Admin: First Day (3) (Patreon)

I was greatly disappointed that I hadn't presented myself to the players as some sort of demon. With that guise, I could have ‘lost’ my temper and just finished off all the players who had asked me for power. There are even already an ironclad excuse like ‘what did you expect, trying to beg for power from a powerful demon?!’

But my past decision led me to my current situation, I was an angel – or something similar. And the player had just asked me for help, my protection. I couldn't just send the players away without further explanation.

In no way could I give them any special powers, simply for the reason that I hadn't yet developed any special powers, but I couldn't simply refuse either… At least I needed a reason.

You know what, Jabberwocky? Score one, you bastard!

***

A system message popped up in front of Jabberwocky's eyes, a brief glance at what informed him that he'd got the ‘Unbearable Burden’ achievement.

After a moment more, a new message informed him that he had obtained the quest, ‘Thought of Thought’, recommended level… Jabberwocky nearly choked on air when he saw in addition to the new line, recommended level, the value in that one.

‘The recommended level is three hundred?!’ Jabberwocky felt his eyes seek to leave his eye sockets, popping out of his skull.

“I fear it is not in my power to bestow help upon you," The soaring angel replied, "I am but a shadow of a shadow of my past self, a mere remnant of one who once created this garden. My true self could bestow this power upon you with only a movement of hand – but now all I can bestow is advice and words. Knowledge and no more…” As if to punctuate this point, the angel slowly lost its luster, turning slightly grayer at every moment.

“Yes, my powers are growing weak, and I'm afraid I won't be able to answer your questions before you summon me again… But know that I appreciate your help to me – and I will help you in return… But do not try to find in my garden anything like me again," The angel added again after a moment of thoughtfulness.

"Everything that floats in the sky is part of my garden, and sadly this vestige of power is exhausted… The shadows of our shadows, and the thoughts of our thoughts, will only appear when the way further is revealed to you…”

After a moment, more of the angel's body began to slowly turn more and more gray as if turning back to stone, clearly letting the observers know that there was only time for one last question.

“But what do we do now?” Jabberwocky asked the first of the important questions that came to his mind.

“Clear my garden… " The angel replied in a fading voice, as it fully turned to stone, "When they come… you will be stronger…”

After another moment, the angel completely froze, the last vestige of light disappearing, only this time no longer injured and far more detailed than the statue of the angel that was there before.

Jabberwocky, who had been speaking all along from the perspective of an official negotiator, finally rose from his knees and wiped the sweat that had come to his face with the back of his palm. Glancing at the system message hanging before him about his new assignment, he could only gulp nervously.

‘Awaken the Lord of the Celestial Gardens’, the task descriptions read calmly, without much detail.

Jabberwocky, in turn, looked around, then glanced at his own status... The character page was still inactive - though... I guess that was fair - since he never got any information about who exactly he was communicating with - except from the task description about the 'Lord of the Celestial Gardens'... Heck, he didn't even see the NPC's name!

He had apparently activated an end-game task that was planned to be a secret one – which ended up falling to him, a player who had just started playing… Who has to level up three hundred times to even have a chance in completing it.

Once again sighing and exhaling, Jabberwocky shook his head, then turned to the remaining players around, "Guys, you’ve heard what the angel said! Let's go clear the island!”

***

The first thing I did when I got back out of the angel body model was to increase the imp's spawn points and spread out an extra twenty spawn points, let those bastards deal with this!

And I also explicitly mentioned a warning as to not let the other players try the same trick with calling me on other islands! I had such a simple idea, after all, clean up the island, clean up the source of the filth, and voila! You now have suspension bridges leading to other islands!

But no, someone wanted to roleplay as cultists and try to make a ritual for which none existed and summon an angel. Well, summoned, well done, here's a quest for three hundred levels! Tremble and dread the horror that is about to befall you!

…as soon as I make, the horror that will befall you!

Oh well, this should give me another ten minutes to distract myself from having a simple quest chain broken so badly, great. OK, let's push back the skills I've been developing so far, looks like we've got an urgent need for an NPCs here!

Great, so in order to develop an NPC, I need to at least create a very rough setting skeleton and maybe even makeshift factions? There’s already an angel, after all.

So, in that case, we have the Celestial Host, the good ones, and the Enemy, whose presence has caused the monster spawns, our very own evil. So, what, just let the imps handle that?

No, that's not it, the Imps aren't the cause, they're the effect! Yes, that's right, the presence of the Enemy itself triggered the creation of spawn points! No, we're the ones with the Gate, so we have it: a breached reality, yes, a powerful Enemy who, by his presence, has derailed reality, good!

