Might as Well

The meeting room was dark, both because of the dramatic lighting that the architect insisted to be added and because the person in charge insisted on using the aforementioned function to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.

On one side of the table sat several people wearing bespoke suits and with severe frowns on their faces, while on the other side sat several people from the Observation Team, wearing mostly hoodies, shirts, and in one case, a rather colorful Hawaiian shirt.

Despite the ridiculousness of the situation, nobody mentioned the clothing worn by the team. Even if any other time, half the meeting time would be spent commenting on the bespoke suits and why they insisted on wearing them for internal meetings.

“What’s the situation?”

“We found them.” Came the report from the Observation Team.

“Action plan?”

“Observe and see what they do.”

“What about the person who leaked it?” asked one of the men wearing a suit.

“We are feeding them some more information to see how far the issue goes.”

“Anything they can use?”

The egghead shook his head. “No. Nothing actionable, just things we can follow.”

“Good.”

The man at the head of the table also nodded before speaking up.

“What are our expectations?”

“In what manner, sir?” came a hesitant question.

“Losses man! Losses!” exclaimed the man angrily.

The people from the Observation Team and the suit team exchanged glances, nonverbally trying to select who would report on this issue. Finally, after a few seconds, one of the people on the Observation Team lost the battle – while also winning several favors and a nice bottle of alcohol – and spoke up.

“In the real world, we expect a few points of drop, but if the projections are correct, then we can gain those points back in short order while also successfully sending the message that management wanted.”

The man listened to the report, nodding occasionally. “And in the game?”

Another glance battle, but the man who did the previous report simply nodded, accepting the responsibility, and continued to speak.

“Well, sir, we expect complete fucking chaos.”

That took the man back as his eyes flew wide open at the choice of words.

“Pardon?”

“Well, sir, you may have not played a lot of games,” he continued, after waiting for the man to nod. “But, based on…well, empirical data, the players are going to freak out. Like a lot.”

“Can PR help?”

The eggheads exchanged a glance, then the first man continued, not even waiting for the others to make him. “We would need a sacrificial lamb. Whoever goes out on that stage will lose all credibility in the eyes of our players.”

“What about corrective actions in the game?”

This time, the man grimaced. “We’re not sure. Our economists have been hard at work to figure out a proper response, but even with Selena’s help, it’ll be a tough cookie…”

The man leaned back in his seat, eyes closed, visibly thinking.

The rest of the room simply waited for the final word.

Then, after a few minutes, the man opened his eyes and began speaking.

“Right! Let’s go with the patsy play for PR and work on the corrective action. However, before we implement it, I want to see the hard numbers.” He grinned a little. “After all, a little chaos is healthy for the game…”

The man on the other end of the table, nursing an extra strong coffee, let out an exasperated and exhausted sigh.

‘This is why we can’t have nice things…’

“Well, there is crazy and there is this…” he commented as he watched the giant screen in the room.

The rest of the people sitting behind computers, screens, and other devices either nodded or voiced their agreement. He took another sip of his coffee from his mug, made by his daughter, showing a small stick-figure girl riding on a pretty good rendition of Lucky.

Super adorable…

However, none of that helped with his growing headache.

He understood that the upper management wanted to generate news about the game, but he and his team worked fucking hard on the game and now they wanted to inject extra chaos just because it would generate more clicks?

Weren’t they having enough trouble with that fucker running around and doing his fucking things?

No, of course not. Let’s have them deal with people panicking because of falling gold prices, rioting, and general tomfoolery.

“Selena!”

The AI’s digital avatar instantly appeared on a nearby device, looking at him with a sympathetic gaze.

“Yes, sir? How may I help you today?” she asked sweetly.

‘We really lucked out with her…’ he mused. Most AIs were rather surly, but Selena was pretty happy-go-lucky if one didn’t count her sass and occasional shenanigans.

“How is the first item on the priority list going?”

Selena sent him a look, and he heroically ignored the snickering behind his back.

“Well, sir, Operation Is The Fucker Cheating still hasn’t had any results.”

“Darn… and the rest of the list?” he asked.

“Well, we made sure to move around a few assets as well as adding a few fake gold mines here and there while also starting a few quests. That allowed us to place the perpetrators’ characters in scenes which would lead NPCs to the proper conclusions.”

“And the market?”

“Recovering. Apparently, somebody had released an analysis about the situation and encouraged people to buy cheap and wait for the game to recover…” she replied with a mischievous smile on her face.

Hearing that and seeing the look on her face, he couldn’t help but freeze. Mechanically turning his head away, looking at the bigger scene where he watched as one of the members of the team was observing a Bronze-rated player after following up on a report, he waited for a few moments before asking his question.

“Was it him?”

“Oh wow, sir, you managed to figure it out without any hint!” Selena exclaimed while showing the digital avatar clapping her hands together while she grinned at him.

Once again ignoring how people were exchanging money as somebody with a bookie visor was writing on a whiteboard he didn’t officially know existed, he let out a very long sigh and took another sip.

Then another, as the first one didn’t help.

“How…much…money…did…the fucker…make?” he asked while clenching his teeth together.

Selena just let out a giggle. “None so far. They’re waiting for the price to recover.”

“Do your best to estimate… I know you did the math, you damn AI!” he grumbled.

