Taboo

PART II

My alarm didn't go off this morning. I discovered it was because the battery had died in it.  Trying to find another one to replace it would be difficult, as they no longer make AA batteries.  There's no way I'd buy a brand new one, as they have cloud sync and are completely connected to the internet, and I couldn't risk being discovered thanks to my choice of alarm clock.
I rushed to make myself some toast in an old toaster oven, as again, the latest model of toaster oven syncs with your mobile device. I didn't own a mobile device. After shoving slightly over cooked toast down my throat I rushed into the garage. Yes, the garage. Ever since I lost the need to drive anywhere, I converted my garage into storage for the servers. The garage is insulated, so it stays at a reasonable temperature, there are no windows, and it's a wide open space. I would of chosen a basement, but my home doesn't have one.  Having reached the garage, I Walked past the walls of computers set up on shelves, until I reached my computer set up at the end of the shelves.  As I sat down, I booted up my computer, and flipped a red switch on a power strip zip tied to the desk. The walls of computers behind me spun to life in unison, all of their fans buzzing in harmony as they sprang to life. Only a few minutes after the servers finished booting up, people began to log in. It always fascinates me to see the numbers shoot up. Starting small, but growing, and growing, and growing, until the number was increase so exponentially fast that the program was having a hard time trying to tell me how many. It's almost like waiting under the dome of the night, and watching as the stars reveal themselves to you, first only a couple at a time, until the whole sky lights up like a city.  I haven't seen the stars in so long, as smog always finds a way to cancel the show.  As the numbers climbed, I began to set up my VR headset. I had redone it to resemble to visor Jordi La Forge wears on Star Trek.  I powered on the headset, and heard the virtual surround sound test begin, as each section of stereo sound turned on, until 8 different notes were humming in unison, telling me it was working fine.  As the sound cut out, I looked around me and saw the computer loading me into the servers. Many players of Taboo were very jealous, since I had the lowest ping in the world.
Loading in, I slowly saw elements of the world rendering into view, and the games motion blur calibrated. I looked around and found I has spawned on a grassy knoll. I looked around me to see sheep frolicking in the grass, which swayed with the light breeze in the air. The sky was a perfect blue, and the sun had spawned at daybreak. I noticed I had spawned In a players farm, as a player emerged from a nearby cottage, and waved in my direction.
"Hello sir! Beautiful day today, isn't it?" He shouted.
"Yes! Quite stunning I'd reckon." I responded. The man gave a laugh and said,
"Well that I know your sane, could I ask you why you are standing in my field?"
"I guess I spawned here." I answered.
"Ah! Well hope you have a mighty good day sir!"
"And to you as well!"
The man tipped his cap to me, and walked over towards a group of sheep and began to corral them towards some other sheep.
As our conversation concluded, I pulled a vehicle spawner from my inventory. Vehicle spawners are a rod shaped object that unfolds into the vehicle of your choice. I chose the jet bike, and held the rod out in front of me.
As the Spawner accepted my choice, the two circular ends of the rod opened up, and 0's and 1's began pouring out of either end, flying around until they all eventually formed the jet bike. Upon completion, the jet bike powered itself on and gave a rev of excitement. I saddled the bike, a helmet immediately spawned around my head, and I throttled the bike forwards. The bike let out a loud whizzing sound, and shot forwards, rustling the grass behind it and scaring a couple sheep.

I've logged into this game a millions times. Heck, I designed it. But everytime I play it I'm amazed at my own creation. I'm like God came down to earth and say, "Man, I am good at making mountains." I wonder what God does think of his creations right now. He's probably sitting up in heaven thinking to himself, "Boy, what a mess mankind made of itself. I probably should have started from scratch again."

