Overpowered: A LitRPG Thriller (Kings and Conquests Book 1) Read online

  “Zero.”

  “Can you please explain why so everyone will understand?”

  “Legally, if I give money to you, it’s a gift. You are obligated to do absolutely nothing. This is doubly true if I am giving you money in exchange for you building some kind of speculative project like a video game. I have no legal recourse at all if the project fails. I am issued no stock, no ownership documents and there is no contract. Even if there were, force majeure would absolve you legally and since everyone in this room is sitting behind about 11 corporate entities, by the time Joe the video game fan unravels the legal taffy wad, some mail drop in Nevada will be dealing with the paperwork anyway.”

  “How do you know all that?”

  “I’m a member of the California Bar.”

  “Where did you graduate law school?”

  “UCLA.”

  “Did everyone get that? If you need it in writing, Chuck’s crack staff will draft something this afternoon.”

  “Garrett, we can’t just do a pat answer like this. We’re talking about a ten million dollar project now. There’s more to this than just a bunch of guys in a garage.”

  “The fact we’re doing so well is precisely why we can’t allow what might happen someday to affect our ambition today, Janice. Now, let’s move on to the ten features.”

  “How long did you reserve the room for?” one of the senior developers quipped. Some of the attendees chuckled. The room darkened and the projector filled one wall with an enormous image of the sword-and-shield Kings and Conquests logo. The word “balance” appeared in the center of the screen. Then a red line crossed it out and a red circle appeared around it. Wyland turned and faced the meeting.

  “Hit me.”

  “What does that mean?” Brody asked.

  “KNC will not be balanced. Balance is boring. Balance kills fun.” Wyland replied.

  “So, what are we going to do? Make it imbalanced?” audio engineer Tyler Briscoe asked.

  “Absolutely. This game is going to be hilariously imbalanced. I don’t want players to know what’s going to happen from one minute to the next. Balance is a prison, and I’m not going to waste capital paying a bunch of code monkeys to sit and adjust a spreadsheet day and night for ten years.”

  “You’re deliberately trying to provoke an argument, aren’t you?” the same investor asked. “Players will go nuts if they think they are being picked on. They’ll claim they aren’t getting what other players get.”

  “We’ve already discussed annoying the Internet. There is no better advertising in the world than a bunch of highly motivated complainers, especially Internet people. In fact, we should buy them all webcams and let them spit and hiss and pound the table on Videowall day and night. The more they huff and puff, the higher our subscriber rates go.”

  “That could backfire.”

  “Good. The more complainers, the better. If we get a thousand of them I’ll throw them a party at the Chestnut.”

  The investor shook his head. “Look,” Wyland continued. “I know it’s risky. In fact it could be reckless, but I’ve seen what happens to the companies that play it safe. They plod along, one sleepy step ahead of their burn rate, just trying to get to release day without being overcome by the wolves. That’s not Fairly Unusual. We’re going to walk out on stage birthday party naked, grab a microphone and start singing ‘America the Beautiful’ with the wrong lyrics, because the louder the audience shouts and the more they shake their fists, the more TV cameras will get pointed in our direction. And TV cameras equal sales.”

  “Then with all due respect, who buys our game?”

  “Everyone. I will personally award a brand new Sovereign 7GL 650-horsepower Gullwing to the first player to reach max level in Kings and Conquests.”

  Silence.

  “A two million dollar supercar? Most games would produce a winner in a few months,” Brody said.

  “The first guy to get to level 3 will be one of the most famous players in the game, and he’ll be too scared to leave the Inn,” Wyland replied. “Death is permanent in KNC. You die, you start over. You die, your subscription cost goes up. You die, you don’t get your stuff back unless you’re the first to find the body, you have the right skills and you escape alive. A lot of the creatures in our game will be well aware of the potential for regular delivery of hot meals near a corpse. Assuming they don’t just eat the corpse and throw all your stuff over a cliff first.”

