Time left for Tier 1: 6 Days, 7 Hours.

  The flashing red symbol in the side of my vision was in the shape of an Exclamation mark. The systems way of letting me know it had something special to tell me. This time though even TAI was antsy for me to look at them. She continued to look at me expectantly, so I decided to see what the notification was about.

  NEW ACHIEVEMENTS The A.I. Shouted in my head at full volume.

  “AHHH, fuck. Don’t do that damn it” I yelled out loud at the A.I. “it just screamed New Achievements in my god damn ear. What the fuck TAI?”

  “It really said Achievements?” TAI asked in wonder. She had that ‘this can’t be real but please let it be real” look on her face.

  “Yes, which is weird on it’s own. If this game has achievements why haven’t I gotten any yet. I think I been doing some stuff that would get me some low level achievements. some 1G stuff like. took first steps, killed first enemy, talked to NPC for the first time. The lame stuff.” I was still scratching the inside of my ear, I didn’t know why. The A.I had shouted in my mind, not physically into my ear, yet it felt like it had.

  “Achievements haven’t been part of the system since before I was conceptualized. Give me a second to research this.” Her eyes glazed over for a few seconds. “Got the info. So Achievements existed for awhile back in early stages of the game. Alpha testing and Beta. Until the production company realized A.I on A.I danger wasn’t really working and the entertainment value wasn’t there. Then when they switched to live Voyagers such as yourself during the initial launch it spiked viewership but the achievements themselves had a nasty counter effect. They were incentivized to try and get as many as possible, which led to some heinous acts by Voyagers towards non-combative NPCs such as Marco’s people in his village. These never yielded new achievements mind you but it also didn’t stop some from doing more and more hoping the achievement was just numbers based. Eventually, the A.I and the producers decided to sunset them so that the incentive would go away. Some Voyagers still do these things on occasion but the majority have stopped.”

  That was a lot to take in. Wait, did she say entertainment, and viewership spike. Is this a game show I was on? Not just a sick way of dealing with Prisoners but an actual televised event.

  “TAI, I think I get what you were saying but did you say viewership? Like a game show?” I felt myself getting shaky. This wasn’t happening right now.

  “Yes, Voyager. Your in The Trials of Tarturis. It’s a televised series. It’s also a web show and live streaming service. You could potentially be being watched by thousands of people right now.” She said with such a matter of fact tone that I couldn’t even handle it.

  “What the actual fuck. Like the actual fucking fuck. I’m being watched? people can see me and know I’m in here and this is okay? like how is this actually fucking okay right now. Is this legal? is any of this allowed?” I kept spewing out more and more questions. My mouth was a word vomit hose and I was spraying in all directions trying to come to grip with this new dystopian bullshit.

  Then I just kinda stopped and stared into space for a second. What was my problem, why was this the breaking point for me? I seemed completely fine when I thought it was just some sadistic prisons internal cruelty to it’s inmates. Learning that the entire world was in on the situation was completely different for me. It felt more personal in a way. More violating to me as a human being.

  “I’m sorry you two. I didn’t mean to lose my shit like that. It was just a shock to find that out. So, I’m on a televised show and people can see me at any time?” I calmed down and got back into analysis and survive mode.

  “Yes, Voyager. That is correct. Currently you have been added to a few hundred following lists. So they can find your specific feed. I can make this information available in your menu if you would like.”

  “Yea, yea go ahead and add it to the pile of information I have. Now I have a better question though. How does those numbers help me? Like, what is the advantage of being a higher viewed Voyager to a lower viewed one?” I had to see what I could use this to my advantage for.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “On this Tier, Nothing really. Once you go down to Tier two and further the viewers will have more opportunities to help you both directly and indirectly. My programming doesn’t allow me to go into further detail than that though. I will get to explain more when we get to that point. It will be to your advantage though to begin getting more and more fans now, so they can benefit you later. This unfortunately has been a distraction for far too long. If your ready Voyager we need to get back to your achievements.” She got very insistent on the last part.

  “Ok, let me pull them up. Sorry about that, I just wasn’t ready to find out I’m being televised. Anyway here we go” I opened the first NOtification and was bombarded with the A.I again.

