Cyber Teen Project

Chapter 6-2

“Let me guess, a mage?”

“Close, a Magi.”

“Very nice! How did you pull that off?”

“By surviving the three trials and defeating the boss, of course.”

Nigel hasn’t even seen any other Magi in the game. To become a Magi, the player had to possess the highest level of skill in the game. Nigel heard rumors of players taking months to obtain even the Pre-Magi status after reaching max level. He was in awe. There was more to Jet than he realized.

“Sorry I’m late. I had to deal with my father. He doesn’t approve of the game.”

“That’s okay. I was admiring your microcosm.” In the game, a microcosm was a private virtual space.

“Thanks. This isn’t the only one I have.”

“Really?” Nigel was impressed. Microcosms were not only expensive but rare because space was limited on the mega server.

“I brought you here because I wanted to discuss some potential changes that Prezelverse Games is planning.”

“I know that an expansion is coming.”

“As a beta tester, I have access to certain unreleased content. I’ve been authorized to share some of my experiences with a limited number of people. I think the changes will affect your side business.”

“In what ways?”

“It hasn’t been announced, and it may not happen immediately, but it will soon. The bounty system is going into effect.”

“Bounty?” Nigel looked worried.

“Bounties will be placed on anyone who uses unauthorized programs, or for anyone caught using any automation. That’s not all—the dark denizens are being upgraded.”

Nigel didn’t like the sound of that. The use of even minor scrolls in the game had the potential of summoning a nearly unbeatable foe. “More powerful?”

“In a way, but they will be controlled by real players who can track the offending player. If that weren’t bad enough, you can only access these dark denizens via a connection to the Dark Web.”

“That is good. There will be less players,” Nigel said.

“That is true, but anyone on the Dark Web is more advanced technically and will be almost impossible to beat alone.”

“That is just great,” Nigel said sarcastically. “Do you know when these changes will go into effect?”

“Not sure, but it could be any day. With the holidays fast approaching, it will probably be soon. Pretzelverse will want to maximize profits before year end.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

“I would hate to have you waste your time leveling characters only to lose it all. The news was only part of why I invited you here. The final beta of the patch ends tonight, and each tester is allowed to bring in a guest. I chose you.”

“I’m honored.”

With a wave of her staff, she opened a portal. Jet urged Nigel through. Nigel stepped through the portal to find himself at the base of a silver spire. All of the pleasant scenery was gone; instead of prancing unicorns, there were flying gargoyles. One of the flying menaces took notice and started a downward descent. Nigel cloaked himself; one of the rogue"s abilities was stealth. The creature kept coming. To Nigel’s horror, he realized that the gargoyle could see through his stealth. Jet stepped through the portal, uttered some words that Nigel didn’t recognize, and the gargoyle seemed to bounce off him. Nigel realized that she had cast a shield spell.

That spell is going to attract a dark denizen for sure, Nigel thought.

That spell is going to attract a dark denizen for sure,“I got you, Kid. Let’s go,” Jet said as she gave him a wink and a smile.

Jet led Nigel to the base of the spire. There was no visible door or entrance anywhere he looked. Jet uttered some sort of incantation which sounded like “Un-Por-Vet”—or something like that—and a narrow passage opened in the spire. Nigel followed Jet’s lead. He could barely fit through. More like a c***k, Nigel thought. Nigel followed Jet into a dark hallway. Judging from the mini-map on his heads-up display, Nigel suspected that they were on the ground level of the spire. Circular hallways led to unknown regions.

More like a c***k,“Watch for sludgelings.”

Nigel tried to say something, but it sounded like a grunt.

Nigel didn’t know what a sludgeling was, but it sounded nasty. He followed Jet through the hallway leading upward. The walls shifted; it was disorienting to Nigel. He realized that it was a sludgeling because it stretched out and tried to attach itself to Nigel’s armor. Jet cast another spell that lit up the room, which caused the sludgelings in the immediate area to flee. The effect only lasted a few seconds before they were back with greater numbers.

When they reached the top of the hallway, the sludgelings were covering every surface. Nigel checked his health meter for damage. He didn’t take any. He realized they were floating. When they reached the end of the hall, the sludgelings vanished. A new threat presented itself. A large three-headed creature with fire emitting from the mouth and nostrils appeared. Jet shielded them but not before the fire from the monster touched Nigel; his armor had no protection. He realized that he had only one health unit left. He normally had a hundred units or more at any given time. Jet realized what was happening and cast a party recall spell.

Then there was darkness.

“You’re safe now,” Jet said.

“That was just a taste of the new content. Sorry, I didn’t mean to take you that far. I got carried away. I patched you all up.”

Nigel finally opened his eyes; they were back at Jet’s microcosm.

“Was that the new content? I haven’t seen anything that advanced in the game before.”

