Though if that kid really did have a relative who’d been affected by that nastiness… Well good for him getting his revenge.
“The answer here is simple," the Horizon executive said.
"Simple?" the old man asked. "What did you have in mind?"
"You need to shut this kid down."
I cleared my throat and spoke up again. Maybe I was speaking out of turn, but I’d come to like Conlan in our short time together, and that included wanting to protect him from assholes like this Horizon son-of-a-bitch trying to fuck over both Conlan and Lotus at the same time.
"I'm afraid that's just not possible," I said. "Maybe it might've been possible to remove the crafting system before the game went live, ut it's too late now. To go in and take out something like this, something that’s become an integral part of the game that tens of thousands of players have come to rely on, with weapons in their inventory that they paid for fair and square? Even if it wasn't integrated into the code in a seamless way that couldn't be easily removed without shutting the entire game down for months, that wouldn't be very fair to our customers now would it?"
"I'll tell you what's ‘fair’ you smug asshole…"
A hand slammed down on the table and brought all of our attention to the Reynolds sitting with a look of pure fury in his eyes.
"That is enough!” he said. "I put up with your bullshit back when you were providing a sizable chunk of our revenue, but that has changed. Lotus is the biggest game that has ever launched. We have a license to print money now."
The Horizon exec smiled a smug smile that I wanted to reach out and punch off of his face.
"And you think your game is going to last very long if you can't get it to your customers?"
"I certainly hope that's not a threat," the old man said, his voice so quiet I had to lean forward to hear him. "Not in this system where everything you say is being recorded."
The Horizon exec suddenly started to sweat. Just a little bit. Just enough that I was of the opinion that the asshole might have actually just given something away. They’d always been so careful about making their threats nice and oblique, after all, and never coming out and threatening to cut off our access to their lines in a place where it could be recorded.
I wondered if that was why the old man had insisted on having the conversation in a Lotus conference room instead of in person at the offices.
"Besides," the old man said, continuing in that quiet but threatening voice that reminded me exactly why this man had succeeded for so long in this business. He was notorious for his ruthless business acumen as well as his ability to make a damn good videogame. "I'm sure you're well aware of the money we’re pulling in. I’d be more than happy to engage your company in a game to see who can provide the bigger payoff to the good people over at the FCC when it comes time to determine who gets access to your lines."
"Are you threatening me?" the Horizon exec asked.
"I wouldn't dream of it," the Reynolds said. Then he smiled. "After all, these conversations are all being recorded in their entirety, right? Wouldn’t want to say anything that would have the lawyers salivating about a breach of contract, eh?”
I had to choke down a laugh. As it was I snorted and very nearly gave up just how much I was enjoying this. The old man had this Horizon asshole by his ancient white-haired danglies, and he knew it. The launch of Lotus Online really did mean the company had the ability to print money at this point, which was helpful in a world where justice tended to go to the highest bidder.
"Right," the Horizon executive said, picking up the meaning and clearly not caring for it.
That was going to mean trouble from Horizon down the line. I wasn't sure what form that trouble was going to take, but I knew we’d far from won the war. Even if we had won one hell of a battle, and the company hadn't even had to get their hands dirty in any way, shape, or form.
All it took was giving the players the power, and maybe nudging one of those players in the right direction just a little.
An old phrase from my youth when I’d dusted off an old NES classic in a gold cartridge my dad had loved as a kid came to mind. "It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this."
I hadn't exactly given that kid a sword, but what I had given him, market capitalism with the ability to mass manufacture things in the game, had dealt a hell of a blow against Horizon.
"You'll be hearing from our lawyers," the Horizon executive said.
"I look forward to it," Reynolds said. "Make sure to have them subpoena all these chat records for the courts!"
The Horizon executive faded away. I scowled at the fucker as he faded, but I also looked worried.
The old man sighed and looked at everyone around the table. Then he chuckled and shook his head. That chuckle very quickly became something more. A full belly laugh. Finally he threw his head back and he was cackling. He looked for all the world like an evil genius who'd just come up with a plan to take over the world that could only be defeated by Mr. Bond.
"Well that certainly went well, didn't it?" the old man asked.
"You think that went well?" a senior vice president for Horizon Relations, there was a whole department dedicated to communicating with those motherfuckers, asked.
"Of course it did," the old man said.
"But they threatened to come after us with their lawyers!" another senior vice president said.
I shook my head. I was pretty sure I was seeing the same thing the old man was. Though I was hardly surprised that a bunch of suits who didn’t have the imagination to see past a bunch of spreadsheets and revenue projections couldn’t see the big picture playing out in front of them.
"I suppose I should expect that from you," the old man said, still laughing. He reached up and wiped a tear from his eye then turned to me. “Could you explain it to them, Todd?”
I was on the spot again. On the spot wasn't a place I liked to be. I preferred the company of computers. Not the company of people. Especially a bunch of senior vice presidents who technically outranked me, for all that I had some measure of safety for the moment because I had the old man's ear. Not that I could let on without getting both of us in the shit.
