Player Reached the Top. LitRPG series. Book I

  PLAYER REACHED THE TOP

  by Rick Scar

  Text Copyright © 2019 Rick Scar

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book can be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  Introduced by Valeria Kornosenko.

  Translated by Anastasia Koptelova

  Illustrations by Sofia.

  Chapter 1. A way out of being broke

  Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth.

  – Archimedes

  Give me enough money, and I shall move the earth and all the planets with it.

  – An unknown poor man

  Money makes the world go round. That’s the ultimate and unappealable truth. Will Thompson, the older sibling and the only son in the family, had to learn this truth too soon. People who say money can’t buy happiness just doesn’t know where to shop, and, let’s face it, most of the time turn out to be deadbeat losers.

  Financial debt, on account of multiple unsecured loans from various banks and bad credit loan companies, not always legal, and sometimes downright shady, was suffocating both Will and his dad. The purse strings were so tight that they could only afford a candlelight dinner, without the dining part.

  Will’s father, Darius Thompson, worked his fingers to the bone and, for the most part, was unable to see his family with any regularity. Will’s mother, a Russian immigrant, abandoned her family when Will’s sister Leah was three, leaving him to do all the parenting. Because of this, the siblings developed a strong bond. Against his father’s wishes, the young man dropped out of high school to pursue a better life for his family, especially Leah. He made a crucial decision: he would make certain that his sister got a proper education and emerge into a dog-eat-dog world with guns blazing. She was meant to shine bright, and he would always be there for her.

  Will and his dad did everything possible to send Leah to one of the best private boarding schools outside their hometown. With her smarts, she’d have no problem getting a stellar GPA, good enough for any college. At fourteen, she was shrewd and savvy, a cut above the rest of her peers.

  Will grew into a strong young man with an athletic build. By the time he turn twenty-four, he had been recruited into an elite Special Ops unit of the U.S. military. The enlistment requirements changed in 2035, when the normal mandatory eight-year commitment period changed to five years of mandatory active duty, which meant there was a chance for a rookie to get selected for Special Forces. If there was one thing Will had in spades, it was personality, which he acquired during his adolescence. With one look into Will’s eyes, his detachment commander saw something others didn’t -- an unbending will and determination. People like that were worth their weight in gold, which was why, after proper training, Will found a spot on the Hostage Rescue team.

  The money was good, which gave him some breathing room financially and let him take care of his sister’s tuition. Leah, knowing what cost her education came with, both literally and figuratively, dedicated herself to her studies. She could not afford to let her old man and brother down.

  A year after Will left the service, one of his army friends hooked him with a job as a waiter in a fancy restaurant. He could have gotten a job in law enforcement, or perhaps as a personal bodyguard, but having spent three years negotiating with terrorists and surviving firefights, he felt it was time to put the military behind and step off his dangerous path. For him, this could only mean one thing: his relative financial freedom was bidding him goodbye, promising new debt and hardship. The obscure and unknown would knock on his door again, until one day he accidentally overheard a conversation in the restaurant he worked at.

  A couple of well-dressed guys, about the same age as Will, were paying with Platinum Visa cards, emphasizing their social status and drawing a clear line between themselves and Will.

  From what little he could hear, they were discussing a new VR game scheduled to be released in six months. Will would normally not pay attention to a VR-based conversation, but the phrase “big money” slipping out of the mouth of one of the men made him reconsider. Fortunately, they were sitting at the bar, so neither of them noticed they had picked up an eavesdropper.

  “I’m telling you, it’s legit. You know who my father is, right? I heard what they were talking about, every last word, man. Thank God he didn’t see me, or he would have ripped my head off.”

  “Ha! He definitely would, your dad is insane!” Both chuckled.

  After that, they lowered their voices. Will had to strain to hear them, but he could still follow the conversation.

  “So when is it coming out?”

  “Well, it’s not production ready yet. It’s in private beta or something, but once it’s released, hundreds of millions of players from all over the world are going to want to play. Do you understand what kind of money we’re talking about here? This business is skyrocketing! They use real life money to buy virtual swords and costumes. Man, I’m so excited! I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, but just think of all the money we’ve spent on video games. Gamers will buy anything that’ll help them score extra cool points. Magic potions, epic threads, you name it! Real. Life. Money. Bro! Those player auctions have tons of offers!”

  “Yeah, sure, but how is it different from the games we’re playing right now?”

  “It’s completely different!”

  “I don’t get it…”

  “Everything is for sale in this game! Property, lands, kingdoms,,,entire empires, for Chrissakes! This is the dawn of a new era of VRMMO! You could be the Mayor of a virtual town! But what’s truly awesome is that brand new game AI they’re using. You’ll never guess what the guy that my father was talking to said. He said it’s going to adapt to human behavior. But, hey, I never told you that -- it’s like, totally confidential. Man, that’s going to be something else, I’m telling you!”

  “Geez, keep your pants on. It’s a game changer, I got it. There’s just one thing that I don’t get, though -- what was the conversation between your dad and that other guy about?”

