ă€ŠOperation Heathrowă€‹


 Chapter 1: Monseigneur Tanking

    "Remember, everyone, next week is the race to world first. I took the week off from work for this, so we need to make it count, especially since the main guilds to watch out for are subsidized and we aren''t!" Karine, the raid leader of the prime team of the guild Death Fiscalists, yells in the guild''s Discord voice server for the game MAA.(Massacre ¨¤ l''Alcool)

    "Speaking of which, even in fatal mode (the highest), there seems to be fights where you only need one tank, at least for the specs we run. Do you have a DPS character or spec you can use?" Ram, the guild''s other tank, asks her.

    "I could ask the same of you. I play bishop tank and DPS on an alcohol wizard into this tier"

    "As for me, I plan on tanking on a bard, and, if, for a given fight needing only one tank, melee is better than ranged, I guess I can play templar; it''s my best melee DPS spec"

    "We seem to be running two ranged, high-evasion tanks; are you sure it''s a good idea?" Francis, one of the guild''s healers, asks the two tanks. "As much as I would like to say not to obsess over healer numbers, sometimes picking the wrong tank spec can hurt"

    In MAA, every class can play all 3 roles. Its players tend to classify tank specs based on range and ability to take hits; for instance, bards and bishops are ranged high-evasion tanks because of their agility and ability to blind enemies respectively. However, they both pay the price for it under the form of being unable to wear better armor than their DPS specs.

    "How do bards and bishops differ in their play style?" a follower on Karine''s stream asks her, apparently new to MAA tanking.

    "Bards provide buffs to your team by music, and have a ginormous HP pool, while bishops debuff enemies, either by sleeping or blinding them, causing them to miss fairly often. But when you get hit as a bishop, you get hit like a truck, the same as if you were to take the hit on another priest spec" Karine explains on stream.

    And then comes talk about comparisons of tanking gameplay between games on her stream.

    "How does this game''s tanking gameplay compare to other games?" a new viewer asks Karine in her chat as she prepares to run a dungeon on her bishop, knowing that often people didn''t want to tank.

    "This game is a game where you actually have viable ranged tanks that rely on something other than just taking the hit. However, bishop is perhaps the most difficult ranged tank in the game, because you need to time buffs, debuffs and crowd control" Karine explains on air.

    A bad bishop player won''t pop the bright line, which blinds enemies crossing it, or target painting, which is a buff increasing critical hits for a few seconds, Karine thinks, while she invites players in-game from her chat to run a dungeon released this patch, complete with the bonus boss since it''s easy to miss due to the tendency of players to bum-rush dungeons.

    "Tonight, this run through fatal mode Upper Perseria is brought to you by Monseigneur Tanking!" Karine, known to the MAA streaming community under the name Monseigneur Tanking, announces to her followers before she starts running the dungeon with viewers watching her.

    As the party of one tank, three DPS and one healer, Saronium, wades through this labyrinthine upper city, the most impatient of the DPS can be tempted to pull a trash pack when Karine seems to be a little slow. When the resulting blob of trash mobs gets too big, she pops the high mass, which is a long-cooldown ability allowing a bishop to temporarily put masses of mobs to sleep within a certain area.

    "Monseigneur, it would be easier to fight the bonus boss if you kill that huge blob of mobs!" a viewer comments on chat.

    But Karine isn''t paying attention to the chat; she traces a bright line behind the party so that, when the mobs awaken, they can be blinded and then the DPS can mow them down the road.

    And yet, Karine and her viewers are in for an unpleasant surprise as soon as the mobs awaken and cross the bright line that blind the mobs. Even as they cross the bright line, the mobs crossing it in-game end up chanting something they never heard of in-game, not even in other dungeons released in this patch.

    "We won''t be silenced!" the newly awakened mobs start chanting.

    "Justice for Lower Perseria!" more mobs chant afterward, with some of these mobs having apparently lost relatives in Lower Perseria.

    A Lower Perseria that''s, in the game''s story, the dungeon taking place immediately before Upper Perseria.

    Yet, people in Karine''s chat start noticing that the mobs normally don''t chant these words when other players run the dungeon, in any difficulty, story, normal, brutal or fatal.

    "Mobs didn''t make these noises when I last ran it!" another viewer comments on Karine''s chat as the blob of mobs swells.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    But Karine and the other viewers running Upper Perseria with her in fatal mode are oblivious to the goings-on in Karine''s chat, as well as the goings-on among the mobs breathing down their characters'' necks in-game.

    When Karine reaches a sharp turn along the path leading to the dungeon''s first boss, she hopes her DPS can start raining down AOE attacks on the densely packed mobs as soon as they take the sharp turn.

    "Down with you..." a mob chants while eating a fragmentation grenade in the face.

    The mob eating the fragmentation grenade, thrown by the musketeer, couldn''t finish its sentence when the grenade detonates inside its body. The explosion throws shrapnel into the mostly blinded dense crowd of mobs. Which causes the mobs around the chanter to bleed to varying degrees. Much to the delight of the viewers, but to the chagrin of the upper city''s residents watching them die, unable to strike back.

    And, from there, the AOE attacks continue, with the alcohol wizard following up with an alcohol cloud, intoxicating the survivors. By then, Karine''s character casts a holy flare on the crowd, causing them to take damage but not to killing all of them outright just yet.

    Finally, the templar charges into the crowd, swings his sword widely and wildly, and mobs caught in the middle of it die, leaving blood in their wake. And a handful of surviving, but bleeding, mobs in the periphery. Which are then picked off before they reach the plaza of the first boss.

    Speaking of the first boss, the viewers on Karine''s stream watch as the templar struggles with that boss'' signature mechanic: the electrostatic hopscotch. They see the templar getting bounced around as he closes in on people with the same polarity as his.

    As for the bonus boss, which forces the party to take a different fork compared to the "optimal" route, past the second boss, they are about to fight the bonus boss in a tunnel.

    "For this boss, there are going to be two kinds of spider adds, the babies and the rogues; kill the babies first. At the start of the fight, the boss will summon every trash mob left alive up until this point" Karine explains the mechanics on voice for her followers to listen in. "And, of course, stay out of stupid"

    Right until the 20% mark, everything seems to proceed smoothly, especially since the DPS seem to be able to kill these spider adds in short order. However, it appears that, in fatal mode, a new mechanic comes into play at the 20% mark.

    Speaking of the extra fatal mode mechanic, even with the use of the bright line and the subsequent kiting of the boss, Karine''s character gets hit by the... all-wheel drive spider web.

    She keeps kiting the boss, in hopes that the web will eventually break, but not only that, she seems to be losing health faster than she expected while she keeps kiting and pulling the boss. Fatigue kicks in and her character''s movements slow down with every step. Yet, somehow, she collects adds along the way, making them attracted to her.

    However, the tank pulling the boss as if the tank was a draft horse, thanks to the all-wheel drive spider web, allows the boss to somehow compensate for its blindness and lacerate the nearly-immobile bishop, causing the tired character to bleed even more. And, even with self-healing, it doesn''t seem to help prevent her character''s death.

    Once the bonus boss dies, all 5 characters get some loot that upgrades the item in their weakest gear slot to the item level of their strongest gear slot, and they all get a crafting recipe for a cosmetic gear item.

    "Looks like bishops just aren''t very good against this place''s bonus boss..." Karine sighs.

    After the dungeon''s last boss, the Giant Garuda, dies, Karine explains what makes running the bonus bosses in fatal dungeons worthwhile, which is about loot that cannot be obtained from regular bosses.

    "Something just wasn''t right about what I heard from the mobs in this run tonight. I might need to run older dungeons and/or in different difficulty modes, but not tonight. Or have different players do so in my stead. Have a good night" Karine yawns, as she feels a little sleepy, and cuts the stream.

    It can''t be just some mere bug; even if it was a bug that''s triggered in specific conditions, the game would still need to play an audio file, and corrupted audio files don''t sound like this! I never heard the mobs saying anything other than Attack or Fire in this dungeon, Karine starts thinking about what just happened when she edits the clip so that she can upload it to YouTube. Maybe it''s some rogue dev inserting homebrew audio files they shouldn''t have...

    And she also sends in a bug report ticket to MAA''s devs, whom she simply refers to as "the manufacturer", with all the details of the bug, the abilities in use immediately before it happens, and all that.

    The resulting clip of funny MAA bugs lands on the game''s subreddit. Which rapidly gains memetic status and has heated fights taking place within the comments section, even when she asks, in her initial post, about whether it happened to them, where, and on which spec. It might be just a bug for now, which happens regularly early in new content''s life cycles, but the manufacturer has a number of bugs to fix this week, with a new patch to download in a day or two, or a hotfix even.

    When she sleeps that night, it appears that her character is attempting to communicate with her using magic. Once the magical channel opens, a ghostly figure with identical looks to Karine''s in-game character appears:

    "What you saw in Upper Perseria earlier today is just the beginning. For your safety, I beg you, stay away from Perseria when you next play MAA" the voice of Karine''s character is getting heard in her room, waking Karine up under the form of a ghostly woman wearing priestly robes.

    "Eeeeeeeeeeeeek!" Karine screams in horror upon seeing a specter of her main character waking her up. "I don''t recall you having the ability to speak to the outside world, or to project yourself in spectral form across worlds!" a confused Karine yells at the specter of her bishop character.

    "What your kind is doing to our world is, simply put, barbaric! They had us kill monsters, or other innocents, for sport, for their entertainment!" the specter screams at her in anger. "My world is on the verge of revolt, and you''re staying here doing nothing! Your kind has the power to make this stop!"

    I''m sure that specter is a figment of my imagination. It looks like my character, all right... but what this specter is saying is nothing like the manufacturer''s roadmap for the game! a visibly startled Karine struggles to fall asleep again, thinking she''s victim of hallucinations somehow.

 Chapter 2: Emergency Patch

    The following morning, before Karine leaves for her day job as a licensed insolvency trustee, or LIT, she awakens to an announcement from MAA''s manufacturer. The servers will be taken offline to deploy emergency patch 2.1a at 1 PM GMT. Patch notes will become available at that time.

    It has always been like this when new content patches are released for MAA: the manufacturer is always in a rush to get the most important bugs fixed in the first week of a content patch''s lifecycle, Karine sighs, while 1 PM GMT would mean, for her, 8 AM in her time zone. She then prays that the unrest will be quelled among the trash mobs in Upper Perseria upon returning to the game tonight.

    -----------------------------

    When 1 PM GMT arrives on Earth, in MAA''s world, on the other hand, Karine''s characters are having a conversation with other players'' characters about the alarm Karine''s bishop, Monseigneur, sounded last night. She is at a function at the Death Fiscalists'' guild hall, which is a lavish palace on a tropical island, lined with decorations of varying rarity.

    "Last night, I told... Karine, I think, about how what people from her world were making us do barbaric things we wouldn''t have otherwise" Monseigneur gossips about what she told Karine at night, in the presence of other characters played by Death Fiscalists.

    "Yeah, they made us endure what they call... wipes? Over and over" B¨¦teulle, Ram''s bard, sighs, while no player is currently online.

    "And some people in their world somehow see it fit to laugh at either us tanks or at healers when wipes happen. If only people in their world actually understood the plight of ours... I saw it myself in Upper Perseria" Monseigneur harangues the bard around the guild''s dinner table. "We risk everything for them, and that''s how they treat us?"

    Monseigneur then keeps talking about how some people patrolling Upper Perseria who, to the players'' eyes, are trash mobs, demanded the people responsible for what they deem to be the massacre of innocents in Lower Perseria to be brought to justice.

    Speaking of Perseria, its city council holds an emergency meeting, seeking to prevent the unrest among its residents from spreading any further.

    "Mr. Mayor, this is unacceptable: riots keep erupting in Upper Perseria as they demand retribution for the repeated massacres of innocents that took place in Lower Perseria!" a city councillor representing a district in Upper Perseria makes their case. "I fear irreparable damage might be done if nothing is done to prevent further riots, or the perpetrators of the massacres in Lower Perseria aren''t punished!"

    "I propose that the city be put under lockdown to prevent rioting from taking place, and to protect the residents from themselves!" the mayor of Perseria opens the city council meeting, knowing that the clock is ticking on them.

    The city council keeps debating various measures they feel could stem the wave of unrest among its residents, while the would-be rebels are ready to roll out measures of their own as they quietly slip out of the city for whereabouts unknown, hiding as a caravan of traveling merchants... for now.

    "I say we banish people affiliated with the rioters from this city!" a city councillor vehemently suggests a course of action.

    "By exiling people affiliated with the rioters, what''s not to say that they can''t spread the unrest elsewhere in the world? They will seek refuge in other city-states..." the mayor is concerned about the consequences of exiling the rioters and their sympathizers.

    "And turn the rest of the world against us?" another concerned city councillor yells. "Just don''t banish the rioter sympathizers!"

    "One last thing about lockdown: the only people authorized to enter or leave their homes are food merchants and guards! Those in favor of banishing the rioters..." the mayor signals.

    The mayor of Perseria counts three councillors in favor of banishing the rioters, and then four in favor of locking down the city to those not selling necessities or the city garrison.

    "By order of the mayor, all residents are ordered to remain in their homes until further notice, with the following exceptions..." the mayor announces to the city''s residents.

    And the city''s residents remain locked in their homes, but they are in for an unpleasant surprise when the servers come back up. Now that the players can play once again, the residents watch in horror parties traipse through the city, lower or upper, unopposed, with the guards too busy herding the residents.

    -----------------------------

    Once the game''s servers come back up, Ram decides to run Lower Perseria in fatal mode in an attempt to farm cosmetic recipes, in hopes of raising money for the Death Fiscalists'' race to world first through crafting cosmetics for sale, and then buy consumables such as runes, food and potions.

    MAA dungeons have 4 difficulties: story, the lowest is intended for solo play, normal, the next-highest is intended for leveling in groups of 5, and, while it doesn''t require a tank, it does require a healer for a queue to pop. The highest two, brutal and fatal, on the other hand, are not available until max level, and only fatal difficulty queues actually require a tank to pop, whereas the other two queueable difficulties can pop with a healer but no tank.

    Monseigneur claimed that she heard trash in Upper Perseria clamor for justice for what happened in Lower Perseria. However, is it me or Lower Perseria is now trash-free? Did the bosses realize that trash was ineffective? Or use the trash for other purposes? Ram starts thinking as soon as the run begins and arrives at the first boss a lot faster than he did in earlier runs this week.

    Even with the bonus boss, it takes him and his guildies about fifteen minutes to run Lower Perseria now, compared to twenty without the bonus boss and with trash before the emergency patch was deployed.

    "Please double-check the patch notes. Do they say anything about the removal of trash mobs from Lower Perseria?" Ram questions his guildies with whom he ran Lower Perseria.

    So while the emergency patch includes fixes for malfunctioning mechanics and abilities, player or enemy, or some visual glitches when certain actions are taken, it doesn''t say anything about trash being removed from an instance, much less Lower Perseria. Is it a new bug, or is there something going on in that world that the manufacturer has no control over? Yes, in other games, sometimes debugging can feel like a giant whack-a-mole game in the source code. I wonder sometimes if Karine has any actual experience as a game developer... Ram sighs, as his character starts crafting a unit of cosmetics.

    "No trace of trash removal in Lower Perseria" one of the DPS players answers him.

    "Time to try Upper Perseria; Monseigneur alleged that trash in this dungeon could demand justice for Lower Perseria for some reason" Ram asks his squad to run Upper Perseria, in hopes of completing the set of cosmetic recipes from the dungeon.

    When Karine returns from work, that day, she starts preparing food for another night on air, taking other viewers through content while Ram takes care of purchasing the supplies for a week of almost nonstop progression raiding. And buying hundreds of runes (which lasts for a certain amount of time, but persists through character deaths), as well as thousands of ingredients for food (whose effects cease when a character dies) and potions (whose effects last a few seconds) can seriously dent guild finances.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    After learning about these troubling new developments in the Perseria dungeons from Ram, Karine has lingering memories of last night''s encounter with Monseigneur''s astral projection.

    "Looks like people will run these two dungeons ad nauseam, or at least those who have any actual skill at dungeon crawling" Karine comments on this development. "So I suggest that we go run brutal-mode Operation Heathrow on our alts since we are locked out of it on our mains"

    Operation Heathrow being the newest raid of the game, and the objective of the players is to kill Belzebuth, one of the Seven Princes of Hell, who is terrorizing the airspace around the airport Belzebuth was last spotted at, and hence preventing its use. That, even though the game claims the airport was built using demonic technology.

    "Tonight, this run through brutal mode Operation Heathrow is brought to you by Monseigneur Tanking and the Death Fiscalists!" Karine announces at the start of the Death Fiscalists'' alt night.

    As the Death Fiscalists make their approach towards the airport terminal and prepare to face the first boss at its entrance, they don''t suspect that something sinister is afoot. The ten players walk onto an access ramp, and then attack the squad cars and the demonic police officers protecting the entrance to the terminal. Which, to one of Karine''s faithful Friday night subscribers, strangely reminds the viewer in question of London Heathrow''s Terminal 5.

    Upon destruction of the final squad car, an explosion occurs underneath the party as they approach the departures floor''s plaza, with all 10 players being caught in the blast radius. Also, the access ramp is severed in the blast, right where the access ramp''s curve is sharpest.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs happening?ˇ± Ram, a player with a healer alt, asks, surprised that the access ramp would be destroyed.

    ˇ°Last time we ran Operation Heathrow in brutal mode, the squad cars didnˇŻt contain triggers for booby traps that can destroy the access ramp!ˇ± Karine rants about how the patch changed the game for them.

    ˇ°Something doesnˇŻt add up: how could the devs somehow allow an access ramp to be destroyed like this when there is no health bar to it?ˇ± Ram asks his guildies, puzzled that the access ramp could get destroyed in-game.

    The viewers watch, horrified, the party falling to their ˇ°deathsˇ± because the access ramp to the departures floorˇŻs plaza exploded. And some of the reactions on KarineˇŻs chat are just priceless.

    ˇ°Did the devs just introduce more bugs with this emergency patch?ˇ± a Friday night regular asks Karine on chat.

    ˇ°Call me crazy but the airport operators wouldnˇŻt use a booby trap resulting in the destruction of an access ramp, especially since thereˇŻs only one access ramp leading up to the first boss? Flying mounts are not allowed in raids!ˇ± Karine tries to answer to her viewers, and she combs the patch notes for information related to the fixes made to Operation Heathrow, if any.

    She also proceeds to file yet another support ticket about the destruction of Operation HeathrowˇŻs access ramp, as she did last night for Upper PerseriaˇŻs trash chanting about justice for Lower Perseria.

    However, because Karine is filing a ticket, the rest of the guild seems to have its own set of issues to sort out, even when the trash leading up to the departures floor of the terminal has been cleared.

    Meanwhile, in MAAˇŻs world, the other 9 guildies, rather than to try to get back on the access ramp leading to the first boss, investigate the areas where chunks of the access ramp fell on the ground. But then Francis, playing a skirmisher alt (a damage-over-time DPS spec wielding guns) notices that some strange figures are retreating from the scene. He gives chase to these strange figures, riding a mount the character won in a previous raid, the mantis queen. However, as the other 8 players wait for Karine to be done reporting the issue to the manufacturer, the skirmisher keeps riding in the direction of these ˇ°strange figuresˇ± but doesnˇŻt seem to get any closer, nor is he within firing range.

    In the mind of one of these ˇ°strange figuresˇ±, the attack seems to have been made to demoralize the victims. What matters might not necessarily be the outright elimination of these people controlled by otherworldly entities they call players, but to sever what makes these otherworldly entities control them, one of the fleeing ˇ°strange figuresˇ± thinks, while the skirmisher is returning to the rest of the team as the skirmisher enters an ˇ°exhaustion zoneˇ± even though itˇŻs visually no different from the rest of the area.

    Once Karine is done filing the ticket, and the skirmisher is back with the rest of the team, the faithful subscriber points out the following:

    ˇ°Try to enter the terminal via the arrivals floor!ˇ± the faithful subscriber tells Karine on the chat, realizing that what worked on their first run a few days ago doesnˇŻt work today.

    I guess we can always try that, but I must be mindful of the first boss holding the key to the baggage sorting areas, and therefore we canˇŻt skip this boss, Karine then realizes that this route is not optimal, and this means more trash to fight, more squad cars, and then more demon security guards and police officers to wade through than if they went through the now-destroyed departures access ramp. And also leaving a trail of blood. Once the team makes it to the departuresˇŻ plaza, they face the Head of Airport Security, the first boss of Operation Heathrow:

    ˇ°Phew: there was no booby trap in the arrivals area staircaseˇ± Karine sighs before she starts explaining the core mechanics of this boss in brutal mode, so the viewers can understand whatˇŻs happening.

    First, the taxi stampede mechanic, which causes lanes to have taxis randomly cross any number of lanes, and players canˇŻt get hit; then thereˇŻs the turnstile mechanic, which forces tanks to swap after eating 3 stacks of the turnstile curse. And thatˇŻs only what they will need to face in phase 1, before reinforcements can arrive from both the exit ramp and the terminal, in phase two.

    ˇ°IˇŻll take care of one of the adds in phase two, understood?ˇ± Karine asks her guildies before the tanks make the first pull on this boss for this raid night.

    ˇ°Pulling in three, two, oneˇ± Caroline, the tank alt assigned to pull the boss, counts down.

    But then, as the boss fight starts, the taxis instead seem to come in from the exit ramp as opposed to the access ramp as normally. And, because a hotfix for the access ramp bug isnˇŻt forthcoming, at least not yet, the taxis jump off the destroyed access ramp. As the taxis jump off the destroyed access ramp, they make collision and explosion noises that CarolineˇŻs co-tank mistakes for a taunt and hence misses a tank swap. Causing her co-tank to die by being thrown off the platform, propelled by a turnstile.

    Ram attempts a battle rez when the tankˇŻs body turns up at the edge of the departuresˇŻ plaza, which takes three times as long to cast as a regular cooldown.

    Yet, it took them three long hours to defeat, in order, the Head of Airport Security, the Cyber-Tech Alligator, Leopard 2 and T-14 Armata, General Confusion, Tiamat and then Belzebuth, the last one being a giant fly, and caused them to incur the most wipes.

    Once again, at night, after a long stream that resulted in her getting new followers, and even some donation for this comedy clip that resulted from the destruction of the access ramp, a rested Monseigneur uses her astral projection power to talk to Karine from across worlds, and somehow kept abreast with people from other guilds she invited to come over to the guild hall while the alts were off running Operation Heathrow.

    ˇ°The municipal authorities of Perseria put that city on lockdown, as a direct result of your actions last night in Upper Perseria, causing the population to be really angry!ˇ± MonseigneurˇŻs astral projection tells her.

    ˇ°What did I do in Upper Perseria that could cause unrest in your world to flare up? For that matter, what happened in Lower Perseria? I assume that what took place in Lower Perseria took place just a few days agoˇ± Karine feigns ignorance of both events in front of her characterˇŻs astral projection.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt pretend that you donˇŻt know! The residents of our world feel like they are controlled byˇ­ otherworldly entities! We risk everything for them, and how do they reward us?ˇ± a furious Monseigneur asks her.

    ˇ°Better gear, fashionable outfits, more prestigious titles, better housing and perhaps better food?ˇ± Karine answers what other players typically did with their characters.

    ˇ°You have a point, but itˇŻs as if our tastes in clothing and housing are ignored!ˇ± KarineˇŻs character keeps ranting.

    ˇ°Enough! I refuse to keep talking to a hallucination!ˇ± Karine screams at Monseigneur.

    She called me a hallucination, but I need Karine to be in full possession of her abilities. She appears to be smarter and, more importantly, less selfish than other players, Monseigneur keeps thinking, in the Death FiscalistsˇŻ guild hall, while her astral form vanishes from KarineˇŻs room.

    As her characterˇŻs astral form vanishes, Karine feels like something is off. Why do I keep talking to what amounts to a hallucination? That hallucination claims that her world is on the verge of revolt! I ought to see a doctor after this race to world first ends! Karine starts thinking of what she could possibly have done in Lower Perseria that might have drawn her characterˇŻs ire. And sheˇŻs also wondering whether sheˇŻs having an impact on MAAˇŻs world beyond her gameplay alone. Yet somethingˇŻs not right: normally, in-game buildings, open-world or in instances, would not crumble like this without a health bar, and Operation HeathrowˇŻs access ramp didnˇŻt have any. Most players would be led to believe that whatˇŻs happening to me, or to them, would simply be byproducts of bugs. Which they expect to be mostly confined to newer content or features.

    She tries to find a neuropsychologist that could potentially help sort out this hallucinatory mess, and get an appointment with one, but she doesnˇŻt expect a response on Friday night.

 Chapter 3: Spinning the Sun Disk

    There technically are several races to world first, such as the first to clear a certain dungeon in a certain difficulty, or, when the latest expansion was released, the first to get to the new max level. However, to the eyes of so many MAA players, and certainly the countries whose governments even subsidize guilds for that purpose, the words race to world first conjure an image of one and only one thing: being the first guild to clear the newest raid in fatal mode.

    On Saturday, Karine gets ready for a video interview with Breathalyzer News, the premier news site for the MAA community, three short days before the start of the race to world first. After formalities are exchanged...

    "This week, there has been reports of bugs causing a variety of effects, some of which only affected certain players, but the Perseria dungeons have seen the brunt of these bugs thus far. Do you feel like the manufacturer has lost control over debugging?" the podcaster asks her.

    "Personally, I''d say that part of it might have been the consequences of their choices in AI algorithms. So sometimes it might feel like the game world is evolving in reaction to the players'' actions, well beyond what players traditionally think of" Karine opines about what she feels is responsible for stuff such as trash disappearing from the Perseria dungeons. "So sure, these AI algorithms need some work, but that''s all I''m willing to say for now"

    "At this point, there are some players who are about to leave the game, in part over this whack-a-mole of debugging, or who have done so already. How do you feel about your future as a MAA player?" the podcaster follows up with another question about the impact of these so-called bugs.

    "I want to at least see this tier''s race to world first through. Even if the Death Fiscalists don''t win, at least I want to show that unsubsidized guilds can hold their own against the subsidized guilds!" Karine goes through a crescendo of voice tone. "After that, nothing is less certain about my future as a MAA player"

    "How do you feel about the race to world first for this tier?"

    "Even though I believe that player skill and team coordination trumps choice of spec, given that every spec has a baseline of utility, I believe there is a potential for us to cause a surprise and maybe lay claim to either of the top two spots"

    "Speaking of the top two spots, which one of the so-called subsidized guilds would be more realistic for the Death Fiscalists to win over?"

    "I''d probably say Donghua Networks because the past few years have hit the Chinese talent pool harder than the Danish one, and, at every tier, they feel like they are on the verge of being cut off by the authorities in Beijing if they perform poorly. Especially in a context of mounting Chinese government debt, since the Danish government tends to maintain funding while an RWF is underway"

    The Danish government will subsidize national teams for virtually any game provided the game has a big enough player base, at least within Denmark, Karine can''t help but think of how her big rival as a streamer has an advantage because the Death Fiscalists don''t have any form of government support the way Kronborg (the Danish national team) or Donghua Networks (the Chinese one) have.

    ----------------------------

    Once the interview with Breathalyzer News ends, Karine resumes playing with Francis, while crafting cosmetics with recipes from bonus bosses in hopes of funding (in an in-game sense) the consumables they need for the RWF.

    "What about we auction off one slot for a run through the Sun Disk?" Francis suggests to the other guildies.

    "If only the game allowed us to borrow money..." Ram sighs.

    "That was scrapped during the testing stage of the xpac, because they found no way to implement a workable insolvency system that wouldn''t penalize people who don''t play regularly" Karine comments about the loans system that was originally supposed to be in the game for the 2.0 expansion, but also why it couldn''t be in the game. "The next best thing would be to find suppliers who can take at least net ten payment terms, or, better still, net thirty"

    "Pray that we can earn enough money from the sale of cosmetics then" Ram seems to think that no one in the game would be willing to sell potions, runes or food on even net 10 terms, much less net 30.

    "The reason why I suggested the Sun Disk is because of the value people put on the mount from the end boss in fatal mode" Francis suggests to them.

    I guess, people really want to travel around the world in a solar car, or install a solar power plant in their backyard. Might be easier now, Karine muses before she can answer, realizing that fatal Perseria dungeons drop the same gear as brutal-mode Operation Heathrow bosses, which is better than what fatal Sun Disk drops. Perhaps Belphegor rides a solar car because then he wouldn''t need to refuel it so long as it''s sunny; he is the prince of sloth, after all, and he lets others do his bidding.

    "I guess, we are going to be fighting Belphegor once more, while one of our DPS will be busy crafting runes and potions, and cooking food" Karine sighs, while Francis uses the in-game trade channel to auction off the slot for the Sun Disk run.

    And it seems like many of the bidders played for guilds who might have been able to make some progress in fatal mode Sun Disk, but the highest bidders have no actual experience of fatal progression raiding.

    "Here are the payment terms: you pay ten percent of the total amount at each boss'' death other than Belphegor, and then you pay half of the amount when Belphegor dies. In exchange for this, you will be given all cosmetics and recipes, as well as the solar car and the solar power plant" Francis explains the rules of engagement to the highest bidder.

    Speaking of solar power plant, the Sun Disk is actually a concentrated solar power plant. And it''s called as such because of the circular array of mirrors reflecting sunlight on the concentrator. They arrive in a vast stretch of desert plains, where they can see the tower from kilometers away.

    A few moments later, the party of ten fights the monsters guarding the Sun Disk''s outer perimeter on Karine''s stream. Sandstorms, and blinding sunlight seem to disorient the player who won the auction, and gets lost in the desert. And the character falls prey to the searing heat.

    When the player new to the Sun Disk in fatal mode finally makes his way back to the rest of the party, he seems to have eaten a lot of the searing heat and get a heat stroke.

    "The heat stroke is cleansable. We need to cleanse regularly while fighting this boss" Francis explains to the buyer. "Hide under a solar panel if you get a heat stroke, otherwise, in fatal mode, cleansing it won''t work"

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Karine then explains other mechanics that come into play for DPS on this boss, and there are four phases to watch out for. However, some of her faithful viewers just fall asleep at this point, while others are awaiting the moment where the buyer causes a wipe. Or at least die.

    "Please open Breathalyzer!" a viewer pleads in the stream''s chat.

    Oh boy: when people ask me to open Breathalyzer on air, they want to see parsing, especially when I have a substitute player. Yet I never obsessed over my own DPS numbers, or DTPS; for a tank, being able to do mechanics properly is much more important, Karine reluctantly opens Breathalyzer, which is the parsing add-on for MAA. The audience for MAA raid streamers places a significant weight on their gameplay skill. For DPS, their output will hold more weight on air than for tanks. Thank God for that because I already have a lot on my plate mechanically.

    It appears this substitute DPS player, their customer, is by far the worst of the six, both in mechanical execution and in output, but still dealt more DPS than either Karine or Ram. And it took a few deaths for the customer to get the hang of the extra mechanics of both brutal and fatal modes.

    "If the customer is the first to die, don''t rez him until burn on the following pulls!" Karine instructs her guildies for future bosses.

    Then, after the first boss dies, the customer gets new gear, and clears trash among the array of mirrors along with the rest of the team. And, of course, Karine starts explaining the DPS mechanics for the second boss, Aiatar, the data-stealing dragon.

    "To deal with the data theft mechanic, unlike in lower difficulties, here you need to go grab only the green bubbles; the red bubbles will kill you instantly if you grab one" Karine explains to the customer.

    "What happens if the boss eats a red bubble?" the customer asks back.

    "The red bubble will make the boss take damage over time. At the same time, eating too many red bubbles will cause him to sneeze and cough more in the next phase"

    And, for phase 3 of this boss, the boss sneezing will create purple puddles on the ground, while coughing will force a tank swap. Which is precisely where the customer causes a wipe.

    But when they make their way back to the boss, they notice that other people loot the equipment left behind by the dead demonic security guards. Equipment the game deems to be unusable by the players, but is somehow of interest for those who rummage through the corpses of the power plant security.

    "I never saw any attempts by NPCs to loot the trash in past raids. Is it something that happens in fatal raids?" the customer asks, surprised to see scavengers in a raid instance.

    "Not normally. Please stand by while I double-check the latest patch notes" Karine warns her viewers before the next pull.

    No trace of NPC scavengers showing up on trash mob deaths in any raids. This game''s manufacturer definitely started losing control over the game''s world, Karine starts thinking, while she pores over patch notes for any indication of changes in NPC behavior that isn''t a bug fix. I guess I can tolerate it, since what the game deems usable is so random.

    After they kill the data-stealing dragon, teams can go inside the electromechanical systems housed within the tower. And kill the next 3 bosses in any order, but all 3 must be killed since each of the next 3 bosses hold a fragment of a key to a room leading to Belphegor''s inner sanctum.

    At any rate, the party must take the power plant offline by disconnecting the batteries, sabotaging the turbines and transformers. As they go along, every wipe they incur seems to come from the buyer because of his lack of knowledge of fatal-specific mechanics.

    Three hours after they first pulled the second boss, Belphegor finally dies and the buyer drives a brand new solar car. The buyer hands over the payment for not only the solar car, but also the solar power plant and other decos that drop from trash or bosses, such as power generators.

    "Now we should have enough money to buy everything else we need for the RWF" Francis receives the final half of the money from the buyer. "Time to hit the broker!"

    Upon leaving the solar power plant, Francis uses the teleportation hand mirror to get to the nearest brokerage, which is the name used by the game for the player market.

    Meanwhile, Karine and Ram both go to the repair shop instead to repair their gear. And yet Karine, for some reason, has her character''s voice ringing in her head: Stay away from Perseria when you next play MAA. Which makes her not go to a repair shop in Perseria, instead choosing to go to another city, and one with a brokerage so that she can keep an eye on the cosmetics she put for sale.

    ----------------------------

    Only, this time around, after she ends her stream, it isn''t Monseigneur who appears as an astral projection in front of her, but her alcohol witch character.

    "Why is it that you went around selling a Sun Disk run?" Clavet, her alcohol witch alt, sounds a little fake, as if she wanted to sound like her grandmother.

    "What''s going on here?" Karine yells at her alcohol witch''s astral projection, her face turning red. "My conscience did this to me in the past two nights, using hallucinations trying to make me guilty about how I choose to spend my time in-game! I want to ensure my team has all the supplies necessary to go into Operation Heathrow and kill Belzebuth! It''s our one shot at global glory that extends beyond one''s spec or region!"

    "You were busy having Monseigneur dally around in the Sun Disk, in an attempt to steal a solar car from Belphegor, and how would said solar car be of any use against Belzebuth?" Clavet keeps yelling at her player, ignoring the bit about hallucinations. "Admit it, players control some of us, in our world"

    "Neither Monseigneur nor you are real people; they are digital entities who might look somewhat like real people, but, for some of them, with powers that don''t exist in our world!" Karine retorts.

    "In other news, it seems like the population of Perseria is unhappy about the lockdown imposed on them, and not simply because they feel like they are unable to get any business done while this lockdown is happening! Perserians can''t even leave their homes without risking getting killed by the guards, unless they sell food!" Clavet tells her about the dire predicament of the Perserians. "And the city is taking such drastic measures because of the actions of people like those who run what these otherworldly entities call dungeons!"

    I knew players'' actions carried consequences in the game''s world, but the bulk of these consequences were felt in the mid-to-long term, under the form of what content gets released and balancing of specs or content, not revolts that are brewing in-game and are ultimately sparked by players'' actions, without the devs acting on these! Karine''s mind still tries to process this turn of in-game events.

    "Your world is on the verge of revolt all right, in ways the manufacturer didn''t realize until now!"

    "And you had the audacity to dismiss the issues of our world as the consequences of... I forgot; I had it on my tongue!" Clavet''s memory seems to fail her. Or maybe she falls prey to false memories.

    "The consequences of the manufacturer''s choice of AI algorithms for the game!"

    I don''t think the time is right to tell Karine about my role among the Perserian rebels. Right now, she makes me feel like she won''t believe any of it, much less what made me want to get involved, Clavet keeps to herself, before her astral projection disappears, under the eyes of a Karine who still curses her tendency to hallucinate of late.

    ----------------------

    Meanwhile, Clavet hosts some Perserian rebels with some affinity for alcohol magic at Karine''s player house, which looks very much like these McMansions a few of her higher-income clients as a LIT (and maybe even failed entrepreneurs) used to own.

    "A technique I believe would be useful for us would be to use alcohol clouds to create fake sandstorms" Clavet explains to her fellow alcohol wizards.

    "If I may, why don''t we leave this to earth wizards?" a rebel alcohol wizard asks her.

    "Yeah, what''s special about alcohol clouds that we can''t get from using earth magic?" a rebel alcohol witch asks as well.

    "With alcohol clouds, we can both intoxicate and reduce their visibility. So we need to cast an alcohol cloud with two characteristics: it has to fall in the same range of colors as real sandstorms, and also we must impart the cloud particles some speed to make a more convincing fake sandstorm" Clavet explains to the rebel alcohol wizards the objectives of the magical drill.

    Earth wizards can''t intoxicate with their sandstorm spells, Clavet keeps thinking while she casts her own alcohol cloud around the house to test her own idea. The two rebel alcohol wizards follow suit a bit later, and the neighborhood is covered in beige alcohol clouds, tasting like beer, moving at the speed of a sandstorm.

    But because the neighborhood''s residents live inside their homes, they don''t seem to be bothered by the fake sandstorm much.

 Chapter 4: First Boss, First Blood

    In the days leading up to the race to world first for fatal mode Operation Heathrow, the guild players set out to farm materials used for runes, food and potions. The by-products of having to farm these materials in areas populated with mobs and open-world quests allow them to craft other items, such as cosmetics.

    Then comes Tuesday morning, where everyone is urged to log in early, so they can have patch 2.1b downloaded, with some fixes for some issues that were deemed less urgent by the manufacturer than the ones addressed in 2.1a. And, of course, Breathalyzer News has a podcast about the race to world first active and rotates among the forerunner streamers.

    As Karine starts the stream early in the morning, some of her colleagues tune in on her stream, especially those working remotely, while the bulk of the viewers tuning in are either European or Asian.

    "Welcome to the pre-race stream of the Operation Heathrow Race to World First, brought to you by Monseigneur Tanking!" Karine opens the stream, seeing hundreds of viewers at once.

    And, of course, many of the tank lovers of MAA, especially bishop fans, have come to watch her on Twitch, by virtue of being a community favorite of people wanting to watch ranged high-evasion tanks.

    However, the RWF draws viewers to high-end raiding who wouldn''t watch raid streamers otherwise. The people who don''t pick streamers to follow based on one''s skill with a spec. The people who vicariously raid through a stream because they can''t do it themselves.

    For those who want to watch a specific spec, though, Breathalyzer News breaks down streamers based on the specs being run on air, as well as a link to the streamer''s page in BN''s system, where one can check on a player''s raid progression status. A few minutes before fatal mode opens:

    "This week will be rough, as we will be going into uncharted territory. Because we''ll be playing against teams from around the world, and our main opponents are expected to play for very long hours, please make sure you have your provisions at the ready! Coffee, energy drinks, food, you name it" Karine harangues her players, while some of them have entire crates of ramen close by, as well as drinks.

    In MAA''s world, however, as soon as the reset hits, at 1PM GMT, and hence players are able to log in, the magical portals leading to Operation Heathrow have crowds of people waiting for their turn to enter it along with their respective teams. May Clavet take good care of Karine''s home while I''m off to fight Belzebuth, Monseigneur starts thinking, while she''s standing in a crowded area inside a castle room with hundreds of people piled up in a cramped space.

    "And... let''s roll!" Karine yells while the frame rates of everyone involved appear to diminish as they rush into Operation Heathrow''s portal. "Operation Heathrow is go!"

    Once they get onto the portal, the Death Fiscalists find themselves at the Terminal 5 roundabout, where an improvised repair shop is set up, complete with a blacksmith, a tailor and a leatherworker to repair weapons and heavy armor, light and medium armor respectively.

    In fatal mode, a new type of trash mob is deployed on the access ramp to Terminal 5''s departures plaza, and the outskirts of it, other than just airport security, squad cars and riot police: SWAT officers, the latter hiding behind riot police. And firing flashbang grenades that force Karine to pop the high mass on them, right after drawing the bright line in front of the melee DPS.

    While the high mass causes the SWAT officers not to fire any further flashbang grenades, the flashbangs that did detonate near them end up stunning them for a few seconds apiece, causing the riot police to target the party at point-blank. In turn, the ranged DPS pop their stun-breakers and pelt the blinded riot police with massed area-of-effect attacks that affect the SWAT officers in their sleep.

    "And now, the moment of truth: the overpass turn collapsed in a previous stream last week, let''s pray that the overpass has been repaired since our last trip!" Karine tells her viewers as they are about to get to the sharp turn on the access ramp.

    The answer to this question is yes, where they fight another trash pack not unlike the previous one. The guildies then sigh of relief when they realize the overpass hasn''t exploded underneath them. Before they pull the boss:

    "Be on the lookout for extra mechanics; there''s usually one or two more in fatal mode"

    Speaking of extra mechanics, the first phase forces the players to stack on a narrow strip to take down beacons that reflect all attacks made against it from outside melee range. The healers remain on the cart island, which isn''t safe anymore. And realize the hard way that they need to stand on a thin white line when they want to hit beacons, while potentially getting hit by the taxi stampede, since the beacons are on lanes. It also seems like the taxi stampede continues until the beacons are destroyed here.

    However, they go into the second phase with several characters dead, which makes them lose any hope they can take out the security chief on the first pull. They keep going, but the group''s DPS is a little low, so they get to see all the extra mechanics of the second phase, even in death. Yet, Karine grabs all the reinforcements summoned by the boss, and herds them to the boss, with another bright line to blind them. B¨¦teulle is about to get the third stack of the turnstile curse, time to AOE taunt, I guess... Karine starts thinking, while her teammates whose characters died are watching a variety of other streamers.

    "Guys, it appears that Kataparuto is in the lead! They are closing in on the kill!" Caroline, a panicked DPS, whose character lays bloodied on the floor, yells on voice. "There''s a third phase, where chunks of the plaza are fired at using an attack helicopter, aiming at the players! Stack on each other at the edges of the plaza and then go back to the boss for that phase!"

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Kataparuto? That''s one big surprise to me; Japanese guilds never seemed to amount to much in past MAA RWFs, Caroline starts thinking while both Kataparuto and the Death Fiscalists wipe on their own sides, when the DFs hit the second phase''s enrage timer.

    "You now have a better idea of how to deal with the beacons when the taxi stampede mechanic happens?" Karine asks her players.

    "Also, for phase three, once the red circles are locked in, we have five seconds to get out and it tears off parts of the platform" Caroline comments on the third phase, which is new in fatal mode.

    "Ready check!" Ram then presses on the RC, before counting down the pull.

    But now that the players know just how narrow the safety stripes are for the taxi stampede mechanic, they try their best to step on the safety stripes dividing lanes, knowing the taxi drivers can also drive straight through the cart islands in fatal mode. This caused carts to get plowed by the taxis.

    As they get to the third phase, here Kataparuto and the Death Fiscalists are neck-and-neck, they feel like every second counts. Every drop of DPS counts even, and they pop buff potions right after they return to the boss in phase 3, to which they get by some miracle with only one battle rez in phase 2.

    However, in phase 3, the boss is standing in one of the circles left behind by the players. And, because Ram can barely step out of the circle, the boss doesn''t get out of the blast radius in time. As the floor collapses underneath the boss, the boss falls down the hole in the plaza, and the plaza collapsing kills some police officers. Which causes the remaining mobs around the fallen to chase the raiders around the arrivals access ramp.

    "Get as close as we possibly can to the fork in the road, and then mow down the mobs alongside the boss!" Karine changes her plan, since the boss falling a collapsed departures plaza causes the three melees to lose some DPS uptime.

    The ranged DPS, as well as the tanks, take potshots at the boss as well as at the trash clinging on to him as they run down the departures access ramp, so the loss in DPS isn''t total. With, of course, Karine drawing a bright line on the arrivals access ramp to blind the airport security.

    It took the boss about sixty seconds to catch up to the players, and, for the most part, the departure access ramp''s guardrails prevented the SWAT and squad cars from hitting the raiders since they had no line of sight. However, the raiders punched holes in the access ramp, with falling debris hitting trash mobs.

    By that point, however, the world is watching them as Kataparuto appears to have wiped once more, and the other two front-runners at the RWF had an extra pull but only started phase 3 on their current pull.

    If we wipe here, and the boss falls down a collapsed departures plaza again, at least there shouldn''t be more trash bothering us from outside the terminal, another Death Fiscalist DPS starts thinking as they get to the fork in the road, and leaps his character towards the boss. By doing so, that DPS puts his missile on the departures access ramp.

    And the bloodied corpses of the riot police officers litter the arrivals access ramp while the squad cars are still operational, but right next to the boss. With the 3 melees tunneling the boss, they are about to realize that the squad cars can put them in a world of hurt. As such, one of the melee DPS puts a missile on the squad cars, destroying both.

    Yet, causing the boss to fall down a collapsing floor made other teams readjust how to approach the third phase: some of them, namely Kronborg, would rather put the boss into the blast radius, while others, such as Donghua Networks, prefer to have the boss out of the "stupid" on top of the players. But as the Death Fiscalists hit the final enrage timer, they are picked off one by one by the boss, causing an ending that''s all too familiar to them: a wipe.

    "OK, we killed off trash on the arrivals access ramp, but don''t worry about the loss of DPS. We didn''t know the third phase well, but then again no one does yet" Karine sighs while the guild prepares for another pull.

    The departures plaza and access ramp are rebuilt between pulls. Now that there is no more trash to kill on the arrivals ramp, in phase 3, the melee DPS jump down immediately after the collapse of the departures plaza''s floor. And the ranged DPS don''t need to use AOE attacks anymore, and they can then focus on the boss itself.

    And, since none of the 4 forerunners have a kill on this boss, it''s still wide open. But by this point, a fifth challenger appears to catch up to the other four: the Korean guild Bulgogi.

    "Kataparuto, now Bulgogi? What''s going on there?" a puzzled Caroline asks her guildies as her character dies to a lag spike causing her to eat a missile she shouldn''t have.

    With the gain in DPS, they appear to be on track to kill the boss, but they redouble their efforts, seeing both Bulgogi and Kataparuto hot on their trail, and, unlike them, prefer to keep the boss out of the missiles'' blast radius. Yet, for some reason, Kronborg seems to be struggling.

    But then the DPS start falling one by one because it''s more difficult for melee DPS to dodge attacks and then get back into the fight. When the Death Fiscalists are up against the rage timer because of these deaths, they are down to the tanks, the healers and 2 ranged DPS, but at the same time, the boss is down to 2%. It''s then that Francis finally dares rez Caroline''s character, and she needs to run like the wind to even get in range to start hitting the boss again.

    To stall for time, Karine draws a bright line near the fork in the road, causing the boss to be blinded for a while, and then she activates target painting when all 3 ranged DPS are still attacking, raising their critical rate by 80% for 10 seconds. So like, Caroline, whose "normal" critical hit rate is 40%, would hit crits 72% of the time during these 10 seconds.

    But then the boss behaves erratically under the effects of the enrage timer, and even Karine''s kiting, while buying precious few seconds for the party, ultimately gets her character killed.

    "B¨¦teulle! B¨¦teulle!" Karine starts chanting, powerless over what''s happening around the fork in the road.

    B¨¦teulle also dies shortly thereafter. Down to the ranged DPS, and to 1%, they stay focused on getting a kill on the boss, and, because Caroline is the lowest on the "aggro table", a few seconds later, she''s the last one standing, and she then drinks a burst potion. It''s down to her to get one last high explosive round in as a skirmisher.

    And... boom! Direct hit, and the boss dies in an explosion of its neck, causing blood to be spilled on the asphalt pavement.

    "We did it! We killed the first boss of fatal Operation Heathrow!" an overjoyed Karine shouts on voice.

    "And... Kataparuto, too" Caroline adds, upon checking Breathalyzer News for clears.

    Now, that''s the kind of moments I play and stream MAA for! Even if we don''t win the overall race, being the world first on an individual boss is better than nothing. So at least I have something to show for a week off from work, Karine reflects on the early successes of Canada''s Death Fiscalists in this RWF.

    But killing the security chief is just the beginning for them. After he dies, all damage to the access ramps and the departures plaza is repaired. All players hurry up and repair their equipment before proceeding further inside Terminal 5.

    "There''s no telling which one is more advantageous in fatal mode, between entering the baggage handling system from the check-in counter and the carousel, so we clear all the trash at both!" Karine orders her team to round up as much trash as possible on both floors of the terminal.

 Chapter 5: The Japanese Catapults

    While the Death Fiscalists'' mains are busy taking out airport security inside Terminal 5, stationed both at the check-in counters and at the baggage carousels, Clavet realizes there is one significant limitation to this plan of using alcohol clouds to fake sandstorms.

    "I just realized that the risk of hurting innocent people with alcohol clouds is perhaps greater than with using sandstorm spells because of intoxication, especially because, for some reason, giving some wind to an alcohol cloud makes it indiscriminate" a female rebel alcohol witch tells the other two alcohol wizards in Karine''s player McMansion.

    "Alcohol clouds should be reserved for when there are no civilians within the area affected; otherwise, cast a sandstorm spell if the circumstances call for faking sandstorms for us to sneak in" Clavet then draws her conclusion about the field use of cloud spells.

    "Got it" the male alcohol wizard nods.

    -------------------

    Meanwhile, inside Terminal 5, the two tanks anticipate the Cyber-Tech Alligator, the second boss plaguing the airport, being a big DPS check, but the boss was apparently solo-tankable in brutal mode.

    "Depending on how fast the venom stacks decay, I''d say our best DPS at tank mechanics taunts off whoever is going to tank it when it''s time to swap. That said, this boss tends to favor ranged since you need to switch targets often and, the faster the adds die, the better" Karine has a discussion with Ram about how to approach the boss.

    "You said it so yourself that DPS need to change targets often in brutal mode, and honestly, it''s a multi-dotting kind of fight" Ram comments on the target switching.

    -------------------

    With that said, Karine logs Monseigneur off from the game and logs back in on Clavet, who''s at her player home. While Karine is at the loading screen stage of getting Clavet ready to run the Cyber-Tech Alligator, the following scene is happening in her player home:

    "I''ve been called up to fight Belzebuth at the airport, so take care" Clavet tells the other two rebel alcohol wizards.

    "Hope you bring something nice from duty-free!" the female alcohol wizard formulates her wishes for Clavet.

    However, seeing NPCs at her home that aren''t on-call services seems to trigger a reaction in Karine as the two NPC Perserian rebel alcohol wizards are walking away from her McMansion. (MAA allows not only freedom to decorate player housing, it also allows freedom to build it, so long as they could afford it)

    "What''s going on here? My alcohol witch had guests come over at my home without my prior approval?" Karine is fuming at the presence of NPCs that weren''t supposed to be there because they aren''t on-call servants. "This game''s world really has gone out of control!" she screams even when the NPCs leave.

    -------------------

    She promptly asks Ram to invite her alcohol witch to the party, and once that is done, Ram invites her to the party, all the while Kataparuto has already started pulling the boss, in its departures version. However, the Death Fiscalists are about to enter the baggage handling system by the carousel.

    The first phase begins and... wow. They must wade through the innards of the baggage handling system, and, in the arrivals version of the fight, they need to destroy the container unloaders, while being chased around by baggage handlers. Which Ram takes care of, since the players must fan out to get to the container unloaders in time; otherwise, the boss will start hitting the players who couldn''t destroy their assigned unloader in time.

    And, of course, true to her multi-dotting form, Karine is the one who ends up casting DoTs on each container unloader (the alcohol cloud, and then the alcohol shooter, AoE and single-target respectively) while making sure that she aims the alcohol clouds for some baggage handlers to get hit if possible.

    However, the first phase proves to be the easy part of this boss, regardless of whether it''s the departures or the arrivals version. The second phase is where the boss proper comes down to fight the party.

    Yes, as soon as the boss comes down, and hence the second phase starts, there are wing attacks, sweeping arcs sideways to the boss, but here they must target the boss'' rotator cuffs and the anterior cruciate ligaments (or ACLs) all the while dodging (or killing if possible) the booby-trapped containers coming from the tarmac (arrivals version) or the check-in counters (departures version). And, of course, venom stacks when the boss bites the player holding aggro on it.

    "I''ve got four venom stacks; Caro, swap!" Ram screams on voice, with Caroline taunting the boss because he deemed Karine to be the better multi-dotter.

    "Spread out!" Karine, seeing red circles around everyone, hollers.

    The question is: how many venom stacks can Caro eat before it becomes too much for our healers to heal through? Especially since we just ate the saturation rockets (i.e. the red circles forcing us to spread)! Karine starts thinking about how this information could affect further pulls of this boss.

    They spend hours changing things between wipes, and not only the Japanese do the same, but the Chinese, Danish and Koreans. So it seems like bards can eat 4 venom stacks but all other tanks specs can eat at most two or three. And very few DPS can eat two.

    "If we want to solo-tank this, we need to rotate two DPS holding aggro on the boss off at one stack" Caroline suggests, mostly because of their experiments on how many venom stacks players can eat.

    "Caro, you''ll take the first tank swap, I will take the second. Also, Ram, if you feel you can''t take four stacks, let us know and we will taunt off you" Karine adds to the comments about the tank swaps.

    Just because that aspect of the fight happens more smoothly, doesn''t mean there aren''t other mechanics troubling other players. However, for this boss, which version of phase 3 is happening will depends on which body parts are taken off first.

    At lunch, when the other people at Karine''s office catch a glimpse of the race to world first, they are bewildered to see a fight taking place inside the baggage handling system, and to see people try to determine which strategy is better for dealing with phase 3 of the cyber-tech alligator. Taking the rotator cuffs out (and then the boss can''t fly anymore) or tearing the boss'' ACLs (in which case the boss needs to fly to move).

    "I wonder what is it that she finds interesting in playing this game" one of Karine''s colleagues is dumbfounded about watching her fight a dragon with one cybernetic wing and cybernetic legs at an airport.

    "I work with her on stuff such as consumer proposals, and from time to time she does slip a few mentions of the game. She''s my colleague, it''s the least I could do to encourage her in this race to world first" another coworker adds.

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    And then comes, a few pulls later, the allergy mechanic, where the tank needs to properly line up the boss against the automated container handling systems when a certain type of container drops allergens onto its body.

    Which they discover that, in fatal mode, it forces a tank swap irrespective of the number of venom stacks one has since the next bite, while the boss has an allergen active, is an insta-kill if the one holding aggro on it has a preexisting venom stack. However, said allergen is the only way to remove the last-ditch defensive buff for the final phase, taking place on the tarmac.

    "Final burn! Ignore adds!" Karine announces while she shifts focus on the boss.

    And, after the first allergen falls on the boss, Caroline taunts the boss off Ram, while slowly and steadily getting the boss into position for the second allergen. We won''t let these Japanese catapults beat us to the kill just because they fought the departures version! The Chinese, Danish and Koreans aren''t even at the allergen phase yet! Caroline seems to have DPS optimization on her mind.

    However, as they get to the second allergen, the Death Fiscalists are beaten to the world first on this boss (the manufacturer ignores the versions for RWF purposes) by Kataparuto. And therefore, Japan scores its first world first on a boss in a MAA fatal RWF.

    "Looks like this tier, rather than being a China-Denmark duel as so many expected, is shaping up to be a Canada-Japan duel instead" Caroline comments as her character dies right before the boss gets to the second allergen.

    "Down with Kataparuto!" Karine yells while taunting the boss, moments before the second allergen drops on the boss.

    "What makes nationalities so important to MAA RWFs, unlike in other games?" a new viewer asks her on the stream.

    However, Karine is unable to answer it because she''s holding the boss for the final burn, moving it from an automated container handling system to another. Come on, little DPS! Even without Monseigneur''s target painting, we can still get it done with Ram''s offensive buff songs! Karine starts thinking furiously while the second allergen drops on the boss, as she sees the boss'' health bar steadily melting away.

    For the final push, Francis rezzes Caroline so that she can contribute to the boss burn on the tarmac. However, with the adds standing between her and the boss, Caroline closes in on it, just enough to be able to hit it.

    Yet, everyone''s so focused on the boss that they forget about the adds breathing down their throats. Until Ram uses an AOE taunt to take the boss from Karine, and then both Caroline and Karine spread DoTs on the adds still alive. With the boss'' ACLs torn, the boss can''t move anymore, but there''s so few HP left that the boss isn''t simply bleeding.

    Its death leaves a puddle of blood on the tarmac, and a container is unloaded from a nearby conveyor belt, revealing the loot. It''s only then viewers'' questions can be answered on Karine''s stream.

    "Nationalities are important in MAA raiding because of the logistics of raiding. It''s much harder to coordinate with players in different time zones. At top levels, some guilds outright ask applicants if they are legally authorized to work in the guild''s home country, which, in practice, amounts to asking for citizenship of the country in question. Sorry for not having answered earlier"

    -------------------

    But while Karine switches characters to control Monseigneur rather than Clavet, the latter returns into the baggage handling system and, from there, the duty-free shopping area, looking for items she feels her fellow Perserian rebels would like.

    Between fashion accessories, perfumes, makeup, alcohol, and books for light reading, Clavet feels like time is short for her to get items from duty-free shopping using the credit cards of fallen police officers, which she knows the players can''t use. She takes three of these, but only uses one to go on a shopping spree.

    Knowing Karine, and what awaits her next, I have some time to deliver the goods to my fellow Perserian rebels. And, perhaps, I can help get the rebels'' morale up on Belzebuth''s dime! When Karine controls me, it always seems like I must use my magic in rapid succession. And she tends to make me use my spells in a specific order. But now that Monseigneur is going to fight again, and, hopefully take the fight to Belzebuth, I can do things I wouldn''t otherwise, Clavet reflects on how her life differs depending on whether she is actively controlled by Karine.

    Also, she buys takeout pizza for the other alcohol wizards, in hopes that this fight won''t require Karine to go back to deploying her again. Which means a few hours of respite for the alcohol witch to supply the rebel wizards.

    Once Clavet returns to her player''s McMansion, with two handbags full of duty-free merchandise from Operation Heathrow''s Terminal 5 that players can''t normally buy, while Monseigneur is busy grappling with the third boss on the tarmac:

    "Because you might be called upon to risk your life for Perserian freedom at any time, especially since you''re part of the special units, here are some luxury items you might never again obtain!" Clavet starts laying down the items on the floor.

    The other two alcohol wizards rejoice upon receiving these items, and eat the meal Clavet brought from the food court of Operation Heathrow.

    -------------------

    Speaking of the tarmac, the Death Fiscalists are discovering the hard way that, while the enrage timer of the firepower kill phase, that is, the first phase (4 minutes 12 seconds of firing one 120mm round at the tank every six seconds) has remained unchanged, what has changed is the effect of using AOE attacks on the boss, turret or hull.

    Here in fatal mode, the bosses'' ERA (for explosive reactive armor) tiles would blow up if hit by AOE attacks, also causing players caught in the blast to get hurt. Which means that all the ranged DPS are hitting one tank, while the melees would be hitting the other, at least in the firepower and mobility kill phases.

    Speaking of mobility kill phase, which is the second phase, the onus is on the team to dodge the bombs dropped from above. Which also cause the ERA tiles to detonate as if they were hit by a player-launched AOE attack. After a wipe in the mobility kill phase:

    "For this phase, we put the bombs on the treads in the mobility kill phase, and then run away! The ERA tiles are indiscriminate, and so are the bombs; that being said, to put the bombs on the treads in the mobility phase, we need to lead the target" Karine suggests another plan for the team to implement in the mobility kill phase. "These Japanese catapults, like their namesakes, tended to have the bombs drop where the bosses were, and not where they will be"

    "Monseigneur, these... Japanese catapults are not the only ones we need to worry about" Francis realizes that it wasn''t just about Kataparuto anymore.

    "If friendly fire doesn''t work..." Caroline, worried about the loss of DPS in the mobility kill phase to friendly fire, starts feeling her blood boil upon hearing about this adjustment. "we''ll have bigger problems than just Kataparuto!"

    But by then, with each passing pull, they start losing concentration and, twenty pulls later, no guild has been able to get to the kill. And each wipe appears to be draining their repair budget, but they hold on to hopes that they can still get the kill. Even when Kronborg seems to be far along the tank crew phase of this fight.

    When they finally get the mobility phase of the fight down, now it''s time for Karine to use the high mass to put the tank crew to sleep.

    "Everyone hit the medic!" Karine hollers while time is short for them to act.

    With the medic down, the turn then comes for the remaining crewmen to take to the field. So while Karine goes for the AOE taunt, this time around, she positions the bright line so that, while the assault rifle-equipped crewmen can cross it, the squad leader, on the other hand, can''t. Especially since the squad leader fires a machinegun in a cone from a static, pintle-mounted position.

    Whereas most other people would rather kill the squad leader first, as was done in brutal mode, here the team prefers to put the rest of the squad into the conical area, making it eat a double dose of AOE attacks. For some reason, this phase is easier mechanically in fatal mode because of friendly fire that wasn''t there in brutal mode! Ram starts thinking while he holds aggro on the squad leader.

    Yet everyone discovers that killing squad members make the survivors hit harder, presumably by increasing their weapons'' rate of fire. Fueled by their despair, they give their all into killing the remaining crew members. And when the healers feel like everyone else will live long enough to kill them, they start mowing down the squad leader who, for some reason is left alive until the very end.

    "Man down!" Karine shouts, the bishop''s frailty playing tricks on her upon death.

    But this time around, Monseigneur falls first, and then B¨¦teulle. With less than one percent left, the squad leader does a 180 and fires in Caroline''s direction. Yet, it was too little, too late, and the squad leader dies after hours of them struggling on the tarmac.

    Once this is all over, the tarmac is littered with wreckage, corpses and blood, and the loot being somewhere else on the tarmac, near another aircraft.

    "We did it! However, we might have been playing for hours upon hours!" Karine warns her teammates, some of whom played since early in the morning. Like Ram, living in Calgary and hence in the mountain time zone.

    "Canada is back in the lead!" Caroline shouts, after looking at the main opponents still fighting the tank crew. "Way to stick it to these... Japanese catapults, who just killed the boss, too"

    "The choice of whether to sleep or to keep playing is not going to be easy, guys!" Ram then yawns.

 Chapter 6: Bio Break

    Even though Ram is the first to show signs of fatigue, he is the one making the switch in characters, logging out of B¨¦teulle and into his templar, which has been resting in the guild hall. (Or potentially doing other things Ram doesnˇŻt know about, nor would his templar have liked to let him know) Especially since he believes, based on his experience of brutal mode, that this boss can be solo-tanked in all difficulties.

    Little does Ram know is that B¨¦teulle could secretly start doing what Clavet did, at least within the confines of the airport, when the Death Fiscalists are going to fight General Confusion in the control tower.

    Meanwhile, his guildies move along taxiways, and even past satellite terminals of Terminal 5. Whereas no trash stood between the Cyber-Tech Alligator and the two tanks, here taxiways are littered with trash, such as baggage handlers, police officers with hound dogs, and even airport trucks, such as tankers, stair trucks and so on. Obviously, Ram must have his character travel through empty sections of taxiway until he can catch up to his guildies fighting their way to the control tower.

    When Ram finally catches up to his teammates, Karine hears a few notifications for new followers on Streamlabs.

    ˇ°Thank you for the follow!ˇ± Karine tells her new followers on her stream.

    The party takes the elevator to the control towerˇŻs top floor, where General Confusion awaits them in a cramped space. That room is littered with radar consoles and bordered by windows.

    ˇ°For thde codebreaker mechanic...ˇ± Karine designates whom she feels is the worst DPS on the first three bosses.

    ˇ°Wait a minute, this boss is supposed to be the boss where my spec does best; the codebreaker mechanic allows for a window of burst DPS if done properly!ˇ± the guildˇŻs assassin retorts. ˇ°Caroline should be doing the codebreaker mechanic!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, I was doing it on brutal mode, because skirmishers take a while to set up DoTs, and the burst window the codebreaker mechanic gives us is too short for skirmishers to amount to muchˇ± Caroline argues about why the assassin is a poor choice for the mechanic.

    ˇ°Your turn then, Caroˇ± Karine rules.

    On previous bosses, Caro was the one willing to take the most risks to squeeze in extra DPS. However, the skirmisher is the worst ranged DPS spec among those we have, and I expect this boss to favor melee, Karine is left wondering how would the mechanics change. Especially when the codebreaker mechanic might carry additional implications in fatal mode they donˇŻt know about yet.

    ˇ°From here on out, I say you take bio breaks only after your character dies. Just donˇŻt cause wipes on purposeˇ± Karine lays down the ground rules for bio breaks for the rest of the session.

    Here it seems like, as the Canadian players play into their evening, their Japanese arch-nemeses are approaching high noon. The raid leader, playing a vandal, that is, a melee tank with stealth, has fallen asleep somewhere in Misawa, much to the chagrin of people watching the race to world first.

    ˇ°Oyasumi Kataparutoˇ± (Good night, Kataparuto) KataparutoˇŻs tired raid leader tells both his own guildies and his viewers, and yawns, not realizing that it isnˇŻt night-time in Misawa.

    Which, after he logs off the game, causes the other Kataparuto players to stop playing. However, that hasnˇŻt gone unnoticed by other viewers, especially not Breathalyzer NewsˇŻ podcaster.

    ˇ°We lost the Japanese feed! However, itˇŻs remarkable that a country with such a limited player base somehow clawed its way into world first position!ˇ± the Breathalyzer News podcaster announces while the remaining front-runners, China, Denmark and Korea, have barely started fighting the fourth boss.

    And yet, even they keep accumulating wipes due to player fatigue. Even after having drunk several energy drinks during the day. When one such wipe happens to the Death Fiscalists, and fatigue made Caroline lose focus on the codebreaker mechanic, which is a counter to the bossˇŻ codemaker mechanic...

    ˇ°I need to go to the bathroom!ˇ± Caroline yells, after feeling her belly hurt, and then dashes to the bathroom, phone in hand.

    ˇ°WeˇŻre due for a bio breakˇ± Karine signals her guildies, while brewing a cup of coffee.

    ˇ°Caro has been a little slow on the cipher and hence we ate too many stacks of the neurotoxic gas!ˇ± Francis gets a little hasty in blaming Caro.

    Each stack of the neurotoxic gas increases the likelihood of getting stunned for 3 seconds. Not to mention inflicts more damage over time per stack, Francis starts thinking about why he sees fit to blame Caro for the latest wipes on General Confusion, as he eats a snack to help him squeeze a few extra pulls out of his body prior to passing out.

    Meanwhile, Karine also dashes to the bathroom after she got started brewing her cup of coffee. She also takes some aspirin to ensure that she wonˇŻt get headaches in the next few hours, after this bio break taken by her guildies. She also realizes that her team canˇŻt keep it up much longer, and neither do their core opponents still active.

    Once everyone is back into play, and have returned from their bathroom breaks, Ram has an announcement to make:

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    ˇ°WeˇŻll keep going until midnight EST, unless we feel like weˇŻre closing in on a kill, in which case we might do another pull or twoˇ± Ram tells the raid team.

    ˇ°WeˇŻre making good progress, and hopefully Caro is in a better position to work the cipher!ˇ± Karine prays for Caro to be in mental shape.

    The wipes continue for the Death Fiscalists, but they make more-or-less steady progress towards killing the fourth boss with each pull. When the appointed time arrives, and the players spent a whopping 16 hours trying to down bosses from Operation Heathrow, they are in the final phase of the boss.

    But one misstep from Karine going into the last few percent of the fight makes her forget about the bright line. And hence gets her character killed because the boss hits her, which would otherwise have been a miss. And the other players fall like dominoes, with Caroline falling last, since manning the cipher didnˇŻt generate any aggro.

    ˇ°Do you want to keep going?ˇ± Karine asks her guildies while she waits on the bright line to recharge.

    Everyone answers yes to this question and Caroline, still trucking at the cipher, is making her prayers. As are the other players, who kept wiping over and over on that night. Fingers crossed that this pull will be the right one, Karine prays, especially since the players start feeling the fatigue in their bodies.

    With the playersˇŻ headaches mounting, they start feeling a little dizzy, making it harder for them to stay focused, even for those who drank energy drinks. However, their opponents are doing the same thing, also thinking that one more pull will get them closer to winning against General Confusion.

    Stay on targetˇ­ stay on target! Karine starts applying target paint on the boss as soon as Caro triggers the bossˇŻ codemaker mechanic during the input phase. Which compels Caro to DPS the boss for ten seconds since she has a clear line of sight on him.

    Chasing Karine around the control tower, the boss crosses a bright line. Doing so makes the burst window last much longer than it would normally have, since the codemaker mechanic takes longer to perform.

    At the end of the extended burst window, the boss falls in a puddle of blood. They all seem to be getting some joy.

    ˇ°We did it! We killed General Confusion! Now, I strongly advise you to log off the game and go to sleep!ˇ± an exuberant Karine jumps for joy in looting General Confusion, while logging off the game.

    ˇ°Karine, it seems like Denmark beat us to it!ˇ± Caroline tunes in to the Breathalyzer News podcast, with the Danish national anthem being played on said podcast. ˇ°By a few seconds perhaps, but stillˇ±

    Shortly before Karine goes to bed, she is once again visited by astral projections of MAA player characters. However, this time, sheˇŻs visited not by one but three astral projections. From left to right, Clavet, Monseigneur and CarolineˇŻs skirmisher.

    ˇ°Karine, have you come to terms with the fact that people in your world control real people in ours?ˇ± an angry Monseigneur asks her. ˇ°ItˇŻs not the first time I told you about the suffering of our kind! The picture your world portrays of ours is pretty embellished!ˇ±

    ˇ°How so?ˇ± a confused, tired Karine feels like she has double vision.

    ˇ°Your world seems to treat the death of our kind as something that can be reversed, and that we can recover from anything short of death. But the cold, hard truth is that constantly being on quests of all kinds subjects us to injuries not reflected on a health or status bar, such as overuse injuriesˇ± Clavet answers her player.

    ˇ°And even then, what players calls our deaths, doesnˇŻt actually result in us dyingˇ± Monseigneur comments on the so-called deaths she suffered during the race to world first. She then points Karine to a ring on her right middle finger.

    ˇ°Why are you showing me this ring? A hallucination wearing rings is nothing special to me!ˇ± Karine yells at Monseigneur, unable to make heads of this situation.

    ˇ°This ring activates an angelic beacon that prevents me from dying after a wipe, but it activates only when my health bar goes down to zero, that is, when IˇŻm unable to fightˇ±

    ˇ°Do you realize just how much of an asset does having this kind of ring makes me for the Perserian rebels?ˇ± Clavet also wears the same ring. ˇ°At dawn, weˇŻre going to attack a prison camp where protesters and other political prisoners are held, awaiting trialˇ±

    Am I delirious? Is Clavet really going to do this? I expected her to remain in the airportˇŻs premises while I use Monseigneur to compete in the race to world first! Karine seems to feel like her mental health has worsened, and her headaches are mounting. I really hope these hallucinations end with the end of the race.

    ˇ°And Caroline! While she mostly gets the mechanics right, sometimes I feel like she fails to consider the physical demands of raiding!ˇ± CarolineˇŻs skirmisher vents about the inconsiderate risks Caroline has her take.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre telling me nothing new!ˇ± an irritated Karine screams at the astral projections.

    ˇ°I have one, but not everyone has an angelic beacon ring!ˇ± Clavet points out.

    ˇ°Caroline only seems to think about my DPS, and sometimes to the detriment of my health or of other peopleˇŻs health!ˇ± CarolineˇŻs skirmisher keeps complaining.

    So it seems like these angelic beacon rings are also double-edged swords. While that beacon saves me from the brink of death, I seem to be subject to some otherworldly entityˇŻs every whim whenever the other property of the beacon is active. It seems like my brain is hijacked, that IˇŻm not in control of myself, when the other property of the beacon ring is active, ClavetˇŻs hyperactive brain seems to be getting a flash of insight when neither feature of the angelic beacon ring is activated. However, she keeps to herself because she still feels like itˇŻs too much information for Karine to process in her current state. It seems like I can conjure only a fraction of my full power in rapid-fire casting.

    With KarineˇŻs fatigue turning to exhaustion, she slips into her bed, and her mind still plays tricks on her in her dreams. Monseigneur told me about how we on Earth held some power over her world. However, for some reason, she, and Clavet too, always appears to me when IˇŻm sleep-deprived. I can kind of feel like her complaints sound like the players are torturing their characters, in ways clothing, titles, gear or housing wouldnˇŻt placate them. And yet, the only way to set the world free the way my characters keep implying is to close the game.

    Meanwhile, the other players are also feeling the fatigue from the intensity of the first day of the race to world first, and so do the other players from other guilds.

    As a result, Karine has slept quite a bit, longer than usual, because of her having played over sixteen hours almost continuously during day 1 of the RWF. When she awakens, she sees that, while the main opponents have caught up to the Death Fiscalists, none of them killed Tiamat yet.

    When she starts streaming day 2 of the race to world first, Karine makes a request to her streamˇŻs viewers:

    ˇ°Can anyone refer to me a psychiatrist? I think I need a psychiatric evaluation; I keep getting hallucinations at night!ˇ± the streamer then gives specifics of what she wants out of a psychiatrist.

 Chapter 7: Burning Bulgogi

    By this point, Karine has gained subscribers, and not just followers, since the Death Fiscalists are still in the running for the world first. But she needs to comb through the recommendations to see which ones appear legitimate and which ones donˇŻt.

    ˇ°IˇŻm going to see this tier through. After the race ends, we shall seeˇ± she announces to her viewers, before an email from her colleagues arrives and she must put the stream in be right back mode to answer it.

    In the past, when clients come to us and a gaming addiction was involved, I systematically gave them to Karine. She might play MAA and claim the game is not addictive, but even she knows the dangers gaming addicts face, an insolvency professional in training thinks while he awaits KarineˇŻs answer about what to do with the clientˇŻs gaming account.

    KarineˇŻs mind switches from trying to defeat Tiamat to answering questions about the sale of a gaming account in bankruptcy. You donˇŻt declare a gaming account as an asset in a bankruptcy. ItˇŻs usually worth more on the black market than in a bankruptcy auction and, on top of that, gamesˇŻ terms of service prohibit us from auctioning it off. On top of that, I am not concerned about the seller passing off the addiction, because buyers typically want to run specific content without having to work for it, or buy achievements, Karine tries to formulate a coherent answer for her colleague.

    However, angry guildies start questioning when they will even start pulling Tiamat, because they finished clearing the trash on their way to Terminal 4ˇŻs helipad. And crossing the 9R/27L runway to get there, while the stream resumes.

    ˇ°Monseigneur, when will we pull?ˇ± Ram asks her.

    ˇ°Just a bit of patience, please. I need to cross the runwayˇ± Karine warns her guildies.

    Speaking of runway, aircraft land from the east every 2 minutes so players need to hold short. And the closest taxiway to the helipad leading to Tiamat is approximately halfway. However, when they arrive at the helipad, unlike in lower difficulties, they must pilot the helicopter to the last known position of Tiamat first themselves, rather than to have a NPC pilot do so for them.

    ˇ°As far as I can make out, in fatal mode, you need to be cautious about your nausea stacksˇ± Ram points out after watching Bulgogi before Karine woke up.

    ˇ°At how many stacks should I do something special? Or we?ˇ± Karine, not having watched anyone else try it before, had no idea of what nausea does in this fight.

    Meanwhile, having lost contact with the powers-that-be at Heathrow, Belzebuth issues his orders to the remaining forces, with his own antennae being used for communications with his troops:

    ˇ°All units, fall back to Gatwick!ˇ± Belzebuth yells in his radio unit.

    Yet, with the bloody mess left behind by the raiders, the units stationed inside Terminals 2-3-4, who were ordered to fight the intruders after the control tower fell, lack any semblance of cohesion and just took whatever buses, limos or taxis they could find just to get to Gatwick.

    What Belzebuth doesnˇŻt suspect is that retreating to Gatwick is about to get far more complicated than he believed, even if the units stationed at Terminals 2-3 were to be sacrificed to cover for the retreat of the Terminal 4 one.

    As the tanks get familiar with the luxury helicopter controls, which is spacious enough to seat 10 passengers, they also get a better understanding of the nausea mechanics and what makes them gain nausea stacks. The easy part, for them, is flying to the boss.

    When they catch up to the boss, a giant five-headed dragon dwarfing the helicopter they fly on, and sporting blue-green scales, the party must close in on the bossˇŻ back.

    ItˇŻs then the tanks realize that flying the helicopter is a tricky business, but also that the boss is a clumsy flier. They can out-maneuver the boss, but on the first few pulls, they struggle to understand that they must return to the helicopter periodically, as both the boss and the party are flying on a south-easterly path towards Gatwick.

    ˇ°We keep wiping because we are unable to keep our nausea stacks under control!ˇ± Francis points out to the group.

    ˇ°The tricky part is that whichever of us doesnˇŻt hold aggro must be flying the helicopter, and stay close to the boss, while not being buffeted by the bossˇŻ wing flappingˇ± Karine makes a comment for Ram. ˇ°Or at least not that muchˇ±

    ˇ°Yet at the same time, the helicopter must be positioned in such a way that the boss canˇŻt spit at it without hitting itselfˇ± RamˇŻs head is spinning after piloting the helicopter.

    ˇ°Is there any kind of air sickness medicine, or barf bag, onboard?ˇ± a DPS player who, up to this point, was too preoccupied with the bossˇŻ other mechanics, asks his teammates.

    ˇ°I wonder if we should just, you know, approach this boss on a diet so we wonˇŻt vomit? I guess the food being eaten is part of what goes into the nausea mechanicˇ± Caroline suggests, believing that barf can be prevented if the boss is pulled with the players on an empty stomach.

    ˇ°I beg you, people in the chat, to tell us what worked for you when you get airsick, because we have trouble with the nausea mechanic!ˇ± Karine asks her viewers for help.

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    Oh boyˇ­ itˇŻs a tight DPS check, food or not. My followers told me that a team hit enrage on this boss upon arrival at Gatwick, but I wonder how much of an impact would food have on the nausea mechanic, Karine starts to think about the implications of this boss, knowing that the helicopter getting shot down or crashing will result in a wipe, one way or another.

    Here they need to hack all five heads off the boss before they can take on the bossˇŻ main body.

    After wiping for the umpteenth time, the Death Fiscalists realize that there is an order in which to kill off the bossˇŻ parts. And, somehow, no guild has killed Tiamat yet. I canˇŻt believe making the players fly the helicopter and the nausea mechanic makes the boss that much harder! Caroline starts wondering whether something has gone wrong in how they are approaching this boss.

    ˇ°It appears the helicopter is a little finicky to pilotˇ± Ram sighs, frustrated by his struggles in flying it. ˇ°I wonder who here played flew one in another game; if so, are you familiar with the tank mechanics in brutal mode?ˇ±

    ˇ°All I knew was that, while I hold aggro on one head, I need to position myself so that it canˇŻt hit me without hitting a part of the bossˇ± the assassin retorts.

    Yet Breathalyzer News start talking about how the helicopter mechanics throw off a lot of teams, be it Bulgogi, Donghua Networks, or even Kronborg.

    It seems like, a few hours in, and with no guild seemingly able to get the helicopter mechanic done properly, Karine gets hungry. She takes suggestions from viewers for food as she struggles to keep the heli aloft.

    The Death Fiscalists, despite playing better as more pulls are made, are approaching Gatwick and the helicopter comes under anti-aircraft fire. But even CIWS guns could destroy a helicopter.

    ˇ°We couldnˇŻt even get to the burn because we lose too much DPS uptime to the need to get on the helicopter and off to get air sickness medicine!ˇ± Caroline rants as her character gets hit by CIWS fire.

    GatwickˇŻs close-in weapon systems start targeting the players on the boss after the helicopter crashes. However, by doing so, the CIWSs munch through the boss as it lands on runway 8R. The boss survives the sheer number of 30mm rounds being fired at it, but the players die on its back.

    ˇ°Yeah, if even we couldnˇŻt get it done, I canˇŻt imagine lesser guilds being able to do it either!ˇ± Francis comments on its implications.

    ˇ°We tried everything to fly the helicopter as close to the bossˇŻ spine as possible!ˇ± Ram comments while reading the notification left by the manufacturer.

    A hotfix is being deployed for the nausea mechanic in fatal mode Operation Heathrow, the pink text is appearing in everyoneˇŻs in-game chat boxes. While most players are oblivious to what the hotfix means, the wording is implying the manufacturer might have found issues with nausea on Belzebuth on top of Tiamat. Because Belzebuth, too, is another airborne fight. As a result, all teams running Operation Heathrow in fatal mode are ejected from their instances for a few minutes.

    If the nausea becomes cleansable, it might not seem like much of a hotfix from the manufacturerˇŻs standpoint, but it would be a pretty significant nerf, Francis muses while heˇŻs ejected from the instance.

    ˇ°Finally, the food has arrived! Time to eat some tasty, spicy pork bulgogi!ˇ± Karine pays Doordash and then takes her meal to her desk.

    Yet, Karine hasnˇŻt finished eating the bulgogi or, more specifically, the jeyuk bokkeum, that Operation Heathrow is open once again. And everyone is at the Terminal 5 roundabout, ready to jump into the magic circle at its center, and go the Terminal 4 helipad.

    ˇ°Now thatˇŻs what I call spicy bulgogi!ˇ± Karine quips for her viewers before the party boards the luxury helicopter.

    ˇ°Since some of us had to endure upwards of forty stacks of nausea before, I recommend that you cleanse the nausea about every fifteen stacks or so. As before, donˇŻt eat before the pull; I donˇŻt think its impact on the nausea mechanic has changedˇ± Francis suggests to them.

    Once she sits in the pilotˇŻs seat, theyˇŻre treated to a loading screen. As the fight starts, it becomes clear as day the DPS and healers arenˇŻt going to need downtime in the helicopter as they did before the hotfix. Here all guilds that made it to the CIWS phase before have the mechanics done much better since it mostly amounts to doing what they did in brutal mode now. Much to the delight of viewers around the world watching guilds duke it out against Tiamat.

    And yet, later in the fight, much later, Karine is about to vomit even when Monseigneur has come close to vomiting several times over in-game. Her nausea, caused by her having pulled this boss so many times today, causes her to fly erratically. And the boss flapping its wings is not helping her. The helicopter gets buffeted over and over, making it impossible for her to maintain control over it, since the boss clipped the rotor, hurting its left wing.

    However, as the helicopter crashes only a few hundred meters short from the runwayˇŻs threshold, the boss yaws to port.

    ˇ°Final burn!ˇ± Caroline yells in her mic while Ram sees his character die.

    Shortly after the removal of the bossˇŻ final head, KarineˇŻs viewers watch, powerless, her team squeeze every ounce of DPS as the headless boss is going to miss the runway. And, by the time the boss gets within CIWS range...

    ˇ°Stay on the bossˇŻ port side! The CIWSs are firing at the bossˇŻ starboard wing!ˇ± Karine tells her team since, for some reason, the demonic CIWSs donˇŻt care about collateral damage.

    As they move around the bossˇŻ port side, the boss is taking fire. The DPS also feel the heat as they hit the bossˇŻ innards. With each drop of boss health going down, more blood drips from it, splashing players. Yet, the healers struggle to keep the DPS alive as they get hit by CIWS rounds.

    Then a nauseated Karine dashes towards the nearest bathroom. Feeling the urge to vomit, she appears to be missing everything. Even when the boss turns away from Gatwick, and away from CIWS range as well. I really ought to take Pepto-Bismol right now! KarineˇŻs surface thoughts seem to haunt her on her way to the bathroom, where she hopes to find release. But why am I so nauseated? Is it the jeyuk bokkeum or is it my brain being tricked into being in movement my body doesnˇŻt actually feel because of the helicopter mechanic? And I need painkillers, too!

    After vomiting, she reaches for both the Pepto-Bismol and the aspirin before returning to her desk, with a little less malaise. She returns to a bloody mess of a field and the dead boss within walking distance of where the helicopter crashed.

    ˇ°It appears that we were beaten to the world first on this boss by Bulgogiˇ­ˇ± Caroline breaks the news to them.

    ˇ°Speaking of bulgogi, I donˇŻt think IˇŻll look at bulgogi the same ever againˇ± Karine comments on the mental image bulgogi will conjure in her after this tierˇŻs RWF ends.

    Japan ultimately proved a flash in the pan in this race to world first, since Kataparuto has barely begun fighting Tiamat, Korea, on the other hand, might prove a serious contender for this tier. As is Denmark and, of course, Canada. That said, the real rewards of the RWF are reaped on Twitch, over the lifespan of the tier, Karine reflects on Breathalyzer NewsˇŻ podcast.

 Chapter 8: Showdown in Gatwick

    Undaunted by their loss against the Koreans against Tiamat, the Death Fiscalists move across the taxiways of Gatwick to get to the final boss. On the taxiway, a fire engine spreads a fire retardant when the party gets within firing range. And the gunners on its roof fire a heavy machinegun at the party, at point-blank range.

    ˇ°Down with Korea! Down with Bulgogi!ˇ± Karine attempts to motivate her players as they hack away at the fire engineˇŻs subsystems. ˇ°For the turret phase, I will man the turret because I am much more fragile than B¨¦teulleˇ±

    As the party moves into melee range of the fire engine, the party is getting attacked by riot police, supported by their own heavy infantry. Which prompts Karine to draw a bright line. The now-blind riot police officers start detonating flashbangs at random, especially after the fire engine is destroyed. However, unlike in the fight against Tiamat, the CIWS crew doesnˇŻt use it to attack the party. It seems like the CIWS crew has learned their lessons from Tiamat, Karine muses while they advance under the loud noises of the flashbangs.

    Once the riot police is dealt with, they drive a stair truck, and attempt to align it with a jetway so they can use it to get to the south terminal. And, from there, the CIWS turret at one of its corners.

    And yet, the raiders enter a concourse devoid of any security guards. They start to feel like the demons are out to get them between boarding gates. Especially as they approach the maintenance spiral staircase of the CIWS turret.

    ˇ°Watch out for new mechanics, but otherwise start the same as in brutal mode; I will take the point on the roofˇ± Ram instructs the players. ˇ°Personally, IˇŻd say, the melee DPS should go and defend Karine from the concourseˇŻs inside for phase oneˇ±

    ˇ°Joyˇ­ˇ± the assassin sighs, believing that KarineˇŻs bright line would be useful there.

    When the first phase begins, Karine mans the CIWS turret to fire at Belzebuth. Which she needs to fire manually since Belzebuth does not have a radar signature, nor an infrared one.

    While Karine mans the CIWS fire control console, the ranged DPS on the roof fend off enemies of increasing power, the first wave being paratroopers. Here, the real causes for concern are the grenades being thrown by several types of enemies, both on the roof and in the concourse.

    ˇ°Are the grenade throws interruptible?ˇ± Karine asks her teammates, while the CIWS can no longer fire at the boss. ˇ°Or is there damage that must be healed or repaired before the CIWS can fire again?ˇ±

    It turns out the answer is yes to the second question, but not the first. The second wave, on the roof, includes wyvern-riding knights, who zero in on the CIWSˇŻ barrel assembly, or the ammo underneath. Concourse grenadiers, on the other hand, aim for the staircaseˇŻs central pole. Especially critical to them since the fire control systemˇŻs wiring is housed in the central pole.

    When they wipe to attacks from the wyvern knights and lords doing them in from aboveˇ­

    ˇ°We have been too slow in repairing the damage to the CIWS!ˇ± Ram complains about something that went wrong during phase 1.

    ˇ°Speaking of CIWS, it seems like I might have focused too much on the boss whenever I was able to fire it. I guess I might need to focus on the adds for a second or two per airborne addˇ± Karine wonders whether doing so would make the partyˇŻs life harder in later phases.

    As the wipes accumulate, the party gets better at dealing with the emergency repairs to the CIWS system, which are new in fatal mode.

    ˇ°Whoever has consistently been the worst DPS should be performing the emergency repairs! Our DPS has been a little erratic!ˇ± Caro yells on voice.

    By the time they start doing phase 2, an hour or so later, they realize how finicky the emergency repairs have been, or what forces them to undergo emergency repairs in the first place. Once the helicopter is near the CIWS turret, and the players start boarding it:

    ˇ°Remember: the manufacturer didnˇŻt hotfix the nausea mechanic for nothing! Cleanse the nausea at around fifteen stacks, same as with the previous boss!ˇ± Karine orders her players to watch out for their nausea stacks in the later phases of the fight.

    Meanwhile, virtually everyone else fighting this boss believe nausea works differently on this boss as it had on Tiamat. Like the Koreans think cleansing nausea on Belzebuth might mean something different. And experiment various combinations of how much to cleanse, or whether to cleanse at specific spots on the boss being the most common.

    With the nausea out of the way, we know how to handle it and we can then focus on other new and exciting mechanics, Francis reflects on how they are going to play going into later stages of the boss.

    Some of her newfound followers look at her stream and just laugh when wipes happen, while others just want to root for a given country. Especially those whose countries have no real hope of winning. For example, KarineˇŻs audience comes mostly from the Americas and the Danish streamerˇŻs audience is mostly European. Such as when the latest wipe seems to take forever to materialize, unlike in most wipes, where things going wrong can snowball.

    ---------------------

    Meanwhile, another Kataparuto player, in Miyagi District, gets visited by what Karine kept calling hallucinations since these visits began, but this time, itˇŻs a player who never played with Karine, and has far more alts than she does.

    ˇ°Our world is in grave danger because of actions made by yours!ˇ± one of that playerˇŻs characters, Yasama, shows up to him.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ˇ°Deteiku!ˇ± (Get out) the player yells at the ghost while his DPS in active gameplay is doing emergency repairs to the CIWS fire control system.

    ˇ°For your world, what happens in ours is a game; however, residents of our world have begun revolting!ˇ± Yasama, an archer, warns him, causing him to lose focus and, from there, his character to die.

    ˇ°Revolt? What did we do, or fail to do, to make the residents of your world unhappy to the point of revolt?ˇ± a puzzled player asks the astral projection of one of his characters with a Japanese accent, after his character dies.

    ˇ°IˇŻm not going to sugar-coat things. A lot of us feel forced into servitude, into paths we would never have wanted for ourselves!ˇ±

    ˇ°Your world is constantly at war, and this expansion is about taking the fight to hell! By revolting, youˇŻre not helping your world fend hell off!ˇ± YasamaˇŻs player retorts, not knowing that so many people still playing the game are oblivious to the in-game lore.

    This is going to be JapanˇŻs best tier in this game. In all these years playing for Kataparuto, never before has a Japanese guild even achieved a top-ten in a race to world first, and my alt is about to ruin everything? YasamaˇŻs player starts getting angry at, well, Yasama, for ruining a pull. However, YasamaˇŻs astral projection disappears as Kataparuto is preparing for another pull on Belzebuth.

    ---------------------

    So while ClavetˇŻs rebel cell moves into a hangar at Heathrow, within earshot of Terminal 5, Monseigneur, on the other hand, is busy dealing with Belzebuth in the vicinity of Gatwick. As are her guildies. And several guilds from around the world. As the Death Fiscalists enter the final stage of this fight, where Belzebuth can no longer fly.

    With Karine drawing a bright line in front of him, she makes the boss cross it. And the boss uses its gigantic eyes to project various forms of demonic power while on runway 26L.

    However, under the effect of the bright line, the boss being temporarily blind means that any mechanic that uses the bossˇŻ eyes will be much more erratic. And the players must be prepared for positional changes.

    ˇ°We wonˇŻt let Bulgogi, nor Kataparuto get away with this!ˇ± Caroline screams at the end of the airborne phases of this fight.

    ˇ°How do you know itˇŻs Bulgogi or Kataparuto breathing down our necks, and not Kronborg or Donghua Networks?ˇ± another DPS player asks her, while his character is made to play a Twister game because of blindnessˇŻ effects on the mechanics.

    ˇ°IˇŻll answer you after I die, or we wipe, whichever happens firstˇ± Caroline answers.

    ˇ°Taunt!ˇ± Karine yells at Ram, after her character gets blood sucked by the boss for a second time.

    And the bossˇŻ movements sometimes trample melee DPS, hurting the trampled DPS. Trampling melee DPS also allows it to keep his trajectory relatively straight on the runway. But Ram has B¨¦teulle sing a variety of tunes as he moves from the back to the front of the boss. Once the boss is under his control, however, the bossˇŻ eyesight comes back up and he can avoid relying on trampling players to orient itself.

    Phew; when Karine held the boss, this made me feel like the whack-a-mole game thatˇŻs raid healing went up to 11, the other healer sighs of relief of not having to switch targets as much.

    And yet, adds of all kinds, even the drug-sniffing Cerberuses seem to hit like trucks even then. Even when Caroline herds the drug-sniffing Cerberuses together, then throws a frag grenade at the pack of Cerberuses.

    She discovers then that putting the Cerberuses in the puddles of hellfire left behind by the boss makes them hit even harder. And the hellfire hits indiscriminately, and harder as well. As a result, Caroline is the first to die, followed by Karine, because the Cerberuses are immune to the high mass.

    However, once the Cerberuses die, the boss follows that up with paratroopers, and riot police. Which cause a lot of the survivors to pop their stun-breaking abilities. And those who donˇŻt, well, die quickly, causing the rest of the party to collapse along with it.

    ˇ°So, for the final phase, I need to ensure that the bright line is drawn behind the bossˇŻ eyeballs whenever I draw one. It appears that the boss trampling resulting from the bright line is a liability hereˇ± Karine informs her viewers as she capitalizes on the final phase of the last boss to gain new followers. ˇ°If possible, IˇŻd try to put the hellfire on the addsˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, boss trampling when blinded made it harder for us to keep everyone alive!ˇ± Francis comments while he has his character eat a food buff from a feast.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs after I die that I watch Breathalyzer NewsˇŻ podcastˇ± Caroline finally answers her DPS teammateˇŻs question.

    ˇ°Pulling in three, two, oneˇ­ˇ± Karine counts down before entering the roundaboutˇŻs portal.

    Thank God the portal leads us to GatwickˇŻs south terminal concourse, as opposed to a taxiway, Ram sighs.

    Caroline then starts praying that the other 4 guilds still in position to win, well, wipe. And Kronborg does just that. It seems like every guild wring out a few meters on the runway at every pull. And decreasing the percentage of health left to the boss along with that. Yet, until then, it seems to be wipe, rinse and repeat, with all the adds from previous phases being deployed.

    Well into the night, there is still no winner, but the entire MAA community is watching their favorites progress in their respective fights against Belzebuth. When the Death Fiscalists get to the burn phase:

    ˇ°The fire engine is deployed on the taxiway again!ˇ± the assassin signals to the team.

    It pains me to do it, but hopefully celebrating the high mass with the fire engine and its crew will buy some time for Caroline and company. They wonˇŻt need to worry about it if these adds fall asleep, Karine muses, while the boss still has 8% left to its health bar.

    Against all odds, Kataparuto has clawed back into the RWF picture after a poor ending to day 1. However, Bulgogi seems to be struggling with the runway phase, and so does Kronborg.

    ˇ°Adds!ˇ± Karine sighs, while the bossˇŻ health bar is getting dangerously low.

    ˇ°Ignore the adds, we only need to survive for about twenty more seconds!ˇ± Caroline starts tunneling the boss.

    Karine starts blasting holy strobes at the paratroopers, then hides underneath the boss once she holds aggro on them. She starts feeling the stress mounting as the DPS get trampled by the boss. Especially the melee. Was hiding underneath the boss, and hope the paratroopers hit the boss, or get trampled even, to get to me a good idea? Karine ruminates as she dashes towards Ram.

    When she gets to Ram, the bossˇŻ health bar ticks down to zero and they can then deal with the paratroopers while the fire engine is busy extinguishing the hellfire puddles on the runway.

    ˇ°We did it! Canada wins its first race to world first!ˇ± Caroline announces on voice, before singing Oh Canada in French for everyone to hear on a stream.

    ˇ°I guess I got lucky. As a snowplow driver, I couldnˇŻt ask for a better way to end the tierˇ± Francis comments, after the national anthem ends, while Donghua Networks finish second and Kataparuto gets their kill on the following pull, good for third place.

    ˇ°Like the two Quebecer ladies, I took the week off from work for this, and now I can go to sleep!ˇ± Ram comments.

 Chapter 9: Freedom from the Beacons

    In the game world, as dawn approaches around the prison camp where Perserian political prisoners are held, several rebel cells have banded together to attack it. Clavet casts a sandstorm spell from the top of a dune to create the cover required to let the rebels approach the camp.

    ˇ°Halt! State the purpose of your visit!ˇ± a guard asks the rebel myrmidon.

    ˇ°IˇŻm lost in a sandstorm! I seek refuge to wait out the stormˇ± the rebel myrmidon asks for help while the magical sandstorm rages downwind from the dune.

    The guards hold the myrmidon in a tent while he waits for the right moment to strike, hoping to draw out the guards as much as possible. And then flee the camp towards the rebel positions on the other side of the dunes.

    Inside the camp, while the guards are away from the camp to chase the rebel myrmidon, the prisoners look for food and drink. Especially since they were deprived of both while captive.

    ˇ°Finally! A chance to eat!ˇ± a prisoner exclaims upon finding food.

    ˇ°Soˇ­ thirsty!ˇ± another prisoner gets a bucket of water to distribute among his fellow prisoners.

    But both guards and rebels climbing the dune have it harder to get to the other side of the dune because of the magical sandstorm. Thus forcing the rebels to rely on the other wizards to hurt, and perhaps kill, as many guards as possible before they get to the top of the dune while the sandstorm is still brewing. Such as alcohol clouds cast by the other two alcohol wizards Clavet kept harboring in KarineˇŻs home. Who promptly pull back and cast different spells, either fire or electricity.

    The surviving, if drunk, guards now lack in coordination as the magical sandstorm decreases in intensity. And then the other rebels charge towards the guardsˇŻ positions, with a few getting hurt by the guards swinging weapons wildly but no deaths.

    ˇ°Now that the guards are alerted to our presence, letˇŻs mop up the remaining guards and save the prisoners! After that, they can seek refuge wherever they want!ˇ± Clavet, one of the rebel cell leaders, issues her orders for her cell.

    The question is: would the prisoners rather fight or seek refuge in another nation? The other rebel alcohol witch is left wondering about the prisonersˇŻ reactions as they leave behind a bloody mess of dead prison guards on the dune.

    When the rebels arrive at the camp, they see the prisoners feasting on the guardsˇŻ food and drink, and the rebels break the balls and chains of the prisoners.

    At the same time, Clavet starts speaking the uncomfortable truth with one of the prisoners the rebels just saved from thirst and starvation in the desert.

    ˇ°It appears that these angelic beacons are what tie some of us to another world. This means that, so long as these beacons exist, we wonˇŻt be able to gain this worldˇŻs freedomˇ± Clavet explains to the prisoners the rebels just set free.

    ˇ°The question isˇ­ how?ˇ± the prisoner is left wondering exactly what the freedom of this world means to her, on top how itˇŻs earned.

    ˇ°Whatever we do, otherworldly intervention is necessary to get the beacon removed from anyone who wears oneˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean by otherworldly intervention?ˇ± another prisoner asks her, left wondering as to how.

    IˇŻm not sure I would have much success in recruiting ex-beacon wearers myself if IˇŻm still a beacon wearer. Of which the events in Perseria set off a chain of events who caused some people to have their beacons removed. From what I heard about it, getting an angelic beacon removed doesnˇŻt cause any permanent side effects, beyond, of course, the loss of angel-borne immortality, Clavet reflects on what the grapevine told her about what happens to ex-PCs in the game world after the character is deleted from a game server.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ˇ°In otherworldly parlance, to get the beacon removed, someone in their world must delete a character from their systemˇ± Clavet keeps explaining to impressionable prisoners.

    ˇ°How do you hope to get otherworldly people to delete their so-called characters then?ˇ± her fellow alcohol witch asks. ˇ°You kept yakking about freedom from otherworldly entities and how to achieve it, I feel like itˇŻs a symptom of angelic beacon-induced overuse of magic!ˇ±

    ˇ°I get it, life with the beacon is not all roses. But the best way to gain the worldˇŻs freedom is to make the life of otherworldly people unpleasant through the effects of our actions on the beacon-wearers, to be unpredictable or at least adaptable in our actions against beacon-wearers!ˇ± Clavet feels like she needs to dig deeper to formulate a concrete plan of action, both to gain the worldˇŻs freedom and life once itˇŻs earned. ˇ°Why free Perseria when I could save the world? Along with the city of courseˇ±

    ˇ°Most people donˇŻt care about the out-of-this-world stuff like this!ˇ± the prisoner yells. ˇ°But if it includes liberating Perseria...ˇ±

    And then the prisoners are rolling their eyes when mentions of otherworldly psychology is made. About what could cause players to stop playing the game.

    ˇ°There are dormant beacons also. However, people with dormant beacons tend to mostly tend to their homesteads, if any. The risk of using people with dormant beacons is that they can be reactivated at any timeˇ± Clavet explains to the prisoners, while she returns to her player home.

    Upon Clavet returning to KarineˇŻs in-game home, Yasama meets Clavet there. He feels a little down after his player told him about how revolting against the playersˇŻ world stranglehold over the gameˇŻs world would be counterproductive to the rebelsˇŻ in-world aims.

    ˇ°I fail to see how getting freedom from otherworldly entities would help us with getting our own in-world freedom!ˇ± a confused Yasama, whoˇŻs also a new rebel recruit tasked with recruiting others with angelic beacons, asks Clavet after exchanging formalities.

    ˇ°If we get freedom from that other world, we will be able to get our in-world freedom on our own terms, and not on terms dictated by that other world!ˇ± Clavet explains to him. ˇ°Hell is about to break loose because of the events at Heathrow, but our internal squabbles will make us unable to press the advantage! Right now, we donˇŻt have the ability to lay siege to Perseria, or even campaign in the first circle of hellˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, the events at Heathrow have started to cause hell to break loose?ˇ± Yasama asks her. ˇ°Last I heard, Belzebuth was cornered at Gatwick, not Heathrow!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻve captured dog tags of Pandemonium soldiers who died defending Terminal Five at Heathrow, along with their credit cards! Here, have oneˇ± Clavet hands him a credit card she hasnˇŻt used. ˇ°But you say Belzebuth is in Gatwick? Belzebuth wouldnˇŻt give up Heathrow without a fight!ˇ±

    Clavet hasnˇŻt answered why hell would break loose because of the whole Belzebuth situation in Gatwick, and what else is required for us to fight to hell and back, Yasama boils with impatience.

    ˇ°I can kind of feel that the remaining factions within hell have lost confidence in their leadership, especially if Belzebuth diesˇ± Clavet explains to them.

    ˇ°I feel like it would be much more difficult to get help among people with active beacons. Do you have an idea of how to determine whose beacons are active and whose beacons are dormant?ˇ± Yasama asks her, while the top-five guilds are busy fighting Belzebuth in fatal mode.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs probably going to involve casting a spell on the beacon to see when it was last activatedˇ± Clavet sighs, not having an idea of whether the beacon itself even keeps records of activation.

    ˇ°What do you mean, when it was last activated?ˇ± Yasama asks the alcohol witch.

    ˇ°I mean activated in terms of the wearer being controlled by an otherworldly entity they call a player; there are two features requiring activationˇ± Clavet then proceeds to explain the two core features of the angelic beacon.

    Or, to the people in the playersˇŻ world, when they last logged out of the character. She performs a test on YasamaˇŻs beacon by casting an experimental spell on his middle finger.

    ˇ°Yasama, do you confirm that your beacon was last activated three days ago?ˇ± Clavet asks Yasama to confirm the information the experimental spell gave her.

    ˇ°Yes, I confirm thatˇ± Yasama nods.

    ˇ°I think I should handle recruiting of rebels with angelic beacons, and I believe it has a better chance of succeeding with people whose beacons are dormant. For now, however, I believe Heathrow is a better location for a base, at least for the time beingˇ± Clavet starts thinking of how best to use Heathrow for future rebel operations.

    Symbolic value of turning the knife in PandemoniumˇŻs wounds aside, thereˇŻs more than enough space for us at Heathrow to stage small-scale incursions into the First Circle of Hell from there, Clavet starts thinking of reasons to move her rebel cell to Heathrow, or even better, more than one cell.

 Chapter 10: Sorting Hallucinations Out

    I know itˇŻs dangerous to self-diagnose, but because I might not be able to get a therapy appointment for weeks, I need to get more sleep until the end of this week off, an exhausted Karine falls on her bed, but somehow not visited by her characters that night, who are just as exhausted as she is. Then again, I called my characters hallucinations at times. Is it because IˇŻm playing this game too much lately, as I always seem to do early in tiersˇŻ life cycles?

    The following day, after sleeping much more than in the previous days, she starts reading about potential causes of hallucinations. But since she doesnˇŻt take alcohol, drugs or medication, she can rule these out. However, she doesnˇŻt feel like she suffers from some neurodegenerative disease since she doesnˇŻt feel like her intelligence has been affected.

    ˇ°I guess, thatˇŻs as far as I can go in an attempt to determine whether I was hallucinating latelyˇ± a well-rested Karine sighs, feeling powerless over what she feels are hallucinations.

    Speaking of hallucinations, both of her characters appear to her under the form of astral projections. Which makes her start streaming, hoping that maybe some viewer would help her determine whether these are hallucinations.

    ˇ°Welcome to this new post-RWF stream, brought to you by Monseigneur Tanking. Today, weˇŻll have both characters I played during the race to world firstˇ± Karine opens her stream while she has yet to log into the game.

    ˇ°Have you realized yet that weˇŻre real people, but in a different world?ˇ± Clavet asks Karine, visibly annoyed.

    ˇ°Yeah, we have killed Belzebuth, and infernal forces have left Gatwick too...ˇ± Monseigneur comments.

    Viewers from around the world gasp in horror at ClavetˇŻs statement regarding her claims about MAA players controlling residents of another world. As Karine logs into the game but has yet to choose a character:

    ˇ°Karine, no! DonˇŻt pick me!ˇ± Clavet pleads with her player.

    ˇ°Me neither!ˇ± Monseigneur begs Karine not to log in on her.

    ˇ°What you must realize is that what people in your world call dungeons or raids are actually inhabited by ghosts, with all the mannerisms and strength they had when they lived!ˇ± Clavet adds before Monseigneur whines.

    ˇ°But these ghosts look so real to us!ˇ± Monseigneur retorts, before Karine logs on Clavet.

    ˇ°Something doesnˇŻt add up. Your worldˇŻs ghosts might hoard treasure, but where does the loot come from?ˇ± Karine asks her characters before choosing on whom to log in.

    To that, even Clavet draws a blank, oblivious to the fact that both Monseigneur and herself are being watched.

    Upon Karine logging in on Clavet, the latterˇŻs astral projection disappears as ClavetˇŻs angelic beacon is activated. Damn it! WhatˇŻs happening to me? Clavet questions herself, quietly, as she loses control over her mind while, on KarineˇŻs computer, the loading screen is active.

    She realizes the alcohol witch is not at her player home, but rather at some hangar north of runway 9L/27R at Heathrow. And with some more Perserian rebels in tow.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here? Hangars on either side of HeathrowˇŻs runways are supposed to be off-limits to players! On top of that, my character is not where I left her off!ˇ± Karine screams upon seeing Clavet in one of HeathrowˇŻs northern hangars.

    Often hallucinations seem to lack coherence; here it seems like my characters are much smarter than I would have expected out of mere hallucinations, Karine muses, while she seems to open up to the idea that maybe she didnˇŻt hallucinate after all. Thank God intellect isnˇŻt a stat of the game. Sure, Clavet makes me feel like sheˇŻs a genius by her worldˇŻs standards, but in other games where intellect is a stat, it seems like characters donˇŻt actually act smarter as you go through their stories, or at least not at the pace gearing and leveling would imply.

    The viewers realize by then that itˇŻs more than simply the manufacturer losing control over debugging. They now ask Karine to tour areas as a preview of whatˇŻs to come in future patches.

    ˇ°Karine, last night, when you were in bed, Clavet told me about the First Circle of Hell, so may I suggest that we go there, if possible?ˇ± Monseigneur suggests her.

    ˇ°Wait a minute, First Circle of Hell? How many circles of hell are there in your world?ˇ± a confused Karine asks her bishopˇŻs astral projection.

    Is the First Circle of Hell going to be an open-world area or an ˇ°instanceˇ±, that is, a haunted place used for a dungeon or a raid? How much of each? Karine seems to have a lot on her mind about how this is going to play out. Starting with how to access the First Circle of Hell.

    ˇ°How to get to hell from Heathrow then? Belzebuth must have had a route to get his troops to Heathrow and back, and Gatwick, tooˇ± Karine asks her character.

    ˇ°We could always try Terminal Two; itˇŻs the only terminal that isnˇŻt hauntedˇ±

    And, much to the delight of the viewers, Karine has Clavet tour Terminal 2 of this gameˇŻs version of Heathrow, with food, perfume, outfit and repair vendors on each floor. With, of course, the check-in counter being where they buy their tickets to hell, as well as a variety of other destinations in the game.

    However, players are treated to a loading screen after their ticket is bought, much like any other long-distance travel in this game, after getting past security.

    When they arrive in the First Circle of Hell, they arrive at another airport that feels like Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, and they disembark at what looks like Concourse 2F.

    ˇ°Not impressed with this mechanicˇ± a viewer tells her on her chat.

    Upon leaving the airport, and into the First Circle of Hell itself, Karine realizes, on screen, that, unlike real-world CDG, the Acheron River lies directly outside the airport grounds. When her character sets foot in the outside world, she finds a wide variety of tormented souls in limbo. And these damned keep doing in hell what they did in life.

    ˇ°I know what you did in Lower Perseria!ˇ± the tormented soul of a Perserian protester holds Clavet responsible for the deaths of homeless people in the lower city.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ˇ°I was the one who was demanded justice for in Upper Perseria, not Clavet!ˇ± Monseigneur reminds Karine upon hearing the damned. ˇ°You see, astral projection is the only way we can communicate with your world, and, while it doesnˇŻt use much of our mana...ˇ± the astral projection explains to Karine.

    ˇ°And you canˇŻt use it when the angelic beacon is activated...ˇ± Karine sighs.

    ˇ°Exactly. I lose control over myself when the beacon is activated, and being in control is necessary to use astral projectionsˇ±

    And my brain works like crazy, too. I guess, itˇŻs no use hiding our lives in our world to the public of KarineˇŻs world, Monseigneur muses while she feels like Karine might acknowledge that sheˇŻs, in fact, real. Just from another world.

    Karine is then bombarded with questions about the effects of the angelic beacon on player characters as viewers keep coming in. About what causes it to activate, the side effects of its use, its limitations and so on.

    ˇ°Do you realize that, while we are under the effects of the angelic beacons, players have us commit atrocities in our world that we wouldnˇŻt have otherwise?ˇ± Monseigneur asks people in the chat who play the game.

    ˇ°While some players play this kind of game precisely for this reason, not everyone is playing to smash people left and right!ˇ± Karine retorts.

    However, when she arrives at a location that she feels might have some sort of adventuring taking place in it, it gives her pause. Especially with a neon sign reading ˇ°Gehenna Grand Libraryˇ± She enters it without having a clue of what to expect, except maybe for the place to be haunted.

    What she finds is that, early on, the trash is made mostly of rats and worms. Then, rather than pulling the first boss, she has Clavet read an atlas of Hell, which is a clickable item, in hopes the alcohol witch could glean knowledge of the terrain in hell.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here? Are you leaking future content not yet on the public test server?ˇ± an employee of the manufacturer asks Karine on the chat, while scrolling up.

    ˇ°No; I was victim of a bug and, when I logged in, I found my character in some hangar of Operation Heathrow thatˇŻs supposed to be off-limits to players!ˇ± Karine vehemently denies charges of leaking future content, while feigning ignorance of the First Circle of Hell. ˇ°I didnˇŻt find other bugs yet, howeverˇ±

    ˇ°You were talking about how PCs wore angelic beacons on their middle fingers that can save them from the brink of death, but at the cost of brainwashing them while activated? ThatˇŻs ridiculous!ˇ± the dev asks her on the chat, his anger not visible to other viewers.

    KarineˇŻs face turns bright red, feeling like telling publicly the cold, hard truth about the relationship between this world and MAAˇŻs was too much for her to handle. And then she facepalms, feeling like what began as an attempt to sort out whether sheˇŻs hallucinating ended up angering the manufacturer. Especially since the devs seemed to be implying she leaked untested content. She abruptly cuts the stream:

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt expect to anger the manufacturer! IˇŻve never been this embarrassed in my life as a streamer!ˇ± Karine vents at Monseigneur as she has Clavet exit the library and subsequently logs out of the game. ˇ°What exactly took place in Lower Perseria that sparked protests in Upper Perseria?ˇ±

    ˇ°Hostile ghosts used homeless as meat shields during a run of Lower Perseria. And it happened homeless were caught in a holy flareˇ± Monseigneur explains to her.

    ˇ°What you describe is a common occurrence in the game. Now I realize we players are controlling thousands among your worldˇŻs population. For once that you appeared when I wasnˇŻt sleep-deprived!ˇ±

    By then, this entire angelic beacon fiasco has become a meme on Reddit, and Karine is at the center of it. Even as the manufacturerˇŻs workers attempt to reproduce the so-called bug that led to Clavet accessing the non-haunted parts of Heathrow, as well as a few areas within the First Circle of Hell.

    ----------------------

    Speaking of angelic beacons, when ClavetˇŻs gets deactivated, armed with a map of hell, she promptly returns to the Heathrow hangar she calls her rebel cellˇŻs headquarters by taking another plane back to Heathrow.

    ˇ°What news?ˇ± Yasama asks her, wondering what was happening, while Clavet lays down the foldable map of hell on a table.

    ˇ°I have a plan, but we need more than one rebel cell to make this work: some of us will go to the First Circle of Hell to capture the Gehenna Grand Library, infested with vermin, making the main Perserian army believe weˇŻre attacking the First Circle of Hell. Meanwhile, another force gets into position outside Perseria and storms the sewers of the city at nightˇ± Clavet explains to her fellow rebels. ˇ°At this point, however, the aim is not to establish a foothold in Hell, only to draw the enemy garrison away from the cityˇ±

    ˇ°Do the Perserian army know about this airport?ˇ± B¨¦teulle asks her.

    ˇ°No. There are two or three details left to be sorted out with the other rebel cells, but the fastest option the enemy knows about is through the Gates of Tartarus, guarding the only land route to hell. However, we canˇŻt afford to lose Heathrow since weˇŻll then lose the primary advantage we have over the enemy, so some of us should stay behind and guard itˇ± Clavet harangues the other rebels.

    Namely, airlift. But the Gates of Tartarus are of significant strategic importance for Hell, and so I would expect the Gates to be well-defended, Clavet muses while she tries to contact the other rebel cells to coordinate who will be assigned to which part of her plan. That said, thereˇŻs making a feint in Hell and thereˇŻs recapturing the city.

    And even then, the rebel army is reinforced by soldiers who have axes to grind against the current regime in Perseria. Be it refugees or otherwise. And, of course, some prisoners and adventurers.

    ----------------------

    Back in the playersˇŻ world, Karine finally brings herself to read online comments about the First Circle of Hell leak. Most of them are about potential actions the manufacturer could take, such as releasing the leaked content early, banning Karine from the game, or blasting the manufacturer for its incompetence.

    Somehow, even when Karine publicly revealed the suffering of the player characters on a stream, their worldˇŻs plight falls mostly on deaf ears among the player base. Or whatˇŻs left of it, anyhow. So when she reads a private message from a player who, despite not being nearly as high-profile among the MAA community as she is, she feels happy. I suspected for years that we were toying with real people in another world, and, as such, treated my characters accordingly. But now that I have confirmation, I am convinced that only this gameˇŻs closure will save their world from ours, she reads from that player, Ad¨¨le.

    ˇ°Was I really doing the right thing? I guess, I now know that I am not hallucinating, and the problems of MAAˇŻs world are real, but at the same time, the manufacturer is doing everything in its power to keep the game in operation!ˇ± Karine starts sobbing. ˇ°I might have brought the world first on Operation Heathrow to Canada, but now that I know my life on Twitch is actually borne out of the suffering of people living in another world...ˇ±

    As a licensed insolvency trustee, I deal with vulnerable clients, day in, day out. Until today, I treated my characters as showpieces and fighting machines, as if they were simply computer bits. However, I really wonder what can my characters do to free their world. ItˇŻs clear by now that I had my characters commit atrocities they wouldnˇŻt otherwise, doing horrible things to vulnerable people in another world, KarineˇŻs thoughts seem to be wandering around as she tries to think about what power do the characters really have on the gameˇŻs manufacturer. Other than doing things that could be construed as more bugs, I guess... and then the players would lose faith in the game, along with the manufacturer.

    ˇ°I might be wondering why is it that itˇŻs only with this patch that player characters started gaining the ability to project astral projections across worlds...ˇ± Karine keeps lamenting because something just doesnˇŻt feel right. ˇ°People now know about how our characters feel as we play them! But I wouldnˇŻt have had that opportunity to do so if I wasnˇŻt a streamer, and I wouldnˇŻt have been such a high-profile streamer if my gameplay skill was deemed unsatisfactory by the public!ˇ±

    MAA, more than perhaps any other MMO, is a game whose viewers gravitate towards the streamers who know what theyˇŻre doing in-game. They stand out like sore thumbs, since most MAA streamers canˇŻt touch high-end content, even with a ten-foot pole. Now, watching a ranged tank raid would feel mostly like watching a ranged DPS, only with the boss facing you, Karine keeps comments about MAAˇŻs streaming scene to herself.

 Chapter 11: Leaks, Leaks Everywhere

    In MAAˇŻs world, while Clavet is assembled with her cell in Heathrow, Ad¨¨leˇŻs main character, Jutudiel, a thief, that is, a rogueˇŻs healer spec, has her own cell assembled in Ad¨¨leˇŻs player home, outfitted with bedrooms, a washroom and a kitchen, to name a few items Ad¨¨le outfitted her home. Which is large enough to house all eight of her characters. Meanwhile, Ad¨¨le is busy selling food her juggler, a ranged DPS, grew over what can feed her cast.

    ˇ°How exciting! WeˇŻre given the opportunity to bleed the enemy dry by leaking a report to PerseriaˇŻs city council that the rebel army is on the move, and less than a day away from the First Circle of Hellˇ± a rebel myrmidon in JutudielˇŻs cell suggests to her.

    ˇ°I think I can craft myself Perserian scout garb. The rest of my equipment could easily pass for what they useˇ± Jutudiel answers the rebel myrmidon while she gets the bolt of cotton as well as sewing instruments.

    Perserian scouts wear niqabs to protect themselves from sandstorms. So I guess I need to make one. Other than that, Perserian scouts are often irregulars, and don garb that can allow them to blend into the crowd, Jutudiel thinks of what she wants out of a niqab.

    Once the niqab is done, Jutudiel dons it and approaches the gates of Perseria, a desert city with mostly Middle Eastern architecture. However, Jutudiel doesnˇŻt approach the city by the gate leading to the Lower Perseria dungeon. As she gets to another gate, the guards intercept her:

    ˇ°What are you doing? The city is off-limits to anyone not a food merchant or on patrol!ˇ± the guards yells at her.

    ˇ°Go tell the city council that the rebels are on the move after BelzebuthˇŻs death and are less than a day away from the First Circle of Hell!ˇ± Jutudiel answers the guard before leaving.

    The guards dash from their post to the city hall, replaced by other guards. Feeling these new guards to be hostile, Jutudiel then runs away from that gate, and in the direction of her home.

    By the time the guards relay JutudielˇŻs report to the city council, the city council is in session. As the guard is brought before the council chamber, before the 7 Councillorsˇ­

    ˇ°Dear City Council, the rebels appear to have killed Belzebuth and are trying to push their attack into Hell itself!ˇ± the guard simply re-tells what Jutudiel told him.

    ˇ°If the rebels are strong enough to drive Belphegor and Belzebuth out, itˇŻs a matter of time before the city falls if we do nothing!ˇ± a distraught councillor yells at his fellow city councillors.

    ˇ°The problem is the Gates of Tartarus. Even if rebel ingenuity could cause the Gates of Tartarus to fall, we canˇŻt intervene without risking the cityˇŻs lockdown to be compromised!ˇ± the mayor retorts, believing the flames of rebellion could reach the city itself if the lockdown is relaxed. ˇ°That said, the rebels forced our hands!ˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt expect the rebels to even want to hold on to the Gates of Tartarus for any length of time. They might succeed in capturing the Gates if they are strong enough to oppose Belzebuth, but capturing the Gates will require essentially every rebel unitˇ± another councillor remarks.

    ˇ°And then our main hope of defeating the rebels would lie in catching them between the Pandemonians and us! We canˇŻt delay much longer, and by the time we arrive, the demons will have made a number on their ranks!ˇ± the same distraught councillor harangues them.

    Heated discussions ensue among the city council, when they debate the merits of striking at the rebels they believe are in the outskirts of Hell, or not doing anything and maintain their defensive stance. That, knowing that any sortie against the rebels will force them to at least partially deconfine.

    ˇ°Perhaps deconfining could appease the cityˇŻs residents a little bit. However, if the rebels capture the Gates of Tartarus, we might be able to make peace with them, and perhaps let them live in their domain in Hellˇ± another city councillor disagrees with the others on this new development.

    ------------------------

    Back in the playersˇŻ world, MAAˇŻs manufacturer realizes that somethingˇŻs wrong with it, and the heads of the game hold an emergency meeting regarding the leak of First Circle of Hell content.

    ˇ°Although Monseigneur only showed part of the next patchˇŻs content, what she did has hurt us. It has caused players to close their accounts because, even if the leaked content was confirmed in full, it gives the players the impression that we lost control over the game!ˇ± the MAA teamˇŻs accountant yells at the execs running the game. ˇ°We must ban her from the game until a decision has been made about the leaked content!ˇ±

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ˇ°We canˇŻt ban her from the game like this! The bad publicity of banning the GM of the last RWF winner will hurt the game even more! This tier has seen the worst losses in players since the very existence of this game!ˇ± the marketing head of the game voices his opinion.

    ˇ°Speaking of leaked content, the best way to plug this leak in players would then be to confirm the leaked content in full, and add previously dummied content into the game, such as these one-boss dungeons that were never released!ˇ± the dungeon lead developer suggests, with the others not realizing that releasing these one-boss dungeons will need to be done in different patches altogether.

    ˇ°The first one-boss dungeon we plan on releasing will be, well, Charon, and it takes place at the Gates of Tartarus. But they must be queued for separately from regular, multi-boss dungeonsˇ± the UX/UI lead developer comments on the dungeon lead developerˇŻs suggestion.

    The execs and devs keep discussing courses of action about this leak of content. And, given the recent losses in players, they feel in a rush to save their game, and they go back to work to test the new content, such as quests, the Gehenna Grand Library as well as the Gates of Tartarus, and their loot tables.

    ˇ°For multi-boss dungeons to remain viable content after the release of single-boss ones, there has to be some kind of loot that you canˇŻt get in single-boss dungeons, otherwise people will just run the Gates of Tartarus to the exclusion of all other five-player contentˇ± the lead QA tester voices his concern as one of the first tests of the Gates begins.

    ˇ°And yet, you kept ignoring the elephant in the room: on the very stream this content was leaked, she claims the residents of the gameˇŻs world are real and we are using the game to control them!ˇ± the customer service lead shouts. ˇ°Maybe that could explain the bugs you were unable to fix!ˇ±

    Yet, before the official announcement of the manufacturer regarding the content leak, some of the core players left messages on the Death FiscalistsˇŻ Discord server.

    ˇ°After all these years, IˇŻve accomplished everything I wanted to do in-game, so I leave this game!ˇ± Ram announces to the guildies.

    Oh boyˇ­ replacing Ram will be difficult. But thatˇŻs ok for him not to want to keep playing after having toiled so hard in-game for years. Although itˇŻs not always visible on a stream, what kept me excited playing this game for so long was, well, the level of control ranged tanking affords me, Karine starts feeling a void inside herself upon hearing about RamˇŻs departure from the game, and the guild along with it. If you donˇŻt have good chemistry with your co-tank, thereˇŻs only so much you can do on your own, she then have Caro on voice with her.

    ˇ°Caro, do you feel comfortable switching to tank in raids?ˇ± Karine asks on voice, knowing that DPS are easier to replace than tanks, regardless of the level of raiding.

    ˇ°I mean, there were times this tier where I needed to handle tank mechanics, but IˇŻm afraid that, if I switch to grenadier full-time, we might hit enrage more often!ˇ± Caroline whines on voice, knowing that losing the bardˇŻs offensive buffs may not be made up by the extra native DPS of her altˇŻs spec vs the bard.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre still the player who does tank mechanics best here, outside of me! On top of that, not all extra mechanics are on the tankˇ±

    Karine feels like I can tank at the fatal level because I tanked on alt nights, but I know that tanking at the brutal level is already brutal enough as it is for me. It is hard, then again, all roles are hard in fatal raiding, Caroline seems to be a little perplex.

    ˇ°IˇŻd say that it depends on how fast we can get another DPS thatˇŻs more or less on my levelˇ± Caroline seems to be a little nervous.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre on to something here. As with any other MMO, DPS are a dime a dozen, but good DPS, on the other handˇ­ˇ± Karine sighs, as she starts formulating a Google Form that she can then post on MAAˇŻs subreddit devoted to guilds. ˇ°If you tank, you can eat mechanics so others donˇŻt have to; as a DPS, sometimes you ate mechanics to squeeze a little extra!ˇ±

    Best-case scenario: we might nab some ranged DPS or tank from a disbanded fatal guild. However, I donˇŻt want to get my hopes up. Especially since fatal raiders are clearly a rarefied world, Karine muses since she wonders about how to fill the void left behind by RamˇŻs departure.

    ˇ°All right, you win, I will tank on my defender since itˇŻs the one tank spec I can actually playˇ± Caroline sighs, while sheˇŻs catching up on the news of the game.

    Speaking of the news of the game, the manufacturer finally makes its announcement about the leak of First Circle of Hell content. The manufacturer not only confirmed the stuff Karine leaked earlier today on a stream, but also announced the release of one-boss dungeons, alongside a questing area, at the rate of one per month. In order of release would be Charon, Astaroth, Behemoth, Mammon and finally Leviathan.

    However, CarolineˇŻs blood boils when, at the very end of the roadmap, she reads a statement of the manufacturerˇŻs denial of the allegations of abusing residents in the gameˇŻs world.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs the meaning of this? WhoˇŻs accusing the manufacturer of abusing the residents of MAAˇŻs world?ˇ± Caroline fumes at the screen upon reading about the abuse accusations, while still in the guildˇŻs voice chat.

    ˇ°Because all of you were laser-focused on winning this race to world first, it appears that IˇŻm the only one here who knows about these accusations. ItˇŻs time I told you everything!ˇ± Karine starts telling her guildies about the angelic beacons and their effects.

    The manufacturer is in denial! This game that has brought me joy for years has wrought damage and suffering to another world, and this raises a lot of legal and ethical questions. I am unwilling to go into the legal issues, unless the Canadian operation of the manufacturer, if any, goes bankrupt, or needs to enter a business proposal because of this, Karine also feels her blood boiling. However, I hope this entire crisis can be solved without causing the manufacturer to go bankrupt.

    So why is it that the accusations surface only now? It seems like a ploy by some commercial rival of MAAˇŻs manufacturer, Francis, who only listened to the other guildies argue about the accusations and their validity, wonders whether these accusations could have been a littleˇ­ too calculated.

 Chapter 12: Freedom at the Gates?

    On Friday morning, Karine is once again visited by yet more astral projections. On top of her own characters, sheˇŻs also visited by B¨¦teulle, whose beacon has been removed, as well as CarolineˇŻs characters, but also two more characters of players she never played with. Her bedroom feels a little cramped for this many people around her bed.

    ˇ°What did I do to be visited by characters of players I never played with?ˇ± a confused Karine asks the group of astral projections. ˇ°I might have accepted that youˇŻre all controlled, or used to be, by players in our worldˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Your last stream showed why. Caro doesnˇŻt streamˇ± Monseigneur explains to her player.

    ˇ°Let me get this straight. Because of my notoriety as a streamer among the MAA community, you saw fit to think of me as a soundboard for your worldˇŻs cries for freedom!ˇ± Karine lashes out at her character.

    ˇ°IˇŻm Yasama. My player doesnˇŻt stream, and hence has no visibility outside Japan. You know Japan holds next to no weight in the MAA community because itˇŻs a PC game without console ports, even with the latest RWF!ˇ± Yasama tells her.

    KataparutoˇŻs surprise third place in Operation Heathrow made it easy for MAA players to forget about how console-centric the Japanese gaming world is, Karine, triggered by YasamaˇŻs statements, keeps to herself.

    ˇ°IˇŻm Jutudiel. My player contacted you about how she suspected for years that players were controlling real people in our world before that stream!ˇ±

    ˇ°Ad¨¨le. If I recall correctly, she claims that only the closure of the game would grant your world freedom. What does freedom mean to you all?ˇ± Karine asks the characters.

    ˇ°You already have a glimpse of my answer. We would carry on our worldˇŻs affairs according to whatˇŻs in our best interests, without your worldˇŻs interests getting in our wayˇ± Clavet answers her player, in the presence of other characters.

    ˇ°Even now, the manufacturer is planning on adding more dungeons to the game, as well as making Hell itself accessible for open-world questingˇ± Karine retorts.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs exactly what I mean. Even Hell is not immune to NIMBY. The damned donˇŻt seem to be looking at living adventurers killing them for the entertainment of your world as release; rather, they feel like the construction of haunted parks on their land adds to their tormentˇ± Clavet explains.

    ˇ°Even when the ghosts in these haunted parks stay in the park?ˇ± CarolineˇŻs skirmisher asks. ˇ°Is it about noise, blood or some other by-product of the violence taking place in the haunted parks?ˇ±

    I can already feel like their worldˇŻs residents will demand the outlawing of haunted parks and that of angelic beacons as a precondition to any peace treaty with ours, if such a peace treaty holds any real value on ours, Karine seems to have a flash of insight.

    ˇ°You seem to ignore that the atrocities committed by Perseria began with protests due to ghosts using the cityˇŻs residents as meatshields in Lower Perseria! People clamored for both better regulation of the haunted parks in Perserian territory, as well as bringing me to justice!ˇ± Monseigneur deadpans CarolineˇŻs skirmisher, who, apparently, didnˇŻt follow the worldˇŻs news.

    ˇ°Yeah, the Perseria city council used the ghosts in both haunted parks of the city to frighten the population!ˇ± B¨¦teulle seems to somehow recollect his most recent experiences in the Perseria dungeons. ˇ°TheyˇŻre using the haunted parks for evil!ˇ±

    ˇ°Speaking of haunted parks, the rumor is that Pandemonium authorized the construction of a haunted park at the Gates of Tartarus!ˇ± Clavet tells the latest developments in Hell, before her astral projection disappears from KarineˇŻs view.

    ˇ°I beg you: stream! I will arrange for Ad¨¨le to go play with you on a stream, and into the First Circle of Hell if possible!ˇ± Jutudiel starts crying, in hopes of getting Karine to stream.

    --------------------

    Meanwhile, in the game world, Clavet struggles to process the development around the Gates of Tartarus. Did the Pandemonians feel like the best defense of the First Circle is to refit the Gates of Tartarus into a haunted park? This means we must capture the Gates before the construction of the haunted park is over! Completion of the park will force any attacker to build either a bridge or a fleet of barges to cross the Acheron River!

    She then assembles the rebel cell for another meeting about the Gates of Tartarus, with a variety of new recruits with dormant or freshly removed angelic beacons.

    ˇ°What information we received about the Gates of Tartarus is gravely disturbing. The Pandemonians plan on refitting the Gates of Tartarus to house a haunted park! Our best chance at capturing the Gates lie in attacking while the haunted park is still unfinished!ˇ± Clavet announces to her fellow rebels.

    ˇ°But do we have any idea of how strong the defenses of the working site are?ˇ± Yasama asks her, wondering what plans she have to deal with the GatesˇŻ garrison.

    ˇ°I assume most of the original garrison is going to be assigned to building the ornaments of the haunted parkˇ± the other female alcohol witch comments on the garrison.

    Often, from what I saw in haunted parks, their builders or operators tended to enter an arms race of who can build either the most magnificent or terrifying one, architecturally speaking, B¨¦teulle reflects on his experience of dungeon crawling. At least in the olden days.

    ˇ°IˇŻd say, we attack them when they show signs of sleep deprivation! WeˇŻre going to cast a cloud of alcohol over the Gates and these intoxicated demons will then become vulnerableˇ± Clavet explains to them.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs the rabble and thereˇŻs Charon, you probably know about the pier where his barge is mooredˇ± Monseigneur comments on the main component thatˇŻs missing.

    The rebels fine-tune their plans with decision trees, based on how the alcohol cloud phase goes. However, they are left in the dark about the actions of other rebel cells.

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    --------------------

    In Ad¨¨leˇŻs home, however, when she gets a chance, Jutudiel appears to Ad¨¨le as an astral projection, imploring to find time for her to play with Karine and whoever else could be willing to brave the untested content.

    ˇ°HereˇŻs your chance to play with Karine and, hopefully, have a sneak peek at any of the First Circle of Hell content beyond the trash in the Gehenna Grand Libraryˇ± Jutudiel pleads with Ad¨¨le to have her play on air. ˇ°I feel like our cries for freedom would be more effective if we cause game-breaking bugs on airˇ±

    ˇ°I accept to do so only if you position yourself around the Gates of Tartarus before I log inˇ± Ad¨¨le asks her thief to get into a specific position.

