Chapter 8: The Game Plot

Hugh and Dex sat side by side against the treasure chest with the Book of Life spread out between them. The page on the Life Drought offered a long and boring backstory written in an exceedingly florid style. From the first sentence, Hugh could tell it used a whole lot of words to say practically nothing at all. After puzzling through two paragraphs of the crap, Hugh looked over at Dex and silently pleaded for a shorter version.

Dex laughed at his expression and pointed out each paragraph as he summarized its contents. "A long time ago, this planet was vibrant with life like Earth in its heyday. Something unspecified happened causing plants and animals to die off, turning this world and all others into wastelands. That event is called the Life Drought by the Nomads, the pockets of NPC survivors roaming each world. Some of the Nomads came together and performed a forbidden ritual to summon a godling in hopes of reviving the planet. That's you. You have three goals as a godling. One, gather up the Nomads and help them rebuild some semblance of civilization. Two, find the Genesis Spear so you can reintroduce new species to the world on a global level. Three, find and reopen the Gateway they used to bring you here so you can return to the city of the gods, Nexus."

Hugh stared down at the page, dragging his finger down the length to scroll through the long, long story written there.

"They needed all this to explain that?" Hugh asked in exasperation. "And it doesn't make any sense. If they had the ability to summon a god, why didn't they do it when things first started dying? Why wait until now?"

"Don't look at me," Dex replied with a shrug. "I didn't write it."

"It's a lazy backstory," Hugh complained. "I'm willing to bet it'll play out like a cliché, too. If the Spear can introduce species, then it can take them out, too. Someone with delusions of grandeur probably used it and they lost control, causing the Drought. That person will probably be the first NPC who's friendly toward us, that way we'll be shocked and betrayed when they turn on us in the end."

"Why do you think they'll turn on us?" Dex asked. "Wouldn't they be grateful we're cleaning up their mess?"

Hugh rolled his eyes. "It's not a game without a boss to fight."

"Then what do you want to do? Should we kill any Nomad we encounter until we find the culprit?"

Hugh grimaced at the thought of actually killing another person, regardless of whether it was an NPC or not. If they were anything like Dex, the realism was too much for Hugh to contemplate murder.

"No," he said. "If we do that, the rest of the Nomads will become unfriendly toward us and we'll get a bad reputation. That's how these things usually go. We'll need to build up some credit with them first, but I don't want to waste a whole lot of time grinding. Let's skip forward to finding the Genesis Spear. Unlocking new plants and animals should give us enough good karma the Nomads will automatically side with us when the bad guy shows his true face."

Hugh didn't intend to jump up and head there immediately, though. For the following hour, he continued making his way through the book, unlocking page after page. The Book of Life provided all the standard tools of a game—a local map, a compass, a dowsing rod pointing to the world's Genesis Spear, a calendar, a sundial, and a list of game events including scheduled festivals.

Page seven provided a contact list, which Dex showed him how to use by pressing his thumb to a small box in the bottom corner of the page. His name instantly appeared on the list, along with a sub-menu showing his title as 'Hubert's Navigator', his level, his current world 'Destination', and his current GPS coordinates. Three buttons accompanying buttons offered to let him send mail, show Dex's location on the map, and teleport to him. The teleport button had a big red 'X' over it since he didn't have the ability unlocked yet.

"What happens if I try to send mail?" Hugh asked.

The light in Dex's eyes seemed to dance as he answered, "A grouchy goblin will pop up out of a hole in the ground and demand payment. You give him your packages, tell them who they're for, then haggle over the delivery fee. You shake hands when you come to an agreement and he'll disappear back into the ground."

"How do I pay?"

"Zettabits," Dex replied. "And, just so you're aware, money doesn't drop off corpses like they do in other games. That would destroy the player economy, which is the opposite of what the developers intended by using real money for transactions. NPCs don't use Zettabits, either. That's considered the money of the Gods. If you want cash, you could skin a pelt off a rabbit but then you'll have to find someone willing to buy it from you in Nexus. That's one of the reasons you'll have to go there eventually. You can't make money by staying on this world. All you can do is trade and barter until your civilization reaches a point where you can open a bank and create a world-based money token for your NPCs to use."

Hugh tilted his head back, looking up at the sky as he considered the implications. At the very least, it meant he'd have to buy his friends' world-based tokens when he visited or he wouldn't be able to purchase rooms at inns, food, or any other conveniences their planets might offer. The same could potentially work in reverse, though. He could make a lot of Zettabits if he could make Destination into a vacation spot and lure visitors to his planet.

"This game is going to have a lot of micromanaging in it," he commented.

Next to him, Dex smiled knowingly and bumped their shoulders together. "You potentially have a lot of time to fill."