Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

29 Special Announcements

"Way to go, Sam!" Alex cheered quietly to herself as she watched Sam finish off Caesar on her monitor. Sam's victory over him and Rondo and his subsequent completion of King Herke's questline was an extremely impressive feat. It was even more impressive that he had managed it in Survival Mode. The other testers had largely decided to proceed forward slowly. Most of them were still grinding souls and leveling themselves, their weapons, and their armors, but Sam was actually ready for the next area of the game. IMMORtAL_Kalika and SwordWrenchMan had done all this before Survival Mode was active and Justinian89Thrills had completed the quest early by killing the king. Regal Deego had yet to finish. She was glad that she decided to stay up for the extra hour to see it. The fatigue did finally seem to be getting to her though. She could barely keep her eyes fully open after her latest cup of coffee.

It was strange though, there was a brief shift in Sam's brain patterns as he watched King Herke get killed by Caesar. There was some sort of attachment there and a real feeling of loss when the king was killed. It wasn't strange for players to be so immersed in the game that they get attached to characters, but the extreme spectrum of feelings that Sam was feeling was abnormal. Intense rage, melancholy, vindictiveness, and joy when he vanquished Caesar. But it all made sense considering what he had dealt with in the last few hours. He'd been betrayed and thanks to Milner, he ended up killing his best friend. There was no way that Sam was in a stable mental state right now, and her data was screaming at her, that that was the case. She only hoped that his mental state would stabilize soon, for his sake.

She looked around and saw Milner enter the room once again with Stephen at his side. He had been recording himself and projecting his image into the games of all the testers, talking to them, and apparently motivating them like he had done for Sam and her other testers Jake and Dan. The only place he could do that was in the Scan Room. She had no clue what technological voodoo he pulled to get that thing working as smoothly as it did, but she had to admit that it was impressive. It didn't require any further rendering from the programmers whatsoever. They were all focused on the shit-show that was Phase 2. Milner wouldn't be impressed by Sam's results in the least. He would be moreso looking for a perfect run from Sam, meaning that the fact that Sam wasn't able to keep King Herke alive or kill both Caesar and Rondo effortlessly would be held against him. The man's standards were impossible to achieve and it made her really fear for everyone involved in his test.

Milner and Stephen walked past her talking ardently. She caught them saying something about the bodies of the testers.

"They're already dead, but we tapped them again as a precaution. A standard procedure." Stephen said with a grimace on his face.

She stood up to hear them better, but continued to stare at her monitors so that she appeared less conspicuous.

"I know all about your procedure, but it's not good enough. I need those bodies burned." explained Milner.

"Listen, I saw to the preparations myself. Those rounds have been mixed and dipped to produce effects that are highly concentrated. Remember, my people have been doing this for a very long time."

"Yes, centuries apparently, but you all have also had the nasty habit of putting your faith in God for as long as you've been active. Blame the scientist in me, but I just don't leave anything to divine intervention. Now, take all those bodies that you've tapped and burn them. The disposal facility is below. Alphonse will show you. Speak of the young devil."

They stopped halfway up the aisle and waited for the young man coming from the doorway. The boy looked fresh out of high school with a shock of blonde hair atop his head and thick rimmed glasses on his face. Alex couldn't help but to stare at him as he walked by, taking note of his barely visible face freckles, light brown eyes, and of how nicely he was dressed in his grey micro check suit sans blazer.