In the previous episode...


    1.1.2An Immersive Experience


    On entering Soul Bound for the first time, Kafana discovers a society similar to that of Italy in the year 1600, except that magic is real and each magical element is associated with a colour, a particular deity, and many other things:


    FIRE:????red,?????Krev


    WATER:???blue,????Mor


    AIR:?????purple,??Lun


    EARTH:???green,???Dro


    LIGHT:???pink,????Zer


    SHADOW:??black,???Rac


    ORDER:???yellow,??Cov


    CHAOS:???white,???Bel


    Luckily she has Wellington to keep track of the details, leaving her free to concentrate on her role and immersing herself in the starting area’s plot line. She helps several other player characters and, in turn, they help the Wombles (the group’s name) complete a quest to entertain at a party, and do it so well that they impress the local Lord, Claudio Landi.


    ...now read on!


    1????????Soul Bound


    1.1??????Finding her Feet


    1.1.3????An Eventful Journey


    1.1.3.1??Its a new dawn, its a new day


    Your XperiSense (public discussion forum, licensed by XperiSense, moderation by LewinHodologics)


    Subject: How did she do that?


    T1ler: How can anyone gain 2500 rep in 5 hours?


    LeetL0rd: A hack. Probably used an expert system to grind something.


    T1ler: You can do that? I thought Soul Bound was hack-proof because it does direct brain scans which expert systems can’t fake yet, so they know all their users are humans?


    LeetL0rd: Of course they say that.


    PhanDome: Easy, she was boosted by a guild.


    T1ler: boosted?


    PhanDome: Noob. That’s where a guild logs in hundreds of members, they all collect something that can be traded for rep, and then they give all the items to one person to hand in.


    T1ler: So how did they manage to log hundreds of members into the same starting location? Parties are limited to 6 people, and unless you share a pre-registered party, your start location is random.


    PhanDome: I don’t know, noob. I’m not a guildcuck. Maybe they met in their nearest city?


    T1ler: I’m level 12. It took me 8 hours just to get a city entry permit from my starting area boss, and I’ve been playing this game for 4 years on Divine Mountain. Not saying it couldn’t be done, but it is damned impressive if a guild has hundreds of members who all managed to get to a city and get a reputation item in less than 5 hours.


    CassieCat: Could they have sent the items by mail?


    T1ler: Once you reach the city, you can use a bank to transfer money to another player, and you can use a courier to send them items if there’s a location to deliver to. But other than that, you can only do transfers in person. At our level, mail is strictly information only. Maybe you can do it when you reach level 21?


    GanTheGreenMan: I don’t know. We have too little information. We don’t even know her region or the faction she gained the rep with.


    T1ler: I tried searching her name. “Kafana” is a type of bistro in the Balkans in Europe. Nothing about a person or player by that name. But, if I was going to guess from her name, I’d say she’s unlikely to have picked Lilleheim, Savada, Torello or Mezelay; that leaves Kalzburg or Rovograd. Anyone here from those cities got any rumours for us?


    GringrisKhan: I too am interested to know how Kafana did this. I’m based near Rovograd. It took me 17 hours and two deaths to reach it. No rumours here.


    CassieCat: I’ve not died yet. What’s it like?


    GringrisKhan: At level 10 or lower you just respawn back at the Sanctum and get a talking to from the cleric of Cov. At 11 or higher, you drop any money you’re carrying, and your equipment takes some damage. If it’s the same as Divine Mountain, penalties get progressively nastier, the higher your level.


    CassieCat: Divine Mountain, that’s the Wuixia themed world that XperiSense launched a few years ago, right? What’s it like?


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.??????????GentleBreeze:


    Among craggy hills


    Aspiring gods act like crows


    And stab each other


    CassieCat: Nice haiku. If I understand you correctly, the scenery is pretty, but nobody has yet made it to max level because guilds gang up to kill each other’s high level characters?


    GentleBreeze: Understanding flowers upon your tongue like bitter rain.


    EtchiFan: Hey, check out Linnie’s blog. She’s claiming to have a recording, that she’s about to upload.


    T1ler: Whose Linnie?


    EtchiFan: She’s that cosplay chick who does Battlematch commentaries with Mel.


