Chương 86: I keep running, running away, a new hope, a new day

One of the ways that the original Skyrim had differentiated the capitals of its nine main holds was by giving them different visuals. Where Whiterun was usually sunny, full of warm browns and boisterous trade, Riften was cloudy, murky, dark and neighbouring an uninviting lake. The difference between these two cities, in particular, was also found in the main quests and factions in the city.

Whereas Whiterun had a fair, benevolent and relatively level-headed jarl, Riften's political power was split, much of it held in the hands of Maven Black-Briar, an immoral bitch primarily shielded from the consequences of her character by her association with the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. Coincidentally, it was these two organisations that had given Jin the most headaches when adapting the narrative of the game.

After all, this wasn't 'Murica anymore and he wanted to avoid prosecution by the morality police, which in this case were the sects consuming the product. He'd already changed the Dark Brotherhood slightly, having more of its members killed during its quest line and highlighting the power-hunger and general stupidity of Astrid's eventual betrayal.

Becoming the leader of the Dark Brotherhood in his version of Skyrim became a necessary evil in an attempt to collect allies with which to fight the existential threat of Alduin. In that sense, the co-opting of the sect away from Astrid, who was a true believer in its purpose to an extent, was a moral victory as the experiencer's non-participation would have simply left the brotherhood to continue their wicked ways without the guidance of a morally grey infiltrator whose actions served the Greater Good.

The orthodox sects of this world had experience collaborating with demonic sects when needed, for example, when acquiring certain materials or fighting particularly threatening demonic invasions. Thus, depicting the dark brotherhood as a chess-piece in a greater existential game rather than an organisation one joined simply for the lols and because one liked the aesthetic and edginess of assassination made it a valid inclusion into the scenario.

Now Jin was facing what was essentially the same issue, again, with the Thieves Guild, the main component of Riften as a piece of explorable media, in his opinion. He was simply grateful that the other guilds, such as the College of Winterhold, the Companions and the Bard's College wouldn't require this many alterations. He looked out at the half-built Riften beneath him, some scant NPCs he'd created already moving around to fill its streets.

The issue with the Thieves Guild was that stealing, in the Cultivation world, was a relative taboo. Certainly not as frowned upon as paid murder and demonic cultivation, but still. In the Cultivation World, stealing was legalised only in certain scenarios, for example, in the form of reparations. Or, in other words, extortion.

'Oh, you ran into me and dirtied my sleeve? Do you have any idea who my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother is? She's 281992nd in line for the sect leadership of the Fart Smelling Despite the Wind Sect. Hand over all your valuables and sign this slave contract, and then you will have paid off a millionth of your debt.'

If you ever ran into a young master, literally and metaphorically, who had the backing equivalent to his bad character, one could quickly find oneself losing a hefty amount of resources for appeasement purposes, because if the young master called their ancestor, the ancestor would certainly side with their descendant. Rather than using this highly moral and skilful technique, the Thieves Guild in Skyrim caused distractions, sneaked up on people and stole their valuables right off… the dishonourable bastards.

"Make it make sense," Jin muttered to himself as he floated down in his mindspace, loaded up with Hashimi's ever-increasing world and landed on a dark shingled roof.

"I already did the 'we must take over this distasteful organisation to fight the greater evil' thing." He shook his head. After a few moments of thought, he snapped his fingers, jumped off the roof, turned immaterial, floated through the ground and landed in the cistern that served as the guild's base. He looked at a few frozen characters. He hadn't coded their behaviour yet, but he'd needed to see them to initiate the thought process.

"Vex, Delvin, Brynjolf, Mercer," Jin counted quietly as he wandered the cistern. He stopped at the last man, the rather antipathic leader of the guild.

"The Thieves Guild has two things," Jin said slowly.

"They have money, and they have the skeleton key." He tilted his head thoughtfully. Was it reasonable to put money as a meaningful roadblock to defeating Alduin? While obviously Jin liked to believe that a world-ending threat would, well, unite the world, that obviously wasn't the case. Hell, one of the main points of Skyrim was that there was a whole ass civil war going on while Alduin slowly but surely awakened the dragons and counted down the clock to the end of times.

