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[IchigoShinigami has logged in]

King Ayers paused, eyebrow raised, curious at the system alert drawing his attention away from the small band standing before his throne.

“Your highness?” the young Pooka cleared her throat, “Sir?”

[IchigoShinigami has gone hidden]

“Shhhhhh,” the dwarf at her side hushed her, “he's the Founder, he's got to be juggles a dozen other task simultaneously, didn’t you see his face.”

The Pooka tilted her head curiously, “His...face...what...it hasn’t changed all conversat-”

The king smirked, “No your friend is correct, something has just come to my attention I need to attend to. And your request for a land deed needs to be considered carefully. Private spaces can be created with ease and accessed from any town gateway but a plot of land in the normal game space is more more demanding a commitment. If I approved every petition for land in the world space the landscape would be dotted with half build territories and ruled by land barons trying to squeeze extra gold out of desperate homesteaders. Being a guild is a good start but now I need to review your records and determine if your guild can maintain a land space in the long term or if it's just the high of having the funds and member count to hit the bullet points for a request.”

The Pooka hung her head, 'Damn Legion was right, we're getting denied, we should have held off for another month, gotten higher in the leader board.'

King Ayers smiled as he stood a portal opening before him, “The system will send you a response in 24-48 hours with our decision, until then I hope you and your guild continue to have fun.”

The Pooka was about to speak up when a familiar voice chimed in her head.

Legion> Don't loose your nerve now.
Pooka_Dots> What I…

The distraction gave the king enough time to vanish through his portal as she stared wide eyed at the empty throne.

Legion laughed> And now that I've distracted you long enough for the King to leave you up for a party?

Pooka_Dots was slack jawed, glancing around, looking for the annoying little elf, 'How did she…'

Legion laughed in her mind again as the silver haired High Elf narrowed her eyes as she peered through the telescope through the haze and the windows of the great palace as Pooka_Dots flustered and looked around for her as a pair of guard lead Pooka_Dots and her two companions out, the dwarf Orclev and the half Ogre Glorie, 'Sometimes I impress even myself, the castle is suppose to be high enough and isolated enough that no spy can just look in the windows and see what is going on inside but with the right perception buffs and tools I can see enough to have a little fun with Dotty.'

“You again?” An exasperated voice suddenly cut in catching Legion off guard and causing the High Elf to tumble for her perch in the tree and into the arms of a blue robbed figure with a spinning crown above her head.

“G-GM Auria?!” Legion flusters as the figure sets her down.

Hood raised her eyes glowed a soft blue, “Let's see none of your equipment looks out of the ordinary, you can't seriously have breached our security with just a telescope and maxed perception.”

“Before you take me to limbo why don't you just try it,” Legion smirked as a handful of other GMs appeared around them.

She even tossed Auria her telescope for good measure.

Auria sighed and turned the item over in her hands before shifting into an exact copy of Legion and leaps to the same breach Legion was perched on when she arrived, peering through the lenses as the other GM loomed around the original Legion like vultures.

Legion laughed, trying to keep her cool, “S-So anything cool in the next update.”

Auria sighed as she transformed back and landed, handing back the telescope, “Ease up guys, it checks out. It's not a breach though I could make out the people roaming inside but I couldn't read Sanders test scroll.”

“Still it could be used to figure out patrol routes,” One of the GMs comments.

“Or set up a snipe on King Ayers.”

Legion's smile grew wider, “Soooo the king can be killed?”

“Don't get any ideas,” One of the GMs barked.

“King Ayers' mortality was never a question,” another cut in, “besides it's not like even a min maxer like you could actually take him out, or any system admin.”

Legion tossed her hair and shrugged, “Never crossed my mind. Regicide isn't really my thing, besides you guys have crap loot anyway. Nala makes much better gear then that standard issue GM gear.”

“I bet,” one of the GM's rolled his eyes, “You just love to push buttons don't you?”

Legion smiled as her voice cracked with worry, “S-So I'm free to go r-right? No infraction r-right?”

“We should throw her in a cell for a day for even trying this stunt.”
“Agreed.”
“Seconded.”

