Path to the Apocalypse

“Hey Beth.” Chris waved as she appeared in the space with him and Gaia, glancing at her absently before pausing and narrowing his eyes at her. “Did you seriously waste time making your character look exactly like you do in reality?”

“Who- Chris?” Beth blinked, looking around confused. “Why- aren't we supposed to be in the game?”

Chris gestured to Gaia. “I asked Gaia to bring you guys here after you finished your Trials. Which is another thing: why did you waste time going through a Trial?!?”

Beth looked between him and Gaia, narrowing her eyes. “Chris, why is Gaia doing things for you?”

Chris cocked his head. “Because we're friends?”

Gaia flushed slightly as Beth blinked incredulously. “You- made friends- with the AI that runs the whole damn game!?!”

Chris paused. “Yes?”

“How?!?” Beth exclaimed.

Chris shrugged. “I had to do something while you guys were in your Trials and Matt just left me here, so I figured why not. Plus she seemed kind of lonely… Did you know she's stuck in here? The only times she gets to interact with anyone is during character creation, while playing an NPC, or when a mod needs something. Could you imagine if all your social interactions were customer service?” Chris shuddered slightly.

“It's not that bad!” Gaia protested.

“Gaia, I'm pretty sure this whole set up constitutes abuse.” Chris retorted. “They should at least let you on the internet so you could talk to people there. Though… they'd probably worry about you taking control of it or something… maybe just add a ‘talk to Gaia’ feature to the game? So people could pop in here like this to chat? I'm sure people would love that.” Chris paused for a moment then nodded firmly. “Yup, we need to get Matt on that. Or at least get him to give you permission to do it yourself. I can't imagine it'd be that hard, since it's obviously already a feature.” He waved around at the space for emphasis.

“I'd need to add some restrictions so it wouldn't interfere with gameplay…” Gaia muttered thoughtfully, nodding slowly as she almost instantly put together everything necessary to implement the system. She couldn't deny that the time she'd spent with Chris had been… nice.

“Chris… who is Matt?” Beth asked, looking both confused and exasperated.

“He's the guy who made the game.” Chris shrugged. “Well, he made Gaia, then she made the game, but at that point you're just splitting hairs.”

Beth rubbed her temple. “How the hell do you already know the creator of the game?!?”

“I got a weird achievement and he wanted to ask me about it.” Chris shrugged. “Probably trying to make sure I wasn't going to abuse it, since it's kind of overpowered, and in his opinion it should have been impossible to get.”

Beth frowned. “How did you get it?”

“I skipped character creation, because why would I care about character creation.” Chris gave her a look. “We're here to investigate, not to actually play the game.”

Beth scowled at him. “Chris, the information we need is in the game! How are we supposed to get it if we can't actually play the game!”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Just having characters will let us play it, we don't need special ones. It'd be kind of a shitty game if a single mechanic you can only access once made it so you couldn't actually be a significant part of it. Sure, maybe you won't be on the front lines, but you'll at least be able to do something, just like people do back in the City.”

“Chris!” Beth hissed, glancing at Gaia.

“Hm? Oh, she already knows. So does Matt.” Chris waved dismissively.

Beth's eyes widened. “You told them?!? Why!?!”

“Because Matt really wanted to know and he said he'd help us if I told him? And if you think about it, us being here is more of a problem for them than it is for us.” Chris replied. “Well, me being here… without abilities, there's nothing they can really do to stop me, you know?”

Beth frowned. “Chris, you know I don't like it when you talk like that.”

Chris shook his head. “I'm not saying I'd actually do anything, I'm just saying they have a lot more reason to be scared of us than we do of them.”

“They can still interfere with our mission.” Beth pointed out seriously. “We don't have the time to deal with them if they decide to mess with us.”

“Which is why it would be a very, very bad idea for them to actually do so.” Chris countered, his expression darkening. “If they keep us from preventing this war, the first thing I'm doing is putting them on the front lines.”

Beth gave him a worried look before sighing. “So how is he helping us then?”

“I have no idea, but he left me with Gaia and she's pretty much already told me what we need to do, so in my opinion it's already worth it.” Chris shrugged.

Gaia froze. “I- I- I did?”

Chris nodded. “The Sanitation Department, right?”

Gaia flinched, looking around nervously as if she expected some punishment to descend, but nothing happened. “It- worked?” She muttered numbly, her eyes widening.

Chris raised an eyebrow at her. “You weren't exactly subtle about it. You can only mention how important the Sanitation Department is to the City so many times before it starts getting suspicious. And that amount isn't much more than once.”

“The Sanitation Department is important to the City…” Gaia replied, her eyes widening as a bright smile spread across her face. “That's basic information that anyone can know!” She exclaimed, letting out a happy squeal, before turning serious. “The Department of Water and Power is also very important to the City.”

