Underworld Player Chapter 39 - Out of Sight but Not Out of Mind

The fourth and final method for Players to earn experience was by winning "Games".

These were not mere video games with no real consequences, but highly risky challenges similar to raid dungeons, where the price of failure was death. A small number of these death games were based on games that had been developed over the course of human history, but more often than not, the rules and objectives of each game were unknown and unpredictable.

"Games" also appeared at random times and locations, and entry limits were imposed on the Players, depending on the difficulty of the game, to prevent abuse. For example, some games could only be attempted once a week.

The one constant was that every time a Game appeared, the major organizations would send teams out to crack them, because Games represented a highly valuable strategic resource.

Each Game possessed a property called Extraction. Each successful attempt raised the Extraction of a Game, and when it reached 100%, the top Player to complete the Game for the final time would receive control over it.

Games that had been fully Extracted could still be attempted by other players for the rewards, and since the process of Extraction meant that some Players would have learned the ins and outs of the Game, the knowledge could be passed on, minimizing the risk to new Players attempting them for the first time. As for the rewards, clearing a Game not only rewarded Players with experience points, but also a chance of acquiring equipment.

Thus, Games yielded far-reaching benefits for the organizations that owned them, and were a key incentive used to recruit new Players into their ranks. However, Games were incredibly rare, even more so than neutral creeps, but with their vast resources, each major organization had managed to claim ownership over one or two games.

The Concerning Department, for example, owned several Games of different "sizes"—one large, two mid-sized, and one small—reflecting their scope and complexity. The large one even offered a small chance for Players to earn

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