《Protector》


 Prologue - Old Game

    first time. thanks for reading. Thinking about doing 3rd POV instead. Not sure. Never really liked 1pov


    *********


    It was in my best interest not to kill him. I knew it, but it still made me angry when I saw the little bastard smirking in my face as I was forced to let him be because of regulations. I wasn¡¯t even supposed to be here.


    I was only meant to test the higher levels of the game in order to make sure it was of adequate difficulty with no bugs present. Somehow, or rather, because of a certain someone I found myself transporting to the part of the continent that level 90 players frequented.


    Here, I met with my little brother. He was a short little kid who was about fourteen years old. He had dark red hair and piercing grey eyes in the game. He was a professional tamer and currently had two giant chickens that followed behind him as he walked up to me.


    My brother, Gen, had a troubled expression on his face. He kept looking behind him every few seconds while explaining to me that he got into a situation with a warrior who wanted him to sell his FyrBird, a large red bird the size of a large dog. It was fairly high level, 65, and hard to tame.  Gen was known as the only tamer that could tame adult monsters, but it really wasn¡¯t his work. I took a large part in him acquiring the FyrBird because I knew it would protect him well.


    Well back to the main issue. My brother didn''t want to sell and now he is being threatened by a level 97 warrior named Raka.  I recognized the name. Shortly after he explained the situation to me, I saw a thick muscle-for-brains warrior running towards us. He was one of the problem players I had dealt with before. Along with checking out high levels areas, I also did a little PK control. Only when the number of PKs got out of control. Instead of banning, I was authorized to kill repeatedly within a 4-week span until little to no more PK notices were present for that individual. I had to do this guy ten times this year. Unlike most others, he never seemed to learn.


    ¡°Damn, this bitch again¡± he grumbled under his breath but I heard.


    I¡¯ll take this time to let you know that I¡¯m weak to verbal assault. Not always, but mostly when shitheads like this guy try to talk s---. I¡¯ll stop. Sometimes I get into long rantlike bashing.


    I had to pick my words carefully as I represented the company now.


    ¡°Player FluffyGen asked me if it was normal for someone to force you to sell an item and I told him that it is not. If such a situation leads to that player being PKed, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising to find said PKer on the GM hitlist¡±


    Raka seemed to get what I was trying to say, but he seemed unfazed. Rightfully so too. It took a certain amount of PKing to get on the list. His mouth turned up into a smile.


    ¡°So this is your sister ha..¡± Dammit Gen.


    Raka inched towards his sword and I watched. I knew what the brat was about to do and why. I was a GM. I had a job to do. I couldn¡¯t make anything personal, so beating Raka senseless without him being on the hitlist would put me in a terrible position regarding my job. I hesitated long enough for the bastard to come charging toward FluffyGen, who then turned to run as I motioned him with my eyes.


    There were only three ways I could justifiably hit this bastard without endangering my job position. 1:  he was on the hitlist. 2: he attacked me first 3: by accident (killed or injured extensively), which took money from my bonus at the end of the year and rewarded the injured/ deceased with loot.


    I didn¡¯t like option 3 nor did option 1 check out. Only 2 was possible, but Raka was a smart bastard who avoided me even when FluffyGen ducked behind me suddenly.


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    ¡°I told you to run. You know I can¡¯t fight!¡± I whispered.


    Despite my worries, my brother was smarter than he appeared. The mount chickens were non-combative, and therefore untouchable. He called them off to the front of a general store


    FlufflyGen maneuvered himself around my body with Raka trying to hit him. He circled around my torso ducking and dodging the blades. Raka was pretty much pissed after some time and nearly forgot about avoiding my body. What brought him back was the unstoppable smirk that formed on my face and was set in stone. I couldn¡¯t get it off my face and he saw and backed up a few meters. He was huffing and puffing from playing stab-a-FluffyGen. I was angry with myself. Just one more minute and I could have been nicked by the bastard. Just one bleeping nick and I would have him begging me to stop.


    Now we¡¯re back to the beginning where it¡¯s in my best interest to kill him cause I can see he won¡¯t let my brother alone easily. My smirk evaporated as his formed in a twisted, evil, way.


    Kill him. Don¡¯t kill him. Kill him. Don¡¯t kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.


    I reached for my bow when a hand blocked me from reaching it.


    ¡°Don¡¯t kill him.¡± FluffyGen nudged me in the side.


