Spiteful Healer-Chapter 332: Vulnerability
Ryan was working in cybersecurity from inside his sim-box at the Averon Headquarters, where all Shattered World Online operations took place. It was mundane work, monitoring for any irregularities in connections and player behaviour. Anything that Samantha AI flagged, he was assigned to investigate.
It was, for the most part, only false flags. Occasionally, someone would attempt to enter the game world using a modified sim-box, trying to cheat the game, but they were caught almost as quickly as it took them to load their avatars in the game world.
A light beep in his head signalled his lunch break. The simulation ended, and his sim-box opened up along with several others in a row with his. He stood up, wearing a black shirt and pants with the Averon logo on them, and got up to head out of the room.
“Anything interesting?” One of his co-workers asked as the pair headed out of the room side by side.
Ryan shook his head. “Nah, you?”
“Same old nothing.”
The pair arrived at the cafeteria, where a television was showing the same VGN broadcast that Erikson was showing in his tavern, in the game world.
“Whoa, what's happening there?” Ryan’s co-worker looked on with wide eyes. They both stopped in the middle of the room, watching the scene unfold for a few minutes. Partly caught up in the action, but also waiting for their turn to use the foodprinters on the far side of the cafeteria.
“VGN doing VGN stuff, as usual,” Ryan shook his head.
“I seriously hate those guys. No respect for them. Talk about sucking the fun out of a game.”
Ryan put his hand on his co-worker's shoulder. “Right there with you.”
He nodded. “It’s still crazy to me we haven’t been able to stop them, even though I caught ‘em cheating.”
Ryan paused, turning to his co-worker curiously. “You caught them cheating?”
He shrugged. “Yep. Pretty clever, too. I found some video proof that they were modifying the behaviour of certain NPCs…”
Ryan spun himself to stand in front of his co-worker, grabbing both of his shoulders. “When did you discover this?”
“Uh, I dunno…” his co-worker was taken aback for a moment, given the sudden seriousness on Ryan’s face. “I guess a few months ago? I reported it to Mike already.”
“What was the exact date?” Ryan’s eyes narrowed, his look intensifying.
His co-worker swallowed saliva, pushing Ryan’s hands off his shoulders. “Calm down. Give me a second…” he tapped his wrist implant, using it to pull up several menus on his eye implant. Given the obscure request, it took him a while to get the information Ryan was asking for. “February 14th.”
Ryan took a step back, his eyes darting left and right as he pieced this information together.
“Thanks,” Ryan rushed out of the cafeteria, leaving his co-worker behind.
“What? What's wrong?!” His co-worker called after him, but he was ignored.
Ryan went from walking to power-walking to full-on sprinting through the hallways of Averon headquarters, bumping a few shoulders along the way, including that of his former teammate and game master, Linda. She’d opened her mouth to greet him, but saw the serious look on his face as he passed and opted not to.
He reached his destination and slammed on the door of Nicholas, lead game designer and director of the Shattered World Online. The banging did nothing, so he collected himself and pressed a button beside the door.
A holographic display of Nicholas’ head formed from a holo-device in the ceiling above the door.
“Ryan? What is it? I’m currently in an Officer Simulation Meeting.”
Ryan took a moment to catch his breath, breathing heavily between his words. “Sir, we need to talk right away. It’s about the incident from a few months back.”
“Give a moment,” Nicholas’ head replied. It disappeared, and a few moments later, the door opened to grant Ryan entry.
He stepped into the office, decorated from head to toe in gamer paraphernalia. On the far side, a state-of-the-art sim-box opened, and Nicholas, a tall gentleman in a black business suit, climbed out of it.
Ryan shut the door behind himself, still catching his breath.
“Did you discover something?”
Ryan nodded frantically. “When I brought to your attention the vulnerability that VGN was using to increase the popularity of their streamers, Mike had me believe I was the first to discover it and report it. We brought it to your attention right away. Sir, I’ve been wondering, all this time, how it is that every God artifact item has found its way into the hands of the members of VGN? Most of them, within a few weeks of the game's launch? Even the vulnerability we discovered wouldn’t explain it. It had to be someone who knew more about the gameworld than even the senior designers…”
“Slow down, explain your thoughts more clearly…” Nicholas stepped forward, squinting with perked up ears.
