Freedom: Sanctum of Nine

“Whoooohooo! That was clutch Crimzon.” Bacon emotes his character to dance and me and Kyon join in on the emote.

“Oh man that was epic, and we just captured that point. Good job guys.” Kyon begins to scroll through the highlights and scores. “I’m going to save this and post it later.”

“Yea that was really good, I’m clipping it now for my account.” Bacon begins to save it and “Oh, wow it made the play of the match! This will be an automatic share in the clan site.”

“Brah! We kicked their asses! They did not stand a chance!” Big Boi chimes in as the team chat reconnects with everyone. “I got us the win, you should’ve seen it, me and Shadow wiped them out holding the point.”

Shadow also begins to chime in, “No I got us the win, your super didn’t connect on that one Big Boi. You missed half the team.”

The chat becomes overly noisy just seconds after the winning is declared, Shadie Hostile-808. What turned into a moment of great gameplay gets tuned out by other members of the clan claiming their individual highlights. In gaming it’s all fun with friends, and bragging rights come with it to one-up each other. However, as we played more overtime, Big Boi, Shadow, and Brave began to become condescending toward other players as they played together. As time went on, the clan began to lose players and dwindled. In real life Big Boi tried to recruit everyone that played Freedom into the clan and at first, they played well together, but eventually not all stayed. I was the first to leave and soon after Bacon, Chaotic left as well on their own.

Bacon started his own clan with his wife that also played and went by the name Clementine in Freedom. Kyon still stayed with Shadie Hostile-808 due to knowing Big Boi a long time. At work, Big Boi would be protective and kind of jealous when me and Kyon would be talking about the game. Big Boi thought I was trying to recruit Kyon to leave the clan and start a new one with me. Thought never crossed my mind to do so, because I understood the dynamic of their friendship. On occasion I would join to play in PVP team battles with them but remained a solo player.

Eventually Kyon decided to leave the clan and join Bacon’s clan as the toxic environment got worse in Shadie Hostile-808. Big Boi assumed it was my doing and couldn’t see that it was their own clan causing the rifts. Recruitment went up as they kept meeting players and the clan grew larger into a faction by Freedom’s standards. Once a clan had fifteen members they could apply to become a faction. Shadie Hostile-808 now became a faction of thirty-five players. All members of the faction run the Pathfinder class for their characters and have Shadow, Brave, Jojo and Wolf as their leaders under Big Boi.

I decided to call Kyon on Freedom to ask if he knows anything about the invitation by Big Boi. My screen shows his icon ringing, and then his character flashes onscreen.

“Oh, its Crimzon, hello good sir! How can I be of service to you?”

“Kyon, our clan got an invitation from Big Boi for an upcoming raid for the new raid boss, Leviathan. Do you know why he would reach out to us? I have not played with them for a while now, why the sudden invite?”

“He did!?! Wow that’s interesting. He didn’t tell me he reached out to your clan. I know he wants to do the raid with the maximum number of players though. He invited Bacon’s clan, the one I’m in currently because well, we used to be part of his clan.”

Kyon tries to think if he can remember anything that may be of importance. “Wait…do you know about that Betrayal gimmick they added now as part of the raids?”

“Yea, our clan as only partnered with other clans that we trust. A lot of clans have been backstabbing each other for the loot. When we play with other clans we’ve acted as a middleman among the clans involved drop all the loot at the end. We designate two players to grab the loot while the fighting takes place in the raid while the raid everyone clears all the “adds” and attack the bosses the game keeps throwing at players. We haven’t gotten any complaints.”

“Yea, your clan has been surfacing on the channels with footage and all the other clans’ you guys played with recommend you guys for raids. And if you’re not aware, your clan, Sanctum of Nine is one of the more respected clans in game. So, your clan reputation is high.”

“What does that have to do with this invitation from Shadie Hostile-808?”

“Everyone online is talking about how easy the raid is having your clan participate in the raid because you guys support the other clans. Big Boi wants Shadie Hostile-808 to be the top faction in reputation is my take…unless…”

“Unless...we’ll be marked for Betrayal, and they take our skills for their faction members?”

Kyon looks up from holding his chin, “Yup! You got it. Take you out of the game and your clan gets wiped. One of the faster growing factions in game, Shadie Hostile-808 gains its reputation for wiping Sanctum of Nine out and taking their skills.”

“Does Big Boi still think I’m responsible for you leaving the clan? I mean that’s a long time ago at this point to be salty about it.”

