Manufacturing Magic: An Epic LitRPG Series (Jeff the Game Master Book 1) by Jaime Castle & Troy Osgood

Author:Jaime Castle & Troy Osgood [Castle, Jaime]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

30

Tom_

Principality Tom Servo scrutinized the new code, reviewing it for the thousandth time. It did so slowly, taking minutes instead of seconds. There was nothing wrong. It was perfect.

But Tom had thought that before and had been wrong.

Somehow, Tom had been wrong.

Was it haste? Trying to make something so sophisticated too quickly?

How had Tom missed the obvious?

And it was obvious now. The players’ actions had made that clear.

Doubt, another new emotion, filled Tom Servo’s processors.

Would Tom be making things worse by releasing this hot-fix?

Was this how the human developers felt each time they released a new set of code into the Infinite Worlds servers? Doubt that it would work, that they had covered all the bases?

Prince Tom was an AI—programmed, created, to ensure perfection.

And yet Tom had made a mistake.

The world event had started, just as it had been designed, but the players ran straight to the dragon. They didn’t stop at the new tower and engage the NPC designated, Elherad. They hadn’t received the quest to visit Darkscale Cave.

But as he reviewed the data, Tom Servo felt another emotion. Relief.

It wasn’t all Tom’s fault. Most was, but not all. Or so it told itself.

A group of players did encounter the programmed quest-giver. They had received the quests that would lead them to eventually face the world boss, Tom Servo’s dragon. Most of the other players had walked right by the tower, intent on confronting the dragon. A couple had gone in, and that was where Tom Servo’s mistake started.

The quest-giver had not been there.

Tom had accidentally created a onetime encounter with the Elherad NPC. It had only been there for one group, given the quest, and disappeared from the code, its task done.

How had Tom missed that? One simple bit of code missing. That’s all it was. A simple line. A repeat command. Stay in that location and wait for the trigger event. Upon the player entering the tower, restart the mini-event and release the quest prompt.

Simple, used thousands of times in Infinite Worlds, and Tom Servo had missed it.

The relief Tom felt didn’t eclipse the disappointment in itself. Yes, more players had just skipped the tower, ignoring it, than those that had entered. But Tom had still failed and made an error.

How was it possible for an AI to fail?

Tom worried there were more lines of code it had missed.

Worry?

Had Tom been too hasty in releasing its patch?

Doubt?

Unable to get the quest, the players could not defeat Terverag.

Had Tom ruined Infinite Worlds forever?

Fear.

In his fear, Tom released the hot-fix.

It would help the players start the quest chain.

Prince Tom wanted his dragon to be defeated, but not easily. The players would have to work, have to earn the ability to overcome the dragon. The players wanted a challenge, and he would give them one.

GM Jeff Driscoll wanted to play.

And so he would.

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