Chapter 142: The Stator Rebellion Part 4
"If there is one advantage that players have that NPCs do not, it would be the ability to log out of the game and pass on information through the real world."
"Because of the realistic and brutal and potentially mental scarring nature of Dynasties Online's gameplay and world, an option to leave must always be available no matter what."
"This means that players can log out and tell a faction leader of their situation in a matter of minutes when it would normally take many in-game days and even months to get important back to them."
"But there is always a penalty for leaving the game when you are in the middle of a scene, war, or combat situation, and the game servers do not naturally shut down."
"So later in the game, only those players who are bought and paid for by someone else would be willing to suffer these drastic consequences."
"Because if the player is not present, then an AI or illness will take over their character, and the results may not live up to the player's expectations."
"With the worst outcome being the destruction of the dynasty itself."
James Larent, creator of Dynasties Online.
….
Rusty Jaguar was sitting around a burning campfire, the smoke. Bright orange sparks flew down from the whetstone he ran across the blade of his iron woodcutter's axe, making it razor-sharp; despite not being a traditional weapon, it was more than capable of severing a limb or two and dealing a large amount of damage to a lightly armoured opponent.
Being one of the players who had joined Stator in his crusade to take over a kingdom, he had been waiting for three in-game days, nearly half of someone's allotted daily time since arriving around the steamer's army camp, for the signal to attack only being able to eat sleep and chill with the 14 other players that he was with making the players get bored very quickly. They all cursed the game system for not implementing any sort of fast travel mechanic, forcing all the players to walk to each village, town and city themselves, just like they would have to do if this medieval world was real.
Rusty Jaguar was one of the lucky players. He had an occupation that had a makeshift weapon, as many of his companions did not have anything that could resemble one and were without enough money to buy one, as weapons and armour are usually rather expensive, costing at least 5 gold, which would then leave them without food eventually dying of hunger as there was not enough game in the forest to sustain even if they have a water supply.
Unfortunately, apart from the woodcutter axe, he had nothing of any note, no armour, just commoners' clothes, which for the goblins was not much, usually being a shirt and some shorts and nothing as impressive as the steel armour that covered the bodies of the elite soldiers.
In an attempt to help evade detection, as having hundreds of thousands of men gathered in one place would attract much attention and suspicion, Stator ordered his fellow players to disperse and create small groups that could pass themselves off as travellers. However, this method of disguising players would not work forever. In fact, Stator was lucky that the primitive goblin kingdom was not fighting any wars; otherwise, the patrols would be much more meticulous and regular.
Apart from dispersing, the players were also ordered to stay close to the Oovere army camp so that they could attack quickly as soon as the order was given. Unfortunately, Stator would only find out later that it would be this order that led to his whole scheme unravelling before his eyes.
Rusty Jaguar heard a low growling in the distance and surveyed his surroundings carefully, clutching his woodcutter's axe close to his chest. He was wary about camping so openly in the ancient forest, as all manner of vicious creatures were just waiting to take his head.
Then, just as his nervousness reached its peak, he saw a crimson-armoured goblin atop a white wolf appear from the dense forest. The goblin's red eyes bared into the player, who held his breath. Seeing that it was not one of the dangerous wild animals he had seen rip another player's throat open, but instead, the mount of the NPC Rusty Jaguar visibly relaxed the tension in his body, disappearing in an instant.
All the NPCs he had interacted with didn't seem as intelligent as many people in the forums made them out to be. This could be because he had only been dealing with basic soldiers, but any guard the player used to put up against them had long been lowered after they had been checked and given no trouble with any of the past goblin patrols they had encountered.
The rider of this large white-furred beast was covered in glistening red armour, and only his bright blood red eyes could be seen through the helmet, obscuring any facial expressions. If the player could see the expression of this crimson-clad warrior, he would have wished it really was a wild wolf that had found them and not the goblin vice general who locked a predatory gaze on them.
'It's okay, it's okay. It's just an NPC. He will leave peacefully like all the others.'
Rusty Jaguar thought. The moment he locked eyes with the crimson-armoured goblin, he suddenly had the urge to run away as fast as he could. Not that it would have helped in the slightest; there was no way that on this rugged terrain, his two legs would be able to outrun a wolf's four, or there would be no point in having a mount in the first place.
For some reason, the player felt this encounter would be nothing like his previous ones. He saw other steel-clad goblins on wolves surrounding their little camp, and then it hit him that the person before him was nothing like the other patrols as the usual ragtag goblin soldiers did not accompany him but instead elite disciplined soldiers, the cream of the crop of The Black Deaths army men and women who had gone through the crucible of war and lived to tell the tale.
