PftA Book 2 - Chapter 24

Chapter 24 - A New Game Begins

I hadn’t held much hope that Rhona would be able to facilitate a change in the upcoming game release. Apocalypse Earth, or AE for short, was supposed to be a sort of practice run for the transition period immediately following reintegration. It was presented as the ‘prequel’ to Atlas Online, but most people saw it as a completely separate game.

Regardless, I wasn’t surprised to learn the changes I’d asked for could not be implemented in time for testing to start, though Rhona assured me the Enchanters involved in developing the game/simulation were still trying to figure out how to incorporate my recommendation. Consequently, when the first day of testing arrived, the game was even more basic than during the other timeline, not even including a basic scan of the players’ surroundings.

From what little I’d been told about the game before testing began, not much else had really changed.

One of my biggest complaints about AE in the other timeline was that, unlike Atlas Online, there were no actual respawns. Instead, a player’s character would start over from scratch at their initial location after a long death cooldown, which started at one day for the first death. This wouldn’t have been a huge issue if not for the huge number of PKers that apparently lived in my neighborhood at the time.

I’d died thrice during the first week and quickly grew disinterested in playing the game, returning to spending most of my gaming time in the Junction instead of gaining valuable experience that might have helped me during the apocalypse.

I hadn’t bothered trying the game again when a new server opened, giving those interested a fresh start at the game. Most of the PKers stayed in the original server to maintain whatever advantage they’d gotten… until the NPC Bounty Hunters arrived and killed them all a little while after the portals opened in-game.

Few people used the portals to travel to Alliance worlds since it would delete their AO avatar, replacing it with the version from the new game. That was one of the other big points of contention players had with the new game.

Nobody seemed to care that the game always reset to the original scan, never updating based on location or environment. If you logged in from your dorm the first time and joined a new server from a friend’s house in another state, the game would still start you in your original location. The only way to change it was to delete your account and create a new one.

Not just your AE account either. You had to set up an entirely new Atlas account. Not many people were willing to throw away years of effort to change their starting location in a game.

“Are you ready?” Bell asked from across the apartment. She and Justin were getting set up on her bed since the starting location mattered, and we wanted to be close to the rest of the party. Some of Justin’s normal party lived in the University Housing Towers, as our complex had been named, so he decided to log in from our apartment instead of his.

I yelled back, letting them know I was logging into my VPS to wait for the game to initialize. Several minutes later, I was waiting in my VPS for the new game to initialize when the notification came.

“Alright, time to practice,” I mumbled before indicating I’d like to join the new server. My VPS faded, and I opened my eyes. The generic décor was the only thing that overtly indicated we were within the game world – that, and the television being on in the other room.

Even from my bedroom, I could hear the fake newscaster giving his report. “… it is imperative that these rifts are regularly cleared. Otherwise, they will continue spilling monsters into the world and threatening the population. This poses a huge risk to the population, as has been seen in cities and towns where the spatial fissures have been neglected in the week since magic appeared on Earth. Additionally, according to Alliance representatives, the power grid is expected to fail anytime. Already, most of the world is without power, and only Atlas Glass products remain consistently working. It is unclear what makes these products the exception…”

Bell laughed. “Well, that’s one method of marketing a product line.”

I chuckled as I watched the newscast, having made my way to the living room in the time it took for the first segment to run. Bell wasn’t wrong.

Another fake newscaster talked about arrests by police and efforts to maintain the peace, which were only hampered by the sudden emergence of magic along with the game-like system. It seemed that trying to arrest someone capable of tossing out a Fireball wasn’t very easy.

The reporter stressed that citizens should not turn to violence against each other during ‘this time of transition.’ Similar things had been said during the apocalypse in the other timeline, but few had listened. Rioting and looting had gotten particularly bad before my roommate and I had left for the military base.

While I hoped such things could be avoided this time, I wouldn’t hold my breath. It would take a miracle for people not to react that way.

I turned my attention back to the screen. “…The Posse Comitatus Act has recently been suspended to allow the active duty military to act within the boundaries of our great nation, but the initial waves of monsters from the surge in rifts have not yet been defeated. The police and National Guard are also working to combat this threat, but we ask that civilians remain in their homes until the worst of the threat has passed. If you must leave shelter, head to your local police stations or other fortified buildings for support. This has –”

The power in the simulated apartment flickered several times before abruptly going out, cutting off the newscaster midsentence.