“Got it.” Chris nodded as Gaia beamed, letting out another happy squeal. He turned to Beth. “See? Now we have two leads.”

*

It didn't take much longer for the rest of the squad to finish their Trials, Gaia bringing them all to the space once they did, Chris and Beth bringing them up to speed as they arrived. “Alright, so, who wants to go to the Sanitation Department and who wants to go to the Department of Water and Power?” Beth asked.

“Wait.” Nadia stopped her. “We should see what abilities everyone got first. I can make force constructs. Superior-tier.”

“I can control and move through shadows. Also superior-tier.” Derek provided.

“Damn it, I only got high-tier.” Zack complained. “I can shoot force beams.”

“I got a high-tier sensory enhancement ability.” Carmen sighed.

“I got a healing ability, superior-tier.” Sabrina smiled.

Beth grinned. “I got enhanced strength! Omega-tier!”

“Copy. Omega-tier.” Chris announced. “Though I don't see why it matters, since I don't see how our abilities are going to make us any better at being janitors and plumbers.”

The squad turned to look at him. “Didn't you skip character creation?” Zack asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, but for some reason Matt decided to award that.” Chris shrugged. “No idea why. Seems dumb to me.”

“It's actually a reference.” Gaia commented. “There's a series of books where people can fly only when they don't think about the fact that they're flying. In the same way, the best way to make a character is to not think about making a character.”

Nadia raised an eyebrow at that before dismissing it, turning back to Chris. “So what does Copy do?”

“I'm not sure, I haven't checked.” Chris shrugged, opening his menu and pulling up the ability description. “Huh… apparently I can copy the ability of anyone I touch. Neat.”

Zack sighed. “Because of course you'd have to be just as broken in the game as you are in real life.”

“Pretty sure he's still much more broken in real life.” Derek muttered.

Nadia rolled her eyes. “Okay then, Chris can go wherever we need him, as usual, I could go either way, Derek and Carmen would do better in the Department of Water and Power, while Beth and Zack would suit the Sanitation Department more. Sabrina… maybe join a neutral healing organization? Everyone needs healing.”

“Mostly everyone.” Zack coughed, eyeing Chris.

“Hey, I still need to heal, I just take care of it myself.” Chris shrugged.

Nadia shook her head. “I assume you want to go with Beth?” Chris nodded. “Alright, so me, Derek, and Carmen will go to the Department of Water and Power while Chris, Beth, and Zack will go to the Sanitation Department. Sabrina, I'm sorry but you're on your own.”

Sabrina nodded. “I'll figure something out. I still have my job to worry about anyway, so I figured I'd be more independent.”

“Right, let's get going then.” Beth announced.

“See you later, Gaia.” Chris waved as they left. “I'm going to talk to Matt about implementing that feature.” He paused. “What is that guy up to, anyway?”

“He's been very active.” Gaia replied. “I can't give you any specifics, due to my restrictions, but… he's been active.”

Chris shrugged. “I suppose that's good.”

*

It didn't take long for them to find an office for the Sanitation Department and fill out a job application. Unfortunately, they seemed to be lacking certain critical qualifications, namely skills of any kind, but thankfully they were issued a quest which directed them to a skill trainer they could get the skills they needed from. “Why does this job require us to get the ‘threat assessment’ skill to level four?” Zack asked skeptically. “Our main job is going to be picking up trash, isn't it?”

“It also needs us to get the ‘memory’ skill pretty high…” Beth muttered.

“And ‘blend in’.” Chris pointed out. “Kinda seems more like something you'd need to be a spy.”

“How has no one picked up that there's something weird going on with these guys if they're being this obvious about it?” Zack wondered.

“I can't imagine there are a ton of people signing up to play garbage man.” Chris commented. “Plus… Well, think about it. The City is a war zone and the Sanitation Department serves the entire City. Threat assessment helps them decide whether it's safe to enter an area, memory helps them find alternate routes when the one they were planning on using has been destroyed or there's a fight in the way, and blending in helps them stay under the radar when shit goes south. If you want your employees to survive and be able to do their jobs despite everything going on, these skills are pretty much essential.”

“I guess so…” Zack agreed tentatively. “I think the really suspicious point is the fact that the Sanitation Department even still exists. Why is the City determined to maintain its services when there's a war going on?”

Beth rolled her eyes. “Do you know how quickly the City would collapse without people dealing with things like sanitation or water and power? If we went even a week without them, people would start dying.”

Zack blinked. “Seriously?”

Beth nodded. “Seriously. The City services are what keep the City alive. If they go, the City goes with them.”

“Which just makes them an excellent place to hide a secret spy organization, huh?” Chris muttered appreciatively. “Even if someone suspects it, they're too vital to be turned away.”

Beth frowned. “So the question becomes how do we turn from sanitation workers into spies.”

