2 A New Idea (2)
The mere mention of the name "Underneath" stirred excitement, anxiousness, and nervousness among the people present in the room. Some people were scared of clowns, some of heights or falling, some were scared of the eventual aspect of death. These people sitting in the room were not scared of any of that - not murder, not slaughter, nor the prospect of endless torture. What scared them was wasting their lives work, the Halbringer Organization, and having it fall down and crushed by the torrents of the world.
"How will this specifically impact our organization activities?" asked Titus. He was still confused about the "threat" that was mentioned. It was not like Underneath was the first virtual reality game that hit the open markets and introduced people to the new genre of gaming.
"You don't understand the magnitude of this project, Titus." said the muscular man. "The virtual games that we have seen in-flood the markets are like prototypes compared to the giant behemoth that is "Underneath". Although the virtual games are marketed as immersive, they impose heavy restrictions on what the player can do in the game, that is the sole reason all of the games are just single player based. The human being introduced in the game becomes an unrestricted variable that can, potentially, create an almost nigh-infinite amount of end results in the game. To make these game function, they have to restrict the majority of activities players can do. In most games, the player can only battle with a sword or a bow, follow a linear storyline and experience a limited amount of NPC interactions. However, this game offers the human player unlimited amount of choices like in real life. The players can do whatever they desire and the only limitation is their imagination. However, Titus, do you wanna know the most amazing yet the most frightening part of his game?"
Titus was astonished by these revelations. He was the head of the internal affairs department in Halbringer, so he had no need to know about children's game toy. However, even if unfamiliar with the topic, he could understand what this game could potentially influence. He gulped and asked, "What's the most frightening part of the game, Hinite?"
"This game is multiplayer."
Those four words shook tremors in Titus's mind. One could imagine what this meant. If the statement was true then it had the power to change the entire world's economic, social and psychological state. From what Hinite said, Titus could infer that the games, even if not that functional, were popular beyond belief. If there was a massive game that was vastly better than anything in the market and could be enjoyed by everybody, it would create imbalances in the entire world's system. This statement, coupled with Yama's mention of "threat", instantly brought Titus up to speed on what was going on. Without a second to waste, he asked Haizel, "How much money will the financial department lose?"
"The introduction of a virtual game that is that technologically advanced, can lead us to a lack of consumers. The introduction of a place where people can do anything with little consequence will reduce our gross yearly income from $48.9 billion dollars to a mere $2.4 billion. Our highest source of income are drugs and their sale will be the ones that will take the most impact." said Haizel calmly. He looked at everyone on the table and focused solely on Titus before asking him, "Do you know why people take drugs ?"
"Yes, like all things that mostly interest us, it's entire purpose is to escape from the clutches of reality! When you're on strong drugs you feel nothing! You couldn't care less if your best friend just got killed or if you've got people chasing you cause you're in thousands of dollars in debt. All your body craves for is a hit, and you'd do anything for it. Because that state of no feeling, the state of being numb is fascinating and wonderful." said Titus.
"Yes and when you already have a strong state of escapism like this virtual world, our sales are going to take a hit. This is the same with prostitution as the player's lust can be stated inside the game. Slavery is also going to suffer as there is no need for excess labor as virtual reality will become more prominent than the real world. Fewer people living in this world means that fewer people need to do laborious work to make it as habitable as needed. Coiled is also going to suffer as they will not be lent anymore as wars and battles are going to be simulated and the winner will conquer the loser's countr-"
"Is that the reason for the United World to make the virtual world?" asked Hinite
"The devastating results of the Highlander War brought chaos and destruction like never seen before and it crippled the world of its ten years of development. Ultimately, this helped Halbringer soar to its heights but it was devastating for everyone else involved. We infer that one of the reasons that the virtual world was created was to simulate a virtual war by counting the resources available for the country and finding a definite winner without the risk of people dying. However, the full reason still remains a mystery." answered Hunt
"How can this game be so technically advanced than all the others? Even if all the countries polled in their supercomputers to help, the quantitative difference should not result in this much qualitative progression," asked Titus
"From what information we have gathered, this "project" of the United World has been in development for hundreds of years. We suspect that the virtual consoles that we see today are actually early stages of the final project put out for the experiment." said Hunt
"How can the United World keep this information from us for a long period of time?. Our information network is not as advanced as we'd like to be, it's still really very reliable. How can we not have caught on quickly?" asked Titus
"Don't blame Grandpa Hunt for that, Titus," said Yama. "The sole reason our information couldn't catch this news was that, from what we have gathered, it was only composed of a 10-member team and they resided in remote locations that were highly secured. The 10-membered teamed code-named "Source" were humanity's most intelligent and brilliant minds at the time and were skilled in engineering, science and many dissimilar subjects. They eventually succeeded in making an artificial intelligence that, through the entirety of the 9 decades, made a better version of self and he kept on repeating the cycle to make itself become faster and stronger than before. The original members of the Source died off, however, the AI went through its evolutionary phase to be able to simulate and process the nigh-infinite amount of variables, enabling it to create Underneath. The whole process of making itself better was in an underground facility and only the top people of the UW had access to that knowledge." The information had been a shock to him as well. The development of AI was already a landmark in human history and yet it was concealed and hidden without anyone knowing better.
