『Thank You for playing the Beta of Heavy Metal Dawn! Your total play sessions will be reviewed for Quality Assurance purposes and for potential bugs. Please note that due to your total playtime in the game being in the top 10%, you will be allowed to play the full build one day early. We will contact you again when you can begin Early Play and/ or if there are issues with your experience. Thank you for playing! 』

The world around Axton faded away to white, leaving him in the near void that was the VR Pod’s main menu area. Axton felt tired. He had just barely made it; killing that bastard with just a few seconds to spare. Now he could feel the weight of the world lifting from his shoulders. It was as though he had fulfilled the dying wish of some old and venerable ancient, but that could not have been further from the reality. In a way, it could be seen as his finally dealing with the obligation he had set himself to, and now that his work was done, he no longer had the need for such stress.

It was amazing to him how good he felt at that current moment. The stress he had built up during his long play sessions had finally washed off of him, and he felt as though he was at least ten pounds lighter. He was about to log out and then exit the pod, but the world around him began to shift again and he quickly found himself sitting in a rather stereotypical office meeting room.

There was a long table between him and the person opposing him, and just like with the GM this person’s identity had some serious protection. It was clear that they were female, but that could have been just another safeguard against any nefarious (i.e., anti-business) plans.

“Mr. Ryker, may I say that I am overjoyed to finally meet you. I am Ms. I4[*nf1, but you can just call me Ms. Marketing.”

Axton sighed and shook his head. Of course they would send someone like this to try and weasel more out of him. Or at least that is what he expected the owners of the game to try and do.

“Now, now. I can see why you are a bit cross. But you couldn’t honestly have expected us to just ignore such a wonderful opportunity to get a bit of money for both you and us, now could you?”

Axton leaned back in his seat and replied with an overly casual line about how he was naïve to expect that people like them would ever keep their word, even when it was written and signed.

“Oh?” The enigmatic woman asked, effectively validating Axton’s hypothesis before even continuing. “Was there a contract? Our records don’t have anything of the like.”

Axton kept his gaze up and the fake ceiling with his neck partially bending over the cheap office chair his avatar was seated in and groaned a simple “Of fucking course” as a response.

“Now, now, Mr. Ryker. Please be aware that we do intend to compensate you for any footage we use. Mind you, we will add or subtract a bit here and there, so any cinematics that you see on the web that have your gameplay in them may or may not meet the specifications needed for us to pay you for them. We have to make things even more enticing, and that takes time and money of our own. You understand, right?”

Axton did not avert his gaze from the tiles above him and just said “Get on with it.”

Axton’s uncaring attitude was obviously getting on the employee’s nerves, but she remained as professional as always.

“What I’m trying to say is that you may find-.”

“I know. I know you’ll go to any length you can to avoid compensating me for my work. So just get on with it and tell me that I will be compensated with nothing for what I did during my time in the Beta. Tell me what I know you are going to say and stop beating around the bush.”

“…”

Axton’s mouth twisted into a smirk as he threw the fact that he already knew what was going to happen back into the face of the employee.

“Well, Mr. Ryker, there are ways we can pay you for the footage. You just need to sign a-.”

Axton interrupted her again, responding in an ever less professional tone.

“Yes, yes. You want me to sign a contract with you that keeps me from playing any other games until the contract expires and you also get to have the option to just thrust me into shit when I don’t expect it so you can make bank on my misery.”

“An… odd way of putting it, but yes.”

Axton finally stopped using his eyes to bore a hole through the virtual ceiling and looked at the obscured employee in the area where her eyes should be.

“No.”

This refusal caught the employee off guard.

“E-excuse me, but you do understand that this will-.”

“I have other ways of getting money, in case you didn’t remember one of the key features of your own game. I tried to have a decent contract with you guys previously, but since that apparently never existed and you insist on me signing away my freedom for a bit of chump change, then I’ll have to refuse. I still have a copy of the contract from my end, but I doubt you’ll take it, so I will say that you will need to either take my footage without compensating me or just find someone else to exploit. At the former, please be aware that I, too, know some people and that I, too, have ways of making you give me what is my rightful due.”

“You… you don’t seriously believe that bluff will keep us from using your footage, do you?”

“Well, what power do I or my comrade in arms have to stop you? Besides, once the game hits its full release there will be tons of other Players for you to trick into improperly weighted contracts and I do have a friend with a lot of money and a damn good legal team. I figure, if you’re just going to take what I put my back into anyways, why further sell my independence when I can keep it and enjoy myself, especially when I can sue you for using what you stole from me?”

At this, the disguised employee shook her head and stood up.

“Then thank you for your time, Mr. Ryker. We will be contacting you when Early Play begins. I certainly hope you understand that, from this point onwards, you won’t be paid even a single cent for your footage. Also, please be aware that we can and will strike any footage you put up on the internet. That was something you could have avoided if you were more agreeable.”

“Whatever you say, leech.” Axton replied with a dismissive wave. He was no longer interested in any contracts. Besides, he still had other ways to get money from these bloodsuckers, especially since his bluff was not actually a bluff. If his gamble paid off, then he would be in a better position than the owners of the game wanted him to start in. He could corner the market on valuable and slightly less than valuable gear and War Suit parts from what was to essentially day -1, but only if the wipe didn’t catch the NPCs he had rescued.

After contemplating the potential risks, Axton was overjoyed when the space around him faded to white once again, and he was finally able to log out and exit the pod. Not a moment too soon, either, as the nutrient and waste containers were nearly empty and full, respectively.