Jay didn’t address the party. The danger was gone, so he immediately turned his attention to the notifications from the player kill.

The party’s split of experience for killing T was 30,417 experience each. The number was mind-boggling, even though the process had been a long time coming. The experience directly from the kill wasn’t the end of it.

There were two instances of bonus experience. The first was earned by killing a character 20 levels above Jay’s own, which was 10,000 experience points. The second bonus was applied for killing an Assassin with a quest to hunt him, which added another 5,000 experience.

The experience gained Jay six character levels, but the levels weren’t the end of the rewards, either. There were two different messages granting Jay new titles.

Title gained: Counter-Assassination! This title grants a player ten points in Perception. Once you’ve dealt with an Assassin, you know the importance of keeping your eyes open.

Title gained: Player Slayer! This title grants a player five points in every statistic and a ten percent damage bonus on attacks against other players. You’ve proven that level is just a word people throw around by killing a player at least ten levels higher than you.

Jay raised his eyebrows in surprise. Both titles came with significant bonuses. In particular, five points in every single statistic was a higher net statistic gain than the five levels. He did notice that there were only five total title slots, so he only had one more available. Still, it seemed like the game was trying to make up for his Synthesization being stolen away.

Jay opened his character sheet to make decisions about his new points, factoring in the lift from the latest titles. His Perception had been pushed over 50 by the titles alone. Pushing more relevant statistics to that point felt right. Seeking out rounded-out numbers felt natural since it had the most dramatic effect on his character.

After running the mental calculations, Jay found he could reach a total of 50 in Strength and Balance. His Speed to Balance ratio would hit the lowest point since he discovered the interaction of the statistics. The Strength would be even more valuable since he spent loads of combat time in melee range. The blindness effect of Purple Haze was often invaluable.

Dedicating himself to that choice, Jay dumped the points into the relevant statistics. He dropped out of his game menus and checked on the other party members. Ken was already leaning on a bent jungle tree, finished with his menus.

“I see you’ve managed to pass us in level,” Ken teased. “Again.”

Ken was level 37, whereas Jay was now level 38. Each had a new ability and would unlock another at level 40. Over time, Jay noticed that the best abilities came at the ten-level milestones instead of the five-level. Thinking over how abilities worked reminded Jay of what he had forgotten: inspecting his level 35 ability.

Jay grinned. “Apparently, that Assassin had a quest to hunt me down and kill me. I got an extra bonus for completing it. Honestly, it’s for the best. I kept getting these failure messages when trying to map out higher-leveled monsters. Give me a second; I forgot to check my new ability.”

Jay quickly found the new ability in his menus. The power was called Magic Ammunition. It wasn’t a spell to launch magic missiles, which he found a little disappointing. The spell wasn’t a method of charging his bolts with extra magic damage, either. It was arguably more practical, even though it was less powerful.

The Magic Ammunition ability would expend ten mp to conjure a magic projectile as part of a bow or crossbow attack. Each magic bolt or arrow would have the power of a regular piece of ammunition. The conjured attack disappeared after imparting damage, but there didn’t seem to be a cooldown on his ability to summon bolts. A new bolt could be fired once per second.

When Jay popped back out of his menu, Ken was still the only one finished with his selections. He joined the other player in casually leaning against the tree like a “cool person.”

“My new ability is pretty crazy,” Jay hinted. “What about you?”

“Pretty interesting,” Ken confirmed. “It’s an ability called Sleep Strike that can put enemies to sleep. The enemy will sleep for up to twenty seconds, but damage obviously interrupts the effect. Good crowd control for handling large groups of enemies. Your turn.”

The Scoundrel player pulled a dagger from his pocket and started spinning it in his fingers.

Jay activated Magic Bolts, summoning and firing a magic bolt at a tree across the way. “My new ability does that.”

Ken whistled his approval, and the pair exchanged strategies for leveraging their new abilities. Given the loss of their second tank, Ken’s new ability could be instrumental. It offered a way to keep another enemy occupied while focusing down more critical targets.

Eventually, the other players finished their upgrades, but it was already after midnight. Carlos quickly thanked everyone and promised to be online the next day to work on grinding. Besides Taylor Lynn reminding him to meet the next day, nobody else lasted much longer than that.

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Casey was second-to-last, right before Jay. Her last act of the night was to virtually hug Sarah goodnight. Jay and Sarah were left as the only campers when the others logged off.

“I can sleep online if you want,” Jay offered.

Sarah looked at him in shock. “Don’t be a crazy person. I sleep in-game because I have to. You have a bed. Go use it.”

“Alright, in a minute,” Jay laughed. “I wanted to say I’ve been having tons of fun playing Tumultua with you. We’ve never played a game together. I wish the circumstances were better, but I’ve been enjoying it.”

“We’ve never played before,” Sarah articulated dramatically, “because I’m not a dork. I have things to do. Like, you know, becoming a doctor and saving lives.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jay waved her off, rolling his eyes.

***

Claire was at her desk when Jay arrived to barge in on Mr. Georges. Her daily work had already started since, as she had told Jay previously, she had a real job. He, on the other hand, didn’t wake up until noon. Since he knew Claire was likely working, he had taken the time to comb his hair and other relevant tasks. Like cologne, for example.

