Might as Well

Honestly, opening a chain of stores that catered to the underworld should have been much harder. Apparently, they just had to steal the deeds for the locations or strong-arm people into giving them up. And seeing as the locations they were after were in the poorer parts of the town, nobody gave a toss about them taking over.

Though some of his people heard a little murmur about people not liking it, in the end, nothing came out of it. They had the deeds, and every paper said they were the owners. Granted, the ownership was established through puppet companies and a few more financial trickeries, but they still owned it.

And his investors were very happy. These places they were about to set up weren’t just useful for in-game things, but they could be used to discuss business from the real world without people needing to leave their homes or hiding places.

For his investors, this was a rather valuable function.

Still, to be sure, they would be speaking in code to make sure that the company couldn’t spy on them. The ToS prevented the company from releasing private information, but if it came to light that somebody planned or arranged some kind of criminal activity, the government could force the developers to give up that information. Thus, the secrecy.

Dave was pretty happy with the situation. His guild was in charge of a small slice of the entire operation. It would have been better if he could have controlled the entire pie, but the people above him weren’t the kind of people that would trust him with that.

Even though it was a smaller slice, it would still generate enough money that their guild could function splendidly.

He turned back from the window that showed him the entire city in the distance.

Opening the door, his ever-loyal assistant stepped in and closed the door behind him.

“How is it going?”

The man took out a ream of papers from his inventory, leafed through them for a moment, until he arrived at the correct one, then replied.

“Very well, sir. We got all the deeds, and the clean-up crew’s progress is almost done.”

“What about the construction?”

Here, his assistant grimaced a little.

“The architects are not a problem. We have several, but we haven’t found an enchanter that would be… amenable to our business proposition.”

Dave clicked his tongue in annoyance. ‘This means I will owe someone…’

“Hit up our contact. I’m sure someone has an enchanter in their employ that they would be willing to lend out…” he said with a sigh.

His assistant made a note and then looked back up. “That would increase the price…”

“Do you have a better idea?” he retorted, starting to get angry at the situation.

“No, sir,” his assistant answered with a hasty shake of their head.

“Good, then get to it…” he exclaimed, waving the man away. “I need to plan for our next farming run.”

Dave was standing before his desk, looking over the design documents of the planned expansions of the location owned by his guild, when the door to his office slammed open and one of his people, whose name he didn’t know, rushed in, panic written in large on their face.

“What is it?” he asked, not pulling his hand away from his weapon.

The guy, dressed in low-level armor, showing that he wasn’t anybody important, panted for a few breaths, then shakily pointed at his window.

“T-the s-sky!”

“What?”

“T-the sky, sir! It’s b-breaking!” came the out-of-breath answer.

“What the hell?” he whispered, then turned around (his hand still on his weapon) and looked up at the sky with a doubtful gaze.

Then his mouth fell open as he beheld the giant fracture that bled rainbow.

For a long moment, he just stared at it, then his minion’s voice broke him out of his reverie.

“Sir, what should we do? There is a monster wave heading for the city!”

He recoiled as if slapped and whipped around to look at the man.

“What?”

“Uhm, there is a monster wave heading toward the city? It is, uhm, led by a wyvern.”

Dave stared at the guy unblinkingly, then grinned.

“Excellent! Call in everybody!”

The unnamed mook blinked at him in surprise, then nodded nervously.

“Everyone?”

“Yes, you fool!” he yelled. “Just go and do what I told you to do!”

“Yes, sir!” the guy executed a sloppy salute, then awkwardly aborted it halfway then scurried out of the room.

Dave turned back to the window, slamming it open and staring unabashedly at the giant hole in the sky with a grin on his face.

‘A perfect opportunity comes to those who wait!’ his grin widened, and Dave stepped away from the window and began picking up his armor that he divested himself of for comfort.

This was the perfect opportunity for something that had been in the plans for a while. While they couldn’t attack Heavenly Forest or the AFK company straight on, due to the protection provided by the Silvercrest family, and the attention it would bring upon them didn’t mean they didn’t prepare for it.