  NEW ACHIEVEMENT – Beta Test Relic. You personally have done something so out of the ordinary that the A.I. has decided to dig out an old relic system and re-initialize it specifically for you. Don’t feel to special now. you may have got it put back, but all of your Voyager friends will also get to start earning new achievements. Ill probably stick in a little warning about not getting rewarded for killing NPCs. Anyway, good job here’s a BETA TESTERS BOX.

  “Wow, I got a loot box for that. Cool and it gave me some XP also. Oh that reminds me I have like five attribute points to distribute.” I spent my points. since I had so many I decided to diversify and put a point in both Ethereal and Mental. Raising my Mana pool to thirteen. the other three went into Physical. making me even stronger and healthier. 275 HP and 13 MP were now under their respective bars in my vision.

  With my leveling maintenance now completed I went back to receiving some more achievements and Loot Boxes. I just wished the damn thing wouldn’t yell in my ear every time.

  NEW ACHIEVEMENT. You defeated your first enemy. Yea, I heard you tell your sprite girlfriend about getting this achievement. Think you’re a hot shot cause you can guess achievements before you get them? Well ta-da you nailed it. Reward- you get a No one likes a showoff Box. Enjoy you little know it all.

  NEW ACHIEVEMENT you accepted your first Quest provided by an NPC. The Witcher, Fallout, World of Warcraft, some of the best games in history was filled with more fluff than a build a bear bear stuffed by the little girls who didn’t know when to stop “Daddy why does Dr. beary keep popping his stitches?” The A.I mocked a little girl voice for that last part. Too bad her father didn’t tell her no ever. Anyway these games all have useless side quests that didn’t directly help you beat the actual game. This is the same thing here. You decided to do this shit for no real reward, too bad your stuck with it now. as a consolation prize for being duped into this Resident evil 4 styled bullshit heres a Box. REWARD- you get a LEOOOOONNN! Box. Enjoy

  NEW ACHIEVEMENT. How the actual fuck did you break my NPCs. You managed to do something so absolutely out of the ordinary that you actually managed to break the NPCs logic and dialogue trees to the point they had to let you in. That was some impressive improvising. Don’t think I didn’t get the reference. The guards on the other hand did not. REWARD- you receive a Your father was a hamster BOX.

  NEW ACHIEVEMENT. How the Hell did you do that? Okay maybe I was wrong and that Quest was a good idea. You brought the only NPC on this entire Tier that can both come with you adventuring and will scare the King into surrendering without violence. Good job sport, over a thousand prior Voyagers have had the chance to do this. Your the first to actually pull it off. REWARD. you received an EMOTIONAL DAMAGE BOX.

  NEW ACHIEVEMENT. Diplomatic Immunity. You managed to convince a racial Leader to give you a non aggression pass for their entire species. Thats pretty impressive, definitely didn’t have any secret repercussions for you. it absolutely only gave you this box, Wink WInk. REWARD- you received a THIS IS THE ONLY PRIZE YOUR GETTING FOR THAT BOX.

  There were other achievements in there too but they were for similar basic stuff like I suggested earlier. stuff for equipping my first magical item, using my first magic item, going through the tutorial, using an attribute point for the first time and other things like that.

  “Wow I just got a lot of boxes. like ten or more so far. TAI how do I open these things?”

  “That’s the bad news Voyager, you need a safe room. Which for you wont be available until you have been in the Trials for a full day. so about six hours from now. I can’t even tell you were they will start populating either. They will be fairly common so your not stranded for too long without one. However, for now you can’t open any of them. So I suggest we keep heading towards Marco’s Village. It is still a day or more away depending on our other interruptions along the way.”

  Not exactly the news you want to hear when you just got a bunch of potentially good stuff, but I was happy to hear about Safe rooms becoming a thing. I was beginning to think my only respite would be convergence halls. That’s a relief at least.

  “Sounds like a plan. Lead the way Marco. which hallway is it? let’s get you home.” I slapped him on the back as I pushed him forward.

  “About that” He sheepishly said as he looked at the three different hallways sitting in front of us.