Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds Read online

  But his voice didn’t.

  “Good day, fresh denizens of the Proving Grounds! Welcome to the early access period! You may have noticed the downtime last night that prevented us from getting the server up on time. We do apologize for that, but we were putting the last touches our spectacular pre-launch event!”

  The people about the room were mumbling to each other. The armored man was pointing and biting off orders. They looked at Toby every now and then.

  “The event has already begun.” The small bearded man’s voice continued. “The early access week will be like nothing that comes again after, so enjoy it! Tell your friends! An empire will rise or fall before your eyes, and before your blades! There are some rules, of course. You get one character for now, just to reduce clutter, and should that character die your account is locked out for the rest of the early access period. So be careful! Of course, if you don’t care for these rules there’s only one thing you need to do. Find and kill the barbarian warlord Tobin Ironblood. He seeks to conquer these lands for his own ends and you, good people, are all that stands in his way! End his reign and the restrictions on characters and death are ended as well. Oh, and one last thing. Open Player Versus Player combat has been engaged for the duration of the event. So watch yourselves. Begin!”

  A loud gong sounded from everywhere and nowhere. A local sound, played in both ears.

  “Did he just say…” Toby tilted his head as he looked around the room. “Does everyone get this quest, or am I really the one guy? Because that sounded like I am the one guy. And that kinda sounded like everyone and their grandma is going to be gunning for me. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing. And I’m level one.”

  The armored man turned back to Toby. He shook his head. “Listen to be. This is important.”

  The alarm on his desk beeped.

  It was 1:30 p.m.

  Damn, he must have spent more time in the character creator than he thought.

  “Yeah, I’ll have to get a rain check on that one. Time for work.”

  He brought up the main menu.

  “Hey, wait, you can’t just-”

  The logout button turned gray as Toby let go of it. The headset yanked on his ears a bit as he removed it. He gently laid it back on the floor and mumbled about crazy quests.

  2

  He got to the shop a bit late.

  Mr. Stevens hadn’t noticed. Toby wandered in and set down his backpack in the by his station in the back. The monitor showed him pressing orders. Of which there were three. Not much to do.

  Good. He should have a few minutes to look up whatever the hell that quest had been about. And maybe to read up on the barbarian and the other classes. He might pick something else.

  Er, or not. The voice had said he only gets one during early access. Pity. He wished he’d put more thought into it now. Of course the voice had also said he was the supreme leader of evil that everyone else was trying to overthrow. That must have been some kind of bug. Every player heard their own name or something.

  There was no reason to single him out. Nothing that made him special. He hadn’t even bought the collector’s edition. Granted, he probably would have if they had been in stock…

  There was a TV on the side of the room with the break table. Mr. Stevens kept it tuned to the twenty for hour news cycle of everything is bad and we’re all going to die unless you stay tuned in. Toby generally tried to ignore it. Mostly because things never ended up being quite that bad and so far the world hadn’t even exploded once. Disappointing given the frequency of the claim.

  Right now they were talking about an explosion in a building downtown. People investigating. Experts saying it was most likely faulty wiring, though some were quick to jump on the terrorism bandwagon. Always room on the terrorism bandwagon.

  “Well that sucks.” Toby murmured to himself. It was a nice looking building. Fortunately it had been empty at the time as the explosion happened after hours and seemed contained to just a few floors.

  It took less than three hours to clear the order queue. Really just a few tweaks to existing designs based on customer feedback and setting them to print. He didn’t have to turn a crank to move material along or anything.

  Mr. Stevens was snoring softly at the break table in the corner. He was a tiny asian man whose name was not Stevens, but he found it easier for people to pronounce without annoying or patronizing him. He’d tried to tell people Steve was his first name, but people being polite and formal turned it into a surname and he had just run with it after awhile. All of this was before Toby’s time. Hell, before he was born. Seemed rude to call him anything else, no matter what he signed to paychecks.

  At this hour, even with so little to do, this was a busy day.

  He took his phone out and sent Mitchel a text asking if he had made it in yet. The phone beeped a minute or two later.

  Mitchel: yeah

  Real talkative, Mitchel. He must be enjoying himself. Toby let him know he was a few hours out yet, but he’d be along later.

  Mitchel: cool. name?

  Toby turned the monitor a bit and brought up a browser window. He typed in the Proving Grounds website, but it came back with a message about scheduled maintenance. Huh. Lousy time for it. Did the server issues extended that far? He’d certainly hope they prioritized getting the game running over the website and forums. Well… he’d prefer that if he was actually able to play. Brave New World Entertainment’s own site was down as well. And their forums.

  All resources being poured into keeping the game running, perhaps? Ugh.

  Annoying.

  For him.

  Right now.

  Fortunately there were fan sites that seemed to be in working order. The best one he could find was slow, but that was probably due to heavy traffic. He jumped to the barbarian entry. High hit points, high stamina, high speed, minimal to fair defense, strong offense, no magic, no stealth, no real ranged capability… mostly they hit things. So, a slightly better than glass cannon. Lots of hit points but no real defense to keep those from going away. Problematic. Especially given the current rule of one character and being removed from the early access if they died.

