Tunnel Rat

Wally had used holographic projectors to turn the room into a simulation of the dwarven mines. Every wall, the ceiling, and even the floor of the room projected the inside of the massive caverns that were part of the old dwarven city and mines beneath Shadowport. Twice someone had been walking around and tried to take one step too far, running into a wall, to the great amusement of the rest of the development staff.

There were only two dozen people in the room. Most were part of the permanent staff that worked with Wally. Their job descriptions changed regularly as the AI had work that needed human hands and voices to interact with the rest of the world. Wally could talk to anyone who had a phone, or computer screen, but he didn't like to, it wasn't efficient. He needed the buffer zone that was provided by his human staff. While he could do it, he didn't want to have every person with a question calling him directly. Even an AI had limits. He also needed the humans who entrusted him with so many jobs around the world to feel secure. An AI running things with no human oversight wasn't going to work. An AI with a human staff watching over him was more acceptable.

Wally had hand-picked the people he could most easily work with for his inner circle. They were flexible in their thinking, and able to adapt to new tasks and problems. They understood how powerful he was, and also the thousands of limitations he had to work with. And most importantly, they could treat him as a person and not fear him. This was so very important to their mental health and his. Around those half-dozen people were only thirty more who worked with him regularly. They were picked for their competency, and ability to think outside the box, adapting to the needs of a quantum AI. Sometimes, that meant relaxing and having fun all day.

Today Wally was having a great amount of fun, watching his humans watch the game. Stories were being created before everyone's eyes. All the major gaming channels were covering the World Boss event. This wasn't just a guild of gamers fighting a boss in a dungeon; this was a city fighting back against a World Boss set on destroying it.

No one had known that Dwarven Engineers like these still existed. They had appeared from deep below with ancient magi-tech weapons and armor, carried by a titanic drilling machine. A large number of new players were choosing dwarf as their race and hoping to find a quest to become an engineer. Some existing players, even as high as Tier 3 were scrubbing their characters and starting over. Speculation about the existence of an Engineers Guild in Shadowport was high, but not confirmed. No statements had been made by the Dev team to confirm or deny such a thing.

There almost hadn't been a city to host such a guild. Hundreds of players had joined the raid, paying the huge price in gold and mana to teleport to the city. The newcomers replaced those who had died so fast that Belinda couldn't keep track of them. She had two assistant raid leaders who added new people to the raid as the current members died. If nothing else, the fight would be remembered for the hundreds, and possibly thousands, of player deaths.

Belinda herself was another story. A low-rank player in one of the smallest guilds had shown up out of nowhere with news of impending doom and organized the raid group to oppose the first-ever World Boss. And more, she was backed up by a Holy Choir, supported by the Engineers' and Miners' Guilds, and had recruited the NPC gang lord, Squint, and Captain Pike, the Monster Hunter.

There was also speculation about the Legendary Ring she was wearing. Nothing like it had been seen in the game. Her message box had reached a maximum of 999 messages within two minutes after she shared the link to the ring with some other players. The top fifty guilds had sent invites, dozens of online gaming channels wanted an interview, and hundreds of gamers had sent her messages. Most of the messages were asking where she got it. Sadly for 999 people, Belinda was ignoring them and focusing on killing the creature threatening the city.

The question that many people asked towards the end of the raid was: "Who is Milo?" Belinda had rallied her troops and presented a plan from one of the chief engineers who she referred to simply as Milo. A short interview with a young dwarf confirmed he was one of the Deep Rock Guild's Senior Engineers, as well as a Guild Leader. But somehow, he was also a Player.

A rumor had started that he was engaged to the fair raid leader and possibly the source of the mysterious ring. This was later discounted when the source of the rumor proved to be three very drunk old women who were demanding more wine from some of the Players and miners.

The answer to the question, "Who is Milo?" got an answer at the end of the raid.

All eyes had turned to an outcrop of rock where a mysterious figure stood next to Captain Pike. All of the mana in the room seemed to rush to him in a great wave as Milo glowed with power that he channeled into Pike's harpoon. The Captain’s mighty throw had shattered the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom. It had also shattered the spine of a World Boss.

And a second answer to the question, "Who is Milo?" was also clear: A diabolic Engineer with a knack for clever traps.

The Players, audiences watching the video feeds, and the Dev team stared in awe as mining explosives broke the rock holding seven huge stalactites to the ceiling. Cables attached to each rock ran to anchors in the ceiling, and then to a complex pulley/block and tackle system that balanced the forces and pulled evenly on the triple-strand cable attached to Pike's harpoon.

Uthneragrubban was jerked high into the air, hanging between floor and ceiling, far from the rock needed to heal its wounds and create its horde of children. Everyone slowly got up, many disoriented and temporarily deafened. The energies in the damaged crystalline body of Uthneragrubban grew dim, and the World Boss grew still.