    LeetL0rd: Battlematch isn’t my thing, that’s some fucked shit, man. But I’ve heard of Mel’n’Linnie.


    EtchiFan: Battlematch is awesome. I hear she nearly got torn in two, once, and had to be put back together. That’s when she moved from combat over to commentary.


    PhanDome: ### shut up about battlematch, you ### ###. This is a forum about Soul Bound, ###. ### your ### with a banana.


    *MODERATOR*: User PhanDome suspended for ToS violation. Police informed.


    EtchiFan: Blog post is up on her website. Title “Insurmountable Gulf”, here’s the text:


    "As a gamer you will always remember the first time you come across a player who makes you realise that, no matter how long you play, no matter how hard you try, you will never ever be as good at it as they are. You want to know how Kafana scored ally status on Soul Bound in under 6 hours? Here’s a recording you can download and experience yourself. Bet you weep. I did."


    T1ler: Thanks EtchiFan. Downloading it now. Back with comments when I’ve watched it.


    …


    T1ler: O.M.G.


    CassieCat: That Sound of Music bit when she’s cooking. Soooo cute! I’m clipping that out and re-posting it. #CookingDance


    <hr>


    “Mornin’ Minion. What’s new today?”


    [Good morning, Nadine the First, Queen of Song.]


    [Your drone army has no new enemies to report, and has plundered a mighty hoard of herbs and vegetables for your kitchen. Elder Bahrudin arrived 23 minutes ago, and has opened up. You are due to enter velife in 17 minutes. You have a wedding party booked for the evening, in 2 days time.]


    [In wider news, Mayor Spears of Lunar Base One denied allegations that they paid different salaries to people remotely operating their robots depending on which country the workers were telecommuting from: “As far as we’re concerned, all of planet Earth is a single region. You can’t see the borders between trading blocs from space.” ]


    She left the crown carrying on murmuring as she nabbed a quick shower and bite to eat, before lying down to place it on her head. Her days were so much nicer, now she had something to look forward to each morning.


    [Entering orglife. Enabling privacy morphs. Loading Soul Bound. Setting 6 hour timer.]


    She really was getting used to having Minion in her life, and obviously Minion was getting rather good at anticipating her wishes. If he were human, he’d definitely be good husband material for someone.


    “Minion, when I play Soul Bound, please record my sessions, and index them for later retrieval.”


    [Certainly.]


    “Can you intercept commands from me while I am playing? For example, if I touch the tip of my thumb to the tip of my middle finger, can you use the privacy morph to mute anything I say so the game doesn’t hear it, and respond to me without the game being able to hear your response?”


    [Yes.]


    “What about adding information? If I ask you to get a cooking recipe off the net for me, is there any method allowed by the game to transfer that text to an in-game virtual document I can read or pass to other players? Could you control my moves in combat? Alter how the game perceives my emotions when casting spells?”


    [No. I can read a recipe to you, play a sound file to you, or even customise what you see when you look at the portal back to reality (though tampering with that isn’t advised for safety reasons). Those would be fine, because any effect upon the game world goes via your mind, and is indistinguishable from you flipping back to reality to learn it or having known it already. But anything that directly alters gameplay is categorised as cheating by the game’s end user agreement. The game’s expert cheating detection systems have a rather good track record of catching people who try it. I would strongly advise against making the attempt.]


    “Glad to hear it. That means nobody is going to be able to use voice enhancing software to out-sing me. If they sing better than me in the game, it means they really are better singers. I can live with a level playing field like that. It is going to be pretty sweet for Tomsk and Alderney too.”


    [What about Wellington?]


    “You have curiosity, Minion? Wellington is a prodigy. I’ve never met anyone who could out-plan him even with the aid of expert systems. If Wellington says he has a plan, you can give him additional ideas or data, but arguing with him is invariably a waste of time. He’s always right. Come to think of it, I never did find out what the last part of his plan was yesterday, that Tomsk referred to. I’ll ask him. It’s always interesting to know, even if it isn’t a part you’re involved in yourself.”


    She directed her attention towards the portal, which was showing her a busy courtyard from the viewpoint of her corporeal vessel. The portal grew larger.


    *flip*