Two days later, Lorn and Yara logged out at the last minute. Since so many people logged out at the same time, they didn't have to go through the usual procedure. They only did a basic test, and those who received personalized treatments from Gwen went through those. There was no sign of Gwen herself, but the doctors and nurses under her authority quickly settled everything.
Yara was lucky - she wasn't in the 80%. Thus, she went ahead to Lorn's house by herself.
Lorn finished his shock therapy and acupuncture session two hours later. There was no sign of his hand healing, but his body did feel lighter since he was receiving treatment.
When he came home, Yara was cooking a meal, a soup. It was bad. It wasn't anything inedible, but it tasted bland, plus some parts were crumbling while others were undercooked. Lorn guessed she just put all the ingredients in water and called it a day.
After they finished eating, they went to the forums and checked for updates.
One huge post pinned on the front page caught their attention.
[12th of August, 2045. Updates for 'Falling Cosmos' Deep-dive VRMMORPG]
'So the game's name is going to be Falling Cosmos…' Lorn thought as he clicked on the post. 'Another shitty name from the One Leader.'
The post started with a statement.
[All the facilities, researchers, studies and talents necessary to create Falling Cosmos, and of course, the game itself belongs to the One Leader. His decisions are final.]
The statement was worded in a way that felt like the One Leader and the creators of the game were at odds, but Lorn knew that they just meant that there was no point complaining to the research staff. If they had problems, they had to go talk to the One Leader themselves.
Lorn smiled and continued reading.
[System changes.
- It's possible to check your Status by simply willing it. It will take some time to get used to, but all players should be able to interact with the Status screen however they want inside their head.
- 'Health' Stat has been removed from the Status screen. This stat is too misleading. Some stats help your body become sturdier, but they will not be able to help you survive everything. Players will die if their heads get chopped off, or if they simply get too sick.
- The Spirit stat will now show a number, instead of a percentage.]
The changed weren't that many, nor that big. Lorn was also confused about what the Health stat did. It rarely went down, and even when it did, it barely dropped by 5%. He continued reading.
[Balance Changes.
There are many different skills and branches in Falling Cosmos. If you played the One Country's other game, Falling Earth, you know that the game developers look very closely upon the game's balance.
Although very few have experience problems relating to Falling Cosmos's balance for the time being, we would like to inform you that an AI manages the entirety of the System, skills, and the balancing of it all. The reasoning is that it derived most skills from the framework the One Leader provided for it.
Of course, developers will work hard on creating new settings, new quests, and ironing out lore details to keep players engaged.]
Lorn nodded, reading the explanation. He soon put the whole matter out of his head. The AI will handle everything, so there was no need for him to think about these things.
Like what Adrian said, there was no need to think about all the different Hunters and skills in the world. You only needed to know your own skills inside out and the best ways to utilize them.
[Addressing concerns.
- We will not change the 'Spirit' stat to 'Mana'.
- We cannot give players the 'Identification' skill by default.
- We cannot make it easier to use skills and your spirit.
- We cannot allow you to redo your character from scratch.
- We will not reveal any information about the lore and state of the One World.
- Players do not have this restriction and may give away, sell, or be forced to give information to other players, but you are all restricted from revealing any information to the general populace.
- We have no plans to make a Ranking system showing the progress of top players, but we will not stop players from creating one themselves.
- We will not reduce the amount of pain you feel in the game. This decision will not change even if the game is released to the public.
- We will not ban players from killing other players.
Do not bother the researchers and game designers. Remember that you are dealing with the One Leader.]
It said that they were addressing player concerns, but it was simply a list of 'No'-s. Lorn could see what the game designers, or should he say what the One Leader was trying to achieve.
'Complete realism.'
Aside from the obvious things that separated the game from reality, the One World was intended to work in the exact same manner as reality. There would be consequences to one's choices in the game, and there wouldn't be a redo button available.
Lorn then saw the open threat at the end of the list. Anyone who made trouble with the research center's staff could be shot dead in the face.
It was expected. The One Leader was always someone like this. He did things as he wished, and if there was opposition, he did not waste his time talking to them.
There was one law in the One Country that was still discussed by everyone to this day: 'Laws will not affect the One Leader'.
It was a statement that put him high above the rest of the world. Many scoffed at the concept of such a thing, but despite it all, these days, the One Country was quickly becoming one of the most populated places in the world. It wasn't like the One Leader killed a person every day and it wasn't like he went around acting like some villain, doing actually whatever he wanted.
Of course, there were moments when he ordered the deaths of some people or the destruction of their lives.
There was even one case where he personally shot and killed an interviewer on live television.
The international backlash for that one was intense. Countries across the world bit down hard at this scandal. No government liked the newly found power that was the One Country. Pressure from the United Nations grew intense… before it all abruptly went quiet.
The One Leader had revealed documents, transfers, dossiers, tapes, and witnesses, many, many witnesses of the politicians of other countries committing the same crimes, if not worse, to the world.
Of course, few of the affected leaders stepped down from their position despite the amount of hard evidence stacked against them. Unfortunately, technology had advanced to such levels that they could all simply deny these claims as fabrications and soon the masses would forget about it all.
The One Leader briefly changed the controversial law's wording after the event. 'Laws will not affect individuals with enough power'.
There was no one in the world who didn't know of these stories. Especially if they lived in the One Country.
Lorn was sure that the beta-testers wouldn't be going around making trouble.
And it wasn't like it was all tyranny, no benevolence.
[Beta-players after the game is released to the public.
We understand that some players who are invested in the One World are worried about what would happen to their characters. Here is a statement from the One Leader.
"Allow all of them to retain everything they worked to achieve. I don't care if they manage to create their own organizations or countries. But ban them from interacting with the new players for a set time."]
Lorn's worries dissipated. He thought at in the worst case, he could sell information about the game, but with this, he could do so much more.
'I'll have to ask the researchers if it would be possible to stream the game someday in the future.'
The post ended there.