“It is, but, unfortunately, most players won’t get to experience it.”

“Why is that?”

“It is some of the advanced Dark Web content I was talking about. You need special access to the Dark Web to even gain access to it.”

“Can we go back?”

Jet smiled.

“I would like that very much, but I promised I would eat dinner with my parents tonight. My father is home for a change, and he wants to have a proper dinner, whatever that means.”

Jet gave Nigel a scroll. “Have a look around before you go!”

* * *

After days of practice and coaching, Nigel was ready. He decided to start with his own account, in case there were unintended consequences. He spread out several notes he used when creating the narrative for the pretext. He worked out several responses and possible counters. He wanted to be ready for anything. Nigel worked on his pretext for an hour before he got the nerve to pick up the phone and dial the account resolution team at Prezelverse Games.

After waiting for about twenty minutes on hold, he heard a couple of audible clicks, and someone picked up.

“Player Support, Alex speaking,” said the voice on the other end of Nigel"s phone. For a second, Nigel said nothing.

“Is anyone there?” asked Alex.

Nigel cleared his throat. As he attempted to speak, he realized that he had forgotten to turn on his voice modulator circuit to mask his voice. He was reasonably sure that he didn"t sound like a twenty-three-year-old college student. He quickly turned on the program.

“Sorry, I got something caught in my throat,” Nigel said, regaining his composure. “I’m calling because my account got locked by mistake.”

“Please provide me with your name and account information,” Alex requested.

Nigel provided information on Alan Sommers, his twenty-three-year-old college student persona.

“I see that your account has been locked because two accounts were playing from the same source IP address at the same time,” Alex said.

Nigel was ready to take a big risk. He chose his next words carefully.

“Was the other account Jake Hickham?” Nigel asked.

“I cannot reveal that information unless you answer a few questions. What is your address?”

“701 Front Street in Milford,” Nigel said.

“What is the last four digits of the credit card on file?” Alex asked.

This was an easy one for Nigel since he created Jake’s account and used an online prepaid credit card.

“5115,” Nigel replied.

After a minute of silence, Alex explained that he would need to get approval to get the account unlocked.

“What is your relationship with Mr. Hickham?” Alex asked with a tone of suspicion in his voice.

“Ahh, he’s my cousin,” was the only thing that Nigel thought to say.

“Hold, please,” Alex quickly said.

After a long pause, perhaps two to three minutes, the phone came back to life.

“Mr. Sommers?” said an unfamiliar voice.

“Yes?”

“This is Mr. Chambers, shift supervisor. As an extra measure of security, we require both you and Mr. Hickham to be present on the line before we can unlock either account.”

“Oh,” Nigel responded.

“I have his number on file. I can call him now, if you want?” Mr. Chambers said.

“No, that’s okay. I think Jake is working tonight.”

“All right. Please have Mr. Hickham on the line next time you call,” Mr. Chambers said as he transferred the call to an automated survey.

* * *

Jake spent the better part of the morning doing research on Nigel Watson. He was able to find out that he had a kid brother Ralphie who attended Milford Elementary, just around the corner from Milford High School.

“Is there any other information you can find on the twerp, Donnie?”

“No, Boss. I asked several of my contacts at the elementary school, and that is all I have!”

“Fine. I need you to do something for me.”

“A little fieldwork?” Donnie asked excitedly.

“Yeah, something like that,” Jake said with delight.

At 2:45 p.m., the last bell for the Milford Elementary School rang. Ralphie was in the process of packing his backpack when a kid he didn"t know bumped into him. The contents of his backpack spilled on the floor.

“Excuse me,” the kid said.

“Ahh, look what you"ve done!” cried Ralphie.

The kid started helping him repack his backpack. Ralphie was distracted, putting papers back in his binder, so he didn"t notice when the kid slipped a small circular disc into one of the outside pockets.

“Sorry, Man!” said the kid as he hurried away.

Several hours later, Donnie Davis met Jake at a local coffee shop a few blocks away from the school.

“Is it done?”

“It’ll be days before he even notices it,” Donnie said.

Jake pulled out his smartphone and launched the disc-tracking app paired to the smartphone. As Jake reviewed the logs, he noticed several gaps in Ralphie"s activity.

“Donnie, I think the disc is broken. I see Ralphie at school, then he disappears until much later in the day.”

“The disc is designed to be attached to a keychain or something else that is portable and will work with any cellular signal within thirty feet of the disc,” Donnie said. “The gaps represent the lack of cell phone coverage.”

“Oh, I see. Ralphie doesn"t have a phone.”

Donnie liked Jake, but he could be quite dense at times.

“Yeah. We will get better results if Ralphie gets a phone or is around someone that already has a phone,” Donnie said.

“The twerp needs to hang around more people with phones. It’s starting to get colder, which means he will get more rides from people with phones.”