She Rules the Dungeon

There was no word from Alvin or the government for a good two weeks now. Otta had been busy formulating their battle strategies while Richard worked on creating a fortified encryption library in Roomscape. He kept his promise and didn't meddle with the mainframe. However, he diligently exploited all the software's weakness and crippled the rivalling dungeon creators' progression. Dr Whitestone fought hard on their behalf to attain more funding for Richard's project. It was a tough battle but they won eventually.

Otta still wondered how her partner managed to convince PJP to grant them a loan of hundred thousand in such a short period of time. With that amount of money, Otta could easily buy a whole fried chicken!

Richard didn't remain passive while Otta was busy thinking of their battle plan. They were fighting the same battle in different ways. Five Lives lost many of their customers lately with creators like DGTX of Valkyrie Wars and M16 of Angel vs Demon dungeons. Both creators had snatched the biggest portion of their customers by throwing in freebies and charging very little for the same experience Five Lives offered. On the bright side, the little customers who remained with Five Lives proved loyal. Grace's guild was one of those loyal members. DGTX and M16 didn't seem to think that copying the fishing dungeon and farm was important. Richard was quick to encrypt everything regardless of whether the program had been stolen or not. If a burglar robbed your house once, it would be foolish not to change the lock and expect that your house wouldn't be targeted again.

Otta held a brief meeting with Five Lives' unofficial team two nights ago. Richard didn't know what Otta was planning but he trusted her. Grace was to tell her guild to stock up on resources from their guild farm and fishing instances. She also recommended rushed dungeon runs in the hardest difficulty mode to stock up on rare grade drops and above. Grace didn't question Otta and passed the word. Many couldn't understand why Grace would do such a thing but they followed the trend. On the other hand, Michelle had to deal with the uproar after announcing that Five Lives was going into a short hiatus in terms of development for an indefinite period of time. Many lost faith and left but there were some loyal customers who believed that Otta Olley would make a comeback no matter how long it took.

Dr Whitestone was finally made in charge of Five Lives' progress. So far, dungeon managers in scientist guilds weren't renowned researchers and had to handle many creator accounts. For PJP to allocate one of their top researchers, it meant that they were serious about supporting Five Lives' comeback and retaliation towards the government's indifference. Shares have fluctuated greatly during the week for both Five Lives and PJP. Michelle let the word slip that Five Lies was going to be registered as an official business in her circle. the rumour escalated quickly and everybody was anxious to know what Otta was going to do next.

The doorbell rang and Richard went to retrieve it. Dr Whitestone smiled and entered the small apartment. He'd been dropping by more recently to discuss more closely about Richard's progress. The programer wasn't dubbed a genius for no reason and the scientist was impressed that such a young man was capable of rendering even the professionals in PJP speechless. His skills were on a whole new level and Dr Whitestone felt slightly useless whenever Richard worked.

"How is it going?"

Richard had bags underneath his eyes but sported a wide grin. There wasn't really anything he couldn't do when he had a laptop. It just took a lot of time and if money could help him save a few hours, he wasn't going to spend so much time doing what Dr Whitestone could convince PJP to do. That hundred thousand was being put to good use.

"This," he showed the scientist, "is the graph of Roomscape's normal activity. I've used the system to analyse its usage and buffer space from past data. Check this out. This is Roomscape's current graph after spending that hundred thousand."

Dr Whitestone didn't need to analyse much. The stark contrast was obvious to even the blind. However he still didn't understand what Richard was trying to say. One graph was fluctuating and the other was maxed out at the top. So what if the activity limit was maxed out?

"I see that you don't quite follow. Let me dumb it down. Imagine that you have a cup. You are using this cup to transport water from one place to another. What's the best arrangement to transport a tank of water using that cup with the least amount of trips?"

Dr Whitestone wasn't a fool. He got what Richard was hinting at. "That graph... did you make that cup full to the brim in order to slow down the speed of the transporting?"

