Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (36 page)

“I know what AltCon is doing General.”

Everyone at the table leaned forward. Admittedly, Dan knew he could have just said it right from the get go, but a small part of him wanted to be dramatic.

However, this wasn’t the General’s first rodeo. With a sigh he said, “Dan, please, dispense with the theatrics. What’s going on?”

“What’s happening I’ve got. How they are doing it I still don’t know. But the gist of it is, AltCon has undertaken a program to utilize brainwave manipulation, likely through subconscious conditioning, to enact a response from their target base.”

“And now in English Mr. Hamson.”

“Mind Control sir. AltCon is using Mind Control.”

The Colonel was on the edge of his seat and about to make a comment when the General shot him another one of those looks he likely had to learn before getting his first star.

“Explain.”

“Ok, well I had my suspicions for some time that something weird was going on with the way players were acting. Not in the game, but the way they acted toward AltCon as an entity. There is only one outlier but I will get to that when I am done. For the sake of this discussion, understand that I mean everyone with the exception of that one outlier.”

“Continue.”

“So it started when I realized that anyone who spoke about AltCon, anyone, they had nothing but glowing things to say. This includes me. At this moment I find it damn near impossible to say a single negative thing about the company, and I know what those bastards are capable of. So I started testing this theory.

“During my time in the Tavern I started talking to more players about AltCon and less about their experience in the game. We weren’t learning anything from that anyway. And I found, to a person, that they had the same reaction I did. Even when I pressed people to think of just one negative thing about AltCon, they couldn’t think of any. Even with all my insider knowledge I still truly think AltCon is a great company.

“But the real evidence came a few days ago. AltCon offered all of the Beta testers the option to buy eight older games at a fifty percent discount. None of these games would work on the new RAC platform. Yet I had to buy them. It was a drive within me. And I did, without hesitation. But once I had them, I didn’t think about them again. I have absolutely no desire to play them. But the overwhelming urge to buy them was there. I didn’t even realize what had happened until that same outlier asked me if I had bought the games and when I planned on playing them. I realized that I never want to play them. Ever.

“Finally, I reached out to all of my contacts that I have made and in a roundabout way figured out it is the same for everyone. All of the Beta testers I spoke with, and we are talking over a 100, bought the games immediately, and now have no plans to play them in the future. There was even a rumor that one of the Beta testers sold his car since he was strapped for cash this month, just so he could buy the games.”

The General sat there in deep thought. The scenario was running through his head. He wrinkled his brow a few times and then asked Dan to continue, and tell him about the outlier.

“That would be my teammate Alex. I mentioned him at a previous meeting. This guy is a tactician. And he plays the game with single minded focus. But he is not an AltCon groupie. I told you earlier how he had issues with his log in and log out when we first started, although this seems to have fixed itself. He also has too much luck in the game. I don’t care what he says, there is no way we should be having as much luck as we are. I don’t know what it means, but it is the reality.”

“And how does that make him an outlier?” The General asked.

“Well, I’ve asked him about AltCon and he couldn’t care less about the company. And when every one of us was planning on buying those worthless games, Alex was the only person I know who had no feelings about it at all. His response was a shrug and a ‘I think I’ll pass.’ I don’t know why it is, but this conditioning is not affecting him.”

“It is an interesting theory Mr. Hamson, but I don’t see how it’s testable.” Another person at the table said.

Dan just hung his head and shook it in shame. “Maybe it would be best General if you just told everyone here not to talk. Except for maybe the doctor, as he is the only one at this point who can save the table.”

The doctor looked up from his hands at that point and said, “Huh, what? Sorry, could you repeat that?”

Dan looked at the General who, rightfully so, was steaming. “Out. Everyone. Get. Out!”

Once the room had cleared of everyone but Dan, the General, and the Colonel who would soon be traveling to North Dakota, the General said, “Ok Dan, what can we do?”

