The Pyramid Game Read online

  “Hi, Ginger, I missed you too.” Kira let her body relax as if there was no use in resisting the woman.

  “I love the new dress.” The Coin released the annoyed fairy.

  “Yes, I’m adorable. We have covered this fact.” Kira straightened her clothing.

  Ginger gave Max him a wink. “Don’t worry, you’re cute too.”

  He shrugged, trying to take the compliment from the beautiful Coin as nonchalant as possible. She was probably just being nice anyway. He hadn’t upgraded his gear much, so he still resembled the same tactical, gunslinging pirate he always did.

  He was about to pay the Coin a compliment in return but stopped as a couple players he didn’t recognize entered the room behind her. “You brought friends?”

  The pair stood in the door, awkwardly waiting to be introduced. Each wore the starting gear for their class, making it clear that they were new or at least still below level ten. The girl on the right was a reynard like Corvin, but carried the pistol of a Fury class like Max. The other was a deru with a pair of orange crystals poking out from his hair like horns.

  Ginger motioned to the pair. “You remember my kids, Wren and Toby.” She rolled her eyes. “Or should I say, Piper and Drakenstien.”

  “Hey.” Piper glanced around the room before snapping her eyes back to Max. She looked young, which made sense since she was only sixteen. A single braid hung in her hair, most likely done forcefully by her mother. Max stepped out of the way so she could get by.

  “Wait a sec.” Kira stepped toward the boy. “Did you just mush Dracula and Frankenstein together for your name?”

  “Maybe…” He stared down at the small woman. His avatar was tall and looked a couple of years older than he actually was, maybe closer to eighteen. “And didn’t you just mush the names of two popular fairies together to get yours, Kira-bell?”

  “Oh yeah, I definitely did that.” Kira tilted her head and placed a hand to her chin, then snapped her fingers. “I’m just gonna call ya Drake. Cool? It’s shorter and sounds better.”

  “I guess,” responded Drake as if he had a choice.

  Ginger and her family took the couch on the end, with Piper sitting in the corner closest to Corvin. Kira and Max dropped into the middle of the remaining couch and conversed a few more minutes until the door opened again, this time for Alastair.

  The CEO of Checkpoint Systems had come through the events of last year looking pretty good. Mostly because his ex-partner, Carver, had pissed off a lot of players after luring hundreds of them to their virtual doom. Since the man never resurfaced after causing all that trouble, he never got the opportunity to defend himself. In the wake of everything that went down, public opinion had swung in Alastair’s favor, allowing him to set foot outside the Citadel in Valain without fear of being recognized. Which was why it took Max by surprise to find the man wearing mid-level Cauldron robes with a large hood that hid his face rather than his usual gear. It had been his standard outfit for trying to go unnoticed.

  Something was definitely up.

  Alastair pushed back his hood just as Farnsworth entered behind him. As usual, her gear made her look like a Viking raider, her curly hair tied back with a pair of braids hanging down to frame her face. A spattering of dark freckles adorned the brown skin of her cheeks. She smiled as soon as she saw Kira.

  During the ordeal a year ago, the Shield had grown close with the fairy. Hell, Kira probably wouldn’t have survived the quest without Farn. Though sometimes, after a life or death situation is over, people drift apart after realizing that they weren’t as close as they thought. Kira and Farn had done the opposite. In the months that followed, the two had become annoyingly close, both of them always laughing and constantly talking about their favorite shows like a couple of nerds.

  As a result, their friendship also brought Farn and Max closer. Things had started a little awkward between them, but as time went on, he started to feel more comfortable around her. Like she was one of the guys. Not to mention, she was the best Shield he’d ever partied with. They pushed each other to new levels of badassery with every quest. Despite that, he was caught off guard when she passed over her BFF Kira and squished herself in beside him in the corner, her hip pressed against his, and he tried his best to act casual, catching Ginger’s eye as he looked around the room. The Coin gave him a smug smile as Farn settled in next to him.