  “What’s our max level?”

  “Seventy-five.”

  “And you think people have the patience for this?”

  “They’ll attack it like Norse warlords, and KNC will reward them by beating them senseless over and over again. They will squeeze that water skin for the last drop of even the slightest taste of victory.”

  “What keeps them from getting frustrated?”

  “Nothing. I hope they get frustrated. I hope they rage against every injustice in the game, because we will have an endless supply. That will motivate them to keep playing.”

  “They’ll give up.”

  “If they give up, then for them, the game is over. Then they can run to the Internet and broadcast to the world how much of a loser they are.”

  “Mr. Wyland, forgive me for my ignorance. I’m not as familiar with gaming culture as you are.” Eduardo Catalan was a senior representative from the Ponferrada Group. His Spanish accent was still rather thick, despite the fact he had been assigned to his hedge fund’s North American offices for many years. “Isn’t the business model here one of rewards for continued play?”

  “Let me ask you a question, Mr. Catalan. What is the difference between a game that takes a subscription fee and rewards you with easy-to-obtain treasure and a vending machine?”

  “I think the metaphor you would prefer would be a slot machine, Mr. Wyland,” Catalan replied.

  “That’s even better. A slot machine is a mechanism that pits a casino against a player to see who runs out of money first.”

  “Then should we not be looking for ways to make our game a pleasant experience?”

  “Absolutely. I think exhilaration is pleasant, and I think a lot of our players would agree. Wouldn’t you?”

  “I’ve never played video games much.”

  “Mr. Catalan, the most thrilling moment in Kings and Conquests will be when you and your fellow level two players barely make it back to town on a rainy, lightning-flashing night with the ass in your pants missing.”

  The room roared with laughter. Even Mr. Catalan’s face broke into a smile as he shook his head.

  “That’s the experience I want to get across. I want players to be continuously aware the world in our game is unsafe. That will set KNC apart from the theme park simulators it will be competing against. I want the prospect of sundown in our game to scare people to the point where they don’t want to visit the next room in their own in-game house. Meanwhile, there will be a rather lucrative achievement for the most spectacular in-game death.”

  “There’s always some genius out there who will have it all figured out in a week,” Janice said with a smirk.

  “Good. Kings and Conquests will pose one and only one question to Captain Video Game and his team of finger-twitching geniuses: You think you can you beat the system? Because in this game, the system beats back.”

  The Pub

  MALIBU, CALIFORNIA – Southern California developer Fairly Unusual Games today announced the opening of their brand new worldwide corporate headquarters. Company spokesperson Jacob Brewer explained the completion of a state-of-the-art seaside office perched along Pacific Coast Highway overlooking world-famous Zuma Beach had been accelerated to help the company complete its first retail game.

  Mr. Brewer also announced the company’s crash preparations for the upcoming GamesWest Supercon, where it is expected they will present players and the media with a first look at their ambitious debut title, Kings and Conquests.

  Fairly Unusual made history only last week, becoming the
first developer to raise $125 million in crowdfunding revenue. More than 85,000 people have participated in what CEO Garrett Wyland is calling “the ultimate gathering of heroes.”

  Chapter Three

  Jordan and his own team of video game enthusiasts looked for all the world like a band of solicitors for a local charity. That, or the fan club for an indie rock group. Each wore a black t-shirt sporting the ad-hoc No-Name Games channel logo and each carried at least one mobile device. The rest of their accessories were optional. There were sunglasses, strange hats, plush toys attached to shoulders, masks of not-so-famous film characters and bags. Lots of bags. Conventions required containers so there was some convenient way to get the loot home.

  “I can’t believe they’re doing this. They must be at least ten years away from a beta,” Jordan said as he struggled with the tangle of GamesWest Wi-Fi login screens and payment options. “I also can’t believe this place is going to charge us money for Internet.”