“When I first came on board with the DoD two years ago I was given a routine brain scan to ensure there weren’t any abnormalities. This tracked brain activity and brain waves. It’s a standard test, but it provides us with a baseline. If I’m right, we are going to see a very marked difference when I do another. And it should be possible for a neurological specialist to tell you what’s been done based on the changes. At least if my theory holds water.”

“And if it does?”

“General, I just collect the information about the foundation. It’s your job to bring the house down.”

PART III

CHAPTER 20

September 12th, 2043
–

As any person who has ever played a virtual reality role playing game can tell you, getting through the first twenty or so levels is easy. There isn’t a great chance of dying, and the mobs don’t take too much thought to get through. Of course, getting through the first levels is usually augmented by the fact that so many have done it before you and there are detailed walk throughs of how to go from Level 1 to Level 20 in no time. That wasn’t the case in Resurgence, since we were the first ones to play the game, and no one had mapped out where all the “easy” experience could be found. Even so, going from Level 1 to Level 15 took us a month, and that was pretty fast in a game that had never been played.

Since all of us were hard core players, we knew that around Level 20 things would become a lot more difficult when it came to leveling, as the amount of experience needed would start going up dramatically. We weren’t quite to that point yet, but these things were fresh on my mind. More importantly, when the time came for us to really start grinding out for experience, it would become imperative that we did not die. For that reason, we decided as a group to forego any upgrades on our armor at this time, in the hopes that we could get some good drops in our raid, and therefore be able to save some money in the long run.

And speaking of the raid, it was still four more days of grinding before we were in a position to meet up with our teammates. There just weren’t large numbers of mobs we could easily access. So we had to range far and wide to find each one and just keep leveling. We also didn’t want to get caught up near the bandit camp and accidentally aggro one of them. At this point, none of us thought the raid would be a timed event, but we didn’t want to test that theory. We earned our level 16 along the way, which was a happy feeling, but we weren’t getting much in the way of items or cash. Thankfully, I had sold all of the remaining spells and robes I had in my possession. So in that regard we were flush with cash. Again, we knew that one round of upgrades in the future was going to leave us broke.

It wasn’t that we didn’t want to start the raid. Naturally, we did. It was that we were still waiting on our friends and their progress was slow going, much as ours had been when we were grinding to level 13 and then 14. It had been two days since I had heard anything on their status, and so I decided to check with Wayne. Also, mentioning anything about Jenny to Wayne always ended in laughter for someone.

“Hey Wayne, how is Jenny doing?” I asked.

“Ummm, she’s good Alex. You know, enjoying the game…and stuff… and she likes the…you know…game stuff and what not. And I think she…um, you know…”

“Wayne. For the love of all the gods. Please, just stop. When I ask about Jenny, I mean how is she doing leveling wise. I’m not terribly interested in anything else. Truly.” Which, as I just mentioned, was a bit of a falsehood. I honestly was happy to see Wayne getting along with Jenny and maybe a budding romance starting. Who am I to judge? Although the interaction wasn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped.

“Naugha and Jenny sitting in a tree…” Dan began. And there was the entertainment I was looking for.

“Don’t do it Dan. I can’t heal you in real life.” Jason warned.

But Dan would not be intimidated by the threat of bodily harm. Or more likely, just didn’t care.

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes the Shield, then comes the Hammer. Then comes a…”

Faster than I would have thought possible, Wayne was standing over Dan. Wayne’s Barbarian was around 6’10” and Dan’s Wood Elf topped out at a solid 5’ 2”. The scene was comical when they were next to each other. But it got scary quick when Wayne lifted Dan up to his eye level. Using only one hand.

“The smart cleric over there said not to do it Dan, and you know you really should listen to the smart folks. Don’t you?”

Dan nodded his head furiously. And with that, Wayne put Dan down and started walking away.

“Man, thanks Wayne. You definitely saved me there.”

“What? I…I saved you?” Wayne asked Dan, obviously not following Dan’s line of thought. But really, any of us could claim that we could rarely follow Dan’s train of thought.

“Yeah man. I was having the hardest time coming up with something that rhymed with hammer! That could’ve been a disaster. You’re the best man!”

