Jasper didn't feel so good.

The conference ended with free drinks, and a lot of the engineers wanted to talk with him about the changes he had made over drinks. That had led to the programmer getting a bit too much of the good stuff before Martin and Riez practically dragged him back to the hotel.

The developer wanted nothing more than to just stick his head under his pillows and sleep until room service woke him up, but the CTO, who was apparently named James Thomson, had insisted on meeting with Jasper and Martin today.

Riez was helpful, having some kind of fizzy drink ready that she swore would help. Jasper didn't question it, drinking from the offered glass while they made their way back to the Headquarters.

It really did help with his headache, and as they drove into the employee garage, Jasper could think again.

The elevator from the employee garage quickly arrived, and the trio beeped themselves in. Jasper had his temporary card, while the others provided their actual card.

A short elevator ride later, Jasper and Martin made their way towards the room that had been in the meeting invitation. They weren't late, but the sound of people talking could still be heard from the room, even with the door closed.

Opening the door, the duo stepped into a long room. The entire right side of the room was made from glass with only a slight curve, indicating they weren't as high in the torus as Jasper had expected. A large oval table had been placed in the middle, with chairs all around it, and on the opposite wall of the door was a large screen.

James, the CTO, was sitting on one of the sides, and the man visibly brightened when he spotted Jasper and Martin. He was a middle aged man who had definitely had some work done, his face just a little too symmetrical and his cheeks just a little too shallow compared to his facial structure. His hair was cut short and deep black. He wasn't tall, but his build was that of a man who did a lot of cardio.

"Jasper! Martin! Am I glad to see you? How you been, boys? Hope you weren't hit too hard by the drinks last night." He gave Jasper a wink, and the developer wanted to be anywhere but here, but he still smiled in return and gave a polite greeting.

There were four other people in the room. James introduced them with the energy of someone who hadn't touched a drop of alcohol last night.

"I thought we needed to talk about what to do with your game world since it is pretty much done, right? So I called in this crack team of experts. First off, we have Louise from our AI department. He is the one that has been working on your current version of the AI."

Louise stood up and shook Martin and Jasper's hand in turn. He had a broad smile as he gave them both a nod.

"Next, I thought we needed some input on how best to communicate and publish this game, so Hannah from marketing and Fred from communication are joining us."

They greeted the pair of developers in the same way Louise had.

"Last but not least, we have our project manager Clara. She will be the one running the game development and managing the team. We might be joined by some other people later, but for now, let us get this show on the road."

Clara was happy to greet Jasper and Martin as well, giving them both a bright smile.

"So why don't you start us out by talking about the world you have set up? And please, we are not here for the sales pitch, we are here to hear what is really going on." James said, waving a hand for Jasper and Martin to sit.

Jasper nodded and started to talk about the world they had created. He explained that it was still relatively barren since they had not gotten any input about the game but had been fixing some basic bugs around the place.

Louise, the AI engineer, was the first one to interrupt. "You are running a localised model, right?"

Jasper nodded. "Yeah, Gen 12, if I remember right. Running on a local server on an isolated network that can only be accessed through a jumphost."

Louise nodded, writing something in a notebook. "Yeah, we need to move away from that. At this point, that thing is considered legacy."

Jasper blinked at hearing that. "What? I know we have been using it for a couple of years, but it works as intended, and with it isolated, there isn't a security risk."

James cleared his throat. "We are moving to cloud native solution. We have gotten some competitive pricing to run it as a service rather than host it ourselves. That way, we can run projects the same way, and we will be more agile."

Louise didn't say anything. Clearly, this wasn't a decision that he had taken. Jasper nodded slowly, realising that this wasn't up for discussion and bringing it up would only prolong this meeting. Instead, he gave Martin a look, and the big man pulled out a small notepad, writing down that they would need an exception to prevent disruptions from their workflow.

Jasper collected himself and continued his explanation of the world. He talked about how they had various sections of the map that they needed to fix, but at the moment they had around 5 locations that still needed to be addressed.

Hannah from marketing smiled brightly at hearing about the layout. "This is just perfect. We have seen a resurgence of battle royal types of games. I think this world would lend itself very well to this."

Jasper opened his mouth, though he wasn't sure what to say. As far as he knew, this would be a steep departure from what the company normally did. But then again, it could probably still work. Players rushing through the world to collect items...

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Clara, the project manager, nodded along with Hannah. "Agree. Though, I have some concerns. You might not want to add too many elements to the world. We want this to run on mobile devices after all."

The comment hit Jasper like a hammer, and Martin looked visibly sick.

"You... what?" Jasper's mouth felt like it was full of wool.

James, the CTO, gave the developer a look. "Yes, we have decided to expand our approach to game development. And while we normally make Deep Dive games, we have found that mobile games are an unexplored market by our company, and with your world ready before expected, we decided that we can use it for a more experimental project."

"No" The word was a deep rumble, and even Jasper was surprised by the forceful nature as it spilt from Martin.

"No?" James asked with obvious confusion written on his face.

"I am not making this into a mobile game," Martin said, with no further explanation.

Fred from Communication smiled a placating smile. "Martin, I can understand that you might not agree with a project like this, but the live service features in a mobile game like this will be able to drive the development of the next many game titles."

Jasper cringed when he heard that the game already had plans for live service elements. The world wasn't even done yet, and they were already talking about monetisation.