Judging by the fact that everything in the setting is mostly destroyed ruins, we already have a divine post-apocalypse setting here, so creating cool warriors and commanders are immediately out of the picture. If they survived, they probably took refuge in some bunkers, that the players need to have some sort of questline to access! Maybe in the appropriately nuke-ified desert?

Yes, everything is coming together!

So, on top of that we'll sprinkle some, hmmm. Who could have survived in a wasteland like this? Thoughts of local raiders popped into my head, but what kind of raiders would fit the setting?

Although, hmmm… I thought for a moment, then struck my fist in my open palm as an idea comes to mind.

***

Sturm sighed, pulling his blade from the body of the Great Imp that had fallen at his feet with light pressure. Watching as it began to turn into disintegrating grains of sand in the wind a few seconds later, before examining his sword.

The game had no integration with the local forums, so he couldn't tell which other players had found a sword like his, or if any other had even found a proper weapon. But, judging by the fact that no one else on his island had found one, apparently it was a rare enough item.

Which was a bit odd; his blade looked rather unimpressive, perfect for being the kind of weapon players might rely on at the start of the game. However, that being said, apparently things weren't really that simple with this sword, and he should keep information about his possession of the sword secret for the time being.

The other players used improvised weapons and materials, some of them having learned the ‘Crafts’ skill and using tables and chairs for shields and clubs, slaying imps with makeshift weapons. Other players were gathering Holy Water to deal with the underground source of filth once and for all. Sturm himself, without cooperating with anyone, continued slaying small demonic critters in large quantities, helped immensely with his newfound weapon, building up his skills.

In general, Strum could say that the gameplay itself was pretty swell. The mere fact that the game was fully immersive, and the player could feel the real ground beneath their feet, touch the stunted grass, or even feel the rush of air… Mostly as they fall to their certain death, as they fell off of the islands.

With just such level of realism, many players could forgive having to kill monsters by using makeshift weapons rather than the bog-standard of swords or other such weapons. Even as they kill the imps with such lackluster weapons, they still charged happily to go save the world from the demonic creatures, and if they could do so while being in good company? All the more so!

Sturm wasn't worried about the latter, though, continuing to simply deal with the imps, happily watching another of the creature turn to nothing, before his gaze was distracted by a detail that flashed in the distance.

For a second, Sturm thought he saw one of the Big Imp's magical attack in the air again, but a closer look forced him to dismiss the thought.

That was not the color of an Imp’s attack.

The small object in the distance gradually grew larger and larger, turning from a small dot of grayish color into a shimmering metal, glimmering under the setting sun of this world. Gradually, more and more of the object’s subtle features could be seen. Until at the very end, Strum could see that it was a metallic balloon of sorts with a wooden barge festooned with sturdy looking ropes to the flying balloon. A barge whose deck is busy with activity.

What drew Strum’s attention most, however, were the black flag with a white smiling skull with an open mouth tied to the side.

"Oh fuck," Sturm exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Are those... Air Pirates?!"

***

Air pirates, perfect! Raiders arriving in the local magical wastelands to raid the islands. Both new adversaries, and the first potential NPCs, players can interact with. So far, I've only run one test ship, given to the first ‘actor’ AI to train, named appropriately, Roger, with instructions for the NPCs to behave defiantly and insolently, but to be neutral. Not to be the first to engage, at least until provoked or attacked, finally something that the Charm could be used for.

Finally, it would no longer be a useless stat… Now, if he could only figure out how to make Intelligence and Wisdom work as well, that would just be swell.

After a bit of internal consultation, with myself, which doesn’t really bode well for my mental stability. And about two hours of setting up and giving instructions for the AIs, during which I was barely disturbed by any of the players. I finally managed to put up what could be called the first draft of a system of characters and relations with the created NPCs.

If it worked as it supposed to, each NPCs were grouped into a kind of community, something like a faction. Each faction was prescribed a starting level of relationship between each faction and even between them and the Players, after which each NPC was given the attitude that was noted in the faction.

After that, every time a player interacted with that NPCs, their relationship score would change depending on their interaction. After reaching a certain threshold, the speed of gain or lose depending on many factors, like level, actions, or Charm score, something that I had to code intentionally with Roger, it would affect the Player’s relation with the NPCs’ faction.

A simple, makeshift system, but should be enough for now, especially since that there was only one intractable faction right now, with only a single boat of a dozen NPCs in play.

Moreover, already cottoning to some of the antics the Players could get to, I’ve already placed, or more like by instructing Roger, there should be a somewhat defined limits of what information the Air Pirates could divulge.

