Kevin was part of a small sales department that still existed at Terrazon. For the most part, sales had been fully automated and the company usually knew its customer’s patterns so well that it sent the goods to their house or to their company and auto billed their account before the clients even knew what they needed. With AI technology and an almost unlimited data set that drove its predictive modelling there was actually very little need for flesh and blood salesmen. None the less, a small contingent survived at the company with the premise that there were still a few die hard clients out there that didn’t want the computer making all of the buying decisions for them. Most of Kevin’s clients were really old. His median client profile was a grandmother in her nineties. Somewhere in the back of his mind Kevin knew that he wouldn’t be able to continue working forever; however, he hoped to make it a few more years before he was forced to retire. While he was aware of the fact that his job security could end at any time he was still completely blind-sided when his manager pulled him into her office and fired him.

As he stood stupidly inside her office he finally managed a response. “I thought my numbers were pretty ok this quarter,” he said, still incredulous with shock.

Lisa, his boss sighed, and replied, “Kevin you know as well as I that our department is just another trophy group for Terrazon. We are one of the last groups of salespeople on the planet. The trends have been pointing this way for years. Our clients are dying and everyone younger than 90 would rather interact with a computer or even better just have the computer make the buying decision for them. We are downsizing the department again. I’ll be lucky if I’m not canned within another month.”

He didn’t have any response to his bosses’ candor. Kevin had known this day could come at any moment but now that it was upon him he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone had done this to him. Part of it was the perfectly natural human compunction to seek a pattern; something to blame, and part of it was just his mulishness at not accepting that the inevitable had happened.

She continued, “If it is any consolation I’ll be more than happy to provide you with a reference. You were a fine employee. Although I’m sure you know that nobody is hiring salespeople anymore.”

Kevin nodded dumbly and thanked his boss. She had taken care of the group ever since he’d started seven years ago and he knew it wasn’t her fault he was getting canned. It sounded like she was on the way out as well.

As he wondered back to his desk to collect his things he couldn’t help but think back on his shitty week. First, on the second to last boss before Cermillion, he had lost out on a melee trinket that would have really improved his stats. The guild leaders, heavily influenced by Sean, deemed that Cheezus should get the item. Later, he and Sean had bickered over how to defeat Cermillion but ultimately it had been Tim’s strategy that had won the day. The final straw for Kevin was having that wand assigned to Deathberry – another best in slot item for him had gone to another player after he’d had to give up that melee trinket. Getting World First in the raid should have felt like a great victory but to Kevin he felt robbed of having any autonomy in the guild. He felt he was just there as their buff monkey and that they didn’t appreciate how thankless his job was.

Kevin overheard some of his cubicle mates talking. “Did you hear what Lisa said? Are we going to be next to get the ax?” Kevin figured that must have been Joe talking. He was always such a worry wart. Although in this instance his fears seemed justified.

“Nah, she’s just saying that. You want to make sure you don’t piss off the boss’ daughter. I hear that’s what did him in.” The other voice belonged to Billy, one of the biggest gossips in the office.

How the hell had they overhead his conversation with Lisa behind closed doors? And what did Billy mean about pissing off the boss’ daughter?

Kevin rounded the corner where Joe and Billy were gossiping. Joe shrunk back but Billy looked unfazed by Kevin’s approach. “What do you mean I pissed off the boss’ daughter? I don’t even know her.”

Billy shrugged and replied, “All I know is that her name is Julie Cullers. And that’s just a rumor I heard so sue me if it isn’t true.”

That name sounded very familiar to Kevin but it couldn’t be the same Julie Cullers he knew. Besides he hadn’t talked to Sean’s wife in ages so why could she be mad at him? The entire thing didn’t make any sense.

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Kevin turned away from Billy and Joe suddenly, grabbed his box of things, and left the office. He wasn’t just going to take this lying down. If Sean’s wife was behind the layoff, his buddy had some answering to do. The entire way home Kevin stewed while he thought about all of the small injustices he’d suffered over the past few months with his guild. Was Sean intentionally trying to drive him out of the guild? It just didn’t add up. They had been so close when they’d first started it over two years ago. He and Sean had started the game and even built characters together thinking about how they ultimately wanted to level up. Would Sean really throw all that away and if so why?