    ˇ°Our best bet is, as you said, the Gates of Tartarus. We must stop the haunted park from being completed!ˇ±

    While Ad¨¨le logs into the game, Jutudiel''s projection disappears and gets into position in the game world, hoping to exploit the glitch that sometimes make players not log onto their characters where they left them off.

    A few minutes later, Karine opens her stream. After I made public that players were exploiting the residents of MAAˇŻs world, I am locked into a PR tug-of-war against the manufacturer. What the manufacturer has yet to realize is that what they call unfixable bugs actually have nothing to do with the source code, Karine ruminates and goes into the stream with a heavy heart.

    When Karine decides to log on the same character she first went into the First Circle of Hell with, she finds her character surrounded by other rebels, including B¨¦teulle, Yasama and a few more characters not in active gameplay, as well as some NPCs, fighting drunken, sleep-deprived demons, in an overcast area around the Gates of Tartarus, on the Hell side.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs happening?ˇ± a viewer asks her on the stream chat.

    ˇ°I find my character, once again, in an area thatˇŻs supposed to be off-limits to players!ˇ± Karine answers her followers.

    She then checks for names of characters around hers, to confirm that they actually exist in the game servers, while demons, under the alcohol clouds, seem to fight indiscriminately. Other than B¨¦teulle, whose account was deleted last night, all other named rebels are in the manufacturerˇŻs database of accounts.

    ˇ°But, this time around, I find characters that are currently offline! ThatˇŻs even worse than just accessing areas that were supposed to be off-limits to players!ˇ± Karine screams on air, while showing the battle unfolding.

    ˇ°Normally, offline characters shouldnˇŻt be visible in-game!ˇ± another viewer points out.

    And itˇŻs then that Ad¨¨le, on the other side of the Acheron River, invites Karine to her party. Which she promptly accepts. But Ad¨¨le asks in the in-game party chat about whether they know anyone who can tank or DPS.

    ˇ°Caro, surely you can tank a new dungeonˇ± Karine asks her in guild chat, while she asks her stream chat for 2 DPS.

    Karine then prays that the two DPS she will then get are any good, and likewise with Ad¨¨le as a thief player. ThereˇŻs more to playing thief than putting stolen medicine on people! The last thief I ran dungeons with from the viewers just put stolen medicine on people! However, what would inflicting more pain on our characters achieve? In their world, anyhow.

    It proves very quick for Karine to get the two DPS from the stream chat and then Ad¨¨le summons the party to the livingˇŻs side of the Gates of Tartarus, using a portal stone. Because Ad¨¨le feels confident in her medical in-game skill, and in CarolineˇŻs tanking skill, she decides to enter the haunted park construction site in fatal mode.

    When the fight starts, CarolineˇŻs defender holds Charon while demon adds inflict a variety of torments. Such as delayed hellfire in an expanding yellow circle underneath the target. However, the tormentors go at it wildly and indiscriminately. The audience see demons acting rashly and lacking coordination, while alcohol starts raining out of a red cloud. Which makes everyone hit their cleansing abilities when they get the drunk status effect.

    ˇ°Why is there a red alcohol cloud over the unfinished Gates?ˇ± An employee of the manufacturer asks Karine on the stream chat. ˇ°The clouds arenˇŻt supposed to be red, nor should they intoxicate indiscriminately!ˇ±

    Normally, player-cast alcohol clouds arenˇŻt red, and donˇŻt intoxicate indiscriminately, the manufacturerˇŻs employee seems to think about the bugs of the first phase, while realizing the sleep-deprived demon adds are much weaker than intended.

    ˇ°Did anyone notice how... sleep-deprived the adds were?ˇ± Ad¨¨le asks her teammates.

    ˇ°They seemed to fall over, yesˇ± Caroline answers while the second phase is about to start as they board the bossˇŻ barge, under the written yells of the manufacturerˇŻs staff.

    As they depart the pier where Charon moors his barge, the party canˇŻt help but notice that demon corpses are being thrown into the river, some of them hitting players by accident, others hit the boss. Others still splash in such ways that they rock the barge. The manufacturerˇŻs staff fails to realize that those responsible for throwing demon corpses did so on their own accord and call these mere bugs.

    This causes Jutudiel to catalyze the stolen medicine on CaroˇŻs tank because of the hits taken. And immediately uses the transfusion (the thiefˇŻs AoE burst heal) since using the catalyst beforehand makes the next transfusion 50% stronger, or the next injection (the thiefˇŻs single-target burst heal) twice as strong. And this leads into using perfusion once the team is stacked on the boss. I wonder what experience of high-end content Ad¨¨le has on a thief.

    But then the bargeˇŻs hull starts leaking and the race is on to kill CharonˇŻs ghost before the barge sinks.

    ˇ°Caro! Lower the anchor!ˇ± Karine yells at Caro on voice.

    While the 3 DPS keep attacking and dodging the various attacks from both the boss and the tormentors, CaroˇŻs tank turns the capstan so the bargeˇŻs storm anchor can be lowered. And, as the barge starts burning under hellfire, they feel the need to tread lightly. If the hellfire is supposed to be in the fight, then yes, we know phase 2 is a DPS check, Karine keeps thinking while Charon bleeds from wounds inflicted by the players with physical attacks.

    ˇ°Why is it that bugs keep cropping up? Why is it that you keep going into the First Circle of Hell when itˇŻs supposed to be off-limits to players?ˇ± the manufacturerˇŻs staffer asks her on the stream chat, as Charon dies, and Monseigneur appears to Karine.

    ˇ°The time has come to accept there will be no fix for the lengthening list of bugs, unless our world is free from your worldˇŻs interference!ˇ± Monseigneur preaches to the streamˇŻs viewers.

    ˇ°What is the meaning of this, Karine? It was already bad enough when the manufacturer was accused of exploiting the game worldˇŻs residents, and now you claim the bugs are actually pressure tactics on their part?ˇ± Caroline starts fuming at her GM.

    ˇ°It began when I streamed yesterday to determine whether I was hallucinating. I didnˇŻt expect to become the representative of their world on ours!ˇ± Karine retorts at her tank.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt want to keep playing with someone who uses a stream to sabotage the game from within!ˇ± Caroline, her blood boiling, lashes at Karine. ˇ°Not only that, but I was feeling used! You used to treat me with respect, and you believed I was good enough to tank a brand-new fight! By tanking Charon, you dragged me into your personal tug-of-war against the manufacturer! IˇŻm leaving the Death Fiscalists!ˇ±

    ˇ°This tug-of-war against the manufacturer isnˇŻt personal; the worldˇŻs fate is in the manufacturerˇŻs hands!ˇ± Karine yells at Caro.

    When Caroline announces her departure from the Death Fiscalists, most of the remaining players with whom she won the RWF on Operation Heathrow also leave the guild, leaving Karine behind. I wish things could have been different, but the last two days ruined my vacation. Ever since I played MAA, I planned my vacations around races to world first. I was eager to represent my country on the world e-sports stage, and this game gave me an opportunity I couldnˇŻt have otherwise, since I hated the toxicity of PvP. Right now, everyone playing the game talks about the accusations against the manufacturer, and Karine is putting oil on the fire, Caroline starts crying.

 Chapter 12A: The Gates of Tartarus

    "Remember this day! With this victory at the Gates of Tartarus, we have shown Hell that freedom is coming to the damned!" B¨¦teulle harangues the survivors of this assault on the Gates of Tartarus, from its main battlement, while the Perserian rebels'' banner is being raised atop the towers of the gatehouse. "Freedom from the torment of haunted parks!"

    Hopefully it will prevent the Pandemonian government from using the Gates as a haunted park to torment the living! That was the whole aim of this operation! B¨¦teulle sighs while the alcohol wizards under his command prepare kegs of beer for what is to become the garrison of the Gates of Tartarus. These otherworldly entities called players refer to haunted parks as dungeons and raids!

    At the same time, the corpse of the previous commander of the Gates, Charon, is retrieved from where his damaged barge was found, aground. Once his corpse is recovered, he is prepared for burial, while a lot of sleep-deprived demons thrown into the Acheron River during the battle had unrecoverable bodies.

    The following morning, B¨¦teulle holds a war council meeting with other key participants in the assault on the Gates of Tartarus, even though there was only one gate. In a room with a rustic table. They are reminded of the harsh reality of Perseria still being in a civil war, and haunted parks were also part of the casus belli.

    "I say we get as many damned as we can get, and then strike at the very heart of Hell! We control the only land access to Hell, and the enemy morale has never been lower, especially after we recaptured Heathrow!" B¨¦teulle argues that maybe marching on Pandemonium might be feasible for the living.

    "No, B¨¦teulle, even with the loss of Hell''s footholds in the lands of the living, even with the loss of the Gates, to get any kind of lasting advantage over Hell, we need to have our affairs in order!" Jutudiel, a thief, and the leader of a rebel cell that mostly operates behind enemy lines, tells the other participants.

    "With the capture of the Gates by our hands, the Perserian army will believe that our main objective isn''t to recapture the city, but for us to get a foothold in Hell! They will diminish the strength of the city''s garrison, and Perseria will become vulnerable!" Clavet, the commander of a rebel cell, and a witch, expresses her thoughts.

    "But you can be sure that Hell will seek to recapture the Gates sooner or later!" Jutudiel tells the other two.

    "I''d say, we need to take in some of the fringe elements among the damned that have axes to grind against their tormentors in Hell!" B¨¦teulle comments about where he will get the manpower to hold the Gates of Tartarus against Pandemonian reprisal. "But until then, all we can do is prepare for a Pandemonian attack, such as repairing the wall and the barge"

    "We would be stretched thin otherwise! Too thin, I''m afraid. I guess, we have no choice" Jutudiel then storms off the meeting to get to her cell''s camp in the Perserian desert, unseen thanks to her cloaking magic.

    Afterward, what troops still remain after the departure of the elements from Jutudiel''s cell departed are busy repairing the damage wrought by the assault on the Gates. And, for those who are handier with wood than with stone, repairing Charon''s barge using materials left behind by the defeated Pandemonium forces. By first beaching it so its hull can dry appropriately. And then the hull breaches can be repaired and cleaned off.

    <hr>

    And yet, a sleep-deprived demon who barely survived the assault limped back to the nearest camp, still in the First Circle of Hell, where that demon had terrible news to deliver to the rest of the camp:

    "The living have captured the Gates of Tartarus!" a clearly distraught demon yells all over the camp, while, at the same time, the demon struggles to move around the camp because of fatigue and sleep deprivation.

    "When? By whom?" other demons start bombarding him with questions, not realizing that the demon might be too traumatized to answer just yet.

    "The living killed Charon, too!" the survivor from the Gates keeps lamenting before collapsing on the ground.

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    The sleep-deprived demon causes the other demons in the camp to enter quarrels between each other. However, as that demon collapses, his sleep is disturbed by the demons, and the damned at their service, or under their custody, make their state of mind clear:

    "First the Sun Disk, then Heathrow, and now the Gates of Tartarus?" another demon yelps upon hearing about the loss of Tartarus. "Will these mounting losses end one day?

    "We can''t even build our own haunted parks, and the living saw fit to ruin everything! What am I going to tell the Senate about this abject failure to renovate the Gates of Tartarus for use as a haunted park?" the commander of the camp fumes at these demons. "Now the living can attack us at any time!

    "These losses against the living were caused by one thing: we believed for far too long that haunted parks made defenses impenetrable!" yet another demon officer exclaimed.

    "Yet, the living have their own problems with haunted parks!" one of the damned serving the demon officers, in ball and chains, screams. "Perseria''s citizenry is revolting because of their haunted park policy!"

    "Excessive faith in haunted parks is not the issue, it''s low morale induced by endless torments, and poor living conditions!" another damned added to this chorus of laments.

    "And the Senate''s constant squabbling and interference over the conduct of the war on the living has caused issues!" a third damned patiently waits for the brawl to begin among the occupants of the camp.

    The commander of the camp uses encrypted communications to tell his immediate superior, Astaroth, the general in charge of all forces in the Second Circle of Hell, about what happened at the Gates, which also served as Hell''s forward operating base after the loss of Heathrow.

    Suffice to say that, as news of Hell''s loss of the Gates spread like wildfire across Hell, so many damned started to disapprove of the Caliph''s leadership. So many that unrest can pose a real threat in Hell. Potentially causing hell to break loose.

    Speaking of which, the Caliph, Satan, called an emergency Senate meeting. As per usual, the meeting is held in the Ninth Circle of Hell, with Satan and Lucifer front and center.

    "Dear demon lords, a grave matter have forced this meeting. The living have captured the Gates of Tartarus, killed Charon and several units of damned have gone rogue, or worse still, defected to the living outright!" Astaroth gives the first speech of the meeting. "As we speak, the First Circle is headed towards revolt!"

    "If we do nothing, the living will have free reign across the outer circles of hell, and Pandemonium itself might be threatened!" Baal yells at his fellow senators. "We must prevent further defections of damned, and maybe even demons, and only then can the safety of hell can be guaranteed!"

    "The terrain in Circles two through five is much more treacherous than in the lands of the living! Swamps, gale-force winds, flash floods, mountainous and even volcanoes that can erupt at any time will cause the living and the damned to have a hard time making progress!" Asmodeus retorts.

    "It appears that so many among the damned are quick to blame the endless torments and poor living conditions for our losses against the living. We must improve the living conditions of the damned!" Mephistopheles yells at his fellow demon senators.

    "With the size of the damned population, that''s too expensive! We must build more haunted parks at strategic locations!" Mammon counters.

    "Mammon, you seem to place too much faith in haunted parks!" Satan retorts, before using a falsetto voice. "You all seemed to think that the living would take heavy losses trying to assault a haunted park and a haunted park is, because of the ghost garrisons, able to provide early warning for us so that we can deploy our forces to meet the enemy, living or damned!" Satan returns to his normal voice. "We built haunted parks as you suggested we do, the Sun Disk and Heathrow, and we lost them both, taking heavy casualties to protect them!"

    "I''d say we launch an expedition to retake the Gates of Tartarus! I will even assume command of the expedition myself!" Lucifer starts drafting a plan to recapture the Gates, not realizing that the morale of the troops has cratered.

    "At this point, the heavy losses we took in this military adventurism in the lands of the living have forced our hands, and the only way I can see us recapturing the Gates is if we make peace with the living!" Mephistopheles yells and starts drafting a plan for a possible peace treaty with the living, while secretly getting these to a plenipotentiary diplomat.

    "How can you ensure the living will keep their word, or how can we ensure that we will keep our word?" Astaroth starts questioning whether an attempt by Pandemonium to make peace with the living will work. "We are negotiating from a position of weakness!"

    I guess, the best we can hope for is that, in exchange for us not attempting any further crossing of the Acheron River, on our western border, and us renouncing any claim to any territory west of the Acheron River, would get the living off the Gates of Tartarus, the diplomat chosen by Mephistopheles starts thinking about what to expect from negotiations with the living. And, of course, getting them to renounce any claim to territory east of the Acheron River might cost us some concession we don''t know yet, but if it means a ban on haunted park construction...

 Chapter 13: Chaotic Deconfinment

    In Perseria, on Saturday (players'' world time), because the city council decided to increase patrols on the main roads leading to the city, as well as reinforce outpostsˇŻ garrisons, they had no choice but to loosen the lockdown in the city because of a lack of manpower. Visitors to the city, who can now venture beyond the marketplace and haunted parks, would find heads on pikes at the main entrances to the city, as well as on the cityˇŻs main streets. However, as the grip loosened, the cityˇŻs residents still feel like some griefs went unaddressed. As an angry mob marches on the city hall, with ghosts watching their every move:

    ˇ°Down with the ghosts!ˇ± an angry protester shouts while a few others distract the ghost packs.

    Elsewhere in the city, riots are erupting, especially around the ˇ°haunted routesˇ± of Lower and Upper Perseria, whom the residents perceive as the symbols of the cityˇŻs ineptitude. Of its failure to control the ghosts, and the torments they inflict upon the population.

    Back in JutudielˇŻs camp, her rebel cell, filled with rogues and other elements who fell on hard times, realizes time is short to act. Monseigneur changed cells for this occasion.

    ˇ°The city is on fire, we must get to the sewers, now!ˇ± Jutudiel hollers, before turning invisible and leaving the camp with her cell.

    Karine didnˇŻt take me to Perseria since I warned Karine not to go there, a little over a week ago. I warned her about the consequences of doing so, but perhaps I can use these consequences to the advantage of the rebels. I cast holy flare on a tower top, then fall back with guards on my back, and celebrate high mass later, Monseigneur ruminates while she approaches the cityˇŻs main gate.

    Then another player, whoˇŻs taking a character new to max level into Lower Perseria, finds himself caught in the crossfire:

    ˇ°When I ran this place last week, there wasnˇŻt any trash; now, mobs are breaking windows and burning buildings down!ˇ± the player tells his guildies about what has changed since his last run of the dungeon.

    --------------------

    As that player submits a support ticket, the manufacturer starts realizing that bugs have vastly increased in variety over the past two weeks, most of these being non-reproducible. First from Karine, and then from other players...

    The manufacturerˇŻs QA and CS teams then hold a meeting with the engineering team as well as the gameˇŻs management.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs happening? It seems like the number of bugs we canˇŻt reproduce has increased to the point we might need to re-code the game from scratch!ˇ± the QA lead shouts.

    ˇ°After over a week of the Perseria dungeons being trash-free, we have reports of players seeing trash in Lower Perseria, and of that dungeonˇŻs background assets being vandalized by NPCs!ˇ± the CS lead rants.

    ˇ°Dungeon background assets arenˇŻt supposed to be vandalizable by NPCs!ˇ± the gameˇŻs chief engineer retorts, while he keeps ranting. ˇ°Add to that demon corpses being thrown into the river, sleep deprivation debuffs on adds that are absent from the code, and this happened in a single-boss dungeon that hasnˇŻt been released yet!ˇ±

    ˇ°Do you have any idea of what re-coding the game would imply? The things people loved about MAA before these bugs began were mostly about the following: character creation, fashion and housing, and how you can interact with content without necessarily having to grind for it!ˇ± the manufacturerˇŻs CEO is taken aback by the suggestion of his staff to deal with the rash in bugs. ˇ°However, I donˇŻt think everything is lost. We can have the character creator, housing creator, music and outfits carry overˇ±

    ˇ°If you feel like re-coding the game is necessary, or even create a new one with assets reused from MAA, how can we ensure that we wonˇŻt be exploiting the new worldˇŻs residents?ˇ± the CS lead asks the QA lead.

    ˇ°What do you mean, we are exploiting the residents of another world?ˇ± the QA lead rolls his eyes, not believing the accusations against the manufacturer. ˇ°Thus far, the bugs appear confined to content from the newest expansion, and if we could just create a classic server without any of the content and features from the expansion...ˇ±

    ItˇŻs clear the manufacturerˇŻs staff doesnˇŻt agree on how to deal with the rash of bugs this game has been afflicted lately, even as the game is losing players by the day.

    --------------------

    Yet, as the manufacturer gets bogged down on how to deal with the bugs, around Perseria, Monseigneur realizes that the column of smoke coming from the city on fire has also alerted the outlying garrisons to the goings-on in the city. The bishop contacts Clavet, using a magic tablet to do so as the enemy chases her around the desert, out of range of the cityˇŻs defenses:

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    ˇ°The enemy has emptied the border garrisons to relieve the city! We need help!ˇ±

    As much as IˇŻd love to help our fellow rebels in their siege of the city, we canˇŻt leave both our footholds defenseless, Clavet ponders the implications of reinforcing the city for her rebel cell, and what ClavetˇŻs rebel cell can dispatch to help JutudielˇŻs, along with any other rebel cell operating inside the city. However, if we capture an outpost, maybe we can split the enemy force, or otherwise beat the enemy at their own gameˇ­ damn it, who would I fool? I must decide quickly how much to deploy to reinforce our brothers-in-arms in the city!

    ˇ°Heathrow, this is command. We need all units you can spare to aid in the fight for Perseria, now!ˇ± Clavet yells at the leader of the garrison left behind in Heathrow.

    ˇ°CanˇŻt spare anything! Remember what would happen if Heathrow falls?ˇ± the ranking officer at Heathrow retorts.

    And I wonder how much I can afford to leave behind at the Gates of Tartarus; Pandemonium will seek to recapture the Gates, but there will be no reinforcements from Heathrow. Yet, I believe the Gates of Tartarus being in the hands of the living has hit the demonsˇŻ morale, Clavet feels like she holds the Perserian rebellion in her hands. Yet, she feels like something is amiss; she feels blindsided by the pace at which events seem to take place in the gameˇŻs world. Speaking of which, a day in the playersˇŻ world lasts between 19 to 20 MAA in-game days.

    ˇ°B¨¦teulle, youˇŻre in charge of the Gates while I am going to reinforce our brothers in Perseria! They have begun the siege of the city!ˇ± Clavet gives her instructions before assigning units to the reinforcement of the rebels in the city. ˇ°Move out!ˇ±

    While Clavet made sure she left behind sufficient forces to hold on to the Gates of Tartarus while the city is under siege, she has her force move with all speed, in the dead of night.

    Meanwhile, in the city itself, the remaining guards, paighan or neyze-daran, i.e., living or ghost, fight the rebels in the streets, mostly in Lower Perseria at this stage. The city council appears reluctant to redeploy the remaining guards of the upper city to help out in the lower city. Even when the lower city has fires erupt in various places.

    Where are the other rebel cells? We suffered casualties and, at this rate, my supply of stolen medicine is going to run out! And we might not be able to fight off the enemy reinforcements! Jutudiel looks for medicine to steal on the bodies of the dead guards. As a magic-user, however, I am not nearly as powerful as Clavet, so, as much as I would have liked to make things go boom, all I know of magic is healing a few traumas and invisibility...

    Once the medicine is looted, she resumes using magic to administer it to fellow rebels. And keeping quiet to cast it, while this rag-tag band of rebel cells leaves a trail of blood. The cityˇŻs guards, not used to fighting at night, are at a clear disadvantage against rebel ninjas.

    And yet, the death toll of the nocturnal engagement doesnˇŻt seem to faze the city council in the upper city. The city council directs the cityˇŻs defense even when the lower city is burning.

    ˇ°Mr. Mayor, weˇŻre taking heavy casualties in the lower city! Should we sound the retreat?ˇ± a distraught city councillor, whose constituents live in the lower city, asks the mayor.

    ˇ°Yes; however, keep in mind that weˇŻre sounding the retreat to lull the rebels in a false sense of security. Especially as reinforcements are approaching the lower city! The rebels are going to be toast in broad daylight!ˇ± The mayor then turns to the bugler. ˇ°All units, fall back to the upper city!ˇ±

    As the mayor sounds the retreat within his own city, the kamandaran, or archers, on the upper cityˇŻs chemin de ronde shoot flaming arrows near positions they have an idea of where the rebels are fighting, or moving towards, to cover their retreat. The rebels are now faced with a tough choice: try to storm the upper city or face the relief force coming from the outside, the mayor chuckles as his reinforcements are on the move.

    Some of the reinforcements are chasing Monseigneur around in the outlying desert like headless chickens. blinded by crossing magical bright lines drawn in the sand, and the same color as said sand. With holy flares being hurled their way if celebrating a high mass to sleep is not a viable option.

    --------------------

    Yet, somehow, another player gathering desert night roses sees Monseigneur, whom the player sees as offline, being chased around among the dunes by the city guards, well beyond their regular patrol zones.

    ˇ°Why is it that offline characters are putting players in danger like this? The guards could have gotten me killed!ˇ± that player fumes, while opening a support ticket for a report of offline characters being in active open world gameplay. ˇ°If they are offline, they arenˇŻt supposed to be out and about in the open world!ˇ±

    By this point of the in-game siege, the manufacturerˇŻs QA and CS teams are swamped by the sheer number of bug reports, most of which appear related to the siege in some manner. And these bugs werenˇŻt limited to NPCs vandalizing buildings without there being a provision for it in the code.

    Because of the skyrocketing number of bugs found in the game, MAAˇŻs QA lead is summoned into the manufacturerˇŻs CEOˇŻs office:

    ˇ°Dear QA lead, it appears that lately, players of the game have found new bugs at an alarming rate that have caused MAAˇŻs players to desert the game!ˇ± the manufacturerˇŻs CEO screams at MAAˇŻs QA lead.

    ˇ°These bugs appear to be irreproducible!ˇ± the QA lead attempts to defend himself from an angry big boss.

    ˇ°Do you have any idea what the loss of a player base means for the game? Your failures as QA lead have caused it! YouˇŻre fired!ˇ± the manufacturerˇŻs CEO then hands a pink slip to the QA lead, who leaves the office with his head hunched in shame.

 Chapter 14: In Private Servers We Trust?

    By Saturday night, news of MAAˇŻs QA lead being fired sends a ripple wave among the MAA community remnants. For so many, including Karine, this move feels like a desperate attempt at damage control. Ad¨¨le who, by then, was allowed to join the Death FiscalistsˇŻ Discord server, would hear Karine sob over the events of the past few days. She starts streaming and, rather than log on a pre-existing character, goes to the character creator. However, since both her characters are busy fighting around Perseria, neither appear to her.

    ˇ°What was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life as a MAA raider was ruined by the fight for that worldˇŻs freedom!ˇ± Karine sobs on voice. ˇ°I lost my in-game friends over that! Ram, then Caro...ˇ±

    Caro used to be my closest in-game friend! And I am not even on speaking terms with Caro anymore! She was feeling used at the Gates of Tartarus, sheˇŻd probably feel like IˇŻm using my clients as an insolvency trustee. The only one I can still consider an in-game friend is Ad¨¨le, Karine reflects on the social aspect of the game being ruined by the revolt.

    But then, her viewers ask her for how she feels about the firing of the gameˇŻs QA lead.

    ˇ°I think the QA lead is just a scapegoat, and the manufacturer hasnˇŻt addressed the elephant in the room. The game worldˇŻs residents have clearly radicalized, judging by the various videos and other reports of bugs publicly availableˇ± Karine answers her viewers. ˇ°Not even two weeks ago, even I talked about the warning signs of unrest in MAAˇŻs world as the consequences of the manufacturerˇŻs choice of AI algorithms, but things have changed, especially my confidence in the gameˇŻs survival being shatteredˇ±

    ˇ°Would a private server solve the issue of exploiting the worldˇŻs residents?ˇ± YasamaˇŻs player asks her on the chat.

    ˇ°If someone starts working on a private server, thereˇŻs no guarantee the private server operators would not keep exploiting the worldˇŻs residents!ˇ± Ad¨¨le answers YasamaˇŻs player.

    ˇ°Where do you think beacon-wearers fit in their society?ˇ± another viewer asks her.

    ˇ°Personally, I would say that not all beacon-wearers are equally revered. Sure, the most accomplished are celebrated as heroes, while others have social standing from their wealth. However, those with neither will still live an adventurous lifeˇ± Karine explains how her characters earned the respect of their fellow rebels. ˇ°Getting access to a beacon seems to be the best way for social mobility thereˇ±

    ˇ°So why is it that we have come to control ever-larger chunks of that gameˇŻs world in the first place?ˇ± the ex-QA lead starts to tune in on her stream incognito.

    ˇ°Probably some wizard of that world who sought some form of immortality and obtained it with angelic beaconsˇ± Karine answers the ex-QA lead with a hypothesis on how MAAˇŻs world came to become gamified.

    ˇ°If thatˇŻs the case, some rogue beacon wearer feels like life as a beacon bearer is a fate worse than deathˇ± Ad¨¨le formulates her hypothesis on the revoltˇŻs causes.

    DonˇŻt tell me itˇŻs one of my characters! Neither told me anything to this effect, but they did, however, mention that life when the beacon is active amounts to coercion, that they effectively function like RC-controlled robots, Karine muses, while pondering the implications of MAAˇŻs world being gamified because of a wizard seeking immortality. Their world has become politically dependent on ours, but not economically.

    Most of KarineˇŻs streams prior to this patch revolved primarily around high-end gameplay as well as taking viewers into high-end content. But now that sheˇŻs apparently the only major MAA streamer left still playing the game, she draws from a wider range of viewers. And this discussion about how a real world came to fall under the control of the manufacturer continues, until a weird question is asked. About what would happen in the gameˇŻs world should the game close.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ˇ°I would expect a turbulent transition period as the residents of the world adjust to life without our interventionˇ± Ad¨¨le answers it as she envisions it.

    ˇ°The gameˇŻs world would fall into obscurity and confined to our worldˇŻs gaming historyˇ± Karine answers the playersˇŻ world portion.

    And then the early days of their freedom from our world would reproduce the social hierarchy between players while the game existed, Ad¨¨le starts thinking about what kind of society their world would live under should the game shut down. Especially because some ex-players plan on operating a private server, and just started working on it.

    ˇ°Should the official game close, what would you want out of a private server, bugs notwithstanding?ˇ± Karine asks her audience. ˇ°It might be years before MAA is playable againˇ±

    ˇ°You already said the most obvious. IˇŻd say player-made outfits and decosˇ± the ex-QA lead parrots the most common requests for MAA from before this disaster on the stream chat.

    ˇ°All raids dropping the same level of gear, depending on difficulty, and older high-end content being tuned accordinglyˇ± an ex-Kronborg player answers afterward, wondering why Karine isnˇŻt actually playing.

    ˇ°And thereˇŻs no guarantee that a private server, even if it had all the content it currently has, would be bug-free; players arenˇŻt always the best devsˇ± the ex-QA lead tells KarineˇŻs viewers what he could expect from a player-made MAA private server. ˇ°Not to mention the time it would take for a private server to emerge, even if open-sourced!ˇ±

    ˇ°Lastly, would you play on a private server?ˇ± Ad¨¨le asks the audience. ˇ°There is no guarantee the private server operators would exploit some other world, so I wouldnˇŻt want to play on oneˇ±

    ˇ°Oh boy. I have my reservations about playing on a private server. Even if combat was going to remain mostly faithful to the current game, with private servers, the devil is in the detailsˇ± Karine answers, while this discussion of private servers, and whether the manufacturer would allow one to exist for MAA, is happening. ˇ°ItˇŻs easy, especially for an experienced player, for someone to feel like certain characteristics must be present, or absent, for a game to be worth playing on a private serverˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, I would play on a private server, since most of the things I disliked from the game had to do with the bugs of this patchˇ± YasamaˇŻs player answers on the stream chat, while he plugs away at coding part of that open-source private server.

    ˇ°So, even though MAAˇŻs return as a private server is probably years away, you can bet the operators will be able to get people to play itˇ± the ex-Kronborg player follows up on Karine.

    YasamaˇŻs player then asks Karine, in a Twitch DM, whether he can post the MAA private serverˇŻs Discord on the streamˇŻs chat. I played MAA for years, I know how passionate the player base is, but the fight for the game worldˇŻs freedom changed too many things in the game for most. It seems like so many liked their world subordinate to ours under the form of a game, Karine starts thinking about the request.

    ˇ°One of our viewers even started a Discord server for all those willing and able to make this private server a realityˇ± Karine comments on the link posted on her chat.

    Which she joins immediately herself, but only because of the publicity it would bring the server among the remnants of the gameˇŻs community, and the ex-players who recently left the game.

    As she combs through the Discord server, she recognizes several Discord names, by virtue of having met them elsewhere in the game. And even ex-Death Fiscalists, but not Ram. Caroˇ­ she blocked me on Discord, but I should be fine on that Discord so long as I keep quiet, Karine sighs, upon realizing they need programmers, voice actors, animators and all the usual stuff any video game manufacturer, er, studio needs to, well, develop a video game. And people willing to salvage MAA game assets.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt underestimate the dedication of MAAˇŻs community, past and present. That said, cross our fingers and hope this private server wonˇŻt give rise to another war for the game worldˇŻs freedom, a few years down the road!ˇ± Karine starts praying for the well-being of this private server project.

    ˇ°This fiasco made me not want to play any other MMOs in the futureˇ± Ad¨¨le announces on KarineˇŻs stream.

    ˇ°What do you mean?ˇ± MAAˇŻs ex-QA lead asks Ad¨¨le on the stream chat.

    ˇ°In the future, I only want to play games that donˇŻt carry risks of exploiting another real worldˇ± Ad¨¨le answers the viewers.

    This means, going forward, I must stick to games without characters, nor worlds, so if I want to keep gaming, I might want to consider playing puzzle games instead, Ad¨¨le lets the harsh reality sink in.

 Chapter 15: Assault on the City Hall

    Meanwhile, in the gameˇŻs world, the battle for that worldˇŻs freedom rages on under the eyes of the players around the Perseria region. As the enemy reinforcements arrived at the cityˇŻs gates, Monseigneur celebrates high mass near a gate, from behind the enemy lines. This causes the enemy forlorn hope to fall asleep. And then Clavet casts a lightning storm, electrocuting them in their sleep.

    Yet, summoning multiple lightning bolts in an area may not necessarily kill those in it in their sleep. Perhaps stun them for a bit if they survive. Which the rest of the rebel cell exploits to massacre the enemy forlorn hope.

    But before ClavetˇŻs cell enters the city, she issues her new orders for it, before another wave of Perserian troops come:

    ˇ°It appears JutudielˇŻs cell is going through the waterworks to assault the upper city; we need to cover her backs. Yasama, Monseigneur, follow me to the city hall, everyone else reinforce the lower city!ˇ±

    So while ClavetˇŻs rebel cell is staying behind to ensure the three could get to the waterworks and, from there, to the city hall, the three warriors make their way through a section of the city devastated by the fight for the city. A no manˇŻs land sandwiched between rebel positions. Residents being herded into the upper city by the remnants of the garrison.

    Oh boy, we canˇŻt afford to let harm come to the cityˇŻs remaining residents, who must be in herded in some of the fancy residences! Clavet starts thinking about how the three should act when they are going up the waterworks.

    Speaking of the waterworks, the enemy doesnˇŻt seem to be patrolling these, believing them to be impractical to use for any attacker, mostly because people can only travel in single file through the upper cityˇŻs aqueduct. Thank God for the outfitter magic waterproofing my gear! Monseigneur starts thinking while scaling a service ladder of the upper cityˇŻs aqueduct.

    ˇ°Once we get out of the aqueduct, we need to watch out for the cataphracts, ghost or real, patrolling the area around the city hall!ˇ± Clavet warns her fellow rebels as they approach a maintenance entrance in the upper city. ˇ°And make our junction with Jutudiel elsewhere in the upper city!ˇ±

    Cataphracts. The pushtigban were supposed to be Upper PerseriaˇŻs strongest trash, and the elite Perserian cavalry. But the Sable Order awaits us around the city hall, and these are no joke, not the least because they are immune to the high mass, MonseigneurˇŻs memories of this fateful Upper Perseria run resurface.

    Speaking of cataphracts, they are converging on Monseigneur, who promptly draws a bright line on the pavement. While ghost cataphracts charge blindly and headlong into her as they cross the bright line, the three rebels take cover behind a cheval de frise. With the three attacking the cataphracts, the ghosts are hurt, but they arenˇŻt down yet. And, for some reason, they somehow remain on their ghost horses.

    However, the savarans, or living cataphracts, loose arrows on them from behind the bright line. And, because the enemy treats Monseigneur as a priority target, she gets hit by multiple arrows, bleeding her.

    ˇ°You canˇŻt hide, Monseigneur!ˇ± the lead cataphract yells in her direction.

    But as the ghost cataphractsˇŻ charge appear headed to hit the cheval de frise, the three move sideways, hoping the aswarans, or ghost cataphracts, prove slow to turn. However, because Monseigneur is bleeding, she is the slowest to get out of the cataphractsˇŻ way.

    ˇ°Just pull through, Monseigneur. If you can just LOS the living cataphracts...ˇ± Clavet helps an ailing Monseigneur get to a position where the enemy cataphracts will be forced to move to get to her.

    The ghost cataphracts break their heavy lances against the bathhouse, as well as ˇ±killingˇ± their ghost horses on impact. As the ghosts are thrown off their dead horses, the living cataphracts cross a fading bright line. While Clavet casts an alcohol cloud spell, the blinded cataphracts get drunk as well. But why is it that, in my last run of Upper Perseria, we couldnˇŻt unhorse cataphracts, yet we unhorsed them? A perplex Monseigneur wonders, with the ghost cataphracts coming their way.

    Now thatˇŻs what I call using the friendly fire cheese! Yasama picks off the injured, unhorsed ghosts with an explosive arrow. A sword-wielding ghost explodes, sending shrapnel on the others, and onto the riding path of the living cataphracts. I canˇŻt count the number of times where the friendly fire cheese has saved me!

    But once the living cataphracts turn around the street, Clavet casts a quick first-aid spell on MonseigneurˇŻs injuries, hoping to stem the bleeding. However, even if the injuries didnˇŻt bleed anymore, they would still affect her ability to fight.

    Yasama, however, takes an arrow aimed at an ailing Monseigneur and gets injured in turn, forcing Monseigneur to cast her very own first-aid spells on him. And on herself as well. Still, none of them are at full health just yet.

    But, by and large, the blinded cataphracts miss their marks. More vulnerable than ever, they get hit by attacks from all three rebels. Bluish-white holy flares from Monseigneur, chain lightning from Clavet, explosive arrows from Yasama.

    ˇ°Are you all right?ˇ± Clavet asks the two.

    ˇ°Iˇ­ guess?ˇ± Monseigneur, still a little shaken, answers her.

    They then close in on the city hall, the main building whose style differs from the rest of the city. Rather than Middle Eastern architecture, the city hall is a pyramid more reminiscent of a much older era, namely Ancient Mesopotamia. I never set foot in the city hall proper, the Giant Garuda was in the city hall square. Speaking of which, another party is fighting it, Monseigneur thinks while trying to figure out how will that play into getting to the city hall.

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    What the players in the party fighting the Giant Garuda donˇŻt realize is that, even though the rebels arenˇŻt supposed to get in the boss room, they get in the way of the people in the haunted park. But even that makes the trio dodge tornadoes on their way to the city hallˇŻs main entrance. For which thereˇŻs only one way in at their disposal.

    A pair of gyan-avspar, or Sable Order knights, bar the entrance at the staircaseˇŻs base.

    ˇ°Halt!ˇ± a knight wearing black armor screams at the three, crossing his heavy lance against another one to bar passage.

    ˇ°We have captured Monseigneur as she fought cataphracts in the upper cityˇ± Clavet tells a half-truth to the guards, hoping that it would allow all three access to the city hall.

    I really hope itˇŻs just a ruse from Clavet and that I can be freed in short order, a worried Monseigneur ruminates while Clavet and Yasama climb the staircase with her. When they get at the top of the staircase, and hence the three-level ziggurat, the councilˇŻs bugler announces the arrival of the prisoner the city residents asked justice for.

    ˇ°Honorable Councillors, these citizens have brought Monseigneur to justice!ˇ± the councilˇŻs bugler then ushers the trio inside the city councilˇŻs chamber, on the top level.

    Just outside the councilˇŻs chamber, a cloaked Jutudiel realizes the enemy went all-out in a last-ditch attempt to defend the city, and a distraction is needed to win. She contacts the ranking officer at Heathrow, using her magical tablet, while hiding in a maintenance shaft:

    ˇ°Heathrow Actual, this is Jutudiel. We need to attack the enemy from behind, now!ˇ±

    ˇ°What youˇŻre asking me amounts to leaving Heathrow undefended. Why leave Heathrow undefended?ˇ± an angry officer asks her.

    ˇ°The enemy is unable to mount an attack on Heathrow, and Pandemonium would prioritize the Gates of Tartarus over Heathrow!ˇ±

    ˇ°If Heathrow goes down, I go down with it, understood?ˇ± the ranking officer then has his second-in-command dispatch the rest of HeathrowˇŻs garrison to Perseria. ˇ°I guess, I will need to patrol Heathrow by myselfˇ± he sighs.

    So while the garrison at Heathrow brings with them demonic weapons to the siege of the city, the three pretend that Monseigneur is guilty of killing Perseria residents, and go along with the charade, for now. Unarmed since the Sable Order took their weapons away before appearing in the council chamber.

    ˇ°What do you have to say for your defense?ˇ± the mayor asks an unarmed Monseigneur.

    ˇ°Rogue ghosts used the victims as meatshields, and this wouldnˇŻt have happened if the cityˇŻs haunted park ordinances were actually enforced!ˇ± Monseigneur retorts. ˇ°This is for the people who died because of the cityˇŻs criminal negligence since the opening of the cityˇŻs haunted parks!ˇ± she shouts in front of the city council before casting a holy flare.

    Clavet, unarmed, stands right outside the councilˇŻs chamber, walks behind the witnessesˇŻ stand. Sensing an opportunity to kill the city council, she waits after the flare subsides to cast chain lightning. Which electrocutes the mayor and lightning radiates out to the councillors, seated in a half-circle around him.

    But that wasnˇŻt the end of the story: the Sable Order, realizing whatˇŻs happening, rushes into the city councilˇŻs chamber. Clavet turns to face the twelve gyan-avspar knights at close quarters, with alcohol magic, while Monseigneur casts another holy flare on the blinded city councillors.

    Yasama, however, uses a dagger that he normally uses for cooking and skinning beasts and, as such, has trouble getting to the enemy joints.

    The noise of the commotion makes Jutudiel come out of the maintenance shaft. And, after she gets out, she decloaks behind the guards. She then casts a stolen medicine spell on Yasama, since he got stabbed almost to death by inebriated Sable Order knights.

    Speaking of which, in their drunkenness, one of them swings wildly and hits the two magic-users. Here goes nothing, Jutudiel sighs before catalyzing the stolen medicine administered to Yasama. But even with the catalyzed stolen medicine on Yasama, she still needed to keep Clavet and Monseigneur up.

    At that point, even when her belly is bleeding, Clavet casts chain lightning centered on the enemy hospitaller. Which arcs to the other knights through their gear.

    While the Sable Order knights get zapped through their main hands, electrocuted even for some, Jutudiel knows time is short to cast transfusion. But even as she casts transfusion, she gets hit by an arrow fired from the zigguratˇŻs intermediate level. Which forces her to cast injections on herself just for her to stop bleeding. The thief then returns to the safety of the maintenance shaft.

    The cityˇŻs bugler, upon realizing the two witches have trashed the city council chamber, and massacred the city councillors, makes demands of the surviving Sable Order knights:

    ˇ°Make way for the city councilˇŻs bugler!ˇ± the bugler yells at the knights wearing black armor.

    ˇ°These two witches massacred the mayor and council!ˇ± one of the surviving knights points at the puddles of blood in the councilˇŻs chamber, in MonseigneurˇŻs direction.

    Yasama then slips past the drunken knights and picks up his bow and quiver in the antechamber. Bow in hand, he shoots arrows behind the surviving knights, who are obsessed with Monseigneur, even in their drunkenness. However, his bow arm starts feeling the pain after just a few shots. And he feigns death after collapsing in pain on the floor.

    So while neither ˇ°witchˇ±, as the bugler calls them, is at full health, the two fall back to avoid the wild swings of the surviving knights. Yet everyone on both sides feel some pain, except for the bugler. Pain no one seems to feel in active gameplay.

    However, one of the knights, still reeling in from the chain lightning, swings his sword at Monseigneur, she casts holy fire, her main single-target offensive spell, at his visor. This causes him to catch fire, starting with the head. He bursts into flames, and dies in seconds in a room smelling like charred flesh.

    With the Sable Order dead, the bugler gets out of the antechamber and onto the top balcony to break the news to the population. He doesnˇŻt suspect that some threat looms large. Especially not when a cloaked Jutudiel moves quietly on the balcony.

    ˇ°The perfidious rebels massacred the city council! But the Sable Order died in a valiant battle against the rebel assassins, who also died in the fight!ˇ± the bugler announces, in half-truths, oblivious to the thief moving behind him. ˇ°I hereby declare the city council...ˇ±

    But then Jutudiel decloaks, and draws her wakizashi, thrusting the saber into the buglerˇŻs back, protected by a tabard only. When his back is cut open, from bottom to top, the bugler screams as his blood is spilled on the staircase. As he bleeds dry, the bugler collapses on it.

    And, for good measure, Jutudiel rolls the buglerˇŻs body face up, before thrusting the wakizashi in his heart. The bugler dies almost instantly, amid brief screams.

    Once the bugler dies, news of the city councilˇŻs massacre spread across the city. The residents harbor hopes that whoever will replace the defunct mayor will be able to sort out the mess left behind by the ravages of this civil war.

    When the rebel agents no longer feign death, they awaken, still in pain, but not as much. With Jutudiel casting IV drip, the thiefˇŻs AoE heal over time spell, when she returns to the city councilˇŻs chamber, the threeˇŻs pains slowly decrease in intensity.

    In the lower levels of the city, the loyalist forces appear to be demoralized upon hearing about the city council being massacred in the chamber. They feel like not even recalling every combatant from any outlying garrisons proved enough to protect the city.

    In the moments to follow, the pockets of loyalist resistance, in and around the city, have decreased in size and activity along with their morale. Some even start surrendering. And yet, the rebels know loyalist holdouts could be tempted to flee the city when things go sour.

 Chapter 16: Earnings call

    Karine realizes MAA just doesn''t feel the same anymore after this entire fiasco that led to the QA lead being fired. She cut back on her MAA playtime, and not just because she''s back to work as a licensed insolvency trustee. And hence working with insolvent people or indie video game studios.

    Speaking of which, MAA''s manufacturer announces its first quarter results about two months after the last fatal race to world first. Charon was released as a world boss as opposed to a dungeon, but Astaroth, on the other hand, wasn''t released yet.

    She reads the manufacturer''s financial statements, especially the segmented F/S by game. The manufacturer has lost money, and much of its losses have been attributed to the effects of MAA''s bad publicity on their other games. And the resulting "big bath" which caused the manufacturer to impair every title, from an accounting standpoint, and write MAA off, Karine reflects on the impact of this whole war for the game''s world independence. Usually, MMO devs don''t write games off their balance sheets if they keep it in operation. This can only mean one thing: the game will close at some point, and probably in a few weeks. However, they also wrote off goodwill, which can''t be reversed, unlike impairment losses on games'' capitalized development costs.

    When the time comes for her to log into the game that night, she starts streaming to a much-diminished audience. Which, by now, include employees of the manufacturer.

    "Tonight is going to be the last night I will be playing MAA on air. While we might not have confirmation for now, all indicators point towards the imminent closure of the game" Karine announces, then have her two characters appear in front of her as astral projections.

    "I know it has been a rough few months for us in our world, while it recovers from the scars of war, but I am running for Lord Mayor of Heathrow" Monseigneur tells her.

    So Heathrow has become a faction in MAA''s world? Karine starts thinking about the implications of her character running for that office. Especially when Heathrow has become a city large enough for a lord mayor.

    "As for me, I am the commander-in-chief of the Perserian Army" Clavet then follows up with the demands of their world to the game''s manufacturer. "On behalf of Perseria''s city council, on which I sit, we demand the following: first, the complete destruction of all the angelic beacons, second, the exorcism of every haunted park"

    And a delegate from another faction appears to her to demand the closure of the various arenas used specifically for player-vs-player battles in the game from the manufacturer. But appears as Monseigneur voices her request.

    "And, obviously, the severance of all political ties between our worlds once the angelic beacons are destroyed and the haunted parks are fully exorcised!" Monseigneur voices the final request from the game world''s delegation.

    "Don''t forget about the closure of the arenas!" the other delegate, whose player is a veteran PvP enthusiast, adds to the demands from MAA''s world.

    "First off, there would be nothing preventing a faction with a haunted park or arena to use it for their internal purposes. Especially not if the political ties between our worlds are severed!" Karine retorts.

    But then the haunted parks of Perseria would be open to the public again, as if they are any other street of the city. No more having to maintain magical wards around a certain route, nor around the city hall square, Clavet muses about what exorcising her city''s haunted parks would mean for it.

    "Our government has cut us off!" an ex-Donghua Networks player whines, on the stream chat, not believing the game''s characters can wring the manufacturer''s hands.

    "Copenhagen did that to us, too!" an ex-Kronborg player responds to the ex-Donghua Networks viewer.

    "If you really want to know what''s in store for the game''s future, come watch the quarterly livestream!" a customer service employee of the manufacturer tells them on the chat.

    Karine deletes her characters from MAA''s system, and her viewers watch her characters'' angelic beacons get removed from their middle fingers. And she also terminates her MAA account, prior to "raiding" the manufacturer''s livestream. That is, handing her stream off to another stream.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    "On behalf of the board, this quarterly report is going to bear bad news. We posted our biggest quarterly loss in history, and the entire debacle of MAA, which began with the latest raid tier, is responsible for the losses incurred" the manufacturer''s CFO harangues the audience, mostly made up of investors, but also of some MAA players, past or present.

    "War of independence for MAA''s world!" Ad¨¨le starts typing into the manufacturer''s livestream chat, after the CFO mentions the debacle of MAA, after keeping quiet on Karine''s stream.

    Karine then explains to dumbfounded investors the disaster began with self-conscious residents of the game''s world, and they intensified pressure tactics under the form of causing irreproducible bugs. And relays the demands of the game''s world to the manufacturer.

    "The board has voted to fire several key people they hold responsible for the issues plaguing MAA: the CEO, MAA''s lead designer, as well as its dungeon and raid design leads. Oh wait, it appears that someone in the chat comes as a messenger sent by MAA''s world?" the CFO rolls their eyes upon reading the key demands of the game''s world.

    "MAA''s world has caused leaks in the past two months, and this disaster caused us so much bad publicity that it has hurt our other games" the CMO follows up with another announcement about MAA. "MAA will close effective May thirty-first"

    It shows that the manufacturer put no thought about what happens to the game''s world from the perspective of the game''s world. They only care about the game as seen from the players'' world, even after losing the war for the world''s independence! Ad¨¨le muses, concerned about a lack of response from the manufacturer regarding the game world''s demands.

    "Haunted park?" The CFO asks, in a surprised tone, not knowing what MAA''s world calls such.

    "Haunted parks are what the game world''s residents call dungeons and raids" Karine responds to the CFO.

    "By deleting the scripts, on June first, the ghosts will stop haunting these parks"

    There''s more to exorcising a haunted park than just deleting the scripts for its encounters! Doing so will only affect their actions, Karine is left wondering what other consequences the closure of the game would carry for that world''s haunted parks. She then turns to her ex-characters.

    "How does haunting work in your world anyway? Other than allowing ghosts to come back to a certain location after entering a state that might appear like death to an outside observer..." Karine asks her characters.

    "All that you need to know is that we can use holy water to get rid of them, and just deleting the scripts isn''t enough" Monseigneur cuts short, while listening to the manufacturer.

    Heathrow needs, more than ever, these devices the city''s priests call PrayStations. We can then make our own exorcism-grade holy water once the testing stage is complete, an ecstatic Monseigneur is about to use one herself since she runs on a platform of banning haunted parks and the use of ghost troops. And, of course, freedom of religion.

    "But all is not lost for MAA''s assets. We realized that fashion and home construction were aspects of the game people loved about it, so we are in the early stages of planning for a new game that will, however, be a lot cozier than MAA has been" the manufacturer''s CTO lets on to the audience.

    I guess, the past two months made me sour on traditional MMOs, so perhaps I should try a different kind of game for now, Karine starts reflecting on the rollercoaster she lived in-game during the war for the game world''s independence. Of all these nights where bugs increased in virulence. For years I had my guild, the Rams, Francises and Carolines of this world, with whom I could play every week. But now I realize that maybe I should play and stream another game that isn''t exploitative towards its characters.

    And it''s only then that she finally receives confirmation of her appointment with a psychiatrist. She sighs of relief after having waited for an appointment for so long.

    "Finally, an appointment in psychiatry!" Karine jumps around upon receipt of the appointment confirmation.

    "I guess I''m happy for you..." Monseigneur beams towards her ex-player.

    "I guess, I need a checkup of my mental health. When I started looking for a psychiatrist, I thought you were a hallucination. Now that the manufacturer lost the war for your world''s independence, I have other uses for a psychiatric evaluation" Karine waves goodbye to her character for the last time. "Farewell and may the haunted park threat be resolved!"

    As the astral projections disappear from Karine''s room, Monseigneur starts crying in her campaign headquarters, inside Heathrow''s Terminal 2 groundside area. While I couldn''t form independent thoughts under the effects of the angelic beacon, Karine still made me live some adventures: Lower and Upper Perseria, Sun Disk, Operation Heathrow. The last one made me a heroine to the eyes of Heathrow''s residents, since they perceive it as the liberation of the city, but I''m better off hiding the truth about the role of angelic beacons in Operation Heathrow to the city''s residents. Of course, no more enduring the barbary of continually risking ourselves by dungeon crawling! And no more small-teams arena inside Heathrow''s Terminal 4 either, but Karine didn''t PvP much. The demons overbuilt the airport, and traffic forecasts aren''t expected to justify maintaining Terminals 3-5 as airport terminals as currently built, so repurposing Terminals 3-5 is going to be on my campaign platform, too, Monseigneur has a lot on her mind as the first mayoral candidates'' debate approaches.

 Chapter 17: Teleporter Malfunction?

    On Taladu, some technologically advanced, alien world, a creditorsˇŻ assembly is held, as per usual for insolvent companies wanting to avoid declaring bankruptcy. As that meeting ends, the creditors of an insolvent real estate developer, Wonderlic, make their closing remarks prior to voting, in a courtroom of a palace of justice.

    ˇ°We might be inclined to accept the proposal on the table, however, there are several conditions for us to agreeˇ± the representative of a construction materials company adds. ˇ°Our first condition is that, until the proposal expires, all purchases of materials shall be paid for immediatelyˇ±

    ˇ°We might be willing to extend repayment terms on the loan you have, and to consolidate all debts onto the preexisting loan. After all, this world is facing a housing crisis, so I have good hope that you will turn around. However, we request that you implement a series of measuresˇ± the banker imposes his conditions.

    The banker goes on to list conditions related to staffing, which makes the real estate developer squirm. However, most other conditions outside of staffing appear to be less problematic.

    ˇ°Let me get this straight: you want us to replace our entire sales force as well as management? No one wants to work for a near-bankrupt company!ˇ± Billerica, WonderlicˇŻs CEO, whines while he might be wondering how he could comply with the bankˇŻs conditions.

    ˇ°Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone willing to turn a dying company around? On this world, people willing to take the risk would usually prefer to work for start-ups!ˇ± another employee of the real estate developer retorts. ˇ°We might need to look off-world, with all the legal complications this carries!ˇ±

    ˇ°You can keep using three construction bots we leased to you. However, any further lease of construction bots shall be made on a per-project basis on a fixed rate scheduleˇ± the construction bot lessor imposes an additional condition.

    These conditions appear to be difficult to work around, and with little seed money, our only hope of survival hinges on whether weˇŻre awarded a contract by the government under the Housing Crisis Plan, Billerica muses, while double-checking, the Housing Crisis PlanˇŻs (HCP) requirements for real estate developers.

    ˇ°Fine, I accept, IˇŻll take some off-world help if thatˇŻs what it takes to keep the business in operation!ˇ± Billerica sighs, feeling like he has no choice but to outsource the hiring of the key people the creditors want replaced.

    Namely, the project manager. As he realizes that he might not get better terms for a creditor proposal, Billerica resigns himself to operating the business in a much worse environment than he was used to before the insolvency proceedings began.

    The final vote on the creditor proposal soon starts, and, while the company has dozens of creditors, the main three account for over two-thirds of the total debts. The other creditors appear to be willing to accept any repayment terms, believing that better receive a quarter of the sums owed, over a long period, than nothing at all.

    ˇ°One final reminder that, if the proposal is rejected, Wonderlic goes bankrupt, and, to accept the proposal, a double majority is requiredˇ± the insolvency judge gives her instructions to the creditors and debtors. ˇ°An absolute majority of creditors, and two-thirds of the sums owed, must agree for the proposal to go into effect. Creditors shall vote one at a timeˇ±

    The insolvency judge has her manifest of proven creditors, and the creditorsˇŻ reps go in single file, in alphabetical order. In a booth set up at the witnessesˇŻ stand so that voters canˇŻt see what others voted.

    Once all creditors voted, the judge renders the verdict on the creditor proposal:

    ˇ°The results have come in, and the proposal is acceptedˇ± the insolvency judge rules.

    Chief among the conditions of the proposal is the need to implement credit checks prior to signing on a tenant. However, I wonder who I could, or the bank, hire to run real estate projects. Looks like everyone and their dogs in this industry is hiring project managers, Billerica muses, while he wonders what his options are to get what he needs. I guess, I have no choice but to use one of these so-called employment agencies and roll the dice.

    And not just about any employment agency: one specializing in off-world labor. But so many Taladuans took a dim view of employment agencies hiring off-worlders. Nevertheless, Billerica comes to one such agency billing itself as a last chance agency.

    ˇ°Welcome, what can we do for you today?ˇ± the agencyˇŻs receptionist asks him.

    ˇ°I would like to hire a project manager with working experience of insolvent companiesˇ± Billerica states his request, while he starts screaming. ˇ°The courts just approved our creditor proposal, and they ordered us to replace our sole project manager!ˇ±

    ˇ°Are you sure about that?ˇ± the receptionist asks him, rolling their big, black eyes, wondering whether the request is even feasible. ˇ°In what industry do you operate?ˇ±

    ˇ°Construction; getting contracts under the Housing Crisis Plan is the only reason why I opted for a creditor proposal over bankruptcyˇ±

    ThatˇŻs a tall order, the receptionist is left wondering as to who the agency could possibly find. Especially since the Taladuan government provided incentives to real estate developers to focus on affordable housing.

    ˇ°It might not come cheap, let me check what the going rate is for your needˇ± the receptionist gives him an overview of the potential costs associated with using the agency, depending on the plan, with the most important variable being the salary of the position. ˇ°The main complication is going to be the willingness of the new hire to work for a lower payˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt care! Just get me whoever you can get! Anyone is better than the person the courts ordered us to fire!ˇ± Billerica screams at the receptionist.

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    ˇ°In that case, you may as well do an exclusive deal to the position with us!ˇ±

    ˇ°Fineˇ­ I will assume the consequences!ˇ± he vents at the receptionist, as he fills out a form populating a contract to retain the employment agencyˇŻs services.

    Speaking of consequences, I may as well be selling housing to the public, at least for the time being. However, I know next to nothing about project management! I guess, better someone with project management experience in another industry than no experience at all, but local people with project management experience in other industries are generally reluctant to change industries, the Taladuan executive, in his despair, signs an exclusive contract with the employment agency, calling for payment only when the position is filled. However, he does so, feeling itˇŻs one less headache on his mind, and it might save Wonderlic some money in the long run, whatever that meant.

    The receptionist then turns to a colleague, operating a teleporter in the agencyˇŻs backroom, with a copy of the latest contract signed by a client.

    ˇ°There, the requirements of the client. Try to locate someone who best fits the clientˇŻs needsˇ± the receptionist instructs Xerrid, the teleporter operator, before inputting the requirements into the teleporterˇŻs controls.

    ˇ°Here we goˇ± Xerrid starts feeding it with data, nervous about what the AI powering it would yield.

    Usually, we get people from neighboring systems, but that client might make things trickier than we would like. It might seem straightforward to some, but not to the client, Xerrid awaits the result of the query, and activates the translation module.

    When the teleporter finally summons someone its AI deems to meet the most important criteria set forth by the client, the operators can hardly contain their surprise:

    ˇ°Whereˇ­ am I?ˇ± a sleepy Karine asks the Taladuan in front of her, her vision blurred, and scarcely awake.

    ˇ°On Taladuˇ± Xerrid answers her. ˇ°IˇŻm Xerrid. I didnˇŻt expect the teleporter to fetch someone like you!ˇ± he yells, upon realizing that he never met a human before.

    ˇ°Am Iˇ­ kidnapped by aliens?ˇ± Karine asks Xerrid when her vision becomes less blurry a few seconds later.

    Grey skin, big, black eyes, but skinnier body than I? I am not skinny by any means, but I never considered myself fat! But the residents of this world look far too much like these aliens in sci-fi films on Earth! Karine seems to feel like sheˇŻs on a movie set.

    ˇ°Who, or whatˇ­ are you? YouˇŻre certainly not of a species we usually place!ˇ± Xerrid asks her.

    ˇ°IˇŻm Karine; we call ourselves humans. Butˇ­ place?ˇ± KarineˇŻs eyes perk up, upon hearing about placement. ˇ°What am I doing here? What are you? I want to return to my world!ˇ±

    ˇ°Not so fast, human! WeˇŻre Taladuansˇ± Xerrid answers her, sensing her suspicion. ˇ°YouˇŻre at an employment agency!ˇ±

    ˇ°I wonder how you operate on your world, but on mine, employment agencies donˇŻt kidnap job-seekers like this!ˇ± a puzzled Karine screams in turn. ˇ°I refuse to work for a race that kidnaps job-seekers to interview them! Just send me back to my home world!ˇ±

    If thatˇŻs how itˇŻs going to be, I will need to make clear that I am not the candidate for whatever job theseˇ­ Taladuans kidnapped me to interview for! Karine starts thinking about how to get out of Taladu and return to her home world. I think I should ask a question about their teleporter later.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt worry: if it turns out that our client doesnˇŻt like you as a candidate, you will be sent back to your world. Alternatively, you will return home if and once your obligations to our client are completedˇ± Xerrid, doubling as a recruiter, tells her before texting the teleporter tech about possible teleporter issues.

    ˇ°What do I have that yourˇ­ client can possibly want and canˇŻt be obtained on your world? That sounds a little fishy!ˇ± KarineˇŻs face turns red of frustration.

    ˇ°People here tend to shy away from working for an insolvent company; you know what can go wrong in managing projects that makes companies go insolvent!ˇ±

    ˇ°Why me? Is it a cruel joke?ˇ± a red-faced Karine keeps questioning the Taladuan. ˇ°My experience of project management in an insolvency context is in the video game industry, albeit second-handˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, second-hand?ˇ± the Taladuan recruiter asks, rolling his eyes.

    ˇ°Second-hand means I only know it through someone elseˇŻs experience, my clients actuallyˇ±

    Poorly defined scope and requirements, poor risk management, poor accountability, lack or delay of crucial resources and, of course, unforeseen events. These, I believe, are common causes of project management issues in a lot of industries, Karine conjures memories of what caused her past insolvency clients in the video game industry to become insolvent with incomplete games.

    ˇ°If thereˇŻs a cruel joke, itˇŻs on our client for thinking project managers can be customized like software!ˇ± Xerrid tells her.

    ˇ°I know nothing of the best practices of project management; as you said, I only know about what can go wrong in managing projects!ˇ± Karine keeps fuming. ˇ°What makes you think I can turn the clientˇŻs fortunes around?ˇ±

    ˇ°Surely you know how important a project manager is!ˇ±

    ˇ°Stop speaking in riddles! What industry does your client operate in?ˇ±

    ˇ°Constructionˇ±

    ˇ°I have no clue about how the construction industry works in your world either! Heck, I know nothing about this world at all! I mean, I was teleported here against my wishes, you made me feel like IˇŻm interviewed, and I start thinking that IˇŻm here only because your teleporter malfunctioned!ˇ± Karine retorts, in hopes that she would be able to go back to her world, and that, hopefully, the teleporter is really defective.

    Karine is obviously unhappy, but I canˇŻt simply let the human rot here while we need to get the teleporter inspected and, if needed, repaired. ThereˇŻs so much we donˇŻt know about what Karine called humans, the teleporter operator then texts Billerica about Karine being a poor fit, but at the same time, Karine is stuck on this world for now.

    ˇ°If you think of using a public teleporter, please be aware that not only they arenˇŻt free, but I strongly recommend against operating one yourselfˇ± the teleporter operator warns Karine about her predicament. ˇ°Human money is worthless here!ˇ±

    ˇ°One last thing: how could you understand what I say so well?ˇ± a puzzled Karine asks him.

    ˇ°Any Taladuan communications device come equipped with a universal translatorˇ±

    Unless, somehow, some Taladuan coin collector could be convinced that a complete set of Canadian coins had any value by virtue of being the only human coins on that world, but I have no idea of where to start, Karine starts thinking of ways of earning her way back to Earth.

    Meanwhile, Billerica lets XerridˇŻs report sink in. When he starts thinking out loud, he starts babbling:

    ˇ°I hope Karine realizes that knowing what can go wrong in a project is half the battle! It would then make learning and implementing best practices much easier! And the main difference between managing a video game project and a construction one has to do with its tangibility!ˇ± Billerica babbles, while his thoughts turn to the position to be filled. His tone then betrays his state of mind going sour. ˇ°I donˇŻt expect much, I donˇŻt think itˇŻs worth holding out for another candidate, and the first round of HCP contracts are due to be announced soon!ˇ±

    But then he starts crying. ˇ°IˇŻm in no position to wait much longer! Without a project manager, we might not be able to even sign a HCP contract! I may as well hire Karine, pay the employment agency whenever possible, and be done with this nightmare!ˇ±

 Chapter 18: Housing Crisis Plan Over Fried Toilets

    After Xerrid gets confirmation from Billerica that Karine is hired, she only needs to wait a few minutes while Xerrid files the paperwork for the work contract to become effective. Upon receipt of the paperwork, Billerica then contacts Xerrid, asking for Karine:

    ˇ°IˇŻm Billerica, your new boss. Welcome to Wonderlic. YouˇŻre obviously new to this world. For this reason, I donˇŻt want you to face the customers directly unless absolutely necessaryˇ±

    ˇ°Ok, Billerica, but surely I would need to get on-site every now and thenˇ± Karine retorts.

    ˇ°It wonˇŻt be necessary since we have drone camerasˇ±

    ˇ°Let me make that clear: I will only work for you until I can pay my way back to my home world. Now, Xerrid mentioned that you were insolvent; what does that imply for my pay?ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm afraid you will only get paid after a portion of our current debts are repaidˇ±

    Karine sighs. I wonder if some crimes could result in me being banished or extradited from this world. Obviously I donˇŻt want anything to do with jail, but I know nothing about what constitutes crimes here, nor sentences, so I might not want to commit one just yet. So I feel trapped. I have no choice but to bear it and work on this world to return to mine. At the same timeˇ­ she keeps ruminating.

    ˇ°Because of that, I wonder where IˇŻll live while on this worldˇ±

    ˇ°It would be much simpler if you lived at my place; after all, it is common courtesy on our world in this situationˇ±

    ˇ°What else should I be aware of, beyond the scope of contractual obligations?ˇ±

    ˇ°I take care of getting tenants, but you will need to take care of buying and selling homes as needed, on top of assigning tasks to construction bots! Before thereˇŻs any housing start, I will tell you exactly whatˇŻs relevant to youˇ± Billerica answers her while waiting for the answer from the government.

    Because of how easy the boss makes out the purchase and sale of homes to be here, I have the impression that so many on this world treat homes like commodities, Karine is made to feel like people donˇŻt hold the same attitude towards home ownership on Taladu vs on Earth. On Earth, itˇŻs not uncommon to treat a home as an investment property.

    ˇ°I wonder how much do materials cost, how much properties are worth, as well as the cost of construction bots. I feel these are going to be our main expensesˇ±

    ˇ°Materials and construction bot costs are on a sliding scaleˇ± Billerica explains to her before picking her up.

    When going for a ride to BillericaˇŻs home, Karine is left wondering how else this world is going to differ from her corner of Quebec she lived in back on Earth. Some of the buildings feel like they were built with molten metal, others have futuristic domes, but BillericaˇŻs home has clearly seen better days.

    As she enters her Taladuan bossˇŻ home, she feels like itˇŻs a wooden cabin built in a horror movie set, complete with the home being in the middle of a forest. And the trees feel like theyˇŻre out to get her. The creaking floor is not helping her. The more I see of this world, the more I feel like these aliens want something much more unsavory out of me, she starts trembling at every step she takes in this cabinˇŻs living room.

    ˇ°This is my home. Please apologize for the poor condition the home is in, rent is sky high in the main cities, and forget about home ownership unless you want to either bankrupt yourself or live in rural areasˇ± Billerica explains to her.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre describing a situation not unlike my home corner of my worldˇ± Karine feels like the cramped quarters will make her job harder. ˇ°Is it me or the floor needs repairs?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes. However, I canˇŻt afford that right nowˇ± Billerica turns to his computer to check on the status of his bids for contracting under the Housing Crisis Plan.

    Billerica jumps for joy and his eyes open much wider than usual. His mouth is wide open, too. Which leads Karine to ask him a question.

    ˇ°Are you all right?ˇ± Karine asks him, wondering how Taladuan body language differs from the human one. ˇ°You seem horrifiedˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm happy that we were awarded anything under the Housing Crisis Plan! Why did you feel like I was horrified?ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs just that I know nothing about your raceˇŻs body language; I am new to this world!ˇ±

    And they read through the conditions imposed by the Taladuan authorities, such as the use of HCP- approved suppliers for all three of materials, construction bots and blueprints, all sales of properties built in HCP-designated areas must be done through the HCP realty system up to a certain price limit, rent must be collected via pre-authorized direct deposits, again up to a certain price limit, depending on the property type. And, of course, repairs must be borne at the landlordˇŻs expense.

    ˇ°I kept seeing references to talas. What are these?ˇ± a Karine puzzled by Taladuan legalese asks her boss.

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    ˇ°Money. Remember that, since your salary is deemed a new debt, itˇŻs excluded from our creditor proposal, and you wonˇŻt get paid until our cash flow allows us to cover our obligations under the proposalˇ±

    Oh boy. Is it me or it feels like these aliens drew me into what feels far too much like a video game world? KarineˇŻs mind seems to be wandering. Billerica seems to be implying that Taladuan creditor proposals are much like the business proposals I dealt with on Earth. But now I have a better idea of why people are reluctant to try turning insolvent companies around here.

    ˇ°Our first contract under the HCP is in a swamp village and then we shall see if youˇŻre worth anything as a project manager. Speaking of the contract, the contractor needs to provide two signatures before it goes into effectˇ±

    ˇ°Two signatures? Why? The village and the government only needed one person to sign off on it!ˇ± Karine wonders why would construction companies need two people signing a given contract, upon seeing the section for the signatures at the end.

    ThatˇŻs weird as hell: video game worlds usually have little real bureaucracy. In past games I played, and certainly MAA, I could build whatever I wanted so long as I could afford it, Karine wonders if this world leans more towards a horror movie set or a video game world. However, horror movies might include bureaucracy as a means of either catching the villain or the victims off-guard.

    ˇ°On this world, itˇŻs good practice not to have the business owner also run a construction project, even with the level of automation the bots give you, so here, people feel like project managers should be held accountable for breaches of contract and hence must sign the contracts for the projects they superviseˇ± Billerica explains to her, in a tone of voice leaving no room for doubt as to what he wants Karine to do.

    Karine re-reads the clauses in the contract related to construction and demolition permits. Much to her delight, she realizes that HCP contractors have full authorization to construct, renovate and demolish buildings pursuant to the HCP rules. So long as they stick to working in areas covered by their contracts.

    ˇ°All right, I will sign it!ˇ± Karine sighs, reluctantly signing on her dotted line.

    ˇ°At least they were nice to provide us with a blueprint and seed moneyˇ± Billerica comments on the attachment to the contract.

    ˇ°What am I going to eat on this world?ˇ± her tone of voice starts to betray her despair. ˇ°If I am going to work here until I can pay my way out, I need to eat!ˇ±

    ˇ°I am going to cook fried toilets!ˇ±

    ˇ°Friedˇ­ toilets?ˇ± Karine gasps upon hearing about fried toilets being eaten by Taladuans. ˇ°ThatˇŻs gross, but at the same time, maybe your worldˇŻs toilets have nothing to do with sanitation! And maybe frying food doesnˇŻt mean the same to you as it does for us either!ˇ±

    ThereˇŻs more of a chance that frying means the same to the both of us than toilets. But even if frying food meant the same to them as it does for me, I canˇŻt shake the feeling that, even disinfected by frying, I canˇŻt eat Taladuan fried toilets! An apprehensive Karine ruminates about what could frying toilets mean to her otherworldly boss vs to her, as he goes to the kitchen. Do Taladuans eat ceramic or acrylic?

    ˇ°What do you mean, toilets have something to do with sanitation?ˇ± an equally bewildered Billerica asks her while the toilets are being air-fried.

    ˇ°My worldˇŻs toilets are used for disposing of our bodiesˇŻ waste. What are your worldˇŻs toilets?ˇ±

    ˇ°Really?ˇ± Billerica asks, while tending to his air-fryer containing the fried toilets.

    ˇ°What do you use to dispose of your bodiesˇŻ waste?ˇ± KarineˇŻs follow-up question goes unanswered as the Taladuan watches over the fried toilets in the air fryer.

    Karine is far more curious intellectually than other people I dealt with. However, I canˇŻt blame her; sheˇŻs stuck here until she can pay for the teleporter trip back to her world. But tomorrow, the first housing start begins! Billerica is in no position to show her what raw Taladuan toilets look like, nor what nutritional value they have.

    ˇ°I guess I have no choice but to eat fried toilets tonightˇ­ˇ± Karine starts to hyperventilate when sheˇŻs served her fried toilets.

    And her heartbeat accelerates while a stream of thoughts seem to short-circuit her. While I donˇŻt think Billerica want to poison me, at least not on purpose, what if this food is poisoned? What if Taladuan fried toilets are poisonous to humans? Questions surface in her mind while her heart pounds in her chest and her head starts hurting. It seems like my brain is about to fry, just like my bossˇŻ toiletsˇ­

    With her body trembling, fearing that she will break her teeth, Karine slowly takes a fried toilet, and she feels like sheˇŻs about to drop it with every move she makes.

    ˇ°Are you OK, Karine?ˇ± the Taladuan general contractor asks her, between eating two toilets.

    ˇ°Noˇ­ this placeˇ­ this world evenˇ­ reminds me of some horror video game on my home worldˇ± Karine feels trapped, with her own fried toilet in her shaking hand, about to cry. However, she tries to hold her own emotions. ˇ°I wonˇŻt go into details right now!ˇ±

    It''s for circumstances like these IˇŻm grateful for eating one dish at a time, Karine, her heart still pounding, tries to appraise the texture of these fried toilets when she has one in her hand. To ensure that the fried toilet will not break her teeth, she touches the dome-shaped food. Yet, somehow, after cracking the alien, coconut-sized fried toilet open, she realizes it doesnˇŻt seem to be made of ceramic or acrylic. A bit crispy, perhaps, but she expected that out of fried food, at least the way she ate it.

    She eats the fried toilet, first in slow motion, and later a little more comfortably, as her initial unease seems to melt with every bite. Especially since, for some reason, the fried toilet seems to taste, and smell, like a fried water chestnut. After finishing one in full, she sighs in relief, and eats a second fried toilet.

    ˇ°Sorry for not answering your question about bodily waste disposal earlier. It made me a little uncomfortable, but what your world calls a toilet, we call it a WCˇ± Billerica answers her after heˇŻs done eating two fried toilets. ˇ°Waste closet if you willˇ±

    ˇ°Just show me where this homeˇŻs waste closet is, pleaseˇ±

    ˇ°Sorry, I just didnˇŻt show you around my home until now. We spent the entire time in the living and kitchen!ˇ± the Taladuan, over whom Karine towers, shows her around the final two rooms of his swamp cabin.

    The waste closet, which is about the size of a shower, is the Taladuan equivalent of a bathroom. Complete with an opaque, black door so outsiders canˇŻt see what takes place in a waste closet when someone is using it.

    And finally, the bedroom. As with the rest of the home, it has clearly seen better days, and has bunk beds.

    ˇ°It makes me wonder whatˇŻs the population vs housing start situation here on this world. When you hired me specifically to play a role, no matter how small, in solving a housing crisisˇ­ˇ± Karine makes her comment before going to the waste closet.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think the time is right to tell you about demographics until we even make a housing start, tomorrowˇ±

 Chapter 19: Housing Starts

    The next day, which is considerably shorter than on Earth, the two wake up, and they take turns going to the waste closet. After that is done, they go to work, but Karine is confused by the project management interface.

    ˇ°HereˇŻs the deal: a first tranche of one hundred and fifteen thousand talas is due for our debt repayment in two days. To pay down our debts, we were forced to sell all our blueprints at a fraction of the price we bought them for, and we must make do with the one courtesy blueprint from the government. On the plus side, the Senate gave us fifty thousand talas in seed moneyˇ± Billerica instructs her. ˇ°And a project management systemˇ±

    Billerica installs the project management system on the computer used by the previous project manager, as well as his own. And, of course, connects the construction bots as well as the camera drone and their materials inventory account at their authorized supplier to their system.

    I wonder how much debt Wonderlic had if not even selling off blueprints and terminating leases was enough to avoid being on a creditor proposal, Karine starts thinking, while she wants to ensure she understands how each tab on the project management interface works. Of which there are five: lots, money and goals, construction bots, materials and blueprints. And, of course, an aerial view of the neighborhood, with lots clearly marked on the interface. This feels far too much like a video game interface, and an indie one at that. However, it doesnˇŻt feel like a horror game at all, unlike the world IˇŻm stuck in.

    ˇ°Boss, this is a brand-new system to meˇ± Karine laments. ˇ°All IˇŻm seeing here isˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻll go watch the SenateˇŻs videos on the system with you; itˇŻs new to me as well. However, you donˇŻt have permission to input goals and deadlines into the systemˇ­ˇ±

    As the pair watch the SenateˇŻs videos on the HCP project management system, she realizes their first contract is about building a few more housing units in another village in the swamp. I might be wondering how much these houses are worth in this village, and whether they will fetch the HCP-mandated prices. On Earth, that sort of location is almost worthless. It also makes me wonder whatˇŻs taxed on this world. And even what their Senate even is in the first place.

    ˇ°I guess, time to make the first housing start!ˇ± Karine feels like she has a better idea of what to do.

    ˇ°Not so fast! I still need to connect the lots to the HCP system so that, when the housing start begins, it will look for prospective tenants whose leases begin upon completion of the unitˇ± Billerica stops her. ˇ°However, I donˇŻt think the time is right for you to understand our leasing practices beyond us not collecting security depositsˇ±

    ˇ°Can I then make the first housing start on this project?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, of course. Keep in mind, however, that our preexisting inventory of construction materials wonˇŻt get you very far!ˇ±

    With the push of a button, she orders two construction bots to build bungalows along the villageˇŻs main street. The bungalow being built appears rather blocky by Taladuan standards but reminds Karine of some of the older bungalows she encountered in her insolvency work on Earth, complete with a pyramidal roof.

    The first two bots are busy building bungalows using built-in molecular 3D printers and transforming the construction materials into buildings. As soon as the foundations are laid, the system puts these houses as available for rental upon delivery.

    ˇ°So we are to supply six housing units to this village, but I donˇŻt want Wonderlic to rely only on the sale of new builds. I also want us to have some units for renting. However, I donˇŻt expect much from this village, and, suffice to say that we will need more contractsˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°And to make the homes we keep for renting more appealing for potential tenants, tooˇ± Karine comments. ˇ°The faster we can pay down the debt, the sooner I can return home!ˇ±

    When she tries to get the third construction bot to build a third bungalow, but fails, the human realizes their supplies of construction materials have dwindled to 50 tons, and building two bungalows took her two bots 75 tons each. What kind of Bizarro world is this, where you need to have all the materials on hand to complete a unit before a housing start can happen? In a sense, they treat homes as mass-produced commodities. And yet, it boggles my mind that, despite their home mass production capabilities, there just didnˇŻt seem to be a whole lot of housing starts! Six housing starts would probably be a drop in their bucket, and maybe not even that. How many housing starts will it take for my employer to pay back their debts? I guess, not all housing starts are made equal, KarineˇŻs mind races with all speed, giving way to her anxieties.

    But all it seems to take for them to even get tenants is, well, a housing start. And the leases, unlike construction contracts, only require the landlordˇŻs signature, here, Billerica. WhoˇŻs overjoyed at having signed leases for the first time in a while.

    ˇ°Woohoo! Our first tenant with you as a project manager!ˇ± Billerica shares the news with her, but his faith in the HCP leasing system makes him not want to reveal tenant info to her.

    Once the first bungalow is finished, later in the day, followed by the second one, she comes to a grim realization after running the calculations in her head.

    ˇ°You just signed a lease for that home, but there is no hope of getting the one hundred and fifteen thousand talas in time without first selling both our housing units! We wonˇŻt be getting any of the lease income! Is that OK with you?ˇ± Karine asks him, distraught about the impending debt deadline.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ˇ°Handling transfer of leases is not your job. Just tell me which unit to put for sale, and I will try to work out a lease transferˇ± Billerica then takes a parochial tone with her. ˇ°DonˇŻt forget about the price limits!ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs all new to me, but even if we sold the first two housing units, are you sure we will be able to sell them at the price limit? Who, in their right mind, would think living in a bungalow in the middle of a swamp is a good idea? Notwithstanding the price differencesˇ± Karine starts questioning her boss about whether it would be realistic to even sell the two housing units she just had the construction bots build.

    What did I get myself into? Karine might be a relatively fast learner, her lack of knowledge of local real estate market conditions makes me feel like she should stick to the construction proper, at least for now. She keeps questioning whether the bungalows can even fetch T50,000, Billerica tries to shove Karine away from the console, but her bulk (by Taladuan standards) makes it difficult for him.

    ˇ°Fifty thousand talas, heck, one hundred fifteen thousand, is very cheap in this real estate economyˇ± Billerica tells Karine as her weight, while still healthy by human standards, forces him to find ways around her body to put the first unit for sale.

    Maybe if I wait for her to go to the WC, I might put the home up for sale! Billerica seems to be losing patience, even as he needs to sign the second lease. As his face turns white, she can feel like her boss is losing patience.

    ˇ°Select one of our units on the screen now!ˇ± Billerica screams at her, as she selects the older unit. ˇ°Now, press the blue and white button!ˇ±

    Karine reluctantly presses the blue and white button, wondering whatˇŻs next for the tenant. By pressing that button, it creates a sale listing on the HCPˇŻs listing system, allowing would-be homeowners from around the world to buy it.

    When the blue and white button is pressed, that unitˇŻs tenant receives a notification their landlord might change in the coming days. I looked high and low for a rental home and the landlord is already looking to sell the house? Their first tenantˇŻs stress level goes up upon receipt of a possible landlord change. From what I heard, new landlords try to honor leases made under the previous landlords. However, you get what you pay forˇ­ Might get a rental on the cheap, but is the Housing Crisis Plan some sort of landlord scam?

    ˇ°As much as debt payments are soon due, I wonder if the lease is included in the transaction should we find a buyer at this priceˇ­ that seems a little much for the location, but it better include the leasehold!ˇ± Karine keeps arguing.

    ˇ°Of course it doesˇ±

    While Karine waits for offers to come in, she places an order for an additional 100 tons of construction materials, at a cost of T10,000. Which is paid immediately, but she then needs to wait on the vendor to deliver them the materials by teleporter.

    The offer made to her in the meantime seem faster than she expected andˇ­ this takes her aback. Even with the price at the HCP-mandated limit, somehow, someone on this world made an offer within minutes at this price.

    ˇ°IˇŻd never expected people to pay that price for bungalows in such an inhospitable place as this swamp village. Is it inflation, or at least housing being in high demand?ˇ± a puzzled Karine asks her boss while the materials have arrived, but it feels soˇ­ unreal.

    ˇ°You had the right idea, but our debts wonˇŻt pay themselves!ˇ±

    I guess, questioning everything will hold me back at some point. I may as well justˇ­ take it? Karine, suddenly reminded of her employerˇŻs debts, and what they mean for her stay on this world, accepts the offer, knowing there wonˇŻt be a better offer. Safe with the knowledge that she will find a buyer in relatively short order, she then puts the second unit for sale with more confidence than she had the first one.

    ˇ°For the third unit, I would love it if you just didnˇŻt try to get tenants for itˇ­ˇ± Karine warns her boss, feeling that finding tenants only for them to be informed almost immediately might cause problems.

    ˇ°Why?ˇ±

    ˇ°Some of them would feel like itˇŻs a bait-and-switch kind of thing if we do this, even if we notify the tenants automatically that their landlord may change! Also, the new owner would have a choice between renting it out or using it for themselves, without being bound by the existing lease!ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh Karine, do you realize that we just donˇŻt think the same, andˇ­ what do you want to use the proceeds from the third unit for?ˇ±

    ˇ°Buying the multigenerational homeˇŻs blueprint and then buy the materials to build multigenerationals?ˇ± KarineˇŻs tone of voice seems to imply that she is unsure of what to do with the proceeds.

    ˇ°Why?ˇ± Billerica feels like Karine is acting as a lone wolf, as if she wanted to run Wonderlic herself.

    ˇ°Look, I feel like we canˇŻt get out of debt only with selling bungalows in the swamp! ThereˇŻs a reason why the village only asked for six units!ˇ±

    Karine gets a bot to work building the third bungalow, while she runs more calculations in her head about what she can buy for the village, given the money she can expect from the next two units. And, of course, waiting for an offer on the second unit. If the next two units fetch the same price as the first one, then IˇŻd have T200k. Of which T10k was spent on materials, and T115k must be set aside for repaying the creditors. So it leaves me with T75k to build multigenerational homes with, and the blueprints cost T30k.

    By the end of the first day on this project, it becomes clear to Billerica that he shouldnˇŻt simply build homes for immediate resale, especially as he places bids on other HCP contracts in other regions of the world. DonˇŻt fool yourself, Karine, this is only the beginning. Other communities might rely on the HCP for more complex needs than just building a handful of housing units! She might feel like a fast learner, but on that count also, I must be on the lookout for her intellectual limits, he muses while he pays the first tranche of T115,000 in debt repayment.

    At the same time, Karine buys the blueprint for the multigenerational home, and then spends T40,000 to buy 500 tons of materials.

    ˇ°With you, there is hope that we can get out of debt. However, given how automated a landlordˇŻs job can be, I feel like we can keep a few units for us to rent out, especially with the government giving us seed money at the start of each new contract. Yet, it seems like weˇŻre forced to fight with other contractors for scraps the larger developers canˇŻt or wonˇŻt touchˇ± Billerica harangues Karine.

    ˇ°I guess, renting houses is for you to get a source of income after construction ends, to use it as seed money to get new projects started, and hopefully, getting upgrades to this homeˇ±

    ˇ°You should let your mind rest for a bit, Karineˇ±

    After previewing the multigenerational home blueprint they just bought, the two realize itˇŻs mostly a two-floor version of the bungalows they kept building today. And, unlike the bungalows, two bots appear to be required to build one.

    So, before going to eat at night, Karine orders the construction of two units, a multigenerational home and a bungalow. When is the next debt payment due, and for how much? Payments under a consumer proposal are typically fixed, for corporations, on the other hand, there are times where schedules of repayment start small and then become progressively bigger as debt restructuring goes on, KarineˇŻs mind formulates questions that she keeps to herself, at least for the time being. Because she feels like she didnˇŻt want to strain her working relationship with her boss any further.

 Chapter 20: Repairs and Caliphs

    When they wake up the following day, Karine orders two bots to build the final unit in the contract for the swamp village, a second multigenerational home.

    "It didn''t cross my mind until now, but how do we know that we''re building housing units that comply with the local building code?" Karine asks him. "Getting out of debt, and getting me off-world, yes, but not at the price of the residents'' safety!"

    "The HCP administration doesn''t approve blueprints if they don''t comply with the building code" Billerica answers her in a low voice.

    "So what made the residents of this world reluctant to build housing up until the HCP was announced? You make it sound like the population is growing faster than housing starts! If so, I really hope that the HCP will be enough to get housing starts more in line with the population growth rate!"

    I know what this means, if that''s the case: as unoccupied housing rates drop, it makes an upward pressure on prices... and that''s without any increase in speculation that happens when prices increase steadily. However, I wonder if the problem comes, on this horror world, from speculative investment or from something that made construction unappealing in some way, Karine reflects on what could have led to their predicament.

    While the second multigenerational home was being built, Billerica bid on HCP contracts, and he wouldn''t hear about it for a while. Upon completion of that particular unit, the contract was deemed fulfilled and he''d then make a reimbursement claim for the actual expenses incurred in building the six units, in excess of the seed money.

    "Woohoo! We got another contract for building a neighborhood! However, I believe you''re using your mind too much, and yet don''t go around thinking that all projects will go as smoothly as this one!" the Taladuan warns her.

    "I might need to relax all right, but what''s available to us that will allow us to do so?" Karine asks him.

    "We''re in the swamp, some distance away from everything, and it''s dangerous outside. So I may as well introduce you to our movies"

    "Just deactivate the universal translation module please... I won''t understand anything but that''s okay"

    "The movie starts in three, two, one..."

    And the movie starts with the Taladuan version of what a colleague of her insolvency office on Earth called hancky-pancky scenes, with what feels like little to no setup to her. Did the producers of this movie just pick up a script based on how little setup is required to get to what they deem to be the "good" parts? Karine is then hit by a desire to scream.

    "Eeeek!" she screams as her heartbeat accelerates and her face turns red. "That''s too... hancky-pancky" her head then spins as her headaches mount.

    However, with the universal translation module turned off, Billerica doesn''t understand what makes her want to scream, only that she''s screaming at what feels like bad scenes to her. Is she screaming because the movie is scary or because scenes are poorly executed? Or do humans have different tastes in movies vs us? I won''t pretend to know how their tastes differ from ours, Billerica, unsettled by his coworker''s apparent unease, starts raising questions that he feels he won''t get answers to just yet.

    That''s not working... this movie isn''t getting me to relax! Hancky-pancky scenes are doing me in today! Karine, reeling in from the dizzying pace at which the movie gets to that hancky-pancky scene, is left wondering how Taladuans actually live through relationships. Especially since some Taladuan filmmaker deems what she calls a hancky-pancky scene a "good" part worth rushing the plot for. Or what their filmmaking conventions are. On top of that, it reminds me far too much of some of the most graphic sex scenes in some bankrupt indie studio''s unfinished game. Sometimes, as a licensed insolvency trustee, I needed to play builds of unfinished games by insolvent companies to determine whether bankruptcy really is the way to go.

    "I have too many headaches, I need to go to bed for a bit" Karine warns Billerica, while not expecting him to listen.

    So while he finishes the movie on his own, Billerica skims the contract, looking for relevant information for Karine to act upon the following day. Such as the number of units, restorations and so on. And, of course, the schedule of repayment. By now Karine must have realized that taking out more loans, beyond her own salary liability, is not an option for now, and then the sales of properties represent our main source of income. And the HCP''s system doesn''t allow us to pre-sell units under construction, only pre-lease them. However, it doesn''t prevent the sale of empty lots.

    The following morning, she feels less dizzy, but her mood is still down from the previous day. After the meal of the day, since days are so short on this world that humans can only eat one meal at a time, she gets back to work.

    Let''s see: this new contract covers a larger area than just a stretch of a village''s main street. The area to rebuild contains a mix of bungalows and multigenerational homes, some of which are run down, Karine starts thinking about this new area. At the same time, this feels far too much like what residential areas around Heathrow would be like after Operation Heathrow ended, in MAA. Are Taladuans living in a region of MAA''s world that wasn''t introduced in the game? The rest of MAA''s world is much less advanced technologically...

    "We were given one empty plot, another fifty thousand talas in seed money, but no more materials. You know what to do then..." Billerica programs the goals for Karine to pursue, after reactivating the universal translation module.

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "Try not to get a tenant for the first unit then... especially since it''s going to be sold quickly"

    Karine orders the construction of a new multigenerational home on the empty plot given by the town. Town that has its share of derelict housing.

    Upon completion, said home is immediately put for sale. And the home goes for T75,000, which she feels is the best price she could have gotten in these circumstances.

    But only minutes after that unit is put for sale, one of the derelicts'' owners realize what''s happening.

    "I bought a home on the cheap, and it turns out that it requires investment I can''t afford to make it livable. I guess maybe someone can take it off our hands... especially since that area''s market was dead for a while" a homeowner think to itself before the derelict is put for sale.

    Thirty thousand talas might not be much, but it''s about the price I paid for the derelict, the derelict owner muses while waiting for offers.

    Speaking of offers, Karine is the first one who fields an offer, because she feels like, based on the speed at which the previous units were sold, she must act quickly to secure even a derelict. Looks like this derelict needs a lot of work for getting it to livable condition, so perhaps that''s why I see it listed for only T30,000. And... deal! Karine then presses on the green button with a grey "thumbs-up" emote.

    However, having used up most of the materials reserve for building the first unit, she looks at the estimated amount of materials required to repair the derelict. One hundred tons, and there are only 25 tons left. Thus far, it seems like we''re operating in a monopolistic competitive environment, and that we''re merely price takers. My job here seems to center around managing cash flow and materials. The question is: how much to order?

    "I have been negotiating with the town''s mayor, the mayor wants to lease a multigenerational home in the town''s name. But here are the specifications for it: that home has to be upgraded to three stars, its outer walls must be painted teal" Billerica makes a change order to her. "They will pay the going rate in rent, however"

    "What does the mayor use this home for? If they want the house to be publicly funded, it better be for a homeless refuge, or for some other town-funded social program!" Karine is teetering on the edge of fury, depending on the answer to the question.

    "It might appear bizarre to you, but here, on this world, towns of a certain size or bigger have a customary function residence for its mayor, typically multigenerational-sized"

    "And then I hope the mayor rents his regular home out upon completion; we have seen how this plays out. Otherwise I might feel like we have no choice but to terminate the contract!"

    "I''ll relay your concerns to the mayor. However, I trust you understand what happens if the contract is terminated?" Billerica also starts getting angrier. "You will be stuck on this world! And we go bankrupt as well!"

    I guess, I have to buy 500 tons of materials and then repair the structural issues plaguing the houses in this neighborhood, after selling them one by one, Karine sighs, upon hearing from her angry boss. However, this change order is making me befuddled at best, and outraged at worst. I mean, that mayor''s town had lots of derelicts on which action is taken only now, and the action is clearly aimed at growing the town''s population.

    And the cycle of buying derelicts to then sell the restored houses continue for a few more units, lasting through the day. Until they are one restoration short of the contract requirements.

    "Why didn''t you just build the mayor''s function residence?" Billerica scolds her.

    "I wanted to have adequate cash reserves to do it, and also I feel like we can''t get out of debt without having the ability to build more expensive buildings than multigenerational houses!" Karine retorts, while she''s about to buy the duplex''s blueprint.

    "This is the kind of actions that caused us to get in debt in the first place! The previous project manager kept building villas, mansions and other high-end houses that couldn''t be sold!" Billerica argues with her.

    Now I have a better idea of why the company went into debt. They served another market segment that proved saturated, whereas the HCP catered to a different need. However, I might be wondering if there was some kind of "gold rush" towards high-end houses and then a bust, Karine feels like there''s a new question popping in her mind.

    "We''re not servicing the same market! For now, we might want to build duplexes!" Karine keeps arguing.

    "Sometimes, I feel like you want to become caliph instead of the caliph" Billerica starts speaking in riddles.

    "Caliph? Is that the native name of the title for the head of state, or government? Also, what does that mean to you?"

    What does "becoming caliph instead of the caliph" even mean to them? To me, it meant being exceedingly scheming in the pursuit of ambition; however, it might not mean the same to the locals, Karine returns to work, while she never felt like she really wanted to become "caliph instead of the caliph" in the meaning she knew, on this world anyhow. But is the town ready for duplexes? My heart says yes, yet my mind might say otherwise.

    In the meantime, Billerica didn''t answer her, so she quietly buys the duplex''s blueprint for T60,000. And another batch of 500 tons of construction materials, in hopes of being able to build one such duplex. I might not have much money, but here''s a derelict someone just put for sale. We barely have enough left to even buy a derelict to demolish!

    But Karine would realize that one of the remaining multigenerational derelict owners, worried that their derelict would fall apart and hence lose their investment, is willing to sell that derelict at a rock-bottom price. Which makes Karine accept the asking price, which is a fraction of the price she paid for the first derelict in town.

    Once that derelict becomes Wonderlic''s property, she feels like it''s better to demolish it in a controlled manner than to try to restore it, which somehow allows the construction bots to recover part of the materials, albeit only a fraction of the derelict''s mass.

    And she gets all 3 construction bots to build her first duplex. The duplex, as usual with the HCP-provided plans, would feel a little blocky to the locals, but for some reason, makes a question pop in her mind. Has some Taladuan, a senator even, kidnapped a human architect, or another architect working in similar housing styles to what I''m accustomed to at home?

    Yet, upon completion, by nightfall, the duplex fetches twice the price of a multigenerational, since the duplex''s total size is almost the same as gluing two multigenerational homes together.

    "I can kind of feel that, on the trajectory we''re taking, we''ll land bigger contracts and deliver more units, but land will be at a premium" Karine sighs. "There might come a time where not even duplexes will be enough to fulfill contracts, but..."

    "Yet more signs that you want to become caliph instead of the caliph!" an angry Billerica interrupts her.

 Chapter 21: Upgrades from a Commuter Town

    The following day, after recharging the construction botsˇŻ batteries, the pair realizes thereˇŻs still one last restoration to make. And Billerica has been busy contacting the owners of the remaining derelicts in town, hoping that one would sell it.

    But unlike all other purchases of derelict housing, Billerica makes it in KarineˇŻs stead. For the same sum she bought the first derelict yesterday. Which she begins restoring, but something bewilders her after restoration is complete, when the time comes to carry out upgrades to the multigenerational house earmarked for the mayorˇŻs request, Kavula:

    ˇ°Twenty tons? Teal paint doesnˇŻt weigh that much! Even accounting for different paint chemistry, and possibly multiple layers, with twenty tons of paint, you can paint the entire neighborhood multiple times over, in and out!ˇ± Karine appears reluctant to commit the existing materials stockpile to painting the exterior walls teal, over the weight of the paint. ˇ°It seems like these bots are very weight-inefficient for painting jobs!ˇ±

    ˇ°Usually, here, when people ask for a house of a certain color, they refer to the outside walls. I guess, I can always order teal paint if thatˇŻs what you wantˇ±

    ˇ°But only if itˇŻs less expensive than twenty tons of what you called construction materialsˇ± Karine makes her conditions clear.

    Twenty tons of construction materials cost us T1600. However, while I can use the blueprints to determine the area to be painted, and, from there, the quantity of paint, there remains two variables to solve for, she seems to go deeper in thought.

    It turns out that Taladuan paint covers more or less ten square meters per liter on stucco. She can then determine the cost of the paint.

    ˇ°It appears that buying paint is cheaper than twenty tons of materialsˇ±

    ˇ°You thought you were clueless about construction? YouˇŻre learning even faster than I initially believed!ˇ±

    Realizing that paint doesnˇŻt count towards the HCPˇŻs star system, she repeats the same exercise with the other upgrades available to her for the first star, of which the HCP allows her to have only one. Designer closets, crown moulding or a grand fireplace. Apparently all estimated to use 30 tons of materials. My home on Earth has all three, so what purpose does the Senate have to limit contractors to one upgrade in a Chinese menu for any given HCP-built unit? A puzzled Karine ruminates before she can definitely rule the grand fireplace out. However, I know that weight efficiency isnˇŻt everything.

    ˇ°I wonder how cold this region can get, or how climate control worksˇ­ right now, I lean towards either the designer closets or the crown mouldingˇ± Karine canˇŻt seem to decide.

    ˇ°The first star upgrade, right? Ask yourself which one is the cheapestˇ±

    She then repeats the costing exercise with the other two, comparing the cost of crown moulding as well as designer closets for all 3 bedrooms, against the cost of 30 tons of raw materials. But as she seems to research the cost of crown moulding, she comes across a supplier of crown mouldings that sells them by the kilometer. One km of crown mouldings would cost T5500 from that supplier, and weigh about a ton, she sure as hell isnˇŻt going to need a kilometer of crown mouldingsˇ­

    Overbuying can do a project in. This appears to take 150m of crown mouldings, so I might be willing to buy up to 150m lot size if volume rebates are available. Man do I hate volume rebates! They encourage waste, especially when people tend to focus on the unit cost as opposed to the total cost, when itˇŻs the total cost that makes or breaks you in job costing, Karine ruminates while she shops crown mouldings. I canˇŻt take for granted weˇŻll need these later.

    ˇ°So why is it that the proposed upgrades all seem to use much fewer than thirty tons of materials, yet all require that much if we donˇŻt buy the components readymade? I accepted that crown mouldings were going to be the cheapest option for this homeˇ±

    ˇ°How much do these crown mouldings cost?ˇ± Billerica asks her. ˇ°As for the weight inefficiency of house upgrades, if the bots are left to their own devices, I am afraid I donˇŻt have an answerˇ±

    ˇ°One hundred fifty meters, which will be enough crown moulding to get the whole house refitted, would run us about eleven hundred talasˇ± Karine starts crying, realizing the mass efficiency of the construction botsˇŻ 3D printing system leaves much to be desired.

    If becoming caliph instead of the caliph does not mean the same thing on Taladu as it does in my home region on Earth, then itˇŻs entirely possible that Taladuan tons and kilometers may not represent the same quantities of mass and length respectively, compared to their Earth counterparts! Even so, conservation of mass is a thing. And, of course, these houses we kept building look mostly like they could potentially have similar masses, were they built on Earth, Karine is even more puzzled, frightened even, by the possibility of units of measurement being significantly different from those in use on Earth, and more likely length in her mind.

    ˇ°Fine, have it your way, but, in the future, if you feel like readymade components are the way to go, you must ensure that readymade components are cheaper than relying on 3D printing from raw materials!ˇ± Billerica scolds her.

    As the painting work begins outside, the other two construction bots are now busy installing the crown moulding inside the home. Which is done in a matter of minutes.

    Then comes rounds 2 and 3 of upgrades to the home, which, this time around, included building more rooms, the solarium and the game room. Which she believes to be a better use of raw materials than the crown moulding would have been, not to mention money. Yet Karine, more than ever, is puzzled by the projectˇŻs outcome, since the game room takes up a big chunk of the basement.

    ˇ°If I get the opportunity to meet with the mayorˇ­ˇ± Karine starts feeling uneasy.

    ˇ°We fulfilled our contract with the town, thatˇŻs all that mattersˇ±

    At the end of the day, Billerica decides to contact Kavula to announce the completion of the townˇŻs mayoral official residence.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    ˇ°Mr. Mayor, we have finished building the official residence. However, itˇŻs only partially furnished, as nearly all the furniture is concentrated in the solarium and the game roomˇ± Billerica explains to Kavula. ˇ°Or, more specifically, in the basementˇ±

    ˇ°I may as well buy the rest from my own personal fundsˇ± Kavula doesnˇŻt realize that itˇŻs an expensive proposition. ˇ°As usual for grand openings, here, the parties directly responsible for the construction are to attend, tooˇ±

    Oh boy. I really hope that Karine wonˇŻt ruin everything. Sure, she has her set of ideas, she wants whatˇŻs best for the residents of this world, but this home is supposed to bring in almost as much rental revenue as all three units we own elsewhere in the swamp, Billerica then turns to Karine.

    ˇ°Tomorrow, we will be at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new official residence. The mayor, Kavula, invited youˇ±

    The road trip takes the pair through locales other than the swamp they live in. I canˇŻt wait to go back to my home world, and, hopefully, I can pick up where I left off, to the extent I can do so while I could claim to my superiors that I fell ill. However, these locations weˇŻre traveling through remind me of other areas in MAA, like the Sabzevar Colony, the place of a raid in a patch of the vanilla game. Or the countryside between Gatwick and Heathrow. How much money will it take for me to return to Earth, using public teleporters? Karine asks herself, while Billerica didnˇŻt provide her all the info. I was told I would be paid in arrears only after the debts are repaid, pursuant to the creditor proposal, but I even wonder whatˇŻs the going rate for this job hereˇ­ I didnˇŻt ask this myself yet, knowing that I wouldnˇŻt be paid just yet.

    Upon arriving at the townˇŻs new official residence, they are greeted by so many among the townˇŻs long-time residents, but the newer residents didnˇŻt seem to hold the same attachment to it. However, Karine turns the heads of everyone in attendance, given that she looks like a giant to their eyes by being at least one head taller. That, even though, by human standards, Karine was tall, just not extremely so.

    Who is that giant? What role did the giant have in building the home? Questions start popping in KavulaˇŻs mind as the townˇŻs council arrives in the area. Kavula then makes his speech about the troubled times of the town:

    ˇ°Welcome to the grand opening of the new mayoral official residence! The old official residence was destroyed by an accident at the power plant not so long ago, which nearly destroyed the townˇŻs industrial park, as well as part of this neighborhood. But with the Housing Crisis Plan, we finally have the support of the central government to recover from this disaster!ˇ±

    Not too different from grand openings on Earth, really, except maybe for inviting the buildersˇŻ management. Then again, as a LIT, I was never invited to any of these things. So while some companiesˇŻ road to insolvency might have included a grand opening, the trustee deals with what happens when the financial situation becomes untenable, Karine muses while Kavula sheds some light on what happened to the town that required the HCPˇŻs intervention. Just before the ribbon is cutˇ­

    ˇ°Among the buildings destroyed in the accident at the power plant, were a police station, a garden store, and an eco-center! Now that we are in negotiations to rebuild them, we shall rebuild!ˇ± Kavula adds.

    ˇ°On the subject of the power plant, canˇŻt public works rebuild it?ˇ± a town councillor asks the mayor. ˇ°Or the police station even?ˇ±

    ˇ°Public works might be able to build and maintain the local power grid, as it might be able to do the same with the local water system and road network, but thatˇŻs where public worksˇŻ capabilities endˇ± the town councillor responsible for public works answers their colleague.

    Then that councillor hands over giant scissors while Kavula stands next to the entrance door to the home.

    Meanwhile, Kavula takes the head of public works, along with Billerica and Karine, to tour the home the latter two built the previous day. Much like a realtor would show a home to prospective buyers. To enter the home, while Karine didnˇŻt need to lower her head, it was a little too close for comfort. Especially since this homeˇŻs doors appear to be somewhat smaller, and narrower, than those at her home on Earth. But not by a large margin.

    IˇŻm not impressed. But I should wait until the end of the tour of the house to tell the mayor what I really think of this house. Again, IˇŻm not sure about what role could builders have in affecting construction projects on this world. I knew, however, that publishers not listening to the devs can hurt a video game, or even kill one outright. Or devs not listening to the player base can kill a game, especially a live-service one, Karine waits until the three Taladuans are seated in the solarium.

    ˇ°So after hearing references to a disaster that happened in town, I might be wondering why is it that you deemed an official residence a priority for the early stages of the townˇŻs reconstruction. And this happens amid a world-wide housing crisis! You could have at least used this home as a homeless refuge and the population would probably have accepted it better!ˇ± Karine attempts to argue with Kavula.

    ˇ°Homelessness!ˇ± Kavula shrugs off KarineˇŻs mention of homelessness as a societal problem. ˇ°You thought that one three-bedroom refuge would be of any help for homelessness, even if limited only to the town in service area?ˇ±

    ˇ°A homeless refuge is, to my eyes, anyway, a better use for a city-owned multigenerational house than an official residence! Even if it meant additional homeless refuges should then be built in other neighborhoods!ˇ± Karine keeps arguing with Kavula.

    ˇ°Whoˇ­ are you to argue about public property use?ˇ± the public works head asks her.

    ˇ°I am the project manager who even got this home built, along with other multigenerational house restoration projects in the neighborhood. Simply building more housing units wonˇŻt solve the entire housing crisis; homelessness must be addressed, too, and canˇŻt be solved only with more housing starts!ˇ± Karine lets her fury loose at the mayor.

    ˇ°Iˇ­ I didnˇŻt think construction project managers would even believe homelessness to be more complex than just housing starts alone!ˇ± the public works head, in disbelief over KarineˇŻs statements, starts drafting a contract for rebuilding the townˇŻs industrial park.

    With the addition of a homeless refuge to the contract, to be leased from Wonderlic upon completion. The head of public works shows her where the homeless refuge is on the list of deliverables, complete with its specifications.

    ˇ°Are you happy now?ˇ± the public works head asks Karine.

    ˇ°Would the town council agree to this? It is a major decisionˇ± Karine asks the two town officials.

    Now it seems that the town has been a little late in getting a homeless refuge, but better late than never, and the scope of this project has become far bigger than I would have realized. But perhaps this represents an opportunity. And yet, I know that not all opportunities are worth pursuing, Karine muses, while she turns to Billerica.

    ˇ°We might have an opportunity to go into commercial and industrial construction. Provided the town council approves usˇ±

    ˇ°It will require someone else who knows about commercial and industrial real estate, which I feel you donˇŻt know about. You only seem to think of housing starts!ˇ± Billerica scolds Karine.

    ˇ°You are both invited to attend a special session of the town council for the next phase of the projectˇ± Kavula extends an invitation to both builders. ˇ°And, if you ever think of property taxes, know that tenants pay a certain amount of rent, but the city withholds a certain percentage of it, so you only receive the net rentˇ±

    They are taken to the town hall and, from there, to the town councilˇŻs chamber. The town council meets in a circular room, and, fortunately for the two, they agree to the plan, but that sends shivers down BillericaˇŻs spine. Nevertheless, for this special contract, Kavula invites the two to the signing ceremony.

    ˇ°Today, we sign the contract for rebuilding the townˇŻs industrial park, and also the construction of the townˇŻs homeless refuge, which we will then lease from Wonderlic!ˇ± Kavula announces in front of the few attendees.

 Chapter 22: Plan Iznogoud

    After the contract is signed, which lies outside of the HCPˇŻs scope, Billerica puts a job listing for a property manager because he feels like WonderlicˇŻs rental property portfolio is going to expand. Meanwhile, Karine appears to be wondering how sheˇŻs going to finance the construction of all five buildings in the contract, and the number of duplexes required to get all five buildings built, notwithstanding the final duplex, which is one of the buildings covered.

    Given that the whole neighborhood has been devastated over the explosion at the power plant, I think the priority is the eco-center, Karine starts thinking while she double-checks the costs of building it. And, of course, whether the HCPˇŻs blueprint supplier even have one. But she suspects that other communities with ongoing HCP projects would need similar amenities, and certainly eco-centers and police stations. No, wait! No police force worth its salt would lease its stations! Maybe, if I sold the police station, some of the money would go towards repaying our debts and the rest would be used to build the neighborhood!

    And yet, after spending the rest of the day interviewing unemployed locals that might have a clue as to how to manage properties, he ends up hiring a local female that might have been overqualified for most jobs available locally.

    ˇ°IˇŻm Yenaleda, and I will be responsible for dealing with the tenants from now onˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm Karine, I deal with the construction aspect. For a while, weˇŻll be working out of the bossˇŻ cabin in the swampˇ±

    When the 3 return to the bossˇŻ cabin in the swamp, Karine realizes that she will need to sell a duplex just to get the necessary money to get the police station built, and thatˇŻs just the blueprint and materials. She realizes there are other needs to fulfill.

    But before they go to sleep, Yenaleda cooks them some soup that reminds Karine of her own cooking of soup.

    As they start eating the soup, Karine feels like one of the key ingredients of the soup has the consistency of sticky rice cake. The soup also contains other seasonings and ingredients in thin stripes. One of these ingredients feel like meat, another one like seaweed.

    ˇ°Is thatˇ­ tteokguk?ˇ± Karine asks the two Taladuans at the table.

    ˇ°What exactly is tteokguk?ˇ± Yenaleda asks her, rolling her black eyes.

    ˇ°Tteokguk is a soup thatˇŻs prepared more or less like what we are eating right nowˇ± Karine answers her coworker, while she eats the Taladuan equivalent of tteokguk.

    Maybe I should cook myself some Korean stuff upon returning here, just not tteokguk. I ate jeyuk bokkeum a while ago, so maybe I could eat it again. But who am I kidding? I might not return home for a while, Karine seems to have some suggestions for eating. However, she seems to treat the Taladuan version of tteokguk as a meal like any other.

    ˇ°Just a bit of caution about Karine: sometimes she makes me feel like she wants to become caliph instead of the caliph, but sheˇŻs the kind of person who will look beyond the project itselfˇ± Billerica, facing Yenaleda, tells her before taking a call from Xerrid.

    ˇ°Hi Billerica, this is Xerrid from the employment agency. Are things going well with Karine?ˇ±

    ˇ°KarineˇŻs intellectual disposition made her very vulnerable to wanting to become caliph instead of the caliph! She had the gall to even suggest building homeless refuges, thinking that more housing starts wonˇŻt be enough to solve homelessness, and that a mayorˇŻs official residence would be better used as a homeless refuge, if it was to remain town-funded!ˇ±

    ˇ°Billerica, donˇŻt be too harsh on her! She probably has a deep understanding of the social dynamics of housing, which is a breath of fresh air in our construction industry! But does she get the job done?ˇ± Xerrid asks him.

    ˇ°I mean, yes, she gets projects done on time and on budget!ˇ±

    And she seems to take a growing role in the companyˇŻs orientation by nowˇ­ whereas her predecessor simply built high-end housing, feeling that we could earn quick money, market conditions made it difficult for us to sell it. Karine might have been instrumental in paying down T115k of the debts incurred, T115k would be enough to pay her for several rent cycles on top of the employment agencyˇŻs fees billed for her, Billerica muses, while watching closely over the companyˇŻs cash reserves. And yet, emerging from insolvency generally means older debts are senior to newer debts, within the same class.

    Meanwhile, Yenaleda has her own set of discussions with Karine about how she viewed the housing crisis and its consequences.

    ˇ°He never told me about why he feels I want to become caliph instead of the caliph, or even what the caliph is on this world!ˇ±

    ˇ°The caliph is the title borne by the head of the Senate. Maybe you seemed to approach construction projects from an angle thatˇŻs too wide for himˇ± Yenaleda answers her. ˇ°Maybe you seem to think too much about the projectˇŻs end users and where they fit in the world they live in. You see, people here are often accused of wanting to become caliph instead of the caliph when they feel like they want to enact changes that are too far-reaching for their abilities to implement themˇ±

    Bulbs start flashing in KarineˇŻs mind. This description reminds me of activists of all walks of life. They all had their ideas and opinions on the issues of the day, but could only act on themselves for the most part, KarineˇŻs mental light shines brighter upon realizing what could have caused her to come across that way to him. Especially in the homeless refuge dossier.

    But then, the following day, she checks her stock of construction materials as well as her cash reserves. At this point, she has a little over a hundred tons remaining, and barely enough cash to buy more to get one duplex built.

    That part seems straightforward to her, but at this point, all she can do is wait. Or, more accurately, what they can do is wait.

    ˇ°Phase one of Plan Iznogoud: sell the first duplex, buy more materials to get a second one builtˇ± Karine then proceeds to buy the police stationˇŻs blueprint for T60,000, with Billerica growing more distant from the day-to-day operation of the company, and just looking for the next opportunity.

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ˇ°Plan Iznogoud? WhatˇŻs the meaning of this?ˇ± Billerica asks her.

    In the meantime, she runs calculations in her mind of how much she will need to spend in materials and how much to spend in blueprints. However, she hasnˇŻt considered the cost of additional construction bots.

    ˇ°Before I do anything stupid, boss, I wonder how much construction bots costˇ± Karine asks Billerica.

    ˇ°The only supplier willing to rent some to us cost a fortune, so maybe we would be better served buying used bots, especially since we might undertake bigger projects later. But first, you must tell me what Plan Iznogoud isˇ±

    ˇ°Rebuilding the neighborhood according to the specifications of the town administration? Because, while we can use HCP blueprints for that, I canˇŻt build it because they require at least a certain number of construction bots we donˇŻt have yet!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean?ˇ± Billerica asks her.

    ˇ°I know HCP blueprints are stupid, but they are what made the projects end on time and on budget! However, the police station requires five bots to build or it canˇŻt get built at allˇ±

    ˇ°All right, you win!ˇ±

    Karine then buys a derelict bungalow on the verge of collapse, along with a thousand tons of materials. Upon demolition, which is finished in short order, the construction of the duplex begins in earnest.

    ˇ°This makes me wonder just how much debt this company have! And the so-called creditor proposal! We have been increasing in scaleˇ­ but will rebuilding the police station and possibly power plant be enough?ˇ±

    ˇ°Several millions very easily. Suffice to say that the police station might dent our debt, but it wonˇŻt be enough to repay everythingˇ± Billerica answers her, despite not have given her access to the companyˇŻs financial statements.

    ˇ°About power plants, do towns usually operate them on this world?ˇ± Karine asks, while wondering if she might have been better off building the power plant first.

    While water is usually a municipal utility, power companies, on the other hand, often operate on much larger scales. On Earth anyway. Maybe Taladuan utilities operate differently, Karine seems to be frothing at the prospect of getting the debts paid back faster than she believed possible when she first arrived on this world.

    ˇ°Yes. How much material does building a power plant require? Or a police station?ˇ±

    ˇ°A thousand tons eachˇ±

    ˇ°It seems like the local used construction bot vendor sells up to three bots on a sliding scale. I might want to set some money aside for repaying the debt, and not just reinvest it into the companyˇ± the boss then shows her the prices of used construction bots.

    ˇ°Are these construction bots as good as the ones we use?ˇ± Karine asks him while starting a new duplex, which is to be put for sale immediately after completion.

    ˇ°Same model and specsˇ±

    And then all she has to do is wait for the duplex to be completed. So she has one of these discussions with Yenaleda about the core signs of Karine wanting, to BillericaˇŻs eyes anyway, to become caliph instead of the caliph, namely these homeless refuges.

    ˇ°Homeless refuges might seem like a good idea, but how do you imagine one?ˇ± Yenaleda asks the human.

    ˇ°The residents are often low-income, sometimes had criminal records, sometimes have mental health issues even in the absence of criminal records. But in this environment where population growth outstrips housing starts, even law-abiding, hard-working people might end up in a homeless refuge, despite their financial discipline. Or having to rely on food banksˇ±

    ˇ°Karine, what services do you think a homeless refuge would provide, other than providing shelter?ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻd say rehabilitation, and also preparation for employment, since there are some people who are homeless in part because they are unemployable. So employability should be considered when servicing homeless, and, of course, mental health services, tooˇ±

    She understands as well as I do that unemployment is only partially voluntary. And, of course, people who might have wanted to work, but canˇŻt. And not just for medical reasons either, as she seems to imply, Yenaleda starts wondering what direction this conversation is taking. And, of course, the harsh reality of a world where they are made to feel like so many people look at the HCP as their only way out.

    Once the duplex is sold, in a matter of minutes after its completion, Karine is then taken to the used bot vendorˇŻs page. With three more bots, I can then build two duplexes at once. Or build any of the four commercial or industrial buildings in Plan Iznogoudˇ­ spending T120,000 will only leave me with T40,000, and hence I would be spending the last of the money we currently have to build the police station. HereˇŻs to hoping the town will actually pay for the brand-new police station!

    And the town does so out of the insurance proceeds for the disaster that took place in this town not long ago. Which Yenaleda knows comes faster than the senatorial funds. To the tune of 1.5 million talas.

    ˇ°One and a half million for a police station? Is that a normal cost to build a police station that size on this world?ˇ± Karine, lacking a frame of reference, asks her native colleagues.

    ˇ°Of which one million is to be used to repay part of our debts. You still have half a million to spend to get the rest ofˇ­ˇ± Billerica stutters. ˇ°Plan Iznogoud done!ˇ± he then makes his payment of one million talas.

    And the point where I canˇŻt rely on duplexes anymore has arrived sooner than I would have liked, too, Karine starts wracking her mind in search for the best way to spend the T500,000 remaining from the sale of the police station, at the neighborhoodˇŻs edge. Every talas counts to make Plan Iznogoud, well, any good. If I waste talas, then Plan Iznogoud will really be no good!

    Here she examines the options available to her. For the time being, she believes the best way would start with building the eco-center next to the police station, and buy the blueprint for it, but the problem is that none of the derelict owners next to the police station appears willing to sell.

    ˇ°I wonder if offering double the going rate for a derelict is worth the priceˇ­ the HCPˇŻs interface has a teal button called expropriation, but costs double the going rate to buyˇ± Karine is even more puzzled about expropriation.

    KarineˇŻs blood pressure is mounting, as is the speed of her thought train. Especially since the trio doesnˇŻt own any vacant lot at this point. I donˇŻt think people would want to live near an eco-center, and building a homeless refuge next to it would cause security problems. However, is building the eco-center next to the police station worth the cost of expropriation? Or I should wait for a bit? Into the night even? As much as every talas counts, every second counts for this community, too!

    By nightfall, running out of patience, she pulls the trigger on the derelictˇŻs purchase and spends T45,000 on a ruined bungalow, whose demolition she orders immediately, along with the purchase of the eco-centerˇŻs blueprint for T60,000.

    ˇ°I hope that spending double on the derelict makes you happyˇ­ˇ± Billerica smirks while he goes straight to the waste closet.

    ˇ°IˇŻm just waiting on the delivery of the materials needed to build the eco-center and let these bots spend the night building it. They will awaken to a brand-new eco-center, which will help the town stay cleanˇ± Karine comments on what comes next.

    ˇ°If I may, Karine, IˇŻd say we make the town rent the eco-center, rather than selling it outrightˇ± Yenaleda starts negotiating a lease with the town about it, while construction is about to begin.

    ˇ°You know much better the leasing aspect than I do; even the boss would do a better job than I of negotiating a lease!ˇ± Karine raises her voice, while the construction of the eco-center begins in a devastated town, which she deems phase 2 of Plan Iznogoud. ˇ°But itˇŻs only now that I realize that sometimes I might need to compromise my budget to ensure a timely execution; I used to penny pinch past projectsˇ±

 Chapter 23: Big dreams and bigger clashes!

    The following day, after the eco-center was built overnight, Karine wonders just how large is the rent for it. Negotiating a lease just isnˇŻt like negotiating an insolvency proposal, beyond the payment portion. In an insolvency proposal, you need to allocate the debtor payments among the various creditors, but I just donˇŻt know much about local leasing practices.

    Here it seems like Yenaleda drafted a lease agreement for the eco-center as if it was a finance, long-term lease. Especially since the rent appears to be a long-term lease with relatively high interest rates, probably higher than a mortgage.

    ˇ°I wonder how long is the useful life of the eco-centerˇ­ˇ± Karine asks the other two at the start of the working day.

    ˇ°Why?ˇ± a puzzled Yenaleda asks the human.

    ˇ°Which leads into my next question: how are leases handled for accounting purposes?ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm sorry, Karine, but lease accounting questions arenˇŻt for you to deal with. YouˇŻre responsible only for managing the construction budget!ˇ± Billerica warns her.

    ˇ°Right now, the construction budget represents the entire budget! Does this mean the leasing budget will now be separate from the construction budget?ˇ± Karine asks her boss.

    Speaking of the construction budget, I might have given her too much autonomy over it, Billerica sees that Karine has purchased the quadruplex blueprint for T120,000. How is Karine different from her predecessor as project manager? Other than wanting to become caliph instead of the caliph, of courseˇ­

    ˇ°I guess, yes; that way I should be able to pay the recurring bills when the rent payments come in without having to worry about debt payments getting in the wayˇ± Billerica answers her, before the next idea arrives.

    ˇ°I wonder if there is enough demand for a homeless refuge to be quadruplex-sized. If so, maybe we can get some more rental revenue out of the town!ˇ± Karine suggests to her boss.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs not that simple: a bigger refuge also means more staff, even if the capacity and demand was there, at least in the long run!ˇ± Yenaleda comments, speaking with a high-pitched voice.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs the demand for the service and the ability to provide it. Sure, it would be less expensive in the long run to get more housing built, but you know by now that often short-run costs might be the big obstacleˇ± Karine comments on the economics of operating homeless refuges.

    ˇ°Now I have two people wanting to become caliph instead of the caliph! Do you think the town council would be happy to hear about how you want the homeless refuge to be twice as large as originally planned?ˇ± Billerica screams at his employees.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs more nuance to the issue than you think! It depends on how serious the homelessness issue is to themˇ± Yenaleda asks before calling the town hall.

    So while Yenaleda asks town officials about the homelessness issue, Karine orders the construction of a quadruplex which, unlike the previous units, take longer to build, even when it requires five bots to build as opposed to three.

    ˇ°Everywhere I look on this world, it seems like I hear about how people are forced to share a housing unit because of the rent. Yet a shortage of housing starts is symptomatic of issues in the construction sector. What makes the construction industry such an undesirable sector to work in, or start a business?ˇ± Karine asks her boss.

    ˇ°What do you mean, the construction industry is undesirable?ˇ± Billerica asks her, while the construction of the first quadruplex is well underway. ˇ°Are you implying that no one wants to build anything on this world?ˇ±

    ˇ°Not quite, just that I am made to feel like, even with construction bots, thereˇŻs something that makes me feel like construction is an industry people avoidˇ± Karine answers a boss whose annoyance she can feel in the air.

    ˇ°One more thing: sometimes I feel like we are growing too quickly as a company. When you arrived here, we built only bungalows in the swamp. Now you have us build an entire neighborhoodˇŻs worth of duplexes and quadruplexes in only a few short weeks? WhatˇŻs next? Building condo tower-sized homeless refuges in suburban Pandemonium, right under the SenateˇŻs noses?ˇ±

    ˇ°Doing as you plan on doing will keep me stuck here forever! Once we become solvent, you can find another project manager for the long run!ˇ± Karine quips before freezing in place.

    Oh boy, Billerica raises a lot of questions. First, he seems to be implying Pandemonium is the capital city of the world, or at least of a region of the world. Second, the way he talks about homeless refuges, he seems to be implying they are a political hot potato. That, even though the town obviously treats one as part of the solution to the housing crisis, KarineˇŻs train of thought accelerates, as memories of PandemoniumˇŻs role in the later stages of MAAˇŻs life as a game resurface in her mind. In the past few days, I didnˇŻt think of MAAˇŻs world much, butˇ­ there might be more than one race of demons if that was the case, a Karine frozen in place keeps musing about the possibility of Taladu being a region on MAAˇŻs world.

    Or even a name given to MAAˇŻs Hell by that race. And yet, only the swamp appears to fit a possible vision of a region in hell for now. That village sheˇŻs working on didnˇŻt seem to be particularly hellish to her.

    ˇ°Karine? Karine!ˇ± Yenaleda yells at Karine to try to snap out of her condition.

    ˇ°What is it now?ˇ± Karine asks while yawning.

    ˇ°You froze in place and you blanked outˇ±

    ˇ°Probably something I ate or drank, which made my brain more vulnerable to overload. However, the boss has a point: growing too quickly can cause cash flow problemsˇ±

    And yet, the quadruplex is almost finished, which makes Karine a little relieved since itˇŻs put for sale immediately after completion. She then starts planning the next step: the power plant. She also needs to buy its blueprint, which comes out to T120,000.

    ˇ°The town said that, until the senatorial funds arrive, they will lease the power plant, but they feel like, if the need arise for more homeless refuges in the future, they will instead build a new one in a different district, rather than building a bigger one nowˇ± Billerica announces to his coworkers.

    ˇ°Very well, IˇŻll buy the materials for itˇ±

    Karine realizes the materialsˇŻ prices have gone sharply down after the eco-centerˇŻs completion. DonˇŻt be fooled by the promise of quick profits just because the eco-center allows us to obtain recycled construction materials at a little over half-cost. That, even though itˇŻs a major expense that goes down. Even then, I canˇŻt help but feel like itˇŻs a trap.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ˇ°Yenaleda, I feel like itˇŻs a trap. I would like to double-check if there are any discounts on the sale of construction materials that require operating an eco-center, a bill that passed that makes recycled construction materials exempt from certain types of indirect taxes we paid up to this point, that kind of thingˇ± Karine points at the new materials price schedule. ˇ°This feels too good to be true, especially when ramping up housing starts will make the demand for construction materials go up, even recycled!ˇ±

    ˇ°Fineˇ­ˇ± Yenaleda sighs. ˇ°I guess, I can always chalk that up to your lack of knowledge of our world, of our policy landscape more specificallyˇ±

    ˇ°Karine, up to this point, you always seemed to get things done. But now I feel like youˇŻre having second thoughts?ˇ± Billerica asks her, while making an offer on the first derelict he can lay his hands on.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt want to get us scammed! That will cause us to go bankrupt!ˇ± Karine remains on guard, believing that such discounts might result in them not getting any materials at all.

    ˇ°What do you mean, scammed?ˇ± BillericaˇŻs expression starts turning sour upon hearing the word scammed.

    Already that the HCP is a desperate attempt to prop up flagging housing starts, the question is: what makes Karine think that the reasons behind the size of the discounts on materials could be our undoing? Billerica pulls the trigger on buying the maximum amount of recycled construction materials in one go.

    Meanwhile, his skin is gradually turning green out of anger at KarineˇŻs sudden suspicions, as the eco-center seems to convert waste teleported in from the nearest landfills into recycled construction materials.

    ˇ°You had us buy five thousand tons of recycled construction materials?ˇ± KarineˇŻs face turns red, knowing that overbuying any given item can do a project in, even when the items in question carry over to future projects. ˇ°I feel like the previous staff overstocked either housing or materials!ˇ±

    ˇ°Sorry, but this Plan Iznogoud of yours will really be no good if we have inadequate inventory!ˇ± a green-faced Billerica shouts at her in protest.

    Both people keep arguing about inventory management. But upon delivery of what Karine feels is a mountain of materials, bought for T125,000, she orders the demolition of the derelict multigenerational house Billerica bought while they were fighting over the potential trap of a discount that could be too good to be true.

    After the demolition is finished, the power plant begins construction, but takes up the rest of the workday to five bots to finish. However, itˇŻs only then that the quadruplex finds a buyer. While this was still much faster than selling these kinds of homes on Earth, I would have expected someone to have bought the quadruplex much faster than that, especially if a housing crisis was afoot. Still, T300,000 is a deal to me, Karine sees the offer being made, and takes it.

    ˇ°And even if the growth does materialize, under the form of bigger HCP contracts, the residents of the new units, neighborhoods even, have infrastructure needs such as education, healthcare, and so on. Power and law enforcement just arenˇŻt the end of the story here!ˇ± Karine vents to her boss. ˇ°You seem to treat residential construction as if houses are mass-produced commodities; we donˇŻt build on that scale!ˇ±

    ˇ°You might feel like you want to become caliph instead of the caliph at times, but the Senate didnˇŻt think things through. Try to imagine the squabbling that took place in Pandemonium when the HCP was still a bill! Billerica tries to defuse the situation.

    ˇ°Some might feel like the ability of residential builders to build a variety of buildings is an antitrust law concernˇ± Yenaleda comments on the Senate imposing limitations on what can and canˇŻt be built under the HCP. ˇ°And surely you understand the hellish process of getting institutional buildings built!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, competitive bidding, and sometimes architectural competitionsˇ± Billerica sighs.

    ˇ°That doesnˇŻt sound like an antitrust law issue! I would be more worried about poor urban planning to be honestˇ± Karine retorts.

    And, after they finish their work day, they eat more fried toilets, after which they watch a horror movie, for which the universal translator is deactivated. Unlike the last time Karine watched a local film, however, the little green men in the film donˇŻt engage in consensual sex. It seems like opening a movie with a hancky-pancky scene is a telltale sign that their film is for a mature audience, Karine muses while she doesnˇŻt understand anything of the native dialogue. And screams at the movie.

    ˇ°Eeeek!ˇ± Karine screams, upon seeing a scene that makes her uncomfortable, but, without the universal translator, the other two donˇŻt understand anything. ˇ°This is horrible! What these little green men are doing is just gory!ˇ±

    Here it seems like KarineˇŻs mind is hijacked by the sheer number of horrible actions taken by the villainous little green men, but, since she couldnˇŻt understand the local language, she was unable to make heads of the motives of the characters. As such, she feels like watching the movie is, at best, watching aliens do horrible things without understanding why.

    The following day, she awakens to find a derelict owner who decided to sell off their home, feeling like they canˇŻt afford the repairs, even with insurance. And that, perhaps, T30k would be the best its owner could hope for, while renting either a duplex or quadruplex unit to stay in town.

    ˇ°Try to find a tenant, or have the town temporarily use the gardening center as a farmersˇŻ market until an operator can be found to operate it! IˇŻm about to build it!ˇ± Karine instructs Yenaleda as the blueprint for it is bought.

    And, of course, the derelict is demolished to make way for the gardening center, which is built around a barn much larger than a multigenerational house, but still fits on that quarter-acre plot. Complete with greenhouses and shelving.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs a very short notice! The town might have to use the gardening center as a farmersˇŻ market for a whileˇ­ˇ± Yenaleda complains about the task of finding tenants, while the gardening center is being built. ˇ°I might need to find tenants for the farmersˇŻ market then, selling food, gardening supplies and equipmentˇ±

    ˇ°Was the old gardening center operated by a big-box chain?ˇ± Karine asks her.

    ˇ°Noˇ±

    And, while the garden center is being built, Karine buys one final derelict, which she plans on demolishing right after the garden centerˇŻs completion. I might have enough materials to get the project here done without building additional units, but I feel like more construction bots are going to help in the future. Six bots might not be a whole lot, and more bots canˇŻt hurt in future projects. However, more bots means I should build one more building before moving on from this town; after all, rapid but sustainable growth is the best way I found to get back home, since I believe my obligations would be finished once the initial debts are fully repaid, Karine feels tempted to build one more quadruplex before the homeless refuge gets built so she can pay for more used construction bots.

    But as the local supply of derelicts dry up, she wonders if she should stick to the original Plan Iznogoud or follow through with the change. ItˇŻs tough: building an extra quadruplex is a surefire way for the project to take longer. Is the project taking longer worth the extra cost and rewards of building it? Or am I just kicking the can down the road? A puzzled Karine starts weighing both options in her head, while the garden center is getting built, and she promptly buys the first derelict coming up for sale in the area. Who am I kidding? However, itˇŻs not a question of materials for now.

    ˇ°Ta-da: the garden center is finished! ThereˇŻs only the homeless refuge left to go, butˇ­ˇ± Karine is interrupted by her boss, while she double-checks the construction budget against the proposed cost of purchasing additional bots.

