“Let’s go see Chip. He is just down the hall,” Zarra’s voice seemed to drift to me from a few miles away, but when I opened my eyes, I saw her sitting in the chair that Dr. Dimopoulos normally used. The gorgeous woman still held my wrist, but she carefully set my arm down on my thigh as soon as my eyes opened.
“Good,” I said as I stood up and adjusted my gray bathrobe.
“We’ll exit through your suite,” Zarra said as she walked to the other door of the lab. I followed her into my room, and then into the hallway.
Chip was sitting in a room about sixty feet down the hall, and the big man sighed when I walked through the door.
“Sorry about the wait, buddy.” I gave him a painful smile. “Did they treat you okay?”
“Fuck, Leo! I was worried.” The ex-SEAL had been pacing the floor of the sitting room, and he gave me a strong hug as he spoke.
“I lost track of time in the game.”
“That is what she told me,” Chip said as he nodded at Zarra. “She wouldn’t let me check up on you. I was getting a little--”
“As you can see, Mr. Smith, Leo is perfectly fine. I was not lying to you.” Zarra shook her head and her dark hair danced across her shoulders.
“I’m sure you could understand my concern. It’s been,” the man glanced down at the watch on his thick wrist, “twelve hours and forty minutes since I’ve last seen him.”
“I can understand, but please realize my position. I can’t have any of our se--”
“Hey, it is fine now. This is really my fault,” I said to my bodyguard, “I knew I was running long in the game, but I couldn’t find a place to log out.”
“That’s alright, but ahhh…” The man looked at my bathrobe. “Do they make you play naked or something?”
“Please don’t answer that,” Zarra said quickly, and I felt as if I should pinch my lips like Allurie had in the game.
“Whoa.” Chip held his hands up to Zarra and let out a short laugh. “Didn’t mean anything. Sorry, Ms. Zerne.”
“It’s fine,” she said, then turned to me. “I believe you promised me a decision. We’ve already sent the changes to your lawyer.”
“Okay,” I reached for my phone, but then realized I was wearing the bathrobe. I had left the device with Zarra’s guards before we’d entered the hospital treatment wing of her facility. “Can you call my lawyer? I’m ready to sign.”
“Yes. We can get to it in a few hours. It is before six in the morning now,” she said.
“I need to jump back into the game.”
“I understand. We’ll eat some breakfast. It will give you a chance to relax.”
“I need to play. They are waiting for me. I’ll sign,” I said.
“Leo, are you sure you want to do this right now? I know you like the game, but maybe you should think about it for a bit,” Chip said.
“I agree with your bodyguard. I know I asked for a decision as soon as you logged out, but maybe you should make this commitment to me after you’ve rested a bit? You seem a bit frantic at the moment, and I want you to eat something.” The beautiful woman smiled as she spoke to me, and I let out a long exhale.
“I just don’t want to keep them waiting. The guards--”
“Ahhh,” Zarra interrupted me and pointed to Chip. “He signed an NDA, but I would feel a lot better if he just didn’t know anything.”
“Shit. Sorry,” I sighed.
“Mr. Smith, your client is safe. Would you like to remain here until the contract is signed, or would you prefer if we took you somewhere in one of our jet pods?”
“I’ll stay here. You mentioned something about breakfast?” Chip asked.
“Sure. I’ll have one of my staff come and take your order.”
“I would prefer to eat with Leo,” he said.
“I understand, but we need to speak about his latest session, and call his lawyer. Then he will sign the contract, you two can say your farewells, and you may have use of one of the jet pods.”
Chip looked at me and raised his eyebrows. I could tell that the man didn’t want to leave my side again, but I knew I was going to sign, and he wouldn’t have to worry about me for the next few years.
I’d have to talk to Dinah about payment for Chip, as well as Dini Hayes, Calic, and Bantog. Jax and Garf contributed a portion of their payroll, but the three men were employed by the company that Sal and Dinah had established for me. I would need to ensure that they were covered financially for the next two years, and I would need to say goodbye.
I would also have to announce my retirement to the world.
“It will be alright buddy. I’ll talk to you after breakfast. It will be quick.”
“I’ll be right here,” he said as he crossed his arms.
“Thank you for understanding, Mr. Smith. I’ll send someone in to speak to you about your meal.” Zarra gently pulled on the sleeve of my robe, and I followed her back out into the drab corporate hallway.
“Let’s return to the VRIU lab,” the purple-eyed woman said as she pointed back to where we had come from. I nodded at her, and we walked back to my suite.
It must have only been ten minutes since we left, but the food had already arrived, and the wait staff was setting it up on the small table in my suite. There was a pot of coffee, a decanter of orange juice, ice water, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, home fry style potatoes, cream cheese, smoked salmon, and an assortment of bagels. There was more food than I guessed the four of us could eat, but the sight of the meal made my stomach growl angrily, and I realized that I was starving.
I slid into one of the chairs and dished up some of the eggs, potatoes, and fruit. Zarra joined me, but she only filled up her plate with a few spoonfuls of eggs and a few slices of melon from the fruit bowl.