Acquiring a large sum of gold could reasonably be written to enable the experiencer to shift the tides in terms of expediting their path to defeating the big bad. You could buy better equipment, better spells, and hire mercenaries to shift certain outcomes. Now, the Thieves Guild didn't have a big vault of gold coins in their hideout in the original Skyrim, but considering how much they were stealing, extorting and fencing off, that was quite frankly, an oversight.

Similarly, the more prominent and less prominent members of the organisation should have large stashes hidden somewhere.

"A million gold coins?" Jin wondered aloud as he went to stand in front of Sapphire, admiring his workmanship.

"Steal everything in the vault, all the personal stashes, get one million. Quest: Money is power, and influencing the world into a state that is prepared for the end of times will take a lot of power. But where to find this gold? You've heard tales of a Thieves Guild in Riften; perhaps they're worth a brief visit? Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Quest Update: The Thieves Guild has what you need; now you simply need to gain their trust and find where they're hiding what you seek. Become a member. Quest Update: You've gained the confidence of the lower rank members, but the stashes of the Nightingales elude you. Become the leader of the guild and return the favour, robbing a robber is justice!"

"Something like that?" Jin wondered aloud, voice echoing, before half-nodding, half-shaking his head. The issue was that gold wasn't special to the Thieves Guild. The Dark Brotherhood had gold as well. Less, surely, but still. The Skeleton Key, then. How to use it? Returning it to Nocturnal granted certain powers, but its main function in itself was in unlocking locks. Put a door in the main questline which required the use of the skeleton key? No, Skyrim, still, was about freedom.

Making joining the Thieves Guild necessary to finish the main quest removed that freedom. Have the skeleton key be one of the options? He paused in his steps just as he was about to fall into the flowing water of the cistern. In Skyrim, the only way to enter the afterlife was to fly through the entrance of the Skuldafn temple on the back of a dragon and then open a portal with the staff of the dragon priest guarding it.

Thieves were thematically supposed to be the kind of people who could enter places they weren't supposed to. The original key was supposed to be able to open physical, magical and even metaphysical locks, but the player generally instead used it to gain a special ability from Nocturnal. Jin liked taking the agent of strife personally, as he preferred lifesteal abilities.

But in Skyrim, the cultivator training room, it wasn't that important to grant more abilities, although experiencers would certainly benefit from the experimentation. What if he expanded the scope of the key? Just a little bit. It was supposed to be able to open a portal to Ebonmore, Nocturnal's realm. Why not… the afterlife? A second entry point to Sovngarde. Alternatively, he could have the key be a dead-end solution.

The experiencer would search for it in hopes of being able to enter Sovngarde with it, but after getting it, they'd find out it didn't have that power. Instead, they would discover that by using the key on themselves, they would unlock their hidden potential? Jin shook his head and hesitated. Unlocking hidden potential just sounded like adding more abilities, which wasn't the point of the scenario. Scenarios were there to help the experiencer explore their own abilities in different settings.

The Illusion Room would already have the shouts and the magic. Adding a backdoor to Sovngarde… It actually fit with the original game's themes of freedom of choice. He would have to discuss it with the team, but he was happy with the brainstorming session. The Thieves Guild would be Skyrim's biggest lootable chest, providing the gold necessary to influence certain outcomes, as was also the case in real life.

The skeleton key would provide a guild-specific contribution to the main plot, which would, at the same time, be optional, but increase the experiencer's options. He felt himself making progress on the path of solving the Thieves Guild dilemma. -/-"Riften good?" Hashimi grunted as the core trio of the Skyrim project sat together on one of the outside pavilions. Jin shot the girl a thumbs-up.

"Appropriately gloomy. Love the base of the Thieves Guild. Been having some good ideas about the direction to take it in. It's all in the slip." Bao suddenly emerged on the steps of the pavilion, bringing a tray of food and tea, which she quickly set down in front of Hashimi and Jin, before doing so slowly in front of Francis, unnecessarily bending over as she did so to grant him a glimpse down her servant's robe. Francis watched her go as she left after having completed her task, off to do heaven knows what.