  Huh. Looked to be a page on that. Updated only a few minutes ago. Scratch that, constantly being updated. There were entry notes showing an update every ten minutes or so for hours now.

  The rules were laid out in a bullet point style. One character, no dying, open PVP, players facing the threat of a growing empire, and all of it ended if the leader was taken down. About what he recalled.

  The unique title of “Kingslayer” being up for grabs was new.

  Of course, the fact that Tobin Ironblood was listed as the dictator caught his attention. How in the world…?

  He refreshed the page. Maybe it was a bug. Or maybe there had been a few names said and his was one of them? Or some bugged NPC was using the name. Surely it wasn’t really set up like that. He had no chance in hell of surviving an angry mob of PVP enabled jerks trying to take him down.

  Wait… updates on the location of Tobin Ironblood… he was in the ruins of Morblina, in a church. Apparently the PVP rules didn’t extend into the building. There weren’t many areas like that, apparently. Most of them seemed to be places of worship. Highlander rules.

  It would seem the world lacked settlements until players created them, but the building blocks for those were often the few safe areas.

  Another page… about a new faction forming in support of the Ironblood empire. Players choosing instead to support his claim to sovereignty.

  Weird.

  Toby glanced aside at Mr. Stevens. If this was all the afternoon and evening were to hold, he might as well go home.

  Then again he wasn’t exactly a salary employee. He’d stick it out, head home, and then try to log in again.

  The bell on the front door rang.

  Toby leaned in his chair a bit. He couldn’t see the front room from his station. Mr. Stevens was already standing up. He grumbled so
mething about caffeine as he wandered out to the counter.

  There were muffled voices. Probably just a new order.

  The official Proving Ground forums were still down, but there were other places to look. Social media. More fan sites. Video game news outlets. There was some chatter, but most of it was second hand. Confused reports. A lot of people upset about the rules set in place, even if they were temporary.

  He sent a text to Mitchel with his name and asked what was going on with the early access event.

  His phone beeped almost immediately.

  Mitchel: wait, what? really?

  “What? Why?” Mr. Steven’s voice grew louder than the rest of the conversation out front.

  Toby leaned toward the door again. What was going on out there?

  Mr. Stevens sighed. “Toby, could you come out here?”

  Ugh. Special order. He hopped up and wandered for the door to the front room. He hated special orders. Recalibrate all the damned machines, hopefully they had enough ink or he’d have to run and get more and…

  There were only two people out front with Mr. Stevens. A pretty young woman with unnaturally red hair and a police officer in full uniform.

  Toby stepped up beside Mr. Stevens. “So… you guys need a banner or something? I wanna guess bowling team.”

  The side of the young woman’s mouth turned up slightly, but the officer was having none of it. “Tobias Morant?”

  Toby nodded. “Uh-huh?”

  “I’m going to have to ask you to come with us.”

  “Uhhh…” Well that was going to throw a wrench into his plans for the evening. And the foreseeable future. “Why?”

  Mr. Stevens turned his eyes away from the officer. “He says you saw a mugging last night. I tried to tell him you were here most of the night, but he insists it was you. Something about security camera footage.”

  “Uh-huh.” Toby raised an eyebrow at the cop. He had gone straight home and been bashing his head against the Proving Grounds installer until he finally gave up at 2 a.m. and got a few hours sleep before bashing his head against it again.

  Of course, since he was the only one present it would be hard to prove that.

  The young woman laid a badge on the counter.

  It said her name was Claire Miles, and she worked at Brave New World Entertainment. “My name is Claire, Mr. Tobin. We’ve got samples from the scene, and we’re testing the iron in his blood, but we need your help.” Her eyes turned to the cop. “For a proper identification.”

  “Uh-huh.” There was no way in hell she had randomly emphasized those words, or called him “Tobin” instead of Toby or Tobias.

  She knew.

  But what did that mean? And why was she being so cagey about it?

  Mr. Stevens balked. “I watch a lot of cop shows. I’ve never heard of testing blood’s iron content. What’s the point of that?”

  Toby nodded to Claire. “No, it’s okay. I’ll go.” He gave a cop a nod as well. “Gotta do my civic duty.”

  The cop turned back to Mr. Stevens. “He may be under protective custody for a few days. I trust you can manage?”

  Mr. Stevens rolled his eyes. “I could close and be fine for a few days.” He patted Toby on the shoulder. “If there’s any trouble, you call me. I’ll be there with bells on.”

  “There shouldn’t be any trouble. He’s just a witness.”

  “Wait till he says something stupid. Then there will be trouble. Always trouble with that mouth of his.”

  Toby smiled. “Your confidence in me is overwhelming, sir.”

  “See? Just like that.” Mr. Stevens shook his head. “Alright, don’t worry, I’ll see that the orders get filled.”

  “Five and six are still printing. Those were the last in line.”

  “Yes, yes.” Mr. Stevens nodded.

  Toby waved to the back room. “Need to get my things.”

  The cop nodded. “Make it quick.”

  Claire retrieved her badge. “Time is a factor.”

  He retrieved his phone and his jacket from the back. He paused as he looked at the screen.