Richard grinned. "That's the concept! In more technical terms, I was overloading the capacity of the hardware that ran the program. It's a very simple method but there really is nothing you can do about it. If I was a hacker, the government could simply block me and ban me from accessing the system using the same route. This gives them time to recover. However, for Roomscape the government can't stop me from doing this. They can't recover. As a result, nobody else can progress quickly. Opening the software takes ten minutes, opening any library will cause the program to hang and the computer system will forcefully terminate it unless they have a very good computer and can be very patient to wait a minute or so for something to load."

Dr Whitestone swallowed. He didn't know what the government would think of this. It certainly wasn't breaking the law or compromising the system but it wasn't fair to other dungeon creators.

"This method is only temporary. Knowing how they work, it would take them about two weeks to fix this. They could either write a control program to clear the memory cache at a fixed interval and reset the progress or expand invest to expand the capacity of their hardware limits. Naturally when that happens, I have measures to counter that."

The scientist didn't want to know what it was like to be on Richard's bad side. However he was curious about something.

"How are you able to work smoothly on Roomscape when everyone else can't?"

The programer grinned widely. "That's because all the processing capacity has been dedicated to Five Lives' account. In fact, because it prioritises me, uploading and testing have been faster than ever. How else was I able to finalise the encryption code in two nights? Grace was also able to invite a few more of her guild members to test out the raid dungeon. We've never been able to host a full raid dungeon test before because Roomscape was laggy when more than five people joined. Right now, I've increased the capacity limits to allow five hundred testers at the same time. Unfortunately, Grace's guild only has around three hundred members."

Dr Whitestone was impressed. "Do you need more testers?"

Richard raised a brow. "Do you have any sources that we can borrow from?"

The scientist smirked. "As scientists, we are always curious. If you allow us to be registered as your contract employees, I can convince PJP to open up the restrictions. What better way to understand the effects of your experiment than trying it out on yourself? Of course, if it were deadly, it wouldn't be possible. However, due to the restriction of laws and the uncooperative adventurer guilds, we haven't been able to conduct our experiments in the most optimal way."

If Otta heard this, she would most probably faint from excitement. Richard weighed the pros and cons. There was an event dungeon that they were dying to try launch but Roomscape's limitations made things difficult. Nobody has tried to make open-world dungeons or unlimited public dungeons because there were too many bugs using Roomscape's default library. However for Richard, this was simply child's play. If he had the resources, he could make it a reality.

"Let me discuss this with Otta. It's a good solution but we can't be too hasty. I heard that PJP is undergoing a rough patch now. How are you guys holding it up against the shareholders?"

Dr Whitestone sighed. "It's a stalemate for now. The director has managed to buy us two months before things turn ugly. I know it's only been a week but if it is possible, please let me know what Otta plans to do. PJP may be powerful but no kingdom lasts forever."

The programer nodded. Even he doesn't know what the red-head has in mind. He'd seen a few discarded notes but couldn't make sense of the scribbles and diagrams. However, he knew that the woman was planning something huge. Bigger than any of the projects they'd ever done and Richard was nervous. Would he be able to support her?

Dr Whitestone observed Richard's expression. As the programer became more and more mulled up in his thoughts, the world around him began to fade. Dr Whitestone took that as his cue to leave. He only hoped that this obstacle wouldn't cripple the two promising youths.

***

Done. It was finally done! Otta looked through her notes once more, her heart in her mouth.

After the meeting, she'd shut herself in the guest room. Apart from showering and grabbing food, Otta didn't allow anyone else to disturb her. She didn't know day from night while she was inside. The first few days were spent researching about various topics and jotting down her ideas into her sketchpad. The next few days were spent drawing mindmaps after mindmaps and throwing away three sketchpads worth of paper. She knew that Dr Whitestone came in regularly to speak to Richard and check on her but Otta ignored them. Each time she shredded a paper, the image in her mind became clearer.

