《Did I build an empire?》


 The Interview

    Leroy Fletcher was having a bad day. Make it a bad week. To be even more precise, he was having bad days for past 11 days. It will turn into 12 days after 17 hours.


    His dorm-mate had left him hanging, holding the bag. Now all he could do was to clean up the mess. As he was taking nature''s call, he wondered where did he go wrong? At what point?


    Was it choose hyper competitive university to graduate? Was it taking challenge of double degree?


    Nah! He had no choice in both cases. Norton Institute for Comprehensive Excellence, NICE, was truly nice place because it gave highest scholarship and maximum student autonomy. You have to accept the bad with good. So, he just had to accept the burden of his fellow college mates being highly competitive. And the double degree could be easily explained too. Gaming and Finance. The two most lucrative fields. If he can earn degree in them in smallest amount of time, he definitely should choose it. Why waste more time in university? The college would not had out stipend or scholarships beyond certain time frame.


    As he finished the call, he came to the conclusion that the start of all his sufferings was mainly from his dorm-mate, Asher Beaumont. He just had to chuck out the project to be done by both of them to him and rush off heavens knows where and the professor just had to need the projects to be handed over a month in advance.


    After spending hours and hours on it, a barely worth project was ready.  After checking it for various parameters, he sent the copies to Asher and professor.


    There. Done. Now, he could relax, without that sword hanging over his head. He can finally sleep. But the growl from his tummy reminded him to do one more thing before embracing the sweet sleep. A quick glance into common kitchen. The fridge was bare. The instant noodles completely used up. Not even a single slice of bread or a drop of milk was left.


    "F*ck you, Asher!" Leroy grumbled and checked his rarely used food card. He had no patience to buy food and prepare it. He just have to tighten his belt, hold his tongue and mind his language when he ventures into dorm dining hall.


    Norton University was good place, with lots of tich and famous alumni. Which translated into better infrastructure and resources in the school. Even the dormitories were top notch, needless to say about the dining hall attached to them.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    The dining hall was a seperate building, five storey tall, each floor having better and costlier food. Leroy ''Cheapstake'' Fletcher never went to second floor, forget the top one. The first floor was when he had strong armed his roommate Asher Beaumont to a meal. Leroy was a hard soul. The flavour of the society were lost to him.


    As the dining hall was frequented by staff and alumni alike, there were few rules and Leroy was prone to forget one or two of them, once in a while. Needs must though. So he washed himself, wore some decent looking clothes, trying to look less like a zombie and more like a human. Grabbing the phone and the food card, he ventures out of his dorm room, finally. His body was not used to sunlight, his eyes became squinted to handle the glare of the sun. It truly had been hellish days.


    As he unmuted notifications in the phone, lots of pings sounded. People along the path all looked to him. He finally found the mute button and there was blessed quite.  10, 12, 18, 33...60, 80, 99+ ...The notifications were coming even after he walked to dining hall, swiped his card and filled his plate to brim with food and found an empty seat to sit and eat.


    Junk. Junk. Junk. Spam. Spam. Spam. Just how did these companies find his number and why were they so sure he had some money to spare on their endeavours?


    Few invites from classmates to join the game. Oh,well! They must have found someone else when he didn''t reply. No need to worry on that.


    Few reminders from TA regarding the project. Done that. No need to worry. Few about change in class schedule. Oh, they even few assignments. There goes my sleep, Leroy mused.


    Remaining ones all had single thing in common. They were all about "For the Glory" game.  It was developed by veteran gaming company, SX corp. So the expectations were high. After teasing the public for long, they had recently unveiled trailers and even released the global launch date. Which had coincide with the time Leroy Fletcher had spent as a hermit. So he had missed all the craze and haze and was just watching the aftermath.


    As he shoveled the food, he clicked the link to one of the interviews. He cringed as he watched the same. The interviewee was spewing PR words word to word, not sharing his personal experience or giving his personal input.  He found few sentences vaguely familiar and then it flashed to him. He wrote those cringeworthy words. He had sold his soul for a silver coin and had written hundreds of words describing a game he had not seen, heard or played.


    He felt like bashing his head. If someone found that he had written them...though the chance was very small, he shuddered thinking of what would happen. Feeling like ants were crawling up his pants, he hurriedly finished his brunch and left the hall, feeling like everyone was watching him. Though he knew it was paronia not truth, he could not stay there even a moment longer.