    I watched Raka disappear into the populated streets of the city and then I tore down my barrier. It was basically an avoid-this-area barrier. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but it worked against low-levels perfectly. The reason Raka came through was because he was tailing FluffyGen who was allowed in. Raka most likely never kept his eyes off FluffyGen, which allowed him to bypass the barriors¡¯ function.


    ¡°Its not like I¡¯ll be playing this game for long, so it doesn¡¯t matter what this guy does anyway¡± he said in a hush tone.


    ¡°What do you mean you¡¯re not playing this game anymore? Do you know how much I paid for this system?¡± I nearly yelled at the end. Money is money, but my money is gold.


    ¡°No no, its not like that, I just want to play the new game you guys have coming out, it can still play on this system with some modifications, I heard¡± he quickly subdued me.


    ¡°Gen, you should have told me long ago that you wanted to play that game. I asked you numerous times. I [ a paragraph worth of ¡°you should have told me sooner¡± speech].¡±


    When I finished, he was staring at me with puppy dog eyes that quilled by very righteous anger with the boy.


    First, I was offered a job position as a GM or Systems Administrator for the new game as well. I asked him a month ago if he wanted to play the game. If so, I would become a GM for that game instead of staying in the old one. I still had a window to apply now, but my chances would be slim to none now that the release is in three weeks.


    ¡°PM Gothtry¡± I said, watching my brother sit down and logout.


    [Me] Hey Gothtry


    [GM Gothtry] Hey little Freyi what do you need?


    [Me] I want to apply for GM for Todaiya Online. I know its last minute, but I have a verrry good reason for this.


    [GM Gothtry] Im the head of the project development team, but im not so sure I can get you in this late. I will try though. However, you¡¯re going to owe me one kiddo.


    [Me] There''s also something else¡­I want a special character


    [GM Gothtry] Freyi -.- Come in on Monday and I¡¯ll have dicision by then. We can also talk about your character.I have an idea of what you want to talk about now, but I need the specifics of what your thinking exactly.


    As if he knew I was going to ask why, he quickly replies


    [GM Gothtry] We got a recent complaint from Raka. I I need to go know, bye.

 I want to be a Todaiya GM.

    Couldn''t think of a better title. . .


    ******


    I woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing continuously. I knew who it was. I stayed in bed for about ten minutes after hearing the doorbell. I got up after my stomach started growling and tiptoed to the kitchen as if the person outside would hear the sounds of my footsteps. They probably wouldn¡¯t. But better safe than sorry.


    Bam


    I heard the sound of a car door slamming and I went to my front window, watching her drive away while munching on a bagel.


    Today was Monday and I had an appointment with my old supervisor Gregory Stole. The subject matter made me tense like I was about to face some life or death battle. I felt like a cornered rabbit.


    I take great care in knowing myself and I have to say I have a strong fear of rejection when it involves something I really want. This gives me some panic attack symptoms that leave me wanting to drop everything and run before the words of rejection come out. It¡¯s the main reason why I¡¯m still 20 and single.


    After getting dressed, I took the bus to headquarters. Its been a while since I¡¯ve been here. Given the nature of my job, I usually don¡¯t have to come in person unless I¡¯m needed last-last-last minute as a developer.


    As I first came into the field of Virtual Reality, I wanted to be a developer. My dream was to work with creating the Artificial Intelligence component. This was quickly changed when I realized I couldn¡¯t cope with the environment. It was all a little too cut-throat for me. People throwing their unfinished work on me last minute, me finishing their work, and me getting blamed for the whole team having incomplete work even though I did my part and then some. I worked there for 5 months before transferring with the help of Gregory. He helped assign me to the GM division of their old game. He made sure to put me in as one of the hitmen cause he thought it would make me less timid. He misunderstood; I was certainly not timid and he saw that when I took down PKers with no qualms about the injuries I inflicted on them.


    I went up to the 6th floor, room 665 and there he was. A middle-aged man of about 35 years. He was dozing off in his desk  previously, but popped up when I barged in.


    Gregory: ¡°Oh¡­its just you. Don¡¯t forget to knock little Freyi¡±


    I grimaced at that ¡°little¡±.


    Me: ¡°Good morning Gregory¡±


    Gregory: ¡°Take a seat, we have a lot to talk about¡±


    I took a seat in front of him and he sighed and sat there quietly until his thoughts were collected.


    Gregory: ¡°There are no more GM Positions available officially. ¡°


    Dam dam dam dam! It felt like my heart caved in.


    Me: ¡°Are you sure there¡¯s not one left?¡±


    He looked at me sharply for a second and then I started looking down.  Gregory was like a father to me, but we still had a professional relationship¡­rarely nowadays. Me asking him that was like asking him if he had eyes. At least, that¡¯s how he took it in my opinion.


