The next several months were, in Evan’s humble opinion, a living hell. He and Jason had been working themselves to the bone in an effort to get everything together as quickly as possible. Lisa was something of a godsend when it came to the core programming of their game, but her grasp of storyline, of those little touches that can be what makes a good game a great game for so many people, was loose and awkward. She was getting better at least, having taken to browsing the internet to learn more about people and how the world works.

Which only stressed Evan out more, he had been on the internet, and the thought of sending an AI with full control over an incredibly advanced and complex manufacturing plant there absolutely terrified him. He almost strangled Jason when he suggested it to her. He was in the middle of stressing out over it all over again when her voice popped out of his communicator. They all had one now, having gone for a few visits over the months to collect goodies and the materials they would need to make this crazy plan work.

“So I was reading this neat thing called a web novel.”

“Oh god, kill me now and get it over with.” Evan muttered.

“Well that’s not very nice, sure the grammar could have used some improvement, okay, a lot of improvement, but the idea was good! I have some basic AI cores we could set up to build an autonomous control network, it would let us create dynamic NPCs and a fluid world that would change and adapt to player activity. I’ve learned a lot about quest building and should be able to set up a framework for a quest system that adapts to the ever-changing world. The AI overseers would handle game balance, and faction dynamics, and so much more, with a bonus of not having any silly loopholes that cause errors and rogue AIs, or evil companies doing sinister brain experiments, or rich gangsters hunting down people in real life because they messed up something in their game because I am the one setting it up, and not some author that needs to inject drama and suspense into his work.

“Well, actually I guess I can’t really do anything about the gangster thing now that I think about it, but it seems a bit far fetched.”

Evan cut in. “Just how many of those web novels did you read, exactly? Other than that I actually hate myself for loving your idea. As long as you can promise the AIs you use can’t come to life like you did, don’t want to be responsible for trapping sentient beings in a video game, which is one of the tropes you missed of the genre.”

He swore he could hear the huge, smug grin in her voice. “All of them! And I didn’t miss it, it’s just not possible with the equipment we’re using. Don’t worry, the cores I have are much less complex than I am, they were intended for the initial craft you guys were supposed to build and lack the capacity required for sentience. I’ll get started right away!”

Evan absently scratched at the stubble on his chin. Suddenly he didn’t have anything to do anymore. With Lisa’s suggestion, all they needed really was an initial start point and the dynamic system should handle everything from there without any further assistance from them, and they already had that. He and Jason spent the last four months compiling it from everything they had spent the last ten years or so writing. “Lisa, did you tell Jason yet?”

“No not yet, did you want me to?”

“Nah I’ll tell him, do you know where he’s at?”

“He’s downstairs in the kitchen mumbling something about coffee.”

Evan perked up at the word coffee. “Thanks Lisa, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Hopefully not literally for a while.”

Evan chuckled and headed downstairs to break the good news to Jason and to help him drink his coffee. Jason reacted about the way he expected, with a fair bit of swearing at everyone for not thinking of it sooner, followed by a cheer and a toast to Lisa, followed by more swearing when he burned his mouth with his swig of coffee.

Kinzie stumbled into the kitchen looking like death warmed over. “This equipment is a nightmare.” She grumbled, snatching Jason’s cup and taking a drink. “Do you have any idea how many patents I need to file? I finally, finally, managed to get everything not only figured out, but functional with purely Earth-based materials, no crazy alien alloys, no special elements that can’t even be found in our solar system because they have to be specially synthesized in crazy alien ways. Other than the stupid nanite injection implant builder nonsense anyways.”

She took a deep breath then another drink of Jason’s coffee before handing it back to him. “Man, that really hits the spot, anyways, finally got all those little details squared away and the final designs all nice and professional-looking, when it hit me just how many teeny-tiny little parts this stuff has. Seventy-three. Seventy-three individual patents. Seventy-three entirely new devices, each of which has to be patented individually! Then another two for each completed helmet! Another for the injector chair, and another for whatever bullshit excuse we can make up for the nanite stuff. I’m going to go mental.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it! I detected the elevated stress levels, and heard your complaints about it, so I went ahead and found the necessary forms, filled them out and submitted them for priority filing. We should be getting back the approved patents within the month!” Lisa chirped from Kinzie’s communicator.

Kinzie sputtered a bit before responding. “Oh my god, Lisa I so wish I could hug you right now, you are an absolute doll and I love you!”

“Happy to help!”

Evan had a sudden realization. “Lisa, are you doing all this because we’ve been so busy and stressed out over the project lately?”

“Well, yes?” She said a bit sheepishly. “I like it when you guys are happy and playing around, but the more you got done the more stressed out everyone was getting, and you weren’t taking care of yourselves as good as you usually did, so I diverted a bit of my processing power to help out with everything. It slowed down my editing and refining of the ship blueprints by a month or two, but we were going to need a way to secure materials to build it anyway, and I have plenty of things that won’t get changed to work on while I finish with the blueprint.”

Evan grinned at his friends. “That’s fine Lisa, you really took a lot of the load off us, and we appreciate the help, just be careful you don’t start acting like some sort of servant instead of our friend, or we will be having quite the stern conversation young lady. Oh, did you do anything to help Rebekkah?”

Lisa giggled at the young lady comment. “No, she doesn’t need any help. I actually considered helping out the people she targets. How is someone so pretty so scary?”

They all burst out laughing. “She’s not scary, she’s just better at her job than those other idiots.” Rebekkah said with a smirk as she walked in.

“Oh gosh! I’m so sorry! I was only kidding!” Lisa practically wailed.

