“Frederick, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Smiling over a cup of tea that he had just made in their small shared apartment. “I assumed you would want to talk. You hinted at leaving Excel a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure if you decided.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, Excel’s policy change is making it difficult for me to stay on. You know my real-world situation, and I just can’t justify it. Maybe I can return, but for now, I need to liquidate as many in-game items as I can.”

“I see. Well, I will be sorry to see you go. We have a good thing going here, and I’m sure you could figure out a way of covering the fees from selling in-game items, but if that is your decision…”

Robert frowned, and said, “I’m sure I could. What I do in-game has been a nice supplement to my income. The medical bills are mostly covered by my insurance. Still, if I’m going to cover my mom’s procedure, I need to figure something else out. Unfortunately, I’m not really into purely combat games, or I’d join the Champions League.”

Frederick responded sadly, “Yeah, I’m sorry, man. Things are tough out there. If I could do more, I would, but I have my own issues.”

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you to, but I appreciate the thought. What I wanted to talk to you about is the shop.” He paused for a moment, planning how to say it without sounding threatening. “I’ll be leaving Excel, and I need to raise some money with what I have in the game. I was hoping to get something for my part of the shop. I wanted to give you the first right of refusal.”

Frederick just took a sip of tea with a slightly worried look on his face. He then said, “I can understand why you’d want to do that, but I don’t really have the funds available to pay you what you could probably get. Especially if the contract with the guild goes through.”

“I didn’t think you’d be able to buy it outright, but I wondered about something.” Frederick looked up from his contemplation. “I don’t need money for a big purchase or anything. What I need is some consistent income, and it doesn’t even have to be much. Here’s what I was thinking. We can draft up an agreement to purchase an additional twenty percent of the shop from me. I’ll keep thirty percent ownership and access to my bedroom. I can put my account on hold for one year for free. That way, I’ll have a verified user name and character to transfer funds to my account. You can then pay for the twenty percent over time. Once you’ve paid off the purchase price, I would keep thirty percent of profits minus a broker fee that you can collect. How does that sound?”

“It sounds like you’ve been thinking about this for a while. You’re aware that there’s a cap to how much your inactive character can keep in the game, right?”

“Yes, that’s why my profits will either be sold on the player marketplace for real Nexus credits or stay in the shop’s ledger. William can keep track of the amounts. So, what do you think?”

“It sounds more than fair. Why are you willing to do it this way?”

“While I can use the money, the amount I get from the game is not life-changing. I would rather you maintain control of the shop since you are the one who built it with me. We get along well, and I may end up coming back to Excel. I really enjoy the game, but my circumstances have changed over the past few years. The escape is pleasant, but not at the cost of other things like money.”

Frederick looked at Robert intently and then said, “Ok, I agree to your terms. Do you have the contract written up?”

“I have a draft from a template I found, but I figured you’d want to take a look and revise. You know, since you’re a lawyer.”

Frederick smiled and said, “I’m not really a contract lawyer, but I’ll take a look. Send me your draft, and I’ll give it a once over and send it back with changes. We can then meet in the Nexus to complete the agreement since we’ll need a notary.”

“Sounds good. I have to get going. Juno is probably out of class, and I have some news for her.”

Frederick’s smiled deepened at this. “So, you’re finally going to ask that girl out?”

“What? Uh, no, we’re not like that. I got a gift from Sam that I wanted to share with her. It’s one reason I’m ok with letting Excel go for a while.”

“Really, now I’m curious. What is it?”

“Sam won passes to Elysium Online in his last tournament, and I have one for her.”

The look on his face changed instantly to shock. “How the hell did you get those?” He paused, collecting himself. “I’m sorry you answered that. Sam is just giving you a pass to Elysium for free?”

“Sam and I have known each other for almost our entire lives, and he’s not really heavily into MMORPG games. He’s a fighter. He wants me and Juno to form a party with him so we can all have a better chance of success.”

“Those passes are going for up to ten thousand a piece on some auction sites!”

Robert had no idea they were that valuable. When he stopped looking at the news about Elysium, they were going for ten thousand, but those were pre-order prices. It only made sense that after selling out, prices on the resale sites would at least double. Six months exclusive access to the hottest new game to come out in years was an enormous deal.

“I didn’t know they were going for that much. I stopped looking once I knew I couldn’t afford them.”

“If Sam has any other tickets, tell him to hold on to them until Wednesday. The last-minute bidding on any remaining tickets will be huge that last two days before launch.”

Robert pulled up his interface and typed out a quick note to Sam about the ticket. “If we had more, I could probably have asked Sam to sell you one at a reasonable price. I’m sorry.”

Frederick put his teacup down and smiled. “Don’t be sorry, Robert. I have a limited amount of time to play Excel, and even the base ticket price was more than I’m willing to pay. Between work, Jenny, and my daughter, I don’t have time for another game. To be honest, if I had a ticket, I’d just sell it, anyway. Maybe after the trial period when they make the updates.”

“Ok, I get it. Other than work and my one class, this is all I really do most nights. Anyway, I need to get going. I’ll send over that draft after I talk to Juno.”

“Ok, Robert, have a great time in Elysium and let me know how it goes. I’ll message you tomorrow about the contract.”

Robert got up from his chair and turned toward his room where his bind point was located and waved back at Frederick. “Good luck with the guild. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do.”

With that last statement, he pulled up his terminal and opened the gateway back to the Nexus.