 Chapter 2 - Incentive

    By the time, Leroy Fletcher hurried to his room, his room mate was already there. Looking at the blonde haired boy, lying half dead on the sofa, Leroy didn''t feel any bad. He still had intention to strangle him for few moments.


    "You b*st*rd! Where the heck were you? How could you run away without letting me know?" He screamed at the barely awake boy. Don''t believe what you see. Asher was a strong boy. He was a Beaumont, for heavens sake. And Beaumonts don''t rise greenhouse flowers. Asher had held first rank since he came to Norton. Though half of the credit has to go to Leroy for firmly staying in second place, it can''t diminish the power of Asher.


    Asher woke up with a start, thanks to screams and he really looked like a twin to Leroy. One was blond haired and other was black haired. Asher had deep blue, Beaumont eyes and Leroy was lucky enough to have darkest brown eyes. But the look of them....barely alive, part human , part zombie....yeah, they were looking like twins. If Leroy had it bad, Asher didn''t have it easy either.


    Asher groaned. "Don''t start! I''ll pay the penalty, alright? Just let me lie here. I want to enjoy last few hours of my freedom."


    And that was not dramatic. Not at all.


    Leroy showed the poor boy and sat next to him. "What happened?" If Leroy was a cheapskate, then Asher was a miser. To him to pay the penalty without bargaining... something must have happened. Something big. Something life changing.


    "I lost. I completely lost." Asher started crying his eyes out. A single concern and the dam holding his heart burst through.


    There are various types of crying. And Asher....sigh, his was worst sort. It made people run away instead of comforting him. Leroy was a hard soul. He merely found a box of tissues from Asher''s side of common room and handed the tissues once in a while. The box was dangerously close to be empty when Asher finally stopped crying and started hiccupping once a while.


    "What am I supposed to do, Lee? What should I do?" He asked. Leroy could only shrug his shoulders. How was he supposed to answer when he had no clue about what had happened?


    Slowly, Asher disclosed the story.


    Asher was a bookworm and geek. He was not meant to be a president or CEO of the company but to be research head. His family was okay with it too. His elder brother had all the requisite characters to be dominant CEO. So Asher had spent nearly four years in the college choosing what he wanted to study rather than what he was supposed to. He excelled in it too. Maybe due to his desire or maybe due to Leroy being on his heels all the time. Whatever was the reason. But the blissful period ended early for Asher.


    Beaumonts were entering into games and they wanted Asher to helm it.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    "Come on! I don''t believe it. Out of all the Beaumonts, they want you to be the spearhead? Not your twin sister Ashley or your big bad brother Alan?" Leroy asked. Though he had never met any of the Beaumonts other than the cry baby here, he knew all about them.


    The hiccups stopped suddenly. Apparently this genius had not thought of this. Leroy did however believe about Beaumonts entering games. Many of the successful businesses did that. To expand their network and to find new ways to mint money, entering this arena was must. But not all could survive with their head held high. The old giants within the gaming industry would never allow every rich family enter and destroy what they had built for years. It will be a long uphill struggle.


    "The reason doesn''t matter." Asher spoke suddenly. "What is certain is that I will have to play games." And apparently that was crux of the matter. "I don''t have enough time to sleep between my projects, studies and keeping my rank. Where am I supposed to find time to play?" Asher cried dramatically.


    Asher was a good student. But he earned his first place because he worked his *ss off for it. As he had put it, him being first ranker would be sole highlight of his whole life. Even he knew he would never achieve heights of glory once he stepped into society. For that reason, he had been paying maintenance fee for certain maverick (cough, cough, Leroy Fletcher) to maintain second rank and not overachieve and go for first place.


    "I heard this new game can be played even when we sleep. So what''s the problem?"


    "Yes. The stupid game developers believe that every person sleeps for seven to eight hours a day and have planned it accordingly. Last time I slept for solid eight hours was in my freshman year, when I joined this place." Asher snapped. Asher loved sleeping in but he could not indulge in this thanks to this freak of nature who easily got second rank without much effort. How big was the difference between him, a hard working genius and this lazy bum? Four marks. In total. If he had not forsaken his sleep and studied hard, he would have give up his first place.