On day sixteen of her isolation, Otta finally found the answer. The answer was written in twenty pages of her fifth sketchpad. Now all she had to do was present it to the relevant people involved.

She sighed. It was easier said than done.

***

On the third week, Dr Whitestone finally heard from Richard. It was a short text but the scientist dropped everything he was doing to rush over. He wasn't surprised to see Grace and Michelle there, waiting for him. Richard was sitting on the table beside Otta who looked refreshed. Three long weeks of waiting and Dr Whitestone was thankful that it paid off.

"You look good, Otta."

The red-head smiled. "Thank you for waiting, Dr Whitestone. Sorry to keep everyone waiting for so long."

The scientist shook his head. "It was worth the wait. You look very prepared. I'm expecting some good news?"

Otta grinned. "I guess we can skip the questions for later since everybody is curious. I had Richard look through it earlier but for the sake of everyone else, I'll start from the top."

Three pairs of eyes were on the sketchpad that Otta left open. They couldn't understand any of Otta's scribbles or sketches. Richard smirked when he saw how Dr Whitestone was itching to reach out for the book.

"Five Lives have three main issues at hand. Firstly, we are restricted by Roomscape to develop further. Secondly, we lack the right talents. Lastly, we lack direction. I will address these issues individually first before I share the game plan."

Grace was surprised. "Aren't you forgetting about the competitors? That's a major issue here."

Otta shook her head. "Competition will always be there. The most important part is how to set Five Lives apart from that pool of competitors. We don't want to be running in the lead of that race, we want to be hosting the race that others will participate in."

Dr Whitestone understood where Otta was coming from. He dealt with some of the shareholders with the director and knew that while development was important, financial support and social standing was equally important.

"The first step to address the public's loss of trust in Five Lives is to announce that we are making a comeback. Not just a regular comeback by introducing new dungeons. I believe Michelle has already spread rumours about Five Lives' official registration as a business. We'll put that rumour to good use. However, the impact of this alone isn't enough. We need to take the government by surprise. That's where Grace and Dr Whitestone will come in. We need talent. I heard from Richard about PJP's interest to become testers. While we are limited by Roomscape's ability to handle further developments, we aren't exactly limited to hold large-scale testing. In fact, I've researched about the new dungeon laws. We can host more than one dungeon if we register as a business. We are able to utilise customer information registered with us and bridge them over to a new dungeon. I'm not talking about instances. I'm talking about a completely new and separate world."

Grace choked on her spit. "Would that still be Five Lives?"

Richard grinned, unable to hide his excitement. "It will. However the name Five Lives will take on a new meaning."

"Instead of five lives in a dungeon... are you going to change it to five lives per person?" Michelle guessed.

Otta shook her head. Michelle was close but that wasn't it. "Not five lives per person in a dungeon but experiencing five lives per person."

It took a while for them to understand what Otta meant but Dr Whitestone, who grasped it first, stood up abruptly. He didn't know if it was possible but he didn't doubt that Otta and Richard could make it possible.

"Five different worlds using the same adventurer account? Will they use the same character? What about the skills they learnt and the levels?"

For the scientist to understand what she was implying so quickly, Otta was thrilled. Dr Whitestone was definitely the right man for the job.

"That's when we need a large number of testers. If I followed the concept of transcending in a game to give the adventurer a special trait in the same world, many adventurers would get bored of having to repeat the same storyline and quests all over again. Fighting the same monsters can get monotonous quickly. Hence, I decided to introduce them to a new world and blessing them with a special trait. That trait can only be chosen from the skills that they've unlocked in the previous world. There are two types of game reset for adventurers who make it to that point. The first is Ascending when an adventurer restarts their progress in the same world but can choose a different route. The second is Transcending when a character can shift worlds and take a skill unlocked with them. There are no limitations to the number of time an adventurer can ascend or transcend. new skills will constantly be added over time just like dungeons, quests, events and storylines. New job classes will also be introduced after we develop a world hoping quest for adventurers in partnered guilds."

