World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (23 page)

Wesley shakes his head.
"If anything, it seems like my avatar’s reaction time
decreased slightly and allowed me to move faster in the game. It's
exciting to see how the game has evolved from a basic dungeon crawler
game with a VR element to now include a real life combat simulator.
In fact, I think this oriental expansion and the multiplayer online
battle arena (‘moba’) especially for WoE will be excellent
additions to the game,” the beta player offers his opinion.

Mark Whitney, the
project manager for the expansion, smiles at the comment. “I’m
glad to hear it, Wesley. Richard will be pleased,” he replies.

Wesley frowns slightly
at the mention of Richard T. Gibson, the enigmatic founder and CEO of
the company. Wesley was merely a member of the player group, The
Strangers, when the party was invited to participate in a special
campaign to celebrate the first year anniversary of the online launch
of the game last year. The Strangers successfully defeated the evil
Regent of Castle Eternia, and lifted the Curse. Among the prize was a
one year consultation contract with EDE. Wesley, a retiree from the
military, had some free time to help EDE test new product
developments, like the upcoming oriental expansion and the new
virtual reality equipment. However, none of the four members of The
Strangers particularly like Richard, and they have been suspicious of
his motives ever since they met him at the conclusion of the ground
breaking anniversary campaign.

“Mark, we’re
logging out now,” Trish says.

“That’s fine,”
the project manager replies. “Please write up a report of your in
game experience, especially any lags in the motions of your weapon
and personal movement during your fight with Wesley. Also, please
note any discomfort in using the new equipment,” he adds quickly
before they log out of the server.

“Yes sir!” the two
girls reply in unison and log off, leaving the two men behind.

“They seem kind of
young to be full time employees,” Wesley remarks, hoping that Mark
will talk about the two players a bit. The company comes across as
rather secretive to the retiree, who has had plenty of experience
with being kept in the dark by his higher-ups back in the military.
However, Mark seems to be genial and more willing to share
information with company insiders, and it appears that the manager
has begun to view Wesley as one of them. Wesley smiles to encourage
the EDE employee to talk.

“Yes, they are,”
the manager chuckles. “They’re both teenagers located in China,"
he reveals. "They are interns; no make that externs since they
work through a virtual office in Shanghai, China, rather than at our
company headquarters here in Seattle, Washington,” Mark corrects
himself. “They are currently attending a Chinese university, and
getting school credit for assisting us for several hours each week.
The Asian market for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
(‘MMORPGs’) is huge, and Richard views this market as a critical
area of growth for our company,” Mark expounds a bit on the
company's strategy for expansion.

“Is that why WoE is
having an oriental expansion, in order to attract Asian players to
the game?” Wesley speculates.

Mark shakes his head.
“Not particularly. WoE is the world’s first Virtual Reality based
MMORPG, and this in itself will attract gamers from Asia, not just
China but also South Korea and other countries in the Southeast Asia
region. The oriental expansion is meant to introduce a wider variety
of new weapons, armor, equipment, spells, and yes monsters and
campaigns for our players to explore,” he explains. “Think of it
from a business perspective. In order for a company to grow, it could
either get new customers for existing products, or new products for
existing customers, or both,” he continues his impromptu lecture.

“I’m assuming that
the revenue from the sales of the expansion will be plowed back into
the company for development of further expansions?” Wesley asks
pointedly.

Mark shrugs at the
question. “I’m not on the Board of Directors at the company. So I
can’t tell you how the company will spend its sales revenue from
the expansion. But I would assume that will be the case.”

The ex-Marine nods.
“Fair enough,” he says. “Anyway, I should get going myself. I
have some errands to run.”

Mark nods in return. “I
appreciate your assistance.”

“Don’t mention it.
Ciao!” Wesley says. A moment later, he logs off the server, and his
avatar winks out of existence.

Mark turns to look at
the dirty looking man sitting under a tree nearby. He appears to be a
drunk and asleep. At a distance, the man appears to be a Non-Player
Character ("NPC"), but Mark knows the truth is anything but
that. The man has disheveled, long hair, and an empty tankard is on
the ground beside him. “What do you think, sir?” the project
manager asks with great politeness.