No mention of anything about the wider world, no picking up the Players to ride on the ship, and their lore is about needing to find supplies that they had run out of. Roger also should have some interaction with Verifier, the AI in charge of quests, and they should be able to provide the players for a while with tasks like collecting food and water.

Admittedly, food and water hasn’t been implemented into the game yet. But! If we pretend that this garbage-cluttered door has always been there, and just place barrels and a couple of food pots strewn around, that should be enough for a while. So, having sent Roger on his first training journey on player interaction, I had already prepared to start working out the magic system when a message from Hound made me frown.

Who and why had they taken two buckets of filth from an underground spring and were now trying to boil an imp's corpse in it?!

***

Jim had little idea exactly how alchemy was supposed to work in this game. Unfortunately, there were no textbooks or actually any book at all scattered around the ruined buildings. But, having determined by his Linguistics skill that the writing on the walls spoke of creating some kind of potion and using the filth to do so, that was the first guess he made.

After moving away from the other players and grabbing two bucketfuls of the filth from the underground temple, he decided to do a little experiment.

The huge cauldron borrowed/stolen from the temple was of no use to anyone anyway, though the attempt to steal it and roll it to be placed above a couple of well-placed rocks was an adventure in and of itself. Worthy of at least two forum posts when he logged out. The fire was easily enough started on dry grass and a couple of broken chairs after Jim had kicked out some sparks.

Sad, who'd fetched the imp, was with him the whole time. Unfortunately, the monsters would quickly disappear when they’re killed, so Sad had to show some considerable skill to bring the still-living and floundering imp above the container they had managed to find before killing it.

The first indication that Jim was on the right track was that the imp he'd killed had not dissolved instantly but was still lying in the slowly boiling and bubbling liquid, and had not shown any indication of disappearing.

But that was the end of Jim’s successes, but he was not going to give up!

After he realized that magic was not going to be handed out on a silver platter, he decided to at least try alchemy. Of course, there was no obvious herb or materials that he could experiment with to get the skill. And so, he could think of nothing more suitable than using the endless sources of resources, the endlessly spawning imps and the endlessly regenerating filth.

But he had no success so far, it was no surprise really, he lacks the important information such as how exactly he needed to boil the object, for how long, and what to do afterwards. Only relying on his own improvisation and intuition to brute force a solution.

However, if, in the end, such actions of Jim would not have opened the door to alchemy, he would not have been too upset by it. Sure, he'd be a little upset about not being able to discover a local version of alchemy, potionmaking, or whatever the game decided to call the skill. But, he already knows that just doing random things hoping to gain something was going to be a miracle and a half.

Trying to discover alchemy in the game by trial and error is probably impossible.

However, while the filth and imp bits continued to simmer, slowly bubbling and rolling over at the bottom, Jim remained hopeful that something would come of it.

***

“What's are they doing? Boiling an imp? What’s supposed to come out of it?”

I spat in annoyance at the two players who were standing in front of the brewing cauldron, the main ingredients being an instant-killing shit and an imp that was immune to said inta-killing shit.

I had made the imps resistant to the stuff, to avoid Players being able to take the goop of death, and creates some kind of spawn kill contraptions using it. I wouldn’t put it past the Players in being able to create one, and start getting a million experience per hour from the spawner's desperate attempt to squeeze out the proper amounts of imps.

Which led to a contradiction, an imp dropped into the goop wouldn’t die, which is why it didn't actually dissolve as experience particles. But it couldn't swim either, much less in the viscous liquid that hid it completely!

Oh yes, the imp was alive and not taking damage from the filth, he was also not taking damage from whatever it is being done to the filth, that is, from the fact that it was in fact boiling!

Looking at the obscene image of an imp being boiled alive… I didn't know whether I should be admiring the amazing ability of players to find some completely unbelievable exception that literally lie between the lines of code that I had created, specifically to prevent something from happening. Either that or cursing those same players.

I sighed once again, then felt the time slowly start to stretch around me. I hope that working in such a time-dilating mode, I will not burn my brain.

You want alchemy? Fine, I'll give you alchemy!

***

Jim could see only a flicker of the system message before the imp's body, previously just bobbing up and down lazily in the cauldron, began to sag into itself as if it were plasticine melting. The now turning into sludge Imp, mingling with the boiling filth, turning the already oily gray-green of the filth, purplish red.

Slowly, the now purplish liquid solidified until it was a viscous liquid like molten caramel, except with a greenish toxic tint, warning that no man in his right mind should consume such a thing.

Instantly, with Sad's help, the two dragged the cauldron off of the fire, as Jim stared at the system messages popping up right in front of his face, almost causing the cauldron to fall on both of their feet.

