CHAPTER ELEVEN

Jason stood outside the building, completely clueless as to where he should go.

He was in the middle of San Francisco, and he wasn't friendly with a single person in the city.

The only other people he'd known were still living inside the gaming complex, and none of them had been real friends. He talked to them every so often, but they'd topped out as colleagues at best.

Overall, Jason would describe himself as a fairly unfriendly person. He didn't like bullying people or anything like that, but he didn't enjoy speaking with others.

In general, Jason was happiest pursuing his own hobbies by himself. He almost never felt lonely.

However, deep friendships took a lot of time and commitment. Jason was almost never willing to put in the time.

Normally, that wasn't a problem.

However, it unfortunately meant that nobody would help him out during times like these.

Just out of sheer curiosity, Jason pulled his access card out of his backpack and tapped it against the sensor by the door. The sensor flashed red, and the door didn't budge.

It was just as Jason had expected.

Wass hadn't waited any time to lock him out permanently. Jason could no longer get back inside the building even if he wanted to.

Jason took a deep breath.

There was no need to do anything rash.

He needed to act rationally, just like he did on the server. It was a common stereotype that hardcore gamers like Jason didn't have any life skills.

On one level, Jason saw where the gaming critics were coming from. As he'd noted earlier, he'd become a lot weaker since taking a full-time job with the Overdrive Corporation.

However, Jason attributed that weakness to the crappy living conditions inside the gaming complex rather than an innate issue with video games. The ridiculous schedule and lack of exercise equipment had led to a poor quality of life.

Now that Jason knew he'd never had a chance to advance in the company, he wished that he'd left even sooner.

The skills gaming taught were extremely useful in a nurturing and constructive environment. Jason's time on the Overdrive server had led him to approach every problem with a cool and rational mindset.

No matter how much he wanted to win, he took a calm and collected step-by-step approach to problems. He was careful to suppress damaging emotions like pride and ego.

Right now, Jason was in a pretty dangerous situation.

His mental state was extremely aggravated.

His two primary emotions were anger at the Overdrive Corporation and anxiety at his lack of employment.

The newly fired One Star Boss briefly closed his eyes, blanking his mind with the meditation techniques he'd taught himself while working as a One Star Boss. The gaming complex was normally quiet, but most players found it almost impossible to game during one of Wass's classic rampages.

Jason was the only one who'd learned to tune out the ludicrously obnoxious supervisor.

First things first, Jason couldn't take any unnecessary risks.

For now, he had to stay put in San Francisco.

Jason didn't have access to a car, and even if he did, he sucked at driving. It was pretty funny, but Jason was an absolutely terrible driver despite his Overdrive skills.

On the Overdrive server, it was important to keep alert at all times.

Driving was a lot stranger.

It was normally quiet and peaceful, but there were always random moments that were almost like jump scares. Jason would happily mind his own business before a car aggressively tried cutting him off.

Jason was lucky that he'd never gotten into an accident, but it always felt like he was just a single ill-timed daydream away.

At the same time, he didn't want to waste money trying to stay in the city.

Visiting a hotel or getting an AirBNB was too pricey to be considered a serious option. When it came to overall compensation, the One-Star Bosses were treated fairly well.

However, a big part of that was their free food and housing. Their base salary wasn't nearly enough to live in San Francisco.

Staying in the city would chew through Jason's income in no time.

When considering every factor, Jason only had one viable option.

Considering all the factors, Jason's best option was calling his parents and asking if they could pick him up.

He could stay back at home for a bit until he figured out what to do next.

Jason smiled wryly.

If he moved back in, he'd be just like the stereotype of an obsessed gamer living in his parents' basement.

That seemed embarrassing from the outside, but Jason didn't mind being a stereotype. If he had, he probably wouldn't have taken the One Star Boss job either.

Jason just didn't care what other people thought of him.

As long as people let him live his life without bothering him, he'd do the same for them.

That was another reason why Jason disliked people like Wass. The irritating supervisor was always barging into people's rooms and disrupting their day-to-day flow.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and smiled to himself as he saw the familiar cracked screen.

