Game Breaker
"Come at me, bro."
After reading the dialogue on the screen, Hiro chuckled to himself. He had to admit, this time, the game was providing something interesting for him to face. The sudden appearance of this gigantic warrior, in place of the hooded mage he'd witnessed just minutes before, had surprised him. The game developers had promised that, with the new random event generator, there was no predicting what the plot might be, or what kind of battles you might face along the way, but in twenty-three playthroughs, this was the first time they'd switched out bosses before the final battle began.
And what a boss it was. He wasn't a big scary demon, a dragon, or anything else. Instead, it was just a really big guy in armor... who'd successfully dodged one attack, prevented a second, then shrugged off a third... before returning with a counter that had managed an almost jaw-droppingly powerful crit. Thankfully, Hiro had invested in the 'Lucky Break' perk, allowing his character to survive fatal attacks for the first five rounds of combat, otherwise it would be game over before the fight had even started. Still, seeing that 9999, just before it was knocked down to just half his hit points, had been startling. This was obviously not an opponent to take lightly...
Rather than immediately pressing the attack, Hiro decided that his best move would be to use a Scan spell. Since the final boss had decided to guard for the first turn, he should get an idea of what he was facing...
But once cast, all that displayed was a bunch of completely incomprehensible garbage characters. "Great," he said, mostly to himself, "A glitch." Well, it wasn't completely unheard of. There had been a few reports of bugs in the game, like the final boss not being in the final dungeon but instead showing up as a random encounter, or the final boss falling to his knees and begging for mercy. There was even one case where the bonus boss and the final boss were the same creature. Had the player not been the obsessive compulsive type who maxed out his character before tracking down the final boss, he'd likely have lost. If memory served, it was always the same world 'seed' that produced these errors though.
Wait, it couldn't be...
Opening the system menu, Hiro selected the option that allowed him to see the world seed. Yup, there it was: World Seed GXA8I6A4S9B1A7NXE. The problem child that seemed to pop up in an unusually high number of playthroughs. Well, at least it promised an interesting battle...
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"Bias," Jacquelynn said, as she pushed the young girl, 'Glory', into the room with the spectator, "keep an eye on her, and make sure she stays out of trouble. I'm going to see what I can do to help our visitor."
Bias nodded, then asked, "Very well. But, why is the Yuusha attacking him instead of you?"
Chuckling, 'Jack' said, "A case of mistaken identity, I suppose. Our new best friend looks a lot more like a monster than I do."
Frowning, 'Glory' said, "But Mister Titan isn't a monster!"
The spectator, frowning, said, "Sadly, he looks more than enough like one to qualify, I fear. Still..."
Bias looked out the view-port that this small chamber had which overlooked the grand hall, his gaze focusing on the battle, then said, "There are good monsters, and there are bad monsters..."
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This interloper, most likely the Yuusha that Princess Celestia had described in her notes, seemed... hesitant to make the first move. Admittedly, after taking the hit that Titan had dealt, it was seemingly a miracle that he was still standing. Still, Titan would need to finish this quickly: That sword, while it might have been plain and unadorned, was... unsettling, in ways he could not put into words. He had the distinct impression that if he failed to dodge it, that would be the last thing he ever failed to do.
Well, if the Yuusha wasn't going to make the first move...
Titan made a quick calculation: His opponent, carrying his sword, had an arm length of approximately two and a half hooves. The sword he carried had a blade approximately three hooves long. Together, that allowed for a maximum potential 'threat radius' (the range at which he could effectively swing that sword) of, oh, five and a half hooves, give or take a little bit. Titan's arms were, in his current state, five and a half hooves long. That meant that his opponent could attack with his sword, but only by putting himself directly into Titan's own 'threat radius'. So, if Titan dodged or interrupted his opponent's initial attack, he'd have enough time to deliver at least one solid punch to his opponent. One would really be all that he needed. But at the same time, if the Yuusha swung too soon, then Titan would be able to counter-attack before his opponent could recover.
A simple, but time-tested, stratagem came to mind. A simple dash in, and then he would stop before coming into his opponent's range. His opponent, startled, would either attempt a defensive maneuver or would attempt to attack Titan as he came into range. Odds are, the opponent would attack, and when he did, Titan would watch as the fool takes the bait and swings, letting the sword whistle by harmlessly, then move in for the quick finish. While his opponent had magical abilities, he seemed more likely to attack with the sword than to attack with spells. The only other possibility would be dodging, but if the Yuusha did dodge, it was likely to be to put more range between himself and Titan. If he did dodge, Titan would revise his strategy from there.
Strategem in mind, Titan steeled himself, then began moving forward...