They went around and collected information about the workers, cased the joints, and amassed as much information as possible about the company and those who created it.

Solar would be probably impossible to ambush, but the admins, on the other hand…

‘We will see who will laugh at last!’ he chortled to himself as he finished strapping his armor up.

This entire event would provide the perfect cover for a little… economic adjustment.

One team for the main headquarters of AFK, seemingly to smash the place apart with the intention of distracting people, so that an infiltration team could get in and get away with some documents.

Another team, headed by himself, to the Silvercrest manor, to show those NPCs what the results of supporting those people would be. Their ultimate goal was to kill the Lord as that would basically destroy all support for the AFK company, but he knew, based on the information they gained that it wouldn’t be the easiest.

Thankfully, thanks to the event, everybody would be distracted, so the defenses at both the company headquarters and the manor would be lower than usual.

‘It will be child’s play…’ he mused happily while picking up his halberd, worth probably more than several smaller guilds.

Dave stared up at the approaching Lord in horror as he lay on the ground, both of his legs mangled.

‘Where the fuck did it go wrong?’

They arrived in total secrecy, ignoring the chaos unfolding around them as the people eager to fight against the monster horde rushed towards the walls, while the scared masses huddled in alleyways or their homes.

They advanced on the manor in total silence, covered in numerous concealing spells and artifacts.

In the end, it was all for naught.

The moment they stepped over some kind of imaginary line, but probably a line where the protective wards began, their spells were stripped away and their artifact fizzled out, revealing them to the grimly watching guards on the walls.

After that it was a desperate battle, trying to get through the amassing guards who fought stone-faced. And for a while, Dave could even believe that they would succeed.

However, that was the moment when the Lord decided to show up.

He was wearing proper armor, fitted to his giant body, wielding some kind of elaborate gauntlet, covered in artwork, and most importantly, spikes. A lot of spikes.

Their attack almost instantly collapsed as the Lord flew around the battlefield, taking care of the people with a few punches or kicks, until he arrived at Dave.

Naturally, he was prepared to fight, raising his halberd and activating all his skills with a quiet murmur, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.

The Lord simply slapped away his charge, removing the weapon from his grip, then with a contemptuous kick that almost assuredly broke his leg, sent him flying. He landed in an ungraceful heap on the cold stone walkways.

Dave tried to scoot backward, but thanks to the failed skills and the potent kick, he was crippled. He could barely move his head.

He looked up at the lord of the Silvercrest manor, how his armor still gleamed, not even a speck of dust or drop of blood on it, and swallowed heavily.

The older man looked down at him, his face as if carved from stone, but Dave could see that his eyes were radiating fury.

Before the man raised his leg and crushed his head like an overripe tomato, there was only one thought running through Dave’s head.

‘It seems we underestimated his strength…’

A second later, he found himself in a black space with a giant notification in front of him.

[You have died.]

[Revive?]

[Yes] [No]

He stared at the screen for a while, then sighed. ‘I hope at least the other team had better luck…’

Sylvia watched from the upper floor window as her darling husband took care of their enemies, no doubt financed by some foolish noble intending to use the current event to strike at their family.

Fools the lot of them.

As if they wouldn’t be prepared against attacks like that. Even before young Samuel’s warnings.

‘That young man is rather talented…’ she mused as she confirmed that the leader was down and her lovely husband sent her a thumbs up. ‘Pity, his way of life would lead him away from our city, otherwise, he would have been an excellent match for young Lucrecia…’

She turned away from the window and, with measured steps, followed by her guards and maids, headed for the office.

The city was under attack, and as one of the major families, it was their duty to aid the city of Ironwood in repelling the attack.

‘No doubt, Samuel is out there in the thick of things…’ she thought humorously, though her face was showing no emotion. ‘Thankfully, he managed to warn us, so we were able to prepare.’

One of the maids opened the door before her, and she stepped through gracefully, coming face to face with her armored husband.

