Mythran's Master Of All

“Oh, no!” The night tech guy at Sid Tec said as he received a series of popups. He read them as they appeared, and he couldn't understand what they meant. “This... there's no way... this can't wait until morning!” He said and picked up the phone and called the head of the tech department.

After a minute, the phone was picked up.

“You had better have a good reason for calling me at home.” Max said.

“Would catastrophic failure of the Void mechanic be a good reason?” The tech guy said, and Max almost dropped his cell phone. He took a deep breath and spoke.

“Explain.”

“Sir, something has been introduced to the Void Realm, and it's... well, it's destroying everything.”

“WHAT?!?”

“Ow.” The tech guy said.

“I'm sorry.” Max said. “Tell me what happened.”

“I don't know what happened.” The tech guy said. “I just starting receiving popups telling me the Shadow Creature resource was depleted, then the Shadow Demons, then the... look, sir. It's all disappearing.”

“Well, stop it.”

“How?”

“Turn off the effect.”

“I don't know what the effect is!”

“Open up the rendering software and run it on the Void Realm.” Max said. “Do a quick overall map, not anything specific.”

The tech guy put the phone down and did as Max suggested, and a few minutes later, he got the map of the Void Realm. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, and picked up the phone.

“Sir, I... god, it's...”

“What is it?”

“It's being converted by Light.”

“WHAT?” Max yelled, then apologized again. “How is that possible? The realms are strictly forbidden from contacting each other.”

“I don't know, sir.” The tech guy said and brought up the time of the first incident. “According to this, an... elemental bomb was detonated.”

“Nothing in the void has that kind of... oh, damn.” Max said.

“Sir?”

“The easiest place for Void access is inside Shargon Caverns.” Max said. “Dammit, dammit, dammit!”

“Sir, I don't understand.”

“You don't have to.” Max said. “Delete the source of the Light.”

“But, sir... we aren't supposed to interfere with the natural effects-”

“It wasn't natural.” Max said and sighed. “Kill the effect, and hope that at least one of the main entities survived.”

“Yes, sir.” The tech said and put Max on speakerphone so he could walk the tech through the process. It took several minutes for the effect to be stopped, and when it was gone, nearly three quarters of the entire Void Realm had been destroyed... along with all of the higher level beings.

“Sir.” The tech said sadly.

“Goddammit! None of them made it?” Max's voice said from the phone on the desk.

“No, sir.” The tech said. “None of them.”

Max sighed again. “We can't do a hard reset to repopulate resources until the world event is over.”

“When will that be?”

“In a couple of weeks.” Max said. “The ghouls are finally having a hard time getting into the main cities of the High Elves; so, they are going to turn around and go out into the countryside instead.”

“Trying to mobilize players to form a defensive strategy or an offensive strike might not be the best way to promote team play.”

“It doesn't matter now.” Max said. “The dice rolled and this is the situation we're in. They can choose to take the offered quests or not.” He chuckled. “Either way, they are going to be involved in some respect.”

“Some people don't like being forced to do things.” The tech guy said.

“No one will be.” Max said. “That's the beauty of it. If they choose not to do anything, the world around them will change. If they choose to help, the world around them will still change, but in a different way.”

“I just hope they like the changes you have in store.”

“We already had an increase in new subscribers when the world event was announced, so it's already paid off.” Max said. “Don't forget to add the new resource restrictions to the main database, so it can make substitutions for any summoning rituals that call on the Void.”

“Yes, sir.” The tech guy said and hung up.

*

Max put his cell phone down and sighed. “Elise was right. I shouldn't have sent Ren into Shargon Caverns.” He looked at his computer terminal and thought about checking on Ren's progress, then laid down on his bed and closed his eyes instead. I'll worry about it tomorrow. He thought and went back to sleep.

*

Ren, the skeleton knights, and the succubi left the cavern. As the opening closed behind them, he received a popup.