  “Oh, they were just discussing how they could beat the game. It’s business stuff, but in virtual reality. I didn’t get a whole lot of it, but the numbers they were discussing would have blown you out of the water, bro.”

  “That serious, huh?”

  “Will!” someone yelled.

  The young man turned his attention to the bartender, who was holding out a drink orer that needed to be served. He was not thinking about the drink, or the two men at the bar anymore. His mind was going a million miles an hour. He had to get in on this deal. There was a lot of prep work to be done, but he was beaming.

  It was a great way out of being broke.

  Chapter 2. Tips from a pro

  It’s been six months, and Will was continuously losing sleep. His dad and sister were concerned about his health, but Will insisted that he was fine, and that, soon enough, they would go on a vacation somewhere. Without saying much more, he kept his nose to the grindstone. The young man didn’t want to think about what would happen if the plan didn't work out. If it weren’t for Curtis, an old army friend who lent Will quite a sum of money, none of the following would have happened.

  At his other job, working as a night shift security guard at a mall, Will wasted no time, studying the gaming world between rounds. He was no gamer himself, but, if once he took something seriously, nothing could stand in his way. Lack of knowledge or experience was no exception. He sifted through tons of information, learning strategies, charac
ter builds, and character classes, and memorizing every relevant detail. He didn’t know which of this would be useful in the game he was preparing for, so the task at hand was to learn as much as he possibly could. In reality, things could turn out to be different, which would render his effort useless, but, at least, he was doing something. The information was so abundant that one of the walls in Will’s room was slowly turning into a link chart with thumbtacks and strings attached to it. The scene was so baffling that if anyone were to see it, Will would have a lot of explaining to do, proving that he wasn’t crazy. Thankfully, his home folks were away most of the time -- dad often went on business trips, and his sister Leah lived on campus during the school term. Apart from everything else, Will joined several community forums for gaming geeks in a hope to find something useful among copious amounts of various links and comments.

  All that learning naturally made no sense without practice. To fix that, Will rented a game capsule at a local gaming center. Will had often heard them being called gaming hubs by most professional gamers and those who went there regularly. Those weren’t cheap, but they were a necessity, because failure was not an option. This game capsule allowed each player to create only one game character on their account which was linked to the capsule’s serial number. Will had no idea who came up with that, but it was frustrating. For the longest time, he could not make up his mind about which class to pick for his character. The lady at the reception, Angela, explained that they “offer blank accounts”, with preloaded character classes of every kind to choose from, to help players make a choice. Except, these characters couldn't join clans or do quests. This option was recently introduced by a series of developing companies to attract new players. This worked for the noobs as well--what were the chances that a player would start anew or even stay in the game if he didn't like his race or class? The abilities for each character were preset by professional gamers, so that you could explore your character’s potential prior to making your choice. It was not about clothing, weapons, or skills, as you had to go with the default settings, but rather about which character you were--a tank, a healer, or, maybe, a thief?

  Three months had passed since Will first heard about the game. He opened his eyes, and returned to reality. The snow-white interior of the capsule welcomed him back from the game in its familiar manner. He automatically opened the door and got out. It was chilly outside the capsule. The light from the ceiling, as soft as the music that was playing, coupled with a faint smell of coffee finalized the transition.

  A tanned guy, wearing shorts and a colorful t-shirt, who looked either Japanese or Korean, was quietly talking to Angela at the reception. When he saw Will, he stopped talking and smiled at him, as if seeing an old friend. Will didn’t know the man, but he definitely saw him before.

  “Hey,” said the guy. “Angela told me you’ve been trying to choose a class for months. Can I help?”

  Will frowned trying to figure if he looked like he needed help.

  “What do you want?” he asked without blinking.

  Angela stepped in, “This is Pak Cheong. He’s a part-time consultant in our center and a Lost Lands legend. A sensational game, you may have heard of it. You, as our regular, can ask him for advice if you want. Free of charge, of course.”

  “Legend, huh?” Will thought that this would be a great chance to clarify some things he had read about and got straight to the point, “I have a couple of questions unrelated to classes.”

  “Shoot,” said Pak.

  “How well can one do in the game if one was to play alone?”

  “Well, it depends on your goals. If you’re not into epic quests or dungeons, which would normally take at least five people to complete, then you’re good. Just play for fun. There are a lot of people who simply want to escape into a world of swords and magic, depths of space or underwater realms. The downside here is that you will probably be spending more time respawning than playing, and that impedes your character development. Different games have different penalties, from de-leveling to debuffs, which are so harsh that you wouldn’t stand a chance against a lousy, low level mob. There are also time outs, where you die, but you don’t die, meaning you just get kicked out from the game for a day or two. It’s fine if you’re a casual player, but if playing is your bread and butter, death is the worst-case scenario for you.”

  “Right,” Will nodded and paused to think something over. “Have you ever killed tougher enemies? I mean, like, ten times stronger than you.”