He gave her a loving look, then he turned serious.

“Are we ready?”

“Yes, husband,” she answered with a small smile of her own. “We are ready.”

The face that the man made upon hearing those words proved once again why she fell in love with him.

Lucrecia sat in her room, looking out at the city as it seethed in chaos as the giant monster horde approached the walls.

She could see the flashes of light as the people fought against the monsters, while the cracks high up in the sky bled rainbow-colored light and the giant tree glowed with sickly green light.

When it began, she wanted to be out there helping people, but her traitorous mother nixed the idea almost immediately.

Even though she felt horrible that her spy network couldn’t see this entire apocalypse-like event coming. And worst of all, she was pretty sure that her knight was out there in the thick of things.

She hugged Fortuna to herself closer, the little shadow wolf worming into her embrace, providing a calming light, then with a great effort wrenched her attention from the battle that she couldn’t affect to her room.

Taking a quick look, she stood up and nodded.

‘I can do this!’

With Fortuna following her, its adorable tongue lolling out in excitement, Lucrecia marched to the office where she knew her parents would be preparing.

Dramatically opening the door, while giving the giggling maids a gimlet glare, she exclaimed.

“Mother, Father! I want to help!”

Her parents looked at each other, silently communicating which always drove her up the wall, then her beautiful mother smiled.

“Of course, honey…”

Nodding regally, she danced deep in her mind, a victory dance designed just for situations like this.

‘Score! I can prove my love to my knight!’

After Sam left the workshop, Liz was left alone with her thoughts.

She watched for a little while as her little helpers flew around, examining things and just generally buzzing around adorably. In front of her was a list of things that he wanted from her, ranging from some rather innocuous things to giant weapons of mass destruction.

Though, thankfully, her contract stipulated that she could say no to the latter ones.

Even so, it was rather unbelievable that she got a contract like this. Honestly, with it, and the move from her home city, she felt like it was all a dream, ready to crash down around her any moment.

She was broken out of her disbelief when a notification popped up in front of her.

[Congratulations! You acquired your own workshop.]

[Any work done in your own workshop is currently 10% more efficient and the resulting products’ quality is 10% better. Raising your crafting level and getting more familiar with the workshop will increase these numbers!]

Reading the text, she was finally fully broken out of her stupor. Liz jumped up and exclaimed.

“All right! I’m out of that stupid city! I’m away from my mother! I have a pretty cushy job! Let’s do this!”

Nobody answered her, but she didn’t mind.

With a familiar flick of her wrist, she summoned her drones back from where they were idling. They flew back to her, buzzing at her cheerfully before they began to hover curiously, ready for her commands.

She chuckled a little, then began pulling out the tools and material from her inventory.

“Come on, guys! Let’s make this workshop our own!”

Soon after Liz got more familiar with the workshop, which included crafting several tools and equipment that needed a space that just wasn’t available in the previous workshops, she heard the knock.

Bidding one of her drones to open the door, soon she was met by the severe visage of Lucy’s secretary, standing there, in her arms, a ream of documents.

“Good day, ma’am,” the older woman greeted her with a small, but respectable bow.

“Er, good day,” she returned the greeting hesitantly, wondering what the woman wanted.

“I’m here to deliver the list of specification requirements for the items the company will need, as well as to answer any questions you may have,” after saying that, she took the documents and placed them on the desk closest to the door that miraculously had some free space.

For a long while, she sat there, staring at the woman, surrounded by practically brand-new tools and heaps of materials standing in the corners, not knowing what to say.

Finally, she managed to squeak out a simple question.

“Is this really all for me?”

The secretary gave her a scrutinizing look, then smiled.

“Yes.”

“Really? Isn’t this a little too much?”

The woman shook her head. “In the grand scheme of things, this is a drop in the bucket of our budget,” she paused a little and her smile widened a little. “And if your performance is just as good as expected, then it will increase further.”

Liz had nothing to say to that. Instead, she continued to sit there in her stupor, once again stunned by her changed circumstances.

