A dimly-lit underground chamber.

Henry, landing, got straight to business. He extended his arm to summon an object in the centre of the floor space. A veteran player watching his action might have been surprised that the motes of light forming the object were streaming not out of his Spatial Bracelet but from a rusty iron ring on his left pinky finger.

Three seconds later, a metallic, telephone-box-sized device stood before him.

Flaming Sun Patented Personal Portable Transmogrificator Model #12

Level Restriction: 0

Condition: 41%

Weight: 52 kg

‘Feeling self-conscious about your appearance but too embarrassed to visit the face-butcher in person? Never fear, now you can experience the wonders of Cosmetic Alchemy from the privacy and comfort of your own home or anywhere else.'

This Transmogrificator had been developed through a joint effort between The Company and their sub-guild Flaming Sun. The development team were still churning out newer models, each lighter and easier to mass produce than the last. Nonetheless, he kept this old one out of a sentimental attachment; they had endured many tribulations together, Henry using the device multiple times a day, including this morning when he'd disguised himself as an NPC.

Henry summoned several translucent Energy Storage Stones and began fixing them into slots positioned around the Transmogrificator's exterior. Looking closely at these stones, one could see a viscous, glowing fluid suspended inside of which were sparkling motes of light, similar to the Landworker ones from earlier but of different shapes and hues. Some stones contained motes whose colour vacillated from indigo to azure, and all the shades between. In others, the motes were shaped like conical flasks. In others still, the motes were mixed with drops of blood. In others still, the motes exuded a golden aura of nobility and sanctity. These variations corresponded to the energies of other Classes - respectively, Arcaneworkers, Alchemists, Bloodmancers, and Miracleworkers. These visual cues were sometimes useful to note for combat, helping to identify the type of spells enemies were casting.

Ignoring a constant mild-electric shock, he opened the front panel of the Transmogrificator and stepped inside.

The transformation process was quite graphic. While the user was held in a state of undeath, noxious fumes and tendril-mounted scalpels stripped the body through the various layers of hair and flesh, dissolving the bones, then rebuilding them into the chosen appearance.

Henry stepped into the machine with his default avatar copied directly from his real seventeen-year-old appearance. A short while later, he remerged as a wrinkled geriatric, one-foot shorter, his back hunched by the weight of his advanced years. The only resemblance between the two was a tired expression, which seemed more suited to this old man disguise.

To get his neurons used to the changed body proportions, Henry performed a quick routine of stretches and callisthenics, rotating his creaky, arthritic shoulders.

With his appearance transformed, now it was time to transform his identity.

Henry reached for the rusty iron ring on his left pinky finger.

This was the same Legendary he'd used to spoof being an NPC during the boatride. Despite being such a powerful item, the tooltip for it was very low-key.

Rusty Ring (Legendary)

Level Restriction: 0

Condition: 1%

Material: Unknown

Weight: 12 g

’An old rusty ring. It seems to have been worn on many fingers.’

The guild, when first acquiring this ring from a 500-man dungeon raid, had been confused as to how it could be classified as Legendary.

In exchange for their uniqueness and massive acquisition costs, Legendary items usually had game-breaking stats or effects, well beyond their material tier. For example, the Legendary Crown of Valsutha allowed a Bloodmancer to command twenty times their usual number of skeletons.

The rusty ring, though, had had no such apparent effect. It had passed from hand to hand among his guildmates, as each, in turn, had tried to figure out what made it special. In the end, it was only luck that had allowed him to unlock its secret, luck and obsessive research. Henry, a Scholar, pouring through the annals of history, eventually figured it out.

Grabbing the ring, he span it a quarter turn.

The Rusty Ring responds to your call.

A creepy chill crept out from the ring. It passed down his finger to his wrist, up his arm, to his spine at the base of his neck, upwards further, penetrating into his brain, to the top of his skull, then back down a bit, to end at a point in the exact middle-point between his ears.

While the ring was active, a continuous stream of this creepy sensation would flow between his pinky and the middle of his brain.

Menu for the Armament of The Syncretist

Eligibility Criteria: Scholar with Universal Comprehension.

Equipped pieces (1/13):

The Ring of a Thousand Souls

Options:

Soul Transformation

It turned out that the abilities of this cheat ring, 'The Ring of a Thousand Souls’, was activated with a rare skill, Universal Comprehension. This he'd obtained after reading enough books to learn 200 in-game languages and completing a Legendary quest chain. It allowed him to comprehend any language in the game, whether his character understood it or not.