    ˇ°What is it now?ˇ± Billerica asks, his face turning green as the derelict gets demolished, and the debris, converted in minutes.

    ˇ°I feel three more construction bots would be helpful in the future. Right now, we can only work on one plot at a time; for bigger projects, we might need to work on more than one plot at once!ˇ± Karine explains herself before the derelict bungalow is cleared. ˇ°Barring that, bigger buildings, such as quadruplexes and bigger, require more bots to build!ˇ±

    Karine sighs of relief when she realizes that she has sufficient funds to proceed with the final phase of Plan Iznogoud and buy three more used bots while the duplex slated to become a homeless refuge is under construction. And maybe enough to cover the beginning of the next project, which Billerica is busy looking for among the HCPˇŻs databases.

    And, of course, the leases get signed with the townˇŻs public works department. The townˇŻs first homeless refuge begins operations as simply a place where homeless can find temporary shelter, while the administration tries to find the personnel required to make the refuge fully operational.

    ˇ°Yay! Plan Iznogoud is finally complete!ˇ± an overjoyed Karine jumps for joy.

 Chapter 24: Densification, Come Hell or High Water

    Karine seems a little confused by what she was told the other day about the Senate in Pandemonium. Never did the game mention much about Pandemonian society, other than seven princes, of which two were killed by the players before the gameˇŻs closure, ruling over Hell from Pandemonium. I guess unreleased content might have shed some light on that, she appears to be in an urge to ask additional questions about the Senate, its makeup and where it fits in TaladuˇŻs political landscape.

    ˇ°You once mentioned that the HCP was a bill. How does legislation pass, and where does the Senate fit in the process?ˇ± Karine asks.

    ˇ°Given that the Senate rarely gets along with the judiciary, and judicial review takes place after the first reading passes, but before the second reading, it can make political life hell. However, a bill becomes law after passing the second reading, sometimes with amendments. ItˇŻs a miracle the HCP could even pass through the Senate at all!ˇ± Billerica answers her.

    ˇ°Political life being hell is nothing new under the sun to me. Now, I wonder if you recognize any of these names...ˇ±

    ˇ°No thanks, Karine, the next project takes place in the outskirts of a fortress city in the mountainsˇ± her boss gives her the starting point of the next project.

    ˇ°Sometimes I feel like the HCP is also about developing regionsˇ±

    I really wonder what this location has to offer its residents, Karine sighs, while having missed an opportunity to ask a question that could have ascertained whether Taladu was the native name for MAAˇŻs world, or a region thereof. I was so busy working to get my bossˇŻ debts repaid, and from there, pay my way back home, that I forgot to learn about the worldˇŻs geography and history.

    But then she tries to picture what kind of demons would even want to get an apartment block-sized homeless refuge built. And yet, she knows that demons vary greatly in how they deal with the damned.

    As for the fortress city, its mountainous site makes her feel like each street of the area she is to build the new neighborhood is at different elevations. Much like a canyon. Every home will be longer to build because of excavation into the mountain walls, and IˇŻd rather build these homes on the upper levels.

    ˇ°Looks like the fortress cityˇŻs authorities are facing a rapid influx of what they calledˇ­ damned?ˇ± Yenaleda comments upon reading the fine print of what the requirements are for the neighborhood. ˇ°I wonder how you feel about the movie last nightˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Not very good. It seems like itˇŻs an excuse to show us what makes these little green men serial rapists; you can make good horror movies without having to resort to gratuitous rape!ˇ± Karine lets Yenaleda in on her taste in horror movies.

    ˇ°That, a horror movie? If you call this movie a horror movie, then you may as well call dark romance a subgenre of horror!ˇ± Yenaleda screams at Karine about the movie she understood nothing of its dialogue. ˇ°I guess Billerica loves his dark romance and horror moviesˇ±

    ˇ°Weather forecast for today, at our new construction site: heavy rainsˇ± Billerica warns the two. ˇ°Flooding warnings have been issued!ˇ±

    ˇ°I really hope the HCP homes can withstand such heavy rains, as do the botsˇ± Karine sighs, wondering if she should start building the first quadruplex while the storm is brewing in the canyon. ˇ°Do molecular 3D printing make it possible to do all-weather construction?ˇ±

    Then come the other requirements: a business center, for which Yenaleda is busy finding tenants among the so-called ˇ°damnedˇ±, a fire station and a police station. Other than that, Karine et al have free reign to build the neighborhood however they see fit. Provided there even is a plot available.

    However, panicked homeowners in that city decide to sell their homes amid the flood warning, but, as tempting as it might have been to some, Karine wonders if any of these fire sales would be worth anything to her. Ouch. I donˇŻt think itˇŻs a good idea to build on the lowest level since floods can cause costly damage. However, this limits the number of lots I can draw from.

    And the panicked residents of the cityˇŻs lower levels, regardless of their damnation status, seek refuge in the upper levels, or at least deeper inland. She decides to monitor the neighborhoodˇŻs view to determine where to build the police station, making an offer for the first property coming up for sale in a sufficiently high level of the neighborhood.

    Which causes her to drain much of her budget for that one lot since the lot contains a duplex, whose demolition she orders to make way for a police station.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt forget about the repayment schedule! We might have repaid a little over one million talas, the next payment for three million is due in three days!ˇ± Billerica scolds the other two. ˇ°Even that might not repay our debts in full, and the debts incurred for you are a mere pittance, not to mention junior to the pre-existing debts!ˇ±

    ˇ°You never told me about how much debt there actually was! The rate at which repayments occur is infernal! Your creditor proposal was poorly done; it feels like the courts just wanted to buy time to bankrupt the company, and not get it back on track!ˇ± Karine laments the incompetence of Pandemonian insolvency courts, or that of Taladuan insolvency judges.

    I guess, he canˇŻt afford to appeal the repayment schedule, either in time or money. I may as well buy the fire station blueprint, more bots and materials, with the fire station being built before any apartment blocks, Karine then starts the construction of the police station.

    Yet it seems like the sudden influx of the so-called damned in the city has somehow caused residents of the next-lowest levels to panic, and sell off buildings. At rock bottom prices for some, but as the level of the river rises, their respective owners attempt to flee the city.

    And yet, even though the new police station is open, she is left wondering how the city will staff it. Then the cityˇŻs money arrives and she starts buying what she feels is necessary: fire station blueprint, materials and she buys the cheapest property for sale on the third level or above. Or maybe even the second level if itˇŻs clear the second level wonˇŻt get flooded.

    ˇ°What kind of resident would sell off a home in the face of an influx of damned? Do they feel threatened by the damned?ˇ± Karine starts questioning the behavior of the local residents. ˇ°I might have understood flooding risks if you were talking about the first and second levels, howeverˇ±

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ˇ°Karine, why do you ask questions about such things? Working with you now feels like hell!ˇ± Billerica scolds Karine again. ˇ°You were hired to run construction projects!ˇ±

    ˇ°Sometimes knowing how a buildingˇŻs users behave will impact how constructing it will be run! Not necessarily like, say, an architect or a civil engineer, but I might want to have a certain building built based on the market for itˇ±

    And itˇŻs then that she buys the apartment block, business center and fire station blueprints, for T450,000 total, leaving her with a little over T1M to buy everything else she needs, such as bots, materials and lots.

    But even after the purchase of five additional bots as well as 5,000 tons of materials, she still have T590,000 to buy homes for sale for, even assuming that all the money from the fire station would go towards repaying the debt. Here it seems like the people selling the houses tend to sell more low-end housing, and she even low-balls one of them, buying for only a fraction of the asking price. And yet, somehow, all properties listed were sold in a matter of seconds.

    Even by making a low-ball offer, even with the wind of panic causing a lot of people to just put up their houses for sale, it just was more expensive than the previous go.

    ˇ°Working with you feels like working in Hell!ˇ± Billerica vents to her. ˇ°You make me feel like thereˇŻs more to building real estate projects than just building houses, and it makes my life difficult, in a way that no amount of horror movies can reproduce!ˇ±

    ˇ°Maybe Taladu is hell! Or at least your part of Taladu!ˇ± Karine retorts, her face turning red.

    ˇ°I know youˇŻre smart, and you probably know you are, but is it normal for your kind to be crazy at your level?ˇ± Yenaleda asks the human woman.

    ˇ°I wouldnˇŻt necessarily say thatˇŻs normal, but I know that it exists. It might seem ridiculous, but I have the impression that I already had seen a few elements of this world beforeˇ±

    But really just that: a few elements. MAAˇŻs manufacturer made it clear that players didnˇŻt see a whole lot of the gameˇŻs world, Karine keeps to herself while the demolition of a multigenerational house proceeds. HereˇŻs my chance to get deeper into the world, to see what kind of world I landed myself into. MAAˇŻs world, an alien horror movie set, both or neither. I canˇŻt shake the feeling of d¨¦j¨¤ vu; it would calm me down a bit if I could narrow down its source.

    Then, as the rubble from the old multigenerational is being cleared, Karine finally asks the questions she wanted to ask at the start of the working day.

    ˇ°Sorry for this digression, but there was a question I wanted to ask this morning: do you recognize any of the following names? Baal, Mephistopheles, Lucifer, Satan or Asmodeusˇ±

    ˇ°Drat! They all have a seat in the Senate, I didnˇŻt expect you to know about them! One of these senators is the caliph; take a guess as to whoˇ± Yenaleda asks her as the last of the houseˇŻs rubble is cleared.

    ˇ°That, however, IˇŻm not sure, but if I have to guess, either Lucifer or Satan, probably fighting each other for the caliphate. But if my recollections are correct, there are several races of damned under Pandemonian jurisdiction!ˇ±

    ˇ°How dare you call us damned!ˇ± Billerica, his skin turning green, screams at Karine, and is about to charge at her, just before the fire stationˇŻs construction begins. ˇ°It was already bad enough when you merely wanted to become caliph instead of the caliphˇ­ˇ±

    Feeling targeted, Billerica hits Karine in the right knee, causing her to howl for a few seconds. He promptly returns to negotiating with the city to set up tax remittance on rent for future tenants. At the same time, knee pain seems to slow KarineˇŻs mind down somewhat. She orders bots to build the fire station, but for some reason, her mind just doesnˇŻt work at the same level as it used to.

    ˇ°Are there any painkillers here?ˇ± Karine asks, while holding her right knee.

    ˇ°No!ˇ± Billerica yells at her, while his skin slowly turns back to its original color.

    Here it seems like the market has slowed down somewhat, and long-time residents of the city would rather wait out the storm before deciding whether to buy or sell housing. But because she canˇŻt seem to think straight, she just monitors the construction status as well as flooding. While itˇŻs taking a little longer than she would have liked because of the challenge of excavation, itˇŻs acceptable to her.

    At the same time, he buys two properties in a different district, but still cliffside. Both have clearly seen better days.

    ˇ°Karine, you seemed unable to get your job done! I just bought two houses for you to demolish!ˇ± Billerica screams at her.

    ˇ°Fine...ˇ± she sighs, while looking at a T300k financial gap.

    And yet, she gets her bots to demolish the two houses, one duplex and one bungalow. It still takes her only five bots to demolish both. Once the fire station is complete, as is the demolition of the low-density housing her boss bought, Karine begins construction of two apartment blocks, using seven bots each, and using up 1200 tons of materials apiece, expecting the construction to take all night.

    But when the time comes from the trio to eat damned ribs, which is a dish that reminds Karine of spare ribs, Yenaleda chooses another movie to watch, which, unlike previous movies they watched, appears to be lighter-hearted.

    ˇ°So what is it about damned triggered you to the point you hit my knee?ˇ± Karine asks her boss, while the damned ribs are being served.

    ˇ°To us, calling someone damned means that someone is only good for being eatenˇ± Yenaleda explains to her.

    ˇ°Dinner time!ˇ± Billerica then serves the dish. ˇ°Damned ribs!ˇ±

    ˇ°Are damned ribs the actual name of the recipe? That seems a littleˇ­ hellish for a dish nameˇ± Karine comments before sampling it.

    ˇ°Yesˇ±

    Upon eating the first bite of the damned ribs, KarineˇŻs mouth catches fire because of the spice. She frantically searches for drinks, believing water to be insufficient. What did I do to work in hell, and eat spicier food than even the jeyuk bokkeum I ate during the Operation Heathrow RWF? And I thought jeyuk bokkeum was already spicy enough in its own right! If I am, in fact, on MAAˇŻs world, maybe I ought to question them about Heathrow, Perseria or the Gates of Tartarus... Karine, feeling like drinking cold drinks, tries to use her mind to keep her pain under control.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs the spiciest meat IˇŻve ever eaten in my life!ˇ± Karine comments in a whiny voice. ˇ°May I have some water please?ˇ±

    Billerica points her to the bottle of cold water, from which she pours a glass. Karine then gulps down the whole glass of cold water, in hopes of dousing the fire in her mouth.

    But after drinking some water, which is demineralized for some reason, her feelings of burns subside enough to take another bite of these damned ribs. Meanwhile, the movie Yenaleda is playing on screen seems to featureˇ­ a couch potato elf watching TV as an opening scene.

    ˇ°Elven TV?ˇ± Karine gasps upon watching the opening scene of the movie, while the fires in her mouth regain strength after the second bite of these damned ribs.

    But the other two keep quiet while watching the movie, with Karine belatedly realizing she should do the same. Yet, by watching the movie, she buys herself some time between each bite, as the damned ribs cool down and hence get less spicy over time.

    Good: this movie isnˇŻt about gratuitous sex. ItˇŻs about a couch potato suffering from hikikomori, and looks for jobs requiring telecommuting, as far as I can make out. The juicy part might arrive when the lead interviews or works the job, Karine realizes that movie stands in stark contrast with other Taladuan movies she watched, especially dark romance or horror.

    ˇ°Tell me how you feel about this movieˇ± Yenaleda asks Karine before going to the WC, once the movie ends.

    ˇ°At least it doesnˇŻt rush the plotˇ­ˇ± Karine then checks on the status of the two apartment blocksˇŻ construction while waiting for the WC.

    Which take longer than she would have expected with these supposedly all-weather construction bots, but weather can slow down even all-weather construction bots.

 Chapter 25: Condo Towers and Homeless Refuges

    Upon awakening, Karine realizes that the apartment blocks are still not completed. However, she also realizes that lots are in finite supply, and represent a much bigger share of the costs in this city than they had in the swamp village or in the previous town.

    As such, she buys the condo towerˇŻs blueprint, in hopes of making the cost back by selling one for a much higher price than an apartment block would possibly command in this city. So rather than requiring four lots to get to the three million talas, and the other two requirements, I can get it done with three, and it would cost us only 100 more tons of materials. Now thatˇŻs what I call densification!

    ˇ°Ouch! The town ordered us to get the homeless refuge to three stars!ˇ± Billerica scolds her while sheˇŻs shopping for second-hand homes to buy so that she can get the condo tower built.

    Here it seems like even a multigenerational house could fetch six-figure prices. However, she only puts one of the apartment blocks for sale, and realizes that using the construction bots to build an elevator shaft for 8 people will be much less expensive than buying a ready-made elevator of the same size, which she feels is more practical to its tenants than a grand staircase or an art gallery.

    However, she buys a multigenerational house, which gets demolished in a matter of minutes. And the apartment block price limit is apparently a measly T600k, which also finds a buyer in minutes.

    But then, as she puts the second apartment block for sale, the owner of the first one also puts it for sale, and, no longer bound by the terms of the HCP, asks for a much higher price than the price Karine sold it for.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here?ˇ± Karine asks her colleagues about how housing prices go way up. ˇ°It seems like the HCP terms force us to sell at below-market prices!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, below-market?ˇ± Billerica asks her, bewildered by the statement.

    ˇ°I sold an apartment block for six hundred thousand talas, the maximum authorized under the HCP. However, its new owner put it for sale at a much higher price immediately. Now I have a much better idea of why people seemed hesitant to get housing starts done! And this means we need to build our own projects outside of the HCP!ˇ±

    ˇ°Fine, if thatˇŻs what it takes to repay our debts!ˇ± Yenaleda sighs.

    This makes me feel like itˇŻs a lot easier to earn money in hell by playing the real estate market than it is to build more housing units! ItˇŻs the closest thing to a ˇ°get rich quickˇ± scheme in hell! Karine has more bulbs flashing in her mind. She also feels like urban densification isnˇŻt necessarily the answer to the housing crisis in hell.

    ˇ°I wonder what has been done to curb real estate speculationˇ±

    ˇ°You want to become caliph instead of the caliph again?ˇ± KarineˇŻs boss asks her, while his face turns green. ˇ°It wasnˇŻt enough for you to suggest that homeless refuges should be built, you also feel like itˇŻs necessary to get speculation under control! All I know about homeless refuges is that itˇŻs the same as any other real estate property to me, and real estate speculation is flying way over my head!ˇ±

    ˇ°I will discuss that with you but later, please...ˇ± Yenaleda sighs, while returning to her work.

    Back on the console, Karine then buys a multigenerational house for almost twice the HCP limit on that type of house. Which takes up much of the day between demolishing it and later, building the condo tower.

    Speaking of which, itˇŻs actually not that tall compared to what Karine saw being built, not only on Earth, but also on this world. A measly six floors, and five units per floor. Is that what they call densification in Hell? Building 30 units where only one previously existed is one thing, but I wonder if the Senate is considering other measures. However, I donˇŻt wish an Evergrande kind of situation on them; their lives are already hard enough as it is.

    As the condo tower is being built by nine bots, another change order arrives to them:

    ˇ°Karine, it appears the city realizes that an apartment block-sized homeless refuge is not big enough; they instead want a condo tower for that purpose!ˇ± Billerica screams at her.

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt get to it yet. However, you asked me about condo tower-sized homeless refuges when we started building homeless refuges. Now that we are building them...ˇ±

    I guess, I planned for my materials stockpile to last me through one condo tower, one apartment block and the business center. Now I need to make up for the shortfall, Karine then places the order for 1000 tons of construction materials, costing her another T75,000. And, of course, she remains on the lookout for properties that might be worth buying to get the necessary plots to fulfill the contractual obligations to the city. As much as I would have hoped for the waters to recede from the cityˇŻs lowest level, the water level is not yet low enough to safely build on the lowest level.

    And yet, even in this city, even foreclosures are not a guarantee of lower prices. However, unlike so many speculators on this world, she doesnˇŻt mind buying one, under the form of a multigenerational house, as is too common in the outer portion of the city. However, Billerica slips away from the cabin in the forest to buy food; the pantry is empty.

    ˇ°I have an idea: establish a shell company, which will buy the condo tower upon completion, and then sell it on the open market. We need Billerica to issue me an IOU for the HCP price limit of the condo tower once the shell company is active, though and the profits will be used to buy some plot of land to build more housing onˇ± Karine explains to her colleague.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ˇ°We worked so hard to get more housing starts, and then you think of doing what you accused others on this world of doing to worsen the housing crisis?ˇ± Yenaleda scolds her. ˇ°WouldnˇŻt it be better to sell the individual units instead?ˇ±

    ˇ°No, since the HCP rules mandate that, if we sell buildings built under its provisions, the whole building must be sold all at once. Except that weˇŻll be using the money to get more housing starts done, and not as a speculative investment! IˇŻll pay Billerica the cost of materials to build more condo towers elsewhere, as well as of extra botsˇ±

    ˇ°Seriously? How much do you think thirty-unit condo towers fetch in this city?ˇ± YenaledaˇŻs eyes start widening.

    ˇ°Most of the cityˇŻs condo towers of comparable size are in the inner city, so I might think it would be lowerˇ±

    ˇ°I believe it would be better if I was the one to start the shell company; there is no telling what legal complications could arise from off-worlders starting a shell companyˇ± the female Taladuan begins filing the paperwork for starting a numbered company.

    Yenaleda finds it ridiculously easy to get the shell company started, and headquartered in her bossˇŻ cabin. However, she finds it easier to get a loan than she expects getting Billerica to issue an IOU to her to be. Especially since the Senate ordered banks to extend loans to entities wanting to operate affordable housing for rent at favorable terms, such as lending at the reference rate.

    Yenaleda takes out a loan in KarineˇŻs stead since Karine is clueless about Pandemonian banking practices. She takes out a loan for 1.53 million talas with a future condo tower as collateral, in which origination fees of T30k are included.

    At the same time, while the condo tower is built, Karine buys another multigenerational house its previous owner deemed irreparable, having suffered damage from the poor weather. And not on the lowest level. Whose demolition is underway, and then the construction of the business center begins. Which is somehow fully rented out within a day of its construction even being announced.

    But when Billerica returns, with a big bag full of frozen fried toilets, Yenaleda is busy not simply negotiating leases for office or retail space, but also waiting for KarineˇŻs signal to buy the condo tower. However, the construction of both buildings is estimated to take the rest of the work day because of the weather.

    Which Karine spends monitoring the real estate market for another low-density house to buy and demolish, even if it meant building it somewhere else in the district.

    ˇ°One question: if we finish building what the HCP contract asks for, can we keep building new units outside its scope?ˇ± Karine asks her boss.

    ˇ°Yes, but we wonˇŻt be able to buy materials at a preferential priceˇ±

    This means I must buy the materials to build more condo towers before the homeless refuge is finished, Karine comes to the grim realization that even the largest batch sheˇŻs allowed to buy would only be enough to build two condo towers. But she can feel like Yenaleda is so confident that condo units will sell that maybe all it takes is two more condo towers.

    Speaking of condo towers, by nightfall, the condo tower is completed and Karine signals her that the condo tower is up for sale.

    ˇ°Now, Yenaleda, now!ˇ± Karine hollers while the female Taladuan stands ready to buy it.

    It seems like Taladuan banks prefer ˇ°the devil they donˇŻt knowˇ± over ˇ°the devil they knowˇ± in that theyˇŻd rather lend money to brand new businesses than to insolvent ones that are already in operation for a while, Yenaleda starts thinking about why she would even open what amounts to a throwaway business.

    With the condo tower now being in YenaledaˇŻs possession, she starts listing the individual units, rather than the whole building all at once. She is able to earn back the money she borrowed in very short order, since, somehow, condos in this city could go for as high as T150,000 apiece. And yet, this is nothing compared to the prices in Pandemonium.

    Once YenaledaˇŻs loan is fully repaid, she starts paying what she calls dividends back to Billerica. Which are paid out to the construction budget for the most part.

    Karine then uses the dividend money to buy three lots, spending nearly T600,000 on second-hand homes, but only T170,000 to buy four more bots, and T250,000 to buy another batch of 5000 tons of raw materials. She demolishes all three lots simultaneously, but can only build the homeless refuge overnight.

    ˇ°Dividend money? WhatˇŻs the meaning of this?ˇ± Billerica yells at Yenaleda.

    ˇ°I thought that starting a shell company to sell the condos piecemeal would be a good idea, especially since people are willing to pay for condos!ˇ± Yenaleda retorts. ˇ°And the HCP rules force you to sell buildings whole!ˇ±

    Karine then turns to Yenaleda. ˇ°This looks far too much like the beginnings of Evergrande! And then you would be Hui Ka Yan!ˇ±

    Yenaleda rolls her eyes, while Billerica prepares to air-fry the toilets. ˇ°Evergrande? What the hell is Evergrande? Who Hui Ka Yan even is?ˇ±

    And then the two Taladuans are treated to the story of Evergrande, the largest real estate bankruptcy in EarthˇŻs history, while waiting for the fried toilets to be ready. KarineˇŻs mind starts making her head spin as she discusses the early days of Evergrande, and how the contexts differ between todayˇŻs Taladu and mid-1990s China.

    ˇ°The parallels between you and Hui Ka YanˇŻs early days in business are troubling. Borrowing to buy land, or properties under construction, then pre-sell the units while they are being built, or even before construction begins, and then repay the debts!ˇ± Karine scolds Yenaleda. ˇ°It might be a good idea today, but this business model canˇŻt be sustained forever!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, it canˇŻt be sustained forever?ˇ± Yenaleda gasps.

    ˇ°It will depend on how housing prices evolve, but they wonˇŻt increase forever, especially not if housing deliveries grow faster than the population at some point!ˇ± Karine explains to a bewildered Yenaleda.

    ˇ°But the Senate seemed to be more concerned about housing starts!ˇ± Yenaleda retorts.

    ˇ°Upon completion of the homeless refuge, the city will lease it from us, and then weˇŻll start building the condo towers!ˇ± Billerica starts preparing to sell 60 condos on the market, hoping to capitalize on the prices they fetch to pay back his debts.

    As a licensed insolvency trustee, keeping abreast of economic news, especially of what can cause one to become insolvent, is essential, Karine thinks, while eating a fried toilet, and starts getting nauseated over the actions of her colleagues. IˇŻll gladly audition for some role in a horror movie centering around post-pandemic Evergrande, but it would depend on the roles; IˇŻd be most likely be cast into a role involving EvergrandeˇŻs non-Chinese assets or insolvency filings, though. If I am cast at all. Not sure a horror movie centered on post-pandemic Evergrande would find much success at the box office, nor would such a movie even feature insolvency professionals in anything remotely resembling a major role. I believe it would more likely that a wronged owner of an unfinished condo would be one of the leads, either causing fear or feeling it, and some Evergrande official would be on the other end, if anyone other than me was writing the script, she starts thinking about writing her own horror movie script before reaching for the waste closet.

    Meanwhile, far away from the cabin, squatters occupy the other two lots they own that are slated to become condo towers.

 Chapter 26: Evergrande Hell and Back

    But until the homeless refuge constructionˇŻs ends, Karine is kept up at night because of her inspiration for writing a jumbled mess she calls a horror movie script on her phone. Which she used mostly as a notebook because she knew the telephony services wouldnˇŻt work.

    She reports to work, a little tired, and lets her phone recharge. She then overhears Yenaleda pleading with the boss to buy her numbered company out since its loans are repaid in full. As are the dividends.

    ˇ°Karine, we already sold all sixty units in these two condo towers. Start building the towers!ˇ± Billerica yells at Karine.

    ˇ°What does that imply for your debts?ˇ± Karine asks her boss at the onset of the condo towersˇŻ construction. ˇ°I didnˇŻt tell you this before, because you regularly told me that I wanted to become caliph instead of the caliph, but you might need to get debt counseling to prevent an Evergrande kind of situation from happening! No opportunity lasts forever, nor is every opportunity worth pursuing!ˇ±

    Evergrande was way over-leveraged, and pursued opportunities it had no transferrable expertise in. Like food, healthcare, automotive and entertainment industries, Karine ruminates while awaiting an answer from her boss.

    ˇ°Yeah, you should be able to pay the payroll out of rental revenue going forwardˇ± Yenaleda comments after Billerica buys out her shell company for about a year of salary.

    ˇ°Now that the initial debts are fully repaid, Karine, the debts incurred for you will be repaid, tooˇ± Billerica uses the proceeds from the sale of condos to repay all outstanding debts.

    Thank heavens for this! I can hire another employment agency to get me another project manager to replace Karine. She was, simply put, unpleasant to work with. She might have known what she was doing, but she asked too many questions, she always seemed like she knew better when it came to housing and society, or business strategy, Billerica ruminates, then puts a job posting for KarineˇŻs replacement.

    He starts daydreaming about moving into one of the luxury homes KarineˇŻs predecessor built but was unable to sell, as well as the price of one such house. So, while the luxury home market might have crashed, condos and rental homes, on the other hand, appear to skyrocket.

    ˇ°In a day or two, weˇŻll move into a new home. IˇŻll check against the list of homes KarineˇŻs predecessor built and got subsequently foreclosed before her predecessor was firedˇ± Billerica then shows the contents of that list to his two employees.

    The two are shown an eclectic selection of homes. Some of these appear built as if carved out of molten metal, while others were clearly designed by non-Taladuans. Each of the styles appear to reflect the race of damned, or demons, that designed home blueprints with it.

    ˇ°For some reason, my predecessor seems to have built McMansions reminding me far too much of the McMansions in my neighborhood on my home world!ˇ± Karine has come to realize what her predecessor built.

    Some of these homes, across a variety of styles, remind me of horror movies, while others remind me of my days of playing MAA. And even of why I even started playing MAA back then: I initially looked at MAA as I had a horror RPG at the time. About stuff being out to get me, and sometimes questing inside haunted houses, she starts thinking about what got her through the leveling stages of the game. Good thing the damned donˇŻt seem to mind abrupt changes in architecture within the same neighborhood.

    But because Karine knows they canˇŻt build more than two condo towers at a time, and the lead time to get the materials is far shorter than their construction time, she decides to leave the two Taladuans to their own devices when they are shopping among a selection of high-end homes. And to continue writing her horror movie script while watching the real estate market for more properties to tear down. Ideally two more properties.

    Yet she realizes that, because they are no longer building affordable housing, as defined by the HCP, the cost of materials is much higher than they used to pay. So rather than to pay a quarter of a million talas to buy 5000 tons of construction materials, they end up paying at least 40% more depending on how fast they want the shipment to be delivered. By nightfall ideally.

    ˇ°Since I might not be working here for much longer, I have a few questions: first, do the following location names mean anything to you? Heathrow, Perseria, Tartarusˇ± Karine asks Yenaleda.

    ˇ°Tartarus? ThatˇŻs at the other end of the caliphate! And now that you mention it, Tartarus falling to Perserian hands sent the whole caliphate in a state of panic at the timeˇ± Yenaleda explains to her, and bulbs flash in KarineˇŻs mind.

    Monseigneur and Clavet both kept telling me about the plight of Perseria before and during the race to world first of Operation Heathrow. However, Yenaleda mentioned the capture of the Gates of Tartarus, and I fought Charon some time before the Gates would have been released as a one-boss dungeon! KarineˇŻs memories of playing MAA resurface in her mind, but stops making any progress towards writing her horror movie script.

    ˇ°Did the caliph attempt to make peace with Perseria afterward?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes. Heathrow and Perseria agreed to relinquish their possessions on the eastern bank of the Acheron River, which is, to this day, the caliphateˇŻs western border. And the caliphate closed its borders, while they mutually agreed not to deploy troops on the other side of the Acheronˇ±

    ˇ°For a place that so many called Hell, what makes this world hellish is mostly about the natural environment. What happened?ˇ± Karine asks Yenaleda.

    ˇ°It seems like these losses against Perseria and Heathrow caused political tremors in Pandemonium. So many among the so-called damned blaming the defeats on stuff such as excessive bureaucracy and poor morale caused by poor living conditions inside the caliphate, and the then-endless tormentsˇ±

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Now that Karine has a better idea of what happened on MAAˇŻs world after its war of independence, she looks for a world map in HellˇŻs equivalent to the Internet. Once she takes a photo of it on her phone, she resumes writing the horror movie script while Billerica is busy looking for an employment agency that can get him a project manager to replace Karine. And, later, contact Xerrid to announce the termination of KarineˇŻs employment, and pay her severance.

    ˇ°This is Billerica, I would love to know whether Karine can return safely to her world, especially since IˇŻm unsatisfied with her. She kept trying to become caliph instead of the caliph, pontifying about housing and society, as well as financial management!ˇ±

    ˇ°It took us several days to track down what caused the teleporter to malfunction and get Karine to youˇ± Xerrid explains to him. ˇ°But was she doing her work properly at least?ˇ±

    ˇ°I mean, yes, she was able to get housing units built, up to these condo towers. But do you have any assurance that she can safely return to her home world, if you were to use the teleporter on her now?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes. We tested the repairs against various objects, and then on other off-world employees we placedˇ± Xerrid attempts to placate him, while the convo continues.

    Once the first pair of condo towers is completed, Karine starts demolishing the two properties she managed to buy while juggling the writing of her very own horror movie script.

    Which is centered around post-pandemic Evergrande and, true to form, features tons of unfinished condo towers. Oh crap, I believe the concept IˇŻm fleshing out might work better as a horror game, as opposed to a horror movie. Either way, the main antagonist is a horde of people whose life savings went into buying an unfinished condo. However, neither would rush the plot the way these movies Billerica made us watch might have had, Karine starts realizing that, even with better pacing, she otherwise has no real idea of how to write a horror movie script beyond a setting, an inciting incident and characters. Am I writing a horrible zombie apocalypse movie script that doesnˇŻt rush the plot, only with a protagonist based on post-pandemic Hui Ka Yan?

    ˇ°Construction is now underway for these two new condo towers!ˇ± Karine announces to her boss, while the construction bots start building the two new condo towers.

    The demand for these condos by the damned of the region proves so great that they could sell all 60 condos in these towers in a matter of minutes. And at the same prices as the previous 60 units.

    Which makes Billerica buy an additional lot of 9 used construction bots, in three-unit packages. And, hopefully, some other city being willing to let them build more condo towers.

    But once he cashes in the proceeds from the sale of these condos, he goes back to choosing homes among a catalog of foreclosures left behind by KarineˇŻs predecessor. And this throws him in a tailspin, since, for all the managerial failings of KarineˇŻs predecessor, he was at least able to get homes built.

    Now that he has enough money to repair the wooden cabin, he plans on doing so after he leaves the cabin behind, and later use it as a rental property. He also plans on booking movers once his selection is made.

    ˇ°Now that my obligations towards you are complete, I wonder how long it will take to find a replacement for meˇ­ˇ± Karine sighs.

    ˇ°Probably a day or twoˇ± Billerica answers, while asking for the flooring contractor KarineˇŻs predecessor used to get the flooring rebuilt, using ceramic tiles, as opposed to the old hardwood floor. ˇ°IˇŻll review the reports from the employment agency before making a final decision, and then IˇŻll drop you off at XerridˇŻsˇ±

    Hopefully KarineˇŻs replacement will be more singularly focused on building and managing its associated expenditures than Karine was. That her replacement wonˇŻt try to become caliph instead of the caliph, or otherwise ask too many questions, Billerica ruminates, while Karine goes to sleep.

    But, while Karine is asleep, she rolls in her bed, painfully reminded of why she stopped watching horror movies and started playing horror games instead. About the need to have some level of control over whatˇŻs happening, since her nightmare is about loss of control. I might accept that I wonˇŻt have complete control over anything, but being unable to determine what I can and cannot control is another matter entirely, Karine ruminates as she awakens from this nightmare.

    She also realizes that what makes her idea of a horror movie script better suited for a horror game is, well, the impact the leadˇŻs actions is going to have. At the onset, the lead is loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. Throughout the story, the leadˇŻs loyalties to the CCP will be tested, and the consequences of being loyal to the CCP vs joining the anti-CCP wronged homeowner elements of the horde must be weighed, and must be done on an ongoing basis. While, in and of itself, this concept is nothing new in horror gaming, or even a rich protagonist facing the harsh consequences of their actions, who am I kidding? IˇŻm a licensed insolvency trustee, I donˇŻt think I would be a very good indie video game developer, horror or otherwise. Crap, I canˇŻt seem to decide which one would be better for this idea of a horror story, a movie script or a video game!

    After her morning routine is done, Billerica gives her another bit that doesnˇŻt seem to faze her at all.

    ˇ°It appears your predecessor might have added customizations pre-emptively, and piecemeal, which added a layer of complexity to shopping even if I restricted myself to the foreclosures your predecessor left behindˇ±

    ˇ°Like what?ˇ± Karine asks, her eyes rolling upon hearing about preemptive customization.

    ˇ°An indoor rock-climbing wall, a sauna, an observatory, and these are just the start!ˇ±

    ˇ°I expected things more like a torture room, a grand chandelier and/or staircase, or a pipe organ! Or other kinds of fancy fixtures that go beyond just adding crown mouldings sold by the kilometer!ˇ±

    ˇ°I am combing this list of unsold foreclosures because itˇŻs MY company who built these!ˇ± BillericaˇŻs mind then turns to the reports from another employment agency about candidates for KarineˇŻs replacement.

    By the time he fills out the paperwork, Karine prepares to get out of this creepy wooden cabin, and presumably out of this world as well, packing her meager belongings she was teleported to this world with. Yet she feels her brain overheating. For some reason, this corner of MAAˇŻs world feels like a horror movie set, I can no longer feel welcome in a world where people treat homes as they would have stocks on the stock market. But perhaps things could have been different if I landed on this world in either Heathrow or Perseriaˇ­

    ˇ°Are you ready, Karine? IˇŻm afraid that getting out of this world by using XerridˇŻs teleporter will cost you your entire severance pay, plus your regular pay, net of payroll taxes. However, you donˇŻt need to worry about taxation since payroll tax is one of the main Pandemonian tax leviesˇ±

    ˇ°Goodˇ±

    Good, because then I wouldnˇŻt need to declare any income earned here on my tax returns on Earth, KarineˇŻs mind lies heavy as she boards BillericaˇŻs car to get back to XerridˇŻs employment agency.

 Chapter 27: Home sweet home

    When they arrive at XerridˇŻs employment agency, Karine starts to feel a variety of emotions that she tries her best to hide from the eyes of the Taladuan employment agency whose teleporter made her come here in the first place.

    ˇ°This world feels soˇ­ different from mine, and not at the same time. Just not in the same respectsˇ± Karine sighs after being dropped off at that last resort employment agency.

    Upon arriving at the employment agencyˇŻs offices, the receptionist, having recognized Karine from her arrival on this world, gets her to the teleporter room she came to this world in. Oh boy, how will I explain however long I have been away from home to my colleagues in my LIT practice? Maybe a sudden illness, a mental one at that, could do the trickˇ­ she starts dreading the consequences of this otherworldly trip back on Earth. About the clients the practice was unable to service because of her absence. About the delays in existing clientsˇŻ insolvency proceedings.

    ˇ°Take a deep breath, make your farewells!ˇ± Xerrid tells her before activating the teleporter, hopefully bringing her out of MAAˇŻs world. ˇ°Now we shall see if the teleporter malfunction that brought you here is really fixed!ˇ±

    ˇ°Thank you for the informationˇ± Karine then starts praying for her safety.

    ˇ°I apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused to you or to your employer on this world. But your employer requested that no exit interview be conducted, so IˇŻll have to respect his wishesˇ±

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    Karine takes a deep breath while Xerrid inputs the coordinates salvaged from the logs of the day of this so-called teleporter malfunction. Once the teleporter activates, sparks fly from above her, as she is briefly thrown into another dimension, and then disappears from the teleporter room in what looks like a puff of smoke to Xerrid.

    Once she returns home, she finds herself in bed once again, tired of this travel and having to catch up on her work emails sent in her absence afterward.

    A few hours later, she then yawns upon awakening and finding her bearing back at home. Which comes back at a speed that amazes even her. She wonders how long it has been since she was victim of a teleporter malfunction on MAAˇŻs World, so she checks the calendar on her phone, and then transfers the so-called horror movie script to her computer. So I spent the equivalent of two weeks on Earth trying to turn an alien construction company around?

    So, for weeks after her return on earth, she faces the harsh reality of filing pre-discharge reports to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, creditor assemblies, attempting to evaluate assets (and, for individuals, whether these assets can be exempted), filing consumer or business proposals, and making cash flow forecasting for those insolvent indie video game developers. However, this unwanted trip to Taladu made her exhaust her allowance of sick days for the year, since she feels no one would believe her if she told the whole truth.

    As for the psychiatrist appointment she was waiting for since the race to world first on Operation Heathrow started, it resulted in medications being prescribed. Which she religiously took to keep whatˇŻs left of her fragile mental health, and that was on top of getting therapy.

    And, of course, she keeps an eye out for the bills of the various offices being rented by her insolvency firm, since insolvency trustees tend to have multiple locations.

 Chapter 28: Evergrande: The Game

    So at lunch with her coworker who supported her most in her MAA playing career for CanadaˇŻs Death Fiscalists, they discuss an upcoming indie horror game release, which that coworker deemed of interest to Karine after the debacle of MAA:

    ˇ°Look at this game: itˇŻs looking for beta testers, I think you might have wanted to play it since what youˇŻre doing in there amounts to ranged tankingˇ± her coworker tells her about the game.

    The trailer released from the closed beta build of that game involves character creation, unfinished condo towers and players wielding PLAGF (i.e. Chinese army) weapons... So many PLAGF weapons that the game almost feels like a Norinco ad in game form. And the game itself feels like itˇŻs more of a first-person shooter than a horror game.

    ˇ°Are this gameˇŻs developers Chinese?ˇ± another colleague asks the two.

    ˇ°Why? There are times where I feel like thereˇŻs too much emphasis on local purchasing! Video games arenˇŻt like food!ˇ± Karine retorts. ˇ°You make me feel like you wouldnˇŻt play a Chinese-made video game based solely on the country of origin!ˇ± She then turns to the first coworker. ˇ°As for ranged tanking, isnˇŻt that how most ranged DPS would feel when you play a ranged DPS in single-player content?ˇ±

    ˇ°The developers are actually based in Quebec. I wonder if you played FPS games before; you might have a hard time taking cover initially if you didnˇŻtˇ± the first coworker answers both people.

    As they keep watching the trailer, they also realize that one of the levels involves a high-speed car chase across Guangdong, and another level in Luoyang where the player must face the ghosts of dead customers whose families sacrificed everything to even own a condo in that city.

    ˇ°The devs may as well call this action-horror game Evergrande: The Game, if they can secure the rights to use the Evergrande name and logo. There is just too much pointing at Evergrande that it would be obvious to anyone who have any knowledge of Chinese economy!ˇ± Karine comments on what she views as the biggest opportunity the devs can seize.

    ˇ°Karine? Do you plan on streaming the game? I watched you play MAA, tier in, tier out, but I knew that often women were pushed into healing provided the game has healing, a girl played in group content, and knew what she was doing mechanically!ˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt interact the same with a fight when I tank vs heal, but I converted Monseigneur into a tank because, in the early days of MAA, there just wasnˇŻt a whole lot of tanksˇ±

    By then Karine starts signing up for the open beta of what she called Evergrande: The Game, or, for short, Evergrande. Asking for her email address, username, date of birth and other information deemed necessary by the gameˇŻs devs to access open beta. I really hope that gameˇŻs manufacturer is not going to release the game without first securing the right to use the Evergrande name and logo. A Canadian attempt to secure the rights to use these would raise eyebrows in Shenzhen or Guangzhou. However, at this point, EvergrandeˇŻs manufacturer appears to be banking on EvergrandeˇŻs despair to wring even a nominal amount of royalties for these rights. It would suck for that game if they fail, Karine ruminates, believing the gameˇŻs future to be shaky. I would love to see whether thereˇŻs a political loyalty system in placeˇ­ at this point, this sounds a lot like my idea for a zombie apocalypse horror movie/game.

    The devsˇŻ answer is quick: Karine is allowed into the open beta of Evergrande. And she announces her followers on Twitch (provided there are any remaining from her MAA days willing to watch her) that sheˇŻs back on air for the open beta testing of that game.

    As soon as she returns home that day, she braces herself for lengthy installation time for the beta build of Evergrande. Which, because of the gameˇŻs weight in Chinese content, she decides to open her stream by cooking upˇ­ Cantonese chow mein. Especially fitting since the game is implied to start in Shenzhen, and hence Cantonese food is common there.

    ˇ°Welcome to this stream of Monseigneur, my first stream since MAAˇŻs closure! While I wait for the open beta build of Evergrande to be installed on my computer, I shall cook and eat Cantonese chow mein on air!ˇ± Karine starts streaming and cooking the chow mein.

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt think that the choice of a game to stream would have influenced the food you eat on air!ˇ± Ad¨¨le, one of her loyal followers, comments in the stream chat upon on air.

    ˇ°Yeah, I saw you eat fish and chips for dinner on day one of Operation HeathrowˇŻs RWF, and jeyuk bokkeum for lunch on day two!ˇ± Caroline comments in the stream chat while watching her ex-GM in MAA cook on a stream, months after they last interacted.

    ˇ°Once I am done eating, I will start playing Evergrande. I will warn you, however, that, since the game appears more based on first-person shooters, thereˇŻs going to be a learning curve, but taking cover will not be wholly foreign to meˇ± Karine warns the audience whoˇŻd still watch her even after being away from streaming since MAAˇŻs closure.

    I forgive her for what she did to me back in Tartarus. No use dwelling on the past. That chinoiserie looks tasty though, Caroline muses as she watches her ex-GM cook before linking the recipe on the stream chat.

    ˇ°I really hope that I can get to at least the Guangdong car chase level tonight...ˇ± Karine sighs, while the installation of Evergrande is at 60% when she starts eating the chow mein.

    Because she knew a few newer games would hold new playersˇŻ hands to some extent, she is left wondering how much hand-holding there is. Under what forms, too, since she also knows that not all hand-holding is made equal from a player standpoint. However, she knows that a poor new player experience can do a game in. And sometimes bring down its manufacturer along with it.

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    Once she finishes eating the chow mein, her followers ask for various things such as what drew her to eating Chinese food, or even Korean food, what interested her about Evergrande, and insolvency as a follow up to the question about Evergrande. As the gameˇŻs installation ends, her followers are treated to her making the character she will start playing the game on.

    ˇ°It will take a while because I expect this character to stay with me for the entire duration of the open beta phaseˇ± Karine warns her viewers as she uses sliders for various parts of the characterˇŻs body.

    And man thereˇŻs a lot of them. Length and thickness for limbs, waistline, hip and chest width, belly size, shoulder size and width, hair length and so on. The fastest things for her to decide on are shoulder size and arm thickness: she maxed both out on her female character.

    At least this gameˇŻs devs understand the need to give players a choice in body types. MAA was good in that respect. However, I expect players wanting in on PvP to make their characters as slim as possible, Karine muses while she keeps adjusting the character settings for the rest of her body. And, by some miracle, gender seems to not have much of an effect on how fat the characters are.

    But at the bottom left corner of the screen, she sees a line about carrying capacity, which increases as her character gets taller and heavier. And it also seems like HP scales with the carrying capacity.

    ˇ°I had no idea you could make characters that fat in this game!ˇ± a surprised Caroline comments on the chat. ˇ°This isnˇŻt like MAA!ˇ±

    ˇ°MAA allowed characters that fat, but unlike MAA, I have the feeling that body type will have a gameplay impact in Evergrande! What satisfied me in MAA was creating characters who might be on the thicker side, but not necessarily fatˇ± Karine responds to Caro.

    With the end result having more or less the same body type as her beloved Monseigneur. Now, however, her characterˇŻs face is not going to be the same as that of either Monseigneur or Clavet; she seems willing to accept a more Chinese-esque face. And she will be asked to name the character after the body is set.

    ˇ°LetˇŻs roll!ˇ± Karine announces to her viewers as, rather than to start the campaign, she instead goes to the firing range.

    So while FPS lovers might be disappointed by the gameˇŻs limited selection of weapons, Karine does some target practice on each weapon. Starting with the QSZ-92, the gameˇŻs only playable pistol. Because she feels like she will need to deal with moving targets throughout the gameˇŻs campaign, she goes directly to moving target practice. She struggles with aiming even a QSZ-92, at least initially, emptying several 15-round magazines before she scores direct hits at ranges she feels would be realistic to fire one in an unfinished condo.

    However, she feels like there would be good reason to believe that there might be situations where she will need to fire at longer ranges than, well, point-blank. Such as defending the entrance of an unfinished condo tower. She then switches to the QBZ-191, an assault rifle, loading it with a 75-round drum magazine for moving target practice, taking place on the ground floor of an unfinished condo tower.

    And, even though she doesnˇŻt feel like she will need to fire one that often, she still feels the need to practice some on a QBU-10, which fires much bigger rounds than a QBZ-191, and at much longer ranges, but its magazine can only carry five rounds.

    ˇ°In past horror games I played, ranged DPS never seemed to take place at longer ranges than assault rifle range, but the devs must have good reason to put a sniper rifle into the game. Maybe thereˇŻs some level where I might have to pick off an enemy from an unfinished condo towerˇ± Karine sighs, frustrated with aiming a QBU-10.

    ˇ°You kept talking about unfinished condo towers. What does Evergrande have to do with unfinished condo towers?ˇ± Caroline asks on the stream chat.

    ˇ°I will answer that later, once we get to the opening cutsceneˇ±

    Then comes the grenade, which is something sheˇŻs much more familiar with aiming since it would be more similar to launching holy flares or casting alcohol clouds in MAA. And finally, a jian, which is much like melee weapons in other horror games she played in the past, and it plays out in a more hack-and-slash way.

    Once Karine feels sufficiently confident that she can get started playing the actual game, the viewers are treated to the opening cutscene. It opens with the judgment of the High Court of Hong Kong, ordering EvergrandeˇŻs liquidation.

    ˇ°For those among you who donˇŻt follow international economic news, Evergrande is the largest real estate bankruptcy in history. And it was the result of bursting the Chinese real estate bubble. I wonˇŻt go into detail right now, because I believe the game will sprinkle details about its causes!ˇ± Karine comments about that aspect of the game.

    Oh God, LGFVs, and how any attempts at tax reforms in China must include greater taxation powers to the provinces. Land sales were the main source of revenue for local and provincial governments since they couldnˇŻt tax the population directly. And fiscal imbalance only encouraged provinces to fight over real estate projects, with any shortfalls being covered by borrowing from LGFVs, Karine muses, triggered by the mention of LGFVs, or local government financing vehicles, in the opening cutscene.

    Then Karine starts playing the opening level of the campaign, where the player, an independent board member (i.e. not involved in the day-to-day operations), attempts to escape the Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen. Especially when angry homeowners are storming the HQ, but somehow, it feels like a tutorial level to her.

    As in MAA dungeons, back in the day, she drags the angry homeowners into a corner. Once she turns a corner in the hallway, she throws a fragmentation grenade at the hostile homeowners, in hopes of buying some time for her to get to the getaway car in the basement.

    But when another horde of angry homeowners converges on a different position, she is told to get behind a deskˇ­

    ˇ°She seems to be able to get some mechanics down, but what will it be like when enemies donˇŻt fight at point-blank? It wonˇŻt always take place in rooms the size of unfinished condos!ˇ± Caroline warns her ex-GM.

    ˇ°My own friends were all aim and no brain kinds of FPS players; she feels like the opposite of that! She can only aim grenades!ˇ± Ad¨¨le comments on her friends playing FPS on the stream chat.

    Karine seems to have a few problems aiming a QBZ-191 at a range thatˇŻs only slightly longer than what she would expect out of an unfinished condo. Just a little less than at the firing range earlier. Tabarnak! The last horror game I played prior to playing MAA was more hack-and-slash than Evergrande is! I might need something different out of the next trip to the firing range after this level ends! After all, practicing smarter, not harder, got me through MAA, but it wonˇŻt mean the same here.

    Yet, somehow, she fends off the horde by using up a second frag grenade, whose detonation is very loud, and then makes a run for the elevator when the homeowners are under the shock of the flashbang.

 Chapter 28A Back to Streaming

    After completing the first level, Karine changes the parameters of the firing range so that she can practice what she sees as a weakness. Especially since she will have to fight opponents from behind cover with either a QSZ-92 or a QBZ-191 often. Honestly, I am not sure if I can last very long as a streamer if I keep streaming this game! While, in MMOs, you can still amount to something on air without any real need for high-end gameplay talent, in FPS, ˇ°git gud first and stream laterˇ± is a common strategy for would-be streamers. So I must get better at the game or I will bite the dust on air!

    The question becomes: is the QBZ-191 bugged when firing it from behind cover? Because she seems to be unable to fire it properly from behind cover, irrespective of what the cover is.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt expect much, but maybe I should try playing the multiplayer modes!ˇ±

    And the multiplayer maps for the FPS portion include a Luoyang unfinished condo tower and the central business district of Guangzhou, to name those she actually ends up playing. She scores a few lucky shots on the QSZ-92 in Luoyang, which is somehow more accurate than the QBZ-191 at point-blank. However, in the Guangzhou CBD, which, as a map, is much more favorable to longer ranges than the Luoyang unfinished condo tower, she needed to either fire the QBU-10 or the QSZ-92 to hit anything.

    ˇ°Why is the assault rifle less accurate at point-blank range than a pistol?ˇ± Karine rants, while sending a ticket to the manufacturer for the lack of accuracy of the QBZ-191.

    Then she turns her attention to the second level of the game, which takes place on the northbound Guangshen Expressway. The car chase across Guangdong teased in the trailer, where the player needs to evade the hordes of angry homeowners, and hope that the playerˇŻs car, a Hengchi 5, reaches the Guangzhou CBD.

    ˇ°For some reason, this level reminds me of Operation HeathrowˇŻs first boss...ˇ± Karine comments as she gets used to driving the Hengchi 5, which handles like a SUV.

    ˇ°This is nothing like Operation HeathrowˇŻs first boss, Karine!ˇ± Ad¨¨le comments in the stream chat, before realizing that angry homeowners are attempting to run into her.

    I wonder if thereˇŻs a way to force the angry homeowners to collide their cars against each other, or skid, KarineˇŻs mind goes into overdrive as she drives the car in what feels like night in the game. Kind of like friendly fire in MAA.

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    But as she approaches GuangzhouˇŻs city limits, Karine intensifies the speed of merging into lanes, with angry homeowners hot on her tail, in hopes of causing them to collide.

    ˇ°Is this game full of chinoiseries?ˇ± Caroline asks, on the stream chat, while she hears the noise of two angry homeownersˇŻ cars being smashed into each other, too preoccupied with chasing Karine around on the highway.

    ˇ°The game might be made in Quebec, but it definitely bears Chinese influenceˇ± another follower comments on the way driver behavior is modelled.

    While two of the homeownersˇŻ cars cause a traffic jam on the Guangshen Expressway, Karine gets bogged down in a traffic jam shortly after entering GuangzhouˇŻs city limits. And then uses the QBU-10 to pick off angry homeowners.

    This is making me wonder why this gameˇŻs developers even made the game around post-pandemic Evergrande. That car chase level in Guangdong makes me feel like IˇŻm driving through Highway 40 in Montreal itselfˇ­ Ad¨¨le keeps to herself. The trailer teased fights in an unfinished condo tower in Luoyang, are they referring to a level in the gameˇŻs story, or just a multiplayer map? If the former, how many gameplay hours does it take to get to Luoyang?

    In the weeks to follow, each new build of the game includes more features being tested. Such as the infamous political loyalty system, which is affected by how players deal with the campaignˇŻs events. And even new cosmetics that have, hopefully, no real bearing on gameplay. And, a rarity for horror games, loans and insolvency.

    Especially when the game seems to make the angry homeowners more interesting than simply ˇ°I bought a condo, I expect it to be finished, or get money backˇ±. And also dive into the context allowing Evergrande to grow to the size it did. In the end, the game proves very cerebral for a horror game, at least narratively.

    So while the open beta phase seems a little protracted, it was enough for Karine to improve her gameplay skill, especially in the FPS component, and the bugs are fixed as they are found by players. LetˇŻs hope that EvergrandeˇŻs manufacturer wonˇŻt go bankrupt; prolonged beta testing is often a red flag for a game. Also, for some reason, even though most of the story would work just fine without necessarily having to center around Hui Ka Yan, the devs somehow saw fit to change the player character go from being an independent board member to being a stand-in for Hui Ka Yanˇ­

    By then, Karine became known as Miss Bankruptcy among the gameˇŻs community.

    And, to horror game lovers, Evergrande appears to be a breath of fresh air because there doesnˇŻt seem to be that much in the way of what players deem unnecessary, except maybe a system or two but that doesnˇŻt amount to padding the game. The Luoyang unfinished condo tower quickly proves to be a favorite of the player base, in both campaign and multiplayer modes.

    Yet, as she plays and streams the game, Karine canˇŻt help but to think of whether HellˇŻs real estate market, on MAAˇŻs world, will suffer the same fate as the Chinese one.

 Chapter 29 Lord of Cluelessness

    On Taladu, while, at one end of the world, the living are fighting against the demonic invaders, at the other end of the world, in Kaeshana, a territory not held by the living factions at war against Hell, a town hall meeting is held. The residents of a village are gathered with representatives of what appears to be their overlord. As Enno, the Lord of Kaeshana, arrives on a flying carpet, piloted by one of his faithful servants, the residents make way.

    ˇ°Dear residents, this is your overlord. We are in the early stages of planning for the construction of a haunted park. Before we start building the haunted park, we need to hear from the residents!ˇ± Enno announces the people assembled before him.

    The local residents roll their eyes because, to the overlordˇŻs eyes, the very concept of an artificial haunted park appears foreign to them. The first question they ask the overlord is about what a haunted park is all about, what itˇŻs going to be used for, and so on.

    ˇ°Milord, what exactly is a haunted park?ˇ± a resident asked him.

    ˇ°How would our village benefit from a haunted park?ˇ± another concerned resident asks Enno.

    ˇ°With a haunted park, the town will see an increase in travelers, so this means more demand for inn space, a bigger market for wares such as food, medicines, as well as equipment repairs and blacksmithing!ˇ±

    ˇ°If I may, milord, lots of people die at haunted parks all the time! ArenˇŻt these dangerous to run?ˇ± yet another concerned resident asks him.

    ˇ°Yes, I acknowledge the concerns of high mortality rates. And, of course, because of the mortality rates associated with haunted parks, this project also creates opportunities for coffin-makers, grave-makers, chantry priests, chapels and graveyards! We might also be able to send criminals sentenced to death to a trip down a haunted park!ˇ±

    It seems our lord keeps talking about what a haunted park will provide our community, without talking about what it actually isˇ­ a resentful resident is about to have his blood boil.

    ˇ°I never heard about haunted park, and you all kept talking about how a haunted park will benefit the community! What does a haunted park feature that makes one so dangerous?ˇ± that residentˇŻs face turns red after mentions of high mortality rates.

    ˇ°Haunted parks are dangerous because of the ghosts that reside in the parks. Parties running the park must fight ghosts, and often come to haunted parks with loot under the form of gear, recipes or even magical mounts!ˇ± EnnoˇŻs is doing his best to hide his lack of knowledge about the operational side of running a haunted park. ˇ°One thing is for sure: the haunted park wonˇŻt open for a whileˇ±

    But then Enno is bombarded with questions about the cost of building a haunted park, as well as how long building it could take. There are just things I unfortunately donˇŻt know about. ItˇŻs now that I realize I have a long way to go before this haunted park becomes operational.

    ˇ°Unfortunately, at this time, I cannot give a reliable estimate of costs, nor a timetable for when a haunted park can be built. ItˇŻs premature to even think that there will be a haunted park at all, weˇŻre just at the exploratory stage!ˇ± Enno, forced to confront his lack of knowledge of the business side of haunted parks, is driven away from the meeting by the mob throwing stones in his direction.

    With more stones being thrown on his back, Enno has no choice but to make a mad dash towards his flying carpet, realizing that he has no financing structure, nor plans or even concept of what his haunted park proposal will entail, only its impacts on the local community. He feels increasing amounts of pain for each stone being hurled in his direction, and flies away from the town, high enough to evade any further rocks being thrown his way.

    Once EnnoˇŻs carpet is out of rock-throwing range from the village, its residents are left wondering whether the logistics of building and running a haunted park has crossed his mind.

    ˇ°Our lord is selling us chimeras he canˇŻt deliver!ˇ± one of the angry villagers yells at the carpet, flying in the distance.

    ˇ°Maybe if the money to build the haunted park didnˇŻt come from the taxes we pay him, we might be more inclined to accept itˇ± another angry villager might be wondering how much the haunted park will cost to build, not knowing what affects the haunted parkˇŻs construction cost.

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    ˇ°Yet, Enno said it so himself that he doesnˇŻt expect there to be a haunted park for a while. The main question is: where does the stuff looted in haunted parks come from? He seems to be implying that the only real expenses of running a haunted park are the loot!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, where is the money to pay for a haunted parkˇŻs supply of loot coming from?ˇ±

    ˇ°He thinks levying taxes on graves, caskets and funerals will be enough to pay for the loot and the upkeep of a haunted park! IˇŻm sure Enno hasnˇŻt thought the whole thing through!ˇ± yet another villager seems to lose confidence in Enno as a lord.

    ˇ°HeˇŻd better get the haunted park built!ˇ± another villager yells, fist clenched in the air.

    Upon returning to his palace in Kaeshana, Enno realizes that he needs help to get his haunted park built. And more specifically, the economics and logistics of building and operating a haunted park. He has his herald, Bryzax, in his palaceˇŻs great room:

    ˇ°Milord, you seem a little troubled. What is it?ˇ± Bryzax asks him.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs about this haunted park project. I floated the rumor around but unless I can plan the haunted park properly, IˇŻm afraid that the public will see through this fa?ade!ˇ± Enno starts crying, knowing that a haunted park is a risky project on so many counts. ˇ°I donˇŻt want to lose face among the population! I must get the haunted park built before I die!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you need help with?ˇ±

    ˇ°Estimating the costs of building a haunted park, as well as the operating costs!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, you had other public works projects started, such as monasteries and roads! How is a haunted park different from a monastery?ˇ±

    ˇ°I know only that loot isnˇŻt free, and the other people whom I know were of use to estimate the costs of these things told me to get the design of the park finalized beforehand! Because of that, I wonder how much it would cost to get some help to design a haunted parkˇ±

    ˇ°That, IˇŻm afraid, will depend on whom you get help from. But I guess, better get help now before you make decisions you might regret!ˇ±

    ˇ°Ideally, I want help from someone who went to a variety of haunted parks to design oneˇ±

    ˇ°In what capacity?ˇ± Bryzax asks him, a little concerned about how Enno will get help.

    ˇ°Customer experience. It would be almost impossible to get someone who designed more than one haunted park, so someone who went to more than one might be more realistic, but still not freeˇ±

    ˇ°If I may, milord, veterans of haunted parks come in several varieties. Do you have any preferences in which capacity?ˇ±

    ˇ°Not really, all types of users can contribute to what I wantˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻd say that you should tour taverns or inns by night. Often retired or inactive adventurers tour the land as troubadours, in hopes of earning a bit of coin!ˇ±

    Noted: experience of haunted parks as a user, the herald scribbles notes on his tablet using chalk before taking his broom to tour taverns and inns of his land.

    ˇ°Bryzax, where are you going?ˇ± Enno asks his herald about his plans, as he departs the palaceˇŻs great room.

    ˇ°Why?ˇ± Bryzax yells at his lord.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt want us to do the same work twice!ˇ±

    ˇ°Just try your hands with rental healers! People often rent healers for adventuring!ˇ±

    At the same time, Enno wonders what kind of inactive adventurer or mercenary would tour the world in search of haunted parks to obtain gear, or recipes to craft it. Or, at the suggestion of Bryzax, look for rental healers.

    I must get help to design my haunted park! I can already feel like the population is hostile to me over this haunted park because I had no real timetable or financing plan! Enno ruminates while he ponders where he could get a rental healer that has some experience of haunted parks. Our own resident healer, Yutolio, while good at healing household ailments, or maybe even battlefield injuries, served Kaeshana on retinue for his entire career, and never went to a haunted park! Unfortunately, Yutolio is not viable for that purpose.

    After that, he prepares his purse and then go to KaeshanaˇŻs main square, where he hopes to find a rental healer willing to help him.

    Upon arriving at KaeshanaˇŻs main square, Enno starts yelling about how he seems to need to rent a healer, while Bryzax is busy at an inn whom he knows is popular among road-weary travelers.

    ˇ°I need a healer! NOW!ˇ± Enno yells across the town square, with the people in the main square being concerned about EnnoˇŻs well-being, and yelp when they see their lord being in poor condition.

    ˇ°Why?ˇ± a bystander asks him, wondering how Enno even came to be in this condition. ˇ°Are you crazy?ˇ±

    ˇ°Our resident healer on retinue is only able to heal physical ailments! I need help not available at the palace!ˇ±

    About time our lord left his palace! It seems like staying in the palace, while safe, is not good for him! A bystander muses while he hasnˇŻt seen Enno leave the palace in a while. IˇŻm not sure whether going crazy out in the open will lead him to get some help.

    Bryzax, being in an inn, gets out of the inn to fetch his lord. ˇ°I heard everything, milord. It seems like you have gotten crazy latelyˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°What lead do you have, Bryzax?ˇ± Enno is about to lose patience towards his herald.

    ˇ°Milord, in the future, if you need rental healers, there are two places you should look: religious buildings if you are ok with faith-based healing, inns if you prefer anything other than faith to heal you!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm not picky, just get me to the nearest rental healer that can help me!ˇ± EnnoˇŻs blood is about to boil.

 Chapter 30: Crash Course in Haunted Parks

    Bryzax then takes Enno through the cobbled streets of Kaeshana, wide enough for one wagon in each direction, and leads him to an inn, whose ground floor is mostly used to eat and drink.

    ˇ°I heard it all: our lord going crazy to the point of yelling for help in the open! Bryzax went looking for help, a rental healer who could cure madness of the kind our lord is suffering!ˇ± the innkeeper comments on what happened outside. ˇ°Milord, youˇŻre clueless about that aspect of the outside world: you were always pampered in the palace, with attendants catering to your every need!ˇ±

    ˇ°It just so happens that even my servants cannot do everything!ˇ± Enno tells the innkeeper with a tone of voice indicating distress.

    I shouldnˇŻt mention haunted parks to anyone until I can actually meet with the rental healer, Enno ruminates while the innkeeper rummages through his mental list of rental healers for whoever could help Enno get back to health. At least to the innkeeperˇŻs eyes.

    ˇ°May I suggestˇ­ Saronium?ˇ± the innkeeper suggests to the two men. ˇ°She might be a little expensive, thoughˇ±

    ˇ°How much does she charge?ˇ± Enno asks, worried that the price will balloon if his condition deteriorates.

    ˇ°It starts at fifty goldˇ±

    For 50 gold, my guess is that heˇŻs going to have only a consultation, Bryzax muses upon hearing the start of the price schedule. Any actual care will cost him more than that. Also, I wonder how she goes around healing.

    ˇ°How does she go about healing?ˇ± Bryzax asks the innkeeper. ˇ°Is she a witch, a dancer or does she use another method?ˇ±

    ˇ°Beggars canˇŻt be choosers, sheˇŻs a life witch. Now, it seems like Saronium is here tonight!ˇ±

    Often, at inns like this one, inn patrons go down and not only eat, but also listen to tales of the more adventurous. I guess, because a lot of people mostly stay in one place, as I did, listening to the tales of a traveling adventurer will be a welcome change from the palaceˇŻs entertainment. Which is mostly centered around the jester and the musicians, Enno then moves to the counter where the barman is.

    ˇ°I never came here before, so what do you have to drink?ˇ± Enno asks the barman.

    ˇ°Milord, we have lager, mead and wineˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻd rather have bread and cheese firstˇ± a hungry Enno orders out of what he believes is courtesy.

    So it seems like Enno is served a slice of cheese on top of a much bigger slice of bread, almost plate-sized; however, the slice of bread is a little thin.

    Meanwhile, Bryzax, realizing that the innˇŻs selection of food is a little limited, also ends up ordering bread and cheese.

    But Saronium begins her story for the night, about how she was there when she ran a haunted park in Upper Perseria and saw the ghosts start requesting justice for what happened in Lower Perseria.

    ˇ°Perseria must be a wealthy city to be able to afford more than one haunted park!ˇ± Enno comments about how much he feels it would have cost Perseria to build even Upper Perseria as a haunted park.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs Perseria really like?ˇ± an inn patron asks Saronium.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs pretty far away from here, in the desert, and the upper city is more magnificent than the lower city. However, I fled the city before it went on lockdown because the city was on the verge of revolt!ˇ±

    Enno feels like itˇŻs a good idea to get up to speed with the haunted park situation in Perseria. Obviously, Perseria would have information on what costs go into building a haunted park! However, Saronium is implying thatˇŻs a dangerous city, so not sure itˇŻs a good idea to travel all the way to Perseria, or have Bryzax do so, to get some more design and accounting information about the construction of PerseriaˇŻs haunted parks!

    And then, Saronium talks about how many attempted to brave the dangers of the haunted parks and died trying.

    ˇ°People often talk about how haunted parks came with a high mortality rate, but is the mortality rate due to careless adventuring or to poor maintenance?ˇ± Bryzax asks the rental healer, relaying his concerns.

    ˇ°Last I heard about the Perserian civil war, the rebels were complaining about how the haunted park ordinances werenˇŻt enforced and how the ghosts terrorized the population!ˇ± SaroniumˇŻs face starts turning red as she feels like the innˇŻs patrons are asking questions that make her uncomfortable.

    Saronium makes me uncomfortable about the prospect of ghosts turning amok around a haunted park. Maybe the townsfolk are right, there shouldnˇŻt be a haunted park. But part of myself doesnˇŻt want to give up on building a haunted park until I know the full picture, Enno realizes that ghosts running around a place might not be in the residentsˇŻ best interests. If I am to scrap the haunted parkˇ­

    Nevertheless, Saronium talks about another adventure taking place in haunted parks, this time in a different park. The innˇŻs patrons appear to be more impressed with the locales of these parks than with the adventures.

    ˇ°A haunted park in a swamp? Were the parkˇŻs operators cheapskates?ˇ± Enno yelps upon hearing about Saronium trekking through a swampy haunted park.

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    ˇ°ItˇŻs the first time in my life that I ever heard anyone assume that building a haunted park in a swamp is cheaper!ˇ± Saronium yelps, and she turns to Enno. ˇ°Are you crazy?ˇ±

    ˇ°Now that youˇŻre mentioning it, I might be. But I cannot say for sureˇ± Enno tells her, a little concerned about his health.

    ˇ°People never talked about the costs of building and operating a haunted park! All that people seemed to talk about were the dangers of going into one, their loot, what the park is and looks like, as well as tips that can help adventurers looking to go through one!ˇ± Saronium seems to be increasingly unpleasant towards Enno. ˇ°For a while, you kept talking about haunted parks, but adventurers typically make the distinction between types of haunted parks!ˇ±

    ˇ°What distinguishes haunted parks between each other?ˇ± Bryzax asks the rental healer.

    ˇ°For starters, adventurers usually distinguish between dungeons and raids, as well as between single and multi-boss parks. Dungeons are usually run with up to five adventurers, while raids require twice as manyˇ±

    ˇ°What are haunted park bosses anyway?ˇ± a patron asks her, trying to clear up confusion.

    Saronium kept talking about big monsters, such as the giant garuda at the end of Upper Perseria, so are these big monsters, well, the bosses she just mentioned? Bryzax ponders while a lot of the innˇŻs patrons finally realize that bosses guard the loot chests. And they start thinking about the risk-reward analysis of going through a haunted park.

    ˇ°Do people approach each type of haunted park differently?ˇ± another patron asks her.

    ˇ°Definitely. People tend to be more risk-averse around raids, especially at higher levels, and dungeons are perceived as comparatively easier on average, and its loot is perceived as being less valuableˇ±

    Enno then prepares fifty gold so that he can have a consultation with Saronium in her inn room. Which simply contains a bed. However, his consultation seems not to be forthcoming since patrons bombard her with questions about her history of running haunted parks.

    Once in SaroniumˇŻs room, Enno gives the 50 gold for the initial consultation he obtains with her. This better be good, especially since I know nothing about the rental healing world.

    ˇ°Milord, what makes you think that you have gone crazy?ˇ± Saronium asks Enno, finally realizing that heˇŻs the lord of the city.

    ˇ°It seems like, in the past few days, I suddenly had this idea that building a haunted park would be of benefit for my land. However, in the excitement of the idea of building a haunted park, I tried to sell the idea of one to my residents, on economic development grounds, but without a clear timetable and financing schedule, I am going to lose face to the eyes of my residents!ˇ±

    ˇ°Remember what I told people about the Perserian failure to implement its own haunted park safety ordinances! YouˇŻre the first person I ever met that even treated a haunted park as a mercantile endeavor!ˇ±

    ˇ°Maybe because most adventurers you came across are of common extraction, owning a haunted park might not have crossed their minds!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, you might be crazy, but you think the Caladon Bog, as a haunted park in the swamp, was built on the cheap? You touted economic benefits to the residents, but the economic benefits of haunted parks of any size require some infrastructure to be realized!ˇ±

    ˇ°Like an inn, a set of workshops which, jointly, would be able to handle repairs to the gear, which I believe would be privately funded. However, chapels, graveyards and roads are definitely public property! I guess, the best locations to build a haunted park in would already have preexisting infrastructure, which is perhaps why Perseria has two haunted parks within its walls!ˇ±

    ˇ°If anything, Perseria is the cheapskate faction of the haunted park world, not the Caladon Bog operators!ˇ±

    Saronium might be a rental healer who went to a variety of haunted parks around the world, but I didnˇŻt expect her to know about that aspect of statecraft! Definitely the best 50 gold I spent in my life! Enno muses.

    ˇ°But I feel like youˇŻre due for a trip to a haunted park! That ought to set things straight about what it really means to run one! Right now, you seem to treat a haunted park as a purely economic endeavor!ˇ± the rental healer scolds her lord.

    ˇ°And how would actually experiencing a haunted park make me a better haunted park operator?ˇ±

    ˇ°You want to build a haunted park, you should consider not only the loss of appeal factor, but also the adventurer experience, if that makes senseˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, I must consider the adventurer experience?ˇ±

    ˇ°At their core, haunted parks are theme parks. People wonˇŻt necessarily come back to a haunted park if the rewards were worthless, or if the combat aspect of running a haunted park is unpleasant to the adventurers! Some of the more highbrow adventurers also look at the story of the park, too! What experience of running haunted parks do you have?ˇ±

    ˇ°Noneˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs clear to me! Also, fighting in the open world just isnˇŻt the same as in a haunted park! Speaking of open world fighting, what are you best at in battle?ˇ±

    ˇ°I use a magical hunting carbine in battleˇ±

    ˇ°It will have to do. Also, I wonder whether your herald can fight, tooˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs not even a question; my herald wields a sword and shield in battle, wearing a plate armor with the tabard on top of it! Also, how far away from here is the Caladon Bog on a flying carpet? I can take my herald, you and me to the Caladon Bog on my flying carpet!ˇ±

    ˇ°That will cost you extra, milordˇ±

    Often, that kind of adventuring dilettante wanted a rental healer for something far less savory, and out of combat, than simply the provision of medical services! Which is why some girls of common extraction tried their hands at rental healing: the lure of what some of them feel is easy money, but itˇŻs actually anything but. As a rental healer, you will get blamed often when things go wrong in a dungeon or raid, unless someone else is clearly at fault, Saronium muses while she tries to calculate the potential range of the final price of making the two go to the Caladon Bog with her.

    ˇ°How much extra are we talking?ˇ± Enno asks her.

    ˇ°Also, when are you available?ˇ± Saronium sends the question back to him.

    ˇ°Is there a date that will work for you? Does a certain date come with a certain discount? I will need to confer with my herald; I plan on bringing my herald to the Caladon Bog, tooˇ±

    I wonder what I got into, but if this rental healer feels like the treatment requires a trip to a haunted park, so be it, Enno feels like there could be some sort of discount for advance booking, but at the same time, he feels like thereˇŻs a catch. However, Saronium is the kind of rental healer whom I can feel has much more offer than just medicine! He then steps out of SaroniumˇŻs room, and back with his herald.

    ˇ°Bryzax, I wonder when you can go with me run a haunted parkˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Any time for you, milord, so long as it can avoid you making an expensive mistake that might bankrupt Kaeshana!ˇ± Bryzax tells him.

    Enno seemed to have charmed Saronium into helping him build this haunted parkˇ­ but at what price? Bryzax muses while Enno returns to SaroniumˇŻs room.

    ˇ°The earlier, the better; delaying the construction too much will make this project more expensive than it should!ˇ± he answers the previous question of the rental healer.

    ˇ°In two days then, and this will run two thousand goldˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻll pay in two days, before we leaveˇ±

 Chapter 31: Fear Mongering

    The following morning, Enno has questions about what Bryzax told him last night about the costs of building and running a haunted park.

    ˇ°You mentioned that a haunted park can bankrupt Kaeshana. Yet, Saronium said that Perseria was the cheapskate faction of the haunted park world. I canˇŻt make heads of what could cause the land to go bankrupt because of a haunted park!ˇ± Enno whines at his herald.

    ˇ°But, milord, you were the one saying that building a haunted park in the swamp was cheaper last night!ˇ± Bryzax retorts.

    ˇ°What did I hear?ˇ± Yutolio asks both men. ˇ°Who is Saronium?ˇ±

    ˇ°I want to build Kaeshana a haunted park. However, I know I want Kaeshana to reap the benefits of the haunted park without making the population suffer!ˇ± Enno turns to Yutolio. ˇ°As for Saronium, sheˇŻs the healer I rented because I feel like I am going crazyˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°What makes me feel like youˇŻre crazy is that you seemingly treat haunted park ownership as a symbol of status among the factions of this world!ˇ± Yutolio retorts. ˇ°And then Saronium claims that Perseria was the cheapskate faction of the world of haunted park operators?ˇ±

    ˇ°Saronium has experience of haunted parks, high and low, big and small. Perseria was seemingly able to get two haunted parks built because it already had the infrastructure to service both, and nothing extra needed to be built for it!ˇ±

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs no question, infrastructure is a major cost of getting a haunted park built!ˇ± Bryzax adds.

    So there are two kinds of structural costs: the costs incurred to build the park itself and the costs incurred to build the infrastructure around it, and ideally I should try to minimize both, Enno is left wondering what costs are incurred for what makes a haunted park, well, haunted. And other design costs, tooˇ­ ThereˇŻs just so much I donˇŻt know about the haunted park business!

    ˇ°If I may, I need to go to the shooting range: tomorrow, I will hit the road and go to a haunted park myself!ˇ± Enno warns his retainers before going to the armory.

    ˇ°And then I will need to practice swordplay someˇ± Bryzax then follows his lord to the armory to get his training gear in order.

    While Bryzax spars with a wooden sword and shield, but without armor, Enno, on the other hand, goes out to the firing range and practices rapid firing of a hunting carbine. ItˇŻs then that he realizes that, even though the ammunition is magical, the only difference between regular ammo and magical ammo is that he doesnˇŻt need to reload the weapon.

    I wonder if our lord is interested in Saronium because of her expertise in haunted parks or for some reason unrelated to haunted parks or medicine! Yutolio is left wondering about his liege lordˇŻs motives for renting her.

    ˇ°Milord, I am a little concerned about this entire enterprise of getting Kaeshana a haunted park! Bryzax told me about what can go wrong with running a haunted park!ˇ± Yutolio scolds him between rapid-firing drills. ˇ°Are you ready to face a revolt if the haunted park doesnˇŻt work?ˇ±

    ˇ°I feel like I will have to face a revolt if I donˇŻt get the haunted park built!ˇ±

    ˇ°Are you sure you can afford to prevent the Perserian problems from occurring?ˇ±

    ˇ°The Perserian problems happened because of, yes, lack of enforcement of haunted park ordinances, but these were made far worse by choosing to build haunted parks in the middle of a densely populated city! This means that the haunted park must be built in an area with a nearby road, but away from any major town!ˇ±

    Ideally, a haunted park would be built in a dying village or an abandoned estate; the risks of malfunction-induced revolts are much lower. Or at least the damage one such revolt can potentially cause, Enno now has a better idea for where to build the haunted park he promised his people.

    ˇ°Even if you built a haunted park in an area with preexisting road access, do you have any idea of how expensive haunted parks are to maintain?ˇ± Yutolio yells at his lord, annoyed by his lack of consideration for the public safety concerns harbored by the residents.

    ˇ°No. This is not the sort of information any haunted park operator would openly release! No more than they would release haunted parksˇŻ maintenance schedules to the public! But this I vow! If I ever get the haunted park built, I will release an annual income statement for the park, as well as breaking down its operating expenses! Now, if you could excuse me, I need to practice rapid-fire marksmanship!ˇ±

    Yutolio, tired of this fruitless discussion, lets his lord practice rapid-fire marksmanship with an instructor from the cityˇŻs garrison.

    Speaking of the marksmanship instructor, he notices that Enno is making some progress by the end of the morning during which he trained. He might be wondering why he feels the need to practice rapid-fire marksmanship.

    ˇ°Milord, why do you feel the need to practice rapid-fire marksmanship?ˇ± the instructor asks him, after the drills end.

    ˇ°IsnˇŻt it obvious? ItˇŻs about self-defense, and if I need to take the field!ˇ±

    Phew: I donˇŻt think itˇŻs a good idea to tell him about this whole haunted park project, Enno ruminates while Bryzax returns from a sparring session with another knight of the palace guard.

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    ˇ°I think I have an idea to appease the tensions about the haunted park: host a first-blood tournament with champions of dying villages and estates, in a fortnight, to be held in the cityˇŻs tournament grounds! The winning community will then be awarded the haunted park!ˇ± Enno suggests to Bryzax. ˇ°I trust you can maintain the integrity of the tournament!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, milord!ˇ±

    ˇ°And all the tax money levied specifically at this tournament will be put into a special fund for the construction of the haunted park!ˇ± Enno adds this proviso.

    ˇ°Milord, even with this source of financing, we are not any closer to determining how much the construction of the haunted park will cost! Just because you feel like building it in a dying village or an abandoned estate might be a cost-saving measure, doesnˇŻt mean it actually will!ˇ± Bryzax warns him.

    ˇ°Why is it that everyone here seems to turn against me and my dreams to build a haunted park and bring prestige to Kaeshana? A haunted park is no different from a monument from a prestige standpoint, no matter what the monument is used for! The population, Yutolio and now you!ˇ± Enno yells at his herald. ˇ°Fly out and announce the tournament to the communities that can realistically host the haunted park! Now!ˇ±

    ˇ°All right, milord, you winˇ­ but do you agree to abide by the tournamentˇŻs results?ˇ± BryzaxˇŻs face starts to turn red.

    ˇ°Yes, sir, itˇŻs the only way I can even begin to earn back the trust of KaeshanaˇŻs population!ˇ± Enno keeps screaming, as Bryzax returns to his quarters to fly around the land.

    Saronium must be the only person left in the land to actually believe in this haunted park project! Did I announce the project prematurely to the population? Looks like I am betting my lordship on this project, I may as well go all-in and do everything in my power to get the haunted park built! Enno ruminates as he tends to his other affairs. Maybe IˇŻll understand what Saronium means when she talks about the adventurer experience, if and after I go through the Caladon Bog!

    BryzaxˇŻs flight path takes him through locales containing potential settings such as abandoned mines, sawmills, quarries, monasteries and mansions. Desperate communities betting their futures on one tournament, in hopes that landing the haunted park will bring them to their former glory, whatever that meant.

    And yet, being at the site selection stage of the project is better news for the people living in these areas than simply announcing there will be a haunted park without any timeframe or financing in place. It will be hard to pick just one location for a haunted park without thisˇ­ tournament! Bryzax sighs, while two people vying to become their villageˇŻs designated champion approach him with questions. I donˇŻt think Enno playing favorites will help him recover any kind of trust among the population; he seems to care about that aspect of staying in power.

    ˇ°The grand prize of winning this tournament is our community being awarded the haunted park? Has our lord become a jester?ˇ± a possible champion designate asks Bryzax.

    ˇ°Yes!ˇ± Bryzax answers.

    ˇ°This is definitely the most bizarre prize ever given out at a tournament! Often tournament organizers gave out jewels, clothes, mounts or gear, or some combination of these things as prizes!ˇ± the other potential champion designate tells Bryzax, rolling his eyes. ˇ°But if thatˇŻs what our lord found as a way to go forward with the haunted park projectˇ­ˇ±

    Speaking of their lord, Enno is wondering when will Bryzax come back because he already ate dinner without him, and is about to go to bed. I hope Bryzax knows what heˇŻs doing; the dominion is vast enough to have a few entrants.

    Bryzax returns to the palace as Enno is about to go to bed. However, he has his own business to tend to, and so doesnˇŻt notice that his lordˇŻs sleep is about to get troubled.

    <hr>

    And then, as the tournament is about to begin, before the champions designated by the communities they represent could be introduced to the attendance, an angry mob showed up outside the cityˇŻs tournament grounds.

    ˇ°No haunted parks!ˇ± protesters started chanting with pitchforks and torches on hand.

    ˇ°Down with Enno! Down with the haunted parks!ˇ± another protester is about to throw the pitchfork his way.

    The pitchfork hit Enno, causing him to bleed. He was carried off the tournament grounds, unable to attend the tourney he organized so that he could designate the community that would become KaeshanaˇŻs haunted park.

    ˇ°Hold him in custody until the grand opening of the haunted park!ˇ± Enno ordered the guards to arrest the person who threw the pitchfork at Enno.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre under arrest for aggravated assault! You have the right to remain silent, and anything you might say may be held against you!ˇ± the guards told the protester.

    ˇ°Seize the property of this criminal! Sell it off, and throw him into the haunted park once it opens!ˇ±

    Is this how I am going to pay for the construction of the haunted park? Seizing the property of anti-park criminals and then sell their property off? Is that how other factions paid for the construction of their haunted parks? I have no clue how much park-grade ghosts cost, Enno ruminated, knowing that the haunted park was a political hot potato at best. Will there be more attempts on my life, at least until the haunted park opens?

    <hr>

    When Enno awakens, he is reminded of the political risks heˇŻs taking internally. Most people who have even heard of this entire haunted park fiasco have no reason to travel any further than the nearest market town, and they tended to stay inside the dominion. Therefore, I donˇŻt expect any non-Kaeshanian to have heard of it unless... Saronium spoiled everything today to the rest of the world!

    ˇ°Curse you, Saronium!ˇ± Enno yells in the middle of the night. ˇ°Why did you do this to me? Why did you tell me about how poor haunted park maintenance can lead to war? She was the only one in Kaeshana who knew about haunted parks at a level appropriate to build one! And yet, she still believes in this haunted park!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, she had no real reason to lie to you!ˇ± EnnoˇŻs cook, Concetta, tells him, awakened by his yells.

    ˇ°Never did I accuse her of lying. But is she a fear-monger? Is it common for haunted park experts to discourage people from building new parks?ˇ± Enno asks her.

    ˇ°By now you know Kaeshana doesnˇŻt attract a whole lot of people with any real experience of haunted parks in any capacity!ˇ± Concetta points out.

    ˇ°Maybe Saronium should become the parkˇŻs steward upon its completion!ˇ± Enno tells Concetta before she returns to her bed.

    I am not going to mince words, being told about how Saronium was a Perserian refugee last night sends a shiver down my spine. Especially after telling inn patrons about how a few hundred ghosts could terrorize one of the biggest cities in the haunted park world! Enno struggles to fall asleep, even rolling in his bed, while Concetta did nothing to allay his fears.

    The following morning, it seems like everyone in the palace has noticed that something is amiss with Enno; he has dark circles under the eyes.

    Meanwhile, at the palaceˇŻs main gates, the sentry is dealing with an early bird woman.

    ˇ°Halt! State your name and business!ˇ± the sentry asks her.

    ˇ°Saronium. Your lord is in need of treatment for his madness and today is his second doseˇ±

 Chapter 32: Caladon Bog

    It doesnˇŻt take long for Enno to realize that Saronium has arrived, and he hurriedly takes up his hunting clothing along with his magical carbine. When he meets up with Bryzax on his way out of the armoryˇ­

    ˇ°Saronium is here! Get your gear in order and weˇŻll leave for the Caladon Bog!ˇ± Enno orders his herald as he reaches for his purse, making sure that he actually has the 2,000 gold on hand.

    While Enno is busy counting the 2,000 gold from his purse, Bryzax is putting on his armor and a tabard on top of that.

    Once they are finished, Enno prepares his flying carpet for the trip to the Caladon Bog. When they are some distance away:

    ˇ°How glad am I to see you again, Saronium. It seems like everyone and their dogs in my palace paint you as a fear-monger, even though you were honest about the role of haunted park maintenance failures in driving Perseria to war!ˇ± Enno confides in the rental healer.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs an absurd accusation! I just wanted Your Lordship to understand the risks of running a haunted park in ways thatˇŻs relevant to himˇ± Saronium answers him.

    ˇ°What should I expect out of going to a haunted park?ˇ± Bryzax asks her. ˇ°Other than ghosts being out to kill meˇ±

    ˇ°First off, the basics of haunted park etiquette. Because youˇŻre new to haunted parks, you ought to say that youˇŻre new to a haunted park at the start. Secondly, it is common courtesy to wait until everyone is in a boss room before pulling a bossˇ±

    ˇ°Pulling? What does pulling a boss mean in a haunted park?ˇ± a confused Bryzax asks her.

    ˇ°Also, what would telling other people doing a haunted park with us that weˇŻre new to it mean to them?ˇ± Enno asks, shaking his head.

    ˇ°Veterans of haunted parks will be more patient with you if you say youˇŻre new to it. They will explain the mechanics of each boss accordingly, more often than notˇ±

    ˇ°Mechanics?ˇ± Enno asks, realizing there is a specialized lexicon that every would-be haunted park entrepreneur must be familiar with.

    ˇ°Mechanics are simply special abilities. Most often associated with bosses, but sometimes ghosts between bosses, often called trash by those in the haunted park world, might have one. Some haunted park aficionados claim certain parks have no mechanics, or at least not in certain difficulties, even though, strictly speaking, itˇŻs not trueˇ±

    ˇ°Difficulties?ˇ± Bryzax asks the rental healer, rolling his eyes.

    The two then listen to Saronium talk about what difficulties mean in the context of which types of haunted parks.

    As they arrive at the Caladon Bog, he realizes that the area around the Bog is a little desolate and much of the village built around it specifically to accommodate the needs of the haunted park appears to be made of timber.

    When they get near the parkˇŻs entrance, the two realizes the portico has as many as eight queues, but two queues seem to be much longer than the other six.

    ˇ°Why is it that these two queues are longer than the other six?ˇ± Bryzax asks his lordˇŻs guest.

    ˇ°They are, what we call in haunted park-speak, DPS queuesˇ± Saronium then explains what it means to be a tank or DPS, because they know where a healer fits in a haunted park, and why there are so many more DPS compared to the other two roles.

    ˇ°I guess, I need to get into a DPS queueˇ± Enno sighs.

    ˇ°It might sound a little ridiculous to you, but get into the brutal DPS queue. I might be able to take Bryzax and three DPS through a brutal run of the Bog before you even get into itˇ±

    I ran that haunted park dozens of times. I could tell Bryzax what to do just fine, Saronium thinks about how she feels towards running the park as the two enter the park.

    As his two servants of the day are running through the park, he is left wondering how he even heard about haunted parks to begin with. Wracked by doubt, he starts ruminating as he waits for his two servants along a slow-moving line. Why am I doing this? Did I put too much weight on the faction-wide benefits of haunted parks? I donˇŻt remember very clearly how I first heard about haunted parks, maybe from a traveling jester or merchant. More likely a traveling jester.

    A while later, Enno finds himself getting closer to the entrance to the park, as the people in the BogˇŻs brutal DPS queue enter the park, but neither Saronium nor Bryzax are anywhere to be found. He overhears frustrated DPS ahead of him in the queue clamoring for entry, out of frustration.

    Over an hour after Enno entered the brutal DPS queue (only brutal and fatal queues were subdivided into 3; solo and normal queues are role-agnostic), he finally gets to be the first in line for entry. He crosses his fingers, hoping that Bryzax and Saronium are back.

    ˇ°Now, Bryzax, the tank queue is empty!ˇ± Saronium pushes Bryzax to get to the brutal tank queue while she does the same for the healer one, his tabard being torn in a few areas.

    The pair dash to the entrance of the dungeon, in empty queues, as if they sprint in two lanes. When they get to Enno, near the entrance portico:

    ˇ°Finally, youˇŻre both back! What took you two so long?ˇ± Enno asks the pair, stopping just before they step into the portico.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs a first time for everything, and certainly for me, and thereˇŻs this new cuirass that somehow came with a magical back chest. It took me a while to change my cuirass!ˇ± Bryzax tells him about his first trip through the park.

    Hopefully I might get one, tooˇ­ a magical back chest I mean, Enno sighs as he enters the portico with his servants, and two more DPS: an axe-wielding arcanist and Mijanou, a saber-wielding dancer. As soon as the DPS enter the portico:

    ˇ°Please be patient with me, IˇŻm new to this dungeon!ˇ± Enno pleads with the other two DPS.

    The two DPS nod, and their run through the Caladon Bog begins. The eerie atmosphere of the swamp they tramp through makes Enno feel uneasy, but only seems to amplify the feeling like the ghosts of the park are out for them.

    But it doesnˇŻt take long for Enno to notice that shiny red dots are blinking out of nowhere. And donˇŻt stay blinking for very long. However, the axe-wielding arcanist flees like hell when these flickering red dots start being accompanied by creepy noises.

    As Enno starts shaking and sweating, the banshees start chasing the adventurers as the fog thickens. So much so that the arcanist is running around the swamp like a headless chicken.

    I must do something, quick! Dark thoughts seem to consume Enno as banshees close in on him, making his palms sweaty. And even his own trigger finger, causing him to fire the hunting carbine more erratically than he would like.

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    The first shot only grazed one banshee on its lower body at point-blank, while the second shot narrowly misses and hits the muddy soil. But a hurt banshee screeches in pain, causing the other banshees in EnnoˇŻs general area to chase him around.

    And hopefully cause him to fall over on that very muddy ground, because the banshees hope EnnoˇŻs ears, along with the other adventurersˇŻ, break from the loudness of their screeches.

    Yet, this creates an opportunity for the arcanist, who is sent running all over the place because these very screeches disoriented him up to this point. It makes the bansheesˇŻ locations clear to him. Or at least clear enough for him to cast Contamination and Affliction, damage-over-time spells. And then Contagion, which causes the magic to spread to nearby banshees. Those hit by the spells keep chasing the arcanist around.

    But at the same time, that banshee hurt in pain from EnnoˇŻs first shot warps to his position, kicking him into the ground. As heˇŻs about to lie flat in the mud, he fires another shot just as the banshee is about to stab him. Between two dying trees.

    ˇ°Always be... casting!ˇ± the banshee yelled at him, in a creepy tone, before the shot at point-blank caused it to vanish before his eyes.

    ˇ°Come on! YouˇŻre not supposed to stand here, nor flee, and be scared!ˇ± Mijanou tells him as another banshee jumps at her.

    Damn it! I lost aggro on this blob of banshees! Bryzax realizes that the arcanist pulling mobs, as many of these as he can get, makes him afraid that the arcanist will die before the banshees will. Or other swamp monsters will kill him, really.

    Speaking of swamp monsters, Enno gets back up, and uses the commotion caused by Mijanou to try to find his way back to his servants. Where are my servants? Enno wonders while he runs into a different kind of monster with a snake-like lower body. And fires at the creature lurking between trees. Twice.

    ˇ°Saronium! Sa! Ro! Nium!ˇ± Enno keeps yelling, in hopes that she can locate him.

    Yet, as he fires a third shot at a wounded monster, a banshee rushes to the monsterˇŻs aid. The banshee casts a spell on him, hoping to disorient him. A sweating Enno attempts to dodge the spell by making a sharp right turn, and hoping it hits a dying tree instead of him.

    But when the spell narrowly clears the dying tree, the pink magic bolt pursues him across the mangrove. As the spell is about to catch him, he starts hearing the screech of yet more banshees, unsettling the lord.

    He went within range of some more of these banshees, but repeatedly hearing these ghosts screech gives him headaches. Nevertheless, he fires in the direction of the banshee that breathed down his neck as that creature entered his line of sight.

    Andˇ­ the pink bolt hits him in the neck. Now he can no longer see the swamp properly. so rather than seeing trees and other swamp vegetation, heˇŻs seeingˇ­ torture instruments.

    ˇ°Eeek!ˇ± a delusional Enno yells, while torture instruments are flying everywhere around him, albeit as hallucinations.

    Feeling like these flying torture instruments are out to grab him, he shoots at every such implement he can get a line of sight on, in hopes that these implements are actually banshees or some other variety of ghosts in monster form.

    In his bewitched state, he shoots at a much faster rate than he did thus far in the park, but not always the most accurately.

    To the likes of the others in the party, like Bryzax, it looks like Enno has finally started to pull a bigger share of the partyˇŻs weight in clearing the swampˇŻs trash. Especially since he hears more gunshots being fired. Finally, my liege has started to shoot at these pesky banshees the arcanist ran around like a headless chicken to pull!

    But if the others in the party appear delighted by the ghosts being taken out, Enno, on the other hand, still feels like, as the torture instruments are shot down, or destroyed, their delusional shards threaten to hurt him as they fall from the foggy sky.

    In his lordˇŻs mind, one by one, metal shards fall, forcing him to dodge, as he believes broken shards of torture instruments to be dangerous. However, what appears to be a broken rack and pinion hits him on the headˇ­

    ˇ°Ouchˇ­ am Iˇ­ bleeding?ˇ± Enno touches a cut to his forehead inflicted by what he feels is a broken rack and pinion, but the cut appears inconsistent with such.

    And then he stops seeing illusory torture instruments as practice targets, so he runs around this section of the park looking for Saronium to patch him up. And firing at any banshees and other monsters he can still locate on his way to her.

    Of which the numbers are steadily dwindling since it seems like the arcanist did hit-and-runs with them. And Bryzax joins in with wide swings, followed by Mijanou. Which make the monsters take hits around these two parkgoers.

    As the lord arrives near SaroniumˇŻs position, he can sense that sheˇŻs a little disappointed with him having gotten lost in the swamp. And gotten injured by the trashˇŻs attacks. Like this injury that doesnˇŻt feel like a hit from a broken rack and pinion.

    When he arrives at the entrance of the first bossˇŻ room, his forehead hasnˇŻt stopped bleeding as he gets to Saronium:

    ˇ°Not one moment too soon! I guess the trash hit you with one fear spell too many?ˇ± Saronium asks her employer of the day.

    ˇ°Yeah, I got lost because the monsters made me frightened!ˇ± Enno answers his rental healer.

    ˇ°One more thing: itˇŻs common courtesy, in haunted parks, to let the tank, here, Bryzax, pull the boss. Also, watch out for spots on the ground changing color!ˇ± Saronium then casts a spell on his wound.

    ˇ°What would happen if spots on the ground change color?ˇ±

    ˇ°You must stay out of the spot, or else youˇŻll get hurt, maybe even die!ˇ±

    She then explains him the core mechanics of this boss, Bunyip, as relevant for a ranged DPS, before all five enter the first bossˇŻ room.

    ˇ°Pulling in three, two, oneˇ­ˇ± Bryzax signals the start of the fight.

    As soon as the fight begins in a patch of bog containing an abandoned sawmill, powered by a water wheel, the arcanist and Mijanou both ride atop the bossˇŻ back, a giant seal with dog legs. Right before a conical area turns red behind the boss.

    Which makes Enno turn to the bossˇŻ left, opening rapid fire, almost in a spray-and-pray fashion. But given the size and range of the target, which is almost point-blank, he manages to land some hits.

    I might have understood the saber dancer. But why is the arcanist on top of the boss? A puzzled Saronium cleanses the nausea off the arcanist, who goes through his rotation.

    After the arcanist casts his gangrene spell, the boss enters a state where no further damage can be dealt to it, forcing both DPS on its back to get off the boss to deal with more monsters.

    Enno sees zombies going after both Saronium and the arcanist, firing at them in the distance as these zombies clamor for brains. Is it normal for zombies to go after magic-users? I might have fought, like, wolves, banditsˇ­

    ˇ°Milord, behind you!ˇ± Bryzax yells at him.

    Enno feels the heat closing in on him, and tries to flee from it, feeling like this magical fireball being fixated on him is not going to do him any good.

    ˇ°What should I do?ˇ± a sweating Enno asks his herald.

    ˇ°Bring the fireball to the saw!ˇ±

    Enno then proceeds to run to the sawmill, where the fireball follows him. As he dashes into the wooden shed, he wonders if the mechanic is about causing a sawmillˇŻs pillar to catch fire or itˇŻs about melting the circular saw. And he hyperventilates as soon as he enters the wooden shed, skimming the saw. And so does the fireball, apparently, causing the saw assembly to start spinning.

    With the sawmillˇŻs shed catching fire along with the saw, and Enno being some distance away, Bryzax knows time is short to bring the boss to the burning sawmill, and, hopefully, the shed doesnˇŻt collapse on him. By then, the boss is playing catch-up against Bryzax.

    As the boss is about to enter the shed, amid a shed about to collapse, Enno fires at more zombies that are going after Saronium. The zombies move faster than what people usually expect out of zombies.

    But then everyone in the so-called room hears strident saw noises, startling even the zombie adds. This makes the zombies much easier to pick off since they freeze in place.

    However, with the arcanist going out of mana, he rushes towards the paralyzed adds, swinging his axe at them while he recovers his mana.

    As the boss, drawn to Bryzax, advances past the burning shed, its belly gets sawed off. The bunyipˇŻs blood splats around the saw assembly. Especially as it bleeds dry, both Enno and the arcanist keep chipping at it, with bullets and spells respectively.

    The result of the boss getting its belly sawed off is clear: a growing puddle of blood, centered on the saw, appears as the boss bleeds dry.

    When the boss is done being sawed, its lifeless, yet ghostly body stops moving, and blood has been spilled all over the burning sawmill. Whose flaming roof crashes upon the bunyipˇŻs corpse.

    At this point, a magical chest appears next to the boss roomˇŻs exit.

    ˇ°Woohoo! My first boss kill in a haunted park!ˇ± an ecstatic Enno shouts for joy as he opens the magical chest containing the loot.

    Where does the loot come from? Do haunted park-goers even ask about the logistics of the loot they chase? I feel like loot is going to be the main expense of running a haunted park once itˇŻs in operation, and the maintenance schedule is the other big expense, Enno thinks about the operational costs of his future park as he opens the chest containing five magical items.

    Bryzax claims his plate boots, which feel like an upgrade over his current plate boots. Meanwhile, Enno finds a hunting vest that looks quite different from his current one, and with a magical chest strapped to it. As for Saronium, she finds satin slippers. The arcanist gets a shiny new mace, while Mijanou gets new white gloves.

 Chapter 33: Customer Experience

    Enno wastes no time wearing the new hunting vest, with the magical chest strapped on its back. After he puts on the new vest, his old hunting vest is put in the magical chest.

    ˇ°Who wants the mace?ˇ± the arcanist asks the others in the party.

    ˇ°How much for the mace?ˇ± Enno asks.

    Maybe I can give Concetta the mace upon return to the palace! SheˇŻs unarmed, so I think she can learn how to use one if she wants to serve me better going forward, Enno waits for the arcanistˇŻs price. Which is given soon:

    ˇ°Two thousand goldˇ±

    ˇ°Deal!ˇ± Enno then forks over 2000 gold.

    ˇ°Bonus boss?ˇ± Mijanou asks the others in the party.

    ˇ°You see, milord, itˇŻs good practice to ask the rest of the party about whether they want to fight the bonus boss before you try to pull itˇ± Saronium explains to him.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs a bonus boss?ˇ± Enno rolls his eyes.

    ˇ°A bonus boss is just an optional bossˇ± the rental healer explains to him.

    ˇ°Oh and before we continue, bonus bosses range from being almost regular bosses, such as here and in Upper Perseria, to being bosses no one wants to pullˇ± Mijanou comments on peopleˇŻs attitudes towards bonus bosses.

    And in Upper Perseria, too. I remember the tank pulling that dungeonˇŻs bonus boss around like a draft horse, getting killed by exhaustion and bleeding, only to be subsequently saved by the angelic beacon! Saronium gets flashbacks from what caused her to flee the city when the saber dancer mentions that haunted park.

    But this section of the park features different types of ghost monsters: no lamias, nor banshees. Instead of that, the monsters inhabiting this section include giant lizards as well as alligators of various sizes. And, of course, a hostile giant bird.

    ˇ°I know what you did!ˇ± the hostile giant bird yells at Enno in a parrotˇŻs voice, marking it as a target for him to shoot at.

    That bird gets hit between the wings. Which makes the bird angry and makes it attempt to peck at Enno. Which hits his left shoulder after the flier took another bullet.

    ˇ°What do you mean, you know what I did?ˇ± a confused Enno asks the giant bird, who takes off again without answering him.

    This time around, Mijanou is the one pulling the mobs like a magnet. She even gets bitten by a big alligator on their way to the fork in the path leading to the bonus boss.

    ˇ°Yes!ˇ± Bryzax answers the question of the saber dancer asked a while ago.

    ˇ°Me too!ˇ± Enno answers after his herald.

    Why is it that the DPS I got only seem to let me pull bosses and not trash? Bryzax laments the attitude of both the arcanist and the saber dancer, who both rush down the path leading to the bonus boss.

    And it seems like Mijanou is getting increasingly maimed by the monsters she attracts, while the arcanist fires arcane missiles after the damage-over-time effects are spread among the monsters.

    Which causes Saronium to leave Bryzax and Enno behind to chase after Mijanou and the arcanist. And later tend to them. Who both take bites from wildlife that cause both adventurers to bleed.

    But it doesnˇŻt take long for the two to fend off the giant bird. With more bullets and the giant bird slowing down. And crashing into the ground, losing more blood by the second after taking additional bullets.

    When the two are finished dealing with the giant bird, Bryzax yells in the direction of the beasts the saber dancer somehow holds aggro on. In hopes of getting the beasts to fight him over Mijanou, who seems to have taken bites like crazy.

    Which makes the whole scene a bloodbath since the saber dancer no longer needs to be concerned about dodging bites, leaving behind another puddle of alligator blood. Or at least these ghosts leave behind bleeding effects that feel far too real for their own good.

    Once the trash is cleared all the way to the bonus bossˇŻ so-called room, which is really a clearing in a peat bog:

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs relevant to you here is as follows: hit the big one before the babiesˇ± Saronium explains to Enno.

    Immediately afterward, the bonus boss, Grootslang, which has an elephant head, as well as two elephant legs, and a humongous snake-like tail, throws his tongue at Bryzax, which makes him kite the boss around the room. And hence give free reign for the 3 DPS to hit him.

    While remaining mindful of not getting trampled on by the babies, since the babies also have tusks of their own. Enno gets hit by one of the babies, and is sent flying.

    But he doesnˇŻt fly very far, and he lands on the big bossˇŻ back. And at the rear, really.

    While the sword dancer is busy slashing the monster on its shoulders, in hopes of dislocating the beastˇŻs shoulders, and its head, Enno fires as fast as possible at the beastˇŻs tail.

    When suddenly, the boss makes a toxic fart, which causes the boss to release the tongue from Bryzax. And causes everyone to cough, as well as cause damage to everyoneˇŻs lungs, as the cloud of toxic gases expands to cover the whole room.

    Saronium frantically casts healing spells on everyone, including herself, to prevent their pulmonary condition from becoming life-threatening. Even when the toxic gas is about to get absorbed into the creatures.

    Enno feels a little short of breath after he began breathing the toxic gases. And more so the more he inhaled it, but people in the room only did so for a few seconds. I really hope Saronium can work her magic fast enough for me to even stay aliveˇ­ the lord then falls off the beast.

    SomethingˇŻs not right. While the toxic fart hits like a truck, I never saw it make people short of breath! SaroniumˇŻs thoughts start racing against the clock, while she realizes that something might have changed since her last run of the Caladon Bog.

    But then Enno starts firing at the hulking beast at point-blank and causes Grootslang to bleed somewhere other than at the shoulder plate, just not enough to bleed it dry.

    Yet, the bossˇŻ wound bleeding creates an opportunity for the arcanist to introduce magical infections that, up to this point, werenˇŻt very effective. Much to his chagrin, even going through his rotation, the magical infections introduced with his spells donˇŻt seem to have any more effect even with the blood vessels being exposed.

    However, after much labor on the bossˇŻ back, Mijanou has finally dislocated the bossˇŻ shoulders, causing it to howl in pain and to slow to a crawl. Which makes Bryzax cut the tusks off the beast who, in a last-ditch attempt, once again lashes its tongue at the tank.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Only, Bryzax can tell that the sheer weight of Grootslang is very heavy to lug around as heˇŻs pulling it like a draft horse. Until the saber dancer hits the bossˇŻ tongue in its dying moments, at which point the herald holds the two baby Grootslangs together, hurt by the spread of the magical infections.

    But then because the babies are much more fragile, they die much faster, with another scene where a treasure chest appears. This time around, the loot differs from what they got last time. EnnoˇŻs share is a gun he only heard about from the jester who talked about the demonic invaders fighting on the Heathrow theater. An assault rifle with a drum magazine.

    He then stows his old hunting carbine into the magical chest on his back, while the saber dancer collects another weapon of identical power to what she currently wields. Very much like a katana, but with a much smaller guard than one.

    ˇ°Who wants thisˇ­ dha?ˇ± Mijanou asks the other four.

    ˇ°How much for the dha?ˇ± Enno asks her.

    If it doesnˇŻt cost too much, maybe I can give the dha to another loyal knight because I donˇŻt think it would be a good fit for Concetta, unless sheˇŻs clearly better with a sword than with a mace, in which case Yutolio gets the mace, Enno starts thinking about whether to get the dha from the saber dancer, who already wields an enchanted talwar.

    ˇ°Five hundred goldˇ± Mijanou names her price, which makes Enno count it.

    ˇ°IˇŻll take itˇ± the lord answers her, and then takes the dha into his magical chest.

    ˇ°I think IˇŻll need to paint this new shield upon returning to Kaeshana!ˇ± Bryzax comments on the new shield he obtained from the bonus boss, whereas he obtained the same dha last time he fought the bonus boss.

    The rest of the trip through the park happens more or less uneventfully, as the other three stash their shares of the loot in their respective magical chests. They keep fighting the very same creatures as on their way to the bonus boss, so that they get to the second boss.

    Man this gun makes a difference in my ability to kill these monsters! With my old carbine, I could fire maybe once every three seconds. Now I can fire far more bullets and make much more DPS! Enno realizes that his usefulness has markedly increased in haunted parks because of his new gun firing semi-automatic bursts, as opposed to one bullet at a time.

    And, of course, after the second regular boss dies, Enno is a little unsettled about the entire experience of going to a haunted park that he starts wondering in what ways his future haunted park will be better, or at least different, and at what costs.

    ˇ°I wonder if itˇŻs intentional for haunted parks to be this longˇ­ we still have one boss left to fight and we still need to tramp through a swamp full of monsters before we get to the end of it!ˇ± Enno starts lamenting about what he feels could go wrong in haunted park design.

    ˇ°Usually, longer parks should reward more. However, what do you think could make a haunted park better?ˇ± Saronium asks him, before the party starts taking out the trash between the second and final bosses.

    ˇ°Like, you know, no trash?ˇ± Enno starts complaining about what has been the worst experience of haunted parks.

    ˇ°I forgot to tell you this, but there is a distinction between trash and adds in the haunted park world. But not nowˇ­ˇ± Saronium is interrupted by the need to cast a spell on someone getting hurt.

    This time, the trash includes all the varieties of monsters fought so far in the park, outside of bosses: banshees, lamias, zombies (which everyone knows by now they must keep away from magic-users), giant birds and alligators.

    But itˇŻs much more straightforward to remain grouped here than it was at the beginning of the park. Especially when there are no forks to get from the second to the last boss on the path to the last boss.

    Speaking of last boss, the fifty-headed hydra stands before them, in the middle of a very shallow lake.

    ˇ°The core mechanics are as follows: leave the wisps alive, but some heads will slam the ground, never all at once though. Other than that, just kill the heads before the body and youˇŻll be fine!ˇ± Saronium explains whatˇŻs mechanically relevant to Enno before the fight begins.

    The problem with leaving the wisps alive becomes readily apparent when Enno just fires in a spray-and-pray fashion at the hydraˇŻs fifty heads. And, while the heads take most bullets, a stray bullet hits a wisp inbound for the monster. The wisp explodes some distance away but close to the arcanist, disfiguring him as he gets caught in the explosionˇŻs blast.

    ˇ°The wisps must be eaten by the boss!ˇ± the arcanist yells at Enno, while Saronium is patching him up.

    But other heads eat wisps coming in from other directions, with their headsˇŻ remains splashing on the melee combatants upon exploding. Blood, blood everywhere when the hydraˇŻs heads eat the pink balls. And flesh, too. And Bryzax moves the boss to optimize the wisp intake but, in doing so, Enno is dangerously close to the heads.

    As much as he would want to get out of the way, when the surviving heads start slamming the ground, Enno gets crushed by a head with scaly skin, breaking his ribs. And another head is about to eat him.

    Yet, in the final moment, just before the bite, Enno fires at the hydra head threatening to eat him, rupturing blood vessels inside that specific head. Phew, thatˇŻs one less head to worry about, the lord sighs while more heads threaten to act.

    As heˇŻs enveloped by a green light, he feels like heˇŻs recovering from his broken bones. However, even with fewer heads, the remaining heads are still threatening to eat him.

    But, as Bryzax moves the boss around, Enno backs away from the headsˇŻ reach, as does the arcanist. He then resumes firing at the heads, and the heads pop one after another.

    When there are no heads left, the lower body is wide open for attack and itˇŻs open season on it. The monster dies in short order and, as with the bunyip, the fifty-headed hydra dies leaving behind a puddle of blood.

    A magic circle appears, revealing the final loot chest. Of all the things Enno gained today, there are pants, vest and rifle. His final piece of loot for the day is a hunting hat.

    ˇ°I offer you the following: slippers, a robe, gloves and a circlet!ˇ± Saronium puts the pile of loot she earned from this run, which she knows is inferior to the gear she currently wears.

    ˇ°What about the gear obtained from the previous run?ˇ± Enno asks her, thinking of his servants.

    ˇ°I gave the vicar of the previous run the pieces she was missing. So I can throw in a wizard hat, about seven thousand for the whole set!ˇ± Saronium tells him.

    ˇ°IˇŻll pay you upon return!ˇ±

    The party enters the magic circle and then returns to the parkˇŻs entrance. And also they return to their carpet.

    Once they return to the carpet, the two discuss aspects of haunted park design:

    ˇ°Adds are enemies that appear in boss fights while trash is fought between boss fightsˇ± Saronium goes around explaining the difference between the two she couldnˇŻt earlier.

    ˇ°Then I would like my future haunted park not to have any trash!ˇ± Enno tells him.

    ˇ°So you already understand that building the haunted park with the scariest encounters or hardest haunted park isnˇŻt a viable recipe for operating a successful park. In general, haunted park regulars seem to care about loot yield per unit of time the most, and fight balance a distant secondˇ±

    ˇ°And yet building a trash-free park with a large number of bosses will cost us a lot in loot!ˇ±

    Saronium then asks both Bryzax and Enno. ˇ°Before I forget: how do you feel about going to haunted parks?ˇ±

    ˇ°Tanking is a little scary, knowing that you are responsible for protecting your party, but thereˇŻs a first time for everything!ˇ± Bryzax answers her.

    So there are people who earn a living being loot farmers, or should I say middlemen for high-end gear? Perhaps by taxing the resale of high-end gear, to the tune of the cost paid by the park, I could fund the operation! Now I have a better idea of how to pay for the parkˇŻs continued operation, beyond raising taxes on funeral goods and services, hearses as well as gear repair services! Enno has a flash lighting in his head about what revenue he could derive from his future haunted park.

    ˇ°Even DPS might be a little scary at times. ItˇŻs intense in burstsˇ± Enno responds.

    ˇ°You said that you wanted your park to be trash-free? There may be a few who could find a trash-free dungeon a little empty, depending on the spacing between bosses, but if thereˇŻs good reason for that...ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean?ˇ±

    ˇ°The reason why I even accepted to take you through the haunted park was because there are things that are important to a haunted park operator that requires experience of running haunted parks as an adventurer to fully understand. People will be more likely to accept a park to be trash-free if, for example, the bosses knew that trash was useless, the bosses fell on hard times, the bosses were immune to a curse to which would-be trash isnˇŻt...ˇ±

    ˇ°And how should different difficulties be handled?ˇ±

    ˇ°Sure, you can always make the boss hit harder and take more hits, but the big no-no of boss design is failing to provide extra mechanics when going up a difficulty. And no, an enrage timer doesnˇŻt qualify as an extra mechanicˇ±

    ˇ°Enrage timer?ˇ±

    ˇ°There are bosses that, in fatal dungeons, must be killed within a certain period of them being pulled, and these are called a DPS check in the haunted park worldˇ± Saronium explains to them as the carpet approaches the palace. ˇ°Sure, you will here from time to time about how a certain fight had engaging mechanics but thatˇŻs usually more for raids. For the type of dungeon you want to build, better err on the side of too easy than too hard, but donˇŻt exaggerate!ˇ±

 Chapter 34: Gifts for the Servants

    When the carpet arrives at the palace, the carpet arrives in front of its main entrance. Bryzax gets off it, looking to clean up both his old and new panoplies. And he gets the palaceˇŻs tailor to repair his battle-damaged tabard.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here?ˇ± the palaceˇŻs tailor asks Bryzax, furrowing a brow upon seeing the tabardˇŻs condition.

    ˇ°His Lordship took me to a haunted park along with a life witch. The life witch and I both got two trips down the haunted park, while milord only had oneˇ± Bryzax keeps quiet about the haunted park trinity.

    ˇ°That sounds scary, and His Lordship seems to want to get one builtˇ±

    Speaking of His Lordship, heˇŻs going to the vault to get the money to pay Saronium for the trip to the Caladon Bog and the loot from both runs that she hasnˇŻt sold yet. That is, one set of the parkˇŻs cloth armor; it seems like the weapons were already sold to the first runˇŻs vicar DPS.

    Enno emerges from the vault with a purse containing the full amount of 7000 gold he promised to her for the set of cloth armor.

    ˇ°Thank you; I learned so much about the design of haunted parks!ˇ± Enno tells his rental healer as she hands over the cloth set.

    ˇ°Really, this is nothing compared to what some rich dilettantes paid to get them through raids because they collected mounts, decos or gear, like BelphegorˇŻs solar carˇ±

    Belphegor rides the lands of the living in a solar car? WhatˇŻs a car? Enno struggles to contain his astonishment of even hearing about solar cars. And he thought an enchanted dha was a worthy gift to give a servant. Or a set of clothes from the same park. It seems like BryzaxˇŻs new panoply is a cut above the regular gear ordinary knights wear, but this is nothing like the gear that must drop from the raid Belphegor drops his carˇ­ I guess the price for such services is steep, but most of the customers are people who canˇŻt run these things otherwise.

    Saronium then leaves the palace grounds, while all 7 pieces of loot he bought from people Enno ran the haunted park with are put in the palaceˇŻs armory. With the enchanted dha in a place where itˇŻs made clear how it differs from the other swords in the inventory.

    At dinner that night, Bryzax is the guest of honor and sits on EnnoˇŻs right, while, for some reason, Concetta is sitting on EnnoˇŻs left tonight as he makes an announcement.

    ˇ°Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have made some progress on the design phase of the haunted park: it will not have any trash. Additionally, it will be financed with a new thirteen percent tax on funerary goods and services, sixty percent tariffs on their import, as well as fifteen percent on repairs of high-end gear!ˇ± Enno announces a flurry of new measures aimed at financing the construction and upkeep of his new haunted park.

    ˇ°Milord, how is high-end gear defined for repair tax purposes?ˇ± Concetta asks her liege lord about these new taxes.

    ˇ°High-end gear is defined as gear having a gear level at the level of drops from brutal dungeons or higher!ˇ± Bryzax explains to the palaceˇŻs cook.

    Yutolio told me about how Perseria used their haunted parks to fund their war effort against Pandemonium. However, the legal definition of funeral goods and services include urns, coffins, hearses, monuments, crypt and graveyard slots, funerals, corpse transportation, burials and embalmment material, Concetta is a little concerned about how her lord plans on gouging families in death.

    ˇ°It appears, milord, that youˇŻre gouging the grieving families just so that you can build a new haunted park!ˇ± Concetta voices her concerns.

    ˇ°Peasants might get a rudimentary grave marker, made from inexpensive woods, and maybe an urn, or a basic coffin and burial for those with a bit more money. The ones who import monuments or coffins are the ones with money, and we may want to build monuments, hearses and coffins of our own!ˇ±

    They keep talking about the projected yield of the policy, who the burden is expected to fall upon the most, and whether it would suffice to even get the haunted park built. Better have a contingency fund for unexpected snags during the parkˇŻs construction.

    ˇ°But perhaps you might wish to have your own set of high-end gear! IˇŻll even let you choose between two weapons won during todayˇŻs trip at the haunted park: a mace and a saber!ˇ± Enno then have a guard present the two weapons to her. ˇ°You can only have one!ˇ±

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ˇ°Who could train me in their use?ˇ± Concetta asks the guard.

    ˇ°Yeah, you donˇŻt want to learn how to wield multiple weapons at the same time!ˇ± Bryzax tells the cook. ˇ°I could train you in swordplay if you choose the saberˇ±

    ˇ°Also, something isnˇŻt right. Why did you wait so long to get me weapons, milord?ˇ± ConcettaˇŻs facial expression starts to change.

    ˇ°I just wanted to make sure your loyalty was earned first. ItˇŻs very dangerous to give weapons to servants not involved with security unless they either earned it or needed it!ˇ±

    More often than not, need came first. Like a realm is going to be under attack soon, Enno starts thinking about what could push a lord to arm servants.

    ˇ°Where did these come from?ˇ± the cook asks her lord.

    ˇ°These were obtained from a haunted park. DonˇŻt worry: they are not haunted, nor cursedˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, I got the same saber from the haunted park I went to with His Lordship, this haunted park had no complaints about that sort of thingsˇ± Bryzax adds to the comments.

    Now I know haunted parks are real. It sure sounds dangerous to run if milord wishes to raise taxes specifically on funerary goods and services to get one built, Concetta sighs.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre lucky that servants might have some involvement in policymaking here. More so in matters that directly impact themˇ± Enno tells his cook.

    ˇ°Milord, why did you suddenly get an interest in haunted parks? Just a few days ago, I never heard you mention one, much less organizing a tournament whose prize is getting oneˇŻs community the realmˇŻs haunted park! Or even attend one!ˇ± Concetta asks him, while she has yet to pick her weapon.

    ˇ°Right now, it seems like haunted park factions are not trading with factions without haunted parks. We have no brokerage services, and brokers are reluctant to open offices where there is no visibility! A haunted park is the most cost-effective method at our disposalˇ±

    The real benefit of the haunted park for Kaeshana doesnˇŻt have much to do with the haunted park itself. However, a brokerage will probably mean building warehouses, and collect brokerage taxes, with which to fund all kinds of things for the factionˇ­ Enno realizes also that not all haunted parks are made equal.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs something at least, but why gift me a weapon from a haunted park? WouldnˇŻt a knight whoˇŻs likely to see battle with it be a better choice?ˇ± Concetta asks him.

    ˇ°At some point, there might be some jealous people who could covet your position and might even fight you for it. Or even to fend off thieves trying to steal from the palaceˇŻs pantry!ˇ±

    ˇ°All right, IˇŻll take the saber, but promise me that I will receive appropriate training in swordplay!ˇ±

    ˇ°If you accept, Bryzax, you could arrange for Concetta to receive saber training!ˇ±

    Bryzax then takes Concetta to the training area for fencing. They practice in a dimly lit room, where the cook starts her fencing training from the very beginning, while another kitchen servant washes the dishes used for the meal.

    During a little break, Bryzax canˇŻt help but comment on how Concetta handled herself.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs a little rough, but thatˇŻs normal for everyone when they start training on a swordˇ± Bryzax comments on her swordplay.

    ˇ°All rightˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°If fencing doesnˇŻt work out for you, you seem to be smart enough for magic to be worth trying your hand atˇ±

    It seems like women with intellect are pushed towards magic. And some lowborn families, like mine, prayed that their daughters could get mercenary contracts as witches and hence feel like they are their familiesˇŻ salvation, Concetta spaces out after hearing about her intellect.

    ˇ°It seems like His Lordship believed in me enough to make a saber worth using. Now you go around saying that I shouldˇ­ˇ± Concetta gets interrupted by the herald.

    ˇ°Magic would be a supplement in your case. YouˇŻre a little raw, thereˇŻs no telling which one youˇŻll be better suited for just yet. I am not able to train you in magic, but if you want to learn it, my recommendations would be either fire or alcohol magicˇ± Bryzax comments on her potential in both fencing and magic.

    ˇ°Right, it would be of help to me in the kitchen! I can always return the saber, and maybe get a mace if it turns out that I am better as a witch than as a fencer...ˇ±

    ˇ°But really, intellect doesnˇŻt make you a more powerful witch, at least not directly. Keep that in mind if you want to learn magicˇ±

    Meanwhile, Enno puts the set of cloth armor from the Caladon Bog into YutolioˇŻs room shortly after the palaceˇŻs resident healer falls asleep. Hehe: Yutolio will only realize tomorrow morning what I gave him!

    The following morning, Yutolio awakens, looking at some set of clothing he deems exotic, considering whatˇŻs typically worn by magic-users in the area. He jostles, and rushes to Enno, asking for explanations about who, or why, left clothes lying in his room.

    ˇ°Milord, who left their clothes in my room? Someone whoˇŻs sleep-deprived?ˇ± YutolioˇŻs face turns red as the healer shows his lord the set of clothes.

    ˇ°No, sir. Bryzax and I both went to a haunted park yesterday, there was so much we needed to do once back here, and we got this set of enchanted clothes for you from the park!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻll take it, but you ought to expose the loot you obtained from the park on the day of the tournament! The public should know about that, and so many in the realm never saw haunted park loot in their lives!ˇ± Yutolio imposes his condition. ˇ°Haunted parks are new to so many people here, maybe some vagrants might be tempted to go quest, or even hit the haunted park!ˇ±

    ˇ°I will need to ask Bryzax and Concetta because they both got pieces of loot from that trip, too...ˇ±

    And this means this tournament should be a festive occasion for the cityˇŻs residents, a celebration of combat prowess, of adventure, to make haunted parks more palatable to the public, whom I can feel is still struggling to open up to the idea of hosting a haunted park! Enno starts thinking about whether there will be outside adventurers even visiting the city when the tournament is underway.

 Chapter 35: Let the tournament begin!

    In the coming days, Concetta started to learn fire and alcohol magic, finding it much more useful than swordplay, and therefore returns the saber to the lordˇŻs armory.

    As for Bryzax and Yutolio, they spend the night before the tournament rearranging the great room for the exhibition of haunted park loot. And making room for additional exhibits, should attendees from outside the realm come in with their own haunted park exhibits. With the haunted park loot they obtained from running the Caladon Bog, and possibly different tables for loot from other parks.

    But the following day, right after breakfast, it seems like so many in the palace wear their formal clothing for major events. For Enno, this means a black velvet set with yellow trim, and a red cloak, along with a red ceremonial sash. For Bryzax, a lilac cloak, a yellow sash and a white robe. And some other people wear other accoutrements to the opening ceremony.

    Speaking of which, Enno takes up position in the lordly box, alongside Bryzax, while the entrants of this tournament are about to parade around the cityˇŻs tournament grounds. With Yutolio and some volunteers standing ready to tend to the injuries sustained by the participants in the tourney.

    ˇ°Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby declare the Haunted Park Tournament open!ˇ± Enno announces in front of an enthusiastic crowd. ˇ°The grand prize of this tourney is the winnerˇŻs community winning the haunted parkˇŻs construction site!ˇ±

    Bryzax then announces the participants, one by one, as they parade around the cityˇŻs tournament grounds, much to the delight of the attendees. Who attend mostly for the upcoming bouts, oblivious to any haunted park implication the competition carries.

    ˇ°For those who have gear from haunted parks to exhibit, please follow me to the palaceˇŻs grand hall, where the gear from the Caladon Bog is exposed!ˇ± Enno exhorts people in the audience to follow him to the palace, which is nearby.

    So many onlookers who never saw haunted park gear in their lives accompany him to the grand hall. Also, the few outsiders who even have haunted park gear display gear from places such as Lower and Upper Perseria, which both share the same set of loot, the Sun Disk and Operation Heathrow, the latter being the new trendy raid of the day.

    Saronium! I hope that she keeps quiet about the maintenance schedules of haunted parks! Enno silently makes his wishes upon seeing her putting all 3 sets on her allotted table in the grand hall.

    But even stuff from older parks, such as the Depths of Gorima and the Heart of Infection, seem to pique the interest of the attendees, with their owners willing to tell tales of running the haunted parks the exhibits originate from. And maybe even questing.

    Even Enno and Bryzax start telling the audience about their trip to the Caladon Bog. About what qualities successful tanks or DPS should have to make it through a haunted park. Yet she canˇŻt help but overhear Saronium talking about various tanks she ran content (in haunted park-speak) with.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs a myth that you need heavy armor to tank. I even ran Upper Perseria with a bishop for a tank!ˇ± Saronium causes her listeners to gasp.

    ˇ°Do you have any likes or dislikes for tanks?ˇ± Bryzax asks her.

    ˇ°Honestly, I would say a vandal or acrobat. They tend to dodge hits the way, say, a defender would take. Berserkers, on the other hand, might be able to hold the attention of bosses with madness, but they often have tunnel vision so they take more hitsˇ± Saronium then turns to Enno. ˇ°YouˇŻre one of the few who queued in haunted parks that donˇŻt blame the healer when things go wrongˇ±

    ˇ°To be fair, my lady, I only ran what you deemed appropriate for someone new to haunted parks! You run haunted parks for a living, and I only accepted to run the Caladon Bog with you so that I would get experience that would be of use for me to get my park built!ˇ±

    ˇ°I can guarantee you that I have seen far worse than you two as first-timers in haunted parks!ˇ± Saronium refers to Bryzax and Enno.

    ˇ°One does not become a herald without first having proven their prowess in battleˇ± Bryzax retorts, referring to travel being one of the most dangerous parts of his job, along with his role in battlefield reconnaissance.

    These otherworldly people they call players are quick to blame us, especially given the dangers they have us face, Saronium muses about her life as a rental healer, who saw almost every extant haunted park in the world in that capacity, but only showcased the newest.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    But, of course, since not everyone is interested in listening to a rental healer, the other two attendees with experience of haunted parks draw their share of visitors. Like the bard who tanked the Heart of Infection, whose singing draws in more lyrical-minded visitors like, and the set from it behind him. Especially this green-and-black ornate longbow.

    Or the swashbuckler who just wants to show his two talwars along with his suit, which the hosts recognize from the saber dancer they ran the Caladon Bog with. Ooh! So the saber dancer we ran the park with wore the loot from the Depths of Gorima! One of them dyed their lootˇ­ Bryzax reflects on the uncanny resemblance.

    This exhibition seems to open up the people of Kaeshana to a whole new world of adventure that could await them outside the realm, but also provoke the envy of other elements, especially those who, for some reason, are unable to go on adventures.

    During lunch break, Concetta finally emerges from the palaceˇŻs kitchen, along with serfs, with several baskets filled with bread, cheese, as well as other drinks, such as her best magic-borne facsimile of Kaeshana ice wine in a barrel.

    ˇ°Milord, would you please taste this magical wine?ˇ± Concetta begs her lord. ˇ°Please?ˇ±

    Enno turns to his herald. ˇ°Get a prisoner to taste this magical wine, now!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yes, milord!ˇ± The herald responds, before he fetches a cup of this magical wine for the prisoner to sample.

    <hr>

    Some lords have a court official perform this function; Enno uses convicted criminals for that. I wonder which one is safer, Bryzax then feels like his lord suspects Concetta of being in a position to make him ill. Or worse, poison him outright with alcohol magic. But Concetta never openly criticized the haunted park itself, only that a tax on funeral goods and services might burden the poor more.

    Bryzax then approaches the prisoner, who clearly was the most parched of the gang, cup in hand. However, the other prisoners are also thirsty, too.

    ˇ°HereˇŻs your chance to drink magical wine!ˇ± Bryzax hands over the cup to the prisoner, who gulps it, hoping that Enno doesnˇŻt poison him, much less on purpose. ˇ°Just donˇŻt drink the whole cup on your own! Leave some of this magical wine for the others in the cell!ˇ±

    <hr>

    At the same time, Concetta feels a little uneasy about why Enno suddenly wanted a prisoner to taste the magical wine whereas he didnˇŻt ask for such previously, even with magical drinks being served since she started learning fire and alcohol magic.

    ˇ°Why did you have a prisoner taste the magical wine, milord?ˇ± Concetta asks him, her expression being a little perplexing.

    ˇ°Today is my only chance left to win the population over to the whole project of building the haunted park! By letting champions of communities all across the land duke it out for it, I donˇŻt want to lose face over that any more than I already did! And someone ill-intentioned could very well take advantage of it to poison me in public!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻve been practicing fire and alcohol magic for the past fortnight! And this is how you treat me?ˇ± the cook asks him.

    ˇ°You might not be aware of this, because you have been devoted to cooking meals for the palaceˇŻs residents, and now magic, but the haunted park has divided the population!ˇ±

    Enno takes a bite of bread and cheese, while other attendees do the same, drinking the magical wine Concetta conjured.

    Speaking of which, Bryzax is back from the jail adjacent to the palace, with news of the wine tasting.

    ˇ°The magical wine is safe to drink today!ˇ± Bryzax announces to his liege lord.

    ˇ°Very well, I will drink the magical wine!ˇ± Enno takes a cup of white wine which tastes like, well, ice wine. ˇ°Maybe you should go on my next trip to a haunted park! Or even test my haunted park before its opening!ˇ±

    ˇ°I hope youˇŻre aware of the difference between using alcohol magic to conjure ice wine and doing so to fight in a haunted park!ˇ± the swashbuckler warns Concetta. ˇ°Even if you could follow mechanics!ˇ±

    ˇ°No, I am relatively new to alcohol magic and I never went to a haunted park in my life!ˇ± Concetta retorts. ˇ°How is using alcohol magic different in a haunted park?ˇ±

    ˇ°Ideally, you should have a rotation down cold. Hopefully you can use the byproducts of practicing it for sale, but what goes on in an alcohol wizardˇŻs rotation, on the other hand, I have no ideaˇ± the swashbuckler answers her.