The woman tastefully ignored her astonishment and continued her explanation.

“The team to help with your work is being put together as we speak, but it will take some time as the Director has to finish going over their backgrounds. When that is done, the team will assist with everything you need. You will be working independently from the company, so you don’t have to worry about much. As long as you finish the commissions we set up, you may do as you wish.”

Liz nodded dumbly, barely capable of imagining how much money she would be making as she took in the words.

The secretary smiled again. “Now allow me to explain a few things in these documents…” she stated, indicating at the documents on the desk.

Liz discarded all her previous nervousness, happy to concentrate on something that she actually understood.

“I’m all ears…”

After the secretary left, she spent some time puttering around, arranging things as well, and beginning the preparations for building those things that the company requested from her.

Then she realized she hadn’t streamed in a while. A little panicky, she made sure her makeup was acceptable, and then that there wasn’t anything identifiable in the background that would allow people to figure out where she was and clicked on the streaming icon.

She waited until the live signal flashed red, and the first people showed up.

“Hello everybody! This is SummerRose reporting that I’m still alive!” she began with a smile on her face. The camera was only showing her face, and the background was blurry.

“You may be wondering why I was silent in the last few days!” She waited a few seconds for dramatic tension, then continued. “Well wait no longer, because I’m here with very exciting news!”

She zoomed out with the camera, now the screen showing the workshop behind her, the drones flying around arranging the last few things.

“I got my own workshop! And you know what this means, right?”

She read the excited chat for a few seconds then took up a pose and exclaimed.

“MORE SCIENCE! MWAHAHAHAHAH!”

The chat predictably went insane.

After appeasing her fans, she turned her attention towards the commissions that the company wanted her to complete.

Going over the documents, she saw all sorts of things, from the very mundane (light system) to the ludicrous, like deployable autonomous turrets.

Staring at the specification requirements, she began mentally putting together the item, but in the end, she shook her head. ‘No, Liz, start small. Don’t be greedy!’

Picking up the documents detailing the requirements of the light system for the Heavenly Forest, all holdings of the company, she sat down and began working.

Might as well make some money…

When the fighting started, she simply put down her tools and began putting on her armor, her now upgraded helpers assisting her.

After the armor came the weapons, with one new pistol and her current pride and joy, a very powerful sniper rifle.

Thankfully, before Magic Unbound, she played several games where she acted as the sniper, so Liz could state that she was moderately competent at handling the weapon.

She left the workshop and the building with haste, and as soon as she was far enough, once again so that people couldn’t identify the location, she turned on the streaming.

A minute later, she smiled and exclaimed.

“Welcome, everybody! Today we will see if I can surpass my sniper record!”

She hefted the sniper rifle on her shoulder and began running towards the battle, ready to deal some damage. And look good…

The bleeding sky was a surprise to Stephen, not so much the monster wave. After all, it was a rather basic first event for fantasy games. So, after the initial panic died down, he gathered up the leaders in the courtyard.

The rest of the people were staying a little farther away, but still preparing for the fight.

“Alright, what do we know?” he asked while running his hand through Slathy’s fur to calm himself down.

It was AzureTiger who spoke up; her flying octopus perching on her head. “Monster horde. Our walls are not strong enough.”

Everyone grimaced, but she continued.

“However, the majority of the monsters are headed for Ironwood, so we don’t have that big of a problem.”

“Estimation about our chances.”

She looked back at him, with the deadpan look that all of them got used to in the last few weeks.

“We gonna die.”

It took a few minutes to get the room back in order.

Stephen finally resorted to clapping loudly.

“Hey! Calm down! I have a plan?” He actually didn’t have a plan, but he hoped he would figure out one while talking.

“You do?”

“You have?”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

Waiting for everyone to calm down, he furiously thought about the situation before arriving at a probable solution.

“All right, all right! Settle down! Here is my idea…” he spoke up, looking around at the people and animals waiting in front of him. He turned to AzureTiger.