"’You are the first player to open one of the Systems. But are you to be congratulated on that? The path of the first is difficult and dangerous’… Jackpot!" Jim had to fight the impulse to start jumping up and down, as he read the next text box at Sad’s urging.

"A title!? ‘First Alchemist, you are the first player to discover the Alchemy System. All that remains is to explore what has not been explored in the past thousands of years. Congratulations are in order!... I can’t believe it, I’ve done it!"

After another moment, distracted by the messages he had read, Jim looked up at the System panel that had become available for interaction and smiled.

***

What the player was supposed to get from the brewed filth and the imp's corpse? Not a healing potion or anything like that, that's filth and a corpse of some demonic beast! So, after some thought, I gave the player a full vat of ‘explosive potion’, I haven't found a name for it yet.

It has no interesting effect, just prescribed the possibility of this liquid exploding from a sharp shake, a small explosion really, nothing more than for a failed product. To be honest, all of my attention was taken by urgently creating the Alchemy system.

Originally the whole Systems tab was supposed to be a plug, where I would put all the actual game systems I didn't have time to finish, magic, alchemy, politics, trade, even crafting, a to-do lists in all but name… But, the players were smarter, and insanely more obstinate than me.

One figuring out how to do crafting without the skill in question. Convinced of the ‘realness’ of the imaginary reality of their surroundings by breaking down tables and chairs, someone even managed to sharpen the broken wooden pieces, turning them into a semblance of spears and stakes. So I gave these players a couple of skills, like Crafting, and was distracted by crafting NPCs.

But then another player rudely reminded me that not all crafting went into making tools at hand. There was also magic.

Therefore, the Alchemy skill, for which for the skill image I drew a beautiful background, and created what barebones widgets I could for the skill quickly. I had no special ideas about it, so I drew a dozen inactive buttons, such as a ‘Compendium’, ‘Recipes’, and ‘Ingredients’. And finally, I just put a beautiful and useless saying, that everything can become alchemical reagents, if you try and find a recipe.

And that was it.

So, what was the most important thing that he needed to focus on right now?

The NPC? Making Alchemy even more fleshed out? Or sorting out the draft of a story that the players had forced on him, maybe preparing new islands for the new players?

Yes, definitely the latter, actually. Lest I forgot, new players would arrive soon, and I didn't have any islands prepared for them now. Besides, on some islands I needed to leave a suitable altar to summon an angel… Or his supporters? Hmmm, that angel did say that it was his garden, great, besides a garden in the local Paradise, there's plenty more to come!

Great, the next players we have won't end up in a garden, but… Hmm, what else could be quickly fixed up that would be suitable for a post-apocalypse setting and not require creating a bunch of powerful NPCs. That is, a place that could be abandoned, and relatively empty…

Maybe, Mines? But hovering mines on celestial islands aren't exactly fitting either… A moment later, a brilliant thought struck me. Who says the mines have to go down and not up?! We won't have mines, we'll have gathering grounds!

***

It took me at least a dozen hours, in my point of view in accelerated time, so I'm not sure how long it took in real time, to create a completely new type of location up in the air. The same huge floating islands, but now those islands were only sparsely covered with any vegetation. Instead, they were thickly covered with floating dust piles and stones cairns, proof of mining operation, or rather, the gathering points of the local angels or other people.

Which ones are supposed to be responsible for the mess of stuff, I’ll decide later.

The islands were also peppered with spawning imps, destroyed ruins and houses, plus pools of evil pooling on the surface. In the past, such pools of evil were placed underground in a vain hope that it would take the Players some time to find them… I know better now, and I even have a plan for them!

The player has gotten a ‘secret’ three-hundredth-level impossible quest on themselves, impossible in the sense that I haven't yet created the conditions to complete it, to summon the angels. And here you go, now clearing the islands is just for you to be able to establish communication between the islands.

Your main mission now is to summon an angel with its statue, and where is that statue? There’s no chance of them finding it quickly now. I have seriously covered with sand and stone, making it look like just a normal part of the scenery, with tiny crevices that might show what’s hidden between the ordinary looking piles of rocks. Not unlike the hundreds of rock piles that I have also created just like it.

It will take at least a week! A week until the Players have opened passageways and gathered a dozen or so young men with high strength to destroy the piles, as they can't move the stones. And hopefully, by then, I planned to figure out which angel it was supposed to be and create the NPC.

Or, more like, direct the AIs to create the NPC.

After enjoying the labor of my hands and looking at the giant fields dotted with floating stones, a special gift to the players who decided to run through those fields with high dexterity. I looked at the surroundings, where the players were already…

The fuck?