“Jay!” Claire said excitedly, quickly toning down her enthusiasm. She looked both ways to see if others in the office had noticed, but no one was paying her attention. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

She quickly checked the calendar and added, “I don’t see any appointments here, either.”

This was a pretty strange discussion to have with someone who was basically his girlfriend. Jay took a deep breath and reminded himself he wasn’t mad at her. She was just working a job, which was fortunate because it was how they met. He was delighted by that. His anger needed to be directed at the developers for messing with his character.

“I don’t have an appointment,” Jay admitted. “I ran into serious problems with the game last night, so I wanted to discuss it with him at the first opportunity.”

Claire frowned. “Serious problems? Like server errors or something?”

“Sort of?” Jay said. The statement ended up as a half-question. “I’d call it more ‘character problems’ if you want something to get his attention.”

“I don’t think you have a character problem,” Claire flirted. “I actually think you’re a pretty alright guy.”

Jay could only manage to give her a weak half-smile as he focused on keeping his temper in check. The feeble reaction frazzled her, and she awkwardly shuffled things around her desk before remembering she needed the headset. “Have a seat; I’ll call him.”

Jay sat in one of the two free chairs in front of her desk and tried to relax. While Claire spoke into the headset, he could only hear one-half of the conversation. As far as Jay could tell, Mr. Georges wasn’t particularly enthused to have an impromptu meeting with him. That might simply be how he felt about impromptu meetings in general.

Ultimately, it was decided that Mr. Georges could make time, but Jay would need to wait an hour or two. Claire was in the middle of her work, but Jay was unmistakably a distraction for her. She spent the eighty-seven minutes he waited chatting about their various life histories.

Jay counted every single one of those minutes as he watched them tick by. Eventually, his conversation with Claire veered into what he felt was dangerous territory. She asked him about the game. He obliged since it was predominantly about his previous experiences and personal opinions. He didn’t reveal much that wasn’t already in his first formal report, aside from his recent player-versus-player experience.

They discussed the different bosses he’d fought against, and Jay explained the story about turning the hunter into the hunted. Claire was excited to hear about the PVP encounter, and he found out she played the game in her spare time, too.

Jay didn’t mention meeting up in the game to play together, nor did Claire. He felt it would cause him a lot of anxiety, especially since he knew his guards would be lower with her around. Instead, they set a date to meet up on the coming Saturday to watch their movie together. He was stupid enough to offer his own apartment, which meant it was time for a much deeper clean or maybe a maid.

Mr. Georges finally emerged while the almost-couple was in the middle of an animated conversation about the finer points of mermaids. He observed Claire and Jay like someone would inspect a building for signs of possible collapse. He cut into the mermaid conversation.

“If you’re ready?”

Jay nearly let him have it there, but it wouldn’t do Claire any favors. Even though he didn’t like the tone, he wasn’t sure his contract employment with Tumult Corp. would survive embarrassing Mr. Georges in his office. He seemed like the kind of person who acted very serious but was petty behind the scenes.

“Yeah,” Jay said. He followed Mr. Georges to his own office. Jay noticed that the conference rooms were all occupied, which made sense because he hadn’t set a formal meeting this time.

Mr. George’s personal office was quite spartan. There were no pictures of his family or any potential children. His law degree was on display, but there weren’t even any books in the room. The wooden desk was absent of stray papers, although two pens sat on top of the desk. The only ornamentation was a placard that read: Mr. Georges, Esq.

“You have my time, Mr. Miller. A small amount of it. Do tell me what this is about,” Mr. Georges demanded, unceremoniously taking his seat.

Jay sat without asking for permission and wasted no time, allowing his displeasure to boil over. “Like I mentioned to your assistant, I’m having problems with my character. I thought you might be able to help with that since you should be interested in my character advancement. That is, after all, why you contracted me.”

“That is why we contracted you,” Mr. Georges confirmed. “Character problems sound more like the realm of the developers. If you explain further, I might be able to help lend you some credibility. I might be able to get things solved a little faster. Unfortunately, changes to the game aren’t really my purview.”

“Your developers shut off one of my important abilities,” Jay said, tone dripping with accusation. “It’s getting in the way of me completing my mission. I don’t love the fact that the team I’m working for is making the job they hired me to do harder.

Jay phrased the final statement as his own demand, “I want you to fix this.”

“I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible,” Mr. Georges stated bluntly.

“Come again?” Jay asked. He had run through many ways the conversation could proceed inside his head in preparation for the meeting. It hadn’t occurred to him that Mr. Georges might not be interested in helping return the advantageous ability, even though it was earned on his character sheet through gameplay. It was a clear advantage that would speed up the entire process.

“Apologies,” Mr. Georges offered, although everything else about his presentation was unapologetic. “While changes to the game are not my purview, the Synthesization ability was locked at my personal request. Due to the potential ramifications to player equitability, I felt it was important to handle this before it got out of hand.”

Mr. Georges folded his hands on the spartan desk, leaned closer to Jay, and stated his position firmly.

“I made the call.”