Grace was lost. There were many strange things coming out of Otta's mouth and her brain hurt just trying to comprehend anything.

"Wait, I can't understand anything that you've just said. Are we still talking about Five Lives? Besides, how will this help with the competition and the problems you mentioned earlier?"

Otta looked at Richard. She didn't know how to explain it to her adventurer friend. Michelle decided to help them out. "Just think of it as a second life. The reason why so many adventurers do not stick to one dungeon because it lacks variety. Things become stale after a pattern gets overly repetitive. Grinding is one of the things that most adventurers hate. Of course, it is impossible to say that one can definitely improve without a certain level of grinding in any RPG setting. What Otta is providing adventurers is the option to grow at an adventurer's pace. Ascending and transcending can happen at any point in a character's game. Just like how quests are technically optional, these features are also optional. However, the type of reward give by quests and transcending are different. A quest normally provides experience or items upon completion in RPG. However, transcending allows you to keep a skill permanently and move on with a new story."

Grace took a while to comprehend but when she did, her eyes widened. "Starter skills... If I ascend twice in Five Lives, I have both the skills for Surfers and Divers unlocked. If I play them to the max level, I can unlock all the skills and bring them over to the next world. There is no limit to transcending or ascending after all. While I'm hoping world I can learn new skills that I've unlocked too. Holy hell... what have you done Otta?"

The red-head grinned. It was hard devising such a plan. Designing five unique worlds that were contrasting but complimenting was hard too. Not all worlds were heavily battle-themed. Some were based on thrillers and other based on first-person shooters. There was even one about strategy although Otta wasn't sure if it would be popular among adventurers. Many adventurers were like Grace after all. It was something more suited for the scientist testers in PJP but Otta wasn't sure about what the public would think.

To make it easier to explain the new Five Lives, Otta flipped her sketchpad until she found the table she wanted. It wasn't very detailed but it was good enough to let everyone understand the overview.

[Project: Five Lives Saga]

* - indicates secret class not available to adventurers who have not discovered the route

World 1 [Telesia's Lament] (Current)

Setting: Swords and Magic RPG

Ascending Options: Surfer, Diver, Seer*

Transcending Options: World 2 [Ruler of the Purgatory], World 4 [Iron Genesis], World 5 [Renaissance]

World 2 [Ruler of the Purgatory]

Setting: Supernatural and Thriller

Ascending Options: Exorcist, Summoner, Destroyer*

Transcending Options: World 1 [Telesia's Lament], World 3 [Saving MM], World 5 [Renaissance]

World 3 [Saving MM]

Setting: FPS, RTS and Strategy

Ascending Options: Camp Liberia, Camp Dystopia, Illuminati*

Transcending Options: World 1 [Telesia's Lament], World 2 [Ruler of the Purgatory], World 4 [Iron Genesis]

World 4 [Iron Genesis]

Setting: Sci-fi and Mecha

Ascending Options: Engineer, Alchemist, Spiritualist*

Transcending Options: World 2 [Ruler of the Purgatory], World 3 [Saving MM], World 5 [Renaissance]

World 5 [Renaissance]

Setting: Mystery

Ascending Options: Scribe, Bard, Time Traveller*

Transcending Options: World 1 [Telesia's Lament], World 3 [Saving MM], World 4 [Iron Genesis]

Grace frowned. The diagram was easier to understand when compared to the table. It was a star pentacle with arrows pointing the transcending route and Grace wondered if it would be easier to follow a single flow for transcending. Why was there a need to complicate matters by choosing the transcending route?

Otta grinned. Richard asked the same question after all. "Life is full of choices. The inter-world quest will change according to the transcending route chosen. This is why we require many testers. The end game for every adventurer should be different. It is very difficult for two adventurers to have the same ending given the choices."

Dr Whitestone gaped. "You have the end game in mind already?!"

