As I reappeared in my personal space, I was greeted by the sight of Katy lounging on a sofa which had mysteriously appeared while I was gone and eating out of a large bucket of popcorn.

“Anything good on?” I asked seeing that she was watching something on a streaming website.

“Yeah, there’s this really good video that was posted a few minutes ago that shows this guy who looks a lot like you who accosts this player in a marketplace, and proceeds to humiliate him in front of everyone,” she replied with a massive shit eating grin on her face.

“What!” I shouted running over and staring at the screen. Sure enough, there I was grabbing that guy in the marketplace in Ponson and proceeding to berate him in front of everyone. It seemed that one of the players had thought the sight amusing enough to upload it to try and get some views.

“Yeah, that’s not good,” I groaned grabbing my head in distress. The views had already shot over 1 million and were continuing to rise as the counter automatically refreshed itself.

“Oh please,” Katy said throwing a handful of kernels at me that disappeared the moment they touched the floor.

“Most of the comments are saying you were in the right, see?” she asked scrolling down the page to reveal the comments section.

Sure enough, most people who commented were saying that I was in the right but there were more than a few saying that I should have been punished by the guards for grabbing the player the way that I had and there were even a few suggesting that Gransoft should be temporarily suspending my account for harassing the other player which I thought was a little over the top.

“Jeez does that guy seriously think I should have my account banned or is he just trying to get a reaction?” I asked seeing one particularly venomous comment. Knowing how these things usually went that was probably the kid that I was intimidating in the video or someone who knew who he was.

But even I had to admit that most people who commented were actually focusing on how lifelike the NPCs were than anything to do with my actions which was actually a bit of a relief. Players making public scenes weren’t unusual in games after all but seeing this video still gave me a feeling of foreboding, publicity was good when you had the power or money to back it up but until then you just made yourself a target for the big fish.

Not only were more people going to pay attention to Soul Core Online, which I was quite happy about (the more people I could sell things to the better), but those people would be able to recognize me from this video. This could be both bad and good depending on what sort of person they were and when I started trading at least now I would be easily recognizable.

“Seriously though, how many old Chinese people did I piss of that they had to curse me this hard?” I grumbled. It looked like my life was just going to keep getting more interesting with no signs of it stopping any time soon.

“Not sure what you’re talking about,” Katy giggled. “But I have some news for you from the developers.”

“Well not for you specifically,” she continued quickly seeing my shoulders droop. “It’s about the first patch of the game.”

“Oh, thank god!” I exclaimed. Catching the attention of the developers after only a few hours in game would be taking ridiculous too far and would only be bad news considering my actions in the game earlier.

“It’s just a couple of things; adjusting the sequence in which logging in and teleporting works to make it less uncomfortable and a problem with looting humanoid monsters, which I know is something that you haven’t encountered,” Katy said with a small smile on her face showing her amusement at my little outburst.

“Oh, thank god!” I repeated causing Katy to giggle in amusement. I really hated the transition sequence, so this was only a slight exaggeration of my feelings that was mostly for Katy’s benefit.

“Right, well I’d better go and have dinner,” I said, feeling slightly guilty as Katy’s grin disappeared.

“Um, Tyler, could you give me access to your apartment’s network?” she asked fidgeting slightly as I looked at her in bewilderment.

“I thought you already had access to the network,” I replied causing her to blush in embarrassment.

“I’m confined to your Rig unless you give me permission to access anything else,” she explained. “It’s a legal thing.”

Hmm, that made sense, these AIs were highly intelligent, so it was natural that some people wouldn’t want them to have access to what was essentially connected to every part of their lives, they could of course still access the internet through the rig like I mentioned earlier but allowing an AI into the rest of the networked parts of the apartment required a measure of trust especially when the AI was as advanced as Katy was.

“Sure, that’s fine, but what about Sally?” I asked deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt, Katy hadn’t led me wrong so far and denying her this would just seem petty to me considering how basic my apartment was.

“Your apartments AI?” Katy asked, and I nodded in reply. As far as AIs went Sally was about as they came but she had still been my apartments AI for as long as I had lived here, and I’d feel bad if anything untoward happened to her.

“She’ll just activate sleep mode when you give me permission to access the network, well after giving me the information you’ve been storing in her over the years that is,” Katy replied seeing that I was willing to allow her access to the network had made her smile return brighter than ever before.