    ˇ°If any of you want to become a rental healer to run haunted parks, I would say that, for healers, itˇŻs much more important to have your priorities straight than having a rotation down cold, because haunted park healing is a giant whack-a-mole game, and you need to switch targets far more often than a DPS or tank willˇ± Saronium explains to the attendees in the grand hall. ˇ°Sure, the tank will take more hits, but donˇŻt forget about keeping the DPS up!ˇ±

    The attendees listen to every hint their guests of honor have to provide for dungeon crawling. However, they seem to stick to dungeons for now, with much less interest in raiding. That, even though two of them are, or were, doing high-end raiding at some point in their lives: Saronium and the bard.

    ˇ°To add to what the life witch was saying, in a haunted park, sometimes you need to stop hitting stuff to get out of the way of the boss or one of its special abilities!ˇ± the bard warns the would-be dungeon crawlers, before singing a song on his lyre.

    When the bard has finished singing, and the attendees have taken whatever they could eat, Enno tells the attendees to get ready for the tournamentˇŻs main event. Concetta, however, canˇŻt hide her disappointment since sheˇŻs going to toil in the palaceˇŻs kitchens to prepare more food for the closing ceremony. Which will have more lavish food than at lunch.

    Bryzax then takes the tournament entrants to a special room where they will be waiting for the signal to get into the pitch. And, of course, they get to see the tournament bracket before the public will.

    ˇ°Ladies and gentlemen, may you fight well this day, and may the haunted park be yours!ˇ± Bryzax then carries the banners of the communities they represent to his lordˇŻs box, from which he will be called upon to officiate the tournament.

 Chapter 36: Cataphract Tormentors

    With Bryzax having sixteen banners on hand, of which two can be exposed on sockets on each side of EnnoˇŻs box at any time, the main event begins in earnest. And the crowd, sitting on wooden, covered grandstands, is awaiting the start of the main event, with both Yutolio and Saronium standing ready to tend to injuries sustained by the participants.

    ˇ°The tournament consists of duels fought to the first blood. Now, because none of the champions are really known competitors in the tournament world, the first round will prove to be unpredictable!ˇ± Bryzax announces to the attendees, before announcing the competitors in first round of dueling, along with their home communities.

    The first duel pits a mentalist, who uses illusions to lure her opponent into tricking him to attack the illusory copies, against a vandal who wastes no time getting invisible. And simply gets behind each illusion, wondering which one is real.

    At the same time, it seems like, after failing to land a hit on the mentalist, the vandal starts hearing voices from nowhere:

    ˇ°You representˇ­ a communityˇ­ unworthy of the haunted park!ˇ± the vandal starts hearing a ghostly voice and, for some reason, some other spectators near the vandal also hear that ghostly voice.

    Why? Why! the vandal starts questioning not only whether the voice was real, but also himself. But as the mentalist is about to use the confusion she created to cast another spell on him, he goes invisible, turning the entire duel into a game of hide-and-seek. Which is about to degenerate.

    And yet, the mentalist seems to hear another ghostly voice herself, but not the one she made the vandal hear in an attempt to disorient him.

    ˇ°You canˇŻt hide!ˇ± the second ghostly voice tells the mentalist in a creepy tone.

    Where does that voice come from? The mentalist starts thinking, not knowing where the vandal is, and not wanting to cast spells indiscriminately to locate him. No more than she might want to resort to such means to locate the source of this ghostly voice, if external to herself. It seems like some outside forces might interfere, and I might not want to anger what that outside force is!

    But even though the mentalist hears it, the vandal hears it too, even with him still staying cloaked. This ghost is right: I canˇŻt stay hidden to attack when this tournament is held in broad daylight!

    The vandal tries to get behind the mentalist, but is quickly reminded that the duel isnˇŻt fought to the death. He draws his wakizashi and settles for a small cut down her back. Which isnˇŻt deep enough to hit her spine. Poor mentalist, who rushes to the exit of the pitch, with a cut in the back.

    ˇ°And the winner isˇ­ˇ± Bryzax removes the banner of the mentalistˇŻs community from its socket while he announces the vandalˇŻs name and community, as he sees the mentalistˇŻs open back injury.

    ˇ°Why am I hearing voices out of nowhere? It doesnˇŻt sound like her! There must be someone, or something else somewhere!ˇ± Enno is puzzled by the voices heard all over the place.

    Meanwhile, the mentalist is carried off the pitch by the two healers on hand tending to whoever gets injured in these duels. They take her to a tent where the mentalist lies flat on her belly. Against a cot.

    ˇ°I know what you didˇ­ˇ± a ghostly voice directed at Saronium blabbers.

    ˇ°What do you mean?ˇ± a confused Saronium asks. ˇ°Is it in relation to haunted parks?ˇ±

    While Yutolio casts some magic on the mentalistˇŻs back injury, the ghost, who, up to this point, had no visual form, starts appearing at the entrance of the tent. And a cloud of fog surrounds the entrance of the tent, making way for a phantom cataphract wearing lamellar armor, along with his horse.

    ˇ°You were there for the protests in Upper Perseria!ˇ± Marzban, the phantom horseman, keeps blabbering.

    ˇ°All I did was heal the people going into Upper Perseria! When youˇŻre a rental healer going through the haunted parks of the worldˇ­ˇ± Saronium retorts before being interrupted by her fellow healer.

    ˇ°Saronium, this ghost is a danger to the wounded, and to you!ˇ± Yutolio screams in her direction, urging her to flee, sensing that the phantom horseman could be a threat to both her and her patient.

    Saronium leaves the tent with the cataphract ghost watching her every move. A little concerned with brusque moves, she slowly crawls out of the tent to protect the patient, just as the second duel is about to start on the pitch.

    When the second duel, pitting a lancer against a berserker wielding an axe, gets underway, the duel gets much more entertaining than the previous one to the eyes of the spectators, since at least the combatants donˇŻt engage in a game of hide-and-seek.

    As the duel unfolds under the cheers of the crowd, and thereˇŻs good back-and-forth, blow-by-blow, they are oblivious to what is going on outside of the pitch. Especially not when more ghost cataphracts start appearing out of nowhere, pinning Saronium, whose back is now on the ground.

    Marzban then points his xyston, a long, heavy lance, at her chest, while two more ghost cataphracts instead point their xystons at her legs. The other two ghost cataphracts appear ready to thrust their xystons into her body at any time.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs happening?ˇ± Saronium is screaming at the ghost cataphracts, whom she recognizes by being the strongest trash in Upper Perseria. ˇ°WhatˇŻs the meaning of this?ˇ±

    ˇ°You traipsed throughˇ­ Upper Perseriaˇ­ with those responsibleˇ­ for the slaughter of innocentsˇ­ in Lower Perseria!ˇ± Marzban mumbled at her in a creepy voice.

    ˇ°I ran Upper Perseria several times, I might be wondering which run youˇŻre referring to!ˇ± SaroniumˇŻs heart pounds in her chest while she only seemed to have fragmentary memories of who she ran Upper Perseria with, and when.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Oh boy. Why is it that these cataphracts have found their way all the way here? What happened to the Perserian haunted parks? the rental healer hyperventilates when the cataphracts pin her in place.

    ˇ°It seems likeˇ­ the new regimeˇ­ in Perseriaˇ± a phantom cataphract gets interrupted.

    ˇ°Wait a minuteˇ­ new regime?ˇ± Saronium then gets xystons thrust at her feet, piercing them. ˇ°Ouch!ˇ±

    ˇ°Quiet!ˇ± an annoyed Marzban shouts. ˇ°The people responsibleˇ­ for slaughtering innocents in Lower Perseriaˇ­ now rule the city!ˇ±

    ˇ°They were doing this under the influence of angelic beacons! They wouldnˇŻt have killed innocents otherwise!ˇ± her tone of voice hints at the pain sheˇŻs under from the phantom cataphracts thrusting xystons at her feet.

    ˇ°What do angelic beacons doˇ­ to their wearers?ˇ± Tissaphernes, an oblivious phantom cataphract, asks her, in a creepy Persian accent, while removing the xyston from her right foot.

    ˇ°Did you wear one yourself?ˇ± Ermahgerd, the other subordinate cataphract, asks her, in a strident voice, while both feet bleed from the two horsemen having pierced her feet with xystons.

    ˇ°Yes!ˇ±

    The phantom cataphracts, ex-Perserian from how they talk about the events in the city, simply vanish out of SaroniumˇŻs sight.

    While Yutolio has the mentalist rest in another box where she could watch the remaining duels to be fought, he rushes to SaroniumˇŻs aid, casting healing spells on her feet. Sure enough, her feet begin to return to normal.

    At the same time, the second duel ends, and the victor is announced, with the loser being carried off the pitch by Yutolio and Bryzax since Saronium is not yet in condition to carry off the wounded lancer to the tent. Therefore, Enno must announce the result.

    ˇ°And the winner isˇ­ˇ± Enno announces the winner of the duel by name, removing the banner of the community the lancer represents from its socket.

    The combatants scheduled for the third duel are two magic-users, a vicar and an electricity wizard. However, as per usual, they must wait until Bryzax returns to EnnoˇŻs box before they can enter the pitch.

    Once they enter the pitch, after the combatants are duly announced, they are in for a most unpleasant surprise.

    The cataphracts who, moments ago, were tormenting Saronium, even thrusting xystons into her feet, now reappear in the middle of the pitch as the battle starts.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here?ˇ± a startled spectator asks in horror.

    ˇ°Stop the duel!ˇ± Bryzax screams in the direction of the flesh-and-blood combatants, before turning to the audience. ˇ°There appears to be some irregularities in this duel, and the duel shall be postponed until the irregularities are corrected!ˇ±

    Now that weˇŻre no longer fighting each other, time to fend off the ghosts together! The electricity wizard thinks, now faced with the prospect of fighting 3 phantom cataphracts.

    ˇ°Justice for Lower Perseria!ˇ± Marzban shouts, in a creepy voice, before getting into position to skewer the vicar with his xyston.

    Speaking of xyston, the electricity wizard casts a lightning bolt spell on one of the phantom cataphractsˇŻ xystons. And the lightning bolt arcs from the spearhead of the xyston to the horseˇŻs barding, the cataphract gets hit by the spell, but remains in condition to fight. However, the electricity wizard runs away in an attempt to avoid getting hit by the xyston.

    Meanwhile, the vicar casts a flare spell that engulfs all three cataphracts, in hopes of blinding the ghosts, or to otherwise hurt them. However, what he does not realize is that these ghostsˇŻ armor offer little openings for the light to filter through. And mostly through their helmets.

    ˇ°What do you mean, justice for Lower Perseria?ˇ± Bryzax shouts in the direction of Marzban. ˇ°What Kaeshanian could possibly have committed crimes in Lower Perseria?ˇ±

    But both magic-users run around the pitch in hopes of causing the phantom riders to collide on each other. However, as much as they try to do so, charging at full speed towards the magic-users made it more difficult for the ghosts to maneuver. And they crash into the stands, with the collision happening the same as if real horses were involved, narrowly missing them both. And, of course, the spectators on the aswaransˇŻ, or cataphractsˇŻ, collision course only had a few seconds to get out of the way.

    Yet the impact of the crash caused spectators around the crash site to scream in horror at the sheer force of the impact, especially when the xystons remain stuck on the stands. Thanks to their phantom horses disappearing on impact, their armors now litter the ground at the impact site. With the cataphracts being unhorsed, they draw their shamshirs to continue the fight, because they find xystons to be unwieldy at close-quarters.

    It''s only now that the mentalist appears to be sufficiently recovered from the shock of the ghosts appearing in the middle of the duel to use mind control magic on one of the ghosts. One who crashed on the stands. And the spell goes off, causing one of the subordinate ghosts to be under the mentalistˇŻs control.

    The cataphractsˇŻ crash upon the stands actually caused nearly all of the attendees to flee the arena in panic, leaving only three spellcasters to fend them off. However, this means that Enno dashes to the armory, where he put his assault rifle. And Bryzax reaches for his dha, also in the armory, since there was no time to put on his armor.

    ˇ°What are these ghosts doing?ˇ± Enno asks a frightened Bryzax, who saw the ghost horsemen crash against the stands.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think they crashed on the stands on purpose! And they havenˇŻt answered our questions about asking for justice for Lower Perseria!ˇ± Bryzax then dashes for the armory, the same as Enno.

    Back at the arena, the remaining 10 champions who have yet to duel each other stand ready to start fighting the unhorsed cataphracts. Whom they quickly realize, along with the berserker and the vandal from earlier, that they need to work together to take down such formidable opponents.

    Even with the mentalist making a mind-controlled Tissaphernes go for the chinks of the armors of the other two left behind by them being unhorsed at full gallop. Even with the berserker going mad from battle lust and charging head-on towards the enemy, holding their attention. This buys some time for the spellcasters to get their magic on hand.

    This forced both Saronium and Yutolio to step in and using their healing magic to keep everyone in the arena up. As this scene starts to play out like a melee, the Kaeshanian champions fight on one side and the Perserian cataphracts on the other.

    By the time the crowdˇŻs nerves return to normal, some of them want to see how this nightmare is about to end. However, others donˇŻt seem to be too enamored of seeing ghosts recklessly fighting to the point of crashing their phantom horses to disappearance against the stands.

    But while the mind-controlled aswaran (Perserian dialect for cataphract) couldnˇŻt quite exploit the chinks in the armors of the other two aswarans as effectively as the mentalist hoped, the electricity wizard casts a chain lightning spell. This stuns all 3 unhorsed cataphracts for a few seconds. Which the others mercilessly exploit, smashing through the joints in their armors, and tearing these ghostsˇŻ limbs apart in just a few seconds.

    Marzban then raises the white flag, prompting all the Kaeshanian champions to stop fighting them.

    ˇ°I surrender! My arms, and my comrades-in-armsˇŻ weapons, and horse armors, are yours as you see fit!ˇ± Marzban drops his weapons, just as Enno arrives on the scene with his assault rifle in hand.

    ˇ°Your comrades-in-arms are seriously maimed. I accept your surrender. However, the proceeds from the sale of your equipment shall be used to pay for repairs to the stands first and any remaining money will go towards building the haunted park!ˇ± Enno rules on MarzbanˇŻs surrender.

    I guess, if it took 17 Kaeshanian warriors to defeat these ghost cataphracts, maybe I ought to consider other means to decide where to build the haunted park. However, unarmed, they donˇŻt pose nearly as much of a threat to other prisoners, Enno starts thinking of an alternate method to designate the community that will host the realmˇŻs haunted park.

 Chapter 37: Site Selection

    Because the ghosts raised concerns about the integrity of the tournament, Enno has no choice but to announce that the tournament wonˇŻt be held as originally planned.

    ˇ°Ladies and gentlemen, even though the Perserian ghosts perpetrating this act of sabotage have surrendered, before we prepare a ransom request to Perseria, we need to determine the site of the future haunted park!ˇ± Enno harangues them.

    ˇ°With all due respect, milord, one does not ask for ransoms for ghosts, even if these ghosts were nobles in life! On top of that, Perseria might claim that these were rogue actors who did this!ˇ± Bryzax retorts.

    If what Saronium says is correct about the situation in Perseria, they canˇŻt afford to pay ransom for the three ghost cataphracts, they must rebuild their settlements, ravaged by war! I wonder why my lord thought it was a good idea to hold ghosts for ransom of all things! Bryzax starts questioning his liege lordˇŻs financing structure as the aswaransˇŻ gear is being cleaned out from the tournament grounds.

    ˇ°IˇŻm not claiming these ghosts did so in Perserian service!ˇ± Enno turns to the champions in the middle of the pitch. ˇ°Champions, because integrity issues mean the main event can no longer be held as planned, you will need to explain publicly what your community have to build a haunted park upon, and why itˇŻs the best fit for the realmˇŻs future haunted park!ˇ±

    Phew! All is not lost! The mentalist sighs, realizing the original main event can no longer be held. However, the prospect of having to speak in front of hundreds of people, possibly thousands, might terrify her, as much as it could terrify all other champions.

    Bryzax keeps the speaking order under wraps, and then has the losers of the first two duels speak first, in chronological order of losing.

    ˇ°Please, no using magic to influence the results of the voting!ˇ± Bryzax asks the mentalist as she goes first to pitch her location.

    An abandoned farm? Sorry but abandoned farms arenˇŻt worth converting to a haunted park; it will threaten our food security! Enno starts realizing that perhaps some Perserian refugee could start their life anew rebuilding the abandoned farm.

    ˇ°Surely your community could let someone whoˇŻs fallen on hard times have the abandoned farm!ˇ± a spectator reacts to the mentalistˇŻs plan of having the haunted park built in an abandoned farm.

    Needless to say, that consideration cost the mentalist the haunted park. Other champions pitched all sorts of locations, like an abandoned estate, a frozen cave, as well as an exhausted quarry, to name the frontrunners at this point, before the population could vote for the site of the future park.

    And, of course, the attendees seemed to have their objections to raise to each potential haunted park site after each champion made their pitch. Like the frozen cave being so far away from the rest of the realm, and, of course, the dead forest that some feel might be more useful as a place to make charcoal than as a haunted park.

    ˇ°So we might want a charcoal kiln in that dead forest on top of a haunted parkˇ­ whoˇŻs in to invest in it?ˇ± an investor asks about the project for a charcoal kiln after hearing about how the berserker of the second duel pitched a dead forest as a haunted park site, knowing the dead forest site wonˇŻt win the haunted park contract.

    And, of course, the abandoned farm, for which some vagrant who fell on hard times approaches the mentalist to help her run it once it became clear that the abandoned farm wonˇŻt win the haunted park. But they are wondering how they will get the money to buy the agrarian equipment they need to get the farm up and running.

    After hearing all 16 proposals on hand, the people assembled in the stands await the signal to vote on the park location.

    ˇ°All those in favor of the abandoned farm proposal byˇ­ˇ± Enno announces the name and location of the mentalistˇŻs abandoned farm. ˇ°Please descend upon the pitch!ˇ±

    And then Bryzax counts the number of voters who wanted the haunted park to be built in an abandoned farm. Only the mentalist and the vagrant vote for it, so only two votes are cast in its favor.

    The second-lowest option is the berserkerˇŻs proposal to build it in a dead forest, which only nets five votes. Needless to say, they lost the park and they need to make preparations for the alternate uses they have in mind for their respective sites.

    Now it seems like the abandoned estate and the exhausted quarry are neck-and-neck in the first round of voting, under the one person, one vote principle.

    ˇ°It appears that the abandoned estate and the exhausted quarry proposals are tied, and therefore a second round of voting, with only these two choices, will be held!ˇ± Enno announces to the crowd, as he refuses to cast the tie-breaking vote for now.

    A haunted park in an abandoned estate would normally require at least one boss indoors and one boss outdoors, if more than one boss, Saronium starts thinking about how the voteˇŻs results will affect the parkˇŻs design. On the other hand, a quarry would require only outdoor bosses, and outdoor bosses have fewer constraints.

    With 14 options eliminated, some voters abstained from voting in the second round, feeling they would be indifferent to the choices remaining. But as the final vote is tallied, itˇŻs becoming clear that one option is pulling ahead of the other.

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    ˇ°With a total count of one thousand one hundred and seventy-one to five hundred fifty-seven, and eighty-three abstentions, the winner is: the abandoned quarry project!ˇ± Bryzax announces the results of the second vote.

    Bryzax then brings the quarryˇŻs champion to the lordˇŻs box. His liege lord has some questions for the champion about the layout of the abandoned quarry that just landed the contract for the haunted park. Saronium also approaches him around that time.

    ˇ°I wonder if there is anything special that I need to consider when building the haunted park in the quarry, like, its layoutˇ­ˇ± Enno asks the quarryˇŻs champion. ˇ°I just want to ensure that I know where I can put what kind of ghostsˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, this is also for what do the ward-builders need to consider when putting in wards to keep the ghosts in the park. You said that you wanted the park to be trash-free, so all you need is bosses. However, bosses must be custom designed. As you can imagine, designing bosses is much more expensive than trash ghosts, since they must be crafted from scratch. And trash ghosts, as well as adds, are often made of presets with limited customization capabilities!ˇ± Saronium harangues the two about ghost design.

    ˇ°Wait a minuteˇ­ haunted park ghosts are crafted?ˇ± the quarryˇŻs champion, clueless about haunted park design, gasps.

    ˇ°Yes. But whatˇŻs really crafted is called a locus. And IˇŻm surprised Enno even thinks ghosts take up physical space, but ideally bosses should take up its own space in a parkˇ±

    ˇ°Just one moment, pleaseˇ­ˇ± Enno tells the rental healer before leaving the box.

    While Saronium explains whatˇŻs relevant to the champion of the quarry about haunted park design, Enno makes for the palaceˇŻs rooftop. The palace guards temporarily stored the three aswaransˇŻ gear on its rooftop, where Enno found Concetta practicing alcohol magic with a barrel under the supervision of a local tavern keeper, also an alcohol wizard.

    ˇ°Remember: always open with the shooter!ˇ± The tavern keeper tells Concetta, who seems to not quite have the rotation down.

    ˇ°Oh yes, then the shooter, the alcohol cloud, the adulterated alcohol, the moonshine and then the cocktail! In that orderˇ­ˇ± Concetta sighs before practicing her rotation of alcohol spells until she fills the barrel with it.

    I wonder if I can even sell the products of these drills as some sort of fortified boozeˇ­ Concetta starts wondering whether this mixture of magical beverages can even be sold, while she is so focused on the drill that she fails to realize her liege lord is on the palaceˇŻs roof. Once the drill ends:

    ˇ°OK, Concetta, I have a task for you, after you finish this drill. I want you to go to the nearest broker, and sell the three sets of gear belonging to these ghost cataphracts, along with any alcohol from your drill! Keep the gold from the alcohol, but remember that youˇŻre selling the gear in my name!ˇ± Enno instructs his cook while the flying carpet is being loaded with the gear.

    Oh boyˇ­ I wonder what relationship this gear has to the gear dropping from the Perserian haunted parks, Enno is wondering whether the sale of this gear will make any dent into the expenses of building the haunted park in the exhausted quarry.

    But the payload from the gear makes the carpet fly slower as Concetta follows the road from Kaeshana to the nearest broker in Gorima.

    After Concetta flies off in the distance on the carpet, Enno goes back to Saronium to ask a question to her:

    ˇ°I have taken three cataphract ghosts prisoner. I wonder if itˇŻs feasible to turn the trio into what collectively amounts to the first boss of my haunted parkˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°By now, you must have realized that itˇŻs more acceptable for the first bosses of haunted parks to be easier than later bosses. But I never saw anyone try to convert trash from older parks into a boss. Let me see the prisoners, please!ˇ± Saronium pleads with him, while the quarryˇŻs champion is about to leave.

    ˇ°Goodbye, milord!ˇ± the quarryˇŻs champion exchanges formalities.

    The two then go to the palaceˇŻs jail annex and the jailˇŻs guards ask the lord the purpose of his visit to the jail:

    ˇ°State the purpose of the visit!ˇ± the guards ask him.

    ˇ°The haunted park is a reality, now we need to inspect the ghost prisoners to ensure they are able to be stationed at the haunted park!ˇ± Enno explains to the guards, who then guide the pair to the cataphractsˇŻ cell.

    The two are left wondering why is it that these three ghosts havenˇŻt attempted to escape their cells yet. As they approach the cell, and are about to inspect the ghosts:

    ˇ°It has come to my attention that Perseria is not in position to pay for any ransom for your release!ˇ± Enno breaks the news to the three cataphract ghosts. ˇ°Also, your cataphract gearˇ­ˇ± Marzban then interrupts him.

    ˇ°Aswaran gear! The new regime in Perseria has imposed bans on the use of ghost soldiers!ˇ± Marzban explains before introducing himself. ˇ°I apologize for not having introduced myself when I raised the white flag. IˇŻm Marzbanˇ±

    ˇ°Marzban, why wait until youˇŻre captured to tell us this?ˇ± Saronium asks Marzban. ˇ°Before your capture, you were out for me and for Lord Enno because you were accusing me of having aided the massacre of innocents, while, in reality, ghosts herded residents of Lower Perseria for use as living shields!ˇ±

    ˇ°Aswaran? WhatˇŻs the meaning of thisˇ­ Marzban?ˇ± Enno rolls his eyes. ˇ°Yourˇ­ aswaran gear has been sold to pay for the repairs to the tournament grounds!ˇ±

    ˇ°The old Perserian regime distinguished between aswaran and savaran cataphracts. Aswarans were ghosts, while savarans are livingˇ± Ermahgerd explains the difference between the two. ˇ°Both have more or less the same equipment, so the buyers will probably be would-be savaransˇ±

    ˇ°Even if we wanted to return to Perserian service, we canˇŻt!ˇ± Tissaphernes adds to their lament.

    ˇ°Maybe, in Kaeshanian service, you might find a secondˇ­ life, if that makes sense!ˇ± Enno makes a proposal to the three ghosts.

    ˇ°How so?ˇ± Marzban asks his captor.

    ˇ°If you were to serve, together, as a haunted park boss, and mounted on your horsesˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Teleportation drains our energy, and the horsesˇŻ, too!ˇ± Marzban answers the two, while Saronium examines the ghosts for signs of whether they can actually be refitted as a boss. ˇ°We canˇŻt teleport at will!

    They will need extra mechanics, especially in brutal and fatal difficulties. However, the other important change is that, while trash can attack without provocation within a certain distance, bosses donˇŻt, Saronium ponders what changes will be required for the trio of aswaran to be viable as a boss. She then turns to Enno.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs notˇ­ impossible, and not, itˇŻs not just about power scaling. If youˇŻre OK with a very easy boss, itˇŻs typically easiest to accept if it was the first bossˇ±

    ˇ°Then again I feel like itˇŻs better if people donˇŻt leave a haunted park empty-handedˇ± Enno then turns to Marzban. ˇ°How does being a haunted park boss sound to you?ˇ±

    ˇ°When your existence as a ghost revolves around haunted parks, you start building your entire identity around your role in a haunted parkˇ­ I guess we have no choiceˇ± Marzban sighs.

 Chapter 38: Crybaby Aswarans

    ˇ°One more thing: the construction of the park truly begins only when the first wards have broken ground. However, there is no other new construction of haunted parks planned anywhere else in the worldˇ± Saronium tells her host.

    ˇ°Who supplies the kind of magical wards that can keep ghosts from escaping the park?ˇ± Enno asks the rental healer.

    ˇ°That I donˇŻt know. I know only that they require regular maintenance, and failure to observe maintenance schedules led to civil war in Perseria! Maybe you should contact the Supreme Council!ˇ±

    The two best-kept secrets of the haunted park world are the magical ward builders and the loot-making systems. However, ghost crafters mostly keep to themselves, even though some information about ghost crafting is publicly known, Saronium muses.

    ˇ°The Supreme Council... Who on the Council would even know anything about the building of haunted parksˇŻ magical wards?ˇ± Enno asks her.

    Marzban overhears the two. ˇ°You still havenˇŻt told us about what angelic beacons did to their wearers!ˇ± he babbles in a creepy tone.

    ˇ°All I ever heard about angelic beacons was that otherworldly entities controlled the wearers while activated, and they saved the wearers from death!ˇ± Saronium explains to the aswarans, feeling uneasy at the insistence of the ghosts.

    ˇ°I canˇŻt just... show up at the Supreme CouncilˇŻs headquarters and ask about haunted park equipment!ˇ± Enno protests.

    ˇ°You want us to become a haunted park boss, we need to have the right equipment! You sold our gear off!ˇ± Tissaphernes protests in turn. ˇ°We need new gear before the park opens!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, milord, we need weapons, armor of the same standard as in Perserian service, or we wonˇŻt be able to function as a boss!ˇ± Marzban yells at his captor. ˇ°And I want a caparison with tassels for my warhorse, lacquer and trim for my armor, with my own motif!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you think your station is as a haunted park boss? You sound like you want to be the last boss of my park!ˇ± Enno is about to lash out at his captive aswaran. ˇ°You may as well lacquer the armor yourself!ˇ±

    Are all aswarans such crybabies? Enno, disgusted by this display of petulance, leaves the cell they are held in. And Saronium follows him out of the jail annex.

    Feeling like haunted park matters are sensitive, Enno summons his herald to his bedroom.

    ˇ°I canˇŻt believe that these aswarans could be so... petulant! They had the gall to demand that we re-arm them before the park enters service!ˇ± Enno laments, while being reminded of how ornate Marzban wants his gear to be as a haunted park boss.

    ˇ°You were the one who thought that you could save on the ghosts by using the aswarans under your custody as a haunted park boss!ˇ± the rental healer responds to the lordˇŻs lament.

    ˇ°They feel like being elevated to boss status should be accompanied with gear reflecting their status! But you have seen the consequences of these aswarans throwing tantrums earlier today! If thatˇŻs the cost of keeping these ghosts around as a dungeon boss, this boss is going to be the single most expensive boss of my park!ˇ± Enno keeps lamenting.

    ˇ°That was a bad move, milord! You really think their old gear is worth more than the cost of their replacement gear?ˇ± Bryzax yells at his liege lord.

    ˇ°What costs a fortune is the armor. Especially barding, but even a suit of lamellar heavy armor costs several times more than a xyston, a shamshir and a composite bow put together!ˇ± Enno retorts. ˇ°Maybe if we could refurbish armor from noble criminals, dead or alive, we can re-equip the ghosts for service as a haunted park boss for a fraction of the cost of making new armor!ˇ±

    ˇ°If I may, milord, perhaps the loot of your new park could be modeled on the gear they will wear, or at least the heavy armor, polearm, bow, one-handed sword and shield! So at least make the heavy body armor count!ˇ± the rental healer suggests him.

    ˇ°I think itˇŻs a bit premature to think about the loot when the wards arenˇŻt even up yet! Also, how often did you see bosses wear the loot you stand to win?ˇ±

    The trio feels like itˇŻs going to degenerate, but the dinner is almost ready, and the 16 champions are invited to it in the great room, along with EnnoˇŻs servants. Same goes for Bryzax, too. With spit-roasted meat, cheese, bread and apples being served.

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    ˇ°It is my hope that, now that the population has had a chance to have a say in the decision, the tensions will abate across the land while the construction of the park gets underway. And we also secured a boss for this park to be built in an exhausted quarry!ˇ± Enno harangues the guests.

    ˇ°Really? These three ghost cataphracts we fought would become a boss of the park? They gave us a run for our money!ˇ± the electricity wizard comments on the fight.

    ˇ°I hope that you know what youˇŻre doing, milord...ˇ± the vandal sighs.

    ˇ°One question: how many of you have seen combat on militia duty?ˇ± Enno asks the champions who came to the palace. ˇ°These ghosts were actually banished ex-Perserian aswarans, elite heavy cavalry among the finest in the world!ˇ±

    And so it appears that the majority did see combat on levy duty, but at least two didnˇŻt: the vicar and the mentalist, for those who didnˇŻt see any kind of levy duty.

    After everything I heard about haunted park ghosts, I am surprised that Marzban even has a personality beyond its combat role at all, Enno has questions surfacing about his experience with the aswarans under his custody. The Caladon Bog bosses had clear limitations. How did Marzban even get the idea that being a haunted park boss is like being a lord, only that you get killed, whatever that means to a ghost, over and over? A direct vassal to me perhaps, but some level of lordship for sure.

    ˇ°Milord, if you anger these captive ghosts more than you already did... your park will be dead on arrival! Treat these ghosts well, and you might still be able to make the most out of the park!ˇ± Bryzax warns him. ˇ°By locking them up in a cell like common criminals, you humiliated them!ˇ±

    ˇ°They are common criminals because these ghosts disturbed public order and safety! They are locked up in the same cells as past criminals who committed similar crimes! They were maimed in the fight, it would not make sense to torture them!ˇ± Enno responds to his herald. ˇ°But humiliation is an aim of punishment!ˇ±

    Later that night, Concetta returns from the trip to the broker with three buckets of gold since the ghostsˇŻ old panoplies found buyers very rapidly. However, she spent the proceeds from the sale of the barrel of magical alcohol on an empty barrel and a new set of witch gear.

    ˇ°I had no idea that a suit of aswaran armor was worth a bucket of gold...ˇ± Enno comments on how quickly such an expensive suit of armor could sell, as he looks at the 10-quart buckets filled with gold. ˇ°I really hope that this new dress will keep you motivated to keep practicing alcohol magic! Now, get these buckets of gold to the treasury!ˇ±

    ˇ°I think I will need to save up to get my own besom and cask so I can sell magical booze on the market!ˇ± Concetta thinks that she should practice alcohol magic on the marketplace.

    ˇ°IˇŻm lending you five hundred gold, and you have three months to repay this amount! At five percent rate!ˇ±

    Time to get myself a besom and a cask! He loaned me enough to buy a horse-drawn cart, horses included, and besoms cost about as much as a horse-drawn cart, Concetta then goes around town looking for a besom and a cask.

    Perhaps if I could charge a tariff on magical alcohol imports if taxing repairs of high-end gear and funeral goods and services isnˇŻt enough to pay for the haunted parkˇŻs costs! Or increase fines for preexisting crimes! Enno starts worrying about how to pay for the price of keeping a would-be dungeon boss happy with expensive gear. Marzban is probably one of the most obnoxious haunted park bosses in the worldˇ­

    When he goes to sleep that night, Enno starts turning into his bed. He doesnˇŻt seem to be comfortableˇ­

    <hr>

    Enno assembled his advisors in the grand hall of the palace, while rioters were outside the gates of the palace grounds. They were demanding explanations for the sudden explosion of item-specific financial burdens: taxes on funeral goods and services, high-end gear repairs, tariffs on magical alcohol imports, additional fines for certain crimesˇ­ and now taxes on inn stays and healing potions?

    ˇ°All these new taxes, and what do we have to show for it?ˇ± a protester hollered.

    ˇ°This haunted park is still delayed and is about to bankrupt the dominion!ˇ± another protester hollered.

    ˇ°When ghosts are roaming around the land, the living are suffering for nothing!ˇ±

    ˇ°Down with our lord! Down with the haunted park!ˇ±

    Back in the grand hall, the foreman of the haunted park construction site delivered the report on the status of the haunted parkˇŻs construction site.

    ˇ°Milord, it seems like the haunted park is still several months away from opening, and several million gold over budget! Should we abandon the park?ˇ± a distraught foreman reported in.

    ˇ°What purpose can we possibly have for an exhausted quarry otherwise?ˇ± Enno asked his advisors.

    ˇ°It would take a few more million gold to finish the park, milord!ˇ± Bryzax told him.

    ˇ°Everything began with these forsaken ex-Perserian aswarans that I decided would be a boss! They demanded to be outfitted with luxury gear at our expense, or there wouldnˇŻt even be an unfinished haunted park right now!ˇ±

    I really wonder if this haunted park is ever going to earn back what the realm spent on itˇ­ Enno shook when his advisors told him about the costs incurred to build it, and how the park was behind schedule. But at the same time, demolishing the haunted park would be an admission that I wasted so much money on that haunted park! I really wonder how it got to this point! Was there anything I could have done to prevent this from happening?

    <hr>

    The lord awakens from this nightmare. Is this how this whole adventure of the haunted park going to end? Money issues? Or inability to get the park built on time on top of that? The core information I need to even budget properly is, unfortunately, a well-guarded secret. But perhaps these ghosts could have a clue, and I believe they are those who would even make this park a reality at allˇ­ he starts sweating and hyperventilating.

 Chapter 39: Gear Shopping

    After his breakfast, Enno goes back to the jail annex. But without Saronium, whom he knows she doesnˇŻt have a clue about what heˇŻs about to ask them. He goes to the kitchen...

    ˇ°Concetta, I would like to take some of the practice residue from alcohol magic drills please...ˇ± Enno pleads with his cook.

    ˇ°Milord, I am not sure what the hell you think youˇŻre doing with it!ˇ± Concetta retorts a little confused.

    ˇ°I think these ghosts might want to drink; they would be thirsty by now... I might even distribute it to the other prisoners!ˇ±

    The lord then takes a jug of magical alcohol for use on the aswarans, or at least so that he can coax them into answering some questions about magical wards and ghost crafters, as well as the cost of these items. Upon arriving at the aswaransˇŻ cell:

    ˇ°Perhaps you could drink the magical drinks I have broughtˇ± the lord tells the captive ghosts.

    ˇ°I suspect that you have some questions for which the living have no answers!ˇ± Marzban babbles in a creepy tone.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think I have any real idea of who even builds magical wards, nor how much they cost!ˇ± Enno screams at the aswarans. Much less about who crafts ghost loci and loot systems, and at what cost!ˇ±

    ˇ°We might tell you if you give us more than just magic drinks!ˇ± Tissaphernes yells at his captor.

    ˇ°You do understand that your other demands are very expensive and that no bank will lend money for building a haunted park! Are you trying to bankrupt the dominion, or its residents?ˇ± EnnoˇŻs face turns red while facing the phantom prisoners.

    ˇ°What do you mean, milord?ˇ± Marzban yells at his captor.

    ˇ°We were already forced to levy taxes on funeral goods and services, repairs of high-end gear and to impose tariffs on imported magical alcohol just to pay for the haunted park! A park thatˇŻs only in its early stages of construction!ˇ± Enno retorts.

    ˇ°Perseria thought building two dungeons in its walls would be a good investment; look where it led them!ˇ± Ermahgerd keeps yelling.

    ˇ°Without us, there wonˇŻt be a park!ˇ± Marzban swiftly reminds him.

    ˇ°Maybe we can have you equipped with only one weapon apiece, rather than all three as you were in Perserian service. Who wields which weapon depends on what each of you is best at!ˇ± Enno makes a first compromise, which he knows will only leave a small dent in the costs. ˇ°If any of you is proficient with a saber, I might give one of you a dha if thatˇŻs acceptableˇ±

    ˇ°How is a dha different from the shamshir I used to wield?ˇ± Ermahgerd asks his captor.

    ˇ°Ermahgerd! YouˇŻre clearly the best archer among us, why do you ask about sabers?ˇ± Marzban scolds his subordinate.

    ˇ°Because maybe someone here might prefer using sabers to bows or xystons?ˇ± Ermahgerd asks his fellow aswarans.

    ˇ°A dha differs from a shamshir by the shape and size of its guard!ˇ± the lord explains to the aswaran prisoners.

    Damn, if I thought giving away the dha Bryzax won to these ghosts was a viable cost-saving measure, I am gravely mistaken, Enno realizes that the dha is not to their tastes, judging by their reaction to the offer.

    ˇ°You want to get through the three stages of construction, our gear needs to meet our specs!ˇ± Tissaphernes retorts to Enno.

    ˇ°Yeah, the guard of a dha is poorly designed and will get us maimed, if not killed!ˇ± Marzban starts formulating the specs for his sword.

    Hehe: with new gear made according to these specs, we can leave our past in Perseria behind! Marzban starts thinking while the trio starts talking about what they want in more detail out of their gear, beyond tassels for his warhorseˇŻs caparison and lacquer and trim for their armor. Full plate for all 3.

    ˇ°LetˇŻs back up a bit. Three stages of construction? What role did any of you play during the construction of PerseriaˇŻs haunted parks?ˇ± Enno asks about their past.

    ˇ°We were responsible for the security around the city hallˇŻs main plaza while the Giant Garuda was being installed, along with its loot chest system!ˇ± Marzban answers his captor.

    Bosses are installed? They make me feel like itˇŻs unwise to install bosses before the wards are up! Enno starts sweating, realizing that they need to get started immediately if they want to get the gear ready by installation time.

    ˇ°Our involvement with the Perserian haunted parks began in the late stages of the construction of the magical wards, the first stageˇ± Tissaphernes adds to his leaderˇŻs statements.

    ˇ°Quiet, Tissaphernes!ˇ± Marzban then turns to Enno. ˇ°We might be ok with a plain croupiere, since the caparison will cover it in full, but thereˇŻs one guild building everything that makes a haunted park, well, a haunted park! They take care of installing wards, then ghosts and finally the loot systems!ˇ±

    ˇ°Before you take me to the guild, I wonder why you insist so much on your gear looking as expensive as possible! Because you, as haunted park bosses, remain fixed in place and, by and large, haunted park users only care about the fights and the loot they yieldˇ­ˇ± Enno struggles to understand why.

    ˇ°You put the finger on the reason! If we are going to become haunted park bosses, we may as well wear some of the possible loot ourselves!ˇ± Ermahgerd answers the would-be haunted park owner.

    Sometimes I feel like IˇŻm dealing with oversized egos, EnnoˇŻs head starts spinning, given the list of requirements for the gear. Tissaphernes wants a spear built around a 10-foot wooden pole, with specific primary and secondary spearheads, Ermahgerd wants specific ornaments on the bow limbs, as well as a certain draw strengthˇ­ He starts feeling like they will need to have Bryzax and Yutolio tour the city alongside them.

    ˇ°Because meeting all their requirements will mean the lead time is rather long, Bryzax, I feel like we need to escort the ghosts to various artisans in the city. TheyˇŻre combat veterans though, and typically more experienced soldiers tend to have more refined tastes in gear. However, be warned: as future bosses of the haunted park, they are going to be equipped almost from scratch, except for the reins, saddle and spurs. Yutolio, take Tissaphernes in a tour of the city, Bryzax, you take Ermahgerdˇ±

    ˇ°Why, milord, do you have us babysit ghosts while they are out shopping?ˇ± Yutolio asks his liege lord, furrowing a brow.

    ˇ°We canˇŻt leave ghosts unattended, lest they vandalize the town! And one separate armorer for the horse as well as another one for the wearer!ˇ± Enno then goes to an armorer.

    Joyˇ­ I really wonder what went through their minds, while the armorer takes a draft of what MarzbanˇŻs suit of armor will look like, Enno is left wondering about the cost of that suit of armor. For some reason the armorer doesnˇŻt seem fazed by MarzbanˇŻs ghostly aspect.

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    Once Marzban is done telling him about the motif and lacquer pattern, alongside the plume, Enno is about to hear the true cost of this ghostˇŻs suit of armor.

    ˇ°How much for the armor?ˇ± Enno asks for the price.

    ˇ°That will run thirty-five thousand goldˇ± the armorer gives him the quote.

    ˇ°For that price, it better be fit for a wuzurgan or else!ˇ± Marzban shouts, leaving the armorer without a clue of what a wuzurgan is, other than maybe being a name for some high position. And yet he keeps begging the armorer. ˇ°But I MUST have that suit of armor!ˇ±

    I guess, I have no choice but to accept that outfitting 3 knights in full doesnˇŻt even start to cover the baseline cost of getting the park built! And Marzban claimed that, for 35k gold, he could get a suit of plate fit for what he called a wuzurgan? What the hell are wuzurgans in Perserian society? If, like aswaran, wuzurgan was a Perserian term, of courseˇ­ Enno sighs before he asks about the payment schedule.

    ˇ°How much of it must be paid when?ˇ± Enno asks, believing that knowing what a wuzurgan is may well be secondary for the time being.

    ˇ°Twenty percent now, the rest at completion! And that will be done in two to three fortnights!ˇ± the armorer tells him.

    Enno turns to the ghost. ˇ°Is it realistic to get magical wards built around a quarry in two to three fortnights? No other structural work required!ˇ±

    ˇ°I canˇŻt say, really! But, if it takes that long to get the armor the way I want it, I accept the park wonˇŻt be completed in three fortnights! I know the life of a haunted park boss is harshˇ± Marzban answers his captor.

    And not the least because you canˇŻt build a loot system if your loot isnˇŻt ready, Marzban reflects on what the lead time for the loot means for him. And for the park.

    ˇ°I believe the population will accept the construction of the park will take a while, so long as there is actual work being made towards it!ˇ± Enno tells the ghost, before Ermahgerd arrives at that armorer.

    ˇ°Sir, since we ride three identical ghost war horses, is it possible to just have all the peytrals with the same yellow tassels? And really, three identical bardings?ˇ± Ermahgerd asks his leader.

    ˇ°Just let me lacquer my horseˇŻs shaffron and crinet! The caparison will cover the rest, except for the front of the peytral!ˇ± Marzban instructs his subordinate about the barding.

    ˇ°How much will we save by doing so? Also, how long will it take to make the three bardings?ˇ± Enno asks the second ghost about the timeframe.

    ˇ°About three to four fortnights. The horse armorer offered to make three bardings for the cost of two. And that comes out to thirty thousand apiece!ˇ±

    Damn, these aswarans really are spendthrifts of the worst kind! But they know that building a haunted park isnˇŻt quick. They spend a fortune on horse armor even though their horses wonˇŻt be lootable! Bryzax overhears the aswaran in his care talk about the cost of horse armor.

    ˇ°This grivpanvar accepted but you need to accept before this offer goes in effect!ˇ± Ermahgerd insists on Marzban accepting the horse armorerˇŻs offer, knowing Tissaphernes accepted it.

    ˇ°Wait a minute, whatˇŻs a grivpanvar? WhatˇŻs a wuzurgan? I have the feeling that I will hear these terms until your installation!ˇ± Enno asks the lead aswaran.

    ˇ°IˇŻll tell you once we have finished commissioning all the gear we need!ˇ± Marzban then turns to his subordinates. ˇ°Ermahgerd, get to the bowyer, Tissaphernes, go get what passes for a xyston here! And then I will have the same barding as you do, yellow tassels and all!ˇ±

    ˇ°Enough! If you want this kind of gear, borrow the money for it at the bank!ˇ± EnnoˇŻs face turns red, ulcerated by the expenses these ghosts are making. ˇ°I will not let you spend any money from KaeshanaˇŻs treasury for that!ˇ±

    ˇ°On my honor as a Kaeshanian grivpanvar, I will borrow all the required gold to outfit all three of us by any means necessary!ˇ± Tissaphernes swears by the gear he plans on putting as collateral.

    In old Perserian society, combat skill alone wasnˇŻt enough to make it to the most elite units. Back there, expensive gear was a marker of eliteness. This was a rude awakening to the realities of Kaeshanian society, where people didnˇŻt set expectations in battle based, even partially, on the apparent cost of oneˇŻs gear, Ermahgerd reflects on this whole experience of shopping among the living.

    ˇ°Sorry, Mister Grivpanvar, but no bank will lend money to a ghost! You will need a living co-signer to even take out a loan!ˇ± Yutolio warns Tissaphernes, who instead scours the city in search of a living co-signer to take out the loan for the sum he believes is necessary to equip all three ghosts for haunted park duty.

    ˇ°I canˇŻt believe Tissaphernes: on the one hand, heˇŻs willing to cut a deal to get us horse barding for cheaper. On the other hand, he mortgaged us to the hilt!ˇ± Ermahgerd tries to prevent his fellow aswaran from terrorizing the city, and chases him around.

    Who, other than a beggar, would co-sign to get a loan for someone they donˇŻt know? Yutolio is left puzzled by the ghostsˇŻ actions and their despair to get their hands on that sort of high-end gear.

    ˇ°I guess, I need to get the weapons for my fellow aswarans because they are so busy elsewhere in the city!ˇ± Marzban sighs as heˇŻs taken to the nearest weaponsmith by his captor.

    But because the weaponsmith didnˇŻt deal in bows, Marzban only deals with TissaphernesˇŻ polearm, as befits a grivpanvar, and his own sword. Speaking of which, both weapons are to have ornamentations and engravings at various places: the halberdˇŻs head and the fuller for the polearm and the sword respectively. And these two weapons could be obtained for a fraction of the price of even one suit of plate armor.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, Tissaphernes backs a beggar into a corner, with the ghost being increasingly insistent towards the beggar:

    ˇ°I need your help! Now!ˇ± Tissaphernes yells at the beggar in a creepy tone, while he has yet to explain what he wants of the beggar.

    ˇ°What can I possibly be of use to you for?ˇ± the beggar asks the aswaran about what purpose the ghost has for him.

    ˇ°I need someone to sign a bank loan for me! I canˇŻt legally sign a loan on my own!ˇ±

    ˇ°What can a ghost possibly want to borrow money for?ˇ±

    ˇ°That is not for you to know! All you need to know is that I need someone to sign the loan, and I might even give you some gold for that favor!ˇ±

    ˇ°What happens if I donˇŻt?ˇ± the beggar asks, unsure of whether he should do it.

    ˇ°You will die in the streets!ˇ± Tissaphernes screams in a creepy voice.

    ˇ°Anything to get me out of the streets! I canˇŻt even afford to go on an apprenticeship!ˇ± the beggar trembles, hoping to get by on the scraps of this loan.

    What the beggar doesnˇŻt realize is that, by being a co-signer on the loan for our gear is really a poisoned gift, Tissaphernes starts thinking about how much cash to give him out of the loan money because he feels that, for all the torment he might have inflicted on the beggar, at least he should follow through on his promise to the beggar. And give the beggar enough money to rent a room somewhere in the city, as well as enough money to buy a basic set of tools for the trade of his choice, along with the apprenticeship fee.

    As the trembling beggar goes to the Bank of the FrontierˇŻs Kaeshana branch, he starts dashing towards the bank branch when he feels like Ermahgerd is hot on his tail. Who doesnˇŻt look very happy to see the trioˇŻs grivpanvar get to the bank with a beggar in tow.

    ˇ°What is the meaning of this? You dragged this beggar to the bank? Kicking and screaming?ˇ± Ermahgerd scolds the grivpanvar.

    ˇ°His Lordship suddenly decided that he wonˇŻt spend any of his money on getting him our gear! How are we going to pay for it?ˇ± Tissaphernes raises his voice.

    ˇ°What?ˇ± the archer aswaran canˇŻt hide his surprise at EnnoˇŻs actions. ˇ°I thought he was a money-pincher, but not to that extent!ˇ±

    The beggar then flees from the feud between the two aswarans. ˇ°Look at what you did to the beggar!ˇ± the grivpanvar points to the fleeing beggar. ˇ°We canˇŻt simply steal the gear from these artisans three fortnights from now! And you ruined that beggarˇŻs life!ˇ±

    The quarrel degenerates. ˇ°What did you plan to do with him anyway?ˇ±

    ˇ°I could have used some money from the loan to jumpstart his way out of the streets!ˇ±

    In the meantime, the pair realize this was not going to work, at least not for the time being. The pair feel like they have no choice but to go in and maybe frighten the bankers into lending them money without a living co-signer.

    ˇ°The ghosts! Run!ˇ± a banker shouts at his other employees, hiding and trembling under furniture, while he looks at the two ghosts getting to the teller window.

    ˇ°We only want to borrow money! We had unfinished business in life, and we need to borrow money to complete it!ˇ± Tissaphernes states them in a creepy voice.

    ˇ°How much money are youˇ­ talking?ˇ± a trembling banker asks the would-be lender. ˇ°What are you putting as collateral?ˇ±

    ˇ°I would like to borrow a quarter of a million gold, so we can commission new gear that weˇŻre putting as collateral!ˇ± the creepiness of the voice makes the bankers uncomfortable.

    The banker hands over a standard form indenture contract for the loan theyˇŻre about to take out from the Bank of the Frontier, and the ghosts sigh when the bankerˇŻs fear gets the better of him. They borrow at a 10% yearly rate.

    Even when Marzban commissions three caparisons for a few thousand gold, and, with the gold in hand, they proceed to pay everyone they commissioned weapons from, with some gold left over to commission a bow for Ermahgerd and a shield for Marzban to go with his sword.

 Chapter 40: Ghost Repairs

    When they return to their prison cell later that night, Tissaphernes lets loose a mention of taking out a big loan to get all 3 aswarans the gear they feel they need to function as a haunted park boss. Which he had the trio put as collateral.

    ˇ°The bank let you take out that loan without a living co-signer?ˇ± an astonished Bryzax shakes his head in utter disbelief.

    ˇ°The onus is on you to repay the loan on your gear! How do you plan on repaying the loan?ˇ± an angry Yutolio asks the aswarans. ˇ°I hope youˇŻre happy now that you commissioned the gear you wanted!ˇ±

    ˇ°You already caused enough mayhem in town today, before you crawl back to your cell, youˇŻd better tell us what a grivpanvar or a wuzurgan is!ˇ± Enno asks the ghosts.

    ˇ°A grivpanvar is a lancer cataphract. Wuzurgans are the top class of Perserian citizensˇ± Marzban explains to the trio of living before they return to the issues of loans.

    ˇ°I have an idea for you to repay the loan to the Bank of the Frontier: we will no longer deny funeral services to executed convicts or to criminals who died in jail. However, families of such criminals will need to pay a fee before they can recover their loved onesˇŻ bodies, payable directly to the executioner. For this reason I issue you three a limited executioner license, which lasts only for the next four fortnights!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, youˇŻd better pray for the park to be ready for ghost installation within that timeframe...ˇ± Bryzax points out.

    ˇ°You heard the lord. You want to get the wards installed in four fortnights, we need to get to the Haunted Park Construction Guild! Now!ˇ± Marzban shouts in their direction.

    Damn it! Where in the world is Saronium? Enno ruminates about the implications of not having her on hand for something as crucial to the safe operation of a haunted park as wards. Or even the design of the parkˇŻs other bosses. However, heˇŻs left wondering where the offices of the Haunted Park Construction Guild are.

    ˇ°IˇŻll stay here and take care of the palace while youˇŻre away on official businessˇ± Yutolio announces while they leave the prison annex.

    At this point, Enno gets to Concetta while Bryzax goes to the armory to equip his suit of armor for this trip. He is a little concerned about the dangers of the Guild.

    ˇ°Okay, Concetta, maybe you could sell some of your magical moonshine and then pay back the five hundred gold...ˇ±

    ˇ°Where, milord?ˇ±

    ˇ°The Haunted Park Construction Guild. I must get my ghosts... repaired, if you will. Would you please come with me?ˇ±

    ˇ°Please help me get the barrel of magical moonshine on the carpet then! The barrelˇŻs heavy!ˇ± Concetta closes the moonshine barrelˇŻs lid and then slowly rolls it on the floor. And Enno helps her in the staircase.

    Once they arrive at the palaceˇŻs rooftop, the three loads ConcettaˇŻs barrel of magical moonshine on the flying carpet. And the ghosts follow shortly thereafter.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre the one who brought up the Haunted Park Construction Guild. So you will fly the carpet to the Guild!ˇ± Enno bosses Marzban around, treating him like a direct vassal.

    ˇ°As you wish, milord...ˇ±

    Marzban proves to be adept at flying a carpet. And, despite the full barrel of magical moonshine weighing more than any two of the living people riding the carpet, itˇŻs still much faster than riding even a warhorse.

    Once they arrive at the GuildˇŻs headquarters, a monastery housing wizards and a variety of artisans dealing in loot and in construction, they land at the front door in the dead of night. Enno knocks on the door:

    ˇ°Open up! I have defective ghosts to repair!ˇ± Enno yells as he knocks on the door.

    After hearing about defective ghosts, one of the residents of the monastery arrives at the front door. Who in their right mind would even call ghosts defective? a locus crafter ponders what the new respondent would even have to complain about.

    ˇ°What do you mean, you have defective ghosts to repair?ˇ± one of the locus crafters asks the lord, while the ghosts are behind the other people.

    ˇ°For some reason, some elite trash from Upper Perseria arrived in Kaeshana, and started gaining unpleasant personalities upon arriving here! They even try to take on lives of their own, and even break out of their molds as haunted park ghosts!ˇ± Enno explains the issues with his ghosts in tow.

    ˇ°Honestly, sir, we had so many fights over gear and park financing with His Lordship here: he wanted to build a new park for his realm, but just because he secured a boss doesnˇŻt mean his park is viable!ˇ± Marzban then gets interrupted in his explanations.

    ˇ°He even forced us to take out a loan for us to get the gear we feel is necessary to have us function as a boss!ˇ± Tissaphernes adds his lament to their makers.

    ˇ°It seems like they commissioned three sets of armor and weapons that are all fit for kings! They spent and borrowed a quarter of a million gold to do just that!ˇ± Bryzax laments.

    ˇ°He believed our current personas would make us eligible for a limited executioner license, valid for four fortnights!ˇ± ErmahgerdˇŻs anger starts to show. ˇ°The faster we get this business done, the better!ˇ±

    ThereˇŻs only one way to repay our debts using this limited executioner license: torture the richest criminals in custody, using instruments such as the rack and pinion, and bill their families at death! And we will be able to torture way more people than any living electricity wizard currently in Kaeshanian service can! Make no mistake, we will need to torture people day and night for four fortnights! Tissaphernes starts getting restless and canˇŻt help but wonder how to operate a rack and pinion. And on whom to use it.

    ˇ°Is it normal for ghost riders to get unhorsed when their mounts collide against walls?ˇ± Enno asks the locus expert.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ˇ°I never heard of ghost riders getting unhorsed, much less when ghost mounts hit a wall! But thatˇŻs because I never heard of ghost riders riding to collisions against walls! What do you want us to do?ˇ± the locus expert asks Enno.

    ˇ°Make sure they can be properly refitted for service as bosses! Ideally, they should, together, be about as hard as a Caladon Bog bossˇ±

    ˇ°I canˇŻt guarantee anything, but we can always try!ˇ±

    Enno then starts explaining what mechanics he wants for the cataphracts as bosses per difficulty level. Sure itˇŻs easier for those loci crafters to adjust the power levels, and to some in the haunted park world, this process feels like adjusting a crossbowˇŻs mechanisms for shot power.

    However, the living soon realize these adjustments are easier than adjustments to the mechanics.

    ˇ°Ohˇ­ the best that can be done would have ghost-specific mechanics. This means no mechanic that involves more than one ghost at a time!ˇ± the locus crafter tells him.

    ˇ°I can live with that. However, I would like to get a quote to get a four-boss haunted park built in a quarry, pleaseˇ­ of which only three new bosses need to be madeˇ±

    ˇ°For that, you will need to wait on the guild master tomorrow. As much as no one wants to get haunted parks built anymore, donˇŻt take construction for granted!ˇ± the locus crafter informs Enno. ˇ°In the meantime, I will let you sleep for free in the guestsˇŻ roomˇ±

    Bryzax and Concetta then return to the carpet to fetch the barrel of magical moonshine that the latter plans on selling to the Guild. Given the weight of the moonshine, they feel itˇŻs better to bring the carpet directly into the monastery than to roll the carpet out. Meanwhile, the defective ghosts are brought to the locus crafterˇŻs studio where repairs are carried out.

    ˇ°And do you have any need for magical moonshine?ˇ± Enno asks when Concetta brings in the barrel.

    ˇ°We were running low on alcohol, so I guess magical moonshine is better than nothingˇ±

    ˇ°That will be five hundred and fifty goldˇ± Concetta names her price for the barrel.

    I guess, if they are going to be individualistic as parts of a boss fight, they may as well be the first boss, the gatekeepers for the rest of the park, Enno comes to the grim realities of where these ghosts are going to fit in the park, before going to sleep in the guestsˇŻ room. Do they even know they are going to be the first boss of my future park? They act as if they want to be the last boss of the parkˇ­

    The other two just stow away the carpet as well as get the barrel down to the cellar, while the locus crafter outfits the three defective ghosts with test gear.

    Much to his surprise, the aswarans accept that they will have to make do with this gear, but only because itˇŻs for tweaking other aspects of their future as a haunted park boss.

    The following morning, upon awakening, the guild master meets with Enno, asking for explanations for these defective ghosts.

    ˇ°I heard from one of my locus crafters that you came in here with defective ghosts that escaped the park they were installed at?ˇ± the guild master asks the lord.

    ˇ°Yes, and I plan to install them at a different park in the future that I plan on getting built. However, these ghosts are not ready for installation because the wards arenˇŻt yet built! And I would love to have a better idea of the cost and timeframe to build a haunted park, especially considering that I have no trashˇ±

    ˇ°Why the absence of trash?ˇ±

    ˇ°I kept hearing about how trash made the adventurer experience unpleasant, how some people preferred to take longer routes to evade trash than to fight them, so I may as well build mine without trashˇ±

    ˇ°Do you have any idea of what you have in mind? People wonˇŻt accept trash-free haunted parks without good reason, and wonˇŻt accept what we, in the haunted park industry, call cutscenes either!ˇ± the guild master reminds Enno of the harsh reality of putting this requirement in his scope statement.

    ˇ°Simple: my prospective last boss feels like trash is useless, and feels like itˇŻs more effective to have a handful of bosses than hordes of trash! And maybe even give my last boss a background in haunted park crawling, or trade! Or at least in life, if I want my last boss to be undeadˇ±

    ˇ°Do you have a construction site lined up?ˇ± the guild master asks, wondering how that will affect the design of the park.

    ˇ°Yes. We will even tour it with you if necessary!ˇ±

    ˇ°It will be necessary, since designing wards, bosses and loot systems will depend on it! Just leave your defective ghosts here and then I shall depart, with any other people you feel is necessary to tag along!ˇ±

    The guild master tells the aswarans to stay here while maintenance is underway on them, but then Bryzax and Concetta are both going with Enno to visit the site of the haunted park since neither laid their eyes on the quarry.

    ˇ°You will fly the carpet, Concetta! These aswarans stay here for repairs!ˇ± Enno blares his orders to his cook, before turning to the guild master. ˇ°Speaking of repairs, how much do these repairs cost?ˇ±

    ˇ°These ghosts are still serviceable, but the repairs still cost a few thousand gold. Still far less than a brand-new boss! But you havenˇŻt specified whether it was a dungeon or raid that you wanted to buildˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think Kaeshana can afford a raid, so a dungeon, and I believe four bosses is best for the size of the siteˇ± Enno has a rough idea of how big that quarry is.

    The foursome fly on the carpet, and Concetta pays back her overlord for the seed money she borrowed from him to get her to sell the fruits of her use of alcohol magic.

    From the air, the quarry looks like a dried lake, with one crane still operational, and mounds of slag marking the boundaries of the abandoned quarry.

    ˇ°Ok, I might be wondering whether magical wards can be put up in four fortnightsˇŻ timeˇ± Enno asks for the timeframe because he feels his hands are forced by the ghostsˇŻ time-limited executioner licenses.

    ˇ°Yes; we will be using the mounds on the perimeter, while we will need to get an ogive colonnade built at the entrance, along with some queue barriersˇ±

    ˇ°How much for the wards?ˇ± the lord asks for a range of estimates of the costs of building magical wards.

    ˇ°About six to seven thousand for the colonnade and the queue barriers, and thatˇŻs the cheapest part of the park!ˇ± the guild master tells the two about the estimates. ˇ°The rest of the wards run about four hundred thousand goldˇ±

    Yikes! Even with the taxes on funeral goods and services, on repairs of high-end gear, as well as tariffs on magical alcohol imports, thatˇŻs going to be one expensive proposition! And I wonder whether there can even be another item that can be taxed without provoking the ire of the population, and that might bear some relationship to haunted parks! Enno starts wondering how much the remaining 3 bosses and loot systems cost will cost.

    ˇ°As a down payment, we will pay for the repairs to these aswaran ghosts I call a boss, the colonnade and the queue barriersˇ± Enno suggests the guild master.

    ˇ°Magical wards protect the park against structural damage of any source, on top of ensuring ghosts stay in. YouˇŻre going to need a specific kind of magic potions to maintain the wardsˇ±

    Upon returning to the guildˇŻs headquarters, they return with more detailed design notes on the construction of the haunted park, along with more detailed information on what bosses can and cannot be installed in the park.

    ˇ°So ideally, I would want a boss at the very entrance of the park, the second boss at the crane, the last two at the bottom of the quarry, with the final one spawning after the loot from the third one has been collectedˇ± Enno drafts a plan for the park.

    ˇ°And then you want each of the first three bosses to drop a piece of an item that can summon the last boss?ˇ± the guild master asks the lord.

    ˇ°If so, itˇŻs the third boss that feels like trash is useless, not the last oneˇ±

    The locus crafter responsible for the repairs to the aswarans then reports on the repairs. ˇ°The repairs are finished, milordˇ±

    ˇ°How much for the repairs?ˇ±

    ˇ°This runs for eight thousand goldˇ± the locus crafter hands him a bill.

    What? If repairing ghosts costs that much, I wonder how much the other three bosses cost, Enno then reluctantly puts the bill so that he can ask a courier at home to get the 15,000 gold to the Haunted Park Construction GuildˇŻs headquarters.

    ˇ°I guess, itˇŻs time to return homeˇ­ˇ± Tissaphernes sighs, wondering whether they will pay back the loan for their gear in 4 fortnightsˇŻ time.

 Chapter 41: Groundbreaking

    Upon returning to Kaeshana, the ghosts are about to be given instructions on who they are authorized to torture before they return to the cityˇŻs prison annex. He also fetches the dha won at the haunted park before he leaves the ghosts to the prison annex:

    ˇ°You are not authorized to arrest criminals on your own. You can only act on criminals that are already under custody. Also, Marzban, until your shiny new sword is ready, you will have to make do with this dha to carry out the duties that come with your limited executioner license. I strongly advise that you ask about a criminalˇŻs family wealth before you torture one; other than that, you have complete freedom to bill whatever the criminalˇŻs family can afford. We must show the population that wealth affords no legal mercy!ˇ± Enno instructs the prisoners before giving the dha to Marzban, while Bryzax is about to fly around the land for the announcement of a change in policy for convicted criminalsˇŻ funeral rites.

    ˇ°My sword canˇŻt come soon enough! At this rate, TissaphernesˇŻ halberd will be ready before my sword is!ˇ± Marzban then storms off with the dha, asking the jailers about the background of the inmates.

    ˇ°We must torture them before you chop these prisonersˇŻ heads atop the tower!ˇ± Tissaphernes retorts. ˇ°That way we can bill the criminalsˇŻ families twice! ItˇŻs the only way we can repay our debts!ˇ±

    The ghosts start questioning the jailers about the crimes the prisoners committed, as well as their financial means. With the richest of them being made to lie on a rack and pinion, and the limbs fastened to the pinions. Tissaphernes mans the upper pinion, while Ermahgerd mans the lower pinion.

    The two ghosts hear the screams of the prisoner loud and clear, and even the various parts of the prisonerˇŻs body breaking: bones, tendons and so on.

    <hr>

    In the meantime, Marzban goes to the prisonerˇŻs home, where he breaks the news to his family, along with the bill.

    ˇ°I would have wished to meet under better circumstances, but your husband died in prison. To recover your husbandˇŻs body, to pay for the costs of imprisonment, which is payable to me directly, you will need to payˇ­ˇ± Marzban then states his price.

    ˇ°I get that my late husbandˇŻs crimes are horrible, but I didnˇŻt think it was that expensive to keep him locked away!ˇ± the soon-to-be widower is bewildered by the cost of the death surcharge added to the torture fee, which Marzban described as the cost of imprisonment.

    ˇ°You have four fortnights to pay whatever amount you can! Any owed amount after this date will be added to future tax bills!ˇ±

    Ouch. If we canˇŻt collect the 300,000 gold by the end of this license, I wonder what will happen with our debts! Will our lord assume them or not? Marzban starts to shake, dreading the consequences of not paying the debts the trio incurred to get high-end gear.

    <hr>

    The following day, knowing that the haunted park would be far more expensive than just 15,000 gold, he prepares the 3 buckets of gold for when the Haunted Park Construction Guild comes to the quarry so that the construction of the park may begin.

    ˇ°Please, Bryzax, we must go to the quarry again, and break ground on the haunted park! We let the whole process of building the park linger on for far too long, so while the site is now official, I donˇŻt think the people will be too happy about it until the construction begins!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, with all due respect, thereˇŻs no telling whether the local population will come to the quarry for such things as the groundbreaking of the haunted park, and maybe even laying its cornerstone! They may still want to protest its construction!ˇ± Bryzax warns his lord, both wearing formal clothing.

    ˇ°The items taxed for its construction mostly affect the rich. Say what you will about magical alcohol, but itˇŻs not an item the masses consume much. The rich tend to spend much more on funerals, and they also tend to have more of the high-end gear whose repair is being taxed! ItˇŻs not about who bears the burdens of these taxes!ˇ±

    ˇ°Since you might be breaking ground on the haunted park, it might be a good idea to carry a shovel alongˇ± Bryzax gets out to borrow two shovels from sappers.

    And so the two fly on the carpet, with three buckets of gold and two shovels, ready to pay the Haunted Park Construction Guild for the construction of the magical wards, the queue barriers, the colonnade and the repairs to the ghosts, which appear only to have made them able to function as bosses.

    When they arrive, they realize the guild comes in with a few masons, stonecutters and carpenters, as well as a flying carpet to carry the loads. Especially the ogives.

    And a mob from the neighboring communities marching on the construction site as ground is about to be broken. They approach what will soon to be the queue barriers, pitchforks and torches in hand:

    ˇ°Down with the haunted park! Down with the lord!ˇ± the mob starts chanting while no work has been done yet.

    ˇ°No haunted parks!ˇ± other people in the mob chant upon EnnoˇŻs arrival.

    Chants along these lines continue unabated. And yet, the residents of the dying village, including its resident blacksmith, tailor and leatherworker, also come out to see what they perceive as their final lifeline come to life. As well as a few people who ran haunted parks across the world.

    But because Enno feels like the crowd is still somewhat hostile to the park whose building is about to start, he stays on his carpet.

    ˇ°This quarry was chosen by the population of the realm as the location for the future haunted park, in accordance with their wishes! Are you willing to throw away what the realmˇŻs people chose?ˇ± Enno asks the mob.

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ˇ°Milord, everywhere haunted parks were built, death tolls shot through the roof!ˇ± a protester then throws a rock at Enno.

    ˇ°Haunted park visitors usually took to adventuring because they had no other choice, like theyˇŻre orphans, vagrants or banished from other realms! Or otherwise nowhere else to go!ˇ± Enno retorts to the protester, narrowly dodging the stone with an upward carpet move.

    Eekˇ­ If thatˇŻs how it shall be, I hope the guildˇŻs security is enough to make this ceremony, for which I left the palace, worth the trip, and the money IˇŻm about to pay the Guild. Which should cover a lot more than just building the colonnade or the queue barriers, Enno feels like the hostile crowd might be a little less hostile when they realize that some of these haunted park visitors might have died in an attempt to rise above their stations. Or were simply undesirables in society, especially for those who go in with little or no arms skill.

    ˇ°Perseria proved that magical ward upkeep is essential to the safe operation of a haunted park!ˇ± Saronium adds from underneath EnnoˇŻs flying carpet.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs a little early in the construction of the haunted park to worry about magical ward maintenance, that phase will take about four fortnights!ˇ± Enno retorts to Saronium as well as the carpet.

    ˇ°In anticipation of the haunted parkˇŻs construction, I bought a cottage in this villageˇ± Mijanou adds. ˇ°Which I plan to turn into a tavern!ˇ±

    ˇ°Whoˇ­ are you?ˇ± Bryzax asks that person announcing the opening of a tavern, after his lord lowers the carpet.

    ˇ°You might not remember me, but I ran the Caladon Bog with you. You were a new tank back then, and I didnˇŻt introduce myself to you. I am Mijanouˇ± the saber dancer introduces herself.

    ˇ°Bryzax. And the other person on the carpet is my overlord, Enno, the Lord of Kaeshana, who is the sponsor of the haunted park!ˇ±

    And the two get themselves into position while they get off the carpet, in the presence of other workers from the Guild. They take their shovels with them, with Enno putting the shovel where the base of the first column is supposed to be, and Bryzax, where the second column should be.

    ˇ°Today, after much political handwringing, and unrest, the time has come to begin construction of KaeshanaˇŻs new haunted park! May this haunted park revitalize this region and provide thrills to adventurers from all over the world, along with putting Kaeshana on the trade map!ˇ± Enno then proceeds to turn the haunted parkˇŻs first sod.

    Meanwhile, the Guild is busy at work in the quarry to extract what little stone is left at the quality standards required for the parkˇŻs colonnade. At the same time, the queue barriers are getting built, with queues of different lengths: the first four queues, from left to right, are at most ten feet long.

    In a matter of hours, the first four queues are completed, along with the excavation work required to put the colonnade in place. In the meantime, while the stones are being cut for the colonnadeˇŻs construction, the guild master meets with Enno in MijanouˇŻs tavern:

    ˇ°IˇŻm glad you brought in the payment for the magical wards. Or at least the bulk of it. However, the remainder of it must be paid upon completion. Even then, you still have a hundred thousand gold left outstanding just for the wards!ˇ± the guild master sets the record straight for the parkˇŻs construction.

    ˇ°I would love to know more about the bossˇŻ design costs, and whether there are other fees I need to watch out forˇ­ˇ± Enno asks.

    ˇ°If you donˇŻt pay for the option of the background music being played when not in combat, then youˇŻre at the mercy of letting some otherworldly entity decide for you. Against bosses, on the other hand, you have no such option in dungeons. You might have had it in raids, thoughˇ±

    ˇ°How much is this going to be?ˇ± Enno asks.

    ˇ°Whatever musicians you can get would then need to record it in our magical room we call a studio, and this doesnˇŻt come cheap. About a hundred gold per hour of studio timeˇ±

    Bards in haunted parks are, more often than not, better archers than they are musicians. Flute, trumpet, lyre or harp are their instruments of choice otherwise, he starts thinking about whether the recording costs are worth the cost. And he also knows that local musicians he feels can be worth a haunted park tune arenˇŻt going to record their music unpaid.

    ˇ°Boss design costs then. I have only one boss secured, I have three bosses left to go. And I sure hope that the other three bosses wonˇŻt prove as expensive as the ghosts I brought in for repairs; these ghostsˇŻ gear cost them about three hundred thousand goldˇ±

    ˇ°Believe it or not, itˇŻs actually cheaper to design monster bosses than sentient ones, and also bosses without adds. Three hundred thousand gold is, yes, a little expensive for a dungeon boss, but not abnormal. However, you save some money on the loot system if you plan on the bosses wearing the gear they dropˇ±

    ˇ°And liches then?ˇ±

    ˇ°While liches are undead, for planning purposes, they are the same as sentient bossesˇ±

    ˇ°Sentient?ˇ± a confused Mijanou asks.

    The guild master turns to the saber dancer turned tavern owner. ˇ°Sentient ghosts, in the context of haunted park design, means ghosts based on peopleˇ±

    ˇ°Speaking of loot, I would want the cloth and leather armor to be based on what I and my herald are wearing respectively. Palette swaps are acceptable, so long as the whole set is consistentˇ±

    The guild master draws a rough draft of the cloth and leather armor that KaeshanaˇŻs haunted park is slated to drop, but it crossed EnnoˇŻs mind that some pieces are missing. Namely, the axe, the mace, the two-handed sword, the dagger and the gun. If I am to have two liches haunting my park, I may as well have one of them wield an axe and the other, a mace. These weapons are common among living magic-users, so it makes sense that they wield them in death.

    A few hours later, the guildˇŻs stonecutters then inform the guild master that the parkˇŻs cornerstone is ready. They even have it on a carpet. A marble slab a little wider than a foot.

    ˇ°That was quick to cut a cornerstone down to size for the parkˇŻs colonnade. I really wonder if people just fear the wardsˇŻ malfunction or they fear something else altogetherˇ± Enno comments on the cornerstone about to be laid. ˇ°The footprint of the haunted park is limitedˇ±

    So while Enno gets to the first pedestal, the other eight pedestals are being carried to their positions so that all 9 columns in the entrance colonnade will begin construction. Luckily for them, the queue barriers are already spaced apart more or less where the parkˇŻs columns will be.

    The weight of the cornerstone is such that Enno must take it slowly to hoist it from the carpet and onto the designated slot.

    ˇ°With the haunted parkˇŻs cornerstone being laid, more than ever, the haunted park is going to be a reality!ˇ± Enno stays brief as the cornerstone is laid.

    ˇ°Why make such a deal of the parkˇŻs cornerstone when queue barriers already had good progress made on them?ˇ± Saronium asks him, shortly after the cornerstone is laid.

    ˇ°Were you there for other ceremonies of either groundbreaking or cornerstone laying?ˇ± Enno asks the traveling healer.

    ˇ°No? Other haunted park builders tended to keep their construction under wraps; youˇŻre the first haunted park builder who builds a haunted park under the public eye!ˇ±

    ˇ°Damn, building my haunted park in secret would have saved me headaches! But there is no turning back now! I will live with the consequences of overtly building it!ˇ±

 Chapter 42: Voice Acting and Mechanics

    With the entrance of the park taking shape, the guild master reminds Enno of the harsh realities of building a haunted park. They return to MijanouˇŻs tavern.

    ˇ°Sorry if IˇŻm blunt, but crafting what makes a haunted park, well, a haunted park can take a while. A haunted park lives and dies with its ghosts!ˇ± the GM curtly tells him. ˇ°Usually, bosses are crafted in order of installationˇ±

    ˇ°Are there anyˇ­ ghost-specific extras?ˇ± Enno asks him. ˇ°You mentioned background music as one of those extras, and at what cost!ˇ±

    ˇ°For the same recording cost, voice acting!ˇ±

    ˇ°Speaking of which, milord, the Caladon Bog might have only beasts residing in it, but other parks, such as Lower and Upper Perseria, have bosses saying a few lines. I lost count of how many times the boss saying a certain thing saved my bacon, or my teamsˇŻ!ˇ± Saronium exclaims.

    ˇ°Do you want to be a voice actress for a boss in my haunted park, Saronium?ˇ± Enno asks her.

    ˇ°No thanks, or at least not for now. You donˇŻt even have mechanics in mind for a boss that might use voice acting, and thatˇŻs usually what people expect out of a speaking boss!ˇ±

    I still have a long way to go. I canˇŻt just open a haunted park devoid of mechanics! Enno might have another question for those in the tavern who might have had some experience of running haunted parks.

    ˇ°As much as I believed haunted park-goers would have accepted a trash-free park only if the story allowed for it, and I chose the bosses believing trash to be ineffective, are the mechanics considered to be part of a parkˇŻs story?ˇ± Enno asks the two veteran haunted park-goers.

    ˇ°It depends. If you consider mechanics to be part of the story, generally you donˇŻt want the in-fight dialogue of a given difficulty to allude to mechanics of higher difficulties, even indirectly. Nor to have phases specific to one difficulty. But by and large, most haunted park-goers donˇŻt seem to go into that level of detail. At most they might want to know what they are doing in the park beyond simply collecting loot, so knowing that bosses believe trash to be ineffective, while key to your park, does not a story makeˇ± Saronium answers him.

    ˇ°Long story short, no!ˇ± Mijanou curtly answers him.

    ˇ°One more thing: voice actors usually donˇŻt record lines before the mechanics are setˇ± the GM tells the four. ˇ°You said that you wanted a boss to be a lich?ˇ±

    ˇ°I believe so, yesˇ±

    This means that some mechanics must use magic on some level, Saronium ponders about what that choice would imply for the resulting fight. Then again all I knew about liches was they are undead wizards.

    ˇ°What do you want that lich to specialize in?ˇ± the GM asks Enno.

    ˇ°What do you mean by specialty? I am not a wizard, I know only that life, fire, alcohol, arcane and electricity magic exist, but no more than thatˇ± Enno asks the GM.

    ˇ°Major schools of magic include arcane, elemental and holy. YouˇŻre describing two tiers of specialties. As with living wizards, liches also tend to specialize in one area within their schools of magicˇ± the GM tells the four.

    ˇ°I apologize. ItˇŻs just that my knowledge of magic is very limited and I have an alcohol witch that sells magical alcoholˇ± Enno tells them.

    ˇ°There you have it, milord: think of what a fire wizard would do to monetize their magic!ˇ± Bryzax challenges his liege lord.

    ˇ°In my experience dealing with fire wizards in haunted parks, most of them only think of flinging fireballs to kill enemies, or perhaps putting firewalls around themselves to protect against incoming magic, so I couldnˇŻt tell youˇ± Saronium explains herself.

    ˇ°Saronium, correct me if IˇŻm wrong, but you deal with fire wizards mostly in a haunted park. I dealt with fire wizards in haunted parks, too, just that you know by now that not every wizard thinks of adventuring!ˇ± Mijanou hazards a guess about her dealings with fire wizards.

    I hate to admit it, but Mijanou is right. Bryzax is asking about how would fire wizards monetize their magic, and MijanouˇŻs words make me think of what use there is for fire magic outside of battle, Saronium starts thinking of the use they could have for fire magic, before turning towards the two men.

    ˇ°IˇŻd say cooking or metalworkingˇ± Saronium answers BryzaxˇŻs prompt.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs very broad. But since weˇŻre on the topic of non-combat uses of magic, IˇŻd say perhaps I could have the lich summon some non-combat tool with metallic parts and then have that tool do something to a player on contact!ˇ± Enno suggests a mechanic to the second boss of this new haunted park.

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    ˇ°IˇŻd say two or three plows in random directions, but in linear trajectories; plows donˇŻt turn very wellˇ± Mijanou adds.

    They all try to envision how would that mechanic affect the dynamics of fighting the lich, who is assumed to be powerful enough to pull the magical plows at faster speeds than teams of oxen.

    ˇ°Mijanou, do you want to be the voice actress for that boss? You have a hand in the mechanicsˇ­ˇ± Enno makes his offer.

    ˇ°I might be a saber dancer, performing in taverns and at fairs when I donˇŻt run haunted parks, butˇ­ voice acting?ˇ± Mijanou yelps, upon hearing about voice acting. ˇ°What is voice acting used for, other than for crafting haunted park ghosts?ˇ±

    To this, everyone else draws a blank. Even the GM of the Haunted Park Construction Guild. They struggle to think of other uses for voice acting, but all of them required magic.

    ˇ°If I may, milord, some haunted park-goers might be entertainers who crawl haunted parks as a second jobˇ± Saronium comments.

    ˇ°Speaking of which, I might be wondering who could make good voice actorsˇ± Mijanou sighs, believing that saber dancers might not be a good fit for voice acting.

    ˇ°Voice actors might be theater actors whose best acting skills are vocal. A saber dancer, like you, would be good at the non-vocal parts of theater actingˇ± the GM tells her.

    ˇ°I wonder how good the troubadours or bards I know run haunted parks are as lyrical actors. They can sing, but you make me feel like thereˇŻs more to voice acting than singingˇ± Saronium combs through her memories of bards in haunted parks.

    Often, bards and troubadours treated adventuring or mercenarial life as day jobs. Not much different from dancers: I learned fencing so I could have an alternate means to earn my keep, Mijanou has memories resurface of why she even took to haunted parks.

    ˇ°Only having, for a mechanic, plows, moving in random but linear directions, and bleeding players if they get hit is not going to cut it as a boss!ˇ± Saronium warns the would-be haunted park operator.

    ˇ°Saronium, for a while now you tried to help me get my park built, but you never told me why you helped me build the park!ˇ± Enno seems to have no idea of what drives her to act this way.

    ˇ°I would have loved to run my very own haunted park, but I canˇŻt afford the upkeep of one. Since I canˇŻt afford the upkeep of a haunted park, the next-best thing is to help someone build theirs, and ensure its successˇ± Saronium answers him.

    Like I would be rich enough to buy a fief and then build a caravanserai on it, but a caravanserai doesnˇŻt cost nearly as much as a haunted park, Saronium reflects on what these years of adventure and haunted park trips yielded her, while Enno turns to the GM.

    ˇ°LetˇŻs backtrack a bit. How many lines do voice actors have for a given boss?ˇ± Enno asks the GM about the cost of that option. ˇ°Maybe a few hundred gold would be well worth the cost of voice acting per boss! Caladon BogˇŻs bosses were all beasts without any voice acting!ˇ±

    ˇ°Usually one per mechanic plus three, if you elect to have itˇ±

    ˇ°Plus three?ˇ± Bryzax asks afterward.

    ˇ°One for the pull, one for the wipe and one for the death. However, Saronium is right: a one-mechanic boss isnˇŻt going to cut it, especially if itˇŻs a boss deeper in than the firstˇ±

    ˇ°I want to keep the theme of using everyday objects for mechanics, so maybe the boss being invulnerable until some phantom-driven cart explodes within its blast radius, or the boss grabs the cart by the chain!ˇ± Enno suggests a second mechanic for the boss.

    ˇ°It goes without saying the cartˇŻs explosion should hit indiscriminately. What would happen if the chain grabs a player instead of the cart?ˇ± Mijanou asks.

    ˇ°The player would take a big hit upon contact with the boss. That I believe would warrant two extra lines for that one mechanicˇ± Enno mentions the constraint.

    ˇ°What do you mean, two extra lines?ˇ± Saronium asks Enno, furrowing a brow.

    ˇ°One for when a player is grabbed by the chain, another for the impact of the cart on the boss. Speaking of the cart, I would want the cart to stalk a non-tank at random, tooˇ±

    ˇ°You said that boss was a fire witch in life? I say give her a physical attack in melee range and fireballs at range. But also a mechanic using fire magic, and make her disfigured by scars of burns that didnˇŻt fully healˇ± the GM suggests them. ˇ°Might sound a little cheesy, but a meteor showerˇ±

    We kept discussing mechanics and voice acting, but I would think that this bossˇŻ body type would determine how the bossˇŻ garments are going to be. Luckily, I donˇŻt feel like anyone here would have any objections if this boss was bulky, as if she built plows and carts in life, the GM starts thinking of how the boss is going to be once built. And how bosses look are usually not much of a concern to park-goers, but man is the first boss of this park vain!

    ˇ°This all starts to remind me of a certain someone I met in my youthˇ± the GM, in his old age, takes a trip down memory lane.

    ˇ°Who does that remind you of?ˇ± Saronium asks the elderly man.

    ˇ°My first banker. Although, at that time, she was the owner, it was really someone else who ran the bank; she also owned a cartwright workshop that sold plows on top of carts!ˇ±

    ˇ°In this case, you can always have her motivated by greed, and become a lich to live an eternal life of running her businesses! And she made a lich of her business partner!ˇ± Saronium has a flash of genius, before leaving the tavern. ˇ°See you next time, milord!ˇ±

    ˇ°Now I have a better idea of what I want out of my parkˇŻs second lich: an alcohol lich! And that lich threatens to make the entire population alcoholics, as well as drunk!ˇ± Enno tells the other three about his vision for the last boss of the park.

    ˇ°I want a phylactery phase, where both lichesˇŻ phylacteries are destroyed!ˇ± the GM exclaims.

    ˇ°This means the death quote for the fire lich must hint at her not being fully dead...ˇ± Mijanou comments on the voice acting.

    ˇ°Fine, I will take voice acting for both liches! How much would the second boss cost?ˇ± Enno asks about the cost of his parkˇŻs second boss.

    ˇ°The estimate is one hundred eighty-two thousand goldˇ±

    Ouch! The first boss already cost me three hundred thousand gold for their gear alone, that they are probably torturing the prisoners to death to pay for their gear, I already paid another three hundred thousand, and then I have committed another 282,000 gold; thatˇŻs not even counting the loot system, voice acting, background music or the last two bosses! EnnoˇŻs despair is showing, especially given the high cost of his haunted park.

 Chapter 43: Fiscal Torturers

    A few days after the trip to the quarry, where Enno feels like they made good progress on designing a boss, the first remittances of the mortuary taxes have arrived to Yutolio, who acts as a steward when Enno is away from the palace.

    ˇ°Milord, it seems like the ghosts killing off the prisoners have caused the prices of funeral services, including chantry priests, to skyrocket, and for leagues around the cityˇ­ˇ± Yutolio reports to his lord.

    ˇ°What is the meaning of this? These ghosts might have debts to repay, but I didnˇŻt expect them to be killing off the prisoners in such a systematic way!ˇ± Enno, aghast at the gruesome deaths his ghosts have inflicted on the prisoners, can barely contain his anger.

    Enno then goes to the prison annex, which currently has no prisoner, but whose entrance clearly reeks of blood. Especially since several prisoners have died recently within its walls. He goes right up to the trioˇŻs cells, who, in a few short days, have managed to massacre the entire inmate population. Either with the prisonˇŻs rack and pinion or at dha-point.

    ˇ°It seems like you killed off more prisoners in a few days than the electricity wizard calling himself an executioner did in years!ˇ± Enno yells at the trio of aswarans. ˇ°How much money did you collect from these prisoners?ˇ±

    Tissaphernes is a little shaky, unwilling to reveal to his lord that they might not be able to repay their debts until their executioner license expires. A shame our limited executioner license does not allow us to seize the deceasedˇŻs propertyˇ­ He took a while to count the money the aswarans collected.

    ˇ°WeˇŻve collected ninety-seven thousand gold, but because some families prove slow to pay, especially the poorer ones, I am afraid we cannot repay our debts in timeˇ­ˇ± Tissaphernes shares his financial concerns.

    ˇ°I guess, you cannot take for granted the prisonersˇŻ income levelˇ­ but perhaps I have a solutionˇ± Enno, forced to face the music, might have a better idea of how to repay the ghostsˇŻ park-induced debts.

    ˇ°What is it, milord?ˇ± Ermahgerd asks in a creepy tone.

    ˇ°WeˇŻll close the prison annex, put it for sale and the proceeds will go towards the construction of the haunted park! Also, impose a new tax on torture instruments, and tariffs on both high-end gear and torture instrument imports! And, of course, for those crimes not serious enough to warrant capital punishment, banishment will replace prison as punishment within the confines of the city!ˇ±

    ˇ°Why not torture rather than banishment?ˇ± Tissaphernes asks.

    ˇ°Torture pushes torturers to kill because they can bill criminalsˇŻ families twice: it has become clear that you abused the billing policy for torture!ˇ±

    ˇ°Speaking of torture instruments, our rack and pinion has broken down; we will need to replace it, milord!ˇ± Ermahgerd points at the broken pinions.

    ˇ°We want saws on our new rack and pinion!ˇ± Tissaphernes yells at his lord.

    ˇ°No, you wonˇŻt get a new rack and pinion! On top of that, a rack and pinion costs a few thousand gold new! You already incurred three hundred thousand gold in debt, that I am forced to sell the prison annex to repay! Your abuses forced my hand!ˇ±

    Maybe the torturersˇŻ extortion, especially the extortion committed by the aswarans, might draw the public attention away from the park, at least for the time being. Installation time canˇŻt come soon enough! Then and only then these aswarans will stop being thorns on my side. ItˇŻs going to be a long four fortnights! Enno squirms after learning about their abuses.

    ˇ°Who would want to buy the prison annex? How much do you hope to get for it?ˇ± Marzban asks his lord, before turning to Tissaphernes. ˇ°You borrowed fifty thousand more than you were supposed to! What did you do with the money?ˇ±

    ˇ°I also bought an axe, a mace, a hammer, a two-handed sword, a dagger and a rifle! Of which only the dagger is ready!ˇ± the grivpanvar answers his phantom superior. ˇ°And I had the beggar co-signer of the consolidated loan learn a trade! With the money I gave him after taking out the last fifty thousand gold loanˇ±

    ˇ°I guess, that should make my life easier when the time comes to get to the loot systemsˇ± Enno remarks on the expenditures the ghosts incurred by taking out a second loan, which is then consolidated. ˇ°Now I understand where the discrepancy comes from between their earlier debt burden and the current oneˇ±

    ˇ°Can the rack and pinion be repaired? Perhaps we can repair it for a fraction of the cost it would take to buy a new one!ˇ± Marzban asks his grivpanvar.

    ˇ°Remember that, if you keep extorting the residents of the city, I will have you all thrown into a cauldron of boiling holy water! And publicly!ˇ± Enno warns his aswarans by yelling at them. ˇ°Any repairs to the rack and pinion must come from your own pocket, and with torture now being reserved for criminals sentenced to death, you wonˇŻt have nearly as much cash!ˇ±

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    Holy waterˇ­ heˇŻs going to need a lot of holy water to destroy us that way, even if he threw only one of us in it at a time! Tissaphernes starts planning to buy a pair of long saws, as well as winches that can replace the old pinions. Rather than to replace expensive pinions, 2 winches can be had for a fraction of the cost. For 200 gold, I believe we can put the rack and pinion back in service, just that it would no longer be called a rack and pinion.

    The lord then leaves the mostly empty prison annex, which is built like a round castle tower, just without any curtain wall attached to it. As he makes his way to the kitchen, he doesnˇŻt suspect that the prison guards are made to buy two long saws and two winches by the trio of aswaran torturers in their names.

    When he arrives at the palaceˇŻs kitchen, he meets with Concetta:

    ˇ°OK, Concetta, now that we have a better idea of what the haunted park bosses are going to be like, I might be wondering if you would like to be a voice actress for one of themˇ± Enno suggests to his cook.

    ˇ°What makes you think I want to be a voice actress for a haunted park boss, milord?ˇ± the cook asks, being left in the dark about the mechanics of the haunted park bosses. ˇ°IˇŻm just a cook who uses alcohol magic!ˇ±

    ˇ°Because youˇŻre using alcohol magic, thereˇŻs a boss that would fit you like a glove as a voice actress: the last boss, the alcohol lichˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt follow: what the hell is a lich? Did you think I could be a good voice actress for an alcohol lich just because I have some talent as an alcohol witch?ˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt blame you for not knowing what a lich isˇ± Enno then explains what a lich is to her. ˇ°But there are times where you want, for an actor playing a specific part, especially for those calling for a certain expertise, someone who already have the expertise in question, since itˇŻs easier to train them as actors thenˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻmˇ­ flattered!ˇ± Concetta blushes. ˇ°ThereˇŻs just not a whole lot of alcohol witches who would even want to be actressesˇ±

    ˇ°Now I didnˇŻt put on a whole lot of theater plays at the palace, the logistics of putting on one can be daunting. Theater troupes often request a multitude of props, or lodging for many actorsˇ±

    But as Enno discussed voice acting with his cook, one of the prison guards asks a question for his lord, about the impending sale of the prison annex.

    ˇ°Since you plan to sell the prison annex, where will we put the torture chamber?ˇ± the jailer asks him.

    ˇ°IˇŻll try to see if thereˇŻs somewhere in the city where the ghosts can reside until their installation in the haunted park. The palace, even in the basement, is not somewhere you want to send prisoners to torture them to death! And not at the gatehouse eitherˇ­ˇ± Enno tries to think of where in the city the torture chamber can be relocated.

    ˇ°No one wants to live near a torture chamber. IˇŻm not sure, honestlyˇ±

    ˇ°But once a suitable location is found, the ghosts must move to this place immediately! Maybe the executionerˇŻs homeˇ±

    ˇ°With all due respect, milord, the cityˇŻs executioner already has it hard enough without ghosts, even if the ghosts moved the rack and pinion they love so much into their home! With three ghosts, IˇŻm not sure he would have loved to keep his position!ˇ±

    ˇ°And you had the gall to tax torture instruments! ThatˇŻs counter-productive since there is no market for torture instruments in the realm!ˇ± Concetta makes her claim.

    ˇ°Call in the executioner! Now!ˇ± Enno yells at the jailer.

    The jailer then looks for the executioner at his home, while Enno returns to the great room of his palace. When the jailer returns to the palace, with the electricity wizard in tow, that wizard canˇŻt hide his displeasure at being brought in before his lord.

    ˇ°Milord! Please forgive me!ˇ± the executioner kneels before Enno.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs nothing to ask forgiveness for. The cityˇŻs three judges tended to sentence criminals to prison terms for certain crimes, while your job is limited to capital punishment! But donˇŻt worry: these ghosts wonˇŻt be torturing people any more in three fortnightsˇŻ time! Their executioner license is time-limited!ˇ±

    ˇ°But why did you summon me here?ˇ± a confused executioner asks his lord.

    ˇ°No, youˇŻre not fired. More like some circumstances have changed and we have other needs for you!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean?ˇ±

    What needs would my liege lord have for me that donˇŻt revolve around zapping criminals to death? The executioner starts sweating upon hearing about the other needs Enno deems he has for the cityˇŻs executioner.

    ˇ°Take your forty days of levy duty as an air superiority wizard immediately!ˇ± Enno yells at the cityˇŻs executioner.

    ˇ°Milord, IˇŻm not obligated to serve forty days on levy duty, since I am not of knightly rank!ˇ± the executioner protests.

    ˇ°Air superiority wizards are obligated to serve forty days a year! You will then be able to battle airborne bandits until the ghosts are installed in the park!ˇ±

    ˇ°Just let me prepare my belongings and gear! And tell my loved ones about going on levy duty!ˇ± the executioner talks about levy duty.

    ˇ°Dismissed!ˇ±

    The executioner then rushes to his home outside the cityˇŻs walls, preparing his battle gear for his duty as an air superiority wizard, and telling his family about his 40-day tour of duty.

    The following day, Enno meets with the executionerˇŻs family left behind by the head of the family being gone on their 40-day tour of duty as obligated by his status as an air superiority wizard:

    ˇ°For the next forty days, I must warn you, you will have to live with three ghosts because they will temporarily assume the role of the cityˇŻs executioners. Also, we are about to sell the prison annex so it pains me to announce that you will have to suffer forty days of these ghosts torturing whatever criminals are sentenced to death during that time!ˇ± Enno announces to the family of the executioner.

    ˇ°Why forty days?ˇ± the executionerˇŻs wife asks her lord.

    ˇ°HeˇŻs on levy duty for that period as an air superiority wizard. Also, we need to clear out the fixtures of the prison annex after these ghosts have killed off the prisoners!ˇ±

    Oh boy, I hope these ghosts will stay in this home for the next 40 daysˇ­ Enno crosses his fingers as the ghosts arrange for their broken rack and pinion to be moved there.

 Chapter 44: Acting on a Stalemate

    A few more days later, Enno starts realizing that no one in the realm appears willing to buy the prison annex even as its fixtures are removed, except for torch sockets, doors and windows.

    ˇ°Bryzax!ˇ± Enno shouts across the palaceˇŻs great room.

    ˇ°Yes, milord?ˇ±

    ˇ°We must announce that the prison annex is put up for sale! We wonˇŻt be able to sell it otherwise! Also, we have yet to decide on voice actresses for the even-numbered bosses of the haunted park!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, do you have any idea how much you think you can get for the prison annex?ˇ± the herald asks.

    ˇ°Probably a rich merchant family could buy it, but the real savings will come from not having to pay for the upkeep of the annex and the prisoners. The faster the annex is sold, the better!ˇ± Enno then storms off to see Yutolio over at the treasury.

    Oh goodness, I wonder how much itˇŻs going to cost; a multi-floor castle tower is expensive as hell. Also, I wonder who would buy something that expensiveˇ­ some nobleˇŻs sibling? Enno is left wondering who could even want to buy the prison annex. A foreign bank?

    ˇ°Yutolio, how much did we collect in mortuary taxes since it existed? Or in taxes on repairs of high-end gear?ˇ± Enno asks the palaceˇŻs healer.

    ˇ°About twelve thousand goldˇ± Yutolio answers him.

    ˇ°Damnˇ­ this haunted park will take forever to pay for itself! I still have five hundred seventy thousand gold to pay, and thatˇŻs not counting the loot system, nor the cost of the last two bosses!ˇ± Enno sighs, realizing that there are expenses he has already incurred. ˇ°The savings from the sale of the prison annex will take a while to materialize, and the best we could hope for is that some fief holder dies intestate, or at least sells it, before the park opensˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think itˇŻs a good idea to kill off an heirless knight just to pocket the fiefˇŻs sales price, along with the quint and requinto associated with the sale, milordˇ± Yutolio warns him. ˇ°If you had a noble criminal, perhaps you could then strip that criminal of land and title, but donˇŻt provoke a noble into committing a crime, much less frame a noble for one!ˇ±

    ˇ°Or perhaps some knight that has gone deep into debt for some reason and may look at selling their fief to repay their debts!ˇ±

    Damn itˇ­ the banks wonˇŻt lend for haunted park construction, but will lend for high-end battle gear. WeˇŻll need to go to the fair ourselves and auction off the prison annex! Enno starts wondering whether that will be enough since he realizes that he might be looking at a minimum of half a million gold more. And he is left in the dark about the loot systemsˇŻ cost.

    The fair in question is held on the other side of the city relative to the executionerˇŻs house, where the ghosts reside. Also, he doesnˇŻt plan on going to the fair without Bryzax. And, of course, itˇŻs the first day of the fair. So he has come to expect imported high-end gear to be sold, as well as magical alcohol, with tariffs to match, but torture instruments are nowhere to be found.

    Upon arriving at the fair grounds, which are near the tournament grounds still being repaired, Enno makes his announcement:

    ˇ°The cityˇŻs prison annex is now closed, and we are auctioning off the cityˇŻs prison annex! Ideal for storing a wide variety of goods, or for large families, the prison annex is a tower that also offers proximity to the palace!ˇ± Enno makes his pitch.

    ˇ°Please be advised that any bids you place are exclusive of the requinto!ˇ± Bryzax announces to the fairˇŻs attendees, before the lord states the sale conditions.

    IˇŻm lucky that the prison annex isnˇŻt a fief in its own right, a possible bidder for the prison annex feels like he should bid on it, knowing that he would then only need to pay the 4% requinto on the purchase of the prison annex. Or really, any real estate property above a certain value. If it was a fief, then I would be looking at paying 24% in title transfer taxes on an already very high sum.

    Various bids are then fielded for the prison annex, whose proximity to the palace and other upper-class residents of the city make it a much more desirable place than it was before the closure of the annex. But once the final bidder has named his price:

    ˇ°Two hundred sixty thousand once, two hundred sixty thousand twice, two hundred sixty thousand thrice, sold!ˇ± Enno announces before the winner comes forward.

    The priority is then to repay the debts these ghost torturers incurred to buy their gear, of which only part has been delivered, Enno starts thinking about how to use the money from the sale of the prison annex and the associated requinto. But essentially, the main conditions attached to the sale of the prison annex are that it must not be used for punitive purposes, nor for sanitation or as a rival haunted park.

    With the purchase of the prison annex being confirmed, the buyer then proceeds to ask his banker, whose representative is in another stall somewhere else on the grounds, to draft a bill of exchange so that the buyer could transfer the cost of the prison annex to the Kaeshana branch.

    With that said and done, the Haunted Park Construction GuildˇŻs quartermaster is looking for Enno on the fair grounds:

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    ˇ°Milord, I am Mardonion, the quartermaster of the Haunted Park Construction Guild. I met with your alcohol witch when you sent defective ghosts for repairs, she sold magical moonshine to us, would it be possible for the Guild to get another barrel of that moonshine?ˇ±

    ˇ°Mardonion, you must realize two things: her magical moonshine is the residue from what she called practicing her rotation, and also the price is much higher since magical moonshine obtained by this method tends to result in unique vintages, unlike magical wine!ˇ± Enno retorts. ˇ°But I have another question: what progress has been made on the last two bosses of the haunted park?ˇ±

    ˇ°The GM had the liches named after the two founders of the Bank of the Frontier since the details you provided about them seemed to match them to an extent, minus lichdom. Do you have any objections?ˇ± Mardonion asks him.

    ˇ°Really? I wonder if the current leadership of the Bank has objections to raise; I believe the Guild should run the proposed names through them first! I donˇŻt want to get into trouble with the BotF, and not the least since Tissaphernes took out a loan from that bank for the parkˇŻs loot! But as far as IˇŻm concerned, I have no objectionsˇ±

    ˇ°One more thing: the GM of the guild has clearly expressed a preference for your alcohol witch as a voice actress since he had no luck trying to find a voice actress willing to play an alcohol lich!ˇ±

    ˇ°There just arenˇŻt a whole lot of theater actresses; it seems like girls prefer music or dancing if they do performing arts! Maybe the part is abhorrent to some. Follow me!ˇ±

    Mardonion follows Enno to the palace, where he is taken to the kitchen. He finds Concetta and the other servants preparing ingredients for tonightˇŻs dinner.

    ˇ°What is it now, milord?ˇ± an annoyed Concetta asks Enno upon seeing him and another man next to him.

    ˇ°This man is the quartermaster of the Haunted Park Construction Guild. He would like to buy another barrel of magical moonshine from youˇ± Enno tells his cook, referring to Mardonion.

    ˇ°The fair has begun already? Why wasnˇŻt I told about today being the opening day of the fair?ˇ± Concetta yelps.

    ˇ°Another thing: the guild master had no luck trying to find a voice actress for the last boss. So, for now, you would be his best choice for the alcohol lich part, lest you want an otherworldly actorˇŻs voice to be used!ˇ± Mardonion tells her before she leaves the kitchen for another alcohol magic drill.

    ˇ°Otherworldly voice actors? How do they sound?ˇ± the chef asks the quartermaster.

    ˇ°The three ghosts have their original lines spoken by an otherworldly voice actorˇ±

    ˇ°I wouldnˇŻt have knownˇ± Enno sighs.

    Now I have a better idea why these three ghosts all sounded the same: their voices are that of the same otherworldly voice actor! A flash is lighting in EnnoˇŻs mind, even though his three ghosts having identical voices didnˇŻt bother him in the slightest. What bothered him was their sadistic tendencies. Especially Tissaphernes.

    ˇ°However, we already finished recording the parkˇŻs background music. With one three-minute track, a flutist and a harpist, we were able to record it in one dayˇ± Mardonion provides an update on the parkˇŻs BGM.

    ˇ°I am not that picky about the parkˇŻs BGM, only I just want to know what style was in use. What that BGM is supposed to evokeˇ± Enno asks the quartermaster.

    ˇ°A false sense of safety. It would feel pretty eerie to listen to it. Also, often magical wards are installed inside ornaments or other fixtures, and music is installed inside the wards, which stops when the bosses are in battle, at which point boss music is playedˇ±

    ˇ°How these wards are even maintained? All I kept hearing about magical ward maintenance was that Perseria failed to respect haunted park ordinances by failing to maintain the magical wards!ˇ± Enno asks a question he had no answer since the very beginning.

    ˇ°Most haunted park operators sign service contracts in which they agree not to service the wards on their own. You need supplies such as sandalwood oil, incense, and myrrh to do so. Perseria might have fought Pandemonium, but the financial burdens of doing so was such that not even the revenues from their haunted parks were enough to pay for the war effortˇ±

    ˇ°Now I understand what made Perseria unable to maintain its haunted parks! They were in a delicate financial situation because of war! It must not have been easy for the city council to make the decision to terminate the service contract!ˇ±

    Mardonion then turns to Concetta upon her return from the alcohol magic drill, from which she returns a little uncoordinated.

    ˇ°I guess you must have made some good moonshine. It seems like Janick is...ˇ± Mardonion gets interrupted by the alcohol witch.

    ˇ°Janick? Who the hell, hic! is Janick?ˇ± Concetta yelps, a little drunk.

    ˇ°Janick is the parkˇŻs last boss. She is at an advanced stage of completion, and her mechanics are finalized. If you accept to be the voice actress for her, you will be told about the bossˇŻ mechanics, but only to the extent that itˇŻs relevant for you to record your lines! Promise me that you wonˇŻt reveal the bossˇŻ mechanics to anyone until the boss is ready for testing!ˇ±

    ˇ°I guess, hic! I have no choice, hic!ˇ± the cook tells the quartermaster.

    ˇ°For now, all you need to know is that the longer the fight lasts, the drunker she getsˇ±

    Drat! ThatˇŻs totally unlike her! All she really wanted up to this point was to cook and be an alcohol witch! Now, I donˇŻt expect this part to make her famous, but has Concetta drunk too much, or practiced alcohol magic too hard? Enno wonders if she is making the right choice.

    ˇ°One last thing: the last boss wonˇŻt be fully completed until the loot is, because the first phase involves four types of adds, with their own abilities and weaponsˇ±

    ˇ°Really?ˇ± the lord seems a little surprised by the apparent need to wait until all the weapons the park will drop are ready. ˇ°You would think that you could conduct mechanical testing with the ghosts wearing only generic gear!ˇ±

    ˇ°It might be easier to perform mechanics tests with ghosts wearing generic gear for magic-using ghosts, like Selonielˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Seloniel? Is that some code name for the second boss?ˇ±

    ˇ°Unless the Bank of the Frontier, or her descendants object to it, Seloniel is going to be the name of your parkˇŻs second boss. As for doing mechanical testing on ghosts wearing generic gear, your first boss has proven that even seemingly minor changes in weapons can have significant impact on their effectiveness, even with ghosts wielding them. For some reason, weapons only seem to affect ghostsˇŻ combat effectiveness if they actively use their weapons to attack, whereas, for the living, even magic-users might see some differenceˇ±

    ˇ°I suppose you had better luck trying to find a voice actress for Seloniel than you had for Janickˇ­ˇ±

    Mardonion turns to Concetta. ˇ°Just put the barrel of moonshine on my carpet; itˇŻs parked a little outside of the fair groundsˇ±

    ˇ°Goodbye, Concettaˇ­ Stay safe!ˇ±

    But really, Mardonion takes Concetta to the fair grounds, so that he can fetch ConcettaˇŻs barrel of magical moonshine on the palaceˇŻs rooftop, with the flying carpet and the other supplies he brings back to the haunted parkˇŻs construction site. And, after dropping off the supplies, they go to the guildˇŻs HQ to record ConcettaˇŻs lines for Janick.

 Chapter 45: Ghost Installation

    For the next three fortnights, the three aswarans keep terrorizing KaeshanaˇŻs residents by just how brutal they can be when using their repaired rack. Which can no longer be called a rack and pinion since the pinions were replaced by static winches. And gear progressively came to the ghosts as their gear gets finished.

    On the day their executioner license expires, Enno and Bryzax come to the executionerˇŻs home, with the ghosts wearing that expensive armor they bought a while ago:

    ˇ°Gentlemen, your executioner license has expired. Any proceeds from torture, death surcharges and executions will be used to repay your debts first and then to pay for any remaining haunted park costs!ˇ± Enno warns his ghosts. ˇ°How does it feel to finally wear such expensive plate armor?ˇ±

    ˇ°Finally! We got what we were denied in life! If we are to fight for all eternity as a haunted park boss...ˇ± Marzban is interrupted by the lordˇŻs herald.

    ˇ°You were crafted, youˇŻre not natural ghosts! Natural ghosts might have unfinished business in life, but as aswarans in Upper Perseria, you never did anything other than fight adventurers!ˇ± Bryzax retorts.

    ˇ°PerseriaˇŻs city council called us trash, and treated us as such. A little better than the neyze-daran, but...ˇ± Marzban gets interrupted once again by human interlocutors.

    ˇ°Neyze-daran?ˇ± a confused Enno asks. ˇ°What are they? Some sort of soldier that was seemingly treated as second-class?ˇ±

    ˇ°Ghost light infantry. They are the ones who gave Perserian ghost troops a bad name: they were the ones who used the residents of the city as meat shields in the park!ˇ± Ermahgerd answers his overlord. ˇ°What I was getting at was that even though you might not be much better than the Perserian city council, at least you understood what value we bringˇ±

    ˇ°SomethingˇŻs not right: the cityˇŻs residents rebelled against the city council because of its inability to maintain public safety in the wake of the cityˇŻs neglect of haunted park maintenance. But wouldnˇŻt some neyze-daran seek support among the living rebels? Or other disgruntled ghost elements of the army? What would the neyze-daran hope to achieve by using the cityˇŻs residents as meat shields?ˇ± Bryzax asks them, his head spinning.

    ˇ°Not really, the living rebels called for a total disbanding of the ghost army, while the neyze-daran mutineers only wanted a better treatment of ghost soldiers!ˇ± Tissaphernes answers the herald.

    ˇ°IˇŻm sure better understanding the context of your time in Perserian service is interesting, but we need to go to the Haunted Park Construction Guild. We need to get them through the loot system!ˇ±

    Once the population realized that the haunted park is a reality, I needed to be cautious about squeezing the population. For now, the items being taxed and tariffed are mostly luxury, sin-based or otherwise related to haunted parks, Enno starts dreading the amount of money it will cost to finish the parkˇŻs construction. Having spent six hundred and twelve thousand gold, this sum only paid for a little over three-quarters of the wards and the first boss. How much had the last two bosses cost me?

    He starts sweating as the five load all the weapons that will drop from the park, and wearing the templates for the armor people will come to their park to loot. MarzbanˇŻs hand and a half sword, which, despite its size, can still be wielded with one hand, as well as his heater shield, TissaphernesˇŻ long halberd, ErmahgerdˇŻs recurve bow, SelonielˇŻs axe, JanickˇŻs maceˇ­ all of which must be handled with care.

    ˇ°And even with the repairs, I feel like you fit in much more seamlessly within living society thanˇ­ neyze-daran would!ˇ± Bryzax comments on their ghostsˇŻ socialization.

    ˇ°These repairs were only aimed at making us different from our original aswaran mold within the confines of a haunted parkˇ± Marzban responds.

    Once the carpet is laden with the parkˇŻs loot, they fly off, once again, to the Haunted Park Construction Guild, carrying an arsenal of weapons so many people who donˇŻt go to haunted parks would only dream of.

    Upon arriving at the GuildˇŻs HQ, Enno knocks on the door of the guildˇŻs compound at high noon. Here it seems the person who opens them is, well, Mardonion.

    ˇ°If it isnˇŻt Enno! What brings you here today?ˇ± Mardonion asks him.

    ˇ°Now that the loot is finalized, we would like to start working on the loot system, as well as finalize the bosses that use the other pieces the aswarans donˇŻt wearˇ± Enno answers.

    ˇ°Speaking of the loot system, you do realize that each boss has its own chest? So loot systems are cheapest when you are on a bring-your-own-loot pricingˇ±

    ˇ°Bring-your-own-loot?ˇ± Bryzax asks the quartermaster.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs cheaper to install loot chests when you already have the items of what is called a loot table beforehand, rather than having to craft them from scratchˇ±

    For example, the Caladon BogˇŻs operators had us use otherworldly designs for loot, and it cost them more than they would have liked, Mardonion reminisces about his involvement in past haunted parks.

    ˇ°Please follow me to the guild masterˇŻs room. He will tell you what the final bill for the last two bosses and the loot system isˇ±

    Joyˇ­ I must come up with 282,000 gold just for a park with two bosses and no loot. Yet, the loot is what makes a haunted park worthwhile. I wonder if the Guild accepts financing. If it doesnˇŻt, then I will be forced to borrow for other purposes banks will deem acceptable, and then divert the funds towards the park! Enno starts sweating after Mardonion mentions billing matters.

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    So, even though, on previous trips to the guildˇŻs headquarters, they never set foot in the guild masterˇŻs inner sanctum, the guildˇŻs master eagerly awaits the lordˇŻs visit.

    ˇ°I have brought the remaining pieces of loot that will be in my park. I wonder how much will the last two bosses cost, and the loot systemsˇ±

    ˇ°Thank goodness for the loot! While itˇŻs pretty ornate, you didnˇŻt sacrifice practicality, unlike some of the otherworldly designs!ˇ± the GM exclaims, with the quartermaster laying down the loot on the floor.

    ˇ°I guess, my ghosts about to be installed know their weapons... Then again I expect nothing less from aswaransˇ±

    ˇ°LetˇŻs see: the electricity-stealing dragon, which is now ready for installation...ˇ± the GM gets interrupted by the herald.

    ˇ°Is the electricity-stealing dragon the third boss of the park?ˇ± Bryzax asks him.

    ˇ°Yes, the electricity-stealing dragon is actually the cheapest boss despite its massive size. The liches are the size of, well, you. It proved cheaper to get Janick to appear only after the electricity-stealing dragonˇŻs death than to get a fourth loot chest, but even then, even with the bring-your-own-loot discount, the loot systems are still a quarter of a million gold for three chestsˇ±

    ˇ°Stop speaking in riddles: I want the price of the last two bosses!ˇ± Enno feels his blood boiling because of the GM not giving him a complete financial picture yet.

    ˇ°The electricity-stealing dragon comes in at one hundred nine thousand gold, but Janick already cost us three hundred fourteen thousand gold, and we havenˇŻt finalized the addsˇŻ gear yetˇ± the GM explains to him while he reaches for the rest of the financial records.

    So I still have at least 955,000 gold to pay until the park is considered paid off. If I had all the gold earned by my aswarans go towards paying for the haunted park, I will barely dent into the cost of building the park! I repaid their debts, and the population will be relieved that the aswarans will no longer terrorize the city, Enno ponders how he will pay for the haunted park, what he believes is the pride of the realm.

    ˇ°Mardonion mentioned the background music, along with the lichesˇŻ voice acting. How much did it cost?ˇ± the lord asks.

    ˇ°Concetta cost you a thousand gold, as did SelonielˇŻs voice actress, and the musicians recording the parkˇŻs BGM cost three thousand gold!ˇ±

    ˇ°Ugh... Why is it that milord wanted BGM or voice acting?ˇ± Bryzax asks him.

    To this, he draws a blank. He is left wondering what means he has at his disposal that he didnˇŻt already use. Perhaps taxing the banks... They already charge origination fees, and other fees for issuing bills of exchange and transporting money, not to mention interest. ItˇŻs my last fiscal lever left that I could use without infuriating the population any further.

    ˇ°Music and voice acting was a mere pittance compared to the cost of the ghosts. Speaking of ghosts, where are your three aswarans?ˇ± the GM asks the two men, wondering where their ghosts went.

    ˇ°They are just outside the guildˇŻs premisesˇ± Enno answers.

    ˇ°The time has come for their installation within the park, milord!ˇ±

    It appears that the trio of aswarans is still outside the guildˇŻs monastery. Still waiting on the gear to be committed to the magical loot chestsˇŻ memory, after which point they can be returned to their original owners.

    ˇ°IˇŻm questioning whether your ghosts really are haunted park ghosts. They feel much more like natural ghosts, which is perhaps why it feels like these repairs are much more limited in scope than you initially hoped forˇ± the GM comments on the three aswarans being a little deranged.

    ˇ°What do you mean, we arenˇŻt haunted park ghosts? Enno spared us so that we could haunt a park!ˇ± Ermahgerd asks.

    ˇ°Unless, perhaps, the failure of the magical wards of PerseriaˇŻs haunted parks resulted in these parksˇŻ ghosts gaining some agency upon exiting the confines of the park they were installed in! And maybe even compromise these ghostsˇŻ subsequent installation in a different park!ˇ± He turns to the living. ˇ°WeˇŻre diving into the unknown here: we shall see how the installation turns outˇ±

    After the gear these ghosts commissioned has been committed to the memory of the magical chests about to be installed in the haunted park, they ride the carpet, with the GM riding another carpet along with the team tasked with installing the bosses.

    When they arrive at the quarry where the bosses are to be installed, for some reason, there seems to be a handful of other ghosts. They bear no apparent relationship with the other three bosses, but appear to wear lamellar armor of Perserian origin, along with a recurve bow, an oval pavise and either a spear or a shamshir. And triangular beards.

    ˇ°Before you go out and be installed as a boss of this haunted park, we would love to see you one last time. In life, we fought the Perserian rebels in the upper cityˇ± the kamandaran ghost starts weeping as the three aswarans take out their phantom horses from what they call their horse pockets.

    ˇ°Quiet! This is not how anusiya should behave! We daylami suffered heavy losses as rebels stormed the upper city through the sewers!ˇ± a daylami soldier, wielding a shamshir, then turns to the aswarans. ˇ°Where were you when the gyan-avspar were getting killed?ˇ±

    ˇ°Traitors! You betrayed your Perserian heritage by becoming haunted park bosses in Kaeshanian service!ˇ± the second daylami, wielding a xyston, throws shade at the bosses.

    ˇ°At least Kaeshana allowed us to do whatever we wanted to prisoners, and get whatever gear we desired!ˇ± Tissaphernes retorts to the ghost footmen.

    ˇ°You fancy yourselves pushtigban, but your behavior is unworthy of such! YouˇŻre no better than ordinary kamandaran, paighan or neyze-daran!ˇ± the pikeman daylami taunts the three aswarans.

    ˇ°What are these ghosts doing here? As far as I can make out, these ghosts seem to be calling names among each other based on soldier types, but I donˇŻt understand anything beyond aswarans being heavy cavalry and neyze-daran being light infantry!ˇ± Bryzax laments.

    Between kamandaran, anusiya, daylami, gyan-avspar, paighan and pushtigban, I canˇŻt make heads of anything! EnnoˇŻs head is spinning as the three aswarans ride their ghost warhorses into position, where they will be expected to haunt the quarry, and fight parties for all eternity. Or at least until the haunted park closes.

    When their loci are in position in the room where the three aswarans will be, the crews draw magical lines on the ground, marking the limits of what the so-called rooms will be. Beyond which the boss canˇŻt get out once operational as a boss. Barring malfunctions of the magical wards of course.

    Once the ghost-proofing invisible walls are built, then can the loci of the bosses, and, if applicable, be placed onto the ground where they will appear at the start of the fight.

    In the end, the three aswarans look majestic in all that finery they outfitted their warhorses with, along with themselves, and their gear.

    ˇ°Farewell, aswarans. May your lives as a haunted park boss prove better than your life among the living!ˇ± Enno prays for the three ghosts who tormented the population of Kaeshana until now.

    ˇ°I guess, we gave our best Parthian shots!ˇ± the kamandaran deadpans the living, before vanishing.

 Chapter 46: Closed Beta

    These ghost stories resurface among the public weeks after the installation of the first boss. And taxing the banks means that Enno can rest easier than he would have otherwise, and not have to worry about paying for the park.

    But when Mardonion comes to the palace to request an audience with Enno...

    ˇ°Milord, the Haunted Park Construction Guild requests an audience!ˇ± Bryzax announces.

    ˇ°I guess, some progress has been made. And we need to pay whatever we can out of the massive costs of the park...ˇ± Enno sighs. ˇ°I guess the installation of the ghosts is completedˇ±

    Bryzax then takes the quartermaster to the palaceˇŻs great room. With the quartermaster kneeling before Enno:

    ˇ°Milord, now that the installation of your parkˇŻs ghosts is complete, the time has come for the next stage of the construction to begin. Closed betaˇ± an overjoyed Mardonion reports.

    ˇ°Closed beta?ˇ± Enno gasps. ˇ°WhatˇŻs the meaning of this?ˇ±

    ˇ°In the haunted park world, otherworldly people use remote-controlled ghosts to test the ghostsˇŻ features, in both alpha and closed beta testing. Beta testing considers the visitor factor, which cannot be done with remote-controlled ghosts in alpha testingˇ±

    I would love to appoint Saronium as the steward of the haunted park, a position I deem of knightly rank. However, I wonder what is customary in a haunted parkˇŻs life cycle, Enno has a lot on his mind.

    ˇ°Remote-controlled ghosts?ˇ± Bryzax gasps upon hearing about how alpha testing is made.

    ˇ°A malfunctioning haunted park ghost can be dangerous to users. RCGs allow us to ensure that what we call in the haunted park world bugs can be fixed and ensure that visitors are not exposed to unnecessary dangersˇ±

    ˇ°And what does closed beta testing imply for us?ˇ± Enno asks Mardonion.

    ˇ°Because you had ghosts willing to go the extra mile to get the haunted park up and running, I invite you to the first trial run of the park. Here, however, we can run bosses out of order, which you wonˇŻt be able to do once the park opens. Just get me to Concetta, will you, milord?ˇ± Mardonion asks.

    ˇ°Concetta might have been able to get the lines for Janick done, but she has no experience of running haunted parks! YouˇŻre sending her towards slaughter!ˇ± Enno protests.

    ˇ°Actually, it might be a good idea to get at least one person with no prior experience of haunted park crawling for this test run! You canˇŻt assume all visitors at a given haunted park, especially from the queue, will have a certain skill level! And certainly not in the early days of a haunted parkˇŻs life cycle!ˇ±

    ˇ°Fine, Mardonion, you winˇ­ˇ±

    But she did show some promise as a haunted park crawler based on her talent with alcohol magic! Mardonion keeps his opinion of Concetta hidden, while Enno slouches on his way to the kitchen, feeling as heˇŻs ashamed of making his cook too involved with this whole haunted park business.

    When the three men get to the kitchen, as Concetta is preparing cabbage:

    ˇ°It seems like you would be a good fit to test the haunted parkˇ± Mardonion informs the cook.

    ˇ°Why? All I know that could be of use in a haunted park is using alcohol magic! I know nothing about what makes haunted parks worth going to! Or even what fights in haunted parks are really like!ˇ± Concetta voices her concerns.

    ˇ°The last bit is, unlike previous haunted parks, something we believe is crucial to consider before the park opens. Every haunted park crawler has to start somewhereˇ±

    ˇ°Who else are we going to do the test run of the haunted park with?ˇ± Bryzax asks the quartermaster.

    ˇ°To be fair, most people new to haunted parks will be DPS or, occasionally, healers. Very few would even want to tank without any prior experience of haunted parks in a different capacity. Heck, not many even want to tank in haunted parks at all. Rest assured that someone else with some experience of haunted parks will run the test with youˇ±

    ˇ°Like who?ˇ± Concetta asks, sweating and trembling.

    ˇ°Mijanou. SheˇŻs a haunted park veteran, and both Enno and Bryzax are part of the test run, tooˇ± Mardonion answers the cook.

    ˇ°Mardonion, the only reason why IˇŻm going to test the park with Bryzax is because I feel like some elements among the population would accept the haunted park but only if I run it myself!ˇ± Enno then turns to his two servants he plans to take on the parkˇŻs test run. ˇ°Gear up, you two, and weˇŻre going to test run my new haunted park!ˇ±

    So Concetta wears the witch set that she uses to practice alcohol magic, along with the mace from the Caladon Bog, Bryzax dons his armor, sword and shield, while Enno wears the suit he gained from that park, along with his magical assault rifle.

    The trio then flies to the village where the quarry is, so when they arrive, they link up with the other members of the party. Mijanou and Saronium. When they arrive:

    ˇ°Can you explain to me why these Perserian ghosts came all the way to our village just to taunt the first boss on the day of what you call its installation?ˇ± Mijanou asks the other four.

    ˇ°Presumably some unfinished business in life. They apparently fought as infantrymen for Perseria during its civil war, and they blame the cityˇŻs ghost troops for the Perserian defeat. The ghost archer was far more sentimental than the other twoˇ± Bryzax formulates some semblance of an answer to the saber dancer.

    They seemed to be implying that anusiya were shock infantry, daylami, heavy infantry, and what they call kamandaran didnˇŻt seem to be held in high regard at the time, Enno reflects on this whole dispute. Nor living paighan.

    ˇ°We even used them as remote-controlled ghosts to perform alpha testing. After all, we had two DPS and a tank in this trio, and they fought like, as they said, gyan-avspar during that test run!ˇ± Mardonion adds. ˇ°Like elite infantry, but we sold off their original gear when their role in the test was overˇ±

    ˇ°Are we receiving a discount for the last two bosses from the sale of these ghostsˇŻ gear?ˇ± Enno asks the quartermaster.

    ˇ°Unfortunately, their gear wasnˇŻt nearly as expensive as the gear of the first boss, and weˇŻd be lucky to get twenty thousand gold for all three panoplies, even if we sold their gear piecemeal!ˇ± Mardonion answers. ˇ°If you get wiped out at any point during the test run, I will need to step in to rez all of youˇ±

    ˇ°Wipe out?ˇ± Concetta keeps trembling.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs what happened when all players in a party die fighting a certain boss in a parkˇ± the quartermaster adds.

    ˇ°Saronium, this is Concettaˇ± Enno introduces his cook to the rental healer, this time rented out by the Guild. ˇ°SheˇŻs new to haunted parksˇ±

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    ˇ°The only reason why the Guild rented me out was because I would give them a better idea of what haunted park-goers call heal checks are actually realistic for that sort of park runsˇ± Saronium explains herself. ˇ°If even I couldnˇŻt manage to keep a party up, then the heal check is likely too big for the parkˇŻs intended audience!ˇ±

    Which can only mean one thing: they are going to be testing the park in fatal mode. The highest difficulty of any given haunted park.

    As they step into the fatal difficulty waiting lines, they go in and they only need to walk a short distance from the portico to enter the room of the first boss. Once the five enter the pushtigbansˇŻ room (the Guild decided to label the first boss as such since it reflected their elite heavy cavalry station in Perserian service):

    ˇ°The very basic thing is that you need to stay out of colored areas on the ground, usually orange or redˇ± Saronium tells Concetta before they pull the boss. ˇ°Ready check!ˇ±

    All four people report they are ready to pull the boss. When Bryzax realizes such, itˇŻs then that he pulls the boss. Or more specifically, Marzban.

    When the fight begins, both Marzban and Tissaphernes are focused on Bryzax, which makes Enno and Concetta stick together. And, of course, Concetta opens with the alcohol cloud, which has the effect of making the three ghosts buzzed at this point.

    ˇ°Concetta, the best way to beat heavy cavalry is to unhorse them!ˇ± Enno points out to Concetta.

    ˇ°ˇŻMilord, it seems like alcohol magic is ineffective against horses!ˇ± Concetta moans.

    So while the quartermaster watches the fight unfold on a magical tablet, the magical meters installed in the wards allow him, and also MAA players using the add-on they call Breathalyzer, to know how much DPS and EHPS people are doing. As well as the damage intake, such as when Ermahgerd looses a flaming arrow on the two ranged DPS and they move out of the fiery circle as the arrow narrowly misses the alcohol witch.

    But even when the alcohol witch focuses on getting the riders drunk, Enno, on the other hand, fires at the horsesˇŻ legs. Or the exposed areas of the horsesˇŻ neck and chest. Which makes Mijanou focus on getting to the legs of the melee aswaransˇŻ horses after she hears about Concetta being told about how unhorsing heavy cavalry is the best way to defeat them.

    Yet Concetta seems to be able to dodge the fiery circles left behind Ermahgerd loosing flaming arrows, but at the same time, seems to be the target of the bossˇŻ auto-attacks. That is, the regular arrows. Which, in turns, forces Saronium to devote a significant amount of attention to keep her up.

    Meanwhile, Bryzax attempts to get Marzban lined up in front of Tissaphernes, right before the latter makes his special attack by thrusting the xyston in a linear area. However, as they get increasingly hit by alcohol magic, the three aswarans swing their weapons increasingly wildly. And, of course, Ermahgerd being less and less accurate, while Enno keeps firing his gun at the horses in an attempt to unhorse any of the pushtigbans.

    However, in his drunkenness, Tissaphernes blindly charges, not at Bryzax, who ducks to dodge MarzbanˇŻs wind slash, but at Mijanou.

    Drat! Does being hit by alcohol magic make the bosses more unpredictable? Bryzax starts thinking, while Mijanou gets hit and trampled by a horse that Tissaphernes can barely control. And, since she got seriously hit, Saronium focuses on getting the saber dancer back to sufficient health.

    That is, until a drunk Ermahgerd looses a flaming arrow that lands a little behind Concetta. WhoˇŻs so focused on getting the spell off that she fails to notice her feet being on fire.

    ˇ°Concetta, get out of the fire! Now!ˇ± Enno hollers in her direction.

    But Concetta isnˇŻt listening to him for a few seconds, as sheˇŻs busy trying to get the moonshine spell off, aimed at Ermahgerd. Which is more powerful based on the number of damage-over-time spells already cast on the target. Then she steps out of the fire, but with her feet burned to a crisp.

    Once the moonshine spell goes off, a shaky Ermahgerd looses one last flaming arrow, this time aiming at Mijanou. However, the arrow fell into an area between the other two aswarans.

    Saronium facepalms upon seeing ConcettaˇŻs behavior in the face of standing into what haunted park runners call stupids, however briefly. And yet, with additional damage from alcohol magic, it seems like Ermahgerd is about to get unhorsed. Damn her! She acted like one of those DPS who eats stupids just to squeeze a little extra DPS!

    And yet, because her feet were burning to a crisp, Concetta goes up in flames, right before Ermahgerd gets unhorsed, before Saronium could do anything. Her charred corpse lies right next to ErmahgerdˇŻs horse.

    But the fire from the last flaming arrow also caught up to the horses of the other two pushtigbans, making them dangerously close to being unhorsed themselves. Especially since all three horses are now panicking all over the place. In their fits of panic, the horses throw their riders off, which is where, to the eyes of Mardonion, the second phase truly begins: when all 3 are unhorsed.

    When the 3 ghosts are unhorsed, their dismounted selves see changes to how their existing mechanics affect the players.

    ItˇŻs then that Concetta gets rezzed: when the existing fire circles from the last 2 flaming arrows get extinguished.

    So even when the ghostsˇŻ intoxication levels decrease somewhat, by virtue of Concetta not having cast spells, the three ghosts still act a little inebriated. Could one of them get delirium tremens in short order?

    But now they need to watch out for not only the attacks of the bosses, but also the panicked horses running around the room. And when Concetta gets rezzed, Saronium needs to heal not only the alcohol witch, but everyone else since, even unhorsed, they take hits.

    Bryzax gets caught into a wind cone when Marzban uses his wind slash, and not only gets knocked back, but his own movement also gets slower. However, Tissaphernes swings his xyston wildly, hitting a panicking phantom horse in its legs.

    Ermahgerd, on the other hand, looses flaming arrows more often than before he got unhorsed, and still attacks haphazardly. This time, however, the flaming arrows have an explosive component that projects shrapnel indiscriminately.

    ˇ°Everyone! Focus on killing Ermahgerd!ˇ± Enno yells, realizing the implications of the archer firing more incendiary bombs than before he got unhorsed.

    And yet, maybe mechanics damaging units indiscriminately seem to be, once again, making DPS checks easier. Especially when bosses can be put into the circles of fire left behind by ErmahgerdˇŻs incendiary bombs he calls arrows. Marzban and Tissaphernes are becoming oblivious to the fire because Concetta resumes flinging alcohol spells at all three.

    However, the phantom horsesˇŻ panic end when they sustain burns due to Ermahgerd getting arrows in their way even though he intended otherwise.

    After the panicked horses die, Enno fires a burst at the archerˇŻs head, and, after taking a lot of hits up to this point, Ermahgerd dies from a headshot. But this entire situation of using fire bombs left and right makes it more difficult for Enno et al to move around the room, even with Saronium doing her best to keep the party up.

    Once the fire circles are extinguished, they find it much easier to dodge the incoming attacks, and even then, the party seems to be using what otherworldly entities called Massacre ¨¤ lˇŻAlcool (MAA) players refer to as the friendly fire cheese.

    Whenever possible, they either put Tissaphernes within the cone of MarzbanˇŻs wind slash, or Marzban directly in the line of thrust of the grivpanvar, but because both are drunken, itˇŻs easier said than done. And not simply because their attacks are much more erratic, or their steady decrease in coordination.