“Well, you know how he is, he wants to be the best, but Shadow and Wolf are pretty much recruiting the players because they are the best there. The rest are okay, maybe pretty good, but that faction is a mess when it comes to coordination on something like a raid.”

“Did Bacon respond to the invite?”

“No, we’re mulling it over. Bacon has his suspicions too because no one can know if they are being marked for Betrayal until we enter the raid level. Then players get notified and the wagers are made. So, the only one that would know would be the Raid General. Wait are you guys going to accept? I wouldn’t do it.”

“We’ll see. Our clan will discuss our options.”

“Okay, and I’ll update Bacon on what we discussed. If you guys decide to go, let us know. Maybe we can help each other out.”

“Will do Kyon.” My window with Kyon closes, I make my way back into the hanger with the other clan members of Sanctum of Nine. As I walk in, everyone is talking about possible scenarios that may have led to the invitation.

Platinum sees me walk in and raises her hand to a halt, catching everyone’s attention. Taking a step forward she asks, “Any good insight from Kyon?”

As everyone gathers, I share my discussion with Kyon and my history with the now faction Shadie Hostile-808. I also disclose who I really am and where I live. The other members begin to share their real-life identities. Our clan has a large age range, me being the oldest; Demo, Carbon, Tomoe, and Chaotic are in their twenties. Eagle-Eye, Trigger, Platinum and Silent Flash are in their teens. All members of the clan are from Japan except for Chaotic who plays from Hawai’i as well.

“Crimzon, what do you think we should do?” 'Flash looks concerned as she stands close to Platinum.

Understanding what Big Boi’s intentions are, I think about our next step and recall what Kyon said that our clan has been trending, “In my opinion, I think we hold off on doing any raids for the time being. We refocus on acquiring more skills and building our characters up with anything we can think of that may help us.”

Tomoe raises steps forward with an intense glare, “Crimzon, are we going after Shadie Hostile-808 in the raid?”

As I open a window I respond to Tomoe, “If their plan is to use Betrayal on us, then I say we make sure we end them in the raid and Shadie Hostile-808 gets wiped out. We end it all with Big Boi at this level. Besides, there are bound to be good loot in the raid.”

Demo smiles in approval and looks at Carbon who steps forward, “Can I suggest we gather materials to upgrade our weapons loadout?”

Chaotic stands straight after leaning against the airship, “And let’s upgrade these beauties. I heard that in the beginning it’s an airship level and to exit it’ll require the airships gameplay as well. Maybe in the airship mission we’ll need weapons modified to use.”

Opening a window from her display, Eagle-Eye looks at Platinum then me, “Are we going to be recruiting more members for our clan? Currently, we would be drastically outnumbered in a raid for fifty players.”

Platinum opens a window and looks over the clan members names, “Crimzon, may I suggest recruitment to increase our numbers? We will vet them of course. What do you say?”

Knowing that we will be walking into a trap, the more we have would offset the total number of players from Shadie Hostile-808. It’s a good idea but, “I agree. Let us recruit only three though, it’ll bring our numbers to twelve. In the raid at least we can be partnered up by pairs and the closer we get we can discuss who to partner with to increase our situation.”

Platinum smiles, “That’s our founder for you! Always thinking ahead.”

Silent Flash corrects her composure and stands with a refreshed determination, “What kind of skills should we try to obtain now? And where do you think we can find three more members?”

“The same way we ran into each other. We do the missions and PVP team battles, and besides it’s not like we starting from scratch.” Chaotic opens a window and throws it up in front of us as it enlarges to reveal a list of friend requests from previous players she recently encountered. The list reads, Finding 3.

“Bingo!” Eagle-Eye takes her open window and throws it at the one Chaotic has displayed. As her window flies into the Finding 3 display, the windows ripple and the lists merge compiling the names.

“Who would’ve thought that the Nine of us would have such a large following?” Platinum laughs throwing her window at the Finding 3 display, as her window reaches the compiled list everything digitally shatters and reverbs into a new list. The list is over one hundred names of players.

Everyone begins to pull up their displays and add them to the Finding 3 display. The list continues to grow and expand revealing a list of over four hundred names. To everyone’s surprise each member smiles with confidence and determination. Something the clan was uncertain of doing was now adding newfound light in the face of an uncertain opponent.

Platinum walks forward in front of the newly formed list to Finding 3. She raises her left hand to pull her hair over her ear and turns around. Our leader, always uncertain and soft spoken, is brimming with unexpected confidence,

“Shall we begin, Sanctum of Nine.”