  “It’s worth it, man,” Robb Doncem replied, hefting his backpack full of unfoldable media gear. “Forty megabits up and down. It’s a remote broadcasting dream. We’ll make back what we spend in 30 minutes, especially if the interview with your new girlfriend you were promised materializes.”

  “Jordan has a girlfriend now?” Amy Davies teased. She was outfitted in what everyone else in the group called her “anime armor.” The hat, hockey jersey, yoga pants, legwarmers, high-top athletic shoes, belt and wristbands all sported high-quality custom airbrushed scenes from the most popular anime films and television series over the last fifteen years. Only her glasses were plain. She looked like a walking commercial for the Cartoon Channel. “How come I haven’t heard that story yet?”

  “Oh, she’s more than that,” Robb replied. “She is the princess of corporate-land. Hotter than the asphalt in the Tropicana parking lot with a voice you have to hear to believe. She told Captain Energy Drink if he made it to GamesWest she’d give him fifteen minutes and a press pack. I took that as a definite romantic advance, but this guy wants to be a gentleman for some reason.” Robb powered along about three steps behind the group, turning sideways to get between the cars.

  “ooOOOoooh!” Amy wouldn’t quit. “So THAT’s why we spent all this money.” Jordan’s other two companions were Dave Houser and Marc Darnell. One was wearing an enormous set of headphones blasting cinematic film scores and wouldn’t have heard a four-prop cargo plane fly over at an altitude of 100 feet. The other was texting and only avoided traffic and obstacles by watching which direction his companions’ shadows moved.

  It was a predictably sunny day in springtime California. As most residents knew, the weather hadn’t changed significantly since L.A. hosted the Olympics, and being this close to the ocean made even pristine sunny days look better.

  To say the parking lots around the Jet Center were crowded would have invited dirty looks. GamesWest was the premier industry convention for all flavors of games from mobile devices to consoles to the board variety. It was the only west coast convention that welcomed both the general public and the media, and with more than 200 developers and 60 publishers on hand, it was the place to be if you were either announcing a new title or ready to buy one. According to the most recent breathless game media predictions, more than 300,000 people were expected to attend over the four day schedule. The majority were presumably on-hand to try and get a glimpse of the center-ring event.

  The No-Name Games team reached the human wave that presumably formed the trailing edge of the “line” to reach the admittance desks. It was much more like a tremendous wedge of people which extended from one end of the spacious main entrance sidewalk to the other.

  The Jet Center seated as many as 28,000 for major league sports events and had three full-service convention facilities housed under one roof. GamesWest filled all three and covered the entire 18-acre back parking lot as well. A six-story inflatable alien from a popular mobile game title towered over the merchants expo in the enclosed west parking lot and was visible from four major Los Angeles freeways. News helicopters circled. All the attendees were waiting for their paid admittance passes in the east parking area, which extended to an area equaling almost 20 football fields around the futuristic white-roofed complex.

  People at the back of the “line” were alternating their attention between their mobile devices and the enormous animated LED board at the main parking entrance. The announcements on the board were ostensibly the most up-to-date information available, and the entire 11-minute cycle of soundless commercials was devoted to GamesWest. Smiling faces of some of the celebrities scheduled to attend appeared one after the other complete with their panel times and locations inside the venue. A few of the guests elicited occasional cheers from various quarters of the crowd. Every street within a half mile was crammed with bumper to bumper cars, trucks, motorcycles and air conditioning, which didn’t surprise any of the Southern California natives. They certainly didn’t need a game convention to generate traffic.

  “Show Street” was the colloquial name for the three covered lanes of traffic directly in front of the convention center entrance. Several idling limousines were parked at curbside. The rest of the available space was taken up by various high-end taxis and mobile-app-summoned ride services. Naturally, Jordan thought this would be a perfect place for the first episode of his convention streaming event.