  Rumor had it Brave New World were the ones setting up the force in defense of Tobin Ironblood. That added an air of validity to the whole thing. The company that made the game was on the opposite side to where the players had been assigned, and yet players were defecting to their side anyway.

  Weird. But he had the feeling that Claire knew more.

  And he had questions.

  He closed the browser and returned the workstation to proper order. He didn’t need to confuse Mr. Stevens with multiple windows.

  Claire and the cop were waiting as he wandered back out and shoved his arms into his coat. “My bike is in the back. That okay with you Mr. Stevens?”

  The old man nodded. “I’ll bring it in.”

  “Cool. I call shotgun.”

  “No.” The cop held the door open. The bell rang.

  “But I called it.”

  “And I said ‘no.’ ”

  “You called no?”

  “I can see what your boss was talking about.”

  Claire walked out behind Toby. “You can’t call shotgun until you see the car anyway. What kind of bush league does your method fly in?”

  “No one has ever complained before.”

  “Bush league.” She shook her head. “Also shotgun.”

  “Hey hey hey. I called it first.”

  “But not in sight of the car.”

  The cop nodded. “Bush league.”

  Toby grumbled as the cop opened the back door of the patrol car. “I just want it on the record that I called shotgun, and the system has let me down.”

  “Noted.”

  Claire waved at Toby. “Scoot over.”

  Toby narrowed his eyes. “Why? You called shotgun under the Official Shotgun Calling Association of America rules.”

  “Scoot.”

  Toby moved over and Clair climbed into the back beside him. The cop closed the door and walked around the car.

  “Don’t worry, it’s a nice car. None of the usual fuss with the back seat being trashed. This one is brand new. And besides,” she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, “we need to talk.”

  He nodded. “Gotta say, confused as hell. Why am I public enemy number one in your game? All I did was log in.”

  She frowned. “No fault of your own. That scene you got dropped into? Bad business. We’re not a hundred percent, but we think that guy that brought you was one of ours. Hank Miller. He worked on the project for years but got himself fired ten months ago for leaking source code onto the internet.”

  Toby nodded to himself as the Cop got into the front seat. “I remember hearing about that.”

  “While we can’t prove this is him, that certainly was. The upload came from his house, and the most recent updates to the released code were his. He was trying to make a quick buck off of the efforts of the entire company, but whoever bought the code just dumped it online. There have been major alterations to our code base since then, but we think he might have built in a back door somewhere and used the dump to cover it. And to give himself access to it form outside.”

  “Bummer.”

  She smiled. “He stole from us, and he’s using what he stole to give himself access now. You saw the tail end of what he was doing, and he picked you to be the pawn in his little game.”

  “Why me?”

  “Don’t know that. You’d have to ask Miller.”

  The cop tapped on the cage separating the front of the car. “We’re going to swing by your place. Get a bag together for a few days.”

  Toby frowned. “What’s all this about? Why a few days?”

  Claire shook her head. “There’s no easy way to explain this. Miller… may very well be responsible for the blast downtown earlier today. It looks like he set that off while he was talking to us. He got all crazy. It happened. So he’s serious and there might be worse if we don’t play along, so while Cliff, here,” the
cop up front gave a nod, “and the rest of the police try to find him, we need to make a good showing to keep him from doing anything worse. There’s talk of bringing in feds, too. Miller has… kinda show up on their radar since he got fired.”

  Toby blinked a few times. “And I’m involved in this how?”

  “Not just involved, Mr. Morant. In the game Miller has put together you’re the only piece that matters.” She held up her phone. A video was playing.

  Toby recognized the room. It was the stone building with the stained glass windows. The people he had seen appeared one at a time in their fancy shining gear. They milled around looking confused for a few moments before the small bearded man appeared in the center of the room.

  “Welcome employees of Brave New World Entertainment. You are all that are presently logged in, and as such, you’re the only accounts from the building that will be able to log in.”

  The armored man from before stepped forward. “What is this about? Do you know who I am?”

  “Why yes, Paul, I know exactly who you are.” The small man turned a wicked grin on the armored man. “You’re the chief executive officer of Brave New World Entertainment. And you, like all your flunkies, are a pawn to my whims.”

  “Like hell.” The armored man’s hand moved.

  “Ah-ah. I wouldn’t advise that. I’ve got a message for you, and I think you’ll want to hear about it first hand, Paul.”

  Paul scoffed. “Is it your resignation? Who are you?”

  “Who I am matters little. Who I represent matters a great deal. There are certain interests that have a desire to show your country that they’re not safe, even at home. They have explosives and itchy trigger fingers. You know the type. So you’d best listen carefully, I don’t have long.”

  The faces in the room turned back and forth, there was low whispering.

  “I’m working with some very nasty people, but in truth, their goals are not mine. I really couldn’t care less about their wars, real or imagined. But they did offer me resources which I have made use of, and I managed to talk them into a few things on my behalf. This is my… side project. You may have noticed the outage last night while your little ants scurried to try and put things back in order to no avail, only for it all to suddenly work again?” The little man held up a hand and pointed to himself. “Bit of back end work on my part. I’m starting an event in a few minutes and I’m sure you’ll like it.”