.hack//AI Buster - Volume 1 - Chapter 1.3

Chapter 1.3 - Real Cyberconnect Japan Co., Ltd

.: 1 :.

Someone was knocking. When I removed the FMD, I saw a fresh-faced kid standing on the other side of the glass door. He'd been working for me for over a month, but I could never remember his name.

"The papers you requested, Watarai." He laid them down on my desk.

"Thanks." I thumbed through them while he waited for further instructions. Then I asked, "Any new reports on the Vagrant AI we missed the other day?"

"Nothing yet. But we've increased our patrols."

I leaned back in my chair and looked past the kid through the glass wall of my office. I stared out at the sea of cubicles; the right angles of their partitioned walls seemed to stretch outward li ke an Escher drawing. I used to be assigned to one of those cubicles until I earned this office. It wasn't very large, but at least it was mine.

"We're looking into every bug reporr that comes in," the kid said nervously to fill the silence.

"And there's no new information or witnesses?"

He shook his head. "But the report we received the day before yesterday was dead on! We missed our shot."

"The AIs are getting shiftier. Their functionality has increased so they know how to evade us. They never stay in the same place for long."

"When did Vagrant AIs first appear?" the kid asked.

"Basic ones were first discovered in the beta version. But the Vagrant Als at that time couldn't even send out text messages, let alone move around the system. Not only that, but they weren't smart enough to evade being deleted. Since they couldn't gate-out of their realm, they were stuck in one place wltil we found them."

"But they're evolving?"

"I don't care for the word evolve. It makes them sound a if they're alive. They're not." I moved the stack of papers to the side of my desk. "If you are not scheduled to join the Brigade patrols, you can go home early."

"Sounds good. Thanks."

"Unless you want to get in some overtime without pay. You know, impress the boss."

"Uh, I'm happy to go home."

No ambition. That was the problem with many of the kids today. Hired right after graduation, he did what he was told, earned his paycheck, and never strived for more. Maybe it would be different if he'd been assigned to the game development section. That's where most people wanted to be.

Unlike the sterile corporate atmosphere on this floor, the gamers decorated their offices with posters and artwork, played loud music, and generally had more fun. It was like being in college, only you were getting paid to be there. But this kid was assigned to me because he didil't do well enough in his training sessions. They made him a flunky.

"Any plans for tonight?" I asked.

"Not really. I might actually jump online, but ..." he trailed off. "It's weird, when I was a student I was totally into the game. I used to skip classes and give up sleep to play, but now that I work here ..."

"You lost interest, right?"

"Not exactly. But it's different somehow."

"Maybe if you had studied for your exams more instead of wasting all your time online, you'd be working for a better company," I joked.

He laughed. "If there's a better company than ours, show it to me." He straightened up. "No, what I meant was I approach it differently. Before, I lIsed to always check out the bulletin boards CBBS) to gather information on how to conquer the gan1e or roam about an area searching for rare items. And now, I've stopped doing things like that."

"It's an occupational disease:'

"Sir?"

"It's lost some of its mysti'lue for you. People who ate involved witl1 the production and administration of the game become less informed about the game than t11e players. It's common."

"Yeah, I guess that's it. Anything beyond the area of my responsibility is rather hard to keep up with."

"Never fo rget the love you first felt for The World. Currently, that's the only merit you've got. Otherwise, you'll remain an errand boy the rest of your career."

"But eventually I'll get some online responsibilities, right?"

"Not until you've earned SOIn c seniority." I wondered if he'd take my hint.

"I heard you participated tn localizing the Japanese version of The World. That true?"

Did he think that asking me about my past counted as overtime? "Yes, I did,"

"That's so awesome!"

Since he reacted to my news like a fanboy, I thought I'd impress him with my story. "I started here me year CC Corp. was established. In fact, I was a newbie like you and joined in on the project shortly after it started."

"Who was the team leader?"

"Tokuoka. He's no longer with the company, but you may have heard of him."

"No, I haven't. But people come in and out of the game industry pretty fast, don't they?"

"Sure. High turnover is part of the industry. Do you think you made a mistake by joining this business?"

"Not at all. Whar else would I be doing right now, flipping burgers? No thanks. So tell me more about this Tokuoka guy?"

I took a sip of the instant coffee that had been sitting on my desk fat hours. It not only looked like mud, it tasted like it, too. "He was ptetty interesting. Eccentric."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, speaking of flipping burgers, he always ate the same thing for dinner every night. A plain hamburger with French fries and a Coke. Because I was just starting out like you back then, I was often the errand boy they sent to McDonald's. Every night, he ate the same damn thing."

"That is strange."

"That's just for starters. Back then, we didn't lise time cards like we do now. Instead, we were on Tokuoka Time."

