"You have said before that Ashes of God was your pet project long before Omega9 took it. How is that?"
The interviewer stretched his hand for his guest to speak—a middle-aged man with a round frame that already lost half of his hair.
"Ashes of God was a project that I and some of my friends were working on since our university days. We’ve put in lots of effort, sleepless nights, missed classes… By the end of the four years, we had a functioning product. It’s just that it was nothing like we first envisioned. We had a dream, but we dreamt too big. Like Icarus flying to the sun, our wings were burnt, and we were about to fall from the skies. That's when Omega9 approached us."
The barrage of juicy information was something that the interviewer didn’t expect, but it was a welcome surprise. A smile covered his face.
“You guys have put in such incredible effort and hard work. Four years of your life… That’s not cheap. Now the question I wanna ask is what exactly did Omega9 give you that you didn’t already have or could easily procure.”
The guest chuckled.
"Now that’s one loaded question. It’s easier for me to count the number of things they didn’t give us rather than the opposite. We were just a bunch of teens who had no idea about the scope of the beast they awakened. We needed artists, programmers, hardware guys, beta testers, and most importantly, money to put food on the table. O9 gave us all of that and more."
The guest’s statement piqued the journalist’s curiosity.
“But there must have been something that distinguished your game from the thousand others. Something that made Omega think that you guys had it, that this game had potential.”
“Haha, I’m not sure. I guess it was our experimentalist approach that earned us their favor. Gosh, it’s been what? Ten, fifteen-year since then? By that time, Deep Machine Learning and AI made all the news while MMOs were nowhere to be heard. I guess we were one of the few who decided to integrate them in such a way that has never been done before, and O9 saw potential in that.”
"Interesting. Now, let’s talk more about the game. I know that you can’t tell us much but what feature do you think would be the most interesting to the people? "
The interviewee felt hesitant. He pointed his eyes towards the roof then scratched his head while grunting.
"I would say… Time Dilation. It’s something that only existed until now in scientific papers. There are some minigames out there that do have it, but nothing to the scale, depth, and breadth of Ashes of Gods. I think, if I had to choose, this would be the most “hype” feature as the kids call it."
The host’s mouth shaped a perfect “O.” His face the perfect description of the word “surprise.”
"Woah, time dilation? I don’t know what that means, but that sounds cool as all hell."
The guest chuckled at the interviewer’s reaction.
"Haha, right? Well, in simple terms, Time Dilation enables a player to get three to five times as much playtime as normal. Sometimes this can go up to some crazy numbers, ten, twenty, a hundred! This is done through some hardware magic that makes the brain work faster. It's better than sudoku to train the brain too!"
The interviewee burst out laughing at his own joke. The interviewer tried to continue his questioning.
"That’s very interesting. But returning to your team and friends from college, are they still in the project?"
The guest stayed silent for a moment. His laughing face was no more. Only after a few seconds did he break the ice.
“Ah, my friends. Yes. Some of them stayed, some of them went on with their lives. Honestly, they were all great men and women, and all of them did well for themselves.”
* * *
The interview then continued without much ruckus. Shesmu, who was watching it through his smart lenses, exited the stream, frustrated.
He leaned back on his chair and sighed. He then took off the smart lenses and scratched his eyes. The little devices strained his pupils. He put them in their case before sitting up. He then walked up and down the room, lost in his thoughts.
Okay, let’s recall. After I came back, what happened? Scenes from throughout the day in his head. The film then paused at the image of his daughter, amidst the desert, within that dream. Shesmu bit his lips.
No, no, focus on what’s important, Mark!
He shook his head to get the scene away from his mind. He thought back to the mail he received, that piece of hope. Someone out there knew what happened to him. He didn’t know or care whether they were the one who initiated the incident or if they were also just a victim. The only thing that mattered was that he wasn’t alone.
After reading that mail, Shesmu tried to look for any indication of the sender. The mail used was a throwaway. The IP address it was sent from linked to one location: Turkey, Batman. Obviously, this was just the address of a proxy the sender used.
Digital forensics led to a dead-end, so Shesmu explored the only avenue left for him: Ashes of Gods. The mail did say that they would meet in Ashes of Gods. As such, Shesmu read every article, watched every piece of news, interview, or anything even remotely related to the game. Unfortunately, no dice.
Shesmu lowered his head and sighed. He spent all night looking for traces of this mysterious sender. He opened the curtain of his windows only to see the fifty shades of orange painting the sky. It was the dawn of a new day.
“Guess I won’t have any sleep today.” Shesmu yawned. “Seth, prep me coffee.”