He tried calling Sean but he wasn’t home. He then sent Sean a text saying to give him a call when he got the chance. They had been friends for a very long time but something about this whole thing didn’t sit right with Kevin and he was feeling hurt and betrayed by his subpar treatment in the guild over the last month.

Next, he gave Emmy a text. Emmy played their Demon Knight warrior, Thag in game. “Hey, babe. Do you have a second to talk?” Kevin texted.

Emmy called him a few seconds later and said, “What’s up?”

“I’ve got some bad news – I was fired from Terrazon today,” Kevin replied. The news of it was just starting to sink in. He’d have to call his mom later and let her know. Kevin had been sending her supplemental money since UBI didn’t cover all her expenses. He probably wouldn’t be able to swing that anymore.

“That’s terrible. I thought you were killing the sales last quarter, what happened?” Emmy replied.

Kevin continued, “Apparently that wasn’t enough to keep my job. And I just realized how much I’ve been spending. I won’t be able to keep doing that on UBI.”

“It’s all those game modifications, right?” Emmy asked.

Sighing, Kevin replied, “Yeah, it’s crazy how sucked in I get trying to get more immersed in Champions. Guess I’m going to have to cut back a bit.”

Emmy tried to sound upbeat with her response, “I’m sure you’ll figure out some other way to keep the game fresh. You always do.”

Good ‘ol Emmy trying to cheer him up. He felt pathetic relying on her like this. He said, “On the bright side at least I’ll be able to spend more time in game with you now.”

“Hmm…that does sound good,” she replied.

Kevin paused for a second. He and Emmy had been going out for about three months but they had been friends for longer. Still, he knew that Emmy was completely devoted to the guild that had taken her in when no one else would. Could he trust her with his suspicions about what Sean was doing to the guild? He thought about it for a few more heartbeats before deciding that he would wait to see if Sean called him back first before he voiced his concerns about what was going on.

Instead he asked her, “Have you spent all your gold yet?” Emmy was notorious in the group for buying pets. Cermillion’s Keep was the first raid in the new expansion that had just been released and there were a lot of new pets that could be purchased; however, many of them were just crazily priced in Kevin’s opinion. He would usually wait until an expansion had been out for a while before he started purchasing pets. They were fun but they didn’t give any in game bonuses – they were just for show.

Emmy laughed, “Maybe. I think I still have about 1,000 gold left though. I’m trying to decide whether I want to purchase a pet dinosaur or a pet elemental.”

Kevin started laughing as well. “You already have an elemental mount. Seems like getting an elemental pet is overkill, right?” he asked.

“No way,” Emmy responded immediately. “They aren’t even similar in appearance. The pet elementals come in several different colors and they have the ability to jump on my elemental mount with me. I mean how cool is it that you can have an elemental riding another elemental?”

Kevin laughed again. He wondered if that was a rhetorical question. Eventually they finished their discussion about the merits of different elemental pets and Kevin hung up.

A few minutes later he got a call back. “Hey man what’s up? I’ve had a shit day so give me some good news,” Sean said.

Kevin was baffled. What could be shittier than his own day? “Oh yeah, well top this. I got fired from Terrazon today.”

“Oh man that is pretty shitty. We’ll we can have a beer and cry together because my wife left me,” Sean replied with a bit of slur in his voice. Kevin wondered how much his friend had already had to drink.

“Did you say anything to your wife about me?” Kevin asked.

Sean grunted into the phone before replying, “What do you mean man? Why would I say anything about you to that bitch?”

“Well, as I was getting packed up I heard two other guys on the sales team saying that I shouldn’t have pissed off the CEO’s daughter,” he replied.

Sean’s breathing was heavy on the other end of the line for a moment. There was no way that Julie would have followed through on what she’d said and punish his friends, right? “She did say something about making my friends pay. I didn’t think she’d follow through with it, ok?”

Kevin was pissed but he felt vindicated. Maybe his best friend was an idiot but he wasn’t actively out to get him. “You owe me some beers at the very least. I’m coming over to collect and then you can cry on my shoulder.”

“Get screwed man,” Sean replied.

Yep, things were back to normal.