"Huh?"

"Tokuoka used to pile up blankets and couch cushions and sleep on the floor in his office. Whenever he woke up and climbed out of his makeshift sleeping bag, that was considered morning; when he stopped fat his first meal, that was 'noon,' and if he went out to drink, that was 'evening.' Didn't matter if morning was three in the afternoon and evening was actually dawn-that was Tokuoka Time."

"Wow. It doesn't sound like he got out much."

"Not really. I think the only women he talked to were those who worked here or anyone he encountered in restaurants. He was very asexual." I took another sip of the coffee and wondered why I didn't just send the kid out to make me a fresh pot. "The only time I remember him taking days off were the three days that he became so sick with fever he was rushed to the hospital. Once the fever was down, even though he was still ill, he went right back to work."

"How sad. Doesn't sound like he had any fun."

"He did have one small vice, one indulgence that he allowed himself. He smoked." I held back the best fat last. "Without leaving the building."

"Isn't that against the law?"

"Sure, and it's against company policy. But no one's going to tell the man who's designing the company's premium software what he can or can't do." I leaned back in my chair as I reflected on the past. "I still remember the smell of those cigarettes. The aroma is practically burned into my brain. H e used to smoke this sweet Indonesian cigarette called Gatam. It comes in a can. Have you seen them before? Each can holds thirty-six cigarettes. He'd go through a can a day. His office reeked of the smoke and his monitor would turn yellow within a month. They had to keep replacing them."

"Danm."

"Yeah, he was pretty unique. Defmitely not your typical CC Corp. employee. In fact, he only wore H awaiian shirts to work, and always listened to music through a set of headphones. I didn't find out till later that he loved hard rock bands like Van Halen and Deep Purple."

"Really?".

"Of course, you have to remember that the old triple-C was a start-up venture back then. Almost any computer company with any kind of vision had someone like Tokuoka working for them. Remember that everyone had lost their jobs after Pluto Kiss, so they gathered together as many programmers, designers, planners, and artists as they could to work on the localization process. Of course, it wasn't really that localized since they were trying to start the same system in ten different languages throughout the world. The real world, that is.

"In fact, Tokuoka used to scream about how difficult it was to combine all these different systems and link them up, but you can't tell upper management what they don't want to hear. They wanted something done and it was up to Tokuoka and others like him to make it happen. And that's exactly what they did."

The kid shifted on his feet. I think he wanted to sit down, but I kept on going. "Back then, we didn't worry about interoffice politics or getting promoted. We worked our asses off day and night just to get things done. It was hard work, but it was fun. Eventually, it paid off." I spread my arms indicating my office, but the kid didn't even notice.

"So what happened to this guy? W hy did Tokuoka leave the company?"

"How the hell do I know? One day he just left. Probably because the company became too big."

The kid looked at me funny. I continued, "After ALTIMIT OS was established and The World can1e into being, CC Corp. grew to epic proportions and, as you know, now leads the world in entertainment software. It became a giant bureaucracy where individualism was no longer encouraged. I'm gucssing Tokuoka's eccenrricities were no longer as tolerable and he constantly clashed with management. I also think he didn't feel properly thanked for all his hard work.

"After all, the sales of the original Japanese version of the game matched those of the English version. That wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for him. But no one respected him anymore; at least not the new managers who came in and took over when the company went public. Only the old crew, people such as myself, knew how hard he worked to accomplish what he acl,ieved. That's part of why I continue working here. I consider Tokuoka a mentor, and because I respect his vision, I work hard to preserve The World and make sure it continues to thrive and succeed."

I had become caught up in my own story. While I could tell the kid was impressed, I'm not sure he appreciated everything I was telling him.

"Wow!That kinda helps explain why you're so involved with the Cobalt Knights. Because it helps you stay in touch with the game."

"Not exactly. Let me ask you this. The World severely punishes cheaters. Do you know why that is?"

"Well, because .. . they cheat."

"It's a little more complicated than that. Let me explain." I sighed. "In an offline game, a player can cheat all he wants and there are no consequences. It's no big deal because he's really only weating himself out of the full game experience. However, when someone weats in an online ganle, it affects other players. Not only isn't it fair, but it also destroys game balance.

"When someone d,eats, part of The World shifts, and the more cheaters, the more the shift becomes uneven, until the entire game could be wohinged. Not only would that drive away players, but tllat would drive away business. So it's important, not only from a business viewpoint, but from a gaming standpoint, to keep everything fair. We must not allow anyone to cheat. And that's why no matter how small the bug is, we must delete it. Because the system must run smoothly."

"That's why the Cobalt Knights were created, right?"