“Tell me about this session. Coffee?” the beautiful woman asked as she grabbed the pot. I nodded at her, and she poured me some while I crammed a few bites of eggs into my mouth. It felt like I’d run a marathon and fasted for an entire day. I couldn’t remember the last time I was this famished.
“I like the menu system you’ve implemented. I want the clock to be displayed in the space of the UI by the compass. I kept having to open the status screen to check the time, and it was annoying.”
“Got it. We can change that easily.”
“I love the way the UI displays NPC names generically, but then when you speak with them, it fills in their name. That is really well done. I think you’ll get a bunch of players questing to try and find the names of all the NPCs in the game.”
“Haha,” she laughed. “I like that also. I think players will have a hard time with that, Ohlavar Quest has over three billion named NPCs.”
I almost dropped my fork.
“Three billion? Holy shit.”
“That isn’t even counting NPC monster types. Most players won’t even find out their name, but Olavar has created an identity for each of them. If you factor them into the mix, we are probably looking at around seven billion name combinations, but most players won’t care about the monster names.”
“Damn, your AI is amazing. Oh, speaking of that, what is up with the elves? They act really weird.”
“I was wondering what you would think of them.” Zarra laughed musically. “They are somewhat unique, but based more around the traditional elf or pixie tales of olden days. Have you ever heard of Williams Syndrome?” she asked before taking a sip of her coffee.
“No.”
“It is a very rare neurological developmental disease. A person born with it has sharper physical features and the kind of disposition that is very agreeable. Plenty of scholars think that is where the whole ‘elf’ idea came from in the first place. Ohlavar is pulling culture and folklore from all places of our society to make the game unique, but still familiar.”
“Did it have to make them so…horny?” I couldn’t ask without laughing, and Zarra joined me with her own giggle.
“We think a lot of players will love them, but I
am open to tweaking the racial model a bit. Let me know what you think after a month or two in the game. We wanted to give each race distinct characteristics. The elves are familiar looking since they are following the Tolkien style of being tall, lithe, and beautiful. But they also follow some of the Roman themes for fairies. Their racial characteristics make a lot of sense in a medieval type setting. Castles, farms, and workshops had endless work required to maintain them. Humans would eventually rise up against their lords and rulers because of poor pay and little rights. The elves just love working and being told what to do. They are ridiculously optimistic, and they will fulfill a role in society that will allow the players to focus on questing. Otherwise, Ohlavar might try to force too many remedial quests on new players.”
“I guess that makes some sense. I’ll hold off on my opinions for a bit longer. I think you will have way too many men becoming obsessed with elves, though. You also might alienate women gamers.”
“But there will be men elves. I don’t see what the problem would be.” The purple-eyed woman shrugged.
“Zarra, the game is so real feeling. I can just see lonely men getting sucked into it very easily. They might try to do perverted things to the elven women. It just seems like you are opening up a Pandora’s box.”
“I don’t think it would be a bad thing to let them have sex with the NPCs.” She shrugged again and spread some cream cheese on a bagel.
“Wait, can the players actually have sex with the NPCs?”
“Of course. I want Ohlavar Quest to be as real as possible.”
“It won’t get past the Entertainment Software Rating Board.”
“It won’t need to. The ESRB is a dinosaur. No one will care about what that organization thinks.”
“But you won’t be able to sell…” I stopped myself and thought about what I was about to say. Zarra was probably right. If she really pushed on the ‘realism’ aspect of the game, I was sure people would become intrigued. Sex really did sell, and while I didn’t know if porn was as lucrative as video games, being able to incorporate the former with the latter was something a bunch of other game developers had been successful with.
“You will still need to put some nudity and sexual filters into the system. Parents will not want their children to be playing a game with this kind of NPCs running around trying to have sex with anything that will consent. You might not want kids to play the game, but they are a large market segment,” I said after I had collected my thoughts.
“Yes. Perhaps you are right, but that is one of the reasons you are play testing it. I value your opinion on these things. Together, we are going to create something that really revolutionizes the market. Was there anything else you didn’t like?”
“Oh, the smells were a little too strong. When I was in the dungeon, the stench was pretty vile. There was no way to change that in the settings.” I inhaled the delicious aroma of the home-fry breakfast potatoes as I spoke. Calic normally didn’t let me eat many nightshades, so I was enjoying these.
“I can look into adding a filter that can lessen the scent stuff with the VRIU,” Zarra said with a nod.
“The good smells are great, but maybe tone down the… not so good smells?” I laughed, and the beautiful woman smiled at me.
“I’ll see what I can do. What other thoughts do you have?”
“Besides wanting to jump back in right now? Hmmm. The combat is great. Feels like I am really fighting. Did you tweak my strength down? It still seemed like I was way too strong. Oh, and what is with the other stats? Do the white and green colors mean anything?”
“The colors are dark gray, light gray, white, green, blue, purple, yellow, and gold. Dark gray will be sub-average. Light gray average, white above average, then uncommon, rare, epic, etc. It is standard game loot and ability rating. We think a gold item or stat level will be extremely rare. They are the relics that I want you to look for.”
“Okay. That is fine. I think players will get it,” I said. It was pretty much how games had been sorting loot color labels for the last eighty years.
