Andrew stared at the green text sprawled across the screen. What did Vladimir mean? As far as he knew, Body Gear was running incredibly well. His father sends him monthly reports detailing all the success that the company is having, as well as what needs improving. And based upon last month’s results, they were exceeding all expectations.

Scratching his chin, Andrew looked at the ceiling where a beautiful light fixture was hanging. If the company were in danger, his father would tell him about it, right?

Ever since Andrew was a child his father practically trained him like a spartan when it came to Body Gear. There wasn’t a day where he and his father didn’t sit down and talk about the company and how to operate it. Having invested so much time and money in him to one day take it over, wouldn’t it make sense to keep him in the know of everything?

Even though it sounded insane, Andrew couldn’t dismiss what was sitting in front of him. If these were the last words of his best friend, then he would honor him by taking this seriously. Besides, Vladimir wouldn’t joke around about something as serious as Body Gear because, without Body Gear, Black Lotus Studios couldn’t continually innovate and deliver new products to the table. And without Black Lotus Studios, Body Gear wouldn’t…

Andrew’s eyes widened in horror. He felt his pulse quicken with each heartbeat coursing uncomfortable amounts of anxiety through his body.

“Samatha,” Andrew’s voice cracked a little bit causing him to cough. His nerves were getting the best of him. He needed to calm down, but with the sudden realization he had, it was hard to remain calm.

“Samantha, call my father.”

“Calling your father now.”

Samantha’s voice filled the dining room’s speakers, followed by the phone trying to connect. Andrew got up from his chair and immediately began pacing down the length of the dining table.

“Come on!” Andrew picked up his pace as he reached the end of the dining table for the third time. He needed his father to pick up now.

After a moment a tired man’s voice projected through the speakers. Although tired, Andrew still picked up a faint sense of concern.

“Andrew, is everything alright? You rarely call me at this hour.”

Andrew couldn’t help himself from blurting out.

“Father! It’s about Body Gear, do you have a moment?”

Silence quiet enough to hear what sounded like a stack of papers hitting a desk played through the speakers.

“I have as much time as you need me for Andrew. You sound…anxious, what is it?”

Andrew licked his lips, trying to get moisture back into his mouth. It felt as dry as a desert.

“Father, it just occurred to me that with… Vladimir passing… What’s going to happen with Black Lotus Studios?”

A long drawn out sigh filled the room.

“I was planning on having this conversation with you next week, but since you brought it up…” the sound of a chair squeaking filled the room followed by a grunt.

“As you know, partnering with Black Lotus Studios and working with them has allowed for amazing advances with the Splicer. Thanks to them, we could push it to new levels no one ever thought was possible. Hell, I didn't think it was possible until Vladimir sat me down and explained what he wanted and how to achieve it. “

As serious as he was right now, Andrew couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. That was Vladimir alright. If he wanted to get something done, he would get it done. He had this incredible ability to bring people together to work on a project which sounded like a total waste of time because of how unattainable it seemed. But, every. Single. Time. Vladimir, the genius he was, pushed through new barriers and would accomplish the incredible.

“He has created what people claim to be ‘the best game ever created.’ And the statistics are all there! One billion unique players log in monthly…”

“I know all of this father.”

His father cleared his throat.

“What I’m trying to get at, is that we’ve had to make several sacrifices to allow one billion people to have access to the Splicer. We’ve had to sell each unit at the cost of production to make the price confrontable for people to purchase. Our primary source of income is royalties from Final Conquest. Every year they make new expansions, and that would equate to one to two billion units sold. With us making five dollars per unit sold…”

“We would be making roughly ten billion a year based – which fits the current numbers projected.”

“Right, but remember what I said about the sacrifices we’ve had to make to get the Splicer to the everyday consumer.”

“I get what you’re getting at, father…” It’s a risky situation they have been dealing with. When the Splicer came out, hundreds of game development companies worked with the technology to develop their games. Many hits and flops occurred, but one game released and changed the entire industry – Final Conquest.

Final Conquest crushed all of its competitors in an instant. The game was perfect. Well, Andrew wouldn’t know what a perfect game was if it hit him square across the face. But, it is unanimous around the world that it is the perfect game. It was so incredible that all other competition in the field of the Splicer vanished. They knew that if they created a game, it would pale in comparison to Final Conquest. To the game studios, it was a waste of money to develop a new game that couldn’t go toe to toe with Final Conquest. So they just stopped trying. No new IP’s have been in the market for close to four years, essentially creating an unintentional monopoly.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Vladimir tried to disseminate his code to other developers to help fix what he didn’t mean to create, but no one could work with it. He was the only one able to do it.

With Final Conquest royalties being their major source of income, and Vladimir not being able to create new code/fix bugs, Black Lotus Studios couldn’t create any more new content.

“We still have enough cash reserved to run the company for a few years, and the expansion is releasing tonight… Thank God. But after this expansion –“

“With no consistent source of income… We’re dead in the water.”

Andrew’s voice trailed off. He had been training his entire life to take over his father’s business, and in the blink of an eye… it was going to slip right through his fingers.

He couldn’t be mad at his father. He knew the steps he took to make Body Gear profitable were all necessary. They were all risky, but somehow he managed to make it work.

“So, what do we do now?” Andrew felt the question slip out of his mouth without even meaning to ask it. He didn’t even want to begin thinking about what was going to happen. How would the world react to the news that there would be no new updates to their favorite game?

