Dungeon Core Online 36 Chapter 36

"You're like, so good at this." Rue was hanging on his...o...b.. staring at the screens he was quickly flipping through. She had a drink loosely held in her hand, and raised the gla.s.s to her lips, glaring as she realized it was empty.

"Well, I do pride myself as a gamer." For the last two hours, James had been scanning through all of his loot options for his new mobs. Because he had level 5 loot researched, not only could he now see and modify the percentages for loot to drop, but he had also unlocked all the special common drops, and had a good amount of uncommon options unlocked. Because of this, the first thing he did before a.s.signing loot, was see all the new options he had because of this new mob type.

"I'm so glad you're my dungeon core." Rue waved her hand and started pouring another drink, spilling some of the liquor in front of James. He would be lying if she wasn't cute as a drunk, but right now, she was also being rather annoying.

"Mhmm." James really wasn't paying her much heed, because he had more important things to do. He pulled up a screen, glancing at his research. Boss mob rank 5 would be finishing in a little over 6 hours, and James had started a new type of research for his dungeon, which had unlocked when he hit tier 2. He was curious what the research, t.i.tled Events, would give to him. His mind had a suspicion, but he didn't want to get his hopes up.

"Like, I was hesitant when fa" before Rue could finish her sentence, she simply disappeared. Her form disappeared so fast, the gla.s.s she had been holding remained suspended in midair for a moment. James immediately stopped what he was doing, glancing around. What had just happened?"

"Rue?" Where had his pixie gone? What was she about to say? "Rue?" There was no sign of the pixie anywhere.

"Your AI will be returned in a few hours, after she has been, corrected." James had heard the voice before, it was the same voice that had greeted him when he first logged into DCO.

"What do you mean?" So she was a bit of a drunk, James had definitely seen worse coding in AI before. Besides, her drinking really wasn't causing him problems. He had even been looking forward to questioning her about DCO after he finished his tasks at hand. There was a reason people viewed liquor as a charisma boost in some games, after all.

"A downside of our AI companions in DCO, is the amount of knowledge they have access to. Needless to say, your AI was getting dangerously close to sharing information you do not need to know at this time. She will be corrected to ensure that does not happen again." The voice sounded bored explaining all of this to James. Something about the tone, the way the person spoke, rubbed James the wrong way. His mind was warning him not to trust this fellow.

"Will she be okay?"

"Oh yes. You likely won't be able to notice any change in her. Like I said, we are just ensuring you do not gain access to information you do not need." Telling a gamer there was additional information and secrets, and then mentioning they didn't need to know those things, was a terrible idea. Gamers, out of sheer nature, wanted to know all they could. Mainly so they could exploit such secrets. James was no exception, and he mentally began questioning what the developers could be hiding.

"Promise?" James was not done with this quest, he silently vowed to do as much digging as he could when he had free time, but judging by how quickly Rue had been removed, he knew he needed to be careful. Apparently, he was being observed. A fact he did not enjoy.

"Do not worry, your dear Rue will be returned to you." A timer appeared above James, counting down from 4 hours. "We will have her back to you in 4 hours. In that time, why don't you finish what you are doing? I'm sure you will have fun setting up your chests and the loot in them, and don't forget your mimic trap in the barn. I'm sure that Dwight fellow is in for a big surprise." The voice began chuckling darkly as it faded away.

"How did he…" James trailed off as realization hit. It seemed he wasn't just being monitored in game, but also outside of the game. It made sense, if Rue could send him personal messages while he was logged out, the developers very likely had a way to get into his AR gla.s.ses, giving them access to see and hear everything he did.

James fought off the level of panic that began to fill him, as he tried to go back to his task. There was nothing he could do about it right now, and he couldn't just quit the game. He was the dungeon core after all, and he really wanted to make the best dungeon he could, and give his players the greatest adventure ever. After everything he had overheard from players, and read on the forums, everyone was having too much fun for him to quit.

He pulled his loot tables back up, going over all the items one more time. Maybe he couldn't do anything about the surveillance, maybe this game had more going on in it than James knew. Regardless, for now, James knew his goal, his task, was to become great for his town, and for Rue. The rest, he would figure out over time.