Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

007.4 | The Real World

While Carter is explaining the details of the games, Xavier turned his attention towards Clover. He remembered that the last time the player was sick was due to jumping from the second floor... err, it should be called injured rather than sick. Anyways, he has no idea what happened and just received the news of the person's unfortunate accident.

Thankfully, the technology today could heal bones and close wounds that even a person that is scarred by accident could restore their face in just a day. Clover seems only to have his bones broken and is then healed after going for treatment.

Anyways, Clover rarely leaves his room. Or at least, he had never seen the person went out in the presence of other people. He hastily sent a message with the hopes of receiving an answer, but the other person only read the message. It seems like there is no way to ask for the reason for the recent sickness. 

Xavier has been stealing glances at the laptop and somehow accidentally got his gestures captured by Frass. The other person did not seem to get surprised by his sneaking looks. Well, if it is all about Clover, the first people that would worry is, of course, his family.

The relationship between these three is closer than what people expected. In a usual setting, one can typically see Aud-01 always hanging out with Frass as if they are a set. They are always together, that people will worry if they will not see the other one. 

Xavier can be seen as clingy as possible towards Aud-01. He has to stay in the guild most of the time to help Aries arrange the important works internally. Other than that, he has to oversee the trainees that were bound to stay in their guild forever and organize some tasks for the new members. 

This should be a job done by Clover, but the guild leader also has his own mission. It required the player to be out of the guild most of the time. Even though Clover could handle the activities, he wouldn't be able to finish everything on time, so he assigned the tasks to his subordinates. After all, even Aries and Xavier are very willing to accept the job. 

In this set-up, one could see that Xavier is the one handling the operations while Frass will remain on Clover's side to watch the player and keep him from harm. As to why they are doing this, well, it is because these three are connected by blood.

Frass can see the worried face of Xavier. He just shook his head lightly, telling Xavier that everything is fine and he doesn't need to worry. Frass got first-hand information on what stuff Clover did to get sick. Anyways, it is just a cold. Nothing bad would happen with the supercomputer monitoring that person's health. 

On the other hand, Aud-01, or Clover that is still unknown to most of the players, is just watching the conference with little interest. Some information is already handed to him about the meeting, and only the people on the site don't know about it yet. 

This kind of privilege might be related to his rank and position as the Cassaianne's Guild leader. But it is more than that.

Clover is the sole child of the game creator - or it could be said that the game itself is a gift to him.

Frass is Tristan's younger brother, while Xavier is Tristan's wife's little brother. If asked, the three of them grew up together. Frass is three years older than Xavier and six years older than Clover. The minor differences between their ages made them closer than any of their relatives.

Carter noticed the small signals Frass and Xavier are exchanging. He didn't call them out but continued on his presentation. He has known these kids for so long that he didn't need to get their attention to listen. Of all, these two are the most knowledgeable. From the family of geniuses, it is normal for Xav and Frass to be as smart twice the people inside the room.

What's more, is that Clover is more intelligent than the two.

No, that's wrong. That kid is smarter than all these people here combined. 

His abilities were beyond the comprehension of man. Carter had not seen Clover personally for a long time since most of the time, the communication between them is done through virtual chats. But he could still remember the feeling when he is with the youth. 

He is profound like the universe.

The child acted like a normal kid, but the adults could sense his difference. It is as if the child's eyes are judging people. It wasn't the negative type but rather a look that tries to understand them. 

The three young children watched the progress of the game even before it has started. Frass and Xavier are not into engineering, but they somewhat helped with the coding of the programs. It could be said that they contributed thirty percent at most to the coding of the first server. Of course, after being admitted as players, they stopped helping the developers. 

Clover, instead, is still part of the development team. The reason for his absences is due to this activity. He worked as a tester and has been checking the upper floors of the dungeon. Under this condition, he wouldn't have his name announced since he would be defaulted by the system. 

It means that Clover could be considered as the player that first cleared the floors within the dungeon. But since he is a tester, the system invalidates his activity, thus leaving him out. Only after clearing the dungeon once other players have cleared it could he have his name written on the board.

Anyways, the main features of the previous servers were explained by Carter. In each server, a new feature is added. Mainly, there are additional servers to let the programmers remove bugs from the game and improve the already installed systems. 

