Might as Well

“What the hell is going on? Can somebody tell me?” The man in the suit looked around the room, eyeing mostly the people who weren’t wearing pristine suits. “I have seen the reports! Why haven’t we gone after this guy?”

Several people looked at each other, daring each other to answer, while the rest of the suits watched impassively.

“Well?”

Finally, one of the people, in a hoodie that depicted a black wolf, spoke up.

“Because we found no explanation for how he does it, sir.”

“What do you mean, no explanation?”

The guy in the hoodie reached up and adjusted his glasses. “Well, sir, we sent a PI after him. Nothing. We went through his records. Nothing,” explained the man, nervously shifting in his seat. “We even sent the PI into his home.”

“And did they find anything?”

“Lots of encrypted notes…”

“Don’t tell me we couldn’t break some no-name person’s encryption?” came the angry question from the suit.

“No, sir. We broke it almost instantly.”

“Aaand?”

“We have no idea what any of that means.”

The suit blinked at the man, while the rest of them just thanked whatever deity they believed in that they hadn’t opened their mouth.

“What do you mean? You guys are the smartest people in the world. You made an MMO that has the entire world salivating over it. We have at least a dozen AIs working for us! Are you saying none of you have any idea what that guy wrote down in his diary?”

“Y-yes, sir,” came the hesitant answer.

The suit opened his mouth, probably to continue to berate the other man, but one of the other suits weakly cleared their throat, and the man slumped back into his seat.

For a long moment, nobody spoke until the suit finally gathered enough wits to speak up.

“Why?”

“Why what, sir?”

“Don’t sass me. Why can’t you understand what he wrote?”

This time, a woman spoke up, wearing a ratty shirt with a few coffee stains. “Because he is using an internal reference that makes no sense, or at least we haven’t been able to figure it out. We can read everything he wrote down, but it makes no sense. We tried looking for a key, but no bueno, I’m afraid…”

The suit opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the man who had previously cleared his throat held up a hand.

“That’s enough Andrew.” The suit slumped back into his chair again and the man turned to the bespectacled man who spoke up before. “Answer me this: Is he cheating?”

“No, sir.”

The man eyed the other man and nodded.

“Good. Then we don’t have to waste more time on this man. Clearly, he is either a once-an-eon genius who can see clearly through our game or receiving revelations from some kind of heavenly being, according to some crack-pot theories. Or very, very good at cheating. But clearly, he is not exploiting the game more than any other pro player, nor is he trying to ruin the game for others. Heavens, thanks to his actions, the game’s valuation has even risen.” The man explained while looking around the room. A lot of people were nodding, but a few suits looked disappointed that they wouldn’t be bringing down the hammer on the guy. “So, for now, let’s leave him and stop spamming the office with warnings about his cheating. Unless somebody has something concrete, I say let him play. Hell, even if he cheats, he is an interesting player and sure to cause interesting things to happen!”

"“Yes, Sir!””

Stupid Sam left her alone in this dreary city, and now she had to look for her own adventures. Katie hugged Puffball closer to her while the cat-like being struggled in her arms.

It was that, or logging out of the game and watching her father stewing over her insolence and Sam’s awesomeness while her brother fretted.

Admittedly, it was hilarious, but she wanted to spend as little time with her father as possible. Even though she knew that he would strike back, carefully planned to make sure it hurt her too, Katie just couldn’t make herself care.

She didn’t mind a little setback in the game, after all, it wasn’t like she needed the money she was making from her contract. And if she was forced to make a new character if her father somehow managed to ruin her current one… Well, she didn’t really mind. With a new character, she could avoid a lot of early mistakes she had made and create a much more powerful class. Especially if she asked Sam for help.

She couldn’t help but grin, thinking about her friend. He was mysterious and prone to keeping secrets, which her finely honed senses and things learned from her family told her were massive secrets. On the other hand, he always listened, never ordered her around outside of battle, and made sure she was having fun. And naturally, he had the best advice about how to use her skills…

And he gave her Puffball! The most important thing.

While she was woolgathering, the eldritch cat managed to wiggle herself out of her hands and plopped down on the floor of her room in the company headquarters. The cat shook itself and without pause headed for the door.

Katie only looked up when her familiar let out a meow, trying to jump up and turn the doorknob.

She stood up while snickering, and with a few steps of her long legs, arrived at the door. “Silly little Puffball! Here, let me help you!” and with a simple twist, opened the door.

However, instead of rushing away as it usually did when she let it out for a stroll in the evening, the familiar instead pawed at her feet, then walked forward a few steps, its tail up and her cute little butt wiggling.

Katie just looked at her familiar confusedly.

The cat looked back at her, let out a very cat-like sigh, sauntered back to her feet, pawed at her boots, and once again took a few steps away.

This time Katie understood.

“You want me to follow you?”