“Understood, Mark.”
The old man's voice of Seth somehow made Shesmu feel a sense of reassurance. These past few days took their toll on Shesmu’s mental state. Things outside of his control kept interfering with him, and he got no say in anything. However, this couldn’t keep going. He needed to control his own life.
“Mark, your coffee is ready. Do you want it at your desk?”
Shesmu hummed in response. A squared portion of the desk caved in. A cup full of hot coffee then popped up from the hole as if it was an elevator.
Other than the cup, the desk didn’t have anything on it. Shesmu sat down on his chair before hovering his hand over the table. A black and green holographic keyboard appeared on top of it. At the same time, a massive holographic screen popped into existence in front of Shesmu.
Shesmu opened the official site of Ashes of Gods as he sipped on his coffee. In bold, golden, stylized letters, it displayed the beta's opening date: July 1st, 2041 00.00 E.S.T.
“Four days left…” Shesmu’s mind wandered. With all the events that happened and the emotional rollercoaster, he didn’t get the chance to appreciate the craziness of what happened to him truly. Fans spent thousands of hours before trying to compare him with legendary players of the past. Now, he could face them for real. However, before even thinking about that, Shesmu had to settle some scores first.
“Dawn..” His fist clenched, and his eyebrows furrowed. “If I were to work under you again this time, then I am truly a dog that deserves the stick.”
Remembering Dawn’s Resonance and how easily they got rid of Allan from the team, Shesmu was infuriated. He closed the Ashes of Gods’ website and opened his messaging app. At the top of his contacts was Allan Rivera. He clicked on it and sent him a message. He asked to meet him at eight in the park.
The clock showed at half-past five. There was still quite a bit of time until the meeting. As such, Shesmu decided to go for a morning jog.
He took off his pajamas and put on a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, sports socks, and sneakers pair. He went down the stairs and exited the house.
On his morning jog, Shesmu made sure to take notice of the changing scenery. The old buildings, the alleyways that were since closed, the fast-food he would always go to after school. Shesmu felt alien. Looking at these memories coming back to life, he felt like a ghost looking back at the past.
In those early hours of the day, there was barely anyone on the streets. Only a few joggers and the robots cleaning the streets. Shesmu took a few detours around the residential areas.
Even though the city was full of towering apartments and skyscrapers, joggers could still enjoy the beauty of the sun and the freshness of grass thanks to smart buildings. This was one of the many gifts of the AI boom.
Shesmu came back to his house soaked in sweat. After an hour of running, he was almost out of breath.
“Dammit…” He huffed and puffed. “Forgot that my body used to be this weak.”
“Welcome back, Mark.” A robot holding a set of clean clothes welcomed Shesmu.
Shesmu jumped on the sofa, dead tired from jogging. He caught his breath before responding, “Thanks, Seth… Please prepare me a bath; I’m sweating bullets.”
“Understood, Mark. For breakfast, what do you want?”
“Ehh, toast, sausages, and some apple juice, please.”
“Right away then.”
The robot made its way towards the bathroom while Shesmu was still recovering. He took a few more deep breaths before jumping back to his feet. Shesmu followed after the robot and climbed up the stairs. He opened the door to the bathroom only to find steam covering the air. Shesmu then took off his clothes and jumped straight into the bathtub.
“Ah, nothing beats a nice warm bath!”
Stretching his feet all the way to the edge of the tub, Shesmu felt relaxed. His aching back and thigh muscles were no longer in pain. Relieved from the tension, Shesmu sunk into his thoughts. Now that he went back into the past, there were a few things that he needed to check off his bucket list. And first on that list was taking care of his business with Dawn’s Resonance.
“Mark, your breakfast is ready.”
Seth’s voice awoke Shesmu from his stupor. He went out of the bathtub and dried himself with the prepared towels Seth left him. He put on his clothes and went back to his bedroom.
His breakfast was ready on top of his desk. Shesmu booted up his holographic computer with a flick of his finger while nibbling on his grilled toasts. He then opened his mail and searched for Dawn’s Resonance. He looked at all mails containing the tag one by one until he found the one he was looking for—Contract Renegotiation Before Free Agency.
Shesmu clicked on the mail and read all of it slowly, making sure that he doesn’t miss a single word. After reading it twice, Shesmu smiled. His contract with Dawn will be void in two days. A meeting was scheduled today at night to renegotiate the terms. However, while the executives over at Dawn may be coming to the meeting willing to negotiate a good deal, Shesmu was not. He was already exasperated by their antics and way of doing business in his past life. He wasn’t going to repeat that same mistake.
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