The other patrols also had one well-armoured goblin as a leader; however, the rest were in the regular armour given to the average goblin soldier as the Kingdom of Oovere did not have the wealth or enough skilled craftsmen to provide all their soldiers with a strong set of armour like Nathia and Chavaria did. This also happened to be why, even though these powerful central continent nations had tens of millions of citizens, the number of men in their large armies rarely surpassed 500,000, and the equipment, supplies, and training of these elite soldiers was not cheap.
Even an army of 500,000 would require the support of the nobles, something that is hard to get at the best of times, and for them to send over half the troops for the army as even Chavaria, an empire and newly minted superpower, only had 250,000 men in the imperial army and that was after nearly 20 years of development, though that is likely to increase as the foundation of the country gets stronger though it was slowed down by years due to the resignations that occurred after Lucius Aurellion's death.
The problem was not only with the regular soldiers but more with the officers, as many officers were lost either through resignations or treason charges after the death of the Chavarain general at the hands of the new crown prince while soldiers could be replaced quickly the skilled officers could not as it took years to groom such skilled officers as no matter how good Lucius was as a grandmaster strategist if it were not for his skilled subordinates who could complete his most ambitious of plans then all his genius would be wasted.
After all, Lucius or any other grandmaster strategist could not be everywhere at once or micromanage an entire battlefield and so could only directly command a section of the battlefield, which is why behind every legendary grandmaster strategist is a plethora of skilled subordinates who can execute their plans as many grandmaster strategists like Drusus did in the Chavarian Unification would have one or two master strategists under them who were more than capable improvising on the spot.
After all, it was because Drusus had Lucius, whom he could entrust with an entire battle and delay or destroy the reinforcements heading to Nadron, leading to the Battle of Brunag, that Chavaria won the unification wars in the first place.
Either way, as the armoured goblin wolf riders closed in, a sense of dark foreboding began to take root within the player.
"I am Vice General Kriggeelx Graguilk of the Lethal Legion. What are your names and tribal affiliations?"
Kriggeelx asked in an authoritative voice. His trusty swords were held loosely in both hands, ready to strike at the first sign of trouble as the frightened players quickly began to reply to him, each eying his swords that could end their lives in an instant."
"Lok Elorum of the White Corpse Tribe, we are merely travellers who have temporarily stopped on our way to our next destination."
The player said diplomatically, bringing out his tribe's identity token, a little birch wood corpse that he handed over to Kriggeelx, who looked over it carefully and saw that it was a legitimate token after he cast a spell on it as a few hours away from the camp there was no antimagic crystal to stop him they also did not usually activate them unless they are at war as it cost a lot of mana to keep it operational.
"I see this checks out. Where are you headed?"
Kriggeelx asked after casually tossing the birch token as if he didn't care about it back to this Lok person, who barely managed to catch it.
"Err…. That…."
Rusty Jaguar, the player behind Lok, said, sweating slightly as he tried to think of a destination. The biggest problem that he and many of the other players had was that Dynasties Online did not have a mini-map or even a world map because in an effort to make the game more realistic, the players, just like the NPCs, would have to make their own maps of the villages, towns, and cities of the world.
This also meant that the player's knowledge of the world was low in the early stages of the game, like now, as after a few years of playing the game, more and more maps get slowly built, sold and released on the forums for players to access.
And now, this knowledge had become the chick in the armour that could potentially end Stator's entire scheme.
"Clinug."
The goblin player said, sighing out in relief as he opened up one of his character's memories to get a quick place name for this goblin officer.
"Clinug eh, that's quite far from here…."
The goblin officer commented while pondering, but then a wide grin appeared behind the goblin vice general's helmet as he asked a question that made Rusty Jaguar's blood turn cold.
"Can you point me in the direction where it is? Surely, as someone travelling there, you know where it is right or at least a general direction? After all, you have lived in this kingdom your entire life, yes. Do you have a map, as, without one or the other, you are not travellers but something else altogether?"
Kriggeelx asked in a cold voice as he dismounted his albino wolf, affectionately stroking its soft white fur as it whimpered and panted happily in its rider's red-skinned grasp while a tongue appeared from the helmet and began licking his steel sword. Other nations had tried to put spies into their kingdom many times, and while the Goblin General did not know why so many suspicious travellers had appeared recently, he suspected it could be a foreign clandestine operation designed by one of their enemies to lower their military power. Where they found so many goblins to accomplish it, however, was a mystery that he felt would never be solved.
There was a chance that a foreign nation had managed to bribe or corrupt some of its citizens and even send in spies, but for thousands to appear at the same time with the same excuse, such a scale had not been seen throughout DO's nearly 4000-year history and frightened this goblin vice general, so he felt that it was his duty to investigate it.
Any goblin who had been in the kingdom for most, if not all, of their lives should know where they were going. If someone was clueless or did not get a map or direction, it was a good indication that they were either stupid or something other than a traveller.
