Rise of the Grandmaster

by Bradford Bates

  Tim felt a bit off-center. How was he supposed to think about what to do when he couldn’t get her leather-clad image out of his mind? “Can I have part of my salary paid out monthly to my parents?”

  “Sorry, kiddo,” Christine shook her head. “The money gets paid at the end of the contract, not during.”

  As much as he wanted to say yes, Tim couldn’t hit the button. His parents needed help, and if he couldn’t find a way to get them some money, he couldn’t take the job.

  Tim stood up and extended his hand to Christine. “I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time.”

  She slapped his hand away. “Level with me. What’s it going to take?” She tapped her screen a few times. “Bottom line it.”

  Twenty thousand dollars over thirty-six months was roughly five hundred and fifty dollars a month. It wasn’t a ton of money, but given the way his mom could make a dollar stretch, it would be more than enough.

  Tim screwed up his courage. “I’ve got a family to consider. Can you take the twenty thousand dollars you offered me and pay it out monthly?”

  “Sorry, kid. Company policy.” Christine looked resigned to the fact he wasn’t going to sign, but she had one last trick up her sleeve. “You can always make additional funds in-game and have them converted into cash. With the right profession, you’ll be able to accept crafting contracts.” She tapped the screen. “Not every profession can do that.”

  It all came down to Tim’s choice, and if he could make enough on the side to send home. “So how much more can I make?”

  Christine was energized by his question. “That’s up to you, and highly dependent on what profession and class you choose. You can make money by questing, adventuring, selling buffs, crafting…lots of different ways. You can convert all of it to cash. Like I said earlier, your room and board are covered, but in return, you won’t be paid up front for the eight hours a day you spend working for us in the game.”

  Tim felt a grin creep across his face. “You said the standard contract? Is there a way to make more money by changing the terms?”

  Christine looked like it was Christmas morning. “Yes. Clever boy. There are more ways to upgrade. I have a list of options and how they will change your payout.” She pulled out another tablet and called up a list of options on it before sliding it across to Tim.

  She wasn’t lying. All of these were upgrades, but none of them saved him money. There were upgraded meal packages, lodgings, and even the ability to receive a monthly stipend of in-game currency.

  Tim made it to the end of the list, then scrolled back the other way. He was surprised to find there were several options lower than the standard package. LadyCat had conveniently passed him the tablet with those options off-screen.

  The lowest-tiered option came with lodgings in the slums and was guaranteed to be free of rats and lice. The room came with a bed, chamber pot, and a single stained mirror. The meal offered with the room was a single serving of stew with a hunk of hard bread.

  At the lowest tier, he’d bank an additional thirty thousand dollars. Now that the numbers made so much sense, he’d be a fool to ignore them. Tim’s parents would have to deal with his absence.

  Tim selected the slum package. He was about to become a gamer.

  Christine’s monitor beeped. She looked at his selection and then stared at him. “Are you sure?” She shook her head in disgust. “The slums are pretty fucking gross.” She caught herself. “Sorry, I meant that they wouldn’t be my first choice of accommodations.”

  Tim shrugged, his mind made up. “It can’t be that bad.”

  “Yes, it can, and worse.” Christine leaned back in her chair. “The slums are full of the worst of the worst. People go there to escape the law because the city guards won’t follow them down there.” She wrinkled her nose. “When it rains, some of the sewers pour out into the streets.”

  Nothing said “good morning” like walking through puddles of shit, but Tim could make it work. The extra money would be worth it. Now he just had to pick the right profession. Before he could commit, Tim had to make sure he understood how the system worked.

  “I’m going to stick with the slums for now, but I have a few questions about professions.” Tim smiled warmly at her. He knew she was in a hurry, but this was important.

  “Be quick about it.” Christine looked at the screen. “My commission for this meeting is plummeting rapidly.”

  Tim caught the subtext. This woman was slippery. “Can professions be upgraded like classes can?”

  Christine watched him as if she were trying to make an internal decision about how much to share. “They can be.”

  Tim grinned. “Do you make more money if you upgrade them?”

  “Aren’t you a smart cookie?” Christine got up from her chair, walked over to her office door, and closed it. She sat back down. “There is a possibility to upgrade your job for NPC Corp in the game, but it’s based on more than skill. You will also have periodic performance reviews.”

  It made a certain kind of sense. You wouldn’t want to promote someone who was talented if they couldn’t perform simple job functions. Just knowing there was a possibility he could make even more money without becoming an adventurer appealed to Tim.

  Now he just had to figure out how to get the money out of the game and to his parents.

  Tim nodded, already thinking about how fucking awesome this was going to be. “And in-game currency can be converted into real dollars?” Dollars he could send home.

  “It can be, and the value is controlled by the players. People who want to buy in-game currency can place an order and wait for the fulfillment, or just buy the cheapest available. NPC Corp controls the market to ensure all transactions are secure.”

  There was one more thing Tim needed to know. “Can I set up external distributions from inside the game?”

  Christine knew she had him now. “No. We can create them for you before you go in, or when we do your performance review.”