    Leroy laughed loud at that. He knew his roommate ''s problem now. If eyes could shoot laser, Leroy would be deader than dead in that instant. " Come on man! I know a feasible solution for your problem. Don''t worry it will definitely work out." He started pitching the idea. Leroy was consistent. He used same magical words and used same tried and tested formula to cajole Ashley. And it worked like a charm this time too.


    " What do I need to do?" Asher asked, sitting a bit straighter.


    "Ah ah aa! Fee first?"


    "Fine, fine, I''ll pay the usual." Asher agreed hurriedly.


    "Special times, special price, my friend!" Leroy would never miss a chance to make more money. " This will be our last semester, final exams. And...your problem is bigger than usual."


    Asher bit his lip for a moment but he bit the bait. " Fine! How much is it?"


    " Ten times the price!" And before Asher could exclaim, he continued, " That''s with friends and family discount. Think hard because I''ll quote exact price if you start bargaining."


    Asher turned silent. The threat was real. He had suffered for ignoring the disclaimer.


    "Okay, I''ll bite. What''s the solution?"


    Leroy grinned. Such a easy pot of gold. He might never get duch a chance again.


    " Ever watched crabs in the basket? It doesn''t matter which crabs climbs higher. In the end, the remaining ones pull it down. That''s what you have to do. If you can''t have enough time to study, ensure others don''t either."


    While Asher was digesting the clue, Leroy threw another bait. " For a bit extra, I''ll spread the news in an indeginous way and you won''t have to worry." Asher had to nod at that. He could not think of ways of ensuring others did not get extra time to study. But he had a big problem at hand though. " What about you then?"


    "Pay me!"


    "Huh?"


    " Pay me extra for every hour I spend in the game. This way I''ll have even less time to study." And that way how a certain someone was conned to pay a devil to play games and waste time.


    Without the cash incentive, Leroy would not have entered the new game at all.


    Now that he had the incentive, Leroy was determined to milk this cow as much as possible.

 Chapter 3 - Calibration

    Though Leroy Fletcher conned a lot of money from Asher Beaumont, he didn''t have to much to lead others astray. FTG, for the Glory, or Glory, whatever name you used to call that game, it had already become a hot commodity. Each day few conglomerates would come out with their PR and declare that they would establish themselves within the game. Each day, an influential or trending person would declare to open a workshop to play within the game. As such, the budding working class people, aka, final year students, had their eyes on this game. When they heard many of the toppers and famous students were ready to dive into game, they were even more enthusiastic. This was their chance to make connections, build network and shine. Maybe, they will have a chance to get a better job thanks to these bonds.


    As the gaming company had declared that this game could be played even when the people are sleeping, the demand for gaming pods had reached all time high. Those who could not afford pods, rented them- even the older versions were not spared. Quite a few nimble people earned extra credits to turn these old junks and upgrade their specs to ensure game could be played.


    The top ten students did not have to worry. Their study pods could play the game too. But would these kids agree? Who knows if he is playing the game or listening to the lectures on the sky? So it was anonymously  and wholeheartedly decided that they all will get new pods. Few daring ones even met few alumni with the request to get them for free. Alas, no lunch is free. The students got their top of the line pods but with strings attached.


    Asher had not disclosed complete truth to Leroy. Not that it would have changed anything. Beaumonts, like others had tried to run within the games without leaving the trace. They owned shares to few guilds or nurtured few adventure teams. But Alan felt this was not enough and there were still many ways to earn pretty money from there. It was his decision to enter the game a bit deeply this time. The rumours he had listened to when he had gone to capital showed his decision was right one.


    The guilds and ilk would need a lot more money, atleast in the beginning in this game. Why? Because there was a rumour going around that this game would not accept direct cash but only game coins. SX corps was trying to make playing better. One of the methods suggested was to restrict pay to win option. Not that guilds used that way. If they played like that, they would have to declare bankruptcy soon. But certain players were arrogant solely because they were ready to spend lots of money within the game.


    "Alan, the pod got installed." Asher was calling his elder brother to give updates. He paused and continued, "Alan, do I have to do this? You saw me at home. I suck at playing games."


    Alan had come to capital to negotiate with few guilds. The response had been poor. He was already on edge and his deep blue Beaumont eyes were ready to spit fire.


