006 King of the Underworld?

At first James did not think much of playing [Broken Chains]. His original plan was just to relax in the game like his father wanted him to. If everything went as his father predicted, with the help f the relic, all he had to do was to simply play the game to slowly gain the ability to use his limbs. He planned to just relax and take things nice and slow try out everything the game had to offer. Things such as fishing, enjoying the game's food, crafting, running his own little shop, and maybe dive into the world's lore.

However, the more he researched the more he became frustrated. At first he was just reading the official game release information. Then he moved to the unofficial game leaks that were released today. He got a headache the more he read. This game is far more then he ever imaged.

The game developers really went for immersion. For example, if you wanted to learn how to blacksmith you couldn't simply pick up a hammer and start smacking a hot ingot. You had to follow diagrams, blueprints, and manually control what you were doing. There were no automated systems at all!

Every other life skill followed the same pattern. To be an alchemist you had to learn the correct proportions of ingredients! Just because you have a stock of a particular herb doesn't mean you use the whole thing. You had to take time to figure out the correct amounts of every ingredient you had add to your cauldron. So on and so forth!

By his observation, if you can successfully learn an occupation you would strike it rich! Since it took actual knowledge and skill to create things in the game that would mean there would be fewer competitors and thus more room for profit.

There did not seem to be a limit to the number of life skilling occupations one could take. The only limitation would be your knowledge and skill level. It would be foolish for an average person to try to take on multiple occupations at once. It would be better try to master one then be a jack of all trades.

James started to worry about the game's combat. "I wonder how they manage their combat system, is there a system in place or do you need actual experience or the ability to learn like their life occupations? If that is the case I might not be able to fight and be stuck in town unless I can pay for escorts from place to place."

Knowing that he had no motor function since birth he feared he would not be able to actually fight. He knew moving around would be a foreign process to him. He had no clue just how long it would take him to get used to moving around on his own. He felt that he could definitely handle the basic movements for life occupations. However, if the combat system required him to move quickly and have a large range of motion he would be in trouble.

Research! More research! He only had a day until the game released. He must find more about the combat classes.

He continued his research. He needed to find a class that would not require much movement. The less movement the better the odds of him being successful. He quickly found the company's announcements for their combat classes.

Overall there are three different routes a player can go. The first being the path of the warrior; they fought in the front lines. The second path being rouges; they could fight in all ranges. They could be stealthy assassins or master's of archery. The final path is that of the mage. They wielded arcane power and could control the elements.

He gave a lot of thought in what path he should follow. Based on what he found the paths were not linear. You picked a path then choose your actual combat class. An example is that if you go down the warrior path you got to choose between the [Guardian], [Brawler], [Skirmisher], and [Sword Master] classes.

The Guardian class wielded shields and long swords. They were in charge of tanking and defending the back-line classes. Brawlers fought with various fist weapons. Skirmishers fought with weapons that required dexterity to use like rapiers and scimitars; they could also duel wield their weapons. Then finally, the Sword Master could use a wide range of one or two-handed swords.

James pretty much ruled out the warrior path. There was no way he was going to be able to manage defending against attacks or handle intense face to face combat.

He moved to looking at the rouge classes. There was an assassin class which specialized in hit and run tactics. They could jump in and out of invisibility to ambush their prey. Then there was the Archer. They could use all kinds of different bows and crossbows. They focused on locking down their enemies from a far and going for distance kills.

James was first interested in the Archer class. It would let him be able to fight from a safe position. His only concern was the potential strength requirement. There was no word if your personal physique factored into your starting stats. Since he was unable to use him limbs he had no muscular strength and would be extremely weak. He would have to overcome a large hurdle right off the get go.

The last path was the one he was most interested in. From what he found being a Mage is his calling. They need a lot of intelligence to efficiently use spells. He knew he was gifted when it came to his intellect and felt like using spells would not be too hard for him. Mages also got to fight from a distance. They could rain down large area of effect (AOE) attacks or single target heavy hitters.

The mage path seemed to have the most classes. There was the a mage class for each element, earth, water, fire, and wind. Then there were the support classes such as priest and priestess. He had plenty to pick from.

