The entire office was abuzz with the news of the upcoming launch. Everyone was excited and Nelson entered the CEO’s office with a spring in his step. The boss was sitting behind his desk as usual typing an email.

“Ahhh, Nelson you have the latest reports?” The CEO said with an unusual amount of cheer in his voice. He looked up from his work and smiled.

“Yessir, III has completed his NPC behavior algorithms. We are prepping the testers for expulsion now. We’ve had legal sorting out all the forms and we’ve uploaded the new memory modifications to the machines. We’ll be pulling them out later today.” He explained, finishing his report.

“Perfect. Get to it then. Have the system roll back all achievements, wipe the characters, and reset all NPC’s. That should be everything on the technical front.” He picked up some more papers and shuffled them reading. “Looks like sales are booming. We’ve already sold 200,000 systems and games. With twice that many on a waiting list. We’re preparing to scale up production on the Mk. III systems and should have a million players in six months. Things are finally coming to fruition. Just get the testers out and take a few weeks off Nelson. You’ve earned it.” The CEO waved Nelson out of the office then went back to his email. He’d been sent a report flagged by analytics. He opened the attachment and glanced at the log. Strange but it wasn’t anything too serious. Just a hick-up. He gave it one more glance and hit to delete button. Launch was in 10 days and he had a speech to practice for the board.

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I took another sip of Sten’s stout and smiled as the room wobbled around me. I’d already had a full mug, and decided I’d better not finish this one if I was going to make it upstairs. The inn was packed tonight and was filled with the clink of mugs, lively chatter, and off key singing. I’d been living it up for the last two days. Everyone in town was treating me like a king and the whole village had been swept up in a festive atmosphere.

I was living large and loving every minute of it. With the copper and all the drops from the dungeon I’d made nearly 50 gold, leveled up twice, and unlocked another achievement.

Slayer Of The Rat King

Bonus: +5000 to Fame with NPC’s in Valor’s Crossing

Bonus: +3% damage against all monsters with Rat type

I pushed away from the bar, waved at Sten, and used all my willpower to focus on climbing the stairs. Being drunk here was a rather odd experience. You got all the side-effects, the spinning vision, the loss of balance, the reckless courage, but your thoughts were still sharp. I missed the top step but managed to catch myself before falling. Smiling stupidly I opened the door to my room and fell into my cushy bed.

Ahhhhhh, Heaven

I still had all my level ups and various rewards to sort though. I’d gone through my log, but had yet to check out my skills, my new levels, or pretty much anything else. I’d treated the last two days like a vacation. I could deal with everything tomorrow tonight I just wanted to relax. I closed my eyes and was drifting off when my door creaked open. I knew who it was but even if I hadn’t guessed the smell of wildflowers would have given her away.

“I thought I told you we weren’t doing this. I’m not staying in the village.” I said exasperated. I’d managed to put her off last night but apparently she planned the press the issue this evening. Sleeping with a beautiful woman wasn’t exactly a negative but having a one-night stand and then leaving afterwards didn’t sit right, even if she wasn’t a real person.. Besides, I still couldn’t figure her out. She’d never really even been friendly with me. It was hard to guess at her motives did she really like me or was it some weird NPC compulsion from my 5000+ fame points.

“And I thought I told you I knew that already. Stop treating me like some green girl. I’m a woman and older than you are. I’m not some moon-eyed maiden you're taking advantage of.” Hanna said from a few feet away.

I sat up but she stepped toward me and pushed me down on the bed pressing her lips against mine. She shifted her weight onto me, and I slid my hands up her legs and over her hips pulling her tighter against me. She let out a throaty chuckle and started pressing kisses to my neck as she pulled at her dress.

“You don’t seem to be resisting very hard” She teased as I ran my hands up under her dress. Her skin felt amazing and the feel of her back as she tugged at my shirt finally broke my meager resistance. I groaned into her neck and ran kisses down onto the tops of her breasts. I reached around her, bunched my shoulders, and ripped her dress completely off.

Thank you 40 strength score

I got one fleeting glimpse of her nude form in the silver moonlight from my window before a red warning message popped up over my vision.

Forced Log-out Activated