    Gregory: ¡°Yes I¡¯m sure there are no GM positions left just like I¡¯m sure we have no more funding to accept just one more. We have a quota and we can¡¯t go above it officially¡±


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    I was mortified, but the way he kept saying ¡°officially¡± had my ears perked up and I was getting just a tad bit hopeful that daddy wouldn¡¯t let me down.


    Daddy won¡¯t let me down¡­right?


    Gregory: ¡°Okay, let me get straight to the point. I can get you in as a personal GM for me.¡±


    Eeeh what?


    I was just about to about what¡¯s the difference between being his GM and being on the GM team.


    Gregory: ¡°Some things in the game are a little wonky and I will need someone to look into the things that I need in a timely manner. The GM team works outside of my scope, so I can¡¯t make any of them prioritize the what I need done.¡±


    I¡¯m literally about to jump out of my chair from excitement, but I¡¯m more reserved than that. I control myself, but I cant get this big grin off my face. Gregory looks slightly agitated for a second. My smile does this sometimes. Agitates people.


    Now to the next part of my request.


    Me: ¡°I also want a normal character aside from the GM. Something like the game Rendition Online. I want to be able to switch immediately.¡±


    Rendition online was an vrmmorpg that allowed characters to switch to different classes. They  had a maximum of four classes they could switch between and the class skills could not be mixed. It was a great idea, but it failed miserably. The management of the servers became too expensive for the company


    Gregory: ¡°I thought so, it would be much easier for all GMs, but it won¡¯t pass. We can probably work out something with Ethan, but I will have to talk with him on Wednesday.¡±


    His phone rang suddenly and he put me on hold. After a while of nodding and yes-sirring, he hung up.


    Gregory: ¡°I have a meeting to go to, but I¡¯ll come by you house on Thursday or I¡¯ll call you. Make sure you get up to date on the game. I¡¯ll also give you the documentation of the game.¡±


    He handed me a large pile of unhinged papers as he rushed out of the room.


    I mentally calmed down after he left. It was over and I got nearly everything I needed so far to play with my brother. Mostly meet with my brother.


    Its way easier to meet him on a game then in real life. I lived in California, while he lived in Louisiana. I am the main reason why he plays games today. I brought him Rajak Online and the system after I was assigned the GM position for the game. That way I could work and visit my brother from time to time.


    It was mostly work and I rarely got to see him sometimes. I was hampered down by the growing number of bugs reported and found. I also had a duty to destroy PKers which I enjoyed, but I felt it was unnecessary. Other games allowed PKers to be PKers. They were only punished with a chaotic sign, unable to enter certain villages. It was enough for me.


    I just hope Todaiya online will be different. I know its kind of bad for an employee to not know about the game their company is developing, but that was me. I was that employee.

 Brother

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    ************************************************************************************************


    I got started on reading the basics of the game. The papers Gregory gave me were mostly filled with in-depth descriptions of how the system worked. Such as how one would obtain extra strength points without leveling up. Information about dungeon locations and the level of the mobs in the dungeons. I disregarded those sections as it would make playing the game boring.


    From what Gregory told me, I felt like it was also unnecessary for the job. He would probably tell me what he wanted me to look into and I could just read up on only the information I needed to complete the job.


    As for the gaining of additional points, I had a suspicion that most of these algorithms would have been transferred over from the old game. At least, that¡¯s what I would have done.


    I started reading mainly on the race options because I knew for certain that these were changed. In Rajak Online, you only had 3 basic races to choose from. These were human, elf, and dwarf. Very boring choices. I told this to Gregory once and he was insulted. He wasn¡¯t the one who decided the number of races, but his work was like his child; he wanted to protect it from criticism.


    Looking at the pages on race, I saw many additions to the three, which included: Gnomes, Beast-men, Demi-Human, and Variants.


    Variants were meant to signify the mix of non-human species such as a half-elf/half-gnome. It seems like they ensure players will receive a humanoid character. So they probably won¡¯t have a half-cat/dog variant. I¡¯d at least like to see it.


    There were many continents in the world, but it seems players will be restricted to one continent first, before being able to sail off to other continents. That continent was called Guron.


    Guron is a large continent. The shape of the continent was similar to south America and Africa. It was largely filled with forest and woodland. There were three kingdoms based on the this continent. Each occupied a particular region. Kolica was stationed in the far far northeast corner of the continent. Iterra was southwest, while Raslan was southeast.  There seemed to be three great forests on the continent,  but I continued on to read about the situations of the kingdoms and their villages so I could ensure I picked the best kingdom for me and my brother to spawn on.


