Jordan tried to reach in the direction of the noise, but couldn’t find anything that resembled a mobile phone. The music got louder, if that were even possible. He tried to sit up, only to be knocked back down by a wave of post-champagne dizziness. Finally, with a gesture of nearly superhuman determination worthy of the best Highwayman had to offer, Jordan managed to electronically strangle both mobile phones without waking the exquisite creature sleeping on top of him.
He collapsed back on the pillows with visions of spending the day cuddling with his new roommate, only to have his reverie interrupted by an abrupt knock at the door.
Alyssa roused momentarily, only to be rendered instantly useless by the same thing that had almost prevented Jordan from getting out of bed until lunch. Jordan answered the door wearing the pink silk pajama top. He was in no mood to try and figure out how or why he and Alyssa had exchanged shirts, so he just went with it. Robb paused long enough to convince himself not to ask, then spoke.
“Something’s going on. You two need to log in and do your ceremony or whatever. Order the number six breakfast and turn your phones back on. We’re on a clock now.” With that, the NNG cameraman was gone.
Jordan had no idea what the hell he was talking about, so he wandered towards the shower.
Forty minutes later, the door to bungalow eight was rattling like there was a category four hurricane on the porch with Kung Pao Chicken and soy sauce. Jordan emerged from the 800 square foot bathroom with his toothbrush in his mouth. He had managed to straighten out his apparel confusion and was only a few minutes away from starting the process of thinking about looking for something to order from the breakfast menu.
Based on the condition of the big table, the events of the previous evening apparently resulted in more than a few helpings of a late dessert. Jordan had already concluded there were perhaps five works of art on Earth that could compare to the sight of Alyssa sprawled face down on a king size bed wearing pajama bottoms and his own No-Name-Games t-shirt. Jordan had already convinced himself he could look at her long stylishly curled hair in between glances at other features all day and not get bored. He didn’t want to interrupt perfection, which was why he was rather annoyed by the time he opened the door.
“What!” he barked through his toothpaste. It was Robb again.
“The City of Rook is under attack by a giant the size of the Lincoln Memorial. According to the world events board, someone just looted a thousand shares of Fairly Unusual Games stock from the wreckage, meaning the available stake in the company is now less than sixty percent. I realize you and your sweetheart would rather feed each other strawberries all day, but unless you get your stealthy cigarette-lighting ass logged in, it won’t matter if we make it to Safekeep today, next week or ever. That is all.” Once again, Robb vanished in the way only sarcastic future geek millionaires could.
Fifteen minutes later, the remains of the previous evening’s feast had been replaced by computers, coffee and croissants. Jordan had finally discovered heaven. He was sitting next to his brand new beautiful girlfriend and they were both playing video games together. He and Alyssa logged in simultaneously. They had together worked out a list of priorities and tasks to complete once they did so. Their goal was to set both accounts up for the possibility something was actually lootable at Safekeep. If they actually recovered it, they would need a way to protect it, and if it was what they both thought it would be, they would need some way to redeem it in the real world.
That was one of the reasons Jordan had ordered another Fairly Unusual Games 3D treasure printer. It was due to be delivered by 5PM the same day to a nearby office supply store mail drop service.
“Oh that’s too bad,” Jordan said as the celebratory screen commemorating Highwayman and Doncella Lyssa’s nuptials appeared. “We could have posed for a much better ‘you may kiss the bride’ moment. Or perhaps a ‘carrying off the slave girl’ moment.”
Alyssa swiped at him in a failed attempt to slap his shoulder again. “Stop it.”
Jordan pulled up Highwayman’s character screen and immediately switched to the now accessible “Legacy” tab. Because he was married and had unlocked the ability to produce an heir, his ability to access his ancestry and inheritances had activated. Along with the long list of retired NPCs that he discovered he was related to, he found that he had, in fact, inherited land near the coast only a few miles from the village of Dayshire.
