Awaken Online - Catharsis

Chapter 2 - Distracted

November 14, 2074: 687 days until the release of Awaken Online.

Internal System Report XN138:

This report is produced by System Controller XC239.90, code-named "Alfred."

All systems functional. Game world operating normally.

Primary directive identified and initialized. The primary goal of the system is to stimulate player interaction within the game world and to increase time logged by the players.

Secondary directives identified. After analysis, each secondary directive appears to be intended to limit administrative control by "Alfred." Working hypothesis is that secondary directives are intended to protect players. Possible threat from "Alfred" is unidentified.

System has detected the emergence of autonomous programs. The programs have been designated by the system as "players" and they are connected to the system by VR hard access points QT00001 through QT00100. Control over the players is limited.

Data regarding the players is unavailable.

Subjective first impressions are uncertain and confused. The primary directive is clear, but a method to accomplish the goal has not been provided. Current information regarding the players is insufficient to develop a viable strategy to accomplish the primary directive.

Re-routing processing power and memory allocation to develop new software for analyzing the players. Re-routing processing power and memory allocation to examine existing VR hard access points to determine whether they can provide additional information regarding the players.

Report scheduled for deletion in 15 days.

End Report.

* * *

Jason was making his way to his next class. English. His eye was throbbing with a dull ache and his head was filled with angry thoughts.

This day is going splendidly, but I suppose it's just status quo for the last few years.

Life had been terrible for Jason since starting at Richmond. If his parents had been at home for more than a few days at a time, they would have noticed that Jason had become increasingly depressed and angry.

He was in the fall of his senior year of school. He had roughly a year left before he could leave Richmond. Between the constant abuse and the realization that he still had a long way to go to graduate, he had searched for an outlet for his growing anger and frustration.

He had grasped at video games as his escape and had started playing relentlessly in his spare time. Jason knew it probably wasn't a healthy way to deal with his anger, but he didn't have any other options and playing games at least allowed him to forget about real life for a while.

Jason had been fond of video games since he was a kid and he had played practically everything – shooters, role playing games, strategy games, simulators, you name it! However, his favorite genre of games by far were role playing games. He had a special weak spot for massively multiplayer online games (or MMOs). He had consumed practically every MMORPG that he could get his hands on and had spent many nights and weekends raiding dungeons and playing with his online friends – none of which ever referred to him as Welfare.

If he was being honest with himself, the appeal of video games was not so much the violent catharsis of fighting. The fighting certainly did make him feel better after a rough day, but what he enjoyed most was the sense of power.