Three hours later Crash and his Father headed to a swanky restaurant named Hoku to meet his new mysterious benefactor. When they entered the restaurant the man was already seated at a table and waved them over. He turned out to be a well dressed business man with graying hair and serious expression. When he looked them over a big smile spread out on his face and he went to Crash’s father and gave him a big hug. The man held out his hand to Crash and said, “Crash, so nice to meet you, my name is Jimmy Cook and back in the day when I was still a pirate I spent many a night downing Blue Hawaiians in your dad’s bar!”
Crash looked back at his father. “This guy was a pirate?”
His father chuckled “He drank enough rum that he started talking like one, I know that for sure!” The two men looked at each other and started laughing.
“Have a seat Crash, you’re gonna need it after I tell you what I’m here for.”
Jimmy called the waiter over and they all placed orders. When the man left the table Jimmy looked over and began. “Crash, I was talking to your old man, telling him what I do for a living these days. I’m in promotions. After I told him who I was promoting for he mentioned that you and a couple friends like to dabble in mmorpg’s?”
Crash nodded. “Yeah me and the boys have been gaming for years, we play all of the big ones!”
Jimmy smiled. “So I take it that you have heard of Ever Ever then?”
Crash chuckled. “Who hasn’t, it’s been in development for the past 15 years! The hype around it going live in a few months is crazy!”
A predatory grin appeared on Jimmy’s face. “How’d ya like to play it...”
Crash outright laughed. “I might have a nice little nest egg building up Jimmy, but there is no way I would shell out 50k to be one of the first to own one of those nifty new pods you guys are flashing on the net. I’ll be watching the preview celebrity V.R. streams with everyone for sure though!”
“What if I told you that I want you to be one of those celebrity streamers?”
Crash looked over at his Father who wiggled his eyebrows up and down at him.
“You must be joking? Right? Why in the world would you want me? I’m no celebrity! I’m just a beach rat surfer!”
“Crash, Ever Ever is going to send over 200 “celebrities” into their world for a month to promote the game. Every country in the world will get to send one rep. Seeing how the game was developed in the U.S. every state will get at least one rep, and the big states will get from two to five reps.”
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Jimmy raised his eyebrow and said, “You have 1.8 million subscribers across social media, the vast amount of them are young females who spend all day on their phones and computers. The exact demo we are looking for.”
Crash gave him a stunned look. “Wow really? I don’t handle any social media, I have a fan club president that I gave permission to run all that stuff. I’ve never even looked at any of my own profiles!”
Jimmy nodded. “Imagine how many more fans you might get if you actively involved yourself in it. We are talking millions of dollars potentially. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. I’m going to tell you a big secret. The actions that you repeat over and over in Ever Ever will translate back over to you in the real world!”
Crash had a confused look on his face and said, “How’s that work, what do you mean?”
Jimmy smiled. “Take someone who has never picked up a fencing sword in their life. Now let that be their main weapon in Ever Ever for a year. They use it day in day out. When they come out of the game they will be proficient in fencing. Same for any other sport. Mind over muscle memory. Then someone like you comes in. A real pro with vastly more potential.”
Crash scrunched up his face. “I still don’t get it, How does that apply to me?”
Jimmy said, “It’s simple, we have an amazing new tropical island zone that we want to heavily promote. Imagine if you will surfing down perfect 60 foot waves day after day. No chance of injury or death. In 6 months those same waves will become child’s play for you. In a year you will become the worlds preeminent big wave surfer at 23!”
Crash’s eyes went vacant as he imagined mastering huge waves. He looked over at his father who was vigorously nodding his head up and down.
Jimmy went on, “Of course, I have to let you know, you won’t be surfing 24/7. We will want you to do some adventuring and exploring the Island to show it off. But you will have plenty of time to surf of course. Oh, and we wouldn’t want you to get lonely out there. We have already secured a contract on a female surfer who will be playing with you if you accept.”
Crash said, “Really? Who might that be?
Jimmy smiled. “If you could pick a great female surfer who would it be?”
A goofy smile pasted itself on Crash’s face. “Well, it could never happen because she is so wrapped up in all kinds of contracts, but there is this awesome surfer named Mal...”
“Malia?” Jimmy said with a knowing grin.
Crash jerked back in his seat. He had a viscous crush on this particular woman for years. “No… You couldn’t have… There is no way she would...”
Jimmy smirked. “I have and she would!”
Crash thought back to the last time he had talked to Malia. Tall, tanned, and toned with wild long locks of sun touched hair. A smiled that never seemed to leave her face. They had flirted with each other for years, but nothing ever came of it because they were always traveling to different tournaments and she lived in Cali.
“What’s the catch?”
Jimmy nodded his head. “It’s a doozy... It’s a one year contract, almost all of it spent in the tank. You will be live streamed at all times, no breaks from the camera I’m afraid. We have an office right here in Oahu though and from time to time I can allow dear old dad to pop in for a visit if things get tough.”
Crash sighed. “Ouch, a year in V.R.? I dunno...”
Jimmy pulled a contract out of his jacket. “Here’s the good news. I am authorized to pay you a base 1 million dollar fee if you tough it out. Don’t feel too special about that number, we will make more than enough to cover it. That’s just a base guarantee. There are significant bonuses involved with viewership and recruitment. Once a week you will be required to sit down and talk to your fans about how amazing the world is and blah, blah, blah...We are talking serious money. My staff and I are going to be personally promoting you as our bonuses are tied to yours.”
Crash looked at his Father. “We are going to need to talk this out.” He looked at Jimmy. “How long do I have to decide?”
“The preview starts in two weeks, I’ll give you one week to make up your mind. I already have a backup who is more than willing to go. It’s your decision, I’m not going to push you into it. Enough business, let’s eat!”