The familiar let out a meow in agreement and began walking toward the stairwell, while Katie followed it without hesitation.

In short order, they left behind the headquarters and kept going deep into the city. They went through small alleyways, wide open streets, areas filled with people, and locations where Katie felt more alone than it was physically possible.

It took Katie a while to realize that her adorable little familiar was making a pattern. Sadly, she didn’t really study things like that, content to train her chef skills to provide more and more delicious food to her angelic little kitten.

For a moment, she was a little sad that Sam wasn’t around to explain to her the purpose of this, but then she cheered up at the thought that she could tell him later.

Around an hour later, Katie was still enthusiastically following Puffball when her familiar stopped in the middle of a random alleyway and turned toward one of the walls. Katie soon caught up with it and stood there and looked at the wall.

It was a wall not unlike any other wall. Maybe it was a little grimier than others, but otherwise, Katie couldn’t pinpoint any difference visible to the eye. Instead, she turned to her familiar.

“Now what, Puffball?”

The cat, instead of answering, took a few steps forward and pawed at the wall.

Instantly, a jagged scar appeared on its surface, the edges glowing with off-white light that seemed dirty to her, and behind the scar was darkness darker than she ever saw. Closing her eyes would seem blinding light compared to the darkness that she witnessed behind the scar on reality.

Then the scar began to widen, big enough that an adult could cross without touching the edges. Which some hidden sense told her would be bad.

And as Katie looked deeper into the dark, the darkness looked back at her.

Eyes as far as she could see, all of them judging and measuring her.

Honestly, they reminded her of her father’s eyes every time he looked at her and saw that she was still a woman.

Then she looked down at Puffball who looked back at her with the way most cats look at their ‘caretakers’ general disinterest mixed with a little contempt and elation at the coming carnage.

“You want me to go in there?” she asked her familiar, whose shadow seemed to vanish somewhere.

“Meow!”

Katie thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, if you say so…”

Then she unsheathed her greatsword, activated her skills the beginning of yellow energy starting to appear around her, and with an enormous war cry she jumped forward ready to meet in a bloody battle whatever was on the other side.

The cat blinked in surprise, let out a sigh that no cat should be able to, and looked around, both left and right, then up and down. Finding nobody it jumped after its mistress, the scar on reality closing up behind it instantly, leaving the alleyway as it was, with only one of the trashed cabbages having grown tentacles.

Lucy kinda hated Sam right now.

She spent a lot of money trying to set up a beachhead in Deepanchor with no success and he goes there and within a fortnight they were merrily setting up shops and warehouses while the money was simply flowing in.

They even had a company from whom they could rent ships. Real, big ones, not those small dinky ones that people were bragging about on the net. Sometimes she really wanted to lock him in a basement and wring his head of all the little secrets he knew.

Hearing her notifications ping she put aside one of the reports of one of Liz’s creations and opened the system interface.

“What the hell, Sam! How the fuck do you do this?” she whispered in disbelief, then began massaging her forehead.

Demons and now this?

She leaned back in her super comfortable chair (made by Liz, modeled after modern ergonomic chairs) and let out a sigh while closing her eyes.

An assassin… Who knew about security…

‘Well, he did promise he would send me a security expert… But how the hell did he arrange all of this to happen right at the moment he could make use of it?’ she wondered silently as she contemplated the message that her friend-slash-coworker sent.

They were actually in dire need of a security expert, as while her skills were not insignificant, they usually hinged on being useful against NPCs. People were rather more complicated than that. And bastards.

For now, she could keep up by using her own knowledge, the NPC guards, and the city’s favorable impressions of their company as well as her awesome familiars, but sooner or later people would reach levels that would trump her own skills, and then that would spell their doom.

Because while their success created wealth aplenty for her and Sam equally, it also created a bevy of enemies both high and low.

The lowlifes were easier to take care of, yet they were numerous. The higher ones were a mystery.

She knew they were out there and even knew about a few of them, but she was sure there were at least as many lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike down and gobble up their fledgling empire.

Naturally, she had plans, but those plans would work better with someone who had the required experience to bring those plans to life.

Lucy sat up in her chair, cracked her neck left and right, and dived back into the paperwork.

The expert was on his way. For now, she would need to take care of other issues.

He sat there on the other side of her desk, sitting up straight with an honest-to-God bowtie affixed at his neck, wearing a spiffy vest and a medieval shirt.

Basically, a quintessential IT worker. The only way he could have been more cliché was with glasses and a pocket protector.

If Lucy didn’t know any better, she wouldn’t be able to tell that his seemingly normal-looking man was a top-tier assassin from the Silent Step guild, feared across many games.

‘I suppose that’s the point…’ she mused while smiling at the man. Too bad the creepy raven on her shoulder ruined the atmosphere.

