Damien's Descent

For years now, the concept of a game using proper AI captivated the minds of gamers and businessmen alike, all it took was one company to open Pandora's box. When Farworld was announced, it took the world by storm. Billions in projected sales and in-game purchases brought near-infinite funding. The one-week beta came out and was everything it promised to be. The game to rule all games. A massive world where villages, towns and cities would rise and fall, armies could be called to bear, and rare items were sold for real world money, giving the best players a way to make cash. To give the playerbase a sense of direction, a few global achievements were added. Stuff like killing certain bosses, becoming the sole ruler of a large region or killing a specific number of other players. Being the first to complete a global achievement would get you rewards from the system, along with an interview where you could talk to the developers of the game you'd sunk thousands of hours into. None of that mattered to me though. The ultra-sweats could fight over the virtual world all they wanted. What caught my eye was that every single NPC had their own story, personality, and intelligence. From the basic villagers to the mighty bosses, they all had their own AI. I booted up the game, created my character, and my headset glitched, letting me log in early. A fun little bonus, or so I thought. Turns out, whatever the game devs were testing went wrong, and the NPCs were running rampant. As soon as they saw me, one charged. He grabbed me and, next thing I knew, the server wiped. When I came to, I wasn't my character, didn't have the skills or class I had selected, and didn't spawn where a player would. My menu was gone, I had no way of logging out, and the information sheet I had said I was an NPC – a level one villager. To make things worse, the game’s censor stops me from talking about anything meta if an NPC could hear. Since I'm now an NPC, I can't talk at all about my situation. If I disobey that rule, the system will delete me. But I do have one hope to get help. Completing a global achievement should let me talk to the devs, who can take this censor off me. Hopefully, I can at least put myself in a safe position. I can't die here. I refuse to die in a game. NPCs can't respawn, I can't respawn, so I must be careful, but I'll do it, I'm going to escape. No matter what I must do to make it out. What to expect. Progression: Even as an NPC, the game's system still allows for advancement. Damien will need to work his way up from a classless and unskilled farmer who can hardly even wield a hoe, to someone strong enough to face the immense difficulty behind a global achievement. High Stakes: Damien is the only player who is playing for his life, and he acts like it. No careless decisions, no weaknesses that he lets others take advantage of and absolutely no mercy to those who try and kill him. Conflict: Becoming the best at anything and surpassing all others can’t be done without stepping on a few heads, and Damien will be no stranger to hurting player and NPC alike to ensure his own survival. Sometimes it's a murderhobo who forced his hand, sometimes it's some kid that just bought a hundred dollars’ worth of gear with his mom's credit card and committed no other crime than having something Damien needed. Human Nature: Players tend to let loose on the NPCs, seeing them as little more than advanced sources of entertainment that they can easily overpower and force into whatever they want. Damien will be faced with people who see him as nothing more than a toy for them to play with and will have to either fight or accept this new reality. This story will update every week on Thursday at 12PM EST