Selene just giggled again and vanished from the screen only for a simple document replacing her beautiful digital head, showcasing the estimated earnings for the AFK guild and specifically for the fucker.

She even helpfully labeled the fucker's column with a hand giving the bird…

He looked at it, then looked away and back again. “Damn… I’m kinda jealous…”

Sadly, as he went for another sip, he realized his coffee was gone.

Placing the mug on the nearest flat surface, he called out to the room.

“All right people! I want to see how people react to our actions! Get me eyes on the quests Selena mentioned!”

Instantly, the entire room jumped into action. “Yes, sir!”

“And somebody get me more coffee!”

“Uh, sir, that’s your seventh one today…”

“I don’t care…”

Behind him, he once again had to ignore the mutterings.

“Huh, maybe he’ll reach the legendary ten mugs.”

“Hold me, I’m scared!”

He could feel his left eye twitching.

“Get back to work!”

For once, he was enjoying himself. They were currently collecting footage for the next marketing project and the people over there had some rather specific requests so the entire team, with the help of Selena, and dozens of algorithms were combing through footage from all over the world of Magic Unknown to satisfy the PR machine.

While he was doing that, he was stealthily watching footage of Lucky playing around on his third monitor, making sure to cut out the more impressive parts. Then he would sanitize the videos and later show them to his daughter.

However, his good mood didn’t last long as Selena appeared on the same screen where Lucky was chasing after a rather big stick.

“Guess what happened?” she asked cheerfully.

He froze upon hearing those words and almost automatically he reached for his trusty mug, only to realize that he was forbidden to touch coffee after his last bender.

Instead, his hand curled into a fist, his gnawed-on nails digging into his palm.

“What happened, Selena?”

Instead of answering, the AI just grinned and the sound of fanfare sounded from the speakers in the room, scaring half the room to death. Based on the sounds of crashing, several people actually fell out of their chairs.

“Somebody started the Portia quests!”

“Oh, no…”

“Oh, yes!”

“Please tell me it’s not…”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir…”

“I thought we arranged enough distractions to make sure he didn’t reach it!” he yelled while furiously clicking through his computer files looking for specific ones.

Selena nodded. “Yes, we did. But get this! He ignored them! Isn’t that amazing?”

He sent his strongest withering glare at the AI and continued to look through the systems connected to the game.

“Where is he in the quest?”

“At the beginning escort mission!”

“Increase the difficulty! I want that fucker dead!”

Selena sent him a disappointed look. “I’m afraid that’s against the rules, sir.”

“Then increase the difficulty to insane! I want him to work for it. I’m not handing over the Portia project to that fucker!”

“The best I can do is hard difficulty…”

He was about to argue with the AI when he had a genius idea.

“Wait! What kind of monsters are there?”

“Crazed elementals that were driven mad by the dimensional energies when they were torn away from their home planes.”

“Scrap that!”

“And what should we replace them with?” Selna asked curiously.

He finally gave up on his computer and called out. “Jane!”

“Yeah, boss?” came the yell from somewhere within the room.

“Did you finish that project you were talking about?”

“The new monsters?”

“Yeah, those!”

“Last week!” came the glorious answer.

“Good! Upload it to the main server!”

Finished with his ‘conversation’ he turned back to Selena and waited until the AI managed to take a look at the files.

“Well, what do you think?”

The AI just giggled. “Very well, sir. New monster with increased difficulty. However, I must warn you that the increased difficulty means that the rewards are also going to be increased.”

“Ugh…what’s the reward?”

“Well for our person it’s personal tutelage from the NPC if they survive,” she explained. “Proper education not just throwing a skill book at him and being done.”

“That’s bad, right?” he mumbled.

“Statistically speaking it doesn’t matter, sir,” came the supremely helpful comment from the AI. “Either he finishes the quest without our interference and starts the Portia project properly or finishes it on hard difficulty and does the same but with more rewards.”

“No chance of the fucker failing?” he asked with a glare.

Sadly, Selena just continued to laugh. “I’m sorry, but previous data points suggest unless we plan to place unfair and frankly illegal roadblocks in his way, then he will be successful.”

He looked around and leaned closer to the screen. “What if we… don’t tell anyone about those illegal things?” he asked in a whisper while sending several winks at the AI.

As he waited for an answer, he heard a noise behind him. He whirled around his chair and saw Jane standing there with a rolled-up stack of documents. Which she instantly used to whack him in the head.

"Ouch!"

“Bad boss. No,” she declared. Then she turned to the monitor with a smile. “Was that enough, AI overlady?”

Selena just nodded. “Yes, thank you, Jane.”

“What?”

“Please don’t try to do illegal things, sir.”

“You never let me have fun…”

“I like my job, so I’m just making sure I’ll still have it next week,” came the dry reply from the AI.

“Hehehehe…” he laughed awkwardly. “But we can still do the new monster thing?”

“Yes, I did some simulation and the monster would fit right in. Plus, this way we don’t have to torture those poor elementals. They have enough trouble with the summoners using them as explosives…”

“Right those people. How is the situation?”

“Well, there is a civil war in Brightgarden,” replied Selena.

“Well, that’s not good… Show me the situation.”

Soon, he was immersed in the intricacies of elemental summoners versus rangers wars that have been ravaging Brightgarden, the fucker temporarily forgotten.

However, that didn’t stop people from updating the betting board…