    "It does matter, Asher. What I want is the pulling behind you, your rallying power. It doesn''t matter if you suck at the game. Someone will power level you. You can be a lifestyle player burning through the money for all that I care but you have to play the game."


    Asher turned silent. He was not blind, he knew his brother was working very hard at this. He was ready to die for his brother but he was not ready to become a laughing stock. It would be affront to his self and family name.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    " I''ll try my best to help you brother." Asher cut the call. He had wasted half an hour of his precious study time to get the pod installed and calibrated. He didn''t have much time to spare.


    Leroy was having a blast of the time during calibration. The games he had played before were not this deep or immersive. This was the first time he was seeing calibration happening, to play games.


    Recording brain wave pattern.... Checking for anomalies....


    Recording iris pattern, retinal pattern, fingerprint pattern...


    Permission to get DNA sample?


    Leroy was upset. Just how many parameters do you want to collect? But without consent, it would not go to next step. He agreed. But where would the sample be collected and how? The interior of the pod was smooth entirely, soft and fluffy. Akin to poshest bed, he had mused when he had sat earlier. In the end, Leroy did not find out how the sample was collected.


    Initially, the chair was upright, like a normal one. Then it turned into recliner, even a bed- a small one, no space to roll over. In each position, it collected parameters. It asked him to choose soothing music and relaxing aroma and everything was monitored through out.


    All this calibration was for the pod though. Next was to the game.


    Activating neural links.....


    Initialising.....


    Process complete...


    "Welcome dear player, to the VR lobby." A pleasant accentless female voice chimed.


    The whole place was bare, white on white . Leroy stood there, all alone, with a standard shirt and pants which did nothing to his figure.


    " Currently you are dozing and your mind has entered the VR world. Kindly follow the instructions for better calibration." The voice chimed again.


    For the Glory was not first VR game in the market. Many had come, few had conquered. But this level of calibration was new. Leroy was asked to walk, jump, run, squat, make fists, walk backwards, turn, and even worse, he was made to sing and dance. The horror!


    Then came sense testing. He had to touch and feel the objects and give feedback. Similarly for other senses. Then came others- temperatures and pain.


    Though he knew this was VR and not real, the extreme temperatures were harrowing. Even worse were pain sensations. He didn''t know that there were so many ways to inflict pain. Thanks for the lesson, VR calibrator.


    Then....it was over.


    Altering the perception, senses and various receptors to ideal level......


    Process complete.


    Would you like to download the game - For the Glory?


    Well, yeah! Why else would he suffer through this torture?


    Download in process....


    Would you like to link the bank account to the game? The game will uphold highest banking standards and none of your personal details will be shared to any parties.


    The guide tried to reassure.


    Yeah, about that! What will happen if I don''t link the account? Leroy asked aloud aloud aloud in the empty lobby, trying not to look like a lunatic who heard voices.


    The game shall maintain virtual account and take 30% fee for every virtual transaction. For withdrawal of cash, additional 15% of the money withdrawn will be held as processing fee.


    The game can be purchased even without bank account, via cards or digital payment methods.


    Would you like to link your bank account or try our virtual bank accounts?


    Of course he would with former option. If he can escape from paying some much fee for every transaction, he would link his genealogy too.


    Bank account verification in process....


    Verification done...


    While the game is downloading, would you like to know about subscription and plans of the game?


    No, thank you. Leroy was firm in his answer. He had worked as salesperson and knew many of the pitch ideas. Now that the account was linked, if he erred, the money would be gone. There was no refund in gaming business.

 Chapter 4- Ways to rip off

    Nearer to the launch date, more was the mayhem.


    Half of the time, the students were discussing about the game. Remaining half, watched news, feeds and more, all related to the game.


    Someone with lots of free time did research and found that all of the students in Norton Institute had either purchased or rented a pod. And lots of factions sprung up automatically. No need knew where they would end up inside the game but they were ready to follow their leaders to the top. Those with deep pockets accepted many of them as members of their virtual workshop. Asher Beaumont had lots of competition but he still prevailed and got third place. The top two - sigh! One was doing Ph.D and the other was a true beauty. Beauty trumps money and power, especially in young horny adults. Not that they were bad. In fact, Asher was clutz compared to fifth place guy but Asher had plenty of money to spare. His brother had given him the job of advertising their family''s intentions, which he was doing beautifully.