"Right. Even though we're part of system administration, unlike the GMs who assist and support players, we debug. That's why we don't talk to or deal with players. We don't want them to know there are flaws in the system, ghosts in the machine. We operate behind the scenes."

"We're kind of like ,an el ite military unit?"

"Yeah, sure:' I started flipping through the papers he gave me.

"We move in the darkness."

"Uh-huh." I had hoped to inspire him to work longer hours, not lecture him on company history. Instead of inspiring him to work longet, I had let him waste my time.

"So getting in touch with players is forbidden because we might reveal our hidden mission."

"As usual, you've missed the point completely. I'm sure you'll remain an errand boy for a while."

"Huh?"

"What's this?" I held up a piece of paper near the bottom of the stack he handed me.

"That? Oh, that's something I found on one of the bulletin boards. It sounded interesting so I copied it. I must have mistakenly grabbed it when I was bringing over your documents."

I read the paper.

Subject: RE: Please tell me about the
Epitaph of th, Twilight!
Message by: W. B. Yates
Here is the Preface to the Epitaph of the Twilight

Yet to rerum, the shadowed one.
Who quests for the Twilight Drago"
Rumbles the Dark Hearth,
And Helba, Queen of theDark,
has raisedfinally her army.
Apeiron, King of Light, beckons.
At the base of the rainbow they meet.
Against the abominable Wave,
together they fight.
Alba's lake boils.
Light's great tree doth jail.
Power-all now to droplets tumed
in the temple iJf Arche Koeln.
Returns to nothing,
this world of shadowless ones.
Never to return; the shadowless one.
Who quests for the Twilight Dragon.

On the night before the
evil spirits threaten the town,
W B. Yates

I looked up to see the kid holding out his hand expecting me to return the paper to him. "Where did you find this?"

"It was posted by a player who responded to a question about the Epitaph iJf the Twilight. Sounds pretty interesting, don't you think?"

I looked down at the paper again. The message was dated yeSIerday. "w B. Yates, huh?"

"I sort of recognize that name. I think I saw it when I was playing The World as a student."

"He's a pretty famous player. He's been online ever since the beta version."

"You mean he's one of the original test players?"

"Must be. I remember seeing a posting byYates back then regarding the web novel on which Fragment was supposed to be based. I remember he called himself a net poet."

"Poet?"

"He's role-playing a minstrel in The World. He'd wander into an event, sing an im provised poem, and post it on the BBS. He's a fairly talented writer. Regardless, this web novel is pretty well known."

"Is that right?"

"You'll easily find it if you do a search."

"Maybe I'll look it up later tonight."

I finished my coffee and stood up. "Go home."

"Is that where you're headed?"

"No. I'm going to the nap room:'

"You're staying overnight again? Are you trying to create Watarai Time?"

"At least I don't have to sleep on the floor. The bed in the nap room is pretty comfortable and it saves me the commute."

"Damn, chief, you're putting in too many hours on this thing."

•••

I walked the kid to the elevator and then turned down the aisle toward the nap room. Maybe he was right. I had been working hard. But that was part of the job, always had been.

I turned off any unnecessary lights as I walked down the corridor. I hated to see waste of any kind, especially electricity. Part of growing up a conservationist, I guess.

I realized how loudly my footsteps echoed in the empty building as I walked across the floor. During the day, I never would have noticed the sound, but in the vacuum of ambient noise, it sounded like thunder.

When I arrived in the nap room, I shut the door and turned out the lights. But I couldn't stop thinking about the Vagrant AI. Her image haunted me in the darkness. I couldn't take my mind off her red dress and how she turned into that ftreball. I wondered, how did she come into existence? Could someone have programmed her? That's when a name jumped into my head.

Harald Hoerwick.

He was the original programmer of the beta version of The World, the authority on AI research, and an all-around genius. I never met him since he worked in the United States, but everyone who knows the history of CC Corp, and The World has heard of him.

Originally, the game data of The World was stored in a blackbox folder to which Harald attached a lock. Few knew of the folder's existence. In fact, only those who were deeply involved with the game's development and production had ever heard of it. When I learned about the folder, I had to sign a conftdentiality agreement. I wasn't allowed to talk about it.

There were even rumors that it was a program that automatically generated a functioning NPC. Now that was an idea worth contemplating; an NPC who talks and behaves on its own, not by the distributed processing of the computer. That meant interaction between players and NPCs would be no different than between players themselves-or humans if that's even possible. That would truly be the ultimate game-the simulation of reality. If voice simulation and authentic-sounding dialogue were perfected. then you would be unable to determine if the characters encountered inside the game were human or AI.

Too bad Harald Hoerwick disappeared before the beta version was released. That left a lock without a key.

I didn't sleep very well the rest of the night.