    As I scanned the basic information on each kingdom, I heard the phone rang  with the sponge-bob opening song, so I knew it was my little brother. I ran into my room and rummaged under my bed to find my phone, which had fell earlier today during my nap.


    *** Brother''s POV***


    He knew his sister wanted to spend more time with him, but he couldn¡¯t take it anymore. She was smothering him. They had started playing Rajak online  about a year and a half ago which was about five months after she moved out and went to California to work. At first, it was fun to play and explore while occasionally meeting up with her, but  after one year she started pming him a little too often. He could tell she was homesick, but still. He thought he might get away from her a little if he switched games, but she texted him earlier that day saying she got a job as a GM for Todaiya online.


    The cycle would repeat. She would pm him when she got bored, pm him when she was hungry, but couldn¡¯t get out of the game. She¡¯d pm him for every little thing. He even died in a dungeon once because of it.


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    Another issue he had was that as a GM, she couldn¡¯t help him with a dungeon, but she would just go in and watch and talk about all the things he did wrong and how to do it right. She was right and polite about it so he listened, but it made him feel weak and he wanted to learn on his own.


    He loved his sister dearly. He admired her. He showed her off to his friends. He guessed he liked her more when she was at home in Louisiana and aloof in her room programming.


    So here he was, hesitant and determined at the same time. He was about to turn his sister down.


    I don¡¯t want to play with you sister¡­I don¡¯t want to play with you this time¡­I don¡¯t want to play with you until I get stronger? No, she¡¯s going to say we can get stronger together. Darn it! What do I do? What do I do?!


    He already had the phone in his hand and the number was dialed before he could get his thoughts together. He was shaking cause he was scared of hurting her feelings, but he still wanted to be away from her a while. No pms, nothing. He just wanted to call her on the phone and speak to her like normal; to play the game without any distractions.


    Freyi: ¡°H-Hey Gen, whats up?¡±


    She was huffing and puffing as if she had just ran a marathon.


    Gen: ¡°Freyi..sis, I was wondering if we could talk about you and me playing Todaiya.¡±


    Freyi: ¡°Yes! I already decided the continent we¡¯re going to play on if that¡¯s okay. I¡¯ll have a lot of freetime with this one, so you don¡¯t have to worry about me leaving for work without notice. At the most, I¡¯ll have to leave for¡ª¡°


    He cut her off. He forgot about hurt feelings and just blurted it out. He told himself what his sister always told him to make himself feel better. She always said ¡°If you don¡¯t want to do something, say it. Don¡¯t keep silent or you¡¯ll be unhappy and regret it. It doesn¡¯t matter what college mom says she wants you to go to or what politician she wants you to vote for. If it doesn¡¯t sit right with you, refuse¡±. Freyi was mostly talking of her frustration with their mother, but she knew he would be getting the same pressure from their mom as she did.


    Gen: ¡°I don¡¯t want to play with you Freyi¡­I mean I don¡¯t want to play with you for a while. At least not in the beginning. After a while, we can play together, okay?¡±


    She was devastated. She didn¡¯t know how to respond or process the words she just heard, so she was silent for a while.


    Gen: ¡°O-Okay? Sis? Its not that don¡¯t want to play with you. Its just I want to be independent¡±


    Freyi thought of all the ways she could reel him in, but decided to relent with one exception.


    Freyi: ¡°Jus-just tell me your ign, okay? We¡¯ll friend each other and I¡¯ll let you play alone¡±


    Gen: ¡°Okay..but you can only pm once a day for non-emergencies or¡­I¡¯ll block you?¡±


    He said it low and as a question. He wasn¡¯t serious, but he heard his sister gasp loudly before agreeing to the terms.


    He was finally off the phone with her after assuring her that he loved her and was not mad or hated her. It took ten minutes to convince her.


    He walked to his room and collapsed onto the bed before falling asleep with mental exhaustion.


    Little did he know that his sister, though she relented, still planned to spy on him through certain means while keeping her distance.  She was not a bad person, but she wanted to know that her brother would be alright. Even if it was a game, she would protect him like she always did.

 Setup

    Freyi logged in to see a woman smiling in her face. It was a smile that irritated her. You know the smile that says they know something you don¡¯t know. That was it. It wasn¡¯t like the woman knew anything, it was just the way she smiled.


    Freyi knew this because this was an old friend. A friend that followed her from Rajak Online to Todaiya. It was Clara, the AI. Well, to be more specific, this was Clara 2.0, but still with the same memories of when Freyi was in Rajak online.