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Hiro was startled to see the final boss suddenly dash forward. How? This was a turn based strategy game (No Active Time Battle, thank you very much), and he'd been in the middle of deciding his next move when suddenly the game decided to change the rules!
Reacting quickly, he selected 'defend', and a split second before the boss came in range, Hiro's character managed to raise his shield. Hiro's grip on the controller relaxed slightly, and he let out a breath he'd not realized that he'd been holding: The shield that Hiro had equipped was a quest item, and a very powerful one. It nullified the damage of any frontal attack. The boss could pounded on that shield until judgement day, without ever scratching the hero behind it.
So one can imagine Hiro's surprise when Hiro's controller shook violently, the shield shattered, and Hiro's character took damage equal to half his hit points...
At that moment, Hiro's IPod began playing a very distinctive song...
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The shield had surprised Titan, but his punch was already on its way, and too far along to stop. He'd felt a noticiable amount of resistance, but the shield had given under the force of Titan's blow. In truth, his punch went through the shield like a battering ram through a glass wall, and struck the golden bracer upon the Yuusha's arm. There was a worrying crunch of broken bone, and the bracer, bizarrely, fell off, breaking into pieces.
Subtly, almost imperceptibly, the entire world shook...
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"Whoa, did you feel that?"
Bias, using one of his eyestalks to look at the little girl, asked, "What are you talking about?"
Glory, placing a hand over her tummy in an effort to still the butterflies that had suddenly started fluttering inside, said, "I don't know how to explain it. It... it felt like the entire world just turned sideways for a second..."
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Whoa...
Well, this wasn't the first time that Hiro had faced down an opponent with the ability to break equipment. He'd miss the ability to defend, but he still had plenty of healing potions, not to mention magic spells, so as long as he didn't take an instantly fatal blow, he could still win.
Speaking of, time for some magic.
Opening his magic menu quickly, Hiro selected the holy magic spell, Divine Pulse. A high level spell, it would completely heal his character's hit points, add bunch of defensive and offensive buffs, and release a powerful wave of energy, pushing his opponent back. A fun combination of offense and defense that had served him well over the course of this adventure...
A pity he didn't get a chance to use it this time.
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"Oh no you don't," Titan said, flatly, reaching for the pendant that the Yuusha was clutching. The last time the Yuusha had used that thing, he'd completely fixed all of his injuries. Before that, he'd hit Titan in the face with white fire. While, strangely, that fire hadn't hurt, Titan didn't want to wait and see what else might happen.
Given that the Yuusha had used some sort of healing magic, odds were that such spells were common on this world. That said, Titan could be a little more... forceful, given that such damage could be repaired later. Titan's hand closed around the pendant, and the hand that held that pendant... and crushed both.
The world shook again. Harder.
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"I definitely felt something," Bias admitted, after a brief moment of nausea passed. It had felt, for an instant, as if the world had stood on its head.
"Me too," Glory said, and her face took on an almost comical look of confusion. "But..."
Bias, swiveling two eyes around to look at the young girl. A sensitive? Some individuals were more... in tune with the world around them than others. The fact that she had felt the first tremble when Bias had not implied that, if she was a sensitive, she was an incredibly powerful one. After a moment's hesitation, the spectator asked, "But what?"
Struggling to put the feeling into words, Morning Glory said, "It's almost like the world is... laughing. Like somebody who spent their whole life in chains suddenly found that some of the chains were gone..."
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Hiro's controller was shaking violently, to the point that it was hard to hold it. Still, he'd been a gamer long enough that he wasn't going to let the fact that the device in his hands was rumbling like a miniature volcano stop him. If the game wanted to cheat, then that was fine: He still had enough potions for an extended battle, and his 'Lucky Break' skill still had one turn left before it wore off. More importantly, he still had 'Move' (The ability to move a character from one place to the next) left for this turn. In fact, he had two turns worth of movement at his disposal (His 'Sudden Rush' skill meant that if he didn't move his character for one turn, then his next move would allow him to cover double the distance he normally would), so a plan came to mind...
His opponent was a big bruiser type, but had demonstrated no long range attacks thus far. In addition, his total 'Move' range was likely less than Hiro's was each turn. Hence, if Hiro put enough distance between himself and the final boss, he could use an item to restore his character. Plus, with his 'Multi-Item' skill, he could use several potions at once (Up to five), so he could buff himself at the same time. Next turn, Hiro had several throwable items that did damage, debuffed, and inflicted status effects. Provided he could keep out of his enemy's range, he could just whittle down his opponent until the boss' stats became more manageable, then move in for the kill...