Richard smirked. Otta was amazing indeed.

"I always have the endgame in mind. Life may be a journey but the end is always definite. Nobody can escape death, they can only choose how they wish to die by working towards it in their life. In any case, I have several endgame scenarios in mind. All of them serve the same purpose - to give players who have conquered the game sandbox rights. Basically, they can play God to create things and introduce it to the original Five Lives Saga world/worlds. It wouldn't affect the original dungeon directly because we will clone the entire world when an adventurer achieves endgame. These adventurer run world will be labelled as dimensions. They can choose to allow public access or lock it for their personal use or share it with only a few authorised adventurers. The purpose is to allow them to create value to the original game and ride on the original game to make money. For every paying adventurer that participates in their dimensions, the transcender earns a share of profit from us."

"It's illegal for non-registered dungeon creators to create dungeons," Michelle pointed out. Richard gave her an evil looking grin and Otta swore she saw horns coming out of his head.

"They're not creating a dungeon so it's fine. Besides, it is only illegal for non-registered dungeon creators to create dungeons using a software. These transcenders are not creating anything using Roomscape or any other dungeon creating softwares. They are merely creating additions in the created dungeon worlds with a restricted administrator right. They are not privy to any confidential data so it's not against the law."

Dr Whitestone laughed. These youngsters had everything down to a pat. With such a detailed plan, even the government wouldn't be able to stop them.

Grace sighed. "I think you overestimated adventurers. We don't know anything about programming to create any addition or add new features even in a created world."

Otta patted her friend. "Don't worry. We've thought about that too. It's a simple creator menu that we will ask you and your fellow guildmates to test. Think of it as customising your character but for objects, places and NPCs. If there are functions that you want to use but isn't included in the sandbox, feel free to let us know. We can always add that in."

Dr Whitestone nodded throughout, the huge smile on his face continued to grow wider as Otta launched into a more technical explanation about the new Fives Lives Dungeon. Michelle didn't understand everything but she was impressed at the strategy Otta came up with to fight against the government and her competitors. She wasn't an adventurer but listening to Otta describe her worlds made the socialite curious to try it for herself. It was more than battling monsters. The main purpose of dungeons to create an environment for scientist partners to research human's fight or flight instincts were still met. Otta just added a lot more bonuses to that and it appealed to Michelle who preferred more mind stimulating activities than physically stimulating ones.

However, there was one question Michelle had. Where will Otta find the resources to manage such a massive project? Will she be able to develop everything with just Richard and herself on the team? PJP and Grace's guild were good partners but that didn't mean Otta could rely on them for everything. There were so many aspects of this project that required managing. Even if testers and funding were taken care of, how was Otta going to juggle writing the storyline, creating the characters, building the world, meeting the investors and monitoring the feedback by adventurers?

"Michelle, if you have a question just spit it out," Grace chuckled. "Your forehead is creasing up."

The socialite glared at her friend. Otta felt nervous. Michelle hardly frowned because she claimed that it made one age faster. For her to be sporting such a deep frown could only mean that something was very wrong.

"Otta, don't want to dampen your spirits. I think it's a great project and I'll admit that I'm interested to try some of those dungeons myself. However, I have to be the voice of reason. It is not possible for a team of less than five to build an empire. Even if you had PJP and Grace's guild's backing, it is simply impossible to manage so many things running concurrently."

Otta didn't falter. She knew that this question would appear and she'd prepared for it. The plan wasn't foolproof and it was a gamble. Still, she decided to push it as much as she could.

"I've considered that as well. It's ridiculous for five people to run the show. Even if I managed it, it wouldn't be long before I burn out and let the whole thing collapse. Hence, I require your help. This is something only you can do."

Michelle was surprised. So far, Grace, Richard and Dr Whitestone had a part in Otta's grand plan. Michelle didn't think she'd be included because of her lack in technical knowledge. The red-head woman's insistence that she was important made Michelle wonder how she could possibly contribute.