Bugs are their greatest enemy. It kept the programs and applications from stopping to work suddenly. It also modifies some actions that can affect the overall system if left unattended. Since they are handling live test subjects, everyone is more careful in keeping the game bug-free.

Not all bugs are harmful. Though most of them consisted of annoying effects, there are also good bugs. For example, a rare boss drop rate often only has a single percent chance, which means that the player will receive a crappy drop ninety-nine percent of the time.

But a bug could change this probability rate to a hundred percent. Whenever players learn about bugs like this, they would immediately grab the opportunity. Time is limited, and the developers of this game are quite quick when cleaning bugs. There is always a high PK instance in this situation.

The bugs also highlight which part of the system requires repair or improvement.

For example, on the first server, the voice chat function has already been implemented. Chatting through voice and word-typing could be done simultaneously - that's the plan. But a bug just made it impossible for the two features to work. The players must use the same mode of communication, or the bugs will mute the players. 

If someone chats by typing, it will disable the players using the voice chat. Or, if someone uses the voice chat, the people using the word-typing would be unable to send messages.

During that time, the players would rather talk than type to avoid such events. It was on the second server where speech and chat have been fixed. The following servers improved the characters and emoticons that can be used through chat.

Aside from removing bugs and improving features, a new server means additional levels and floors. Currently, on the fifth server, the level cap is 500. The programmers decide that to increase the level cap by a hundred on every new server. Unlike the other RPGs, DTO and VR do not restart every new server. That is the rule made clear from the start.

There are also floors in the game. Currently, there are five floors in the game. These floors are like world stages. That is, on each floor, a required level is needed to step up. Each floor constitutes a particular strength. Monsters on the first floor are weaker than those on the Second Floor. And so did on the following floors. These world floors are called in a name to not confuse players from dungeon floors.

The First World is called the Terrare.

The Second World is Zwene.

The Third World is Threo.

The Fourth World is Feower.

And the Fifth World is Pente.

Players having higher levels means that they can enter any floor. Most of the players can enter the Feower Floor, but only Clover can enter Pente due to the floor's requirement level of 500. It could also be a privilege as someone testing the higher grounds. 

The creation of the sixth server will create five more floors increasing the level cap up to 1000. This time, long-term leveling up is needed for players to reach the peak.

"The dungeon floors are also increased," Carter said. "Currently, the dungeon of the Terrare World has already been solved. Most of the players are now hanging out on the Zwene's dungeon while a few are competing to clear the dungeons on Threo."

Each floor has a specified underground dungeon. Each dungeon has a certain number of floors. They might appear divided, but they can be accessed on any floor. This could mean that low-level players could get past the higher floors through the dungeons. That is if they could survive under the dungeon bosses. 

"You are almost reaching the end of it. However, in this new server, the dungeons will be dissolved and will be merged into one. It will then be called the Hal's Grand Dungeon."

An animation of a dungeon emerged on the screen showing the 2D CAD design of the dungeon. Carter motioned towards the table and opened an interface that activated a holographic model to appear in the middle of the table. This time, all sides of the dungeon are being shown.

"Your records of the Terrare Dungeons and the Zwene Dungeon will remain. The Terrare dungeons will be the first-level dungeons, while the Zwene will connect next. With a total of a thousand floors, we extended more floors, reaching two thousand."

"This means that the dungeon of all the ten floors is placed in Hal's Grand Dungeon. This is also why we want all the players to reach level one hundred to enter the Zwene world since it will be changed to the second floor.

"You might be wondering why I introduced the dungeon beforehand and what its relationship is on the sixth server. Actually, we already cleared the five new floors. It can now be accessed without any problem. A few beta testers are doing the final clearance to check it."

"However, the dungeon is off-limits. We need players to clean the bugs on the first few floors."

"You're asking us to beta test the new dungeon?" Roderick slowly asked. "Uh, why? Don't you have enough staff?"

"We have enough staff to clean the dungeons. We hired some skilled people to do that. However, when we are about to conduct the clean-up, something happened," Carter knitted his brows. 

They would not involve the players if not for this problem. 

"There are six teams to check on the newly installed dungeon. The problem is that none of the testers could enter caves. But Clover can. So, we suspected that a restriction was placed to the door that only allowed the players to enter."