  Robb expertly produced a camera and a portable light, and the host started his live broadcast with “Hello, No-Name fans! Jordan here standing outside the entrance on day one of the GamesWest Supercon. We–”

  A combination of a synchronized gasp and a low roar went up from the opposite side of the crowd. It was loud enough to cause everyone to turn and look. The No-Name audience was treated to a spectacular HD view of the sidewalk and several pairs of feet moving to and fro. The audio blanked in and out with pops, wind noises and general confusion until someone shouted “That’s him!”

  By the time any of Jordan’s group got to a position where they could see anything, a red carpet at least thirty feet on a side had been unrolled along the semi-circular edge of Show Street. Four fairly large gentlemen dressed in matching black suits were stationed at the corners. It wasn’t until another roar went up that Jordan realized this might be the first event of the four-day weekend.

  From behind the row of cabs, a sleek black vehicle rolled around a traffic cone and up on the sidewalk. A few were able to recognize it as next model year’s Sovereign sports coupe. Even its headlights screamed high tech. From its surface and windows reflected every texture and feature of the Jet Center’s magnificent front entrance. Its wheels were bright silver and fitted with tires that were perhaps two inches thick from rims to street. It stopped on the red carpet. A soft light bathed the vehicle from above just before its driver-side gullwing door rose into the air. Out stepped Fairly Unusual CEO Garrett Wyland. He produced a microphone, and his amplified voice filled the air around the crowd.

  “Welcome to GamesWest!”

  The crowd roared.

  “I’d like to invite you all to attend our booth center-center in convention one. My staff will be glad to show you what we have to offer and a lucky few will get a chance to sit behind the wheel of our prize for the first max-level KNC player.” The noise got louder. “And I will see all of you at our presentation on night two on the main floor!”

  Another cheer responded. Wyland handed the microphone off and greeted the people in the crowd as he made his way to the entrance.

  Jordan had to admit, a game executive couldn’t have picked a better place or time for maximum publicity. There had to have been at least a half dozen live cameras on him.

  And it was with considerable relief he noticed Robb had caught the whole thing on the No-Name stream. That would certainly earn him and his team some accolades from a few dozen people whose only experience of this particular event would have to be through a screen of some kind, mobile or otherwise.

  “Robb, you are the man,�
�� he said enthusiastically. He hurried to at least try and reclaim his place in line.

  ***

  From the role-playing section on Famous Newz:

  “This is going to be the greatest game ever.”

  From the comment section on the Orbit’s Gamer Supercon coverage:

  “This game is going to suck the chrome off a 1956 Buick.”

  Chapter Four

  Robb Doncem looked like he was running for a touchdown in the “I’m a sports hero” dream sequence from a film about an unathletic geek who gets the girl at the end. He had a gourmet burger in one hand, the smallest of his three video cameras in the other, and at least two bags of souvenirs and licensed merchandise attached to his backpack which bounced and twisted as he chugged down food court lane.

  He was following Amy, Jordan and more than a few others who were caught unprepared during the day one lunch hour by the impromptu shouted announcement “KNC has a playable demo!”

  Robb was alternately saddened and deliriously happy. On the one hand, he had to abandon the twin gourmet pizza stands in the food court. One served Chicago style slices while the other specialized in New York style. They were arranged opposite each other along the causeway and done up in opposing motifs like the red and blue alien factions from a world-famous video game franchise, which only added to the appeal. There was a contest, naturally, to see which pizza stand sold the most. The discerning GamesWest attendee discovered there were at least two, and possibly more all-you-can-eat promotions going at random intervals as well, which only guaranteed crowds would be migrating from their hotel rooms to the convention floor at all hours for the entire four-day schedule.

  But nothing could compete with the possibility of a playable demo of Kings and Conquests. For one thing, the game hadn’t been in development long enough for anyone to expect a playable demo. There shouldn’t be anything even remotely working yet, but for the true believers, expectations had been shattered so many times by this point, nobody knew what was going on from one minute to the next. None of it stopped the entire population of the convention center from bouncing off the walls trying to see what all the excitement was about.