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Chapter 367: Uproar!!!

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The world was caught in another storm. Everyone was going hyper with the emergence of this Ultra Mage race.

[Who was the one who discovered it?]

[Are they hidden in the southern continent?]

[There are no records of the Elves in the official forum site of the game!]

[A politician gamer posted something! {Quote: the Elves have always been part of the Terran-Human Alliance but no player has ever seen them}!]

[Damn! +40% buff when the conditions are met. It is enough to nerf all tanker stereo-types!]

[Aiiisshhh… and here I thought that the Fairy of The Lake is currently the most beautiful woman in the game… I’d be willing to believe that if some celebrity were to choose the Elven Race, then she’d be the next Terroa’s next top model]

[My wife will castrate me if she finds out that I’m looking forward to seeing the first Elven beauty.]

|__ [Dude, just buy your wife an NLD and make her choose the Elves. That will solve your issue.]

|_|__ [This hermit seconds this notion.]

|_|_|__ [Tolomeeeeee!!!]

|_|_|_|__ [Shit. That’s my wife!]

|_|_|_|_|__ [Trolled. I’m your neighbor!]

|_|_|_|_|_|__ [F*ck you brah!]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [No, brah, I’m F*cking your wife!]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [BOOM!!! NTR]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [I suddenly feel sad for this guy]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [Condolences.]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [Yep. Condolences.]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [I’m a lawyer. I’ll give you discount]

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|__ [It’s a trap!]

*****

Smart-ass*s were making a ruckus. Those who are confident in their researching abilities were all flabbergasted by the sudden appearance of the Elven Race in the game.

Some tried to ask high-ranking nobles in some of the cities and they only received the answer “the Elves have always been part of our society” and so the rumours of this update began to escalate in nature and proportions.

There are even a few people who blew out of the scales as they began a campaign of rumours that foretold the emergence of other race.

In truth, none had ever seen an Elf walk in the cities in the open.

Well, then again, considering the fact that only 10% of the continental maps are only open to the players so far, reading the System Announcement speak of an “Adventurer” made it all sensible.

Someone had ventured in the unexplored area of the maps and discovered the Elves!

What are the rewards?

What are the privileges? The rewards?

Did he or she receive any good items? Artifacts?

Are they a group?

Is it a lone wolf?

Was there an ancient city?

Are there additional cities to the already recorded ones in the player-enabled database?

Posts and questions bombarded the forum site of the game and the moderators and operators all had to take medicines in order to not collapse with the sudden increase of stress due to work.

Alas, with the current situation of the Panorama Corp’s top brass, no answer was given to these poor people and so they could only reply with the generic “It was all part of our surprises” words to at least divert a few angry growls from the mobs of angry and dissatisfied players.

—this wasn’t part of the game.

*****

President roared, “CAAAAAAARRRLLLL!!!”

The secretary meekly opened the door to his office and with as much ‘stiffness’ to her face as she could put; she reported that Carl wasn’t in his office right now.

“Where is that bastard?”

The secretary checked her pad, “Didn’t you order him to not meet you unless he’s bringing in the good news?”

“…” A figurine of a ballerina was crushed on the fat fist of the president. “Send him a message and tell him I want him to call me ASAP!”

“Yes sir.”

Then, the intercommon his desk rung with its very exclusive line only meant for executives. The sight of the number in it made Ethan growl even more. He waved for the secretary to get out of the office.

He pressed a button and the office darkened as he was brought on a [email protected] rendering of a round table —an emergency meeting of the BOD!

[We’re still missing someone.]

Ethan eyed the group. He frowned a lot uglier as he spoke out who’s missing in the panel.

“We’re missing AG.”

[Where is he?]

Someone else answered, [I heard he’s in the middle of a quest.]

Everyone frowned.

[For a BOD-member to exploit the game…]

[Well, everyone shares a no-intel treatment in this room so we can be sure that we all share the same amount of information aside from the true creator of the game.]

[Pegasus is dead.]

[But the game is ours.]

[That’s why I said that we are all just players there and not the actual BOD of the company.]

[But the information we hold are still a cheat. It will affect the normal players if we intervene too much on the general flow of information.]

[You can trust him. Given AG’s personality, he will not allow his Intel be used by others and allow the profit to be used by them.]

[He’s not that greedy though.]

[But he’s greedy nonetheless.]

[Hrrrmmm….]

[Alright, everyone, stay on point. We are dealing an unregistered update in here and I am positive that none of you had ever heard of there being Elves in our game’s blueprint.]

[There is indeed no mention of it in our database.]

[Where did this come from?]

[More importantly, who discovered the Elves?]

[Shouldn’t the question be ‘Where’?]

[Without Janus, we cannot determine what exactly is happening with our own game!]

[But rebooting Janus will reboot the entire server panel and this will lead to loss of… say hundreds of millions of Credits per hour.]