  Alastair claimed the chair near the door and got situated. “Wow, I haven’t been getting out much lately. I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve seen all of you.” He looked to Kira. “How’ve you been feeling? It’s been a while since your last vacation, right?”

  Max could feel the fairy’s body tense at the question. “Oh, I’m fine.”

  Kira had been in and out of 'vacation' every few months, which was really just a nice way of saying quarantine. It wasn’t a subject she talked about much. She wasn’t sick or anything, but after being used as a guinea pig for Carver’s experiments, she’d never fully returned to normal. The whole adventure had left her with the ability to connect to Noctem’s servers without the use of a Somno system. The vacations were a way to counteract what Craver had done to her, keeping her away from any form of internet connection that her rewired brain might try to access.

  Her first quarantine last year was spent in a literal cabin in the woods without even electricity. It had not been fun for her, nor did it actually fix the issue. Sure, her brain did return to normal for a time, but it wasn’t permanent. Since then she had been forced to take three more vacations in a special electronically shielded apartment in one of Checkpoint’s Florida offices. The small studio had been built special just for her, and it blocked all wifi and cellular networks to ensure she could sleep normally. It hadn’t been proven that connecting without a Somno was harmful or not, but it didn’t seem wise to take chances.

  Max didn’t think her vacations seemed so bad; the room was kept stocked with comics, and she got a week off work every now and then. Still, her brain being a part-time Somno emulator was obviously not something she wanted, but thanks to Carver, it had become a fact of her life. It wasn’t hard to see why she didn’t talk about it much.

  Alastair gave her a warm smile. “I’m glad to hear you doing well. Just let me know if you need some time off.”

  “I will.” Kira nodded.

  Alastair turned back to the rest of the group. “Anyway, I know you’re all probably excited about an evening of karaoke, but sadly, that will have to wait for another day.”

  “And here it comes.” Max’s jaw tightened as his suspicions were confirmed.

  “Indeed, it does.” Alastair’s face grew serious. “We have things to discuss.”

  Chapter Three

  Ginger jumped a good foot in the air as the room erupted into chaos. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, her mind flipping between fight and flight. Both of her children looked to her with confusion as Max leaped up from his chair.

  The Fury stabbed an accusatory finger in Alastair’s direction. “I knew it! Inviting us out at random, putting the reservation under Farn’s name, and seriously, karaoke of all things?”

  Ginger’s mouth went dry as he listed off the reasons to be suspicious of the meeting. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed anything strange about it until now. She probably would have figured it out sooner if she hadn’t been distracted, but no, she had been too busy contemplating what Farn snuggling in so close next to Max a moment ago might mean. Honestly, I could really spend less time thinking about other people’s relationships. Then again, what did it mean? Max and Farn would make a nice couple. She shook her head, shoving the question to the back of her mind for later.

  Kegan’s feet fell off the coffee table, clearly just as surprised by Max’s outburst as she was.

  “What is it?” Corvin glanced to Kira then back to Alastair. “Is Carver back?”

  Farn jumped in, eying Alastair before he could answer, “Wait a sec, you used my name for this reservation?”<
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  “What kind of mission is it this time?” Max jumped to the point.

  Ginger leaned back and folded her arms in resignation. It was too late. She was already there, and her daughter would never let it go if they left now.

  “Woah now, let’s everyone just stay calm.” Alastair held up his hands in front of him, deflecting questions from all sides. “I assure you all, I am absolutely not here to hire you for another ridiculous quest, and Carver is still missing. I’m just here to talk.”

  Ginger relaxed, sinking back down into the couch. Maybe there isn’t anything to worry about.

  Then Alastair cracked a villainous smile. “And I totally did not lure you all into a clandestine meeting where I used Farn’s name as a cover and showed up in disguise so that it couldn’t be traced back to me.” Sarcasm flooded into his tone, cranking the tension in the room back up to eleven.