"They're not going to do anything right away," I said. "Because they've threatened us a few times with something that's borderline illegal, or at the very least it violates the contracts we have to give us preferred bandwidth, and they’ve done it where we have them recorded.”
"Exactly," the old man said. "The networks might not be neutral these days, but we have an ironclad contract with them and we're up on our protection payments to those cyber gangsters. If those assholes come after us we’re going to claw back at them so hard that I'll be a majority stakeholder in Horizon by the time our lawyers are done with them!”
“We’re a lot stronger than we were even two months ago when we had to negotiate letting them sell stuff in Lotus thanks to the money that’s been rolling in, money that doesn’t come from licensing fees from Horizon they can threaten to cut off, but that's not the end of them," I whispered, thinking of that look on the Horizon exec’s face as he faded out of the simulation.
The old man suddenly got serious.
"No," he said. "No. I imagine that's not the end of them. They're going to try something. I don't know what, but we need to be ready. They're going to wage a war the likes of which we've never seen for control of the game."
"But they can't do that!" one of the senior vice presidents said.
The old man shrugged.
"Of course they can," he said. "Sure we can add something to our end user license agreement that says people can't be paid to play the game, but that seems kind of silly since we put in the real-world currency exchanges. That young man who solved our Horizon problem for the moment could certainly be said to be getting paid for his trouble, and paid very well. I think he might be worth more than me soon!”
That was good for some chuckles around the table, though some of those chuckles from the senior VP types d
idn’t seem all that sincere. I’m sure it chapped their asses that a gamer was making more than they ever did while getting to fuck around playing a game instead of taking it in the ass from Horizon every time they picked up a phone or accepted a virtual meeting.
“No, the last thing we want to do is ban people like that enterprising young man who’s providing us so many advertising dollars because he’s getting paid to play, in his own way,” the old man continued. “They're going to pull another Sixers on us. Mark my words."
“Sixers?" someone else asked.
I rolled my eyes. These guys had no appreciation for history. Or the classics. Though I was glad to hear the old man wasn’t going to go after Conlan.
Sure I figured the bloodsuckers down in legal could probably write a license agreement that barred people from getting paid by another company to play the game while at the same time leaving it perfectly within a player’s rights to get filthy rich off of the in-game Auction House, something Conlan was doing right now, but at the same time it was probably a can of worms best not opened if the old man didn’t think it was worth it.
The old man. He was looking at me expectantly. Like he’d said something and I’d missed it because I was daydreaming.
“I’m sorry, I missed that,” I said.
William scoffed next to me, but I ignored it. The old man was smiling, which meant I wasn’t in trouble for getting lost in my thoughts. That was usually the sort of thing the old man encouraged, after all.
“I was asking you to explain to these gentlemen what I mean when I say Horizon is going to pull a Sixers on us,” he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
Again I sighed. This really wasn't a pleasant experience being put on the spot again and again like this. Especially with all these management eyes on me. I might not report to them directly, but they could cause trouble for me if they got it in their heads to try.
"It means they’re pulling the IOI gambit, like from Ready Player One, and they’re going to try it again,” I said.
“That old movie with the Iron Giant in it?” one of the VPs asked.
“The awesome cyberpunk classic by Ernest Cline,” I said, barely holding back the urge to roll my eyes. “Horizon can send whoever they want into the game to try and take it over from the inside. They already surprised us by staging an invasion with a bunch of their stooges guilding up, the force around Nilbog isn’t even the largest or best run of these Horizon-backed militant groups taking over as we speak, and you can bet your ass they're going to keep up with the invasion in areas where they’ve gathered a foothold. Especially now that someone gave them a bloody nose. And there's not much we can do about it. They're not breaking any game rules.”
"Damn,” one of the vice presidents said.
"Can't we just ban their asses?" another one asked.
"What have they done wrong?" I asked. "They're paying their access fee and playing the game. It sucks that they’re also on the take from a soulless corporation out to destroy us from the inside, but that's the way it is. If we’re going to fight them we have to win hearts and minds, not go throwing around the banhammer like a drunken Thor and pissing players off in the process.”
The old man cleared his throat and pointedly looked at me. Everyone else seemed to get the hint. Though that didn't stop William from glaring at me one final time. I had a feeling they were going to be having a conversation about this later.
Not something I was looking forward to. I’d already been deflecting with my boss plenty about what it was I was actually up to when I spent time working from within the game, but there were only so many times I could say I was working on critical testing before he wasn't going to take me at face value anymore. Hell, he probably already wasn't taking me at face value.
I needed a way around that if I was going to keep playing secret agent man in the game working on the old man’s special projects.
Everyone faded away. William glared at me as he faded out. Oh yeah, that was going to be an unpleasant conversation.
After everyone was gone the old man waited for another moment and glanced at something in front of him. No doubt a readout that told him whether or not we were the only ones in this meeting room.
