“Yes actually, I have all ten rats now.” Corey said.
“Perfect,” Anna said with a grin. “Let me see them then.” She walked down the rest of the steps and over to look in the top crate while Corey lifted its lid. “Yes, you did wonderfully. And, I might add, you have excellent aim. Only the heads are damaged, just as I asked. Since you did such a good job, you can keep the rat-smasher. Oh, and here are the coppers I promised.”
She handed him ten copper coins.
[Quest Complete: Inn For a Penny, Inn For a Pound. You have been awarded, ’Corey’s Rat-Smashing Beat-Stick’ and 10 copper coins.]
[Reputation Gained, 250 reputation with Butteville; Current Reputation: 500/5000. You are now Friendly with Butteville.]
Corey read the prompts and grinned. The quest hadn’t given him any combat experience, but he had gained five for the actual killing of the rats. It was a bit of a relief, since he really didn’t want to level up until he learned how to train his stats.
Then he grinned for a different reason. He had guessed why Anna had only wanted the heads crushed, and wondered if the game’s original creator knew all the strange things the developers had been up to. It was definitely entertaining either way.
“So,” Corey added after a moment’s pause, “will you put in a good word for me to take over as mayor?”
“Yes,” she said. Then she clutched her hands together in an evil overlord sort-of-way and added, “However, if it doesn’t work out, I have another quest that you might be interested in.”
[Quest Update: Mayor Indeed. Current Endorsements: 2/7. You will need to sway the majority of the council before another player does. This is a time sensitive quest line.]
Corey grinned and closed the prompt. “Right…” Corey replied, not quite knowing what to make of this lady. “I’ll remember that, but who would I talk to next about becoming mayor?”
“Oh, Patrick the baker would probably be the next person you would want to talk to. But I must warn you, he likes to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. He’s a rye one, and you’d best follow his recipe exactly or you will find yourself getting burned.”
Wait, Corey thought, did she just throw out a bunch of baking puns? He decided to see how far it would go, so he asked, “What exactly would happen if I didn’t follow his recipe for success?”
“Well,” she said, folding her arms, “it would be a recipe for disaster. His work is very important, and even though he likes to rise to the occasion himself, he will accept your help since he kneads it, if you can take the heat, that is.”
Okay, Corey thought, she is definitely stressing the words she is using as puns and trying way too hard. Just how much time did they spend on this character? “So,” Corey replied, “You could say that since he’s one tough cookie, this won’t be a piece of cake?”
“Now you’re getting it!” she said with a wink.
[System Message: 500 Personal Reputation gained with Anna. Current Reputation: 600/5000, Friendly.]
[Quest Available: Recipe for Disaster. This is a sub-quest of Mayor Indeed. You should go talk to the next council member, Pat the Baker, if you would like his support to become Mayor. Accept Quest?]
[Yes] or [No]
Corey tapped yes, causing the prompt to close.
Anna cocked her head to the side, adding, “Since I like you, I’ll give you a bit of advice. Pat will be a hard egg to crack, but ask him what else you could do to help his neighbors as well. The quest will change a bit, but so will the reward. It should include the support of Clyde the Cobbler and Diana the Haberdasher.”
“So, I can get the support of all three?” Corey asked.
“Yes,” she said. “They have a lot of respect for each other, and often work together. That would give you the majority vote on the council.”
“Wow, thanks!” Corey replied. “I’ll make it a priority then.”
“Good,” she said with a smile. “Now, I’ve got things to do, so I’ll let you see yourself out.” She then turned and walked up the stairs to exit the cellar door leading into the inn.
Corey then got a Voice Message prompt blocking his view, so he clicked it, playing the message aloud. “Log out now or I’m pulling the plug on this stupid machine.” He recognized the disembodied voice instantly.
What does my dad want? Corey thought, things were just getting good…
Corey sighed and used the game menu to log out, and the world blurred then went dark. Opening his eyes, he saw the inside of his semi opaque N-Cog visor, and beyond it, his father, George McCavery, standing over him. His father’s green eyes glared in contrast to his meticulously combed red hair and short cropped beard.
