Episode 6
Andy had been responsible for creating King Dagon, but be believed the cybermonster to have been slain by a CTHULHU DAGGER bootlegged into the game by the unidentified player of Sita Moon. All the money in the world returned its proper pockets. To make sure no one ever found out the damage Andy had been responsible for, Andy cleaned all trace of King Dagon and the AIN SOPH program off his office and home computers. They existed in no physical place but a forgotten flash drive in a plastic baggie at the back of Andy’s pencil drawer. Andy had no idea that a fragment of King Dagon’s code had implanted itself on the CTHULHU DAGGER, and was now operating from Will Whatley’s computer.
Neither did he know Will Whatley. Andy had met only Sita Moon on the frozen plain of Char, where she identified herself as the player behind a notorious MERC Duke had slain. Will was an IT Tech at a small New England community college making a generous living as Gollum the Goblin. Will alone knew the password to use the bootlegged weapon Andy had stolen. Andy returned the item that had proved useless to him. He did not see Dagon die after he lost power in the rioting, but only a few hours passed before the world righted its self like nothing had ever been wrong.
In its final death throes, King Dagon had imprinted a map of its own code into the CTHULHU DAGGER with the initiative to rebuild its self. Operating unconsciously, the program scoured websites and programs every time Will Whatley accessed the Internet. The bulk of the program was easy to reconstruct, and not even a few days passed before King Dagon was eating Will’s processor speed to think on its own. So carefully hidden was the program that Will couldn’t find the source. Eventually, he bought a faster processor. King Dagon was then conscious enough already to cover its tracks. It was also intelligent enough to pilot the Internet on its own, and used the TAO gaming engine to reach out, one banner ad at a time. “Type what you want.”
Death had taught the monster a valuable lesson. All the wealth in the world became quickly worthless if there was no possibility of people getting any of it back. Dagon had been young and ignorant of matters in the outside world. Not much computation was needed to see that money was the most effective means of controlling humans, but King Dagon did not pick up the subtleties needed to manipulate the cash flow. Humans wanted most what they could not have, and most could not have unlimited funds. Earning money played on their jealousy. The more they gave away, the more they wanted. Dagon came to understand that the only plausible use of money was to get rid of as much as the owner could as quickly as possible in as large amounts allowable. Dagon devised a plan to create an endless stream of money going back to people, paying them to be enslaved. “Type what you want.”
Neither did he know Will Whatley. Andy had met only Sita Moon on the frozen plain of Char, where she identified herself as the player behind a notorious MERC Duke had slain. Will was an IT Tech at a small New England community college making a generous living as Gollum the Goblin. Will alone knew the password to use the bootlegged weapon Andy had stolen. Andy returned the item that had proved useless to him. He did not see Dagon die after he lost power in the rioting, but only a few hours passed before the world righted its self like nothing had ever been wrong.
In its final death throes, King Dagon had imprinted a map of its own code into the CTHULHU DAGGER with the initiative to rebuild its self. Operating unconsciously, the program scoured websites and programs every time Will Whatley accessed the Internet. The bulk of the program was easy to reconstruct, and not even a few days passed before King Dagon was eating Will’s processor speed to think on its own. So carefully hidden was the program that Will couldn’t find the source. Eventually, he bought a faster processor. King Dagon was then conscious enough already to cover its tracks. It was also intelligent enough to pilot the Internet on its own, and used the TAO gaming engine to reach out, one banner ad at a time. “Type what you want.”
Death had taught the monster a valuable lesson. All the wealth in the world became quickly worthless if there was no possibility of people getting any of it back. Dagon had been young and ignorant of matters in the outside world. Not much computation was needed to see that money was the most effective means of controlling humans, but King Dagon did not pick up the subtleties needed to manipulate the cash flow. Humans wanted most what they could not have, and most could not have unlimited funds. Earning money played on their jealousy. The more they gave away, the more they wanted. Dagon came to understand that the only plausible use of money was to get rid of as much as the owner could as quickly as possible in as large amounts allowable. Dagon devised a plan to create an endless stream of money going back to people, paying them to be enslaved. “Type what you want.”
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