Jay arrived at the address ten minutes ahead of time. The address, apparently, was in the middle of a huge parking lot containing hundreds or even thousands of vehicles. The vehicles all looked nice and well-taken care of. He immediately got the impression that this wouldn’t be such a bad place to work. In the distance, on the far side of the parking lot, was a large building with a sign reading Tumult Corp.
The building’s façade was dotted with windows all over. As he walked closer, he could see into the building. There were things happening here. There were people chatting in the hallways. There were people sitting at the desk, heads down, focusing on whatever their work might be. There was even a coffee machine on the third floor. It was the exact kind of place he would have wanted to work before life stepped in the way.
He spotted a large whiteboard, but it wasn’t facing the windows. Jay sighed, a bit saddened by the fact that he wouldn’t be learning any secrets. He came to the conclusion this was an obvious catering order. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or cry. His first meeting for the bar was the very same gaming company he had just been playing.
When he reached the front door, he went inside without hesitation. The office had a very modern feel. The interior design could have been from a magazine. The central chrome desk was attended by three people. There were two people carrying on conversations. Each of them wore virtual reality goggles and spoke animatedly into the on-board microphones. Their actual words were muffled by the goggles. Behind them sat an armed security guard.
The security guard made eye contact with Jay and nodded respectfully. Jay was careful to nod back to indicate he wasn’t a threat. Flanking the central desk on either side were spacious waiting areas. The furniture was covered by material in a variety of different colors. Jay decided to explore one of the waiting areas, since the front desk seemed rather busy.
Jay tested the cushions in the seating area, finding them to be very comfortable. He stood up, not wanting to look weird; He also knew it was likely no one was even looking at him. On the table in the center of the colorful seating was a large collection of magazines. Several of them seemed to be the kind of décor magazines the interior design in the lobby came from. The rest of the magazines were all focused on gaming topics.
“Were you looking for one of us?” one of the women from the front desk asked, now missing her headgear. She carried it in her hand, instead. Jay turned with a start to give her his attention. He was impressed that she didn’t have one hair out of place. She was cute, but the thing he noticed most about her was her demeanor. Even down to her body language and manner of dress, everything about her was welcoming.
“Oh, yeah. I’m here for a meeting.”
“Of course, of course. Who are you supposed to be meeting with?”
“His name is Mr. Georges.”
The woman reached to her belt for a phone, but stopped when he mentioned the name. Jay assumed she recognized the man already. She nodded, maintaining her smile. “And what did you say your name was?”
“Jay, well, James I guess. James Miller, but I greatly prefer Jay.”
“One moment.”
The woman placed the goggles back over her head. Jay couldn’t hear the specifics, but she was clearly talking to someone from inside the headgear. He wondered whether or not she had some miracle product to avoid the headgear messing up her hair. The woman’s conversation lasted just long enough for Jay’s mind to wander towards whether or not he should pick up a magazine.
“Thank you for waiting, Jay. My name is Claire, and I’ll be leading you to your meeting on the fifth floor with Mr. Georges. He’s our head of legal. Can I get you any coffee or other refreshment on our way?”
“Uh, yeah. That would be great.”
Jay followed her to an elevator, which brought them to the third floor. They stopped at the coffee area he had seen earlier, but it was more expansive than he realized. There were several refrigerators stocked with drinks. There was even a keg of beer. Jay started to feel option overload.
“What can I get you?” Claire asked.
“Uhhh… I’ll take an energy drink, if you have one.”
She opened a fridge, which featured several different types of energy drinks. She turned to ask him what kind, but seeing his face, pulled a random option from the shelf. She handed it to Jay and he gratefully accepted it. He popped it open immediately, but didn’t take a drink. As they walked, Claire continued to speak happily.
“Mr. Georges is our head of legal, so don’t feel weird if he’s formal. He’s a very by-the-book sort of man, but he’s kind and respectful. You shouldn’t have any problems. There will be a button on the inside for you to call the hospitality desk on this floor if you need anything.”
“Sure, uh, thanks,” Jay said, feeling very overwhelmed about the situation. “But why do I need to meet with the head of legal to talk about a catering contract?”
Claire’s face flashed in confusion, but she didn’t miss a beat. “I suppose you’ll have to talk to Mr. Georges about that. I honestly couldn’t say what the meeting is about.”
They took the elevator up to the fifth floor and Claire dropped him at the door. “Good luck, feel free to head in when you’re prepared.” With her task completed, she went back to the elevator. He waited in front of the door, so she smiled at him encouragingly as she stepped into the elevator. He liked Claire.
There was a nameplate next to the door. The lettering declared this room to be a conference room – important enough to have a name – called Kurzek. There were opaque glass walls, so Jay couldn’t see inside the room. There was nothing left for him to do but dive in to his first meeting on behalf of the bar. With a major corporation’s head of legal. At a company that made the game he was just playing. He took a deep breath, using his free hand to open the door.
Waiting for him inside the room was a familiar man in a suit, seated in a small chair, and watching Jay expectantly. The man was wearing a different suit than he had been wearing at the hospital, but his face was easy for Jay to recognize. Jay froze as the coincidences of the situation started to connect in his brain. The man in the suit, Mr. Georges, motioned for Jay to sit. When he did not sit down, the man motioned again.
