Watching the seconds tick down on his laptop, Andrew looked at his watch and cursed. It was already 11:30 PM, meaning that most retail store locations were closed. Why not just download it online? Well, he would if he could – but Black Lotus Studios decided to only release physical copies in an attempt to ‘bring the community together.’

Vladimir had once said that due to games being digitally downloaded these days, people didn’t need to leave their residence to get their games, missing the comradery of gaming. He would reminisce how back in the day, he and his friends would wait in line at midnight to pick up their favorite games, allowing them to meet others who were also excited about the game’s release.

Wanting to rebuild that sense of ‘community’ that was lost with the digitization of videogames, Vladimir convinced Black Lotus Studios to only sell physical copies. There was a lot of pushback at first due to the cost of printing, shipping, logistics, inventory management, creating display cases, communicating with retail outlets, and a plethora of other things that would hurt their profits. But Vladimir, like he always did, got his way. And more importantly, it worked.

The physical copies were readily received by the masses – tapping into the ‘nostalgia’ of veteran gamers and introducing a new experience for the younger generation. The only people who were hurt by this were the introverts, but once they heard how amazing Final Conquest was, they were willing to brave the crowds to get their hands on it.

Andrew had to admit that the sentiment and reasoning behind creating physical copies were nice, but he still couldn’t get over how much of a nightmare it was from a profit perspective.

The logical thing to do, once deciding that they were going with the physical copy approach, would have been to raise the price of the game to account for the losses from labor and marketing… but they didn’t. They kept it at the standard competitive digital download pricing, and it’s still that price to this day.

He had said something about… earning the hearts and trust of gamers creates lifetime sales.

Snapping back into reality, Andrew cleared his throat. “Samantha, where is the closest game store from here?”

Her cool robotic voice played over the speakers. “One Up Games is four miles away.”

“Can you call them please?”

“Calling now.”

The all too familiar tone of the phone trying to connect was quickly cut off and an automated message began to play. “Hello, and thank you for calling One Up Games! If you are getting this message, then we are closed…”

Andrew cursed under his breath. He couldn’t be too upset; it was extremely unreasonable for a retail store to be open this late. He would just have to go as soon as it opened… There was nothing he could do. Still, the thought of losing so many hours waiting for a store to open pained him.

“Samantha, you ca-“ Andrew stopped talking as he realized there was more to the automated message.

“If you are calling about the midnight launch for Final Conquest: Fire Skies we are ready to roll and are excited to see you tonight! Get here early; the line will be long!”

That’s right; the game was releasing tomorrow… which meant tonight! What an amazing stroke of luck. Even though he still couldn’t wrap his head around the concept of a midnight launch and that people were willing to go to one… Andrew was happy that at this moment in time, it existed. Now he didn’t have to wait till morning to get a copy of it – wasting all those hours.

“Please start the car and upload the destination of One Up Games to the navigation.”

“Done.”

Reaching his hand towards the laptop, Andrew went to close it but stopped himself. If he closed it, what would happen to the program? Would it stop? Would it think he was giving up and delete all of the data? He slowly took his hand away from the laptop and stared at it for a long and hard moment – resolving himself for the days to come.

“I’ll figure out the answer, Vladimir. No matter what.”

With that, Andrew turned away from the laptop and made his way through the house and into the garage.

The garage was big enough to hold three cars comfortably and had a station for a workbench and extra storage. Andrew’s car sat in the middle of the garage with the pulsing charging cable hanging from the ceiling. The charging cable attached to his car snapped off and ascended towards the ceiling while the car’s charging port closed itself.

A soft ding echoed through the garage and the floor beneath the car began to rotate, bringing the car’s front towards the garage door. Once done rotating, the car started up and opened the driver’s side door where Andrew quickly took his seat inside. The garage door started to rise.

The interior of the car was a sleek gunmetal grey except for the silver accents lining the dashboard. A soft blue light flickered, and a HUD appeared on the windshield.

Samantha’s voice played over the car’s speakers. “Directions to One Up Games have been uploaded.”

A detailed map pulled up on the windshield’s HUD showing a checkered flag at One Up Games. The map shrunk in size and placed itself on the bottom left corner of the windshield. Her voice came through the speakers again.

“Do you want me to drive?”

Grinning, Andrew gripped the steering wheel firmly. “No, I’ll drive.”

