Death March — Fixed

Normally when looking up at the stars, an incomprehensible number of points in the vast sky that seem to wander as time passes--sometimes even a shooting star can be glimpsed; when people see such a wonder, they tend to make a wish.

 

But now--the sky is filled with falling meteors.

 

Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the incalculable mass falls towards the stone ground with overwhelming speed.

 

There might be people who would enjoy seeing such a terrible wonder on the TV or a video streaming site, but no one would want to see this downpour of death and destruction at close proximity; no one sane, that is.

 

However, right now, hundreds of meteors are falling from the screaming sky right in front of my eyes.

 

No, I shouldn’t speak of this disaster like it is other people’s business. This was unmistakably caused by me--due to my thoughtless decision ten minutes ago, the earth is being gouged out by flaming death raining from the howling sky.

 

They are striking a dozen or so kilometers away--killing an uncountable number of hostile entities over there; I can see them, the red dots disappearing from my radar, along with their lives.

 

A while after most of the meteors disappear into deep wounds in the surface of the earth, sounds, which have been slightly delayed, reach me--along with a tremor running through the ground beneath my feet.

 

However, before the crawling wave of dust can reach me--

 

Suddenly, I am struck with an acute pain--agony crawls through my body, consuming me like some kind of divine punishment for the unforgivable sin I have committed.

 

My head feels like it is splitting--and my body as though it is being torn apart at the cellular level, scattered to the now shrieking winds. As my consciousness fades, I feel the dust wave engulf me, sweeping me away to parts unknown.

 

***

Let’s rewind time a bit.

 

I’m working on my holidays, to meet the deadline of a much-delayed project; it is the combination of two projects: a smartphone game and PC browser-based game, both of which are being developed simultaneously by the company I work for--as an outsourced programmer, forced to complete what they couldn’t do on their own.

 

Even the harshest of companies don’t usually commission a single programmer for two projects; however, the junior programmer, who was supposed to work alongside me vanished on the verge of the deadline--leaving me a lot of bugs and changes to carry out without their assistance.

 

The turnover rate for the subcontractor company I work for means that the only reliable programmers currently are me and my errant junior--with no way of anticipating that my junior would vanish, I’m not only forced to manage my own project. But also stuck with my junior’s now doomed project.

 

“Alright, I have completed designing the last of the classes, added comments and double checked the I/O--all that remains is to document the code, and begin to seriously work on squishing those damned bugs!” leaning back and cracking my back, I mutter to myself.

 

Looking around, I see that the office is full--which is uncommon for holidays; but I can see that my neighbour, who is currently swearing under his breath at the bugs in his code, isn’t even managing to draw attention; other than a few knowing smiles and soft chuckles, but no one is looking up.

 

There is no time for people to be distracted more than that.

 

With a deep sigh, I got up and began to make a coffee.

 

When I returned from getting my much needed stimulant--the monitor showed that the program had finished debugging, the enormous number of bugs made me want to throw the coffee on the computer and state that my PC had broken and that I can’t finish the project.

 

Among the four original programmers who were present when my junior joined the company six months ago. Only I remain.

 

“Te…Alex, the client claims that the easiest difficulty for War World is much to hard for a beginner; what do we do?”

 

You almost called me Tek--we’ve been working together for half a year; I know we gamed together for a few years before that, but please stop getting my name wrong.

 

The rather overweight director, and planner, turned his head towards me--his expression looked troubled, which was quite normal for him.

 

War World is a rather orthodox strategy game which also has a minor social aspect to it; the later levels requiring players to work together to to beat them.

 

“Won’t the main target clientele of the game refuse to play if we lower the difficulty even lower?” I couldn’t fight the urge to roll my eyes as I asked the director, “Alright. Why don’t we use the previously dismissed ‘first time’ bonus--the one which allows the player to reveal all of the enemies on the map, and the three use ‘map annihilation’ bombs; of course, this is only for players under level twenty. How about we also give out an achievement for people who make it to twenty without using the bonus even once?”

 

“Well…since there is no time to design an even easier mode, let’s go with that. I’m counting on you for the implementation, Alex.” The director seemed as carefree as ever.

 

“Wait a minute! I’m still debugging the smartphone MMORPG right now; uh, just give the okay to the client, and I will add in the fix when I can.”

 

“Okay, I will call them now.” The large figure of the director disappeared into the smoking area, phone in hand.

 

I can’t help but mutter under my breath as I begin work on the debugging--and after I manage to finally wrangle the numerous superficial errors, that my junior left behind, under control; I decided to leave the rest to the debug team.

 

That reminds me, what was the name of that game again?

 

I didn’t use it very often, since I always referred to it as ‘the MMORPG’. Oh yeah, it’s Freedom Fantasy World--which is easy to mix up with the original name of War World, which was Fantasy War World, not many people called it by its true name.

 

While the debuggers begin their work on the bugs in their different programs and games, I worked hard on preparing the update to reintegrate the bonus into WW; it seems that I would be required to pull an all-nighter again today.

 

This checking, and preparing of the patch continues until morning arrives, the sun rising and shining blindingly through the windows.

 

Of course, there are probably a few remaining bugs, especially since I worked quickly to develop the package, but patches exist for a reason; there should be no reason to worry.

 

With a stretch, and a moan, I forward the modified WW package to the director via company mail--with a satisfied sigh, I retreated to the safe haven under my desk to sleep for the first time in around thirty hours.

 

***

Do you know what a lucid dream is?

 

It is being aware that you are dreaming--and usually you can control your dream.