“Do you think that would really happen?” Bell asked, looking at Justin. “Do you think they’d tell civilians to leave it to the military and police if something like this was real?”

“Of course they would,” he replied. “That’s pretty much their role, right? The police and military are supposed to protect civilians. If something like this was to really happen, they’d probably establish martial law or something. I’m not sure how well it would work, but I’m sure they’d try it.”

“We should probably start gaining skills and spells. I don’t think our fellow beta testers will be a threat, but there’s no reason to risk it,” I said. “Besides, Deni and the others have probably gotten started.”

Given the reset training all beta testers had, it didn’t take long for us to regain enough skills to purchase five spells and reach level one. While AE still allowed players to buy as many spells as they wanted, Atlas had asked beta testers to attempt to play with only five spells for the first week of testing.

It seemed like an arbitrary request unless you understood the real-world limitations everyone would have after reintegration.

Though I had no need to limit myself, I still stuck with five spells. Identify, Restore, Barrier (Time), Compressed Space Bolt, and Gravity Bomb. Each spell was critical for its own reason, though I could have probably limited myself to only one offensive spell. But I liked the combination, especially in difficult rifts or against challenging opponents.

The wave of mana that activated everyone’s interfaces had also caused rifts to appear en masse. Most of those destabilized and disappeared, but their creation had spilled tens of thousands of monsters into the world, perhaps more.

It had been truly dangerous early on.

Deni, Ger, and Mesmer arrived just before Bell finished picking her last spell, and before I knew it, we were heading toward Atlas Headquarters. That was where Justin planned to meet with the rest of his normal beta testing party. The building was close, so none of us were overly worried.

Justin and I used our magic to quickly put down the few roaming monsters that attacked during our short journey before the others swooped in to collect whatever materials they could get in a hurry. The looting function didn’t work in AE – a fact we’d all been warned of.

Since Deni, Ger, and Bell only had makeshift weapons aside from the knives we’d ‘found’ in our apartment, Justin and I took care of the threats from a distance while they handled all the harvesting. Mesmer remained ready to heal at any moment. Thankfully, his services were unneeded.

Most of the beasts appeared to be canines of some sort, though we were also attacked by flying creatures a few times as well.

“Whoa, there’s a rift outside the office,” Justin said with wide eyes as the front of the building came into view. Near the side entrance, a pulsing rift was visible.

Normally, a rift was solid and stable, but those that were overflowing or unstable pulsed like that. I’d only seen it a few times before, but the signs were hard to miss.

“It looks like it’s breaking,” Deni said. “I really need a real weapon. I’m not a caster.” She frowned at the metal pole in her hand.

“We should get inside the building. There might be something we can use in there,” I recommended. I had no idea what the inside of the fake Atlas building would look like, but I expected some kind of support there. I doubted the Alliance would paint themselves as weak.

The rift gradually stabilized as we approached, making me realize something. “It’s not breaking. It just spawned. It’s a brand new rift,” I said. “Either that or someone just cleared it.”

“How do you know?” Deni asked.

“It’s stabilizing. The mana is calming.”

From Deni’s side, Ger spoke. “I always found it weird that portals and rifts are visible, but normal mana isn’t.”

“That’s true,” Mesmer commented. “I hadn’t thought about it, though.”

“Does it really matter?” Bell asked as we reached the entrance to the Atlas building. We could see people moving around inside, but it was possible they hadn’t noticed the appearance of the rift.

Ger took the lead and pulled the heavy, unpowered doors open while the rest of us watched our surroundings in case another escaped mob attacked. The building looked identical to the one in reality, though I could already see the inside did not follow the same pattern.

The normal setup for the first floor was gone, replaced by an Atlas store holding several Atlas Glass devices and a handful of clerks. I could see the bank of elevators in the back of the store, but I had little confidence they would lead to my workspace.

“Welcome! I hope none of you plan to cause any trouble,” a clerk wearing a polo with the Atlas Inc. emblem said with a friendly smile as we stepped inside. “We’ve all leveled up and dissipated a rift that appeared several days ago, so none of us are weak.”