  “Sure. Once. But then again, every situation is unique. What do you know about exploits?”

  “You mean using game bugs to your advantage?”

  “Exactly!” Pak nodded. “Those are hard to find in modern games. The developers tend to get very nosy when it comes to this kind of stuff. They follow top gamers on social media, read forums and blogs, watch tutorials -- anything they can find. Then they fix the bug and release updates. But we gamers are a sly lot, aren't we? If we can’t find a bug, we'll make one. Some even manage to make some coin off of it by selling them. But, I’ve got to tell you, it’s tedious as hell. You have to know the location inside out and waste a billion lives, which is, as you can tell, not easy.”

  Having learned nothing new, and wondering if he should speak frankly, Will gave Pak a puzzled look.

  “Listen, as you can probably tell, it’s more about money than fun for me, and the problem is that I don’t know which class is right for that.”

  “Hmm. You don’t come across as a real noob, indeed. You’re too focused, even when you play. Sorry, I had a peek while you were in there. Uhm, never mind. Opinions vary, as they say. People tend to be very fond of the class they represent. I, for one, am making good money playing a Paladin. It’s not about the class, it’s about the player. If you’re not all thumbs, and if you got what it takes, then go for it -- pick one and show them what you got.”

  “Sounds like they’re paying you for getting people hooked,” said Will with a smile. Pak answered with a cunning smile.

  They talked for half an hour more, during which Will learned a lot of useful things. When they were finished, Pak handed Will his business card.

  “Here, I’d like to play with you sometime. Contact me in case you have any questions. Free of charge. I have connections that could use a smart and motivated guy like you. Think about it.” Pak waved him goodbye and headed back to the reception.

  “See ya,” said Will and looked at the card. He then walked outside.

  Chapter 3. An unexpected twist

  The next three months were dedicated solely to learning. Will continued his communication with Pak, better known in gaming communities as LightTerror, who was providing him with some helpful links and tips, just like he had promised, which, finally, helped Will make his decision —Rogue. This class seemed to suit all of his needs and game style: good damage dealing potential; stealth; and the ability to pick locks and get through high level areas without the need to battle every enemy in it. A little time passed before Will received an invitation to a secret forum from Pak; a place to discuss RMT, ToS, mining, twinking, botting, MQ’ing, and such--the dark side of the gaming world, if you will. No one gave away their top secret strategies for making a living in MMOs, but basic principles were made clear, which was more than enough for Will.

  As it turned out, people were not only selling outfits and gear, but also tip-offs about raid bosses, epic quests, instances, and many other things. Clans would pay top dollar for any kind of insight that could make them more influential. But, perhaps, the most profitable asset was video blogging. Every top gamer in every clan had a video channel and millions of views, tons of ads, and unbelievable revenues as a result. Many television channels aired video game shows as well. Pak had a contract with one of those. The money he was getting was not anywhere near close to what top gaming stars were making, but it was good enough to buy a new apartment, new car, and other sweet life attributes. Games, which Will always thought of as mere entertainmen
t, appeared in a whole different light, and he was never going back to his old life. He was certain about one thing -- taking a chance was worth quitting both of his jobs.

  The advertising campaign started two weeks before the release and made the general public go nuts! “It’s colossal! A groundbreaking game!” screamed every tabloid and every TV commercial. First trailers that Will saw on VideoWorld made his jaw drop. What he saw was nothing like the many games that he had tried out at the gaming center. Those two clowns at the restaurant were right; it was a new era of virtual reality.

  The official site of the game was up and running and the forum section got instantly flooded with new topics and thousands of messages. A built-in translation tool helped people from all over the world share their excitement. The game craze was gaining momentum day after day. Soon enough, more detailed information on game mechanics, character development, and available game classes and races was introduced. This one was different from any other game. The world of Ascension was built in a way that a level 1 player could kill a level 50 or level 100 enemy. That, however, was not an easy task to accomplish and there was roughly a 0,00001% chance of it happening, but it was a chance nonetheless. The higher the level of an NPC or another player was, the more difficult they were to deal with. The more unwary you were, the less of a problem to your enemies your high level was--they would kill you despite you being ten times stronger than them. Two weeks felt like a day with all this fuss about the game. The game that became the most debated topic on the internet even before its release.

  Corporate people who stood behind the AI felt secure about their creation, but not about the servers. It took their finest scientists ten years and some serious brainwork to make the miracle named The Emperor--the very core of Ascension. The Emperor was the pinnacle of AI evolution and the first machine to ever step beyond Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. This AI could directly interact with human consciousness. Subordinated to The Emperor, AI Imitators and more advanced AIs were in control of the NPCs--from the simplest mobs to the quest NPCs. The advanced AIs could learn and evolve without affecting the balance in the game, meaning that a simple Goblin from some barbaric tribe could become the leader of that tribe and rule the area, but could not take over the world, unless that was consistent with the scenario. It was things like this that were The Emperor’s jurisdiction. All of this was explained in full detail on the game’s site.