Andrew threw the car into drive and flew down the driveway and onto the street. He could feel his blood pumping through his entire body. It wasn’t because he was driving like a maniac; it was due to him venturing out into the unknown. He wasn’t the type of person to do things impulsively. He liked to take his time and think thoroughly about the situation at hand to find the best possible solution. But this situation… threw him on his head. It was everything he hated.

“Samantha, call my father please.”

The phone rang twice before being picked up by an exhausted sounding man. “Two calls in the same evening? Are you alright?”

“Sorry to call you again father, I know you have a lot of work to get done - but this is important.”

His father sighed. “What is it, Andrew?”

“Vlad left me something in his will. It seems to be a scripted program with information on how to save Body Gear and Black Lotus Studios.”

Andrew’s father chuckled. “That boy, having safety precautions set in place… he cared about us, didn’t he?”

Andrew gritted his teeth. “I… wouldn’t quite say that.”

“What do you mean?”

Stopping at a red light, Andrew checked his mirrors to make sure they were aligned properly. “The program he left me said that I have to beat Final Conquest’s tutorial in four days or all of the information on the device he left me will be deleted.”

A loud creaking of a chair followed by a fist slamming onto a desk sounded from the speakers. “What?! Why would he do that?”

Knowing full well why Vladimir did what he did, Andrew chuckled softly to himself. There was no way in hell he would tell his father that he never played Final Conquest. On top of everything that was happening, he didn’t want his father to know that his son was a horrible friend.

“I have no idea, but I’m rushing over to a local game store to pick up a copy of Final Conquest. It’s the midnight launch for the new expansion.”

Silence filled the car. The light turned green, and Andrew pressed down the accelerator, flying down the empty street.

“You don’t have a copy of Final Conquest?”

Uh oh. Did he just sell himself out?

“I – I do! I just thought I would get the newest expansion, you know?”

“You don’t need the newest expansion to play the tutorial.”

Not only did his father figure out that he’s never owned the game, but he also just got caught lying to him. Andrew could feel sweat beading down his forehead.

“Andrew, I’m very disappointed in –“

Andrew cut him off abruptly. “Father, can we not do this right now? I understand what I’ve done and feel horrible about it. I don’t need someone else driving that nail into me any harder. I’m going to make this right; that’s why I’m heading over to the game store right now, so I can pick up a copy and start playing as soon as possible.”

“You’ve… played a game, right Andrew? I know you don’t like video games much, but you’ve at least tried one on the Splicer, right?”

“…No.”

“Good lord, we’re screwed.”

“Oh come on, I’m not a total idiot! I know how it all works; I’ve just… never played a game.”

“Whatever you say…”

Gripping the steering wheel tightly in anger, Andrew couldn’t help but scoff. He understood his father’s doubts, but he didn’t need his own father’s doubts combined with his own to weigh down on him. He hated to admit it, but he had no idea what he was doing.

“Anyway, I just wanted to call and let you know what was happening. I won’t be coming into the office until I beat the tutorial.”

“Look, Andrew. If you want to take a few days off to play a game, just let me know! You don’t need to make up all this –“

“I’m not making this up!” Andrew felt himself grinding down on his teeth.

“It was a joke, Andrew…”

Andrew took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. The pressure of the situation was clearly getting to him. He needed to try his best to stay calm and think rationally.

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I have a lot going on. That’s all.”

“It’s okay Andrew. I shouldn’t have made light of your situation. I’m sorry.”

Smiling, Andrew noticed that he was approaching his destination and focused back on the road.

“I’m close to the game store. I’m going to pop in, grab the game, and head back home.”

Sharp laughter caught Andrew off guard.

“Wait… you’re -,” His father stopped for a moment and chuckled. “Never mind. Call me with updates on how you’re doing. You know, I’ve logged a few hundred hours in Final Conquest myself! If you need help or get stuck with anything, let me know.”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “I’ll let you know if I have any questions. Goodnight.” He hung up the phone with the press of a button on the steering wheel. Soon after, he made a left turn and found himself on the main road of a shopping strip. Hundreds of people were walking on the sidewalks in the same direction.

Why were so many people out and about? He shrugged and kept driving. The further he drove, the denser the sidewalks became with people. After a moment, he found himself sitting idle in his car in front of a giant building with what looked like hundreds, if not thousands of people pouring into it.

“No way… This is –“

Samantha interrupted him. “You have arrived at One Up Games.”