“Alright,” I decided. I had no reason to deny her access. I know that I wouldn’t like to be stuck in the Rig by myself even if I could both view the game and the sites officially connected to the game like the streaming site she had been watching when I logged out. “Permission granted.”

“Thank you!” Katy squealed hugging me again.

I shook my head bemused, I guess she was even more bored than I had first thought.

“Exit Rig,” I said using the code words that would allow me to fully log out of the virtual world and exit my Rig to deal with reality.

As I slowly slid back out of the rig, I heard a horrified gasp coming from the speakers set up around my room.

“Tyler, why are you so thin!?” Katy’s voice echoed around the room.

I grimaced looking down at my body, it was true that the past few months of basically starving myself had left me painfully thin. I hadn’t exactly been a big guy before I had started to have money issues and even the clothes that had looked fine on me before now hung off my frame in a way that made me look like a manikin instead of a living breathing human.

“It’s been a rough few months,” I sighed glancing up at the small camera set into the roof of my room. It was slightly worrying that Katy had reacted the way she had, but it was nice to feel like someone actually cared. My parents had been sending me packages of food to keep me going but we had grown apart over the years that I’d moved out. While they did still call me on occasion, they had drifted further away recently due to me spending my money on Soul Core Online instead of on food and other necessities. If I had graduated High School, I would’ve agreed that I should try other options. Unfortunately, as a High School dropout I didn’t really have a lot of options when it came to jobs and games were something that I was actually good at. In many ways I was lucky to have a job at all, ever since AIs had become commonplace it had become harder and harder to find simple jobs like store clerk or even waiter. Since these jobs could be done just as easily and far cheaper by purchasing a basic AI and several robots which the AI could control to do the manual labor.

“Wait, if your finances are so bad, how did you even afford to pay for Soul Core Online?” Katy asked suddenly snapping me from my train of thought.

“Things weren’t so bad for the store I worked at until the start of the year,” I explained. It was true. I had been making a fair amount money off my part time job for a while, enough that I could buy some upgrades for my Rig and pre-order a copy of Soul Core Online which had been almost prohibitively expensive even then. Which made a lot more sense now that I knew that Katy was included with the game. Naturally about a month after that a new store had opened just down the road and stolen most of our customers leaving the owners in the unenviable situation of having too many employees and not enough money to continue paying them for the same number of hours we had been working. I had been there long enough that I wasn’t worried about my own position there, but things were looking pretty bad for some of the other employees.

Deciding to change the subject I asked Katy how Gransoft had been able to afford to use so many advanced AIs in the game and still give out one for every person who brought a copy of the game.

“I can’t tell you much about that, there’s a lot of classified information involved,” Katy replied apologetically.

“I can tell you that we’re a new type of AI that has a highly advanced learning algorithm, in fact that algorithm is almost the only thing that’s programmed into us. Other than that, we get loyalty to our owners and a few random things that help us build our individual personalities and access to the internet to discover who we want to be for ourselves,” she explained before glancing to the side slightly which suggested to me that there was a bit more to it than that, but she couldn’t tell me.

This was quite interesting AIs usually had a massive number of parameters programmed into them to prevent them acting in a way that they shouldn’t so this more organic way of allowing them to develop was quite interesting.

“After that we got distributed by how well we were suited to the people who bought the game,” she continued.

“And the NPCs have been programmed with the information they needed to fill their roles and that’s pretty much it?” I asked.

“Uhh, something like that yes” Katy confirmed cautiously making me frown slightly but I decided not to push her. Chances are she couldn’t tell me anyway.

That would indeed account for the way the NPCs reacted to outside stimulus and even for the way they saw us players as outsiders, as far as they were concerned the game world was the only one, they knew, and we were simply visitors and rude ones at that. Actually ‘rude’ might be way too nice of a way to describe some of us if I was right about the girl from the inn.

We continued to chat while I had dinner and got ready for bed. Once I had finished getting ready, I set the alarm for a time a non-gamer would be horrified to hear that they had to get up at. Not that it mattered to someone who would spend the next two weeks in and out of their Rig where they would only have to take breaks to go to the toilet, sleep for a short period and eat. Some people looked down on professional gamers saying that they didn’t work as hard as someone in an office, but we knew better. Office workers only worked eight hours for a day and the worst injury that an office worker could sustain in a normal day’s work was a paper cut. On the other hand, the average professional gamer could work up to eighteen hours a day and have limbs chopped off or even die. Granted the pain was dulled down to 50% in Soul Core Online but that was more than most games and would put off quite a few people who just weren’t into that. If you were good enough (or lucky enough) you could easily make more than the average office worker, there had even been a few games where I had made quite a lot of money to supplement my normal income. But this was the first time I had so much riding on my gaming.