    Leroy did not join any factions. He was not that gun ho about games. Even when he watched edited videos and livestreaming of games, he didn''t feel the adrenaline pump. He was a salted fish through and through. It didn''t matter. No one ever asked his faction affiliation. All assumed that he would join Asher''s group. But Asher, who had spent three years with Leroy would not join any factions or workshop. This deadbeat was either working, snoozing or running between the classes, trying to cram as much studies as possible with college time. He had never divulged why he wanted money so desperately and Asher was sensitive enough to not ask.


    The hype towards game was nearly turning into mass hysteria. But after few cases of people getting into fights in the gaming pods showrooms for not having stock and their subsequent arrest, the matter cooled somewhat. The gaming company and Wave communications came up with innovative ideas to pacify people along with usual trope. The unveiled experience centers for those who had pre-ordered, paid in full but not received the pods yet. Lucky few members in this large pool of customers would have first hand experience of the game, barring the beta testers.


    Now this was a huge reversal. Those whom already bought and installed the pod, started crying. As next part of advertising strategy, wave communications disclosed new method of promotion. Few lucky people would be selected among those use their communication system in any way in any of the events involving the game. These chosen few can actually access the tutorial island earlier than others.


    Now what does that mean? Those with pod, few hours of experience. With the pod, a long period of experience. Every beta tester had emphasized on not skipping tutorial island before entering game proper. But the time spent there can be as less than a day to week or so, based on how fast you learn and integrate. And all know the fact that it is easier to make a name early in the game. How to make name? Be faster, finish your quests, kill monsters, level up, do anything first time faster than others and your name shall be in the Glory list. Those with the pods laughed like lunatics at this unexpected windfall and tried to be one of the lucky ones. Few guilds had already created their own pages in Wave and openly recruited those who got these early access. Few just wanted details, exclusive or otherwise in exchange for cash.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The gaming nerds turned into cliches. Few turned into bedside analyst, few became predictors. Few daredevil rich wallets turned into betting. Each day, game would release a new detail and a whole day would be spent on it to glean the details.


    The rumours were right. There was no direct pay to win scenario within the game. All interactions with NPC was through game coins. Having said that, there was a cheat code too. Each person could load ten million credits before entering the game which would be converted to game coins. But the price was steep. It said so, boldly on the credit loading page. As this was money within player before starting the game proper, the conversion rate was a bit extreme. 100 credits amounted to a single copper coin. Ripping off boldly. Still, the guilds pooled whatever money they had, they begged and borrowed to ensure many of their loyal members paid the maximum money.


    Another way to rip off the money from guilds and alike was a party spawning within the same village or town. You want to play with your buddy? Pay extra to get code. Both of you used codes and be born in same novice point. You are part of adventure team or workshop. You work better with your comrades. No worries, pay extra for each buddy you want to tag along and you can pull upto twenty buddies with you.


    Another day. A new way to swallow money from players. Preload extra cash to have better introduction items. Pay even more to get better starter kit. Pay premium subscription plan concurrently to get gift crate with every subscription bill. Different tier of subscription and period, different levels of gift crates. Subscription plans started with basic noob plan which provided zero crates to topmost tier which gave best option. The game site did not explain what can be expected within the gift crates but common assumption was potions and consumables. Better the tier, better the grade of consumable. The subscription period had great importance too. From daily subscription for those who played once a while to weekly, quarterly and monthly subscription to those who would play daily.


    The guilds and companies behind they were becoming mad. The gaming company should have unveiled all these matters together. They would have picked and chosen methods feasible for them. This piece meal matter of disclosing details meant they had to keep on speeding on daily basis. Yes, this was another perverse way of how game behaved. It did not allow for wait and watch scenario at all. Each day money spending option would be unveiled and it would close after twenty four hours and then the new scheme would be unveiled.


    Alan Beaumont and other businessmen who were scratching their heads welcomed this move though. Guilds borrowed money from these people, each time using guild shares or future of guild as collateral.


    Though there were high risk high return investments and many of these money seekers were supposingly new to the game, they still had lots of following. There was still a chance that they would many name and fame, along with money, within the game.


    The most recent update made guilds stand up and dance jubilantly. Finally, they received good news. But was it though?