[Nay…!! It’s probably in the billions!]

[….not to mention it will also lead for the game to restart and the players dissatisfied with the down time.]

[That’s an optimistic estimate. If we restart Janus, the game restarts with him. What would you do if the player characters resets with him?]

[…]

[………]

[……………]

[…………………..]

[Sigh… this is a disaster.]

[Two months… and not even a clue!]

[Now that we’re on topic; President Ethan, what of our problem with Janus?]

[It’s been too long.]

[Give us an update.]

[Are you even trying? You are the President of Operations and you can’t deal with this mess?]

Ethan wanted to curse at the last person who had spoken but he chose not to and only firmly stayed quiet until the voices died down.

He stated firmly, “Janus… may have already been compromised.”

Then came the chaos…

[What?!]

[Explain this instant! What is going on with our game?!]

[Outrageous!]

[What did you do?]

[Yes! What DID you do?]

[What did YOU do?!!]

A total of 16 cries of rage were heard before the chance came for Ethan to speak again.

“The last report stated that the… counter-rogue program team had stumbled upon a very sensitive matter regarding the three rogue programs we’ve originally assumed to be the cause(s) of the said update that started everything.”

There was silence. They’re businessmen, knew when to speak and not to speak.

Only the second highest stock holder spoke, [So come on and tell us what this sensitive matter is?]

Ethan inhaled deeply and exhaled calmly, “Around 14 hours ago, we have received report that one of the Rogue Programs……. was Siva.”

[WHAT?!]

Everyone had the same reactions. They were all surprised.

[Siva… isn’t he a player?]

[How can a player be labeled as Rogue Program?]

[More importantly, how is this possible?]

[No, more importantly, who is this Siva?]

The [Janus Console] is their only connection to it and so without it, they are a crippled god that can’t do a thing to their own game.

RPG: Terroa operates on a very intricate and very detailed system of [closed operations] and only the [Janus Console] can meddle and touch its operations, edit game data, and even create the quests and missions that the players takes joy in completing. In fact… it can even create items that destroy the balance of the game.

Them not being able to control the Janus Console means that they have lost their control over their own game.

It was indeed a disaster.

Although the game doesn’t need maintenance and is a self-autonomous game that will fix itself if there are problems, the fact still remains that the [core] of RPG: Terroa depends on the facilities controlled and regulated by Panorama Corp.

Everything should be detailed and the operators should know about every little thing happening in the game, including who are the players with a lot of talent and potential, and have been progressing smoothly in the game.

But now… not only were they clueless in regards with the latest [UPDATE], their main problem, the eradication of the meddlesome Rogue-Programs, have also stumbled upon this grave information.

“Directors,” Ethan’s voice was solemn, “I don’t have to repeat this but I had to: all of the Rogue Programs that’s been interfering with our control over the Janus Console all share the same Sauce Code but had individualistic characteristics to their entirety that even our best programmers cannot hack… this, all of you are aware already, is the level that Alfred Pegasus had reached in terms of his skills and knowledge in programming. Without him, we cannot do anything but take the other, more violent route, to deleting the main source of our issues.”

He looked around and cleared his throat. “The problem is one of the three Rogue Programs that we’ve detected was known to be a famous player. Even if we say that he is out of the question, the fact remains that there is a definite proof that the [virus] we developed had reacted with him. This means, that the player had a possibility to be the target we are looking for.”

Ethan paused, “And so our issue comes in. The virus, albeit a computer program, can affect this player because of the unique bio-code translation protocol that converts Human neural and nerve inputs into electrical pulses that becomes the very actions of their avatars themselves.”

His voice trailed more seriously, “With that given, if we inject this virus into a human being, yes we will be stopping the source of our problems —if we do have the right target— but we will be killing a person while inside the game as well. And this is already a crime. Are we going to kill someone just because we suspected him? What if we have the wrong target? And even if we do have the right target, the fact still remains, if we inject the virus, we will be taking a life. This is not something that can be done by any person.”

The silence that ensued was so deep that even a normal sound of inhaling and exhaling could be heard in this pin-dropping silence.

It was a very long silence that actually lasted for a total of three minutes.

The seconds felt like hot lava and not one of the people inside this board meeting voiced out any idea until the last second.

And then, the second highest stock holder; a man with a grey hair on his temples said, [How far are we going to keep allowing this problem to exist?]

President Ethan, elbows on the table, hid his face on his hand with conjoined pinky and ring fingers.

He was really out of options.

This is something that goes against morale ethics and is already bordering to crime if implemented.

It’s not the question of whether they should avoid the target or not, but whether they should do it or not because even if he is the source of the issue with their pockets not making money… to take a life for the sake of profit is just plain wrong.

