POV Zeus:
The tall man with long blonde hair stood stunned, his eyes unfocused as he kept reading through his status over and over.
“Dragonkin? Not a wyrmkin… does that mean?” his eyes fell upon the giant wyrm… no, the large dragon lying on the blazing hot golden coins. His heart felt conflicted just thinking about the possible huge rewards he could get from selling intel about a true dragon’s location.
‘No, with our strength, we would gain just a few tiny bits, and just now, we have gained so much…’ his head was spinning as he looked at his bloodstained hands, knowing the price of the liquid he had just drank.
”Brother? Are you seeing this too?” the trembling voice of his sister, that stood by his side, entered his mind, her usually pristine face covered in blood.
Without answering, he just nodded, his mind going into the stars, knowing that this could change everything, ‘If the dragon eventually transforms all of our guild members, that will give us an unimaginable advantage. Maybe we can even catch up with these snakes!’
Suddenly, loud electricity crackling resounded through the room, blue light flashing brightly. The three players, whom he didn’t know a lot, only that they were likely the players that triggered this whole chain of dragon quests, were shaking.
Lightning was sparking all around their bodies, primarily concentrating on the horns growing on their heads. Blue arcs kept striking between the horns, forming a webbing of electricity between them. Their reptilian eyes were filled with tiny electrical tendrils, flashing in blue light.
Everyone was silently watching, jealousy visible in their gazes even though they had all worn masks.
Zeus himself felt like shouting like a small girl with just one thought on his mind, ‘I am Zeus. I need the power of lightning!’ He clenched his fists, determined to rise through the ranks as fast as possible to become a true Zeus.
Suddenly a player with an iron mask spoke, “Ohh my, I get it now! Do you remember how their highness suddenly gained lightning powers?” few people in brass masks and iron masks nodded.
Zeus immediately recognised them as veterans that joined the faction amongst the first.
The player continued, “And look at these three. They also unlocked lightning as their second power! That means that as the boss gets stronger, the more powerful powerups will unlock for us too!”
Everyone was stunned, already thinking about possible future upgrades.
Then the red-robed weirdo threw another bombshell, “Wait, their flames recently turned yellow. That means there is currently one even higher rank that no one ever gained! I need to work harder to gain even stronger and brighter flames!”
That was it. The whole crowd exploded, players loudly shouting their theories over each other.
“Maybe as the boss gains more powers, the previous powerful will turn more accessible, giving us all chance to gain them!”
Zeus ignored the shouting, making his own plans, ‘It is decided. The truth about the dragon can’t get out of here. The possible future bonuses simply make any possible reward meaningless!’
Suddenly the powerful voice resounded through the cave, and everyone immediately became quiet, “What is this, my minions? Take your bickering outside of this holy chamber!”
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon glanced at the crowd of his minions leaving his chamber before loudly sighting.
‘Finally, I have some time for myself to study magic.’ his head was spinning just from thinking about how much he was behind, ‘With my level of dragon magic, I should know much more spells, but I don’t as someone or something always has to get into my way.’
Vesuvius focused on the skill, and a stream of information immediately flowed into his mind.
‘This looks interesting.’ the dragon grinned, his eyes shining as he analysed the information about his new spell.
POV ???:
A young man in a blue sark, with a red tie around his neck, was sitting in a dark room, the only light source being a flickering blue glow from the monitor the man was looking at. Under his eyes were heavy dark bags, his eyes tired and bloodshot under his glasses. His fingers were slowly moving, typing on a holographic keyboard, each stroke of his fingers causing a flash of light.
“Ohh shit!” suddenly, the man jumped from behind his desk, quickly grabbing a phone lying on his desk. Beeps resounded through the room as he promptly dialled up a number.
“Manager, there is a glitch in starting zone.”
Soon glass doors leading through the room soundlessly slid open, and a fat man in a suit with a moustache walked in with a serious look on his round face.
“Billy, what is the problem?”
“Sir, a powerful boss got into the beginner zone somehow.”
“What? Was it caused by a player involvement or by management AI failure?”
“No, it looks like a new NPC just appeared there. I can’t trace its origin. It is missing.”
“So it’s a glitch in the management AI again… Can you set the direction for the AI to alter the simulation to reposition it? Try to move other strong NPCs to solve it.”
The man immediately sat behind his desk, his fingers dancing on the holographic keyboard as he quickly typed, his whole screen flashing with lines of red text.
Soon he stopped with a frustrated look on his face, “Impossible. There are too many quests tied to this boss NPC.”
Billy clenched his fist under that table, frustrated with his inability to understand how the game worked, ‘How can even our servers run such a detailed simulation of the world? It shouldn’t be possible, but it works.’. He always considered himself to be an intelligent person, making his frustration even more palpable.
‘Does even anyone here understands how it works? Everyone’s answer is always the same. Quantum technology, but that makes no sense. AI is doing all of the work without anyone truly understanding how it works. How can everyone be content with it.’
The manager’s tired voice brought him out of his thoughts, “That is just a small inconvenience. In that case, reclassify it from the low-level zone into the mid-level one and reposition starting point into another safe location.”