Steele glowered at Inglebert over her mahogany desk, her posture rigid and formidable as she issued a curt nod to dismiss Kylie, who fled the room in haste.
"Depending on the discussion, it might be the time for me to slap the top raccoon out of your trench coat."
"Are you referring to the rumor that I am actually three raccoons in a trench coat?" Inglebert had a lilting laugh as he said the word three.
"I am."
"Well let me assure you, I am not now, nor have I ever been, three raccoons in a trech coat."
"Starting off with difficult facts are we now?" Again Steele's voice was edged with warning.
The CEO remained still, her icy gaze piercing Inglebert like a hawk. His body then seemed to rip apart in four distinct shapes of fur and rags. Her blood ran cold and bile rose to the back of her throat before she could take a breath and collect herself. All around her was quiet, the air thick with dread and looming anticipation. She slowly rose from her chair, feeling every fiber of her being tense with unseen danger.
"Let us start from the beginning," said the pudgy figure with Inglebert's face as he pulled off his mask, revealing eye the likes of Steele had become overly familiar with over the last year.
Steele surveyed the four figures skeptically. A lesser would have thought they'd lost their mind, questioned their own sanity, and even doubted reality. But Steele was not of that ilk. She stated sternly, "You better not shed in my office."
The raccoon formerly known as Inglebert Waschbär or The Radiant Rogue, before the system had translated his name when he first arrived in this world, broke out into an unpleasant shrill laugh which a shrill choppy thing that Steele would have rather not have heard.
*****
30 minutes later
Steele stood erectly addressing the four raccoons in her office. The one she knew as Inglebert, and the other three who had been attempting to use WNC for their own selfish means for almost a year now. All kept their distance from her, Inglebert in his chair while the other three lurked around the room, using Steele's trash bin for their own selfish gains. She shot them a fierce stare, sending them scurrying back to hide behind Inglebert's chair.
“So to summarize," she started, "The Circle have been wreaking havoc across The All Yonder for over ten years now, destroying kingdoms of man and raccoon alike with no mercy. The Royal Rascal charged you all with finding a way to take them down."
Inglebert nodded solemnly.
“You infiltrated the Circle's stronghold, discovering their interdimensional travel capabilities. Knowing they were planning to scout out this world next, Earth, you and your compatriots sabotaged the machine and found yourselves stranded in our realm after the destruction?”
He nodded in confirmation.
"You found yourself stranded here. All of your followers dropped their classes in hopes to get a new one that incorporated human technology, and after a few years of experimentation, you realized that even using Earth technology, you would not be able to portal back to The All Yonder in time, and even if you did you would be in no different position than when you left."
He needed sadly that time.
"Instead of trying to return to your own world, you decided to enlist our help. Using a combination of magic and technology from Earth, you figured out a way for people in our realm to project their fighting power into yours. Now unwitting individuals are being duped into battling an alien horde?"
"This took much less time than I thought it would," Inglebert said with commented.
"I still don't understand how all of our players project into your world. Our game has separate servers, realms, and those realms are cut further into slices. How are all of our players in your one world?"
Inglebert,chuckled lightly. "To be honest, I'm not sure either."
One the three raccoons poked their had out from behind Inglebert's chair and crept forward. "The Circle does not just invade one world - they duplicate their forces into every instance of the finite curve of that universe. To complicate matters further, every victory we have over them could be reversed because of the Mandala effect-"
Steele cut them off, "I've seen enough movies, let's just throw the word quantum in there and say 'because'. How many of our realms, or your realities, do we need to win this fight?"
"Idealistically, all of them, for us to stand a chance? The core one."
"Why can't players respawn anymore?" Steele asked bluntly.
"They can, eventually. It all depends on the spiritual power of the player. The projection is based off of each's individual power and, for most, it takes a long time to recover when that is destroyed."
"I have reports of players getting hurt in our game."
"Some had very little spiritual power indeed. We have been weeding out those at risk over the last few weeks. They have been shunted into a different instance of the game."
"So your reputation from before joining my company, and all those people you lost – they were failed experiments of this projection?"
"Yes. Those people did not die of dehydration or addiction - that was merely what the doctors who saw them deemed fit to diagnose."
"We have drastically lowered the mortality rate since then," he continued.
"And you expect me to cooperate after you risked my business' stability and reputation?" Steele spat acerbically.
Inglebert grinned slyly, leaning forward, "Did I mention your world would be next?"
Steele paused, her eyes narrowing at the thought of another realm falling prey to their machinations before replying bitterly, "And?"
"This is why we had to trick you into it." one of the three added from behind the chair.
"Your trick failed, I'm pulling the plug on this whole operation." Steele moved to pick up her phone and begin the process of tearing down WNC.
"What if we made a deal?" Inglebert left forward, desperate.
Steele stopped mid-motion. This was the first time Steele had seem him in such a powerless state. She wasn't about to let the opportunity pass.
"What could you possibly offer that is worth this level of risk?" Steele knew there was an unending trove of knowledge Inglebert could offer her, but it was best not to let him see it that way.
"I am not The Radiant Rogue for nothing," he said with a smirk. Inglebert opened his palm and a small emerald mote flew towards Steele.
An alert popped up in Steele's vision, much like the UI in War Never Changes.
| Quest Alert! |
| Combat the Circle and receive The Radiant Rogue's blessing. Will you accept the call to arms and join the fight against the Circle's tyranny? |
| [Accept] [Decline] |
“I need more intel on the Circle and our enemies in this raid.” She hardly reacted.
“Hit accept and I will plug you into our network. We have raccoon agents and merchants sneaking around, gathering info. I heard one of our agents even stole a spaceship for you guys.”
"We crashed that." Steele said absentmindedly, "Wait, so that Raccoon demon was real too?"
"To be honest, we don't know what that was all about. Some kind of Circle summoning tomfoolery if you ask me. It's better if you just pretend you didn't see some of the things from the greater multiverse."
Steele nodded and returned to her desk, pressing the accept button on her screen. "Get dressed and get out, I have work to do."
She squinted at the holo-display in front of her. It was in the all too familiar format of the WNC user interface. She flitted through with practiced ease, judging what she had received in the bargain. Steele was not disappointed.
Advanced Crisis Management (lvl 7/10) - The ability to expertly manage a crisis situation and mitigate damage to a company's reputation. This skill is honed through years of experience in handling crises and enables the user to deftly navigate even the most complex and high-stakes situations.
Skill benefits from the following supplementary talents:
Crisis Planning: Develop comprehensive crisis management plans that anticipate potential crises and outline steps to mitigate their impact.
Crisis Response Team Management: Assemble and lead a team of experts to manage a crisis situation effectively.
Damage Control: Effectively manage media coverage and public perception of the crisis to minimize damage to the company's reputation.
Rapid Recovery: Quickly recover from a crisis situation and resume normal operations, minimizing disruption to the company's business.