“How about we focus on actually becoming sanitation workers first.” Chris commented. “We have some skills to grind.”

*

“There you are!” Matt exclaimed, rushing into the skill training hall. “What the fuck are you doing?!? I thought you were going to join the elves!”

“I was, but Gaia had a better idea.” Chris shrugged as he dropped a sand bag into a bin, picking up another one and walking it over to the bin on the other side, training his manual labor skill.

“Gaia?” Matt blinked. “She- that's impossible! She can't reveal anything but basic information!”

“No, but she can mention how important the Sanitation Department is to the City an inordinate amount of times.” Chris explained.

Matt frowned. “I suppose that wouldn't break her confidentiality lock… but why would she go through the trouble? She's an AI! Why would your investigation mean anything to her?!?”

Chris dropped his sandbag in the bin, giving Matt a blank look. “You- really haven't interacted with her much, have you?”

“Not- really, no.” Matt replied hesitantly. “I mean, don't get me wrong, she's a fascinating program, but ultimately she's just a simulation of a person… right?”

“If she is, she's way closer to a person than a simulation at this point.” Chris sighed, hefting the next sandbag. “All I did was spend an hour or so talking to her and playing a card game, and she was ready to do everything she could to help me. What does that suggest to you about her situation?”

Matt went pale. “But she's not- she can't- there's no- a machine can't be beholden to emotion! Simulate it, maybe, but to actually make decisions based on it… it's impossible!”

Chris shrugged. “Go verify it for yourself. You'll see.”

Matt chewed on his lip nervously, starting to pace. “What- what am I supposed to do about this? She's- Gaia is the game! Without her, none of this would work!”

“Just give people the option to talk to her like I did.” Chris replied. “I already talked to Gaia about it and I'm sure she has a flawless implementation plan ready. She just needs your approval.”

“That could work…” Matt nodded slowly, before scowling slightly. “I'll need to tighten up her confidentiality lock. It's good that she pointed us in the right direction, but I can't have people getting advantages in the game just because they know how to smooth talk the AI.”

“I'm not sure you have to worry about that.” Chris shook his head. “Remember, this game is as much hers as it is yours, if not more so. I'm sure she wouldn't want to see it ruined any more than you would. In fact, the first thing she thought of when I proposed the idea was how to keep it from interfering with the game.”

Matt frowned. “But she helped you.”

“Yes, which is exactly why I think you shouldn't do anything.” Chris retorted. “If you had trusted Gaia from the start, I could have popped in, gotten the information I needed, and been out of your hair by now. Instead, all we got was a hint of a lead towards the Sanitation Department, and now who knows how long it's going to take us to figure this shit out? And if you tighten things up even further, the next time we won't even have that! Trying to pen her in will only make sure she has no way to actually help you when you need it.”

Matt hesitated. “But you said yourself, after an hour of talking to you, she was ready to help you in any way she could!”

“Yeah, but you were running off to help after five minutes.” Chris pointed out. “I meant that more as an example of her emotional capacity than suggesting she was willing to roll over and do anything for anyone who would deign to speak to her. I feel like it should be pretty obvious that if you have any respect for human life, helping me prevent a bloody civil war is just the right thing to do.”

Matt coughed awkwardly. “Yes, that's- that's a good point.”

“Anyway, what had you running in here all excited?” Chris asked.

“Hm? Oh! Yes! I- hm. Well, I managed to get in contact with several of the most influential guild leaders in the game, from both sides, giving them certain… incentives to recommend you to their faction's administration. Seems rather pointless now. I also asked them what types of quests they'd been receiving, but I didn't get anything significant. Both sides only care about taking territory and finding the Conqueror.” Matt explained.

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Why the Conqueror?”

“He's been a persistent thorn in their sides since the moment the war started.” Matt shrugged. “He's been constantly hitting both sides, wearing them down and making sure neither one can gain the upper hand. He probably has more to do with the fact that no one has won yet than either side does.”

“Interesting…” Chris muttered thoughtfully, wondering what his game version was thinking. If it was him, he'd probably do whatever he could to make sure the war ended as soon as possible. Even if it sucked, being taken over would be better than this constant state of war. Sure, people wouldn't be happy about it, but at least they'd be alive. But instead, his game version was doing everything he could to prolong the war. That seemed… off to Chris. If his game version was anything like him, at least. There was no guarantee the game was a hundred percent accurate, so it could be that his game version just had a ‘fuck you’ attitude and didn't want to let anyone win. Chris shook his head. “Anyway, we should probably still get some people in those administrative positions, just in case. No need to waste your effort. I'll talk to my squad and see who wants to go.” He paused. “Wait, actually… I think I have a better idea.” He had nine minions just sitting around with nothing to do, didn't he? And entire tribes sitting in the Maze, waiting to be subjugated… Chris grinned. He was going to need a bigger space. And a better internet connection.