“He’s never going to learn, like ever.” I heard Wayne muttering as he walked away from Dan.

I still was at a loss as to where Jenny and her group were level wise, although the entertainment was worth the delay in information.

“So, Wayne, about Jenny.”

“Yeah Alex, they should be completing their level 14 today. They just got back to Port Town this morning and handed over the horses. I expect we can start our raid anytime now.”

“Awesome. But I agree, they should get their level 14 first.”

* * *

“Welcome to Bandit Camp. The pool and play area is through the left. The cafeteria and crafts is on the right. If you have any questions, please talk to any of the helpful counselors you will see walking around. And if all else fails, just talk to a big person!” Dan said to our friends when they arrived. He also made sure to look longingly up at Wayne when he said that last part. By the way Dan was acting, you wouldn’t know Wayne had him over a foot off the ground earlier, holding him by just one hand. And I guess we were all so used to Dan’s antics that Wayne didn’t look the least bit put out either.

“Now there is the wit and charm that’s been missing from my life these past weeks!” Gary said as he approached Dan and gave him a high five. Smiles were on everyone’s face and it was like a reunion. But not like a family reunion, where you only like one person out of 10. Although Dan easily qualified as the weird uncle whom all the adults claimed was just “special.”

Tim made a big deal about thanking us for the robe he was wearing. It shimmered in the light of the forest, looking like silver speckles in the black of the robe. I personally didn’t like an Enchanter in black, but that was the color of the robe. Tim, for his part, loved the whole look. He repeated time and again that he would make it up to us in the future. I let him know that getting to where they were now was payment enough, as we needed them for this mini-raid.

“So have you scouted it all out Dan?” Kaitlin asked.

“Yeah. As much as I could without aggro’ing any of the mobs. I don’t have Gary’s awesome Play Dead skill, so I couldn’t get as close as I would like. But what I can tell you is that there are a lot of bad guys. And they are going to be Yellow to all of you guys.”

“So it’s AltCon raid 2.0 then?” Jenny asked, while sidling up next to Wayne. “I think with Wayne’s new gear and his awesome hammer, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

The entire group got really quiet.

Wayne started blushing a deep, deep red. It was only then that Jenny thought about what she said and quickly looked at all of us, before blushing crimson as well.

“Seriously? Are you kidding me right now? He has a HAMMER!” Jenny yelled at us in her defense. “This isn’t innuendo! Bunch of children!”

At that moment, Tim started giggling, and none of us could hold back any longer. Even Wayne and Jenny tittered a bit after a few seconds. The only person not laughing was Dan.

When we all looked at him in a questioning manner, trying to figure out why he wasn’t laughing, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sorry. I don’t get it. Wayne’s got a hammer.”

This had us all rolling on the floor again.

Once everyone calmed down a bit we started rehashing our previous strategies for handling multiple mobs at the same time. Like Kaitlin had said, I expected this to be very much like our first AltCon raid together. In that vein, I expected that our group would handle most of the load. We didn’t begrudge our teammates though, since there was no way we could do this without them.

“Let’s have Gary make the first pull and see how his Play Dead works against these mobs. They seem to wander in pairs, so just grab two and run them back here. If your Play Dead works, great. If it doesn’t, Dan will kite one of the mobs. All ready?” I asked.

Everyone nodded their heads and Gary started running toward the Bandit Camp.

* * *

In the end, we definitely needed the eight people to deal with the Bandit Camp. Not because the mobs were terribly difficult, or that there were too many, but because they had an insane amount of hit points, that would have taken us forever to take down with just four people. Add in to that, there were quite a few healers interspersed with the regular mobs, so we had to identify them quickly and take them out. The bandits were dropping a fair amount of cash, and some dull steel and worn leather items. We would be able to sell these at a merchant eventually, but there was nothing particularly of note that was dropping.

In fact, there wasn’t much to comment on at all concerning the raid. It was about as clear cut as they came. Go in. Find mob. Pull mob. Kill mob. Repeat.