  It was risky, but anything sounded better than life in a shitty one-bedroom apartment without cable. At least in the game, Tim would have options. If he did this, he’d still be able to help his family. All he had to do was work harder than anyone else.

  If there was one thing Tim wasn’t afraid of, it was hard work.

  Tim selected blacksmith’s apprentice from the list of professions and made sure the housing was still set to the slums. When everything on the screen looked correct, he placed his thumb to the tablet and signed his life away for the next three years.

  He couldn’t have been more excited about it.

  Christine scanned his final decisions. “Blacksmith’s apprentice.” She glanced at him. “You’re a glutton for punishment, aren’t you?”

  Tim wasn’t sure what she meant by that. He’d simply picked the profession he thought had the most potential for profit. There was always a chance he could learn to make weapons and armor, and Christine had mentioned something about crafting contracts. It seemed like the perfect choice.

  After he got settled, he’d have to find Sierra in the game. There was something about that girl he couldn’t get enough of.

  Wait, hadn’t she told him to mention her name?

  Christine stood up to open her office door for him. “Someone will be waiting for you in Reception with your paperwork. Bring it with you on Monday, and we’ll get you plugged in.”

  Like he was a battery.

  Tim shook his head, banishing the thought. “Sierra’s going to be excited when I tell her I signed up.”

  “She should be. The girl is our best recruiter. Sierra’s already at the platinum referral level.”

  “Referral level?” What the fuck was that? Tim got a sinking sensation in his belly. Had she talked him into the game just to get a reward? It didn’t seem like something she would do, but it didn’t matter. Tim had made the choice because it made the most financial sense, not just to chase a girl.

  Christine patted him on the back as s
he ushered him into the hallway. “It’s all explained in the paperwork.” She smiled joyfully as she closed the door in Tim’s face.

  Tim stared at it for a minute, wondering what had just happened. The entire experience had been surreal. He turned away from the door and tried to focus. There was a lot he had to get done in a short period of time. Next Monday, he’d be entering The Etheric Coast.

  For the first time since being handed his diploma, Tim was excited about the future.

  Chapter Five

  As pumped as he was about his decision to play The Etheric Coast, Tim was worried about his parents’ reaction. Putting off the call seemed like the only sane thing to do. Could he live in-game forever? Then he’d never have to explain why he’d turned down the job they would have wanted him to take.

  With calling his parents firmly off the menu for now, Tim pulled up the student directory. It wasn’t cyberstalking if you only sent one email, right? He didn’t want to be a creeper, but he also didn’t want to go into the game without at least attempting to see Sierra one more time.

  No girl wanted to get strange emails from a random dude on the internet. Tim always thought chicks were kidding when they said people sent them dick pics all the time. It turned out his faith in humanity was dead wrong when it came to guys and pictures of their wieners.

  Tim put together a quick email and added a snapshot of the photo Christine had given him. In the subject line, he decided to be clever.

  No Dick Pics, Promise

  Fuck, the smiley face was too much. It screamed, “Surprise! Here’s a giant picture of my cock!” It was too late to change it now. Hopefully, Sierra would know it was a joke and open the email anyway.

  Tim looked around the room and tried to think of a reason not to call his parents. It was hard to drop off the map when family was involved. If you went incommunicado for too long, they did crazy things like call Campus Security to check on you.

  Imagine being so scared of your parents you hid in a videogame. As funny as that would be, it wasn’t really an option. Being an adult suuuucked sometimes. Part of the deal was confronting your problems instead of hiding from them.

  In his experience, hiding from your problems only made them worse, but it didn’t mean you had to enjoy the days you faced them. Sometimes you just had to put one foot in front of the other until the day was over, or in this case, until the conversation was over.

  What was the worst that could happen? It wasn’t like his family was going to disown him because they didn’t like the job he picked. They might be disappointed, but they’d get over it.

  It was funny how simple life felt sometimes. It was a constant series of seemingly minuscule decisions. You basked in the triumphs and wallowed in the disasters of those choices. Sure, some of the things in life were out of Tim’s control, but he’d always found he felt the most comfortable in those moments of pure insanity. When everything spiraled out of control, time seemed to slow down, until he found the perfect solution.

  He was the eye of the storm.

  Flipping open his laptop, Tim took a deep breath and opened a video call to his family back home. “Deeebop, deeeduuup.” Tim hummed along with the tone as he waited for them to pick up.

  Mom appeared on the screen first, and Dad shouldered in next to her. “Congratulations!” they shouted together as they threw confetti into the air.

  Sometimes his parents were the best. “Thanks, guys.”

  “Love you.” Mom poked Dad and turned back to the camera. “But we’re both dying to know.”

  “What’s next?” Dad cut in.

  Oh, shit. Not even a little small talk first.

  Tim could do this. Taking the job at NPC Corp made the most financial sense. All he had to do was explain it to them. He smiled into the camera. This was good news, and he didn’t have anything to be ashamed of. “Two companies made me offers.”

  “Tell me one of them is close to home?” his mom pleaded.

  Dad tried to shush her and she slapped his hand away. “Well?”

  Tim tried not to laugh; he was going about as far from home as a person could. “It’s not close to home, it’s actually on another planet.”