“We actually did tone your strength down a bunch. You are extremely strong Leo, and you are a capable fighter. Perhaps you are one of the most deadly men on the planet right now. The game engine has to tweak a bunch of mechanics around to account for it. I think we are going to leave it how it is. The first couple of months you might find the content easy, but I don’t want to balance the game around you when the average player isn’t as fit as or skilled.”
“That is fair enough,” I said.
“Also, you aren’t going to have any help from other players. We’ve got some patients playing, but they aren’t going to be doing the same quests as you. They aren’t even anywhere near your location in the world. You’ll probably never see them. You’ll need to figure out where the artifacts are and find them without much help besides the NPCs. I can guarantee you that you’ll be glad for every advantage we give you. Cutno is a very small fish, and Ohlavar Quest is an ocean.”
“Okay,” I said around a mouthful of eggs. I had just crushed my second plate and was contemplating a third, but I knew it was going to be too big of a load on my stomach, so I took a small sip of ice water instead.
“I’ll explain the stats to you. Players will start with almost everything at a one or two. The only stats we can really calculate are Brawn, Quickness, and Comeliness.”
“How can it figure out Comeliness?” I asked.
“It scans the build of your body, muscle structure, and the sum of your facial features. You are quite good looking, so your stats were high there,” she purred.
“Ha. Thanks,” I grinned back at her.
“Oh, no. Thank you.” She laughed.
“You are quite beautiful yourself,” I said as my eyes held hers for a few moments.
“Ahhh. Well, ummm. Okay, anyways.” She smiled and fluttered her long eyelashes at me. “The other stats kind of get figured out during the first few weeks of play time. The AI is making the best guess for you based on the time you have spent in the game so far. It might change them a bit after you have clocked more hours.”
“I guess that makes sense, but people won’t like seeing a number attached to their physical characteristics, though. They want to be able to create an avatar for wish fulfillment. A lot of these people are trying to escape their daily grind through the game.”
“We have thought of that. They will get to create their own character's appearance, and adjust some of their stats during the avatar-creation phase. We are going to be working hard on that in the next few months while you play. The most important part is the game play and questing stuff. I’m really glad you are going to work with me.” Zarra reached her hand across the table and our fingers wrapped around each other's. It was kind of an odd movement, but I had enjoyed the few times we had touched so far, so I didn’t want to pull away.
“Me too.” I took a deep breath and wished I had my phone on me so I could check the time. “But I wanted to ask a favor.”
“Uh oh.” She laughed and raised an eyebrow.
“Can you let me jump back in right now?”
“Leo,” she sighed. “I can’t until you’ve signed. You just have to wait a few hours.”
“Zarra, they might not have a few hours. You saw where I left them. Allurie might be okay, but Artus will be in a bad place if they capture him. He can hardly walk. I need to get him out of there.”
“I can’t, Leo. You have to sign. It will just be a few hours. I really love your enthusiasm, but it is just a game. If those NPCs get into trouble, it really isn’t a big deal,” she said with an indifferent shrug.
“You are the president of the company. I’m finding it hard to believe that you can’t just make an executive decision right now. I’ve already told you I am going to sign. I logged out because I figured Chip might be worried, but I also wanted to stay in longer so that I could ensure they were safe. I wanted to just sign and then jump back into the game. If I had known that I�
��d have to wait around for two or three hours, I would have just stayed in the game.”
“Hmmm.” She exhaled and pulled her phone out of the front pocket of her tailored suit coat.
I waited while she tapped on the screen of the device for a few moments. Finally, she set the phone down on the table, and her strange purple eyes stared into mine.
“Leo, if you fuck me over on this, I’ll never forget. You don’t want me as an enemy. Do you understand?” Her voice was surprisingly menacing, and she continued to speak before I could talk. “I’m staking a huge part of my career on you. Maybe you think I’m just in charge of the company because of nepotism, but I’ve worked my ass off my whole life to have this seat. I’m going against the wishes of my parents and the board by doing this deal with you, and they have made it clear that I’ll lose my job if this doesn’t work out. If I let you jump back in, I’ll expect your thumbprint on the contract a few minutes after you log out. Got it?”
“Yes. Thank you for trusting me. As soon as I get out, we’ll jump on the line with Dinah, and then I’ll sign it with you, your lawyers, and her as a witness. Then I’ll call my friends and send out the press release.”
“Okay,” she sighed. “Sorry to sound like such a bitch. Leo, I really like you, and I’m honored that you are working with me. I just don’t want to get taken advantage of.”
“No, Zarra.” I raised my hands and let out a laugh. “You aren’t coming across as a bitch at all. I know this is important to you. It is to me as well. Thank you for making an exception.”
“Good.” The hard look faded from her eyes, and she blessed me with a beautiful smile. “So I think it is best for you to jump back in quickly. I’m hoping you can get done what you need to get done in the next few hours, and then I won’t have to explain to my lawyers why I let you play again. Do you think you can do that?” she asked as she stood.
“I’ll try,” I said as I followed her into the VRIU lab room.
“Good. I hate to be disappointed.”
Chapter 18
Lion's Quest: Undefeated: A LitRPG Saga Page 26