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Faster than Titan would have thought possible, the Yuusha sprang out of Titan's grip, and covered half the length of the room in an eyeblink. With his damaged hand, the Yuusha sheathed his sword, seemed to draw bottles from out of thin air, and consumed all of their contents at once. Miraculously, the injuries that Titan had inflicted vanished. While that was good news, since it meant that any damage that Titan did could be undone, it was bad news, since the only way Titan could end this was to smash the Yuusha hard enough to knock him out.
But what was really worrying was the fact that, in spite of taking injuries that would leave a grown stallion in tears, the Yuusha had yet to say anything. Not a grunt of exertion, nor a whimper of pain. In fact, TItan had not even seen a change of facial expression when he'd crushed the Yuusha's hand. It was almost as if he were fighting an automaton made of flesh and bone, rather than a real living creature...
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Jacquelynn returned to the grand hall just in time to see the Yuusha put some distance between himself and this 'Titan'. Incredibly, it was clear that Titan had the Yuusha on the ropes, yet had not sustained a single injury of his own. Still, it was pretty clear that the Yuusha was not about to give up.
It would be a good idea to end this quickly... and 'Jack' knew just how to do the job. Pulling out her pick, she strummed her guitar and began to play...
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Suddenly, the entire world was moving in slow motion. Titan looked around, and saw behind him the hooded stranger he'd met just a few minutes earlier. She was... playing a guitar? Strange. And yet, from each slow (Well, he supposed that to him, they sounded slow) strum, Titan could feel power flowing through his veins. Some sort of magic, hidden in the music? Well, regardless of how it was happening, it was clear that Titan had some support now. Best to move quickly, then.
Heh, that could almost be considered a joke.
Running forward, Titan reached the Yuusha, and did the first thing that he could think of: He took the Yuusha's sword from the sheath at his side, then with a single, quick motion... broke it over his knee.
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Bias was stunned: No one, in ten thousand years, had ever thought to try and break the 'Pillars Of Creation'. No one had thought that they could be broken. To do so, most would assume, would be the same as trying to break the world itself. And yet, this stranger had shattered the three that the Yuusha held as though they were nothing more than mundane trinkets...
And the strange feeling of joy that filled Bias was even more puzzling. The entire world seemed to be rejoicing at the destruction of the 'Pillars'. Something was going on here: It was clear that whatever Bias, and the rest of the world, assumed about the Pillars Of Creation was wrong. Suddenly, they seemed less like Pillars that held the world up... and more chains that held the world down.
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Following up the destruction of the sword, Titan reared his fist back for a mighty punch. Not willing to risk his opponent getting back up with any new tricks, he did something that he almost never had to do: He began burning love, doubling his already immense strength. It felt... different from before, but he didn't have time to question it. He swung his fist forward with all his might...
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Hiro dropped the controller, which was now shaking so violently that to try and hold it would risk hurting his hands, staring in horror at his console, which was now visibly shaking and letting out the most awful sound he'd ever heard. Wisps of smoke were coming out of the vents and the disk drive. A flicker from his tv drew his attention back to the screen.
He saw the game go into some kind of cutscene, and saw the final boss bringing his fist back to throw a punch... with the fist wreathed in green fire. Horrified, Hiro jumped behind his chair, ducking behind the sturdy piece of furniture. He'd never be able to adequately explain why he'd decided to hide behind a solid object: After all, it was just a game, it couldn't really hurt him.
However, the fact that he was behind his chair was the only reason he escaped serious injury when his controller, his gaming console, and his television all exploded violently...
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The Yuusha, after being struck by Titan's fist, exploded. It wasn't how you would expect a living creature to explode (When most living creatures explode, it is a lot... messier, and more colorful), but instead, the Yuusha seemed to break into pieces, which flew off in every direction.
Looking at the fragmented remains of the Yuusha, Titan said, "Wow. I didn't think I'd hit him THAT hard..."
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Elsewhere...
The true ruler of the world scowled, the ugly expression marring his otherwise perfect features. The loss of three of the 'Pillars Of Creation' would be a setback, but only a temporary one. They could, over time, be reconstructed, and allow him to regain his control over the world. What was more worrying was the fact that, at this moment in time, there existed someone who could break those relics. Thankfully, the fourth was hidden someplace a long way from this interloper, but if that fourth was broken...
He supposed it was time to start taking a more active role in things. He'd relied upon proxies for far too long, and his plans were too close to fruition to leave anything to chance. Just a little more time, a few more and the final barriers to his absolute control of the world would be broken... and he could wipe everything away and remake it all in any way he saw fit.
There was a knock on the door. Re-establishing the illusion that he'd maintained in order to allow him to interact with mortals, he said, "Come on in."
His 'superior' (As if there was really anyone better than he was) poked his head in, and said, "We got another report of problems with Seed GXA8I6A4S9B1A7NXE. This time, it seemed to cause some sort of a catastrophic hardware failure. We're going to have to take it off of the servers... that is, unless you've finished with the patch?"