“How much meat do we have in storage?”

It took only a moment for the girl with the small stature to figure out his plan. His response was a mysterious look in the girl’s eyes and a big nod.

“Enough.”

Turning back to the others, he grinned victoriously.

“Great, so here is the plan…”

Stephen sat on Slathy, next to them Kim was on her own bunny while the others were set up around the area. All of them holding bags filled with freshly butchered meat. Only those who had fast partners were present. The rest was back in Brightwood, preparing to defend it from the stragglers.

In the distance, an enormous wave of monsters was heading towards them.

He glanced at Kim, who seemed rather possessive of him after they left the courtyard, and smiled at her. She glared at him for a moment, then returned the smile.

‘What have I done?’ he wondered silently until finally chalking it up to mystery and refocusing his attention on the monsters.

He raised a hand and readied his magic. Under him, Slathy wiggled menacingly, ready to run and tear.

“Ready!”

Instantly, the talk ceased between people, and the weapons were unsheathed or retrieved from inventory. Countless magic spells appeared from the healers and other support people, while several other people began to cast spells that had long wind-up times.

The monsters, meanwhile, were getting closer.

“Ready…”

“Steady…”

He cast a last glance at his guild, proud of them for standing next to him, protecting their city against impossible odds, even though it was just a game, then looked back at the monsters, almost seeing the white of their eyes.

“Go!Go!Go!”

And they were off, running in front of the monsters, the fire mages lighting the meat on fire, while the wind mages wafted the smell toward the monsters.

Stephen was happy to see that the incoming horde instantly took a hard left turn, running straight after them.

“Success!” he exclaimed, pumping his hand up and down in celebration. Then he realized something rather important: they would have to survive this…

‘Well it seems, Sam was right. Again…’

She looked out of the window, straight at the gaping wound in reality. Then she used her clever little ravens to do the same, but sadly, the result was the same, no matter how many times she looked.

One very ominous multicolored hole in the sky, and based on what some of her flyers saw, an enormous horde of monsters heading straight at them.

Lucy closed her eyes, counted back from ten, then let out a sigh.

They had prepared for this. They had the personnel and material. Sam was more than likely out there with the rest of his little crazy squad, stopping it. So, all she had to do was bunker down and make sure that Sam had a headquarters to return victoriously.

Cracking her neck, she reached out and called out to her secretary.

“Code Vermilion!”

“Yes, ma’am,” came the immediate reply.

A few seconds later, the entire building was abuzz with activity.

The doors were locked and barred, and non-military personnel were directed to the bunkers hastily finished a few days ago, while the guards and a few mercenaries she had managed to hire were readying their weapons. Sarah was down with them, her giant hammer ready to strike at anybody trying anything foolish.

And while Lucy wasn’t the biggest fan of fighting or battles, she played enough virtual reality games to know the basics. And thanks to Sam, she had some rather good skills. So if worse comes to worst, she would be ready to act.

Naturally, that was the exact moment when the building shook, as an explosion assaulted the entrance doors.

Lucy sighed and retrieved a small but expertly crafted wand from her inventory.

She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, took out a hair tie, and put her hair into a ponytail, while power walking towards the door to her office.

Her secretary was waiting there, dressed in basic armor, holding one of the holdout pistols she bought off Liz.

Giving her an encouraging smile, she spoke up. “Follow me!”

The battle wasn’t anything complicated.

People dressed in all cliché as hell black clothing attacked, throwing all sorts of nasty things at them, while they tried to counter them.

Thankfully, she spent enough money on the guards’ equipment that the attackers could do nothing more after they broke the door (the weakest part of the defenses) than effortlessly flop against their defenses. The choke point was just too much for them to overcome.

Finally, the attack was broken, when the mercenary team went around the group after she instructed them, and ambushed the attackers.

Soon, they were all dead, and Lucy only had to direct the cleanup while the guards happily discussed the battle and how they hadn’t died, thanks to the armor.