 Chapter 5 - Noob, amateur and a professional

    After ripping off from rich and guilds, the game gave sweet candy. But with addendum. Only the strongest can have it. Guilds could be still established early in the game. As soon as a single member of the guild reached level 10, need not be the the guild leader. Why this is good news? Because they didn''t have to go to novice city to establish guild. Just 10 members are enough to build a guild. Good. In that case, all the money spent by the guilds to have batches of their loyal players to spawn in same place will be worthwhile. None of the guilds can have same name. Eh, this just needs co- ordination between team leads. Can even turn into competition between them to establish guilds first.


    Analysts pondered long and hard over this move from the game developers. The guilds and clubs or corporations managing them had a whole team of highly intellectual people just for analysis. They could expostulate many things from such news.


    A round of assignments landed of students, which made them moan and groan. Come on! They were all busy with the game. Where would they have time to finish assignments? But when they opened the assignment list, they were gobsmacked. Are these assignments? No, no, these are free passes to play games without worry. Most of not all of them were related to the game.


    Give detailed cost benefit analysis of reusables? Do them same for the weapons or any items you purchased within a week of game? Or,


    Give detailed report on anthropomorphism of the NPCs in the tutorial island. Or,


    Code all the characters of any single NPC you have interacted with. Or,


    This one was easily best and the worst- leave your name in the Glory list, any of it. The name of the game said it all- for the glory. So, it had loads of glory lists. It can be as silly as first person to enter the village to first person purchasing something from NPC or first person to sell something to NPC. The game had others too- first to kill a moster, first to get consumables as monster drop, first one to finish quest, first one to finish dungeon, first one to find new map etc in addition to top 10 or top 100 players. And the good part, it was tailormade to each village, town and city. So, the chances of entering in list should be easy, right? Wrong! Entirely wrong! Unless you are strong in games or have deep bank balance, the chances of you entered such lists was very less. Reason - guilds! They were congregation of powerful players and they had back up of money and human resources. Moreover, these lists were excellent way to show off and pull new blood into guilds. How can they not fight tooth and nail for a glory?


    While the students at Norton''s were crying in despair and thinking of ways to hug the golden thighs of guilds, the game developers released next surprise.


    The game could be played in three modes. The experience and the drops would depend on mode of playing. Three modes were complete assist or CA, semi assist or SA and lastly Nil assist, NA. The names would explain the details. In complete assist, the aiming and execution was completely via game AI, thus gave least experience and loots. To put it simply, the AI and the player were considered party and one with maximum contribution got most of XP/experience and loots. This would explain why players received less. Using same explanation, we can think what happens in SA. Here, work is nearly half and half between player and AI, so the experience or loots are going to be more than CA.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    NA is for those confident and powerful players. They never use AI to hunt or play, thus all the experience and loots would solely belong to them. So, if you are well played, the experience would be more each time and the difference in levels between players playing in three modes would slowly increase.


    The people gave different names for these modes though - noob, amateur and professional. A average salaried person developed a small goal. In the game, though he would start as noob, using CA mode, he would finally transition into amateur, using SA mode, hopefully within a year of playing the game. The students in Norton were a bit different, they rejoiced on receiving the news. Finally, there was hope. Guilds and the ilk would concentrate on professional mode, leaving two lists to others. A bit of luck and they had a chance to be immortalized and be on the glory lists.


    The top student dormitory room was gloomy. Asher Beaumont was becoming more and more moody as the launch date neared. He was in the frenzy to finish assignments and revise. Sure as he k, he would not be in the mood to study when game gets launched. With the release of different modes, he could envision completely hostile future. Him, in CA mode and the players his brother had recruited to power level him up in SA or even NA mode and the difference in the levels just increasing each day. Soon, they would have eligibility to leave novice village or town and go to City proper to play the real game. And all others would know that he was a paper tiger. Just thinking about that scenario made him scowl.


    Leroy Fletcher was not having it easy either. He didn''t care about the game at all. Even when the supposing hush hush rumour got circulated that the players can convert their game coins to credits. 100 credits to a single copper coin. Yeah, that''s initial scarcity and hunger marketing. Even assuming that the game company would use the money they had scalped from rich to pay the poor ( Robinhood was long dead and he was a fictional character anyway), would they be able to pay the same price? Leroy was pretty sure that other than lucky few who would make a windfall, others would run behind the mirage to earn more than their salary via playing games. By the time game stabilized, the price of game coins would be as little as 100 credits for a single silver coin or perhaps even lower.