"OMG! Did they win? How in hell did they win? Is it over?"

Wally zoomed in on the view of Uthneragrubban slowly swinging back and forth on the thick cable as many of the Dev team shouted questions.

Wally stepped into the middle of the room and pointed at the hologram of Uthneragrubban. "Yes, I'd count that as a win. Without any help, the gaming community came together, worked with the NPCs, and found a way to defeat a foe that they should not have had to fight. We set up an impossible event to force fights all over the world, and they got out of control. There is a lesson in there for us."

Steven chuckled. "You're being polite. You mean a lesson for us meddling humans."

Wally shook his head. "No. I mean for all of us. I'm an artificial intelligence. That doesn't mean there aren't new things I can learn. And trust me, I learned a few things today. Let's see if any of you noticed. Sydney?"

Sydney stared at her coffee cup, poured it down her throat, and walked up to Wally. "Starting with me? I'm guessing this is about the rat? I was supposed to keep watch on our little troublemaker. Lesson learned. I just don't understand how he caused so much to happen."

Wally waved a finger at her. "Not quite there yet. I don't blame you at all. Despite my saying exactly that one time. You aren't responsible for what he did. I only assigned him to you because you are good at what you do, and you had a chance to keep up with him. Try again."

Sydney tilted her head and thought back over to her first interactions with Milo. He seemed harmless at first, despite being an obvious hacker. Each thing they learned about him brought more questions. Meanwhile, he flitted around and caused trouble.

"A butterfly. He's a damned butterfly."

"Excellent way to put it. He's a focus for chaos. His method of problem-solving can cause more problems. How he deals with the world leaves a wake far out of proportion to his actions. Everything seems calm until he gets poked. And then the butterfly flaps its wings and we get a hurricane in another part of the world. I think we should all review our chaos theory this week. He isn't the last butterfly we will have in this game."

"This is an aspect of the GENESIS ENGINE I had speculated on, but couldn't predict. A game engine that reacts to the players that help the Engine create stories. But then the Players are part of those stories, causing larger reactions. And chain reactions. This is going to be so much fun!"

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Steven shut his eyes for a moment. Wally having fun always meant trouble, and work. Lots of work.

One of the Dev Team, Raul, was manipulating the video, bringing it back to the moment that Captain Pike was about to throw his harpoon. "I want to know what is happening here. This looks like Bone Casting or Bonecasting, we haven't decided on a final name. But I know we haven't released it yet. No one has become a high enough level necromancer to specialize in it yet."

Wally walked over and pointed to the strange hooded cloak that Milo was wearing and the weapon of bone and wood. "The fact that Bone Casting exists means it's always been around. We don't just drop things into the world like that. It's an option because NPCs have used it for thousands of years. Milo encountered an undead mage, destroyed it, and unknowingly bound himself to the items, gaining the knowledge. There is a much longer story, talk to me if you want to hear it. And not one word leaves this room. I'll know."

"And the Runes? When I try to find out anything about a 'Velocity Rune', I get a reference to some very obscure Elvish and Draconic tablets that I can't read."

Wally shook his head at Raul and laughed. "Ah, what are they teaching you kids in school these days? I guess if you want to know about the wars at the start of time, you'll have to learn some new languages. Talk to me on your day off, I'll set up some lessons."

Sydney crossed her arms, annoyed. She had no time for new languages unless they were printed on the back of a new blend of coffee beans. "My question is how did my butterfly take a knowledge of bone magic and old runes, and use them in a new way? "

Wally thought for a second, then walked to the counter, and poured himself a cup of coffee, and one for Sydney before setting them down where she sat and seating himself. She poked at her cup, surprised to find it real and not a hologram. When Wally sat his cup down, she poked his coffee cup and her finger went into the cup. Giving up, she sipped her own cup and waited for him to speak.

"The easiest way to explain this is to say that Milo took actions, and the game engine saw those actions and was influenced enough to act upon them. He experimented with new ways to use magic, and his actions aligned with spellcasting done by NPCs at some point in the game's history."

Barry raised his voice, a bit exasperated. "Please, I don't want to see every player yelling out magic words from Beatrice Potter and finding a new spell. That would be chaos."

Wally sipped his coffee and nodded in agreement. "A good point, and I agree. In this case, based upon his actions, mumblings, manipulation of spells and runes, and the records the System allowed me to see, Milo attempted 2,394 different ways to empower Captain Pike's enchanted harpoon with Ancient Runes of Velocity and charge them. He did this in a span of less than an hour, faster as his deadline approached. The curve of attempts over time is nearly a parabola."

"This is something that also doesn't leave this room. And one of the few times I will "Go all Terminator on your ass". Milo is one of those few humans who reacts to stress by thinking faster. Many of you do the same, just not to the same extent he does. It's more complex than that, but that's the basic idea. And his education seems to have been task-focused with a lot of work in technology and problem-solving."

