Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith by Brock Deskins

Author:Brock Deskins [Deskins, Brock]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: Breaking Quarantine

“UH, SIR, WE HAVE a problem,” Jamika, now a senior day shift ACR operator, said.

“What is it?” Michael and Vincent both said at once.

Michael Cho glanced at his boss and wondered if the man ever went home. Given his disheveled appearance and increasing body odor, he doubted it.

Jamika’s eyes flicked between the two executives. “Uh, system logs show instances of the mortality debuff in Capria.”

“Well fuck my ass with a broomstick!” Vincent swore. “How many?”

Jamika double-checked the logs. “One-hundred twenty-seven carrying the lesser variant and three with the greater. The majority of those inflicted with lesser mortalitatis amplecti are concentrated in one area west of Talgav along with two of the greater. The third major mortalitatis amplecti carrier, along with three lesser, is southwest of that location near the border of Crag Cross in Truale.”

“Isn’t there a smuggler’s pass in that region?” Michael asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Michael nodded. “How many instances of the debuff in Crag Cross?”

Jamika turned her eyes back to her screen. “Nearly the entire population, sir.”

Michael ignored Vincent’s expletive. “The four here must have used the smugglers’ pass to cross into Capria. What about the others? What’s in that area to draw so many of the infected?”

“There’s a tomb there, one I believe has a high likelihood of dropping an eternity stone. It’s the lowest level boss we’ve found with such a probability. We think there’s another NPC who’s gone off script leading them.”

“I thought I told you to lock down the borders!” Vincent snapped at Michael.

Michael stared at the monitor, his mouth hanging slightly open.

“The NPC leading the large group is a powerful khan,” Jamika said, coming to her boss’s rescue. “He must have snuck the players in to help with whatever he has planned.”

Michael’s eyes sought out the other group nearer Cragcross. “I wonder if the other group—”

Vincent stabbed his finger toward the monitor, cutting him off. “That’s the blacksmith!”

“Yes, sir, that was my assumption as well. It fits what we’ve been able to track of his movements.”

“And we still have no idea how to reverse engineer this damn debuff?” he asked.

“No,” Michael answered. “We dissected the three player characters with the greater strain who quit the game after they died in Whitbell, but they did not carry the algorithm key. I am certain only Jandar, being the one directly infected by Edison, carries the key to decode it.”

Vincent studied the map displayed on Jamika’s terminal. “Is the debuff persistent? I mean, does it stay on after a character dies?”

“Only the players,” Michael said. “There are a few NPC diseases that remain infectious on their bodies until the game reclaims them, but the one Edison created is not one of them.”

“Good. Have your heralds order Capria’s king to send troops to eradicate the group near Talgav along with anyone else we can identify as carriers. Make sure they use only ranged weapons and spells and not to go anywhere near the area until the bodies disappear. Find someone to intercept that blacksmith and his group as well.

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