“Well… All we can do now is continue to do maintenance on the Splicers and hope someone can duplicate what Vladimir could do. I’ve already talked with several developers at Black Lotus Studios to see if anyone wanted to try… Lucky for us, Vladimir was training a girl named Vica Collins who seemed to get a grasp of what Vladimir was doing. He was mid training her, then…”

Silence.

“I’m going to miss Vladimir, Andrew.”

Andrew tried his best not to cry. Vladimir and his father were like two peas in a pod. Sometimes he wondered if he liked Vladimir more than him – his own son. They just understood each other and were on the same wave-length. His father was the one who inspired Vladimir to pursue his dreams as a programmer. Without each other, neither of their dreams would have come true. Losing someone who propelled your ideas forward… Andrew couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“I know father… Me too…”

A loud sniff played over the speakers followed by a clearing throat.

“If Vica can duplicate Vladimir’s code then we could potentially be saved. But with her having to figure it out on her own… it could take a long, long time. Lucky for us, the expansion will give us more capital and ultimately more time to figure out our next move. We’ll have to cancel all existing research and development on the Splicer and suffer through a slow burn until we figure out a solution.”

Nodding in agreement, Andrew put a hand to his chin. Having the materials and understanding what to do with them are two different things. Trying to understand Vladimir’s code is akin to deciphering old Egyptian glyphs, which to this day have still not been completely comprehended.

“It pains me to say it, but she’s the only lead we’ve got. Final Conquest can survive on its own for a long time, but unit sales are going to be pretty much non-existent, and no game development company will consider rivaling it. We’re really in a bind here, but I’m going to do my best to figure something out. There are plenty of other things the Splicer can do other than play video games.”

A smile spread across Andrew’s lips. Even though their demise was in sight, his father was still able to think about the future.

“We’ll get through this.”

“That’s my boy. There’s always a solution, even if we don’t see it… I’d love to chat longer, but I’ve got a lot of things to do. I’ll talk to you on Monday.”

“Sounds good, goodnight father.”

“Goodnight.”

The loud click of the phone hanging up filled the dining room. Samantha’s voice chimed in.

“The call has ended. Did you need to make another call?”

Andrew sighed and started walking to the head of the table.

“No, I’m fine.”

Information continued to process in his mind at blinding speeds. He took a seat and stared at the laptop in front of him. It was nice that Vladimir brought this to his attention. It made sense, though. Vladimir was a part of Body Gear, as they were a part of Black Lotus Studios. It only made sense that he would look out for both of them. Now, if they were able to have Vica duplicate what Vladimir could do…

A ping sounded from the laptop followed by a new strain of green text flowing across the screen, erasing the previous message. Andrew leaned in closer to read what was displayed.

I have a solution.

Andrew leaned back in his chair and laughed. He had no idea what was going on, but if Vladimir had somehow predicted all of this to happen, even his death, and provided a safety net to make sure both companies would survive… He would be helping a lot of people.

He scrolled down on the text box but nothing else was there.

“Well, good for you for having a solution Vlad. But what is it?”

Was the program interactable? He tried clicking on the box hoping something would happen – but nothing did. He pressed a few keys on the keyboard, but again – nothing happened. Out of frustration, he pressed down the enter key, and to his surprise, the program reacted. A small window within the text box appeared with a blinking cursor below ‘I have a solution.’

Not knowing what else to do, he pressed a few keys again. The letters of the keys he pressed appeared in red font. He quickly erased the random letters and typed in ‘What is the solution?’ then hit enter.

Do you really want to know?

What kind of stupid question was that? Of course, Andrew wanted to know. He typed in yes with an angry press on each letter then hit enter. Leave it to Vladimir to find a way to annoy him from beyond the grave.

Then answer me this question. What does one say when they drink from the goblet of kings?

A prompt showed up on the screen leaving space to type in an answer. Andrew would naturally type in the answer… if he knew what the hell it was. The goblet of kings? What the hell was that? He just wanted to know the solution to help save their companies, not a big deal!

Defeated, Andrew sighed as he typed ‘I don’t’ know’ into the box and hit enter.

Play my game to find out.

Andrew laughed. His laugh gradually grew louder and louder then he slammed his head on the dining table which shuddered from the blow. To figure out how to save both Body Gear and Black Lotus Studios, he had to play the game Vladimir had been bugging him to play for the past six years. He knew deep down that he deserved this.

In a way, he could feel an invisible pressure lift from his shoulders. The mere thought that there was still a chance for Body Gear and Black Lotus Studios to survive made Andrew want to jump around in joy.

He reached down to unplug the USB, but the text box began to strobe violently. Andrew shifted his attention back to the program and the strobing stopped. Words in bold text slowly spread across the screen.

You have four days to complete the tutorial and answer my question above. If you do not complete the task in the allotted time, everything on this device will be destroyed.

Andrew felt his body shaking. Not only was he supposed to play Final Conquest, but a time constraint was in play! If he didn’t complete the tutorial in time, everything would erase – the company and world-saving information… gone.

Why would Vladimir do such a petty thing? Did he hold that much of a grudge against him that he would make him jump through hoops to get what he wanted?

The text on the screen vanished and a timer appeared with ninety-six hours on it. Below the timer is the question ‘what does one say when they drink from the goblet of kings?’ written out with a blank box below it.

Have fun!

The timer blinked and started counting down.