Nice work; great job capturing the horror I imagined.

This can be as dark or not dark as you please, but I'd recommend a trigger warning for those who have personal traumas. Also seems like being the membership owner could be a fun direction. Hope you enjoy, it seems different than typical at least.

Does it count as a boycott if I wasn't going to watch it anyways?

I want to better mankind like that, too bad it probably isn't effective, especially for paying the bills.

It's more a discussion that might be useful for inspiration. Has some good ideas if you want to write that genre of book.

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/ycn6pv/divisive_question_incoming/itot33w?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

I'l probanlyl never write it, but you can see the power hack that would create. She can permanently drain their max hp becoming an unkillable juggernaut and she can drain their atk power allowing her to drain more max hp at a time. In theory, she can start one shotting everything by absorbing all of their max hp. And she'd have the hp of everything she'd ever killed.

At least until Athena got involved...

The dwarf warrior unlocked the cage while his party chatted to themselves. As required, Betty began with, "Thank you adventurer, you saved-"

"Skip."

What a jerk! They weren't even quick, they took the quest a week ago and Betty had spawned when they accepted it. Now they wanted to act like they were in a hurry? "I must get back to my-"

"Skip."

"Please, will you save me? I'm sure my father will reward you." the warrior seemed bored. Of course he was, what idiot wrote this dialogue, it's too cliché.

"Accept."

When the quest tracker updated, the elven ranger shouted, "Took you long enough."

"It's not my fault. I couldn't make the stupid b*tch shut up. Honestly, why even have her talk, nobody wants to hear that."

"No matter, we'll get this over quick enough." the human mage said, before casting the curse of flight. By halving the target's attack power, they'd receive a 25% movement speed buff. Ideally to make an enemy run away if under fear, but Betty only had 1 atk power.

Apparently the beta testers forgot something, because not many npcs were as weak as Betty. She could see it in her code, her attack power was an integer, but when halved and rounded, it equaled her current attack power causing the check statement to fail since her current attack power equalled her uncursed attack power.

After failing that 128 times, it began troubleshooting to find an acceptable solution. If Betty were to have picked the solution, she'd have said 1 attack power was already too low, but it wasn't her decision. The controller AI, known as Athena, decided that -1 was not equal to 1.

"What?" said Betty before laughing hysterically.

The players looked at her, now suddenly interested. Betty ignored them, she just wanted to know who curses the hostage they are supposed to save? It made no sense. Surely they didn't care about running slightly faster after leaving her in a cage for weeks.

"What is it?" the warrior shouted at her.

"There isn't supposed to be a 3rd phase, I read the wiki." said the ranger.

What did negative attack power mean? Would it harm her when she hit someone or would it cause Athena to decide their fate?

The warrior grabbed her arm roughly. "What is it? Where is the hidden encounter?"

It almost seemed worth it, but she'd act her part. "Please adventurer, I must get to-"

He shoved her so hard her butt hit the ground. And instead of apologizing, he smirked and turned away. Without thinking, Betty slapped him on the cheek and the code warped.

HP = 12,580 of 12,580, Atk = -1. HP = 12,581 of 12,580. Shield or overheal = False. Athena solution = atk overheal = max hp transference.

How disappointing. She was still the weakest npc, just with an unusual attack... that the warrior noticed. "What the f*ck did you do to my hp?"

The others looked startled, and then after examining it, drew their weapons. "Oh crap." Despite the futility, she ran towards the rogue and punched him in the nose. It hurt her wrist, but then Athena got involved.

HP = 9,550 of 9,550, Atk = -1. HP = 9,551 of 9,550. Shield or overheal = False. Athena solution = atk overheal = max hp transference solution future errors predicted. Athena solution = max hp transference & atk power drain.

It only did one damage, but if Betty could escape. That atk power drain could be something. But how to escape? She thought about pleading for forgiveness, but they didn't really seem like the type to forgive.

Despite the pain, she kept pulling, until she'd managed to rip a handful of hair and threw it on the ground. She stumbled and then looked up, "Wha... What just happened?"

"You attacked me." said the warrior, looking at her like an executioner.

"And you hit me." said the rogue.

"Right in the face." the mage added causing them all to laugh, except for the rogue.

"That's a good point, that thing must have booster her abilities or she couldn't have done that."

"I don't know you always are a lead footed sneak." said the warrior. Their banter went on for a time, but ideas of killing Betty were gone.

Now she just needed to make sure they didn't complete the quest...

Verdict: work for the NSA or go hide with Snowden

Kind of reminds me of Pursuit of Happyness without the finance job to look forward to. Maybe we can primary more progressives and get a labor party instead of the current pro-corporate Dems. Would help protect others at least.

Faces charges for taking bribes in an easily traced manner. We expect our peacekeepers to break the law properly.

But they'll only be able to ship enough fuel for 50 of them

And isn't it great that with the toll, the trader may never threaten their market prices nor reach their profit margins? So no matter how hard he toils or cleverly he trades, he will never become an affiliated merchant through honest means. But if he can somehow bridge that gap, then he will never have to worry about upstarts threatening his business.

I wonder why corporate executives are sociopathic in far larger proportions than the overall population 🤔

"I wish to stay in the inn for the night." said the peasant.

After paying his five copper pieces for entry, the guard ushered him in. After some time a simple trader with a small cart approached.

"I wish to trade my wares before being on my way."

After giving the guards 20% of his merchandise, he was given a badge to prove he'd paid the toll and was sent on his way. It was a typical afternoon with a small line of people seeking entry when the merchant caravan approached.

The guards ordered everyone to clear the way and stood respectfully as more wealth rolled in than during the rest of the day combined. Because after all, they were the affiliated merchants and they paid no tolls here.