A short while later, a certain friendly neighborhood ninja girl gazed thoughtfully at her mirror. Yet another round of meetings was about to commence, but until then she chose to sit in her sanctum sanctorum, the room she occupied in the Origin Entertainment Empire’s business fortress.

The changes coming to the world she was assigned to for community service were numerous and done poorly. Non-disclosure agreements being what they were, she could not even make any legal headway against the one’s causing the greatest strife. If she did take information to the right ears, that is all that it would be. The legal status of that world was that of a project world. It was ruined so completely due to the ill-performed world update that anything those idiots did to it would still be considered an improvement.

Matters were made worse due to the fact that everyone on Earth had to agree to the current situation. Certainly, it would be seen as being agreed to under duress, but the legality would not be in dispute.

Shara closed her eyes, a look of exhaustion slipping across her face. For a brief moment, she looked as weary as she felt in the depths of her heart. It did not last long, however. A bright smile crossed her lips. Her eyes began to sparkle. No one would be able to see past such a cheerful disposition. It was the face that she showed to the world after all.

A message appeared on her mirror. She frowned at it petulantly, then rose from her seat. Today she wore a business suit that accentuated some of her positives. It was a day for seriousness, not the fun sort of cosplay that she adored.

Lightly, she pressed her professional looking glasses back and pretended that it turned a switch inside her heart. In all honesty she did not need to wear glasses, the effect was quite transformative. It was time to get down to business.

Ponytail wafting elegantly behind her, she strode out of the room with her nose in the air. She channeled the essence of her beloved big sister, Origin, and tried to look cold and aloof. Her ridiculous smile and bright eyes, however, ruined the effect.

No one greeted her today. Silence would not be joining the meeting. It was meant to be a discussion between department heads. Shara was the goddess of darkness, so she was technically in charge of a department.

The current headquarters building for the project was a modest forty-two story building on the outskirts of the Valhalla district. The prices for such real estate were obscene, but in the end, it was just one more reason to consider the people in charge of the project to be incompetent. Licensing fees for the Origin world engine were not cheap.

A lot of corners had to be cut due to the nature of the project budget. While money was not really something a god needed, it was part of the fun of living like mortals. So, money became important just for the sake of immersion into such a lifestyle. With such a life came all manner of pressures and concerns, but at least it was better than puttering around with nothing to do.

Shara arrived at the headquarters building then looked upward. Such a small, unimpressive thing, not unlike the project chairman.

The meeting was to take place on the top floor, a sign of the pomposity of the chairman. All of the department heads, numerous individuals who wore varying visages of mortal life. Some were in cosplay outfits. There were fantasy adventurer’s who looked like elves. There were people dressed like steam punk dwarves. An orc with an oversized ham sat off to one side. It was a typical gathering, really.

Gods adored mortal life, in the divine city that meant mortal humans and their fictional pursuits. The fact that such creatures as orcs and elves did exist outside of such fantasy works was beside the point. The human stories made them far more fascinating.

Shara took her seat, which was near the ham-stuffed orc god. He offered her some mead and ham, but she politely declined. She did not want to deal with the chairman of this project committee on a full stomach.

The orc god laughed uproariously then slapped her on the back in good natured fun. More ham and drink for him!

Several more divinities meandered into the room in varying states of dress. More than a few appeared in their pajamas, and one guy wore nothing but a speedo.

Silence was busy and would not attend the meeting, though he was technically in charge of death. That left only Shara to represent both her department and the world engine. Numerous gods soon recalled who she was then began to lob questions her way.

As usual, they wanted to ask why certain aspects of the world codex only worked in one manner or another. Their lack of skill at using it inevitably led to statements about how it lacked user friendly features and a proper DUI, or Divine User Interface.

“You could always ditch this building and pay premium subscription licensing costs for the engine instead of utilizing the open source freemium model,” she said for what must have been the thousandth time in the last few decades.

The college age deities immediately balked at the idea of paying for anything on a regular basis. There was a free open source version! Only a sucker would pay for a premium subscription with all included assets, engine components, and cutting-edge updates when they could just raise funds and buy additional features as needed.

Of course, if anyone tried to tell them that the freemium model actually cost the project more over time than a standard licensing fee, they would act like they had been assaulted. It was free! Nothing was cheaper than free.

Sax arrived long after everyone else, the customary smugly condescending smile plastered across his face. He wore a pristinely white suit cut on an old-fashioned style. Shara could not help but think of him as an evil Colonel Sanders. He lacked only the white hair and a bucket of chicken.

His smugness slipped into an angry scowl. “Have you all forgotten common courtesy?”

“No one’s going to stand and salute when you enter the room, jackass,” said the orc. “My father’s an officer in the defense core and even he doesn’t want me to do that when he walks into the room.”

Sax glared at the orc then wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Trust one such as you to—”

“Such as me?” asked the orc. “Putting on airs, are we? Last I checked, you used to lead an entire monster guild.”

Another divinity snickered openly. “Used to.”

It was Shara. She made no attempt to hide her disdain for the chairman. Though, she did keep her perpetually bright smile and shining eyes in place throughout her part of the exchange.

The orc flashed her a feral grin then waved his hand. A large drinking horn appeared, and he took a mighty sip.

Sax sent Shara a death glare, but he said nothing. He could not afford to lose his temper to any great extent while he needed to keep the support of his followers.