“Dad,” Corey said, “you can’t just pull the plug. Do you want to give me brain damage?” Corey knew that the unit had a battery backup and other safeguards in place, but he didn’t want to tell his father that, since he would likely just rip the helmet off him, which actually could cause some trauma to his brain.
“You think I don’t know how these things work?” His dad said. “I’ve had to use these stupid things at work for conference calls and trainings because they can’t just send someone to the plant. They made us sit through the longest safety meeting of my life before we were allowed to even touch one. But that doesn’t matter. We need to talk,” his dad said, glaring angrily at him. “We are having a family meeting in the dining room, now.” Then he turned and stormed out of Corey’s room.
Corey clenched his fists, took a breath, and then made his way to the dining room to take a seat in his usual spot. He put his elbows up onto the antique oak table, knowing that his father hated it. His father glared at him, but didn’t say anything, so Corey did a mental victory dance.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Here comes the talk about what is expected of me, Corey thought.
Thankfully it was his mother, Clair McCavery, who broke the silence. “Corey…” there was an awkward pause as she looked up and brushed her long black hair behind her ears, revealing eyes that looked like they had been crying recently, “We just got back from Beth’s doctor’s appointment…”
His sister had been complaining about headaches and feeling ill, but his parents doted on her like no other, so he hadn’t been too concerned. He’d just assumed they were overreacting as usual.
“Well,” his mother continued, “We had a CAT-Scan done, which revealed a brain tumor. We have another appointment tomorrow afternoon to see if it’s cancerous, but according to the doctors, this has all the signs of it being so, and even if it’s not, something has to be done soon because of where it is since it will likely continue to grow.”
Corey’s mouth hung open for what seemed like a full minute before he had sense enough to speak. “Are, are they sure?” he asked lamely.
His dad let out a harrumph, “Of course they are sure, why else would we be having this meeting? The cost of the treatments will be expensive, but they say we are lucky to have caught it this quickly. Because of the location of the tumor, her age, and the recent success of their latest innovations, she has a very good survival rate. We are going to get through this, but we are all going to have to sacrifice.”
“Of course,” Corey immediately agreed. “What can I do? If there is anything I can do to help, you know that I will.” Corey then turned to look at Beth, who was slumped in her chair, elbows on the table, and hands covering her face. She was obviously trying to come to terms with things, just as the rest of them were.
If she has a good survival rate, Corey thought, eyes going wide, that means that there is at least a small chance she could die… He didn’t dare voice his concern though. Surely the rest of the family’d had the same thought, and voicing it just felt wrong, somehow.
He got up and walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him through her own long dark brown hair with tear streaked eyes. “Beth,” he said, “I’m really sorry… I’ll help any way I can.”
His father was the one to respond. “You can help by sending that game machine back to the company and tell them you aren’t satisfied with it or whatever. Get your money back because we need every penny we can scrape together. Our insurance is only going to cover 70% and we need to have the rest up front or the hospital that accepts our insurance won’t even give the treatments. We will also need to sell the car.”
What the heck, he thought, my car is worth way less than his truck is. Why don’t we sell his truck or the van? This is so unfair… On the other hand, if it was necessary to save his sisters life, he couldn’t say no.
The game system however… He did want to keep it for selfish reasons, but it had some serious potential to make them money if he could win the prizes. And that certainly wouldn’t happen if he sold it or returned it for what he paid for it, even if he could.
“How much is the treatment cost we need to cover?” Corey asked.
“It’s very expensive,” his dad responded.
Corey gave his sister’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before heading back to his chair. “Sell the car. I already said I’d do whatever I can,” Corey said with a shrug. “I’ll miss it, but there’s no way I’ll choose material crap over my sister’s life.”
After all, taking the bus wouldn’t be that bad. He’d done it up until recently, after all. Even if Corey and his sister fought quite a bit, and she was a brat, he still loved her. Thankfully, his father seemed satisfied and relieved with his response.