To find that three islands had already dealt with their quest and opened soaring passages between the islands – great. Things should be going as planned and…

The Hound's message made me shudder.

WHO JUST BLEW UP ONE OF THE BRIDGES?!

***

Sturm was having more fun than he'd ever had in his life. No, killing Imps with his own hands and swords was fun, but flying an airship with the air pirates was even more fun!

"Left rudder!" Captain Signia's voice came from beside Sturm's ear, and he was only too glad to obey the order. The archaic wheel rattled a little as he turned it, but with deft movements, Sturm steered the wheel in the right direction, evading the falling timbers of the suspension bridge.

"You're good, rookie!" Signia burst out laughing, causing Sturm to glance back furtively, to the beautiful NPC, who looked like she was in her late twenties but hardly early thirties, perhaps, twenty-five or twenty-seven? She was wearing what looked like a rather rich but now worn red jacket, chuckling excitedly as she surveyed the destruction her airship was wreaking.

She was the captain of the air pirates, with unwashed long black hair that paradoxically looked messy and yet cared for, and piercing blue eyes. Armed with a sword with a carved guard at her belt, she looked straight from a musketeer's novel. And also… The owner of pretty big, pointed ears. She refused to explain their presence, though, giving him a cold look, so he was not privy to the girl's race.

But Sturm was accepted as a member of the pirate crew, so he doesn’t really care either way!

Meeting them for the first time, Sturm simply had to be calm and not disturb their work, and they left him alone. After he brought her the supplies that had long since run out during their journey he had found when he noticed what they were looking for, and seeing that he was somewhat well-armed, they welcomed him to their crew.

He almost jumped on board, the boarding plank be damned, but he quickly calmed down when he realized that it’s a long way down if he missed his landing.

True, he wasn't the first to find those supplies, but Sturm had a sword… So he was the one who had brought the supplies. Sturm helped out when the other players decided to attack the pirate ship, probably planning to hijack the ship and fly to the other islands.

Well, those other Players soon found his sword in their back, and probably thanks to his raised Charm, he was soon welcomed aboard!

So proudly, Sturm could now call himself a pirate… He had no particular skill or achievement to show for it yet, but was given a chance to pilot the airship at high speed, did Sturm need anything else?!

Returning to his attention to the steering wheel, Sturm asked the captain.

"Where to next?"

"Nowhere at the moment," The Captain replied in a somewhat surprising manner.

"You know, you've proved to me that you're worthy of joining my crew…" When Sturm turned, however, the Captain had already taken a step towards him. "That sort of thing doesn't happen quickly. I still need to think about everything and discuss it with the crew, for now, you can rest on the ship, and we'll discuss it all with you tomorrow…"

Of course, hearing such a thing Sturm smiled ear to ear, for he doesn’t need to wait for tomorrow to hear the confirmation. Looking somewhere to the side of the captain, to the glowing blue box, Sturm knew that he had made the right decision.

‘You have completed the Hidden Quest! To become a pirate of the Insignia airship!’

At this point, Sturm smirked, so he'd been doing an unknown secret mission all along…

Great!

"I hear you, Captain," Sturm bowed slightly, not ignoring the look Signia threw at his blade, but choosing not to respond to it. "In that case, I'm forced to… Step away, but I'll be sure to return tomorrow…"

"Good," Signia nodded graciously, "You won't be leaving the ship at this time anyway, and the supplies, through your efforts, have been replenished."

"Certainly, Captain," Sturm nodded after another moment and pressed the log-out button.

***

After watching the Player, Sturm, logging out, I jumped out of Signia's body, piloting the NPC so that she wouldn’t say anything weird, then sighed.

"Okay, it's time to do another System check on the air pirates!"

Moments later, the Herald informed me that the total number of active Players had begun to dwindle quite rapidly. Understandably, having played for five or seven hours already, many Players who still had to go to work tomorrow, or simply needed to sleep or eat, were logging out. The only people left are the no-lifers or newcomers.

And that meant…

I looked into Signia's eyes, staring back at me with no expression, with no Player around, her subroutines as an NPC is not activated, and sighed.

It meant that I had passed the first hurdle! The first Day complete!

Undeterred, I raised my fists up and jumped, pushing off the air I was hanging on.

True, now I had to deal with the air pirates and fix the bridge. And from then on, the players would only gnaw more and more into the world around them and find more and more issues that I had to urgently solve. But…

I've dealt with the first wave, which means that I could do it! For the first time in a very long time of my life, and probably eternal existence in this limbo around me, I felt like a winner.