"What a woman," the old man sighed with a smile.

"If you're going to take her off my hands completely, please do. Then I can get a real servant," Jin muttered.

"She does that to all the older-looking disciples," Hashimi muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Saw her with a scroll on the sect marriage code, specifically, the portion about the widow's pension."

"Even a romantic at heart must protect their interests," Francis said with a dreamy sigh.

"She'd jump ship the moment she realised you'll outlive her regardless of all other factors," Hashimi said with a roll of her eyes.

"But what a ship it would be…"

"Back on topic?" Jin dug into his bowl of food, which was mostly heavy on the tofu today. It was a bit spicy for him, but what could you do?

"We've been grinding out Skyrim for half a year now," Hashimi said with a wave of her hand.

"Let's talk about real business after the meal," she finished, digging in herself. Jin shrugged.

"Lung Junior finally gave up on copying my Illusion Rooms," he eventually said.

"He's been looking way more sane lately."

"Yeah, just that he screams and curls into a ball whenever someone approaches him from behind," Francis snorted.

"You must have generated a lot of points with your rooms," Hashimi said to Jin, who was looking at the leaves falling outside the structure they were currently sitting in. It would be autumn soon.

"I got a hefty dose just from The Last of Us; the copies are selling like hotcakes in the mortal market. The army even sent the sect leader a fruit basket last I heard."

"Nobody is actually buying copies of Outlast or Dragonslayer," Jin informed her.

"A dozen or so were sold. The distribution department said it mostly went to the recently ascended soldiers, although they tend to send Outlast back to recoup some of the purchase."

"It's popular in the library," Francis interjected.

"I saw a huge group of disciples from other sects ribbing each other to try. It's become a test of courage."

"The library is doing good, yeah," Jin agreed. Dragonslayer and Outlast were generating him a decent enough passive income that he could have technically just rested on his laurels for a few years. The Last of Us was meanwhile generating way more, but was split between him, Hashimi, and Francis holding a slice.

"Demand will fall, though, the zombies will be contained, the other two will become old news, those that want to use it more seriously having bought their copies."

"Don't say it so pessimistically, it's a very good run. Barely any inner disciples ever strike it as big as you did with your zombie scenario, and most can only dream about having one Illusion Room as popular as the other two," Francis cautioned.

"I'm a lucky guy, that's for sure," Jin said with a sigh.

"But what I want the most is for Skyrim to succeed. To prove to the Elders that they can leave me to my own devices."

"Well, about you being a lucky guy," Hashimi suddenly interrupted with a small smirk.

"What?" Jin demanded.

"Don't look at me like that."

"News on the grapevine is that the combat sects weren't too happy about the results of the tournament," she said.

"They can disqualify me retroactively, see if I care," Jin snorted.

"Well, they're talking about something else instead," Hashimi muttered. Jin glared at her.

"Come on, out with it."

"They're asking themselves if there's really a need to have non-combat sect inner disciples compete in the outer disciple tournament. Why not let inner disciples fight inner disciples, no matter the sect?" Hashimi asked hypothetically. Jin froze and stared at his friend with wide eyes as a shiver ran down his spine.

"You're joking," he said with a fake laugh, "right?" Hashimi shrugged.

"Rumours," she told him.

"Knowing how long it takes for those oldies to decide something, you might already be a core disciple by the time they change the rulings." Jin sighed in relief and nodded.

"And there's no tournament for core disciples," he said happily.

"Their techniques are too advanced to show off for prestige." He paused.

"It's not that easy," Francis snorted, before pausing.

"Well, maybe if Skyrim succeeds." He looked at Jin.

"You'll have to reach the core formation stage, though. Not buts or ifs about it." Jin nodded thoughtfully. He hadn't yet fully finished the spirit stones he'd gained from the last tournament. Maybe it was time to accelerate his cultivation… Just in case… -/- AN: Important author's note below