While his expression remained neutral, the true ruler cringed slightly. The interloper had managed to break a player's gaming console? Inconceivable. To break the barriers of reality, even briefly, with just pure strength should have been impossible. Still, a lot of 'impossible' things had happened today. Clearing his throat, the true ruler said, "Almost done, boss. I'll have it ready in time for tomorrow's update." He hated kowtowing to mortals, but the ruler had learned, the hard way, that if he just tried to run roughshod over others in worlds that were not his own, there were those who would make him pay for it. Still, once tomorrow's update was completed, he could leave this world, and return to the place he truly belonged...
"Good," the superior said, smiling. "Keep up the good work." With nothing else to say, the boss left, closing the door behind him.
With a chuckle, the true ruler said, "I intend to..."
Soon. Soon, he would be the god of a new world...
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NEW CHAPTER UP!!!
PLOT TWISTS!!!
Ok, now I've realized what issue I was having with this story. Your intro misrepresents what you were aiming to do.
This chapter is fun, but I spent the previous two misjudging the story because, by the expectations established by the first chapters, chapters 4 and 5 do a very poor job.
It's sort of like a much lesser and more accidental version of the works by the much maligned Perfect Lionheart on Fanfiction.net, who's infamous for writing hugely engaging and detailed stuff... and then driving people away 50K+ words in by suddenly shifting from light comedy to dark drama or doing something else equivalent.
Hell yes! That was awesome! This comes off like the twist in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time ... in a good way. Now I'm picturing Titan looking like a JRPG antihero for some reason. Now to see if he can beat the Architect.
5185267
My assumption has always been that this would be so that Cthulhu would be dissuaded from eating them.
daticated to the memory of:
-tv
-console
-controller
they died in the line of duty, bravely.
Well now, that was an interesting development.
That's gotta be code for something (other than just the world seed, that is).
Uhhh....
Yeah, that seems bad. Or maybe good. It's hard to say.
And there goes the last Pillar. Let's see what happens!
Okay, not the last Pillar, there's both a fourth one and the real actual villain.
Well ... That explains why they were so unreasonable.
GXA8I6A4S9B1A7NXE.... Why does that sound familiar....? Oh, yeah looks like we need to regenerate the secondary access keys now.....
Keep going! ;)
5185535
5185512
I'll give you a clue about the 'Seed'. Ignore the 'X'. Then look at the letters and numbers separately. Each set has a different relevance.
light is that you
5185688
Gaia's Bane?
Not sure about 864917, though.
864917 is the Hex code for a shade of brown.
864917 is a prime number,
5187848
5187401
It also coincides with a number given in chapter "It's Dangerous To Go Alone".
5188979
World eight six four nine one seven
Anypony got a Stargate? It would only be a hoofful of combinations to try.
5189214
39 starting points (36 for Pegasus gates or Destiny gates) to try the combination on... double the possibilities for starting clockwise vs. counterclockwise...
Was this inspired in any way by Guilded Age?
5189817
Actually, its more inspired by John Scalzi's book, Redshirts.
5190088 Ah. I can see that one also. Guilded Age just came to mind first for reasons I don't want to explain in order to avoid spoilers.
5189504 Always count from the 'ORIGIN' symbol to start. The problem is if the code is each number is from the Origin, or from the one before it.
5190684
It would make no sense for each digit to start from the starting point again (like a rotary phone), since there are only 10 digits and over 30 symbols.
Treating the gate like a combination lock is still unlikely, though, since you're not going to get very far from where you begin.
I like this story, it reminds me of a similar story that one of my favorite authors wrote that was set in World of Warcraft. There the servers would basically vanish most of the inhabitants and make the rest mindlessly repeat the same actions (i.e. mobs) only during times when the servers were down for a few hours did the inhabitants of Azeroth have any freedom. In the meantime the players had the run of the place. Until one of those players accidentally got sucked into the actual world, free of the server's restrictions but with all his avatar's acquired might.
I do so love the concept as it mirrors one of the reasons i suck as a writer; i don't do conflict well because i have trouble willing that someone had a shitty life or something of that nature on any characters I create.
The numbers from the glitch are the same as the world number on Celestia's clipboard at the mirror! And I am the first to post the connection! ... sorry, I never get to do these type of things.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
I am confused, but the confusion only fuels my interest.
Yo, there's no way anyone could perfectly recit that seed from memory. There should either be a code name for such an infamous seed like "Seed "Chaos"", or the guy holding a clipboard/tablet with the info on it.
5669474 Gaias bane, with a few numbers thrown in.
6359939 Oooh! I like that one.