The drunkard raises his
head, and makes eye contact with the project manager. The man has
sharp looking dark brown eyes that reflect keen intelligence-and
something more. “Put up with him as long as Wesley and his
Strangers continue to prove useful to the company,” the man replies
curtly. He sighs inwardly.
The
problem with getting assistance from outsiders is that often times
they are simply too nosy for their own good. Why should they be
concerned with how the sales revenue will be spent by my company?

The CEO shakes his
head.
At least the four of them
have not leaked any details of the upcoming expansion, or post
pictures of the redesigned virtual reality equipment on social media.
So I’ll give them that,
he thinks begrudgingly,
or
else I can use the leak as cause to terminate the consulting
agreement and kick the four of them out the door
.
Either
way I win
, he smiles smugly to himself.
In
any case, I have to be careful in limiting personal contact with
Wesley; he's the charismatic, natural born leader type who can sway
others to his point of view. if Wesley disagrees with my decisions
and turns rebellious, he will create problems for the company.
Continue to keep him at a distance, and let intermediaries deal with
Wesley directly.

“Yes, Richard,” the
employee acknowledges the order, oblivious to his employer's
concerns.

As Wesley McMillan
pulls the virtual reality head gear off his head, he feels a hot
breath on his left cheek. Blinking his eyes, he sees that his wife,
Melissa, is kissing his face. He feels a sudden rush of euphoria as a
life time of love with this wonderful woman pours into his heart.
“What’s that for?” Wesley asks gently as the petite woman sits
in his laps, while he is still seated at his computer desk.

“Oh I don’t know,”
the woman, in her late fifties but still radiant with life, stares
her dark brown eyes into his blue eyes. A gentle smile begins to
creep into her light brown face, which has been marred by the passage
of time. She leans her head into his neck, feeling the weight of her
beloved husband’s rugged chin resting comfortably on top of her
skull.

“I’m sorry,”
Wesley begins to apologize when he realizes that she is feeling
lonely.

“Shush!” Melissa
puts a finger on his lips to cut off the apology. She had been
worried about her husband, and how he would spend his time once he
retired from the military. If Wesley is playing a fantasy game, then
he isn’t visiting dating websites and cheating on her. So she is
willing to let him indulge on his new found hobby, at least for a
little while, if it allows her marriage to stay intact. However, this
doesn’t mean that she will let him forget what he has. . .

Wesley wraps his arm
around his wife, enjoying the warmth of their still strong, healthy
bodies.
God, she’s more than I
deserve
, he thinks guiltily.

“Are you still
playing the game?” Melissa asks.

“You mean World of
Eternia? Yes, I am,” Wesley replies with surprise at the question.
His wife usually allows Wesley some degree of privacy; she prefers
not to pry into his affairs. “Why would you think I was playing
something else?” he asks.

“Well, for one thing,
your equipment is different from before. Also, the times you’re
logged in has changed from last year,” the wife points out. Even
though she doesn’t talk about it, Melissa still keeps tabs on him
when he’s in the house.

“It’s that
obvious?” the husband grins.

Melissa reaches up with
her right hand, and pinches her husband’s left cheek. She feels the
rough skin, and bristles of his day old facial hair, brown colored
with a small smattering of gray.

“All right, all
right,” Wesley gives up.
Where
do I begin
, he ponders for a moment as he thinks back to
the campaign that The Strangers had participated in last year. “Do
you remember last year, when I was logged into the game for almost an
entire day?” he asks.

“Sure,” the wife
replies. How could she forget? Wesley was logged in for a good ten
hours that one time. She became worried when he skipped dinner, and
seriously considered pulling the plug to turn off the computer.
Instead, Melissa decided to sit next to him, and waited until he
logged off to demand an explanation from him.

However, Wesley was too
exhausted when he finally took the virtual reality equipment off his
head. He just slept in his chair, and she couldn’t get anything out
of him. Whenever she brought it up afterwards, her husband just said
it was “confidential” and never talked about it.