  “Like I said, what’s the job?” Max folded his arms, matching Ginger and creating a united front, like a pair of parents questioning their child. With that, the group quieted down.

  Alastair leaned back in his chair. “I meant the part about not being here to hire you for a mission, mostly because the situation at hand has left me contractually unable to interfere. So that option is out. All I can do now is talk. What you all decide to do after, that is up to you.”

  Ginger arched an eyebrow, letting her curiosity get the better of her. She tugged it back down again before anyone noticed.

  Max scoffed. “So, talk.”

  Alastair took a moment as if he wasn’t sure how to start. “Okay, I assume you all know about the fall of Torn last night.”

  “Yeah, it got taken by the one-eyed snakes,” Kegan commented, referring to the House of Serpents.

  Ginger shot him an annoyed look and flicked her head toward her kids, who she had been trying to act mature in front of. It was a shame, considering she usually enjoyed that sort of humor.

  Alastair sighed. “Yes, it was conquered by the Serpents. Thank you for making a dick joke, Kegan.”

  “No problem, that’s what I’m here for.”

  “Anyway, the fall of Torn marked a point of no return for everyone in Noctem.”

  At that, Max and Kira looked at each other, clearly not following the conversation. Honestly, it had always surprised Ginger how out of touch the pair were with world events. I guess that’s what happens when you spend all your time in dungeons and only head into the cities to resupply. In fact, both of them almost seemed to avoid player conflicts, like they just didn’t care to get involved.

  Ginger, however, didn’t have a choice but to keep her thumb on the pulse of current affairs. It was part of her job at the Everleigh Club, which happened to be a brothel, or at least it was before she’d taken a leave of absence to spend time with her kids online. Prior to that, she’d spent time with clients belonging to Houses all over Noctem and, in the process, heard all the gossip. The most interesting of which had always been about the game’s kingdoms.

  Noctem had taken a new approach to how its world operated. In such, only one city was actually controlled by Checkpoint Systems, while the other kingdoms and their territories were governed by the players. At any time, a well organized House could seize control of any city. All they had to do was get their Lord or Lady to the throne and have them take a seat.

  Well, maybe claiming a kingdom wasn’t that easy. The throne was usually occupied by someone else, and they would have to surrender or abandon their city first, and that almost never happened. Most of the time, the previous ruler had been executed or assassinated. It was par for the course, really.

  Years back, when the game had launched, cities changed hands more often than most people changed their sheets. Eventually, as the houses got more organized and rulers understood their positions more, they got better holding their thrones. The stronger Houses even recruited contract users to defend their kingdoms. After that, Noctem’s ruling structure gave the players a different kind of game to play. While users like Max and Kira were out fighting Nightmares, a select few were waging war and hatching plots of intrigue and espionage.

  The only question was why? Why do all that just to sit in a fancy chair and call yourself king? Well, fame for one. Ginger had spent the night with more than a few Lords with their eyes set on the spotlight. With millions of users pledging loyal to the territories, it wasn’t hard to see why. Some rulers went public with their real-world identities, gaining endorsement deals, even making talk show appearances. Though, for those that kept their identities secret, such as Lord Berwyn of the House of Serpents, there were still plenty of perks. Getting their own palace to use however they wanted, could make for some truly epic parties. Though, that was the icing on the cake.

  What really made ruling a city worth it was the significant quantity of hard mercury, awarded to their treasury. Often referred to simply as hard, the substance was technically a crafting item, just plates of mercury held in solid form through an enchantment. What made it special was that it could be exchanged through Checkpoint for real-world currency. By giving it out to the ruling houses, it encouraged rulers to up the ante.

  A kingdom with a coffer full of hard could resupply farming zones and offer one-time bounties for difficult monsters to keep their loyal subjects engaged in the game. Not to mention, there were always a few mercenaries or assassins willing to take on a task for a bit of hard. Of course, there were strict rules in how much a ruler could send to a single user at a time, and there was no way to transfer it to themselves, so they weren’t going to get rich off the stuff. Still, even in Noctem, money was power. Ginger had learned that well enough during her years at the club.