Lucy ignored the notification about the guards’ loyalty increasing. Instead, she focused on the surroundings, wary of another attack. And when nothing came, she finally relaxed. At least as much as one could relax knowing that there was an enormous amount of monsters just outside of the city walls, ready to devour them.

A few minutes later, she was back in her office after having one of the NPCs take over the cleanup after a new door was fitted into the place of the old one and the building was once again secure.

She made a note to have Liz magic up some better perimeter defense, or have Sam pull another rabbit out of his ludicrous hat, then turned to the patiently waiting secretary.

“Everything all right?”

“Yes, Director. Only a few wounds, but the potions took care of them.”

“The other holdings?”

“No report of aggression.”

“Good. What did they get away with?”

Sharing a vicious smile with her secretary, she couldn’t help but chuckle. It was really hard to pretend that she was interested in the battle at the front doors, while she watched a semi-competent team of infiltrators access their dummy document storage. As if she wasn’t prepared for such things…

“I believe they stole the documents labeled with the logos of Heavenly Forest…” came the report from the other woman.

“Ho ho ho…” she laughed out loud. “It’s going to be an interesting reading…”

“Indeed, Director,” came the laughing reply from the other side of the desk.

They chortled to themselves a little, then the smile fell off Lucy’s face.

“What about the battle?”

Damien kinda hated and loved Calon’s Curse.

It was a right bitch to get rid of it, but the end result was worth it so much!

He toiled for days, darting from shadow to shadow, fearful of the sun, trying to complete quests for the circle with his reduced stats. Thankfully, his loyal friends came through and they made sure that somebody was always with him to prevent him from dying and getting something much worse than the curse.

Then one fateful day, while he was in a cave, exterminating mushroom monsters for their spores that the circle’s master wanted, a dark light appeared around him.

At first, he was scared that he activated some kind of trap, but then a notification screen appeared and calmed him right down. His friend, from the other side of the cavern, looked up but he just waved him away, eagerly reading the appearing lines.

[Calon appreciates dedication and loyalty above mental strength! You have proven you have what he needs, thus the Curse of Calon no longer affects you. Instead, to reward your dedication, Calon blesses you with his might. Go forth and share his message!]

‘What is his message?’ Damien wondered for a brief instant, but the next screen erased the thought from his head.

[Calon’s Blessing: You proved your dedication to your god. The blessing strengthens everything that Calon, and now you stand for. While blessed, every Dark-attributed spell or skill gains a level. Dark attacks, skills, and spells are 13% stronger. Successfully killing an enemy (depending on the strength of the enemy, their nature, and variety) grants you a stack of Calon’s Bloodmark. Upon death, you lose all stacks and are afflicted by Calon’s Curse for a day.]

It was harsh, but the positives far outweighed the negatives.

[Calon’s Bloodmark: For every stack of this mark, you gain 1% in all stats.]

It was a simple line, but he was all but frothing at the mouth at the possibilities. As a Death Knight, this was simply the best skill. Instantly, he turned towards the nearest disgusting mushroom creature and let loose a bolt of darkness. Half the body of the monster was vaporized, and he was happy to see that one Bloodmark appeared on his HUD.

Grinning widely, he continued, letting out dark bolts of magic. However, to his disappointment, he didn’t gain any more marks. ‘Right, it said variety…’

He looked around, seeing if he could spot any more monsters, but aside from his friend, he couldn’t see anything.

‘It appears I need to go on a hunt…’ he mused evilly, already imagining the untold destruction he would wreak on the world as soon as he acquired the ultimate power.

They spent a long while just going around and hunting as many monsters as possible. However, that stopped when they were stopped by a group of PKers looking for easy targets. He gained ten stacks of Bloodmark from one guy! Ten! That was ten different monsters that they had to search for.

Instantly, their group pivoted.

They began hunting PK players.

However, very soon those players wised up and fled or hid better. Even then, he managed to acquire almost a hundred stacks of the Bloodmark. Sadly, not all players gave a full ten, but even so, it was much faster than hunting monsters.