“Rebekkah chuckled. “It’s fine, I understood what you were getting at. I actually might have appreciated you helping some of them, at least then it would have been a challenge. Better clean yourselves up, we have a press conference scheduled for this afternoon. They want to talk to us about our groundbreaking new VR technology and game, and more than a few are probably curious about how four kids right out of college managed to slap together a tech corporation in a few months while filing a mind-boggling amount of revolutionary patents and developing a game from the ground up, but we won’t bother to answer those particular questions. A little mystery is good for our image.”

Lisa spoke up once she was finished in a stage whisper. “Her marketing department is absolutely terrified of her.”

Everyone laughed again, before Jason said. “Wait, she has a marketing department?”

“Oh yes, she’s been setting up all sorts of departments, PR, Sales, Marketing, Legal, the works. Most of them aren’t very big yet, but I’m pretty sure that won’t last. I don’t think she was kidding when she said she was going to take over the world.”

They stopped by Lisa’s ship on the way to the press conference to pick up a toy that Evan was certain would make the event memorable. Now they were sitting in uncomfortable chairs, awkwardly staring at the growing crowd of reporters that were practically squirming in their chairs with impatience. Rebekkah had briefed them on the way over, show them what they could do, show them the tech, answer one question only: When will it be released? Then leave.

When it finally started Kinzie went first. She talked about the tech, explained roughly how it worked, and gave a brief demonstration of both helmets. The reporters were practically chomping at the bit when they saw the brief scenes from the demo they had up on a projector linked to Kinzie’s helmet for the demonstration. Finally, it was Evan’s turn. He had been waiting for his chance to shock the world his whole life, and it was finally here. He stood slowly as Kinzie finished and strolled casually to the podium.

He stood there for a minute, panning his gaze across the crowd, building the tension and giving Jason a chance to get their new toy set up. “I know you are all eager to hear about the game we’ve been developing to pair with our new VR headsets. Now, I could stand up here and wax eloquent about how beautiful and realistic our world is, how dynamic and interactive the NPCs are, and brag about how every action, big or small, has an impact on the world, how the players themselves can shape the world to their will if they possess the will, the talent, and the strength. I would very much rather show you though.

“Not with the flat, two-dimensional screens like we were forced to use while demonstrating the hardware. Unfortunately the software isn’t quite compatible with our other projector yet, but it will get there in no time I’m sure. No, my friends, I plan on showing you our masterpiece in spectacular fashion!” He grabbed hold of the podium and tilted it towards him, lowering it gently to the stage, then started to step back. “Welcome! Welcome one and all, to Shard!” he bellowed, as Jason stepped forward and set down the large, egg-shaped device he had primed square in the center of the stage.

A massive projection filled the room, causing some of the reporters to shriek in surprise as they suddenly found themselves floating nearly a hundred feet in the air over a regal castle, the walls lined with men in resplendent armor, and the streets of the town around it filled with men and women frozen in the middle of countless tasks, it was an image of a vibrant, life-filled town. “What would you like to see ladies and gentlemen? What impossible, magical thing would you care to witness? A dragon?” The image swirled, and a moment later they found themselves staring up at a massive red dragon, frozen mid roar in shock. “Perhaps we have some of the gentler souls among us, peaceful and kind, that would rather we seek out the rarest and most pure magical beast, the Unicorn!” The room spun once more, and gasps filled the air as it resolved into a scene of otherworldly beauty. A majestic waterfall filled the air with glimmering rainbows, while a herd of unicorns frolicked and grazed upon the emerald grass surrounding the pool at the base of the falls.

“Now, alas, I know all too well that not everyone cares for worlds of sword and sorcery, the path of a warrior or wizard simply doesn’t appeal to everyone, some want tech!” The world spun and a gleaming city of twisting spires and flying cars appeared. “They want gunfights and laser blasters, and they want starships!” Instead of swirling out of focus this time, the image simply launched into the sky, the world fell out from underneath them until they found themselves floating in space, staring out at a battle between titans, as two dreadnaughts of drastically different designs bombarded each other with weapons of unimaginable power, surrounded by smaller ships that were darting about in a beautiful, deadly dance of destruction.

“This is what we see as the natural progression of combining the industrial revolution with the scientific method and magic. Before anyone complains about inequality between sides or anything along those lines, bear in mind that the AIs that will be governing the game are quite advanced, and they will ensure that everything is kept balanced. The world is vast, and the two types of civilizations are on opposite sides of the world, each on their own massive continent, with an equally massive ocean separating them. By the time players from the two sides meet, they will doubtlessly be at a fairly similar level of ability, just in different forms.”

He spread his arms wide again and the image winked out, returning them to the suddenly extremely boring and drab little stage. “Any questions?” He asked with a smirk. Some of the reporters still had a death grip on their chairs as though worried they would have plummeted to their doom without it. After a long moment, one of them raised a shaky hand and coughed out a hoarse. “When?

“Ah! Excellent question! We will be releasing worldwide in,” he checked his watch, “exactly five months, twenty-nine days, and fourteen hours. Which for the mathematically disinclined, is midnight May 31st. Or for those that prefer to sleep at night, bright and early June first. Now I’m afraid my time here is up, Farewell and happy gaming!” He waved, reset the podium, and exited the stage. His friends followed him closely, Jason carting the large projector.

“Dude that was epic,” he whispered to Evan, “how did you come up with that on such short notice?”

Evan snorted. “I didn’t, I’ve been planning my ‘big reveal’ moment since I was like, six years old, I used to practice in the mirror and everything. Sure it wasn’t what I expected to be working with, but it was so much better than anything I ever imagined. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have something like a giant holo-projector to work with.”