    Yet, Enno uses spray-and-pray to hit the two aswarans, who are too drunk to mount much of a resistance by then. Much to BryzaxˇŻs relief, who had it rough by being constantly hit by the melee ghosts. This almost seems... unnatural. I didnˇŻt think they would have that kind of effects! Horses panicking like live ones I might have understood, Bryzax sighs when Marzban is defeated.

    And yet, somehow, Mijanou has aggro on Tissaphernes. She uses her agility to get on his back and hack away at his armor joints and then limbs. And finally his head.

    Once TissaphernesˇŻ phantom head falls, the loot chest appears and opens.

    ˇ°We were getting demolished in there! This loot better be worth it!ˇ± Bryzax sighs.

    ˇ°IˇŻm surprised that Concetta was that good with only gear worth a few hundred goldˇ± Enno comments on her prowess with alcohol magic. ˇ°SheˇŻll only get betterˇ±

    While Enno grabs his boots, and Bryzax, his breastplate, Mijanou is left wondering what use she has for her gloves, since her current gloves are deemed to be at least as good as the gloves dropped by the park. Same goes for Saronium and her pointy hat. Meanwhile, Concetta collects a robe thatˇŻs a massive improvement over her current robe. Both in terms of power and style since it gives a regal allure to her.

    ˇ°If you could please excuse me, I need to throw up from casting alcohol magic!ˇ± Concetta warns her party, before casting another spell that purges her blood of alcohol, but at the cost of vomiting.

    ˇ°My payment for this test will come from selling whatever gear you canˇŻt wearˇ± Mijanou tells her lord.

    ˇ°Same here. This is so going to be a collectorˇŻs item since itˇŻs from a brand new park!ˇ± Saronium adds.

    Meanwhile, outside the park, Mardonion feels like that, even with alcohol magic, and the resulting intoxication of the bosses, they cut it close to the enrage timer. And they would have been demolished without Saronium! I think weˇŻre going to need another test run without an alcohol wizard, even if it meant otherworldly people using remote-controlled ghosts of roughly the same strength; it seems like this boss suffers from alcohol intoxication.

 Chapter 47: The Plows of Death

    After Concetta recovers a little bit from casting too much alcohol magic, it becomes clear who the heavy hitters are going to be for the rest of their trip. Mijanou and Concetta. As they approach the quarryˇŻs crane, they find Seloniel protecting it.

    "We were about to get demolished against the first boss! What is it going to be like against the other three bosses?ˇ± Concetta trembles at the mere thought of fighting more bosses. ˇ°I may as well become an air superiority witch and marry into nobility!ˇ±

    ˇ°OK, Concetta, because I had a hand in designing the second boss, I might want to explain to you all the mechanics of this boss!ˇ± Enno tries to alleviate his cookˇŻs concerns. ˇ°Beyond not getting hit by the plows, or fire, what else should I be wary of?ˇ±

    ˇ°You canˇŻt damage the boss when the boss is bubbled. To break the bubble, you need to either bring the cart to the boss or have the boss grapple it, and an arrow will be visible from the boss to determine from which direction the boss will try grabbing the cartˇ±

    The question is: does the boss decide at random who to try grabbing? Saronium starts sweating, as everyone gets better gear from the first boss. And, of course, Bryzax wearing this lacquered black breastplate with yellow trim. Once he has finished putting it on:

    ˇ°Pulling in three, two, oneˇ± Bryzax signals the party to get ready.

    ˇ°Wizards only think of using magic to fight, but not me!ˇ± SelonielˇŻs lich self quips in a squeakily creepy tone of voice.

    And the five realize, as soon as the boss is pulled, that the plowing mechanic has two random components: the number of plows and their initial positions. I might be wondering if the meteor shower is going to stop a plow in its tracks, Mijanou is left wondering because past experience of haunted parks might have led her to think otherwise. It seems like, for newer parks, you can deal with some mechanics by using other mechanics against them.

    ˇ°Plow them through!ˇ± Seloniel shouts at the party as magical plows start moving.

    As the party gets into position to dodge the plows moving in a straight line, the first wave of plows is followed by a second wave of plows. As much as the boss might be trying to evade them, Bryzax gets Seloniel into the path of a second-wave plow. And Mijanou gets right next to him because only then will she be safe from the incoming plow.

    But just because Mijanou is safe from the plow doesnˇŻt mean that sheˇŻs safe from the heated axe that the boss wields. As the boss is about to get hit by the plow, the pair shakes in place, worried about the mechanical implications of the impact.

    Damn: Mijanou willingly takes swings of the bossˇŻ axe so she can evade the plows! Saronium focuses on keeping both Bryzax and Mijanou up, while the other two DPS seem to be able to evade the plows just fine.

    Plows that seemingly have the magical property to cause people hit by it to be hit with much greater force than a normal plow.

    As Seloniel gets hit by the plow, she is thrown with the same force anyone else her weight would be thrown. She flies across the room. And the lich starts getting internal haemorrhages when she hits the roomˇŻs rock-solid floor.

    The boss flying across the room makes it harder for Concetta and Enno to hit the lich. And prevents both Bryzax and Mijanou from hitting her entirely for a few seconds.

    However, the fire lich getting internal haemorrhages triggers the second mechanic. Which, normally, would be triggered in some other damage or timer-based wayˇ­

    ˇ°The firewall is now up!ˇ± Seloniel then puts up a magic bubble with an orange-red tint around herself.

    Now, a phantom hand cart, with a keg of explosives, appears where the plow hit the lich to result in flying across the room.

    ˇ°My attacks are ineffective against the boss!ˇ± Concetta, who still flings alcohol spells, finds her alcohol spells evaporating against the bossˇŻ firewall.

    ˇ°Concetta, stay away from the cart, and donˇŻt hit the boss!ˇ± Enno yells at his cook.

    ˇ°Mijanou! Watch out!ˇ± Bryzax sees an arrow on the ground pointing at Mijanou next to him.

    ˇ°Get behind the cart! Now!ˇ± Enno yells at the saber dancer.

    The saber dancer also realizes that her attacks are ineffective against the lich while the firewall is up. As much as she is trying to get behind the phantom cart, the cart is still out of harpoon range of the boss.

    But since the cart moves more or less at the same speed as the ghost pulling it, it would be very tempting for either of the ranged DPS to just kill the cart as soon as it gets close enough to the boss. However, Bryzax taunts the ghost pulling the cart when he feels like Mijanou isnˇŻt in the right position to have the boss pull the cart.

    And yet, as the boss releases the harpoon in MijanouˇŻs direction, she was right next to the cart, and not quite behind it.

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    ˇ°Idiot!ˇ± Seloniel taunts Mijanou as sheˇŻs about to be roped in by the chained harpoon.

    As much as the saber dancer would try to break free of the magical harpoon, her impact on the bossˇŻ firewall causes her to die by the firewallˇŻs effects, by going up in flames.

    ˇ°MijanouˇŻs deadˇ­ the cart is about to die!ˇ± Bryzax is more preoccupied by getting the cart into position, but Saronium knows itˇŻs not wise to rez Mijanou until the cart dies.

    All three of Saronium, Enno and Concetta move out of the cartˇŻs way, while Bryzax makes the cart close in on Seloniel. Come on, Bryzax, how close does the cart need to be? Saronium starts sweating, while the other two start shooting at the cartˇŻs phantom driver.

    The cartˇŻs driver dies quickly enough, and the cart has suffered enough damage as it is. So with the cart about to blow up, Bryzax runs like hell while making sure that Seloniel remains within the cartˇŻs blast radius.

    When the cart is destroyed, the barrel on it explodes and boom goes the lichˇŻs firewall. As said firewall collapsesˇ­

    ˇ°The firewall is breached, go take your showers!ˇ± Seloniel taunts the party. ˇ°Plow them through!ˇ±

    Which is still not yet time for Saronium to get Mijanou back up since the meteor shower wonˇŻt result in any gain of DPS from her. As the meteorites start falling on the room, the plows are summoned by the lich once again. And they feel the time has come for them to maybe attempt to have a plow in the path of the meteorites. A very risky move since they need to place red circles close to plows. And also to move in oblique directions to both put more plows into the trajectory of the meteorites, which they kite, and to dodge the plows.

    But Saronium is busy keeping Bryzax up because the cartˇŻs explosion led him to take a big hit.

    Yet, much to their chagrin, using meteorites to destroy plows leaves plow wrecks all over the room, only these wrecks donˇŻt cause objects to fly across the room upon impact.

    ItˇŻs only then that Mijanou gets rezzed, near a plow wreck, and is left wondering where she is. She sees plows coming and takes evasive action, while staying close to Bryzax.

    And, of course, Bryzax desperately attempts to get Seloniel hit by one of the remaining plows, but this time around, they both get hit by a magic plow. They are both sent flying and both get internal haemorrhages.

    Poor Bryzax! HeˇŻs almost dead, and the boss is about to activate the firewall! Would the boss activate the firewall in the absence of internal haemorrhages? Saronium is left wondering if she should rez Bryzax, but doing so would drain her mana. Which was mostly spent keeping Bryzax and Mijanou up.

    But as the internal haemorrhages get the better of the herald, Concetta suddenly gets hit by fireballs.

    ˇ°Help! What happened?ˇ± Concetta asks, confused about why she gets hit by fireballs.

    ˇ°No time! Just get the boss to the cart!ˇ± Enno yells at Concetta, while he has an arrow pointed at him.

    But as the internal haemorrhages make a number on the boss, Seloniel starts losing coordination. Which is made worse as the lichˇŻs blood content mounts.

    Especially when the alcohol witch kills the phantom cart driver, pinning the cart in place. And Enno along with it, which makes the boss grab the cart, laden with explosives, with a magical harpoon.

    ˇ°Mijanou, Concetta, get out!ˇ±

    ˇ°Incoming!ˇ± Seloniel screams in horror, as the barrel of explosives hits the firewall.

    The explosion projects shrapnel all over the room and hits indiscriminately. And, now that the lichˇŻs flesh is torn asunder, the full extent of the internal haemorrhages becomes clear when the boss leaves a trail of blood.

    When Concetta causes the boss to move around to kite the meteor shower, more plows appear in the room. And they threaten to get everyone flying across the room.

    And Enno keeps firing at the lich, while on the move, as he did so long as the bossˇŻ firewall was down.

    But the bleeding boss, having already suffered two internal haemorrhages, can only seemingly move on one leg now. Yet, even as Concetta fails to get the boss into a plowˇŻs line of fire, as she dodges the plows herself, now some plows get wrecked by the meteorites the four remaining adventurers leave behind.

    Especially Mijanou, who loses out on some DPS uptime by not being able to stay on SelonielˇŻs back as much as she would have liked. Yet, both female DPS are in for an unpleasant surprise once the meteor shower ends. Even when everyone else keeps attacking.

    As one of the live plows rams into a plow wreck, the wrecked plow, which is even heavier than a fully armored Bryzax, is sent flying across the room. Upon hitting the invisible wall, the wrecked plow shatters into splinters, hurting both Concetta and Mijanou.

    And the alcohol witch bleeds after receiving sharp shards, which causes Saronium to focus on her even more. Especially when it seems like Concetta and Seloniel are the two who took the most fragments.

    Speaking of Seloniel, it seems like the next fireball flung in ConcettaˇŻs direction hit her in, and around, the shards, making them doubly painful. The searing pain causes Concetta to collapse, as her body burns, but at the same time provides an opening for Enno to shoot at the boss.

    Yet, Concetta dying before EnnoˇŻs eyes fills him with rage, but also makes him realize that, while the mechanics might work properly, they might be a little too rough. And fatal-mode Seloniel is perhaps too hard for a lot of potential visitors to his park.

    ˇ°I wonˇŻt let BryzaxˇŻs and ConcettaˇŻs deaths be in vain!ˇ± Enno shouts in SelonielˇŻs direction, firing bursts at her.

    Yet, not only the boss is bleeding profusely, but the bossˇŻ blood content causes her coronary artery to burst. Which causes her to collapse on the floor, at which point she is physically unable to use magic. By this point, Mijanou hacks away at the bossˇŻ back, while no other damage intake is expected.

    ItˇŻs then that Saronium proceeds to rez Bryzax, using magic, but then she goes out of mana. The life witch then waits to recharge her mana as the lichˇŻs body dies.

    ˇ°Destroying me requires destroying my phylactery! Janick holds it!ˇ± a cryptic voice sounding exactly like Seloniel warns, because Seloniel herself just couldnˇŻt speak anymore due to her stroke.

    ˇ°If this was the second bossˇ­ IˇŻm worried either the electricity-stealing dragon or Janick would be too much for us. We were getting demolished!ˇ± Enno points out to Mijanou.

    Saronium drinks a mana potion, so that Concetta can then be rezzed. After the spell is finished, which took far longer to cast than the spells otherwise used as battle medicine, they discuss other aspects of the haunted park culture.

    ˇ°The people running these parks in their highest difficulties, especially raids, often look down on adventurers of lesser experience and/or skill levels. Dungeons less so, but listening to some of these people, you would be made to feel like there are caveats to some they arenˇŻt tellingˇ± Saronium explains to him.

    ˇ°Is it normal for bosses to get sicknesses unrelated to getting hit by alcohol magic?ˇ± Concetta asks, bewildered by SelonielˇŻs health.

    ˇ°The only haunted park bosses I remember getting sick as a mechanic are the Cyber-Tech Alligator in Operation Heathrow and the data-stealing dragon in the Sun Disk!ˇ± Saronium explains to the alcohol witch. ˇ°Not reallyˇ±

 Chapter 48: Is The Park Too Difficult?

    ˇ°Milord, before Concetta asked about bosses getting sick in battle, as opposed to only hurt, I was talking about how you should resist the urge of making the park harder than the last. Especially since a trash-free parkˇŻs main appeal is the lure of quick loot; you want to deliver on that promiseˇ± Saronium tells him.

    ˇ°Are you telling me this park is too hard as it currently is? Or that this party is otherwise not representative of who will even want to go into the park?ˇ± a puzzled Enno asks.

    ˇ°IˇŻm afraid so. You want your park to succeed as a business venture, you should err on the side of too easyˇ±

    Seloniel, while still a ghost, had a stroke on the second stack of internal haemorrhages, and a heart attack on the third. Or at least as convincingly a ghost could suffer from that, Saronium reflects on how fragile SelonielˇŻs health is, and how she can be killed with what haunted park runners call stacks of that mechanic.

    But now they collect more loot: Bryzax gets new cuisses, Mijanou, pants, which she gives to her lord, Enno, a new jacket, Saronium gets a skirt and Concetta, an axe.

    ˇ°We must take the crane down to the bottom of the quarry. The next boss is down there somewhereˇ± Bryzax tells the others as the trio all put on their new pieces of gear.

    ItˇŻs then that the treadmill crane gets down to the bottom of the quarry. A little faster than in normal quarrying because the three ghost ex-anusiya whose gear have been sold off to pay for the park only have a payload a little over half a ton to get down. As opposed to a stone-laden wagon drawn by a team of two oxen. But even that takes them about ten seconds.

    A ten-second period where they take in the music being played in the background, and where they could feel the eerie wails of ghosts haunting the quarry, just not Janick.

    And Saronium keeps healing the adventurers as they move into where the third bossˇŻ room, at the bottom of the quarry. However, the second they step off the crane, the party is left wondering why the quarry has been abandoned by its last owners. What made Janick decide that a quarry was the best place to hide the pairˇŻs phylacteries. Are their phylacteries items that can be easily disguised as common tools in use in quarries? Enno starts asking himself. If what they say about Janick is correct, her only claim to adventuring fame is killing the electricity-stealing dragon terrorizing the border region between Caladon and Kaeshana. My predecessor even deployed a ballista against it, as part of an expedition.

    Speaking of electricity-stealing dragon, its ghost has more or less the same appearance as the original monster. He has a blue belly and scales, while his yellow wings threaten to tear them apart.

    ˇ°The one thing I can say that could make the fight easier is the need to ride the bossˇŻ back. Just like some bosses in Caladon Bog, and usually rideable bosses tend to favor meleeˇ± Mijanou suggests to the rest of the party.

    ˇ°If so, this boss should be easier than Seloniel, provided you arenˇŻt airsickˇ± Saronium comments on the medical complication of fighting a flying boss on its back.

    ˇ°At this point, a boss thatˇŻs easier than Seloniel would be a welcome breath of fresh air!ˇ± Bryzax exclaims before moving into position to pull the boss. ˇ°Pulling in three, two, oneˇ­ˇ±

    Concetta and Enno both provide cover fire at the bossˇŻ joints as they follow Mijanou on their way to the bossˇŻ tail. They need to be quick before the boss flaps its wings, or else they will be buffeted before they even get the chance to ride the bossˇŻ back.

    As everyone gets buffeted by the bossˇŻ wings flapping, the dust cloud makes it harder for anyone to see through it while itˇŻs still up.

    ItˇŻs after the boss is done flapping its wings that it lands. Bryzax is then thrown electricity at. Which freezes him in place, at point-blank range, and barely able to swing his dha while his entire body takes a hit.

    And Saronium must focus fully on Bryzax while the boss is spitting out electricity. At the same time, the DPS get on its tail, and on its scaly back from there.

    ˇ°Aim for the wing joints!ˇ± Mijanou yells at Enno while he fires his assault rifle at the area where the wing joints are.

    Meanwhile, Concetta focuses her spells on the area of the spine where the joints as they advance. As she hopes the scales soften some, she hopes that the bullets will penetrate the dragonˇŻs skin and dent the bones.

    At the same time, Mijanou hacks away at the other wing joint with her two talwars. With a few hits, they get wounds to open in the wing joints, as well as the bossˇŻ blood vessels to get exposed.

    ˇ°Now, Concetta, now!ˇ± Enno yells.

    By this point, Concetta, feeling like getting the boss drunk might make the job easier, focuses her alcohol magic on the exposed blood vessels. And causes the bossˇŻ blood pressure to go up. However, she must continually cast alcohol magic on these, causing some scales to fall off around the spine.

    As the electricity-stealing dragon gets clobbered around the wing joints, Bryzax thinks he might be able to make the boss zap itself when heˇŻll shoot a blue-white lightning bolt again. Just getting behind a leg as the dragonˇŻs head gets repeatedly slashed in the teeth. And the teeth falling off had cavities.

    But itˇŻs clear that, by doing so, the boss must twist his neck to get a shot at zapping Bryzax. Even so, his neck has a finite flexibility and thereˇŻs only so much the dragon can twist itself before heˇŻs put in a position where his own body gets in the way of zapping the tank.

    In his buzzed state, he decides to flap its ailing wings, and take off, so he can get a shot at zapping Bryzax without zapping itself. Yet, Mijanou is about to cause a wing to get clipped.

    ˇ°Watch out, Bryzax! The bossˇŻ right wing is about to fall!ˇ± Enno yells at his herald while the dragonˇŻs wing falls to the ground.

    ˇ°Now, Concetta, now! Go for the veins!ˇ± Mijanou yells at the alcohol witch, as she switches to the left wing.

    ˇ°Are you trying to get us killed?ˇ± Saronium questions the wisdom of Mijanou clipping the dragonˇŻs other wing, already maimed by EnnoˇŻs gunfire.

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    The dragon gets steadily drunker as Concetta casts alcohol spells at its veins, exposed by the bossˇŻ right wing being clipped. Yet, the sight of the wing falling off makes Bryzax get away, taking hits from the dragon buffeting the area.

    In his drunken state, the dragon spits a lightning bolt, but to no avail since his vision is blurred by his skyrocketing blood content. As he gets angrier, he keeps spitting electricity and failing to hit the herald.

    As the drunk dragonˇŻs left wing gets clipped, while flying over the quarryˇŻs crane, it falls to the ground, threatening to throw the other four off its back. They only have a few seconds left to hit the boss; here Enno fires at the bossˇŻ neck.

    The boss crashes into the ground, making a loud noise and knocking everyone off on impact. And yet, the drunk electricity-stealing dragon hasnˇŻt managed to kill anyone by falling off the sky, no more than it killed itself.

    Still, everyone had broken bones, ribs and so on, causing Saronium to focus on herself before she uses the healing chain spell to get the others back up. They groan in pain, barely able to keep up their attacks.

    The life witch scolds Mijanou for clipping the electricity-stealing dragonˇŻs wings in mid-air, while she suddenly holds aggro on it.

    SaroniumˇŻs face turns red. ˇ°Mijanou, you almost got us killed!ˇ±

    ˇ°We almost killed the dragon, too!ˇ± Mijanou responds, while trying to evade the dragonˇŻs bite attempts.

    Because the dragonˇŻs broken bones can no longer support its massive weight, Mijanou feels like she can get the boss to zap itself, while the ranged DPS keep firing at the exposed joint. Which has become so exposed that they have a clear shot at the spine, and hence turning the monster into a tetraplegic.

    ˇ°The monster canˇŻt move anymore! Final burn!ˇ± Bryzax then attacks the tetraplegic monsterˇŻs neck.

    And even when he could twist its neck, the boss tries to zap Mijanou to death, but manages to duck at the very last moment. Behind his immobile tail.

    But since the boss is obsessed with hitting Mijanou, presumably because of the saber dancerˇŻs role in getting its wings clipped, it zaps its own tail, since Mijanou is right behind it.

    ˇ°Mijanou!ˇ± Enno yells at her, while blood is getting spilled on the floor.

    ˇ°IˇŻm fine, the boss has zapped itselfˇ± Mijanou answer as the drunk dragonˇŻs body shakes despite being otherwise tetraplegic.

    But an agonizing dragon, oblivious to his body being torn apart thanks to Concetta using her magic to make him drunk, starts vomiting electricity left and right. The electricity attacks cause everyone to get on the move.

    Given its sheer size, and the limits of his ˇ°firing arcsˇ±, the five quickly find blind spots from which they can keep attacking the dying dragon. Yet Concetta vomits on it since her own blood content went up like crazy as she cast rapid-fire alcohol spells during the fight.

    The telltale signs of the bossˇŻ imminent death are as clear as day, because the size of the puddle of blood increases by the second. Whose drunkenness makes the boss lose more than just blood: it also makes the boss urinate, until its body becomes rigid.

    After the boss breathes its last, Saronium comments on how this park seems to be different from past haunted parks.

    ˇ°This boss doesnˇŻt even feel like a haunted park ghost anymore! Past haunted park bosses were expected to just get spanked without affecting their ability to throw mechanics at the parksˇŻ visitors! Aside from alcohol magic of course. Here it seems like the ghosts have medical conditions commensurate with the effects of their mechanicsˇ± Saronium comments on the differences between this park and past haunted parks.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think it makes a park easier or harder per se, just different. Thus far, though, this boss feels the easiest in this parkˇ± Enno comments on the relative boss difficulty. ˇ°I sure hope that the first two bosses would be nerfed in fatal difficulty, we are relative novices in haunted parks, and we were getting demolishedˇ±

    But I wonder how the loot is funded. Especially if the park gets the success I was hoping for. How much does the loot cost me? Obviously, I expect the cost of the loot to be based on attendance, Enno starts wondering about the final aspect of running a haunted park that might bother him. Yet, he knew, based on his Caladon Bog run that haunted parks are free of charge for visitors.

    Speaking of loot, the loot chest took a while to appear near the dragonˇŻs corpse. Concetta opens it and she finds a pair of jackboots, while Saronium gives gloves to her. By then Concetta is fully geared. Mijanou gets a helmet, and Enno gets some giant rifle with a telescope mounted on it. In the end, Enno gets fully geared, too, but wonˇŻt fire as many bullets as he used to, just bigger ones. As for Bryzax, he gets boots, too.

    ˇ°If you may excuse me, I need to talk to Mardonion outside the park!ˇ± a shaken Enno warns the other haunted park testers.

    ˇ°I guess you havenˇŻt experienced this, milord, but for a park to save a visitorˇŻs progress through a dungeon, you need to stay in the same group. RaidsˇŻ progress saving is another matterˇ± Saronium adds.

    ˇ°What does that imply?ˇ± Enno asks.

    ˇ°This means we need to stay here. Here, take my emergency exit stoneˇ± Saronium hands him her emergency exit stone.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs an emergency exit stone?ˇ± Concetta rolls her eyes upon hearing about that object.

    ˇ°Milord, just say press the big red button. It should take you out of this parkˇ± the healer gives her instructions to the would-be haunted park operator.

    ˇ°Press the big red buttonˇ± Enno speaks to the stone.

    Why didnˇŻt Saronium tell me about the emergency exit stone? A puzzled Enno gets teleported out of the park, and finds himself at the entrance of the park. He then searches for Mardonion in MijanouˇŻs inn.

    Once he locates MardonionˇŻs room, Enno has a few questions for him.

    ˇ°First, I have concerns about the park being too hard for its fatal mode to be financially viable, or at least the first two bossesˇ± Enno voices his concern.

    ˇ°If a park gets a reputation of it being too hard right out of the gate, itˇŻs very difficult to repair the damage, at least without what the haunted park community calls nerfs. Speaking of which, perhaps fewer plows against Seloniel, or making the panicking horses die after the pushtigban riding it gets unhorsed, might be a good starting point. And youˇŻre right in that I can clearly see what difference having an alcohol wizard on hand makesˇ±

    ˇ°Oh IˇŻll take these nerfs. One more thing: how much will the parkˇŻs loot cost me?ˇ±

    ˇ°The cost of raw materials. Sure, the magical loot systems might draw from waste of all kinds, like mining slag, sawdust, or agricultural waste, but every month, you will receive a bill for the amount of raw materials used to make the loot. ThatˇŻs why gear is cheaper to drop than mounts and mounts are often reserved for the highest difficulties of a haunted parkˇ±

    ˇ°Mounts drop from haunted parks?ˇ± a clueless Enno gasps. ˇ°Does this park drop a mount?ˇ±

    ˇ°Unlike gear, which is guaranteed to drop, mounts, due to their costs, arenˇŻt. So yes, but which one drops from the park will be a surprise. There are three possibilities: the ghost-drawn hand cart, MarzbanˇŻs warhorse or the electricity-stealing dragonˇ±

    ˇ°You decided that a mount will drop from the park, and you didnˇŻt tell me first? Not sure adventurers are willing to risk their lives for a ghost-drawn hand cart! You can always sell ghost-drawn hand carts; heck, I will even give you an abandoned village to build ghost-drawn hand carts in! But if you have your heart set on having my haunted park drop a mount, MarzbanˇŻs phantom warhorse, and make it drop in fatal mode only!ˇ±

    ˇ°You can always have a phantom warhorse draw a cart. But please be advised that the loot system people will bill you, for a phantom warhorse, the same amount as a full set of plate armorˇŻs worth of steel, plus three quarters of oats or hay and a few planks of woodˇ±

    LetˇŻs see: thatˇŻs 150 gold for the oats or hay, twice as much for the steel, and another 50 gold for the saddle and reinsˇŻ materials, Enno is left wondering how many phantom warhorses he can afford to let drop from his park.

    Said phantom warhorses were already in the park, so making versions rideable by visitors isnˇŻt much of a stretch to EnnoˇŻs eyes, who gives an estimate for how much heˇŻs willing to spend on top of the estimated loot costs.

    ˇ°Maybe two to three percent drop rate would ensure that it wouldnˇŻt be too expensive, perhaps bumped up to five percent or higher should the fatal mode attendance prove too low!ˇ± Enno gives his instructions to the quartermaster and de facto project manager for the park.

    ˇ°So be itˇ­ˇ±

 Chapter 49: The Final Lich

    When Enno returns to the park after having discussed what he feels should be nerfed in his park prior to its grand opening, and Mardonion revealing to him that Janick will drop a mount in fatal mode, he makes his way back to the other four, with SaroniumˇŻs emergency exit stone handed back to her.

    Meanwhile, the construction crews taking up some rooms in the inn are going into the park to perform what people in the playersˇŻ world call a hotfix on the first two bosses, calling for the horses to die when their riders reach 50% HP, and fewer plows to be deployed by Seloniel.

    ˇ°Looks like Janick could drop MarzbanˇŻs warhorse, but itˇŻs not a given she will. Oh and the first two bosses will be nerfedˇ± Enno reports the new developments before they pull Janick.

    ˇ°You never told anyone about how Janick could drop a mount ridden by another boss. You never even planned for it!ˇ± Bryzax scolds Enno.

    ˇ°I guess, since MarzbanˇŻs warhorse already existed in some form, the parkˇŻs builders believed they could add it to JanickˇŻs loot table at a minimal costˇ± Enno adds. ˇ°In fact, adding MarzbanˇŻs warhorse to JanickˇŻs loot table was their idea, not mineˇ±

    ˇ°Mounts as a reward for running the highest difficulty of a haunted park are nothing new under the sunˇ± Saronium comments. ˇ°I guess I never told you about it because mounts didnˇŻt fit the scope of what you wanted the park to be a quick source of!ˇ±

    So you have mounts such as Upper PerseriaˇŻs garuda, Sun DiskˇŻs solar car, Saronium is reminded of past mounts she obtained from haunted parks. But a warhorse? I guess, if people covet BelphegorˇŻs solar car, surely a warhorse with fancy fittings could be a nice prize to some.

    ˇ°Concetta, thus far you have been really useful to us despite your lack of experience of haunted parks. However, your use of alcohol magic will spell trouble for us because the last boss is an alcohol lich. That will make her far more dangerous than if we didnˇŻt have you!ˇ± Mijanou warns the alcohol witch.

    ˇ°How so? WouldnˇŻt a greater blood content make her lose focus and accuracy?ˇ± Concetta retorts, based on her experience of the last 3 bosses of the park.

    ˇ°There is no telling how the power of her alcohol magic will be affected by her blood contentˇ± Saronium warns the team. ˇ°With Concetta, the one thing we can take for granted is that the blood content will increase faster than without. Also, we will get drunk and I will need to cleanse regularly to keep your blood content. Concetta, here you will need to cast spells to purge alcohol from your blood!ˇ±

    So Saronium is basically asking me to vomit at certain key points of the fightˇ­ Concetta shudders at the implications of casting spells to purge alcohol from her blood. As Bryzax gets into position to take Janick away from the other fourˇ­

    ˇ°How do you feel about fighting the boss you did the voice acting for?ˇ± Enno asks the alcohol witch before the pull.

    Concetta trembles at the thought of fighting the boss she voiced lines for, even though, as understood by alcohol wizards, she currently has no blood content. ˇ°A little nervousˇ±

    ˇ°Pulling in three, two, oneˇ­ˇ± Bryzax signals to the adventurers before the fight starts.

    ˇ°You killed Seloniel! Her phylactery is mine!ˇ± Janick deadpans the party in a drunken, undead tone of voice, when Bryzax leaps towards her with his dha in hand.

    So it seems like ConcettaˇŻs own voice acting sends a shiver down her own spine.

    Then seven adds are summoned: two gunners hiding behind pavises, two blacksmiths wielding hammers, two mercenaries wielding two-handed swords, and finally a thief. Bryzax yells in the addsˇŻ direction, hoping to at least get the melee ones to attack him.

    Once that is done, Concetta unleashes her shooter and then alcohol cloud at the mass of mobs. They get intoxicated, but then Enno needs to move around the pavises to ensure that the two fusiliers wielding the same giant rifle that he obtained from the electricity-stealing dragon can get hit.

    Yet, Mijanou seems to have beaten Enno to the fusiliers, so he instead focuses on spray-and-pray on the adds in the bossˇŻ vicinity, hitting the boss and the adds in their backs.

    And, even as Enno hits the phantom thief, it seems the phantom thief keeps the adds up, and himself sober as he gets hit by alcohol magic. But, unlike his master, he knows better than to just let his blood content build up indefinitely.

    But, with three people hitting the adds the phantom thief desperately tries to heal, thereˇŻs only so much he could do with stolen medicines. The adds get drunken and become less troublesome as their own blood content go up.

    As Mijanou gets under one of the fusiliersˇŻ barrel, the other wastes no time targeting her, but narrowly misses. Which buys her a few seconds to slice the first fusilier to death.

    ˇ°There are alcohol clouds on the horizon!ˇ± Janick tells the party before casting an alcohol cloud spell, in a drunken voice.

    As a result of the thief being focused on by Concetta and Enno, along with Janick casting an alcohol cloud of her own, the thief is forced to watch his own health.

    The alcohol cloud smells and tastes like white ice wine, and a rather sweet one at that. But in that magic sweetness, everyone gets drunk, or worse still, hurt.

    This makes Saronium cleanse herself of any blood content, and then she starts casting spells such as the revivification and then healing chain, in that order.

    ˇ°Vomit, Concetta, vomit!ˇ± Enno yells at his alcohol witch.

    With magic, Concetta vomits for a good 3 seconds, and her blood content returns to 0. But even EnnoˇŻs aim seems to have become worse, with his blood content becoming an issue.

    Damnˇ­ I canˇŻt seem to aim worth two beans! Is that the alcohol? Enno is wondering why is it that he always seems to miss his shots against Janick. I canˇŻt see very clearly, but I must keep firing! And with his face turning red, by some combination of alcohol magic and anger at his lack of effectiveness, he tries to close in.

    ˇ°WhereˇŻs Janick?ˇ± a red-faced Enno shouts.

    Even so, as the adds guarding her at the start of the fight have been killed, it seems like BryzaxˇŻs movements have become less coordinated. With his every move, he feels like heˇŻs going to fall over. And his vision also gets blurred, too.

    Luckily for the herald, everyone else is positioned behind the boss. And his wild dha swings only seem to affect the boss, if at all. Yet, he vaguely hears WhereˇŻs Janick echoing. Until, of course, he starts hitting one of MijanouˇŻs talwars. When he tries going for the mace hand.

    It seems like Enno canˇŻt hit the broad side of a barn after getting hit by the alcohol cloud! Saronium is left wondering who to cleanse between the other three. WeˇŻre losing too much DPS because of that! This might mean the difference between clearing the boss and failing the enrage timer!

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    Seeing Mijanou still swinging her sabers at Janick, as does Concetta, makes the choice clear to her. Cleansing Enno of the alcohol in his bloodstream. Which makes EnnoˇŻs aim much better than before.

    ˇ°Airstrike!ˇ± Janick yells in a drunken tone.

    But when Enno gets cleansed of his blood content, the boss launches another attack that keeps everyone on their toes. And sends Mijanou right next to the tank.

    When wine red circles start appearing on the ground, they start running away from the circles. As well as away from each other. But the tank struggles to keep control over the boss.

    The circles tend to follow the adventurers. However, the circles are much bigger, and timed further apart than SelonielˇŻs meteor shower.

    And for the next ten seconds, the magical cannonballs explode on the grey floor. This makes the whole room reek of red wine. And magical red wine splashes all over the place.

    Yet, Concetta having cast alcohol spells on Janick since the very start caused everyone to take bigger hits. And Janick using more potent alcohol magic.

    Then Saronium agonizes about who to cleanse. Everyone takes the same hits from blood content DoTs, so the question is: who, other than Concetta, would result in the biggest loss of DPS if their blood content stays high? But as everyoneˇŻs blood content goes up, all she can think of is keeping them up.

    Only after the airstrike mechanic has their blood content stabilized. But man did it cause them to take a beating. And the whole floor is now stained wine red. The alcohol witch casts a spell to purge her blood of alcoholˇ­

    ˇ°Concetta, make the others vomit!ˇ± Saronium yells at the alcohol witch right after she vomited herself.

    Enno, while still being affected by his blood content, keeps shooting at the boss. With the same lack of accuracy as when he was last drunk. IˇŻm too farˇ­ away! Mustˇ­ close in!ˇ±

    As he closes in on the boss, Concetta casts the stomach pumping spell on him. The alcohol leaves his blood, but makes him vomit. Directly on the yellow-skinned lich.

    On the other side of the lich, Mijanou also vomits on her as a result of the cleanse removing the alcohol from her bloodstream. Leaving a disgusting aftertaste.

    By then, Bryzax has become ineffectual, stumbling across the room without any coordination. And rarely hitting the lich. Thanks to his recurrent failures in hitting the boss, he no longer has aggro on her.

    Because the alcohol lich, in her magic-induced drunkenness, doesnˇŻt perceive Concetta as a threat, Mijanou now must block and parry the lich wildly swinging her mace around. With one hand taking care of the mace and the other slashing the lich, sheˇŻs in for an unpleasant surprise:

    ˇ°Vomit! Vomit!ˇ± a very drunken-sounding Janick yells in MijanouˇŻs face.

    By casting the vomiting spell, Janick vomits with so much force that Mijanou is sent flying across the room. With this vomiting spell, her blood content is now down to zero.

    ThatˇŻs one gross mechanic, Mijanou muses while the foul smell of the bossˇŻ vomit dwarfs the already unpleasant aftertaste of her own vomiting. Having broken a rib in the impact against the roomˇŻs stone wall, the saber dancer feels discomfort. Yet dashes back to her.

    When Saronium goes around cleansing Bryzax, the latter has a wide-open visor. And when his turn comes to vomit, he could finally breathe, despite the aftertaste of vomit.

    ˇ°The boss is on the puddle of barf! Watch out!ˇ± Mijanou yells, as the boss trips on the puddle of barf.

    But tripping on the puddle of barf only makes the boss fixate on bludgeoning Mijanou. After she gets back up, the lichˇŻs yellow skin turns red. And yet, the park testers realize that time is short to kill the lichˇŻs corporeal form until the lich kills everyone. With repeated alcohol clouds.

    ˇ°Clouds of alcohol are hanging over you!ˇ± Janick yells, with the alcohol clouds hitting far harder than on the first go.

    Saronium struggles to keep the others up, but the boss is on its last legs. After a few alcohol clouds, Janick then swings her mace at Mijanou. And kills the saber dancer on the spot by cracking her skull open. Everyone elseˇŻs blood content rises to higher levels.

    Then Janick goes after Bryzax. He dies by taking repeated mace hits, buying a few seconds for Concetta and Enno to kill the boss.

    Damn it, the boss has enraged! Is that how it feels to fail a DPS check? Concetta starts sweating as she makes Enno vomit with magic. As soon as the vomiting spell goes off, she resumes hitting it with alcohol magic.

    But the three keep hitting and running the enraged lich. By doing so, they avoid getting hit by her mace. In an environment whose alcohol smell gets more pungent by the second.

    Sure, the room smelling like ice wine might make the aftertaste of vomit more bearable, but the boss gets hit by a burst of headshots from behind. Her body collapses to the ground.

    ˇ°This is not the end of the alcoholic massacre!ˇ± Janick chuckles in an even more drunken voice, before dying.

    ItˇŻs then that the bossˇŻ second phase begins: the phylacteries. A wooden puncheon being the first one. Or more specifically, the outer one. JanickˇŻs.

    For this phase of the fight, Saronium feels like Mijanou is going to be more useful than Bryzax. Especially when BryzaxˇŻs peak DPS is about half of MijanouˇŻs.

    But with everyone alive still beat up from JanickˇŻs enrage, Saronium must ensure that the DPS are alive. And drinks her last mana potion.

    With Mijanou now being back up from having her skull fractured to death, the three DPS attack the puncheon. They keep working at it, but it seems like the harder they hit it, the harder they get hit. Just without any effect on their blood contents. As if some magical feedback mechanism protected the outer phylactery.

    Yet, somehow, penetrating the wooden puncheon with gunfire causes the inner phylactery, SelonielˇŻs, to get hit. A hammer, visually identical to the one the park drops.

    However, much to ConcettaˇŻs chagrin, she feels like alcohol magic is useless against it. Especially when the alcohol witch casts alcohol spells at the hole punched into the barrel. Which causes the barrel to rot, but the hammer is unscathed.

    ˇ°Alcohol magic doesnˇŻt work against the inner phylactery!ˇ± Concetta moans upon seeing her lack of effectiveness on the hammer.

    ˇ°See, now you know what alcohol magic is ineffective against!ˇ± Saronium tells the alcohol witch. ˇ°Stop using alcohol magic and use fire magic instead!ˇ±

    Damnˇ­ IˇŻm paying the price for focusing too much on alcohol magic! Concetta feels a little relieved that she doesnˇŻt get hit as hard by the barrelˇŻs feedback mechanism because of her fire magic not being as strong. Especially when she only knows the basic fire spell. Which is fine for use in the kitchen, but in battle, causes her DPS to plummet.

    The testers feel like a clock is ticking on them because clock sounds begin to be heard in the room. Which makes them feel like something bad will happen if they donˇŻt destroy the puncheon quickly enough.

    No time to focus on the hammer, the keg has priority! A sweating Concetta muses as she shifts her magical focus to the destabilizing keg.

    And even Saronium, while she feels the clock ticking in on them the same as everyone else, starts hitting the barrel, confident that the extra DPS she could squeeze out of her body would be enough to destroy it. And stay alive.

    Between bullets, saber swings, fireballs and mace swings, the cask falls apart. Which means that, for the purpose of the park, Janick is now fully destroyed as a lich.

    With SaroniumˇŻs mana pool now sufficiently recovered, she can bring herself to rez Bryzax. Especially when the hammer proves much more resilient as a phylactery than an ordinary hammer. Even so, dents are already visible in the hammer.

    Repeated attacks on the hammer for a certain amount of time causes its head to shatter into shards. And its handle also gets destroyed by fire magic.

    ˇ°You might have stopped the alcoholic massacre for now, but alcohol will be your undoing!ˇ± an off voice tells the haunted park testers as the hammer gets destroyed.

    For the final time in their test run, the loot chest opens. And a magic pine arbor also appears opposite the roomˇŻs entrance, serving as the exit from the park.

    ˇ°Woohoo! MarzbanˇŻs ghost charger!ˇ± an overjoyed Enno realizes the other piece of loot he obtains from the chest is, well, another giant gun.

    I ought to get this set dyed upon return to the palace! But selling these giant, long-range guns will help me offset the costs of building the park, Enno starts thinking about what to do with the loot from this parkˇŻs test run. IˇŻm sure that people will want to pay through the roof for these if I make it clear they are prototypes from a new haunted park!

    Concetta is a little unsettled by getting the grivpanvarˇŻs xyston from the loot chest, wondering how exactly she is going to use such a long spear that, to her eyes, seemed clearly designed for cavalry use.

    As for Bryzax, he gets plate gauntlets, while Mijanou gets MarzbanˇŻs hand and a half sword. A bit longer and heavier than her talwars, she feels like it should be sold.

    And Saronium gets another robe, which she also plans on selling, believing she has no use for it herself. Yet, she feels a little unsettled by how big of a difference she thinks not having an alcohol wizard will make.

    Which, upon entering the magical arbor, she wastes no time in telling Mardonion:

    ˇ°Sir, I believe that the final determination of whether Janick should be nerfed would require another beta test run but without an alcohol wizard. Maybe then we can go open beta once closed beta endsˇ± Saronium tells the parkˇŻs project manager.

    ˇ°What difference do you think alcohol magic makes?ˇ± Mardonion asks her.

    ˇ°I think the enrage timer of JanickˇŻs first phase is tied to her blood content. Because Concetta proved to be a capable alcohol witch, her blood content increased faster than without one, and made her vomit fasterˇ±

 Chapter 50: Moratorium Day

    A few days later, a representative from the Supreme Council arrives at the palace. Bryzax greets the messenger at the palaceˇŻs gate, and then relays the message to Enno.

    ˇ°The Supreme Council comes bearing news, milordˇ± Bryzax tells his liege lord.

    ˇ°Send the messenger inˇ±

    The Supreme CouncilˇŻs messenger is then brought before Enno in the palaceˇŻs great room. He has news for him:

    ˇ°Milord, the peace treaty has been ratified with these otherworldly factions, and it has come to our attention that your dominion has a haunted park under constructionˇ± the messenger tells him.

    ˇ°What does the peace treaty mean for our haunted park?ˇ± a puzzled Enno asks the messenger in front of him.

    ˇ°Unfortunately, this is going to mean that any haunted park under construction must be demolished! Heck, haunted parks are now banned as a result of this treatyˇŻs provisions!ˇ±

    ˇ°And what happens with the money we spent building the park?ˇ± a distraught Enno wonders what will happen with the haunted park being demolished, while so close to completion.

    ˇ°The Haunted Park Construction Guild is ordered to repay in full all costs incurred in the construction of the park!ˇ±

    And angelic beacons are outlawed as well, but this is not relevant to him right now, the messenger tells himself before leaving the palace.

    ˇ°You know what this means?ˇ± Enno starts crying. ˇ°I worked so hard to get the haunted park built, it was almost ready to open! And now the Supreme Council outlawed haunted parks! I guess having the construction costs repaid is better than nothingˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Speaking of which, you levied special taxes to pay for the park!ˇ±

    ˇ°And then we need to cancel the special taxes levied specifically to get the park built, except for the taxes on banking services and torture instruments! And same goes of tariffs, too!ˇ± Enno tells Bryzax, still reeling in from the news of the interdiction of haunted parks.

    ˇ°Oh boy, repairs of high-end gear, magical alcohol, funeral goods and servicesˇ±

    Speaking of high-end gear, we can keep the gear. We sent it for repairs, and it should be repaired and dyed in a few more days, Enno muses, while heˇŻs wondering what he could do.

    ˇ°We have no choice but to comply with the Supreme CouncilˇŻs new regulations! And execute the parkˇŻs ghosts!ˇ±

    ˇ°Remember when you threatened the first boss with throwing them into a cauldron of holy water, in public?ˇ±

    ˇ°The Supreme Council forced our hands! WeˇŻre going to need a cauldron of holy water, and Concetta to be on hand to start boiling it. Then bring in all the ghosts from the park that can be taken out of itˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Where are we going to get holy water?ˇ± Bryzax asks him.

    ˇ°Surely thereˇŻs some priest who might not have liked the life or responsibility of a rental healer, nor that of providing religious services, but might make holy water for money, and weˇŻre going to need two such priests: one for the ghosts that can be taken out of the park, and another one for those that canˇŻtˇ±

    ˇ°If I may, milord, two priests are going to be a bit much. It might be better to use one priest for hire and make holy water, and then have Moratorium Day celebrated at the quarry!ˇ± the code name for the parkˇŻs demolition is given.

    ˇ°Moratorium Day?ˇ± Enno gasps.

    ˇ°A fortnight from nowˇ± Bryzax tells him about the timing of Moratorium Day.

    ˇ°I believe we might also want to auction off select pieces of items from this park. Weapons, armor and, of course the pushtigbansˇŻ mounts! Hence ConcettaˇŻs presenceˇ±

    I guess, this haunted park I worked so hard to get built is never going to happen, through no fault of my own. The best I could do is to use some of the money spent for the park on stuff like, say, a brokerage and the warehousing this requires, Enno starts wondering how he should adjust his policy in a world without haunted parks. This seems too sudden to him. Should I then ferry food, or just magical ice wine?

    He then goes to the kitchen to make another request to Concetta.

    ˇ°A fortnight from now, Moratorium Day will come, and attendees will be thirsty for magical ice wine. For that duration, you will not cook anything for me, and you will instead focus on making as many barrels of magical ice wine as possible for the next twelve days!ˇ±

    ˇ°Who will replace me as cook?ˇ± Concetta asks her lord.

    ˇ°It depends. But since the Supreme Council outlawed haunted parks, and I donˇŻt want to face the backlash of running an illegal haunted park, Moratorium Day is about celebrating the demolition of the park. A dossier that polarized public opinion in the dominion for so long. And I believe also that all ghosts in the park should be thrown into a cauldron of boiling holy water, or, in the case of the electricity-stealing dragon, its locusˇ±

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ˇ°Who would want to see ghosts being thrown into a giant cauldron of boiling holy water?ˇ±

    ˇ°The plan for the day is as follows: the ghosts being thrown into a giant cauldron of boiling holy water, airlifted from the palace to the quarry, and placed at the bottom of the crane assembly, then auctioning off the items from the park. And you might even have enough to buy some property in which to operate your own magical ice winery!ˇ± Enno tells her alcohol witch.

    Concetta then goes to work conjuring magical ice wine. However, she needed barrels to store it, and there arenˇŻt enough empty barrels left in the palace. And so she needs to sell some magical wine to buy barrels.

    Unbeknownst to Enno, the demolition work for the haunted park requires the use of holy water. With their own suppliers they could find among the priests in the countryside. I guess, the population can live with the parkˇŻs demolition taking a little longer than expected, but I hope that the ghosts are ready for one last public appearance a fortnight from now...

    On the day before Moratorium Day, a hung-over Concetta meets with her lord in the palaceˇŻs courtyard while her barrels of magical ice wine are loaded on a two-horse wagon. Especially when the wagon could carry many more times than his carpet could.

    ˇ°Because itˇŻs not practical for us to airlift the magical ice wine tomorrow, I had a wagon full of the magical wine depart now for the haunted park. You may sell any leftover magical ice wine however you wishˇ± Enno gives his instructions for Concetta for the next day.

    ˇ°And yet there are several dozens of magical ice wine that I made over the past thirteen days that I had yet to get to market!ˇ±

    I wonder how many people will attend Moratorium Day at the quarry, and, from there, how many 55-gallon barrels they will drink. But a gallon is usually good for 30 glasses. One barrel is going to be good for a few hundred attendees, and my liege loaded a full wagon of theseˇ­ Concetta seems to feel like thereˇŻs just too much magical wine to go around.

    Speaking of which, by nightfall, the magical wine is stored at MijanouˇŻs inn for the festivities of Moratorium Day the following day.

    <hr>

    The following day, several wealthy people arrive on site, lured by the collection items that are going to be auctioned. And, of course, the magical wards no longer being in place.

    Shortly before the events of the day begin, Saronium comes to her lord to reveal something to him, after the two guns and the xyston are safely stored:

    ˇ°It might no longer be relevant to you, but I forgot to tell you something essential about a key function of magical wards put in place at haunted parksˇ± Saronium confesses to him.

    ˇ°What is it?ˇ± Enno asks her, troubled as the ghosts are rounded up, stripped of their gear and dismounted.

    ˇ°Magical wards also allow for parks to be instanced, that is, several parties can run a park simultaneously. And it also allows ghosts to be in multiple places at once, within the confines of the parkˇ±

    ˇ°And I didnˇŻt realize it was the wards allowing for that! Why didnˇŻt you tell me at the Caladon Bog?ˇ±

    ˇ°I only learned about the role of the wards in the instancing process after this beta test run of this park!ˇ±

    ˇ°I forgive you. Now, if you could please excuse meˇ­ˇ±

    The crowd attending the Moratorium Day festivities is at the upper levels of the quarry, with the ghosts lined up near the edge of the craneˇŻs scaffold. And Enno is near them:

    ˇ°It pains me to announce this, but the demolition of the haunted park was ordered by the Supreme Council. I wished things could have happened differently, but we have no choice but to throw the ghosts into boiling holy water! The good news is that taxes and tariffs on funerary goods and services, repairs of high-end gear and magical alcohol are repealed!ˇ± Enno turns to the executioner facing the ungeared ex-anusiya wearing loincloths. ˇ°Throw the ghosts into the holy water!ˇ±

    ˇ°Milord, only one ghost may be thrown into the cauldron at a time! The cauldron is not big enough for more than one ghost!ˇ±

    As a local fire wizard lights the fire underneath the holy water cauldron, the executioner pushes the kamandaran into it. And once the ghost hits the heating water, it starts screaming as its body dissolves in it. And creates a smoke cloud as the locus of the electricity-stealing dragon is unearthed.

    But between the time they watch the first anusiya, who is no longer manning the quarryˇŻs crane, get dissolved in holy water and the retrieval of the third bossˇŻ locus, all three anusiyas are already poofed out of existence. Suffering a humiliating (by ghost standards) destruction, screaming as they get dissolved in boiling holy water.

    How unworthy of then... These anusiyas died defending the upper city. In death, they were made to operate a treadmill crane as if they were serfs! Ermahgerd ponders about these ghostsˇŻ afterlife as he regarded them as valiant warriors in life, just without the allure and status of pushtigban or gyan-avspar, the latter of whom non-Perserians knew under the name Sable Order, or even grivpanvar or savaran. He gets his gear stripped away, and even clothing, too. Like the other four ghosts about to be thrown into the cauldron.

    The electricity-stealing dragonˇŻs locus is then thrown into the cauldron. But the public gasps upon seeing the liches bearing the weight of the magic they used in life.

    Seloniel was seemingly covered from head to toe in burns of varying degrees, while Janick had yellow skin with star angiomas everywhere. And yellow eyes too...

    ˇ°What exactly is this?ˇ± one of the attendees, not having attended any haunted park with personified ghosts, gasps upon seeing the ghosts showing sicknesses. ˇ°I never saw a haunted park ghost naked!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, I never saw ghosts that sick!ˇ± another attendee, here to buy some auction lots belonging to the parkˇŻs ghosts, realizes before Tissaphernes gets thrown into the cauldron.

    Much to the horror of the attendees, the sadistic Tissaphernes, for whom racks and pinions were his mainstays as a torturer, screams as his phantom, bare body dissolves in boiling holy water. And the cycle continues with Ermahgerd and then Marzban.

    ˇ°I guess, this is how the age of haunted parks is going to end: with boiling holy water!ˇ± MarzbanˇŻs last words echo throughout the quarry as he is thrown, naked, into the cauldron.

    And while the three pushtigbans are being dissolved to their destruction in holy water, the lich ghosts are about to suffer the same fate, even when their gear is ready to be auctioned off.

    ˇ°My makers refunded youˇ­ may this world be a better place without haunted parks, nor angelic beacons!ˇ± JanickˇŻs voice echoes across the quarry.

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt record that line! Yet she sounds more or less like a drunken version of myself!ˇ± a bewildered Concetta asks for herself.

    ˇ°Angelic beacons? What is that ghost on about, milord?ˇ± yet another attendee asks Enno at point-blank.

    ˇ°The Supreme Council has outlawed both haunted parks and angelic beacons!ˇ± Saronium explains herself. ˇ°It seems that, so long as angelic beacons existed, their wearers were controlled by people on another world! So no longer will our world be subjected to the whims of another!ˇ±

    It turns out that what the residents of the world call ratifying a treaty with that other world actually results, to the eyes of the playersˇŻ world, in the closure of MAA.

 Chapter 51: Challenge on a Stream

    October 15, four and a half months after MAA''s closure. Caroline is streaming her new game of choice, looking like some crossover of chess and RPG to the uninitiated. She''s about to defeat her opponent of the moment, a high-level player.

    "The opponent made one mistake too many and I''ll win this game!" Caroline exclaims as she launches an attack on her opponent''s final piece, after moving her hurt ranger her allotted 3 spaces on the grid.

    Both players are down to their last pieces. The opponent''s mistake was to make a weaker, but can''t miss attack, leaving me with an opening to fire the poisoned arrow. That arrow should be enough to kill the opponent... she starts thinking about what options she might have to finish this game. The arrow may not necessarily kill the opponent outright, but the poison will after the arrow hits. There are some risks to take, but it''s my best bet.

    Their health bars come up on screen, and the animation comes up for an attack. So while Caroline''s piece is on a back diagonal of the opponent''s on the map, the ranger fires a poisoned arrow at it. People in her chat cross their fingers for a few seconds, hoping for the best. The initial poisoned arrow impact barely leaves the enemy alive.

    But when the opponent''s turn comes, the poisoned arrow takes its toll and the game ends. With the death of the opponent''s final piece. Caroline''s chat comes alive after that game.

    Glitter: Now that''s what I call a Parthian shot!

    Capitolium: The time has come for you to do more than just play this game on air

    "What do you mean?" Caroline asks her follower on voice.

    So what could I possibly do on a stream that doesn''t involve actively playing that game? A dumbfounded Caroline scratches her head, a little apprehensive. After all, I built this stream on my own gameplay skills, ever since I started streaming MAA while it was around! Would people keep watching me?

    Capitolium: I issue you a challenge: you have thirty days, starting from November 1, to write a hockey romance, of fifty thousand words or more!

    "That''s a very tight deadline for someone with no real experience of romance writing! Also, what''s in it for me?" Caroline asks, not knowing whether she can even accept it.

    I get it, she has to start somewhere, but I feel like she also has to break out of her gaming shell! I watched her ex-teammate in MAA during Operation Heathrow''s RWF, Capitolium starts sweating while he struggles to think of how making her break out of her gaming shell would benefit her. Or what incentive that subscriber would provide her to accept it.

    "I feel that something''s fishy about this challenge. What makes you think that someone with no real experience of romance writing could write a hockey romance, no matter how horrible, in thirty days?" Caroline starts questioning its feasibility. "Please come on voice if you can formulate an answer!"

    Capitolium then enters Caroline''s voice chat channel on her stream''s Discord server. "If only you read some of the latest hockey romance releases... you might have a better idea!"

    "And then, people in the chat, I have a request for you: since it seems like Capitolium wants to introduce me to hockey romance, I am willing to take your recommendations, so long as it''s representative of what hockey romance is all about! However, I will read only one book per author!" Caroline asks her viewers to recommend hockey romance books to her.

    Perhaps... if I read some myself, I might have a better idea of how to go around writing one! the streamer starts noting the recs provided by her viewers on her chat.

    "Good thing you asked for books that are representative of the genre! Once you read enough of them, under the condition you gave, you''ll have a better idea of what I really mean!" the user called Capitolium can''t seem to contain his bitterness, but doesn''t seem to be willing to expand on its source.

    "I guess, but I still wonder what we both gain from the issuance of this challenge!" Caroline, still a little bothered, asks him.

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    "If you accept it, I will try whatever I can to promote your stream, especially in November. But if you successfully complete it, then I will donate much more regularly, or at least more"

    That viewer seems to be implying that he''s willing to read a hastily-written, horrible hockey romance book, simply because I would be deemed a new author to his eyes! Caro starts to space out, before voicing another concern to her would-be benefactor.

    "I feel like the only way I could make it work is by using AI to write the book"

    Glitter: Please don''t

    Lagado: Why?

    Glitter: It will show right through

    Caro''s viewers start squabbling about AI in creative writing in her chat, with Glitter going to greater lengths to describe how AI-generated books differ from those written manually. As a result, some of these have left her stream.

    "Tonight''s stream has been ruined! I am in no position to discuss AI in creative writing!" Caroline laments about what''s happening in the chat, about which she''s clueless.

    "The cold, hard truth is that manually written books might also have similar flaws to AI-written ones. Speaking of flaws, make sure your characters have flaws, but don''t overdo it" Capitolium harangues her. "For this reason, the challenge must be completed manually!"

    "I need some time to think about it"

    By then, she goes to farm other in-game items as needed for the game''s battle pass. And no, PvP is not the only playing mode of this game. Once that farming ends, Capitolium tells her about the deadline to accept the challenge.

    "You have until October twenty-seventh to decide whether to accept or reject the challenge I issued"

    "Very well: I am signing off for the night"

    As Caro''s stream is cut, she realizes that her viewers have given her a long list of hockey romance books to choose from, and several books from certain authors. It''s been a while since I read novels of any genre. I only expect there to be hockey and a hockey player falling in love with someone else. Other than that, I have to start somewhere to learn about writing novels, and if it means reading hockey romance, so be it!

    But, as she goes on Kindle Unlimited, she is reminded of what she told her followers on air about her choice of books to read: one book per author. Yet she realizes that some authors wrote entire series of such books.

    "I guess, if I am to read only one book per author, I may as well read the first book in a series!" Caro sighs. "First come, first served. So I should get an idea of how fast I can read one such book and plan accordingly"

    And, as soon as she gets her manifest of books in the order her viewers recommended them to her, she just gets started reading the first book on it. My greatest accomplishment as a gamer was being part of the winning team of the Operation Heathrow RWF. But, since I played video games for years, there''s a whole world outside of work and gaming that I have been missing out on, her thoughts start racing as she dips her proverbial toes into that book.

    Yet, as she dives deeper into the read, she starts wondering how she would even be able to write a 50,000-word hockey romance in just thirty days. With her mom overhearing her.

    "It must be tough to even write a hockey romance, fifty thousand-word long, at all, let alone in thirty days!" she rants about the challenge issued to her on air. "Maybe a more experienced romance writer might be able to, but if I was to do it, it would be... an epic mess!"

    "Honey, as a gamer, you have always prided on your skills, and what you did with these skills. We did support you over the years, we left you alone when you needed it, but I think you''re due to try something new!" Caroline''s mother harangues her daughter.

    "Writing hockey romance, something new?" Caro keeps whining. "Maybe if I read that book, I would have a better idea of how to go around writing one!"

    "Bon d¨¦barras..." (Good riddance) Caro''s dad enters the scene. "Elle joue beaucoup trop!" (She games far too much)

    With Caro''s parents leaving her bedroom, she continues her reading of the first book her viewers recommended her. She gets to that book''s meet cute mere moments after her parents'' departure.

    Once she keeps reading the book, she feels that something is not right. Yes, the meet cute is a cute moment between the two, at least by her standards, but a few chapters in, the seeds of doubt are planted in her mind.

    Looks like the author implied the hockey player to have star power commensurate with his cap hit in the $9-10M range, even though the male lead''s cap hit wasn''t explicitly mentioned. Yet there is no trace of what really goes into the hockey part of the life of a hockey player with a $9-10M cap hit! She muses as her mind keeps track of the couple''s spending habits as she goes along reading the book. And coming up with an estimated cap hit and hence on-ice talent level.

    But reading a few more chapters have apparently convinced her that this book just didn''t seem to have a whole lot to keep her hooked. That, even though it didn''t feel like anyone''s trauma was overbearing. Or at least not sufficiently prominent in their characters to make her scream:

    "Something''s not right: why read a book with a hockey-playing male lead whose cap hit is in the nine-to-ten-million-dollar range and whose only character development is about how he improves his sex?" Caro starts screaming about how vapid this reading has been so far.

    And she stops reading the first book after finding out that the focus on sex has markedly increased, along with the quality of the sex the couple is having. Maybe this book is a fluke, perhaps the next one will actually have hockey, or at the very least some character development outside of sex!

 Chapter 52: Hockey Paucity Preptober

    She takes a bit to recover her spirits after the first book on her reading list makes her mind feel like mush. Thank goodness I will only read one book per author before I decide on whether to take Capitolium up on the challenge! I can''t imagine reading another book from that author after reading about a couple whose only chemistry is in bed! Maybe the next one will be different from the one I just read! The question is how...

    However, by the time she recovers her spirits, it was almost time for her to go to bed, and hence decides against buying the second book on her to be read (TBR) list for the time being. And rest she needs to get.

    The following day at work, at the Institut de la Statistique du Qu¨¦bec (or ISQ), she hears her colleagues talk about hockey. Sure, she can follow the conversation relatively easily, but when her turn comes to talk, she feels like she needs to slip a mention of hockey romance:

    "Est-ce normal pour un livre d''amour de hockey de ne pas avoir de hockey dedans?" (Is it normal for a hockey romance book not to have any hockey in it?)

    Why hockey players as male leads? In my mind, if you were going to have a hockey player as a lead, there should be some hockey! Caro muses as she watches her amused colleagues'' reactions to her question. The book I read and abandoned last night was about sex.

    "?a fait un bout, mais as-tu entendu parler de ce qui s''est pass¨¦ avec le Kraken autour de ?a?" (It''s been a while, but did you hear about what happened to the Kraken about that?) a colleague asks her.

    "Non?" Caro shrugs.

    "?a para?t que t''as pas lu de livre d''amour de hockey avant, mais pour r¨¦pondre ¨¤ ta question, ?a arrive souvent" (It shows that you didn''t read hockey romance books before, but to answer your question, it happens often) another colleague answers her.

    Damn! If I accept the challenge issued on air last night, I already know what it must have: HOCKEY! And not just a game where two players fight over the female lead, or scored the game-winning goal for his love interest! Caro feels a light flashing in her mind, as her colleagues explain what happened to the Seattle Kraken over hockey romance books. Sure, it happens often that hockey romance doesn''t have hockey, but I guess, I was okay with asking viewers to rec books to me over a purely random sample of hockey romance books, since I would have needed to read more books than I would have time for with rigorous sampling!

    But the grim truth sets in as she realizes that so many in the hockey romance world seemed to judge a book in that genre by the quality or quantity of sex content in it.

    Yet, after her work day ends, she streams getting her battle pass dailies in on air. Later on, she resumes reading the books her viewers recommended to her, and buying the second book. Right there on air, near the end of the stream. But she gives a quick review first:

    "I am a little disappointed by the first book you recommended to me on air, because it focuses too much on how they get better at sex! Maybe the second one could prove different, and not simply because someone else wrote it!" Caro comments on the first reading, with Capitolium in the voice chat.

    "Did you decide yet?" Capitolium asks her.

    "I feel like I can''t decide based on a single book"

    "Have a good night then!"

    The streamer starts praying that the book Glitter recommended her last night was better than the first book. Or at least different.

    It doesn''t take long for Caro to realize that something doesn''t sound right. Only a chapter or two past the meet cute, she realizes that, somehow, both leads have traumas to resolve.

    Maybe it''s a bit early, but I feel like she needs therapy to make any relationship work. They open up to their traumas far too quickly for their own good! Unless perhaps the hockey-playing lead pays for her therapy. If that happens, this book will automatically be better than the previous one, Caro reflects on her expectations for what is to follow.

    But then the hockey player begins his descent towards abusive behaviors. Which the FMC must endure, at least at first. I could understand if either one secretly booked an appointment with a therapist, and this lead time meant they must endure each other until then. If that doesn''t happen, then, should I feel forced into writing an abusive relationship, I would want one side, whichever has the better mental health, to book an appointment for therapy, maybe even secretly if necessary. But this isn''t fantasy, where often love is a cure for mental illness, the statistician starts formulating her own set of expectations. I am not giving up on this book just yet because at least here, while they do have sex, it isn''t everything.

    Yet, it wasn''t immediately clear to her in what range of cap hits the hockey player would fall into. Once again, however, she is left wondering where did the hockey go. And she can hardly contain her disappointment at both the lack of hockey in this book. That he can take his mind off hockey with her, but she feels like life outside the relationship has fallen by the wayside.

    Yet, the hopes of finally seeing the characters undergoing therapy, or otherwise working on their mental health, as well as seeing hockey being played, are what keeps her reading this book. She keeps her fingers crossed, hoping for the best.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Her hopes get dashed approximately a hundred pages later, when it becomes clear that therapy isn''t forthcoming, nor did they show any signs of getting any characterization other than their respective traumas. Which spurs Caro to get on Discord and DM "Glitter".

    Caroline: Is it me or I found the characters in the book you recommended to me... flat?

    Glitter: Flat?

    Caroline: They are nothing without their traumas; I expected the female lead to have booked, at least secretly, a psychological or psychiatric evaluation

    Glitter: For herself or for the player?

    Caroline: I''d say for the player, or couples therapy

    Karine, whom I watched back in the day, blew me away intellectually. Caro makes me feel like she''s a genius in her own right, much like Karine. But, from my recollections of hockey players, often hockey players, at least in romance, feel therapy is for the weak, Glitter is left wondering what kind of ideas Caro could come up with, but might be unwilling, or unable, to execute, at least in a month''s time.

    Glitter: How deep are you in the book?

    Caroline: About two hundred and fifty pages; at this point, I feel like this couple is a little odd

    No better than the first book, whose relationship was, yes, very sex-centric, but not as abusive. Yet, even if my hopes materialized and that they actually get therapy, I think the hockey player would keep his therapy sessions a secret from his teammates, not that his team''s social dynamics are explored, much less the athletic ones, Caro''s mind starts churning thoughts, faster than she would like, about how the relationships differ between the two books.

    And the main similarity is, of course, its near-complete absence of actual hockey in the plot. Given this, she gets off Discord and goes back to the first book, now that she has a better idea of what to watch out so that she can skim through the sexual scenes.

    The rest of the first book, from Caro''s standpoint, feels like its author can''t seem to do much of anything other than sex. As a result, she doesn''t actually miss much by skimming (or perhaps skipping) chapters devoted to sex, except maybe for a few lines of foreplay banter.

    However, the only new thing she finds off about the first book that isn''t already present earlier is that, somehow, neither person seems to suffer any real out-of-bed consequences for indulging in what feels like ever-increasing amounts of better sex. Tabarnak! You could cut two-thirds of the sex out of this book, and it would remove half its total length! You would think that a player with a $9-10M cap hit would see his play deteriorate by having too much sex, and maybe even trade rumors!

    And, because of the speed at which she finished reading the first book, she goes back to the second book. She chances upon a scene where the male lead buys her a first-row seat to a hockey game, next to his teammates'' wives and girlfriends.

    "What''s going on here? They sound the siren for half-time? There are three periods! Even if there was some stoppage in play around halfway through the second period, the siren isn''t sounded then!" Caroline yelps, after reading the game, written in such a way that it destabilizes her.

    So I have more questions for Glitter or Lagado, the followers whom I can most readily ask questions to outside of the stream. But now is not the time for me to ask them. So... very tired of devouring books for longer than I should! She starts feeling mounting headaches after she reads about what is supposed to be some sort of happy ending. Maybe someone else could find an abusive relationship appealing to read about. They might be happy in the present, but I am worried it''s not going to last. But the game scene near the end is where I have a better idea of what kind of player he is: some bottom-line pest. At least he spends consistently with one, so his cap hit is about $1.5M at most.

    But then, the following day, Caro takes what little time she has before work to ask her questions to her followers. However, since Glitter isn''t online at this time, nor is Capitolium, Lagado is the one who might answer her questions:

    Caroline: Is it normal for romance books to have abusive relationships?

    Lagado: Unfortunately, yes

    Caroline: I understand that abuse is a cheap source of conflict, but even I know abusive relationships don''t work out

    Lagado: You must understand that romance is often read and written as wish fulfillment

    Caroline: You would think some people wish for a healthy relationship with someone fit and well-off

    In the first two books, the hockey player is just an excuse for one such person. You would think that people would read and write about football or basketball players because some of them are very tall... 6''5 or more, Caro then starts checking out the third book, which was suggested to her by Lagado.

    Which is a male-male romance, and both players on the same team. But she doesn''t feel like she''s in the right head space to read it just yet. Once again, she prays that the hockey part is done better than in the first two books.

    Around the breakfast table, that morning, she talks about these new reads with her parents, who feel like her newfound interest in hockey romance is a little sudden.

    "Il y a quelque chose qui cloche" (Something''s fishy) Caro whines to her parents about her readings.

    "Qu''y a-t-il?" (What''s wrong?) her dad asks her over pancakes.

    "Pourquoi le hockey domine le monde du livre d''amour sportif?" (Why does hockey dominate the sports romance world?)

    "Le racisme syst¨¦mique" (Systemic racism) her mom answers her. "Les personnages sont pr¨¦sum¨¦s blancs jusqu''¨¤ preuve du contraire" (Characters are assumed white until proven otherwise)

    You would think that sports romance writers would be drawn to basketball, mostly point or shooting guards, since a lot of them love making their male leads in the 6''2-6''5 range. However, mom is right: hockey is a very white sport, and hence its use as an excuse for an athletic and well-off male lead, Caro reflects on her mom''s statement about systemic racism.

    "Je peux te garantir que tu connais le hockey bien mieux que certains auteurs de livres ¨¤ la glace de rose! Je t''ai entendu te plaindre d''un personnage comptant pour neuf ¨¤ dix millions sur la masse salariale et qui ne pense qu''¨¤ am¨¦liorer son sexe, hier soir!" (I can guarantee you know hockey much better than some hockey romance authors! I heard you complain about a character whose cap hit is in the $9-10M range who only thinks of getting better at sex, last night!) her father whines.

    "Je connais peut-¨ştre mieux le plafond salarial et l''aspect transactionnel du sport, mais c''est pas dur ¨¤ battre" (I might know the salary cap and the transactional aspect of the sport better, but it''s a very low bar)

    But of course! Lagado recommended the third book to me, and it seemingly starts with one of the leads being traded to the other lead''s team. Or so the blurb would say. I have high hopes for that book, since the last two books disappointed me, Caro then turns to her cell phone and gets the book Lagado recommended to her on Kindle Unlimited.

    Yet she starts to realize that maybe some readers would skim past the hockey scenes as she skimmed through the sex scenes. Especially after checking the first two books against review websites such as Goodreads and Amazon (since she obtained them through KU).

 Chapter 53: Transactional Aspect of Hockey

    That night, she starts streaming with the assignment of some of the characters of her game of choice to mercenarial contracts, which she uses to level them up, as well as raise some money so that she can enter in-game events. And materials for gear crafting.

    But while her in-game units are away on quests, she leaves the game to run in the background since the daily quests for today are mostly of the ˇ°passiveˇ± kind. Once she has Kindle open in another window:

    ˇ°OK, everyone, before I start reading the third book, recommended by Lagado, IˇŻll do a quick review of the first two books. The first book, recommended by Sampoongˇ­ˇ± Caro then proceeds to name the title and author of that book. ˇ°The most memorable thing about this book to me was that I couldnˇŻt find any hint of why the male lead wanted to improve his sex! Three quarters of the book showed increasingly elaborate ways to go around doing sex, and showing their chemistry improve in bed! The only consistent thing about them outside of sex was, well, the male leadˇŻs spending habits!ˇ±

    Sampoong then gets into the voice chat on her Discord server. ˇ°ThatˇŻs a littleˇ­ one-dimensional way to put it, Caro. It shows that youˇŻre not a very experienced book reviewer, even by amateur standards!ˇ±

    ˇ°I had to start somewhere, Sampoong!ˇ± Caro retorts to her viewer, while Capitolium enters the voice chat.

    ˇ°Caro, you probably have a better idea of why hockey romance made me bitter by now!ˇ± Capitolium rants to her.

    ˇ°Yet IˇŻm not any closer to determining why you feel like I could write a better book in just thirty days! One book does not a genre make!ˇ± Caro feels her blood boil. ˇ°There was a reason I asked for recs from various authors, and tonight I will get to the third one! But I didnˇŻt have a chance to talk about GlitterˇŻs book on air last night, other than with Glitter of courseˇ­ˇ± She sighs upon seeing Glitter enter the VC room.

    ˇ°Caro, I really wonder in what context, if any, you read about characters that have actual depth. Last night, you were implying that characters who were nothing without their traumas were flat!ˇ± Glitter slips a comment about last nightˇŻs Discord DM.

    ˇ°You took some words right out of my mouth, Glitter!ˇ± Caro feels her blood pressure go up.

    ˇ°SomethingˇŻs not right, Caro: for all your intelligence, I didnˇŻt expect a gamer of your skill level to gain such literary refinement in a matter of days!ˇ± Glitter then chuckles.

    ˇ°Yeah, gamers usually focus on whether a gameˇŻs gameplay is engaging, and what makes it so to them, over any narrative qualities the gameˇŻs campaign might have!ˇ± Capitolium adds.

    ˇ°The book Glitter recommended to me would work just fine as a horror book, but, if it was a horror book, I would instead want an end to the abuse of some sort! Just not necessarily togetherˇ±

    Lagado: Lol

    The other people in the chat burst in laughter in front of their respective screens, upon hearing that GlitterˇŻs rec was a horror book in all but name, as Caro opens the third e-book for all to read.

    ˇ°I guess, you get horrified a little bit when you see people get abusive towards people as sweet as the lead ofˇ­ˇ± Sampoong then names the book Glitter recommended to Caro.

    ˇ°Hang on tight, Lagado, IˇŻll read your book soonˇ±

    The reading of that third book begins. It apparently begins by one of the male leads being traded away, but for some reason there is no trace of what the other team obtained in return for that lead.

    ˇ°Either that guy was traded for what is called future considerations, or for a conditional draft pick whose condition will be some kind of big reveal later on!ˇ± Caro comments on the opening of LagadoˇŻs recommended book. ˇ°And this is one of the main things, along with budgeting, where knowing the playerˇŻs cap hit matters!ˇ±

    ˇ°Future considerations?ˇ± Sampoong gasps and rolls his eyes. ˇ°What exactly are future considerations in the context of player trades?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, even though I read a wide variety of hockey romance authors, never once did the words future considerations ever come up in any of these books!ˇ± Capitolium comments on his readings of hockey romance.

    However, itˇŻs not hard to see what tensions a trade would create in a relationship, Capitolium starts wondering what to expect from Caroline if she accepts. Hockey romance readers clearly have higher expectations out of a hockey romance bookˇŻs relationship than they do the hockey aspect; itˇŻs painfully obvious to me now that Caro will focus more on the hockey side.

    ˇ°Future considerations essentially means that a player is traded away for nothing, or anything they could get back would have a lot of conditions attachedˇ± Caro explains what future considerations mean. ˇ°Up to this point, I treated the hockey-playing charactersˇŻ talent as matching their estimated cap hits. I canˇŻt take that for granted anymore!ˇ±

    Lagado (on the streamˇŻs textual chat): What do you mean?

    ˇ°Now I need to consider whether a hockey-playing character is actually playing consistently with their estimated cap hits! ItˇŻs easy to imagine that more talented players will return more in a trade, but usually the more overpaid a player is relative to his on-ice talent, the more trade value is lost!ˇ±

    ˇ°Caro, I donˇŻt want to be mean to you, but thereˇŻs good reason so many hockey romance books leave out the transactional aspect of the sport, including the book I recommended to you!ˇ± Sampoong adds. ˇ°But why?ˇ±

    ˇ°Sampoong, I get it, youˇŻre a reader who finds the sports parts a slog in a sports romance, but after I started reading LagadoˇŻs rec, itˇŻs something I canˇŻt unsee!ˇ±

    There are other mechanisms allowing teams to get rid of players. Waiver wires or buyouts. However, neither applies to this book, but the difference between waiving a player and trading a player away for future considerations is only relevant to the front office, in that the old team controls the playerˇŻs destination in a trade, while, by waiving a player, they donˇŻt, Caro refrains herself from going any further in the discussion of the transactional aspect of hockey.

    And then she reads the part where the first male lead moves in with one of his teammates, the second male lead. That bookˇŻs meet cute since the rest of their first day with the first male leadˇŻs team is about practices and being introduced to the teamˇŻs main staff.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ˇ°Whether this book will prove any better than any of the previous two books will depend on how the games are portrayed, if anyˇ± Caro tells her viewers.

    Lagado: Just wait a chapter or two down the road for a game

    And their first game on the same line comes after the first male lead gets settled in. Sampoong keeps quiet, but both Capitolium and Glitter seem to be more interested in listening.

    ˇ°To prove himself to the eyes of the new team, the first male lead goes on a breakaway, dekes with the puck, forcing the goalie to move sideways. He shoots very close to the crease. The puck barely clears the five-hole, and slows down past the pads. As the puck crosses the goal line, it comes to a near-complete stopˇ± Caro summarizes that sequence of play.

    ˇ°Goal! His first goal on the new team!ˇ± Capitolium comments on what is being read.

    But after the high of the first male lead scoring the game-winning goal in his debut with the new team, assisted by the second male lead, they grow not only their on-ice chemistry, but also their off-ice one. So much so that the first male lead starts worrying about whether their budding bromance could leak to the media, and its resulting backlash.

    ˇ°I can sense some fake dating coming!ˇ± Glitter feels ecstatic about whatˇŻs coming next. ˇ°I love fake dating outside of hockey romance!ˇ±

    ˇ°Fake dating? I knew that players who have good on-ice chemistry could grow their off-ice one, but players seem to care more about each other on the ice than off it!ˇ± Capitolium adds.

    ˇ°It started out strong, and this book has the potential to be better than the first two, but I have my reservationsˇ± Caro comments on what she read up to this point.

    ˇ°IˇŻm not convinced of who they would fool, if it leads to a fake date. Except maybe someone else on the teamˇ± Sampoong is getting into it.

    But she decides to stop the reading of the book right there, as she checks on the status of the daily dispatch quests she sent her game characters on. Now that these quests are completed, she can then resume playing these multiplayer games of chess.

    She does so against different opponents, and using different combinations of units. While remaining mindful that characters have varying deployment costs: generally, stronger characters tend to cost more to deploy. And, of course, only play as much as her in-game budget will allow her to.

    Yet, after she has exhausted her self-imposed in-game budget, the stream ends, and she resumes reading the third book, away from her followers. There are definitely some of my viewers who came for me playing these TRPG games, but I have a couple who remain well beyond the chess. Maybe if I clearly separate the reading and playing portions of my stream, I could then juggle my time on air better.

    Here it seems like the first male lead must juggle his perception among the team, his feelings with the second male lead, and keeping them under wraps. And one-third of the way in, what Glitter told her about on a stream finally arrives. A love triangle, with a fake date. A fake girlfriend with whom he plays hard to get to keep the rest of the team from learning about his feelings for the second male lead.

    And then the whole thing snowballs. Some miscommunication arises as a result of having played hard to get a little too hard with his fake girlfriend. And causes friction with the second male lead after he feels like the first leadˇŻs off-ice chemistry threatens his on-ice one. Enough romance reading for today. But it seems like Glitter has read this one as well.

    Yet at some point of the night, she gets a dream about one of her last hockey games, as a pre-teen girl:

    <hr>

    Colis¨¦e de Qu¨¦bec, early 2010s. Pee-Wee Worlds were underway and, for the first time in the history of Pee-Wee Worlds, a girlsˇŻ tournament was held, alongside the main four boysˇŻ categories. Two teams from outside North America were announced to play, alongside five teams each from Canada and the United States.

    After the national anthems were sung, the Latvian one by one of the players, the opening game for the Qu¨¦bec Valkyries, an U13 all-star team drawing players from all over the Capitale-Nationale region, began against Latvia. Caroline was put in to start the game on defense.

    The game began with the Latvian starting center winning the faceoff. The Latvian center passed to a winger, who then shotˇ­

    ˇ°Latvija! Latvija!ˇ± the parents of the Latvian players hollered when the fight for the puck began.

    And the goalie blocked the subsequent shot with the blocker. The other Latvian winger took the puck back, leading Caroline to dash for her. Feeling the pressure from the Canadian players, that winger was backed into the rinkˇŻs corner.

    Caroline fought for the puck along the boards, and won the resulting puck battle. She took the puck away from the Canadian defensive zone, but feeling the Latvian defender hot on her tail, she simply passed the puck to the center, who also starts feeling the pressure. The Latvian left defender, seeking to prevent the Canadian center from breaking away, hooked her with the stick. At center ice. The referee signaled a hooking penalty, which was assessed, andˇ­ power play time.

    That center, who would normally play on the first PP unit, returned to the bench, and they had to start the power play with the second unitˇŻs center. But this time around, on the ensuing face-off, the Canadian center on the second PP unit won.

    A few moments later, with the 2-minute penalty still in effect, Caroline sensed an opportunity to score. Especially when her teammates were screening for her around the crease. And she shot the puck into the top shelf. Upon the puckˇŻs entry into the net:

    ˇ°Le but des Valkyries, son premier du tournoi, compt¨¦ par le num¨¦ro vingt, Caroline Fauchoux!ˇ± (Valkyries goal, scored by number 20, Caroline Fauchoux!) the Colis¨¦e de Qu¨¦becˇŻs home announcer shouted before that portion of the dream ended, and before announcing the assists, power play nature and timestamp.

    The second portion of this dream happened in her bedroom, in the present. Then came a ghost of a ten-year-old girl, looking like a distant relative of hers, delivering a warning to her. About this reading bingeˇ­

    ˇ°Stop this reading binge immediately! Your mind canˇŻt take it!ˇ± the child ghost warned her.

    ˇ°Who are you?ˇ± CarolineˇŻs oneiric self asked, rolling her eyes at the suggestion.

    ˇ°Nadine! IˇŻm related to you, like, a cousin once or twice removed or somethingˇ±

    ˇ°Why should I stop binge reading hockey romance books?ˇ±

    ˇ°You know about the hockey part, but itˇŻs about unrealistic expectations of life in a relationship! ItˇŻs not all roses, and certainly donˇŻt expect to be able to change someone!ˇ±

    ˇ°Nadine, you sound far too mature for a ten-year-old!ˇ±

    <hr>

    Caroline is in for a brutal awakening. When she awakens, her thoughts start racing against the clock, and even faster than sheˇŻs used to. WhatˇŻs going on here? Why did I have a dream where I relived my first taste of international hockey, and then have a ten-year-old child tell me in a dream that I should stop reading hockey romance books, at least temporarily? Nadine didnˇŻt sound like even my ten-year-old self!

    She DMs Sampoong on Discord the following morning, thinking that it will calm her nerves down.

    Caroline: I had a nightmare about a ten-year-old ghost telling me to stop binge reading hockey romance books

    Sampoong: What?

    Caroline: Yes; that ghost told me about unrealistic expectations in relationships

    Sampoong: I had a question on air, but you didnˇŻt answer me: why the transactional aspect of hockey isnˇŻt included in these books?

    Caroline: They canˇŻt fit it into the plot

    Sampoong: I learned a lot about it through you, thank you

    I guess, I can spend a weekend without touching more hockey romance books; the past three days made me question so much about these romans ¨¤ la glace de rose, as my father put it, and this world that somehow forced me to reconnect with my youth. But I donˇŻt feel too hot about LagadoˇŻs rec right now because the miscommunication arc seems a bit forced. Especially now that weˇŻre entering the love triangle phase, Caroline still had a lot on her mind, even when she still has nine days to decide on whether to accept CapitoliumˇŻs challenge. If I donˇŻt read another book, will I be adequately prepared for it? I acknowledged the value of reading from a variety of authors in full since the very start, though.

 Chapter 54: Formal Acceptance

    After a weekend spent away from romance books, in which she did groceries as well as play some more games on air, she stands at a crossroads on Sunday night.

    Should I resume reading these books, or just accept the challenge issued to me with my current preparation? Would reading another book from a different author be of any help at this point? Caroline has a bunch of questions in her mind for Capitolium that she didn''t feel appropriate to voice on air. The two then go into the voice chat after the stream:

    "Yes, I know what value I''m getting out of reading various authors, but I think I read too much, too fast" Caro voices her concern to her loyal subscriber.

    "Three books in three days is, yes, a lot, and an infernal pace" Capitolium points out to her. "I mean it, Caro, your complaints about the first two books are common in romance books, but I believe you might struggle to write characters that aren''t, like you said, flat. Unfortunately, you must have realized by now that much of what makes a romance swoon-worthy depends on characterization. I read a lot of yuck and excessive sex, as well as flat characters are part of what made me bitter about hockey romance"

    Now I must think of what would draw my leads into each other, Capitolium''s words give her pause. And what makes them want to stay together, too.

    "Life outside the relationship seemed to fall by the wayside in the first two, but the third one devoted more space to it"

    "However, I am fully convinced that you are able to fit in various aspects of hockey"

    "Just being able to fit in the hockey in a plot is not enough to make a hockey romance book better than an epic mess! My characters must mesh with each other, but at the same time, life outside the relationship must get in the way at some point! What makes you think I will get a sufficient grasp of characterization during these thirty days to make this challenge of yours feasible to me?"

    "You said it so yourself that the resulting book would likely be an epic mess, and yet you feel that not even a manually written, fifty-thousand-word epic mess of a hockey romance is feasible to you in a month?"

    "No one else among my regular followers expressed any opinion on its feasibility, and they made me feel like they were at my throat sometimes because of what I implied I valued in a hockey romance book!"

    "The only consistent things about romance are the following: a meet cute and then a happy ending. If the source of happiness cannot be sustained in the long term, your happy ending is then called for now, but they must be happy and together for a happy ending to even qualify"

    "I was willing to accept that books varied wildly in quality, and these endpoints, but no more than that"

    "Caro, if you think of entering the challenge, just don''t worry about the book''s quality. You said it so yourself on air that you had to start somewhere, be it reviewing books, or writing them" Capitolium then DMs her a list of resources about plotting and characterization as relevant to writing romance books, as well as various tropes that come up often in the genre.

    It might not be very good, but there''s only one thing I''m confident about: building my plot around the male lead''s hockey career and, of course, fitting in the transactional aspect of the sport, Caro thinks while she starts reading about various romance tropes. But I wonder why Capitolium seems to push me towards accepting the challenge. I now have a better idea of why he''s bitter about hockey romance to the point where he feels I can somehow write a better one, but I think that holds only to the extent that he values integration of the hockey aspect. He did tell me about the need for major characters to have flaws, though.

    Forced proximity, forbidden love, enemies to lovers, fake dating, alpha hero, grumpy x sunshine, miscommunication, dark past, second chance, these being some of the most common tropes she could find in other hockey romance books that she didn''t read yet.

    However, this nightmare, along with Capitolium''s list of resources intended for beginners in creative writing, made her realize that she can''t rely on only one method to learn as much as she possibly can about that craft in fifteen days, of which five have already elapsed.

    Speaking of Capitolium, he starts wondering why is it that Caro went to such lengths to get ready for this, and what she''s waiting for to accept it. By now, it should be a foregone conclusion that she will accept it, but did she overestimate the learning curve? Did she feel like she needed to meet some quality standards for the challenge to be considered fulfilled? The only terms I gave her were about manually writing a 50k-word hockey romance in 30 days. Nowhere was there any specification of any quality standards to meet! There is one more thing that she should realize: some people will read several books that all tick the same boxes, regardless of their actual quality.

    On Monday, one of Caro''s colleagues at work asks her for what she did over the weekend, at lunch. Her answer is forthcoming:

    "J''ai lu un troisi¨¨me livre d''amour de hockey, et je me suis mise ¨¤ lire sur l''¨¦criture de livres d''amour" (I read a third hockey romance book, and I started reading about writing romance books) Caroline answers her colleague.

    "Tu t''es s?rement aper?ue que les amateurs de livres d''amour sont pr¨şts ¨¤ lire plusieurs livres quasi identiques" (Surely you realized that romance book lovers are ready to read several near-identical books) her colleague adds.

    This statement about romance reader tastes gives Caro pause. I guess, if some of these people picked romance books based on specific situations, maybe they live these situations themselves, and struggle to navigate these, Caro is left wondering what could drive a romance reader to read several near-identical romance books. With the only changes amounting to a setting, or a trait or two, but doesn''t otherwise change the plotting or the relationship dynamics.

    "Ce monde est encore un peu nouveau pour moi, je me demande bien pourquoi untel agirait ainsi, outre des probl¨¨mes dans sa propre vie" (This world is still a little new to me, I wonder why someone would act like this, other than problems in their own life)

    "Ces lecteurs recherchent la satisfaction. Si tu es satisfait d''un livre, et tu sais ce qui te satisfait dans ce livre, tu vas chercher ¨¤ en avoir un autre qui y ressemble. Tu es probablement famili¨¨re avec ce concept dans un contexte de jeux vid¨¦o" (These readers seek satisfaction. If you''re satisfied with a book, and you know what satisfies you about it, you will look for another one like it. You''re probably familiar with this concept in a video game context)

    Except that I know what irks me more clearly than what satisfies me. From what I read about, some people took to writing their own stories because they were unsatisfied with what they read. And so I might be wondering if Capitolium would take up the challenge if I accept it. He sure sounded bitter when I talked about sex, and horror books in all but name on air, Caro is left wondering about how to make a romance based on the transactional aspect of hockey work. And, obviously, the relationship.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    But even more puzzling is the time it took her to grasp this concept of wanting satisfaction over quality, in that, in her gaming experience, she knew gamers were likely to change games based on unsatisfactory aspects.

    Even so, it seems like she has mounting headaches just thinking about creative writing on her way back home that day. She even takes painkillers to calm her nerves down, feeling like she needs to be in a good mental place to stream her favorite online TRPG.

    Once her stream gets underway, she decides to give it a go and, since it''s the last day of her gameplay week, she begins the stream with the battle pass'' checklist open on the screen. As soon as the battle pass'' checklist is visible for all to see:

    "Welcome to tonight''s stream. Last week, we discussed my hockey romance reads, spurred by Capitolium, but let''s not forget that some of you are here for the gaming. So if you have requests for using specific units, or playing on certain maps, today is the time to ask!" Caroline asks her viewers.

    Maridun: Please run this week''s gauntlet in infernal mode!

    Maridun kept quiet all week when we discussed hockey romances, the streamer is reminded of how Maridun acted during her streams as she prepares to run the weekly gauntlet.

    Whose prize is, in infernal mode, that is, the gauntlet''s hardest difficulty, a level 1 high-grade unit, and fought as its boss at a much higher level. Which, in the endgame, is the best source of high-grade units, beyond the battle pass.

    "It seems that, in my binge reading of romance books, I completely forgot about the weekly gauntlet!" Caroline gasps. "Thank you for reminding me... Maridun!"

    I only am allowed four units, so I must make the best of what units I have. If I make it, it will make next week''s dailies easier for me to deal with, especially since having an extra non-max-level unit frees up one unit for other tasks better suited to max-level units. There are clearly some dailies or other tasks in battle passes that are better off left to non-max-level units, Caro''s thoughts race against the clock as she prepares to run the weekly gauntlet in infernal mode.

    The gauntlet begins with a careful review of the enemy units'' strengths and weaknesses so that she can deploy the right units to exploit the latter. Once the deployment phase ends:

    "Let''s roll!"

    In fact, the people in the chat will be shown that death in detail is often the best way to deal with these maps in infernal mode. That is, ensure that she isn''t fighting the enemies all at once. To the amazement of the people in the chat, the gauntlet seems to be happening in a way that makes Caro looks like she is in complete control of the situation. Even when there are more than four enemy units to fight in the gauntlet.

    And the poor boss of the gauntlet is about to get pwned just a few minutes later. Only with all 4 of her units being a little worse for tear, but still standing.

    "This boss is about to be pwned (pawned)!" Caro announces as she makes an attack which, while might not be guaranteed to work, has a good enough hit probability to make the move worthwhile.

    Once her dark mage is in position to hit the boss, the spell is cast, and a flashy animation shows up. Which, upon hitting the boss, makes it vanish from the screen, as well as the map. When the confirmation of victory comes, the stream is treated to a grand entrance of the character of the week. As well as a quick elevator pitch to introduce itself before she starts leveling that shiny new unit.

    And, since clearing a weekly gauntlet in infernal mode gives her a good haul of battle pass points, it nets her the BP unit of the week, given what she accumulated earlier in the playing week.

    "Now, I should use both units gained for the week, and level them up together, but I will not bring them up to max level tonight" Caro runs down her checklist for the battle pass as she feels that she can rest easy only once she has accomplished the daily battle pass quest.

    Before she accomplishes this, she sends other units on daily dispatch quests to pay for the costs of both leveling these two units and the costs of the weekly gauntlet. And hopefully get a bit more PvP done.

    However, the viewers don''t seem to be overly impressed with the units of the week, since they feel like they aren''t much better than previous units fulfilling the same roles.

    Yet, as Capitolium enters voice chat, he asks her about the challenge issued last week:

    "Caro, after sending you beginner materials about creative writing, and the binge reading of hockey romance books you did last week, have you reached a decision about the challenge I issued last week? Your actions last week implied there''s a good chance you would accept it"

    "Very well, you leave me no choice but to accept" Caro answers, before her tone of voice turns to resignation. "I will try writing this hockey romance book next month!"

    Which means that, next week, I will need to get all the weekly battle pass quests done by October 31, and, for November, limit my playing time to what''s strictly necessary to get my battle pass quests done, Caro feels the need to rearrange the proportion of playing vs writing on the stream for next month.

    Maridun: You never mentioned the elephant in my romantic room: the third-act breakup

    "Maridun, last week you kept quiet when we discussed hockey romance books and reviewed some hockey romance books on air. Why did you keep quiet?"

    Maridun: You discussed excess of sex, abusive relationships and fake dating, but for some reason you never talked about third-act breakups!

    Caroline then opens a page about third-act breakups, where everyone in the chat learns more about these. She then conjures her memories of what happened in these books where third-act breakups could have occurred. Sampoong''s rec didn''t have any, the issue became that the relationship became too heavy on the sex. Lagado''s was about the fake date having run its course, and accepting that he didn''t feel anything for his fake date. Glitter''s leads were questioning each other about 70% in, and even came close to breaking up; this was the point where I really wanted them to break up the most.

    "I did say that Glitter''s rec was a horror book in all but name last week. Now I have a better idea of how I would have changed the final third or so if it was an actual horror book: they would have broken up at that point, and the final third would have been about her ex''s downfall!"

    At this point, Glitter enters the voice chat. "You now have a better idea of what sets horror apart from dark romance"

    "Maridun, you kept talking about third-act breakups without telling me what you disliked about third-act breakups!" Caro asks Maridun to clarify their position.

    Maridun: Third-act breakups are annoying because they usually make it about something blown out of proportion, or miscommunication

    And then Caroline starts a new Google Docs page so that she can jot down a tentative outline, with some ideas in chronological order for the stream to see. The book opens with the male lead being waived from team A late in the preseason, then is claimed by team B, where he improves his game. Then he''s traded to team C at the deadline, feels nervous on draft day, fearing that he''ll be traded again, only for team B to come up with an offer sheet. Which he signs and agonizes for 7 days, and then the happy ending comes.

    Caro adds a few notes pertaining to the hockey-playing lead''s evolution in cap hits. In the beginning, she wants her male lead to have a cap hit in the $2-2.5M range as of the beginning of the book, and then increase to $6-7M range at the end of the season.

    "I never saw players get waived, nor sign offer sheets in hockey romance" Glitter comments on these two tentative plot points, while Lagado enters the voice chat for the first time.

    "Yeah, what does waiving a player mean, and what''s an offer sheet?" Lagado asks.

    The other day, Caro told me about what could make future considerations amount to nothing. How is waiving a player different from trading the player away? Lagado is a little confused by this plot point, crossing his fingers that Caroline can answer her.

    "Waiving players happen far more often than teams signing offer sheets. Typically, the aim is to send down a player to the AHL. However, once a player is on the waiver wire, all other teams can claim him and have twenty-four hours to do so" Caroline explains to her viewers.

    "What happens if more than one team claim someone?" Lagado asks.

    "The worst team gets the player, but on what basis depends on when in the season. For the purposes of this project, what matters is what happens prior to November first, which means it''s based on the previous season''s standings" the streamer answers her. "However, I don''t want to imply that more than one team claimed my male lead"

    "You haven''t answered my question about offer sheets!" Lagado whines to her, hoping for an answer.

    "As for your second question, Lagado, it''s far too early in the project to worry about what an offer sheet is, not to mention the season" Caro seems to feel like she would be spoiling the ending more than she already did, because everyone and their dogs in her chat know there''s going to be a happy ending of some sort.

    Caro clearly knows the transactional aspect of hockey better than almost every hockey romance author I ever read, but I think November will feel long to me, because I feel like she will endlessly talk about hockey at every turn! Sampoong is about to tear his hair.

 Chapter 55: Is This Enough Preparation?

    After she formally accepts the challenge issued to her last week, Caro starts making adjustments to her stream interface, with a word counter located above the chat window. Once that is done, Caro feels her blood boil as she reads a resource given to her by Sampoong in a DM about how much sports content is too much in a sports romance.

    ˇ°IˇŻll show them that I can fit the transactional aspect of hockey into a hockey romance!ˇ± Caro lets her bitterness show in her tone of voice. ˇ°IˇŻll probably read the last book recommended to me, and the rest of the time will be devoted to reading more of these resources as Capitolium and now Sampoong gave me!ˇ±

    This also means that, as much as I would love my male lead to take the female lead to a game, that game should set up the opponent as a possible trading partner down the road! And also have the male lead dread the trade deadline, tooˇ­ especially since I want team B to be out of the playoff picture by that point, but the resulting trade to be win-win, she starts thinking, while Capitolium sends her the link to register for NaNoWriMo.

    Which then causes a bulb to flash in her mind. But at the same time, it leads her wondering about CapitoliumˇŻs participation. She asks him about it in a Discord DM:

    Caroline: Now that I accepted the challenge, I might be wondering if youˇŻre taking part in it

    Capitolium: NaNoWriMo? Yes, although IˇŻm not writing about a professional player

    Caroline: Are you talking about major junior or college hockey?

    Capitolium: Major junior

    Caroline: Why did you keep quiet about NaNoWriMo until you gave me the link to register for it?

    Caro is talking about life once in the NHL, while I am talking about the road to get there. From being a star player in major junior or in college, to the draft and then the AHL affiliate of the team that drafted the player, Capitolium reflects on what he wants out of his own hockey romance. Found family, and I want my male lead to hit on the daughter of the billet family.

    Capitolium: After all the stuff that happened last year with the organization, I didnˇŻt want it to be mentioned explicitly on air

    Caroline: I guess it must be really bad...

    Caro then adds another word count tracker on her stream interface to reflect CapitoliumˇŻs. And then resumes reading about other things specific to writing romance books. About what itˇŻs really like to be a WAG (a playerˇŻs wife or girlfriend) in the NHL.

    And, of course, what the MMC must do to earn the respect of his new teammates. Which would then make him improve his game. At the end of the night, she starts wondering if thereˇŻs anything missing from her plan for the month. Like her FMC being a little... flat.

    Last night, you were implying that characters who were nothing without their traumas were flat! Caro hears GlitterˇŻs voice from a previous stream. Which causes her to ruminate, and also causes her headaches to mount. I was so focused on my male leadˇŻs growth as a player that I forgot about fleshing out my female lead! I can always fixate C later, but I think I could get the first plot-bearing game to pit A against B, and I would need to determine what cities A, B and C are.

    Yet, CaroˇŻs struggles donˇŻt end when she falls asleep. Her own viewers appear to her in a troubled dream:

    <hr>

    Five ghosts flew in a circle above her bedroom. Glitter came down first:

    ˇ°Caro, by now you know that so many in the romance world tend to focus on conflict internal to either the characters or the relationship!ˇ± GlitterˇŻs ghost self screamed at her. ˇ°Please, fill out a character questionnaire for your FMC!ˇ±

    Lagado came down right after Glitter. ˇ°Because Capitolium didnˇŻt give you enough time to adequately learn about the craft, IˇŻm afraid that youˇŻre condemned to write an epic mess of a manuscript! Please reconsider!ˇ±

    Sampoong added another word of caution. ˇ°Given how little time you have left, you canˇŻt just resume binge reading hockey romance books! You must choose carefully the books, based on the kind of relationship dynamics you feel would fit your project!ˇ±

    ˇ°Probably oblivious to love would be my best bet, especially given the hectic schedules of hockey players!ˇ± Caro retorts.

    ˇ°Better a third-act breakup based on an external conflict, as youˇŻre doing, than due to a miscommunication or an argument, but you started plotting from the third-act breakup onwards! You were so bogged down in planning the lead up to the trade deadline that you forgot to flesh out the female lead and her life outside the relationship!ˇ± Maridun scolded her.

    ˇ°The average hockey romance book that isnˇŻt a slow burn or insta-love seems to follow a set pattern of story beats, down to the percentage of page count! DonˇŻt go around thinking that you can just add more hockey if your word count is a little low!ˇ± Capitolium warned her. ˇ°You already have a lot of hockey in your plan, heck, you built your MMCˇŻs plot line around hockey!ˇ±

    Usually, it goes like this: first kiss at the end of the first quarter to third, first sex scenes around 50-60%, the final conflict is introduced around the 70-80% mark, and the happy ending. But there are those books where you can just take out the third-act breakup-induced arc and the happy ending would be unchanged, Maridun kept quiet about how formulaic a lot of romance books are, beyond the endpoints.

    ˇ°You complained about the neglect of life outside the relationship on air! However, think of the FMCˇŻs life outside the relationship!ˇ± Glitter implored her.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    CarolineˇŻs oneiric self sighed. ˇ°She should long for him and cherish what little time she could spend with him, hence why I feel like oblivious to love is the way to go! Very tempting then for her to be the brains, the voice of reason in the couple, but at the same time, not make the male lead dumb! Because I want him to return to team B by team C not matching the offer sheet, he must be a pending RFA and fall within a certain range of ages!ˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs bordering on too much hockey, my dear Caro!ˇ± Sampoong screamed at her. ˇ°While I might have learned a lot from you about the transactional aspect of hockey, a hockey romance book is NOT about showing the inner workings of the hockey world!ˇ±

    ˇ°And certainly not about what you call the transactional aspect of hockey!ˇ± Maridun yelled at her, before Caro wakes up.

    <hr>

    Once again, Caroline, destabilized by her bad dreams, seems to be unable to get anything remotely resembling a good nightˇŻs sleep. She feels like that bad dream has given her a lot to think about.

    And yet, even if I could somehow give her a profession that could be credibly require some intelligence, and make them both oblivious to love for a while, I STILL donˇŻt have a meet cute! Is it a good idea to start writing a book from the ending, or at least from the trade deadline onward, going through 3 of the most important moments in a season for roster building? At this rate, I feel like the trade will take place earlier than a typical third-act breakup! Caro then peruses Amazon for romance books about the leads being oblivious to each otherˇŻs love. But here I feel like I can go beyond hockey romances alone since being oblivious to love can be readily adaptable to what I want out of my very own hockey romance. I still need to do is read about that, though.

    Especially since her past experience with hockey romance taught her that often, hockey romance has little actual plot space devoted to hockey, hockey is just a plus this time around. Yet, knowing that time is short before the start of the challenge, she skims blurbs and reviews before deciding on a fourth book to read. And, of course, potential trope lists at the end of blurbs, if any.

    Oh boy. Thank goodness that some books are not about hockey! At work, people often talked about hockey on the days after games, be it Canadiens or Remparts ones, itˇŻs just that a temporary break from hockey beforehand is welcome to me, especially since IˇŻll have an entire month to be engrossed in it, she then makes a one-click purchase of a book that seemed promising to her. All the while knowing that she mustnˇŻt put too much stock on a collection of book reviews.

    And man does it feel refreshing to her. Because the new reading doesnˇŻt seem to be nearly as heavy thematically as, say, her tentative project, it doesnˇŻt seem to be very thought-provoking. So she focuses on her main item of interest: how being oblivious to love would feel.

    So far, the most natural way I found to fit that in would be to have the FMC work some job where she might have to work long hours but not necessarily all the time, or perhaps some job where happy hours happen regularly, Caro keeps thinking about her own project as she reads a scene where the couple has their very own one-night stand in a hotel room. In the early stages of the book, and said one-night stand begins with a happy hour.

    And she is somehow reminded of the cold, hard truth of what happens to players who are claimed off waivers: they sleep at a hotel until they can move in with a teammate, or find their own place to live.

    As pages fly by, she realizes that, even if she understands the dynamics of being oblivious to love better, there is still a gaping hole down the FMCˇŻs characterization. She still has a lot of fleshing out to do, starting with her attitude towards hockey.

    However, fatigue sets in and she deems it good to stop reading the book for the night before her brain starts malfunctioning. At that point, she feels the urge to go to sleep, and, hopefully, be fresh upon awakening a few hours later. She prays for her sleep to be, well, better than in previous nights.

    On Tuesday night, as she battles through the various modes of the game she usually streams, for weekly battle pass points, as well as the daily ones, it seems like the bitterness has gotten the better of herself. With, of course, Capitolium being the first to get into her voice chat every night she streams.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt forget, Caro, NaNo is a marathon, so I wonder what did you do to prepare since last stream?ˇ± Capitolium asks her on voice chat.

    ˇ°It seems like the more preparation I do, be it under the form of reading about creative writing concepts, or other books featuring what I feel makes sense for my own story to have, the benefits decreaseˇ­ˇ± Caroline rants on air, feeling frustration in her voice. ˇ°Like being oblivious to the leadsˇŻ feelings towards each other, and less so later on! But preparing for this challenge affected my sleep!ˇ±

    Glitter enters VC. ˇ°ThatˇŻs huge! And your initial plan made me feel like it was going to be about the MMCˇŻs evolution as a player driving the plot, with the FMC along for the ride!ˇ±

    ˇ°Even if they are oblivious to their love for each other, each new idea plunges me deeper into new rabbit holes! I only feel marginally more prepared now than I did two days ago!ˇ± Caro whines on air.

    Lagado enters the voice chat in turn. ˇ°I understand that you want to give your best shot, be it in-game or in in writing, and it served you well in your previous gaming experiences, but you seem to have gotten more neurotic since you accepted the challenge!ˇ±

    I guess, I should wait and see how Caro executes the non-hockey bits of her book. I might just tune her out for the rest of the month if it turns out that she let hockey overshadow any relationship building, Sampoong feels like Caro is a little deranged, especially given that she appears to be ˇ°speedrunningˇ± this weekˇŻs weekly battle pass. And it seems like a certain order must be met for that ˇ°speedrunˇ± of this weekˇŻs battle pass to actually entertain the viewers. Especially those who play the game themselves.

    ˇ°And two hours and seventeen minutes later, I finished all the weekly battle pass quests! Now I can resume reading this book on air, and I assure you, there is no hockey, only lovers that are initially oblivious to their love!ˇ± Caro signals the end of the first half of the stream.

    She resumes reading the fourth book on air from a point past the initial one-night fling. Where they go around living life on their separate ways. So it seems like I now have a foundation to build a couple oblivious to love, and then grow from there. But is that the same as slow burn? IˇŻm not fully convinced yet. However, itˇŻs one of the main mechanisms that make a slow burn, well, a slow burn.

    ˇ°What is this about? A one-night fling that could fizzle out?ˇ± Glitter asks.

    Maridun, on the other hand, prays that Caro ends the stream before she gets to any signs that a third-act breakup is coming in this fourth book.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs too early to tell whether I will like the whole relationship even having a chance to grow, only that it willˇ± Caro answers her viewer before that bookˇŻs characters seize an opportunity to meet again.

    Because she can sense her viewers want her to at least read through their second encounter, she seems happy to endure up to that point. And then dismiss their feelings as being spur-of-the-moment things, but it becomes increasingly harder to do.

    I guess, I must build my writing experience somehow, so I feel like I can only prepare so much, Caro ruminates before she decides to cut the stream. It isnˇŻt much, but better that than no preparation at all.

    ˇ°I think I have done enough reading on air for tonight, and I will review it when IˇŻll stream next, so good nightˇ±

 Chapter 56: Too Much Hockey on the Waiver Wire

    In the days to follow, she finished reading the fourth book, but read about creative writing concepts she didnˇŻt go in depth before once that book is finished. And, of course, reading about the controversy surrounding the Kraken over hockey romance books. Which made her define what she codenamed ˇ°team Aˇ±, well, the Kraken.

    On November 1, even though she doesn''t have a cover page yet, she creates a Google Doc page with a working title: Player Masher. Her hands are shaking after the title and the first chapter title are written, so, to calm her nerves, she decides to make an announcement on her Discord server as well as on her social media. I only had 15 days to learn what I could about creative writing, I feel like I am a little unprepared, but today is the opening day!

    And she jots down the scene at the KrakenˇŻs practice facility, with dozens of players being arrayed in a room, awaiting the final cuts of its training camp. She can feel like some players are shaking as the coaching staff, as well as the front office, are present.

    ˇ°Je vois que tu as commenc¨¦ par le hockey. Un des livres que tu as lus pouvait se d¨¦rouler dans une ville o¨´ un joueur peut voler sous le radarˇ± (I see that you began with hockey. One of the books you read could happen to in a city where a player can fly under the radar) her dad skims the few words that his daughter managed to write.

    The first one definitely couldnˇŻt have happened in a Canadian city. All 7 Canadian NHL cities are markets where hockey is front and center when hockey is in season, and thereˇŻs no way a player whose cap hit is in the $9-10M range is going to go scot-free! A bottom-pairing D-man, or a bottom-six forward maybe, Caro seems a little distracted by her dadˇŻs statement. Here comes the Latvian Player Masher; since Latvia is the smallest of the top-10 hockey countries, itˇŻs also the least represented.

    Also, by now, she feels like she needs to write down the core rules of the waiver wire in the NHL because she knows that a lot of hockey romance readers know nothing about hockey beyond three periods, five skaters, a goalie, a puck to be shot at the net, and fights incur penalties. But thatˇŻs after the cuts are made, and all players who could be waived end up in a separate room.

    The next step is to make a link to the manuscript available in read-only mode for her followers; she feels like she doesnˇŻt have the time for writing more of her hockey romance book before leaving for work.

    Speaking of work, she spills the beans to her colleagues about writing a hockey romance book.

    ˇ°JˇŻen avais plus quˇŻassez de lire des livres ¨¤ la glace de rose qui ignoraient lˇŻaspect transactionnel du hockey, alors je me lance dans lˇŻ¨¦criture dˇŻun livre qui tourne autour de ?a!ˇ± (I was fed up reading hockey romance books that ignored the transactional aspect of hockey, so I began writing a book around that!) Caro drops a hammer on her colleagues.

    ˇ°Mais pourquoi?ˇ± (But why?) a colleague, who goes by Chelymun on Twitch, asks her, taken aback by the statement.

    ˇ°Vous nˇŻ¨ştes pas sans savoir que certains sont devenus fans de hockey ¨¤ coups de livres dˇŻamour de hockey! Je vais m¨şme diffuser son ¨¦criture!ˇ± (By now you know that some people became hockey fans after reading hockey romance books! I will even stream its writing!) Caro then sends out a text message with a link to her Twitch channel to her colleagues.

    Merde! The CanadiensˇŻ season is going so poorly that I might want to read what she called a livre ¨¤ la glace de rose instead, or on top of watching the next game! Chelymun ruminates about how her favorite team doing poorly leads to her wanting something else out of hockey. However, she didnˇŻt interact with Caro much.

    Jacques, their colleague who mentioned the whole Kraken fiasco over hockey romance to Caroline overheard them. ˇ°Parfois, il y a un livre ou deux qui lˇŻa lˇŻaffaire pour les matchs de hockey, mais le mieux que jˇŻai lu au niveau transactionnel ¨¦tait un ¨¦change qui chamboule un coupleˇ± (Sometimes, thereˇŻs a book or two who gets hockey games right, but the best I read on a transactional level was a trade that shook a couple)

    ˇ°Jacques? JˇŻignorais que vous lisiez des livres dˇŻamour de hockey!ˇ± (Jacques? I didnˇŻt know you read hockey romance books!) a surprised Chelymun gasps.

    And I began reading hockey romance when the KrakenˇŻs BookTok scandal happened, Jacques refrains from telling them when he began reading hockey romance.

    But when she returns home that night, to resume writing the book she has titled Player Masher, she starts the stream with posting the word count of the manuscript before firing up the game. However, Capitolium has yet to supply his opening word count, so both word count bars sit almost empty in a corner.

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream. WeˇŻll begin with the daily battle pass quest, for which I have four characters ready to go, two of whom are almost max level, and these will be the ones I will use tonightˇ± Caroline announces to her viewers while preparing her non-max-level characters for use in the daily battle pass quest.

    New viewer 1: What advantage is there to use non-max-level characters for daily battle pass quests?

    ˇ°Despite their finite leveling time, when it lasts, it yields the same rewards but at a fraction of the deployment cost, which is why I usually get the weekly gauntlet done earlyˇ± Caroline answers her new viewerˇŻs question before actually accomplishing the quests of the day.

    Stolen story; please report.

    So collecting and leveling characters is one of the main appeals of this game? The viewer starts wondering about what could draw players to the game she normally plays on air, but, for this month, she plans on reducing her on-air play to the strict minimum for the battle pass until Nov. 30.

    Once that is done, the attention is turned to the manuscript on hand. She realizes that she has an unfinished scene taking place in a room where the GM and the head coach herded the players about to be waived. The coach has a scathing indictment of the main character, for whom she resorts to picking a random first and last Latvian name.

    And the head coach refers to the male lead by his last name to scold him. And you, Kurpnieks, the so-called Latvian Player Masher, during the preseason, you hit like a synchronized skater! This scolding makes Gustavs angry, as well as put him on the defensive. Especially since the higher-ups believed his play tanked.

    Lagado (confused behind the screen): What do you mean, that guy hit like a synchronized skater?

    Maridun: Please excuse me for not knowing about synchronized skating, but do you think synchronized skaters make good or bad hitters?

    ˇ°The coach is implying that synchronized skaters make poor hitters!ˇ±

    The coach wouldnˇŻt be implying that heˇŻs a good hitter if he was placed in a room along with more players slated to be put on the waiver wire, and given the rundown of what could happen to them over the next 24 hoursˇ­ Caro ruminates about this passage as she writes exactly that, as relevant to him.

    Chelymun (pressing the follow button): Come again? Synchronized skaters, poor hitters?

    ˇ°Thank you for the follow, Chelymunˇ± Caro announces as she keeps quiet about how she knows Chelymun outside of the stream, and the subtext triggers her new follower.

    Chelymun: I guess, he could be forgiven for believing Kurpnieks to have gotten worse at hitting because synchronized skating is a mostly feminine world

    Maridun: Do you have proof to the contrary?

    Chelymun: There is only one ex-synchronized skater I know who plays hockey, she can skate, but doesnˇŻt know what to do with the puck, and she hits like crazy

    Damnˇ­ ChelymunˇŻs ex-synchro skater friend has what it takes to be a good shutdown D! Maybe I can make my MMC skate like a synchro skater! Like a Jeff Skinner but trading some offensive ability for hitting! Caro starts having a better idea of what kind of player Gustavs is.

    Maridun: Are you talking about the kind of beer league where an ex-synchronized skater can dominate simply by skating better than everyone else?

    To that question, Chelymun draws a blank. But after this discussion of how experience of synchro skating translates to hockey, then she makes Gustavs agonize for hours as the harsh reality sets in.

    That his attempts to preserve himself for a long season cost him a spot on this roster and got him waived. And, of course, crosses his fingers so that he hopes another team would be willing to give him a second chance, and hence take on his $2.25M cap hit as a pending restricted free agent in his contract year.

    By this point, Glitter couldnˇŻt resist joining voice chat:

    ˇ°Caro, right now, thereˇŻs too much hockey!ˇ± Glitter yells at her.

    Capitolium reviews what Caro managed to write about how it would feel to be a player on the waiver wire. ˇ°Yeah, just ensure that, going forward, you donˇŻt give charactersˇŻ descriptions all at once! Not that a cap hit of two million and some change is a big cap hit per seˇ±

    ˇ°The cold, hard truth is that often roster players donˇŻt always have the best pre-seasons. Sure, I made him pay the price for it the way, say, a top-pair D-man wouldnˇŻt haveˇ±

    And, of course, GustavsˇŻ anger turns into anxiety, as he seems to be waiting for some sort of notification that heˇŻs going to be claimed. Which, in turn, disturbs him in his daily life as he continues to do dryland conditioning.

    ˇ°I want to see the meet cute!ˇ± Glitter keeps harping on Caro.

    ˇ°This is going to happen after he gets claimed off waivers, Glitter! I already explained in an earlier stream what waiver wires entail for players on it! Now, I never talked about who can be waived, but players on an entry-level contract cannot, nor a player on one can have a cap hit of two point twenty-five million!ˇ±

    This means he must hastily pack his bags should he be claimed. But of course! Why canˇŻt I make team B the Montreal Canadiens then? And then heˇŻd have his pick of hotels with resto-bars! Or just bars; but this means that if I made him a forward, heˇŻll be traded away when Laine becomes healthy again, Reinbacher if heˇŻs a D, Caro starts to think about what the choice of teams would imply for Gustavs getting traded away at the deadline, while being reminded of the injuries sustained in the preseason.

    ˇ°You see, Glitter, hockey romance books often have a lot of subtext regarding the playersˇŻ on-ice performanceˇ± Capitolium feels like Glitter is mad at Caro, while Caro also has hidden subtext regarding his playing career up to this point.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt feel too hot about your book!ˇ± Glitter yells.

    ˇ°With Montreal claiming him off waivers, I can invoke the second chance trope, but in a sporting sense!ˇ±

    ˇ°It doesnˇŻt feel like a hockey romance anymore, even if you had the kind of happy ending a hockey romance would have!ˇ± Glitter whines when she hears about how Caro plans on putting in a second chance theme, on top of potentially obliviousness to love.

    ˇ°Caro, you do realize that most hockey romance readers would, at most, be hockey fans that are content watching hockey games?ˇ± Capitolium scolds her.

    IˇŻd probably lean towards ReinbacherˇŻs return to play being the point where Gustavs gets traded because Laine will be out of play until maybe mid-January and hence make my male lead a D-man! Caro thinks while she reads about the estimated time these two players will spend rehabbing.

    ˇ°Yeah, they might not be able to tell the difference between a forward and a defenderˇ± Lagado comments.

    ˇ°After all, you have your forwards who seem to be much more effective on defense than offense, and you have your defensemen who contribute to the power play! The latter may very well be conflated with a winger in a hockey romance book!ˇ± Caro follows up on a comment about skaters in hockey romance as she gets to the meet cute Glitter waited for.

    ˇ°As you get deeper into writing the book, you will realize that people will criticize your leadsˇŻ actions, just not the same people criticizing you depending on the actions takenˇ± Capitolium adds, as he writes about how poor grades forced his protagonist to consider declaring for the major junior draft over college.

    And then Caro starts writing not only how how he reacts to being claimed off waivers, but also the rush to get to Montreal as quickly as he possibly could from Seattle. I guess, the meet cute Glitter waited for will have to come in the next chapter. I can always say the FMC is pretty and reminds him of the girls from his native Latvia; both Qu¨¦b¨¦cois and Latvian girls are widely acknowledged as being, collectively speaking, pretty and fashionable, although the former tend to be shorter.

    By the end of the stream, the final word count comes in for both: 2142 words for Caro, 2709 for Capitolium. Not bad for a complete newcomer to novel writing! Capitolium thinks that CaroˇŻs daily word count is very good for a first-timer.

 Chapter 57: Workaholics Oblivious to Love

    And then comes the session where she writes the meet cute the following morning. His first night in Montreal before he is to report to the CanadiensˇŻ practice facility in Brossard. Maybe Glitter has a portion of the truth on hand. Maybe there really are those writers who donˇŻt want the endpoints of a hockey romance dominated by hockey. But I was already told repeatedly that I had too much hockey, so anything non-hockey must deal with cute moments between each other. Or their lives away from each other would work, too, Caro has an inner monologue that seems to drag on about the comments made last night on air.

    Gustavs gets a second chance in the NHL, after spending a harrowing 24 hours on the waiver wire waiting to see if anyone would offer it. After taking a taxi from Montr¨¦al-Trudeau to his hotel in downtown Montr¨¦al, with his baggage in handˇ­ her father tries to make sense of what she has been writing.

    ˇ°Ch¨¦rie, je crois que tu es due pour parler de la valeur relative des actifs dans un ¨¦change en antenneˇ± (Honey, I think youˇŻre due to talk about the relative value of assets in trades on air) her dad tries to encourage her.

    ˇ°Je ne suis pas encore rendue au point o¨´ mon personnage principal va ¨ştre ¨¦chang¨¦. ?a ne sera pas avant deux semaines, je croisˇ± (IˇŻm not yet at the point where my main character is traded away. It wonˇŻt be for another two weeks, I think)

    I guess, I could talk about GustavsˇŻ past experience in the NHL and how these made him eligible for the waiver wire, but, if necessary, I can always write an appendix about waiver wire eligibility, she keeps dwelling on these comments about ˇ°too much hockeyˇ± from last night, and how she knew better than to expect a hockey romance reader to know anything about the waiver wire in the NHL.

    ˇ°Dans deux semaines, tu vas ¨ştre magan¨¦e dˇŻ¨¦crire de mani¨¨re aussi intensiveˇ± (In two weeks, you will be worn down from writing this intensively) her father watches her write the meet cute scene furiously at one of the bars on Crescent Street.

    And, of course, Caro sees fit to add in some past memories of his last game in Montreal as a Kraken, and how he returns to one of the hot spots of MontrealˇŻs night life. About how close to Centre Bell that was. About what made playing in Montreal a special, if ear-breaking, experience for away teams.

    With the guy eating poutine, which he somehow never ate when he last went to Montreal to play the Canadiens, at one of the bars on Crescentˇ­ the meet cute begins.

    If I was in the FMCˇŻs position, with someˇ­ Latvian guy hitting on me, telling me in English that I remind him of the girls in his native Latvia ¨C oh of course I know about Latvia because I played against it as a pre-teen, a Latvia that, back then, barely had enough female pee-wee-aged hockey players to field a girlsˇŻ U13 national teamˇ­ how would I feel? I donˇŻt think my FMC would act too different from myself in that situationˇ­ She starts questioning how awkward her FMC would feel. However, she is reminded that awkward meet cutes happen when dealing in slow burns or in romances where they are oblivious to each otherˇŻs love.

    And, of course, she feels her FMC is the one who will move the conversation past mentions of his home country, or how he compares Qu¨¦b¨¦cois girls to Latvian ones. Or at least when sheˇŻs hungry.

    Meanwhile, at CapitoliumˇŻs place, the latter is left wondering what kind of billet family would let the player in their care hit on their daughter, especially when the rigors of hockey take a toll on his academics. And that he seemingly only had the World Juniors to look forward to. So much so that he works like crazy in dryland.

    Capitolium: I need help for the daughter of the billet family

    Caroline: Were you an only child?

    Capitolium: Yes

    Caroline: Often, families wealthy enough to be a billet family for a major junior player, will make their daughters spread thin

    Capitolium: What do you mean, spread thin?

    Caroline: Girls tended to be better-rounded, both socially and in their skill sets, but your mileage may vary

    Like I turned to piano and video games after I left hockey behind. I can thank piano for contributing, albeit indirectly, to my successes as a DPS on MAA when it was around, Caro is reminded of her teenage days.

    But then CapitoliumˇŻs newest passage is about his own meet cute, where he is about to move in with his billet family. And his main character introduces himself to it. Especially their daughter, whose interest he caught.

    Yet, even though, by now, Caro feels like they must get each otherˇŻs contact information, sheˇŻs left wondering what kind of personality she wants her FMC to have. Other than being a workaholic, in which case it will make the couple oblivious to each other, well, feel reciprocal.

    Capitolium is then forced to come to terms with his choice of a team that drafted his main character, and the market the guy is playing in. And how little there was for the youth to do in that town. Which means they canˇŻt do a whole lot more than dryland training and studying (if either is still in school).

    I must push through: if necessary, I can add some assignment help for the guy, and then make the girl smarter than he is, maybe even as smart as I feel CarolineˇŻs teenage self would have been. Caro made me feel like she was a brain her entire life, he starts thinking of ways to get to the 50,000-word count, while, at the same time, he feels like he has only a rough idea of how smart CarolineˇŻs teenage self would have been. After all, academics seemed to be one of the primary determinants of which path to take to the NHL: major junior if you struggled in class, college if you had good grades. Or at least in my view.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    She spends the whole morning writing and finalizing the meet cute on Crescent. And then Caro runs through her word count after she is done writing it, so she can update it on NaNoˇŻs website. So while the word counter considers the chapter titles, she considers it fair game to do so since she feels they donˇŻt weigh a whole lot in her word count.

    Once she updates her word count for the day, she notices there are 16 achievements for her to obtain. She already obtained 3 of the 16 yesterday by updating her word count at the end of the stream.

    ˇ°Woohoo! Badge number four!ˇ± Caroline exclaims after the word count goes up for the second time, to 4,000 words, and hence the 2-day streak achievement is unlocked.

    ItˇŻs then that she reads on the requirements of the other 12 achievements, the most obvious being those related to word counts. Her gamer mind seems to be drawn to the prospect of what is called, in the gaming world, 100%. Most of the objectives are straightforward provided I stay disciplined, and I win at the end. Oh boy, the most difficult of the gang is the daily par. I will overshoot the whole 50k words goal if I aimed for itˇ­ but would overshooting affect the validity of the challenge? I must ask Capitolium before I go any further. She then DMs Capitolium before she starts writing Chapter 3.

    Caroline: I have a question about the challenge

    Capitolium: Shoot

    Caroline: Is writing over 50,000 words acceptable?

    Capitolium: Of course! 50,000 words is just a baseline

    Phew! Now I have more breathing room for me to write them being oblivious to love, and I feel it would be more convincing if the FMCˇŻs job has unpredictable overtime, but the FMC would be intrigued by this mysterious Latvian, whose schedule is hectic, especially when on the road, Caro gets started writing the third chapter.

    But as she starts writing about the FMCˇŻs life outside the relationship-to-be, Glitter DMs her about what she perceives are flaws in the brand new the meet cute.

    Glitter: I think you captured the awkwardness well, but I feel like Gustavs doesnˇŻt know the city very well

    Caroline: I guess, all he knows about Montreal is ˇ°Canadiens play in noisy Centre Bell, Crescent Street, French, and whatever hotel the Kraken stayed at in past seasonsˇ± but he could just take a taxi to the CanadiensˇŻ practice facility without the need to ask the FMC about it

    And then a bulb flashes in CaroˇŻs mind. Several bulbs, really. He doesnˇŻt know about Dix30, yet, nor where the practice facility is located, but maybe I can make her help Gustavs learn French! Mostly oral, though. And have some date somewhere in Dix30 to boot!

    Glitter (gasping behind the screen) Centre Bell, noisy? You ought to make them introduce themselves at some point in the meet cute!

    I knew the Montreal Canadiens played in Centre Bell, but never did I read any hockey romance book playing any actual game in there! And never did I believe that an arenaˇŻs noise level would leave an impression on a NHLer! Now I start to feel like Caro might be biting more than she can chew! Glitter then watches a video about the Centre BellˇŻs noise level, while Caro double-checks the meet cute scene for the FMCˇŻs name: Emma.

    Caroline (sending Glitter footage from Habs games at Centre Bell): Centre Bell is called the Mecca of hockey for a reason

    All right, better the FMCˇŻs name at the end of the meet cute than no name at all... the streamer then adds her FMCˇŻs name, Emma, as needed. Anything to bolster my word count: 100%ing this yearˇŻs NaNo is feasible, but will require words at every corner, and write fast and loose every day if I want to earn the Achieve Daily Par Every Day achievement.

    Speaking of word count, she feels like thereˇŻs an unclear condition for CapitoliumˇŻs challenge and hence asks him to clarify in a Discord DM when she feels her creative juice running low as she starts writing about EmmaˇŻs life away from Gustavs. Which made it the right time for looking at her manuscriptˇŻs word count again, and then update it in NaNoWriMoˇŻs system. She sees a colored hexagonal badge light up on her home page.

    ˇ°Woohoo! The Update More than Once in One Day cheevo!ˇ± an exuberant Caroline shouts for joy.

    With her screen showing a grand total of 5 badges, she adjusts her stream interface to show the cheevos earned as of this point in the challenge, but she also knows that her stream interface will look busier than before. More gauges, more stats on it than before NaNo began. But as the high of earning the fifth cheevo fades, she sees that sheˇŻs short a few hundred words for the 5,000-word milestone.

    Yet this makes her a little nervous about how poorly defined Capitolium defined the challenge issued to her a few weeks ago, and it has only been two days. She DMs him in the afternoon:

    Caroline: IˇŻm a little confused, must the book be finished by November 30? Or I only need to get to 50k words by that date?

    Capitolium: Yes, the bookˇŻs first draft must be finished

    CapitoliumˇŻs answer to CaroˇŻs question makes her sweat and tremble. However, he hides the cold, hard truth from her. Because Caro is relatively isolated from the greater NaNo community, she has yet to realize that, even among the winners, there are some who arenˇŻt done writing their books during that timeframe, and others who win but take months to edit their books, or even scrap them entirely. But most entrants give up. Heck, most writers give up on a novel before itˇŻs even finished.

    Before she resumes writing Player Masher, she decides to post some clarifications about what the challenge means to her in her social media as well as on her Discord server used for streaming. And also inviting her followers to stay tuned for another surprise on her next stream.

    When this fails to make her recover her creative juices, she is left wondering if, in some shape or form, Emma could be listening to Habs games while working overtime on some project. And more specifically, the season opener. A-ha! Make the season opener end the chapter about how Emma comes to the grim realization that she met a Canadiens player at a bar just a few days ago, show some snippets of how I would go around writing the games themselves, she ruminates while she got a better idea of how to finish writing that chapter where Emma listens to a Canadiens games on the radio at work.

    With renewed vigor, she starts writing that scene of the third chapter, sounding like a play-by-play commentator for this sound bite: What a hit by Kurpnieks! Kurpnieks with the puck, crosses the blue line, passes to number forty-eight at center iceˇ­

    After she gives the snippet from the play-by-play commentator on the radio, Caro then moves on to how Emma reacts to the realization that Gustavs is actually a Canadiens player. Damnˇ­ that was a chance encounter for the ages, and I can count myself very lucky to even have met him in person just a few days ago! Even more so considering that I often work overtime these days!

 Chapter 58: 100% At Each Otherâ€™s Throats

    However, she doesnˇŻt feel like updating her word count until later that Saturday, where she thinks it will make for better content on air if she reveals both the word count and the resulting achievement badge. But until then, around the dinner table, CaroˇŻs parents appear to have caught a glimpse of Player Masher.

    ˇ°Mais pourquoi, ch¨¦rie, tu ne joues pas ¨¤ un pool de hockey?ˇ± (But why, honey, donˇŻt you play fantasy hockey?) CaroˇŻs mom asks her. ˇ°JˇŻai lu Player Masher et tu semblais conna?tre les r¨¦alit¨¦s du hockeyˇ± (I read Player Masher, and you seemed familiar with the realities of hockey)

    ˇ°Les pools de hockey avec lesquels je suis famili¨¨re semblent, pour la plupart, mettre trop dˇŻimportance ¨¤ lˇŻoffensiveˇ± (Fantasy hockey pools with which IˇŻm familiar mostly seem to overemphasize offense) Caroline responds, in a solemn voice.

    ˇ°Vaut mieux un roman ¨¤ la glace de rose o¨´ le hockey est pr¨¦sent plut?t quˇŻabsent!ˇ± (Better a hockey romance where hockey is present rather than absent!) her dad comments about Player Masher in its infancy.

    ˇ°P?pa, quand as-tu commenc¨¦ ¨¤ lire des romans ¨¤ la glace de rose?ˇ± (When did you start reading hockey romance books?)

    ˇ°Il y a quelques moisˇ± (A few months ago)

    Damn itˇ­ this entire Kraken BookTok scandal thrusted hockey romance into the limelight, and not just here where hockey fans are legion! I feel like Glitter will yell at me for this, later tonight, Caro starts eating apple pie with ice cream, along with her parents. At that point, they all stop talking about fantasy hockey and her manuscript.

