章 7: Mass Release

MAGIC AND MYTH II OFFICIAL DISCORD:

"The goddess of gaming wisdom just dropped three new videos on her channel… is this sh** legit?" user SilentMild wrote.

"Saw it on Wetube," May1st replied. "It looks legit."

"What video?" user Grimthorn asked.

"Only for her premium subscribers, @Grimthorn," user May1st replied.

"Ath3na fighting a zombie horde in MnMII," user SilentMild began.

"Ath3na exploring an unknown town full of monsters," user LilHyz added.

"Ath3na fighting against a wraith-type monster in a dark landscape," user May1st finished.

"The production value on those last two videos was insanely good," user SilentMild wrote. "Even her new avatar looked lifelike…"

"People are saying it's footage for a new game… one that really makes full use of the Portal II…" user LilHyz explained.

User Grimthorn added the meme [Frowning French Bulldog calling your bulls**t meme].

"It's real… the ABYSS is real," user Reaperz_Ally wrote.

"The Abyss…?" user LilHyz asked.

"Find the Easter egg… Find the Abyss," Reaperz_Ally wrote.

User May1st added the meme [Leonardo Dicaprio celebrating with a martini glass toast].

---

After Leo made the decision to provide Ath3na with video footage of her recent adventure, he knew it would create a huge buzz for the Abyss. This meant more gamers would make an effort in finding the secret Easter Egg which meant more people would sign the Reaper's Pact. He just didn't expect so many to arrive so soon.

"Bow before me... for I am truly a genius!" he said this to cover the fact that he didn't actually foresee this situation happening but still wanted to take credit for it. "It's only the second day since we launched the BETA and we now have... how many players?"

The creature Leo posed his question to had the head of a white wolf attached to the upper body of an extremely hairy and plump man. This wolf-man had bright blue eyes hidden behind half-moon spectacles. And while its chest was bare, it at least had the decency to wear ripped jeans.

"A hundred and one, Game Master," the wolf-man answered in a gravelly voice that couldn't hide his English accent. "Technically, Ath3na is a new player as well."

Leo felt the need to face-palm himself but he bit down on the urge to do so or he'd be caught in his lie. The truth was that this influx of new players was a big problem because he wasn't sure Adventour could handle the sudden increase in capacity for demands such as quest giving.

"It seems your Easter egg wasn't as difficult as you imagined, Leo," Morgana laughed her tinkling laugh.

Unlike Leo, Morgana seemed to be enjoying the situation. In fact, she was bouncing on the toes of her feet and was looking very giddy indeed.

Leo guessed she was hoping for a repeat of yesterday's meal, and with a hundred new players, that chance was likely. Of course, the chance of their system crashing from too many users appearing all at once was also very likely.

However, after the initial shock had worn off, Leo's own excitement was beginning to overshadow his worries. Besides, as the world's premier game designer, this was the sort of challenge he relished taking on.

"How lucky for us that we were able to record yesterday's introduction scene," Morgana noted, voicing out the thought that had just popped into Leo's head.

Just imagining having to talk to each player and filling their minds with the subpar special effects Ath3na had experienced was threatening to sour his mood.

"Yes, my pack has already uploaded the introduction scene into the Substitute Reaper System," the wolf-man agreed. "It should automatically insert itself into the minds of the players who've just arrived."

"I'd rather you two didn't look so happy about that crappy introduction." Leo frowned at the pair of them afterward. "Remind me to reimagine that intro, McCloud..."

Thor McCloud of the werewolf clan McCloud was head of the Abyss' game programming team. He and his clan managed the Substitute Reaper System Morgana and Leo had created and ensured the programs Leo envisioned ran smoothly. They also added updates to systems like the SRS when necessary such as in the case of the introduction scene.

"That's one problem solved… now we have to deal with beginner quests…" Leo mused out loud.

"Can't you use Maestro to give players quests like you did with Ath3na?" Morgana asked.

Leo shook his head. "I'd be at it all day and still wouldn't manage to talk to all hundred of them…"

"And the wait time for Maestro's appearance would sour the players' experiences," McCloud guessed with a thoughtful nod.

"Exactly," Leo said while he wagged a finger at Morgana. "It would make the game boring… and we don't want that."

"I assume by that annoyingly confident look plastered on your face that you have an idea of remedying this dilemma?" Morgana asked, her bushy eyebrow rising slightly.

"McCloud, excluding your clan, how many NPCs do we have in town right now?" Leo asked.

It was a question Leo already knew the answer to, but he learned during his time running Gargantuan Games that giving employees a chance to play an active role during the brainstorming sessions helped to boost morale.

"We have exactly one hundred NPCs in town," McCloud answered after a brief look through the scrolls he kept in his briefcase. "Not a bad number for a new-born settlement of the Abyss, madam."

McCloud inclined his head toward Morgana who had built Adventour under her own power, effectively making her the town's mayor, which, as Leo only recently learned from one of her lectures, was one of the tasks imposed on highborn reapers by the former Lord of Death.

"Basically, it's a reaper's job to ensure that lesser denizens of the Abyss had lodging and employment," Morgana had lectured back then.

After hearing McCloud's report, Morgana's face lit up with understanding. She turned her gaze on Leo and asked, "You want each NPC to provide beginner quests to new players?"