Such was a test of who was morally upright, who is stout and uncompromising, who is purely a hard headed and cold-hearted capitalist, and who is merely going with the flow.

To stop or at least avoid the human target…

To proceed and take a life for the sake of profit…

To kill get on with it, cover it up as an accident…

Or to just watch and see how the scene unfolds…

Ethan was confounded: he was confused but he was desperate as well. Should they really proceed with it and kill Siva?

God intentions!

It was all a fight between whose good intentions will reign powerful. Is money really more powerful than morality and conscience?

In this fight between principles and logical profit, both have reasons that border in good intentions.

One side protects a life while sacrificing liability to their income and business profit... protecting their morality but losing billions of money, probably had the possibility of bankrupting them if the issues is not solve —again, this is in the assumption that they had the right target.

On the other side, it protects their profit and the income which feeds their families.

As far as they are concerned, the Panorama Corp had not stepped on a single innocent life in its path to economic imperialism. In fact, it had even spearheaded various charitable projects and also launched cooperative ventures that benefitted so many innocent lives.

In truth, the operational work regarding RPG: Terroa had provided millions of job opportunities starting from development, operational functions, marketing, maintenance, and service quality.

People make a living within Panorama Corp and no one could say that they are a bad company.

Good intentions!

Was there any justice that could make them solve this issue without taking a life —if, assuming, that their target was spot on?

Just as Ethan had thought about this question, a member of the panel board cleared his throat and caught all of their attentions.

[I have a proposal.]

[Come on, tell us. Any suggestion is fine.]

[Well, why don’t we just launch a campaign against this player? Kill him normally like a PK.]

(AN: PK = Player Kill(ing), or field PVP)

Huh?

Everyone stopped thinking at that moment and they all laughed loudly like prisoners who just got out of prison. Even the near-bald-from-stress fat-bellied Ethan laughed along with the rest of them.

[Good head!]

[Nice!]

[Ahahaha… good idea!]

[Turns out, it was a simple solution!]

[Let’s launch this campaign as soon as possible!]

[Ethan, you manage this. We trust you.]

“I will do my best.”

And so, the meeting was adjourned.

*****

[Is this the decision of the board?]

“All you have to do is arrange the necessary plot as to how we can incite the players to launch a full-pledged virtual campaign in this hunt.”

[President, this is easier said than done.]

“What do you mean?”

[Siva…… he’s too powerful right now.]

“How? Isn’t he just one player? Why is it hard to kill a single player?”

[Boss, haven’t you been reading my report about Siva at all? Not only he’s able to defeat an entire first rank guild alone, but he also killed a Dragon, alone! Rumours have it that a Dragon’s blood can increase one’s stats by multitude of levels. Aside from that, Siva also has a large amount of Dragon-grade resources. Who knows what weapons he’d already made with them? In addition, lately, I also witnessed how he trampled over the Council of Elders that ruled over Jeremiah… you are aware of who they are right?]

“The Overlords of the Central Continent.”

[Right. And he yelled at them like they are just a bunch of monkeys. What kind of deterring power can make him pull that kind of stunt? Moreover, I also conducted my own investigations and had personally witnessed a diplomat from the Naturals escort him to their Colony to conduct business. In addition, when I dug deeper, it seems that he’s been demanding very large amounts of resources from the Humans and is planning on something.]

Carl wanted to mention something about a brother but he thought that perhaps it as only part of his quest. Besides, typical of gaming knowledge, just how can a normal upstart be able to get the right authority, circumstances, and even prompts to be able to order around NPCs like them?

Quests…

Missions…

It’s only one of the two.

[If my calculations are correct, it should be at the very minimum of an S-Ranked Mission. Besides, if it wasn’t for that, it is virtually impossible for him to be able to meet those big wigs this early in the game. In addition, I am also wondering about one detail that I’ve heard about him.]

“What detail, Carl? You know that we can’t afford to neglect even the tiniest detail regarding that man… he’s our target!”

[I know that, President. But it’s just that... it’s really a very weird quest if I say so myself. It seems that he’s been gathering resources in order to find a brother.]

“…”

[And that’s the reason why I said it’s weird.]

“It’s still an important piece of information.”

The two of them can’t afford to squabble or to put up a farce of superior-over-subordinate. This one single problem regarding their target is of utmost importance. Two minds are better than one.

“What else?”

[Let me see… right, it seems that he’s also going to be part of a King Candidate’s entourage that’s going to officially start tomorrow… er… rather, a few hours from now on that side.]

“We should use this chance then.”

[Right. I’ll gather a few men and spread a few rumours… hmmm… I think spreading the fact that he’s Siva is also going to be a good thing.]

“Won’t the Users around him going to be affected by that?”

[It is better than actually plunging this dagger in him, President.]

“Hm. You have a point.” Ethan paused and gave the call the nod. “Just work faster. I’ll bring the news to the board tomorrow morning.”

