The EMG, or Event Monitoring Group was seven people tasked with watching for anomalies in the world of GENESIS. Their job was three-fold: Discover strange or novel events, document them, and pass on the information to someone else. In the case of basic game information, they happily tossed the data to Promotions and Outreach and went looking for weirder stuff.

The P and O department set up interviews with the game reviewers and answered basic questions for people preparing articles on the game. Need to know how many guilds of over 50 players are in Tier 2? What is the most popular of the known races or classes? How fast can someone get to Tier 3? How many people who race to tier 3 start over with a new character? Who is the highest-ranked Paladin in the game? These are all questions the P and O group can answer. They also prepare weekly updates of significant events in the empire; Dungeons conquered, which Guild has advanced the most in the game, and a host of similar statistics that they released each week to the various steamers and video casters.

The essential job of the EMG was sifting reports and statistics for the things that stood out or exceeded expectations. One such problem was the total extinction of womprats and tree sloths in the western part of the empire. The slow-moving animals couldn't dodge and were usually dead before they knew they were being attacked. Players loved to kill them for the easy experience and the money from their hides. The problem was fixed by asking the system to repopulate the area, make the slow and easily killed animals have far less experience, and decrease the chance of gaining a usable pelt from their fuzzy carcasses. The system also spiced things up a bit by increasing the spawns of Giant Mutant Sloths. These creatures were exceedingly dangerous to any character that could gain experience killing the normal varmints. Giant Mutant Sloths hid in muddy areas and erupted from their hiding places like a great, fuzzy assassins. They often had poisonous claws or acidic breath. Some were pack hunters. The system considered the results a success: the experience was now balanced by danger, and sloth hunting wasn't dull.

Broken quest lines would be noted, and ways to fix them would be suggested to the system. There was a bottleneck in similar quests for thieves, assassins, and lawyers. All three guilds gave a quest to waylay a courier and steal the documents they carried. Players joining the couriers guild were few and far between already because of the rigid requirements. (Such as being able to stay on a horse.)

When those few couriers realized they would die every time they took the road between Limestone and Mudbay, they started refusing the quest and taking different routes. This was fixed by adding a small amount of gold and triple experience if the couriers were killed en route. Death wasn't so bad, the couriers returned, and the quests became much more popular for all four groups.

Sometimes the problems the EMG found were exploits found by players. Such as three villages being wiped out in a single night by cows. A guild had attacked the stockyards in Brockhaven and stampeded thousands of cattle through three small villages. Everyone was killed, giving the players experience. They looted each town for valuables and sold the livestock herd to a goblin tribe.

The EMG recommended to the system that the stockyards be rebuilt with stronger fences and guards added. The system responded more creatively. When the players went to spend their experience and move to Tier 2, they were only offered the classes of Rustler, Marauder, or Shepherd. Half the guild started over, and the other half decided to join a bandit stronghold in the Slipperyrock Mountains.

Minor exploits were often ignored, as that was seen as part of the game, and the system or NPC would slowly respond to them. If a player found a way to profit by buying goods on one side of town and selling them to a merchant on the other, that was just considered everyday commerce. The enterprising player could profit from his work until he either did it too much or others started doing the same. One favorite 'exploit' reported several times involved two fire mages casting cantrips at each other to raise their resistance skills. Both the system and EMG ignored this. Burning yourself over and over was quite painful, but if that was how someone wanted to raise minor fire resistance, that was up to them. The cost for a healer to remove the scars each day balanced the quick experience gained.

Dan was one of the people working in the EMG, and one of his more boring tasks was monitoring the large population of contract workers for anomalies and reporting problems. Steven often emphasized how essential this was since the contract workers often needed more knowledge of the game and were discouraged from reporting problems by their employers.

The corporations never wanted anyone to see what they were doing, so Dan had to investigate minor anomalies and report them to Steven, who brought them to Wally's attention. It had been explained to everyone in the EMG that because of the contracts with the corporations, Wally was not allowed to personally and officially monitor most of the game world. So unless a human in the EMG took notice of something or a player or corporation reported a problem, Wally couldn't act on it.