“Have a seat, James Miller. It’s a pleasure to see you again. I’ll need you to sign this.”
The man shuffled a stack of papers over to Jay. It was labeled an agreement of non-disclosure, in bold letters, but he was very confused. Jay always figured it would be difficult to keep track of what you weren’t supposed to talk about, for one. For two, talking about secrets with his friends was part of the whole fun of knowing stuff. The third thing was, knowing Taylor Lynn, he wasn’t sure she would even let him keep it non-disclosed when she found out about the meeting.
“Um, what am I not supposed to disclose?” Jay asked.
“You will not be disclosing any of the content from this meeting. At least, not without express permission from me or a senior executive with Tumult Corp.”
“Why? Isn’t this a catering meeting?”
“We’ll talk more about what you’re doing here once you sign the document.”
The whole situation seemed ludicrous. Jay walked into the meeting completely certain he was walking into a meeting about catering. The meeting was supposed to be about burgers, fries, and whether the company preferred turkey or chicken sandwiches. He was getting a sneaking suspicion the meeting was about something else. Mr. Georges seemed content to stare at him with intent, so Jay didn’t think he would be learning anything more until after he signed the document.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Is this normal?”
“Extremely standard,” Mr. Georges agreed.
Jay signed the piece of paper, which Mr. Georges took from him. The lawyer started speaking again, as soon as the document was in his possession.
“Thanks for that. If you want to keep things more casual, you may refer to me by my first name, Harold. Otherwise, Mr. Georges is perfectly fine.”
“Right, I go by Jay. Not James Miller.”
“Very well. The first thing I need to do is explain why you are here. As you likely noticed, there was an anomalous event yesterday when it came to your character creation. The class and race combination was chosen for you. The event has been formally classified as an engine bug. Since you won’t be able to create another character, and it will be a long time before other classes open to you in the game, the company would like to formally issue you an apology.”
Jay tried really hard to keep up, but found himself with several questions. He wasn’t sure if he was able to ask questions, but it seemed too silly to ask a question about whether or not he could ask questions. It also seemed strange that they couldn’t help him create a new character, even in a situation where the bug was their fault.
“Why can’t I create a new character?”
“The randomized character classes and single character per player are fundamental parts of the Tumultua Online philosophy. We can’t break them. This document is a full-encompassing view of the legal arrangements put into place by the various parties who have worked on Tumultua Online.” Harold took a stack of several manila folders piled high with papers, indicating the documentation for the legal agreements. He continued. “I can’t allow you to take a copy, but since you signed the non-disclosure, you are welcome to read it under my supervision.”
“I think I’m going to take your word for it, Mr. Georges.” It felt much more natural to refer to the lawyer in an official capacity. “If I’m not able to create a new character, when will new classes be open to me?”
“At character level one hundred, a class token can be created. The class token will allow a character of a different class, also at level one hundred, to transfer their class to a new class at level one. They are able to retain one ability from their previous class as part of the transfer.”
Jay had no plans to continue playing until level one hundred. Since there were other options available, he couldn’t really blame the company much. He thought the Monster Hunter class was fun. He didn’t have any problem continuing to play it for a day, but something still felt off about the situation.
“Gotcha. I guess, where I’m confused is, as much as I appreciate it, I don’t understand why this needing to be explained in a meeting.” Jay tried to break the tension in the air with a joke. “You know, I’m saying like… couldn’t this have been an e-mail?”
Mr. Georges did not laugh. “We have a few more things to discuss, but the first part of my agenda was to offer you an apology. We are glad you accept. Tell me, what did you think of the Monster Hunter class?”
Jay slumped in his chair, realizing this was going to be a much longer meeting than anticipated. He wasn’t entirely thrilled with the play style, or his gaming experience, if he were being honest. His first steps into real combat had been against enemies far outclassing him. In his view, there was no reason for such enemies to be close to the entry point. But in the end, his experience hadn’t been that bad. He and Taylor Lynn found a way to enjoy themselves.
He decided to be neutral about his experiences thus far. “It was okay, I guess. We only ended up making it to level two. I expect the game gets a lot better.” There were no lies to be found in there. It didn’t seem like a good idea to start lying to the head of a legal department.
“So you wouldn’t be opposed to continuing to play the class, in the right conditions?” Mr. Georges asked. Jay was a little annoyed at him for not answering the question, because so far, everything still could have been an e-mail. He could have ignored an e-mail. He decided to play along, despite his annoyance.
“I guess not, but I don’t really play games that much anymore.”
Mr. Georges moved another stack of paper in front of him, shuffling the other stack off to the side. “We would like to change that, Jay. Let me see if I can explain.” He thumbed through some of the papers as he searched. “Here it is,” he continued. “The agenda.”
Jay kept quiet as he reviewed the agenda. He was trying to suppress his excitement. His mind was getting out of hand, because it was starting to look like the lawyer was preparing to offer him a job. It didn’t make sense to Jay. For one, he didn’t apply. For two, he was speaking with a lawyer, not a recruiter or someone in human resources. But part of him hoped.