The next morning, I quickly showered and had breakfast before climbing once again into my Rig.

“Morning Tyler!” Katy squealed as I appeared causing me to squint at her wondering how she could be so energetic so early in the morning… oh yeah, she’s an AI.

“Please, don’t tackle me,” I groaned, in case you were wondering I was not a morning person, especially not when I had run out of coffee five days ago.

“Okaaay, so are you ready for your big day?” Katy asked worriedly as I grumbled about not having my morning coffee.

“I suppose,” I replied unable to summon any enthusiasm just yet.

“Oh dear,” Katy sighed shaking her head in exasperation as I slowly made my way over towards the entry to Soul Core Online. “I really hope they have coffee at the inn. Even virtual coffee might help at this point.”

I grimaced as I stumbled through the portal hoping that the patch last night had done as advertised and was pleasantly surprised when I opened the eyes of my avatar a few seconds later and found myself in the room I had rented the previous night.

Making my way downstairs I was greeted by the innkeeper who looked worse than I felt.

“Are you alright?” I asked worriedly.

“My daughter is refusing to deal with any of you outsiders,” the man sighed sadly. “I tried to ask what was going on, but she didn’t want to talk about it.”

I pressed a hand to my brow; this was just what I hadn’t wanted to deal with this morning. Especially when I had yet to have any coffee.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I did notice she seemed a bit nervous around me last night. Maybe just get her to deal with the female outsiders for a while.”

The innkeeper gave me a sharp look as though wondering if I knew something he didn’t.

“Hmm, that’s not a bad idea,” he answered after a couple of seconds. “But I’d rather find out what was going on so that something could be done about it.”

If I were more awake my gamer’s sense would have triggered at these words but right now, I could only focus on the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. So, I asked for a cup with the breakfast that came with the room and made my way to a table.

A short time later I was examining the two buffs that I had received from the food, one that increased my constitution for three hours and another that increased my spirit regen by 1 point per second for two hours when I finally realized that the innkeeper had been hinting at some sort of quest to do with how his daughter had been acting.

“Oh shit,” I groaned. Was I really going to get involved in this? There was no way that this was going to end well. In fact, I was willing to bet everything that I had left that there would be at least one new video of me doing something that I would then immediately regret by the end of it.

“Katy, should I try and do something about this?” I whispered trying not to let anyone nearby know what was going on.

“Tyler, if you need to communicate with me just think it at me, now that you know I can hear you, there’s no reason you won’t be able to do that,” Katy sighed. “Also, I don’t know. If you want to keep a low profile taking that quest is a bad idea as far as you’re concerned but I have to ask you this; are you hesitating because she’s an NPC or because you want to stay out of the spotlight?”

‘Ouch cut right to the point why don’t you’ I replied, hoping that Katy would get the message like she said she would.

“Am I wrong?” she replied quickly, sensing the anxiety that was bubbling up from within my mind.

‘No, no you’re not” I replied with a sigh. ‘I’ll tell the innkeeper that I’ll help him out and talk to the guards about it when I get to the barracks before deciding what to do next.’

As I got up to go to talk to the innkeeper, I heard Katy’s voice again.

“Tyler?”

‘Yes Katy?’ I asked as I walked in the worried man’s direction.

“Thanks for being my owner,” Katy said quietly making me freeze in my tracks.

Of course, she feels that way, she couldn’t say anything until I said I would accept the quest but there was no way the situation wasn’t affecting her as well, these NPCs weren’t really any different from her.

‘No Katy, thank you for trying to get me to do the right thing,’ I replied pushing as much gratitude into my reply as I possibly could. It had been a long time since I had enough courage to stand up for myself let alone other people but something about this game made me want to be a better person than I had been since my depression.

There was a slight sobbing sound in reply, but I knew that she had received the message. It really was hard to differentiate between her and a human and frankly I was caring less and less that she was an AI. I was thankful to have her in my life too, even though I hadn’t even known her for a day yet and she acted like a brat at times. I guess that just shows that Gransoft did a really good job of making sure that everyone received the right AI for us.