A few people were surprised. Xavier and Frass naturally know about this, while Aries got the information through deduction. But none of them questioned Clover's credibility to participate. 

Damian raised a thought, "Who would place a restriction to the dungeon? Weren't you the guys who changed its location?"

"We are indeed, but seventy-five of the project is coded by the creator," Carter heaved a sigh. "There are some codes within the game that cannot be manipulated. We might be able to move objects, but that is only the extent of what we can do. Mister Foster has set the rules of the world, and changing it might affect the overall system."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Damian added. 

"You don't have to worry about that," a voice coming from the laptop said. "Everything is the same. There is no problem with the environment inside. They are just blocked, that's all."

"Yes," Carter agreed. "And in the case accidents will happen, there are already emergency countermeasures that will prioritize the player's safety. To be honest, the creator made more safety systems than the number of monsters within the game. You won't know them since it can be activated through special situations."

"Are you saying that you called us to beta test the game before the sixth server will be released?" Aries phrase out the exact notion.

"Yes, I am requesting you to beta test the server before opening it to the public. But don't worry, such action will be given compensation. Your attendance on this request will give you benefits. Drops and leveling up will be doubled in this activity. You will also be paid twice. You will be ahead to those players by a half."

The offer sounded beautiful to their ears, that from their faces, Carter can tell that they will definitely join. Beta testing is no different from regular play. What is new is that they are playing in a new environment while recording any anomalies and if there are bugs present. Amidst the interest, a sound from the edge of the table called Carter.

"One question," Clover called out.

"Yes?" The scientist responded.

"I already reached the maximum cap of the current server. How can I gain this benefit of leveling up if I'm already on the max?"

It is true that Clover is already on the maximum cap. He reached it a year and a half ago. This announcement surprised the players. Not even the other guild leaders believed it.

"How long have you been on a stagnant level?" Carter asked.

"A year and a half," Clover responded.

"Then, it means that you already collected a lot of EXP for those months. Because you will be beta testing on a new server, your stored EXPs will be used up and will level you up. Maybe in this game, you will be the first one to enter the sixth floor."

Everyone gasped. Clover is not that active in records to be shown on TV, but they know that he's actively playing in dungeons. None of them sure saw him, but they are all aware of the player online. What could he be doing than play on the higher floors where no one can enter, right? Especially on the Pente Floor, where monsters give more EXP than the lower floors.

Calculating the numbers in their minds, the estimated level Clover will reach upon entering the Sixth Server would be at least in level 612! What will happen if he joins the beta test? He will reach 650 in just a blink!

"Oi, oi, you're always playing all day in DTO and VR. That's why you level up faster than us," Roderick almost cried beside Frass. "And I thought we're already getting closer."

The second place, Frass, is even still at level 492.

"Well, well, let's just ignore these numbers and proceed on the planning of the beta test," Carter called.

He clicked the button to the following picture showing an image of a gear that looks like a headphone. Though, it doesn't have those round speakers, instead of a slim end where two small circular nodes are placed. The picture showed the model and the way it should be worn. It will be placed right just on the back of the neck of the players wearing it like a necklace on the back.

"This is called The Synapse. This is a nerve gear that will be installed on the back of your neck. You will wear this before logging in so the system will identify you as a beta tester. We will guide each of you on how to operate for safety."

"We have one hundred nerve gears for disposal. With the top ten players leading the game, I will give you ten Synapse gears each. You will choose among the five hundred players of VR who will join you to beta test. Anyone, even those who just reached level 100, is allowed to participate. It's up to you who will be the first players of the new server."

Then it means that one hundred players will be chosen. One hundred players to clean bug is sure a large number. They will surely finish the beta test faster. Carter closed the presentation and faced the players.

"Now, I would like to know who among you want to back out from this project. We can't force you to join this test run. We can choose any players on the next top ten as your replacement. Once you started this, you can't back out. So let me see the hands of those who wanted to refuse the offer?"

Nobody raised a hand. Of course, with all the benefits given, who would refuse such a good offer. Carter smiled at them with a determined look. All of them did the same ready to face this new challenge given to them. Carter then announced the opening of the beta test and the formal statement that everyone is now listed.

"Well then, everyone, let's start testing the new servers this weekend! Meeting adjourned!"