Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 150: Another Game, another Chance for a Horrible Death

By the time 1 am rolled around, everyone was already up and ready to go. That was the best part of the people you worked with having a level of Fortitude. No one was hungover, no one had woken up drunk because they’d forgotten they’d had to get up earlier than normal and wouldn’t have nearly enough time to sober up, and no one was standing there with bleary eyes because they hadn’t gotten the sleep they needed.

No, everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed, standing there, ready for anything, waiting with all the discipline they had. When it came to the professionals, that was the utmost professionalism, clearly. When it came to the others … not so much. But no one was causing actual trouble, even if literally bouncing in place with excitement was a truly terrible look.

And then it happened, the large hand of the clock ticked over to the top most position and another twenty-four hours of incredible danger began.

Welcome, one and all, to the Winter Solstice EVENT!

Snow falls, blanketing the lands in white … like a shroud, one might say. Winter is a dangerous time, after all, the cold, starvation and starving beasts waiting around every corner.

This is a time to hide in one’s log cabin, stare into the crackling fire and comprehend just how screwed you’d be if your supplies ran out. Or maybe look to the skies to see if you can spot Ol’ Saint Nick’s sleigh so you can hide because you know all you’re going to get is Krampus dropped off at your front door and a vicious beating from Santa’s dark counterpart?

Either way, you will be free to laze about in your favorite armchair, or get off your ass and take the fight directly to the monsters that make winter as dangerous as it is, earning fantastic rewards in the process?

So pick up your weapon and stride out into the night, going up against the freezing cold of winter manifested into an avatar for you to fight, fend off the Krampus coming to punish you for your misdeeds, or will you dare to face the embodiment of Hunger, Selfishness and depravation of Winter itself, the Windigo.

A few spoilers about what monsters they’d be fighting, some vaguely threatening hints, and some subtle insults, all par for the course.

… wait, that didn’t look right. Wasn’t it meant to be “Wendigo”? Actually, there were multiple correct versions of that name, Isaac recalled, and “Windigo” was definitely one of them. But “Wendigo” was the most common spelling, so that was how most people would assume that it was a typo. And then … the muttering had already begun.

Isaac blasted his [Aura] out with a vengeance, the energy sweeping out across the area and making everyone who came into contact with it very aware of the fact that Isaac was trying to get their attention.

“I know a few people believe they’ve found a typo in the [System], that ‘Windigo’ should be spelled with an ‘e’ instead of an ‘I’ and that that the first typo in the [System] might indicate something greater. That is not the case, both ways of spelling it are correct.”

He took a deep breath to calm down, contacted Khaled, who was in charge of IT and updating, Sure, there were only a few hundred meters separating them, but shouting orders at max volume without a clear necessity wasn’t a good look and he didn’t quit have the time to head over there.

Unfortunately, the Party created by [Knightly Leader] was unable to take in everyone present, that would have been a little too convenient for them, but it was enough.

“Khaled, I want you to find a website or digital dictionary that can confirm that ‘Windigo’ is indeed a proper way of spelling, then add a link to it to the top the website for this Event. Then, please record a message to that effect and arrange it so anyone calling the tip lines will have to listen to it before they’re put through.”

That was an awkward way to phrase that, but Isaac sadly lacked the technical knowledge to put it more precisely. But this was going to be such a pain the ass. People who thought they’d noticed something that could be a scientific breakthrough felt the need to share it, and then often called the local university.

For example, there was a parasite that looked a little like a baby eel that lived in the swim bladders of fishes such as adult eels. And according to Professor Sturm, head of the aquatic biology faculty, there were dozens of people who called and tried to get in contact with him to tell him that they’d just discovered eels gave birth to live young, every year. The number of callers had gotten annoying, and the only people who’d called had been fisherman from the local area who’d just so happened to have caught an infected eel.

This was a typo that was visible to everyone in the world, and all of those people would be calling them.

… at least if the typo was visible to them, which might just be the English speaking world … nope, flipping his [System] to German revealed the same issue but a quick check of the internet revealed that it likewise could be properly spelled multiple ways.

Korean, same issue. Also Japanese. He couldn’t check any other languages because he couldn’t view their versions of the [System] as he didn’t speak them, but it would presumably be the same there. He quickly gave the order for people who spoke languages other than the ones he’d already checked to see how things were set up there, but he doubted there was a difference.

Any language with multiple correct ways of spelling the name used a less common version, to the end result of giving the impression that the seemingly infallible [System] had made a mistake. And then, they’d either call someone, or panic, because something that had invaded every part of their lives seemed like it was flawed.

And the worst part? It wouldn’t even seem like a deliberate attempt to cause a mess, because “Windigo” was seemingly the “most correct” way of spelling because it was the one most commonly used by indigenous authors, even though “Wendigo” was the most common version in general.

All in all, that little letter being different would cause a lot of trouble over utterly nothing and in hindsight, it would be blindingly obvious what had gone wrong, namely, that nothing had actually gone wrong, things had just unfolded in an unexpected way. Therefore, no reasonable person would read malicious intent into it.

This day was less than five minutes old an already practically guaranteed to turn into a disaster.

‘Well played, assholes.’ Isaac thought ‘Well fucking played.’