“Last year, my player
party received an invitation from the game developers behind World of
Eternia to participate in a special campaign to celebrate their one
year anniversary. It took us a long time, but we did end up finishing
the campaign,” the husband explains.

“So what did you
win?” Melissa asks point blank. What matters to her most is the
prize involved, rather than his exploits in a game that she knows
nothing about.

Wesley grins at the
question. “A one year consultant contract,” he answers quickly,
anticipating her reaction.

“Huh?” she says in
befuddlement. What the heck is he doing?

“The campaign was an
elaborate job interview by EDE,” the husband explains patiently.
“The developers were seeking players to help them with both game
and hardware development.”

“So that’s why you
have new stuff attached to the computer?” Melissa asks.

“Yup,” Wesley says
nonchalantly while eying the visor on the table along with the
gloves, the thin arms sleeves, and slippers. “The company gave me
new virtual reality equipment for beta testing. It’s supposed to be
lighter and improves motion detection. This is not available on the
market. And we had to sign confidentiality agreements. That’s why
there aren’t any posts on social media of this new visor, for
example. Middle management at EDE actually wanted me to use this
equipment at their offices in Seattle, Washington. But R&D argued
that the equipment needs field testing in a normal player
environment, rather than at a research lab. The CEO finally stepped
in and approved allowing my access to their 2.0 VR hardware outside
of their company’s facilities.”

The virtual reality
gear is definitely lighter than the old equipment, and more
importantly, wireless. He is no longer required to sit close to the
desktop computer to play the game. In fact, Wesley could see new
applications for this 2.0 VR hardware, particularly in sports like
golf, surfing, and boxing. He is old enough to remember playing Mike
Tyson’s Punchout on the original Nintendo Entertainment System
console, and he would be interested in playing a virtual reality
version of this game.
I should
bring this up with Mark,
he reminds himself.
At
least the project manager is more open to suggestions and new player
ideas, compared to Richard
, he notes.

“So how much are they
paying you?” the wife asks, not at all shy about the topic of
compensation. Their house could use a new roof, and the front yard
could use a little bit of sprucing too if there is any money left
over.

“You mean money?”
he asks, knowing exactly what she has in mind. “Nothing,” the
husband replies sheepishly. Wesley knows that nothing gets his wife
as excited as talking about making money and spending money.

Melissa pokes him in
the ribs, with a slight frown on her face.

“Hold on,” he adds
quickly. “The company is giving us small ownership interests in
exchange. Each party member is getting one tenth of one percent share
in the company,” he throws out.

“And what are the
odds that this game developer of yours will turn into a billion
dollars company like a Google or Apple?” Melissa asks, as doubt
takes hold in her tone of voice.

“Slim,” he readily
concedes. Wesley is not a finance guy like Lucious, who was the lone
holdout briefly when the owner of the company made the consulting
offer to The Strangers. “Still, the potential is there for Eternia
Development & Entertainment, Inc. to be bought out by a larger
gaming company or even a tech giant like a Facebook or Amazon. In
that case, my stake should be worth quite a bit of dole,” Wesley
notes.

“I hope your shares
will help pay for a new roof,” the wife says gruffly.

“Me too,” the
husband replies as he gently strokes her dark, chestnut hair.

Thud! The heavy stack
of papers makes a loud noise on the desk. “Here you go, Luke,”
the female intern says with a cheerful voice and a mischievous grin,
as if the pretty college senior needs to announce the obvious to the
unfortunate recipient sitting behind the desk.

“Thank you Jennifer,”
Lucious Trevis replies with a genteel tone of voice, hiding his mild
annoyance at her.
She’s
enjoying this too much
, he thinks while his eyes remain
glued to the spreadsheet on his computer screen. To be honest, he
doesn’t know which annoys him more – her use of the name “Luke”
rather than his given name “Lucious,” or her mischievous nature.
Either way, he does not see her as a proper fit with the serious
company culture, and Lucious will emphasize this point in his
evaluation of this college intern with the human resources
department.