In a computer lab of one of the adjacent spire shaped skyscrapers, an older thin man, short in stature with pale skin, and wearing glasses like Geordi La Forge stands intently over another man’s shoulder quizzically, “how’s the coding going Jin?”

  “Well sir, the AI program seems to be running optimally, all systems are function at full capacity, and the network is online. We don’t seem to have any lag complaints from any players and the Chief is still in there.” The man in front of the consol, Jin, wipes a bead of sweat from his brow.

  “Really? How long has it been?” the shock kind of shallow in the thin man’s voice.

  “10 Hour’s sir, 25,010 if you include the BETA. He is our number one Tester. Speaking of…” Jin, cut off as if it were scheduled.

  “Winston! How goes it?” The voice of another man who had entered the room rang out. He had an air of overall confidence about him, his green and gold suit fit tightly against his muscles. A wide magnetic smile was spread across his caramel mocha face, while his hair fell in neat shoulder length locks. His name is Trey Ashentri a legacy Imagineer, and due to family circumstances, the current head of Renaissance Imagineering.

  “Well…” Before the thin older man, Winston, started.

  “The game plays great, and I can’t wait until it goes global.” Treys eyes gleamed like a child receiving the one thing on his Christmas list he wanted more than anything else. Then he continued “I’m glad we decided to go full release to beta testers! That was a brilliant call, Jin!” The compliment made Winston twinge a bit.

  As they were working through building the base of the game there was some debate on whether to do a soft release locally. The hope to turn Landis Falls into a cult classic could birthed exclusively out of their meta-cite, which was Winstons idea. Another group had a different idea though, and ultimately, they decided to go with that. It was an extreme test, by releasing the full game to all the Beta Testers without their knowledge, they were able to gauge the difficulty of the overall game and they were able to increase the games AI and development exponentially, a task that could have taken 5-10 years in a fraction of the time. This idea was put forth by Jin and the coding team, who were mostly imagineers, as like a competition for themselves and the games Ai they built. This man, Trey Ashentri, accepted the idea with a smile, while he frowned at Winstons suggestion.

  Jin Spoke up again “1 hour and counting sir.”

  “Beautiful” Trey nods to Jin in appreciation then turns to the other man. “Winston this is going to revolutionize gaming, and I get to be right there with everyone playing something that I helped build… Beautiful!” Trey’s Grandfather had started Renaissance Imagineering and when he passed, he had left it to him with the blueprints for his last game, one he designed for they system Trey created F.R.C.T.S. when he was a child, a bit on a whim, while tinkering in his father’s workshop.

  There was a haze in Trey’s eyes as seemingly drifts off in a memory, which annoys Winston so he turns on his heel flustered muttering as he goes. “Just you wait I have a surprise for you and all your stupid fans you selfish piece of shit…” There was an almost sinister aura surrounding Winston as he left; who knew what that little statement meant but there was a certain chill that remained in the room.

  Back in his office, Winston was sitting at his computer muttering to himself ‘how much time must he spend, away from running this damned company’… “Tracy!” He said while pressing a button on his desk.

  “Yessir, Mr. Molten, how can I help you?” a soft woman’s voice rang out through an invisible speaker in immediate response.

  “Bring me the number on sales from last quarter and do make it quick ‘He’ is supposed to be here any minute.” Winston dreaded these meetings, though he was an imagineer in namesake alone, all he really cared about was money, he loved to see the numbers go up. He had only gotten into that field due to the large monetary gains to be made. He was far less interested with the advancement of other people, as far as he was concerned, they were just piggie banks waiting to be broken open. Winston chose to be a part of Renaissance Imagineering because he Idolized old man Ashentri’s wealth, so much so he became Juniors best friend just to get closer.

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  “Yessir, right away sir” the woman answered. Tracy was a young woman in her early 20’s, she wasn’t too bright especially by the current societies’ standards, but that was surely not why Winston hired her. She was, for a lack of a better word, gorgeous, and she kind knew it, which was evident by her more provocative attire.

  Just as Tracy walks through the door files in hand, a hole in Winston’s office ceiling opens and down comes a pole that stops half way. ‘What the fuck is this shit?’ Winston mouths inaudibly. In the next moment his floor opens and up shoots another pole to meet the one that stopped in his office and then the floor closes. Winston’s eyes sharpened as the ‘he’ that he was referring to slid down the pole. “So excited to see you sir,” he said with cold dejection then continued “You always know how to make an entrance.”

  “So...” Ignoring Winston’s discontent Trey continued showing off his new toy like it is the single greatest thing on the planet. “I call it ‘the fall’ system.” There was a long awkward silence that was finally interrupted with an uneasy cough from Winston “the ‘fall’ system?”