    Freyi: ¡°Hello Clara. How do you like Todaiya¡±


    Clara: ¡°Hello DragonaLynx. Todaiya is functioning normally. We currently have 47,328 people logged in with more coming.  ¡±


    Freyi: ¡°Clara I keep telling you my name is Freyi¡±


    Clara: ¡°DragonaLynx, I have been instructed to aid you in creating this account. You must not refer to yourself as Freyi or as a GM on this account. Todaiya rules states that your character cannot be altered in appearances unless it is due to stat changes.  In order to allow you to easily transition from playing as a GM and as a normal player, you must have your gender changed to male and will be allowed some changes in appearances.¡±


    Clara was not an advanced AI, she was more of a lower midlevel AI that mostly helped people create their account by giving them basic information on races, classes, and the continent.


    Freyi paused at the mention of having to have a male character. Her face went from shocked to smiling as an idea came upon her. Much better than the plan she already had. She was more excited than ever and urged Clara to hurry it along.


    Clara: ¡°Okay, we will start with your GM character. Here is DragonaLynx. She can be transferred from Rajak Online for you as there is a similar class present in Todaiya or you can create a new persona of similar level. This one must be of your own visage.¡±


    At this point, DragonaLynx showed up right in front of her. She had long purple-black hair with piercing grey eyes. The eyes were fashioned to look sharp, cold, and menacing. She wore the attire of what looked to be an assassins or a thief. The body was covered in tattoos, something Freyi wanted to do in real life.


    Freyi: ¡°I¡¯ll keep my old character just the way she is, but change the name to Froyee¡±


    Clara: ¡°Froyee, your GM character has been created. Would you like to began on the normal character¡±


    Before she could say yes, the image of a male that looked slightly similar to Freyi  showed up. It was a thin 5¡¯6 boy with black hair and blue eyes. He looked frail in the eyes of Freyi, which made her take another look at herself. She wondered if she was as frail looking like the boy in front of her. Another problem she found was that it looked a little too much like herself¡­it looked vaguely similar to her brother despite the overly feminine qualities.


    Freyi: ¡°Clara, what changes can I make?¡±


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    Clara: ¡°Changes can be made to the facial feature and height only¡±


    Freyi: ¡°Okay, change the eyes to purple and the hair to light-dark grey¡±


    Clara: ¡°Light or dark grey?¡±


    Freyi: ¡°Do light first Clara. Now I want you to keep making it darker until I say stop¡±


    Clara darkened the hair of the avatar until Freyi told her to stop. Next Freyi asked her to widen the size of the chin because the face looked too feminine. Clara was told to make the nose bigger, then smaller, then bigger again. Freyi believed a man should be thick, but was denied that addition as it could be altered by the strength attribute. The last thing she asked was to make the character 6 feet tall, as Freyi always wanted to know what it was like to be tall. She changed her mind later on as she knew height would cause issues in the game if she ever needed to hide.


    The next step was choosing her race. She had already decided on the race beforehand. Like most people, she chose to be a human.


    The last step was choosing her starting location. She could not choose her class until she reached level ten in the game. She chose a village in the domain of Kolica Kingdom, It was very close to the  capital  of Kolica Kingdom where the palace and major businesses were located. It was also near the main pathway that could take her to Raslan or Iterra if she ever decided to go. The most important part was that Kolica was not as racist against non-humans like the other two kingdoms. That¡¯s why if players were anything other than a human, it was in their best interest to go to Kolica.


    Clara: ¡°Okay Froyee, you must choose another name, then we are finished with both processes. A first and a last name.¡±


    Freyi thought for a long time about what name to pick. All the names that came to her mind were generic and uncreative. Gregory had even picked DragonaLynx for her. She came up with Froyee based on her own name.


    After a few minutes of thinking of what name she should pick and having all her suggestions shot down, Freyi  resorted to Latin. She chose simple latin words she remembered from college. The worst class she ever had the pleasure of taking.


    Freyi: ¡°How about Rex Vulgi?¡±


    Clara agreed to the name and proceeded to  complete the character.


    Clara: ¡°Okay Froyee, we are done now, so I will move you on to HardPine Villiage. Make sure to take a look at all your skills beforehand.¡±


    Freyi smiled, content. This was her first time playing as a normal player. Most GMs were content with playing the high-level avatars they had received. None before her had requested another character.   So with great excitement, she watched as the dark blue room vanished in a flash of bright white light, which forced her eyes closed.