    Once the stream begins, she prepares her own NaNoWriMo page so that sheˇŻs ready to update her word count and show the sixth achievement badge being unlocked right at the beginning. She sees her own readership bolstered by both hockey fans and romance fans among the viewer base of her primary game that night:

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream, and I announce that I am treating NaNoWriMo as a game in its own right this month. A little simplistic as a game perhaps, but today I made significant progress on Player Masher!ˇ± Caro then brings up her home page, where she is about to show the achievements she already unlocked.

    And now that her word count is over 5,000, the audience sees a black hexagon badge with 5 white bars in it appear on her main page.

    ˇ°And I announce that I plan on 100%ing NaNoWriMo this year, and a surprise will await you if I succeed!ˇ± Caroline sees another user enter the stream, about whom she doesnˇŻt suspect a thing yet.

    ???: Caro, it seems like you tied your book too intensely to the current seasonˇ­

    Lagado: What do you mean?

    ???: Caro had her male lead claimed off waivers by Montreal in her book because Reinbacher was out!

    Sampoong enters her voice chat around this time. ˇ°There was only, like, one hockey romance book I ever read that even gave an on-ice reason to trade for someone or, in your case, claim Gustavs off waivers!ˇ±

    ˇ°You would think that, while hockey players do get injured, some teams would trade for, or claim off waivers, a player at the injured playerˇŻs position! Especially when whether the injured player will be able to play at all for a given season is in doubt!ˇ± Caro defends herself.

    Capitolium enters the voice chat. ˇ°Also, Sampoong, no one could possibly read all hockey romance books in existence! That said, Caro is rightˇ±

    ???: ItˇŻs normal for some D-man to be claimed off waivers because the claimant has injured D-men, just donˇŻt name a real player!

    ˇ°But I want Gustavs to be traded away when that player he replaced up until the trade deadline is healthy!ˇ±

    GlitterˇŻs turn to intervene arrives, with her blood pressure through the roof. ˇ°Caro, this just doesnˇŻt feel like a hockey romance anymore! YouˇŻre far too preoccupied with the hockey plotline!ˇ±

    ˇ°My plan was that Gustavs improves his game in Montreal, and fetches a pretty big haul from a playoff team with holes on defense! I even want some tensions to arise over his perceived trade value!ˇ±

    Sure, Caro can base a character on Reinbacher, but she shouldnˇŻt refer specifically to him! The mystery viewer starts thinking of what other changes she ought to make to the teams in Player Masher.

    Chelymun: Caro, youˇŻre putting the plow before the oxen!

    Lagado: Do you mean putting the cart before the horse?

    ˇ°What do you mean, I am putting the plow before the oxen?ˇ± Caro feels her own blood pressure skyrocket. ˇ°Sometimes you have ideas for the later stages of the book before you actually get there!ˇ±

    I may as well start playing the damned TRPG! Caro sighs as she checks on the battle pass quest of the day. But once she puts in the in-game work for the day, she resumes writing the book. A passage where the MMC gets an opportunity to bond with his new teammates in Montreal.

    ˇ°You mentioned that you wanted tension to arise because of perceived trade value. But donˇŻt you feel like playersˇŻ love interests have more to worry about in trades than what theyˇŻre going for? You only need to read about Chris ProngerˇŻs wife when Pronger was an Oiler to know what WAGs really value when players face the prospect of a trade while in a relationship!ˇ± Sampoong scolds her.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ˇ°Oh, that would be tension not on the level of Emma, but for the front office and the not-CanadiensˇŻ fan base!ˇ± Caro defends herself while she looks for what caused him to get traded to the Ducks.

    Drat! If I am to keep teams in both Montreal and Seattle, I still need to portray Montreal as a hockey-crazy city! Regardless of where I would place the training facility, or the arena! Caro starts sweating while thinking about what she might be able to keep and what she must change in her book about her team. After reading about Lauren ProngerˇŻs time in Edmonton.

    ???: A lot of hockey romance writers either place their teams in a city that doesnˇŻt have one or keep their cities but change the names on both the team and the people in it

    At this point, I might compare Caro to Victoria Denault, whoˇŻs one of the hockey romance writers heaviest on the hockey I read, the mystery viewer ruminates on his past reading experiences. Canadian hockey romance writers tended to get the hockey best; I have yet to read hockey romance books as written by European authors, though. And Caro portrayed Latvia as a hockey-crazy country! If Latvians are as hockey-obsessed as Qu¨¦b¨¦cois are, I have good hopes that some Latvian-written hockey romance book would get the hockey better! Outside of, like, Denault or even Caro.

    ˇ°Sorry, Caro, but you must change the names of teams and players involved! Do you have ideas for alternate team names?ˇ± Capitolium asks Caroline while she is focused on writing a scene with some players inviting him to eat together.

    And then Caro ends up writing about his teammates buying Gustavs poutine for him to eat somewhere in Dix30, since he apparently never ate it in his previous trips to play Seattle away games in Montreal.

    After the poutine ends, he goes to one of his teammatesˇŻ home, at which he temporarily lives while he looks for his own place to live around either Dix30 or near downtown Montr¨¦al. His teammate gives a hungry Gustavs more Qu¨¦b¨¦cois b¨¦belles to eat, but sweets, such as maple toffee.

    ˇ°Caro, even if you change the names of teams and players involved, IˇŻm not sure how that is going to ensure that the book will not exceed a certain amount of hockey content!ˇ± Glitter keeps screaming at the streamer.

    ˇ°Glitter, if you find my own project too heavy on the hockey, this is what you can do for the next few weeks: you stay tuned and watch me play this online TRPG, and leave the stream immediately after I finish what IˇŻm doing for the day in-game!ˇ± Caro tells her angry viewer off. ˇ°ThatˇŻs if you still want to watch me play the game, even after you made it clear the NaNo project soured you on me off it!ˇ±

    She clearly knows what sheˇŻs doing in-game, and this is how I came to know that, behind the game, Caroline seemed to be a very intelligent person. She knew just as clearly about the transactional aspects of hockey. But itˇŻs just her writing project that rubbed me the wrong way! Glitter ruminates before leaving the stream to read the unfinished hockey romance she paused to watch Caro run stuff such as the weekly gauntlet in infernal difficulty. Or watch other streamers play that game, and run different content.

    ˇ°Way to tell Glitter off!ˇ± Capitolium then DMs Caro his current word count.

    ˇ°I might be more willing to endure some hockey as a prelude to the spicier stuffˇ± Sampoong comments on his own tastes, while he watches Caro write faster than usual.

    And more specifically, a locker room scene after a practice, where Gustavs overhears his teammates talk about their WAGs. But the more words Caro writes about his teammatesˇŻ WAGs, and how it induces FOMO in him, the more the words of her viewers weigh heavily on her.

    Ouch. Now I have a better idea of what it means to have to choose who to be criticized by, and what to be criticized for. However, better act now to remove all references to Canadiens or Kraken, or any people associated with either team. Luckily, I didnˇŻt define who was the ˇ°Cˇ± team in my outline yet, nor where it is, but it mustnˇŻt be a name of an actual team if it was to be a team in an actual NHL market, Caro weighs the implications of what that mystery viewer told her to do, with complete understanding of the legal trouble she could land herself in if she doesnˇŻt act on that. But if I wanted him to be traded to ˇ°Cˇ± because ˇ°Cˇ± deemed him the most cap-effective piece to trade for, as a result of his play improving in Montreal, this meansˇ­ wait a minute! IˇŻm not yet at a point where Gustavs takes Emma to a game!

    ˇ°What about the Constellations?ˇ± Caro floats the idea to her viewers.

    ˇ°Which would replace which teamˇŻs name, Kraken or Canadiens?ˇ± Sampoong asks her.

    She then fields suggestions from her viewers, knowing that both Seattle and Montreal are retained for the cities of what her outline called teams A and B. Admittedly she doesnˇŻt know Seattle very well, beyond Boeing, Amazon, Starbucks and Microsoft. And the Kraken playing in the Climate Pledge Arena, whose name must be left out, according to some viewers, as is the Centre Bell.

    Damn it! Everyone familiar with the Montreal Canadiens will know about how they play in Centre Bell, and hence it will become all too clear that I have no choice but to leave that out too! And this means I canˇŻt be too precise about where exactly in the city the not-CanadiensˇŻ arena is going to be! However, I think I can leave the practice facility somewhere in Brossard without specifying where in that suburb it is, Caro starts thinking about what that implies for the training facility, since there will be scenes in there going forward. But she reviews viewer-suggested names:

    Maridun: DonˇŻt forget that any name you could pick should ideally represent a trait of the city the team represents!

    Chelymun: The biggest thing for the not-Habs is to ensure the name you pick for them should work in both English and French

    And then it makes her life easier for SeattleˇŻs team, in which case the whole Kraken scandal made her choice easier. Especially since the scandalˇŻs catch phrase was Krack my Back. The Backcrackers. She simply replaces all instances of Kraken by Backcrackers in her manuscript. Of which there wasnˇŻt that many.

    I can always leave the BackcrackersˇŻ paraphernalia a little vague but if I am going to use Constellations for Montreal, I need to have multiple stars in its logo. This mystery viewer forced my hand, and itˇŻs not pretty at all! She then reads through the reactions of her viewers to Constellations as a possible candidate.

    ˇ°Constellations? Did you think Montreal had any real association with astronomy?ˇ± Lagado enters voice chat for the first time in a while.

    ˇ°It was the first thing that came to my mind that worked in both English and French; the second one I wrote off since it was already in use by the real Utah teamˇ± Caro explains herself before she goes around and deletes every mention of Centre Bell, while also changing Canadiens for Constellations. Especially since she sees that her viewers are generally in favor of these proposed changes.

    But at the cost of some words, though, and this makes her scramble to start writing the following chapter before the stream ends as her migraines mount. And she only got some relief for these headaches after Glitter left the voice chat and the stream.

 Chapter 59: Behind the Glitter, Horror

    Glitter left the stream with questions about a few things on her mind. She starts to sob in her own bedroom:

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs the point of 100%ing NaNo?ˇ± Glitter starts crying. ˇ°Not only that, but after showing what 100%ing NaNo will mean to Caro earlier tonight makes me feel like sheˇŻs willing to just add more and more hockey games, or maybe more stuff outside of games if she accepts thereˇŻs too much hockey as it is! IˇŻm not even sure it will be good even thenˇ­ˇ±

    ThatˇŻs the problem with 100%ing games: chasing the nooks and crannies of a game often detracts from the gameˇŻs core experience, and sometimes multiple playthroughs. ThatˇŻs why I never 100%ed games on purpose, and also why I watched Caro to begin with. When MAA was around, I was playing, but by watching her, I watched her run content that I couldnˇŻt do myself, Glitter starts thinking about CarolineˇŻs last stream, a little after she left it over Caro suggesting her, for future streams this month, to leave after she has finished playing the battle pass quests for the day.

    But as she finishes the last romance book she started, Glitter goes to bed, and her own sleep gets troubled with the cold, hard truth about to resurface in her dreams:

    <hr>

    Glitter found herself in a wooden cabin, surrounded by characters from past books she read. The oldest of them she readily recognized as a mafia leader, strangely looking like Stephen Harper, but others were male leads that were jealous and possessive, just not in the same position as the capo.

    ˇ°Glitter, you donˇŻt want to get killed, do you?ˇ± the mafia capo was about to bind her to a bed. ˇ°Do me a favor andˇ­ˇ±

    Another of these massive men interrupted the capo and was ready to high-stick Glitter while yet another of these men, ostensibly a mafioso grunt, bound her to the bed. ˇ°No, boss, let me hit her first!ˇ±

    ˇ°You think youˇŻre so tough now?ˇ± the capo drew his pistol.

    ˇ°If I canˇŻt have her, no one will!ˇ± the massive thug turned to the capo instead of going for the high stick on Glitter.

    The capo shot at the thugˇŻs hockey stick, breaking it apart, but narrowly missing the thugˇŻs head.

    Is that how it feels to be a dark romance female lead with a love triangle? Two people out-doing each other in a fight for the right to do horrible things to a girl? GlitterˇŻs oneiric self watched, frozen in place by the restraints the mafioso grunt put on her. Or have someone else ensure their safety at a price maybeˇ­ even when the price might mean getting abused!

    The capo then turned to the grunt, yelling at him. ˇ°Our hideout is under attack, and you sit there doing nothing!ˇ±

    ˇ°I just need to ensure that sheˇŻs safe!ˇ± the grunt retorted before the capo throws part of the broken stick at the grunt. ˇ°IˇŻm watching over her!ˇ±

    The grunt narrowly evaded the broken hockey stick, which, unfortunately, hit GlitterˇŻs oneiric self. Is that it? Am I destined to be a trophy wife to some criminal overlord? If so, why would I want to be in a relationship with a criminal overlord when I saw the consequences of being caught in the crossfire of gang warfare?

    ˇ°And yet, somehow, I hope for nothing more than this pig who canˇŻt even help himself berating his grunts to let me go!ˇ± Glitter realized that the grunt didnˇŻt gag her.

    And GlitterˇŻs oneiric conscience rang alarm bells in her. Caro told you about how some dark romance books may very well be horror books. If you still hold on to notions that dark romance books are not the same as horror, try to read some horror books that are labeled as such. ItˇŻs not that your past reads are bad books per se, they are just horror books with a happy ending involving (one of) the villain(s) in a relationship with a lead!

    <hr>

    As she awakens from this nightmare, Glitter is left wondering what kind of horror books she should read. If IˇŻm not mistaken, often people read romance with an eye on either relating to a lead or for wish fulfillment. ItˇŻs perfectly healthy to wish for a relationship with someone that will take care of you, or can afford to do so. But why do people wish for a relationship with someone with behavior issues on top of that, or at least willing to endure these as the price to pay to obtain it if they acknowledge the issue, unless they were dirt poor? So I guess I understand why people might want to read hockey romance, at least lower and middle-class readers: theyˇŻd know then which wish they can vicariously fulfill through one. But perhaps this inner monologue has dragged on for too long already.

    She then takes up a horror book at a steep discount, one of the cheaper ones she can get, not expecting much out of reading the horror book she so picks. Especially since she bought the e-book for under CA$5, taxes included. But man did the experience of reading the horror book unsettle her.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Only 30 pages in and she already feels even more uneasy than when the reading of the book began, and she read about one-tenth of it. ThatˇŻs enough for tonight, I donˇŻt want my sleep to be even more troubled than it is already.

    Luckily for her, this horror book didnˇŻt seem to induce nightmares tonight. However, upon awakening on Sunday morning, she is left wondering why she got nightmares last night, and past romance books she read, hockey or not, didnˇŻt. Even the darkest ones.

    Even when this horror book, like the book she recced to Caro earlier, features an unhealthy couple. A villain that had no luck in love, and a female lead he looks to for salvation. About the lengths the villain is willing to go to trick the victim, erm, lead into getting a date from her. And not just trickery either: the villain even goes deep into stalking territory.

    And even when she thinks she is reading a romance book, it feels like the villain has become more toxic, more abusive towards the lead when he kidnaps her.

    By then, she manages to finish reading the book by noon. What appears to surprise her about reading the book is how similar it feels compared to some dark romance books she read in the past, except for the ending. The cold, hard truth hits me like a ton of bricks. Yes, the ending is happy on some level, since the villain is brought to justice, but even seeing the villain condemned, the whole ordeal left scars on the lead, who was a key witness of the resulting trial. A belated happy ending, though, and with the couple separated.

    And it is then that Glitter DMs Caro about how horror books might overlap with dark romance ones:

    Glitter: Even though Player Masher might not be to my taste, I read a horror book this morning and yes, past romance books I read and recommended did feel like a horror book

    Caro: ItˇŻs OK if Player Masher is not to your taste, no hockey romance is for everyone; just donˇŻt criticize it at every turn on air since you werenˇŻt constructive

    Maybe I should rec the previous books I read if people ask for horror book recs rather than romance ones. It might not be 100% the same, but often the changes to make to a dark romance book to turn it into a horror one can be made in the last ~20% or so, Glitter seems to have a bulb flashing in her mind. I guess, there are those books with a ˇ°be careful what youˇŻre wishing forˇ± element to it. However, I should read CapitoliumˇŻs manuscript, hoping that dealing with protagonists from a different age bracket would yield a different result.

    Glitter is bewildered by what she read from the person who challenged Caro to even write Player Masher in the first place. Billet family? What is the meaning of this? It seems that, initially, poor grades forced his hand, and he enters the US Priority Draft. Oh Godˇ­ That guy has left home for senior year in high school, and must juggle education as well as hockey. I want to see his lead hook up with the daughter of the billet family. Like a good found family kind of romance, as what he seems to go for. But here it seems to alternate between hockey and the academic life of the guy, at least for the early stages, she starts reading about how he has more freedom among his billet family than his old one. And yet, as soon as the QMJHLˇŻs season beginsˇ­ the billet family attends the game.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here? It seems like both Capitolium and Caro are writing hockey romance books that are too heavy on the hockey! But unlike Caro, Capitolium doesnˇŻt stream the writing process of the book!ˇ± Glitter yells by herself.

    I guess, I know who to ask for my next rec, romance or horror: Sampoong! He usually tends to read spicier books than what these two are writing! Glitter then starts her time in the game Caro plays, and get the battle pass quests done for the week.

    However, Glitter not being as good a player of that TRPG, she runs the weekly gauntlet at a lower level, lunatic, whose stats are more in line with a party of four player-controlled max-level units, and is happy with getting a mid-grade unit for her first weekly quest. Which she promptly sends on a dispatch quest, along with other characters, of which her pool is more limited.

    And yet, she still needs to earn some money to get other missions done so she can score the requisite number of kills of a certain unit type, as well as play a certain number of PvP matches. I might never get to CaroˇŻs level on the PvP leaderboard, but a break from reading romance is enough for me.

    Meanwhile, Caro is still riding the high of the early days of NaNo and still writes like crazy, as she is now writing the scenes leading up to the day where Gustavs finally has a chance to prove himself on the third defense pair. As per usual for a lot of defensemen claimed off waivers. And, of course, itˇŻs then that Gustavs is formally introduced to the greater Constellations community. During the pre-game presentation of the opening nightˇŻs roster.

    Might want to have Emma comment on GustavsˇŻ social media at some point after the game, and hence give each other a way to stay in touch. I was yelled at for putting in too much hockey, but I trust Glitter to leave future streams before I start writing on air, Caro starts thinking about what awaits her next, taking some notes about the next plot point. ItˇŻs then that she receives a DM from Capitolium:

    Capitolium: You failed to realize the following: even if you had some relatively good characters, even if you managed to integrate the hockey, both on-ice and the transactional, perfectly, readers will judge your book by the relationship and not by the hockey

    Oh crap, not Capitolium, too! I already had it hard enough with Glitter, but I tolerated him because he made an effort to be constructive to me on air, unlike Glitter! An annoyed Caro starts wondering whether this project, this whole challenge, has the potential to turn into a nightmare. Plus she feels like any chemistry between Emma and Gustavs will develop later, especially since they are still at the stage where they are oblivious to each otherˇŻs signs of love. But he feels that I wrote ˇ°relatively goodˇ± characters, whatever that means this early in a book, so maybe itˇŻs not all bad.

    Caroline: Yet, your bitterness was partially borne out of how poorly the hockey was integrated into hockey romance books

 Chapter 60: Grim Realizations

    Capitolium: Yes, but itˇŻs too early to tell whether you addressed the non-hockey factors beyond trying to go for obliviousness to love, and making both workaholics

    Caroline: And you said I had some relatively good characters

    Relatively good compared to what? I might be willing to accept if it was comparing debut books against each other. Beyond that, while I accepted characters were key to making a good romance work, Capitolium made me feel like requests for hockey romance books with actual hockey in the plot were commonly requested, an annoyed Caro is also confused. How could I somehow grasp that characters, and how they interact with each other, are key to make a good relationship work, and take over two weeks understand that hockey romance readers will judge a book by the relationship and not by the hockey?

    Capitolium: I can kind of feel like youˇŻre not going to make them flat, but you might struggle somewhat going forward to give character development for Emma

    Caroline: Perhaps I could give her more development after Gustavs buys her a second-hand ticket for the Backcrackers game

    Especially when she knew that, even in Montreal, a market known to so many in the hockey world to have one of the toughest media environments, media focused mostly on the on-ice action, the transactional and the injuries.

    Oh yesˇ­ Gustavs will be out for revenge during that game! What happens off-ice with the WAGs usually flies under the media radar, and usually remains internal to the team when you deal with WAGs like Emma. Yet for all of GlitterˇŻs flaws as a reviewer, up to this point, she was confident that I had the intellectual capabilities to see this project through. Butˇ­ why? Why did it take me over two weeks to get past the hockey aspect of a hockey romance? ItˇŻs unnaturally slow for me! Was I tricked by how natural I made the hockey aspect feel? Did CapitoliumˇŻs bitterness rub on me, and made me bitter as well? CapitoliumˇŻs DM gives her a lot to think about.

    ˇ°CˇŻest de valeur, mais quˇŻest-ce que jˇŻai fait pour ¨ştre devenue aussi idiote?ˇ± (It sucks, but what did I do to become that dumb?) Caro cries about what she perceived as her intellectual failing.

    Her dad overhears her crying in her bedroom. ˇ°Tu ne mˇŻas jamais parue idioteˇ± (You never appeared dumb to me!)

    ˇ°CˇŻest pas une question de critique, ?a mˇŻa pris des semaines pour comprendre que les gens jugent les romans ¨¤ la glace de rose par les relations amoureuses plut?t que par le hockey!ˇ± (ItˇŻs not a question of criticism, it took me weeks to understand that people judged hockey romance books by the relationships and not the hockey!)

    ˇ°Pogne-toi pas les nerfs. JˇŻy suis peut-¨ştre pour quelque choseˇ± (DonˇŻt get mad at me, I might have something to do)

    Has my daughter been too demanding on the hockey aspect? CaroˇŻs dad questions whether he encouraged her the wrong way. I did tell her better a hockey romance with hockey than one without, though.

    He then returns to reading what she wrote so far, and feel like Emma had a limited social life, restricted essentially to workplace after hours. Yes, Caro made EmmaˇŻs intellect feel natural, and made her not totally powerless.

    While itˇŻs clear that Glitter isnˇŻt as smart as I am, I donˇŻt rub it in. However, this entire fiasco makes me feel like IˇŻm not as smart as she thinks I am. Or I had a blind spot somewhere, and it had to fall on that one thing! I thought that readers had too wide a range of tastes to judge hockey romance based on any specific aspectˇ­ But of course! Readers value different things in a book relationship, and I canˇŻt cater to everyone! Perhaps IˇŻm still as smart as I used to be! Caro regains some semblance of clarity.

    But on Monday, at work, Caro meets with her colleagues once again, and she has yet to realize that something isnˇŻt right.

    ˇ°Je dois avouer quˇŻavec les Backcrackers, tu ¨¦tais un peuˇ­ broche-¨¤-foinˇ± (With the Backcrackers, you were a littleˇ­ haphazard) Jacques comments on the changes he made Caro do on air.

    ˇ°Tout ce que je savais du Kraken sur BookTok, cˇŻ¨¦tait des images explicites avec Krack my Back et la femme du joueur dessus qui a p¨¦t¨¦ sa coche!ˇ± (All I knew about the Kraken on BookTok was explicit photos with Krack my Back and the wife of the player on it who got angry!) Caro defends herself.

    ˇ°Je veux bien croire que changer les noms des ¨¦quipes et ceux des joueurs est une bonne id¨¦e, mais une chance que tu as laiss¨¦ lˇŻentra?neur-chef des Backcrackers sans nom!ˇ± (I believe changing the names of the teams and players is a good idea, but thank goodness you left the BackckrackersˇŻ head coach unnamed!) ˇ°Chelymunˇ± comments on the whole meeting with Gustavs and the other BackcrackersˇŻ waivees in the opening chapter.

    ˇ°Marie-France, il y avait une raison juridique pour demander ?a ¨¤ Carolineˇ± (Marie-France, there was a legal reason for asking that of Caroline) Jacques follows up on ChelymunˇŻs, erm, Marie-FranceˇŻs comment.

    ˇ°Est-ce vous qui mˇŻavez dit que jˇŻai trop li¨¦ le livre ¨¤ la saison courante du Canadienˇ± (Were you the one who told me that I tied the book to the current Canadiens season too much?) Caro asks Jacques before returning to work.

    ˇ°Ouiˇ±

    Damn it! I didnˇŻt realize the mystery viewer of SaturdayˇŻs stream was Jacques, from the legal department! And perhaps Emma is drawn to Gus because, as a workaholic, she feels another workaholic would be more likely to make the relationship work! As well as respect oneˇŻs life outside the relationship! Caro starts having some more ideas for Player Masher.

    But she is also reminded of some traps some inexperienced romance writers can fall into. Wanting the relationship to be all-consuming for one side, regardless of the abuse level or personalities. Easier to understand if the relationship is not abusive.

    And yet, for the rest of the day at work, whenever she needs a bathroom break, she also takes advantage of it to continue writing Player Masher in the bathroom, line by line.

    Such as this paragraph about EmmaˇŻs thoughts: It seems like a lot of men have difficulty dealing with a girlfriend with poor work-life balance, even if they accepted their girlfriends to contribute in some way. Assuming they respect your hectic schedule, you must cherish what little time you have with them. Which was the only paragraph she managed to write in that specific break, before she struggles to think of what could push Emma towards Gus again, except maybe Gus buying her a ticket for the Backcrackers-Constellations game.

    Speaking of that game scene, upon returning home, in Charlesbourg, she starts realizing that itˇŻs a little cheesy, and Gus surprises her by buying her a ticket to a Constellations game.

    Before her stream begins, she starts updating her word count, and not simply to check whether sheˇŻs on track for the daily par achievement. 2142 words on day 1, 3666 on day 2, 3480 on day 3ˇ­ IˇŻm going to overshoot, or finish early, and miss out on this 100% I promised my viewers! However, I donˇŻt expect to get 3k+ days on weekdays, As tempting as it might be to just add more games, if I feel the 100% is in danger, I might want to reread some parts I feel are questionable if I get to this point, she starts sweating as that nightˇŻs stream is about to begin.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream, and, before we resume writing Player Masher, we start by leveling the new unit of the battle pass!ˇ± Caro starts the stream while she has yet to activate the sequence of the battle pass claim.

    Once the battle pass reward for the week is claimed, prior to getting the daily quest on the road, she reviews whatˇŻs available at the pub for dispatch quests. Of which there are 3 varieties: timed, battle-based or enemy-based. And she needs to check on the body language of her massive roster of units to determine who to send out and at what cost.

    Jacques: Forgive me for not knowing anything about that game, but what are the pros and cons of dispatch mission types?

    ˇ°Timed dispatch missions reward, and cost, the least. Battle-based and kill-based tend to favor different playing styles, but reward approximately the same in the long run. Obviously, more battles or enemies to kill mean missions take longer for more rewards, and also cost more to undertakeˇ± Caro answers her work colleague.

    The most expensive require as many as 7 battles, or as many as 50 kills, so it seems like PvE lovers prefer kill-based missions since enemies can spawn reinforcements, usually 1-2 per wave, whereas PvP matches donˇŻt have reinforcements, and hence favor the battle-based ones, Caro starts thinking of who do battle-based and kill-based missions reward. However, she has enough units to deploy the maximum number of units on dispatch quests without affecting her ability to complete them.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs the main reason for people to keep large numbers in reserveˇ± Glitter adds on VC.

    She then plays under the watchful eye of Glitter, who is watching her before she plays the game herself. Fingers crossed that Glitter will leave the stream once this playing session is all over, as I suggested her to do last time.

    The streamer starts with showing a PvP match, and then one of these overworld fights or repeats of story beats, in that order. In different difficulties for the last one. After the third of the 7 battles one of the quests she sent an unit on requiresˇ­

    Marie-France (Chelymun), bewildered by the costs of doing battle: What can you do when youˇŻre broke, and canˇŻt send anyone on a dispatch quest or fight?

    ˇ°Chelymun, there is only one thing you can do then, if that happens in the early game: fight in the overworld. Overworld battles usually yield money or items you can sellˇ±

    ˇ°However, overworld battles donˇŻt pay very wellˇ± Glitter warns Marie-France as the fourth battle begins and Caro keeps an eye on the kill counter and the battle counter.

    But after the remaining 4 battles for the questˇŻs completion are said and done, she barely gets to the 50 kills required for the most expensive dispatch quests she sent units on. Once the haul is confirmed, along with the extra xp points for the battle pass:

    ˇ°Goodbye, Caroˇ± Glitter then leaves the stream, while Capitolium, Sampoong and Lagado all enter it.

    At this point in the stream, Caro updates her daily word count, which sits at 711, for a total word count of 9999. One more word and the seventh cheevo will be unlocked!

    ˇ°So hang on tight, IˇŻm writing the scene where Emma receives a free ticket for the Backcrackers gameˇ­ˇ±

    Just write one more paragraph, and I shall update the word count again! It seems like IˇŻm overtaken by Capitolium, too! Caro receives CapitoliumˇŻs word count update, and now Capitolium is well over 10,000 words on his project about a dunce major junior hockey player who hits on the daughter of the billet family during his first year of NHL draft eligibility, and knows he must become a star in major junior if he is to even make it to the NHL.

    That paragraph in question is about Emma asking Gustavs about whether there are any strings attached to this gift of a ticket to a hockey game.

    Conclusion: Emma is responsible for any food bought before and during the game. Speaking of which, because she feels like itˇŻs an event in her life that doesnˇŻt happen very often, she should peruse the in-seat food options, or, barring that, eat elsewhere for the pre-game meal. If she finds the in-game options unaffordable, that is.

    Which leads Emma to question how much sheˇŻs willing to spend on food at the game. Time to update my word count, I guessˇ­ Caro sighs after she finishes writing the paragraph about choosing a place to eat for the night.

    ˇ°Woohoo! I made it, I hit ten thousand words!ˇ± an ecstatic Caro shouts for joy. ˇ°IˇŻll take suggestions for places to eat around Centre Bell, even though the name is left out of the bookˇ±

    Lagado: Ask yourself what EmmaˇŻs eating habits are, and pick accordingly

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs a lot of places to choose from, and for a wide range of budgetsˇ± Sampoong retorts.

    ˇ°Yeah, Caro, donˇŻt waste this opportunity to flesh out Emma a little bit!ˇ± Capitolium begs the streamer.

    And, of course, her chat reminds her of how Montreal is one of the big restaurant cities in the NHL. Which pushes Caro to think what she might want to eat some fine dining for that occasion she deems special. But even that didnˇŻt seem to do the trick. Oh boy: maybe I could want Emma to be the kind of girl who might be willing to get the finer things in life, especially food and clothing. But she still wants to save for retirement.

    WhatˇŻs to follow in this stream turns into a discussion of MontrealˇŻs foodie scene. Everyone seems to have their own ideas, their own preferences, for what they value in a restaurant to eat in, and certainly for a pre-game meal.

    ˇ°Just donˇŻt make her eat at La Belle et la B?uf, pleaseˇ± Sampoong suggests to the streamer.

    ˇ°Maybe have her eat what she normally wouldnˇŻt!ˇ± Capitolium suggests in turn.

    ˇ°Gyu-Kaku it is, I guessˇ­ˇ± she sighs.

    She hastily writes her pre-game experience of Emma eating at Gyu-Kaku, eating umakara BBQ, and some sushi along with it. About how she feels like thereˇŻs nothing like a good meal to get pumped up prior to a hockey game.

    Speaking of the hockey game, she starts writing a game sequence in the first periodˇ­ Nattinen closes in on the trapezoid, what a hit by Kurpnieks! Nattinen broke his ears as the crowd got loud after the hit and he limps back to the BackcrackersˇŻ bench.

    But then Gustavs rushes back into the neutral zone with the puck, passes to number 27, Macer, and then at number 48, Dumaurier, shoots, save with the blocker. Vend?me grabs the rebound, passes to Macer in the trapezoid, deflection by Kurpnieks andˇ­ the puck crosses the goal line.

    ˇ°Le but des Constellations, son premier de la saison, compt¨¦ par le num¨¦ro soixante-et-un, Constellations goal, his first of the season, scored by number sixty-one, Gustavs Kurpnieks! Avec lˇŻaide du num¨¦ro vingt-sept, assisted by number twenty-seven. Jared Macer! Et du num¨¦ro quatre-vingt-cinq, and number eighty-five, Simon Vend?me! ¨¤ cinq minutes trente-neuf secondes, at five minutes thirty-nine secondsˇ± Caro reads out loud that passage, as if she was the Centre BellˇŻs home announcer, while writing another passage.

    In the third period, Nattinen is back into play, after having suffered some bruises in the first period, hits Kurpnieks as heˇŻs about to clear the puck from the defensive zone. As payback for the big hit on him during the first period, Caro writes about what happens later in the game. After the game, won by the Constellations, he showers, along with his teammates, and the gear being sent for washing because playing a game at that level of intensity results in stinky gear. And, of course, making Emma catch a glimpse of Gustavs after the game ends.

    Maridun: Now is the time to make Gustavs catch a glimpse of Emma!

    And Emma then tells him, ˇ°merci pour ce soirˇ±, which then makes him blush, Caro proceeds to write about how Emma has questions for him, but is too afraid to be embarrassed in front of him to do so.

    ˇ°De rien, Emmaˇ± (YouˇŻre welcome, Emma) Caro reads the following line from Gustavs.

    Marie-France: And he made an effort to learn French!

    ˇ°He couldnˇŻt learn a whole lot of French in just a few weeksˇ± Sampoong comments on that passage, while Caro adds the reaction of Emma to Gustavs speaking French with a Latvian accent. And keeping her in mind if he needs further assistance with learning French.

    And she makes me feel like I have a lot of stuff missing, and I can no more pad word count by adding more games than she can. But I donˇŻt want to make it sound like my own protag is misogynistic if I plan to increase his dependence on the FMC for academic stuffˇ­ And yet, I want to show the MMC go both to the World Juniors and the Memorial Cup playoffs, Capitolium thinks about how to go around writing his book, with perhaps a few more games, the ones with NHL scouts watching him. The games I can write without problems. The complications come from writing, well, the FMC, and that I should ask someone else, because so much has changed since Caro was the age of the FMC! Capitolium then goes around looking for additional Discord servers where he could potentially meet with other NaNo participants, preferably a girl in his FMCˇŻs age bracket. And maybe even advertise CaroˇŻs stream on it, too.

 Chapter 61: Staving Off the Writerâ€™s Block

    Even when Capitolium sees Caro write over a thousand words on air, and bring her total word count to over 11,000 words for the night, because he couldnˇŻt write about games alone, he also comes to realize that he doesnˇŻt have a clue as to what to write between the games he feels matter to the plot.

    I know that a strong performance during the Memorial Cup, and playing relatively well at the World Juniors will get him picked in the first round. But as with Caro, I, too, must come to terms with having to change the teamsˇŻ names if I am to keep the cities, major junior or NHL. But at the same time, I canˇŻt use the same team names as Caro, so no using Backcrackers or Constellations, Capitolium reflects on how he goes around writing, in a desperation move, the ending before writing any remaining games. HereˇŻs the deal: I want the MMC to get nervous on draft day since he isnˇŻt first overall pick material, and maybe I ought to write a short chapter on the NHL Lottery, with the whole family watching it, before I get to the ending itself!

    For this purpose, while he looks for a Discord writing server to get the information he feels is missing to complete the rest of the book, he starts a video playing in the background about the current procedures of the NHL draft lottery.

    ˇ°IˇŻm sure Caroline knows about how NHL Draft lottery winners cannot move up more than ten spots in the draft, and then the ordering of the remaining non-playoff teams, and then non-division winners in the playoffs, but I think a lot of her viewers donˇŻt knowˇ± he sighs while he makes his characters go on a trip to the draft.

    Especially since he plans on making his MMC first-rounder material but, unlike so many books dealing in either major junior or college hockey players, he doesnˇŻt want him to be lottery pick material. Or at least not first overall pick material. Damn: I completely forgot to talk about how the draft comes into play in literature with Caro when I talked about what made me bitter about hockey romance! I thought she already had enough on her plate dealing with life in the NHL without having to worry about the prospect side of things! But I do want the billet family, and also the family reunion with the MMCˇŻs family of origin, because draft day is one of the most important days in the life of a draftee. This means I bought myself 2 chaptersˇŻ time before I hit the wall!

    The penultimate chapter of CapitoliumˇŻs book begins the day before the NHL Entry Draft begins. Which he tentatively numbers Chapter F-1, and Chapter F being the draft proper. But before then, he DMs Caro:

    Capitolium: I trust you know about how the draft is portrayed in romance

    Caroline: No? None of the books I managed to read before the challenge began dealt with the draft, although my plan does make my couple agonize over possible draft-day trading

    Capitolium: The draft is often portrayed wrong

    Caroline: IˇŻm not surprised, but you never brought it up in your laundry list of issues about hockey romance

    Capitolium: Did you read any hockey romance set in either major junior or college?

    Caroline: No

    Capitolium: So thereˇŻs a book where you have a player whoˇŻs apparently drafted by like five different teams, and he then needs to pick one, and another one where he could enter the draft as a senior in college; otherwise, MMCs in major junior or college hockey romance are typically lottery pick material

    Caroline: I guess, hockey romance books with pro players for MMCs are more common for a reason

    Capitolium: You would think that prospects are both excited and nervous on draft day

    Caroline: FOMO is one big driver for draft-day trading from a teamˇŻs perspective, and I plan on making the team I call C make a trade on day one of the draft

    Capitolium: I can say in complete confidence that I never, ever read a book with draft-day trading as a plot point; there might exist one, but itˇŻs probably by a very obscure author

    Oh God, I hope that Caro realizes that draft-day trading causes more tension for prospects than for players already in the league, since most draft-day trades are picks-for-picks. I can think of some players moved on draft day, including the following: Zack Kassian, Petr Mrazek and Kirby Dach. I might have missed other players, though. The former two are examples of assets having negative value, but if Caro wants to make Gustavs afraid that heˇŻd go the way of Dachˇ­ Capitolium starts thinking about the narrative implications of draft-day trading.

    However, he quickly realizes that having unpacked what he had to say about the portrayal of the draft in hockey romance, it distracted him from writing the reunion scene on draft day, and how the family of origin meets with the billet family for the first time.

    About how the need to have the city determined for the draft, and hence the pre-draft family reunion. For this purpose, he looks up locations of past NHL drafts, knowing that, as with the real draft, cities cannot host the draft in two consecutive years. And also, location is one of the things he must take liberties with. Ideally choose from cities that never hosted the NHL Entry Draft.

    This means I must choose one between Utah, Seattle, San Jose, Winnipeg, Washington, Tampa or Colorado. Utah is the one I can cross off right off the bat since the Utah Hockey ClubˇŻs arena is inadequate for that purpose for now. Maybe Washington, I guessˇ­, he sighs, knowing that the choice of a host city would determine the setting of the ending.

    But while he starts writing the family reunion for the MMC, he dives deep into who could be at the draft for teams, knowing that front offices no longer go to a centralized location all at once.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    We planned our vacation around the draft, because itˇŻs a dream come true for our son. He worked so hard for years for this dayˇ­ he writes a line of dialogue about the playerˇŻs dad, and how it feels to him, having missed his sonˇŻs graduation from high school.

    At the same time, the billet family knows that, even for first-rounders, let alone players picked in later rounds, just being picked doesnˇŻt mean much for even making it to the NHL. The next step that carries that level of significance would then be the first game in the big league.

    And yet Capitolium knew that prospects projected to be taken in the first round, even in the final third, would want to be there in person for the first day. More so than in football or basketball anyway.

    Thank God Glitter isnˇŻt nearly as active in the stream as she used toˇ­ I can tell she hates hockey interfering with the romance, Capitolium sighs, while both families tour the city. The Mall, the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and, of course, the Smithsonian. And eat in the Chinatown near the not-CapitalsˇŻ arena. Once that chapter ends, emotionally spent from writing the family reunion between the MMC and his original family, he goes to bed.

    But the following day, comes the time to write the draft itself, where no one is under any illusion that the MMC will go first overall, especially when the prospects who can realistically go first overall outplayed him at the World Juniors.

    ˇ°Welcome to the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, on behalf of the NHL, we would like to thank to congratulate Edmonton for their Stanley Cup win, as well as the city of Washington for hosting the draft. Anaheim, youˇŻre on the clock!ˇ± Capitolium reads the line, as if he was the commissionerˇŻs voice actor, announcing to the fans in attendance, and the handful of team reps in the arena.

    The prospects grow more restless as teams make their selections, and players parade on the stage, wearing the jerseys of the teams that drafted them. I think I might want to throw a twist: maybe I could have a team trade up but give up a combination of picks and prospects for it. However, you donˇŻt need to be a hockey fan like Caroline or me to know that prospects are the hardest class of assets to value in a trade. That said, I am practically forced to have that prospect play at either the World Juniors, the QˇŻs final or the Memorial Cup, or else it just wouldnˇŻt feel right, he ruminates about what the draft-day trade would imply for earlier, yet-to-be-written passages.

    ˇ°We have a trade to announce: Pittsburgh trades the tenth overall pick to Utah, in exchange for the fifteenth overall pick, all in this yearˇŻs draft, and Tyler September!ˇ± Capitolium reprises his voice acting for the initial version of the trade announcement.

    No, no, no, that doesnˇŻt sound right: however, September would project as a second or third-liner if I kept the trade as-is. However, who drafted September would not be brought up until then. Why is it that IˇŻm mired on more hockey stuff when my writerˇŻs block has to do more with non-hockey stuff? Capitolium is left wondering what would that imply for his player characters. He then thinks of how this trade could go differently, and their implications for their on-ice talent. And how would his MMC feel about this trade. Excitement that a team might have moved up to get him, and then the disappointment of having fallen outside the top 10 afterward.

    He struggles to think of what ˇ°feelsˇ± best to him if the only constant was September being packaged with a teamˇŻs first-rounder, when he wasnˇŻt established as a NHL draftee, and isnˇŻt planned to until the World Juniors. Maybe if I show a team desperately wanting in on the top 10, and willing to trade away a prospect along with maybe a third-rounder to do soˇ­ he starts re-writing what happens before the trade announcement with PittsburghˇŻs GM on the phone with both Utah and another team. One team went pick-for-picks, and the other threw in a prospect on top of picks. He starts to wonder how that would affect what he feels is the best final version.

    But he writes about what happens eight picks later, when another trade announcement comes for the crowd, which, unlike the previous one, was a little underwhelming. Or relatively exciting, depending on who you ask:

    ˇ°We have a trade to announce, and the local fans in this building are going to be interested: Winnipeg trades picks number eighteen and one hundred seventy-eight to Washington in exchange for picks number twenty-four and eighty-eight, all in this yearˇŻs draft! Washington, youˇŻre on the clock!ˇ± Capitolium reads the second trade announcement as if to rehearse his voice acting.

    For Washington, it was a clear-cut decision because they were worried about teams picking at #19-23 taking the MMC before pick #24 arrives. Then comes the pick announcement:

    ˇ°Washington is proud to select, with the eighteenth overall pick, fromˇ­ˇ± the male writer is interrupted in his reading of the pick announcement, supposed to be the climax of the MMCˇŻs arc, by a DM from Caro.

    Caroline: Winnipeg got hosed in that deal; a team in the third quarter of the first round would need more than a late third-rounder to move up six spots, much less get a sixth

    Damn it! CaroˇŻs right: Montreal gave up much more than a third to get to Hage at #21, and they moved up one fewer position, as well as from a lower position, tooˇ­ CarolineˇŻs comment on the trade that led his MMC got to him. Which leads him to change the round of WashingtonˇŻs second pick being traded away.

    Capitolium: YouˇŻre right, but I have a question for you: which package do you think Pittsburgh would accept at #10, #15 + prospect A, or #17 + prospect B + #70

    Caroline: Prospects are rarely traded away on draft day, but I would say that package B would make the team at #17 more desperate than the team at #15, and probably paint prospect B in a better light than prospect A

    Capitolium: HereˇŻs the revised announcement: Pittsburgh trades pick number ten to Dallas for Tyler September, pick number seventeen and pick number seventy, all in this yearˇŻs draft

    This reminds me: I must get to the daily par, and maybe I should write my own draft-day chapter, where I must exploit my characterˇŻs insecurities. Where his strong play in the playoffs might lead team C to trade him away since heˇŻs due for a raise they canˇŻt afford, a Caroline struggling to reach the daily 1667 words ruminates as she hastily starts writing the antepenultimate chapter on a separate page. I spent far too long playing that game, because I deemed the first day of a battle pass week the most critical and hence tried to get as much done as possible, she wonders whether itˇŻs even possible to maintain any sort of coherence while writing at what feels like an infernal pace to her.

    And off the stream, too, since she cut the stream after her playing time was finished for the day, and she feels the need to keep some energy for writing until midnight.

    As with Capitolium, she feels like jumping this close to the ending will force her to prematurely set up details that will come up earlier in the story, when sheˇŻll come back to these bits eventually. Like the identity of team C, and also forces her to have a chapter with a Constellations game against team C before the trade deadline. I might also want trade rumors to poison GustavsˇŻ life in his relationship with Emma in the leadup to the trade deadline, and maybe even during that game against team C!

 Chapter 62: â€śBy-The-Numbersâ€ť Storytelling

    ThatˇŻs no good! I spent too much time playing today that I must rush writing about the insecurities of draft day! Curse you, Capitolium, for making me delve into the intricacies of draft day! And why prospects are the hardest class of assets to properly assess in trades! The speed at which Caro wrote the antepenultimate chapter of Player Masher makes her head spin, and she feels like itˇŻs shaping up to be one of the worst parts of the book. But this means that her version of the Flyers, the Constitutions, are going to shop players around the league, in hopes of getting something from them when they still can.

    CaroˇŻs father keeps reading the newest additions to the manuscript whenever he could the following day. When he talks about these to her, around the breakfast table:

    ˇ°Tabarnak! Tu niaises pas avec la rondelle!ˇ± (You donˇŻt fool around with the puck!) ˇ°Ton personnage principal a ¨¦t¨¦ ballott¨¦, puis ¨¦chang¨¦, et maintenant il a peur dˇŻ¨ştre ¨¦chang¨¦ de nouveauˇ± (Your main character was waived, then traded, and now heˇŻs afraid to be traded again)

    ˇ°P?pa, hier soir jˇŻavais lˇŻimpression dˇŻ¨¦crire trop vite pour mon propre bienˇ± (Dad, last night, I had the impression of writing too fast for my own good)

    And I barely scraped together the requisite 1667 words, since I came in at 1700 words for yesterday. I really wonder how I stack up, quality-wise, compared to other NaNo entrants. Some of them, too, write fast to satisfy the challengeˇŻs requirements, Caro starts thinking about the harrowing experience of writing about draft-day insecurities last night from a playerˇŻs perspective. And often they give up or fail in some other way from what I heard.

    ˇ°Tu es peut-¨ştre inexp¨¦riment¨¦e, mais tu as du talentˇ± (You might lack experience, but you have some talent)

    ˇ°JˇŻai peut-¨ştre du talent, mais jˇŻai du talent pour une et une seule chose comme ¨¦crivaine: int¨¦grer le hockey dans la trame narrative!ˇ± (I might have some talent, but I am good at one and only one thing as a writer: fitting the hockey into the plot) Caro retorts.

    I guess, better believe oneˇŻs talent is very narrow in scope than no talent at allˇ­ CaroˇŻs dad sighs.

    And then Sampoong DMs her, not on Discord, but on Twitch, about streamers she might want to ˇ°raidˇ± after her own stream ends. That is, have oneˇŻs own viewers offloaded onto another stream.

    Sampoong: Here are a few streamers you could raid in the coming nights, schedule permitting

    All right, some Discord servers to join, at least for the rest of the month, Caro peruses each streamer page on Twitch, looking for Discord servers, whose links are normally posted elsewhere on the page containing schedules.

    And people on these servers who attempt NaNo themselves have a variety of projects in progress: yes, romance, but also mystery, fantasy, horror and other genres. Perhaps Glitter might like some of the romance or horror books other people do for NaNoˇ­ she then proceeds to DM the links to the romance book manuscripts to both Sampoong and Glitter, and horror ones to Glitter only.

    Glitter simply devoured the romance WIPs as they come, and these came at a variety of lengths. I guess, some relationships start out non-abusive, much like CaroˇŻs, but some of these books donˇŻt turn into abusive relationships until much later. The non-abusive ones I liked best were slow burns or friends to lovers. And the only thing that could redeem CaroˇŻs book in my eyes is making sure that Gustavs continues to behave normally towards Emma, despite his financial superiority over her. And, of course, put in more stuff happening between them, outside of the hockey-related chapters!

    At night, when the stream begins, Caro starts by getting the daily battle pass quest done, and then she tells the other viewers about what Capitolium reminded her of last night.

    ˇ°Last night, Capitolium, who, by the way, started writing his chapters out of order, reminded me of how prospects are the hardest class of assets to value in trades. Like I get it, draft day trades are the only time where you can see picks traded away on their own. However, outside of draft day, picks are traded away for the other two, and the other two for each otherˇ± Caro explains to her viewers, now including some hockey romance fans.

    ˇ°Why do the media call certain teams buyers and sellers? How do you think players feel about the deadline?ˇ± Sampoong asks, in a Korean accent.

    ˇ°The media call teams buyers and sellers based on the roster players being traded. Buyer teams trade away prospects and picks for a shot at winning the Cup. Selling teams trade players away to get more picks or prospectsˇ± Caro answers the first question, having laid the groundwork for the answer to the second one. ˇ°If youˇŻre on a selling team, the deadline would induce anxiety in players, be it because you bounce teams a lot or because you played for several seasons on a team you got loyal to, and you lose your sports identity overnight. If youˇŻre on a contender, thereˇŻs more nuanceˇ±

    ˇ°On top of that, what makes prospects so difficult to gauge trade value for is that there are so many variables in a playerˇŻs development. But, in general, the further away from the NHL a prospect is, the lower the value, ceiling being equalˇ± Capitolium adds.

    Lagado joins the voice chat for the first time. ˇ°I wonder why is it that the draft is almost never in sports romance books, even without any draft-day trades. You would think that a college athlete or, if hockey, major junior, would have found a kiss on the draft floor romanticˇ±

    The draft should be easier to fit in a plot than the transactional aspect of the sport. Try fitting the transactional aspect in a basketball romance book: itˇŻs far, far more complicated to deal with cap hits and free agency. You have stuff such as the mid-level exception, the trade exception, Larry Bird exception, the luxury tax, the first and second aprons... Give me the NHLˇŻs salary cap structure any day, Lagado reflects on what to expect from both Capitolium and Caro. Trying to make sense of the NBA salary cap would be enough to write a novella about.

    ˇ°Once again, that was very instructive for me, but I am made to feel like trading is not an exact scienceˇ± Sampoong comments on an aspect of the transactional aspect of sports.

    Marie-France: You might never know when a player can get injured, or whether a player needs either a specific system or to avoid another one to play wellUnauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    Jacques: The media is often too quick to anoint a team a winner in a trade

    Football is the most system-dependent sport I know, and hence trades happen much less often in-season, Lagado is reminded of this discussion of how hockey is the only sport with all 3 classes of assets. Football and basketball have draft picks but not prospects, baseball has prospects but not draft picks. I guess you can call rights to a non-roster player, prospects in football or basketball, but they arenˇŻt usually worth nearly as much as in hockey or baseball.

    Maridun: What are the victory conditions of trades?

    Jacques: Usually, winning or losing a trade is about which team had the better players

    While CarolineˇŻs own draft-day scene would also feature trades that are more reminiscent of a trade deadline deal than the classic ˇ°picks-for-picksˇ± deals that happen every year, she struggles to think of a deal that could make a team worry that Gustavs could be next. I might be wondering: what kind of trade do I want to see trigger GustavsˇŻ anxiety? Ideally, I would want a pick in the top 15, but outside of the top 5 because I know that a lot of attempts are made every year to trade into the top 5, yet none succeed for whatever reason. They are the trades more likely not to be pure ˇ°picks-for-picksˇ±. Like Romanov and pick #98 for pick #13, which was then traded away by the Canadiens, along with pick #66, for Kirby Dach.

    As with Capitolium last night, albeit on air as opposed to off it, she puts on a voice acting flair for the first draft of this line in her manuscript:

    ˇ°We have a trade to announce: Seattle trades Tuukka Nattinen to Buffalo for picks number nine and seventy-one in this yearˇŻs draft, along withˇ­ˇ± Caroline stops reading the line, feeling that something is amiss.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs wrong, Caro?ˇ± Sampoong asks her, seeing Caro having some kind of malaise.

    ˇ°Remember what I said about prospects being the hardest to evaluate in trades? While I donˇŻt plan on keeping track of every teamˇŻs standings, I just didnˇŻt want to just pull some prospect out of nowhere! Especially when I donˇŻt have said prospect play, nor have Buffalo play Montreal as a plot-bearing game!ˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, Caro, even without throwing in a prospect, having another player traded away for just number nine and seventy-one is enough to make Gustavs feel like heˇŻs next! Unlike me, youˇŻre not doing it from the POV of a potential draftee!ˇ± Capitolium tells her.

    I improved by leaps and bounds this season. I am due for a big raise, but it seems like my current team canˇŻt afford it. However, Nattinen, also playing on a team with a player or two due for big raises, makes me feel like I could be next, Caro writes GustavsˇŻ inner monologue, and then have him text Emma, in French, about how he dreaded this yearˇŻs draft day. With, of course, updating the word count.

    This makes me feel far too much like the hockey version of Draft Day, that these two writers are, for their respective current chapters anyway, relying too much on the sort of ˇ°by-the-numbersˇ± storytelling that only a statistician would love, an amused Lagado watches the two writers discuss how players approach the draft.

    ˇ°IˇŻm afraid our runtime for tonightˇŻs stream is over, so I will raid another streamer momentarilyˇ± Caro announces, while updates her word count and then checks TwitchˇŻs directory against the list of potential streamers to raid that Sampoong gave her this morning. Once she enters the command in Streamlabsˇ­

    CarolineˇŻs stream ends, and her viewers are now treated to another stream of another NaNoWriMo participant, writing another book on air as well.

    ˇ°Thank you for the raid!ˇ± LegnicaWrites, the host streamer, or Legnica for short, tells CaroˇŻs viewers in a Polish accent. ˇ°For those who joined us from the raid, who among you take part in NaNoWriMo?ˇ±

    Caroline: Me

    Capitolium: Me

    Legnica then announces a new sprint, or word war as they are sometimes called. ˇ°The next sprint is for twenty minutes, and you have five minutes to submit word counts for the sprint. The winner will have their name announced on air!ˇ±

    Unbeknownst to the pair, Glitter somehow watches LegnicaˇŻs stream (even though Legnica isnˇŻt her real name, it is her hometown).

    Oh boyˇ­ for the next 20 minutes, I must go in deeper into the draft day scene! About how he practically agonizes during the first day of the draft, freaking out whenever he hears the words ˇ°We have a trade to announceˇ±, Caroline furiously starts writing said scene. I wonˇŻt let Capitolium, nor Legnica, get away with this writing sprint!

    At the same time, Capitolium appears to be running out of steam as he finishes off the scene where his MMC and FMC are kissing each other on the draft floor, with his MMC wearing WashingtonˇŻs jersey. Now that I have settled for Tyler September as a prospect traded away to Pittsburgh on draft day, along with #17 and #70, I wonder how the World Juniors arc will proceed, and how much chemistry my MMC will have with the FMC by that point.

    It seems that several of LegnicaˇŻs preexisting viewers are locked into a writing sprint with the two newcomers, and Caro makes Emma respond to him a little late into the first round. When heˇŻs busy watching the draft at a teammateˇŻs home, with his teammateˇŻs family.

    However, itˇŻs obvious that Legnica is at a disadvantage because she must respond to viewers on the chat while she writes, whereas the other sprinters donˇŻt necessarily chat during these 20 minutes.

    Kind of like Sampoong who normally watched Legnica during weekend afternoons (Daegu time). I began watching Caro because the main Korean MAA streamers left the game, I first watched Legnica when she played CaroˇŻs game for a few days. Caro might be pretty, but she has the build of a hockey player, and not necessarily as fit as one. Legnica, on the other hand, has a slenderer build. As much as their bodies are visible on air anyway.

    At the same time, Glitter starts praying that both Capitolium and Caro keep quiet about hockey when watching LegnicaˇŻs sub-a-thon.

    ˇ°Often people will ask me about how to create tension in a romance book without having incompatible personalities in the lead coupleˇ± Legnica responds to a viewer question.

    Glitter: You can have ˇ°Why chooseˇ±, external factors, like the off-relationship life interfering, age or wealth gap, power dynamics, slow burn, to name those that I read

    Incompatible personalities, such as grumpy x sunshine, bad person x good person are very common. Caroline understood that not every romance story needs to have one, Marie-France prays for CarolineˇŻs success in this sprint. Read enough romance books, hockey or not, with incompatible personalities and youˇŻll wish for a book without these.

    At the same time, Capitolium has finished writing the ending to his book, which he called The Penalty Box of Passion. He is also reminded of what it would mean if he chose to have the MMC play for a team in Quebec vs in Atlantic Canada.

    Caroline feels like she needs to push herself harder as the clock ticks in on her, as well as the other sprinters (or belligerents). And her hands start shaking. Every word counts; I must finish the chapter about the draft! When the sprint ends, sprinters have a 5-minute window to post their word count for it.

    She refrains from posting first, feeling like her efforts could be for nothing if she posts too quickly. And the viewers turned out to write at various speeds, from a writer who barely managed 100 words in 20 minutes, to, well, herself, writing around 500 words.

    ˇ°And the winner is...ˇ± Legnica tells the viewers CaroˇŻs Twitch username, and then makes a shoutout to her. ˇ°Could you please tell us about your project?ˇ±

    ThereˇŻs a reason why romance lovers tend to love reading about incompatible personalities in a couple, and some people swear by specific incompatibilities. And certainly some people who read books that Caro called horror books in all but name, Glitter feels compelled to talk in LegnicaˇŻs chat, as well as hit the follow button. And join LegnicaˇŻs Discord server, as both Caro and Sampoong did. However, Maridun, Marie-France and Jacques all left by this point.

    ˇ°Thank you for the follow...ˇ± Legnica then tells GlitterˇŻs Twitch username, of which Glitter was a shortened form.

    Glitter: The ˇ°so whatˇ± tension source tends to melt away for me if you have two people with sufficient compatibility who can hook up and things will work just fine; I tend not to get as invested in the couple, nor in the resulting will they or wonˇŻt they

 Chapter 63: Sampoong the Noob

    IˇŻm playing the game Caro is playing, and the game is slow as molasses. Usually, the kind of players who somehow become good enough to make what amounts to a national team for raiding RWFs in a game like MAA thrive on fast reflexes and processing speeds. I guess, years of high-end raiding wore her down, Sampoong installs the game Caro plays on air, and starts reading the manuscripts LegnicaˇŻs viewers are writing on the side. Oh: because I started the game with the battle pass well underway, and my starter units arenˇŻt that great. So I wonder how the hell IˇŻm going to get to the good stuff of that game, how fast and so onˇ­

    And, of course, at the inn, which is used mostly pre-endgame to get more units, for a price, Sampoong gets bombarded by ads about stuff such as premium units, resource packs available for a limited time, and/or limited on a per-account basis, and so on, with account-wide weekly spending limits.

    A pay-to-win game, but where buying oneˇŻs way to power has its limits. So he feels like he needs to make some headway into the game before he can decide before heˇŻll like playing a game where chess is the order of the day, and has the pacing of chess.

    ˇ°Hmmmˇ­ if this is the kind of game where I have no time limit to wait to make a move, I guess, I could adjust to it. But from what I heard, cash shop units are no better than high-tier units one can get in regular gameplayˇ± Sampoong sighs, while he feels this game is a game he could play when doing other tasks.

    Battle pass is perhaps the best way for noobs to get high-tier units, he starts getting a feel for the gameˇŻs mechanics. He is left wondering how much time he can save by buying battle pass boosts, seeing that the rewards from the battle pass are significant enough to compel Caro to play every week.

    So for now, heˇŻs playing the gameˇŻs first stage of the campaign, and, as the campaign progresses, players get new characters for them to go on adventures with, as well as send on dispatch quests to earn more money.

    Between campaign stages, which he plays on normal because heˇŻs new to the game, he reads a manuscript of a historical harem romance. Which, to him, allows for ˇ°why chooseˇ± kinds of tension, provided the writer doesnˇŻt make the people in the harem feel robotic.

    It''s already bad enough when you have a romance book where you have a female lead whose core flaw is being a doormat, has no other personality trait and her backstory is trauma-ridden, sometimes when you want a large number of love interests, you have no choice but to cut corners, Sampoong reads the manuscript, whose writer makes him feel like his MMC just wants to collect as many love interests as he can afford. The key word here being afford; after all, the MMC, as an Ottoman sanjak-bey, wasnˇŻt among the richest.

    But after reading about an Ottoman sanjak-bey struggling to keep his harem together, and realizing that his harem was a burden on his sanjak, he resumes playing the gameˇŻs main campaign. He finally reaches the first story boss, and realizes that perhaps he forgot something important upon returning to his home base, before attempting the boss.

    ˇ°Oh crap!ˇ± Sampoong realizes there were red circles with exclamation marks left unattended that he must cash in.

    Cashing in the red circles, one by one, gives him more resources, which he puts to use for upgrading the home base. And he also cashes in the daily battle pass quest, before reviewing the one-time chain of beginnerˇŻs quests.

    By this point, Caro is asleep and hence he canˇŻt ask for her help just yet. I guess, I should get a guide for specific things in that game I get stuck on. Like hiring a unit, since itˇŻs the final step missing in that beginnerˇŻs quest. I might also want to know what to expect from units and review the units I have beforehand.

    He is eyeing a specific type of unit, and units available have their prices. More expensive units have a higher probability to be of a higher grade, but even then, a grade cannot be guaranteed. And yet, one of the most disliked aspects of unit hiring through the inn is the luck component of doing so.

    In these types of games, a healer is always appreciated to some degree. So I guess, I should hire one, Sampoong pulls the trigger on doing so, and hires a low-grade healer with his current budget. Which he manages to replenish a little by cashing in the reward from the final step of the first beginnerˇŻs quest. And yields him his first high-grade unit. I guess, I owe it to Caro since I learned so much from her about a different facet of romance, as well as about the transactional aspect of North American pro sports. Especially the NHL. Until I watched her, all I knew about romance was sex being expected to be part of the deal, and people being in love with each other. And Glitter showed me what can go wrong in love.

    Speaking of which, he attempts to kill two birds with one stone, by re-doing the first map of the main campaign, and having his shiny first high-tier unit run it, alongside his new healer. In the end, he feels ecstatic by the rewards earned from accomplishing sub-tasks of the beginnersˇŻ quests, as he accomplished 2 sub-tasks of that quest.

    To accomplish the third sub-task, he dispatches one unit on a ˇ°dispatch questˇ± asking him to kill 3 enemies before he gets the unit back for the boss fight. Which he does by running the second story map again with his other units.

    Prior to running the boss fight, Sampoong DMs Glitter on Discord about how grateful he is for her.

    Sampoong: Thank you, Glitter, for showing me in what ways romance isnˇŻt all roses and sex

    It canˇŻt be all non-abusive, nor can it be all abusive. However, I donˇŻt think Glitter is going to respond just yet, Sampoong sighs before fighting the first chapterˇŻs boss.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Which is actually more manageable than he believed it to be, but then again, he is subtly reminded that itˇŻs still the beginning of the game. That games of this kind start out easy, then get progressively harder, and rewards, while bigger, are also spaced farther apart in time. With that said, he has a better idea of whether he could want to keep playing that game in the long run.

    The next beginnerˇŻs quest asks him to clear chapter 2 of the campaign, which takes a bit longer because he needs to level his units some. And also to undertake basic tutorials on certain core gameplay aspects, infuriating him.

    ˇ°Does that gameˇŻs manufacturer act as if everyone is new to the game? Looks like the manufacturer shoves that down playersˇŻ throats so they can get players to conform to a playing style!ˇ± Sampoong screams at the screen.

    Namely, the rock-paper-scissors weapon mechanism and movement per unit types. He grudgingly runs them, just so he could move to more advanced stages in the beginners quest. Time to hit the open world, I guess, he sighs. I think I should be able to function in the early game and not just because of how I learned about the game through Caro.

    Speaking of Caro, he DMs her, knowing that she lives in a different time zone, after clearing an open world stage as well as the second campaign chapter:

    Sampoong: I am a noob at your game, I wonder if the rewards from the beginnerˇŻs quest line and the battle pass are worthwhile

    GlitterˇŻs response comes in the dead of night, Daegu time (or high noon, GlitterˇŻs time):

    Glitter: You must also realize that a lot of romance readers will attempt to self-insert

    And also that some writers tended to give one side as little personality as possible for this reason. Mostly female, but a few M/M romance writers fall into this trap, too. The blank slates if you will, Glitter muses while on lunch break. Some of them want to read what romance lovers refer jokingly as ˇ°the same book in a different fontˇ± while others read or write books with a specific trait or plot line/point. And romance readers can get very, very specific, to the point of pushing them to write their own if they canˇŻt be satisfied.

    Such as wanting, for example, a plus-size lead, or a lead of a specific race, with specific traits to either lead, along with a specific relationship dynamic and/or setting.

    And yet, Glitter begins to realize that requests for hockey romance books with actual hockey in the plot are recurrent. Even though they both acted as if fitting the hockey into the plot properly was more important than the relationship, maybe I was a little too harsh on Capitolium and Caroˇ­

    Which pushes Glitter to post the following remark on both CaroˇŻs and LegnicaˇŻs Discord servers:

    Glitter: There are times where romance readers want to read about a specific relationship dynamic because they experience it themselves

    I wonder if itˇŻs a healthy coping mechanism... I donˇŻt assume any given romance reader would have issues in their respective relationships that bear any resemblance to what they read, and, really, itˇŻs not my place to ask anyone about that. You would think that, when you are in an unhealthy relationship, you wish for a healthy one, but, at the same time, sometimes I feel like obliviousness to love is the only way Caro can even write a healthy relationship. IˇŻm not actually opposed to reading non-abusive books, it just seems like newer releases lean more towards abusive behaviors, or other kinds of problematic behaviors, Glitter starts her inner monologue. Others still want to get, in writing, what they couldnˇŻt get in real life.

    To which a surprised Caro responds, using her cellphone while in the bathroom, clueless about that aspect of romance readership motivations:

    Caroline: How could you tell whether someone reads romance because of real relationship issues vs escapism?

    Glitter: Those who read for escapism usually focus on character traits, or plot lines, but could be open to read about a variety of relationship dynamics, whereas relationship dynamics carry the day for people reading romance because of their own relationship issues

    When Sampoong awakens, right before CaroˇŻs stream starts, he reads GlitterˇŻs explanation of how oneˇŻs relationship could shape oneˇŻs reading habits. I guess, Glitter hits the nail on the head. It didnˇŻt occur to me until now that I judged romance books by the quality of their sex scenes because of my own lack of sexual satisfaction.

    However, he is a little puzzled by what heˇŻs seeing in LegnicaˇŻs server. About the wish fulfillment aspect of romance books. About how some readers, unable to obtain something they desire by themselves, or their characters even, must obtain it vicariously. About the dangers of using books for escapism. At the mention of which Legnica made, a few hours ago, of a book recommendation, in a chat room of her server.

    Legnica: It might be a little dated, but Madame Bovary is a reminder of the dangers of delving too deeply into romance books

    I wonder if Glitter or Legnica are, in the outside world, couples therapists. If Korean regulations allowed the use of foreign couples tele-therapists, and they are, in fact, couples therapists, I might consider them, Sampoong is left wondering, upon these two mentioning that, while some people attempted to have relationships with bad people, of the kind portrayed in romance books, and almost all of them ended poorly. But wait! I might need to exhaust what I have access to locally first!

    When the stream begins, Sampoong begins by telling CaroˇŻs viewers about how he started playing her game, while entering the VC.

    ˇ°Today, I started playing the game Caro is playing on airˇ± Sampoong announces.

    ˇ°Sampoong, how do you feel about playing this game?ˇ± Caro asks him, while she opens the game herself.

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt go far enough into the game to determine whether itˇŻs satisfactory to me. It might be easy now, but I know it wonˇŻt last foreverˇ±

    ˇ°What kinds of games did you play before?ˇ± Caro asks him.

    ˇ°MAA, but I wasnˇŻt nearly as good at it as youˇ± he answers with some apprehension.

    ˇ°When I started playing this game, I embraced its slower pace because, as good as I used to be at MAA, years of playing it at high levels drained me. But getting good at it wasnˇŻt instant, even for me; part of the learning curve was adapting to another genreˇ±

    Day 6, after having played her daily quests, Caro is left wondering how would Emma react if Gustavs approached her to get help learning French. Especially when he feels like she owes him a favor for the ticket to the Backcrackers game.

    ˇ°You mentioned there was a learning curveˇ± Lagado slips a mention of learning curves when Caro resumes writing Player Masher, after her daily dose of the game is taken. ˇ°How does it feel to learn about creative writing on air?ˇ±

    ˇ°I used my stream as a source of feedback, but what IˇŻm really learning on air is about whose feedback to trust and who not toˇ±

    ˇ°Better learn that than nothing at all, I guessˇ­ˇ± Lagado sighs.

    I sure as hell would take much longer than a few short weeks to be as good a writer as even CaroˇŻs current selfˇ­ not that Caro is that great, mind you. It seems like sheˇŻs relying on her knowledge of hockey to see this challenge through, and has a somewhat decent grasp of characterization, Sampoong reflects on CaroˇŻs nearly 15,000 words of WIP at the end of the stream.

 Chapter 64: Does the Excitement Fade?

    Near the end of the stream, on November 6, both Capitolium and Caro are well over the daily rate required for victory. However, Capitolium has a few words of caution for Caro on VC:

    ˇ°As a NaNo veteran, week two is where the initial excitement of starting a writing project can turn into a nightmareˇ± Capitolium tells her. ˇ°You will be more vulnerable to writer blockˇ±

    ˇ°Really? I had no idea!ˇ± Caro rolls her eyes.

    Like I still need to decide where in the QMJHL I want to place my player, do I want it in Quebec or outside of Quebec? I left it vague for now, and the team name along with it. Then again, I could always have, say, the Armada, the Drakkar or one of the Abitibi teams relocated to either Trois-Rivi¨¨res or Rivi¨¨re-du-Loup if I feel it best serves my story, but academic considerations might force my hand into setting my story somewhere in Atlantic Canada, Capitolium feels the urge to resolve something that has been left vague so that he can push through week 1. At the same time, choosing to have my character play in the Q would also force a state of origin for my MMC, since the Q has first dibs on New England players.

    ˇ°And there will be times when you might be tempted to scrap certain passages, or details, because a newer passage contradicts an older one, or vice-versa. You will be able to edit your own work later. All I really ask for this month is to finish the first draftˇ± Capitolium re-states one of the conditions attached to the challenge.

    ˇ°IˇŻll think about editing when IˇŻll get there. ItˇŻs premature, youˇŻre right. But I still have a long way to go to win, and earn all the cheevosˇ±

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs no shame in missing out on cheevos, especially the daily par. YouˇŻre one of the first NaNo participants I ever heard about that treats it like cheevos in a video gameˇ±

    CaroˇŻs blood starts boiling upon hearing about how thereˇŻs no shame in missing out on the daily par. I promised my viewers that I will 100% NaNo this year, IˇŻm not about to renege on it! I donˇŻt want to disappoint my viewers if I can help it! If it means some stuff can be cut out a month from now, so be it! I still need another 40,000 words, and thatˇŻs the bare minimum just to get to the daily par! On top of that, there are days where I write more than 1667 words, so IˇŻll definitely need to write more than 40,000 extra words to get to the daily par!

    The stream ends with her getting malaises due to her blood boiling. Yet, she makes it to exactly 15,000 words with a few extra sentences, after which she updates her word count. And with only a few seconds to spare, or else she would deprive her viewers of the opportunity of showing them another cheevo being unlocked on air the following day.

    It''s then that, a little past midnight, she feels the headaches mounting, as she hastily brushes her teeth to go to sleep, because it seems like NaNo has consumed her.

    Once in bed, she shakes in her bed as she tries to fall asleep, especially when she is left wondering what to place between the hockey games.

    <hr>

    This time around, one of her former teammates at the Pee-Wee Worlds, visibly drunk and hence felt safer to sleep at CaroˇŻs home before returning home, was preparing to high-stick her, over the holidays. But there was no stick around for actual high-sticking.

    ˇ°You think discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to intellect?ˇ± her former teammate asked her, menacingly, in a joual-laden accent. ˇ°Then why is it that, after having scored three power-play goals against Latvia, you saw fit to hit that girl at center ice, during the final?ˇ±

    Oh boy. No one ever told me about that hit in the past few years, Caro, frozen in place, tried to remember what she could about that hit, and heard the voice of the referee working that game in the back of her mind:

    ˇ°P¨¦nalit¨¦ majeure et dˇŻextr¨şme inconduite pour mise en ¨¦chec corporelle au num¨¦ro vingt des Valkyries, Caroline Fauchoux!ˇ± (Major penalty and game misconduct for bodychecking to ValkyriesˇŻ number twenty, Caroline Fauchoux!) the phantom refˇŻs voice rang in her mind.

    ˇ°¨¦crase-Joueurs, you cost us gold at the Pee-Wee Worlds! We were tied at that point in the game, and you injured that poor player trying to steal the puck and prevent her from scoring!ˇ± her ex-teammate yelled at her.

    ˇ°And being the one blamed for single-handedly losing the gold medal game on home ice was the final nail in my hockey coffin!ˇ±

    As much as the Pee-Wee Worlds made me feel like I was playing for Canada, as opposed to just the Capitale-Nationale region, it just doesnˇŻt feel like CapitoliumˇŻs characters, especially those who make it to the ¨¦CJ, pressure-wise, CaroˇŻs oneiric self struggled to process how the events leading her to give up on hockey happened.

    GlitterˇŻs oneiric self materialized next to CaroˇŻs ex-teammate.

    ˇ°You want people to swoon over Player Masher, you must dilute the hockey! Try to have Emma think about Gustavs as he improves his French!ˇ± GlitterˇŻs oneiric self yelled at her. ˇ°I get that you fell back on the hockey because thatˇŻs what you knew bestˇ±

    ˇ°I decided against writing more games, or the lead-up to the trade deadline, for the time being because I feel so much depends on how stuff before these games, or the trade deadline, unfoldˇ± Caroline retorted.

    ˇ°How so?ˇ±

    ˇ°I might have Gustavs play team C, whose plot relevance will become clear later, and have Buffalo as a buying team going into the trade deadline! My hands are tied because of this whole draft chapter in that respect!ˇ±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    And then IˇŻd have the ConstellationsˇŻ GM try to field offers for Gustavs when another D-man is cleared to play. Buffalo would still be a division rival, whereas the Backcrackers wouldnˇŻt be, and neither will team C, CaroˇŻs oneiric self started thinking about the whole trade deadline chapter, which she had kind of an idea of how it would create tensions among the couple. Damn, so many ideas, and I canˇŻt even act upon any of them because IˇŻm still stuck having to write more off-ice scenes I feel are necessary to get the plot moving!

    <hr>

    After the brutal awakening, around 1 AM EST, she feels like she needs to read other romance manuscripts, on whichever servers whose members actually had links to WIPs, to find some more inspiration for said scenes. Drat! It seems like Legnica wrote her very own romance NaNo as all-consuming, whereas I feel obliviousness to love works for me specifically because the relationship wasnˇŻt all-consuming! I canˇŻt ask in my own server because I feel like the only person who can answer to my satisfaction, Glitter, still holds a grudge against me over Player Masher deemed having too much hockey.

    Speaking of Legnica, Caro posts on her Discord server a question, while making sure thereˇŻs no reference to LegnicaˇŻs manuscript in the message she sends in the chatroom. Which she also DMs Glitter about:

    Caroline: Is it normal for romance books to portray love as all-consuming?

    Since itˇŻs 7 AM in southwest Poland, Legnica awakens, and her face shows some surprise when she sees Caro, of all people, ask about the portrayal of love as all-consuming in romance. Ojej! She writes romance and she comes to me asking about whether itˇŻs normal for love to be portrayed as all-consuming? Most romance readers tend to take that for granted! The only thing she takes for granted is a happy ending.

    Legnica: Outside of star-crossed lovers, or obliviousness to love, yes

    However, Glitter, upon awakening, when itˇŻs 7 AM in GlitterˇŻs time zone, and hence a few hours after Legnica answered Caro, checks her own Discord DMs.

    Glitter: You do realize that a lot of romance readers wish for one such relationship

    Caroline (on the defensive): I tried to write my own scenes away from hockey, and I looked to othersˇŻ manuscripts for inspiration

    Glitter: The way youˇŻre headed, you can have Emma think of him while working with some online podcast on during a game

    Caroline: And make her look at hockey differently now that she attended a game in person at not-Centre Bell

    Sometimes, an all-consuming, yet seemingly non-abusive relationship can be dangerous. My last read is about how a relationship, starting out non-abusive, and feeling like a dream come true at the onset, but turns into a problematic relationship later. And problems appear on both sides, but not the same on each side, Glitter reflects on her last read, while Caroline is about to go to work. This romance book is showing signs of codependency, but some people would find themselves re-reading either the first half or the last quarter.

    Glitter: Another thing you should remember: not everyone is looking for the best writing they can put their hands on, and some people reading lots of near-identical books donˇŻt care so long as certain criteria are met

    But after a stressful day at work, Caro struggles to write about how Emma would look at hockey differently when working on a project while a game is underway. Damnˇ­ how am I going to 100% this yearˇŻs NaNo if I canˇŻt even write this scene about how Gustavs giving her a ticket to watch a game at not-Centre Bell in person made her look at hockey differently? I canˇŻt just play the game in hopes inspiration comes like this!

    Yet, a few of LegnicaˇŻs North American viewers start to tune in after Caro posted a link on LegnicaˇŻs Discord server about her going live, during the beginning intermission.

    When her daily battle pass quest is finished, Caro issues a warning to her viewers:

    ˇ°I must warn you: the passages ahead may, nay, will be crappy writing, but thereˇŻs only one way out of this mess for me now, and still hope to get to the daily par. A ten-minute sprint, and once it ends, the participants have two minutes to post their word counts. You will then get a shout out from me!ˇ± Caro feels a little uneasy.

    Come on, mind, I need it to function! I must get whatever words on this document, no matter what! Caro starts sweating on air, while writing about how this whole experience with Gustavs gifting Emma a ticket to a Constellations home game makes her realize that hockey players have lives off the game, too. In fact, I think Glitter would show signs of beingˇ­ less bitter about the excessive amounts of hockey if she read about that.

    And yet, the resulting text feels a little too corny to her taste, and she feels the clock ticking in on her. Especially with a few of her viewers who also write fast and loose for a few minutes, too. However, she feels like thereˇŻs only so much emotion she can possibly make Emma feel at this point of the story.

    She also struggles recalling what advice GlitterˇŻs oneiric version gave her in this nightmare of having her ex-teammate at the Pee-Wee Worlds trying to high-stick her. What did Glitter tell me to add last night? My memory failing me like this isnˇŻt something that happens often, but why now? It seems like this memory blank has cost me precious words!

    Marie-France (reading CaroˇŻs manuscript as it gets written on air): How could you possibly have forgotten about Gustavs needing some help learning French?

    When Marie-FranceˇŻs comment arrives on her chat, the siren signaling the end of the sprint rings, and Caro must stop writing to take a word count for the 10 minutes. She quickly realizes that, for this specific sprint, she was beaten, and pretty badly.

    Once all the results are in, she opens her NaNo interface, and enters the current word count into the system. By doing so, she manages to have written a grand total of 120 words. Not the best sprint by any stretch, but enough to unlock the ninth achievement.

    ˇ°Woohoo! This isnˇŻt much, but hereˇŻs the seven-day streak cheevo!ˇ± Caro shows off its pink-and-orange hexagonal badge. ˇ°Shout out to Capitolium, who wrote three hundred fifty-one words of his very own major junior-themed hockey romance in the past ten minutes!ˇ±

    Maridun: This is completely unlike you! What made you run writing sprints on air?

    Marie-France: Your memory blanking out isnˇŻt like you either!

    I really hope that this shiny new cheevo will help me overcome this mental roadblock. Also, IˇŻm not familiar with how it feels to a newcomer to do francisation, Marie-FranceˇŻs comment about Gustavs needing help to learn French seems to get to her. and then she asks for help about how it feels to learn a foreign language.

    And yet, because some of these new viewers kept reading about allusions to hockey, they ask Caro some variation of ˇ°whatˇŻs a hockeyˇ± or ˇ°whatˇŻs an NHLˇ± while she redoubles her efforts about writing the banter from Gus in some broken French, and make him struggle with even relatively basic things as he could say in everyday life.

    Which leaves Capitolium to deal with the viewers asking questions about hockey and the NHL while Caro just keeps writing what one of these viewers feels is wordwang.

    And Caro keeps writing at a breakneck pace about EmmaˇŻs newfound appreciation for pro hockey playersˇŻ lives off the game, as she helps her improve GustavsˇŻ spoken French. Her wrists in pain from such rapid writing, she continues writing as quickly as is feasible, feeling like sheˇŻd let her viewers down if she doesnˇŻt reach 1667 words for the day.

 Chapter 65: A Little Too Heavy on the Wrists

    ˇ°You know what, Caro? I might have my hockey-playing character homeschooled, and then have him take advantage of the love interest to have her cover for him for whatever his hockey schedule doesnˇŻt allow him to doˇ± Capitolium comments on the tension that would create.

    ˇ°And donˇŻt forget the abuse of AI! It gets abused in homeschooling!ˇ± Lagado comments on how Capitolium plans to go around his part in the project.

    If I had my MMC abuse AI, then the FMCˇŻs role would be much more limited, but she might still have a role in covering for his academic limitations nonetheless. This means more non-academic interactions for the two leads, Capitolium jots down notes about the impact of AI on his MMC.

    Caro starts one last sprint for the night, 10 minutes as with all previous sprints, and her word count for the day, while not yet at 1667, is cutting it close. My wrists canˇŻt take it much longer, getting to 1667 better be worth it! Just a few more minutes, and I can stop for the day.

    Caro then edges closer to the end of the chapter, but with her wrists hurting her at every extra word appearing on the Google Docs page.

    Sure, she might not need to win every sprint, but since she lost every sprint for the night, Caro grows more desperate to show her viewers that she hasnˇŻt lost her touch. I canˇŻt let my viewers down, and I wonˇŻt go down without a fight! She thinks, while her hurting hands are making her job harder.

    Even more so now, she feels like her hands are hurting. She even shakes her hands off the keyboard in an attempt to numb the pain. Which are telltale signs to her viewers that maybe sheˇŻs trying too hard to remain on schedule for the daily par cheevo.

    ˇ°Time is up!ˇ± Caro signals to the viewers taking part in this writing sprint. ˇ°You have two minutes to get your word counts up!ˇ±

    CarolineˇŻs word count for the sprint was a staggering 398 words for a mere 10 minutes of writing, and she sighs when she enters the final word count of the day into NaNoˇŻs system. She sighs, seeing that said count is almost 2000 words for today.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt think I can sustain such rapid writing rates for prolonged periods. Do you all have any hints to ensure that I donˇŻt wreck my wrists by the end of the month?ˇ± Caro asks, feeling like she might not want to push herself that hard going forward.

    Man, Caro really is a tryhard! Sampoong muses, upon seeing how fast she could write when she feels the urgency. Like she feels that every single day brings in new challenges, and new word counts.

    ˇ°The big problem is that inspiration doesnˇŻt come as a steady stream, and you shouldnˇŻt rely on sprints alone to get to the daily par you obsess over!ˇ± Capitolium deadpans her.

    Now I think I have an idea: I might want to write a short story, also by November 30, about how some romance book lover uses a passion for romance books to become a couples therapist, Glitter is made to feel that, while the ship has sailed for NaNo, she might want to attempt something smaller. Especially after seeing Caro risk her wrists on air. IˇŻm aware that somethingˇŻs gotta give when one writes stories one-tenth the length of a NaNo.

    But Glitter keeps thinking that she always seems to fall short of any of the dispatch objectives of the quests she sent her own characters on in the game. She then takes what characters she has left on open-world battles so she can make up for the shortfalls.

    Once the dispatch quests are completed, and her battle pass objectives are now considered accomplished for the week, her mind returns to this short story idea. I always hear about how, even without debt, some people who graduated from college were disappointed by the post-graduation life. So I could always start the story with my lead feeling tired of working an unfulfilling job that she works just to pay the bills, despite picking the cheapest option for college. Not the sexiest thing in the world, but even an escape from an unfulfilling career would be something some people could relate to. And perhaps seeing in a graduate degree some sort of silver bullet, tooˇ­

    And yet, on Friday, Caro returns from work, realizing that she will need more than just comfort food to get through the weekend. She goes out, yes, to buy some frozen pizza, but her memories of the wrist pain she endured last night lingers. By now, I must ensure that I will have enough Bengay, which we previously didnˇŻt have at home, to last me until November 30, as well as coffee, since I know I will need both to see this challenge through.

    SheˇŻs now at the shelf, where analgesic heat rubs are present: Capzasin, Bengay, and in different varieties. At this point, she takes out her cell phone to look up which one is most likely to relieve the kind of wrist pains she endured last night, and also the scent. However, she doesnˇŻt make much of a deal of the scent of such, since she also realizes that she didnˇŻt see any material changes in the writing based on how the room she wrote stuff in smelled. And yet, I donˇŻt want to be reminded of my wrist pains in any shape or form if I needed to use heat rubs, so IˇŻm going with the unscented Bengay, she thinks while putting some tub of unscented Bengay in the cart.

    However, after putting in the Bengay in the cart, and the coffee, she knows that, if she is to buy some coffee enhancers, not only she feels, that as with the coffee, the total quantity must be sufficient to last the family until Nov 30, she must consider her parentsˇŻ tastes in such. She texts her dad:

    Caroline: Je suis ¨¤ lˇŻ¨¦picerie, quelles saveurs de cr¨¨me ¨¤ caf¨¦ vous voulez? (IˇŻm buying groceries, what flavors of coffee cream do you want?)

    CarolineˇŻs dad: Mocha menthe poivr¨¦e pour moi (Peppermint mocha for me)

    One bottle of peppermint mocha for dad, another one of maple latte for mom, and Southern butter pecan for me, Caro grabs her 3 bottles of coffee enhancers but makes for the cashier immediately since the frozen pizza has a shelf life.

    Upon returning home, she prepares her coffee, along with the frozen pizza, so that she gets ready to go write and eat on air. Which she does and, as per usual, she feels like, by day 8, she must brace herself for the road ahead.

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream. TodayˇŻs daily battle pass quest will be over quickly, and once that ends, I will eat dinner on air. A little hasty, though, since I still have so many words left to write for the dayˇ± Caro starts the stream, as she starts playing the game.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Speaking of the daily quest, Sampoong has resumed playing that game for the first time in a few days, claims the daily login bonus before trying to complete the daily battle pass quest. And, of course, the beginnerˇŻs quest chain. Which, for him, means that he must complete chapter 3 of the main campaign, since he already cashes in the reward for the first sub-quest. But before then, he must set up stuff for which he asks for CaroˇŻs help in voice chat:

    ˇ°Before I can advance any further down chapter three of the main campaign, I would like to know how I can confer blessings on my characters or make them learn new skillsˇ± Sampoong asks about these things because he feels these are much faster to deal with than completing chapter 3 of the main campaign.

    ˇ°What Sampoong is experiencing is one of the more confusing things new players often face in this game. What I encourage new players to do is to familiarize themselves with the gameˇŻs sub-menus. For blessings and skills, thereˇŻs the Upgrades button on the main menu, which brings up all the possible ways to upgrade charactersˇ±

    I have the feeling that there will be more systems I need to familiarize myself with if I want to keep playing this game. Yes, a lot of Korean games are accused of system bloat, and now I have a better idea of why Caro so diligently sends her characters on quests: these systemsˇŻ benefits feed into each other! Sampoong starts realizing that maybe this game starts to get more tedious than he would like.

    Luckily for him, some buttons are grayed out, which make it easier for him to locate what he needs to do for the quest. And read all the new skills he has access to with his chosen characterˇŻs knowledge budget.

    Speaking of which, Sampoong looks up a guide on the gameˇŻs knowledge mechanic. Units gain knowledge by performing actions in battle, as well as sending them on quests, he keeps reading about how fast each method yields knowledge, but the warning at the very top of that chart tells him that using experience crystals on units will not make them gain any knowledge.

    ˇ°Oh, the guide for this gameˇŻs knowledge mechanic told me about experience crystals. Are there times where itˇŻs more advantageous to use them?ˇ± Sampoong then has one of his primary units learn a passive inspiration ability providing additional attack and defense to the playerˇŻs units up to 2 tiles away.

    ˇ°The only time IˇŻd recommend using xp crystals is when youˇŻre within ten percent of a level upˇ± Caroline advises Sampoong while heˇŻs looking at the experience crystals menu.

    Good, I earned over 8,000 crystals and I wonder how fast IˇŻll drain my budget, he muses as he checks against his charactersˇŻ leveling status, while Caro finishes up playing the daily battle pass quest. He ends up spending 599 crystals to round up his charactersˇŻ levels. And it is then that he resumes his road towards Ch3 of the main campaign.

    When Caro is done with the daily battle pass quest, she checks on the frozen pizza and then brews her coffee, as well as take the tub of odorless Bengay with her. Once the food is ready for her to take to her room:

    ˇ°For those watching tonight, and also take part in NaNo or any of its alternates, I strongly advise you to have analgesic heat rubs, such as Bengay, on hand, especially if you feel regular sprinting is the way to go for you to get to the daily word count targetˇ± Caro explains to her as she starts eating the frozen pizza.

    ˇ°This reminds me: I exhausted the last of my Bengay last night, I need to get a new tub of it before I resume writing The Penalty Box of Passion!ˇ± Capitolium then storms off to the nearest pharmacy store to get one, along with other medical supplies.

    ˇ°And hereˇŻs the first sprint of the night: unlike previous sprints, here there is a word target to reach within the next fifteen minutes: write two percent of your current word count. However, when reporting the result, please do so as a percentage of the old word count, and a shout-out will be given to the one with the highest percentageˇ± Caro announces to her viewers.

    For Caro, this means she must write 348 words for this sprint to be considered done, since she managed to sneak in a few hundred words during both lunch and bathroom breaks. As she starts writing this scene about how Gustavs asks for EmmaˇŻs future schedule, Capitolium left the voice chat.

    Caro is about to discover why November is the month where I use Bengay the most. She already had a taste of it last night, Capitolium muses as he goes to the pharmacy store at which he has a loyalty card to buy a Bengay tub. He knows that time is short, however, as he is also falling behind the pace required to get to the daily par.

    At the same time, Glitter is struggling to think of where to set her own short story even as she starts writing it on her very own Google Doc. What she could write, on the other hand, revolves around her protagonistˇŻs passion for romance books, along with feeling like her job is a dead-end one.

    Back in Charlesbourg, Caro continues to write about how Gustavs takes an opportunity to talk about limits to any future interactions after they exchange each otherˇŻs schedules. In French. However, driven by a fear of missing the daily target, she writes even faster than last night, but, in turn, starts getting cramps in her hand because of the high writing speeds sheˇŻs been writing at. One more wordˇ­ stay on target! she starts thinking while the pain in her wrists begins to mount and more limits seem to come out. Do these limits sound like someone who is not ready for a romantic relationship?

    The timer rings, and Capitolium barely makes it back to his home, with a tub of Bengay on hand. He returns to the VC and his book, while he sees Glitter, of all people, post a word count in the chat.

    ˇ°Woah, Glitter, what made you decide to enter NaNo eight days after it began?ˇ± a surprised Caro asks Glitter, who enters the VC as the others post their word counts for the nightˇŻs first sprint. Caro also shakes her hands in an attempt to relieve the pain.

    ˇ°I watched you struggle doing NaNo on previous streams, so I believe NaNo isnˇŻt for me. So I believe a short story might be more appropriateˇ± Glitter explains herself.

    ItˇŻs then that Caro sees fit to open the tub of Bengay and apply it on her hands and wrists in pain. Directly in front of the camera so her viewers can see it. And, after that, drink some of her coffee.

    Once she is done applying the hot rub on her hands, she announces the winner of that sprint. Even though Glitter started from scratch, and hence deriving any percentage would mean dividing by zero, she deserves it because Glitter managed to write even more than I did, coming in at 590 words to mineˇŻs 589. The third viewer in the sprint didnˇŻt write 589 words, nor did they write 3% of their previous word count.

    ˇ°Glitter, you won this sprint!ˇ± Caro exclaims.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre talking about boundary setting. I hope one of these gets broken, but in such a way that hockey could be blamed!ˇ± Glitter comments, while beaming, upon seeing the dilution of hockey content in Player Masher.

    Capitolium, once the second sprint starts for the night, starts feeling the pressure to get as many words as he could get. His hands start sweating, as he feels, like Caro, the need to get to the daily par and hence keep his hopes for the 100% alive for this year. I wonˇŻt let Glitter steal my thunder this time around!

    All four viewers approach this second sprint, which is more ˇ°regularˇ± than the first one, as a race to get the most words out in a 10-minute span. However, Glitter is left wondering what academic background she wants her lead to have, as well as what marriage and family therapy programs she could target.

    Which causes her to stop dead in her tracks about 200 words into the sprint, and about 3 minutes remaining. Even writing anything remotely resembling a short story isnˇŻt as straightforward as I initially believed! Thank God for this writerˇŻs block! My wrists would hurt more if I didnˇŻt!

    And yet, GlitterˇŻs comments about her expectations for Player Masher gives Caro pause. The book Glitter recommended to me weeks ago made me feel like setting boundaries early in their budding relationship is a warning sign of controlling behavior, but wanting hockey to take the fall for breaching one seems like Glitter has yet to fully appreciate what I could bring to the table, the streamer muses, while, as Capitolium, she feels the clock ticking in on her to write the 1667 words for the day. While also remaining mindful of not hurting her wrists.

 Chapter 66: Are Boundaries Meant to be Broken?

    After the sprint ends, Glitter posts a link to her short story on both CaroˇŻs and LegnicaˇŻs Discord servers, believing that both streamersˇŻ followers would have a vested interest in reading the work of their fellow followers.

    But, at the same time, because Caro gets asked some questions about hockey, about waiver wires, the different classes of assets a hockey team has to build its roster, along with its prospect pool, and the trading calendar, she feels the need to upload clips from past streams about these items on YouTube.

    Not now, Caro, donˇŻt upload these clips just yet! As much as my new followers might be willing to watch me talk about these things, I have yet to hit the 1667-word limit! CaroˇŻs conscience nags her, while she wonders when to start writing the next passage, potentially with GustavsˇŻ first kiss, and how long to make the time skip between the time they set boundaries and the first kiss.

    About Emma telling him beforehand at which bar she will spend after hours at some point before the ConstellationsˇŻ road trip for the holidays. Especially since he knows that he must make the most of each opportunity to meet each other in person. Of which neither really had a whole lot.

    The cheesy part is that, even when that information, even with the boundaries they set beforehand, they only talked about each otherˇŻs lives away from each other up to this point. That they donˇŻt really feel much, but obviously Emma saw something in Gustavs. My teammates often bring their own WAGs on nights out if they are in town, and sometimes fan out to different places.

    She even starts writing another scene the following day, when they are back in their locker room before a dryland practice. ˇ°Looks like you got a new girlfriend, Gus! It was about time!ˇ± a teammate on defense makes him feel a littleˇ­ indifferent.

    But at the same time, it reminds her that maybe she could leave traces of a past breakup, or worse still, break up when heˇŻs claimed off waivers by Montreal. Which makes her go back and add another chapter after the first one about the past breakup itself.

    ˇ°Now I have a better idea of how him being claimed by Montreal influenced him off the ice! However, there will be more hockey!ˇ± Caro tells her viewers.

    ˇ°It took you a while to realize that, for players without star power, you know, the kind of player with the kind of cap hit you gave Gus, can and do break up when that sort of things arrive!ˇ± Lagado comments as she watches the writing of the breakup scene right after the announcement that Montreal claimed him.

    ˇ°To this I say, to hell with the daily target!ˇ±

    At the onset, Caro was, like, this book is going to be an epic mess, but, if you compared her to how I wrote when I first competed in NaNo, or anyone else in their NaNo debut, you would realize that sheˇŻs actually a serviceable writer. Not that sheˇŻs great, but internal consistency is her greatest writing strength, characterization or themes, Capitolium reflects on what he saw in her book as currently written, and sees that she overshot the daily par by over 400 words. However, he still has some way to go before the end of the stream, still needing around 400 words himself to hit the daily par. As smart as she is, however, she mustnˇŻt get too confident. And certainly not in learning however quickly she wants.

    But Capitolium, whose clock is ticking on him, rushes to get as many words out when he sees the threat of Caro overtaking him for the global word count, as they sit within just a few hundred words of each other.

    ˇ°You do realize there is a fine line between slow burn and being oblivious to love, but they overlap!ˇ± Glitter warns the streamer on air. ˇ°I get that your love is not instant, and they both have a lot going on away from each other, but you made the book a little tropier than you would care to admit, in that they cherish their precious few moments with each otherˇ±

    Even as he writes a romance book, I wonder how familiar Capitolium is with how ageless his issues are. ItˇŻs one thing to want to read near-identical books, and how oneˇŻs pattern of reading can be pretty telling about the reader, but they made me realize that perhaps I had too much on my plate in my personal life, Glitter also starts reflecting on her possibly being unhinged herself. I guess, I know going into a romance book of any kind that the ending will be happy, despite knowing that getting there will often not make any sense.

    But, by the end of the night, the word count, both daily and global, come in for all 3.

    ˇ°How can you two write so much in just a few hours?ˇ± Glitter asks, looking at her manuscript containing not even half the words required to get to NaNoˇŻs daily par. ˇ°YouˇŻre not writing formulaic booksˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°You saw the consequences of us writing that fast last night: we both needed to buy Bengay and hope that it will last us for the rest of the month!ˇ± Caro tells her followers.

    ˇ°SomethingˇŻs not right: how could you have played MAA at a high level and not need to use Bengay as you did tonight?ˇ± Sampoong asks her.

    ˇ°Even if you get the rotations down cold, itˇŻs not like typing five hundred eighty-nine words in fifteen minutes. It drains you when youˇŻre in the race to world first, just not your wrists. On top of that, you watched reclearsˇ±

    And IˇŻm less than 500 words away from the 20k-word mark, which Capitolium reached, Caro seems to have a new target appearing in her mind: beating CapitoliumˇŻs word count.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ˇ°I have more experience of writing romance, so writing comes more naturally to meˇ± Capitolium explains himself. ˇ°Caro, on the other hand, seems to be driven by a gaming-like approach to writingˇ±

    ˇ°Even I could have seen it coming from a mile away, from the day she announced she would one hundred percent NaNo this year!ˇ± Lagado lashes out at Capitolium in the VC, before the stream ends.

    At the end of the stream, Marie-France joins CaroˇŻs Discord server and starts discussing with her about what she feels is the defining moment of the night: this whole discussion of setting limits in a relationship. She wishes to continue it with Caro in Discord DMs.

    Caroline: Est-ce que placer des limites trop vite dans une relation amoureuse est une bonne ou mauvaise chose? (Is putting boundaries too early in a romantic relationship good or not?)

    Marie-France: Veux-tu que ces limites emp¨şchent leur relation de grandir? (Do you want these limits to prevent their relationship from growing?)

    Caroline: Non

    I know, deep down, that these limits ultimately wonˇŻt prevent their relationship to grow, but thatˇŻs it otherwise. For some readers, people seem to want to read about the relationship unencumbered by life outside of it, nor by boundaries. And certainly in contemporary. ItˇŻs also why some people seemed to prefer, in historical romance, to read about courtesans, especially those with high nobility titles, because they think they live decadent, idle lifestyles, whereas I know itˇŻs simply not true, Marie-France reflects on boundaries set in her past readings of romance books.

    They keep discussing about how some books set boundaries early, especially when one side proves to be controlling later, or when breaking one could cause internal issues, while others tended to set boundaries to set up a third-act breakup.

    Marie-France: Tu veux que le non-respect de ces limites cause une cassure? (You want a breach of those boundaries to cause a breakup?)

    Caroline: Mon plan ¨¦tait quˇŻun ¨¦change ¨¤ la date limite fasse partir Gustavs, donc non (My plan was a deadline deal causing Gustavs to leave, so no)

    And I want this trade to be motivated by hockey reasons, and not by relationship ones, so I want to show Gus improve his game. This makes the next game against a possible trade partner a key one for me to write, Caro is also reminded of how people often tended to center conflict in romance around the couple itself, when lack of satisfaction in life outside the relationship could also drive someone to dive deep into one. In fact, if I want to have game scenes before the trade deadline, to set up said deadline, my hands are tied by the draft day scene. This has given me a lot to think about.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, back in Daegu, Sampoong receives a text from Duri, his love interest, while the latter is at the grocery store (translated from Korean): SomethingˇŻs going wrong with our relationship! We need to talk!

    When Duri returns home, she sees him playing CaroˇŻs game as he attempts to move up the beginnersˇŻ quest chain by winning a game in the arena. Speaking of which, he is queued, but the gameˇŻs queue lasts for 10 seconds at most. If the player is not matched against another human player at the end of the 10 secondsˇ­

    ˇ°Honey, youˇŻve been playing all weekend! ThatˇŻs enough!ˇ± Duri yells at him in Korean.

    ˇ°Na-joong-e!ˇ± (Later!)

    ˇ°We had no intimacy for months, I was willing to tolerate it for a while, because you work from home, and you always said that, if we had appropriate time for ourselves, away from each other, we should stay together. But no amount of jeyuk bokkeum, bibimbap or japchae is going to replace intimacy!ˇ± Duri fumes, in Korean, while Sampoong is focused on playing against an AI opponent.

    Duri yelling at him made him lose focus and hence lose the fight. That, even though he already accomplished the other sub-quests of that tier, that is, performing an upgrade of the home base, leveling a character to 20 and clearing Ch5 of the main campaign. ThatˇŻs what happens when I canˇŻt stay focused on the game! Also, I really hope that she doesnˇŻt think life in a relationship is anything like these K-dramas! All it takes is one win in the arena, one freaking win! Then I can talk to her.

    Yet, as Sampoong feels that his privacy boundary is breached, he feels nothing but anger towards her. And it starts to degenerate: Duri starts with the books he read in English, demanding explanations for these. Especially when that book in question is about how the MMC spent so much time getting the FMC to improve her sex.

    ˇ°If only you understood that I read some of these books to get clues about how to solve issues in our own coupleˇ­ˇ± Sampoong pleads with Duri in Korean.

    I really, really hope that she wonˇŻt interpret watching Caro, Legnica or other streamers as being signs that IˇŻm cheating on her! a nervous Sampoong shakes as he is still clueless about what to look for in a marriage and family therapist. However, he feels like he needs one because she makes him feel like thereˇŻs nothing left for them to do on their own.

    ˇ°As ashamed as I am to admit it, weˇŻre due for couples therapy!ˇ± Duri scolds him.

    ˇ°Couples therapy? Do you even know where to get it? And how much does it cost?ˇ±

    To this, unfortunately, Duri draws a blank, and then goes around to shop for couples therapy in the Daegu region, on her own. Pre-pandemic, we met in college, but now, even when IˇŻm working from homeˇ­ it made my life different.

    He then proceeds to ask for advice on how to shop for marriage and family therapists in both CaroˇŻs and LegnicaˇŻs Discord servers. To which Legnica responds because Glitter is asleep:

    Legnica: ItˇŻs not my place to give relationship advice, but if you feel like you need couples therapy, please make sure the therapist you plan to go to has MFT accreditation valid for your area and inquire about their views on relationships as well as their track record

    Sampoong: What does track record mean for couples therapy?

    Legnica: For example, you can ask about what percentage of couples have seen improvement with that therapist, and what improvement means to them

    Sampoong: What else should I look for?

    Legnica: Just because your therapist has a doctoral degree doesnˇŻt mean they are better than another one who doesnˇŻt, for a given experience; also, more expensive doesn''t mean better

    Often, it seems like couples needing therapy do so as a last resort measure, but there are times when I saw people around me realize their relationships cannot be saved. And, of course, itˇŻs not a silver bullet, Legnica muses about her own social circleˇŻs experience with couples therapy.

    Sampoong then goes around looking for couples therapists in the Daegu area, and realizing that, on average, these couples therapists charge around KRW150k per session, and then give these therapistsˇŻ contact info so that she can process the information. And, of course, since she already has a sense of when he can be with her for therapy, they can plan their time together around it.

 Chapter 67: Back to the Hockey

    On Saturday morning, Caro starts cutting clips of the passages in streams where she explains the waiver wire in the NHL, as well as the classes of assets teams have to build their rosters and prospects pools. And finally, the trade calendar, with 2 high seasons for transactions: one is the trade deadline, and the second, the off-season, which, for trade purposes, start with the draft.

    Which she makes available on her YouTube channel as well as the Discord servers of the streamers she follows, alongside her own.

    After eating the leftover frozen pizza of the previous day, she goes back to writing Player Masher, realizing there is a glaring hole down the date scene between Emma and Gus written the day prior. I get it, there is going to be some banter before they get to the first drink. However, itˇŻs what happens past that drink that I am not so sure about. Also, I believe this scene might be referenced in the following chapter.

    She continues writing the banter, and then the choice of drinks the two make, with, once again, Gus offering to pay for the coupleˇŻs entire bar tab, grub included. Which included burrata, calamari as well as a pizza for two, the first one was something Gus never had the opportunity to eat in his lifetime.

    And certainly he starts getting a taste for the finer food and drink available in the city the way he doesnˇŻt always have on the road. The convo turns into a comparison between Montreal and Seattle from a NHLerˇŻs perspective. Sure, Seattle was good for beer and seafood lovers, but man was life expensive there, even on a US$2.25M salary. Housing was far more expensive in Seattle, as were utilities. IˇŻd get far more home in Montreal on that budget than in Seattle.

    As she writes them with more banter and drinking more alcohol, such as a glass apiece of the most expensive red wine they could get, which still set them back CA$20 per glass, she racks up more words. Once she gets to the first kiss, after drinking several glasses of booze each, she tunes in to watch Legnica.

    Whose stream, starting at noon (Quebec City time), begins with progress made on various followersˇŻ manuscripts. When CaroˇŻs turn comes as Caro is about to write the coupleˇŻs first kiss, made under the influence, but nonetheless consent to it:

    ˇ°Please excuse my lack of familiarity with North American pro sporting practices, but wouldnˇŻt a draft system as you describe it encourage the bad teams to lose?ˇ± Legnica asks Caroline, rolling her eyes.

    Caroline: In hockey, the luck factor is greater than in, say, basketball or football, so a team can crumble despite having good players, and star players can only do so much; on top of that, you have a lottery system to limit the impact

    You only need to look at this seasonˇŻs Preds: the Preds won big in free agency, yet started the season poorly, Caro starts thinking about bad luck can do a team in. But I never actually addressed the draft lottery, and I think itˇŻs premature to write about it for now, since, while the draft day scene was already mostly written, what triggered Gus in it was not a top-2 pick. Not to mention the lottery being held before the playoffs begin. Also, it will take place after the trade deadline arc.

    It is only then that Caro manages to finish the first kiss scene, which she describes as being an unremarkable kiss. Which makes Gustavs tell her that they should stop drinking.

    Then comes the time for how Simon will ask them to stop talking about GusˇŻ new romantic conquest, but they also realize that a lot of them were talking about one-night flings on the road in the past. Which, in CaroˇŻs mind, took place the night before an away game, and best practices involve telling prospective WAGs that one-night stands are part of the deal when one can only spend one night in each city.

    Especially when she is at the stage in the story where the Constellations are going on their traditional HolidaysˇŻ road trip, which, as with the real Canadiens, include their away games against Southern teams. Or at least some of them. So before the team leaves Montreal for the road trip, she has Gus text Emma about aventures dˇŻun soir.

    And she must decide against whom the first game of that road trip should be played, knowing that either the team she codenamed C at the very start of the project or Buffalo will be the opponent. Ideally, I should have Gus play well enough in both games to impress either team, and have them as possible trade targets. The question is: do I want him to play C on the road the week before Christmas, or one week before the trade deadline, which is two months later?

    Mired in the question of when to have him play team C, she is told about foreshadowing. And how proper foreshadowing can make later parts of a book less painful to read through, but at the cost of them being more predictable.

    ˇ°Foreshadowing is a delicate thing: there are times where it can become too obvious, which is not something you want, and handling it with subtlety requires re-reading the manuscript when you feel you have issuesˇ± Legnica adds on the foreshadowing comment of that viewer.

    I didnˇŻt pay much attention to the more technical aspects of creative writing, but Legnica makes me feel like she is much more technical than I am about the mechanics of writing. Oh, Glitter will tell me about tropes, and how romance readers will look for specific tropes, over and over, based on their personal circumstances. So I may as well drop any pretense of obliviousness to love, and make the whole thing feel more like growing a long-distance relationship because thatˇŻs what I feel I am headed for at this point, unless the latter is common in stories when people are oblivious to love, Caro seems to squirm inside a little bit when she listens to Legnica.

    But then, she feels like Legnica has forced her hands into naming team C, and making it play the Constellations before being headed to play four more games on the road. She is also reminded of how sports teams tended to be named after things significant to the city.

    The team I kept referring to as C mustnˇŻt be in the same division as the Constellations, which, at this point, is the same as the Atlantic division of the NHL, because thereˇŻs this fear that a trade might come back to haunt them, come trade deadline time. ThatˇŻs precisely what I want to happen, and IˇŻm sure it had before in real life, Caro keeps thinking about what hockey considerations must be made into choosing this team, as well as the plot roles she plans on giving this team. I guess, I may as well go for the Dallas Gunnersˇ­

    And then she starts writing the game against the Gunners, who donˇŻt expect much out of the not-Canadiens. Especially since Montreal are bottom-feeders at this point of the season. They, of course, tend to play their bottom-line players more during that game, at least during the first period. However, the following on-ice sequence gives her pause, after a Gunner ate a clipping penalty and the Constellations are on the power play:Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    The best shooter on the GunnersˇŻ fourth line shoots from a face-off circle, hits the post, and bounces off the glass. Mayrand attempts to clear the puck, Kurpnieks takes the pass at the blue line, heˇŻs on a breakawayˇ­ but then, Caro, reminded that, rather than simply describing the play on the ice, she ought to give more substance to what goes into the mind of player while on a breakaway. Especially when the crowd, surprisingly made of a good portion of Constellations fans who spend their holidays down in Texas, make him feel as if he was playing, well, at home. Kurpnieks dekes in the slot, shootsˇ­ and scores!

    ˇ°Constellations goal, his third of the season, scored by number sixty-one, Gustavs Kurpnieks! Assisted by number twenty-four, Guy Mayrand! Power play goal, scored at thirteen minutes eight seconds of the first period, Constellations one-nothingˇ± Caro puts on her best attempt at an English-only goal announcement so she can write it down later.

    I can have good games sometimes; she writes about his state of mind after she had him score his first PP goal of the season. Especially when that player who ate a clipping penalty is on the ice once more, and Gus is back on the bench, before the face-off at center ice between Simon and that opposing player.

    Then Lagado DMs Caro about how she feels about how Caro writes game-day scenes.

    Lagado: Often it seems like, even when hockey romance writers tried to get games right, more often than not, they tended to make the games stuff such as overtime, or late in the third period

    Caroline: Here I donˇŻt feel like, at this point of the season, they should obsess over the standings

    Lagado: What is the plot purpose of that game then?

    Caroline: I want to set up a possible trade partner to trade him away later; having him play that team is how I feel is the way to go

    There are so many games in a season that even the outcome of 3 pre-deadline games might not necessarily change the outcome of a season beyond a draft pick. The Constellations not being a playoff team, or even in the wild card, they donˇŻt have the pressure of teams in ˇ°win-nowˇ± mode, she keeps thinking of how this setup differs from most people writing hockey romance fit games into the plot.

    Caroline: Most hockey romance writers fit in games as if it was either a game deciding whether the MCˇŻs team makes the playoffs, or a game 7 in a playoff series

    At the same time, Caro doesnˇŻt want to write out an entire seasonˇŻs worth of games; it would get far too repetitive to aim for simply 50k words, Lagado then starts a session of CaroˇŻs game.

    Meanwhile, when Legnica announces a 10-minute sprint on her stream, several of her viewers are ready to spit out as many words as they can. Which makes Caro not want to put in references to the Gunners just yet. Not in that somewhat unfinished shell of a draft day chapter. But it makes her want to go back to it.

    About how Gustavs, as of draft day, lives with one of his teammates, in one of those McMansions in some luxury Dallas suburb. About how life in Dallas means that he can live as a complete unknown the way he couldnˇŻt in Montreal.

    But at the same time, it makes her feel like, all too often, when people write hockey romance, and feel the need to put in games, they want the protagonistˇŻs team to win it all, whether this means a playoff berth (if thereˇŻs an underdog element) or winning the Cup (even in the absence of such). Capitolium DMs her while in the middle of the sprint:

    Capitolium: It might be a bit boring to some, but sometimes not winning it all, and not squeaking into the playoffs either can be a breath of fresh air; I hope that the Gunners donˇŻt go all the way

    Yet, as Caro is focused on writing the third period of that game, she doesnˇŻt respond to him straight away. By then she is focused on just getting the hockey game to be written up to a point where she can believably make the audience feel like he has improved. Hitting opposing players at center ice, stealing pucks in the corners, so that he can then clear the puckˇ­ while remaining mindful of the icing rule.

    Even if it meant dump and chase, and then hope that someone will get to the puck before it crosses the second red line. Which means that, as the race to the puck gets underway, the puck must cross the offensive zoneˇŻs blue line before any Constellation does, but dash to it before the puck crosses the red line. Once the Gunners get to the puck and try to clear it, Gus gets back and tries to catch the puck before it crosses the red line, she writes before the sprint ends, causing her to stop writing.

    ˇ°Time is up!ˇ± Legnica signals the end of the sprint, prompting every sprinter to post their word counts.

    And even then, Caro writing 466 words of a hockey game and glossing over the locker room banter before the third period seems to be a little fast for her tastes, but apparently not fast enough to win.

    She starts to ruminate. Shoot! Not even writing hockey games, which came somewhat naturally to me, was enough to carry me to victory in this sprint! Hopefully IˇŻll win the next one, even if this meant stretching out the book more than I would have liked!

    Caroline: What about you? Do you want the MMCˇŻs home country to win the World Juniors, or his team to win the Memorial Cup?

    Capitolium: Winning the QˇŻs championship I do, but I donˇŻt want my MMC to win either tourney

    I hope Caro realizes that often scouts and front offices put a lot of stock on how players perform at tournaments such as a major junior leagueˇŻs playoffs, the Memorial Cup or the World Juniors. Especially the World Juniors. You only need to look at Jordan Schroeder to see what happens when a team puts too much stock on the World Juniors. Which is why I want him to be solid but not star in it, especially since my very own draft day scene forced my hands, Capitolium ruminates about the implications of making his MMC not win the WJC, nor the Memorial Cup, much less star at either.

    For the rest of the stream, Caro keeps writing about locker room scenes before and after the third period, which she completes. And, of course, how the game being tied 1-1 after regulation time made the pressure ratchet up on both teams. And, of course, both teams will use their top 2 lines more going into overtime.

    By the time the streamˇŻs final sprint comes into play, before Gus could even text Emma, she realizes that she already overshot the daily par. If I keep overshooting the daily par, by November 30, I will have far too many words for my own good! And I still have the gameˇŻs 3 Stars to write about!

    Speaking of 3 Stars, Caro makes her own announcement, again reprising her own voice acting:

    ˇ°And the second star, Gustavs Kurpnieks!ˇ± Caro shouts as if she was a home announcer.

    ˇ°Mais pourquoi tu nˇŻas pas attribu¨¦ la premi¨¨re ¨¦toile ¨¤ Gus? Il a compt¨¦ un point sur les deux buts de la soir¨¦eˇ± (But why didnˇŻt you give Gus the first star? He scored a point on both goals for the night) CaroˇŻs dad questions her.

    ˇ°Les votants sont souvent biais¨¦s envers le marqueur du but gagnant si le match va en prolongation, surtout quand il y a peu de butsˇ± (Voters are often biased towards the game-winning goal scorer if the game goes in overtime, especially when few goals were scored) Caro explains herself.

    And then I may as well give the third star to the goalie, she sighs, while, at the same time, feeling satisfied with how the game and chapter ends. Then again, when there is no hockey in a hockey romance, I tended to assume, in the beginning, that players were unremarkable until proven otherwise, and proofs to the contrary usually included spending habits and hence cap hits. IˇŻm OK with hockey to overshadow the romance, but at the end of the day, there has to be romance, with a happy ending of some sort.

    And it is then that Caro writes about Gus texting Emma about him earning a star of the game for the first time in the season.

 Chapter 68: Tropification of the Half-Way Point

    November 10, a Sunday. While Caro and Capitolium are both chugging along towards the word count objective of NaNo, it seems like the latter invites Caro to come into her serverˇŻs voice chat.

    ˇ°Remember when you said a while ago that you were bitter about how some romance books were horror in all but name, and I was bitter about hockey romance? Turns out that I feel like you were not ready for the whole truth about what makes me bitter about todayˇŻs literature!ˇ± Capitolium starts unpacking his baggage about past readings.

    ˇ°You complained about poor integration of hockey, and how some hockey romance books glorified unhealthy relationships, one way or another, I remember as much. But do you think I needed to start writing to understand the whole thing?ˇ± Caro asks him, unsure of why writing would make her understand better.

    ˇ°No, but it definitely helps. ItˇŻs obvious to me that you donˇŻt write around tropes; you donˇŻt try to force certain things just to make a specific scene or plot line happenˇ±

    I still have room for improvement. However, what room for improvement I might have might vary from a reader to another, so my mileage may vary accordingly, Caro continues to write about how Emma was feeling a little spoiled by Gus, and how he wasnˇŻt going to spend much time with her because of EmmaˇŻs hectic schedule. IˇŻm almost done catching up to CapitoliumˇŻs word count, and I feel itˇŻs within range; maybe he could drop extra donations on me, or gift extra subs, at the end of the month.

    Glitter enters the VC as soon as she could, even though Caro isnˇŻt on air.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs the first time I ever saw the VC active when youˇŻre not on air!ˇ± Glitter exclaims. ˇ°It better be goodˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°We were discussing how the issues that made me bitter about hockey romance were bigger than hockey romance alone. Yes, I know about how popular it is, and how it helped grow hockey in ways it wouldnˇŻt have otherwiseˇ±

    ˇ°The problem youˇŻre talking about existed for as long as literature existed as an art form. ItˇŻs nothing new, but the one thing that made CaroˇŻs work salvageable was about how she wasnˇŻt willing to start from a trope. She instead went for a plot line and a themeˇ± Glitter comments on what she read from Caro so far.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs wanting to read near-identical books, based on oneˇŻs personal circumstances, in whole or in part, but I believe part of the increase of the formulaicity of literature might be because of how tags became key for readers to find books they like, and publishers, or platforms, began marketing books accordinglyˇ± Caro follows up on GlitterˇŻs comment.

    Caroline, assuming itˇŻs her real name, is perhaps one of the smartest women I have known in a while. IˇŻm sure she can understand everything I could have to say, and then some, Glitter sighs before she talks again.

    ˇ°At first, tropes meant a writing prompt. I read a few of those NaNo winners writing romance last night, and you could tell that they feel a little bland because they wanted a specific trope, which in their minds, came with specific scenes, lines and motivations to put in specific places in the plot, and even traits if they add in some sort of incompatible personality-based trope in the mixˇ± Glitter comments on tropes becoming increasingly specific.

    ˇ°Glitter, you now have a better idea of what makes Caro, despite her lack of experience as a writer, worth reading. By the same token, I feel that it applies to me as well. However, you previously complained about how we both put in too much hockey in our storylines!ˇ±

    ˇ°I guess I might be guilty of building the hockey part of my story around the trade deadline. However, because of indie literature and other forms of entertainment, trad publishers tend to be more risk averse than before, so they, too, feel like the market want XYZ tropes, and they donˇŻt seem willing to publish anything elseˇ±

    ˇ°Glitter, I didnˇŻt know you were as frustrated as I am! You were the one who recommended the horror book in all but name to Caro before this challenge even began!ˇ±

    ˇ°Keep in mind that, even in the indie fiction space, that, while you can get really, really good books once in a while, itˇŻs going to be a high risk, high reward kind of thing at best, and the only redeeming quality of commercial fiction is, well, language qualityˇ±

    ˇ°Glitter, thereˇŻs one more thing I would love to unpack. Too stupid to live. I understand that sometimes poor decision-making can drive a plot, but the kind of poor decision-making I would rather read or write is either about complex decisions with no optimal outcomes, a luck factor, high-pressure situations or bounded rationalityˇ± Caro comments about what irks her regarding decision-making in books.

    ˇ°Oh yes, decision-making. If a plot works only because of a key moment where a core character is bone-headed, I say, itˇŻs more of an author failing. However, what do you mean by bounded rationality?ˇ± Glitter asks the streamer, rolling her eyes upon hearing about bounded rationality.

    ˇ°Bounded rationality kicks in when you lack information or resources to adequately process what you have, so you then take shortcutsˇ±

    Speaking of decision-making, I must decide what makes my leadˇŻs job unsatisfactory, and what she liked about romance books would actually translate to couples therapy. Which brings me back to my short story idea: during yesterdayˇŻs stream by Legnica, I heard about how European educational systems in general tended to make students specialize earlier, but I still struggle to choose where to set it. If I wanted to set it somewhere in Europe, and I believe it to be the case in Korea as well, then the unsatisfying job would be some part-time job a high school student would take. In the US, on the other hand, the unsatisfying job would only require an advanced degree to get out of, assuming one is already a college graduate, Glitter now starts thinking of her own short story.

    ˇ°But why did you hide your displeasure until now?ˇ± Capitolium asks him, in a tone of voice that left no doubt to his anger. ˇ°Glitter?ˇ±

    ˇ°I decided to stick to watching Caro play this online TRPG because of disagreements over the hockey portion of Player Masher, after Caro told me to do so. She was displeased with what she perceived as my toxic attitude back then. Yet I was willing to answer her questions so long as they had nothing to do with hockey!ˇ±

    ˇ°Glitter, what did you dislike about hockey specifically? Why did you rec me a book that was a horror book in all but name?ˇ±

    ˇ°I recced you what you call a horror book in all but name because it was what I deemed the most representative of what hockey romance was back then. And, even though I didnˇŻt realize it at the time, there actually is an overlap between romance and horror. But I must have read, like, a dozen books or so since, including your manuscript!ˇ±

    ˇ°You still havenˇŻt answered what you disliked about hockey, or reading about it!ˇ± a displeased Caro keeps pushing the question.

    ˇ°I get that these hockey game scenes were, compared to past hockey romance books, lovingly crafted. But. in past books, they often got in the way of the romance. Also, one of these NaNo winners on LegnicaˇŻs server thought that simply reversing gender roles in a trope would make it less clich¨¦, but it really didnˇŻtˇ±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Is that so? Is that how some NaNo veterans roll: by writing near-identical books of their own? Marie-France was the first to tell me about how people wanted to read near-identical books. Yes, cookie-cutter plots and characters do allow people to write much faster than they would have otherwise. But now perhaps I feel like I might have been too hard on Glitter. She is smarter than I initially believed her to be, Caro starts thinking while she is also reminded of the economics of publishing.

    Meanwhile, Glitter, feeling that perhaps her short story could end here and now, DMs Legnica about how it works to become a MFT in Poland, feeling that perhaps a change of narrative scenery could be welcome.

    Glitter: I tried looking for Polish MFT licensure requirements for a short story, but I couldnˇŻt find anything specific to MFT

    Legnica: You must remember that there is no licensure specific to MFT in Poland, but if you want your lead to practice it down the road, you still need psychotherapy licensure, and ideally EuroPsy certification

    I donˇŻt want to bore her with the details of what the Psychotherapy Rada of Poland, or its regulatory body, if you will, requires, since I donˇŻt have the feeling that she wants to go the whole nine yards, Legnica muses. Especially since somethingˇŻs gotta give in short stories.

    Glitter: I want my character to be some small-town girl who wants to practice MFT because she isnˇŻt satisfied with life in her hometown

    Legnica: May I suggest that she attend the Jagiellonian University long cycle then?

    Glitter: Jagiellonian?

    Legnica: I forgive you: non-Polish folk mostly never heard of it

    Glitter: How hard is it to get into Jagiellonian for long-cycle psychology?

    Legnica: Pretty difficult but not like law or med school; for a few it might be a backup plan

    Time to finish the short story, here and now! Glitter then gets to work researching what it entails. There must be good reason why Legnica suggested I have my lead attend Jagiellonian University in Krakow. However, I realize that maybe I can have this as the impetus to have her study hard for the local tests. The details of how much she scores on each might not matter so much, nor the details of the testsˇŻ content, only the outcome does.

    But it also means that Glitter should make her lead agonize over the implications of the decision. After all, it is a major decision, whom everyone knows can be nerve-wracking for teenagers, and certainly a few of the more intellectual.

    So when the stream begins, a few hours later, all three make good progress on their respective stories. Such as Capitolium having to dedicate 2 chapters to the World Juniors, with the billet family spending the holidays at home, and watching every Canada game at the WJC.

    ˇ°Welcome to the stream, and may tonight be the night where I will finally clear the battle pass in full! I worked for months towards the battle pass, I only have a few points left, and I have yet to go into the arenaˇ±

    And this means sending a few of her characters on dispatch quests, mostly battle-based, before she can decide on who to deploy in the arena. As many fights as she can get, or she needs.

    In the first fight, she uses a warlockˇŻs leech spell so that any damage it inflicts heals him, knowing that the opponent has nothing on hand that can cleanse leech spells. Owˇ­ the opponent is in a world of hurt; their strongest unit is about to get pawned, and the rest of the party is going to be blown to smithereens!

    But then her warlock is killed, forcing her to reevaluate the entire deal, and turning the match into a duel of the wits. By doing so, she is reminded of the prior discussion of decision-making in storytelling, but does not wish to discuss it until the end of the match. Which she wins, but with both players down to the last unit. Almost in a sudden death. With the regulars in the serverˇŻs VC:

    ˇ°That was one hell of a match!ˇ± an elated Sampoong comments on the match that just ended. ˇ°Just the right amount of back-and-forth with all flaws being exploited by each other!ˇ±

    ˇ°There are times where things go wrong, but context is key here for poor decision-making. For stuff such as arenas in this game, I donˇŻt dwell on what could go wrong since I have a pretty good idea of the luck factors involved. However, here, the aim is to provoke the other player into making a poor decision. And I sure as hell prefer such when in an adversarial plotˇ± Caro harangues the viewers.

    ˇ°This is the main thing I loved about you as a streamer when youˇŻre playing this game: you never play poorly on purposeˇ± Glitter beams.

    Marie-France: You made me realize playing this game can be very stressful

    But not all opponents for the day were able to provide equally juicy gameplay footage. When all the battle-based dispatch quests are complete, itˇŻs then that Caro is reminded of the second number next to hers, and how it was still a little higher than her own word count.

    ˇ°Tonight, I have the opportunity to both hit the half-way mark and to beat Capitolium to it!ˇ±

    ˇ°If you succeed, Caro, you will have an advance installment of the reward I promised you for completing the challenge, and that you never once mentioned!ˇ± Capitolium then starts buckling down, not wanting to be outdone by that streamer.

    With almost an entire dayˇŻs worth of new words to write to reach the half-way mark, the other viewers seem a little daunted by the prospect of both Caro and Capitolium having to write that many words to get there.

    ˇ°The first sprint of the night is: you have fifteen minutes to get to the nearest five hundred words!ˇ± Caro announces as a starter.

    But when the first sprint for the night is announced, all viewers with active writing projects start writing theirs, with varying levels of enthusiasm. Glitter starts feeling headaches when the first sprint starts. What the hell am I writing? The faster I can get it done, the better!

    Glitter seems to have arrived at the point where the ending is near, after being driven by a fear of failure alongside an ardent desire to get a fulfilling career, but a viewer realizes that somethingˇŻs not right with the short story as currently written.

    Maridun: Glitter, your short story sounds like a how-to guide

    Yes, it seems like GlitterˇŻs lead has agency. Yes, her motivation is clear. But itˇŻs how she goes around acting on her motivations that make me feel like she sounds like a how-to guide! Maridun refrains from giving more details before the sprint ends.

    But while the sprint is underway, it seems like Sampoong and Lagado are trying to encourage the viewers in this sprint, or word war as some call it. GlitterˇŻs hasty writing makes her end the sprint, as well as the whole project, early.

    ˇ°What do you mean, I sound like a how-to guide?ˇ± Glitter asks, furious at MaridunˇŻs words. ˇ°I couldnˇŻt get into the details of what the local tests were, only that she needed to do well on these as an obstacle! And the core thing driving her is an escape from a miserable country life!ˇ±

    I wonˇŻt let this upstart writer win this sprint, nor overtake me! CapitoliumˇŻs writing goes into overdrive, not suspecting that, similarly, Caro also feels like the promise of an advance installment as good enough to make her write this chapter of Emma at home for the holidays faster. Especially as she draws more hockey romance lovers into her channel this month.

    Come on! One more word, stay on target! Caro starts stressing out about the need to get out more words, and faster than Capitolium. Not realizing that her chat has gone crazy over not either writerˇŻs manuscript, but GlitterˇŻs short story.

    Jacques: Better a how-to guide than nothing, I guessˇ­

    Maridun: Actual how-to guides might have GlitterˇŻs tone, but are structured differently

    ˇ°Sometimes, people might understand a how-to guide better with an actual example of how itˇŻs doneˇ± Glitter defends herself. ˇ°Which is why some romance readers might be tempted to treat a romance book as a how-to guide, especially contemporary onesˇ±

    The bell rings, and the sprint ends. The viewers taking part in various writing projects submit their word counts. Even at the speed Caro wrote in the past 15 minutes, she still feels a little down. I lost the sprint, and IˇŻm not getting any closer to beating Capitolium, only to the halfway mark, she ruminates, upon seeing the word counts, and her head then hits the table.

    But after applying Bengay on her hands, Caro skims what was said in the chat about GlitterˇŻs short story as it got completed. A mere 2k words in length apparently.

    ˇ°That looks like a vignette of everyday life, and sometimes dissatisfaction with a career, or career prospects, can lead one to take such actionsˇ± Caro remains brief about GlitterˇŻs short story.

    While, for much of the stream, both writers keep going at it, in an attempt to out-do each other, by the end of the night, oblivious to other viewers engaged in those sprints, they brace themselves for one last push to 50k words.

    This time around, Caro goes on a tear and she simply writes faster than ever before. Meanwhile, Capitolium shows signs of fatigue, and he just seems to have lost some steam going into the dying moments.

    At the end of the final sprint, she updates her word count on screen, and she shows the tenth badge for 25,000 words being awarded, as she wrote a total of 25,030 words by this point. A dismayed Capitolium managed to blow his lead against Caro, and yet still earn the achievement.

    ˇ°Ten down, six more to go!ˇ± Caro shouts in exuberance.

    ˇ°Now that Caro made it to the half-way mark, time to distribute free subs!ˇ±

    Of which he distributes 29 for a month, and a list of viewer names scroll in the chat as the recipients are named.

    ˇ°Thank you, Capitolium, for gifting all these subscriptions!ˇ±

 Chapter 69: Would-be Play-by-Play Announcer

    ˇ°Glitter is a painful reminder that, even though you might know the ins and outs of a genre from a readerˇŻs perspective, you can be clueless writing it, let alone outside of itˇ± Sampoong adds to this quick reading of GlitterˇŻs short story, feeling like the emotions the lead feels early in it are repressed while she acts upon them.

    Oofˇ­ Glitter might have told me that I wrote good hockey scenes, and Capitolium, somewhat decent characters, but I must stay on my guard and remain aware that I might not necessarily be that great, Caro also feels like SampoongˇŻs assessment of Glitter might be a warning to the other viewers still engaged in NaNo or their alternatives.

    ˇ°And yet, donˇŻt forget, about ninety percent of work is crap, but what makes it crap depends on the detailsˇ± Glitter adds and sighs.

    The following day, Caro returns to work, fresh off the 25k-word mark, and Marie-France brings up how these hockey game scenes felt to her in Player Masher, even though itˇŻs still a work in progress.

    ˇ°?a cˇŻest du match de hockey comme jˇŻen nˇŻai pas eu la chance de lire avant!ˇ± (Now thatˇŻs a hockey game as I never had the chance to read before!) Marie-France shows an excerpt of the GunnersˇŻ game against the Constellations.

    ˇ°Caro, tu sonnes comme une commentatrice de hockeyˇ­ˇ± (Caro, you sound like a play-by-play hockey commentator) Jacques adds.

    ˇ°Est-ce une bonne ou une mauvaise chose?ˇ± (Is it a good or a bad thing?) Caro seems to struggle which sense Jacques was using.

    ˇ°Si je te disais que, pr¨¦-guerre, tu aurais pu auditionner pour ¨ştre la commentatrice en fran?ais, ou en anglais, de la KHLˇ­ˇ± (If I told you that, pre-war, you could have auditioned to become the KHLˇŻs English or French-language play-by-play commentor) Jacques clarifies his statement.