That was one of the nice things about working in a virtual environment. We didn't have to worry about eavesdropping because we were the ones who’d hardcoded this room. If anyone had managed to hack in, well then they totally deserved whatever information they were going to get from their clever bit of industrial espionage. Hell, they might even be the kind of person Lotus should hire.
"You walked a fine line with this one," the old man said, grinning to it take some of the sting out of it.
"What can I say?" I said with a shrug. "We needed to take those Horizon assholes down a peg, and I'd say we did it."
"You got that right," Reynolds said. "Though I'm sure it's going to cause trouble down the line."
"Maybe so," I said. "We could just ban anyone affiliated with the Horizon guilds that have popped up throughout the game."
"We could," he said, that twinkle never leaving his eye. "But they’d send new people in over and over again. I figure this way they’re wasting money by paying players to play our game. The money comes into our coffers one way or another, and this way they’re paying for people who might not otherwise be able to afford the game to buy our hardware and the monthly subscription. Besides, there's no way they're going to win this fight."
"You sound so sure of yourself," I said.
"Of course I am," Reynolds said. "Because I've got you on the inside making sure that doesn't happen. I’m very impressed with what your friend was able to do with your crafting system. It’s a reminder of what players can do if we give them the power.”
“You know that kid came up with most of that on his own,” I said. “I put the system in place, but he’s the one who cheesed it and came up with stuff I never would’ve imagined a single player coming up with all on their own. Having a group of goblins mass producing stuff like that and taking over a whole territory for himself? That’s pure genius. I never would’ve thought of blending multiple systems like that, and I didn’t even know it was possible for a player to interact with NPCs like that until Al made it so.”
“It’s a far cry from the AI we thought would launch nukes at us, isn’t it?” Reynolds asked.
“Something like that,” I said.
“Still,” Reynolds said. “You were the one who came up with that crafting system, and you were the one who helped me out, even if it was only in some small way. I need you doing that kind of work all the time.”
I licked my lips and thought about whether or not I really wanted to accept the offer I had a feeling was coming. Only I had the recent example of Conlan and his fight against Horizon to inspire me. To show me that people could stand up for what was right.
"Maybe I could help out with that the way you’re thinking,” I said.
The old man's grin grew wider. "Why do I have a feeling there are going to be some conditions?"
"Maybe there are," I said. "Starting with I’m the new head of my own department that oversees my crafting system. Right now that’s going to be a department of me, but I want to be outside the org chart so I don’t have to worry about the senior vice president of working on his golf swing or whatever the fuck it is those middle management pukes do coming in and fucking with what I’m doing.”
I also figured that would do nicely for taking care of my William problem. We might’ve been friends once upon a time, back when we were in the design trenches together, but that felt like a long time ago these days with the way William had been hounding me lately.
Almost like he wanted Horizon to succeed or something. Now there was a chilling thought that was bullshit. William might be an asshole since he went into management, but he wasn’t a traitor.
Still, whatever his motivation, it would be good to be out from under William’s. So I held my breath as the old man considered giving me the ultima
te corporate gift, freedom from management types.
"I think we could work out a deal along those lines,” he said. “You just go right on making sure that young man keeps fucking over those assholes at Horizon!
Epilogue 2: Dark Redemption
I sat at the bar of a rundown dive in the port city of Marsei. I stared down at the alcohol in my hand, but didn't take a drink.
It was odd. I loved getting shitfaced in the real world, there was no better way to celebrate a loss than by downing contraband booze someone always managed to sneak from some tweaker den somewhere, but I didn't like the effects of taking a drink in the game world. There was something about it that felt off. Wrong. Like I was losing control.
I would not lose control again, damn it. That wasn't me. I didn’t lose control in Nilbog. I was in control of myself and everything around me at all times, and anyone who wanted to challenge that or my authority would face the consequences.
My hand tightened on the mug of beer I wasn’t drinking. That only brought to mind that little prick Colin. Or Conlan. Whatever the fuck he was calling himself these days. He was the opposite of what was needed. He brought chaos into this game. He didn’t play by the rules, and that more than anything infuriated me.
Everything had been going the way it should be. Humans on top. Goblins working for us. Me on top at school. Everyone else treating me like I deserved.
Until it all stopped because that noob fucker came along and fucked me over by breaking all the fucking rules. I barely noticed as the glass shattered in my hand, and I didn’t even wince at the cuts.
They’d heal soon enough. Everything did in this game. Except for those memories of that asshole. I felt a phantom pain and deliberately didn’t feel at my neck where that dagger had landed.
"Fancy seeing you here,” a low gravelly voice said.
I looked up and frowned. My benefactor was wreathed in shadows as always. I hadn't ever been able to figure out exactly what kind of skill tree gave the asshole that ability, or how he’d had it since the first day of the game when no one should’ve had high level abilities like that, and it was annoying. I didn't like not being able to see someone's face when I was dealing with them.
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