Today what caught Dan's attention was a contract worker advancing to Level 11. That, in and of itself, wasn't unheard of. There had already been several contract workers getting that high, especially in the northern area around Sedgewick. Weird stuff always seemed to happen there. And based on the average number of hours worked per day, the poor workers also had to pull double shifts to get anything done. ACME was working them extra to make up for destroyed towns, monster attacks, and now an invasion of wyverns.

But what caught Dan's eye was something very different. There was an anomaly with this worker. He had 0 health, 0 stamina, and 0 mana. He should be dead, yet his status showed as alive and sleeping. Dan tried to get a view of where the character was, and that was when shit got weird. His maps zoomed out to a picture of the world, then a complex diagram of the multiverse and the elemental plans, and finally zoomed back into the dividing line between the plane of air and the plane of fire. He could only see swirling smoke and a brief view of a pirate ship with burning sails. Then his screen went blank. Dan decided to get coffee and then talk to Steven.

Five minutes later, he was in Steven's Office, and the AI had just appeared on the screen behind them. "Dan, please repeat for Wally what you saw on your screen."

Wally had a bag of popcorn and was sitting back in a comfortable chair behind him; two canaries fluttered in zero-g, playing tag.

"Uh, right. I saw the report of another contract worker hitting tier 3. The location was undefined, so I looked at the basic info we are allowed to see, and he had zeroes across his three basic stats but still showed alive. Then I got a quick look at a pirate ship that was on fire and a map of the elemental planes. Then nothing."

Wally seemed interested. "Name and his new class?"

Dan had that on his notes. "The name is Ozzy; he's a Butcher, level 11, with the specialty Seasoned Pitmaster. Is that a real class? He just hit Level 11."

Wally took a look at a screen: "Oh my! This is exciting. ACME has somehow put one of its workers into the elemental planes! Did we have a bet on that, Steven? This is at least a year ahead of when any player was supposed to be able to access any of the elemental planes, and certainly not the para-elemental plane of smoke. And this is five years ahead of estimates for opening a trade route. What a strange turn of events. I wonder what ACME is up to?"

Wally spun his chair back around. "Dan, I know you're very busy. How about I handle this one for you? I so rarely get surprised by something. Is that ok with you? It can be a little secret between the three of us. Ixnay on the okesmay. Got it?"

Dan shrugged. "Sure. I have a ton of stuff to do already. I appreciate the help. Do you want any other odd stuff with contract workers sent to your attention?"

Wally smiled like it was Christmas. "That would be grand. Thank you, Dan." His screen turned off.

Dan looked at Steven. "What's up? Doesn't the AI already know about this? I thought he made the game world?"

"Well, sort of. Most of it is self-generating at this point, but because of certain agreements, Wally only gets to observe a little of it if he's needed to solve problems. That part of him running the system and game engine is partitioned off from his primary personality. He processes things so fast that he gets bored easily. Getting to go see an interesting thing in the game is something he enjoys."

Dan nodded. He knew that all the AI that had ever been created had restrictions coded into their kernels. Wally had more than the rest put together. "I'll keep a lookout for odd stuff and start a file that notifies you, and you can kick them up to the big guy."

"I'll let him know; thanks, Dan."

Wally reappeared again, taking up half of the screen as soon as Dan was gone. Steven looked at the pictures that were on the other half of the screen. The air was smoky, and the ship wasn't on fire; it had sails made of fire! The sea was black and choppy. "Where the hell is he? That's one of your 'special ones,' correct?"

"Very special. His group was the first to volunteer for the experimental medical trials. And to answer your questions, that is a one-masted sloop with an auric hull. A 'Smokejammer.' It's sailing on a sea of heated smoke in the thin area between the planes of fire and air. I looked at some events in Sedgewick. Our butcher has become quite the barbeque master, leading him to strange places. You're going to have to oversee things carefully. More events will occur. Just his being there is stirring things up. The Engine has taken notice, and quest lines are beginning. Quite a few are wrapped around Ozzy already. He's only the first person to visit the Smoke; more will follow now that the Engine considers that plane open."

Steven was looking at his laptop, checking something. "No global announcements, no awards for reaching the planes, nothing. Why is that?"