Auria shrugged, “Well looks like I was out voted, and you did breach sys admin security.”

'Only a day?' Legion smiled I internally, 'Totally worth it for that look on Dotty's face.'

An instant later Legion found herself stripped of her clothes and in rags sitting next an infamous thief turned jail whore named in one of the world prisons, “H-Honor?”

She looked up from her bed of straw with a worn look, “What you in for?”

Legion forced an uneasy smile, “I peeked in on the castle.”

Honor's face brightened, “R-Really? Even I haven't pulled that off. What's your secret if you don't mind.”

Legion shook her head, “Like I'd tell you, you tried to take over the world, tried to turn my friend into your fall guy.”

“And now I'm rotting in a prison for the rest of my life with my mind flooded with thoughts on how to get into the next man I sees pants. I'm a disgrace and a harlot, there isn't much I can do with the information anyway. Just slake my curiosity would you.”

“Na I only got a twenty four hour sentence here, but pretty sure if I shared my exploit I’d get banned.”

“Banned? From where?”

'NPCs,” Legion rolled her eyes, “The Game, duh. Not that a NPC like you would understand that.”

“The...game? You mean the world?” Honor leaned in closer, “Well now I have to know, after all you said it yourself, I tried to take over the world and they didn't ban me.”

“Yeah well NPCs and PCs are different creatures, besides not even the best radiant AI is going to be able to break the System. Besides I already told you want, I peeked into the king throne room.”

Honor sighs, “You're no fun.”

Legion laughs, “Clearly you don't know the first thing about me.”

Ayers paused as he walked the deep forges of the dwarven city, normally such an appearance of the High King deep in any territory would be met with fanfare and activity but being the Founder gave him access to every spell in the book, after all he wrote the book. So he remained undetected, invisible to any form of mundane or magical perceptions, 'A message from Auria?'

He paused as he open the report and read the log before his eyes, as he got to the part about Legion's breach he tensed then relaxed as the details of the breach were laid out.

King Ayers> Looks like you resolved everything nicely.

GM Sanders> So how do we patch this?

Ayers chewed on those words, 'The Honor event gave Legion an unprecedented exponential gain to Perception, and even with that she needed to boost it further and use a tool, it's unlikely that anyone else could replicate it. Even so we need to account for it. Even if Legion keeps quiet it's bound to get out sooner or later.'

King Ayers> The main problem comes from a really high Perception stat as well as having the right vantage point. Scout the landscape around the castle for similar vantage points and alter them to remove their vertical advantage.

GM Rhodes> That wont stop flyers.

CM Lotus> True but we could enchant the glass so it works like a one way mirror then no one could look in even if they stood outside. Honestly we should have done that from the start.

GM Hawk> Agreed, and an anti scrying slash perception debuff would be a good secondary measure.

GM Auria> Sounds like a lot of work should we bring down the server for emergency maintenance?

Several other GM chimed in with agreement as King Ayers tensed, 'No if we log the players now I may never…'

GM Reaper> I'll get the system announcement ready.

King Ayers> NO!

GM Sanders> But Arran…

King Ayers> Stop over reacting. Auria report said Legion couldn’t read any document just see enough of the shapes to make out people by their armor and build! This can be easily pushed back to the regular maintenance tonight. Besides if everyone scurries about people are going to know something is up, especially with the GM's altering the landscape.

CM Coke> We could set up some smaller world events at the vantage points, that would set up a good cover for changing their layout.

GM Gale> But that's just going to draw more attention to those spots.

CM Lotus> No I agree with Coke, if the players are using the spots to farm xp and loot it's going to be nearly impossible for some spy to find an undisturbed place to set up a sniper perch.

GM Kirito> I like it, and we can use the zone events to explain the eventual landscape changes in the next patch.

The King gave a relived sigh and picked up his pace.

King Ayers> Make it so.

But paused a moment.

King Ayers> And get Legion something nice.

GM Sanders> Sir!?
CM Coke> Sir!?
GM Hawk> Sir!?

The King smiled.