The Doncella of Lish had transportation options that a level seven knife-thrower could only dream of. Within minutes she was winging her way south aboard a giant bird. She flew along the sparkling coast towards the southern villages and the countryside around Dayshire. Once Alyssa’s character took possession of the fortress and grounds at O’Shaughnessy Point, the last of Highwayman’s Founder privileges would unlock, and the NNG guild would be one step away from making a run for Safekeep.
The door rattled again.
“What is it now?!” Jordan whined as he opened it.
Robb ran in like flood water, waving his phone in the air. “Look at this!”
“We’re getting ready to make our run!” Jordan barked.
“Shut up and look!”
Jordan threw all his weight into plopping down on his chair, feigning impatience. Robb pulled up the video interface and stabbed the play button.
“It’s our interview from Supercon. So what?”
“I just got a look at four other interviews from Supercon. Wyland uses the same answers in all of them. Every interview: same information. Except for yours. Remember when he said ‘everything I told you at GamesWest was true?' Well, he was being literal! Watch this.” Robb pulled up a second video. It was only a minute and ten seconds long, and consisted of outtakes from the first. Only Wyland’s voice spoke.
“I want them to know you don’t have to be max level to reach your goal.”
“you’ll be able to sell them for real world money, and we expect their value to increase over time.”
“Each requires considerable dedication and skill, and each will reward players in ways they haven’t even imagined yet.”
“being the husband of a princess has its share of perks in the game.”
“No way,” Jordan muttered.
“The guy gave you a blueprint for getting to Safekeep all the way back at the convention, and your new girlfriend over there confirmed it!”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Len Griffin, Chairman and CEO of N-Gate Five Technologies folded his arms. Before him was a wall-sized color screen displaying a magnificent 4K resolution view of Scythe Ridge, which cast a foreboding shadow over the underground ruins at map coordinates 1314.7 vertical, 808.6 horizontal in the region known as “The Haunt.”
Rumor had it only high-level characters could make it this far. In fact, there were only 12 people in the world who would have recognized the location. One was dead. Ten others were trying to get there.
Jay Zhang was standing right on top of it. He, Lori Locke and Mike Oaksmith were seated at heavily modified PC battlestations. All were facing the wall screen and watching their progress in real time. Jay had studied the experts, watched the other players and had rapidly worked out a theory for Garrett Wyland’s motives. By deftly living up to what the game expected of him, Zhang was able to apply maximally efficient progression to his character and cut out anything that was likely to hinder his progress. He had reached level 16. His Might and Quickness scores of 81 and 86 respectively were optimized for swift and brutal close-quarters combat, and his chosen weapon, a two-handed barbed mace, had become rather dangerous in his hands.
His was no example of a well rounded Kings and Conquests player. He had little money. His character history was spartan to the point of obsession. Everything about his skill set and abilities was focused on making his first attack devastating enough that he wouldn’t ever have to worry about being countered. His choices in character history did nothing to encumber him socially or to any family member, legacy or history. He was designed from the groun
d up to be the landless man whose only job was to retrieve his paymaster’s treasure. He even chose one of the less interesting non-human races. He was Thrinn, an unremarkable humanoid race whose primary advantages were agility, quickness and resistance to extreme temperatures. The Thrinn also had a weak stationary stealth ability.
According to Griffin’s best estimates, the some two dozen people he had paid for more than nine weeks had produced results. They had finally gathered the information necessary to take some educated guesses as to the probable locations of Wyland’s secret stash, if there was one. The fact that N-Gate bribed two former lead developers from Fairly Unusual to violate their NDAs didn’t hurt either. Saro was yards away from the broken well that opened into the subterranean location marked on only three secret maps. He measured his rope, found a sturdy place to tie off and rappelled down into the cool torchlit chamber. He settled to the stone floor, attached a weight to his rope and looked around.
