Chapter 6

Alan sprinted away from the sniper’s nest, swearing all the while, cursing whatever idiotic rules governed the game. How had they identified him by his voice, when he was deliberately speaking with an accent? As he began to tire, Alan deactivated his armor's invisibility field once he was about a half mile away. It only had 100 energy left, enough energy to deflect a single shot or keep him invisible for 20 minutes.

I may have overestimated the gravity of the situation, Eve said.

Oh?

Yes, according to your status window you now simply have a “Disliked” reputation with the United World Government, which means they will not kill you on sight. Of course, the company of soldiers that are about to attack the base are an exception.

Alan opened up his character screen as he jogged, and saw this was true. Similar to most other games, his status window included a reputation screen under the heading Faction Standings. This would help him keep track of his current status with all of the various factions he met. It would also let him know how much any of his actions angered or pleased a certain faction. He brought up the screen to check if what Eve said was true.

Factions which will attack you on sight will be displayed with a (Hostile) tag. No factions are currently hostile, Eve continued. As we build a reputation with certain factions others may become hostile though. You were detected so easily because it is much simpler to determine the perpetrator of actions in the Game; it only requires various in-game skills. For instance, a player could determine simply from the room and death marker left behind a description of the killer, perhaps even their username.

Death marker?

Any dead player leaves behind a death marker, noting where they died. Only people with specialized classes and skills may interact with these markers, either removing them, inspecting them for information or even potentially reviving the player. From what I understand, when a player dies they return to their Home, and until they choose to respawn or be revived their death marker remains active.

Alright, but how did the government identify me?

It is fairly common to identify players by their voice, but that means they had a previous recording. Perhaps it was taken at the trading hub, or even the military base we were first teleported to. Special skills are required to hide your identity when attacking another player. A relatively common class capable of such feats is an Assassin.

Hmmm, was there much about classes in the information you downloaded? Alan was curious about how much the Game lined up with traditional role-playing games. Usually, a player's class determined what sort of abilities or items they could wield, a designation of a person's role within the game. Usually, players selected a class that fit their play-style.