Wass had tried getting Jason to replace his phone a couple of months ago. The Overdrive Corporation provided corporate phones to all of their One Star Bosses.

However, Jason had doggedly hung on to his old phone because the smaller model felt much more comfortable in his hand.

He'd made that decision on a whim, but now it felt like a brilliant decision. Considering everything that had happened, Wass probably would have pulled the service on Jason's phone.

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Jason pulled the smartphone out of his pocket, then raised his eyebrows when he saw the time.

It was just 2:25 - far earlier than he'd thought it would be.

He would be on his own for quite a while.

His parents lived in the South Bay Area suburbs, which was about sixty miles away. That was over an hour of driving time when considering how slowly his parents drove.

They got off work at around six at the earliest, and they almost always took on overtime shifts.

Jason scratched his head.

They'd dash over as soon as possible if he messaged them, but he didn't want them to do that.

It would stress them out for no reason.

His parents never showed it on the surface, but Jason knew they were full of internal worries. He'd noticed it even back when he was a young kid.

If Jason were to classify them using his usual Overdrive opponent system, he'd compare them to the cookie-cutter whales. His parents acted normal on the surface, but they freaked out whenever something unexpected happened.

They'd panic if they realized he'd been fired.

At that moment, Jason decided that he wouldn't tell them what had happened.

Jason had done nothing but work for the last two years, and because he'd never paid for rent or food, he'd saved up a respectable nest egg.

He would be able to take care of himself until he figured out what he wanted to do next.

Jason frowned as he took another look at the time on his phone. He couldn't believe it was so early in the day.

As a One Star Boss, Jason never really had to keep track of the time. He spent all his time in his room, and although there was a window, Jason never really looked out at it.

The concept of time sort of faded away after Jason stepped into the Overdrive virtual reality pod.

He only realized that his shift was over once his counterpart on the other side of the world texted him.

The fact that he didn't know the time was yet another reminder of how strange his job had been.

Despite his bad experience with the company, Jason was completely certain that he wanted to keep working as a professional Overdrive player.

The game was the most fun he'd ever had in his life, and he loved its incredible depth. Jason could spend hours studying specific maneuvers or researching unique parts.

However, Jason was equally certain that he wanted to work for himself from now on. If possible, he wanted to stay free rather than remaining beholden to men like Wass.

He wanted to play Overdrive his own way.

Jason wasn't opposed to the fact that the Overdrive Corporation had hired players to pose as AI. But now that he knew the job didn't align with his goals, Jason had no interest in returning to it.

All Jason had wanted as a One Star Boss was to turn his mind off for twelve hours a day and become the Red Minerva's pilot. He'd wanted to grow and develop his skills on the server.

It was now painfully apparent that such a position had never really existed, but maybe Jason could come up with something on his own.

The Overdrive economy had developed quite a bit since Jason signed his contract with the Overdrive Corporation. Knowing what he knew now, Jason now realized that he'd taken a relatively poor deal.

Two years ago, Overdrive had been engaged in furious competition with countless other prominent video games and esports. The company's potential had been married by a laundry list of glitches and poor play experiences.

Back in the day, signing onto a professional team was seen as an enormous gamble.

There were countless horror stories of teams folding at the last second after promising stable salaries.

Staff and support jobs were even worse.

Players able to play at a high competitive level were hard to find.

Fans who wanted to work as staffers were widespread, and the sheer number of people interested in working for an Overdrive team meant that organizations could remorselessly burn through workers before finding someone else.

Nowadays, the game was an independent industry in and of itself.

There were professional players who made millions of dollars a year.

Unfortunately for Jason, being a pro pilot wasn't just about skill. There was another significant difference between pilots like vermillionangel and One Star Bosses like Jason.

Jason felt most comfortable acting behind the scenes. Most Overdrive professionals were extremely charismatic and loved the cameras.

Competitive Overdrive teams did their best to win once they loaded onto the server, but the teams made most of their cash via stream shout outs and other sponsorships.

Tournament earnings were just a tiny part of the equation.

Jason had heard of plenty of teams that'd picked a more charismatic player over a skilled but shy counterpart. Fan engagement was simply too important to pass up.

Jason frowned.