James, the CTO, nodded along. "That is correct. The cost of our titles has become increasingly prohibitive. Despite utilising AI-driven world generation, our expenditure on man hours exceeds that of our competitors. To remain competitive, we must either evolve our approach or adopt a more streamlined and lean business structure, which would mean reducing headcount. As a result, we have identified a new market opportunity where we can leverage the expertise of our existing teams."

Jasper looked at Martin. Martin wasn't satisfied with the explanation. They both knew that Weird World Computing wasn't in danger of shutting down, they just hadn't achieved the expected growth for shareholders. The mobile game was clearly a way to show that the company was trying to diversify, and with a lucrative price structure, the game might even earn money.

Jasper stood up and smiled, Martin quickly following. "Thank you for your honesty. However, this is not a project we wish to participate in. We will be sure to hand in our resignation within the end of the week, that way you do not need to maintain an branch in the Nordics, and you will have two less developers to look after."

Martin gave an affirmative nod. The former farm had tried restarting his life once already, and he knew that it was more than possible. With that, Jasper and Martin left the meeting, leaving behind five stunned people.

----------------------------------------

The elevator ride down was awkward.

"So... are we really gonna quit over this?" Jasper asked.

"Yup"

"And we are going to do this despite actually having fun doing our job?"

"Yup"

Jasper sighed deeply. "Are you gonna help me explain this to my wife?"

Martin smirked. "Nope"

Jasper just nodded. "I need to hand in my badge."

Martin gave a groan. "You know, that really dampens the whole, storming out the building part."

"Hey, we still need to coordinate with Riez anyway. We don't even have the keys to a car." Jasper noted.

"Good point, I will try and catch her. You hand in that card." Martin said with a grumble.

Jasper got off at the foyer and moved to the reception only to find Frank, the event manager, talking to the receptionist. Upon spotting Jasper, the tanned man smiled.

"If it isn't the programming cannon! Sorry I didn't get to you yesterday after the presentation, but it was amazing! I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve with that new world." The man seemed to be an unending beacon of enthusiasm as he looked over Jasper.

The programmer gave a polite smile and shook his head. "Sorry, I think you will have to wait for some time. Sounds like the Nordic branch just got closed."

Frank gave Jasper a pained look. "Sorry to hear that. Are you being relocated?"

Jasper sighed. "No. Martin and I quit. Turns out the world we have been pouring our time into would go to a mobile game focusing on squeezing as much money from the players as possible. So we decided to quit."

Frank looked Jasper over. "Huh. That is... stupid."

Jasper laughed at that and nodded. "Yeah, probably, but honestly, we have some new tech, and if nothing else, we can probably launch our own game in less than a year, even if we are starting over."

"That fast? That is impressive. Do you have time for a cup of coffee? I think I might have a solution for you." Frank said with a smile that showed off his far too white teeth.

Jasper sighed and shrugged. "I don't know. We pretty much just stormed out. I don't think that it is a good idea to linger."

Frank shook his head. "At least hear me out."

Ten minutes later, Martin, Jasper, and Frank were sitting in the lounge area of Weird World Computing. Each one of them had a cup of coffee while Riez was bringing around the car.

Frank was more than happy to break the tension. "Listen, you need someone to back you up. Someone to be in your corner. Honestly, I see potential in what you have presented. I don't doubt that you could make a game in a year with this new setup."

Martin gave Jasper a look, and Jasper decided to ignore it.

Frank also ignored the look or didn't notice. "In short, I think you have two options here. You can walk away from this if that is what you want. That is stupid. You will have to start over and not have the resources you think you have. Your development platform right now is based on Weird World Computing. You would have nothing. The other option is that I pitch your project as a stand-alone game. You will be developing the entire game, essentially allowing us to increase our content production while keeping costs the same. You will have more responsibility and more tasks you need to do, but I am willing to back this project." Frank said with a smile.

Martin grumbled a little, while Jasper nodded along slowly. "And you can do this... how?" He asked.

Frank smiled. "Nepotism. I am only hired here to run a couple of yearly events and coordinate with various teams. Rachel Misfour, our CEO, is my sister-in-law. I am sure I can convince her to at least give it a shot. If nothing else to avoid the perception of the two of you leaving the moment you come up with an interesting idea."

Jasper smiled, and Martin gave a curt nod. "We are in. What resources can you give us?"

Frank laughed. "Not really that much. I can speed up that new Deep Dive equipment you have asked for... and maybe you would like a remote intern?"

The developers grinned and agreed, willing to fight for the world they had invested so much time into.

There was still more of the conference, though Jasper and Martin didn't get to experience much more of it. They ended up in planning meetings with Frank and various people that they quickly forgot the names of.

Things went back and forth, but after three days of negotiation and strategising, they reached a conclusion.

The Nordic branch would persist, but it would be much more independent. Through it all, Frank was more than happy to help the pair of developers navigate the corporate politics and intrigues. While Jasper and Martin did get what they wanted, the mandate to develop the game themselves, they also had to live up to a new level of corporate standards and policies.

It was a sacrifice they were both willing to make and as such, they were in high spirits when they said farewell to Riez, and boarded their flight back home.

"Are you ready to try and do this on our own?" Martin asked, as they landed back in Europe.

Jasper smiled. "Yeah... I am definitely looking forward to doing a deeper dive into things and not just clean up the world. I was starting to feel like a janitor."