    The marketing of the game created a suction effect, pulling all people into the current which made other interests pale and stale. This inturn meant that Leroy had less working options. The money he had scammed, hmm, tution fee he received, from Asher was nearly gone and he needed new methods to earn money. If this game had not been there, his initial projection of cash inflow- outflow would be materialized and he could have spent last few months of his college life, focusing solely on studies and job interviews. D*mn you, you stupid game! You messed my life plan! Leroy scowled. His scowl only deepened when he saw the new list of assignments. Even the teachers had joined the bandwagon, even they wanted the students to play.

 Chapter 6 - Tutorial island

    Leroy spent half a day crunching numbers and finally decided he had to play the game, after all. With that decision made, next was easy. He went through all the materials available about the game, analysis and guess work and made his own inference. He then chosen mostly likely method to be lucky. It involved few rituals including spitting, using a lock of a virgin (his own), buying a rabbit foot and many more completely un-scientific methods. He used psychology and science too. Instead of just liking or forwarding some event about the game in Wave, he turned into a reasonable anti-fan. PR love such people. Firstly, it sparks a debate, which means more exposure. Turning an anti-fan to a fan is even more explosive news, worth even more media coverage.


    Don''t know which method worked but Leroy became one of the lucky few players who got code to enter tutorial island a bit earlier. He had to sign tons of forms, including NDAs but he had no wish to make name though this, so it was okay. After getting the code, Leroy went to his dorm room, went into gaming pods. A soothing fragrance emitted along with melodious lullaby, which he had chosen previously. When his mind was relaxed, he was pulled straight into VR lobby.


    Feeling stupid, he talked aloud in that empty space, " I have early access code for the tutorial island for the game - For the Glory." A moment''s pause, an eternity of shame and humiliation to Leroy. And he was pulled into the game, just like that. Ever moved in high speed elevator? Yeah, that sudden change in gravity, that stomach dropping feel. Same thing here. By the time, he was feeling better enough to open the eyes, he was standing on picturesque island.


    The setting and architecture was typical RPGish, the developers had still retained common pattern of previous games, so as to not startle the players. There was a hot looking lady waiting for him, looking at the way he gawked at everything that his eyes could see.


    "Welcome adventure, to the island of learning and adapting." The lady drawled. The dark brown long flowing robes was not too form fitting, leaving nothing to imagination but showed off her charms nicely. Heck, in real world, girls would go ga-ga over such intricately designed dress and wear it for parties with pride. And such dress was worn by a guide within the game.


    What Leroy did not notice was that the robe was enchanted, the designs mimicking what was awesome worthy to the viewer. Maintaining this illusion island was not a task for weak levelled person. Daaya, the guide for Leroy was actually maintaining six such islands and teaching six new souls at the same time. Is it a wonder that her robes were enchanted?


    "Would you invoke help from a deity in your endeavours in this world?" Daaya asked. In short was he going to be a noob, amateur or a professional. Leroy knew he was a salted fish. Traditionally, this meant he would choose to be a noob or an amateur but he had decided to be a professional. Why? More experience. He could do less work, get more rest. Isn''t this good?


    "The deity''s powers  is all encompassing, I''m mere a frail body. I''m not worthy of invoking deity''s power yet." Hah! Take that! In these days, who doesn''t know how to use flowery words?


    Daaya just nodded. He was not first adventurer who wanted to use his own strength, he would not be the last one too. She started her introduction.


    "In this world, all the beings are quantified. This means you are able to know your strength and weakness. Few might be able to train their discerning eye skill to learn such details of others too. I am bestowing the skill temporarily for you to know how it works." A small white orb materialized and hit his head, sinking completely inside it.


    Leroy hissed. His brain was instantly overloaded with extra knowledge. Shaking his head to reduce the heaviness, he tried to use the skill. Just because he did not play games regularly did not mean he never played them before.


    When he got stabilized, Daaya showed how to use the skill- Discerning eye.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Discerning eye -Tier zero, level zero (0/100)


    Can see quantification of the objects within five levels of individual. Trying on higher level beings leads to backlash. Backlash efforts might range from ringing sensation, heaviness in head to temporary stamina loss.