"Think about it. He could have logged out, and been safe. Or left the city. Instead, motivated by the welfare of the city and the NPCs he had interacted with, he pushed himself to the limit of human thinking, and a little beyond. Hyper-focus is also one of his talents. He's great at solving problems but also oblivious to some things. I still laugh when I replay his interactions with Sydney."

Barry was still unsatisfied. "So, he thinks fast, but does that mean he now has an entirely new type of magic? How do we deal with that."

Wally turned to Steven who was reading the game logs of the event. "Oh shit! No Barry, he doesn't. He actually doesn't have any magic right now, and may never have any. Damn! The game engine went all Tolkien on him."

Sydney raised an eyebrow at him. "Tolkien?"

Steven laughed, embarrassed. "Sorry, sort of a joke. In some fantasy stories, the hero does something amazing, and it lets him do even more amazing things because he did the first thing. He gets stronger and stronger, what we call a Progression Story. But in The Lord of the Rings, one of the themes is that great works come with a price. Some things can only be done once."

"Feanor wouldn't give up the Silmarils to heal the wounded trees because it would destroy them and he knew he couldn't make them again. Sauron couldn't just make another ring when he lost his. Some things can only be made once. And today, Milo did something amazing for the first time and helped strike down a World Boss. But at a cost. He's hurt badly, and his magic is broken. The system gave him a very threadbare quest to fix things. But I think that our hero may have paid a high price for his moment of glory. At least he'll get bought a lot of beer. He and Captain Pike can drink free in Shadowport forever."

Barry looked horrified. "Is that an actual game mechanic? Doing something huge can cost you something about your character?" Many of the other people in the room weren't happy with that idea, all of them having characters in Genesis.

Steven looked at their face and realized what he'd said. "Damn, sorry. I'm just theory-crafting. I don't really know anything other than what I can see in his announcements. Wally?"

The AI spread his hands and shrugged, "I don't know how the Engine works in cases like this. But let's think about it. The ENGINE wants stories. On one hand, we have the Tolkien mechanic, and on the other, the standard Progression Mechanic. Both give you stories, but the Progression mechanic creates more stories. I suspect there is a way out of this predicament for Milo, although it might be difficult to achieve. And of course, there is Risk vs. Reward to consider. Right, Sydney?"

Sydney nearly choked on her coffee as the AI said that. "Shit. Do you mean he might be able to cause even more trouble in the future if he gets better? Damn it, I'm going to be working overtime keeping track of him."

Wally pointed to the coffee pot. "More work means more money and more coffee. It's not all bad."

Steven put thoughts of Milo aside. "Alright people, we have work to do. Wally has shown us aspects of the system, and what can happen when a series of strange events align. I want every single quest we've ever added to the system evaluated, and strange outcomes noted. Make sure we are not causing more problems that someone will have to fix."

The cave disappeared, making it possible for everyone to find their desks.

"The outcome today lets us pause the rest of the World Boss event. Fire-breathing lizards, Giant Gophers, and a Demonic Machine named Fred will all go back to sleep with nothing to trigger them for now. I think Uthneragrubban will be taken care of in the next day or two as they chip away at her."

George raised his hand. "I'm going to need some help. My section of the world has too much shit going on. I've got the quest that adds new pets for players, an ancient city we didn't expect to be open for another year, a dungeon of evil bunnies, outlawed colleges of magic, and a possible invasion of sentient horseradish monsters."

Steven nodded to him encouragingly. George did indeed have a lot of weird stuff in the section of the world he monitored. "Right, we can do that. I'll have Dan assign one of the EMG people to you for the next few weeks, and grab the new intern, Toby. Might as well toss him into the deep end."

Sydney was looking at how a broken Milo was pulled out of the fight by one of the dwarves, and then cared for by a healer for hours. Even as he started walking upstairs, she saw he was having trouble. While the other players looked forward to their Uber Boss Loot, he just looked tired.

"I sort of feel bad for Milo. I know we can't interfere, but still, can't we do something for him? Just as an anonymous thank you. Losing Shadowport would have been a huge pain in the ass."

Wally considered. It was interesting to him that as annoyed as Sydney was at Milo, she felt sorry for him. "What do you suggest?"

Sydney thought for a second and then smiled. "How about a membership in the Imperial Cheese of the Month Club?"

Wally turned to his head developer. "Steven? Can we create such a thing? A tasty cheese delivered by some creative means to a Player anywhere in the world? It would be a popular gift at Christmas and we could give the money to charity."

Steven laughed. "Sure. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. And give the rat his monthly cheese basket. I like it. Not something that will change anything."

Wally nodded. "So let it be written, so let it be done."