They spent a few more minutes talking, with some of it spent commiserating over Sam’s new skill and how it was useless for now. Though even Katie, who usually only cared about killing the next monster in as gory a way as possible, recognized its future potential.
In her words: ‘You’re already badass, what more do you want?’
Sam could only laugh at the girl’s simple thought process. Clarissa just shook her head and Dan laughed along with Sam. Katie just went back to eating with disgusting speed.
After a satisfying snack, and making sure everybody was alright, Sam left them there and headed back to the top floor of the headquarters.
The door to Lucy’s office was open, with the secretary standing next to the door and an endless amount of people coming up to her, or her desk and giving her or leaving on the desk documents or simple verbal messages.
Occasionally, Lucy would yell out an order to one of the people that came up who nodded and immediately scurried away to fulfill said order. For a second, Sam wondered how she could do that, but then he saw several ravens sitting high up in the hall, with a perfect view of the incoming people.
Sam looked directly at one of the birds and waved with a small smile on his face.
“Get in here!” came the yell from the room, causing the secretary to look up from the documents she was perusing.
“Master Samuel,” she greeted him with a short bow. “The director will see you…”
“I heard,” he replied with a wry smile and with a few more steps found himself in the office of his friend-slash-co-worker with the door closing behind him, thanks to the secretary.
He looked around and found that somebody had taken several other desks and cabinets into the room, which all were filled with documents and notebooks and a few unrolled scrolls, their end laying on the ground. He could even spy a few bootprints on a few of them.
Lucy was sitting behind the desk, her jacket thrown aside, her shirt rumpled and stained with something, her hair going everywhere and a rather manic look in her eyes. Though Sam would say she didn’t look exhausted, rather she was looking extremely happy. Apparently, she was in her element.
“Alright, you are here. That’s good. The city is in chaos, that’s not good.” she began rattling it off, not even looking up from what she was reading and annotating. “We got attacked, once again not good. I was a smart cookie, so that’s good. They fell for my trap, also good. A lot of destruction and death, not good. We managed to snatch up several properties, which is excellent.” She paused for a brief moment, took a deep breath, then continued. “Used the prepared materials to provide relief to those affected. Once again, good. Too many sharks circling, not good. Got congrats from the mayor’s office. What the hell did you do? Also, thank you for the familiar, came in really handy!”
Sam spent a few seconds deciphering that stream of consciousness, then asked one simple question.
“You alright, Lucy?”
The woman finally looked up and Sam was honestly a little scared of her bloodthirsty smile that rivaled Katie at her best.
“I’m awesome, Sam. This is what I enjoy! Bringing order to this god-damned chaos!” She smirked a little. “This is my jam! Plus, I’m looking forward to seeing those assholes’ faces who thought breaking into my ‘castle’ was a smart idea…”
Sam hummed in agreement.
“Doctored documents?”
Lucy’s smile was positively shark-like.
“With creatively censored tax documents and some really imaginative development plans. As well as some contact information of people who were already selling information about us.”
“Feeding them trash data from multiple streams? Evil, but I like it.”
“I’m running a business here, Sam. There is no evil, just gold.”
Sam stared at his friend for a moment, then threw his head back and let out a long laugh.
“Hahaha!”
Lucy snorted and joined his laughter.
After a moment of hilarity, they both calmed down, and Sam took a seat on a miraculously empty chair.
Before he could even open his mouth, Lucy pushed away the last document she was reading, put her elbows on the desk, and steepled her fingers in front of her mouth. A basic evil overlord pose.
“Now, tell me. What happened out there?”
“Only if you tell me what happened in here!” he replied with a smirk.
Lucy returned the smirk and began talking.
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“…so in summation, I fucked up a giant spider and probably pissed off all those big guilds, and you let people think they fucked up the company, and in the process, more than likely pissed off all those big guilds,” Sam stated with a deadpan expression.
Lucy, hands still steepled, with one raven on her shoulder, nodded in reply.
“Basically.”
For a long moment, they stared at each other, then a grin appeared on Sam’s face. He raised one hand, offering it for a high-five.
“Hell yeah!”
Lucy smiled and returned the high-five.
“We are so good!”
“That we are!”
They spent some time congratulating themselves after a job well done before they returned to the task at hand.
It was Lucy who posed the question.
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“What now?”
Sam hummed thoughtfully.
“We need to wait for the mayor’s office to declare our commendations, as well as receive the rewards. More than likely, we will get some gold and maybe some tax breaks. Who knows…”
Then he remembered something, and with a few deft movements of his finger, shared a screen with Lucy.
“Also, check out this reward.”
[You saved the life of the Guard Captain of Ironwood City and helped him hold the gates, preventing the monster horde from rampaging through the city. Increased relationship with the Captain. Security around your company’s buildings will be increased by 100% for an in-game year.]
Lucy read it quickly and then began cackling.
“Oh boy! That’s going to shut down so many plans…”
“Is it that bad?” he asked, suddenly worried.
Lucy simply waved her hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry, it’s just basic bumbling idiots. Nothing I can’t deal with. However…”
“However, soon we will be needing a security team,” he finished it for her. His brain already working on a solution.
“Yes. For now, I can keep an eye on things, but soon we will need somebody to head the effort.”
Sam hesitated a little before speaking up.
“I may have a solution for that, but that’s a ways out…”
Lucy nodded as if expecting it.
“Sadly, I don’t know anyone who is into doing security. But for now, I’m good.”
“Good, I will make sure to solve it as soon as possible!” he promised with a serious face. It would be a bummer if they would lose the company because they didn’t take security seriously.
“Thank you!” said Lucy with a grateful look on her face. “What are you planning to do now?”
Sam snorted.
