her up. A couple minutes later I received a cheeky winking face. My mood upped a few degrees. Life was moving on.
There it was, the hill from yesterday. Still lots of people but nothing like last night. I wasn't going to join a group, not quite yet. I wanted to play solo for a while to explore my char's potential.
I raised a rather average zombie, attracting a few curious glances in the process. It wasn't often they saw a Necro right here in the heart of the Lands of Light. I placed the remaining Soul Stone in a separate pocket in case I had to raise the pet again right in the heat of battle.