"So how did we learn about this information now, when we were in the dark for a full century and didn't have a clue about it," asked Titus
Hunt coughed and with a smirk, started to explain," Lady luck was on our side this time. We accidentally found the general manager of the team that was responsible for the balance checks of the game through our interrogation. He was spotted in our radar when he owed quite a bit of money to our casino firms, we checked his bank account and he was practically broke. We wanted to make a slave contract with him for the credit he owed us, but unexpectedly he came to us with the money he owed. With suspicion, we tried to find a source that gave him the money and after a lot of misconceptions and misdirections later, we found the person giving him the money to be a WN employee. This raised more suspicion on the person and we started to follow him. After a couple of days, the only suspicious about him was that he went to work at Hybrid Co.D building as a janitor. He had 3 PhDs in science and mathematics and even if he couldn't find a job suited to his field, he still had the ability to get a better job compared to a lowly janitor. So we followed him and eventually covered this truth of "Underneath". We got more in-depth information by kidnapping him and using his family as bait."
Hunt looked closely to the group before going on to further details. "The AI can easily handle this type of work, however, human personnel needed to be situated at this kind of job to make sure the AI would not act against the WN and would not skew the balance of the game as it was very important. The job may have been perfect but needed to be verified by human personnel. How ironic, they set this person-in-charge to make sure there were no problems but in the end, he was the root of all the trouble."
"Hmm...How fresh is the information?" asked Titus
"Four hours, maybe five hours at maximum. After verifying the information, I quickly sent it to everyone here," said Hunt
"So, when is this game going to be released?" asked Titus
" Six months at earliest and eight at most. That's from what I've gathered from the information we have received."
"We have an early head start compared to our other rivals but we still needed to be cautious of this information spreading out," said Yama
"Okay, I understand. However, how are we going to get profit from this game? I understand that in-game currency is going to be lucrative at later stages, but the profits we will get will be miniscule compared to what we earn today. We would be better off investing in a constant business like water or agriculture. I understand why we need to move our focus on 'Underneath' as it's a big opportunity, but we can only get so much currency by farming and grinding in the game. However, how are going to earn the missing amount of profit in-game compared to real life? " asked Hinite
Yama nodded with Hinite's criticism. "Everybody, the key to our success in the game is going to be similar like Hinata said but at the same time, completely different. The end result of getting in-game currency is correct but the process of getting that amount of currency, compared to how everybody might imagine, is different. Not only will our in-game currency come at a constant rate, but it's also going to be in high quantity."
"How?" everybody asked at once. This matter concerned their life's work and their source of income.
"Simple, we are going to get the colossal amount of in-game currency by doing what we are doing right now. Monopolization of the underground world," said Yama sternly.
"Care to explain that further ?" asked Haizel
"The way is simple. We make in-game currency by having a monopoly over all the shady activities in the game. We just do, what we do best, and apply inside the virtual world. We will be in charge of all the drugs distributed, slaves sold and prostitutes used. We will become the first word that comes to people's mind when thinking of mass murders, selling illegal goods and stealing. We will specialize in contract killing, auctioning suspicious items and all other underground activities. This will lead us gaining a steady source of income in the virtual world just like we have in real life." said Yama with a devilish grin on his face.
"How do you expect this to work in a game? How can the concept of drugs even exist in the virtual world? Slave trading seems reasonable but how will prostitution work?" Hinite started asking question after questions
"Well Hinite, this can work in the game because it's THAT immersive, every possibility you can think of is possible in that game. 'Underneath' is open for every opportunity and we can do everything in the virtual world as we can in real life, with the addition of magic and other variables added. The concept of drugs is entirely possible because in the virtual world, all we have to do is make something addictive via alchemy and the virtual consoles will send the user into dopamine heaven. For the prostitution, we look for the players and NPCs hoping to make quick money or we could just blackmail them. Human nature desires pleasure and that never changes where it be in real life or the virtual one. As long as we use that to our advantage, we will be very successful in our plan." said Yama
"For now, let's just bring the scientist that was in charge of overseeing the balance of the game. He would be more appropriate to center all of your burning questions, especially concerning greater species and lesser creatures that are yet to come." said Yama smiling " Grandpa Hunt, care to do the honors?"
" Hohoho. No problem, kiddo." grinned Hunt
