Next Project

Sitting down and listening to the Asgardian's reason for their arrival, Fury didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Even with all his years of experience, he could just barely manage to keep a straight face.

On one hand, he found it deeply worrying how their supposed 'protector' from intergalactic threats was so easily misled. While on the other, he found it hilarious and was inwardly relieved that these so called 'gods' were nowhere close to infallible. It certainly gave him more room to work with should they ever become at odds with Earth.

After sharing a glance with Hill, and noticing the ill-concealed mirth within her eyes, Fury turned back to their still solemn guests and explained to them what was actually happening on 'Midgard'. While doing so, he was secretly glad that the helicarrier had cameras everywhere, as footage of the exchange would serve well as some much needed leverage against a future king of Asgard, should it ever be needed.

Unfortunately, Fury's amusement was short-lived once he learned of the group's current lack of means to return home.

Thankfully however, he had an assistant fully capable of delegating this sort of thing to, so he passed them over to Hill. After informing her to integrate the four warriors with SHIELD teams and to invite the Prince into the Avengers Initiative, the director took his leave while under the woman's resentful stare.

As he returned to his office, Fury sighed and slumped back into his chair while rubbing his temples in thought, 'First ASTIR's potential for mind control throws the Council into a fit, then some stranded Asgardians fall on my doorstep, this week could not get any worse.'

Gazing at the blinking notification on his desktop screens, the tired man finally cracked a small smile and let out a sigh of relief, 'At least Selvig is making good progress with the cube. With this, the Council should have less to worry about and can finally get off my back for a while.'

After thinking over the matter some more, he issued orders to have Barton transferred to provide extra security for the doctor. His work was far too important and besides, the archer wasn't pulling his weight in the VR missions anyways.

With him there, at least Fury no longer needed to worry about something happening to the old man anytime soon…

•••••••••••

While the Marvel Universe was currently delving into his latest creation in droves, James was already hard at work on the next title.

After seeing how enthralled the people were with just a basic VR experience, he was even more inclined to get Full Dive into their hands as soon as possible. For that however, they needed the technology to facilitate such an endeavor.

Based on Queen's analysis of the MCU's advancement in this field, it was predicted that they would just barely meet the minimum requirements to access Full Dive in roughly 10-15 years. While this speed would've been mind blowing in his old world, James was unsatisfied with waiting so long.

Left with no other choice, he stopped his perusal of the various players and got back to the figurative drawing board. He could only hope that by completing the system's tutorial quests, a solution would come to him.

"You're only creating one game-world for players to enter without Full Dive?" Queen asked from over his shoulder. "And it's the third one at that?"

James sighed, but continued his work and replied without turning around, "You have my memories, I only played the last one. I'm going to create this world based off a combination of the books and that game, and use Reality Synch to fill in the gaps."

The AI nodded at the logic, but was still confused as to why it was even necessary, "But why this franchise in particular? I know you want to add in the fantasy genre after just finishing sci-fi, but you could easily make Skyrim, God of War, any FromSoft title, or even Zelda, and fully complete the world on your own."

"Hah," James laughed, "I have plans for just about all those games you just mentioned and they involve Full Dive for the vast majority of them."

He finally turned around to face his AI, "In the future, I plan to have most titles be solely playable within Full Dive. These first few will be rare exceptions going forward, just the most flavorful appetizers to draw people in.

The reason I chose this title specifically, despite the fact that it's one of my most played of all time, is because it's a fully complete game that can stand on its own without its prequels, yet it will leave the audience desperately wanting more."

Turning back to his work, he continued explaining, "Pokémon was the hook that caught the hearts of people of all ages. Halo is the bait that will entice their minds and fill them with greed for the knowledge that it contains. While this title… this one will be the line that fully reels them into our grasp.

After completing this game, the third tutorial mission will be fulfilled and I get the feeling that the reward will allow us to get people into Full Dive far earlier than we'd hoped.

If that's indeed the case, then before we release the third world, we'll hold another tournament in Halo's multiplayer, with the prize being the distribution rights to the Full Dive tech we provide in both their world and all future worlds that will one day be linked to us."

Queen raised her digital brows in surprise at the revelations. Despite having all of her creator's memories from before he'd died, their thought processes were naturally quite different, James hadn't wanted a clone after all.

"But what if the system doesn't give us the tech needed for Full Dive after this game?" Queen asked. Though impressed with her master's foresight, she did however have a few questions regarding its practicality. "And what is someone like Hydra manages to win the tournament? You did screw them over quite thoroughly last time."

James sighed, "If we don't get it, we don't get it. I'll just keep creating new worlds until we do. The system previously mentioned a [Shop], I have to believe that it contains the means to get people into our VR. After all, what would happen if we linked to a world with no modern technology? I don't believe that we just wouldn't be able to spread our influence to them, it would contradict the system's very purpose."

He glanced back, noticed her nodding in agreement and shrugged, "And so what if Hydra wins the tournament? Last time was just on a whim, I won't blatantly ruin our reputation just to spite a faction in a single reality."

The man heard a very unladylike snort at the specific wording, and knew she'd caught on with the words she left him with," I guess we'll just have to hope Tony Stark isn't bad with a BR…"