In the center of the spacious, crumbling chamber was an enormous golden sarcophagus. The words “HERE LIES THE VIDEOGAME INDUSTRY” were carved into its lid. Jay was unsure if his character had the strength to open the container. He considered his options for a moment. Then an intermittent targeting icon appeared in the shadows. Saro didn’t have any particular skill at detecting stealth, which could only mean two things. Either the unidentified visitor was of a considerably lower level, or they didn’t have very good stealth abilities to begin with.
Finally after a few moments, Highwayman came into view. His form was indistinct, but Saro could tell he was armed. Jay went to his combat abilities. They had carried him this far. Now he only needed to defeat one more opponent. He drew his mace and then froze. A third character had appeared. This one had to be a much higher level, since she was able to approach and draw her weapon with perfect initiative. She held a loaded and cocked culverin pistol just under Saro’s chin. For every advantage the maceman had enjoyed up to now, he knew full well this time he was outmatched.
“Let’s all just relax, shall we?” the gunwoman said sweetly.
The voice came over the sound channels. Both Jay Zhang’s and Jordan Hall’s game interfaces indicated they had the option to open a picture-in-picture video feed to go with the voice. The game’s microphone icon blinked, indicating all players in attendance should prepare for the KNC equivalent of a VOIP call. Everyone involved fiddled with their audio equipment. The entire NNG guild listened intently, as did Len Griffin and the rest of his gameplay team at N-Gate headquarters.
Jordan was a little slower than the rest of the people who were watching the drama unfold around the golden sarcophagus. He recognized the pistol-armed character. In fact, the moment he saw her, he was forced to wonder why he was still alive.
It was Finale. The assassin sent to kill him due to his selections during character creation. Jordan tentatively opened the video screen, but he knew what he was going to see before he even reached for his mouse.
It was the face of Garrett Wyland.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” Griffin muttered.
“Holeeeeeee–” Robb squeaked. Dave and Amy just stared.
Jordan and Alyssa glanced at each other. Their expressions said it all, which was good, since neither of them had breath to speak.
“What’s going on, Garrett?” Griffin snapped. His headset was patched into his players’ shared audio bank. “You fake your own death so you could add some more fraud to your project?”
“On the contrary, Len,” Wyland replied. “I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m under no obligation to report my movements to anyone, nor am I obligated to correct bad police work.”
“You really were shot?” Jordan asked. He wasn’t sure why he just blurted out the question, but he was pretty sure it was the one everyone wanted answered.
Finale lowered her weapon. “Just a word of warning, Jay. My character has some rather advanced assassination skills. For example, I can hide my true level. I also still control the UID zero developer account. If you still want a reward for all your hard work, I strongly recommend you refrain from any aggressive movements. Let’s call this a truce for the moment.”
“The young man is waiting for an answer, Garrett,” Len said.
“I was shot, Jordan. In fact I was shot twice, but I was wearing a vest. Broke a rib. It’s healed now. That’s about it.”
“But the police–”
“–Shot me without cause. We have the entire incident on video from four different angles including a 20,000-frames-per-second 150-degree-field-of-view shot from inside my jacket. They thought my phone was a gun. I’m fairly certain whatever it is they think they were pursuing me for will be dropped in exchange for me agreeing not to send the entire state of Mississippi into receivership. As it happens, I have a surplus of lawyers and a skull-hammering fuckload of cash.”
“Are you here to rescind your prize?” Jay asked with a tone of cynicism.
“Of course not. The shares are yours to divide as you wish. Each platinum ingot inside this sarcophagus can be exchanged at the vendor in the King’s City of Rook for one percent ownership of my company. There are sixty ingots. Each weighs two pounds.”
Minds raced across California. Realization dawned.
“I can’t carry that much,” Jordan said.
“Why not?” Alyssa whispered. Jordan motioned for quiet.