Pro play was an appealing option. Jason was eager to improve his skills and he wanted to battle as many talented pilots as possible.

However, Jason disliked the idea of a system that awarded people skills over actual skills. It reminded him a little too much of working as a One Star Boss.

If he couldn't come up with a suitable alternative, he would happily try out for a professional team. Jason was confident that the team environment would be far better than Wass's gaming complex. It would still be a reasonable upgrade.

Jason immediately dismissed the next most popular option without giving it any consideration. The skilled pilot always did his best to keep an open mind. However, he also knew himself well and he knew what he liked.

Jason wasn't sure if he wanted to become a professional player, but he definitely didn't want to become a streamer. It was an utterly terrible fit for his talents.

Streaming was all about engaging with fans and networking with other streamers. The gameplay was secondary to a charismatic personality.

Plenty of streamers were just downright frauds.

Certain players, including the world-famous DISTINCTIONMAN, weren't nearly as good as their reputations suggested. In Jason's opinion, DISTINCTIONMAN's main skill was controlling the narrative around him via his close connections with the Overdrive Corporation. Jason had closely examined the other pilot's swordsmanship and he'd found it extremely lacking.

If the two most well-known options wouldn't cut it, Jason needed to do more research.

He spent the next six hours using the free WiFi in various coffee shops.

He soon completely lost himself in his research project. The skilled pilot knew that he needed to minutely examine all the available options before making a decision. In Jason's mind, this was just like encountering a difficult situation on the Overdrive server.

Figuring out what he wanted to do with his life was a tantalizing puzzle just like figuring out how he could win a close bout with the Red Minerva.

Just like his signature Mech, Jason had his own strengths and limitations.

As Jason continued researching, he realized that he'd completely underestimated the scope of the changes made to the Overdrive economy.

He'd correctly identified that the professional esports scene had dramatically changed in two years, but the other changes were arguably even more shocking.

In particular, the mapping scene had completely transformed.

As a One Star Boss, Jason had spent plenty of time battling professional mappers, players who fought through stages over and over again to sell the accumulated prizes.

In Jason's opinion, the mappers had been his main nemeses. Some of them were highly skilled players who were a delight to duel. Others used brutal methods like weapons of mass destruction that wiped Jason off the map before he got the chance to compete fairly.

Before the advent of professional bosses like Jason, who'd replaced the Overdrive AI, most mappers had made their money via botting.

Jason had been very familiar with the process.

He'd spent plenty of time massacring bots during his early days as a One Star Boss.

Botters created and operated their own homebrew AIs to play maps for them. The illegal bots used simple and efficient strategies to run through maps as soon as possible.

In particular, they'd focused on exploiting glitches and gaps in the conventional Overdrive AI.

But over time, the botters had vanished.

Most of the best prizes were gated by humans playing as bosses. The simplistic bots couldn't figure out how to beat the hired pilots.

It was relatively easy to code a bot that exploited Overdrive's own bugs. Writing a program that could defeat a player like Jason required far more resources.

A few years back, Jason had heard about an AI that'd defeated professional players in a simplified version of DotA 2. It was possible that big tech companies could pour millions into creating an AI that'd outperform Overdrive pros

However, those same wealthy companies wouldn't need to eek out money through botting.

Combined with a spate of bans by the Overdrive Corporation, professional botting more or less vanished.

However, a new mapping economy had risen to take its place.

Initially, Jason had thought that mappers made money by selling guides.

He'd encountered plenty of players who diligently cut through every single small part of Towering Crag as they scoured for shortcuts or hidden treasure chests.

But after doing some more research, Jason realized that the map scouts were only a very small part of the mapping economy.

As a One Star Boss, he'd only seen a very small piece of the picture.

In fact, the map scouts were more akin to support staff. They were usually low-ranking members of guilds who researched stages for their veteran counterparts.

According to every website Jason read, the real money came from rare drops - items with minuscule drop rates that were worth exponentially more than common equipment.

Out of curiosity, Jason pulled up the loot offered by the Towering Crag map.

What the...

The normally coolheaded pilot almost dropped his phone into his coffee.

Holy shit!

This was why so many people kept attacking him...