"You are sounding more and more like a dev, kid..." Leo ruffled her hair as a doting big brother would have. "That kind of unique setup means a variety of beginner quests ranging from gathering materials to hunting specific monster types... it'll even create more positive buzz for the game later, too."

Leo's eyes drifted down to the briefcase McCloud carried in his extremely sharp-nailed hand.

"We had everyone submit forms for first-time quests, didn't we?" Leo asked.

McCloud spent a few seconds rifling through the stack of scrolls inside his briefcase before answering, "Yes, ninety-three of them have submitted…"

"And the other seven?" Morgana inquired at first. But her curiosity quickly switched into one of annoyance. "Let me guess… it's those seven, isn't it?"

McCloud nodded hesitantly while a bead of sweat fell off the tip of his snout.

"Why is it that when there's an issue in town, your seven idiots are usually the cause of it, Morgana?" Leo asked in annoyance.

"Don't blame me, Leo... you're the one who wanted me to sign powerful lessers to guard the town while the players were low-leveled," she reminded him. "Even I have trouble dealing with those fools."

"Fine... let's forget the seven…" Leo said with a wave of his hand. "Maestro will handle the seven extra players… Ath3na won't be around today anyway."

"She won't?" McCloud asked in a confused tone. "I was under the impression she enjoyed her time here?"

"Her soul's just experienced an evolution so she'll be too exhausted to do anything but rest for a few days, at least," Morgana explained. "That's if she wants to stay human and not get devoured by her new self…"

"And on that ominous note," Leo grinned, "Let the games begin!"

---

Leo and Morgana spent the next hour observing the new arrivals and found themselves enjoying the many interesting reactions to the town they built. A player stating out loud how everything felt so real was particularly fun for Leo to witness despite having heard it many times before from Ath3na's lips.

"If only they knew the truth," he whispered to himself. "Perhaps they'd want to crucify me for sacrificing them on the altar of my dream."

Interactions between players and NPCs were also worth watching as many players found the NPCs quite frightening in the same vein as Ath3na's first glimpse of red-eyed smith.

On the other hand, the lessers playing the role of NPCs were equally awkward in their conversations. They could barely keep their lines straight and many of them looked half-ready to feast on the new players themselves.

"Morgana… we're going to need an acting workshop for NPC interactions," Leo told his partner.

A snap of Morgana's fingers and a quill and unfurled scroll appeared before her.

"System improvement number fourteen, build a workshop for NPC interactions," Morgana noted.

Once the note had been jotted down, she snapped her fingers a second time, and quill and scroll disappeared from view in a puff of white smoke.

Later, Leo gave out beginner quests to the seven players he'd been assigned to as Maestro. And interacting with six of the seven resolved the mystery of why there were so many new arrivals to the Abyss. All six substitute reapers were MnMII players who were either dedicated subscribers of Ath3na's channel or her online friends.

After he'd sent reaper number six — a man who was the spitting image of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger but with red hair — on a quest to slay Nether-Dragonlings, Leo chuckled to himself. "Looks like I underestimated the power of a game influencer..."

Leo met with player number seven next, and immediately realized he was different from those who came before him. An almost palpable aura of Self-confidence oozed out of this player in a way that told Leo he was definitely one to watch.

He was a tall man with ear-length wavy dark hair and narrow eyes that marked him as an Asian. His face couldn't be called good-looking but the easy smile plastered there certainly gave him a kind of dashing charisma one would find in an action hero. Above this substitute reaper's head was the gamer tag, [Black Howler Lv1].

Intrigued by Black Howler's action star vibe, Leo offered him a far more challenging quest than one provided to beginners, something even harder than the wraith's nest Ath3na had to contend with.

This was in no means an attempt to play favorites. Leo simply wanted all the data he could get out of the BETA test. Pushing an intermediate quest onto a seemingly capable player was just more data gathering. After all, if the player failed his quest then it would be no loss to Leo and Morgana.

"To the east of Adventour, you'll find the Dark Forest… deep within its depths lies a beast of many faces, a great beast that shakes the earth with just its passing... One no ordinary man can defeat," Maestro spoke in an ominous tone. "But defeat it you must, if you seek to prove yourself worthy to become the lord's champion."

Black Howler didn't even bat an eyelash when he tapped on [YES] and accepted the quest from the window prompt that had popped up in front of him after Maestro's speech.

"Finally, something in this game I can sink my teeth into," Black Howler grinned.

Then he was gone, off to slay the beast of legend, and as Leo watched his retreating figure he thought to himself that this player might just stand a chance after all.

"Oh, Lord of Death, how could you send him after that thing by himself?" Morgana asked with a shake of her head. "You might as well have signed his death warrant yourself."

"Somehow, I feel like things will work out... he's a diamond in the rough," Leo grinned. It lasted all of two seconds before transforming into a frown. "Although it would be a problem if he died now... we don't exactly have a way to bring people back from the dead yet..."

However, as if in spite of Leo's words, the next minute brought with it some very dire news indeed.

A window appeared before Leo, the kind that only an administrator like him could see. It carried a report from McCloud detailing that within the last hour, ten players had died on their beginner's quest.

This was very terrible news, for as Leo already explained to Morgana, resurrections in the Abyss were non-existent, and these ten were now at risk of disappearing forever.