“Tim, was it?”

“Er, yes, ma’am. I think… Or I suppose, yes. I mean, yes I’m. That is, I’m Tim. And not enchanter!” he rambled at her seemingly in panic.

“Enchanter, what?”

“Er, Sam mentioned something about enchanting and I was worried…” he admitted ruefully while scratching the back of his head.

Lucy made a note to send a death threat to Sam while continuing to smile.

“Alright, let’s forget that happened, and let us talk about your duties! We’ll need to…”

Tim sat on his old sofa and held his head.

So many things happened in such a short time that his head was spinning from the events that transpired.

He was tapped for a demon summoning, then got cold feet, which in turn resulted in a chase that exhausted him beyond belief. Then he somehow found himself in a hot spring with a mysterious player who seemed to have an answer to everything, yet the more he talked with him the more confused Tim became.

Following that, he spent a day or two on a ship where everybody treated him like a prince for some reason, only to land in Deepanchor where he was put in a carriage almost instantly and sent to Ironwood.

There he met with the mysterious player’s partner, who was just as mysterious and rather creepy (though a total babe, not that he had any chance with her). The eyes of those ravens even haunted him in his dreams. Or rather nightmares…

And now he was officially out of the Silent Steps, the contract concluded automatically. His bank account connected to his gaming had swelled nicely with the influx of paid penalties from his previous boss and the bonus he was paid from his newest boss.

Sadly, the new contract was just as comprehensive as the previous, if not more. Clearly, these people know what they are doing.

His messages and email account were already being filled with messages from his previous boss and comrades. Unfortunately, most of them were rather negative, though he made sure to answer those who were worried about him. While making sure not to give out any actionable information about his current whereabouts and situation.

“What the hell should I do?” he growled out loud to his empty apartment.

Sadly, only silence was his answer.

After an hour of contemplation, he finally got up from his seat and went to bed. He had work tomorrow, and he had no idea what to do, so sleep was a better alternative.

‘Maybe when I wake up things will make sense…’

For a while he laid in bed, tossing and turning, before reluctantly he got up and settled in front of his computer and began drafting his plan on how to upgrade the security of the company that the Boss Lady asked him to.

‘Sleep is for the weak, after all…’ he mused as he continued to type.

Life at university was always a challenge.

To Dan, whose interest only encompassed plasma until recently, it was even more chaotic. He was never what other, well-adjusted people would call a people person, so now that Magic Unbound was basically transforming everything about social life at his university, he was even more troubled.

Seemingly unbreakable bonds were broken every second while new relationships started at the drop of a hat (or drop of a loot) while he just sat there with his notes on his newest experiments. The notes about his magical research were locked deep into his own security box. He was even halfway through encrypting it with encryption that one of his favorite professors recommended. According to the professor with modern technology, it was rather easy to break, but without some hard social engineering, they wouldn’t understand anything.

So, he only had to keep his mouth shut and whoever got their hands on his research wouldn’t know what to do with it.

Which wasn’t that hard as he was naturally a silent person, enjoying listening to others rather than talking.

This in turn was rather hard, as everybody who wasn’t talking about homework or actual real-life issues like sickness or death in the family was only talking about one thing.

Magic Unbound.

The game permeated the university in such a way, that people were even changing majors based on which guild they belonged to or what magic they practiced in the game.

It was chaotic and rather foolish, but what did he know?

After it came out that he was already part of a group, a lot of people spent an inordinate amount of time and effort to uncover which group he belonged to. He even got bribed to join several people’s guilds.

Apparently, he was a desirable person…

There were girls approaching him. Him! Though why, he couldn’t tell. Still, he made sure to enjoy the attention while it was possible. He even had a date for the weekend. He was pretty sure it was a honeytrap, but Dan hadn’t had a date in ages, so went along with it.

With Sam away in the capital trying to find a way to buy property, he had time to delve deeper into the mysteries of magic. He went to the Magic Tower and bought all the available fire spells and went to town on them.

Using what he learned from Sam, he tried all of them, trying to see how they fit his skill set, as well as to see if he could learn anything from them.

And oh boy, did he learn…

He even paid for the undivided attention of one of the masters to see if they could offer any advice.

They were rather complimentary and dropped several hints that to him seemed to lead to further heights.

But for now, he had a class to take…

Dan stood up from the bench and began ambling toward the classroom, ignoring the excited chatter around him as people bragged or whined about the game that seemingly everybody was playing.

Liz was enjoying her life. Her new apartment was great, her neighbors were a joy, and the game was becoming better and better.

She had an endless amount of work to do for the company, which paid very well, especially when she had to make luxury items for her bosses. Apparently, talent was very well rewarded at AFK.

Her streaming numbers were shooting up, and no matter what kind of content she was doing, at least a thousand people were watching her every move.