  Alastair rolled his eyes as he continued, probably just as surprised at Max and Kira for their lack of interest in Noctem’s royalty. “Torn is the third city to fall under the control of Lord Berwyn and his Serpents. Now, he controls half of the world, and it doesn’t seem like he plans to stop. I’m not exactly looking forward to the day that his army marches on Valain. 'Cause technically, he could do it within the rules of the game.”

  Max waved a hand dismissively. “So why don’t you just have your clerics deal with him.”

  “Unfortunately, that would also be considered interfering, and since he hasn’t done anything to violate the rules so far, we can’t really do that without a public backlash.”

  Farn leaned forward. “Okay, to play devil's advocate. If he takes over Noctem, how bad could that be? I mean, it’s not like he’s running around using other people’s identities to make karaoke reservations or anything.” She leveled her eyes at Alastair.

  “True, sorry about that. But to answer your question, Carpe Noctem is a game, and people play it because it’s fun.”

  Farn tapped a finger against her chin. “And Berwyn is ruining people’s fun?”

  “When Berwyn claimed the city of Reliqua as the capital of his empire months ago, he did it by assassinating the previous Lord. If he’d stopped there, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but after that, he used a portion of the city’s hard to organize a small force of mercenaries to attack Sierra, which still had over half of its budget left in its treasury.”

  “Why is their budget important?” Drake chimed in, getting a sharp look from Ginger for participating.

  “The budget is important because we give each city all that hard so that they can use it to keep the players in their territories happy and encourage them to play more. The problem is that Berwyn is using it all to fund his conquests instead of maintaining his kingdom. The result is that farming areas are running dry, and people are having trouble getting crafting materials. Which is making it hard to get decent gear. Which is making it hard to level up.”

  “Well, crap,” Max leaned back and threw his feet up on the coffee table. “Didn’t realize the hard you gave out had that kind of impact. We never pledged ourselves to a kingdom, so we didn’t really notice.”

  “Yeah, we’re kind of free agents.” Kira gestured to herself
and Max.

  Ginger could understand that. After all, she’d maintained her own status as a Ronin too. She liked the freedom it granted, even if it meant she couldn’t claim some of the rewards available. Though, now that she thought about it, she was curious. “How much hard do you give out anyway?” Ginger tried her best not to sound too interested.

  “A little over twenty thousand bars to each city.” Alastair leaned his cheek into one hand as if it wasn’t that impressive.

  Ginger ran the conversion in her head; then she nearly choked despite not eating anything. “That’s like, three million dollars!”

  Kegan breathed a quiet, “Damn.”

  Kira added a slow whistle as Farn’s eyes widened.

  Max snapped his fingers, pointing one at Alastair. “So if Berwyn just took Torn, how much does that give him on top of what he already had?”

  “That’s where we got lucky,” Alastair dropped one hand to his lap. “He blew most of what he’d gained from Reliqua and Sierra on last night’s invasion. But thanks to Lady Amelia, he got almost nothing from Torn. When the invasion started, she used her hard to purchase enough farming resources for months and placed bounties on everything and anyone she could. It was genius on her part. She’d figured out what Berwyn was after and denied him a win. If she hadn’t, Berwyn would have gotten enough hard to make a move on to Lucem or Thrift.”

  “So that should be it, right? Farn crossed her legs and leaned on her armrest. “He can’t conquer anything else without paying his army.”

  “Almost.” Alastair held up one finger. “The problem is that the fourth anniversary of Noctem’s launch is next week. At which time, the vault in Reliqua will be replenished with all three cities' hard.”

  Ginger’s heart sped up. “That’s nine million dollars.”

  The room fell silent, letting that sink in until Max spoke up, “So why don’t the remaining cities attack him now while he’s out of money?”