The clerk’s smile never waivered as he spoke, though the underlying threat was obvious. It was clear by the lack of floating identification that these were not players but NPCs. Ultimately, it didn’t matter much, but it was interesting to note.

“So I guess the new rift that spawned outside was due to destroying the one in here?” Deni asked, pointing out the window toward the very visible rift.

The clerk let out a sigh. “Yes, it appeared a short while ago. It’s better that it’s outside in any case. The monsters released from the one inside damaged a lot of merchandise.”

“That’s some dedication,” Ger whispered quietly to Deni, though I could hear him easily enough.

The door abruptly opened, and a group of four walked in. They looked a bit haggard, and one was clearly injured. “I don’t suppose any of you have a Life affinity? Jones got a bit injured while we were clearing the rift.”

Before Mesmer could speak up, one of the clerks stepped forward. “I’m a Healer.”

While the Healer took care of the injured player, I turned to the clerk we’d been talking to. “Can we access the elevators? Justin and I work upstairs,” I said, motioning toward my brother.

The clerk shook his head. “Sadly, no. The bosses shut down the elevators and blocked the staircase beyond the second floor. They said any employees who came by would have to ‘figure out their own way.’ That’s a quote, sorry.”

“Can we buy a phone or tablet?” Bell asked as she held up one of the devices, showing it still worked.

The clerk smiled brightly. “Absolutely! We’re also transitioning our second floor to a market of sorts, so a few supplies are available up there as well. Most of the material was obtained from the rift we disbursed. We have a few crafters in-house who are working tirelessly to provide equipment for those brave enough to fight off the monsters.”

“How much as a tablet?”

“I’ve been told to accept no less than a gold, which equates to about 125 common LT1 cores,” the clerk replied smoothly. “My supervisor crunched the numbers based on the information available on the Atlantis Alliance website, and we feel it is a fair price. There is no room for negotiation.”

Bell winced, as did the team who’d entered behind us.

“How many cores did you get from delving the rift?” Bell asked the man who appeared to be the other group's leader. “I’m not trying to be rude. Just a ballpark would be great.”

The man shrugged. “Forty-three, I think. I don’t mind sharing the information.”

That meant there should only be forty-three mobs in the rift. That didn’t seem like very many.

We chatted with the new players for a bit before they headed up to the second floor, quickly learning that both the fox-like creatures and the aggressive hawks had come from the rift outside the building. We followed behind the other group, though the minuscule amount of materials we’d gathered on our trip likely wouldn’t go far.

Still, it was a start. Most of the material would be wasted if we didn’t sell it quickly anyway.

“How much can we get for this?” I asked one of the workers as Ger unzipped the backpack where he’d stored most of the materials. We’d kept the cores, some of the bones, and a few other items separate, so everything in the backpack was excess that we didn’t have an immediate use for.

The clerk frowned slightly. “We don’t have a lot of coinage; most of it came out of the rift. I can probably part with a silver for all of it.”

“Are you using Atlas Online conversion rates?” Ger asked. The clerk nodded, causing Ger to shake his head. “That’s not enough. This is worth at least twice that much.”

The clerk barked out a laugh. “Not even close. A silver is being generous, all things considered.”

“What about trade?” I asked. While I could probably make something out of the materials we’d gathered, it wouldn’t be anything good. I’d grabbed a few items from the apartment that might work for tools, but they wouldn’t do much.

After a bit of discussion, we traded the extra materials gathered for items I could use to enchant weapons and tools for our group. Since we were working with limited resources, it seemed to be the best approach if we planned to delve and earn more. Even if we had no intention of entering a rift, the number of roaming monsters made it prudent to carry something with which to protect ourselves.

Ensuring players could bring in items during their first login would make this part of the game much more enjoyable and survivable. I could easily see parties wiping because they had no weapons and relied solely on magic to fight.

I hadn’t risked entering a rift during the first timeline until after we’d gotten settled in at the military base in Missouri. By that time, weapons were made available to anyone willing to delve since the powers that be knew by then how important it was to keep the rifts clear.

Even then, most of my time was spent working as a Healer. I would never have considered entering a rift without a fully-kitted team. But now… things were different. And ultimately, this was just training.