Granted, Liz was pretty sure that most of those people were only watching to figure out how she did her crafting, but she always made sure not to show the skill-specific action required to create her crystal creations.

Her cute little drones were hers and hers only.

She looked up at the Big Boy hovering protectively next to her and she smiled.

Not that they were little and harmless anymore.

Though the ones she designed for the Heavenly Forest to aid with the cleaning were made to be cute and to be able to blend in with the background. So far, the reports coming back were all positive from the maids working with them.

Currently, her biggest project was working on the elevator for the headquarters. Though from what she had heard, they were soon getting a new head of security, so she would see what they would have her do.

She was getting rather attached to the people there, and she and Lucy had some rather nice talks while both of them were taking a break. There were even talks about getting together outside of the game and going out to have fun.

Maybe she could make some friends?

There was just something about the magic in the game that came easily to her.

She started out with the goal of becoming an ice mage, trying to fashion herself into an Ice Queen image, but the details of the game ruined that dream rather swiftly. It only took her a few hours to realize how inferior she was to any of the NPCs.

In other games she had played previously, the NPCs were only there as set dressing or puppets for the players to play around.

It was not like that in Magic Unbound. Here the NPCs were an integral part of the world and were dynamic and natural enough that without the system’s help, she wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

But back to the matter at hand.

Magic.

It was a phenomenal system.

With just a bit of effort, and some muttered words she could summon blizzards to devastate her enemies. If they stood still in a very small area.

Granted, the words to cast the spells were rather cringy, but it only took her a week to figure out how to cut the words down to less than a dozen. Then another two to figure out how to move the ephemeral mana that the game developers created with only one keyword.

Just that alone granted her untold prestige in her clan.

She even managed to clamp down on the smugness when she began instructing the other inner circle member how to achieve the same thing.

Thanks to all of them mastering the skill more or less, their damage potential rose enough that when the Fracture came, they were one of the first to reach the big dungeon.

All those scrubs who had to chant for several seconds, correctly, to summon whatever effect they desired, held no candle to her team.

Ice, fire, lightning, and other elements eliminated all manner of enemies for the price of yelling one word. It was rather familiar, as many games utilized the keyword system for magic in previous games.

With the skills helping her mana regeneration that their guild bled for, she could sling ice spears until the kingdom came. It was rather a pity that they couldn’t acquire more of that skillbook, but any mana regeneration skillbook at the Auction House was picked up the moment it was put on. Still, they had people monitoring the place, and they were ordered to spare no expenses.

Plus, with the Life of Blood, they didn’t need much healing. Thankfully, with the influx of players who went out to hunt the trolls, the price of the book dropped, hard. Nowadays, every new player was recommended to get the book once they had at least a little money. It was a pretty good sustain spell, especially for close combat characters.

Sometimes, she pitied those noobs who couldn’t even grasp the intricacies of the mana system. The developers created such a beauty that every time mana moved inside her, she could only be amazed.

She couldn’t even imagine what the future of that part of the game would be.

For now, she had skills to master and try to figure out a way to acquire Silent Casting. The NPC wizards could do it, so it would be possible, but so far none of them managed to figure it out, or managed to get it from some quest or said NPCs.

She could feel it in her bones: the answer was so close she was practically smelling it, yet paradoxically it was farther away than ever.

And if even she couldn’t figure it out, then she doubted the noobs below her would be able.

“We found him, sir.”

“Where?”

“In the capital, Vividora. One of our people who was there on business spotted him at the Magic Tower.”

“Any idea what he was doing?”

“Probably getting further training. From what we know, he is a hybrid swordsman and mage.”

“Are the teams ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Those assassin wannabes?”

“Those too. I made sure they were up to the task. Apparently, they summoned some kind of demon.”

“Oh, that made them powerful, then?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Could we do that?”

“I recommend against that, sir. The stigma is not worth it. It’s much better if the Steel Lions stay above the line and we simply… outsource undesirable tasks to those kinds of people. Much better PR.”

“Hmm… Make sure to begin the takeover process of that guild. They sound useful.”

“Already started, sir.”

“Good initiative. What about Katherine?”

“We… err… lost her.”

“What?”

“Suddenly she began wandering around Ironwood without rhyme or reason, then pooff; she vanished.”

“Keep an eye on her. As long as she can’t warn her friend, we are good.”

“Yes, sir. However…”

“Yes? What seems to be the problem?”

“Is it necessary?”

“Of course it is! They dared to attack us! We have to strike back!”

“But we don’t know if he was behind the atta…”

“He was! I know it! It was payback for my little test. I know his type. After all, that’s what I would do…”

“As you say, sir.”

“Any other issues with the operation?”

“No, sir.”

“Very well, then let’s shelve the issue until our friend resurfaces. How about the finances?”

“Well, sir, I have some good news! We managed…”