[Yes sir.]

The call ended and the room slowly brightened to let him adjust his eyes. The curtains opened and revealed the city outside the large glass panel.

Seeing the tall buildings brought a unique sense of relaxation to his senses.

“Sigh…. running a business is very tiring.”

He leaned back to his seat and massaged his nose bridge while breathing evenly and heavily.

“One man to mess it all… is it part of his quest or is he really an NPC and not a player?” He thought that the dagger reacting to Siva might be brought by a quest and not really a unique reaction.

He was too engrossed in his thoughts that he did not even see the already gone cold coffee on his desk that his secretary had brought to him earlier.

“If only we can control Janus, it would be easier to find out what had gone wrong in Terroa. Haah, Pegasus… you created a game so beautiful and so complex, not even the brightest programmers and hackers of the next generation can crack it.”

There are too many things they didn’t know about RPG: Terroa…. no to “Terroa”.

Every big wig of the Panorama Corp knew that it was an elaborately complex world that Pegasus created NOT for Panorama Corp but to UNICORN —the World Government.

It was supposed to be a top-secret Military-grade project that will simulate warfare exercises. But a Senator in the UNICORN board who’s also one of the leading figures in the Jupiter Android Project, advocated for its broader development.

Thus, eyes and ears were called upon to gather many different kinds of propositions that might benefit the UNICORN using this Virtual World.

One proposal was [Time].

What if they can fast forward the current time and develop Human Technology a lot faster in a virtual reality world with the same laws of physics and history as the real world?

It was a grand and very feasible proposition. To accelerate the time on Earth inside a virtual space; simulating every bit and detail of the possibilities of Human Technology —in turn accelerating the advancement of the real world’s own technologies.

The plan was approved.

It was ambitious, risky, morally questionable, but also feasibly possible and most of all…. tempting.

Humanity’s technology and lifestyle will advance faster than the current pace.

Who spoke such proposition wasn’t important but the man’s words struck like lightning to everyone who had heard about it.

Thus, Project Salvation began.

Since then…… 40 years had passed. The world had moved on with Technology and the simple Virtual World where military trainees are schooled for tactics and special ops exercises had become a game world. Many VR-World prototypes were tested and eventually, RPG: Terroa came in as the finished product.

“Pegasus also perfected his project but who would’ve thought that he also had a separate plan of his own for that place?”

The last development phase of RPG: Terroa went smoothly until that event four years ago.

Ethan wasn’t aware of the specifics but he heard that someone died and that the Kingsley Doctors’ son was also gravely injured.

It was shocking news that could have toppled the carefully built stature of UNICORN if publicly released.

Thus, the story was covered.

Ethan only knew bits and pieces of it but he had heard rumours and word of mouth of the history of the game that Panorama Cop helped develop.

“But what is the real intention behind Terroa?” He can’t help but feel weirded by it. “Assuming that its original purpose and goal is still in effect, is it really the case? Is there a connection? Why did a Rogue Program appear now? Why not earlier?”

President Ethan is a lazy person. He really wanted to just sit down and do his job, go home, and then enjoy his hobby while spending time with family.

He only wanted a simple life.

“But now, a life was going to be threatened. A life for the profit of the company… though it’s wrong, it’s also unfair. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

That’s why he felt massaging his nose bridge. He was feeling stressed.

He stretched out his fingers and pulled up panels of news and articles online.

There were six in total.

On one panel, there was an anchor talking about the news regarding the new race in RPG: Terroa.

President Ethan’s eyes were glued to that screen.

“A brother, huh…” his mind was still focused on the information they got regarding Siva’s aim. “I really wonder, just what kind of circumstances could make you land a meeting with the Humans this early in the game…”

No matter how hard he pressed his thoughts on the matter, Ethan couldn’t dig any more answer to his mountains of questions.

*****

30 minutes earlier in the game…

[I’m really sorry for blowing your cover.]

She bowed and her voluptuous tits jiggled for all to see and marvel to. Scion didn’t seem to mind it but Siva does and it was a matter of a formidable will to not look at them.

[97%]

“SIVAAAAAAA!!!!” Maki was roaring angrily but he couldn’t shake off the spell Gaia used. “I swear I will chase you to the ends of this planet if you so much as touch a single hair of my people!”

Maki was programmed to have undying loyalty to the Humans who created him.

His rage was justified. He was their protector.

Gaia seemed to be amused by him, [A Universe Spirit with an undying loyalty, such a pretty sight.]

“Siva… you’re Siva…” Gaspar, seeming to have found courage, spoke up while still being locked in place, “Now I understand why you feel strong.”

Siva ignored them all and asked Scion.

“Mandy, tell me, what does the quest tell you to do and what is the reward?”

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Panorama Corp clashes heads with Siva!!!

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