“First, log out and get a long shower. Then a good meal. After that, I’m going to do a little research before going out and looking for other dungeons. I want to map them out, which will make it easier to help the government here to set up a system for that.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? Wouldn’t it be better if we took control of them?”
“With what army, Lucy? I’m strong and have a group of crazies at my back, but we can’t hold territory with only four people.”
“That’s true, but are you sure that the government is the best possible solution?”
“You’re forgetting that this is a government that is partially run by the game system and developers. I’m sure that at first, it’s going to be pure chaos whether the guilds or the mayor’s office are in charge, but I’m pretty sure that in the long term, we are going to get a better deal with the government.”
“Hmm, I need to do some research on that, but I can see your point,” Lucy said with a faraway look on her face as she contemplated the idea.
Sam nodded, then stood up while slapping his knees. “Welp, then it’s time for me to go! Anything else?”
Lucy shook her head. “For now, I have everything handled, but I’ll call you if anything comes up. Go and sleep a little, you look exhausted…”
Sam gave her a small smile and turned around, heading toward his room, ready to crash.
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He slept like a log.
He was both mentally and physically exhausted. Sam didn’t even want to imagine how people who didn’t exercise and keep a healthy body handled staying in the game for so long. He expected the news of medical emergencies resulting from long playtimes to reach the media soon.
Based on his inherited memories, there would be a little drama, but then Future Unknown would point out that they had a health advisory on their site, with recommended exercises and diets, so it was the player’s fault for ignoring the warning.
Home exercise equipment prices would skyrocket overnight. He was already prepared to dump his shares in several larger companies when they hit the top. It would net him a nice chunk of money and allow him to invest in the next thing that would rise with the fickle nature of the gamers.
Next, he did a round of exercise, making sure to maintain his body, lest he got hurt whilst playing.
Then came the routine tasks, like shopping for groceries, making sure that the bills were caught up and the company’s paperwork was in order in the real world, too.
After that, he just relaxed, watching silly television shows and internet videos, while trying to avoid anything to do with Magic Unbound, simply resting his mind.
Feeling restless, however, he soon turned off the screen in his living room and returned to his office to surf the net and to see if he could find anything interesting.
Naturally, the only thing everybody could talk about was the Fracture, with the game’s website showing a selection of videos from the event. He was a little dismayed, but not surprised to see that their fight was also showcased, though thankfully, they didn’t show them killing the spider.
That would have been too big of a target on their back…
People are all up in arms about the destruction wrought by the event. Several smaller cities were destroyed by the monster horde where the players were not prepared or equipped to handle it, while the people from capital cities showcased high-level NPCs in action.
Naturally, there was already a map being put together with all the locations of the known dungeons, with several bigger guilds blatantly claiming them for themselves on the official forums. The company stayed silent, but the other players raged loud enough that there was already drama brewing.
The guild’s response was simple: ‘Come at me, bro!’
Sam didn’t need to use his inherited memories to know that there were going to be some enormous fights around the dungeons. That’s why he wanted the government of Ironwood city to take control. They would be able to act as a neutral party among the guilds, thus preventing needless bloodshed.
Another thing he checked was the Shadowland site. Unexpectedly, the site was also full of questions about the dungeons, but at least here people offered money for actionable information.
He looked around, but he didn’t find anything that he could reasonably know, so he didn't answer anything. Then came the check of his personal messages. He answered the ones about other games instantly, though he noted that the number of such questions has decreased greatly compared to the last month.
Then came the messages about Magic Unbound.
He answered some, mostly about Solar, his character. Sprinkling in some incorrect information so that he would know in the future who had bought the info he just sold. Then came the info request about AFK company, so he simply sent a message to Lucy for the same information she had let people steal and used those to make some money.
By the time he was finished with it, there was an enormous grin on his face.
‘I so love causing chaos… I wonder what is going to happen…’
Stretching a little, he glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost time to log in.
He closed down the computer and left for a quick bathroom break.
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When Sam returned to the game, he was once again met with a face full of fluffy fur, courtesy of Lucky. He spent a few minutes wrestling with the giant wolf, receiving a face full of slobber for his trouble.
He spent a few moments cleaning himself up, then after a scrumptious breakfast courtesy of a well-dressed maid, he dressed up into some nice clothes, and after greeting Lucy who was still busy with handling the aftermath of the event, he left the headquarters.
The increased number of guards on the street was instantly visible to him and caused a small smile to appear on his face.
Apparently, his quest reward was already hard at work…
Winding through the people filling the streets, he headed for the noble quarters, intent on visiting the Silvercrest family. He wanted to make sure that nothing surprised him when the Lord Mayor called on him.
The people in the streets were equally happy and sad, with the happiness of the victory over the monster horde permeating the air around the city. He saw the evidence of several fights that had nothing to do with monsters, instead like with his company, some people wanted to take advantage of the chaos.
The debris was being cleaned up, but even then the damage caused was rather significant.
Walking up to the gates, instead of the usual two guards there were four guards at the gate, and he could sense a few more hidden mana signatures around that instantly honed on him as soon as he stepped over some arbitrary line.
The guard closest to him recognized him and nodded at him.
“Greetings, Master Samuel. Please wait here until I report your arrival.”
Sam simply nodded.
“Naturally,” he answered and watched as the guard stepped back through the gate and went to report.
He spent a hot minute staring at the other guards before the first guard returned, followed by the elderly butler. Sam felt a small pulse of mana sweep through him, then the elderly man nodded.
“Welcome, Master Samuel. The Lord has been eagerly waiting for you…”
“Then, let’s not make the Lord wait…”
“Indeed, if you would be so kind and follow me.”
With that, the butler turned around, and the attention of the hidden mana signatures was removed, with Sam following behind him.