Wally ate more popcorn and began watching a battle between the Butcher and a giant crocodile. "I checked. The announcement would have come the first time a guild defeated an elemental demi-god and gained access to their gate. Then another announcement when a guild gained a ship and traveled to the smoke either by sailing down from the Plane of Air or up from the Plane of Fire to enter the Sea of Smoke. Those events didn't happen, so no announcements."

"And now?"

Wally considered. "Now things will be different. I'll leave that up to the Engine, of course. But it makes sense. Events that no one knows of tend to stay secret for much longer. Ozzy found his own way to the smoke, and he's hard to track. His role in the village, a magic ring, and the protections he gained from the Mark of Artemis all contribute to keeping his actions off the radar. Which is good; I don't want to draw attention to him, just the opposite."

"The system can wait until he returns to take official notice of his round trip. I'll make sure to find a suitable reward for his corporate employer, if that's okay with you. They get building points for opening trade routes and discovering new lands. This is much bigger than finding a dungeon or an old city. Much will depend on what Ozzy is doing and how he gets back."

"Ah, here's a nice bit of footage. I'd love to hear the full story on what is going on here." The AI put a scene on the main scren of a derelict ship and a hoard of crocodiles.

Steven watched as the Butcher unleashed some biological hell weapon and began to climb a mast to avoid the mist. "Dear lord, what sort of monster is that thing?" The croc had leaped to the ship, and all hell exploded as a blue mist destroyed everything.

Wally smiled. "What type of monster? That, Steven, is a Butcher."

In Sedgewick, Joe sat calmly by a small fire, listening to chains rattle as the carcasses of beasts were cooked with clouds of smoke. A bottle sat in front of him, still defying him and not giving him a clue where his apprentice had gone.

Then something changed. Joe felt it, and so did the charnel pit. The doors were knocked off their hinges as glowing chains from the pit came toward the smoke golem. He yelled at the building. "Hold your horses. Yeah, I feel it too. He's kicked himself up a notch. Let me try again." The old man made of smoke stared into the swirling bottle that held dreams of a woman who missed her man, a hag's longing for someone that kept her sane, and a breath of smoke from the Butcher and himself. He got flashes of color and sound, but I couldn't pin him down. It was frustrating.

The chains danced in front of him, reaching out and grabbing his wrist, pulling lightly. Joe looked at the pit and thought. "You can find him now?" The chains pulled again. "Fine. But I will need a dozen links from you to add to the mix if you want to go along. The chains were still for a moment, and then one link dissolved into smoke, freeing up a four-foot length. Joe hooked one end of the chain to the neck of the bottle and held the other. "I never thought I'd need to make a dowsing rod to find a Butcher."

The bottle jerked out of his hand, up and toward the sky.

Makken walked up with a beer from the tavern and a sandwich. He spent a lot of time with Joe, talking and telling stories. "Is that a fancy new balloon? Can I get one? Maybe in red? Red is always hotter."

Joe turned towards him. "Go tell Jenny her bottle is working, and tell the Barmaid I'm off to find our boy." He looked over towards Makken's farm. "Didn't you say there was a bunch of gorse bushes you needed to clear?"

The dwarf pointed. "Yeah, beyond the farm, about a half mile or so, next to that bit of scrub woods. I want to start clearing for new fields at some point and see what's underneath the area. Might run a tunnel over that way."

The smoke golem started walking that way. "Go run some messages for me. I'll see to your gorse." Makken had no idea what was going on. He walked back into the village and was coming out of the tavern from telling Suzette the message when the wind started picking up.

The clouds were moving in a circle, and the skies grew dark. The villagers began to lock shutters over their windows and gather children and animals indoors and into basements. In Rowan Keep, alarms rang, and workers and soldiers took cover inside. From the sky dropped a seething black funnel of a massive tornado. Where it touched the ground, trees were uprooted, and dirt was torn down to bedrock. A moment later, the twister moved back into the sky and disappeared as it moved higher and higher.

In a strange twist of luck, the only land destroyed was an area of gorse and scrub oak. The land that had just been purchased from the village a short time before by the dwarf pepper farmer, Makken. His new land was stripped bare of topsoil in a strange stroke of luck, revealing a rich seam of coal and iron-bearing rock.