“Look. When we reported the vulnerability to you about the NPC behaviour modification, you said it yourself that it was right at the point of no return. If it kept happening, it might’ve messed up Samantha’s AI and the game world permanently. What if I told you that it’d been reported before, by other security specialists? Those reports were ignored and kept hidden from you. The only reason my report was brought forward was exactly as you surmised, that the person behind the exploits had already gotten all they needed, and wanted to make sure no permanent damage had been caused by their actions.”
“You’re implying they wanted us to find the vulnerability precisely when we found it?” Nicholas clarified, and Ryan nodded. “That’d explain why they stopped and haven’t occurred since, precisely after the report.”
“Look at how VGN now dominates the top 10 streamer list, and runs the majority of the in-game infrastructure?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Who are you suggesting is behind this?” Nicholas asked.
“My co-worker made the report to Mike, as did I.” Ryan took a deep, anxious breath. The words that had left his mouth were a serious accusation, and he did not make it lightly. “He’s the lead engineer and cybersecurity expert, right? He designed Samantha’s security system. He would know her vulnerabilities. He could even, theoretically, get her to tell him where legendary items are hidden in her game world. He may have even intentionally left that vulnerability in for him to make us-”
“Enough,” Nicholas shouted, a hint of anger in his voice. “I’ve been working with Mike long before we started Averon. There’s no way he’d do something like this.”
“Who else could-”
“Thanks for your report,” Nicholas motioned Ryan out of the room, clenching his fists in frustration. Ryan hung his mouth open for a moment, but eventually shut it and sighed, stomping out of the office and shutting the door behind him.
Nicholas stood in silence for several minutes before tapping his wrist implant to call Mike. “Can you come to my office? There’s something I’d like to discuss.”
A few minutes later, Mike stepped in, wearing the same shirt and pants Ryan had on.
“What's up?” Mike smiled, but it faded when he saw the serious look on Nicholas’s face. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
“Samantha,” Nicholas said. A blue holographic form of a featureless female appeared under a holo-device in the corner of the room. “Replay the previous interaction I had.”
“Yes.” She said obediently. A floating screen appeared in front of a shelf on the far wall of the office, showing a camera that had recorded Nicholas and Ryan’s conversation from moments ago.
Mike watched it in its entirety, and when it ended, they both remained silent for a few moments.
“That guy’s the same person who used a GM to crash an Airship into Seraxus, right? You’re going to believe what he says? He’s clearly biased towards VGN and trying to find excu-”
“His logic tracks. If I ask Samantha to review the activity of other specialists on the cybersecurity team, is she going to find reports matching Ryans that reached your ears but never mine?” Nicholas said coldly.
Mike gave no response.
“Samantha, bring up-”
“You don’t understand,” Mike shouted, his demeanor shifting. Nicholas looked to him expectantly. “6 months in, I knew what we had was special. But they were already talking poorly about it during the early tests. The other networks, the streamers… they didn’t understand half of what we’d created, yet felt qualified to shit all over it. Your AI and my security could create a perfect VR-MMORPG. I wasn’t going to risk having it thrown aside and ignored because of the opinions of some brainless streamers and networks with agendas.”
“So what, you sacrificed the integrity of everything we were trying to achieve, to earn more money on the side?” Nicholas snapped back.
“I did it to choke them out. To punish them for their hubris. I knew all of their tricks and used them against them. I made it so that the streamers on top were ones who had skin in the game. Who cared about the success of our product, not those wannabe parasocial morons yapping about things they couldn’t comprehend. I did it for us, don’t you get it?”
Nicholas shook his head disapprovingly. “You don’t think this result would have come on its own? You had so little faith in what we were making?”
“I wasn’t gonna risk it. Why should they profit off of what we made, why not us?!”
