Forkien City, LiveScan tower. The skyscraper with 85 floors would be a dream for any millionaire to own. Although it was not standing along with the big ones in the middle of the city. But like most of them, it had become private property.
The whole building was in an uproar. Employees trotted in the corridors, some anxious, others with a huge grin. Phone calls didn’t stop chiming. It had been the grace of technology that there were no papers in the offices. Otherwise, the floor would be littered with them.
When the bosses of the offices being hosted in the tower got the news, they got a huge shock, and one of them even had a heart attack.
Where were they going to shift their offices?
But it wasn’t Anne’s concern even by a long shot. She had given 10 million extra to get all of them out of there by the week’s end. The previous owner took the deal, hands down. Nobody would in their right mind offer him 200 million for this fourth-generation building, and when Anne did, he didn’t believe it. Upon seeing the contract though, he had to.
And then, she became the owner of the building where her office once used to be.
“Do you have to behave in such a lavish manner?” Christian asked. It was out of his comprehension to think she would be such a show-off when handed with enough money.
“Not have to, need to.” She said, still not caring enough to look at him for a serious talk. Her hands didn’t stop swiping slides after slides on the desktop. No, not the desktop. It was the desk-top, displaying matters of Juma and Kiton.
Need to? Christain peered down from the glass window. Loads of hovering cars jamming the Tower’s gateway portrayed how it would’ve been centuries ago, the traffic as they called it.
Why did she need to cause such an uproar? Christain really thought that money had made her lose it. But on the contrary, Christain couldn’t think straight. He wasn’t able to get behind the logic of her actions and the significance of the money they had been offered for the task given. It overwhelmed him to think clearly.
“Yes, we need to,” She said again when she found what she was searching for.
“Listen to me, we have been given the task to come up with a scoreboard that can accurately place a player base of 3 billion on rankings. We the analysts, not the LiveScan network that we own, and into a single scoreboard, not seven.”
Christian’s brows raised, and he came back to sit in front of her, “So, are you planning to contact them?”
“I already have. All the other analysts agreed to cooperate as we gain nothing special by competing with each other. Our wages would remain the same. It’s better to work together.” She switched the interface off, and with a serious glare at Christian, she said, “So can you please pull your head out of your ass and put it to work. Yeah, we have been offered big time. But we have to work for it.”
Christian face froze. She had straight-out scolded Christian without telling him what he had done wrong.
Anne bit her lips and breathed through her lips. She had gone a bit too far. He was staring at her with an expression like he was constipated. Not knowing why she was berating him didn’t feel pleasant in the least.
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She stood up, went around the table, and sat in front of him, crossing her legs. It was unprofessional, but it was them there, nobody else.
“I am sorry, but you need to really look forward to the fact that we are hired by CRC. Ulteria isn’t just some high-end VR game anymore, at least not after CRC showed much interest in it and is ready to pay such a high price to hire us. Do you think any analysts would get offered this kind of amount in this era of AIs’?”
“It’s been only two months since the game launched, yet it has a player base of 3 billion. Just imagine what would happen if Kiton and Juma’s populace took interest in it.”
“You are right. I have been too high on the offerings.” Christian realized the fact. Rearth had a population of 20 billion, twice that of Juma and 3rd of Kiton. Yes Kiton, was the most populated among the three, despite half of its population being annihilated by Sling-Shot decades ago.
But being the biggest planet in the star system, it had the least population density even after holding 60 billion humans and other living things.
90 billion as a player base. It was an absurd thought. Not every person in the three worlds was gonna play it. But still, if the game gets half the population hooked into it, there was no way they could manage such a large scoreboard by themselves.
Anne gave him time to ponder, then finally said, “I have scurried through the global net. Different countries on Juma had started moving and showing commotion towards the game’s popularity here…” She trailed off, expecting him to continue.
“If Eighth-Gen agrees to imprint Ulteria on Juma and Kiton’s silicon core, and CRC still relies on us to maintain its scoreboard, we would be handling a lot more traffic than a staff in this building could,” Christian said, and she felt grateful that he was getting back to track.
“Yes, so LiveScan tower is the starter. For now, we also need to hire associates.” She went back to her seat and swiped a few times on the table. It projected multiple scoreboards on the white wall behind her, and she said, “As a start, I have purchased the prominent game ranking companies along with their scoreboards.”
“Where did you get the money?” Sure they have so much, but it wasn’t enough to buy the best rankers without going broke.
As an answer, he got another annoyed glare from her. Shit, ‘We' Of course, all the analysts contributed to the purchase.
“You really need to cool off.” She shut all the programs in her big ass cabin for an office. It turned the lightning dull, and she left, leaving behind the words, “Come with me.”
…
When the elevator’s door opened, Christian couldn’t believe that she had taken him to her penthouse, and he blurted out, “Does me cooling off mean we are doing it?”
Oh, God! It was a mistake to speak those words. He instantly regretted it and put his hands on his mouth.
She sighed in disappointment and shook her head, feeling a headache brewing. Her reaction humiliated him, “Not happening anytime soon,” But not her genuine reply.
Leaving behind the stunned guy, expectant, he would follow, she entered one of the rooms attached to the living room. It was attached also to her bedroom, and in it laid two not-so-standard-looking gaming consoles, the so-called capsule. A pale blue star, the sun to their planets, shone from the small glass window. Glistening the surface of the capsule with a sheen.
Belatedly Christain entered the room, and Anne said at his arrival, “You need to know our work environment. I have bought you a capsule. Make a damn account and experience the freaking game. By the time you would be out, I would’ve handled most of the matters.”
“Okay, but what do I make of the fact that I would be living here?” He asked with a cheeky smile.
“Think nothing of it and get lost.” She pushed the guy into the capsule and left off to deal with others. Christain would be of no help unless he experienced the game first.