    Can be upgraded.


    Daaya explained other things too. Like this was one of the skills not requiring mana or health but concentration of a being. Even monsters and others were able to use this skill. Higher tier not only increases the limit but helps in initial appraisal too. Higher the level of skill, more detailed the quantification.


    Leroy just had to concentrate on being quantified and say the name of the skill mentally. No need to say out loud.


    He used the skill on himself first.


    Name - Leroy


    Race - Human.


    Current form - immortal soul.


    Level- N/A.


    Class - None


    Jobs - None


    EXP -0/????


    Satiation - 100/100


    Damage - 1 ( physical and magical)


    Defense -1 (physical and magical)


    Body capability-1 ( Value is 1 for humans)


    Magical capability-1 ( Value is 1 for humans)


    Outerwear - standard tunic and pants,


    Articles- standard shoes


    Weapons and accessories - None


    Skill -


    Discerning eye - Tier 0, level 0


    "Did you check your status?" Daaya asked, " You can try them on thers too."


    Stupid Leroy forgot the disclaimer and used the skill on Daaya, the guide.


    Name - Daaya (????)


    Race- ?????


    Current form - Guide


    Level -?????


    Class- ????


    Jobs- ????


    Attributes- ?????


    Outerwear - ?????


    Articles- ????


    Weapons and accessories - ????


    Skills- ????


    Inspite of seeing just question marks and not learning anything worthwhile, Leroy got a splitting headache. It was worse than migraine attack.


    "Told you to not use on high level beings. This is mildest punishment due to backlash because I held back other punishments. Now...want to try again? On something else perhaps?" Daaya was like a teacher who had repeated the same lesson hundredth time. It held no joy or sorrow. It was like she expected the adventurer to be stupid and burn his fingers.


    Daaya was not ruthless though, a wave of her hands and a healing skill dropped on him, bringing up to normal level. This time Leroy tried on other objects. A plant here, a flying insect there, a fruit on that tree, that flower on the vine, that insect crawling on the ground, that house far away....anything that caught his eye he checked. Farther the object, higher the difficulty. That''s what he found via experiment. He could see status of living and nonliving objects. The data did not always show completely. Many times, there were lots of question marks even when they were level 1.


    But good news was leveling this skill was pretty easy. It was already Tier zero, level zero (23/100) in the last few minutes.


    Next Daaya talked about classes and jobs. Classes were how you hunted and jobs were what you were in other times. FTG gave autonomy to the players to try to their heart''s content. One of the famous catchlines used in marketing the game.


    As this was tutorial island, he had to try all classes and jobs. But before that, he had to condition his body. Which meant exercises. With and without weapons of all kind. Daaya did not go easy on him and made him to try and practice all types of weapons. It was not routine single handed sword, double handed sword, daggers and shields. No, no, he was to get adapted to others like sabers, spears, lances, poles, halberd, axes, whips and more.


    For magic side, he was made to read and learn the theories of various kinds of magic. He was made to meditate, focus, concentrate and disperse energies.


    If that was not enough, just to build up the stamina , he was made to try all the jobs. Be it a boring forager or gatherer or money burning jobs like forging, smithing, potion making, enchanting or special categories like mechanic, builder, architect, appraiser etc.


    Just getting ready took nearly a month of game time for Leroy. Then....he found that what he practiced was truly just a warm up. In the tutorial island, all the skills were free. But apart from basic skills which could be mastered in an instant, higher level or higher tier skills had to be learnt. So if a thief could learn level zero skill - shadow meld as soon as he used the skill orb, he had to learn and practice for a long time to get the better skill like Stealth or Vanish, even after absorbing the skill orb.


    Guess how long this phase took? Leroy Fletcher, the self proclaimed genius, the one who did not believe in revisions and yet ranking second, broke down completely in the tutorial island. In later stages, he got out of gaming pod just to fulfill daily needs and get some sustenance. Other than Daaya, there was not a single soul in the whole island that Leroy could chat and pass time. The lady herself would vanish after ordering him to do set of things. After Leroy had suffered due to non-completion of the tasks, he had followed the orders to the T. This was not playing and wasting time. This was h*ll mode tutorial.