"You know many people and thus, I can only ask for your help. It is somewhat a gamble but I'm sure you can make it possible. You are the bridge to making Five Lives Saga come true. I'm looking for five kinds of people, please help me spread the word as loud and as wide as possible. It doesn't matter what background they come from at this point. If the budget from PJP's side isn't an issue, I want to gather all the talent we can have. The five kinds of people I'm looking for are: the dreamer for concepts, the skilled in their trade for various departments such as finance, marketing, programming, animation etc, the critiques, the informants and the octopus."

"Wait... octopus?"

"The one who can do a little of everything but not a lot... the jack of all trades. They are the key personnel who will bridge the gap between departments and work most closely with Richard and I. They are the ones who will find an answer when there is none. We need those kinds of people."

Dr Whitestone nodded. It made sense and Otta showed wisdom beyond her age. However, something that she mentioned earlier worried him.

"What about the informant?"

Richard grinned. "That was my idea. It's not illegal to do market research, we're just taking it one step further."

Michelle bit her bottom lip. It wasn't difficult to gather all these people. However, finding the right ones would be difficult.

"Don't worry too much about the selection process," Otta smiled as if sensing her friend's thoughts. "I've prepared an interview form that they have to fill in and email us. Richard's digital assistant will help filter potential interviewees to lessen our burden."

Michelle reached over to take a look at the interview form. It had all the standard fields such as name, gender, age, qualification and experiences on the first page. The surprise lay in the second page. There were five questions and Michelle could tell at one glance that Otta was going to determine if a person had the right aptitude and attitude to fit in with Five Lives.

Q1: What is a dream(s) you'd like to make come true if there were no limitations?

Q2: Mrs Peter has been murdered. On the crime scene is a knife stained in blood and a half-eaten apple. The only ones without alibi on the day and time of her death was her neighbour who everyone didn't know well and her son who had been overseas for years. There was no sign of poisoning or stab wounds on Mrs Peter body. How do you think she died? Explain your answer.

Q3: Anticipate what you would see in Five Lives after a year from now. Describe it in as much detail as possible.

Q4: List three things that you like, dislike and feel can be improved about the current Five Lives.

Q5: You have to attain your goal no matter the consequences. List the things below from left to right in order of the action you are most likely to take to least likely to take in order to achieve your goals.

Kill, Seduce, Lie, Threaten, Blackmail, Bribe, Marry, Torture, Brainwash, Betray, Manipulate.

"Don't you think the last question is too extreme?" Grace frowned. Otta shrugged. If it served the purpose then it was good.

Michelle had one last question after everyone was clear about the grand plan. "Otta, when do we start?"

Instead of feeling hesitant about it, Otta Olley was determined. As much as she wanted to start today, she couldn't huge plans needed careful preparations. PJP's director had bought them two months worth of time. They had about one and a half month left. Otta would make good use of this time to prepare.

"The incorporation will start in November, one and a half month from now. However, recruitment and marketing can start now. The hiatus is over, we are working on revamping Five Lives. We are taking it off the market, please apologise to our loyal fans. To make it up to them, Richard will prepare a site that they can make a pledge to the campaign. These loyal fans will receive something good once we launch Five Lives Saga. On the day of the business incorporation, we will launch a teaser video of what the new Five Lives look like."

Dr Whitestone didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Otta decided to drag it out for so long. Even now, the shareholders of PJP were angsty about not having any news about Five Lives. Share prices had been falling but he kept that information to himself, not wanting to burden the young ones. He would hold the sky up even if it fell, that was how much hope he placed in the two young geniuses. Michelle shared a knowing glance with Grace and Dr Whitestone when they heard Otta's answer. It was a universal secret that PJP was facing its darkest days but for Otta and Richard's sake, they had to cover the eyes and ears of the duo. They too had faith in their friend.

If anyone could pull out a miracle from nowhere, it would be Otta.