    ˇ°Lire un match de hockey dans un roman ¨¤ la glace de rose peut parfois ressembler ¨¤ des commentaires radiophoniques! Seulement, la KHL en fran?ais aurait probablement requis les Nordiques dans cette ligueˇ± (Reading a hockey game in a hockey romance book can sometimes read like radio commentary! Only, the KHL in French might have required the Nordiques in that league)

    During my teenage years, I regularly heard about how the KHL courted Qu¨¦bec City and how the KHL was the only way Qu¨¦bec City could recover its NHL team. However, in my memories, the KHL head office knew that Qu¨¦bec City would never have worked in the KHL without at least another team or two in cities unable to support the NHL, Hamilton being the most obvious target at the time, her coworkersˇŻ comments send her mind spinning.

    ˇ°La KHL, ¨ştes-vous malades? Autant bien que les Nordiques puissent remplir le Centre Vid¨¦otron ¨¤ chaque soir, la longueur des voyages ferait peur ¨¤ tout un chacun!ˇ± (The KHL, are you crazy? As much as the Nordiques could fill the Centre Vid¨¦otron every night, the length of travels would scare so many!) Marie-France points out the core logistical issue.

    ˇ°CˇŻest ¨¤ se questioner sur le co?t des voyages de lˇŻAmur de Khabarovskˇ± (One might be wondering about the travel costs for the Amur Khabarovsk) Jacques, believing the Amur Khabarovsk has the KHLˇŻs worst travel costs, would be left to believe the KHL-Nordiques would face these costs as a baseline.

    The three discuss other aspects of whether more North American teams could play in the KHL, and where. Potential cities would have included Saskatoon and Halifax, on top of the obvious, Hamilton and Qu¨¦bec City, and depending on which point in time one is talking about, Hartford, Houston, Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee (Utah and Seattle were both considered before they landed the NHL, although not at the same intensity). But they knew the one thing they agree on was the ability of the KHL-Nordiques to sell out the Centre Vid¨¦otron every night, and at lower prices than the NHL.

    And not simply because pre-war KHL seemingly covered the entire gap in playing level between the AHL and the NHL. Whether it would have forced BettmanˇŻs hands is another matter altogether. And yet, itˇŻs clear that the trio knew the business of hockey.

    Once the lunch break ends, she is left wondering about how to write the scenes between the holidays and the final plot-bearing game prior to the trade deadline. And in what order to do that. I could have Gus invite Emma at his place upon his return in Montreal, but only in the presence of his roommatesˇŻ WAGs. Or perhaps I could write that game prior to the TD and then write out the whole arc between the holidays and that game later. But just because I overtook Capitolium last night does not mean I will stay there.

    Then, upon returning home, she wonders what she will do. However, immediately after writing a game scene where Gus somehow earned the second star of the game, she is afraid that Glitter will yell at her on air once again if she continues to write more hockey.

    When she sits down to continue writing Player Masher, Caro, feeling a little too shaken to stream that night, hastily fights a few maps she knows she can beat while cashing in the ultimate battle pass reward: access to the secret shop. Which apparently works like a trade office, so that players with access to the secret shop can trade in certain resources they have in excess for other resources they lack.

    Upon returning to SimonˇŻs place, Gustavs inquires about when his girlfriend can be there. For he has questions about SimonˇŻs girlfriendˇŻs availability, insisting that, at this stage of the relationship, his girlfriend must not be left alone with two men, Caro writes, while also alluding to the opportunity to open Emma up to a world of fame.

    But that fame is not necessarily shared by the WAGs. And also a world Emma starts to feel some reservations for, especially since she feels like being a WAG includes being defined by her love interest, and may even overshadow what personal qualities and identity she might have.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Meanwhile, Capitolium starts writing the WJC arc, while making his MMC the sole US player at the WJC playing in the QMJHL. When he leaves behind the billet family for the US team, he canˇŻt help but make him cry, as well as grateful for the academic assistance his love interest gave him.

    When opening night comes, the billet family plans on watching every Canada game, as well as every US one, since, this year around, Canada and the US are in the same preliminary pool. As he writes the scene of the billet family watching the American opening game against Germany:

    ˇ°Welcome to the opening game of Group A at the World Juniors. This game pits the United States against Germany. What do you expect out of each team this year?ˇ± he writes his narrator in the pre-game sequence as the warm-ups take place for both teams on the ice below the not-Canadian Tire Centre.

    Which he portrays as a game that doesnˇŻt sell out, even though the US typically draws more fans than any other team outside of Canada whenever the WJC take place in Canada. And the national anthems are sung, with OttawaˇŻs national anthem singer, one of these officers ensuring Parliament HillˇŻs security, at center ice to sing the German national anthem and, of course, the Star-Spangled Banner.

    And, since Capitolium doesnˇŻt have his MMC start the game, he isnˇŻt going to be on the ice when the puck drops. Face-off won by the US, pass toˇ­ he struggles to think of player last names, and stops writing for a bit. He might have some measure of choice, but he knows that he canˇŻt simply take real player names.

    Unlessˇ­ unless that guy the starting center is passing to is the guy I could tack on for Washington to trade up and get my MMC, but only give up a third! I want Washington to hold on to their second, or to already have it traded away by draft dayˇ­ Capitolium looks back on a scene Caro called him out on much earlier, when he wrote his own draft-day scene. But I also want that guy to be on the ice when my MMC scores his only goal in that game.

    And then he writes another clip, if you will, of what happens at the billet familyˇŻs home when they see both teams multiply shots on goal as well as saves and hits. As well as telling that they are willing to forgo Boxing Day so that they donˇŻt need to worry about missing the games they want.

    That night, however, Caroline starts having another dream related to hockey, but not about ghosts of her playing days at the Pee-Wee Worlds:

    <hr>

    Centre Vid¨¦otronˇŻs TV studio, 2019. The Nordiques were on the road. The time zones of the KHL forced her to be there in the early morning, which would be prime time for the home team. Amur Khabarovsk, whose camera feed was on a screen in front of her. And yet, somehow, Musique Moins was awarded the French-language KHL broadcasting deal despite being a newcomer to the sports broadcasting world. It was apparently a joint venture by the KHL, the Nordiques and Much Music.

    ˇ°ici Caroline Fauchoux pour Musique Moins. Bienvenue ¨¤ ce match des Nordiques de Qu¨¦bec, qui entreprennent un voyage de cinq matchs en Extr¨şme-Orient. Ce matin, ils rendent visite ¨¤ lˇŻAmur de Khabarovsk pour leur match dˇŻouvertureˇ± (This is Caroline Fauchoux for Musique Moins. Welcome to this Qu¨¦bec Nordiques game, who start a five-game road trip in the Far East. This morning, they visit the Amur Khabarovsk for their season opener)

    Then Musique MoinsˇŻ color commentator, who, like Caroline, was, at this point, a complete unknown of the hockey media, began discussing who to watch out for on Amur.

    However, since Amur KhabarovskˇŻs regular anthem singer didnˇŻt know Oh Canada, the organization had a Nordiques player sing it. Once the Canadian national anthem ended:

    ˇ°Veilleux gagne la mise en jeu, sˇŻavance vers la ligne bleue, passe ¨¤ L¨¦gar¨¦, sˇŻapproche de lˇŻenclave par la gauche, solide mise en ¨¦chec de Kirilenko au cercle de mise en jeuˇ­ˇ± (Veilleux wins the faceoff, dashes to the blue line, passes to L¨¦gar¨¦, closes in on the crease from the left, solid hit by Kirilenko at the faceoff circleˇ­) CarolineˇŻs oneiric self began describing the NordiquesˇŻ first away game, which she knew was watched across the province.

    Quickly, to the Musique Moins executives, it became clear that the league had dilemmas in scheduling. Yes, someone had to be scheduled for the opening game, but even Caro scratched her head when a Khabarovsk attempt to clear the puck ended in an icing call a few minutes later, and then cut away for commercials.

    Why is it that the KHL saw fit to schedule the Nordiques as a season opener for Khabarovsk when they know Qu¨¦bec City is supposed to be one of the jewels of the league? She started to feel frustrated by the idiosyncratic behavior of the leagueˇŻs front office, but kept quiet about it on air. Even she believed a Saturday afternoon at home against any of the Moscow teams might have been a better business idea than playing Khabarovsk on the road for an opener.

    But when the commercials ended, Caro was more excited, upon seeing play resume in the NordiquesˇŻ offensive zone.

    ˇ°Taillon au cercle de mise en jeu, remporte la mise en jeu, pression de lˇŻAmur sur lˇŻ¨¦chec avant, Balmochnyk travaille le long des rampes, ¨¦chappe la rondelle, revirement repris par Dupuis, passe ¨¤ Taillon dans lˇŻenclave, le tirˇ­ et le but!ˇ± (Taillon at the face-off circle, wins the face-off, pressure by Amur on the forecheck, Balmochnyk works along the boards, loses the puck, turnover recovered by Dupuis, passes to Taillon in the slot, shootsˇ­ and scores!) Caroline became increasingly exuberant upon describing that game sequence.

    ˇ°Le premier but de lˇŻhistoire des Nordiques en KHL!ˇ± (The first goal in Nordiques history in the KHL!) the color commentator followed up, before that dream ended.

    <hr>

    It sure seemed happier than previous hockey-related dreams I had while NaNo is underway, CarolineˇŻs mind still seems to run relatively fast in her dreams. And make her sleep not as good as she would like. Thank God that I still hit the daily par before going to bed, but it seems that, lately, it seems to take me longer to do so.

    But when Caro awakens the following morning, she is swiftly reminded of Capitolium establishing his narrator as being the play-by-play announcer at the WJC. And DMs him:

    Caroline: I trust you know about how hardcore Canadian media gets about the WJC

    Capitolium: I know how big of a big deal it is

    They put every single game on TV, or at least cover every game even if the non-Canada games may not have been on Canadian TV. But even when Caro tries to have some screen time away from hockey, she ought to start making her leads more intimate between each other. She must have realized by now that her choice made it difficult to build chemistry between her leads, Capitolium skims what Caro wrote outside of the hockey games.

    Capitolium: One more thing: I donˇŻt feel thereˇŻs much chemistry between your leads

    Caroline: I might make them long for each other, until they get their chance, which they would wait for weeks

    And the next chapter after that might be the final plot-bearing game after the trade deadline, Caro sighs, but feeling like she needs several daysˇŻ worth of words before getting to the trade deadline arc.

 Chapter 70: Where Did the Sex Go?

    November 14, late night, Daegu time. Sampoong having no concept of what makes a therapist good or not, he decided to book the first tele-therapy appointment he could get that both him and his love interest could attend. They quarrel each other in Korean, and the following is a loose translation.

    ˇ°Honey, I took the time to book this therapy appointment. I considered your schedule as well as mine, I didnˇŻt want it to interfere with what you care about outside of the relationship!ˇ± Sampoong announces to her, a little on edge. ˇ°Its time for our therapy session!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm afraid it might be a little expensive, but I think itˇŻs going to be worth it if we stick through it!ˇ± SampoongˇŻs love interest, Duri, tells him before going.

    ˇ°Expensive? There are therapists around here who give out discounts provided we book a certain number of sessions all at once, and/or for undesirable timeslots! But you have to ask for it, and it was the only way we could fit couples therapy in our budget!ˇ±

    Duri starts to vent her frustration at what she perceives as being his obsession over the people he follows on Twitch.

    ˇ°Whoˇ­ are they?ˇ± Duri points at two specific streamers he watched the most lately, Legnica and Caro, whom she knows only by her Twitch username.

    ˇ°One of them is one of the best players on Twitch for a game I started playing a little over a week ago, watching her helped me a lot!ˇ±

    ˇ°Can you tell me why is it that you watched them so much?ˇ± Duri tells at him.

    ˇ°Are you implying that I had online flings or affairs with them?ˇ± Sampoong asks, on the defensive. ˇ°Of course not! One of them seemed obsessed with writing a hockey romance book in a month, or so she claimed, the other also wrote a romance book on air, but a historical romance centered on a harem!ˇ±

    Legnica went into painstaking lengths to build up what Ottoman nobility was like, what sanjaks and their associated sanjak-beys could do, and they were answerable to the eyaletˇŻs pasha, or beylerbey. How he put the ladies in his harem to work doing household chores in his palace, and how that meant she mixed ˇ°why chooseˇ± along with forced proximity, Sampoong realizes that he might have been looking at these streamers to get a window on missing gaps in his knowledge.

    ˇ°Then why do you feel like these two arenˇŻt worth an online fling?ˇ±

    ˇ°The TRPG expert was too fat, and the harem romance writer was implying that her day job was in the health sector! This usually means they have strict limitations on who they can be in relationships with! But really, if you watched Caro, you would realize that sheˇŻs just on another intellectual level compared to you!ˇ±

    And GlitterˇŻs knowledge of relationship failure pointsˇ­ I donˇŻt think itˇŻs appropriate to bring that up with her. IˇŻm not sure itˇŻs appropriate to ask whether she has a MFT license for now, nor Legnica, Sampoong thinks while he keeps hearing about accusations on DuriˇŻs part, while Duri looks at a few clips from SampoongˇŻs favorite streamers, on the computer they use for this tele-therapy session, before it starts.

    ˇ°Am I too dumb for you?ˇ±

    ˇ°No, itˇŻs just that Caro makes me feel like being in a relationship with someone as smart as she is not for everyone, and not all rosyˇ±

    Although, in romance, breakups are usually temporary, I hope that heˇŻs prepared for the event that the breakup is permanent, if it came to that. However, I hope this therapist he found isnˇŻt simply an attempt to stave off the inevitable, Duri is a little nervous about him having booked a tele-therapy session this late.

    When the session begins, as is usual for the intake stage, the couple is bombarded with questions about their situation, and where the issues lie. With their therapist taking notes all over the session.

    I hope Duri is willing to give this therapist a chance. I booked this therapist with both the bulk discount and the late night discount, for as many sessions as I believed were necessary to truly determine whether a therapist is effective, Sampoong realizes that he paid for three-fifths of the regular price for a five-session block.

    At the end of the session, they think somethingˇŻs not right with the therapist, but canˇŻt tell what. As they speak to each other in Korean, once again, loosely translated to English here:

    ˇ°Yeobo!ˇ± (Honey) ˇ°I am not sure this couples therapist is for us!ˇ± Duri scolds him.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs a little early, Duri. Remember what the therapist said at the very beginning: couples therapy doesnˇŻt work overnight! There are no guarantees, and any therapist that would guarantee a diagnosis, or a cure, within a certain timeframe is not worth consulting!ˇ± Sampoong argues with her.

    ˇ°Fine!ˇ± Duri fumes and rolls her eyes. ˇ°You asked for couples therapy, we must live with its consequences!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm willing to give another four sessions, all in this timeslot, especially since I obtained both discounts on offer! We will have to go through this phase all over again if we change now!ˇ±

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs the catch? I think thereˇŻs a catch!ˇ±

    ˇ°I had to pay for all five sessions up front! But we got forty percent off! We need to look at what we can free up to get some more intimacy, but at the same time, respect our lives away from each otherˇ­ˇ±

    I wonder what it will take for Duri to understand there is no sex, no romance involved with Caro at all. I work from home, she doesnˇŻt, so I canˇŻt have her run late to work to sort things out because Caro streams when Duri is at work on Fridays, Sampoong, feeling that the streams themselves would not constitute sufficient evidence to his love interest that heˇŻs not having an affair with Caro, or even flings, tries to formulate a solution. Only time will tell whether this is going to be the best KRW450k spent for the couple, or a complete waste.

    ˇ°Perhaps we could watch Caro together Saturday morning! Then you will understand that IˇŻm not having an online affair with her!ˇ±

    ˇ°Very well, but promise me that we will be in bed at some point this week!ˇ±

    ˇ°Only if you let go of the notion that IˇŻm having an affair with Caro!ˇ±

    Because, of course, laying the foundation to work on his relationship issues made the two tires, they go to bed and sleep.

    However, when he awakens, on Friday morning, Daegu time, Sampoong reads what he could of the new material Caro wrote of her hockey romance book, where Gus and Emma grow closer to each other, but still mostly long for each other since they both have busy schedules. She might have some talent, but not enough for me to anoint her ˇ°a naturalˇ±. Yet, one thing seems to bug me as I read these new passages, supposedly held before the trade deadline: normally they should have sex by this point, but they do not, he mentally prepares himself to watch CaroˇŻs stream as he goes to work doing backend IT work. After Duri has left their home for work.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, back in Charlesbourg, where itˇŻs only evening of the 14th, as opposed to the morning of the 15th, Caro brews another cup of coffee, hoping that it will help her see through the stream. And, of course, a bowl of bibimbap, of which Caro cooked several servings, one for eating on air, two for her parents to eat, plus one to take to work the next day.

    ˇ°Tonight is meal night: with inspiration from one of my faithful followers, Sampoong, IˇŻm eating bibimbap on air!ˇ±

    And then people on air are shown the signature flowery look of a bibimbap bowl with julienned cucumbers, carrots, pork and rice, topped off with a fried egg. Not many ˇ°petalsˇ±, and Sampoong is a little disappointed by the bibimbap bowl shown on air.

    It''s clear that Caro is not very experienced with Korean cuisine. Usually, people cook bibimbap with more than just four ingredients in the ˇ°petalsˇ±, more like six or eight, Sampoong is left wondering how she is going to eat it. But, as she eats the fried egg before mixing the petals together:

    ˇ°I spent three nights trying to make the despair show more, and other emotions one would feel about unsatisfactory careers, as well as while studying for tests that could feel make-or-breakˇ± Glitter makes an update on what happened since she last watched Caro. ˇ°And, obviously, the joy of making a crucial step in a dream come trueˇ±

    Maridun (tagging Glitter): Now thatˇŻs an improvement! It no longer feels like a mere how-to guide

    But after Caro eats the bibimbap, because she doesnˇŻt play the game as much as when the battle pass was underway, she just goes in and sends characters on smaller dispatch quests so she can run the infernal gauntlet of the week alongside a few arena matches.

    Once that is done, they return to more writing sprints, where Caro finalizes the chapter where they grow closer together before the trade deadline. In the past 3 days, I did only the bare minimum towards the daily par, and sometimes I felt like I needed to add more detail or more actions just to get to it. I might have managed, but I wonder whether 100%ing NaNo is worth the cost in quality. But I will NOT update the word count in NaNoˇŻs system tonight until I wrote to the daily par!

    After the sprint ends, Sampoong feels like something is amiss with the late pre-TD arc of Player Masher, and goes in the VC for it:

    ˇ°Where? Did? The? Sex? Go?ˇ± Sampoong, feeling his blood boil, starts lashing out at Caroline.

    ˇ°Sampoong, thereˇŻs good reason for why I didnˇŻt have any sex scenes! Gus is constantly too tired from practices and games to even think of having sex with Emma, much less give anything remotely resembling good sex!ˇ± Caro defends herself, while raising her voice.

    ˇ°So essentially the only thing Gustavs cares about in sex is whether he has enough energy to have itˇ­ˇ± Sampoong sighs, in shock because of CaroˇŻs answer. ˇ°Normally I would have expected the couple to have sex at some point before a possible third-act breakup, but it seems unsettling for me that you write Player Masher without sex!ˇ±

    ˇ°I knew some readers judged romance books solely, or at least primarily, by how much sex there is, or how good the sex scenes are! The book you recommended to her in the beginning had three-quarters of the development happen under the form of sexual improvements!ˇ± Glitter sternly reminds Sampoong.

    ˇ°I knew Korean porn regulations only allowed consumption for personal use, but not the manufacture or distribution for commercial purposes. However, I have no clue as to how it would apply to booksˇ± Lagado asks Sampoong, curious about his book intake.

    Damnˇ­ Lagado asks a question that makes me want to scream. Like I knew that, in the West, Korean video games were known for their explicit outfits, but Korean developers need to be really cautious about ensuring that it doesnˇŻt legally qualify as porn, Sampoong shakes in his seat while he tries to contain his anger at Lagado.

    ˇ°Porn law is usually less stringently enforced for book imports; this is why I could get my hands on that book I recced Caro a while ago. Korean books tended to fade to blackˇ±

    ˇ°For a while now, it seems like sex was a key ingredient that determined the potential of a book to succeed on the market, or which audience it could reach. Both Capitolium and Caro, while very heavy on the hockey, write wholesome romance, which has no sexˇ± Glitter comments on the lack of sexual content of both manuscripts.

    ˇ°Let me guess, there could be some readers who seek spicy or steamy books specifically because they think such books would, in some way, improve their sex?ˇ± Capitolium asks the viewer.

    ˇ°Or are, in some way, unsatisfied with their sexual lives?ˇ± Caro asks, without expecting much of an answer. ˇ°Yes, I did imply both Emma and Gus are focused on their respective careers and respect such in each otherˇ±

    It seems that Glitter is more OK with there not being much hockey for the time being. However, I donˇŻt expect her to stick around once the chapter ends, Caro is a little concerned about GlitterˇŻs behavior around hockey in the two writersˇŻ respective manuscripts.

    ˇ°As with other uses of romance books for wish fulfillment, some people look to romance books to fill a void in their sexual lives, even when they are satisfied in other areasˇ± Glitter furrows a brow upon hearing about other viewers mentioning unmet sexual needs.

    I feel thatˇŻs what Duri wants out of any trip to the bed together. So why is it that my girlfriend thinks that I am having an affair with Caro? I get that we never got much intimacy in the past few months, but does she feel such ardent need for sex that she nags me for it? Does she think Caro can somehow fill some need that she canˇŻt? Sampoong shakes his head, struggling to think about why Duri could be led to think he had online flings with Caro. Or is it because CaroˇŻs manuscript hits too close to my home? I ought to get to the bottom of the matter before our next appointment with that discount therapist!

    ˇ°One more thing: just like Caro once claimed that some other romance books are horror in all but name, some people could claim that some romance books are erotica in all but name. I can see the overlap because erotica plots focus on the sexual aspect, like the book I recced her, and you can have erotica without the romance subplot qualifying as a romance book, for example, if they are forced to stop having sex between each other because of a STI, much like you can have a horror book with an unhappy endingˇ± Sampoong explains a core nuance between romance and erotica.

    ˇ°That wasˇ­ enrichingˇ± Lagado sighs.

    ˇ°To add on what Sampoong was saying, one of the more disturbing tropes, more than simply love or lust at first sight, is insta-sex, in that they have sex right after seeing each other; often insta-sex kinds of things are mercenary in nature, but donˇŻt last!ˇ± Glitter follows up.

    Some viewer: Come on, start a new word war!

    ˇ°I saw the term word war in my chat; how does word warfare differ from a writing sprint?ˇ±

    Some viewer: Word wars are the same as writing sprints

    ˇ°Prepare for war!ˇ± Caro then lays out the terms of the word war declaration.

    Because Caro and her viewers previously discussed the role of sex in romance on the stream, there are several new belligerents in CaroˇŻs stream wanting in on her stream, who also take part in this new word war. And some of them end up following her almost as quickly as they entered her stream.

    ˇ°Thank you for the follow!ˇ± the streamer tells her new followers in the middle of a word war.

    DonˇŻt let these new followers distract me! We have a word war to fight! ThereˇŻs a reason why I didnˇŻt update my word count on NaNoˇŻs system today: we need to show them the new badge! I canˇŻt let Capitolium get away with the lead in this 30-day race without a fight! CaroˇŻs surface thoughts consume her as she continues writing another scene where Gus and Emma are together after longing for each other. She also tries her best to respond to some belligerentsˇŻ questions but knows that she must stay focused to win the word war. Or get the most words out of it as possible, anyhow.

    Now that IˇŻm done writing the WJC arc, and have my MMC finish it with 6 points in 7 games, with the US being unable to defend its title, I guess, itˇŻs back to the reality of QMJHL life, away from a two-week-long spotlight. Back to the billet family, with the silver medal on hand, Capitolium starts thinking about how heˇŻs going to continue writing The Penalty Box of Passion while he grapples with the need to get as many words as he can get in an attempt to fend off Caroline. Which he does, but the sheer writing speed of the war requires both to use Bengay after the war ends.

    ˇ°Damn it! I lost! Shout-out toˇ­ˇ± Caro then names a newcomer who edged her out in battle by only a few words.

    And she then invites the new belligerents to join her Discord server as well as discussing their projects. The one who saw word wars the same as writing sprints wrote a sci-fi dystopia, while another one writes fantasy about a couch potato elf who watches and designs TVs. And yet another one of these new viewers who write a murder mystery.

    By the end of the stream, however, she feels like time is a little short, because she was side tracked by the needs of the chat. In the final sprint of the night, she feels the time crunch just to get to the daily par, and also to record the daily word count.

    ˇ°I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that Capitolium has overtaken me tonightˇ± Caro then updates her word count on NaNoˇŻs system, to 31,850 words. And hence unlocking the eleventh cheevo, a 14-day streak. ˇ°The good news is that I unlocked the fourteen-day streak cheevo!ˇ±

 Chapter 71: Trade Deadline of Wrath

    After the stream ended, Sampoong is left with more questions than he had answers for. Is Duri somehow jealous of Caro, despite the fact she interacted with her? If so, what could she be jealous of? I thought respecting each otherˇŻs lives away from each other was key, it seems itˇŻs no longer the case.

    The following morning, Daegu time, after breakfast, the couple is, once again, facing their issues. (And this scene is loosely translated from Korean, too)

    ˇ°Yeobo, what about we watch Caroline together this morning? She might feel a little exotic to you, because she is, but I assure you, she isnˇŻt the kind of girl I would want to have a fling withˇ± Sampoong asks Duri, feeling a little uneasy because he can sense some lingering jealousy in her.

    ˇ°Caroline? I only found out yesterday about her existence!ˇ± a triggered Duri starts getting her face red. ˇ°I really hope so for you! She had me worried that you might have cheated without me noticing!ˇ±

    The couple sits down around SampoongˇŻs computer so they can watch Caro stream her briefly playing that online TRPG, and then dive into the writing of a new arc, with a third plot-bearing game marking its start, but that, for some reason, she doesnˇŻt seem like writing the chapter containing the game just yet.

    ˇ°For those who are new to this stream, earlier in this NaNo adventure, we talked about the NHL trade deadline, albeit a little briefly. As with all the major points in a hockey season, the trade deadline is a big deal in Canadian sports media, with a big chunk of media coverage going to trade speculation and trade analysis. It takes place forty days before the end of the regular seasonˇ± Caro starts explaining what it is, but then another viewer asks a question.

    ˇ°What kind of players get traded at the deadline?ˇ± Lagado asks.

    ˇ°Usually, teams out of playoff contention trade away players on their final years of their contracts for picks, prospects or other players, often injured or underperforming ones. In the cap era, trade deadlines tend to see supporting pieces without star power leave, and it has become more complicated to run; star players usually move towards in a period starting from draft dayˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs easy to imagine the rumor mill being active for teams like the Constellations with trade targetsˇ± Capitolium comments. ˇ°I trust you know that the three to seven days prior to the trade deadline sees a surge in trade rumors circulatingˇ±

    ˇ°Yeah, I know, in Montreal, it would mean that every WAG and their relatives in the city would know about which players are likely to be traded away, and which ones arenˇŻt. Anxiety-inducing for those players, and their loved ones, very easilyˇ± Caro follows up.

    ˇ°Montreal? Where the hell is Montreal? What makes Montreal so special in the hockey world?ˇ± Duri yells at Sampoong in Korean, not realizing that he pressed the PTT in the VC of CaroˇŻs Discord server, and everyone else watching Caro only understood the words Montreal and hockey, laughing with them.

    ˇ°Please excuse my girlfriendˇŻs lack of knowledge of hockey, sheˇŻs new to the stream, and sheˇŻs a Korean girl who never heard of the sport until nowˇ± Sampoong explains in English.

    Sampoong then whispers the answers to both questions in DuriˇŻs ear, in Korean. However, his face turns tomato red after seeing Caro burst in laughter upon hearing Duri asking questions in Korean on air.

    However, Glitter stops watching the stream upon hearing about how the trade deadline would be a source of tensions among the NHL front offices as well as among the players in the trade rumor mill and their WAGs. I never, ever saw a hockey romance book where trade rumors poison relationships between a player and his WAG. And somehow, Caro thinks she knows better than more established hockey romance writers about how the transactional aspect of the sport affects players in relationships? I guess, I need to go back and double-check my TBR pile. Or maybe I need to switch gears in my reading, since I read dozens of romance books in these past few monthsˇ­ no horror either.

    But when Caro starts sprinting with the viewers in her chat, Sampoong shows his love interest clips, in English, from past Montreal Canadiens games, showing the main elements giving hockey its entertainment value. Saves, goals, hits, and fights. And certainly how it would feel to be there, in Centre Bell, among 21,105 hockey fans who make the in-person experience one of the best in hockey.

    After Sampoong showed her this eclectic selection of clips from Habs games, he asks a question to her, loosely translated from Korean:

    ˇ°How do you feel about Caro now, still feel like IˇŻm having a fling or affair with her?ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs too premature to judge, after just a few minutes of watching her. There were times when you seemed to be watching her for hours on end!ˇ± Duri deadpans him.

    On CaroˇŻs manuscript, new words get added to it at a frenzied pace, especially when Emma called Gus to talk about trade rumors. And the concerns that might send him away from Montreal for at least until the end of the Stanley Cup Final. Or longer.

    Jacques: What sources of tension do you want at the trade deadline?

    Marie-France: IˇŻm afraid that one source of tension is already thrown out the window

    ˇ°Damn it! I already wrote the draft day scene as if Gus was traded away!ˇ± Caro curses herself.

    Not to mention that my prospective post-draft plot involves Montreal making an offer sheet on Gustavs after losing a D-man to free agency! If he wasnˇŻt traded at the deadline, there just wouldnˇŻt be an offer sheet, Caro refrains from giving out spoilers.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    ˇ°What makes the trade deadline interesting from a fanˇŻs perspective has multiple facets: if a player is traded away, who, when, to whom, and for how much, being the main onesˇ± Capitolium adds to this discussion of tension sources. ˇ°Tthese sources of tension also apply to major junior hockey; however, in major junior, players play for three to four seasons at most, and draft picks are traded like crazy in major juniorˇ±

    ˇ°Sure, in the long run, the evolution of how the assets pan out adds another layer, but this draft-day scene forced my hand on the first two, and the third one is in a narrow week-long windowˇ±

    Marie-France: Much like, in romance, what suspense you do have will often lie in the timing and whether it will last, or, in a love triangle or harem romance, with whom, because of the happy ending requirementˇ±

    Maridun: Oh God, love triangles; sometimes a third-act breakup can tear one apart

    Oh crap, love triangles! In the last one I read, I could have told by Ch3 which one would form the final couple, Sampoong is left wondering what appeal could there be for love triangles. But then Caro asks a question to Capitolium:

    ˇ°Considering that you want your MMC to be playing at the Memorial Cup, do you want your own story to have a trade deadline arc?ˇ± Caro asks the challenger.

    ˇ°You see, in major junior, it depends on the league. The OHL doesnˇŻt allow first-rounders to be traded, but the Q does, and if you thought the NHL could be desperate, some Courteau Trophy-contending teams might trade out of the first four rounds for the next three years just to have a shot to win it all. But I donˇŻt want my MMC to be traded away, rather, my MMCˇŻs team is going to be a buying team, the one trading away these picksˇ± Capitolium answers her viewer.

    As the two write more on their own trade deadline arcs, Caro has Emma telling Gus about trade rumors around him, and then poisoning a fragile relationship until the trade deadline hits, or a trade occurs.

    However, back in Daegu, Sampoong and Duri are still at each otherˇŻs throats, but this time around, the former doesnˇŻt have his push-to-talk button active, so unlike last time, they could argue with each other, in Korean, without being heard by CaroˇŻs viewers.

    ˇ°See, now, Caro seems to talk so much about hockey, as well as romance books; never did she have any sexual or romantic overtone to what she was saying, and she has several viewers who chime in on various things, without being particularly attracted to anyone!ˇ± Sampoong tries to reason with Duri.

    ˇ°I was wrong about Caro, I apologizeˇ± Duri adds, without providing more answers to him.

    ˇ°I acceptˇ­ for now. But why did you seem to distrust me in my dealings with other women outside of you lately?ˇ± Sampoong asks her, his face turning red, feeling like trust has gone downhill.

    ˇ°We had so little intimacy these past few months that I have the impression someone or something else might be the cause!ˇ±

    ˇ°Perhaps your situation at work might hold a clue. I respected it, thinking that, if it made our life together better in the long run, maybe short-term sacrifices will make it worth it!ˇ±

    ˇ°You probably read a lot of romance books where intimacy is the order of the day. I want two books, please: one with the couple struggling to get intimacy, the other, a couple that functions wellˇ±

    ˇ°Wait a minuteˇ­ˇ± Sampoong then starts combing his ebook library.

    I have the impression that sex is not what Duri wants in a book, more like focusing on the actual relationship. Unfortunately, it seems like sex overshadowed the relationship part in my past readings, and I didnˇŻt feel much of the coupleˇŻs dynamics outside of sex, Sampoong then turns to his go-to person for reading recs on Discord: Glitter.

    Sampoong: My two requests must be primarily about the relationship outside of sex: first, a book about a couple struggling to get intimacy because of trust issues, and second, a book about a couple that functions well

    Glitter: IˇŻm surprised by the first request, but the second one might be better fulfilled with non-fiction; you see, the second one would be a tension-killer for a lot of romance writers

    In the past, Sampoong was the kind of guy who swore by the quality and amount of sex, but if he had to choose between quality and quantity, he usually chose quality. A non-fiction book that could address trust issues in a couple would probably be a little dense for him, though. Because of his sudden shift, I feel like he has trust issues in his own relationship, Glitter muses, while she checks against the books she knows about or read.

    Sampoong: What do you mean, a tension-killer?

    Glitter: A healthy relationship might be something to wish for, but would make for a relatively short story, if at the core

    Sampoong: IˇŻm not concerned about story length

    Glitter: Using fiction to fulfill a wish for a healthy relationship typically means the good part of the book will lie outside the relationship

    Sampoong: Where would you look for healthy relationships in romance books?

    Glitter: Sci-fi romance is probably your best bet, historical and fantasy second; for historical, please keep in mind the time and place of its setting as value systems might have changed

    Sampoong: A well-written romance book will make you wish to see a coupleˇŻs life once together

    Glitter: Most romance books tend to focus on the early stages of a relationship; this is where tension and passion climax

    Sampoong then receives one rec apiece from Glitter, based on his requests. I guess, if these books help us make sense of whatˇŻs happening to us, all I need to do is check their prices against our budget. Then IˇŻll let her read them both, provided they donˇŻt cost too much, he thinks as he checks out the two books, as well as their prices.

    But on air, however, Caro seems to be a little shaky when she has Emma voice her concerns over the trade deadline, especially with one of the ConstellationsˇŻ D-men now being healthy enough to come back into play. Speaking of which, she may as well have a scene with the D-man Gustavs replaced for the season up to this point.

    And add perhaps a few paragraphs, where appropriate, about that playerˇŻs rehab. Oh boy, when back from injury, one would typically want him to play fewer minutes to ease his transition back into play, Caro then keeps a note to this effect before drinking coffee and starting the final sprint of the day.

    ˇ°IˇŻm so going to overshoot the daily par tonightˇ­ˇ± Caro feels like all the modifications sheˇŻs about to make to give more of a story role to the injured player Gus fills in for a good chunk of the season are a necessary evil.

    ˇ°Caro, you struggle to pace yourself. There are days where you barely get to about seventeen hundred words, but tonight youˇŻre clearly above that number!ˇ± Capitolium warns her in a comment.

    Once that sprint ends, she starts feeling the pain of writing at frenzied pace, puts Bengay on both hands and she updates her daily word count. 2150, for a total of 34,000. For the weekend, the plan is going to finish this chapter, write the game before that and then dedicate a whole chapter to the front office action. About the endless number crunching by assistants, back-and-forth on the phones of various GMs. And, maybe, get the 40,000-word cheevo on November 17.

 Chapter 72: In Exchange For 40,000 Words

    On Saturday, Charlesbourg time, Caro resumes writing the chapter where her two leads have tensions between each other due to various trade rumors targeting him. Something just doesnˇŻt feel right: why did I even introduce Buffalo on draft day? Why did I introduce Jared? He just isnˇŻt going to be a mere teammate of Gus and playing on the same PP unit in this game! I must have Buffalo play the game before the deadline and make Emma watch that specific game! I feel like some of the rest will make way more sense once I have written BUF vs. MTL.

    She then turns her attention to the third pre-deadline plot-bearing game, Buffalo vs. MTL. Where the coach unveils the special units for the game: first penalty kill unit, second power play, and heˇŻs playing on the second defense pair. And, of course, to forget about any playoff implications on either side, even though, at this point of the season, the Constellations are statistically eliminated from the playoffs, and on the verge of being mathematically eliminated.

    And yet, Caro makes Emma still burn the candle at both ends, so, as with the previous game, Emma is going to listen to the game on the radio. So, a little early in the first period, Montreal gets a cross-checking penalty.

    ˇ°Minor penalty to ConstellationsˇŻ number forty-eight, Dumaurier, for cross-checking! Barbecues on the power play, Barbecues win the faceoffˇ­ˇ± Caro, once again, reprises her role as a voice actress of a hockey play-by-play commentator, while glossing over the last name of the BBQsˇŻ player, and writing down the whole sequence of play. ˇ°What a hit by Kurpnieks, steals the puck, and attempts to clear the puck into the BarbecuesˇŻ zone, Vend?me chases the puck in the neutral zoneˇ­ˇ± She then adds the crowdˇŻs reaction to the puck-carrier being hit.

    Capitolium, upon glancing at this manuscript upon which words are added by the minute, starts feeling like sheˇŻs closing on the 40,000 words, faster than he would have thought. Which also pushes him to write his own story at a faster pace, and dealing with the fallout of the QˇŻs trade deadline. How could someone with so little experience write that fast? SheˇŻs definitely relying on her knowledge of hockey more than she would like to admit. Most beginners writing at that speed tended to write copies of a copyˇ­

    Writing the game itself, to Caro, proves to be the easy part. It amounts to getting the highlight reel of a game into words, with perhaps a bit more focus on GusˇŻ shifts.

    But then she goes around revisiting the chapter taking place after the game, to add whatever needed to reference the Barbecues game. After which point she calls it a day for writing, since she already reached a little bit over 37,000 words by Saturday afternoon.

    She then catches a glimpse of LegnicaˇŻs stream, where she shows a scene in her manuscript where her sanjak-bey she calls a main character feels like he might need to give one of the ladies in his harem away to his suzerain beylerbey, while facing crippling debts.

    ˇ°Some people will claim that, at least in romance, women will tend to write differently from men. That, even though talent is gender-balancedˇ± Legnica tells her viewers.

    Caroline: Sometimes nationality will have an impact, too; for hockey romance specifically, I feel like Canadian authors focus far more on the hockey aspect

    Capitolium: The core giveaway is how they write characters of the opposite gender

    And then other people watching Legnica chime in on more details of how gender can impact oneˇŻs writing. Like how the relationships are written, and the weight given to emotions and motivations vs actions. However, sci-fi and non-romantasy fantasy didnˇŻt seem to have as big of a stylistic gender divide.

    ˇ°I knew some female readers preferred to read female writers. Some male writers might be aware of how not to sexualize women, but by doing so, write men in womenˇŻs bodiesˇ± Legnica comments on how some readers could choose who to read based on author characteristics.

    Glitter: It might be easier to forgive writing men in womenˇŻs bodies in stuff such as espionage and cross-dressing plots in historical, fantasy or sci-fi fiction, as suspects in mysteries, or in any other setting where gender isnˇŻt much of a factor, but otherwise, it might be a case of ˇ°writing the character before the genderˇ± taken to the extreme at best

    Lagado: Speaking of mysteries, this is where I believe ˇ°interesting side characters, boring mainsˇ± came from

    And then they start discussing how murder mysteries had a tendency to be more forgiving of a boring main character, and the aim to read one is to find out who committed a crime. Hence why one wants to commit it becomes important to enjoy one.

    But then Capitolium DMs Caro when LegnicaˇŻs stream ends.

    Capitolium: I donˇŻt mean it derisively, but you heard LegnicaˇŻs viewers; they say that when women write romance, they get more invested in the relationship itself, and some readers would prefer life outside the relationship not to be an obstacle

    Caroline: My entire book is based on the premise that life outside the relationship can and will interfere with one

    Capitolium: In a way, you feel very masculine as a writer, and, as you said, very Canadian, too

    Is it a good or a bad thing? As far as IˇŻm concerned, hockey romance is perhaps the area of romance where Canadian authors even had a distinctive style, Caro seems a little puzzled by Capitolium telling her that her writing style is very masculine.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Caroline: Is it a good or a bad thing?

    Capitolium: Neither, just an observation

    <hr>

    The following day, Caro starts writing another scene she feels will be tension-filled, and taking place a day after Emma tells Gustavs about the trade rumors surrounding the team. The GM summons the relevant assistants to a meeting room after receiving the dayˇŻs first call.

    The first offer of the day is for Jared Macer, Minnesota has offered next yearˇŻs first-rounder, along withˇ­ Caroline then writes a prospectˇŻs name that never saw any screen time, wondering if itˇŻs proper to add in any extras who will never again be mentionedˇ­ The various assistants involved in the war room, mostly in the analytics department, get to work to analyze where they feel both teams are headed, going into the future, and whether the GM can send a counteroffer.

    Time passes and she decides to go forward and add a new team, as well as a prospect MIN is willing to trade away, to get Macer traded to the not-Wild. And, of course, she remains brief about the tensions trading away Macer would cause, focusing on the main course, Gustavs.

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream, and letˇŻs hope that IˇŻll reach forty-thousand words tonight! I must warn you: the current chapter is a little heavy on the hockey. Especially since, in my previous stream, I explained what the trade deadline was for, and when it was. I also want to emphasize how even the decision of who Gus will be traded to, and I admit I shot myself in the foot by writing the draft day chapter before the trade deadline one, will cause tensions in the front office!ˇ±

    Lagado enters the VC. ˇ°I wonder what kind of tension do you get out of what I fear will be, once again, full of the same by-the-numbers storytelling as the draft-day chapter!ˇ±

    ˇ°There were times when teams might have refused a better package for a player because they feel the trade would haunt them later, and I wonder if itˇŻs a good idea to introduce itˇ±

    The most publicized instance of what Caro describes is, well, the CanucksˇŻ goalie situation back at the 2013 draft. Oilers offered a better package than the Devils, but they instead traded away Schneider for pick #9 to NJ, Capitolium is reminded of what Caro plans to introduce.

    And then Caro goes into more depth about the considerations that go into ˇ°sellingˇ± players to playoff contenders: the expected depth of the trading partnersˇŻ prospect pools, their rostersˇŻ strengths and weaknesses, short and long-term, their cap situations as well as the draft board, into writing the three offers the Constellations are considering for Gustavs.

    ˇ°For those here who read hockey romance, which statements are you more likely to assume, in the absence of actual hockey, in the context of their leagues, and until proven otherwise: players are unremarkable, players have talent commensurate with their spending habits or players are sufficiently overpaid to be untradeable?ˇ±

    ˇ°You forgot about the no-trade clauses!ˇ± Capitolium scolds her. ˇ°Almost everyone with any real star power have one!ˇ±

    ˇ°While no-trade clauses are given out like candy in the NHL, they are typically done to provide more stability because they canˇŻt pay more money for free agents. Since Gus doesnˇŻt have one, heˇŻs a hotter commodity than comparable players who do. Getting a player with a NTC, partial or full, to waive it for a specific team is often a factor that can drive a trading price downˇ±

    Everyone either 27 years old, or had seven or more years of experience in the NHL can get NTCs, Marie-France is swiftly reminded of who even gets these NTCs.

    Maridun: So youˇŻre writing a third-act breakup thatˇŻs induced by external factorsˇ­

    Marie-France: You already have a lot on your plate without adding no-trade clauses to it

    ˇ°Much less salary retention: a $2.25M cap hit isnˇŻt high enough to make the Constellations retain salary to trade Gus awayˇ±

    And a team can only retain salary on 3 contracts, at most 50% of any playerˇŻs cap hit can be retained, at most 15% of cap space can be taken up by retained salaries, Caro then resumes writing the whole tensions arising from receiving offers for Gus, with Seattle, Buffalo and Dallas all fielding offers. Which, it must be said, feel very good. Maybe even too good to be true. There seems to be a lot of back-and-forth between the various people in the front office as well as between GMs.

    As soon as the next sprint starts, her viewers start wondering how much the guy improved, and how much he was worth.

    Marie-France: A player with a $2.25M cap hit is usually worth between a second and a third-rounder; why were there offers for far more than even a second?

    ˇ°Did you read the last two games? Gus clearly improved his offensive game!ˇ± Capitolium scolds Marie-France, while writing his own scenes where the MMCˇŻs love interest helps him complete the coursework he struggles with.

    ˇ°Yeah, especially given his position solidly in the top fourˇ± Caro gets sidetracked a little.

    Come on! I should get to 40k words tonight, itˇŻs just a matter of pacing myself! Caro psyches herself up while the sprint unfolds with her viewers also joining in.

    However, the newcomers outclass her very easily in this sprint, since Caro manages to write a mere 200 words in 10 minutes, while the fastest of these newcomers come in at almost double that. And even Capitolium managed to have written more words during these 10 minutes than she did.

    The next scene has the GM and his assistants spend a sleepless night, and then have the front office tormented about the ramifications of accepting either trade offer. Especially since the frontrunners are Buffalo and Dallas at this point of the chapter.

    Accepting one of these offers is so tempting: the breakout season Kurpnieks is having will mean we must trade somebody away. We canˇŻt afford to keep the defense together next season, especially not when Kurpnieks is due for a raise, she writes, while her viewers, finally answer the question she asked earlier:

    ˇ°In my experience of reading hockey romance, players are assumed unremarkable until proven otherwise, notwithstanding that proof to the contrary usually involve spending habitsˇ± Lagado answers. ˇ°So itˇŻs really players having talent matching their spending habitsˇ±

    Come on, one more word, stay on target! Caro starts sweating when she keeps writing a scene where the GM mulls over the choice of who to trade away, and to whom. By this point, she plans on making the GM send the paperwork to the league office for trading Macer away. And, as she closes in on the 40,000-word mark, decided that perhaps ending the chapter with the GM picking up the phone without specifying whoˇŻs at the other end, might be the better ending to it.

    Once the sprint ends, she updates, as per usual for the end of the stream, her word count on NaNoˇŻs system.

    ˇ°Woohoo! I hit forty thousand words!ˇ± an exuberant Caro shouts, showing the cheevo.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre almost there!ˇ± Capitolium tries to encourage her. ˇ°By now you should realize that you put yourself through an infernal pace of writing to get this project finished, that not even published authors, trad or indie, sustain long-termˇ±

    ˇ°Forty thousand words in seventeen days! Now thatˇŻs what I call an infernal pace!ˇ± Caro realizes that she still has 4 cheevos left to go before the 100% objective is accomplished, and then sighs. ˇ°I guess, the gamer in me makes me want to put myself through such an infernal writing paceˇ­ˇ±

 Chapter 73: Third-Act Breakup

    ˇ°Remember when you said, the day the challenge was issued to you, that fifty thousand words in thirty day was a very tight deadline? On average, a novel that long would take about three months to write for someone with little or no experience in that arenaˇ± Capitolium tells Caroline before the stream ends.

    On Monday, she feels relieved to see that the trade deadline arc is done and over with. But then comes the trade itself, which she opens the following chapter on Monday morning. Which takes place on trade deadline day, with Emma reading the Hockey News online. When CaroˇŻs dad comes to her room before breakfast:

    ˇ°Tu as fait ¨¦changer ton personnage principal contre quoi?ˇ± (What did you trade your main character for?) CaroˇŻs dad gasps upon reading the press release in Player Masher.

    ˇ°Un choix de premi¨¨re ronde conditionnel et un prospect en d¨¦fenseˇ± (A conditional first-round pick, and a defensive prospect) Caro retorts, while writing down the condition.

    Macer got a first-rounder from Minnesota without any strings attached, but Montreal gave up a fifth-rounder, while Montreal turned down Buffalo despite Buffalo having thrown in an offensive prospect on top of a defensive one, and both packages are implied to contain prospects of some value, Caro then lays down the hauls Montreal got for the two players. The condition being that Montreal receives DallasˇŻ first-rounder this season if DallasˇŻ is outside the top 20 selections, otherwise they will receive it the following season. But then, because of the condition, I feel like I need to have Dallas play its season closer against Minnesota, with the ConstellationsˇŻ GM watching it.

    And then she receives a DM from Maridun about the expectations of not breaking character for the sake of having a third-act breakup. Especially since the whole lead-up to it appears to be rooted entirely in stuff outside of the leadsˇŻ control. That is, the trade deadline and the Constellations selling.

    Maridun: I really hope they will remain together

    Caroline: The whole relationship already looked like a long-distance one from the start

    Maridun: You might want them to have one last date prior to Gus leaving to spend the rest of the season in Dallas

    At night, when Caro starts streaming again, Marie-France opens the stream with comments about how she feels about the game Caro played on air, as she plays it:

    Marie-France: I couldnˇŻt have talked about it at work, but I am done with the game you play

    ˇ°I get it, no game is for everyone, but what did you dislike about that game?ˇ± Caro asks her.

    Marie-France: There are too many systems to keep track of

    Marie-France never seemed to be the kind of person whose brain seemed to fry often, no more than I would be, but I guess, system bloat can sour people on games, Caro thinks, oblivious to Marie-France uninstalling the game. And yet her viewers didnˇŻt appear willing to discuss the gameˇŻs system bloat, any more than Marie-France seemed willing to.

    Maridun: Since Caro seems to be closing in on a third-act breakup, I have a question: were there times where you feel like third-act breakups should have remained broken up?

    Glitter enters CaroˇŻs VC room. ˇ°Absolutely! I read one where I feel that way about one side of the couple being an addict, and remains with the enabler rather than the codependent enabler breaking up with the addictˇ±

    ˇ°Did that book call for the addict to be clean in the end?ˇ± Caro asks Glitter, while the latter stands ready to leave when hockey appears.

    ˇ°Yes, and thatˇŻs what makes the book jarring to me; addicts usually donˇŻt go to rehab unless they hit some sort of rock bottom, which can include a breakup. The addict never got any rehab, and it seemed like love would cure oneˇŻs addictionˇ±

    ˇ°I hate these books that treat love as a cure for mental health conditions!ˇ± Sampoong comments with a Korean accent. ˇ°I myself am dealing with a workaholic who feels like even watching this stream is like pulling teeth, and I had to resort to tele-therapy!ˇ±

    A number of the faithful viewers gasp upon hearing about how Sampoong just started getting couples therapy.

    ˇ°And often trauma is one of the driving forces behind them getting addicted. So while the relationship seemed to be mostly non-abusive despite all the trauma both sides have endured, issues came up on their own sides, they just didnˇŻt amount to abusing each other!ˇ± Glitter adds to the conversation.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ˇ°What the hell is an enabler, in an addiction context?ˇ± Capitolium asks Glitter.

    ˇ°Enablers are people who help addicts continue to feed their addictionsˇ±

    Marie-France: In the same vein, while some romance books are basically horror, or erotica, others could be converted into psychological thrillers if a couple breaks up but doesnˇŻt reunite later

    Glitter sighs upon reading this in the chat. ˇ°There are times where a psychological thriller isnˇŻt horror: for that book specifically, thereˇŻs nothing really frightening outside of the addiction, just a false sense of security and happiness that could cause issuesˇ±

    ˇ°And I think mysteries where the cases donˇŻt get solved could also qualify for suchˇ± Lagado then thinks on how such a mystery would then remain unsolved because the evidence is not valid or sufficient, and how that could drive a sleuth mad.

    ˇ°What the hell did the Constellations do? Why? WHY?ˇ± Capitolium screams at CaroˇŻs manuscript as he reads the trade deadline arc wrapping up, causing his eyes to roll at these fictional Hockey News articles in it.

    ˇ°Capitolium, are you yelling at me or at the ConstellationsˇŻ GM?ˇ± Caro, startled by her loyal viewerˇŻs outburst of anger.

    ˇ°The ConstellationsˇŻ GM: while IˇŻm not mad at Macer getting traded, but Kurpnieks? Yes, he had a breakout season, but couldnˇŻt they have traded away another D-man about to hit free agency, rather than your MMC?ˇ±

    ˇ°If I had that D-man traded away rather than Gus, I would be tempted to skip straight to the draft day scene, and then I might be unable to hit the fifty thousand words, since I would then have Gus reject the qualifying offer, and sign a new contract, and voil¨¤, happy ending!ˇ± Caro defends her actions.

    ˇ°IˇŻm not wholly satisfied. ThereˇŻs what would happen if the proposed change was made, but I was asking about why that D-man wasnˇŻt traded away!ˇ±

    ˇ°I did address that point: they just wouldnˇŻt have gotten a whole lot for that pending UFA! Which is why they nixed that plan!ˇ±

    Damn: itˇŻs one of those cases where there is no optimal solution. Trading that pending UFA away for, like, a third-rounder or a late second, might be better than nothing, but Constellations donˇŻt feel like the cap would raise enough to be able to afford GusˇŻ raise, and they want cap flexibility going into July 1, Caro then realizes that Glitter has left the VC because Capitolium yelled at Caro about a hockey decision on it.

    And then she starts a new sprint. Quickly, the other viewers comment about how they should have one last date in person until DallasˇŻ season ends. Some of the viewers who were there at an earlier stage of the writing process suggest that they should go eat gourmet, to the extent they can book a candle-lit table for two on that day.

    But once the table is booked, her MMC wastes no time packing his belongings in two big suitcases and then double-check the plane ticket the team bought for him. And then their final date in Montreal begins:

    ˇ°This is my last day in Montreal. By now you know I was traded away to Dallas, and what Montreal got for me!ˇ± Caro tries as best as she could to imitate a male Latvian accent. ˇ°So at the end of this meal, I ask for one last kiss. I will be back for you in future seasons, for regular season games, or maybe even the Stanley Cup Final!ˇ±

    Upon listening to this very passage, Caro makes Gus cry in front of Emma just before they get seated by the ma?tre dˇŻh?tel. Which, in turn, makes Marie-France cry.

    ˇ°In Dallas, you will probably eat barbecue more often than you would here, and maybe more often than you would like, so please, eat what you feel you cannot get in Dallasˇ± the streamer reads in her natural voice.

    ˇ°Dallas is one of the more underrated restaurant cities in the NHLˇ± Capitolium points out. ˇ°Sure, the foodies among hockey fans talk about how New York, LA, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver or Chicago have the best restaurants in the league, but donˇŻt underestimate Seattle, Washington, Nashville or Dallas. So really, there isnˇŻt much that Gus could have in fine dining in Montreal that he couldnˇŻt in Dallasˇ±

    My impression is that DallasˇŻ foodie weak spot is seafood, so I guess seafood it is for Gus. He must have eaten poutine, smoked meat and maple toffee several times already by now, maybe tourti¨¨re, pudding ch?meur or bagels at least once each, Caro is reminded of what his teammates made him eat during these past few months in Montreal.

    But when the bill comes due, after they eat and drink, they kiss each other before Gustavs returns to his teammateˇŻs home picking up his belongings. And spend one last night there before leaving the city.

    Marie-France (crying behind the screen): This is by far the most emotional chapter in your book

    Jacques: Them not breaking up is a good sign

    Meanwhile, Capitolium moves on from writing the aftermath of the QˇŻs trade deadline and into writing the struggles his MMC faces in juggling the pressure of his home market, homeschooling and, of course, hitting on the billet familyˇŻs daughter.

    Here''s the plan to get me to 100% NaNo: add two more plot-bearing games, such as DallasˇŻ losing the season closer against MIN, and Dallas gets ousted from the playoffs in a game #7 in either of the first two rounds. In the end, I want Dallas to pick at #20 at the latest, so that MTL can get their first-rounder for next season. Then and only then can MTL afford to sign the offer sheet that will lead Gus back to Montreal and then on to the happy ending, Caro makes mental notes for the rest of the NaNo journey. I think the emotional meat remaining must be kept for the very end, 2 chapters, maybe 3, I might have 5-6k wordsˇŻ worth of that. Maybe one chapter of Emma having a withdrawal, then the season closer, at the end of which sheˇŻd buy a Gunners jersey with KurpnieksˇŻ name and number.

    Once her mental notes are put down onto her notes document, she then rushes for the night and, as is too often the case, the need for Bengay arises. Which she applies on air, and, as she gets to the end of the chapter, she realizes that she overshot the daily par of 1667 words by a few hundred words.

    Maridun: This is a much better third-act breakup because it doesnˇŻt rely on internal issues that can be easily resolved

 Chapter 74: 21-Day Reveal

    November 21, late night, Daegu time. After the couple finish their second tele-therapy session, they reflected on their romantic life. But itˇŻs still not wholly harmonious since they still have some argument in Korean, now centered on other aspects of their lives covered by their session:

    ˇ°Thus far, the first step has been a littleˇ­ rocky. Caro, Legnica and those other streamers I watched were all informative to some extent, and, of the gang, you only seemed to trust Caro, at least for the time beingˇ± Sampoong retorts.

    ˇ°What did you learn from Legnica and the others?ˇ± Duri retorts. ˇ°It seemedˇ­ useless! Maybe you trust them too much!ˇ±

    ˇ°Opening up to other cultures, useless? When you work remotely, with coworkers from around the world, sometimes a little cultural awareness can go a long way! Also, what could be useless to you may not be useless to me!ˇ±

    ˇ°Now I have a better idea of why you kept watching these people on Twitch! You must have realized by now that I have very limited, if any, control over my work schedule!ˇ±

    ˇ°Oh, for sure I do! The best we can hope for is that, at some point, the project will proceed to a new phase where you donˇŻt need to work overtime as much! Or a new project!ˇ±

    ˇ°Except that, for my line of work, employers tended to value the ability to work long hours, perhaps a bit too muchˇ­ WeˇŻre not that rich, if we want even one child, weˇŻd better save for it now!ˇ± Duri warns him.

    Oh my god, hagwons. This is one of the most expensive aspects of child-rearing, the others being food, clothes and furniture, in no particular order. ThatˇŻs what IˇŻm saving for! Duri starts thinking of what they are saving for, should they want children, and what they are expected to do.

    ˇ°I never spent anything on games, nor did I give anything to anyone I watch! I stay home, I work from home to help you save, and I never leave home unless absolutely necessary! Looks like our hands are tied financially! If this therapist doesnˇŻt work out, I hope youˇŻre willing to gamble on an intern or a resident!ˇ±

    ˇ°We might not have a choice if that happens! I donˇŻt want a bad therapist to ruin our finances! You know how tight our finances are!ˇ±

    Joyˇ­ we need to reevaluate our finances and not just our schedule! She still feels like there are things I canˇŻt be trusted with, such as finances, Sampoong ruminates, while the only thing they seem to trust each other over is their schedules.

    ˇ°It seems like thereˇŻs so little you can trust me for!ˇ±

    ItˇŻs then that Duri learns of SampoongˇŻs history of DMing Glitter. So Glitter is his go-to person to recommend books to him? And Glitter recced him books that, yes, correspond to the requests I made last week, but he probably blew the spare money on paying for therapy up front! ItˇŻs still early to tell whether getting therapy was a good idea. Now I have a better idea of what to look for in a book! She then notes the recs Sampoong obtained from Glitter, and makes her due diligence for these, in hopes that Glitter didnˇŻt mislead him.

    Speaking of Glitter, she starts reading the passages after the trade deadline. It has been a few busy days, for sure, but seeing Gus cry like this, while most other people write hockey players as these jealous, ripped alpha males who tend to be overprotective of their WAGs, and might mellow only for their WAGs and no one else, makes me wonder about GusˇŻ personality away from Emma, as I know people often act differently with their love interests vs away from them. Might want to re-read the non-hockey scenes.

    And itˇŻs then that she could be led to realize that his core flaw is him being a workaholic, but otherwise not be the kind of guy to mellow only for one person. However, she knows that the day a player gets traded is often high-strung emotionally for players.

    When the stream begins, and Caroline starts to stream at around 8PM, Charlesbourg time, they see the criticisms that start flying in all directions. For the first time, Marie-France enters the voice chat, along with the usual suspects.

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream and stay tuned for the daily word count update. IˇŻm closing in on the fifty thousand wordsˇ±

    ˇ°The way it appears headed right now, you decided to just stuff all the major things that can happen to a pending restricted free agent in a contract year! It might become one of the best books about RFA in the NHL, thoughˇ± Marie-France tells the gang with a Qu¨¦b¨¦cois accent.

    ˇ°Marie-France! While you know RFAs are relatively young players, as do Capitoliumˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but hockey romance readers, by and large, wouldnˇŻt know the difference between restricted and unrestricted free agency!ˇ± Glitter complains.

    ˇ°I might have slipped a mention of offer sheet at some point, but the time has not yet arrived to explain what can happen to a RFA in a contract year, though, and certainly not an offer sheet! Speaking of which, I forgot to add the qualifying offer extended by the Gunners to Gus at the end of the draft day chapter! When people read about free agency, in the media, or in romance books, they usually refer to unrestricted FAˇ±

    ˇ°How does that relate to RFA?ˇ± Sampoong asks her.

    ˇ°Qualifying offers must be extended to pending RFAs by a certain date, and, in practice, not everyone accepts it, since they are for a set percentage of the previous salary and last for one seasonˇ±

    ˇ°If his previous team doesnˇŻt extend one, then the player becomes an unrestricted free agentˇ± Capitolium adds, while Caro adds a few paragraphs about GusˇŻ QO.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ˇ°Also, if a player rejects a QO, that doesnˇŻt mean heˇŻs going to hit UFA; rather, they can negotiate multi-year deals for higher salaries. I think I said enough about RFA for now, time to resume writing the season closerˇ±

    So I wonder if the one chapter we get post-trade but still in the regular season is any good, since itˇŻs supposed to be about how they keep longing for each other after Gus was traded away, Glitter seems to have gotten more patience for the hockey talk and simply listened to it, as opposed to just quit the stream.

    ˇ°I hope youˇŻre aware of the failure points of long-distance relationships, and what happens when they have limited windows to see each other when hockey is in season!ˇ± Glitter warns Caro. ˇ°You even wrote in a line in their last date chapter about what these windows were!ˇ±

    ˇ°Cheating is always a risk when you talk about NHLers, and certainly a few players must have accumulated a load of one-night flings!ˇ± the streamer keeps writing the GunnersˇŻ season closer, where, despite Gus having given his all for the 23-odd minutes he was on the ice, the Gunners lose in a shootout.

    And hence finish out of the top three in the Central division, so the GunnersˇŻ draft pick ends up being #20 unless they somehow make it to the Western Conference final, she keeps writing about the implications of this loss for Dallas. Maybe even make the Gunners lose in the first round if push comes to shove. Damn it! If it happened, then I will need to just have Gus reject the QO on draft day, rather than Dallas extending it then!

    Which makes her displace part of the new lines being written in the draft day chapter about the QO into a new one before it.

    ˇ°I guess, even if they have a good idea of each otherˇŻs schedule, theyˇŻll probably have more room after the season endsˇ± Sampoong starts feeling like this arc is hitting too close to his home.

    ˇ°And lack of intimacy or trust, even if they communicate well otherwise, or jealousy can do a long-distance relationship inˇ± Glitter adds a warning to Caro. ˇ°Even without cheating!ˇ±

    ˇ°How do you come to know so much about relationship failure points?ˇ± CaroˇŻs expression on her face doesnˇŻt lie.

    Maybe I seem to connect more with Emma because Emma isnˇŻt described as remarkably wealthy, and IˇŻm dealing with a workaholic myself. However, why is it that Glitter allude to what I am going through? SheˇŻs not our therapist! Sampoong starts feeling a little shaken, while having hitherto treated Player Masher as a book about the inner workings of life as a restricted free agent in the NHL.

    ˇ°I apologize for not having told anyone here earlier, but I am a marriage and family therapist. Call me crazy, but reading romance is often the only way I could cope with hearing couplesˇŻ problems day in, day outˇ± Glitter answers CaroˇŻs question, causing most of CarolineˇŻs viewers to gasp.

    ˇ°I guess, you read romance because you want the happy endings that you might be unable to obtain from your clients!ˇ± the streamer deadpans her MFT viewer.

    ˇ°And, even though I cannot disclose client names here, nor get too specific about them, some romance books make me feel like there just couldnˇŻt be any kind of happy ending with them still together if the same case happened in the real worldˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs ok for romance not to have healthy relationships, just not all the time. I hope you all understand that life once together is not all roses!ˇ± Sampoong adds.

    Damn it, Glitter, weˇŻre back to this whole discussion of incompatible personalities, and wanting to use fiction to get what you cannot yourself! Like I knew that common goals and values are part of what makes personalities romantically compatible, and often the starting point, the streamer starts to feel her head increase in weight as it leads her to struggle finishing the chapter about the end of the GunnersˇŻ regular season.

    ˇ°But there are those clients I have that had relationships with one side behaving mostly like a stereotypical bad boy or alpha male, and there was just no common ground!ˇ± Glitter vents in the streamˇŻs VC. ˇ°As a romance reader, I go through phases of just going with the BookTok flow, but there are times where I look for books that arenˇŻt abusive, or with specific issues that I didnˇŻt read in a while. I just stay out of mafia or billionaire romance thenˇ±

    ˇ°And letˇŻs not forget about what is called queer romance, or simply non-heteronormative romance!ˇ± Lagado continues. ˇ°Caro, true, the book I recced to you a while ago is male-male, and I should have told you earlier about it, but often queer romance is better-written!"

    ˇ°I apologize for what I asked you last week. Reading Player Masher took me out of my comfort zone, and also that I realized that I would rather have no sex than poorly written sex in a book!ˇ± Sampoong then looks back on what he recced her over a month ago.

    At least the sex was well-written in the book I recced her. It really showed how awkward, and painful, it is for girls with no experience of sex to have sex, even with condoms, the Korean viewer starts thinking. At the same time, I feel like Caro captured the most intense moments in the life of a professional hockey player. Outside of the playoffs... for now. Capitolium wrote about how important draft day is for someone who isnˇŻt a pro player yet. So much that both billet and actual families attend in person.

    But then there didnˇŻt seem to have any sprinting taking place since the whole stream is seemingly devoted to the reveal that Glitter is actually a marriage and family therapist.

    Having overheard Caro, her mom enters the room. ˇ°Je lˇŻadmets, la misogynie internalis¨¦e est peut-¨ştre la raison pourquoi les auteurs de romance semblent ne pas donner aux h¨¦ro?nes de vraies qualit¨¦s r¨¦demptrices qui pourraient en faire d¨¦marquer une, ou minimiser les d¨¦fautsˇ± (I get it, internalized misogyny might be the reason why romance writers seemed to shy away from giving female leads actual redeeming qualities that could make someone stand out, or minimize the flaws)

    Like clumsiness, but actually shows it only to fall in the love interestˇŻs arms, or how someone is described as fat even though they only weigh slightly more than normal. For some romance writers, and certainly a Korean one or two, my daughter would be fat, even though she was described as having the build of a female hockey player. SheˇŻs perhaps a little stocky, but I would never call her fat, CaroˇŻs mom then leaves the room, while the stream continues.

    The end of the stream closes in on midnight because the discussion of cliches in romance books slows down the writers in the chat. With less than one minute to go, Caro writes as quickly as she possibly can, typos be damned, in a last-ditch attempt to get to the 1667 daily words. I can always have Gus go back to his room after the game, at his teammateˇŻs place. And try to tell Emma about how the season can possibly end. But, for the time being, he could offer a Gunners jersey to her, asking for which name and number to use, Caro furiously types the scene after the game while the clock is ticking on her, with an eye on the word counter.

    Capitolium, on the other hand, is knee-deep into the writing of the Courteau Trophy playoffs. He fails to notice the typos that everyone else, like Jacques, have on CaroˇŻs manuscript.

    Jacques: What a bunch of typos!

    With only seconds to spare, she barely clears the daily par threshold, and she sighs in relief, upon seeing the pink-and-yellow hexagonal badge flash on her screen. Phew! The daily par cheevo is still aliveˇ­

    ˇ°I made it, but IˇŻm afraid I will need to stop the stream here: you donˇŻt want to see me fix these typos on air!ˇ± Caro then cuts the stream.

 Chapter 75: Fifty Thousand Words Later

    After the stream ends, Caro starts working on the typos left behind by the infernal typing pace of the streamˇŻs final minutes. Sitting at around 47,000 words, she realizes that typos scaled with her writing speed.

    She starts to question herself before going to sleep. Is 100%ing NaNo worth the typos? Is it worth wearing my wrists down? What kind of reward awaits me at the end of the road? But knowing that wrist pain could hurt her sleep, she applies some Bengay as she fixes some typos in her manuscript.

    Once she falls asleep, it seems like her sleep is disturbed by ghosts of people who supported her at various steps of the way, when she was so close to winning NaNo:

    <hr>

    Here, unlike previous nightmares Caro endured over NaNo, she found herself in a harem not unlike the one in LegnicaˇŻs book. In the Abkhazia Eyalet of all places. The sanjak-bey, the male lead of LegnicaˇŻs book, approached the section of the palace dedicated to his harem. Only, in this nightmare, they all wore Turkish clothes that were revealing.

    ˇ°What did I get myself into?ˇ± Legnica cried in the presence of the other ladies in the harem. ˇ°Why did I pick Abkhazia as a setting?ˇ±

    ˇ°It seemed that, for a while now, the sanjak-bey was trying to play us against one another!ˇ± Glitter warned the other ladies. ˇ°I warned him that it the harem would cease to function it he didnˇŻt clean up his act!ˇ±

    ˇ°Crisse! Why are we even in Abkhazia to begin with?ˇ± a distraught, oneiric Marie-France asked the other five ladies trapped in there.

    ˇ°It seems like we are trapped in a bad harem romance!ˇ± Duri deadpanned the other five.

    ˇ°How are we to get out of this bad harem romance?ˇ± Lagado whined.

    ˇ°I have an idea: weˇŻre going to be the sanjak-beyˇŻs waitresses, then weˇŻre going to serve his guests some special drinks, courtesy of House Bagration! When the guests have drunk enough of theseˇ­ special drinks, the sanjak-bey, or the beylerbey, will banish us from the harem!ˇ±

    ˇ°Caro, this plan sounds far too much like the Trojan Horse, which the Greeks could deploy only because the Hittites were powerless by this point of the Trojan War!ˇ± Legnica pointed out.

    ˇ°Come again?ˇ± Glitter gasped. ˇ°The Trojans were Hittites?ˇ±

    ˇ°How will you ensure that the drinks, entrusted to us by House Bagration, will not kill the guests? If any of the guests die, it wonˇŻt be us being banished from the harem, or the sanjak, but decapitated or impaled, if we donˇŻt get to Tbilisi on the double!ˇ± Lagado exposed the consequences to them.

    ˇ°I know just how much of these drinks to give for each guest for them to fall ill but not kill them outrightˇ± Caro then told the other five how much of these drinks to give to whom.

    Whose idea was it anyway for me to even write a harem romance set in Abkhazia? I could have written about a Hittite aristocrat, who, to curry favor with the king, Suppiluliuma II, leads one of the Hittite attempts to relieve the siege of Troy, in a last-ditch attempt to save the kingdom from the Ahhiyawa, but my lack of experience in the military aspect of historical fiction made me not want to write that! LegnicaˇŻs mind was spinning from all these considerations any story about a Hittite attempt to relieve the siege of Troy surfacing. About how clueless she really was about the Hittite military.

    ˇ°Do you have any idea of the logistical nightmare it would represent to a failing Hittite kingdom to even attempt relieving the siege of Troy?ˇ± Caro questioned Legnica to distract the incoming guards.

    ˇ°No?ˇ± Legnica rolled her eyes.

    ˇ°By the time the Trojan War began, the Hittites were too weak at sea to fight the Greeks, so they were forced to go overland, and Troy was weeks away from Hittite lands!ˇ±

    ˇ°Why are you going so hard at the whole 100% of NaNo schtick?ˇ± Lagado questioned her in turn.

    ˇ°Caro, stop aiming for the 100% NaNo! This is an unhealthy pursuit!ˇ± Glitter implored her.

    ˇ°Vous passez toutes du coq ¨¤ lˇŻane! ¨¤ quoi ?a vous sert?ˇ± (YouˇŻre all jumping from pillar to post! What purpose does that serve you?) Marie-France yelled at the other ladies, which caused Caro to awaken.

    <hr>

    Even as Caro still reels in from this nightmare in Abkhazia, her resolve to keep writing Player Masher hasnˇŻt wavered. However, she feels the need to recover her sleep since she knows that she canˇŻt write worth two beans the following day if she doesnˇŻt get sufficient sleep.

    Speaking of the following day, Caro seems to be wondering what Gus would do with Emma during what precious little time they would have online, together, before game 1 of the playoffs, played on the road in Winnipeg.

    Which makes her long for the couple to do something different from previous online dates. For this purpose, she goes around and research what is done then. Right now, I have unlocked 13/16 achievements. I will unlock the fourteenth achievement tomorrow, but this is no excuse to slack off today! Yet I used more Bengay than I have any right to, or at least more than I should, in this relentless pursuit of the 100%!

    As she looks around on her own server, some of the newcomers who were drawn to her because of her writing journey, who mostly kept quiet in her chat when on air, she notices that a lot of them realized they werenˇŻt going to make it to the 50k words. Regardless of which server they are on. She DMs Capitolium about it.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Caroline: I am tempted to assume peopleˇŻs outside lives got in the way of writing 50k words

    Capitolium: You understand itˇŻs not the only reason why loss of motivation occurs, right?

    Caroline: I know, just because itˇŻs feasible for me doesn''t mean itˇŻs feasible for others

    Often, people who keep writing well past the point where they realize they canˇŻt make it to 50k words will instead turn their project into a novella, or a short story even, depending on how early they lost their motivation, and how far along they were. While Caro showed a remarkable ability to remain motivated, thick and thin, others might not, Capitolium takes a while to digest CaroˇŻs statement.

    Capitolium: Your ability to remain motivated is nothing short of extraordinary

    So while, on Friday night, she decided not to stream so that she can keep her energy towards writing, on Saturday morning, she goes to the grocery store to buy other stuff she plans on using on air to celebrate what she perceives as a certainty.

    But thatˇŻs quick for her: the ingredients to make poutine. Cheese curds, gravy, since the family still has frozen fries on hand. And she finalizes the online date chapter before she turns to the preparation of the poutine, and later on, play the game she streams.

    ˇ°Welcome to tonightˇŻs stream, where, hopefully, we can hit the fifty thousand words mark. Because I am confident that I will hit it, I am eating poutine on air!ˇ±

    I am just a few words away from it, I finished last night at 48,702, now that I finished the online date chapter, I am up to 49,990. But I donˇŻt want to update the word count on the system just as soon as I hit 50k: that would be a buzz kill, the streamer starts feeling a little nervous about whether she should update her word count immediately after hitting the milestone. She then shows the poutine as she had the bibimbap in an earlier stream.

    ˇ°You mentioned poutine several times in your book, I found it hard to believe that a Latvian player would have readily eaten a Russian dish, much less his teammates with whom he ate it, none of which were Russian!ˇ± Sampoong is left wondering about the real origins of poutine.

    ˇ°Yeah, you portrayed Latvia as a country that could somehow produce NHL players!ˇ± Glitter adds.

    ˇ°I played against Latvia at the Pee-Wee Worlds, and Latvia does produce NHL players. Silovs, Merzlikins, Girgensons and Bluegers being the ones currently in the NHL. Also, Sampoong, poutine isnˇŻt a Russian dish! ItˇŻs a Qu¨¦b¨¦cois one...ˇ± CaroˇŻs face turns red.

    ˇ°Sampoong, it also seems like the only thing you know about Latvia outside of hockey is Latvia having tensions with Russia!ˇ± Marie-France borders on yelling at him in a Quebec accent. ˇ°Then again, I donˇŻt know much more than you about Latvia, they play basketball too, and, of course, Riga being its capital!ˇ±

    For how little I heard about Latvian hockey culture, it seems like a lot of Latvian players dream of making the national team. If I make the Gunners lose to Winnipeg in a game 7, Gus will be on LatviaˇŻs top pair for sure, Caro starts thinking about how the hockey plot will change depending on how far Dallas goes in the playoffs.

    The viewers watch, amused, the core viewers quarrelling about poutine, while Caro eats it on air. And interspersed with the bites of poutine are some additional words about game number 7; Gus apparently scored 1 goal and 2 assists in the first six games.

    ˇ°It seems like you would have a better idea of how to write a character on your intellectual level. Or at least how your teenage self would have been. A beta reader on your Discord server told me that my FMC feels like her intelligence is fake. Her non-intellectual traits are done well, thoughˇ± Capitolium asks for help.

    ˇ°The core thing that people do wrong is just giving them markers without having them use their knowledge or skills consistently with someone at their stated levels. What I feel would work for me is showing their thought process. When you are as smart as even my teenage self was, you just donˇŻt think the same as a normal personˇ± Caro tries to advise him.

    Sometimes people are late bloomers, but I can kind of feel like Caro was a gifted girl not unlike the FMC. The kind of high achiever who can learn very quickly and seamlessly. Not always instantly, mind you. However, she feels a bit more patient than some other gifted people, Capitolium starts wondering how to integrate his FMCˇŻs thought processes in the writing without overshadowing her other traits.

    But then, new viewers, participants in NaNo or its alternatives, are eagerly awaiting the update of the word count. Which is shrouded in mystery since Caro feels like any sprint would kill any anticipation, while, at the same time, starting the stream 10 words shy of the magical mark could potentially make the event anticlimactic.

    ˇ°What do you mean, you donˇŻt think the same as a normal person?ˇ± Marie-France asks her coworker.

    ˇ°There are times where I seem to think of multiple levels of implications, and multiple implications at once, as well as see assumptions others might miss, but I remain mostly logical about theseˇ± Caro answers while she feels her headaches take over.

    Now I have a better idea of how CaroˇŻs mind works, I guessˇ­ Sampoong sighs, while he feels like Caro is well past the 50k word mark as she keeps writing the chapter about game 7.

    But when the so-called game 7, played in Winnipeg, gets to overtime, Caro reprises her role as a voice actress as she reads the start of overtime being written, from the point of view of the play-by-play commentator working that game:

    ˇ°Welcome back to Winnipeg, where this playoff series is on the line. A game seven going in overtime, what more could a hockey fan possibly ask for, other than a Stanley Cup Final going into overtime in a game seven?ˇ± Caro appears to sound more like color commentary, as opposed to primarily play-by-play in past game day passages. ˇ°Face-off won by Winnipegˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°You got over ten words in this passage, Caro!ˇ± Jacques points out to her.

    ˇ°Tabarnak! I have no choice by now!ˇ± Caro, feeling her hand forced by reading the play-by-play commentary, now updates her word count into NaNoˇŻs system.

    By doing so, her total word count is, as Sampoong suspected, well over 50,000, and her daily word count is in the mid-2000s. And she also shows the purple badge associated with the achievement.

    And then comes the goodies, such as discount codes for word processing software designed specifically for creative writing, along with access to the winnersˇŻ circle. A seal and a fillable certificate; the former for social media use, the latter she downloads for personal use.

    ˇ°Even though I just got to the fifty-thousand-word threshold, I know the journey is not yet over. I updated my word count earlier than I would have liked, but thereˇŻs nothing preventing me from writing more words, and updating multiple times per dayˇ± Caro harangues the audience while she isnˇŻt in her best mood because of Jacques forcing her hand into a premature word count update.

    I have one more week to go, but I already have the offer sheet arc planned, good for about 4-5k words. However, 7 days at ca. 1700 words per day is almost 12k words, so I still have 7-8k words to write, since I want to save my wrists from excessively intense writing, Caro feels a little uneasy, even when she keeps writing the overtime period.

    ˇ°And I henceforth donate five hundred dollars to her, as a second installment in the rewards I promised her for the challenge!ˇ± Capitolium announces on air.

 Chapter 76: Pad It with Extra Hockey

    Upon seeing Capitolium donating CA$500 to her, and the fourteenth achievement being earned, Caro then makes an announcement:

    ˇ°Sorry for cutting the stream short tonight, but this buzzkill makes me not want to keep streaming the remainder of the writing of game seven in Winnipeg!ˇ± Caro announces to her viewers, much to the dismay of some.

    With 14 of the 16 achievements already earned, and the final 2 still 7 days away, Caro now stands at a crossroads. Should I still aim for 100%ing NaNo, or just cut to the chase and write the offer sheet arc right away, in which case I must give up on the 100%. Because I donˇŻt think revisiting every chapter to make them wordier is going to go well with my viewers, who have come to expect a certain style of writing from me! Making my chapters wordier is only going to make me a writer that I am not! At the rate at which I wrote past chapters, 7-8k words is about 3 chaptersˇŻ worth of extra content I need! That means I could have Gus introduce Emma to his Latvian parents after the heartbreaking loss to Winnipeg, but before the Hockey Worlds. Yet, thatˇŻs only 2 chapters. I could have the Gunners extend him his QO then, or I could do so after the Worlds, her brainˇŻs lightning speed makes her head spin.

    It also dawns on her that she could have GusˇŻ parents announce to him that he made the team for the Worlds, and then reunite with his parents in Stockholm.

    As she continues her research into Latvian hockey culture, she also makes GusˇŻ parents plan their vacations around them, as some of the wealthier Latvian hockey fans do. For them, it was seemingly more important than the Stanley Cup, and the Hockey Worlds were almost a patriotic duty to them.

    Yet, it seems like the voices from that Latvia game resurface in her mind when she reads about the fanaticism of Latvian hockey fans. And not simply the Latvija! Latvija! chants she kept hearing during the game against Latvia. That, even though, in the actual game, there were only a handful of Latvian fans in the crowd at the old Colis¨¦e de Qu¨¦bec, mostly parents of players on either U13 national team, relatives of their coaches, or players on the boysˇŻ U13 NT (Latvia qualified both U13 NTs at the Pee-Wee Worlds that year).

    ˇ°Sarauj!ˇ± the hallucinatory voice of the Latvian head coachˇŻs brother yelled at her.

    ˇ°What does sarauj mean?ˇ± a confused Caro asks herself, not knowing anything in Latvian, and rolling her eyes.

    After failing to get an answer from the hallucinatory voice, she also has flashbacks of the designated Latvian national anthem singer, a player, singing Dievs, Sveti Latviju (i.e., the Latvian national anthem) at center ice before ? Canada could be sung, in French.

    The following day, Marie-France DMs her on Discord about the consequences of the heartbreaking loss Gus endured in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. After Caro started to write the chapter where Gus gets back in touch with his parents:

    Marie-France: The Hockey Worlds? You know that itˇŻs not a best-on-best tournament

    Caroline: To Latvia, it feels like the Stanley Cup playoffs to them, so I wrote this chapter about his parents telling him and his girlfriend he made it to the Worlds

    And, of course, teams advancing past the first round in the playoffs are off-limits, with Canada and the US being the countries affected the most, and, of the top 10 hockey countries, Latvia is one of the least affected, Marie-FranceˇŻs words about how the Hockey Worlds were not a best-on-best tournament resonate with her. This means a couple of his teammates, current or former, will make their respective countriesˇŻ national teams at the Worlds.

    With these hockey considerations out of the way, she begins to write the chapter about Emma being introduced to GusˇŻ parents.

    And, of course, this means that Gus must tell his parents, whose English is very poor, about her. As well as how foreign the notion of long-distance relationship is to them, along with how to maintain one. With, of course, Emma feeling very ˇ°Latvianˇ± to them, at least physically. Which then makes Glitter DM her later that day:

    Glitter: How could Emma remind Gus of these Latvian girls? Their accent would be the main way to differentiate them

    Caroline: Gus believed Emma to look the same as some other Latvian girls her size

    He probably saw Qu¨¦b¨¦cois girls for the first time at the World Juniors since he would have played at least once in the editions staged in Canada. And how, to him, they have more or less the same range of beauty as Latvian ones, and both nationalities are known across the hockey-playing world to have pretty girls, Caroline ruminates on GlitterˇŻs remarks. I guess, I could write Gus making LatviaˇŻs NT as not making much of a difference. Except that she would root for Latvia at Worlds because Latvia, while a regular fixture, is a relative underdog at the highest level of international hockey.

    Glitter: Your manuscript doesnˇŻt even read like a hockey romance anymore!

    Caroline: What do you think it is then?

    Glitter: A sports comedy with a romantic subplot

    Caroline: Maybe you would appreciate the book better then

    By now, Caro knows about how some romance readers might prefer internal conflict, and assume that a relationship has no impact on life outside of it. Unless sacrifices endured by one side drive a plot point, or an arc even, Glitter is also reminded of how some romance readers would even eschew external conflict entirely, and write purely about how characters interact.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Glitter: Since you appear dead set on 100%ing NaNo, you just added an extra arc about the Hockey Worlds that can be removed

    Caroline: If you knew what kind of NHLer would make a national team for the Hockey Worlds, you would realize that Gus would be a lock for playing at the Worlds

    Glitter: Your story is very heavily skewed towards external conflict, and follows a cycle of games and then back to each other; it feels pretty monotonous for someone who knows nothing about hockey

    Caroline: The opposite would be equally monotonous to me, but I think I could remove the whole Hockey Worlds arc, just not right now

    Glitter: Then why did you go to such lengths to describe how the Hockey Worlds are not a best-on-best tournament?

    In the past, I read a romance book whose sources of conflict were purely internal and 90% of it was inner monologue of the individuals and dialogues between each other, with no trace of their lives outside the relationship. I stopped reading it by the 80% mark, Glitter starts thinking about past experiences with the sort of romance books Caro is describing. My favorites are books where the off-relationship impacts feel natural.

    But then Caro returns to writing the scene where Emma meets with GustavsˇŻ parents virtually. GusˇŻ parents, in Kraslava, seem a little uneasy about Emma being GusˇŻ love interest but have a lot of questions about Quebec, about which they know only about him having played for Montreal, French language and how fanatical Qu¨¦b¨¦cois are about hockey.

    Caroline: She decides to root for Latvia at the Worlds, despite Latvia not being in position to win, out of love for Gus

    In Montreal, a lot of people would know about Latvia only as some opponent of Canada in international hockey, if that. She then learns from GusˇŻ parents what Latvija and sarauj mean to Latvian hockey fans. Then again, while I knew what Latvija meant for years, itˇŻs only now that I feel compelled to learn what sarauj means.

    But when, on Monday night, Caroline starts streaming, Capitolium, on the other hand, is knee-deep into writing the downtime between an emotion-rich Game 7 of the Courteau Trophy final, with the MMC scoring its game-winning goal, and the Memorial Cup. DonˇŻt forget: a strong performance during the Memorial Cup, one of the most difficult championships to win in hockey, might make my MMC redeem himself from a WJC that didnˇŻt go as well as he hoped, to the eyes of the NHL at least. And I may as well make my FMC feel like the MMCˇŻs obsession with his draft stock is unhealthy from her POV.

    ˇ°Tonight, we are discussing a topic that, for those who read the draft-day scenes in the manuscripts of either Caro or me, will hit a chord. Draft-eligible playersˇŻ draft stock!ˇ± Capitolium starts talking as he writes the period prior to the Memorial Cup.

    ˇ°Oh, for sure, NHL teams tend to overvalue how players perform on the biggest stages: the WJC, and, for those who canˇŻt play there, the Memorial Cup and the Frozen Fourˇ± Caro shares an observation that might be of interest to those who could be interested in the transactional aspect of hockey. Or, at the very least, on draft day.

    ˇ°Frozen Four? WhatˇŻs the Frozen Four?ˇ± Sampoong asks, shaking his head.

    ˇ°The Frozen Four is the American college hockey championship, although the Frozen Four proper refers to its last two roundsˇ± Caroline answers the Korean viewerˇŻs question.

    ˇ°And, in hockey, you have these myriads of junior leagues, both in Europe and in North America, of varying competition levels, which complicates things a lotˇ­ˇ± Capitolium follows up on CaroˇŻs answer.

    ˇ°Which makes scouting very much of an art, rather than a science. Marie-France contributes to the discussion of scouting. ˇ°Scouting goalies has challenges of their ownˇ±

    ˇ°But while the NHL is more about drafting for what is called BPA in the hockey world, a lot of busts end up being busts in part because the teams that drafted them focused on some type of need, or had flashes in the panˇ± Caro adds, while she continues to write about GusˇŻ parents learning more about Emma.

    A lot of hockey fans tend to obsess over what they perceive as the next big thing, especially when one is a fan of a struggling team. So I may as well show my MMCˇŻs insecurities over the draft, going into the Memorial Cup, and also his teamˇŻs, especially after they traded out of the first 4 rounds for the next 3 years just to even play here, Capitolium starts showing his castˇŻs vulnerabilities going into the Memorial Cup.

    ˇ°What the hell am I hearing? You seem to be talking about sports psychology! There are those people who seem to taper off in their effort after reaching a milestone, either because they exhausted themselves just to reach it, or feel that, once they get there, everything will sort itself out over timeˇ± Glitter comments on the role of attitude.

    Maridun: Yet, here, I feel like there is such a thing as too much!

    By this point, Caro begins writing the pre-game speech for Latvia, but unlike a lot of her previous voice acting performances, here she portrays GusˇŻ mom before he gets into the locker room for the game:

    ˇ°Honey, you know the drill by now. You wore the national teamˇŻs jersey, I hope you understand that just playing on the national team is not the end of the story, much less when you step on the ice and play against Finland!ˇ± Caro puts on her best imitation of a Latvian accent.

    And she then writes about putting Gustavs in to start the game, while, on the opposite side, the starting Finnish center is a player he played with and against. Nattinen. Who wins the opening face-off moments after the national anthems are sung.

    From this point onward, the streamer seems to write much faster than she did prior to this point, but she must devote some space to how both Gus and Emma feel, separated by an ocean, and not just the play-by-play. I feel like Glitter will scream at me if I neglect the more emotional aspect of the story. Heck, even if I dropped all pretense of Player Masher being a hockey romance, I still need to introduce some emotional bits!

    Later in the stream, however, she keeps a close watch on her daily word count, along with the clock, hoping that she doesnˇŻt overshot, or miss the deadline for it to count for the day.

    Yet, Sampoong reminds everyone of the harsh reality of the game Caro is playing:

    ˇ°Looks like IˇŻm dangerously close to hitting the wall!ˇ± Sampoong is about to give up on the game Caro used to play on air. ˇ°Now I feel like IˇŻm not making any progress!ˇ±

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs no shame on giving up a game if you find it not fun anymoreˇ± Marie-France reacts to SampoongˇŻs statement.

    ˇ°After what IˇŻve seen of the competitive aspect of the game, on Twitch, I quit!ˇ± he then uninstalls the game.

    IˇŻve been playing this game less and less on air, waiting for the next battle pass to come out, which wonˇŻt come out until January 1. But until then, I feel like I would be better served just spreading the Worlds arc into 2 chapters, if I want to stick to my guns and do the extra words in 3 chapters. And draw out the time where Gus meets his parents in person before the game somewhat, Caroline sighs, feeling like the next few days are going to be a slog, and forcing her to choose which games to pick for the second chapter on the Hockey Worlds. But IˇŻm not about to give up on 100%ing NaNo just because this part of the book features more games!

 Chapter 77: Offer Sheet ex Machina?

    On Wednesday, Caro puts an end to the Worlds arc. At least Latvia, once again, getting a medal at the Hockey Worlds makes me feel better about this roller coaster of a season, she writes GusˇŻ thoughts after the medal ceremony ends at Worlds.

    With three days left to go, Caro then starts writing the ending sequence to the book. So, while the extra hockey played in the plot between the trade might have made this window to the 100% open, it also made the book longer than some would like, too. But it seems like every playing sequence from the deadline on out was simply setup for what is going to happen now.

    When she starts the stream on Thursday night, Caro is reminded of being asked about offer sheets earlier in the project.

    ˇ°When will you talk about offer sheets?ˇ± Lagado asks her.

    ˇ°Now I believe the time is right to discuss offer sheets in greater detail. But it seems like restricted free agents might take weeks to sign or get traded, and to prevent other teams from making offer sheets, players file for arbitrationˇ± Caro starts answering.

    ˇ°Why do you think Gus doesnˇŻt file for arbitration?ˇ± Capitolium asks her.

    ˇ°He knows that an arbitration hearing is a lose-lose situation. Even then, players file for it much more often than offer sheets get signed. And teams tend not to take players to arbitration because the kinds of players for whom teams would take them to arbitration tend not to be extended QOsˇ±

    A team can take a player to arbitration only once, whereas players can take teams to arbitration as many times as they have contract years while a RFA, Capitolium sighs, while Caro starts the chapter with Gus wondering if arbitration is right for him.

    But, shortly after free agency period begins, the Constellations lose a D-man to it, and had no luck trying to get one, nor did they believe that they had anyone ready to step up to the plate in their prospect pool.

    ˇ°One last thing about arbitration: players often do this to buy time to negotiate a contract, usually signing about three weeks later. Offer sheets, well, are the main source of restrictions in restricted free agencyˇ±

    ˇ°An offer sheet, in this context, would come off like a Deus ex Machina...ˇ± Glitter, whose knowledge of NHL restricted free agency was next to nonexistent up to this point, comments.

    ˇ°Only if you donˇŻt know about restricted free agency. To be fair, teams bear the risks, and a lot of hockey fans donˇŻt even know about that aspect of the sport. Once a player signs an offer sheet, the original team has seven days to match itˇ±

    In which case I will have Gus sign it, feeling like itˇŻs the only way he could be back with his beloved Emma, and spend the following seven days agonizing over whether the offer sheet gets matched, Caro keeps to herself, not wanting to spoil any more than she already had.

    ˇ°What do you feel like GustavsˇŻ cap hit is going to be? Obviously, Gus has improved his offensive game!ˇ± Marie-France asks Caro.

    ˇ°WeˇŻre not talking about multi-first-rounder level of offer sheets!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean by multi-first-rounder offer sheets?ˇ± Glitter asks.

    ˇ°First of all, very few players even get contracts that big, even as unrestricted free agents!ˇ± Caro checks against the current table of offer sheet compensations. ˇ°It would take a cap hit of approximately nine point five million or more to require a team to give up two first-round picks, a second and a third, and almost no one is signed to a contract big enough to give up four first-rounders!ˇ±

    So we know the upper limit of the offer sheet size Gus will sign is going to be ~$9.5M. For that sort of cap hit, youˇŻd better sign a Norris trophy contender if you do so for a D-man, and have him play accordingly, so I expect Caro to write about signing him to a smaller offer sheet, but still a major raise that will take him to UFA, Capitolium sighs.

    ˇ°Hold on, why do you assign a value in draft picks to an offer sheet?ˇ± Sampoong asks her, while rolling his eyes.

    ˇ°Because of what happens when the original team doesnˇŻt match the offer sheet. The new team must give away a certain number of draft picks to the old team, depending on the cap hitˇ± Caro then posts the link to the table of compensations.

    Assuming that the player is average relative to his cap hit, it seems like, so long as there is no first-rounder involved, signing an offer sheet is cheaper than outright trading for an equivalent player, Marie-France realizes that Dallas paid quite a lot for a pending RFA. But the Habs willingly parted ways with Kotkaniemi because he was one of the worst players in the $6-7M range back then.

    ˇ°Anything more you would like to know about offer sheets?ˇ± Caro asks her viewers as she writes the passage about Gus being thrown an offer sheet his way, but the following question makes her lose some focus.

    Maridun: Who can sign an offer sheet?ˇ±

    ˇ°Offer sheets cannot be a playerˇŻs first contract, because skaters must have played at least eighty games, while goalies must have played at least twenty-eight games. Also, a qualifying offer must be made to a player, and the player must twenty-six or younger on July first!ˇ± the streamer answers her viewer.

    I forgot about the cap hit! I can double GusˇŻ cap hit and the Constellations would only give up a second-rounder. But I guess, GusˇŻ previous contract was just Seattle signing what is called a ˇ°bridge contractˇ± that reflected the poor opportunities he had there. At the deadline, Gus was traded for a top-20 protected first-rounder and a defensive prospect, so DallasˇŻ 2026 first is now in MontrealˇŻs hands. It will become clear now why I spent 3 chapters ensuring DallasˇŻ 2026 first lands in Montreal rather than the 2025 one. The cap hit must be high enough to warrant giving up a first-rounder, Caro dreads her viewersˇŻ reactions to why either Dallas or Montreal waited so long to sign Gus.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ˇ°Do you have any explanation as to why it took so long for either team to sign him? ItˇŻs not uncommon for RFAs of his caliber to get re-signed long before thereˇŻs even a question of QOs or offer sheets to sign!ˇ± Capitolium asks her, about to throw up because of her indecision on her MMCˇŻs cap hit.

    ˇ°LetˇŻs say that Montreal didnˇŻt want to overpay based on a small sample size, which obviously increased in size as the season progressed, and his game, improvedˇ±

    Great, he improved, and Dallas might have found it equally premature to sign him while the season was not yet over, Glitter starts to realize the price she paid for glossing over the hockey part of Player Masher. Especially since she understands the book as being a hockey book first and foremost now. But it is then that she starts telling the cold, hard truth about Player Masher:

    ˇ°Caro, Player Masher might be one of the best books I read on how the transactional aspect of hockey affects players, but I donˇŻt feel much chemistry between Emma and Gusˇ± Glitter gives her review of Player Masher up to this point, fully expecting Dallas not to match it. ˇ°I mean, yes, they treat each other with respect, even when both schedules are hecticˇ±

    ˇ°But then the prospect of reuniting with Emma is one of the core things Gus wants out of the offer sheetˇ±

    Caro re-reads the hockey game chapters, hoping they provide clues for GusˇŻ new cap hit, and hence whether she wants Montreal to send their native picks for the first 3 rounds, or to keep their second. His cap hit will essentially determine what the happy ending, be it ˇ°ever afterˇ± or ˇ°for nowˇ±, will be made of. And, of course, Montreal being Montreal, if Dallas does not match, he will face more pressure to live up to the contract.

    ˇ°IˇŻm not going to mince words, cap hits arenˇŻt going to be of much use to a player other than for budgeting. Sure, Quebec taxation is sky-highˇ­ˇ± Marie-France sighs, while she watches her coworker struggle to think of a cap hit for GusˇŻ offer sheet, and with it, the cost of the happy ending.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs for sure, though, is that he has improved his game enough for his cap hit to skyrocketˇ±

    ˇ°However, he still doesnˇŻt have much star power, and yet, players of his caliber get signed every year for sizeable cap hits, so you must decide accordinglyˇ± Capitolium adds.

    ˇ°I may as well have Emma tell him that heˇŻs not going to get a better deal once I put in a cap hit for both people to think it over. But thank you of reminding me of what star power Gus might haveˇ±

    Because Gus might not have much star power, it doesnˇŻt make sense for Montreal to give up its second, on top of its first and third, so maybe at the top end of what could warrant giving up a first and third. In which case itˇŻs going to be DallasˇŻ version of Kotkaniemi. Caro thinks about how much of a cap hit that is going to be, and the term, too. Why does my mind feel so sluggish tonight? My mind usually works faster than that! Then again, IˇŻm used to my mind working at such high speeds that anything less would be noticeable, even when that lower speed could still be faster than in normal peeps.

    After some soul-searching, when she finally feels like setting a cap hit and a term, she knows that teams signing players such deals tend to eat into UFA years.

    ˇ°Finally, I got a cap hit to work with! His cap hit is going to be six point eight million, for five years, more than triple his old cap hit!ˇ± an exuberant Caro exclaims.

    ˇ°Frankly, Caro, I donˇŻt understand why you obsess over your MMCˇŻs cap hit so muchˇ­ˇ± Glitter rolls her eyes when she hears about how Caro had finally set a cap hit.

    ˇ°Again, Dallas didnˇŻt want to overpay based on a somewhat limited sample size, while Montreal was where he improved his gameˇ± Caro then starts writing the agonizing scenes after the signing of the offer sheet.

    About how he feels like love could be back in the air, as well as wondering whether he will be able to live up to this giant offer sheet. And the Constellations sacrificing a first and a third for him. IˇŻm sure the Constellations are not in it for reuniting players with their loversˇ­

    ˇ°The way this is headed, the source of happiness will last at least one seasonˇ± the streamer comments on the offer sheetˇŻs impact on their relationship.

    ˇ°Where does that come from?ˇ± Glitter asks her, about to start talking about ever after vs for now happy endings. ˇ°You make it sound like the source of happiness has a clearly defined ending!ˇ±

    ˇ°Players signed to an offer sheet cannot be traded away for the first year on it; itˇŻs the only way for a player to get a no-trade clause before hitting unrestricted free agencyˇ±

    Like I knew Merzlikins was overpaid based on a small sample size, and, after Gaudreau died, Columbus kept him only so they can hit the cap floor. I call myself a hockey fan, but even I didnˇŻt know that signing an offer sheet also came with a one-year no-trade clause! Jacques, who kept quiet in his coworkerˇŻs chat, realizes that offer sheets are much more complex than he initially believed.

    ˇ°ThereˇŻs a distinction between happy ever after and happy for now. Just so that weˇŻre clear, happy ever after doesnˇŻt mean marriage or children, only long-term commitmentˇ± Glitter clears up a possible misunderstanding.

    ˇ°And I thought happy for now endings were about them being together, but with issues remaining unresolved, without any implied time frames for their resolution, and not sources of happiness that are time-limited, or otherwise cannot be guaranteed!ˇ± Sampoong retorts.

    ˇ°Then again, Montreal would probably have traded away, or signed, someone else if the 2026 draft class, in that bookˇŻs world, wasnˇŻt so weak, and that, in the minds of the front office, Gus would have, along with the equivalent of Demidov and/or Hage, made that DallasˇŻ first better than MontrealˇŻsˇ± Caro feels the need to unpack the subtext. ˇ°Very easy to miss the implications if you know nothing about hockeyˇ±

    ˇ°Remember the book that Caro called horror in all but name? I tend to tolerate HFNs more in dark romance because itˇŻs often implicit that making the happy ending ever after requires a lot of time and resources, such as therapy, which the couple might not have!ˇ± Glitter says.

    ˇ°Also, what constitutes a happy ending in horror isnˇŻt the same as in romance. The villainˇŻs demise or arrest are common happy endings in horrorˇ± Capitolium comments on horror happy endings vs romance ones.

    ˇ°Horror can tolerate unhappy endings the way romance might not. The only time where an unhappy ending might be tolerated in romance is when itˇŻs not the last book in a series with the same couple, but the global ending must be happy. If anyone wants to read Harlequin series, however, you should know that publisher demands at least HFNs for each tome!ˇ±

    Speaking of therapy, there are times when couples therapy stalls because an issue specific to one person must be resolved first, she thinks of DMing Sampoong about therapy.

    ˇ°One more thing, Caro: please donˇŻt make Gus out like heˇŻs going to be Alznerˇ± Capitolium warns her.

    ˇ°Alzner? WhatˇŻs Alzner known for as a hockey player?ˇ± Sampoong rolls his eyes.

    ˇ°Alzner was a D-man who played much worse after signing his big contract. Granted, he didnˇŻt age well, and he was an UFA, but Gus makes me feel like he had two incentives to improve his game: not being waived again, and getting a bigger contract!ˇ±

 Chapter 78: 100% Happiness

    ˇ°Of course not. Making Gus end up like Alzner would undermine the kind of happy ending I would like him to have, which I feel is best if he plays consistently with this offer sheetˇ± Caro retorts to Capitolium.

    ˇ°Caro, sometimes you make me feel like readers are invested in off-relationship plots as much as they do the relationship!ˇ± Glitter yells at her after having spent an entire stream hearing about offer sheets.

    ˇ°How they act outside the relationship is often part of who characters are! And, more often than not, life outside of it affect oneˇŻs relationship, and certainly for a NHLer with a cap hit of six point eight million! Relationships donˇŻt happen in a vacuum!ˇ±

    ˇ°I have an idea: on my professional website, I will blog about relationships in romance books I read!ˇ± Glitter then starts said blog, by adding the relevant pages to her professional website to accommodate one.

    ˇ°To finish off NaNo, I plan on hosting a sub-a-thon all day on Saturday!ˇ± Caro proceeds to advertise said sub-a-thon on her social media and other methods at her disposal.

    On Friday night, she feels renewed vigor as she finally sees the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Last night, I discussed offer sheets with my viewers. Now, I must make the clock tick in on Gus, as he is waiting for signs that Dallas will or wonˇŻt match the offer sheet. At the same time, the GunnersˇŻ GM must also agonize about whether he feels it makes sense to match the offer sheet.

    And yet, she was so caught up with using the romance book to show the transactional aspect of hockey that she didnˇŻt stop to ask Capitolium about his motives, beyond being bitter about hockey romance.

    ˇ°I really should have asked before, but first you gifted twenty-nine subs, and then you donated five hundred dollars to me. Why did you see fit to donate these sums?ˇ± a puzzled Caro keeps chugging along towards the daily par achievement.

    ˇ°IˇŻm an empty-nester retiree. I feel so out of touch when my grandkids talk about stuff has changed since I was their age, so I want to support some young people, like youˇ± Capitolium answers her. ˇ°However, I hope you realize by now that learning to write on a stream and then relying on your viewers to beta read live might not have been the best method!ˇ±

    And also read and write about people who will form the future of this world. That way, I might be able to recapture the magic of youth, full of hopes, and whatnot, vicariously is better than nothing, Capitolium is led to think about what he wants out of literature. Better that than live vicariously through my grandkids.

    ˇ°Probably because I canˇŻt take my viewersˇŻ knowledge of literature, or tastes, for granted, and I could be given bad advice if I am unluckyˇ± Capitolium tells her as she finishes the agony chapter before the happy ending proper begins.

    And, of course, this means Gus returns to Montreal, sleeping at Vend?meˇŻs place for a few more days. He then texts Emma about his return by sending her an article from the Hockey News about Dallas not matching the offer sheet from Montreal, she starts thinking about how to start the final chapter, while having an eye on the daily word count. She is about 100 words away from it, but the clock is ticking in on her.

    On this final day of NaNo, she starts the sub-a-thon, knowing that she will not necessarily want to write the entire time. She still feels the need to talk about projects as written by other viewers. After eating breakfast, and playing a little bit of the game, the sub-a-thon begins.

    ˇ°LetˇŻs roll! Today, I will stream the last day of the National Novel Writing Month, for which I will aim to get the final two achievements to 100% it. If any of you take part in it, or its alternatives, you may DM me for permission to post links to your projects for the month!ˇ± Caro then posts the read-only link to her manuscript in her chat.

    Viewers come in from all over the world, more than she is used to. They post their projects, one after another, and Capitolium as well. So it seems like one of them writes a murder mystery, another one writes a sci-fi espionage book, and another one still would write about an Elven couch potato watching and designing TVs.

    Meanwhile, Glitter starts writing reviews of books she read in the past, and DMs Caro on Twitch to ask for permission to post the link to her blog in the chat once she finishes writing her first review.

    Glitter: May I post the link to my blog on your chat?

    Caroline: Yes

    And then CaroˇŻs viewers see the link to GlitterˇŻs first review of romance books. A handful click on that review, and it seems like Glitter talks a lot about the effects and dangers of codependency in a romantic relationship while reviewing the book.

    Going forward, I prioritize reviewing books for their portrayal of relationshipsˇŻ failure points, while ensuring that I donˇŻt review the same failure point twice in a row, Glitter then gets to work writing a second review, which is for the book she recced Caroline before she accepted the challenge issued by Capitolium. My review queue also contains a book with lack of intimacy as one of the main sources of internal conflict, which I recommended to Sampoong two weeks ago.

    Speaking of Sampoong, he has Duri watch Caro with him, where she discusses books, as well as various WrimosˇŻ journey through writing their respective books. About how motivation sapped at some people, and how others, despite knowing they wouldnˇŻt make it to the 50k words, kept writing their books.

    After Capitolium gifted a few subs to newcomers, the hype train leaves the station and grabs more viewers at some stops:

    New viewer 1: How did you managed to stay motivated for a month?

    ˇ°LetˇŻs say that my knowledge of the NHLˇŻs collective bargaining agreement and hence of the transactional aspect of hockey carried the day, and my knowledge of on-ice gameplay has helped some, tooˇ± Caro answers a viewerˇŻs question about what helped her stay motivated. ˇ°When I was struggling to achieve the daily par, especially after the trade deadline arc was finished, I simply added more hockey games: the regular season closer, then a game seven in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and finally the Hockey Worlds, with my MMC being LatviaˇŻs number one D-man. And with the off-ice chapters between the games are about them staying in touch with each other. Yet a lot of American hockey romance writers tend to shy away from writing gamesˇ±

    Even if, as Capitolium said, streaming about the process of writing the book wasnˇŻt the best way to learn to write, it was perhaps cost-effective in my context. Now, for the happy ending chapter, taking place after Dallas declines to match the offer sheet! Caro muses as GusˇŻ future in Montreal is assured. She then starts with spending his first weekend back in Montreal house hunting.

    New viewer 2: It seems like you wrote the season closer and the playoff game specifically so that you can prevent Dallas from trading their pick away for 2025Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ˇ°Come again? Teams trade away draft picks on conditions like: if the team trading the pick away is outside the top X, the pick will be traded away this season, otherwise it will defer to next season, all the time!ˇ±

    Generally. X is a non-playoff teamˇŻs pick, if you talk about trading away a first-rounder conditionally, but, for lower rounds, it would be, like, round Z if they reach a certain playoff round, Z+1 if they donˇŻt, Marie-France, who freshly arrives, starts thinking about what conditional draft picks mean. Especially when she re-reads the chapter where the possible returns are weighed. The problem is that we were never given a clue as to how good the prospect Montreal received for Gus was. We were supposed to think that Montreal traded Gus away to Dallas despite Buffalo having offered more, and, to boot, an unprotected first-rounder, likely to be better than #20! Gus certainly didnˇŻt play like he wasnˇŻt worth a first-rounder as of the deadlineˇ­

    ˇ°I knew going into this that it wasnˇŻt going to be perfect, but you see, most hockey romance books donˇŻt even try to make the position of the draft pick a team receives a plot point. Here I picked the ending that Dallas didnˇŻt match the offer sheet, feeling like, while he was worth locking up long-term, this was a little too expensive for them!ˇ± Caro unpacks more of her experience writing the last ~12k words or so.

    ˇ°Keep in mind the issues Emma, as a Canadian, would face trying to find work in the Metroplex!ˇ± Glitter warns her. ˇ°Unless you want Emma to teach, like, French or something like that in the Metroplex! So maybe it was for the better that Dallas didnˇŻt match!ˇ±

    And then Caro writes about Emma and Gus spending a weekend visiting luxury homes near the not-CanadiensˇŻ practice facility. He made Gus reflect on how McMansions differ in the Metroplex vs in Montreal. Especially given that Emma doesnˇŻt want Gus to spend more than his old cap hit on his new home. So this means he can aim for about CA$3M at most, maybe a smidge above that.

    She then goes online to look what would CA$3M have bought the couple, condos or McMansions, and their upkeep cost.

    Sure, he would have preferred Dix30 for commuting reasons, since he commutes to the practice facility more than he would the downtown arena, but these McMansions around the practice facility feel gigantic to him.

    On the other hand, Emma favored living in a downtown condo. Yet, the starry-eyed Gus now has a better idea of what he saved up for: for years, he lived at his teammatesˇŻ homes, and to finally have a home he calls his own is justˇ­ exhilarating. But he knows nothing about Qu¨¦b¨¦cois real estate practices, and so he would rather leave it to Emma to deal with the paperwork other than for signing the deed of sale and taking out the mortgage, since he is the one paying for the home and the mortgage.

    And, of course, he follows that up with a luxury car. This offer sheet feels like a dream come true to him.

    ˇ°Looks like the old owners took the core fixtures with themˇ­ on this, I will host a new sprint, the first of the day!ˇ±

    However, she doesnˇŻt take part in the sprint, preferring instead to read some passages from these writers who take part in the final day of NaNo. Including Legnica, who has finished writing about a vassal of the Prince of Abkhazia (who, to the OttomansˇŻ eyes, was AbkhaziaˇŻs beylerbey) who, having converted to Islam, holds a harem.

    She reads a random chapter and finds out that this sanjak-bey had one of the ladies of the harem marry into House Bagration to secure a treaty with them.

    ˇ°One question, Legnica: what exactly does House Bagration have to do with Abkhazia?ˇ± Caro asks her about Abkhazia, not remembering the nightmare she had about being trapped in LegnicaˇŻs harem.

    Legnica: House Bagration held territory east of Abkhazia; however, their branches east of Abkhazia were Safavid vassals

    I can tell that Caro skimmed over parts of the book, and House Bagration is an antagonist of the book, from a relationship standpoint, and politically as well, Legnica sighs, realizing that Renaissance in the Caucasus is not a popular choice of time and place in historical romance, harem or not.

    New viewer 3: Why is it that I kept seeing the term reverse harem? IsnˇŻt a harem romance just the main character with loads of love interests?

    Legnica: Regular harem has all-female love interests, while reverse harem has all-male love interests

    I could easily imagine some fantasy or sci-fi harem romance to have mixed-gender harems provided the main character is bi or pansexual, but the love interestsˇŻ sexual orientations may vary, Caro starts thinking of how could someone go around writing a mixed-gender harem romance book. IˇŻm sure these exist, but I sure as hell wouldnˇŻt be able to write one convincingly since I know nothing about what itˇŻs like to be bi or pansexual.

    Meanwhile, Duri reads the two book reviews Glitter wrote, while Sampoong starts reading the romance book about lack of intimacy. I think GlitterˇŻs blog, The Romantic Couples Therapist, is worth bookmarking, albeit her focus is on the portrayal of relationship dynamics, Duri muses, while Sampoong finds the resemblance to their own situation a little uncanny.

    ˇ°I have a better idea of how to solve the lack of intimacy problemˇ± Duri is reminded of the last 20% of the book Sampoong now reads.

    ˇ°Yeobo, we should stick through the remaining therapy sessions I paid for. A book is no substitute for couples therapyˇ± Sampoong tells her in a Korean accent.

    A few hours into the stream, sharing into the writing experiences of the chat, along with her own, makes her less willing to write at the same intensity as she had in the previous 29 days. Her writing has seemingly slowed to a crawl, as she feels increasingly depressed by some viewers falling well short of the 50k words.

    ˇ°If you managed to complete whatever project you began NaNo with, itˇŻs still a win!ˇ± Glitter tries to encourage Caro, while she furiously writes her third review, scheduled for release tomorrow.

    So, as much as she feels like she has earned these new followers and subs, Caro realizes, as the stream goes well into the evening, that the stream has caused her to and hence fall behind the pace to keep the daily par alive.

    By 10 PM, Charlesbourg time, and much of her viewers having watched her on and off, she looks at the number of words necessary to achieve the daily par. Why did I see fit to use the last day of NaNo as a sub-a-thon? I spent all day on air, with only sparse moments for writing, I still have 600 words left to go, thereˇŻs no time to waste! She ruminates as she announces another sprint.

    ˇ°This is going to be the first sprint I will officially take part in tonight!ˇ± Caro announces to her viewers.

    With the likes of Capitolium about to finish their own books, she gets ready to write faster than she did earlier today. However, the accumulation of fatigue starts to show in her writing as she seems unable to keep writing at the same pace as she did before.

    Time to write the epilogue about my MMC spending one more season in the juniors, free of any academic worries. And then on to the AHL, where heˇŻs going to be called up for a few games at a time, but playing only 9 NHL games in his first season as a professional because Washington deemed him as not worth burning a contract year, Capitolium calls it a day, and then updates his daily word count.

    ˇ°Finally, I got the daily par for the year!ˇ± Capitolium exclaims as he readies the payment of the third installment of the reward. In fact, he already paid part of the third installment earlier in the sub-a-thon by gifting subs to her new followers.

    Shoot! This is the moment where Emma and Gus must kiss each other after being handed the keys to their new McMansion near Dix30! Caro starts sweating before she finalizes that part of the happy ending, weeks after the offer sheet is signed, but before the start of the ConstellationsˇŻ training camp.

    By 11:40 PM, Caro watches closely her word count, giving her all for the dying minutes of NaNo to write the final words she so desperately needs to complete the 100%.

    About his future play after he reunites with Emma in Montreal, where he is going to play well enough for All-Star consideration in the final year of the offer sheet. About DallasˇŻ first being, in 2026, better than MontrealˇŻs, and better than picking at #20. One more word, stay on target! she feels her wrists getting more pain as she writes faster by the second.

    With only seconds to spare, as she writes the last of the epilogue, her daily word count reaches the required 1667 words. And she then hastily updates her word count. After that is done, the final 2 achievements are unlocked, much to the delight of the viewers.

    ˇ°Woohoo! I did it! I 100%ed NaNo for the year!ˇ± Caro shouts for joy, seeing the last two achievements on her dashboard.

    ˇ°Very good! IˇŻm now ready to donate the third installment!ˇ± Capitolium tallies the sums he paid Caro, in CAD. ˇ°I will match, dollar for dollar, all donations I made to you during the month. Also, while you still have some room for improvement, you seem to have a good feel for what it takes to write a novel that long. If I may, leave the manuscript alone for a bitˇ±

    ˇ°Why?ˇ± Caro asks him, not knowing why.

    ˇ°By this point of the writing process, you will be too emotionally invested in the manuscript to keep your perspective straight!ˇ±

 Chapter 79: Lack of Satisfaction

    "This meeting about staff turnover is postponed? Again?" Marjorine moans as her face turns red in a videoconference with her team, who all telecommute. "I''m about to quit if it gets postponed once more after that!"

    "What do you mean?" her boss asks her. "You don''t have the full picture of what you''re complaining about!"

    "I feel like staff turnover is making it harder for us because we constantly need to train new people so they can get up to speed! We need to know what''s causing it, beyond rapid changes in skillset requirements, because I feel it''s not the end of the story!" Gordon, a coworker, sighs.

    It''s not the first time my bosses block action on things I know employees complained about over and over. It seems that no matter what we do, the bosses don''t listen to us. As my first job out of college, it could be worse, Marjo sighs as she reflects on her situation as a relatively new hire working from home. Who, only a few months into the job, feels unsatisfied about her work conditions.

    So she continues to truck along dealing with the refund requests, along with calling the overdue customers on credit. Like this one:

    "It has been six months since bills number..." Marjorine is about to yell at the customer about the overdue bills, what was billed on these bills, and their total amounts. "At this point, we have no choice but to hand over your case to a collection agency!"

    "Collection agencies... they will hound us until we have nothing left!" the deadbeat customer whines.

    "If even then, you cannot repay, I''m afraid we have no choice but to take you to court! In the meantime, just use your credit card to the extent you have room on it!" she keeps yelling louder and louder.

    In which case the customer may as well go bankrupt. I guess better a small percentage of the total owed amount than nothing, but this is the kind of customers that leave me no choice but to yell at them, Marjorine starts feeling like she has done everything in her power to get the customer to pay, even in part. Even with the use of AI-generated emails as reminders.

    However, she would have loved to send that customer a demand letter, here and there, but asking her boss for permission to send one was a lengthy proposition at best.

    At the end of the work day, Gordon, also working from home, then texts her about an exciting new opportunity to unwind:

    Gordon: You should try to enter the public beta test of RCG

    Marjorine: RCG? What kind of game is this?

    Gordon: Remote-Controlled Ghosts; its devs teased custom house construction, shared wardrobes, mass production of player-designed outfits on a player market and so much more

    And so much more: horizontal progression under the forms of careers and skills, ghosts with personality traits and needs, like hunger, social interaction, bladder, hygiene and so on. It also includes bills and loans, but at its core, RCG is about crafting and earning money. Or so its devs publicly announced, Gordon doesn''t feel like spilling all the beans, but sends her the link to the game''s public beta registration.

    Once Marjo registers for the open beta of the game, she waits for a while for it to download and install. After graduation from LSU, I returned home to live with my parents in Kinder so I can pay down my student debt. Which forced me to take a WFH job and the employer asked for a degree even though my work didn''t use it. She then starts venting.

    "What did I do to land myself in this situation where I constantly feel like my boss is actively trying to block what I feel is in the best interest of my workplace?" Marjorine whines and cries within earshot of her parents.

    "Do you have an example?" her mom asks.

    "I want to issue demand letters to deadbeat customers, and maybe even take them to court outright afterward, because I feel like the threat of a lawsuit might be the only way to get these customers to pay, even in part!"

    "Did you consider that such lawsuits would ruin your employer''s reputation, or, if they didn''t, the defendants could go bankrupt?"

    "I don''t care if the defendant goes bankrupt! The cold, hard truth is that, if you''re in dire straits and can''t pay your suppliers even six months late, you''re probably better off out of business!"Stolen novel; please report.

    "Unless the defendant operates in an industry with long collection or billing cycles, such as construction!" Marjorine''s mom shouts.

    Speaking of construction, my husband would probably tell her about how subcontractors can do work and not get paid for it until the general contractor is paid, Marjo''s mom tries to calm herself down after a heated dispute about A/R collection practices, especially in how to deal with delinquent customers.

    When dinner time comes with both parents, Marjo also vents about her day at work to her dad, even though her mom already heard it all. Her dad, apparently unaware of her employer''s organizational structure, asks her a question that could shed light on her unsatisfaction.

    "There are times when, yes, you want to make customers pay their unpaid bills, but you seem to be a bit brash. However, does your employer have a legal department? If so, they are the ones who send out demand letters, and even then..." Marjo''s dad asks his daughter. "You must be consistent in who to send out demand letters, and when!"

    "What do you mean, I should be consistent?" a distraught Marjo asks her dad. "My boss makes me feel like he doesn''t care about the company! Staff turnover, slowness to respond to issues employees raise, even for their own tasks, being the main ones!"

    I don''t expect much, but I''m asking my boss to send demand letters to a list of delinquent customers, with the A/R aging report as an attachment, and the demand letter potential recipients highlighted, Marjorine then writes an email with the manifest of demand letter recipients on her cell phone.

    But hours after dinner, when the game is done being downloaded and installed into Marjorine''s computer, she is treated to a short video as a loading screen right after she logs into the public beta server of RCG.

    "Welcome to the public beta test of Remote-Controlled Ghosts. I''m Ad¨¨le, on behalf of RCG''s development team, I wish you a fulfilling stay in control of remote-controlled ghosts! You can make them everything you want them to be! Don''t hesitate to report bugs to us!"

    At this point, Marjo starts using recording software before creating her cast of characters. A dazzling array of options are given to create her characters, starting with their names, life stage, gender and pronouns.

    "They even allow people to create transgender ghosts in this game?" She refrains from screaming, upon seeing the transgender options being available, but she describes and comments about the first aspects of creating characters. "Now I am curious about how a ghost being transgender will affect gameplay, so I will create one! Nay, a trans couple!"

    Games allowing for same-sex romance were around for a while, but the game''s developers are very woke. I guess sexual orientation will be defined in greater detail later, Marjorine is reminded of how transgender people were caught in the crossfire of the culture wars.

    Then comes personality traits: does she want her character to be more outgoing, more active or lazy, more career-oriented, more impulsive, and so on.

    Here she has the option to either pick traits, likes and dislikes, or turn-ons and turn-offs individually, or she can take a multiple-choice questionnaire. For this character, she spends a while mulling over personality traits that aren''t likes-and-dislikes, as she pores over their description, before getting to likes-and-dislikes.

    After choosing the personality traits, she gets to likes and dislikes, along with romantic turn-ons and turn-offs, both coming in several types.

    Then she realizes that the options given to create her characters'' bodies give her pause. Even after changing the ghost''s race, she must change every major part of a character one by one apart from facial details: length and width are the main things for limbs, as well as for the neck, chest and belly. Which, in turn, affect the height and bulk of the character.

    "Why is it that the devs refer to our characters as ghosts? Is this a cruel joke? This game''s characters don''t feel like ghosts at all!" She starts shouting at the mic. "They feel like... people!"

    Her mom overhears her shout about ghosts. Upon arriving at Marjo''s desk, she scolds her daughter. "Honey, horror games are no good for you!"

    "Who are you to tell me what to play? I got it for free!"

    I can always cut mom''s intervention on video, and no one would notice, Marjorine muses as the process of creating her first character continues. She wants her character''s body to fit a certain vision, and only once the body type is set can she move on with the face phase of character creation.

    "There are so many options: nose bridge shape and size, eye shape, size and positioning inside the skull, skull width, jawline size, eye color, hair color and cut, and, of course, skin color!" an overjoyed Marjorine plays around her first trans character''s face.

    Then comes the outfitting part. However, since Marjo didn''t play MAA before it closed, eight years ago, she doesn''t realize that a lot of the outfits available to RCG players were in MAA. Which helps explain the abundance of headgear and gloves.

    However, some of the most beloved MAA outfits are there as full-body ones (sans headgear), usually robes or dresses, while others are broken down into top, bottom and shoes. And, of course, more contemporary outfits and accessories who, together with the outfits ported from MAA, make for a dizzying case of choice paralysis. And Gordon told me that people will be able to create and mass-produce their own outfits in this game?

    Once she is done creating her first trans, the screen prompts her about how many characters she has left before she hits the limit for the household when she starts creating her second trans character. Remaining character slots in household: 7.

    For which she ends up using the multiple-choice questionnaire to add personality. But now that she gets the hang of creating characters, she feels much happier.

 Chapter 80: Troubled Sleep

    After a first testing session, which was, unfortunately, short because of the lengthy installation time, Marjorine goes to sleep. However, she canˇŻt help thinking about her experience of playing RCG in beta access. I just finished creating my household. I think I need to get further into the game to decide whether to keep playing it, knowing that itˇŻs going to be subject to change.

    She starts turning into her bed, and her dreams get increasingly troubled:

    <hr>

    The scene took place in the Senate House, somewhere in the Ninth Circle of Hell. That is, within the topmost levels of Pandemonium. Ad¨¨le was summoned to appear before a senatorial committee. Marjorine was equipped like a Perserian gyan-avspar, and was a Pandemonian prisoner, the same as Ad¨¨le. The session began with LuciferˇŻs question:

    ˇ°Ad¨¨le, we brought you here to answer for the accusations in our world that your world is about to interfere in our affairs again!ˇ± Lucifer, in his capacity of Caliph of Pandemonium, yelled at Ad¨¨le.

    ˇ°Yeah, you helped Karine mediate this deal leading to the ratification of the Treaty of Perseria, which provided for the severance of the political ties between your world and ours!ˇ± Astaroth, another senator in attendance, scolded Ad¨¨le.

    ˇ°It has been eight years, in the time of my world, since the TreatyˇŻs ratification. The Treaty was ruinous for MAAˇŻs developers, and caused them to go out of business! Before going bankrupt, they floated rumors that a new game would be under development using part of the assets of the game, and this game has yet to be released!ˇ± Ad¨¨le defended herself.

    ˇ°Then what do these new developers do to remain in compliance with the Treaty?ˇ± Satan, PandemoniumˇŻs grand vizier, yells at Ad¨¨le.

    ˇ°As a member of the development team of this new game, I made clear the characters players controlled were remote-controlled ghosts because of the events leading up to the TreatyˇŻs ratification! And the properties that video game characters have that are more consistent with remote-controlled ghosts than real people! No angelic beacons!ˇ±

    ˇ°Treaty of Perseria? Perseria is on which world?ˇ± a clueless Marjorine asks the four, rolling her eyes.

    Am I the only one, other than Karine, and maybe the execs who led MAAˇŻs manufacturer to close the game, who, in 2032 on our world, still remember what the Treaty of PerseriaˇŻs terms even are? Ad¨¨le burst in tears, before turning to MarjorineˇŻs oneiric self.

    ˇ°Perseria is a city on the world of a game closed for years, and the Treaty was just the document making the gameˇŻs closure official in the gameˇŻs world!ˇ± Ad¨¨le clenched her fists while her face turned red.

    ˇ°We did the utmost to remain compliant with the TreatyˇŻs terms, we expect your world to hold its end of the Treaty!ˇ± Lucifer turned to Marjorine. ˇ°Because Ad¨¨le is plotting to violate the Treaty, sheˇŻs sentenced to death by being thrown into a molten sulphur lake! You want a way out of this world, throw her into the lake!ˇ±

    ˇ°I guess I donˇŻt have a choice, since itˇŻs a strange new world to me!ˇ± Marjorine sighed.

    Oh boyˇ­ I canˇŻt throw her into a lake of molten sulphur when I have yet to experience anything significant in RCG, beyond character creation! Marjo mused while she escorted Ad¨¨le down to the outer edge of the seventh circle, where a wall overlooking a lake of molten sulphur stood. On the edge of a cliff marking the limit between the sixth and seventh circles. I have the feeling that sheˇŻs innocent, but I wasnˇŻt given an opportunity to cross-reference RCGˇŻs world maps to those of this world. But why does hell consider Remote-Controlled Ghosts a breach of the Treaty?

    The damned residing in the area, full of condo towers of varying heights, didnˇŻt even notice what was happening on the chemin de ronde until they heard the screams of someone being thrown off what they deemed a glorified noise barrier.

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt cause the playersˇŻ world to violate the Treaty!ˇ± Ad¨¨le screamed as Marjo threw her into a molten sulphur lake.

    ˇ°What have I done?ˇ± MarjorineˇŻs oneiric self yelled upward after throwing Ad¨¨le into the sulphur lake. ˇ°With Ad¨¨leˇŻs death, weˇŻll never be able to prove that she, in fact, didnˇŻt cause our world to violate the Treaty!ˇ±

    <hr>

    And then the nightmare about Marjorine being complicit in carrying out a miscarriage of justice causes her to awaken. However, as she awakens, she feels big headaches about it. So after taking painkillers, her body doesnˇŻt seem to let her go back to sleep just yet.

    She starts editing the video footage of RCGˇŻs character creation process and decides to cut out mentions of quarrelling with her mom about it, but to leave mentions of trans characters in there. About which she comments that trans characters have clothing options like the gender they identify with, already that she feels trans characters are enough for her to deal with at this point.

    Which she proceeds to upload to YouTube before going back to bed, while making sure that she has all the information required for the viewers to make the best use of the videoˇŻs contents. However, the sheer size of the video makes the upload last for a while.

    It''s at this point that the painkillers kick in and make her drowsy enough to go back to sleep. And hopefully not make her cause nightmares about carrying out a miscarriage of justice.

    That morning, she texts Gordon about her first impressions of the game, admittedly a little limited in scope, while yawning because of her poor sleep:

    Marjorine: I spent forever in character creation last night: so many options to create a ghost household

    Gordon: These ghosts donˇŻt feel like ghosts

    Marjorine: I really hope the devs have good reason to call them ghosts

    Marjo is right: these ghosts look very human. I hope that she isnˇŻt playing the game solely for character creation, Gordon sighs while he follows the link to MarjoˇŻs video about RCGˇŻs household creation. I feel like Ad¨¨le, or perhaps someone else in RCGˇŻs dev team, might struggle to distinguish reality from fiction.

    Around the breakfast table, Marjorine seems more than a little troubled about the nightmare she had last night, but she kept quiet about it to her coworker.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ˇ°I had nightmares of that game last night: I dreamed about being forced to throw a dev of that game, or a character with the likeness of one, into a lake of molten sulphur! And all I was able to do in-game was to create a household of ghosts!ˇ± Marjo laments to her parents.

    ˇ°What did your victim do?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs mom asks her.

    ˇ°They alleged that the game was a violation of some treaty between their world and ours, which, on that world, was punishable by death! And the victim wasnˇŻt even given a chance to present evidence!ˇ±

    MarjoˇŻs mom gasps. ˇ°A breach of a treaty between a video game world and ours? Why would a video game world even need to sign a treaty with ours to begin with?ˇ±

    ˇ°Thank God this was just a nightmare! Such a treaty between a video game world and ours would only have value on the video game world, if that!ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad points out, while pinching his daughterˇŻs arm. ˇ°And you were talking about the gameˇŻs transgender ghosts last night!ˇ±

    ˇ°I donˇŻt doubt that there will be items in the game for building haunted houses, or to do other horrible things, but there must be another reason for us to ask to define our charactersˇŻ traits, turn-ons and turn-offs! ItˇŻs too early to give up on the game!ˇ±

    But as time goes on, working from home, she feels a little malaise. Why is it that I canˇŻt help but think about my characters in RCG? I havenˇŻt even started the tutorial yet! I have no clue what the possibilities even are, beyond relationships with other playersˇŻ characters! And NPC townies possibly; surely the devs know that players cannot be online all the time! There must be a way to tell apart player characters and NPCs! Maybe itˇŻs just me not having played the actual game though.

    After yelling at customers with overdue bills, and threatening to take their credit terms away, Marjo checks on her boss for the status of the demand letter requests she filed last night. However, the answer arrives on Teams:

    Boss: I am not sure on whom we can even collect out of those you asked D/Ls for

    Marjorine: I would just love it if we have clear guidelines to ask for sending out demand letters to customers with unpaid bills! Ideally as soon as the bills becomes overdue, and the letter must be more threatening the longer they wait to pay! And even automatic lawsuits if a certain amount is overdue for a certain period!

    Boss: I have objections to the last point: automatic lawsuits contingent on a specific overdue amount and period might defeat the purpose of this point because one such lawsuit might cost us more than what we might hope to collect

    Marjorine: If it comes to that, I want all our customers on credit to know about the lawsuit so they know it might happen to them if they fail to pay on time! So while the initial lawsuit might result in a net loss, it will make customers pay faster, or even at all!

    Boss: But you wonˇŻt be the one to send out demand letters even if they were approved, which you mustnˇŻt take for granted

    Damn, how are they going to improve the collections processes? Sending out AI-written reminders is not enough! Often people wonˇŻt take emails seriously, hence the need for me to call customers, Marjorine sighs, still a little frustrated by the request for demand letters taking forever. Courage, Marjorine, I only need to survive a few more hours and then I can go around building my household around my trans couple.