  “Yeah man, ‘the fall’ system, it’s a temporary name, but honestly, I got the idea from fire fighters.” Trey shrugs and starts walking over to a high-end couch in the corner of the room.

  “Firefighters, really?”

  ‘Damnit, I bit’ Winston thought to himself.

  Trey caught onto Winstons discomfort and his eyes sharpened then he thought to himself ‘I’ll let you off the hook this time’ then proceeded “Well thus far it’s been completely safe and since I’m the only on that can use it currently no need to worry about the ole purse.” And then seamlessly changing the subject. “So, the game looks amazing…” then Trey hesitated, with this Winston raised a hand to try and signal he was busy, but Trey ignored him and continued.

  “Maybe our best work” The hesitation continued steadily in Trey’s voice. “Be yourself, be someone else, the only thing that matters… you are the best, or that’s how it used to be…” Winston was wondering why this normally boisterous man who had just slid down a pole into his office was getting on about, as he continued “This game demands a level of teamwork in order to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, we have a pro-level competitive combat system that relies on actual knowledge with the ability to learn and modify any technique. A system for millions of different possible story paths, thousands of different kinds of mobs, special mobs, world bosses, dungeons, raids, sports arenas, futuristic cities, ruins of the past, post-apocalyptic dessert, and the list goes on.” Trey stopped and sighed, his brow furrowed seriously for a moment and then he started again. “Winston I’m not going back in until a week after we are live… there is someone I want to meet there and I’m going as myself for my Avatar…”

  The shock on Winston’s face was visible or was it more irritation? “What? I thought you wanted to conceal your identity from other players, and be in there from the very first minute?!” Winston decried a slight choke in his throat.

  “I know I said that, but I don’t know, this game, it has to be played a certain way…” Trey starts to stand with a somber energy around him. “You wouldn’t understand, you love the business not the games.” With that statement Trey grabbed the pole in the middle of the office, with a smile he says to Winston “For now though let’s work on ‘the fall’ system, kay’ I have it securely programmed to go through our offices (slams had to fist) but I want to see if I can implement it throughout the entire building… It’ll be fun!”

  “Okay, sir, don’t you think this, *coughs ‘fail’* excuse me, ‘fall’ system”

  “’The fall’ system, just ‘fall’ implies there is no mechanic to it at all… What am I gonna have people just fall into giant air bags.” Starts laughing, then stops to think for a second, then starts shaking his head “yeah “’The fall’ system is much better”

  “What I was trying to say about ‘The fall’ system is that it feels like an insurance issue and for the sake of the business we can’t afford another one of those.”

  “Hey that last one was no my fault. When I said build a roller coaster over and around the building, I did not think we’d have to reinforce the structure of the whole building” he shrugged his shoulders, far from and idiot in fact flirting that fine line of genius and insanity, most things Trey did in excess were for the fun of it something he picked up from his grandfather. “Well, I’m going to go tell Roland! He’s going to love it!” The next moment Trey tapped three buttons on his wrist and the floor opened “Later Winston!”

  ‘Roland is 7 stories down… did he connect all the managers offices…’ The thought crept into Winston’s head then he went over to the hole and looked down. There the chief was two floors below already waiting for the floor to open again. And then another thought entered his head ‘bastard probably has the only remote to the whole thing’ then he called out to his secretary:

  “Tracy”

  “Yessir”

  “Did you know about this?”

  *flashback*

  “Hello there Miss Tracy, is Winston in?” Trey swaggered into the office with a huge smile on his face.

  “No sir, Mr. Ashentri, he is actually on vacation at Fracases Island”

  “Really? Wait, you can call me Trey.” Trey flashes Tracy a smile. “How long will he be gone?” His smile turned mischievous.

  “A week sir, he is off rotation, he said since you are always in the game you wouldn’t mind” she looks up very nervously, and then was shocked by the devious look on Chief Trey Ashentri face, for sure it did not instill confidence in whatever he was about to do.

  “This is actually excellent news I have such a surprise when he gets back!” he looks sharply at her “you don’t need to remember this or anything you may or may not see, and if he hears about it before I’m ready to reveal it consider your job forfeit” Whether he meant it or not she had no desire of chancing it anyways as he continued “this is just a rumor nothing more… Trust me it’ll be more fun this way” he winked at her and started walking away; “oh yeah, if you keep my secret your job is guaranteed.” With his right hand in his pocket, he gives her the ‘peace’ sign with his left hand and walks away.

  *Present*

  “Well, I heard a rumor, but I was told if you found out I would have been fired on the spot?”

  “W-What? Who the hell would tell you that?” Tracy turned quickly and hurriedly went back to her desk determined to keep her silence, and avoid the word belting she was about to hear from her boss.