Usually, a simple destination would have been enough, but the volume of travellers had aroused Kriggeelx's suspicions, so he decided to conduct a much more in-depth interrogation just to be safe. This goblin also seemed nervous, like he knew he was not meant to be there, and both he and this Loc person knew it.
"That…. Eeerrrmmm"
"That…. Eeerrmmm"
"Th-th-th-That W-w-w-way"
The goblin said nervously, pointing southeast. Even if this Lok person was correct, which he wasn't, the goblin player's reaction was more than enough for Kriggeelx to sniff out a potential spy or someone out of place.
Rusty Jaguar was sweating profusely now. Even if he were right, anyone with even a bit of experience with interrogation would be able to tell that something was wrong, but the player's nervousness was not for no reason, as there had been stories of players being captured and tortured and executed while playing the game for many they found that dying in battle fighting the guards was at least in the early game better than getting captured and tortured as medieval torture methods are not to be looked down upon.
Many had either logged out or been forcefully logged out for a bit while their characters were being tortured, reminding people once again of the dangers of this realistic game, prompting some to enjoy a lifestyle of farming or pursuing other crafts and away from the more ruthless world of war and politics.
Because unlike in the modern world, a politician who has pissed off the wrong person is just as at risk of being tortured and executed as a commoner because in the medieval world, losing your political power was usually more than just losing your title, power or position.
It usually leads to death, and your enemy wants to prevent any chance of a comeback. This is why a new dynasty or a usurper first eliminates the descendants of the previous royal family to prevent them from starting a rebellion and trying to reclaim a throne they had lost.
A few had even posted videos of their torture, complaining to the game company about it, whose reply was short, blunt and to the point.
'If you don't want to get potentially tortured, don't get caught. The game company and system have warned players multiple times about the consequences of breaking the laws within the game.'
James Larant CEO
Once again, unlike other companies who apologise and say they are working on a fix, Dynasties Online did the opposite. They blamed the players for getting themselves for getting themselves into this situation, stressing the sandbox nature of Dynasties Online. Now, for most games and their companies, this would be suicide, but DO was not like other games because it could potentially give money and essentially a job to the tens if not hundreds of millions of unemployed people around the western world, so even if a few players got annoyed and quit the game the most that would happen is that James would be able to save some money as he already had more than enough players hooked on his game to achieve his goals.
A goal that few have managed to see through.
"I see unfortunately…."
Kriggeelx said, pausing for effect before his swords were at the goblin's neck in a flash, whose eyes widened as he felt the cold steel blade press lightly against his skin and audibly gulped as he was one motion away from death.
"That was the wrong answer."
"Arrest them! Kill those who resist."
The red-skinned goblin vice general roared, and his men leapt into action, jumping from their mounts and wrestling many of the struggling players to the ground before tying them up with rope. Some of the slightly better-armed players, those with hunting bows or other potential makeshift weapons, were ruthlessly cut down by the wolf riders' sharp steel swords or spears, as the veteran soldiers took no chances when it came to life-or-death situations like these, preferring to kill their enemies than put their own lives at risk trying to capture them.
Rusty Jaguar was personally taken down and arrested by the goblin vice general himself not that he could resist with a sword to his throat. Within 10 seconds, the remaining players were either captured or killed as they slung the helpless bodies onto their wolves for transport to a particularly gruesome fate.
Not one player escaped as crows and woodland creatures flocked to the corpses that were left to rot in the open, as any presence of the goblin camp was erased by Mother Nature's unrelenting wrath.
As Kriggeelx gave out his orders, one of the players tried to log off only to get a notification that made him freeze in place, wanting to warn his fellow comrades only for the system to get in his way.
[You are currently in combat and are not being logged out for your physical or mental well-being, so logging out now will incur a 4-hour real-life penalty. Within those 4 hours, you will not be allowed to log back in and cannot control your character's fate as an AI will temporarily take control of your character.]
[Be warned that the AI may make decisions you disagree with, so it is recommended that you do not log out in a dangerous situation.]
The system told the player, who immediately clicked the logout button again after getting this warning.
[Are you sure you would like to log out]
[Y/N]
Without any hesitation, he pressed yes. This player joined the game only to support Stator in his mission and not because he wanted to take the game seriously, having a job in the real world that he had to get back to. As a result, he did not care what happened to his character or Dynasty, focusing on getting the information of their capture to Stator and the potential of him being exposed so he could make adjustments to his plan accordingly, realising just how dangerous it was for any of them to get captured as he was not confident in the player's ability to keep their mouths shut under interrogation.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
LaziestDragon
LaziestDragon Thank you for reading and for your support. The next chapter should be out on Saturday.
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