“Well,” his dad said, “I’m glad you’re on board, it’s going to be a sacrifice for everyone. We may sell the house if it comes down to it, but I’m going to refinance it and see if we can use our home-equity to cover what we can’t come up with. It will set us back financially and give us a bigger payment, but like I said, we will all sacrifice as needed.”
Sounds like my car won’t be much help anyway, Corey thought. But rather than voice that thought, he instead said, “I’ve got an idea how to make some real money, if you’ll hear me out.”
“Does it have something to do with that game?” His father interrupted. “I noticed that you didn’t mention sending back the game system even though you were happy to sell the car.”
Corey knew this would be a painful conversation, so he waited to sit down in his chair before responding, “I don’t think we should return it. It—”
“You ungrateful little—” his father interrupted him again, only to be interrupted in turn.
“George!” Corey’s mom exclaimed. “Losing your temper isn’t going to help!”
Grateful for the respite, and wanting to clarify things, Corey quickly added, “It’s not that, it’s just that the game has a promotion going and—”
His father interrupted him yet again, “Ripping the band-aid off now will make things easier in the end, son.”
“Dad!” Corey shouted, surprising himself and earning an even deeper scowl, bordering on rage, from his father.
Then, he continued in a milder voice, “Sorry, I want to help get the money, and you aren’t listening. The game has real world cash prizes for the release. Real money, like 5,000.000 credits for being the first person to level a town to ten, 12,000.000 for getting it to twenty before anyone else, and if I can be the first to level a town up to 50 the prize is $100,000.000 credits. There are even rumors of end game prizes that will keep the money flowing to people who prove themselves the best. I was just on a quest to take over a town before you messaged me through the game interface message system. I think I have a real shot!”
His father’s scowl softened a little, turning to a look of confusion as Corey explained his reasoning.
His father rubbed his chin and said, “So, you were serious when you told me that the 1,500.000 credit price tag on that gaming helmet was worth it. I thought you’d meant you could take virtual classes to get a college degree from home or something. But this was your plan?”
“Exactly,” Corey said. “I mean, I could still attend a virtual college with it, but there are lots of ways to make money playing Dungeons and Destiny too. After I get a prize or two, I could easily gain a substantial streamer income. I could start streaming my gameplay on Glitch-TV, and if I got a following I could make enough to seriously help, even without the grand prize.”
His father’s scowl returned. “You seriously expect me to believe that you can make a living playing games? Our house only cost just over 100,000.000 creds. You seriously expect me to believe that you can buy a house with the grand prize?”
“It’s true!” Corey said. “Lots of people make good money. I could make thousands, or even millions of credits per year playing games and streaming. There are even sponsorships and streaming contracts if you get popular enough, and that’s not even mentioning the monetization you can put on ad’s, or the merch you can brand and sell. Think of it more like how football players get paid to play a game. With VR gaming, it’s virtual, but it’s the same concept.”
His father shook his head and seemed ready to dismiss the whole idea, but then Beth spoke, “Dad, Corey really is telling the truth. It’s actually called E-Sports. It’s strange to think that people can get paid a lot of money for playing games, but it’s true. And,” she added with a smile, “Corey is one of the biggest nerds I’ve ever met. If anyone can make money at it, he can.”
Corey wasn’t even mad at her for calling him a nerd. It was honestly just nice to hear her talking. She’d been completely silent until now.
Apparently his father felt much the same, because he deflated a bit and said, “Fine, we’ll give you a few days to see if you can make some real progress, then we will re-evaluate the situation.”
Corey was about to go over to join his Mom and Dad, who had just stood up to give Beth a hug, when his father turned from the group and said, “Well, shouldn’t you get back in there to win that prize money? It’s a race isn’t it?”
“Er, yeah,” Corey said, “message me when dinner is ready and I’ll jump out again.” Then Corey gave a weak smile to Beth, and turned to walk to his room. Once his door was closed he dropped the smile and punch his pillow a few times to vent his frustration.