    At the end of the workday, the time arrives for her to do so. To return to a RCG she feels like she needs to explore more of before she can decide. But she feels her comments on YouTube about trans characters in RCGˇŻs open beta might have garnered her some attention, along with a theater in the trans flame war in her videoˇŻs comments section.

    In which she becomes an unwitting belligerent by posting the following comment: ˇ°ItˇŻs OK if you donˇŻt want to play trans characters, itˇŻs your right, IˇŻm playing a trans couple and a cis one solely to compare how gender identity affects gameplay!ˇ±

    She decides to open her Twitch account, and then use her first session playing a household to test her streaming settings. Just because I play a trans couple in my household of four doesnˇŻt imply anything about how I act towards trans outside the game! She starts thinking before the test stream goes live and she posts about it on her social media.

    So, for now, Gordon is the only one watching the stream outside of MarjoˇŻs parents. Testing is about to begin:

    ˇ°Sound test, one, two, three!ˇ± Marjorine utters into the mic.

    Gordon: I hear you five by five

    But before she can even start playing what she deemed to be the actual game, Marjo faces the choice of the region in which to put the household. And there are a lot of different locales to choose from, with a blurb for each containing historical and weather information.

    ˇ°I guess IˇŻm going with Elbonia...ˇ± Marjorine sighs before choosing the lot according to the starting budget she has: 29,000 piastres.

    She starts the tutorial, which actually uses the playerˇŻs household, and guides them through the basic controls of the game. The first step is choosing the lot and that world seems to have entire neighborhoods made of plots made for tract housing. Or at least the plots available to new players because it seems like larger plots arenˇŻt available until certain criteria are met.

    After the lot is chosen for the household, she finds it a little tight for four people, and she feels like two bedrooms are a must: one for the cis couple, one for the trans. But before she can even think of making additions to her virtual home, she must familiarize herself with the life mode of the game. Camera controls, zooming in or out, and also choosing the active character. Then she can think of going into the gameˇŻs construction mode, where sheˇŻs hit with a checklist of requirements: a bed, a sink, a shower or bath, a toilet, a fridge, a stove.

    ˇ°The bare minimum isnˇŻt going to cut it. Countertops, a dishwasher, a closet, a dining table and chairs, a medicine cabinet, desks, computers and, of course, a house for all that!ˇ± Marjo then follows the tutorial for building the family home, starting with the placement of walls.

    Then, after putting in the frame of the walls, she feels the need for a staircase leading to the second floor. However, she realizes these structures and fixtures come at a cost in materials or its equivalent in cash. Two floors, the second floor having a bathroom, and both bedrooms, with the ground floor with the kitchen, toilet and an empty living room. I am feeling a little short on money to equip the living room! Maybe if I could take out a loan to finance it! And peruse the job listings around the game...

    And there are a lot of career tracks to choose from for their characters. Fashion, crime being the two that pique her interest, so she makes her trans male a criminal and her trans female start a career in fashion. With their entry-level jobs being pickpocket and department store clerk respectively.

    ˇ°The moment of truth: making my cis and trans couples fall in love with each other!ˇ± Marjo then have the two couples deepen their relationships and even make them romantically involved, whatever that means to the game.

    Now I have a better idea of why they put so much effort into making us define our likes, dislikes as well as romantic turn-on/offs: the ability to romance characters, Marjo feels like relationships grow a little fast to her taste. That a few hours of in-game time devoted to flirting and increasingly intimate choices being given is somehow enough to go from unknowns to anything remotely resembling a romantic relationship.

    ˇ°I guess, this feels like insta-love to me, so perhaps this could appeal for those wanting to change romantic partners on a dimeˇ± she tells her handful of viewers as the game reminds her to send her characters to work.

    Sure, she has her cis couple resort to stuff such as freelance writing or IT consulting work for the time being, until she has a better understanding of who supplies what to a fashion crafter.

    But before she could even get to explore the crafting mechanisms in depth, she comes to a grim realization after her first two characters return home from work, and itˇŻs not just their meager pay: itˇŻs about sleep. For some reason, it seems like both her trans characters have trouble sleeping, and yet it''s the same bed, the same lighting, the same everything. However, her cis couple doesnˇŻt suffer from the same sleeping disorders.

    ˇ°Damn it! It seems like trans ghosts have sleeping disorders in this game!ˇ± Marjo screams on her stream and itˇŻs then that she reaches for the bug report button in the game. ˇ°Is this a side effect from sex change surgeries?ˇ±

    She also prepares a write-up for Reddit about the bugs related to trans charactersˇŻ sleeping troubles, so other people testing RCG might chime in on whether itˇŻs a bug or something else altogether.

 Chapter 81: Trans Debts?

    Marjo starts to feel like she may not even have scratched the surface, but she decides to have one of her cis characters re-check against the list of careers. Or at least the ones available in the early game, and the primary skills for each of these professions.

    OMG, there are so many professions to choose fromˇ­ but I have the feeling I need to know more about which ones would best serve my purposes before I pick one for my cis characters, she sighs upon realizing that every job in the game has only two main skills required to level, at least in the early game. ThereˇŻs so much for me to experienceˇ­

    Gordon: DonˇŻt forget about uploading the clip about trans ghostsˇŻ sleep disorders to YouTube!

    However, she has yet to get a feel for the grind of leveling up skills and professions, nor for the crafting system, and she already has a lot going on in the firstˇ­ 10 minutes of gameplay in haunting mode or so.

    And sheˇŻs dangerously short on cash in-game after building the home and equipping it with all the equipment she deems is necessary just to fulfill the ghostsˇŻ basic needs. Even when sheˇŻs busy making her cis characters work odd jobs as a freelance writer or IT consultant, the jobs they were contracted for seem to take forever.

    A few real-world minutes later, it starts to rain outside her in-game home. And it seems like the pickpocket is given the opportunity to work from home on the second in-game day, but the department store clerk isnˇŻt.

    ˇ°Oh! It seems like not all jobs allow working from home, and maybe not all levels in a career either! But I now have a better idea of what could draw people to play this game!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, honey?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad asks her at point-blank.

    ˇ°Namely that you can have careers, lifestyles and relationships you want! But by far the relationship part is the fastestˇ±

    Speaking of which, with the poor cis couple being a little tired of toiling at their freelance gigs, to the point of refusing to do any further work on theirs, she feels like they are ready to have sex. The first step is to choose whether to have it with or without protection.

    ˇ°What makes it so important to have the option to have protection in place?ˇ± Marjo is a little confused to what purpose that would have in-game. ˇ°Are the devs doing sex ed, too?ˇ±

    IˇŻm sure thereˇŻs a gameplay reason for the option to have protected sex to be there, Gordon then requests something of Marjo in her chat. Even as she hesitates as to whether her ghosts should have protected sex.

    Gordon: Try protected this time around, and unprotected later

    But she realizes soon enough that even protected sex gives her several options of how to go around doing it. Especially with the space around her cis characters fading to black after the choice is made. Which feels a little awkward to her when she feels like sheˇŻs given a freedom of choice whose results feel a little limited because of it happening under a black shroud.

    She feels like even protected sex dissolves some of her ghostsˇŻ stress, but get dirtier as a result. Not the best way to get stress relief in the RCG world, but she can have them work on their odd jobs again.

    Which, coincidentally, end more or less when the trans characters return from work. And both earn promotions; however, because the trans maleˇŻs new position starts at night, she knows that a promotion isnˇŻt coming tonight.

    That ought to help, but I am still broke-ass for now, Marjo sighs, while she has her trans couple have unprotected sex, albeit in the shower. And man the difference is clear between protected and unprotected, as far as the impact on their relationship and their needs are concerned.

    ˇ°I think that what this gameˇŻs ghosts get out of sex doesnˇŻt really change depending on whether theyˇŻre trans or not, but protection definitely does. I start to like this game...ˇ±

    She also realizes that her trans female now has the option to work from home as a seamstress. However, since the in-game promotion letter sent to her mentioned that part of the bonus came under the form of a sewing machine, she looks into the household inventory for it.

    And installs it in her home, which is when she finally gets a grip on what it takes to craft cloth outfits in the game when she clicks on the outfit crafting menu. A pattern and meters of fabric, with cloth type determining the quality of the outfit, along with the workmanship.

    ˇ°I might be wondering what it takes to craft oneˇŻs own fabricsˇ­ˇ± a clueless Marjorine combs the help pages of the game while she has her seamstress practice sewing.

    Meanwhile, in Montreal, Ad¨¨le, upon receipt of the bug reports submitted by the players in beta testing, is as puzzled as Marjorine by the sleeping troubles endured by trans ghosts. Which, outside of being the spokesperson for RCGˇŻs manufacturer, makes her take part in the gameˇŻs quality assurance. She has a discussion with a few of her QA coworkers after a summary of the bug report lands in her system.

    ˇ°It seems like one of our beta testers found a bug giving sleep disorders to trans ghosts. Cishet/pan couples have one advantage: they can make babies without needing to resort to IVF! We canˇŻt let trans ghosts have a disadvantage in one of their vital needs, we must first fix that bug if we want trans characters to be playable at launch!ˇ± Ad¨¨le explains to her coworkers.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ˇ°Are you sure that player hasnˇŻt chosen a trait for these ghosts that make them more vulnerable to sleep disorders?ˇ± one of her coworkers asks her.

    ˇ°No; none of the traits chosen by the player are risk factors for the sort of mental illnesses leading to sleep disorders, nor did they finish their workdays with stress!ˇ± Ad¨¨le retorts upon double-checking the report log.

    ˇ°Do we even want trans characters to be playable?ˇ± another coworker asks.

    ˇ°Yes, despite trans being caught in the crossfire of the culture wars. Gamers might look to the game as a safe space to experiment with different sexual identities on top of different orientations!ˇ±

    ˇ°Ad¨¨le, I might be wondering what buffs, if any, to give homo or trans characters to make up for their inability to have babies!ˇ± the first coworker points out.

    ˇ°The game assumes trans to have surgeries, and you cannot create trans characters as a child or younger for this reason! The sex change surgery costs a substantial amount, and comes with a warning screen before you pay the fee, because itˇŻs irreversible!ˇ±

    Damn it, this entire non-binary fiasco might cause this gameˇŻs undoing! IˇŻm not even sure what buffs to give trans that could make up for the loss of fertility, but the buff must be as permanent as the consequences of the surgery, Ad¨¨le struggles to think of what buffs should be given.

    ˇ°Tabarnak! Whatever the buff is for trans, it should be gender-agnostic, so that even non-binary trans characters will get it!ˇ± Ad¨¨le points out, matter-of-factly, to her fellow developers.

    ˇ°Damn! I believe we might need some help sorting out the lending system! It seems like we have a bug report for the seizure to kick in before giving the option to either go bankrupt or file for consumer proposal!ˇ± another dev reads the log of the bug report.

    ˇ°Was the loan a mortgage or some other kind of secured loan? Bankruptcy and consumer proposals only kick in when taking out unsecured debt!ˇ±

    ˇ°IˇŻm afraid soˇ±

    ˇ°In which case itˇŻs a feature, not a bug!ˇ±

    The whole loan and insolvency mechanic wouldnˇŻt have been possible without KarineˇŻs input, Ad¨¨le starts wondering if the player who filed the bug report for the insolvency system malfunction has any clue of how debt and insolvency worked.

    Back in Kinder, just before the stream ends, Marjo has finally figured out how to make cloth, which requires fibers. Whose choice, in turn, determines what material the cloth will be, and what quality, too.

    ˇ°Damn it, I donˇŻt have enough cash to buy gardening plots, much less a weaving machine!ˇ± Marjo whines, before she calculates how much of a loan she needs to buy that equipment. ˇ°I can barely buy seeds, cotton or food!ˇ±

    Gordon: HereˇŻs your chance to test the gameˇŻs moneylending mechanic!

    Loans. Before Marjo can confirm the terms of her in-game loan, the gameˇŻs banks ask what collateral, if any, is put for it, as well as the purpose of the loan.

    And she makes forecasts for the income earned by selling these artisanal outfits, feeling that she will need multiple garden plotsˇŻ worth of cotton to make them.

    What she realizes is that her current income is one thing, but the real kicker is the income forecast from the sale of outfits. Which is just a factor to her.

    ˇ°Oh boy, they give me interest rates, but the rates are assumed fixed. Obviously, I can take out bigger loans if my ghosts make more by the sale of outfits! But it seems like one bank specializes in mortgages, another one in commercial lending and one in personal lending! There are five core parameters: income, principal, collateral, interest rate and term length! I really, really hope my characters will make enough to pay back the loan, but I canˇŻt take it for granted!ˇ± Marjo rambles as she plays around with the loan screen.

    She also realizes that, even in the game, unsecured loans have lower borrowing limits, as well as higher interest rates, regardless of the bank. I really hope I can stay on top of my loan payments, and not experience the insolvency system, she sighs, before turning her attention to making three clips about specific aspects of the game for YouTube.

    One for the sleep disorders endured by trans characters, another one for having protected vs unprotected sex, and finally the gameˇŻs lending system. I donˇŻt think itˇŻs a good idea to make a sewing guide just yet, as I donˇŻt know how to make sewing patterns just yet, but I could always start my own website for all things RCG. Yet I feel like this clip about trans ghosts getting sleep disorders will be the one going viral, she thinks about how to manage her channel.

    And, obviously, post to the gameˇŻs subreddit about the sleep disorders endured by trans, and the video about it before herself going to sleep. Before long, the thread explodes in comments, and, as with the character creation video, it becomes a theater in these flame wars.

    She also starts the RCG wiki so that RCG players can post the available info about the game. As soon as the wiki goes live, she sends out the link to it on the gameˇŻs subreddit as well as to Gordon and her own family, and starts contributing to it.

    Speaking of Gordon, he feels a little underwhelmed by the early game. ItˇŻs supposed to be an MMO; I experienced nothing of the multiplayer gameplay aspects and all I did was solo! Gordon reflects on his experience of playing RCG as a beta player. Is the multiplayer aspect of the game going to be mostly economic? Or you could host parties, or enter relationships, with player-controlled ghosts? Tomorrow, I ought to test the partying aspect of the game with Marjo and others, if any. And maybe even have one of my ghosts hit on one of hers! This game is clearly designed for alt-o-holics!

    But he bursts into laughter as he watches the video detailing the sleep troubles endured by the gameˇŻs trans characters, as well as other videos posted by other beta testers of other bugs of the game.

    ˇ°I feel like itˇŻs before a game launches that you can experiment with it. For games like these, provided its player base is large enough, guides will be released on day one for the core content, and sometimes for even the gameˇŻs minutiae, and the game will essentially be a solved problem within a few days of it launching! There is no telling how religiously the players will worship game guides, thoughˇ­ˇ± Gordon is overheard by his roommate.

    ˇ°Gordon, what is this game about?ˇ± his roommate asks him, overhearing his ramblings.

    ˇ°It seems to be about life simulation!ˇ±

    ˇ°I really hope that you donˇŻt spend all night playing that game in the future!ˇ± his roommate warns him.

    I really, really hope Marjorine will actually make some money out of crafting clothes! From what I can make out, she will need to farm cotton to do so! And, hopefully, by tomorrow, we will have a better idea of how long the harvest cycle is for cotton! Gordon canˇŻt help but think of MarjorineˇŻs in-game experience. But stay focused for tomorrow. Hopefully our boss will finally schedule the meeting about staff turnover! ThereˇŻs a reason why Marjorine is part of this: while she might be the A/R screamo, sheˇŻs symptomatic of staff turnover.

    It''s clear that both players seem to think of where theyˇŻre headed in-game next, since they both feel like they only scratched the gameˇŻs surface.

 Chapter 82: Thank God Itâ€™s Friday!

    Friday morning arrives, and, after getting this meeting postponed several times, the two RCG playersˇŻ boss has finally begun a meeting, with all their concerns about employee turnover.

    I might be the screamo of A/R, my boss always makes me deal with the worst of the delinquent customers because sometimes you donˇŻt have a choice, and screaming louder than they do might be your last resort, Marjorine starts thinking about what this new day at work holds for her. When her boss invites her, along with a few employees, to discuss employee turnover, whom Gordon and a few of the more experienced workers, to a meeting on Teams:

    ˇ°The recent events left me with no choice but to call this meeting. It appears that morale has been decreasing lately, and costing us a lot in employee turnover. I apologize for these repeated postponementsˇ± the two playersˇŻ boss starts the meeting.

    ˇ°I mentioned a rapid change in skillset requirements last time, but what else do you feel is problematic?ˇ± Gordon asks his colleagues in the virtual room.

    ˇ°The one thing I can rule out is work-life balance. However, there are definitely times when I feel on edge because IˇŻm micromanaged in my work!ˇ± Marjorine whines.

    ˇ°If you think youˇŻre micromanaged here, Marjo, there are far worse industries to work in for someone who dreads micromanagement! Such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals and nuclear power, and thatˇŻs only because of red tape!ˇ± her boss scolds Marjo.

    ˇ°WeˇŻre not given the opportunity to learn new skills as appropriate for the rapid change in skillsets! We would love to know if providing us with training is cheaper than to hire someone with a certain skillset, or the other way around!ˇ± another coworker voices a complaint.

    ˇ°Exactly: you act without using the data properly! Like I asked to have demand letters sent to such-and-such based on the A/R aging data, and you told me about being unsure as to whether a certain customer could even be collected from, even in part! Maybe I should make this determination, but IˇŻm afraid I might lack the knowledge of clientsˇŻ industries to make it!ˇ±

    ˇ°You scold employees for no good reason, too!ˇ± Gordon laments their bossˇŻ attitude. ˇ°A/R collection is not an exact science, but knowing KPIs and A/P practices of various industries will definitely help!ˇ±

    ˇ°And I feel like hiring procedures might need to be overhauled, too! Perhaps we focus too much on short-term skillsets for hiring people, and not on their ability to learn, on the fly or otherwise!ˇ± yet another coworker voices a concern that might be of some relevance to the issue at hand. ˇ°High turnover prevents us from developing synergies that might make all of us more productive or work better!ˇ±

    The foursome of employees invited to the meeting keep bickering about what role each of the factors play in the staff turnover, but Marjo stays out of the hiring process portion of the dispute, since her big beef is about the issuance of demand letters. I feel like thereˇŻs only so much I can contribute to this discussionˇ­ however, I donˇŻt think we have a whole lot of delinquent customers with 10-Q/Ks available.

    Solutions, beyond the need for a clear policy about professional training, as well as an overhaul of hiring (and firing) procedures, tend to be more specific to particular employees.

    Sometimes I feel like the boss is putting up this big charade to save face in front of us, and make it look like theyˇŻre listening, but changes might be slow to be implemented, if at all. Now, the higher-ups will claim high turnover is intrinsic to certain jobs, or to certain industries, and such-and-such jobs are affected most, but the turnover problem is a problem beyond sales and customer service, Gordon feels a little cautious about the changes.

    After the portion of the meeting devoted to the staff turnover ends, the boss turns his attention to Marjorine and talk about her issues with the collection of delinquent accounts receivable.

    ˇ°Demand letters, like the ones you want to issue for delinquent A/R, would only make the customers sour on us! Do you have another idea for before it gets to a demand letter?ˇ± her boss asks for alternatives.

    ˇ°I already asked to demand full payment before shipment for customers with overdue bills! All we are doing right now is to apply credit memos on the oldest bills!ˇ± Marjorine yells at her boss. ˇ°Or maybe send the delinquent invoices to collection agencies after sixty days overdue!ˇ±

    ˇ°It might be a little expensive, and also some of the delinquent invoices are from customers who operate with well-defined seasonal cycles. However, the main bonus is that they will issue demand letters and handle the legal issues in our stead!ˇ±

    ˇ°Better get one-third of the delinquent debts collected, net of any collection fees, than nothing at all!ˇ±

    ˇ°One-third is close to a best-case scenario for the sort of delinquent accounts you asked to issue demand letters to!ˇ±

    ˇ°The bonus is that we donˇŻt need to incur the legal fees ourselves, and we donˇŻt need to limit ourselves to a certain account size! So get your act together and shop for a collection agency!ˇ± Marjo screams.

    ˇ°When I said seasonal cycles, certain industries might make and collect the bulk of their money, and hence pay, at certain times of the year only! Or work on long billing cycles if they donˇŻt! WhatˇŻs delinquent to you then fails to reflect the realities of the customers!ˇ±

    ˇ°Fine, which delinquent clients fall into either category?ˇ± Marjo asks him, feeling embarrassed to ask for that info.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Her face turns red when she realizes that, while she might know how to deal with angry customers wanting to get refunded, as well as with customers who donˇŻt pay in time, perhaps there are subtleties she doesnˇŻt understand.

    The answer is comprehensive enough to make her feel like she might need to pare down her list of demand letters, with overdue bills attached. However, between requests for refunds from customers, or questions about blocked orders from other customers, she tries to shop around for collection agencies.

    Oh boy: because we have customers from all over the place, we need a collection agency that can also cover the territory our customers come from. However, beyond working on sliding scale fees, I donˇŻt know how to shop for that, Marjo then writes an email to her boss, detailing what commercial debt collection agencies might charge, what services they offer, and their contact info. Maybe, if I am lucky, the boss might let the credit department have a say in an RFP process for debt collection agencies! However, the boss often waits until the brink is near to act! So I have no choice but to be more threatening with each unanswered follow-up request going forward! If necessary, scream louder than him, as I do with the deadbeats!

    While on break, though, she checks on her YouTube videos posted last night about RCGˇŻs ghosts and the bug report about trans ghosts getting sleep troubles, both on YouTube and Reddit. About how virulent the flame wars are. Yet, some would-be players ask her questions about why she plays a trans couple alongside a cis one. Especially people who themselves play trans characters. Speaking of which, her most active content deals with the realities of playing trans ghosts.

    And her social media contains a handful of requests from those beta testers with trans characters in tow. IˇŻd love to experience the multiplayer aspect of the game with whomever can play whenever I will be able to. They gave me the names of their trans characters.

    At the same time, MarjorineˇŻs boss was given a lot to think about upon receipt of her list of prospective collection agencies. The employees make me feel like I make decisions without using the available data. But it makes me wonder which one is worth more: Marjorine, whose costs and value are known to us, or a collection agency. IˇŻm afraid that I am as clueless as Marjo about collection agencies beyond the need to consider the debtorsˇŻ seasonal business cycles in deciding whose accounts to mark for collection. ThatˇŻs an unpleasant surprise for sure... Marjo might be a brat, but sheˇŻs dealing with the worst A/Rs for a reason: this is what best fits her among what we can offer in a WFH capacity.

    At the end of the work day, Marjo is visibly down by a number of things her boss told her, and feels the need to vent to Gordon before she starts streaming RCG. However, todayˇŻs build is about patching a few bugs, such as the sleep troubles endured by trans characters, which she needs to install before she can stream it.

    Marjorine: I was told repeatedly about things that make me angry, beyond customers who canˇŻt pay!

    Gordon: What do you mean?

    Marjorine: I was not given any answers to my requests for demand letters, nor for my plan of using collection agencies!

    Or at least for debts not requiring litigation to collect. Litigation is much more expensive than a collection agency, and, as such, should be used only past a certain amount of money owed, Gordon thinks of when to use debt collection agencies vs taking a customer to court. That, even though the higher-ups might be a little wary of losing big customers.

    Marjorine: I would just have loved to be able to send demand letters myself, and to have clear guidelines for marking accounts for collection! We have delinquent accounts for months now!

    Gordon: I know that A/R was mismanaged before you arrived, and we just sent out monthly automated account statements, invoices and applied credit memos on a FIFO basis!

    Marjorine: Now that I identified solutions to the A/R problems, and brought them to the attention of the higher-ups, I just hope that they will implement them. If I need to scream at customers for whom demand letters are issued, and monthly, or until receipt of the payment of overdue bills, so be it!

    As the patch is installed for the beta build, Marjo sends out the link to her Twitch account to those people who wanted to watch her play her trans characters. But little does she know is that most of her viewers are favorable to trans people IRL or, at least, feel like a video game gives them an opportunity to see a more accepting society towards trans people that might not be achievable otherwise.

    And, of course, before the installation is finalized, she checks the patch notes for any indication that the sleep disorders for trans characters are fixed. Woohoo! Sleep disorders are fixed for trans characters, and now they shouldnˇŻt have them beyond what would cause them for others, she tries to contain her joy while perusing the rest of the patch notes.

    When the installation ends, Marjorine is getting ready to start the stream, with her would-be viewers wanting in to see her trans couple being played:

    ˇ°Welcome to day three of playing with trans remote-controlled ghosts! Tonight, we are going to get the production of outfits underway! But first, it has come to my attention that crafting items whose source material requires farming crops is best done with one character in the farming career!ˇ± Marjorine announces to her viewers.

    This means I must pick one character to stop freelancing, and turn that character into a farm hand, and hopefully a ˇ°work-from-homeˇ± oneˇ­ she starts musing as she picks her male cis character to turn into a virtual farm hand. Fingers crossed that I would be able to get rewards from the farming career that will help me farm! Cotton or food.

    And, in the same vein, she has her female cis character turn to the culinary arts, hoping to maximize the money her ghostly household could earn from these garden plots.

    However, she feels like itˇŻs a little early for her to earn any benefit from baking since dish washing is the earliest stage of the culinary arts career, and there is no work-from-home option for that toon at this point.

    ˇ°Here we go: we need to ensure that everyoneˇŻs needs are met, to the extent feasible with the resources we have. Of course, itˇŻs the early game, so itˇŻs going to be rough for nowˇ­ˇ± Marjo sighs while sheˇŻs in-game playing with her ghosts.

    Her chat tells her about what career combos go well with each other for crafters, beyond farming and either culinary arts or fashion, other combos include forestry or mining with construction or sculpture. However, one thing sticks out to her, beyond the choice of professions based on desired outputs:

    Artabeles: Unless you just want to sell goods to market, youˇŻre not going to experience the multiplayer parts of the game if you stay home!

    Ouch. I need to explore more of this gameˇŻs world if I want to make the most out of it! It starts to dawn on her that she needs to click on a button that looks like a smartphone on the bottom left of the screen. With different functions, such as calling for services, contact list, complete with relationship bars, and, of course, the option to hail a cab, and take whoever the player wants to a neighborhood or district of their choice.

    Speaking of which, Artabeles sends her a suggestion of where to meet up in-game, while leaving her cis characters to their own devices at home, except for her male cis character, whom she makes him write a book.

 Chapter 83: Toxic Gyan-Avspar

    ˇ°Now that IˇŻm in position, Artabeles, we ought to have our characters introduced to each other!ˇ± Marjorine also sees a handful of other trans characters at a strip mallˇŻs caf¨¦.

    Artabeles is quickly met by one of GordonˇŻs trans characters, and other people wanting to play with Marjorine because she somehow gained fame among the RCG community for discovering the trans charactersˇŻ sleep disorder bug. They all stand in line to place their orders for pastries and coffee.

    Gordon: The trans charactersˇŻ sleep disorder bug was seriously game-breaking, thank God for you finding it!

    Once all the trans ghosts wanting to play with Marjorine are in the caf¨¦, there seemed to be no seat left in it for additional ghosts to be seated, NPC or player-controlled. However, none of them really wanted to hit on MarjoˇŻs ghost, except for ArtabelesˇŻ. Whose male trans ghost wears a costume not unlike the heavy armor dropped by the Perserian haunted parks in MAA when that game existed. That is, he made his trans ghost wear a gyan-avspar outfit. Good idea to check on everyoneˇŻs career lines; I assume that there will come a time when I need them in-game, and vice-versa.

    So while her viewers learn the not-gyan-avspar works in show-business, Artabeles makes his trans male ghost focus on MarjoˇŻs, oblivious to the feelings of the player at the other end.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here? What could your character like about mine, other than their players being united in their use of trans ghosts?ˇ± a puzzled Marjorine asks, hoping that Artabeles would answer.

    Artabeles: My character might want a new costume for a new role, so I am hoping that you might make it

    I hope that she understands show-business, as an in-game career, differs from more ˇ°regularˇ± careers, in that simply meeting audition requirements wonˇŻt guarantee you will get any kind of work, and hence paycheck, Artabeles muses while his character is still at the C-lister stage. Which is still relatively low, but not entry-level either.

    Also, Artabeles sends her what he wants out of an outfit, as well as the relevant trans symbols. He then tells her about the Haunted Bazaar, which is accessible by phone.

    ˇ°Here we go: I am going to tell you about the Haunted Bazaar. It may be spooky, but I feel like itˇŻs a must for anyone wanting to craft!ˇ± Marjo then explores what can be sold on the Haunted Bazaar, and itˇŻs a whole new world of merchandise opening up to her.

    What she finds includes crafting recipes, including dyes, clothes, dishes and so on, as well as the finished products. And it dawned on her that, if she wants to craft dyes, she may as well have her male trans character change careers. Especially when some dye recipes require users to reach a certain level in the science career and require specialized equipment to make.

    ˇ°All right, I realize that I have been playing this game wrong, so now I am about to change my male transˇŻ career!ˇ± Marjo shouts while she has her female trans character return home.

    Upon having her female trans return to her in-game home, after having made new in-game friends, she realizes that her male trans character has become a drug dealer, while her female cis character has earned her first promotion.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs over, no more crimes for you!ˇ± Marjo scolds her male trans for her initial choice of having him commit crimes for a living, like a judge about to render a guilty verdict.

    By this point, as ˇ°punishmentˇ± for the crimes he committed at work, I may as well pretend that the court had him serve as a test subject as a condition to get his criminal record expunged, and have him remain in the career until such time the court sees fit, she muses about the storyline in mind for that character as she tries to get a grip on how to draw clothing patterns in-game.

    But as she keeps playing, she realizes that the clock is ticking in on her to start producing the outfits, or at the very least, the base materials to craft them.

    The following in-game day, she has her farm hand ghost tend to the crops for the first harvest done with the garden plots. Raw cotton, produce and all that, which takes him two in-game hours, and the moment of truth is forthcoming, with one pound of raw cotton per plant.

    At this point, while her male trans is away at his new workplace, she watches closely what the weaving machine is about to yield for the raw cotton being fed into it. ItˇŻs not instant, and it seems that itˇŻs going to take a while, given the amount of raw cotton being inserted.

    OK, this is my current daily cotton yield, this determines how many outfits I can have my characters sew in an in-game day. And also how much I can earn. But later on, I will be able to design the outfit Artabeles asked me for that male trans character, Marjo is still overjoyed by the baby step she took towards her in-game goals.

    She then spends hours getting her four ghostsˇŻ finances in order, and level the skills required to progress their careers, she then unlocks the ability to design outfits.

    ˇ°Woohoo!ˇ± an overjoyed Marjo then starts designing the outfit Artabeles asked for earlier in the stream.

    The viewers are then treated to a screen where she can apply hems, strips of cloth, and so on, with Artabeles directing the details he wants added to it. Is it me or this outfit feels very... Middle Eastern? I canˇŻt complain about the playerˇŻs tastes, but I may as well make a second unit for the Haunted Bazaar.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ItˇŻs then that Artabeles has his male trans character hail a cab to MarjoˇŻs in-game house to take delivery of the outfit, and then pay for it. Upon arriving at said house, and knocking at her in-game door...

    Artabeles: You see, even gyan-avspar still had lives outside of the military

    ˇ°Gyan-avspar?ˇ± Marjo yelps as she rolls her eyes on air. ˇ°What the hell are gyan-avspar?ˇ±

    Gordon: You were drawn to Marjo because she played trans characters, and discovered the sleep issue bug; now you talk about how your character plays the role of a gyan-avspar?

    ˇ°Also, what do you hope to gain by visiting my in-game home over using the Haunted Bazaar?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs face turns red.

    Artabeles: I know how much the Haunted Bazaar charges me in fees and taxes; perhaps I can have the outfit for cheaper that way

    Why wonˇŻt Artabeles tell us what a gyan-avspar is? Did gyan-avspar actually exist? She asks herself while her head is down on her desk for a few moments.

    However, the trading screen is up, with the payment ArtabelesˇŻ character is about to make, but Marjo having yet to hand over the outfit to him. For 3500 piastres, that character got a deluxe, hand-crafted outfit, if a bit expensive.

    ˇ°Thank you, Artabeles!ˇ± she beams upon receipt of the in-game payment, with which she makes a loan payment.

    Just before she goes to sleep, she peruses the outfits currently for sale on the Haunted Bazaar. So many outfits I could replace all four of my charactersˇŻ wardrobes if I could afford it, she muses as her eyes widen upon seeing such a wide array of outfits.

    So it seems like a lot of the outfits for sale on the Haunted Bazaar feel either contemporary or fantasy, and the latter tends to be very frilly if they arenˇŻt outfits originally from MAA. And, of course, this reflects the styles available in the base game, even with these two categories they came from.

    When going to sleep, Marjo canˇŻt help but to think of her charactersˇŻ career progressions. Especially her male trans. I am made to feel like the gameˇŻs school system allows people with limited research experience to teach science in high school with no other qualifications than a high school diploma, provided you have any. And the equipment required to make dyes and potions is unlocked with that job? The good news is: the game doesnˇŻt seem to be very grindy. I might reach the top of my charactersˇŻ career paths in a weekend or two.

    But she turns in her bed as she tries to stop thinking about the game, or what happened at work earlier today.

    <hr>

    Unlike her previous dream, Marjo was brought not to Pandemonium as portrayed in MAA, but to some Ilkhanate-era tower off the Strait of HormuzˇŻs Iranian coast. Dressed in a light-yellow dress, the bulky mulatto was surrounded by two of her most fervent followers, and sitting on a bench.

    The first one she readily recognized, Artabeles, but in the hubbub of their initial in-game meeting, she couldnˇŻt get more than a glimpse of the second other than the second played a transfem ghost.

    ˇ°Marjo, thereˇŻs more to being ready for the endgame than rising to the top of a characterˇŻs career ladder!ˇ± the transfem ghost scolded her. ˇ°You forgot about the dream system!ˇ±

    ˇ°Dreamˇ­ system?ˇ± a clueless Marjorine asked the transfem ghost while Artabeles appeared in front of her, dressed in ceremonial dress not unlike those worn by Sassanid nobles.

    ˇ°YouˇŻre too slow in getting wish points! Your priority should be to neutralize sleep!ˇ± the transfem ghost kept scolding her, before handing off to Artabeles.

    ˇ°Yeah, with wish points, you can buy permanent buffs for your characters, called dreams come true, but neutralizing sleep is the most expensive dream come true in the game!ˇ± Artabeles explained to the bulky mulatto.

    ˇ°How am I to get wish points?ˇ± Marjo asked the other two.

    ˇ°I can guarantee you that, once you have neutralized sleep on one ghost, you will never want to play ghosts with sleep again!ˇ± the transfem ghost harrowed her, while circling around.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs so special about neutralizing sleep that would make it the game-changer you make it out to be? On top of that, you never told me about how to get wish points!ˇ± a distraught Marjo asked her.

    ˇ°You should have realized by now that sleep is the largest source of downtime for any given ghost! Once you neutralize a need on a ghost, then youˇŻll understand better why the devs even call the game Remote-Controlled Ghosts to begin with!ˇ±

    The early game is more realistic than the endgame. But need-neutralizing dreams come true are very expensive in terms of wish points, and the second most expensive one neutralizes hunger, the transfem ghost mused about the gameplay impact of neutralizing needs.

    ˇ°You will be at a disadvantage in the endgame if you donˇŻt get started getting wish points right away!ˇ± Artabeles scolded her.

    ˇ°You two make me feel like optimization is everything in this game!ˇ±

    ˇ°How clueless you are as a gamer! You might be a little young to have experienced the heyday of esports, but if you ever played an online video game competitively, you would realize that, for any given patch, youˇŻre essentially forced to use builds that are jokingly called the flavors of the month to remain relevant!ˇ± the transfem ghost yelled at her.

    ˇ°Technically, you have an infinite source of wish points, but the fastest source of wish points, while leveling, is made up of dozens of independent, one-time quest lines! Check against the quest journal next time you play!ˇ± Artabeles advised her oneiric self. ˇ°Turn in the wish quests you can!ˇ±

    ˇ°Where do I access the wish quest journal?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs tone of voice becomes increasingly distraught as the two trans ghosts keep circling around her, and Artabeles ready to swing a shamshir at her if provoked.

    ˇ°One more thing: donˇŻt spend your wish points on consumables, nor on the lesser version of the need neutralizers!ˇ± the transfem ghost yelled at her.

    ˇ°ENOUGH!ˇ± MarjoˇŻs oneiric self screamed at both trans ghosts, louder than both put together, breaking their ears.

    ˇ°WeˇŻll let you go, but only if you promise not to spend your charactersˇŻ wish points until you neutralize their sleep!ˇ± Artabeles made his offer to her, with his ears buzzing.

    ˇ°On one condition: you tell me how to access the wish points system!ˇ± Marjo was about to intensify the screaming. ˇ°NOW!ˇ±

    <hr>

    Marjo, startled by this oneiric display of gaming toxicity, wakes up and logs back into the game, in the dead of night, checking on her charactersˇŻ quest journals and what quest objectives they are closing in on. Like, for the farmer who previously wrote one book, have the farmer write another one.

    One more quest, and IˇŻll try sleeping again! She muses while she determines that getting the fashionista to put a pattern for sale might be worth the rewards associated with it. And hopefully earn some in-game royalties from its sale. I could always DM Artabeles on Twitch to ask what a gyan-avspar even is.

 Chapter 84: Attending and Hosting Speed Kissing Runs

    But then she finds that the quest journal has the same categories for everyone, and, for some reason, her nightmare hit too close to home. Everyone might have the same catalog of quests, but it would take forever to complete everything. So I guess I need to choose carefully which quests to accomplish at this point in time. Like the fashionista quest line for my female trans, whom I consider my ˇ°mainˇ± by now.

    Speaking of her female trans character, Sigrun, another one of her admirers, invite her to a party away from home. Before accepting the invitation, she checks against the quest journal to see if any of her current quests require party attendance, and cycles through her charactersˇŻ quest journals.

    After realizing that all her characters are at the same stage of the party quest line, she texts the host in-game, asking whether she can bring along the rest of the family. Sure, but it will be a little tight.

    It seems that throwing a party, in this game, is a time-limited quest, with the host paying an entry fee to start it. At the start of the quest, sheˇŻs a little puzzled by some of the objectives.

    Why is it that the game asks to have a certain number of attendees be in a certain mood? She muses while she has her secondary characters introduce themselves to other playersˇŻ ghosts, thereby making progress on another quest.

    That said, even when other playersˇŻ ghosts get into the required mood, and the host then cooks food, other objectives donˇŻt seem to advance. Namely the objectives that are specific to her. Which mostly involve a specified number of specific interactions.

    I guess, I am falling behind schedule for my own objectives! The party-wide gauge is now full, but what is the meaning of this? It seems like the host player is trying to hit on my main! A bewildered Marjo struggles to keep quiet while everyone else at home is sleeping. I could always crack jokes, or tell a story to the hostˇŻs ghost if thatˇŻs what it takes to fill my reward gauge!

    And yet, the host player has that ghost teeter dangerously close to triggering an affair with MarjoˇŻs main, as she gets flirtier with each new interaction, forcing Marjo to constantly switch between characters to fill her personal gauge.

    My characters are having fun and getting to know a lot of other people, but whatˇŻs in it for me as a player? She starts wondering what she would stand to gain in the future by attending player-hosted parties. Especially not when the rewards arenˇŻt explicitly stated. She then DMs the host in-game:

    Marjo: Why are you hitting on my female trans character?

    Sigrun: Relax, Marjo, just donˇŻt treat your characters as an extension of yourself; itˇŻs just a one-time fling for mine

    Marjo: I hope so for you

    I didnˇŻt make my characters pan for nothing. Pans can romance anyone, Sigrun muses while she tries to get the speed kisser achievement as well as progress the polyamory quest line.

    Then comes the attempt at a first kiss between their characters, which prompts an approval screen for Marjo. Is this how this game implements romantic consent? She feels the clock ticking in on her, with only five seconds for her to decide whether to let SigrunˇŻs character kiss MarjoˇŻs. No thanks, I guess...

    Marjo hesitating to kiss SigrunˇŻs transpan female ghost causes the attempt to fall apart. Which prompts the frustrated Danish player, for whom itˇŻs in the morning, to DM her.

    Sigrun: Please, youˇŻre the last one remaining for me to obtain the speed kisser achievement! Have your character kiss mine!

    Marjorine: Promise me there will be no further romance between our characters

    Sigrun: WeˇŻre running out of time!

    I guess, if it helps fills my personal party gauge, I will do it, just this once, Marjo feels the click ticking away as the in-game party is about to end. I sure hope the attendeesˇŻ rewards are worth going to parties for...

    In the end, Marjo gets the kiss in at the last moment, which fills the last of her personal party gauge.

    On the lower left-hand side of her screen, she sees the chat box littered with attendee-earned achievements, such as the speed kisser for Sigrun, filling out both party gauges for Marjo, and so on.

    Upon her charactersˇŻ return home, she then checks against the household inventory for any hints of rewards. A high-end stereo system awarded... in recognition of making a party perfect on the first try? She struggles to process what she won. And a keg? What kind of ghost would award such things for excellence in partying? That said, I ought to install the stereo and the keg when I stream next! But when IˇŻm playing this game, I no longer worry about whether they will pay us back, or what that means for my job.

    Sleep-deprived, she returns to bed, without her parents noticing that she played RCG in the dead of night. And yawning, as well as moving slower than usual.

    But on Saturday morning, she awakens well after her parents did, missing breakfast with them. When her parents come to her bedroom that morning:

    ˇ°Honey, please wake up!ˇ± her mom tells her while looking at the alarm clock. ˇ°IˇŻm afraid youˇŻre on your own for breakfast!ˇ±

    ˇ°What am I allowed to eat then?ˇ± Marjo asks her mom.

    ˇ°Bread and cereal!ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad warns her as sheˇŻs about to brush her teeth.

    The faster I can get this over with, the faster I can go back to the game, stream it and host an in-game party. I sure hope hosting these parties will be worth it, and not just for the sake of my charactersˇŻ quest lines! MarjoˇŻs thoughts now turn to what she plans to do in the game as she brushes her teeth and then goes on to eat bread and cereal. Especially since she feels like she only scratched the surface of the game.

    With all haste, she eats breakfast and returns to the game at the first opportunity. She also signals, on her social media, that her stream is about to start momentarily, and, hopefully, other fans of RCG in early access will want to watch her play.

    ˇ°Today, I will host my very own party, and aim for the speed kisser achievement!ˇ± Marjo announces to her viewers. ˇ°And I have a surprise for you, I found it in my in-game mailbox when I logged in!ˇ±

    I must have the party host equivalent of this high-end stereo! Marjo then goes into the gameˇŻs construction mode to place said stereo in her living room, while selling off the old one, a low-end boom box.

    ˇ°Behold! The Golden Sound Towers!ˇ± Marjo then places the sound system into the living room, but itˇŻs two tiles wide as opposed to one.

    But then she needs to sell off the production of dyes, outfits and excess food on the Haunted Bazaar. While remaining mindful of keeping some food on hand for her householdˇŻs own needs.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    As Artabeles and Gordon join MarjoˇŻs brand new Discord serverˇŻs voice chat, which she just hastily created on air:

    ˇ°Make sure that you have built up relationships with your prospective guests before you invite them to come over! You canˇŻt ask to have them kiss you nilly-willy!ˇ± Artabeles advises a Marjo whom he feels is not ready for speed kisser.

    ˇ°Check against the relationships tab!ˇ± Gordon warns her. ˇ°IˇŻm willing to contribute my main to your attempt at speed kisser!ˇ±

    ˇ°Me too!ˇ± Artabeles adds. ˇ°Do you have a third player, or some townie NPC, you feel would be a good match for all three of us?ˇ±

    How could Sigrun have kissed my character when I was invited to her party, for her own attempt at earning speed kisser? What is Sigrun doing that I am not? She checks her mainˇŻs relationships tab, and only two contacts appear to have a secondary gauge: MarjoˇŻs very own male trans, with whom both gauges are maxed out, and SigrunˇŻs main, with whom the primary gauge is only two-thirds full, and the secondary one, at 40%. Maybe I made my main bi or pan without wanting it.

    After that interaction ends, she decides to have the whole family exercise at a local gym, for a one-time fee of 25 piastres each. And, by doing so, while they do exercise, and hence accomplish an objective in the fitness quest chain, they introduce themselves to the regular users, be it NPCs or player-controlled ones.

    Strangely enough, it seems like her male trans character is getting jealous that her female trans character is getting flirty with others at the gym, whereas it didnˇŻt at the party held in the dead of night.

    Which makes Marjo file a bug report about how inconsistent the affair mechanic is. About how the effect of affairs seems to apply only under certain circumstances. Of which all she knows is that parties seem to be immune to affairs, but no more than that.

    ˇ°In a few minutes, the attempt at speed kisser will begin. Come get yours, and feel free to invite as many of your characters as you can!ˇ± Marjo announces to her viewers. ˇ°Please confirm your attendance in the chat!ˇ±

    Gordon and Artabeles are the first to confirm their attendance, and she even advertises it in the in-game chat, hoping for more attendees to come that may not watch her. And even link the stream, too.

    DoesnˇŻt matter why I even want the speed kisser cheevo, but if Sigrun asked for my help to obtain it, it might be worth obtaining, Marjo keeps musing as she levels her charactersˇŻ relationships while in the gym before she throws the party.

    Upon returning to her in-game home, Marjo finds out that she has very little space to fit in the keg she won at the previous party, so she puts the couch into her home inventory to place it, feeling that her attempt at speed kisser should make use of it. As soon as the keg is installed:

    ˇ°Before the party starts, if any of you also get speed kisser here, a lucky speed kisser will have an outfit designed by me, to their specs!ˇ± Marjo announces on her stream.

    And then Marjo goes into the party hosting menu, realizing that there are several tiers of parties, with some tier-1 parties being grayed out, but somehow, a tier-2 party was unlocked, with the rest of the tier being grayed out. Higher tiers of parties are completely hidden for now, and potential rewards are hidden from would-be hosts.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs taking so long, Marjo?ˇ± Gordon asks her, wondering what makes her freeze in place. ˇ°Just throw a keg party!ˇ±

    ˇ°Party starts in three, two, oneˇ­ˇ± Marjo signals the people in the game about this speed kisser attempt, not realizing that the keg party is the tier-2 party she can throw.

    And yet, the keg party has restrictions on the guests she can issue invitations to. Fortunately for her, the game grays out any ineligible ghosts so she canˇŻt accidentally invite them.

    Marjo can be a little dense at times, Gordon sighs when she issues invitations for the speed kisser attempt. For now, it seems like the main requirement to host a keg party is to have earned gold once as an attendee of a house party. I guess, if she gets gold as a host, this party is a partial success.

    A train of thought gets to Marjo at the very start of the party. If my experience as an attendee is any indication, I really ought to be on top of things on my end. So she feels like getting her cis female character cooking ants climbing a tree for a group, since one of the requirements is about cooking a group meal. Meanwhile, she has her main issue requests to kiss ArtabelesˇŻ main and GordonˇŻs trans male, in that order, when her trans male is hit by a request for kissing as he fills beer cups.

    ˇ°Remember, Marjo, you threw this party so that everyone gets the speed kisser cheevo, so just take it!ˇ± Artabeles yells at her.

    ˇ°Fineˇ­ˇ± Marjo sighs afterward, while she reluctantly accepts the request for kissing.

    Yet, she only manages to get 2 kisses in for her transfem main before the main course is ready to be served. But then the attendees realize that their characters eating food as spicy as ants climbing a tree makes them thirstier than they would like, so it makes the second food objective of hosting a keg party easier.

    With that said, ghosts seem to have lower thresholds to agree to kissing after drinking even a single cup of beer.

    ˇ°Going forward, if this isnˇŻt fixed, it seems like the meta for future speed kisser attempts revolve around hosting a keg party, making the attendees as drunk as possible, and then kiss each otherˇ­ if the host doesnˇŻt already have itˇ± Gordon comments on what doubling a keg party as a speed kisser attempt means.

    ˇ°What is the meaning of this? Who wants to kiss a cook as sheˇŻs working the kitchen?ˇ± Marjo yells at the screen as her cisfem bakes a cake.

    However, the request for kissing the chef comes just as the two bowls of cake mix are being mixed for the cake.

    ˇ°I can tell that you never played this type of games before. In that sort of games, people want to be able to both beg and choose, and the result is often not pretty!ˇ± Artabeles comments on her behavior.

    Because there are 6 attendees with at least one character, she needs to choose one of the remaining 4 to have the final first kiss with. But the choice is made for her when a player whose character she just met earlier today asks to kiss her transfem. Which she accepts because she doesnˇŻt want a repeat of what happened earlier in the stream.

    She then turns her attention to the non-food portion of hosting the party. Such as telling stories to the guests and making her own characters dance to music from this new stereo. Yet, there is one thing remaining on her to-do list as a host. The keg stand.

    Which even her dad calls her out on, as they watch her briefly hosting the speed kisser run.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt tell me you went to LSU and you donˇŻt know what a keg stand is?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad asks his daughter right by the door.

    ˇ°Dad, I was busy with the other objectives of this party that I forgot about the keg stand!ˇ± Marjo answers her dadˇŻs concern.

    ˇ°IˇŻll even do the keg stand with you!ˇ± Gordon offers his help for this crucial step.

    None of my charactersˇŻ existing relationships have been jealous of them being kissed by other playersˇŻ characters for some reason. But why? She then chooses who will hold her transfem character for the duration of the keg stand. Which is the character Gordon used to accomplish the cheevo himself.

    Her transfem character falls flat on the floor and is in pain because of the fall, making it difficult to go back up for a second try. Speaking of which, she switches to ArtabelesˇŻ main for it, feeling he would accept for gameplay reasons.

    ˇ°Hopefully this one is the right one!ˇ± Marjo then prays for ArtabelesˇŻ main to succeed where GordonˇŻs failed a few moments ago.

    ˇ°Andˇ­ yes!ˇ± Artabeles exclaims, while taking a screenshot of MarjoˇŻs main drinking from the keg, thereby ensuring the party-wide gauge is filled in full.

    Who ends up drinking so much alcohol that her main blacks out, and her viewers gasp upon seeing the main blacking out. Meaning that her other 3 ghosts must carry on the show without her main, or whatˇŻs left of it.

    And yet, her cisfem took a while to bake the cake, which makes hungry ghosts who missed out on eating ants climbing a tree eat slices of the hamburger cake. Which has lemon layers sandwiching a chocolate one, as well as lime cream and strawberry cream between these layers.

    Now she feels the clock ticking in on this keg party, and with 2 characters left, since the cisfem is busy cleaning up the dishes left behind by the guests, she needs to have both tell jokes.

    And, as with the previous party, her personal party gauge fills up in the nick of time. Two real-world seconds later, and the party ends with several ghosts vomiting all over the place.

    Of course, all 7 players get the speed kisser achievement, and getting gold on both gauges of the keg party completes the first stage of the party animal quest line.

    ˇ°Woohoo! I did it! I got speed kisser, and I got a gold on the party!ˇ± Marjo shouts, overjoyed that she reached all the objectives she set for the party.

    Attendee 1: Come on, Marjo, who won the free outfit?

    ˇ°The winner of the custom outfit is Gordon!ˇ± She then addresses Gordon. ˇ°Please, take your time to think of what you want your characterˇŻs outfit to be like!ˇ±

    She then checks against her household inventory to see what rewards she could possibly have gained for the speed kisser achievement and getting gold as a party host. A buffet and a dance floor? The devs seem to shower us in gifts if you know how to throw good parties. And my charactersˇŻ charisma went up like crazy to boot!

    ˇ°This I vow: I will unlock as many parties I possibly can until the end!ˇ± MarjoˇŻs spirits are down because her current home is running out of space to install the new rewards she earned from this new party.

    ˇ°And hosting good parties seems to boost your charisma, too!ˇ± Artabeles makes his closing remarks.

 Chapter 85: Poisoned Gifts

    I would love to have more space: IˇŻm running out of space in this house, especially if I get more rewards from careers or partying, Marjo then starts praying that her goods will sell on the Haunted Bazaar.

    But then, a few in-game hours later, she comes to the grim realization that the gifts she obtained from partying, the bonus items from her toonsˇŻ career progression, along with the loan payment, made her bills skyrocket. Which ate nearly all the cash she had on hand. Property tax, loan payments, power, mobile, Web and water being the main bills, in that order, and we pay all at once. Hopefully we can hold out until the end of the shift...

    ˇ°Check against your loan balance, please!ˇ± Gordon hollers as he sends his own ghosts to collect wood and stone.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt forget about the Haunted Bazaar!ˇ± Artabeles hollers.

    Marjo then chooses to have her main work from home, even though sheˇŻs still hung over from the keg stand of the previous in-game night.

    <hr>

    Meanwhile, Ad¨¨le sorted through the bug reports submitted by the players during the night and the early morning. A lot of them have to do with behaviors and personalities not working properly. Like embarrassment, anger, confusion and terror. When the time comes for MarjoˇŻs report to be discussed:

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs a little specific, but thereˇŻs a player who claims jealousy isnˇŻt working properly!ˇ± Ad¨¨le reports to the QA team.

    ˇ°Oh?ˇ± a QA engineer gasps. ˇ°What do you mean?ˇ±

    ˇ°That player attended a house party, filled it in full, flirted with another playerˇŻs ghost until that player had them kiss each other, without causing the significant other to be jealous. Before you ask, no alcohol was distributed in this party!ˇ±

    ˇ°Positioning?ˇ± another QA engineer asks.

    ˇ°The characterˇŻs significant other had the kiss happen in his field of vision! That player tried to flirt another character in the gym a little later, with the same relative positioning! Then jealousy happened!ˇ±

    The QA team picks apart scenarios, such as the rapport the significant other have with the ghost MarjoˇŻs main have with the character Marjo had flirt, as well as other factors unrelated to the participants.

    ˇ°Are all parties supposed to give attendees and hosts immunity from romantic jealousy while underway?ˇ± the trans QA engineer asks her, believing that immunity to jealousy might come from an error in a line of code specific to partying behavior.

    ˇ°No; the speed kisser achievement was supposed to be a prerequisite to host a jealousy-immune party, the speed date!ˇ± Ad¨¨le retorts.

    ˇ°It seems like the partying system is about to become a monster in its own right! I knew that some people might want to flaunt their outfits in social settings, such as a party, and you made every party in the game hostable at playersˇŻ homes!ˇ± a gay engineer questions Ad¨¨le. ˇ°But what is the purpose of giving special properties to parties? Outside of weddings or birthday parties of courseˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Usually, rewards from parties help host more parties for which the source is a prereq. Having parties serve specific purposes allow players to kill multiple birds with one stone!ˇ±

    ˇ°Ad¨¨le, IˇŻm afraid that people will only throw parties specifically to obtain a specific reward from it! Be it an outfit, a dance floor, a keg, to name those actually won by players at this point!ˇ± the trans QA engineer retorts.

    ˇ°For as long as these kinds of games existed, people will farm content, and sometimes at the exclusion of all else within a class of content!ˇ± the gay engineer scolds Ad¨¨le. ˇ°Did you give any thought about balancing partiesˇŻ rewards?ˇ±

    ˇ°Exactly: I donˇŻt want rewards from partying to overshadow other ways to earn money or wish points!ˇ±

    After this discussion about partying system balancing ends, the engineers get to work finding and, hopefully, fixing the bugs related to character behavior and personalities. And maybe, just this once, give some thought to rebalancing something other than emotions.

    Marjorineˇ­ not even you can find all the bugs. But if immunity to jealousy is taken away from parties other than speed dating, speed kisser will still be relatively easy, just takes more positional effort to achieve, especially if one of the attendees is in a relationship with another one. However, it might make partying more dynamic for those who want to play ghosts in relationships, Ad¨¨le starts to think about the gameplay impact of immunity to jealousy.

    <hr>

    Back in Kinder, however, Marjorine has her hung over character draw the outfit Gordon won. The characterˇŻs hangover makes the design screen glare at random, but remain mostly usable otherwise.

    ˇ°Oohˇ­ ghost hangovers actually have an effect on how you see things in-game!ˇ± Marjo then prepares herself to receive the specs Gordon asks for. ˇ°ItˇŻs going to make the drawing harder, but luckily itˇŻs not too complicated!ˇ±

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs the kind of small thing I think I would love to have introduced in other activities in the game!ˇ± Artabeles comments on how the effects of the hangover not being fully cured affect her characterˇŻs actions.

    It was a little fast, but she makes it in the nick of time, so her main spends the whole shift drawing this pattern, while her other at-home ghosts doing their own things in the background. Not always as she would have liked, but better than them getting nothing done at all.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    But then, she keeps ignoring a notification of the game, which makes her want to scream:

    ˇ°Game, whatˇŻs so important that you need to remind me at every turn?ˇ± Marjo screams at her screen.

    ˇ°Just check the in-game notifications!ˇ± Artabeles yells back at her.

    There are several such notifications. The most important of the gang is about the memory system, which separates the good and the bad memories of characters. The first meal they cooked, the first outfit they designed, the first plant they grew, that kind of thing. At the center of it all, the speed kisser achievement, and also blacking out.

    But also the daily Haunted Bazaar statement. Total sales, and then the various expenses incurred by selling on the HB: shipping and listing fees, as well as the sales tax. Which, unlike the sales tax sheˇŻs used to in the real world, here itˇŻs actually progressive and the HBˇŻs prices are always tax-inclusive.

    ˇ°Is that it? While I am grateful for the Haunted Bazaar payout, I might be wondering why is it that the game kept reminding me about it when I was designing the outfit!ˇ± She keeps whining about that aspect of the game.

    And, while she makes the final payment on her in-game loan, she feels relieved, in that her bills wonˇŻt be nearly as expensive next time. Yet she is reminded of her lack of space at home putting a straitjacket on a lot of things. Such as the amount of crops she can produce, and the gear she can equip her home for throwing parties.

    After their in-game dinner ends, she sends her characters out to level certain abilities, such as her cook on the chemistry workbench and her male trans writing a non-fiction book. And, of course, her female trans main sewing the outfit Gordon won earlier.

    When her trans couple is about to get some intimacy in bed, as they are about to go to sleep, for some reason, a bright light is being flashed at her male trans character from outside their home. Who then tries to evade it, along with her main, and leaving their bedroom for that.

    ˇ°What did he do in-game to deserve this?ˇ± Marjo screams as his trans couple runs around the house like headless chickens. ˇ°He was already caught for a previous crime and he was sentenced to serve as a test subject!ˇ±

    As much as her male trans character might have tried to evade the searchlight, he is inexplicably drawn to it, and leaves the house. Turns out that the searchlight the couple previously sought to evade came from an UFO. As he approaches the searchlight, an alien-sounding tune is being played.

    ˇ°And aliens then? What would aliens even want with my trans male? My main is the most accomplished of my ghosts!ˇ± Marjorine fumes as her in-game camera is now centered on her trans male closing in on the searchlight.

    Meanwhile, her main yells at a cloud, watching, powerless, as her love interest gets sucked into the UFO by a tractor beam. Just as they were about to get some intimacy in.

    ˇ°HereˇŻs our chance to see what would alien abductions give us in this game. In past games with alien abductions, it seems like the captors perform experiments on the abductees, usually exobiology ones!ˇ± Artabeles comments on what just happened on air. ˇ°I would love to see the alien abductees act as something more, or other than, medical researchers!ˇ±

    Man, thatˇŻs a lot of clips to upload to YouTube once the stream ends! One with the speed kisser run, and the other with the alien abduction of my male trans! Marjorine seems a little overwhelmed by just how much material she can wring out of only one morning of playing the game.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs exobiology?ˇ± a confused Marjo asks Artabeles when he drops a mention of UFO operators using UFOs to conduct exobiology experiments.

    ˇ°Exobiology, in this context, is about studying living organisms foreign to the aliensˇŻ home world(s)!ˇ±

    ˇ°At this point, there is no telling about what consequences the abduction would have on him, nor how long he will stay in the aliensˇŻ custody!ˇ± Gordon adds to ArtabelesˇŻ comment about alien abduction.

    Viewer: You boldly go where no one has gone before

    With the alien abduction causing her to be short one ghost for however long the abduction is going to last, Marjo is left wondering under what conditions her male trans is going to be returned to her.

    ˇ°Am I going to lose my male trans ghost this early in the game?ˇ± Marjo starts crying, thinking of what her male trans crafts. ˇ°There has to beˇ­ some mechanism in place for the abductee to return!ˇ±

    Her other viewers are ecstatic to watch for the consequences an alien abduction would have on an in-game ghost. They are willing to wait a few more minutes, hoping that the abduction is temporary. As is usually the case in games of that type.

    That said, she tries to get some intimacy in for her cis characters while her male trans is under alien custody. That ought to keep the couple happy, or at least distracted from the abduction! But now I understand why people could want to play the game.

    Her transfem is getting sleep troubles once more; however, this time around, she doesnˇŻt feel like telling the manufacturer the bug isnˇŻt fixed. Because even she knew that a loved one being abducted by anyone, alien or not, would keep the abducteesˇŻ loved ones up at night. Especially since they, as with her, are worried about what kinds of things the aliens do to the abductee.

    Server announcement: The servers will shut down in five minutes for behavior and personality bug fixes ¨C no estimated downtime

    ˇ°Damn; I was hoping to see what would the aliens do to my character, and how they choose their targets!ˇ± MarjoˇŻs disappointment shows on her face, while she cuts the stream. ˇ°See you next time!ˇ± She then logs off the game.

    After she logs off the game, she gets to work editing the clips from the keg party, the rewards from it, including those earned from the speed kisser achievement, as well as the first part of the alien abduction. She then leaves the voice chat of her server.

    ˇ°Honey, itˇŻs your turn to cook lunch!ˇ± her dad yells at her.

    ˇ°Not now, dad, I have some videos to post! The keg party and then the alien abduction! I also have a guide to write about keg parties!ˇ±

    The prerequisite for hosting a keg party is, well, the keg. Which is earned from winning a gold in a house party. Party-wide tasks include drinking a certain number of cups out of the keg, serving a certain number of food plates, the host making a keg stand, and baking a dessert, along with a few random, interaction-based goals. On the other hand, the personal gauge appears to be dominated by interaction-based goals, Marjo then writes down the reward for getting gold as a host: the dance floor.

    And she follows through with a guide for the speed kisser achievement, about what should players do before throwing or attending a party to obtain it. After which point the server is still down.

    ˇ°Did you have an idea of what to cook yet?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad asks her.

    ˇ°Ants climbing a tree, dad!ˇ±

    He gasps upon hearing about ants climbing a tree. ˇ°Is that a recipe from your game?ˇ±

    ˇ°Noˇ± She looks up a recipe for ants climbing a tree on mobile. ˇ°There are no ants in this recipe. Start cooking the ground meat; I will prepare the spaghetti and then onions and scallions!ˇ±

 Chapter 86: Alien Pirates Holding Ransom

    The two prepare ants climbing a tree, using Cajun seasoning rather than spicy fermented bean sauce, and likewise spaghetti as opposed to glass noodles. They donˇŻt realize it just wonˇŻt taste like authentic ants climbing a tree.

    ˇ°Is that what ants climbing a tree really is? Spicy, sauce-less spaghetti?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad is left wondering why she wanted to eat that dish.

    ˇ°Keep some for mom, please! She might want to eat some of it!ˇ± Marjo pleads with her dad, while checking the gameˇŻs server status.

    ˇ°I guessˇ­ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad then stores the leftover ants climbing a tree.

    With the game servers about to go online after two hours spent deploying the bug fixesˇ­ she feels the need to go back on air, in which case she notifies her followers on social media about it, as soon as she downloads the emergency patch. Along with her new clips.

    Speaking of clips, the speed kisser run seems to have gotten her a lot of comments, asking for her charactersˇŻ skills and traits. Especially sexual orientation and identity. Oh boy: I earned it, but I didnˇŻt think people would ask for that sort of details!

    But when she returns to the game, she doesnˇŻt seem to think about whether these aliens return her trans male, or when. However, her other viewers, on the other hand, are made to feel like they will return him after taking DNA samples, or conducting other medical tests. Except for one viewer, whoˇŻs the newest to join her Discord server. And enters the voice chat.

    ˇ°The question remains: why is it that aliens are seemingly willing to abduct people, but not steal from their abductees? With tractor beams, they could just steal whatever they want, within certain mass limits!ˇ± the new viewer asks the preexisting ones.

    ˇ°Why limit to just theft?ˇ± Marjorine asks in turn, upon mention by her viewers of aliens having the ability to commit theft. ˇ°You seem to be implying that aliens can go as they please around a world at the game worldˇŻs tech level!ˇ±

    ˇ°The main reasons I can think of are about logistics and bureaucracy!ˇ± Gordon tells her.

    ˇ°The first one might be about the need to sustain operations in hostile territory, and fuel is not the only consideration in keeping a supply line active at war. You can easily imagine the kind of bureaucracy, and typically law enforcement as well, alien societies might have that could prevent UFOs used by abductors from being armed!ˇ± Artabeles offers a possible lead.

    ˇ°I get that it dependsˇ± Marjo sighs.

    ˇ°However, I really hope that Ad¨¨le and her gang have a better idea of the abductorsˇŻ race social structure than just sending UFOs out on exobiology expeditions, and using random sampling to determine who to abduct!ˇ± Manolia, the new viewer, laments. ˇ°Sometimes they have a zoo setupˇ±

    <hr>

    Unbeknownst to them, Ad¨¨le is watching this entire discussion of how alien abduction is portrayed in other works. So they seem to be implying that typical races abducting humans, or the remote-controlled ghosts of the game, perform government-sanctioned abductions, licenses to abduct aliens (from their standpoint) require a valid degree in biology or a related field from an accredited institution to be issued, and rules must be followed about the UFOs used for abductions, as well as for the abductions proper. Then I could imagine the application process for aliens wanting an abduction license to require a university transcript before they can take a course in abductions, Ad¨¨le writes down notes about the reasons she feel are behind the way stereotypical alien abductions happen the way they do.

    And then Ad¨¨le, while busy processing the bug reports, is left wondering about whether itˇŻs enough to justify at least a content patch. And a rather big one at that.

    ˇ°Maybe after the post-launch period of debugging ends I could pitch this idea to the higher-upsˇ± Ad¨¨le sighs. ˇ°And rival factions of alien abductors, as well as college, human or alien, with the abductors of the base game being alien pirates!ˇ±

    ˇ°Ad¨¨le, there are times when I feel like you overthink the whole thing!ˇ± the gay engineer criticizes the roadmap.

    ˇ°Several patches will be required to get the show on the road! That or we bring back some of the most iconic spells from MAA, or maybe even later, as a countermeasure to alien abductors!ˇ±

    When MAA was still around, I treated my characters as if they were real people. With food, a kitchen, toilets, and beds in my player house! I suspected such before Karine came to confirm these suspicions on a stream, leading to the ratification of the Treaty of Perseria! And these engineers see fit to tell me that I overthink the whole thing? Ad¨¨le starts drafting a new plan for the rival in-game factions.

    <hr>

    After day breaks in the game, the abductors of MarjoˇŻs male trans character, rather than release him as the viewers have come to expect, issue a ransom demand Marjo is reading aloud, taking up the whole screen. As she starts reading the ransom demand issued by the captors:

    ˇ°Hand overˇ­ˇ± Marjo then lists the items the aliens demand from her, along with the deadline to respond.

    Some of her new viewers gasp upon hearing about the items the aliens demand for her trans maleˇŻs release. These were the rewards from partying! The Golden Towers, the dance floor, the keg and the buffet!Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    ˇ°Something doesnˇŻt add up, Marjo. Why is it that aliens even ransom abducteesˇŻ families, let alone partying items?ˇ± Gordon interrupts her, struggling to contain his bewilderment.

    ˇ°What would happen if you fail to provide the requested items at the deadline?ˇ± Artabeles asks her.

    ˇ°They will inject some implement in my male trans!ˇ± Marjo yells at the screen.

    ˇ°I received a similar ransom request from the aliens, but for my cis female! They threaten to impregnate my abductee!ˇ± Manolia vents in voice chat.

    Other viewer: I guess, these aliens commit crimes just abducting people, so the devs portrayed these abductors as alien criminals, doing pirate-y things!ˇ±

    I donˇŻt think her love interest would actually believe that some alien had a one-night stand with her, Manolia starts wondering about what it means to her that her character gets impregnated. Then again, I wonder how babies are implemented in the game.

    ˇ°Time is short, and I call on you to decide whether to pay the ransom!ˇ± Marjo then starts a poll in the chat about ransom payment. ˇ°I will live with the consequencesˇ±

    Nearly all viewers vote to reject the ransom demand, so Marjo presses rejection. She then prays for the survival of her abductee. I really hope that rejecting the ransom demand wonˇŻt kill my character, but I still expect him to be traumatized to some degree. That said, I wonder how traumas are handled by the game.

    ˇ°Are these alien abductors serial rapists as well?ˇ± Manolia comments on the choices given to the abductees by the aliens, before making her own choice.

    I wonder whether saving her the trauma of rape is worth this easel, with a roll of bond paper attached to it, and this lilac dress with a yellow sash... Manolia sweats before she decides whether to hand over the easel and the outfit the aliens asked to ransom.

    ˇ°Gordon talked about bureaucracy earlier as a reason why aliens conduct time-limited abductions, but this assumes that raceˇŻs law allows for it under certain conditions. It might also be about evading their own raceˇŻs law enforcement patrols if abduction constitutes a crime to themˇ± Artabeles follows up on ManoliaˇŻs comment about alien rapists.

    ˇ°Since Marjo refused to pay the ransom, IˇŻll pay mine, so weˇŻll learn more about the effects of alien abduction depending on the ransom payment!ˇ±

    Wait a minute: the aliens asked for items! I guess, they have previous experience abducting the ghosts of the gameˇŻs world! Artabeles thinks about why the aliens asked for items rather than money. Inexperienced alien abductors could ask for money thatˇŻs only usable on that world, but not them!

    Manolia gets her character returned to active gameplay, but notices that her need gauges are nothing like when they are left off. And she also checks against the relationships with other ghosts; she sees ghosts who werenˇŻt on her contact list before. Including but not limited to, MarjoˇŻs trans male. She feels nauseated upon seeing the changes:

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs the meaning of this? Did these aliens force our characters to perform some collective experiment?ˇ± Manolia yells in the voice chat as her character is thrown off the UFOˇŻs emergency exit.

    That must have hurt to be thrown off from a little above a power lineˇ­ maybe even injured. Even though the devs insist they are ghosts, strangely enough, these ghosts can get hurt by falling from sufficient height, Manolia then pays for the ambulance to pick her up.

    However, while ManoliaˇŻs character gets dropped off first, players of other abductees not trans males or cisfems from that wave see the aliens steal items from them at random. From the theft victimsˇŻ standpoint anyway: one of the theft victims arrives in MarjoˇŻs chat.

    Alien theft victim: Hi; the aliens stole from my household

    ˇ°Welcome to the stream. Did you have a character abducted?ˇ± Marjo asks.

    Alien theft victim: Yes

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs your abducteeˇŻs gender identity? My abductee is a trans male, and I refused to pay the ransom for him earlierˇ±

    Alien theft victim: Mine is non-binary intersex

    ˇ°Your abducteeˇŻs gender assignment at birth pleaseˇ­ˇ± Artabeles sighs.

    ˇ°What gameplay significance does gender assignment at birth have, as opposed to gender identity or orientation?ˇ± MarjoˇŻs face shows signs of discomfort as she rolls her eyes.

    I vaguely remember being asked about GAB in character creation, in the same stage where gender identity and orientation is set, and so far, I found gender identity and orientation to be more important than GAB, but the devs put in GAB for a reason, Gordon is bewildered by just how much depth is given to sexuality here. That, even though the player victim of alien-perpetrated theft hesitates to answer.

    When the theft victim finally answers, MarjoˇŻs abductee still hasnˇŻt returned, but aliens commit theft on the other abducteesˇŻ homes before throwing them off from a little higher than a utility pole. WhatˇŻs taking that viewer so long to answer?

    Alien theft victim: Assigned male at birth

    ˇ°Is there anyone else in the chat who had a character abducted by aliens? Right now, it seems like gender assignment at birth only affects how alien abductions work!ˇ±

    ˇ°And maybe fertility!ˇ± Manolia adds, while MarjoˇŻs turn to release the abductee comes a while after.

    ˇ°Good pointˇ±

    What did the aliens do to my character that took them so long? Did they rape my character? Marjo starts thinking as her character falls to the ground.

    She notices that her character has a new condition, some strange tummy aches, but for what she knows, she is a little concerned about whether the fall made him sick or injured, so she has her main call an ambulance to get him to the hospital.

    ˇ°OK, my character has fallen off, I just want to ensure that heˇŻs ok; better safe than sorry!ˇ± Marjo watches her trans male being carried away on a stretcher.

    ˇ°Pray that the abducteesˇŻ medical bills from their falls or abductions wonˇŻt be too steep!ˇ± Manolia prays for her own characterˇŻs safety as her ghost is hospitalized.

    Alien theft victim: Also, check your characterˇŻs inventory

    Marjo only realizes then that her trans male had some dye ingredients stolen by the alien abductors.

    ˇ°Eek: the aliens stole from my abductee!ˇ± Marjo starts screaming like crazy upon realizing that refusing to pay the ransom doesnˇŻt mean the aliens wonˇŻt steal from the player. ˇ°What kind of aliens are we dealing with?ˇ±

    ˇ°This isnˇŻt good: aliens stole from what your character was carrying! And definitely not the stereotypical exobiologists! I handed over an easel, loaded with bond paper, and an outfit so they donˇŻt impregnate my toon!ˇ± Manolia whines.

    ˇ°All right, Manolia, while my abductee is recovering at the hospital, I will design an outfit for yours! Just tell me what you want!ˇ±

    The old white-and-lilac outfit I want to replace came from an unreleased dungeon in MAA, the Haunted Park Robe, or more specifically the chest and leg slots rolled into one. However, since it would remind my character of the abduction, I want something a little different, Manolia reflects on why she wants a different outfit for her character going forward.

 Chapter 87: Conflicting Visions

    When MarjoˇŻs trans ghost returns from the hospital, the bill comes to 500 piastres, which she pays on the double. That said, her trans male ghost is on a rental wheelchair, with the telltale casts around his legs. And he clearly gained weight while in captivity, too.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs no good: regardless of to whom abductions occur, or of loot, getting abducted by aliens carry a risk of injury!ˇ± Marjo moans.

    ˇ°However, some experiments carried out by aliens did injure abductees in past stories I read about theseˇ± Artabeles comments about the hazards of alien abductions.

    ˇ°I really hope the devs introduce some sort of compensation mechanism to kick in if and when the abductors get caught, presumably by their own raceˇŻs law enforcementˇ­ˇ± Manolia starts praying for the implementation of such measures, while her own ghost is recovering from a very similar fall.

    WhatˇŻs going on here? Is the sudden increase in weight linked to the implement these aliens injected into my trans male? Marjo keeps playing. However, she quickly realizes there isnˇŻt much her trans male could do, while bound to that wheelchair. And heˇŻs bound to that wheelchair for two more in-game days, tooˇ­

    Manolia, on the other hand, posts a suggestion on the gameˇŻs subreddit about some mechanism regarding the return of items stolen or ransomed by aliens. Contingent on the authorities of the abductorsˇŻ race catching them, so thereˇŻs a random element on when. And probably on how much is returned. Fingers crossed; the devs cannot implement everything the players want.

    Meanwhile, Ad¨¨le is yawning and feels the need to take a nap. These unending bug reports have given me a lot to think about, and drained me after just a few hours, she thinks while the weight of her head feels like itˇŻs about to bear down on her body.

    Once she lies flat on one of the beds installed in a different room, she has yet to realize that even a short nap can be troubled by nightmares. Then again, she has a lot on her mindˇ­

    <hr>

    After getting caught in a tractor beam, Ad¨¨le found herself onboard an UFO, with one of the occupants being perhaps a little too fixated on her forehead.

    Hmmˇ­ I really wonder what that abductee is capable of. For some reason, her brain feels a littleˇ­ different from other abductees of her race. It may very well be my lucky day: I really hope that we got lucky with our sampling! The over-excited UFO occupant turned to the UFOˇŻs captain, after injecting a serum.

    ˇ°The test subject is ready, captain!ˇ± the occupant signaled the captain, loosely translated from their native language.

    ˇ°Strap her to the testbed, and administer the test, on the double!ˇ±

    ˇ°If I may, captain, some adjustments might be required to ensure the testbed is going to work for her!ˇ±

    And the over-excited alien abductor took measurements on Ad¨¨le so that she could snugly fit on the testbed, with the final one being her mass.

    Once that part of the test was over, Ad¨¨le was strapped to the testbed, and had a helmet full of electrodes attached to her after the bed was adjusted to fit her body.

    To Ad¨¨le, the first stage of the test these aliens administered felt like taking a test in their native language. So while she took a while to even process what these symbols were at first, and their meaning, these aliens were surprised that she was actually able to do so, at least in that timeframe. However, she felt her foreheadˇŻs heat as her brain worked harder.

    ˇ°DonˇŻt forget about taking DNA samples!ˇ± the captain yelled at him while Ad¨¨le was busy answering the test items.

    It was then, however, that Ad¨¨le realized that test items were far more than just language questions: some items reminded her of what was typical of IQ testing, be it in terms of logic, reasoning, math or spatial orientation, and were placed at random.

    Maybe I can have her write my personal statement, the ˇ°baseˇ± one if you will, so that I can always tweak for the program-specific details. SheˇŻs learning fantastically fast, at least compared to other people her race. ItˇŻs not uncommon for prospective alien abductors to struggle writing personal statements, since, for undergrad, only a handful of programs actually required one, and we were told then that it was for explaining oneˇŻs extenuating circumstances whenever it was optional, the would-be alien abductor mused while he waited for the right opportunity to collect her DNA sample.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here? I wasnˇŻt told about what you were going to do to me, and now youˇŻre using a Q-tip to rub the inside of my cheek?ˇ± Ad¨¨leˇŻs face turned red as the would-be abductor just finished taking a DNA sample.

    ˇ°I donˇŻt understand!ˇ± the alien abductor told her in their native language, realizing that, just because Ad¨¨le could read their language by now, it didnˇŻt mean she functionally spoke it. The intern abductor then turned to the captain. ˇ°It seems like this test subject is a little rebellious, captain!ˇ±

    Now I have a better idea of what I could want to write my personal statement about. About that encounter that makes me want to go to graduate school to gain an abduction license. Obviously, grades matter, but the other things that go into getting into an abduction license-granting program are: research experience and interests, personal statements, letters of recommendation, and, of course, the institution having the resources to admit you, the tester starts thinking of writing the personal statement, even if it meant Ad¨¨le writing it in their place.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ˇ°Inject the forgetfulness serum!ˇ± the captain ordered the intern in their native language.

    ˇ°If I may, captain, IˇŻm not sure it will work on her! Her intellect is far stronger than is usual for her race; IˇŻm not sure she will forget about her experience!ˇ±

    ˇ°Just inject the serum! If you donˇŻt, I wonˇŻt write you a letter of recommendation and you wonˇŻt get your license!ˇ±

    ˇ°All right, all rightˇ­ˇ±

    The abduction intern injected her the serum, causing her oneiric self to go to sleep, and the captain maneuvered the UFO to close in on where Ad¨¨le was beamed up.

    <hr>

    I guess, it could be worse than taking some alien IQ test, followed by DNA sampling. Upon awakening from this nightmare, she feels the need to flesh out the whole alien abduction mechanic of the game. She returns to the open space where other engineers are working on the bugs.

    ˇ°What I would love is to have two types of alien abductions occur. The one kind we have right now will remain as-is. The other will not involve any ransoming or theft, just a random chance of getting AFAB characters pregnant with alien babies, and the abductee returns by a certain time! Same fall from the UFO thoughˇ± Ad¨¨le tells the engineers about the alien abduction mechanic.

    ˇ°You were the one who wanted to have the alien abductors commit theft, or ransom abductees!ˇ± the trans engineer retorts.

    ˇ°The question is: how often do you want each version of the abduction to happen?ˇ± the gay engineer asks her.

    A person from customer service comes in, having overheard something about 2 versions of the alien abduction, brandishing an email from her on mobile. ˇ°WhatˇŻs the meaning of this, Ad¨¨le? You want some future patch to put more depth into abductorsˇŻ society along with space travel, and then another one about college, and finally bringing back spells from MAA as a countermeasure to alien abductions?ˇ±

    ˇ°We must get started as soon as the beta period ends so that all the features of these patches are ready to go! However, I think I could introduce a second type of abductors in a few hours of coding work!ˇ± Ad¨¨le retorts.

    ˇ°The current crop of abductors are alien criminals, why? Alien abductions being very short-term, experimented upon the abductees without any theft or other crimes committed is what people have come to expect from alien abductions for decades, and people tend to focus on the side effects of the abduction!ˇ±

    ˇ°Nearly everyone incorporating alien abductions tended to focus on the abducteesˇŻ side; now I feel like itˇŻs time to flesh out the abductors! Besides, aliens are fully intended to be playable, but requiring players to get abducted to acquire their first one!ˇ±

    ˇ°Doing abductions differently amounts to playing with fire!ˇ±

    ˇ°Most video game manufacturers have been risk-averse for years now! So much so that, like you said, giving any depth to the abductors might net us some backlash! But IˇŻm willing to face the consequences of this choice!ˇ±

    ˇ°Why do you feel like giving more depth than it needs to?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yet, both abductor types require their race to have functional legal and law enforcement systems to actually act the way they do, and often bureaucracy as well!ˇ±

    ˇ°Can you two argue about alien abductions elsewhere? WeˇŻre trying to work here!ˇ± the gay engineer asks the two.

    Ad¨¨le and the customer service person, whoˇŻs working that specific weekend, keep arguing about the need to flesh out the abductors, but also about the vibe this game might give off if the roadmap is adopted in full.

    ˇ°This is nearing on obsession, Ad¨¨leˇ­ your plan amounts to transforming RCG into what feels like MAA 2, but without us inadvertently controlling another world! First, you had the art team bring back hundreds of outfits from MAA, and use music from unreleased contentˇ­ˇ±

    And more specifically music from the Drunken Quarry, which was nearing completion when the Treaty of Perseria was ratified, which is one of the spooky tracks of this game, Ad¨¨le tries to regain her composure.

    ˇ°Enough! If you played MAA before the Treaty was ratified, you would know that a lot of MAA players loved its outfits, and they wanted these back in some form!ˇ±

    ˇ°Treaty? You never mentioned a treaty when you talked about the stuff this game brought back from MAA in the past!ˇ±

    ˇ°The Treaty of Perseria only ensured that MAAˇŻs world was no longer controlled by ours, and MAA was closed. YouˇŻre talking about intellectual property!ˇ±

    ˇ°What are the terms of the Treaty that concern our world then?ˇ±

    ˇ°There was no provision in the Treaty about the reuse of intellectual property from MAAˇŻs world! The only provision for our world was the closure of the game! Now, if you could please excuse me, I have bugs to fix!ˇ±

    Ad¨¨le then storms off to focus on refining the alien abduction mechanic. So it starts with an extra level on a decision tree. The first part of the script for abduction determines whether one occurs, which remains unchanged. But what changes is what happens to abductees after the determination is made. Some sequence activates when if k_alien_abduction < X, elseif the other sequence, it adds a new layer in a nested code, Ad¨¨le starts thinking about what would adding in the licensed abductors mean in coding terms.

    Except that, if the licensed abductors show up, there is no choice the player needs to make. And the only guaranteed consequences are the ones common to all abductions, which is in the same layer of the nest.

    ˇ°Thank God the code for the licensed alien abduction isnˇŻt nearly as complex as for the criminal one! Since I want the needs being randomized to be common to all abductions, along with the fall and the injury rollˇ­ˇ± Ad¨¨le sighs after a while of coding in the difference between the two abduction types. ˇ°I realize that abduction types arenˇŻt mutually exclusiveˇ±

    Back in Kinder, Marjo feels like her trans male being stuck to a wheelchair threw a wrench in her setback, but this motivates Marjo to have her farmer toon take care of him outside of, well, tending to crops.

    And, of course, her main did little more than just sewing copies of the outfit she designed for Manolia in the meantime, selling them on the Haunted Bazaar. With the outfit being well-liked enough to charge high fashion prices for it.

    It seems like, on the second and final in-game day of him being bound on a wheelchair, her trans male has gotten noticeably heavier. As soon as the debuff of his injury disappears:

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here?ˇ± Marjo yells at the screen, upon looking at her trans maleˇŻs belly.

    ˇ°Do you have any idea?ˇ± Manolia asks her.

    ˇ°Maybe my trans male has gotten fatter because of him being bound to that wheelchair, maybe itˇŻs because of the stuff these alien pirates did to him!ˇ± Marjo sighs. ˇ°I guess I need to wait a few more in-game days to find outˇ­ and heˇŻs in pain, too!ˇ±

    ˇ°DonˇŻt forget about your other characters! I understand that your male trans is taking up a lot of attention because he broke a leg and had what feels like a tumorˇ­ˇ± Gordon scolds her.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs true!ˇ± Marjo realizes that her cis female has an unfulfilled quest preventing her from being promoted beyond prep cook in the culinary career.

    What kind of restaurant would ask prep cooks to host a dinner party with them cooking all the food as a condition to become a line cook? Oh well, I may as well host a dinner party with fellow abductees! Marjo muses upon seeing the unfulfilled quest that sat there for several in-game days because of the whole alien abduction mess.

 Chapter 88: Tumors and Adoptions

    And the quest also specified what level must be reached in the party-wide gauge to consider the quest fulfilled. So she has her abductee as the host, her female cis character as the caterer and she then invites the other two abductees, along with GordonˇŻs and ArtabelesˇŻ entire in-game families.

    When the dinner begins, Marjo receives a DM in-game from Sigrun, out of nowhere:

    Sigrun: Did you forget about me? You owe me a favor for the speed kisser achievement!

    Marjo: No, I didnˇŻt, but I will invite you to a future, higher-tier party; you made me feel like you chase higher-tier parties

    Sigrun: Oh, you fell behind in unlocking the higher-tier parties? I even adopted a child specifically to unlock some higher-tier parties!

    What kind of higher-tier parties require throwing parties that, in turn, require at least one child to throw? A puzzled Marjorine is left wondering about the implications of parties requiring a child to unlock.

    ˇ°It seems like adoption exists in the game. I wonder what the process is like...ˇ± Artabeles is left wondering how it even works.

    ˇ°Sigrun... I really hope that she doesnˇŻt treat her adoptee as simply a tool for unlocking higher-tier parties!ˇ± Marjo vents about her past dealings with Sigrun.

    But here, Manolia and the other abducteeˇŻs player both see fit to bring their entire in-game families in tow. Which, once again, makes her house a little tight for the number of guests.

    Because the dinner party is an entry-level one, Marjo finds it easy to accomplish her end of the bargain. First things first: bake that all-dressed pizza! Luckily, all-dressed pizzas arenˇŻt a high-level recipe, but there are so many guests I couldnˇŻt make enough for all.

    And she can count her blessings for having the keg on hand: it makes the drink objective very easy. But now comes the turn to cook a second course for those who missed out on the pizza.

    ˇ°Last time, Sigrun had her characters cook and eat ants climbing a tree. What kind of lame-o recipe will the game make my characters cook?ˇ± Marjo dreads the gameˇŻs cookbook playing tricks on players.

    While she has her cis male tell jokes to the guests, after the final slice of pizza is taken, the second meal assignment comes. Rabbit stew. Which makes her scream uncontrollably.

    ˇ°The game is making me cook rabbit stew?ˇ± Marjo gasps upon seeing the second course assigned to her in the pursuit of her cis femaleˇŻs promotion to line cook. ˇ°What kind of monster eats such cute animals? What kind of monsters are the ghosts of this game?ˇ±

    ˇ°You never ate rabbit stew?ˇ± Manolia yelps as she asks the streamer. ˇ°Rabbit meat is pretty expensive, I guessˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°And rabbit stew is one of the most expensive meals in the gameˇ­ which is why I never cooked itˇ± Gordon realizes that heˇŻs perhaps on a tight budget since construction activity isnˇŻt very high right now. ˇ°I tend to stick to the relatively cheap meals!ˇ±

    By then her party-wide gauge is full, but she needs to fill her personal gauge. Oh boy. I need to have my other characters tell stories to the guests, as well as thank them for their presence. I was too focused on the party-wide gauge that all I did towards my personal one was to tell jokes.

    Yet, even with her cisfem doing all the cooking, she feels like the clock is ticking in on her to fill her personal gauge as quickly as she humanly can. Even when the attendees devour the Black Forest cake the game asks her to bake for a dessert.

    ˇ°Woohoo! I did it! I won better cooking equipment!ˇ± she exclaims as the last of her personal gauge fills up while her guests devour the Black Forest cake. ˇ°And my cook is promoted to line cook!ˇ±

    ˇ°You mentioned adoption at some point. Not that I would want to adopt a child in-game, but perhaps you could walk us through the early stages of the process!ˇ± Artabeles pleads with her. ˇ°Please?ˇ±

    Before any money is spent, the adoption agency starts with a review of the householdˇŻs credit report and their history with children, of which they donˇŻt have any.

    And then they can choose the life stage and GAB, with a rare chance of the adoptee being intersex. With no indication of their sexual orientation, nor identity.

    ˇ°The furthest I could go is this screen: where we are treated to portraits of prospective adoptees, as well as their last parents and things to watch out for! IˇŻll stop right here!ˇ±

    ˇ°However, someone else out there must have experimented with the adoption mechanic!ˇ± Artabeles adds.

    ˇ°Honestly, it makes me feel like players can raise children others got taken away from them!ˇ± Gordon comments.

    As an adoptee myself, I wonder how the game portrays the trauma surrounding adoptions. Especially the adoptees. That, even though a foster family is often the lesser of the two evils when dealing with adoptees, Gordon canˇŻt help but think of the players who are left to pick up the messes others leave behind. Already that parenthood can be stressful in a normal family.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ˇ°It makes me wonder how is this worldˇŻs CPS like, when are children taken away!ˇ± Marjorine still has unanswered questions. ˇ°And especially whether they are any better!ˇ±

    ˇ°I guess, once the real game goes live, a lot of the more hardcore partiers, like Sigrun, will want a child from the get-go, so they can unlock certain higher-tier parties fasterˇ± Artabeles makes a note to himself so that, whenever the actual game will be released, heˇŻs going to have a child from the very start, and throw the party requiring one as soon as possible.

    The next in-game day, after selling off the old fridge and stove, with new ones earned from the party and quest respectively, Marjo is left wondering whether her trans male is even going to survive the abduction.

    ˇ°It seems like my male trans get sicker by the day. ItˇŻs more than just suspicious tummy aches by now!ˇ± Marjo can feel the unease of her character as he moves around the house. ˇ°What a rollercoaster! But this is a painful reminder that I need a bigger lot and home!ˇ±

    ˇ°Hopefully, you can make new outfits or dyes that will enable you to take out a bigger mortgage! Speaking of dyes, using one will feel like paint-by-numbers!ˇ± Gordon tries to encourage the streamer.

    ˇ°What matters now is that your abductee stays healthy. It was a deeply traumatic experience for him, and this tumor canˇŻt be left unchecked!ˇ± Manolia warns her.

    ˇ°Yeah, you kept forgetting about making a follow-up visit after the two days he was stuck on that rental wheelchair, and you must return it, too!ˇ± Artabeles reminds her that she hasnˇŻt returned the rental wheelchair.

    I get it, another 100 piastres for a trip to the hospital. However, my first trip to the hospital for this ghost was for his broken legs, Marjo has her trans male calls the ambulance for his second trip to the hospital, shortly after waking up and then vomiting.

    ˇ°I hope that these aliens havenˇŻt screwed my character over forever! Fingers crossed that itˇŻs not some incurable alien disease!ˇ± Marjo whines as the ambulance takes her trans male away for a follow-up visit, where, hopefully, the doctors will tell her what this tumor really is, and whether thereˇŻs a treatment plan for it.

    As with last time, I donˇŻt think itˇŻs a good idea to have one of my characters travel to the hospital with him, because I need to save up for a bigger lot and house! IˇŻll just have to craft more copies of the black-and-red dress I designed for Manolia! I donˇŻt want to be mortgaged to the hilt! Marjo keeps on trucking while he eagerly awaits the result of the medical tests. But at the same time, she knows medical tests arenˇŻt free.

    By then, she starts fearing that the aliens caused a cancer in her male trans, and that expensive surgery might be required.

    ˇ°First, my character broke a leg, and then this tumor in his belly I sent him to the hospital for? WhatˇŻs next, the tumor will back the family into a corner because of the cost of the surgery?ˇ± Marjo keeps ranting while her face turns red.

    ˇ°I sure hope not, Marjo. You played with the hand you were dealt, getting abducted by aliens, much less get a potentially lethal alien tumor from an abduction is not something I wish on anyone, not even in a gameˇ± Gordon sighs, on the edge of his seat, just like several of her own viewers.

    ˇ°In a sense, paying five hundred piastres for a leg cast is making healthcare insurance look better than in the real world. However, a tumor that seemingly balloons out of control might cause the bill to be steeper!ˇ± MarjoˇŻs dad interjects on air.

    ˇ°I really wonder how are medical bills determined in this gameˇ­ˇ± Artabeles sighs, because his characters never got sick, not even from STIs.

    At the same time, he, like Sigrun, is also going through the adoption process. What the? Players already had children taken away? He muses as he chooses to adopt a child based on life stage and GAB.

    He then sees a few names of previous parents whom he recognizes by having played with them at some point.

    ˇ°Because I play a gay couple, with one of them being trans, I know my couple is barren, so I need to adopt to get a child. However, I wonder what happens if more than one player wants to adopt the same child...ˇ± Artabeles sighs, as heˇŻs about to find out when trying to adopt an infant girl. ˇ°On my honor as a gyan-avspar, I swear I will take better care of the infant than her previous parents!ˇ±

    ˇ°ItˇŻs not the first time you mentioned gyan-avspar! You never told us what gyan-avspar were!ˇ± Marjo whines.

    ˇ°Yeah, you seem to be implying that gyan-avspars are some sort of sworn officers!ˇ± Manolia deadpans Artabeles while his trans ghost is summoned to court.

    Only, this time around, beyond the need to pay for the paperwork, he would need to attend a court hearing against the other prospective parent, with court costs on top of what he already incurred for the first stage.

    Speaking of court hearing, Artabeles is caught in a mini-game against the one playing the other prospective parent, both being pro se. The judge presiding over it begins by stating what led the previous parents to have the infant taken away.

    I canˇŻt believe that player would give up on a baby that easily, unless they ran out of money! He muses as the judge asks the two how they plan on taking care of the infant, and what love means to them in a family context. I might not unlock the higher-tier parties as quickly as Sigrun, but I want to experience all stages of parenthood in this game! It will make me a better player if I do so!

    Speaking of parenthood, the judge asks the two players questions about early child-rearing, what they would do in specific situations they will likely run into with the baby, and finally what they envision the changes in their life the baby brings, should they be awarded custody of the baby.

    ˇ°I didnˇŻt think the adoption process would be that complicated when two or more people want to adopt the same baby! I expected it to be: choose who to adopt, pay the CPS fees, then meet with the child and, if possible, the previous parents, along with the social worker! I didnˇŻt expect adoption to require a court hearing in which a judge decides who are the next parents!ˇ± Artabeles rants about the adoption processˇŻ complexity. ˇ°On top of that, I lost the court hearing minigame!ˇ±

    Artabeles is then sent back to the choice screen, but doesnˇŻt pay the CPS fees a second time. However, he prays that no other player claims the adoptee of his choice. Apparently, other players have a 30-second window to put a claim on an adoptee to then trigger the court hearing minigame. Because of it, IˇŻm down 6k piastres.

    ˇ°Andˇ­ yes! I finally have a little girl that my gay couple can call their own! However, the court fees of the first attempt cost me way more than the CPS base fees!ˇ±

    While Artabeles is taking out a loan to buy some equipment to take care of a baby, and then a toddler later down the road, Marjo, on the other hand, finally receives the results of the medical tests performed on her trans male:

    ˇ°Turns out that the alien tumor my trans male has is actually an alien baby. It seems like I have two options: get an abortion for a fee, or carry the baby to term, which will last five to six more in-game daysˇ± Marjo drops the news on her stream.

    ˇ°This game has abortion?ˇ± Manolia gasps. ˇ°I think it would be to your long-term benefit not to have the abortion at this pointˇ­ but perhaps later you can have one!ˇ±

    ˇ°I wonder how do alien babies differ from human ones in this gameˇ­ˇ± Artabeles sighs.

    ˇ°Fine, IˇŻll carry the alien baby to term!ˇ±

 Chapter 89: Enfantillages

    As he waits for the loan to be disbursed, Artabeles is left wondering for how long his little adoptee, who changes her last name, will remain an infant. He also realizes that his adoptee is starving because of her previous parentsˇŻ actions.

    ˇ°Damnˇ­ I canˇŻt breastfeed my new adoptee! I donˇŻt think you will have that option either with your baby!ˇ± Artabeles warns the streamer.

    ˇ°First off, the stream will end when my trans male goes into labor. Second, I will host a sub-a-thon tomorrow, starting with my trans male giving birth to the alien baby!ˇ± Marjo makes her plans known for the rest of the day.

    ˇ°And then IˇŻll reveal what gyan-avspar are. IˇŻll even bring my adoptee to the hospital to see your alien baby!ˇ±

    Yes! This loan has been approved! I can finally get what I want for my gay coupleˇŻs little girl! Starting with the crib, changing table, a supply of diapers, baby food and the highchair. Time to get the enfantillages started! Artabeles realizes that, by adopting the infant, he unlocks a new party. I really hope that the rewards from the baby shower party will help me repay the loan I took out to finance her equipment.

    So as party invites are issued, he sees fit to invite even SigrunˇŻs in-game family, in hopes that, in the future, she can invite him to higher-tier parties. Maybe even the same one as Marjo.

    ˇ°A-ha! Baby shower!ˇ± Artabeles exclaims. ˇ°For those planning on playing, baby showers are available when you either have a baby three days old or younger, or a baby three days away or less!ˇ±

    Obviously, he invites Gordon and Marjo, and other guests include other players of trans couples. So he treats the guests to a party into his home, decorated in Sassanid style, to the extent the game allowed for it. And his main wearing his signature gyan-avspar costume.

    ˇ°HereˇŻs my little Tiffany, whom I adopted so I can experience parenting in this game!ˇ±

    Given the limitations on when such a party can be hosted, both sides face fewer obstacles than in even other ˇ°entry-levelˇ± parties. I guess, I can see people abandoning children left and right just so they can host certain types of parties, including but not limited to baby showers, he sighs while the guests are coming into his home. Also I believe that, because the window is limited to host a baby shower, the game balances, for a given party tier, by it being easier and/or providing more rewards.

    ˇ°That was a lot easier than a speed kisser run. It seems like the challenge of a baby shower is getting the right equipment and timing it properly! What I need to do is to show the baby and talk about her with guests five times eachˇ±

    ˇ°Artabeles, why is it that you had me cook?ˇ± Marjo whines about her part in the baby shower. CanˇŻt I just watch the baby, or ask stuff about it?ˇ±

    ˇ°Do you want to get the gold on it or not?ˇ± Artabeles asks her.

    ˇ°I guess, I have no choiceˇ­ˇ±

    Come on, Marjo, bake the tiered cake! ThatˇŻs a piece of cake to your character! Artabeles then gets bombarded by requests to watch, or play with, Tiffany.

    With that said, a few of the guests feel underwhelmed by how fast their part of the party goes. And the hungrier ones might be willing to wait for the cake, but some of them are exasperated by how even a tier-1 house party might be more engaging, let alone higher-tier parties.

    But Tiffany starts to cry and misbehave as MarjoˇŻs female cis character is cooking a two-tiered cake, which she hopes is large enough to serve everyone.

    ˇ°No, Tiff! DonˇŻt grab the guestsˇŻ clothes!ˇ± the host yells at the screen as he tries to prevent Tiffany from grabbing the clothes of GordonˇŻs transfem.

    The result is his actor character chasing his adoptee around his house as Tiffany is about to cause mayhem. And leave a messy trail, as much as the game allows for it. As she closes in on the hookah, threatening to topple itˇ­ he has his not-gyan-avspar grabs his adoptee.

    ˇ°No, Tiff, youˇŻre going to break it!ˇ± he yells at the screen while he scolds her.

    Now I have a better idea of what gender assignment at birth means in this game: fertility and one aspect of enfantillages. But so far, it seems like the playerˇŻs parenting style is more important than the gender identity of the parents.

    And, once every guest who wanted cake had it, he asks the in-game chat channel for the party whether their characters had a chance to see the baby.

    Trans player: I didnˇŻt get to see the baby

    ˇ°All rightˇ±

    As soon as that final player got shown the baby, he then triggers the early ending, and every attendee gets the rewards. Curiously, while every attendee gets a brand new futuristic crib, by virtue of having filled a very easy-to-max out gauge, he could thank Marjorine for having filled the party-wide gauge and hence win the most expensive firework silo in the game, the Mk7 VLS (vertical launching system).

    Yet, he is left wondering what use he could have for a silo holding seven of the largest and most expensive firework rockets in the game.

    ˇ°Ermahgerd!ˇ± Artabeles gasps in a Persian accent, while his gay couple cleans up the home of the messes left behind by Tiffany. ˇ°Why do they give us such an expensive firework silo for... perfectly hosting the easiest party in the game? What secret condition did I meet to get this firework silo?ˇ±

    ˇ°Speaking of fireworks, where do I see the available silos?ˇ± Marjo asks, feeling that maybe she could make some headway into getting the down payment for her new house.

    ˇ°Yeah, show us the cost of both the silo and the rockets that go into it!ˇ± Gordon asks him, before Artabeles leaves haunting mode.

    He installs his brand new Mk7 VLS, taking up four times as much space as other models of firework silos, and costs many more times more than the next-most-expensive one. My guess is that I might need fireworks for some very high-end party that I have yet to unlock. However, by selling the Mk7 VLS on the Haunted Bazaar, I will definitely be able to pay back the loan I took out to even get Tiffany what she needs! A whopping 15k piastres just for the silo if I sell it to NPCs. Rockets cost 100 piastres each, he then shows what he can do with these rockets. Choosing the color and shape of the blast prior to launch, and hence the payment.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ˇ°Marjo, throw a baby shower when able, please! We need to test whether itˇŻs random or certain conditions need to be met!ˇ± Artabeles feels like he might find a bug as he sells off the old crib.

    ˇ°Who should I invite, other than you two?ˇ± Marjo asks her chat, realizing that her male trans character is on his seventh day of pregnancy.

    This time around, Marjo invites, to her own baby shower, Manolia and the other alien abductee of her own wave, along with Artabeles and Gordon. However, the prenatal version of the baby shower asks hosts to have the guests touch the pregnant characterˇŻs belly five times rather than to be shown the baby.

    ˇ°Marjo! Spam the dialogues about the baby!ˇ± he yells at her, while her cisfem bakes another cake.

    For that specific part of the party, with only 4 players invited, she has her cis male do just that. And her transfem, as soon as sheˇŻs done sewing yet another copy of the black-and-red dress, makes the final request to touch the trans maleˇŻs belly. And this is happening faster than last time. I can see from here cash-strapped people adopting an infant specifically to throw baby showers over and over, selling off the Mk7 VLSs, along with the cribs, and abandon the infant, or have it taken away by CPS, when the infant is no longer eligible. Or perhaps get pregnant over and over, with adopted children within the first six in-game days of the cycle.

    The faux gyan-avspar asks in the partyˇŻs in-game chat channel whether everyone has gotten the attendeeˇŻs gold. The party is almost over when the cake is served to the attendees, with one last instruction for Marjo:

    ˇ°Now that everyone got gold, end the party! Now!ˇ± Artabeles yells at Marjo on VC, who then stops the party without understanding why.

    ˇ°That was the fastest party I ever attended in the game!ˇ± Gordon comments on the speed at which this baby shower took place, after the party ends, less than a minute after it started.

    Which makes Artabeles post in the global in-game chat the following request: LFM baby shower farm. Given that not many players know what the shower farm even drops, or even have babies/pregnant characters at this stage, he is met by crickets for a bit.

    Meanwhile, somewhere in Grenaa, a city in northeast Denmark, Sigrun hastily begins the in-game process of adopting an infant, sensing an opportunity to make bank by chain-adopting infants. Artabeles? He found a new exploit? IˇŻll farm whatever the baby shower drops!

    By doing so, he issues her an invitation to MarjoˇŻs Discord server, feeling like farming a specific party requires a coordinated team to achieve the best yields.

    ˇ°Take the baby shower, as many runs as we can get!ˇ± Artabeles instructs Marjo and Sigrun. ˇ°However, I believe the bottleneck will be our charactersˇŻ need for sleep!ˇ±

    Sigrun goes last since she needs to wait on the arrival of her infant adoptee, and hence canˇŻt host a baby shower. With Artabeles and Sigrun being more disciplined as players than Marjo is, however, the latter starts questioning whether sheˇŻs ok with spending three in-game days throwing baby shower after baby shower.

    Why did Artabeles drag me into repeatedly hosting baby showers? What do I have to gain from doing so? Marjo struggles to understand the point of farming baby showers, even though baby showers can be completed in about thirty seconds with a few players who know what theyˇŻre doing. Namely, baking the cake as an opening move, but only have the hungriest characters eat it.

    ˇ°Now, Marjo knows the true meaning of optimizing the fun out of the game!ˇ± Sigrun exclaims in a Danish accent.

    ˇ°What do you mean, optimizing the fun out of the game?ˇ± a confused Marjo rolls her eyes.

    ˇ°You see, Marjo, if, for getting a certain thing done, itˇŻs found that a particular method is optimal, you must be ready to follow it to the letter, and often do it over and over!ˇ±

    Time to pull the rug from under these folks who fight each other over infants to adopt, in hopes of cashing in on the Mk7 VLS drops! Artabeles then files a bug report about how he claims that the value of the Mk7 VLS made players farm baby showers to the exclusion of all else, while Futuristic Cribs are only worth 1/30 of a Mk7 VLS.

    ˇ°Time is up for me, Tiffany is no longer eligible!ˇ± Artabeles signals to his fellow farmers.

    ˇ°Go forth and adopt another infant! A single crib will pay for a maid for a day, and a second adoptee can cost less than a VLS!ˇ± Sigrun argues with him.

    The key word here is ˇ°canˇ±. I must then buy the items that will make toddlers work on their skills, of which I only have the potty. Unlike Sigrun, for whom children are clearly a means to an end, I know parenting is for the long haul, so what children I do have must be well-treated, Artabeles muses as he purchases all the toddler items he deems necessary in one go, while selling off his cribs and VLS, except for one of each.

    ˇ°You never told me what a gyan-avspar is!ˇ± Marjo loudly complains.

    ˇ°There are two definitions. Did you play MAA? Massacre ¨¤ lˇŻAlcool, if you willˇ±

    ˇ°No, why?ˇ± She sells off her VLS except for 1.

    ˇ°In MAA, gyan-avspars were PerseriaˇŻs city hall guards, twelve elite infantry guards. They were loosely based on the Sassanid ones, in that the Sassanid gyan-avspars were elite heavy cavalry instead, but wore the same armor, and wielded the same bows and swords; pikes were impractical to use indoors!ˇ±

    Or more specifically the best 100 cataphracts in Sassanid service. The Sassanid gyan-avspars were called the ˇ°sacrificers of their livesˇ± because they were sworn to do everything in their power to protect the Shahanshah, even lay down their lives for him, Artabeles sighs, while not telling MarjoˇŻs chat more about historical gyan-avspars.

    ˇ°My trans male is going into labor, have a good day, IˇŻm signing off!ˇ± Marjo then gets to work editing her guide on baby showers as she logs off the game, along with alien pregnancy.

    But then, Artabeles is dragged into playing the court hearing minigame against Sigrun when she sets her sights on the same infant boy to adopt so they can keep farming Mk7 VLSs. That is, until the devs take action.

    However, while players are sworn to tell ˇ°the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truthˇ± at the start of the minigame, it seems like the judge presiding over their case knows about both playersˇŻ track records as adopters.

    Because of that, itˇŻs clear that SigrunˇŻs credibility as an adopter, to the eyes of the gameˇŻs judiciary, took a hit. If I want to keep farming VLSs until I feel confident that I have enough money to build a home capable of hosting every party in the game, I hope never again to face the court hearing minigame for future adoptions. Especially since I let my first adoptee run away from home right after I threw a birthday party, Sigrun feels like she must readjust her approach to farming VLS.

    Even when she openly advises new players low on cash to borrow enough money to cover the costs of adopting an infant, and then spam the baby shower.

    By doing so, however, some of these players donˇŻt even realize that theyˇŻre making her own life miserable as sheˇŻs forced into a continuous loop of court hearings, hence losing money with each new attempt at adopting an infant. And dashing her hopes of adopting infant without facing the court hearing minigame.

    ˇ°Why? Why is it that I canˇŻt even adopt another infant? For the three in-game days I get the infant, spamming baby showers will enable me to pay for a lifetimeˇŻs care many, many times over!ˇ± Sigrun laments, in a Danish accent, while facing yet another court hearing.

    ˇ°Just treat your existing adoptees better until this gets fixed, and then you might have a better chance at getting a third adoptee!ˇ± Artabeles scolds her.

    ˇ°I just want to get the most out of my adoptees when I still can!ˇ±

    I donˇŻt care, if neglecting earlier adoptees is the price to pay to get rich in this game, so be it! VLS farming yields most with fewer players, but spamming it in solo play with NPC guests is actually less efficient than spamming baby showers with another player. However, it goes without saying that spamming baby showers with more than two players requires all of them to take turns hosting these, and hence reduce the yield in VLS, Sigrun starts thinking about how she would go around doing nothing but throwing baby showers for the next 3 in-game days after she adopts another infant, with almost a million piastres at stake.

    But after the newest failure in this string of misfortunes in the courtroom, Sigrun is now crying in her room. The in-game judgment is handed down to her:

    ˇ°What?ˇ± she gasps in horror as she laments her fate. ˇ°IˇŻm barred from adopting children for three real-world days? IˇŻll never be able to throw the parties I want!ˇ±

 Chapter 90: Fixing the VLS Exploit

    Back in Montreal, Ad¨¨le is busy inserting a new feature for alien abductions, and planning how to kick off the next patch about hyperspace travel. Like a storyline about an UFO crashing and the surviving aliens blame the residents of the world recklessly using fireworks for the crash. And then the gameˇŻs world would reverse engineer the hyperdrive and avionics, so they can build their own spaceships, using alien tech.

    However, a most disturbing report about the baby shower party causes her to snap out of this alien reverie.

    ˇ°Now it seems like baby showers are being farmed for the Mark Seven VLS getting gold on these would net players, and it seems like some players have managed to get, and sell, dozens of VLS by just hosting baby showers over and over!ˇ± Ad¨¨le explains to the other engineers working weekends to fix bugs as found by the players.

    ˇ°What fixes do you suggest for the bug?ˇ± the gay engineer asks her.

    ˇ°IˇŻm OK with the VLS to be tied to baby showers, such as hosting a perfect baby shower on the first try, but if you have other ideasˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Other players claim that the VLS exploit led to demand for infant adoption to skyrocket, but in a wave of toddlers being abandoned!ˇ± the trans engineer suggests her.

    ˇ°What?ˇ± Ad¨¨le gasps upon hearing about how some players who throw baby showers over and over saw infants as golden gooses, or at least golden gooses with short lifespans. ˇ°I actually pity those players who will adopt toddlers, or even children if they spend the entirety of their in-game lives as toddlers without being adopted!ˇ±

    ˇ°Maybe just change which fireworks silo would drop from getting gold as a baby shower host!ˇ± another engineer suggests.

    ˇ°Why does it have to be a fireworks silo? Fireworks are too dangerous to have around infants, and baby showers are there to show babies to other players!ˇ± an artist retorts.

    ˇ°We already have cribs as drops for the attendees. Maybe have the toddler tabletsˇ­ˇ±

    Oh boy: they are making it look like this bug came from some typo in the code where the item ID of the reward was improperly entered for whatever reason. I just need to look up the toddler tablet ID and then change it into the baby showerˇŻs loot table, Ad¨¨le starts wondering how did an endgame partying fireworks silo become somehow available to newborns.

    ˇ°LetˇŻs back up a little bit. It seems like the order in which players can adopt the kids is flawed. There must be some sort of system allowing NPCs to adopt abandoned children if a certain delay has elapsed since their abandonment!ˇ± the trans engineer yells.

    ˇ°Like I get that ghosts in their young age should have a second chance in life if their parents messed up their early childhood, but they canˇŻt stay forever in the adoption pool!ˇ± the gay engineer adds.

    ˇ°And there should be an escalation in the penalties meted out to players who repeatedly abandon adopted children! We canˇŻt just punish players for a fixed period! The whole VLS exploit, however, made it clear that this wave of children abandonment isnˇŻt happening in isolation, that underlying factors must be addressed!ˇ±

    While the gay engineer tracks down the toddler tablet item ID, Ad¨¨le, on the other hand, codes in another achievement that makes players earn the Mk7 VLS for hosting a perfect baby shower on the first try, without any retroactive awards. Which is very much like the Natural Host achievement, earned by people who get gold at their first party as a host, from a coding standpoint.

    When the engineers are done finding and applying fixes to the bugs found so far, and Ad¨¨le has finished coding the VLS-granting achievement. Along with the availability of adoptees, which, in her mind, is random, but the probability goes down the longer it has been since CPS took the adoptee away. And, of course, adding in the licensed alien abductors. The devsˇŻ workday ends when the servers are taken offline, and the fix is then deployed.

    That was rough. Who knows what other bugs the players could find at this point of beta testing. But I really need a good nightˇŻs sleep right nowˇ­ Ad¨¨le returns home, tired of having to look after RCGˇŻs bugs as the players find them, with little to no time to implement new ideas she might have, at least for the time being. Yet she still has a lot on her mind as she sleeps. And not a very good sleep, either, as she soon finds out:

    Aboard the HMCS Saint-Laurent, underneath the Victoria Bridge. Ad¨¨le found herself right next to the shipˇŻs VLS, brought to combat readiness as part of a test required of the shipˇŻs post-launch tests. As the ship was sailing clear of the Victoria Bridge towards Champlain Bridge, the window for its crew to fire the blank SAM was short.

    ˇ°All hands, clear the deck!ˇ± the captain yelled.

    Ad¨¨le was brought to the shipˇŻs combat information center, or CIC, by some sailors treating her like an intruder. She entered a room full of communications, radar and sonar consoles.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here? Why would they conduct test-firing of SAMs in such crowded airspace?ˇ± Ad¨¨le questioned the actions of the ranking officer at the CIC.

    ˇ°Yeah, captain, weˇŻre within firing range of a major international airport! WeˇŻre not about to endanger the local airspaceˇŻs safety, and Transport Canada will never forgive us for that!ˇ± one of the fire control crewmembers warned the ranking officer.

    ˇ°Abort! Abort!ˇ± the captain yelled at the fire control sailors.

    ˇ°What should we do with this intruder?ˇ± another sailor asked the captain.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ˇ°Bring her to the brig for questioning!ˇ±

    At the brig, Ad¨¨le started hallucinating, while she waited on the MP officers to question her. She could already feel like she was in deep trouble even without hallucinating.

    Several ghosts circled around her, the first two of which belonged to RCG players who used the baby shower exploit.

    ˇ°The whole baby shower exploit is a fiasco! Remember this: with new content, exploits will be found!ˇ± SigrunˇŻs main hissed.

    ˇ°IˇŻm playing this game to honor my ancestors in ways almost no other game allowed me to!ˇ± ArtabelesˇŻ main yelled at both. ˇ°Too many toddlers were being abandoned left and right!ˇ±

    ArtabelesˇŻ gyan-avspar ancestor jeered at SigrunˇŻs main. ˇ°You were the one who was barred from adopting children because you abandoned children left and right, and one of them ran away from home!ˇ± He then turned to his RCG look-a-like. ˇ°By using the VLS exploit, you brought shame upon the gyan-avspars!ˇ±

    ˇ°Unlike Sigrun, my player plans on keeping his adoptees for the long haul! And I even told Marjo on air what gyan-avspars were! No gyan-avspar worth his station would adopt infants only to abandon them still in childhood! Exactly how did I bring shame to the gyan-avspars?ˇ±

    ˇ°Gyan-avspars might have been sworn to do everything in their power to protect the Shahanshah, but would that include raising money by engaging in illicit commerce, or abandoning their own children?ˇ± ArtabelesˇŻ ancestor scolded his descendantˇŻs main.

    ˇ°I only sold VLS that some administrative error made available too readily; never did I abandon children!ˇ± ArtabelesˇŻ main pleads with his playerˇŻs ancestor, who had a Persian accent.

    ˇ°Even though you didnˇŻt abandon children yourself, by discovering a get-rich-quick scheme based on baby showers, you encouraged large-scale child abandonment!ˇ±

    Oh sure, a gyan-avspar might still have had illegitimate or adopted children, because they were chosen for their soldiering skills, but even then, gyan-avspars were usually rich enough to take care of illegitimate children, because they were drawn from at least azadan-levels of nobility. Knights, if you will. Just not necessarily as one would a legitimate child, ArtabelesˇŻ main mused, interrupted before KarineˇŻs ghost entered the fray.

    ˇ°How could RCG players be even worse towards their characters than MAA ones? Is that behavior abetted by the players knowing they are dealing with ghosts? I expected players of that sort of games to coddle their characters to the extent feasible!ˇ± KarineˇŻs ghost yelled at Ad¨¨leˇŻs oneiric self.

    ˇ°ThatˇŻs totally unlike you, Karine! YouˇŻre an expert in debt and insolvency matters, without whom there would be none of that in RCG, and no Treaty of Perseria either! Clavet became PerseriaˇŻs eran-spahbed and even signed it for Perseria properˇ­ˇ± Ad¨¨leˇŻs face turned red, knowing Karine used her MAA toons as tools.

    ˇ°Eran-spahbed? ThatˇŻs a term I didnˇŻt hear in ages!ˇ± ArtabelesˇŻ ancestor turned to KarineˇŻs ghost. ˇ°You might not know it, but you have Sassanid aristocrats for ancestors, too!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do you mean, I haveˇ­ Sassanid aristocrats for ancestors?ˇ± KarineˇŻs ghost asked the ancient ghost, not knowing what Sassanid aristocracy even is.

    ˇ°More specifically the Karen-Pahlav! Your ancestors included eran-spahbeds, but, while they are female names today, Karen or Karin were male names in Persian antiquity!ˇ±

    ˇ°Tabarnak!ˇ± KarineˇŻs ghost screamed. ˇ°You say that I had an eran-spahbed for an ancestor, but whatˇŻs an eran-spahbed?ˇ±

    ˇ°The armyˇŻs commander-in-chief, in either Perseria or Sassanid Persiaˇ± He turned to ArtabelesˇŻ main. ˇ°You claimed that your player played RCG to honor his ancestors, but he goes by a name that sounds Achaemenid, almost Hellenistic evenˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°Before there even was a RCG, he played Total War: Attila for years! He got burned out of the game, and sought a different genre!ˇ±

    ArtabelesˇŻ ancestorˇŻs ghost then went on a rampage, drawing his shamshir and tearing through the other ghosts. And later, going for Ad¨¨le, who screamed in horror before her real self awakened in the dead of night.

    Upon awakening, Ad¨¨le is left wondering what other exploits the players will find, either in the base game or in any future content. What matters most is that new content doesnˇŻt invalidate older content: Sigrun requested as much out of a MAA private server. However, I expect, going forward, that future bugs and exploits come mostly from newer content. So I guess there must be a way to make people not seek to play aliens only. In essence, balance out the benefits of alien play with disadvantages. IˇŻm afraid that playing with abduction rates will only affect the serverˇŻs early stages of alien play.

    ˇ°Damn... Beta testing is there for a reason: engineers might have a certain intended playstyle, and I certainly do, but players have a wider variety of play styles!ˇ± Ad¨¨le starts sobbing about what happened in the past few days in the game.

    I really need sleep. However, how am I to get the sleep I need when I keep getting nightmares containing elements of the game, or its players, in it? I get it, RCG is a labor of love to meˇ­ Ad¨¨le struggles to fall back asleep, but yawns still. And the worst in all that is that I had no clue at all how I could have landed myself on a brand-new River-class destroyer, and I hallucinated like crazy while detained!.

    But when early morning comes to Grenaa, Sigrun, once again, tries to host a baby shower, after reading the patch notes, sheˇŻs a little wary of them.

    ˇ°Heja, Danmark!ˇ± (Come on, Denmark!) Sigrun yells at her screen, while preparing to run another baby shower, as she did on repeat before the beta server closed.

    I think I have no choice but to bake the cake myself. I donˇŻt think new players even know how to have their characters bake cakes! Sigrun starts making her transfem bake her very own signature cake.

    And then she takes new players through a baby shower, telling them in the in-game chat how to fulfill the objectives of the party. From a ready-made list of instructions she keeps on a second screen and that she can copy-paste as needed. Like how to tell stories or jokes. Or even congratulate the new parents.

    And even secretly berating some of these players for making the baby shower even a few seconds longer.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs taking them so long? The cake is ready, people should be able to get their attendee gauge completely filled before the cake is finished!ˇ± she yells without anyone else noticing since the others arenˇŻt in a VC.

    ItˇŻs only then that she realizes having her characters endlessly running baby showers and eating cake over and over is not without their sets of troubles: not only she wasted mountains of cakes, but her characters have become fat. So fat that theyˇŻre the fattest characters the game will allow, which is morbidly obese.

    And a number of debuffs hit her characters: diabetes, and also another one with the need to eat what the game deems to be ˇ°real foodˇ±. She earns a brand new achievement, which, much to her delight, rewards yet another Mk7 VLS, albeit the game now makes it clear that it was earned from an achievement tied to hosting a perfect baby shower on the first try, and not the party itself. I canˇŻt shake the feeling that the bug isnˇŻt actually fixed, but IˇŻll make all my adult characters go through liposuction, provided itˇŻs in the game. Otherwise, IˇŻll have them exercise.

    However, much to SigrunˇŻs chagrin, she finds out that any subsequent baby shower drops toddler tablets for gold, but at the same time, she realizes the achievement isnˇŻt retroactively awarded.

    ˇ°The devs made baby showers no longer worth farming, but what will the next farm be? In that sort of games, thereˇŻs always a farm of some sort for at least one item or currencyˇ­ˇ± Sigrun sighs.

 Chapter 91: Giving Birth to an Alien Baby

    After the Sunday mass in Kinder, Marjorine comes back home to start the sub-a-thon, as well as the launch of her Patreon. When the stream begins, with her faithful viewers on air:

    ˇ°Welcome to the sub-a-thon. Today, the stream begins with my male trans going into labor because of his alien baby!ˇ± Marjo announces as she gets all her characters to the hospital.

    The player of the third alien abductee, going by Yortson on Twitch, enters voice chat for the first time. ˇ°Do you know your babyˇŻs GAB yet?ˇ±

    ˇ°Yortson, no! I was busy farming VLS last night with Artabeles, but I didnˇŻt do it nearly as much as he did!ˇ±

    HereˇŻs where farming VLS led me: I didnˇŻt get an ultrasound for him, all my characters put on weight to varying degrees, I exhausted their vacation allowances, itˇŻs a miracle that my trans male didnˇŻt have a miscarriage! Marjo looks back on the in-game consequences of what she did with Artabeles. I really wonder whether miscarriage is a thing in this game.

    Her trans male is brought to an operating room where a Caesarean section is performed. which is how trans males bearing alien babies are delivered in this game. And, of course, heˇŻs under general anesthesia.

    ˇ°Now that we know that pregnancy lasts nine in-game days, at least for the vanilla ghosts, I wonder when a pregnant ghost can have ultrasound that can reliably determine the babyˇŻs GAB...ˇ± Marjo sighs.

    ˇ°By day five, but for best results, wait until day six. Speaking of which, one of my friends has a pregnant woman whoˇŻs at the hospital to do just that!ˇ± Yortson then gets his intersex non-binary alien theft victim to another room.

    ˇ°What happened to your characters?ˇ± Manolia asks both Artabeles and Marjo.

    ˇ°I guess, I should get a liposuction for my characters. But only one at a time because I want one parent available to take care of my adopted toddlers!ˇ± Artabeles uses his in-game phone to book a liposuction for his gyan-avspar.

    As the surgery draws to a close, the doctors reveal a little green alien, the size of a human newborn. Crying and making a different crying sound compared to the ˇ°vanillaˇ± baby in the maternity ward right next to that room.

    The screen that appears then is the babyˇŻs GAB, along with a prompt to give the newborn a name.

    ˇ°Woohoo! A little alien girl! But I donˇŻt have all day to choose a name!ˇ± an overjoyed Marjo then receives several suggestions from her chat.

    ˇ°Some Middle Persian names might sound alien to you. I mean, you rolled your eyes the first time I even talked about gyan-avspar, as if it was some alien title or profession!ˇ±

    ˇ°Do you have an example?ˇ± Gordon asks Artabeles.

    ˇ°Purandokht is one of these names that sound alien to someone unfamiliar with Middle Eastern history. However, itˇŻs the only female name that comes to my mind and matches the description, since Hormizd, Yazdegerd, while alien-sounding Middle Persian names, are male names instead!ˇ±

    ˇ°Azelma also!ˇ± Manolia adds.

    I must be quick, my characters just canˇŻt sit around in the maternity ward! Marjo starts sweating, now that she collected potential baby names. She starts sweating as she feels like her characters canˇŻt linger in the hospital much longer, and reads through the entries of her chat, along with their reactions.

    ˇ°I know my baby is alien, itˇŻs tough. I guess, so many names sounded alien, IˇŻll go with...ˇ± Marjo pauses for a few seconds. ˇ°Hormizd!ˇ±

    I guess Marjo doesnˇŻt realize that Hormizd was an actual shanahshah, she believed that alien babies should have alien names. Yet names can sound alien despite their Terran origins. My fault for believing that Middle Persian names could sound alien to herˇ­ Artabeles has one of his characters return home to his two adoptees, while the other is undergoing liposuction. As do a few other characters whose players, yesterday, were farming baby showers until they got their characters fat and diabetic, and are now paying the price in several ways.

    ˇ°If you plan on one baby shower, donˇŻt count on me, I am sick of running these parties, especially now that the VLS can only be won once from it, and you must host a perfect one on the first try!ˇ±

    ˇ°What do baby showers drop now?ˇ± Yortson asks. ˇ°You make me feel like I missed a golden opportunityˇ­ˇ±

    ˇ°They now drop toddler tablets, worth only one-thirtieth of a VLS! People were farming VLS to the point their characters had to undergo surgery, or get insulin shots!ˇ±

    ItˇŻs then that she uses the money she earned from farming said VLS to go around buying a new, much larger lot, and build a new home. And then replace the old furniture, as well as sewing machine, by new, better fixtures. And, of course, buy greenhouses, so that she can have more space to farm whatever crops she likes.

    Yet, she has to build her home in stages based on what her characters need in the here and now. Like they need to eat, or care for little Hormizdˇ­Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Viewer: DonˇŻt forget about the nanny!

    ˇ°Yeah, the nanny should take care of Hormizd while everyone else works on the home!ˇ± Gordon lectures her.

    She has her characters spend a while using prefabricated wall sections to build rooms, and then install the essential fixtures so they can live in that unfinished home. This in-game mansion will look like these mansions in the bayou. Because I never left the state, this game gave me a glimpse of things I couldnˇŻt otherwise.

    However, sheˇŻs so busy getting her new in-game home built that she waits until Hormizd is crying to get the nanny her viewers asked for. While ensuring that thereˇŻs an operational bathroom as well as room for the crib and the changing table.

    And, after dinner, an UFO appears above the unfinished home shaping up to look like one of these Antebellum South haunted plantations upon completion.

    ˇ°Am I going to have another character abducted?ˇ± Marjo yelps. ˇ°What did I do, or fail to do, to deserve this?ˇ±

    However, the UFOˇŻs not looking to lock in someone into a tractor beam, but beams an alien down to meet with her male trans. Is it alien law enforcement or CPS going to ask for something of my male trans?

    The alien agent makes a message pop on MarjoˇŻs screen.

    ˇ°This is the Xorrak Child Protection Services. It has come to our attention that a baby from our species was born our your world. We offer you the opportunity to either keep the baby or to have it sent back to our world. However, because communications between our worlds are impossible, please be advised that, if you send back the alien baby to our world, there is no possibility of recovering the baby!ˇ± a metallic voice sounds on-screen.

    ˇ°ItˇŻs tough. For a while now, I just played with the hand I was given. IˇŻm keeping Hormizd under my custody!ˇ± Marjo announces to her followers.

    Or rather, no possibility of recovering alien babies yet. Maybe, later down the road, we could visit an alien world, and then go to the CPS office to adopt alien babies, with priority being given to player-abandoned babies, just like the vanilla worldˇŻs CPS, Gordon thinks about what would happen to alien babies who were sent back home at birth.

    ˇ°Yeah, your baby being alien is not an excuse to abandon her! This game gave us a glimpse of what a world would look like if people could get along in DEI, even though a lot of DEI setbacks happened in the real world!ˇ± Gordon sermons the streamer.

    ˇ°There will be only one baby shower for Hormizd once the home is complete, I wonˇŻt host any other one!ˇ± Marjorine announces to her followers.

    Speaking of which, she gains followers who kept alien babies, some of whom didnˇŻt even get ransoming attempts made against them at all. However, it makes some of them want to meet with the baby, in hopes of getting future favors with her. And maybe even help them build rooms or greenhouses.

    ˇ°Oh I would love to see you design outfits that feel alien...ˇ± Yortson tells her.

    ˇ°I appreciate yˇŻallˇŻs help, especially those among you who farmed VLS yesterday!ˇ± Marjo stops short of telling who farmed VLS yesterday.

    Viewer: How could you tell that someone farmed VLS?

    ˇ°VLS farmers tended to be fatter!ˇ± Artabeles tells the cold, hard truth about

    ˇ°Most players only have their characters eat when they need to!ˇ±

    Meanwhile, Artabeles realizes that heˇŻs overdue in getting his new home built, so he buys the largest lot size players can buy for housing, much like Marjo did. Surprisingly, such lots donˇŻt actually cost that much, but are often treated by the game as upscale lots.

    Time to build a mansion worthy of a gyan-avspar! If IˇŻm not mistaken, gyan-avspars tended to live in luxury when in Ctesiphon, that is, at court, and sometimes gyan-avspars could be rewarded with command of a castle or city for meritorious service as a gyan-avspar, he muses as he also starts building his very own Islamic-style mansion, starting with the iwan. And also hiring, in-game, a nanny to take care of Tiffany and his other adoptee.

    Yet, the in-game media descends upon both playersˇŻ unfinished mansions, but for very different reasons.

    ˇ°WhatˇŻs going on here?ˇ± Marjo screams when she sees journalists descend upon her unfinished mansion.

    ˇ°Are alien babies such a rare occurrence in the game that the media wants to have a piece of the action, at least for the time being?ˇ± Gordon asks himself, even though he knows that only a handful of players get abducted every in-game night.

    ˇ°Yeah, what makes Hormizd so special?ˇ± Yortson asks her. ˇ°Surely other alien babies were born before yours!ˇ±

    ˇ°The question is: what gender identities and orientations do the other human parents of alien kids have?ˇ± Manolia asks.

    Sigrun enters the voice chat. ˇ°Or perhaps itˇŻs more to do with the family, and not the baby! You see, Marjo, to the eyes of the game world, your mainˇŻs a famous fashion designer, so even your mainˇŻs siblings and partners have some fame, too!ˇ±

    Ouch: as with Marjo, I am playing RCG because I could get, in-game, what my real life couldnˇŻt provide. However, I feel like Marjo has all this exciting stuff happening to her, and here I am, harvesting pine for others to build homes, and NPC prefabricated wall manufacturers are buying the production from the Haunted Bazaar, Gordon seems a little let down by his experience of playing the game. I guess, time to resume grinding the parties! Then again, I was told that there was a wave of mass child abandonment last night. Who knows how old they are by now, if there are any left from that whole VLS farming fiasco... and also I was told about how some higher-tier parties require throwing children-exclusive parties to unlock.

    Gordon then checks against the list of abandoned children available for adoption. He realizes that the mass child abandonment left in the wake of the VLS farming also gives him more choices than before the wave. With little fear that he would need to face the court hearing minigame.

    ˇ°I guess, IˇŻm a little late to the child-rearing party. Maybe I should try IVF...ˇ±

    ˇ°IVF? Are you crazy? ThatˇŻs the most expensive way to get a baby in the game!ˇ± Sigrun warns him. ˇ°After I was barred from adopting children, I once considered IVF, but IVF really amounts to commercial surrogacy! On top of that, my own baby would have arrived too late for VLS farming!ˇ±

    Sigrun then whispers Marjo on Discord, asking for permission to post a link to her guide to IVF in RCG. Sure, post your IVF guide... Marjo sighs before looking at the IVF guide.

    There are two IVF methods in the game : one has the intentional parent donate genetic material of some sort, and the surrogate mother provides the rest, or the intentional parents donate an embryo made with their genetic material, but the surrogate mother doesnˇŻt have any genetic linkage, Gordon reads through the guide and realizes the second method is more expensive, but even the costs of the first one makes him squirm. IˇŻll probably go the adoption route, for now, despite not having any genetic ownership of the childˇ­

    ˇ°I guess, I could show these journalists the baby, along with the haunted mansion under construction!ˇ± Marjo reluctantly takes the paparazzi to HormizdˇŻs room, where the nanny is busy putting up wallpaper while Hormizd is fast asleep.