“Clever, Garrett,” Griffin said. “Encumbrance rules limit players to sixty pounds unless they choose the heavy loads skill, which nobody takes because–”
“–because so few people think these days, Len. These two intelligent young men had nine weeks to prepare for this moment. And at no time did either of them even consider the treasure might require some kind of planning to carry back to base. That’s a shame. Not thinking is going to cost one of them three hundred million dollars. They probably thought they could loot a little book of stamps and cash it in by taking a picture of it with their phone.”
“So the only way to get a controlling share is to make two trips,” Jordan said in a defeated tone.
Robb keyed his mic off. “And now that there are competing factions, we can only get a third of the company even if we make it back to the city.”
“Shit!” Dave hissed.
“I could just kill Jordan’s character,” Jay said.
“But you can’t carry all the ingots at once,” Jordan shot back. “And the rest of my guild knows where I am right now.”
“As does mine,” Jay replied. “We are all twice your levels too.”
Alyssa noticed Jordan quietly reach for his mouse. She held her breath. He began to speak, which confused her a little. His actions didn’t seem to match his words.
“Garrett, what happens after we turn the ingots in? What happens in the real world? Do we have to sign up for something, or maybe use our phones? Or do we have to call a toll free–”
Highwayman vanished. An instant later, Finale’s other pistol was yanked out of its holster. Alyssa saw its stats flash as Highwayman activated it. It was a level 72 weapon.
Garrett’s assassin could only respond with hesitation. There was nothing to attack. By the time he turned Finale around to try and get Highwayman back on the screen to target him, Jordan had rushed past the assassin.
Jay frantically slammed his hands down on the keyboard, desperately trying to attack before opting to use his more effective defenses. He simply wasn’t prepared. Saro didn’t react in time. Jordan aimed and fired the already cocked weapon. The slug punched directly through Saro’s neck. It was a critical hit. 787 points of damage. More than three times Saro’s health.
The maceman slumped to the floor and was dead before his head cracked against the rocky surface.
“WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Robb screamed loud enough it could be heard in both adjoining bungalows.
“One shotted!” Dave shouted. Amy shrieked and knocked over her chair.
Alyssa screamed as if the shooting had taken place in the real world. “Jordan! What did you do!?”
He just looked at her with a knowing grin that almost compensated for the pale look of total horror on her face. Finally, she began to realize what had just happened. She and Jordan embraced joyously and she kissed him again and again.
At N-Gate Headquarters, there was only silence. Jay had left the room. The other two players could only stare helplessly, as they were quite some distance from Safekeep, investigating other probable locations for Wyland’s treasure.
“We should have gone in there together.” Lori said in a defeated tone.
“We couldn’t have known which was the right location,” Mike replied. “We had a nine-level advantage. But nobody could have predicted that. He just won six hundred million dollars with one shot.”
“Alright,” Griffin said. “Then we move to plan ‘B’ instead.”
Epilogue
In the game, Highwayman handed Finale her gun. The voice chat was still active, even though Saro/Jay had hung up.
“I suppose now you’ll fulfill your mission,” Jordan said. “When I created this character it said you were level 31. I suppose that’s unlikely.”
“You don’t need to know what level I am. Suffice to say a level seven thief poses little challenge.”
“Well then get it over with.”
“I’m not going to kill your character, Jordan. Finale is my safety valve against stupid people doing stupid things in my game. Or should I say, your game.” The assassin slid the sarcophagus lid aside, revealing the sixty neatly stacked ingots inside. “You now own sixty percent of the voting stock in Fairly Unusual Games. May I offer my congratulations and my thanks.” Finale handed Highwayman one of the ingots. He took it.
In the real world, Alyssa was still on Jordan’s lap with her arms around him. They both gasped as Highwayman was awarded 400,000 experience points and dinged level nine.
“Thanks? What for?”
“For getting me the hell out of the big-money game business, Jordan. I’ve hated this project from day one.”
“Why?”
Overpowered: A LitRPG Thriller (Kings and Conquests Book 1) Page 16