  His parent’s faces wilted like flowers in the desert sun.

  Man down, man down, Call the medic. He had just told the worst joke in fucking history, and his parents were devastated by it.

  “Some kind of space thing?” Dad asked hopefully.

  Tim didn’t break out in hysterical laughter, but he couldn’t stop smiling. At least his dad thought enough of him to believe he might have joined the Mars program, but Mom’s scowl told him she’d already figured it out. “Tell me it’s not that videogame everyone’s talking about.” She glared into the camera. “We didn’t send you to that fancy university so you could play games.”

  She turned to Tim’s dad, pointing a finger accusingly at their screen. “I thought he was over this stuff?”

  “Honey…” Dad started.

  She cut him off; she wasn’t having any of it. When she turned back to the camera, she leaned in. “You should have focused on your studies more.”

  How was Tim supposed to respond to a statement like that without sounding like an ungrateful little shit? Just because he loved videogames, it didn’t mean he didn’t study. They’d had that particular argument more than once.

  Tim took one more look at his mother’s scowl and decided to throw caution to the wind. “I think graduating was a pretty clear indication I focused on my studies.”

  “Don’t be smart with your mother,” Tim’s dad snapped reflexively. “Just tell us what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

  This wasn’t like the time he stole a candy bar and hid under the bed to eat it. He’d been a stupid kid back then, first for stealing the candy bar, and secondly for forgetting to wash the chocolate off his face before going downstairs to dinner.

  The memory stood out vividly. It was the kind of defining moment that shaped who he’d become.

  Dad marched my ass straight back to the store, paid for the candy bar, and gave the guy an extra twenty in case I’d taken anything else he didn’t know about. Then he handed me a bucket full of cleaning supplies and sent to me to clean the bathroom. Have you ever been in a convenience store bathroom?

  Not a pleasant sight or smell.

  Lesson learned. You had to think about your actions. Maybe it was okay for a beggar to steal bread, but it was never okay to steal just because you wanted something. The moment his dad marched him into the store was the first time it had dawned on Tim that his actions could affect other people.

  But family was all he ever thought about. Every choice he made was to help them. “I’ve worked hard for the last six years, first to graduate high school with good enough grades to get into any school I wanted, and then to get the scholarship. I know about hard work.”

  The scholarship hadn’t come until after Tim aced two years at the community college, and even then, it was only a partial scholarship. It had been enough to get him to the university, with his parents’ help and a lot of student loans. But he’d earned the opportunity by working his ass off.

  Tim looked his parents in the eye proudly. “The entire time I was in school, I had one goal—to make things easier for my family. I’m going to do that, but I’m going to do it my way. This time, there isn’t a mess for you to clean up, Dad. I got a job. It might not be the one you wanted me to have, but it’s a dammed good one.” Tim stared at the screen, hoping they would understand.

  He was wrong.

  “We didn’t work this hard so you could throw your life away!” Tim’s mom shrieked.

  Tim’s dad put a calming hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it off and stomped out of the room. He turned and faced the camera with a sigh. “You’ve always been a smart kid, Tim. Maybe too damned smart. If you think this is the right thing for you, I have to trust you.” He winked at the screen when Tim’s jaw dropped. “Just don’t tell your mother I said so.”

&n
bsp; “Love you, Dad.” The screen went blank as Tim disconnected the call.

  Dad would help Mom come around. By the time Tim stepped out of his POD three years from now, all would be forgiven. He tried to put himself in her position. She’d had a dream for her oldest son, one they had sacrificed to help him achieve, and then he made a choice she didn’t understand.

  Deep down, he knew his mom was just scared because she wanted the best for him. Tim understood that feeling very well since he wanted the best for her too.

  The laptop speakers blared. “You’ve got mail, bitch!”

  Fucking Glenn!

  By the time Tim finished adjusting his settings, he was pissed enough to sign Glenn up for a few bondage catalogs. It wouldn’t be Tim’s fault if they showed up at Glenn’s parents’ house instead of campus…

  Oopsie.

  Tim closed the laptop and then remembered what had started all of this. He opened it back up and found a message from Sierra waiting for him.

  Subject line: AWESOME!!!

  You want to meet up Monday and go to NPC Corp together?

  S

  With every fiber of my being.

  Maybe something slightly more subtle would be better? Tim didn’t want to send her running in the other direction, screaming for the cops. Technically, they hadn’t even gone on a date yet. He stared at the screen for a few minutes and decided on a simple reply.

  Time and Place.

  Sierra’s response was almost instant.

  Joe’s 8:30

  “Hell, yeah!” Tim leapt from his seat at the desk and did his best impression of Snoopy’s happy dance.

  Whenever he felt bad, the world seemed to have a way of making things better. It felt like the rain had stopped, and the clouds were parting.

  “C’mere, sunshine,” Tim opened his drapes to bask in the sunlight as a smile took over his face. “Time to make the future my bitch!”

  Chapter Six

  Joe’s Diner was the best breakfast spot close to campus. Kids flocked there from six am until they closed at three in the afternoon. Every table was full, and it wasn’t just because the food was amazing. The owner had a personal philosophy.