Thus, this ring could be viewed as a classic example of the cheater’s cumulative advantage — possessing one cheat made finding more cheats easier.

Henry selected Soul Transformation, bringing up yet another menu.

5/6 Soul Slots in Use

Name

Classification

Age

Sex

Place of Origin

Primary Class (tier, level)

Inventory Space

crusadingintheshadows

Player

24

M

Aion Laisije - Kingdom of Ejapipilu

Peopleworker (0-4, 20)

30/45

Henry Flower (Default)

Player

17

M

Togavi - Eastern Togavi

Scholar (5-2, 110)

150/195

Bao Maja

NPC

44

M

Chayoka Island - Maja Tribe

Landworker (0-4, 20)

24/45

Citikena Velu

NPC

83

M

Heimland - Republic of Gu

Peopleworker (0-4, 20)

12/45

Azahar Eebu-Anak Kahan

NPC

61

M

Rangbit - Hutan City

Merchant (0-4, 20)

8/60

Options: Swap Soul | Alter Soul | Destroy Soul | Create Soul

The game called them Souls, but, in practice, they were just Player or NPC IDs.

Some of the IDs on this list were notorious. The most was 'Crusadingintheshadows', a.k.a. The Tyrant. This Henry had used while acting as the guild leader of The Attention East Saana Trading Company or 'The Company'. Officially, the ID was considered to have quit Saana six months earlier, when Henry'd transitioned from an expansion to a reformation stage of his guild's development. Unofficially, most players mistakenly assumed The Tyrant was his friend, beaver-headed Alex, the two of them having misled the public.

As far as Henry was concerned, it was all exhausting stuff that he’d rather not think about, worries for his past, unretired self.

Selecting the menu's Create Soul option, he generated a new NPC ID for this old man avatar, assigning it a homeland, age, history, and other biographical miscellanies. For undercover work, this function had proved invaluable. The only obvious thing that distinguished NPCs and players, aside from cultural mannerisms and clothing preferences, was the latter having a soft halo that shone from their skin. When spoofing NPC IDs with the ring, this indicator vanished, enabling one to blend in with the native inhabitants that existed only in the background for most gamers.

Are you sure you want to swap souls from Henry Flower to Oba Iskander?

Henry Flower - this was his default ID, which he would have to use for the 1v1 tournament because he couldn't wear the ring in standardised gear. In the eyes of most, this poorly-named character was a random, low-ranking Scholar of the Flaming Sun guild. 97% of his visible playtime had been spent sitting in a little in-game bookstore, doing nothing. Occasionally, he'd be summoned out to raids to translate ancient texts, but the average player wouldn't care about such dull tasks.

A handful of people were aware this Henry Flower ID belonged to him; after the defection of a former acquaintance in a war six months earlier, the leaders of his enemy guilds had been informed. By using this ID in the tournament therefore, Henry would eventually be detected and a bunch of spies would be sent to shadow him. Before they turned up, however, he'd prefer to have a couple days unharassed, so he was still trying to act low-key for now. The time would also, maybe, perhaps, allow him to test building a monster army without the idea being stolen.

He confirmed his choice, and the creepy stream connecting his brain and his finger flashed painfully hot for a tenth of a second.

Soul-transformation complete.

And that was it: he was an NPC.

Even if the change wasn't dramatic, it was still significant. The ability to change IDs was a supreme cheat if one knew how to exploit it.

For example, when a player committed a crime, their user ID would flash above their head. Until they paid a penalty or died, killing the criminal would make them drop extra items, the amount reflecting the severity of their infractions. For Henry, though, he could create throwaway IDs to murder as many people as he wanted.

More subtly, Saana also evaluated each ID as a totally separate individual. That had repercussions for some of the quest mechanics. The run-in with the weapon-smuggling Merchant earlier was one quirky example of this, the game giving him a task to steal armaments from himself.

Finished with the transformation, Henry spent a moment staring at the ring sending a creepy sensation to his brain.

This strange object had a deeper backstory. It was merely one component in—but no. There was no point focusing on such things anymore. He'd retired.

Forcefully, he twisted the item, severing the sensation and causing the ring to return to its usual, looser size, to a rusted, worthless-looking trinket.

Covering it with a glove, he retrieved his Transmogrificator, climbed out of the bunker, and disguised the entranceway.

And now to speed-run a newbie curse quest!