A large room with many computer workstations was full, all of the occupants looking at the wall-sized video feed that showed a multitude of viewpoints of the carnage that was being dealt to the city of Dust Haven in the Far Reaches of Space. The decorations in the room were space themed, as this was the primary server control room for the world.

Ever since the system admin AI was shown to be sentient enough to warrant being thought of as its own person, it was given more consideration on what happened in the worlds it designed. The most recent concession was the specialized Human Experiment that it was running; nine humans who were in a coma were chosen and placed in pairs into the four worlds that it created, overseen by a board that made absolutely certain that no moral or ethical lines were crossed.

The final HEx participant wasn’t placed into a world, instead being used as a control. Every good experiment needed one, and while each pair that had been chosen was placed into a “normal” starting scenario and an “odd” starting scenario, the AI figured that an even more removed control group would be helpful to see how the coma brain worked through the problems that had been presented. Standing in the room, slightly see-through, was a hologram.

A young man that looked to be around twenty-three, blond haired, brown eyed, and very thin, this was the representation of the odd one out, HEx #9. SysAdmin was using him as an assistant, keeping track of what the other eight were up to, and making sure that a human was keeping track of things. While the staff at Prestige Entertainment were very good at their jobs, sometimes you needed an outside perspective to tell you when things were going wrong in a way you couldn’t see.

“Do you all see how his desperation has pushed him into a course of action that he doesn’t want?” HEx #9 asked the room, his voice being played out of the speakers placed around the room. Normally they would only play when he was close to them, to simulate his proximity, but he wanted to be heard by the entire room. The screens changed to show player perspectives from the Free States militia members who were engaged with Logan and his small army of devourers.

“We know that the hivelord programming is meant to forcefully push the recipient to want to conquer the stars. Eat and consume everything in sight, converting them into more devourers to enact their will.” His digital form slipped through the crowd and up to stand in front of the screens. “This is a man who is only doing what he has to, because this is his only chance to live.”

HEx #9 turned around and pointed to a random employee. “You. Why do you think he doesn’t want the power to rule over everything? This is where his path leads, and he’s rejecting the major benefit of what he has stumbled upon; absolute control. Do you have any insight?” The worker shook her head, but answered anyway. Her voice shook as she spoke, knowing that the digital man in front of her had better insight into what the others were doing.

“I would imagine that he either knows power because he’s had it before, and knows what happens with absolute power…” She stopped, knowing that was wrong because Logan’s file said he was a retail worker and had no managerial experience. “Or more likely, he has no desire to rule over anything because it’s so far outside of his comfort zone. His file says that he’s an only child that lost his parents, no college education, and a low-paying job without any experience of being in power.”

“I believe that you’re correct. Mostly. Logan Randall, HEx #5, has been a very interesting subject. We knew that his path would eventually lead to him being part of the devourer hive, but we didn’t think it would happen this early. We knew he would take command when given the chance, but we didn’t anticipate that his reasons would be different than our projections. He is… off track, but still moving toward the goal that SysAdmin set for him.”

The room fell silent other than the keys clicking as people continued to monitor the situation in Dust Haven. Player reports of cheating and hacking kept flowing in, certain that Logan and his attacking force had broken the game somehow to be able to muster a force that was this capable of devastation. Plenty of tickets were coming in, and most of them were being closed within a couple of minutes since the support staff knew that nothing against the rules was happening.

“Sir,” Another one of the techs spoke up, “players are reporting a fluctuation in the game world. We’re not seeing anything that could be causing an issue with the servers, but there’s some weird code being executed in the city.” Everyone looked closer at the monitor, seeing a strange pressure wave pulsing out of the city center.

“Pull up all records for when this code appeared previously.” HEx #9 was sure that he knew what was behind the irregular event, but he wanted to make sure that he was correct before saying anything to the others. A flurry of clicking as a dozen people searched through the extensive files that had been recorded, trying to find a veritable needle in a haystack. Five minutes later, someone found something.

“Sir, it looks like this has only happened two other times in the Far Reaches of Space; the first time was a single word being written and recorded into a unique variable, and the second time when the same player was accepting a permanent change to his avatar.” Everyone in the room knew what was being referenced; Logan when he declared “Justice” after killing the queen the first time, and when he accepted his permanent class change.

“SysAdmin has been busy behind the scenes, it looks like.” HEx #9 said. “Keep me informed if this happens in the other worlds, and make sure to back everything up into a separate folder for me to review later.” He knew things were going to get interesting, but didn’t want to break away from what he was watching to read about things that had already happened. The city was breaking; the players in the militia not able to hold on against the devourers and the players dressed in their skin, granted special abilities to be able to rend and tear almost as quickly as the real thing.

The screen zoomed in to show Logan and his friends breaking down the door of the main headquarters that the militia had taken, intent on stopping their tyranny. HEx #9 smiled, knowing that Judgment was about to earn his name.