King Ayers> She seemed pretty agreeable and I think out of all our options once the patch is in place she is the best choice to see if they work or if there is still an exploit.

Auria nods> Should I rescind her sentence?

Kind Ayers shook his head> Na she still compromised System Admin, that needs to be punished.

The other GMs murmured in agreement.

King Ayers> If there is nothing else I have another issue to address, Over and out.

GMs and Cms> Over and Out.

Ayers smiled as he watched Nala pound the golden metal into shape on the anvil, sweat beading her brow as a wide grin spread over her face.

“Looks like you could use a drink.”

“Thanks,” Nala smiled as she took the offered water skin without looking up from her work.

“Looks like hard work.”

“Not really hard but the forges are hotter then hell.”

“I can tell, looking to be a Masterwork.”

Nala smiles as she moved the metal to the trough to cool, “Good eye. Though I'm still learning the nuances of the Dwarven Style.”

She went pale as she looked up to her admirer and sawn the high King standing there.

“Hello,” he smiled warmly.

“K-King Ayers?!”

“Was wonder how long it would take you.”

“I-I'm sorry so it's just I-”

“Relax.”

“E-Easier said then done! S-Sir!”

The King smiled, “You're not in trouble, I wanted to make sure you were okay, I've been beating myself up since the Trans-Active quake.”

Nala needed a moment to process the King words.

He waved his hand to dismiss her forming words, “I know 'it's not your fault,' 'if it wasn't WoS it would have been another project.' I've head all the reassurances from my staff.”

Nala lowered her head, 'Even if we had no projects it would have all turned out the same. It wasn't a quake it was Tony.'

The King rose her head to meet his eyes, “I've been making a point to visit each of the Trans-Active staff who have a user account.”

He sighed as his voice grew softer, “The authorities won't release where the victims are staying and half the packages I’ve sent out were returned to sender unopened. There is only so much I can do on the outside but in here.” Then grew and became hopeful, “I'm giving you an account wide item. It will change depending on your avatar but should be useful any way.”

Nala was without words.

“Now I know your going to want to play it cool say I don't need to give you anything but this is my choice. You might have also noticed that I froze your account, no one billed you for your subscription while you were out of commission.”

“A-Actually I'm playing from my hospital bed, gonna be here a while recovering but my handlers wanted to make sure I could get some social interacting in, even virtually. Still I'm not really back in top form, not really  going to be doing any raid or high level dungeons of a while.”

The King smiles, “That's perfectly alright, you take all the time you need to recover, and when Trans-Active is back on it's feet I'll be the first one at the screening of the World of Serenity Premiere.”

[UglyDuckling has logged in]
[ApostlePaul has logged in]

Nala smiled as the King opened a portal and got ready to leave just as the new alerts came in, “Take care Sir King!”

'Two more of Trans-Actives staff? This is turning out to be a better day then I thought.'

Before vanishing through the portal he turned and smiled back to Nala, “You too.”

As the King vanished Nala took a moment as her body trembled slightly, 'What an odd sensation, it felt like the two of us…'

'...shared some kind of…


'...connection.'

“Krypton to Alex! Krypton to Alex! Hey don't go zoning out on me?” Kara walked over to her companion as he rolled a leaf over in his hand while one of the Paramedics looks over from the rubble of Trans-Active with concern.

Alex shook his head to clear the odd feeling, “It's nothing.”

“Dehydrated?” The Paramedic offered the dirt covered volunteer a bottle, “Can't have the relief workers passing out after all. If you need a break that's what the cots are for.”

Kara chuckled, “See I told you you were working to hard.”

Alex smiled.

The Paramedic offered a second bottle to Kara, “You're one to talk, I haven’t seen you take a break in 3 hours and your setting the pace for the cleaning crew. You should take a break.”

“I'm fine,” Kara smiles warmly as she juggles the bottle.

Alex cast a dark glare her way at her show boating, 'this is not what I call keeping a low profile.'

At his look she flustered, then faked a yawn, “On second thought I think I will catch a nap,' before dragging Alex along with her. “But don't worry we'll be back on our feet in no time.”

The Paramedic smiles, “I have no doubt you will.”