Iridium was one of my favorite places design. It's the capital city of the entire game, so I made sure to make it the grandest and latest scale city in the game. One thing I did not anticipate while designing it, however, was overpopulation. Sure, I took into consideration that a lot of people would he passing through the city at any given time, and made sure to design the city's size appropriately, as well as dedicate more server power to the city, but I underestimated the amount of players that would ever play my game. The numbers started small, and only a hundred or so, but every time they got bigger, it was even more exponentially bigger than the last increase in players. The biggest number the computer has recorded of total logins was sitting around 5 billion. Pretty impressive, but I guess not considering it is the only available video game.
I felt bad for all the lower level players who have to try and make their way through the city. Us higher level folks own vehicles or can simply teleport home, if our home happens to be in Iridium. But lower level players who don't own vehicles have to either take the public access transports, which are almost always full, or walk, which is even worse. I've tried multiple times to fix the walkways and the transports, but all it does is simply leave less people stranded, as the extra room I add is immediately filled. The government officials must be in an even worse position. But at least my cities are artificial and are fixed much faster.
As I rode through the city overhead the noisy crowds of players packing them selfs into transports, people yelling at each other to let them on. I actually had to add a capacity to the transports, otherwise people were overfilling them, and trust me, just because they aren't real, doesn't mean their aren't hazards. I continued onward, astonished at how large the crowds were, and I guess surprised myself at how large I had actually had to make them. Sometimes I wonder where their all headed.  I took a sharp turn upwards and soared past several layers of roads and buildings until I reached the top of one of the tallest towed in the city, and landed my craft on top of it. I de-summoned my jet bike and entered through a door at the center of the buildings roof. The door led to an elevator, which took me down to my personal home.
I tried not to make my home too flashy or extravagant, although I could of made it in space for all I cared. I didn't want to look like an ego centric power hungry admin, but a humble and trustworthy one. Now of course, I would put some uber rare items here and there in my home, but they were ones I had gotten myself, not programmed in because I could. Entering my home, I noticed I had several missed messages. One of them caught my attention, which rarely happens considering my inbox is usually flooded with the usual stuff like angry death threats, suggestions for new things to put in the game, fan letters and more. To prove to everyone I actually read the stuff that people send me, on the main news bulletin in the game, I always post my favorite letter that someone has sent me. The particular letter that caught my attention, however, was not a death threat or fan mail, but a letter from a guild called "The Player Protection Organization". I had recognized the name before. They were basically a union that fought passively for the rights and rules of players who couldn't fight. If there was something players didn't like, the PPA was quick to inform me and everyone else. This time, they were reporting a major griefing event. Griefing, if you are not aware, is the act of damaging or changing someone's property without the authority to do so. Most people were pretty good about not griefing, but when you have 5 billion people playing your game, not everyone is going to cooperate. Because I am the only admin of the entire game, as I can trust anyone else, I have to resolve these issues myself. But I like to have fun with it, to the PPA's dismay. If I catch a player cheating or griefing, I sentence them to a death battle against me. If they win, their sentence is diminished. If they loose, they are banned for a long, long time. The duration of the ban usually depends on what they did.
I grabbed the vehicle spawner again, and opened up the jet pack. The rod unfolded into a backpack sized cube, with two triangular jet engines flaring downwards from the pack. I slung the jet pack around my shoulders, clicked the buckles into place, and returned to the roof. I turned the jet pack on, and immediately took to the skies.

I was getting close to what had been griefed, and it became obvious very quickly that it had been. Buildings were on fire, players dead corpses lay scattered, one was nailed to the side of a house. Supplies had been looted, terrain had been dug up and ruined. This was more than just griefing, this was an act of terrorism of some sort. I had never seen anything like it before, not on this scale anyways.  And to think it all happened since I booted up the server.  As I walked around the ruins of the town, I noticed something peculiar. As I looked closer, I noticed that an area of the field that had been damaged had an odd appearance. It was comprised not of grass or dirt, but instead, a black and white checkerboard pattern. I remember I had programmed that texture to appear in the place of a missing texture. But the only time textures were missing is if I had not yet set the texture to an area. It was then I immediately knew who had griefed this town.
"Hackers."