He almost made his decision. He was torn between some of the elemental mages. He wanted to try to find out if any of them also had support skills rather then just offensive abilities. He assumes that he will be playing solo so he wanted to be somewhat self-sufficient.

He spent hours on his research. He completely lost track of time. When he finally looked at the clock it was 4 a.m.

He has been sleep deprived for a while now. The death of his family really hurt his day to day actions. He lost sleep and did not feel like eating. He decided never to fall to such a state again. He almost squandered what his family left him by hitting rock bottom.

He closed his eyes and fell a sleep.

...

Else where in the lab was a conference room. Two men were sitting across from one another. One with a friendly smile and the other a serious face.

"Sebastian, why did you call me here?"

"Cain, I have a request. I know that after you finished your last job you guys went into retirement but I have a request."

"A request? Do you want my comrades and I to come out of retirement already. It has not even been a weak. Did you find more potential enemies that the Rhodes left behind?"

"No. No enemies but something else."

Cain was depressed but continued listening.

"I wish you to play [Broke Chains]."

"What? You want us, a group of elite assassins, to play a video game? Is that a joke?"

"No not at all. While in the game you all can continue being assassins if you so wish. You get to be safe while preforming the art you perfected, all while keeping rust away. I know adapting to normal life is challenging to your team."

Sebastian continued, "I will be blunt. I want you and your team to keep an eye on James while he is in the game. I do not want you to approach him but keep in the shadows just like what you all did outside the game."

"You want us to baby sit James? John had us do the same but it was different since he could have really died. In video games he would just respawn so why would we need to protect him from the shadows?"

"I think you miss understand. I do not want your to completely baby sit him. I just want progress reports of what he does in game. Sarah and I are both too busy either running the lab or running the business to play. On top of that I want you to develop a powerful organization in the shadows of the game."

"Oh? I am guessing Sarah does not know about this. After all, you did leave her out of this meeting. Won't she be mad if she found out?"

Sebastian was quite for a while cursing Cains perception. "Well.. Ah.. Yes she has no clue and I would like it to stay that way. That is why I want you to work from the shadows. It is also why I do not want you to actively protect him. Even though she should be busy running the company I would bet she will sneak off to play the game from time to time."

Cain took some time to think things over. They both stood in silence for a long time. The atmosphere turned a little awkward.

Finally breaking the silence, "What is in it for us. We followed John due to what he did for us. If James requested this himself we would do it unconditionally."

"Your compensation would be what you make of your time in the game."

"You're kidding right? What kind of joke is that?"

"I am not kidding at all. You can fight to your hearts content. Your Black Death can become a very strong underworld organization. I know you all favor positions of power. You still instill fear into your enemies even in retirement. You can do the same for those playing the game. You can position yourself in the center of the underworld and control people behind the scenes. Is that not what you desire?"

As if Cain was listening to the whisper of the devil he was slowly getting convinced about joining the game. He was thinking that Sebastian was correct. His brothers and himself loved to be feared; it made them feel revered. Everyone was quickly growing bored of their civilian lives it was only time before they returned to being assassins own their own.

Seeing that Cain took the bait Sebastian continued to seduce Cain, "You know... the game has real world trading. You can convert in-game currency into money here in the real world. You know what kind of money people in the underworld can earn. This time John won't be limiting your actions."

Hook, line, and sinker. Cain was fully convinced. His brothers and himself had complete freedom when John was still alive. The only limitation was that John did not let them take Hitman jobs. He only wanted them to kill targets he provided. To make up for it he paid a kings ransom.

"I cannot give you an answer on my brother's behalf. I can give you mine thought; I will play. You will get your reports when I get the time." Cain laughed, "After all you know a man of the underworld can get busy."

After agreeing with Sebastian he left the room leaving Sebastian only with this thoughts. All he could do now was wait.

Not even thirty minutes passed when Sebastian received a call. It was short and to the point. "We are in."

"Good you guys won't regret it. Room B-6, you will find a surprise there. I am sure you will become the King of the Shadows"

Sebastian was pleased and hung up the phone. He had a strong feeling that they would be interested so he prepared 10 gaming capsules for them.