Rebalanced PvP
A bear gets a little help to deal with his tormentors.
The bear tumbled over dead again. "This is the fifth time today! Don't they have anything better to do?" It felt like no matter what way he turned, some other players were ready to gank him again. They didn't even get anything from this; it was just out of spite or boredom at this point.
This MMO boasted having engaging pvp systems. The problem was that it didn't really have anything stopping higher levels from griefing lower levels. Any kind of fair fight didn't have to happen in the open world. A lot of people were flippant about it, no matter what the circumstance was. "PVP happened on a PVP server!" or "Learn to play! It's part of the game!"
The bear wished all his friends didn't play on this server. He was falling even farther behind. His friends did help when they could, but they couldn't guard him 24/7. It became a cycle as soon as his friends left; they could start to move in like they were just waiting for him to be alone. He could either slowly get some things done, try to get someone to help, or just log off for a while and hope they would get bored.
"Seven! That's seven now! I need to take a break." The bear logged off and flopped into bed. "They were really persistent this weekend. I was hoping to get to level 20 today. Guess I do something else for now..." He took off his VR headset.
The bear started to do some housework to kill sometime. Unaware of the message he got on his computer. After getting some work done, the bear returned and looked at any messages he got.
He was hoping that it was one of his friends telling him that they could help him. Instead, he got a strange-looking one. The first problem with it was that it was sent by someone just named A. No player could have a name that short, and the GMs and staff had a stamp next to their names.
At first he thought it was some kind of scammer. While they normally had a keyboard smash of letters, it is possible they have some kind of bug or tool to break the normal naming systems. He was curious, so he opened it up.
It reads, "Attention player! It has been found that you could use a little help. Your death count is in one of the highest percentiles for this area of the game. Enclosed is a book that should help even the odds. If you wish not to take this offer, please delete this and forget about it. Contacting game staff will not help you."
After this strange message, there was an item attached called The Tome of Revenge. Was this some kind of joke? The bear looked up everything he could about this but found nothing. He couldn't have been the only one to see something like this if it was part of the game. If it was some kind of scam, wouldn't they want him to click some kind of link? The book looked like just another item in the game. It seemed to have no stats or features other than being readable.
The bear knew that this was shady. The voice in the back of his mind wanted to know if this could really help. He was tired of not knowing what to do about this problem. If it really could help, what did he have to lose?
He takes the tome and reads it. It reads: All you need to do is have this tome on you when you are attacked. It will do the rest. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't just taking the tome with him.
He feels kind of cheated, but does what it says anyway. It isn't like things go worse for him. The bear decides to start questing again. Things go well for a while. After about 20 minutes, the bear thinks he sees one of his tormentors far off in the distance.
He starts to pull back, but it isn't long before they catch up to him. They had faster mounts and loved to toy with him.
"Where are you headed off to?" The wolf asked smugly.
"Can't you just leave me alone? Don't you have a raid or something to do?"
"Nope, got to wait for the lockouts, so we have a few more days of play time. Isn't that nice?"
The other player with him this time was a lion that slowly came up behind you. The wolf was kind of like the leader, and he had someone with range to be his muscle. There was no way to run without getting an arrow or spell lobbed at the bear. At least when the full group isn't here, they tend to lose interest faster.
"Not going to run this time? The chase is always fun too." The lion chimes in.
"Let's just get this over with." The bear said,
"Whoa, look at you! Rare for you to talk back to us." The wolf huffs. The wolf got slightly more angry after that bit of defiance.
The bear was hoping that if the tome was going to help him, it would be soon.
"Tell you what: Since you seem so riled up today, I think we have been going too easy on you. I'll put away my weapons and beat you up with my fists."
It was the same thing since the level difference made it, so the bear couldn't fight back.
"This means nothing; it's the same as attacking me with the weapon."
"What is the matter? You aren't chicken, are you?"
The bear just sighs. He knows if he just tries to run, he will get shot anyway. So he gets ready to fight, drawing his sword.
"That is more like it. Now time to teach you some manners!" The wolf runs up and is ready to punch. When he is about to hit... it missed. Everyone is shocked by that. "What happened? Is this some kind of bug? Fine, then I'll just put my weapons back on and... What do you mean I'm too low-level? I just had them on!"
The wolf was now gearless with the same problems. The bear looked behind him, and the lion seemed to be in the same state. Checking their levels showed they were both level 20 now. The bear was stunned but recovered quickly and attacked them. Since his playing field was now more even and his bullies had no armor to wear, the attack did a good amount of damage to him.
"What?!? How the fuck did you hit me?!" The wolf cried out as his health was almost gone from one critical hit.
