The dark room was silent besides the light humming coming from the fans in Qu's computer. He closed the tab with the live broadcast and returned to his desktop. He leaned forward in his seat, resting his head on the palm of his left hand. He clicked around blankly on his desktop for a few seconds until an idea sprang up. Qu opened up the launcher for Mythos Online. A progress bar appeared on the bottom of the launcher, showing the patch progress for the latest update. He remembered the statement that John Miller made on the announcement.
On the sidebar of the launcher was a section filled with news regarding the game's latest updates and other announcements. He clicked the latest post titled "Mythos Online Patch 1.1."
A webpage opened. There, he was greeted with a large splash screen with bright and fantastical images from the game. Upon scrolling down, there was a excerpt from the game developers.
Hello adventurers of Mythos Online! We're excited to finally bring you the first update to the game! I hope everyone has been enjoying the game so far. The team here at Finale Games has been hard at work putting this update together. We've tried to address some of the issues that were brought up by players since the launch. We also decided to add some of the most requested features. Trust us, we've been listening to your feedback loud and clear!
First of all, we'd like to introduce the system possible thanks to the latest innovations at Pentrafil and our very own marvelous John Miller. Active Adaptation now leverages nanotechnologies found in the latest version of the Zero VR headset that allow us to simulate and translate the nutrients that you consume in-game to your body in the real world! This should allow players to stay in-game for longer periods of time and enhance everyone's immersion into the world of Mythos Online.
Secondly, we would like to address some of the issues brought up by players. From our records, we can see that there are currently three players registered as Savants. Many players wish to become the Savant class, but as you know, players are unable to select their class. We recognize that many players are upset at this, but please understand this is a choice that we have deliberately made.
"Three Savants, huh…" Qu thought to himself.
There wasn't a notification for when Shin was registered as a Savant. He pondered for a few moments, scratching his head, until he gave up and hypothesized that it was a regional announcement rather than a world announcement. He continued to read the remaining paragraph.
Finally, please check the remaining patch notes for some of the more minor changes that we made. We've also made a slight change to our terms of service. Thank you again for your unending support of Mythos Online and we'll see you in-game!
Qu sighed as he felt like he read over the same public relations phrases that he heard time and time again from the previous games he played. He scrolled down from the introductory paragraphs to find the changes to the game.
"Minor damage adjustments on certain skills, adjusted damage dealt by enemies in Levendale…"
He mumbled, talking quietly to himself as he read through the changes one by one until a couple interesting lines caught his attention.
"Experience gain increased in secret dungeons and underground dungeons…"
Immediately he thought about the ramifications. Could this mean that Urumel was going to be an experience gold mine? Or would it not affect it because it's considered a special labyrinth instance. He continued to read.
As he got to the end of the page, there was one final note.
"Slowly rolling out improvements to NPC AI and communication"
Fuyumi, Qu, and Shin were all well aware of the NPC's behaviors in the game. They were mostly rough on the edges and awkward at times. After all, they interacted with hundreds of NPCs during their short time in-game.
Qu sat back in his chair. He tried to remember every NPC that he encountered in Mythos Online. Most of them were simply merchants and guards. He scratched his chin in thought as he couldn't think of anything interesting. Qu's eyebrows shot up when he recalled his interactions with the special quest back in Freila. The most well-programmed and lifelike NPC that he encountered was Adam and to some extent, Rodgier. They had behaved just like real people. Aside from a few hiccups, he probably never would have guessed that they were NPCs to begin with if the quest hadn't told him.
He kicked off the wall behind his desk, pushing him and the chair back toward the center of the room. Qu spun around in his chair. He pushed his head back into the headrest and stared into the ceiling.
"Are NPCs like Adam and Freila becoming even more realistic or are the less important NPCs becoming more lifelike?"
His thoughts wandered to the other parts of the patch notes. There was a lot to consider. Even though the other changes were incredibly minor, there was a chance that even those adjustments would add up or interact in a way that people wouldn't notice or think about. He sat upright and pulled himself back to his desk.
Qu stretched and cracked his knuckles. He was determined. If anyone was going to figure out those interactions, it would be him. The update finished downloading and he immediately got to work.
+++++++++++++
[10:48 | May 07, 2035]
Shin pressed the start button and put on his headset. He was a little shocked by the sudden jolt he felt at the back of his head. Instinctively, he reached his hand up to the back of the Zero VR device. However, the sensation went away so he lowered his hand and leaned back into the chair.
[Mythos Online]
A grid of black squares with a light ambient glow filled his vision. They shifted around and rotated before expanding outward and fading away into the world of Mythos Online. It was a starting sequence that he had grown accustomed to, but it felt a little different.
"Was this because of the update?" He thought.
Regardless, such minor details didn't stay on his mind for long as he got up from the bed. Shin expanded the notification window in the top right of his vision. He had several missed messages from Nightingale, Fuyumi, and Geoff.
He was surprised to see that Geoff had messaged him.
"I'll save that for last." He mumbled to himself as he scrolled through Nightingale's message first.
I started doing some research on the new update. I'm sure you looked through the patch notes, but we could probably do some interesting things later today. I'll be on in a few hours.
Shin put his hand to his face.
"Ah… shit the patch notes…" He grumbled, tapping his foot.
Shin checked the timestamp - the message was sent two hours ago. He figured that Nightingale would be online soon so he'd ask him about the changes later.
Next, he opened Fuyumi's message.
This is probably the longest time I've been offline from the game since Mythos Online launched. It's a little pathetic now that I think about it. There's nothing better to do though. To be honest, I don't know why I even sent you a message actually. I'm just that bored…
It was a lot more mundane than he expected. Usually Fuyumi's messages were about the game, so Shin was taken by surprise.
Shin breathed out slowly as he hesitated to open the last message.
Shin, hope you're doing well so far. Sorry to bother you all of the sudden. Think we could meet at Urumel's entrance sometime within the next two days? Let me know when is a good time for you.
He let out a sigh of relief when he realized that it wasn't anything serious. Still, he couldn't think of a reason as to why he would invite him to Urumel.
"Maybe it wasn't just me?" He thought, scratching his chin.
Shin sat in silence, thinking about how to respond. There wasn't anything that he considered to be off the table. Scenarios ran through his mind like a wildfire. Was he going to lure him into the labyrinth to kill him? Or maybe, he would he just ask for help in an attempt to become stronger? Shin ruffled his hair in frrustration before giving up and setting it aside for now. He thought that it would be best to ask Fuyumi and Nightingale the next time he saw them.
Shin opened the drawer, gathered his belongings, and went to the door. His hand reached for the doorknob but he stopped when he noticed a piece of paper slipped under the door. Shin picked it up and unfolded it. The note was written in a fancy cursive font.
I'll be waiting outside.