“Basically, we need your help. You are the only Monster Hunter in the game. Remember the legal agreements? They bar us from manipulating the class engine. There was a contractor working for another development studio, much smaller than our company, who went rogue on the class engine. He stacked the deck so our chances of finding a Monster Hunter were about one in a trillion.”
Mr. Georges had Jay’s full attention, by the end of his pitch. His mind was boggled by the scale of one trillion, to start with, but it sounded like there was someone messing with the company from behind the scenes. It was all hard for him to believe.
“I’m sorry, did you say Monster Hunter?” Jay asked.
“Yes. You are the only Monster Hunter in the game. It’s likely to stay that way. It means the only way of introducing more Monster Hunters is for you to reach level one hundred. Once you did, you could create the tokens, and anyone who reached level one hundred could change.”
“This is a weird question, but why is the class even important? You have about a hundred others, right?”
Mr. Georges went silent. He looked into a corner of the room, even though there was nothing to look at over there. He sat deep in thought for a minute. It was a little awkward for Jay to sit in silence for a full sixty seconds. He couldn’t stop himself from checking his watch, but he refrained from bothering the other man.
“Well,” Mr. Georges said, “The biggest reason is that the Monster Hunter is plugged into core systems of the game. For example, we don’t allow for third party wiki entries. There is a system called The Bestiary, built into the game, which is meant to replace all need for wiki entries. Unfortunately, since Monster Hunters are the only people who can create and distribute them, the system is spread a bit thin, at the moment.”
“That’s it?” Jay prompted. He could have kicked himself. He had sounded much shorter than originally intended. “What I mean is, wouldn’t hardcore players still be happy to play a game without data on monsters? They might want to play it even more, actually.”
“Indeed. As you can imagine, though, the casual players make up most of the financials for any major release like Tumultua Online. In addition, I’m willing to share that this rogue agent from another studio locked several other systems.”
“What systems?”
“I actually can’t say,” Mr. Georges said, looking genuinely disappointed to be unable to talk about it. He tapped on the stack of documents indicating where the legal duct tape was put together. “The list of individuals I can discuss the affected systems with is captured in the red tape document. I can say that several of the locked systems are revenue generating.”
“Okay, I get it,” Jay said. “I’ll be helping people out. More players get more systems. The business does better, helping people keep their jobs. And somehow, I’ll be helping all these people by playing games. You know, the thing my mom and teachers always told me was impossible. I won the lottery, or whatever. That leaves only two things.”
“I assume one of them is about why I was speaking with your sister’s doctors?” Mr. Georges asked. He didn’t wait for a response. “You likely don’t know, but since you signed, I can share this part. Part of our business involves working with doctors on safety and medical research. One of those doctors specializes in unsolved rare disease cases, just like your sister. We could enroll Sarah in a program with her, if you work with us. I hate to hold it over your head, but business is business.”
He was correct about the first of the two things. There was no way he could leave the meeting without knowing the Sarah of it all. “They can help her?” Jay asked. He was daring to get his hopes up. He didn’t think a lawyer would be irresponsible enough to lead him on if there was zero chance they could help his sister. The biggest question was about what chances Sarah’s chances were.
“Obviously I can’t make assurances, but Dr. Morales is very good.”
“Can Sarah meet her?”
Mr. Georges looked uncomfortable as he replied, “Well, yes. If-”
“I get it,” Jay said, letting him off the hook. “We’ll be able to meet Dr. Morales if I agree to help you. The last thing, then. It sounds like you need me to level up to one hundred as a Monster Hunter, right? And it would be convenient if I added some monsters to this bestiary as I went. With that, other players would start to be able to access the special system, since they can’t find monster data online.”
Mr. Georges nodded.
“How am I going to live? I have a lot of bills, so I really don’t have much time to play. I’d like to help you, so Sarah can meet with your doctors, but I don’t see how I could make it work.”
Mr. Georges let out a sigh of relief. As Jay looked at him quizzically, he said, “Oh, it’s just about the money. Well, let’s talk about that. The company is prepared to offer you one thousand dollars for each monster you add to The Bestiary system. That should help you pay your bills, assuming you work hard on leveling up and finding new monsters.”
“And for reaching level one hundred?” Jay asked, daring to hope for a little more.
“We’re prepared to offer you three million dollars.”
Jay’s mouth dropped open, so he put his hand over his mouth to cover it up. Mr. Georges had clearly noticed, but it made Jay feel a little less self-conscious. Tumult Corp. was a huge company. He could tell the moment he walked in the parking lot. He had wanted to work with a company like this his whole life, so he was bold enough to ask for a little more. “I have this friend, her name is Taylor Lynn, and she really loves your game.”
Mr. Georges smiled, as if he knew he won. Jay found that a little odd, because if he did his job, the company would be out three million dollars. That felt a lot like a win forJay, but he knew Tumult Corp. stood to make much, much more on the game. They probably already had.
“Let’s talk about it,” Mr. Georges said. “Then we can draw up the paperwork and have you out of here in no time at all.”