2022-11-21 23:18:09Jason looked out of the window.
He was hesitant to sip the expensive cup of coffee in his hand. He loved good food and drinks, but he loved his money even better.
The bustling street was filled with people and vehicles. He saw more people going in and out of the bank on the other side.
‘Sigh.’
He wondered if he could do what he planned. Honestly, he had too many uncertain points.
“So… Are you going to tell us?”
“Ah… Yes.”
His mind hurried back to the small cafe with a sharp but pleasant voice.
“Sigh. I need money to buy a VR cabin.”
If not for the information he found on the internet, he wouldn’t have followed this woman out of the bank, and he wouldn’t be sitting here with the two of them.
Ashley Steel was the heir to the massive Steel corporations. To someone like her, mere hundred thousand should be nothing. However, there was another reason that he agreed to follow her. The Steel Corporation had a gaming guild called Black Steel Guild. A guild that focused on many major online games.
As a company that invested in gaming, this girl was the best bet he had found so far.
“You… You have to buy a gaming cabin that costs a hundred thousand!”
Freya looked at this man in disbelief. It was the worst lie she ever heard.
A gaming cabin could cost around fifty to seventy thousand dollars. There was no reason for him to take more.
“No. It is thirty thousand. But I live in a group house with my coworkers in Lumber town. I don’t think I can install a gaming cabin there.”
“Thirty thousand? You are going for The Endless.”
Ashly looked at him with surprise.
“How were you planning to pay back?”
This was what made her the most puzzled. This guy was planning to enter the newest game that didn’t even have a beta testing period.
She thought it was a mindless gamble, and there were several reasons for her to think like that.
First was the price of the VR cabin and the next was the possibility of having major bugs.
“From in-game currency.”
Jason was very confident in this matter.
He had his reasons.
First, he knew that earning money was challenging. Because the coin price rose so much during the last year of the game; a year before the earth ended. It came to a point where it surpassed almost all virtual currencies.
He heard from the players that even at the initial stage of the game, one silver coin was around ten dollars. Meaning that a gold coin would be around a thousand dollars.
‘If it is the real Yuriel, it won’t be easy for anyone to earn coins. But I am not going to be earning. I want to become strong. And to become strong I need resources.’
To achieve his goal, he had to use all his wits to earn coins to buy resources. Because of that, he was confident about paying back this hundred thousand with interest within a year.
“Are you a fool? The gaming cabin is already too cheap. I think their graphics are just a lie. It will be a huge failure.”
Freya thought it was too cheap even for a gaming cabin unique to a game. Because if those graphics were true, the engine cost shouldn’t be cheap.
“The screening process. You should have seen it.”
“It is not that relevant.”
Ashley also thought this ten-page registration form with the user agreement was too much. Also, the company had announced there would be a strict screening process and the gaming cabin would be bound to a single user. Meaning that two people couldn’t use the same cabin.
In a show where one of the developers answered questions from the gaming community, the host asked what to do if the cabin was broken or if the user didn’t want to play anymore.
The answer was if the cabin was broken they would repair it and if the player wanted to return it, the company would buy it back for the same price. Given that the equipment wasn’t intentionally damaged.
She saw this part written in the user agreement.
After all, their gaming studio also paid attention to this so-called ahead-of-the-era game.
“No, it is not.”
Jason took out his slightly cramped registration form and the user agreement from his jacket.
“You know you can fill it out online, right?”
Freya wondered if this guy was an idiot or if he had a reason to go against the social norms of the era.
“Then I have to pay online, with the money I don’t have. Besides, I have to go to the nearest branch of the World Builders for the test. I can do it at the same time.”
Jason answered with a shrug.
“Alright… Tell me why you think it is relevant?”
Ashley looked at Freya and gave her a wink with a taunting smile.
She was enjoying the casual slaps coming from this guy targeting her cousin.
“All these questions….”
He turned to the pages with the questionnaire.
“They are actual psychological questions. If you don't trust me, look them up. This is an evaluation of the player's mental state.”
He didn’t lie. He actually looked it up. Because he wanted to know how they screen the players. There was a big reason for this.
When he and the rest of the world entered the Yuriel five years later, the natives called them immortals. Because during the gameplay, the players were unkillable. They would always come back after death.
Jason could imagine what would have happened if they allowed psychopaths to enter the game during these five years. Of course, they would pose no threat to an elite fighter or a high-level wizard, but normal people would have to live in constant fear because of that.
Of course, he knew this shouldn’t be all. They would look into the details of the players with the support of the governments.
Freya frowned for a bit before she started searching these questions online.
Soon she found most of them were questions created for specific psychological evaluations.
“Still… I think it is too exaggerated.”
She argued back, but this time she felt a bit more dispirited than before.
“The World Builders have opened their branches in almost every major city in the last year. This is not only in the USA. It is all over the world. Are you thinking they are up for a loss? Don’t you think they have a huge capital backing them up?”
Both Ashley and Freya looked at each other. Two of them didn’t dig this deep into the Endless and the World Builders because they thought it was only another VR game. However, this boy seemed to have done his homework on this game.
“Alright, so the money is for the cabin and for a rental. I still think a hundred thousand is too much.”
“I need the other expenses at the beginning. I will sign an agreement to pay back within a year.”
“I will agree if you are willing to join our gaming studio. If you agree, we are going to pay for the gaming unit, anyway.”
Ashley suddenly had another idea.
“Ashely? Are you serious?”
Freya didn’t expect things to develop like this. They only hired the best professionals or the ones with the highest potential. If this boy was truly an orphan, he couldn’t have had much gaming experience.
In the end, their studio was based on profit.
“I am sorry, but I have no idea of working in groups or being restricted. Besides, how are you planning on gathering your guild? The developers have mentioned that spawning points for every individual will be completely random. This is not regional, it is worldwide.”
Jason didn’t hesitate to reject. He wasn’t interested in working on the money-making strategies of a guild. Also, the World Builders avoided revealing many points about the game, making Jason feel pressured.
He expected it to be as realistic as possible, making it impossible for him to babysit a guild during the early stages.
“For real? There are no regional servers?”
Freya lost her composer at this time. She now wondered about the real tech capabilities of these developers. A massive server to accommodate an unknown number of players. The sales of cabins were extremely private, and no one knew how many of them were already sold.
“No. I don’t think so.”
He saw the two girls falling into deep thought.
Honestly, Jason got a bit nervous. He thought if he should agree to join the guild.
‘No. Five years is already too short.’
He really hoped there could be at least a few advantages when the Endless was a game. After five years, when every person on earth entered the Yuriel, they would have five more peaceful years before the invasion of the Cervians.
‘But what if something changes? I can’t count on ten years. I have to count on the advantage of being immortal and whatever the other advantages I can have.’
His entire future; no, the future of twenty-nine billion people would depend on his success.
‘Hopefully.’
He wondered if he could be that powerful to defeat an entire alien race and save the entire Yuriel.
‘No. Even if it is ten years, it might not be possible. But if I become a Grand Wizard, I might be able to survive much longer with everything I know.’
He again eyed the two girls, who seemed to be in deep thought.
“If you are willing to give me the money now, I will share something important related to the Endless.”
He pulled out his final trump card.
One of the few secrets he was willing to share with others. Something he learned much later in his past life.
“How about I give you fifty thousand and if that secret is valuable enough I give you the rest.”
Ashley gave a tactical smile. After all, she was a businesswoman.
“Alright. Then let’s go.”
“Go? Where?”
“Here!”
He showed them the phone with the map he had opened all this time. The nearest branch of the World Builders.
“I would rather earn that extra fifty thousand today.”
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