"Hey! You can't do that to our guild leader!" The lion swiped at the bear, but the attack missed. "What?"
Checking the level of the lion again, it was still going down. 10, 9, 8. They could no longer hit the bear because of how much lower level they were.
"You must be hacking! I'm going to report you!" The wolf says. He tries to do so but finds himself unable to open his menu. "Holy shit! I can't open my menu or even log out!"
The lion checks the same thing. "Me neither! We need to get out of here and get some help with this!"
The lion starts to run, but is quickly stopped by some kind of barrier. They were both panicking, seeming to be trapped. The bear looked at himself, and he seemed to be gaining levels. He was at the max level of 60 and was still going past it.
He seemed to be getting bigger as it happened. The other's levels kept decreasing, and they were shrinking as it went below 1.
"What the fuck is happening now? I have never seen anything like this happen! Is this some kind of sick joke? Some dumb power fantasy you have?" The wolf yells.
The bear never dreamed of something like this, but what was said was true. He was the one with all the power now. No longer did he have to hide or worry about what they could do to him. Now they had to worry about what he could do to them. One shot would kill them easily, without effort. The bear wasn't sure what would happen then.
Would they just respawn and everything goes back to the way it was? He didn't want that. The bear looked over to the still-shrinking duo, falling under half his size and showing no signs of stopping. The bear thought about what he could do with them. Something gave him an idea. Not to attack them in the normal way. The bear pushes them over and pins them down with his feet.
They struggle, but it is no use; they can't even move him a little bit, as the size difference keeps getting larger. The bear's feet covered their whole body now. They let out some kind of noise, but the tiny, muffled squeaks can't be heard by the bear. The bear was a bit conflicted; he wanted to get some payback but didn't want to hurt them or just become like them.
However, teaching them a lesson is something he is very interested in. He has the wolf as his target. Level -32 and still falling. He could feel them under him less. He tries to put a bit more pressure on them. He could feel them, but the wolf's hp never went down. Not an attack, so the game doesn't really have a response to that.
The wolf under him was slowly starting to accept how powerless he was. All his time playing was now meaningless. The time spent building a guild and trying to keep them in line meant nothing at the moment. All he could do now was watch as the bear's paw filled up more and more of his world. Like a small bug at his mercy. All he could do now is wait or try to appease the bear now towering over him. The ever-increasing god he decided to anger.
He doesn't know why this happened. All he knows is that he had it coming. He had nowhere to run and had to face his judgment. Even with it not being real, he seemed to feel like it was. He could feel the heat; his throat felt dry, and his mind started to go hazy. He never experienced something like this before. It was so real... but it is just a game, right? His thoughts started to twist. Maybe he would be shown mercy if he just showed some humility.
Just as the wolf was about to send him a private message, the world started to shake, and the bear was now growing in size as his level kept climbing. The wolf looked at himself and noticed he wasn't even losing levels anymore or shrinking, yet the surrounding foot kept expanding. He tried to say something to the bear, but his menus were all still unusable.
The bear kept growing now, getting worried that things were getting out of hand. He couldn't stop it no matter what he did with the tome. Even deleting it made it show right back up in his bags. He was becoming bigger than the buildings, and whatever zone was made before was shattered as he looked around.
He was starting to get a lot of attention as the other players noticed the giant bear. Some players started to panic, while others thought it could be some kind of event. Players would both log off and run to the bear, trying to attack him but having their weapons and spells unable to connect.
People quickly started to figure out something was wrong as the NPCs started to clip through him and nothing was working. The bear tries to calm people down, but trips and his leg phases through the building, stepping on the players inside.
Things went even more out of control as those players he came in contact with were affected by the tome as well. Losing size and level as it funnels right into the bear.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" the bear says in a loud rumbling roar.
At this time a lot of reports came in of what was happening: a giant bear, players losing levels, and control of their game. While they could take the headset off, it was still locked into the game.
As the team running the game starts working on the problem. They soon found a workaround and banned the bear, restoring function to the players. Their levels and character models, however, would take much longer to fix.
***
Many rumors would start about what happened on that day. The creators of the MMO would officially say it was a hacker, but pressing charges didn't go as planned. They couldn't prove the bear even edited the game or the headset. All they really had was the message from A to go off of, but that person was never found or even why someone would do something like this.
Some people would say it was one of the developers having a laugh. Others would say it was some kind of cyberattack. Whatever the reason, people would slowly stop playing the game. No matter how much the creators would try to draw people in, the game was shut down a few months after the event.
The company was bought out shortly after closure, and people are wondering if they will ever make a game again.