Somnia Online, K.T. Hanna [best books to read now .txt] 📗

Their spines’ poison wasn’t too potent and easily curable by healers. The drain on their mana was minimal but steady.

Beyond them was an area she couldn’t read. Her nets extended there, but it was murky, like something was hiding itself from her and therefore them. She paled, understanding what was happening and not liking it in the least.

“Conserve your mana, only fight with necessary skills, hold all cooldowns.” She could feel the shift in all of the raiders behind her, working like a well-oiled machine. Sure, they’d already gone through two dungeons together; of course they’d be fine working through this one. It was strange that it had only taken about fifteen hours or so of raiding together to work like cogs in a clock.

Mur? What are we looking at? Dev asked over guild.

There’s something beyond them I can’t see. Okay, I can’t read. I know there’s something there, but I don’t know what it is. My nets just won’t gather the information. It’s blocking me.

Got it. Any signs of it coming closer?

Double checking, Murmur shook her head before sending her reply. Not yet. Right now, it looks to be holding in its place. Maybe it’s just observing us and what we’re doing?

Have pigs started flying? Beastial asked, and Murmur suppressed a groan.

They only had two more waves left. Just eighteen of the crocohusks. Neva was going to love the loot they got. Plenty of ingredients for alchemy and other crafts. If only Murmur could shake off the feeling that the thing waiting for them was far more intelligent than she’d come to expect from mobs. By restricting the mana output of the raid, and making it perhaps more difficult, but mana preserving, they finished the waves with eighty percent mana across the board. A long fight, but not a dangerous one. Although the crocohusks looked formidable, their attacks had been easy enough to counter as long as people paid attention.

Murmur knew for a fact that Telvar designed this dungeon, and she knew he wasn’t the sort of AI to make anything basic, let alone one of the top tier dungeons. What was it they were missing, and why did she feel like missing it was going to wipe the whole raid?

Storm Entertainment

Somnia Online Division

Game Development Offices - Shayla’s Office

Early Day Thirty

Laria burst through into Shayla’s office, her face shining brightly with triumph. The smile even reached her tired eyes, giving her a momentary appearance of someone much younger. “We did it!”

She didn’t yell or shout, but her words were firm and proud in what they’d accomplished. “At least, I think we did.”

Shayla chuckled, her lack of sleep showing in her dress. Crumpled wasn’t a look the woman usually went with. “Okay, and just what do you think you did? I’ve been putting out fires on a pretty consistent basis. So many rumors, so much mess out there. Luckily, some of those rumors have upped our subscription base, so you know, there you go.”

Laria let out a short laugh as David closed the door behind him, a cup of coffee in his hand.

Shayla grimaced. “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you. I made it like six hours ago.”

David shook his head. “Nope. I wouldn’t drink that either, which is why I’m a few minutes behind her. Made new stuff. You know I love my coffee.”

Laria put her tablet down and swung herself to sit on Shayla’s desk. Just a little while longer and they could all sleep. Or she hoped they could. This had really worn on her energy reserves. Even given a normal title launch, this one had far outweighed all of those as far as lack of sleep went. Lack of peace of mind. Lack of every bloody thing. She ran a hand through her hair and took a breath.

“David, being the brilliant man he is—” She grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes as he slurped down hot coffee. “Anyway—he might have had a different perspective from us since I think we were too close to it. So I think we’ve got what we need to be able to make sure the virus gets neutralized.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense.” Shayla sounded marginally interested, but also sort of hopeless. Like she didn’t believe this could help them, that nothing would. But Laria needed to prove her wrong. So she pulled out the tiny disk she had with her and inserted it in her tablet.

A projection shot out of it, modeling the game engine and the AIs’ place in it. Shayla’s interest piqued, she took a few steps around it, the furrow in her brow lessening with each step. “So your idea is to have the AIs join in the last battle and just release it?”

“Well, not entirely. That’s an extreme oversimplification.” Laria sighed. “That’s the final step, and Rav assured me that was how it would work anyway. They’re going to have to help if the shards have come to rest where they think they have. While the raid is going on, their goal is to personally deliver the coding around the entire world. Sort of like anchors within the game world, built into it. They’re the AIs, they can travel where they want, instantaneously. If we think of it that way, it’s easy for them to ensure that the coding gets to where it needs to go.”

“But won’t this Riasli AI realize what they’re doing?” Shayla asked, pausing again to go over the code.

Laria bit her lip. “I’m not entirely sure. I mean, she might notice, but I don’t think she’s a match for Rav and the rest. Or at least, I’d like to hope she’s not. She’s a virally infected simple AI version. Assistant AI. So really…I don’t see how she could, though I also can’t rule it out.”

Shayla nodded, and David spoke up. “Theoretically, it should work. We made a few simulations, but they were a bit slipshod and hastily put together, so even though it tested out, well. I can’t