Then Damien was called back to the circle. His master had a mission for him.

For a short moment, he contemplated attacking the older man, confident that his raised stats would see him through, but the promise of more spells halted his hand.

Instead, he listened to the mission and then accepted it.

After all, what could go wrong?

The monster tide was terrifying, but Damien persisted. He had a mission and he would complete it. He didn’t want more time under Calon’s curse.

His instructions were simple: join the defense, kill as many monsters in the name of Calon as possible and, while he was there, arrange the death of a few select guardsmen.

There was nothing hard about the first part as there were so many monsters that he didn’t even need to aim, while gleefully watching as his Bloodmark tally grew with every new monster.

The second part was a little harder.

Thanks to his master, he knew which parts of the rampart he should position himself, but the how still eluded him.

He was about to throw caution to the wind and just simply throw a bolt of mana at the back of one of his targets, when another NPC showed up at their part of the wall.

They were dressed in greens and browns and were wearing a crown made of branches and a gnarled staff in their hand.

‘Well if that’s not a druid, then I’m going to eat my hat…’ he thought, then dismissed the NPC and refocused on the task at hand.

Sadly, that prevented him from seeing the druid cast an area effect spell on all of them.

The last thing he heard from the direction of the druid was a simple sentence.

“Accursed Calon’s lackey! Perish!”

Then nothing more….

Damien found himself in a black space, with a rather familiar notification.

[You have died.]

[You lost 349 Bloodmarks!]

[You have been afflicted by Calon’s Curse!]

[Calon’s Curse: You have been cursed by Calon for failure. Your…]

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, not again!”

“How is the event going?” he asked, sipping from his cup of fresh coffee. It was all hands on deck, with mandatory overtime, but he didn’t mind. His daughter would have a rather nice addition to her university fund.

One of the guys, surrounded by half a dozen screens, spoke up. “Hardware is fine. Both on our side and on the customers’ side.”

Another joined. “Coverage is at an all-time high. We are trending almost everywhere. The PR department is getting so many calls and emails we had to get another server online to hold them.”

“Excellent!” He raised his cup to the people reporting and turned towards the silent ones. “How about in-game?”

“Death toll around the expected numbers. We got a few angry complaints but nothing major, or serious.”

“No cities lost yet.”

And so on continued, until he reached the last person, whose duty was to observe and report on things that they had flagged before they began the first major event.

“And how about you?”

“Err, all major flagged items are behaving within acceptable parameters, except…” she fell silent, nervously glancing up at her superior.

He glanced down at the bespectacled woman and sighed. “Let me guess… it’s him?”

“Yes, sir,” came the nervous reply.

He let out another sigh. Taking a fortifying sip of his drink, he couldn’t help but ask. “What did he do?”

“Team of four, plus the pet, against the Fracture Dungeon.”

“And let me guess… They are in the lead?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Hmm, put it up on the big screen.”

Instantly, the woman began clicking and one of the bigger screens decorating the far wall lit up with several views of a team tearing through a horde of giant spiders while all sorts of data and statistics showed on the edge of the screen.

He walked up to it and watched for a while.

“Any cheating?”

“No, sir.”

“Good, then make sure to send a link to marketing. I want them to include it in the promo material.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Any new footage of Lucky?” he asked a little hopefully. He made the mistake of showing the picture of the shadow wolf to his adorable daughter, and she couldn’t get enough of it.

“Not yet, sir. It seems he is holding the wolf back until the end.”

“Smart. Keep an eye on them and call me when they reach the boss. I want to see it live.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sometime later, the entire group was staring at the wall as the giant spider fell over, dead. He took another sip from his empty cup and spoke up.

“Well, that was one way to deal with that…”

A few people were chuckling as they returned to their stations, and he walked back to the woman who dealt with flagged events.

“Did we get a recording?”

“Yes, sir. Every angle was recorded.”

“Good, make sure marketing has it, and warn the compliance department for the incoming whining from the players…”

“Yes, sir…”