A little while later, only a short way away, Alastair and Galoots sat on a bench waiting for a cut scene to occur. Or at least that’s what Alastair had told her to expect to happen. But they waited, and nothing occurred.

  Galoots said, “You’re sure it isn’t a timed occurrence? Like daily at 26?”

  “Uh, yeah, which should have already occurred, right?”

  “No, it’s only five minutes after 25. So we have another 55 minutes to wait for a cut scene.”

  “How did I get tripped up on the time?”

  “No idea. But we’ve got a full seven hours until the day resets, so let’s get a move on. Maybe if things work out, I can be back to my room just after everyone takes off for firefighting.”

  “Fine. Let’s see how this works,” he stood and walked the short distance to the Manor gate.

  The Guardsman 1 looked at him bored while he approached, then seemed to light up. “Ah, back already! Although I expect the Lady won’t be happy with you bringing a woman along. There is a rumor around that you snubbed all her cohort, and she’s a bit displeased with you about that.”

  “This is… never mind. Is the Mayor in? Or his brother? I’d like to have a chat about something regarding the city.”

  “Yeah, they’re both in, but I’m not sure of their schedules. You’ll need to arrange with the lead clerk. But that token you have gives you full access to the grounds, so you and your friend can go right in.”

  “Thank you. And have a happy watch.”

  The guard nodded as Alastair and Galoots entered the gate. Galoots seemed impressed by the vast garden spanning the distance between the walls. They followed the winding tree-lined path that crossed a small river, which Alastair realized must run under the walls, before seeing a parade ground, barracks, and stables.

  Through a second gate stood the stately, if out of place, Mayor’s Manor, which always reminded Alastair of a southern US plantation house.

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  “So, there are usually lots of folks running around doing servant things. But, I’m confused about how this game is running two instances of the same program when there are different event triggers in the same coordinates.”

  Galoots answered, “I have a supposition, but it’s only just that. Since you’ve already cleared those initial triggers, and I’m with you, I’m experiencing the world as it would be if I had also cleared those triggers. Even though we’re not in a party. Otherwise, the processing power required to show two, or more, different scenes to different observers would grow exponentially, and while Solar Cell has the processing power to do so, it’s unlikely they committed that type of money to a playtest. Think about it this way - there are probably checkpoints for activity - incomplete though about compounding activities and choices taking more processing power.”

  Alastair pulled them over to a smaller nook. “I thought they were giving out cash for finding bugs or something, though? How is that less money than parallel processing power?”

  “It’s only a guess, but since they limited the number of servers, they probably found some equitable calculation that balances the cost of player subjective time against server use. I mean, we’re putting in weeks for this project but getting paid nothing. Well, I’m getting paid, but I don’t think you are. So the offer of money may limit their liability somehow.”

  “Regardless,” said Alastair, “it might make it tricky based on what I was previously thinking. If everyone is here, and the Mayor and procession didn’t go to the Lord’s Keep, then they won’t call the search party, and the Manor will remain fully staffed through the night.”

  Galoots considered. “Let’s just go down to the control room and see if we can get the interface to activate.”

  “Won’t the instance thing affect you trying the puzzle? Wait, it didn’t for me at the Monastery. Stupid question. Let’s go.” Alastair didn’t have the best set of directions for where to go, but with a constant reference to his map was able to find the chamber that led to the smaller chamber and adjoining stairs below. It was fortunately quiet in this part of the Manor, and Alastair was constantly listening for sounds of people who might question his presence. Even having fixed the city just a few days ago didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be suspicious or think him benign.

  Still, he found the keypad on the stairs and the door to the vault.

  “So, I have no idea what this code is,” he said.

  “Did the numbers beep when entered?”

  “The door did. Maybe the keypad did also. Maybe a five-digit code.”

  “How many guesses do you think I get?”

  “No idea. Maybe it’s a puzzle interface that I didn’t get to try before.”

  “And you didn’t get a key for it?”

  He quickly checked his inventory. “No.”

  “Well, here goes,” She moved toward the keypad and Alastair noticed she entered a bit of a trance. A couple of minutes later she came out. “Like other locks, it shows as a Sudoku. But it didn’t unlock it, it just gave me the code.” She punched in a set of numbers that looked like all zeros, ones, and twos, not ever touching a number three or higher. But sure enough, the door beeped, unlocked and opened.