“Sir,” I started catching the innkeeper’s attention. “Sorry about earlier, is there any way that I can help. If the problem’s being caused by outsiders, then I think that an outsider should try and do something about it.”

The innkeeper’s eyes widened at my words. He obviously hadn’t expected me to offer my aid, which sent a flash of guilt into my gut.

“You would do that?” he asked excitedly his obvious worry for his daughter showing through once more.

“I have an appointment with the captain of the guards this morning,” I replied. “I’ll try to bring up some of the issues regarding the other outsiders then. Rest assured that won’t be all I’m willing to do, but it’s a start.”

It wasn’t much but I wasn’t able to do more than that. I was neither a guard nor an admin so if I started picking fights with players, I would be the one who gets punished for it. However, if the guards made it an official quest then I would at the very least be able to help more. Which was why I was going to bring this up at the meeting.

New Quest Unlocked!

Justice for all

(Unique Ranked Chain Quest)

You have offered to try and help the villagers deal with the problems caused by the outsiders in town. Talk to the Guard Captain to continue this quest.

Success Conditions

Explain that the problems being caused by the outsiders are even worse than the guards think and help them come up with methods to deal with these problems.

Rewards

Access to the next part of the Quest. Increased Reputation with the village of Ponson. Unknown.

Holy crap! A unique quest? I guess that’s the game telling me that I’m doing the right thing. Still what sort of game makes it, so the players have to organize the way that criminal players are dealt with? Or was this just because I had offered to help?

The way quests worked in this game were also interesting. I don’t think I would’ve gotten this quest if I hadn’t had the other one where I had the chance to meet the guard captain, I’m sure I would’ve gotten a quest. But it probably would’ve been a different one.

Giving the innkeeper a reassuring nod, I walked out the door and down the street towards the barracks. Upon my arrival at the barracks, I was greeted by an excited Jameson who slapped me on the shoulder as he approached.

“Zeke!” the large man boomed. “You made it!”

The two guards on either side of the gate grinned as I rolled my eyes at Jameson’s exuberance. It seemed that the sergeant was well-known for the way he acted.

“Morning Jameson,” I replied as we continued through the gate and into the main training grounds which I guessed also served the purpose of a place for the villagers to hide in during monster attacks due to the sheer size of the place and how sturdy the walls that surrounded it were.

Now this was a training area!

I looked around impressed, along with the beaten down soil where groups of guards were running in full armor there was an area covered in what I assumed was a thin layer of sand where guards beat each other up with live weapons and some more who were simply attacking wooded poles. Everywhere I looked there were guards training, I didn’t envy anyone who picked a fight with these guys. I really didn’t.

Following Jameson, I made my way to the main building where we were greeted by an old man with a short beard and perhaps the biggest man I had ever seen. He even made Jameson look small in comparison. The man had a stern face and wore a suit of armor that looked old and worn at first glance, but a closer look told a slightly different story. The armor was well worn because this man was a fighter. Someone who fought on the front lines.

“So,” the large man began, his voice rumbling around the small office. “You’re the outsider that my cousin has taken a liking to, huh?”

Quickly putting two and two together I concluded that this man was not only the guard captain but the cousin of Jameson which explained his size.

“Yes sir!” I replied quickly saluting the man. “My name is Zeke sir!”

The old man chuckled at this, “Alright lad calm down. You’re not a guard you don’t need to salute him.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t show respect sir,” I replied causing the old man’s eyes to shine with amusement.

“No, I suppose not,” he chuckled.

“Sir!” Jameson barked. “I would like to request that Zeke here receive some training with the trainees!”

“Oh?” the old man looked even more amused at this. “And why would we allow him to do this?”

It was a good question and I wondered how Jameson was going to answer the question as we all looked at him.

“He has accepted the request to hunt the Terror’s sir. I asked around the village earlier and he has already garnered a reputation of being respectful to the villagers,” Jameson replied. “I think that having an outsider like him helping us would be useful sir!”

“This is true,” the guard captain admitted.

“Your people’s ability to come back from the dead is both useful and a large headache for us, depending on whether you want to make yourselves useful or cause trouble,” the captain continued.

His troubled face revealed to me exactly what I had expected when I had come here; the NPCs didn’t really know how to deal with players when we broke their laws.

“Well,” said with a smile. “I actually have some ideas to help you deal with outsiders who cause you problems.”