Nicholas whipped his hand around to the television, tapping his wrist implant and bringing up the footage of VGN guilds taking out Mikael’s island. “If that’s the truth, why are you still going? You’ve pushed out all of the competition a long time ago. VGN, the network YOU founded, has been ruling the top slots since a month or two into the game's launch. If the reason you did it truly is what you say, your goal has long since been accomplished.”
Mike avoided looking at the screen, scratching the back of his head. “It’s not easy, being in your shadow. The game world falls apart within minutes if it weren’t for the work I put into maintaining its integrity, yet not a single person knows who I am. You, on the other hand…”
Nicholas sucked his teeth. “This is about recognition? Fame? You think I don’t recognize the work you’ve put in?”
“Oh, I know you do. But they don’t. But my network, the work I put into that? The whole world recognizes it.”
Nicholas hit his wrist implant to close the broadcast, and Samantha shut off the television. A long, uncomfortably tense silence followed.
“There hasn’t been an exploit since the incident Ryan reported. Is it really such a big deal-”
“YOU’VE COMPRIMISED EVERYTHING!” Nicholas yelled at him at the top of his lungs. “The meaning behind everything we strived to achieve, you’ve completely undermined all of it. Nothing in our virtual world has gone the way it should have. The only reason it hasn’t completely fallen apart is due to the few players standing up to you and your network!” He clenched his fists, resisting the urge to get physical, and breathing heavily.
“I made the game popular. My streamers brought your game to life. I showcased all of it, in its best forms.” Mike stomped forward, using his own wrist implant. “I showed them music.” Footage of Yumily’s old broadcasts appeared on a holographic screen. “I showed them action, adventure, PvP,” he popped up more screens, showing Jensora, Makaroth, Seraxus, Feng, and more.
“Our game world didn’t need you to prop it up,” Nicholas shook his head.
“How the hell would you know? How are you so sure it would’ve succeeded had I not interfered? You’ve got a crystal ball?”
“I’ve got faith in my work, unlike you,” Nicholas glared. Another silence fell, giving them both a second to process their thoughts.
“Samantha, I need the current location of every god’s artifact item. Which player is holding it, and where they got it from. We’ll be doing an update to remove them from the VGN players and redistribute them across the world.”
“What? Are you kidding me?” Mike gasped, but got ignored.
“Once you’ve located them all, I’ll need to shut down the servers and announce it through an update.”
“Are you insane? That’ll be a huge scandal. VGN will be finished, and possibly the gameworld as well!” Mike shouted, rushing forward and grabbing the collar of Nicholas’s suit. “You wouldn’t do it to nerf the Sword of Hatred, but you’re doing it now?”
Nicholas pushed Mike’s hands back. “You’ve left me no choice.”
A holographic screen appeared, with a stream of artifact items being listed one by one, adjacent to the player who held it.
[God of Hatred] - Sword of Hatred - (Seraxus - Level 182), Puagas
[Astraeus] - Staff of the Stars - (Meldrin - Level 165), Savringuard
[Apollo] - Flute of Apollo - (Serenity - Level 185), Kalmoore
[God of Death] - The Reaper - (Calikgos - Level 212), Savringard
[Shiva] - Locating…
[Zeus] - Locating…
[Tyr] - Locating…
[Loki] - Locating…
[Aphrodite] - Locating…
[God of Suffering] - Locating…
Samantha filled out a few more entries, all players whom Nicholas knew to be members of VGN, or guildmates of the members.
“Is there anything you haven’t claimed already?”
“Alright. Stop, you’ve made your point,” Mike waved his hand towards the screen. “I’ll end it.”
Nichlas gave a hand signal to pause Samantha's current action, and she complied.
“I’ll order them to give up the artifacts and return them to their original starting locations. They’ll be forced to comply; it’s part of their contracts. I won’t be able to get the Sword of Hatred or the Flute of Apollo, but I’ve got the rest.”
Nicholas shook his head in disbelief. “Every single one of them?” Mike bobbled his head to confirm. “Unbelievable,” he whispered under his breath. “And your pet network?”
“I’ll dismantle it.”
“Good. If you truly care about the game as you say, you’ll have it done in 24 hours. Otherwise, I’ll have Samantha handle it.”
Mike stormed out of the room, gritting his teeth.