 

Why do I ask, well, right now I am in a wilderness--and unless I am dreaming, there is no way for me to be here.

 

If I were to liken it to anywhere I have visited, it would be like the Grand Canyon.

 

Another sign that this must be a dream, other than the last thing I can remember is the fact that I fell asleep beneath my desk, was that I can see something impossible in my vision.

 

A bar formed from mostly empty boxes is visible on the bottom of my vision, and I can see the word ‘Menu’ written on the upper-right. The design is very similar to the hotkey bar, and menu access in the interface for WW.

 

However, this isn’t exactly the first time I have dreamed about the project I was forced to work on. Though I’m not sure why I am in the wilderness instead of one of the maps in WW; could it be because I didn’t drink enough water and the room was dry?

 

Somehow, when I focus on it, the word Menu changes colour, before opening a real Menu. A semi-transparent window, similar to holograms in movies, appears in my vision.

 

I usually have a poor imagination, when it comes to things like this--I’ll never be a planner or designer.

 

The menu is divided into tabs for Info, Map, Unit Management, Storage, Exchange, Settings, and Log--as well as the normal Status, Equipment, Magic, and Skills menus--which don’t exist in WW.

 

Did those tabs get mixed in because I was also working on FFW at the same time last night?

 

Then again, you can’t really expect consistence in a dream.

 

When I focus on the Status tab, I see that it shows the normal Level, HP, MP and Attributes--all of which are at 10; my level is 1; these numbers are common in games, when the Player is at level 1, unless they picked a special Race or Class.

 

Hmm?

 

There is also Job Type, and Reward & Punishment, neither of which exist in WW or FFW.

 

Where did they come from?

 

Well, Job Type seems to be another name for Class, which both FFW and WW use--at least, that’s what it seems to be; but there aren’t any tutorials or explanations.

 

Age: 16?

 

I am young again?

 

Job Type: Manager.

 

But I don’t have any subordinates.

 

Affiliation: None--makes sense. I am an atheist.

 

When I focus on my Job Type, the partially-transparent screen changes and shows that I have the Special Abilities called Unit Creation and Unit Arrangement; which are probably mixed in from WW.

 

But, on the bottom of the main screen, when I changed it back with a thought, I saw something which doesn’t make sense.

 

What is the Unique Skill - Indestructible?

 

What a strange dream.

 

Looking past the Menu, I glance down and see that I am wearing a simple white shirt, jeans, and sneakers--with nothing in the pockets.

 

I focus back on the Menu and open the Storage tab, in which is my wallet, mobile phone, and a yellow box with food inside it, which is the same one that I had been given by a workmate, to eat later--he had gotten two from his wife, so he shared it with me.

 

Both Magic and Skills are blank.

 

I have ten Skill points, but it seems that there are no skills for me to spend them on.

 

Opening Settings, I add the map and radar to my Heads-up-Display.

 

The Map displays a wide area and my own position, being only partially-transparent, I can see both it and my near surroundings. The radar is a small circle which is visible in the upper-right of my vision.

 

The Radar searches for living beings in the surroundings, and adds colour-coding--to differentiate from enemies, neutral beings, and allies; I’m shown on the radar as a small white dot in the exact center of the radar’s circle.

 

My surroundings are shown in grey, indicating that I haven’t explored this area.

 

“Hmm, well I can’t see any enemies, or anyone for that matter--so it seems that it is free time. If only this was a forest, at least then I could sit in the shade of a tree and take a good sleep.” I wipe the sweat from my forehead.

 

I inadvertently look down at the Hotkey Bar at the bottom of my vision.

 

In the first box is an ability called ‘All Map Exploration’, and another ability is in the third slot is ‘Meteor Shower’. These are the skills which the bonus that I was implementing into WW.

 

‘All Map Exploration’ is just like the name suggests: it searches the entire region of the nearby map. It also makes it possible to view detailed information, including Unit weaknesses.

 

I thought that the scope of information would be too much for beginners, which was one of the reasons I advocated for its removal, but the director pushed for it…so I included it.

 

With a shrug, I focused on it, like the rest of the Menu and nothing happened, until I also thought the name at the same time.

 

The radar suddenly filled with red dots--even when I lowered the magnification on the radar, zooming out to display a wider area, red dots still filled the map.

 

Aren’t there way too many enemies?

 

So, I decided to keep them company with my own army, using Unit Creation--the thought of managing an army and fighting in a lucid dream, I was starting to feel a little excited.

 

***

Well, there was a time that I felt like that.

 

When I tried to use Unit Creation, it displayed a message which read: “No Units available for creation.”

 

I tried to use Unit Arrangement, and again a message popped up: “There are no friendly Units to Position.”

 

“I can’t fight. I’m only level 1.” I sighed.

 

Then, I glanced at the Meteor Shower icon.

 

Meteor Shower, the Celestial Annihilation--able to destroy everything beside any hidden bosses in the current level of the campaign; in a single blow.

 

It’s a message to a beginner which reads: “Bulldoze any map that you can’t clear with this!”

 

A confirmation window appears as I focus on Meteor Shower and chant it in my mind:

“Destroy the map? Confirm: Yes/No”

 

What’s the worst that could happen?

 

I select ‘Yes’ while thinking such uninformed thoughts.

 

Hmm, it is silent?

 

I was expecting something amazing, but nothing is happening, is it?

 

With a shrug, I sat down.

 

On a whim, I turn my face to the sky and something comes into view.

 

***

Thank you for staying with me, we’re finally back to the opening.

 

My real name is Alex Conner--the name I always use when gaming is Tek, and this is how my life in a different world began.