The target

An assassination? What kind of bad situation have you gotten yourself into Jack? But, I could not back down now. I had heard some people arriving outside of the door, he was probably preparing for both answers.

What a prick.

I took a deep breath and looked at him with killing intent. He knew I had noticed the buffoons waiting for me outside the door, if I did not comply with his request.

I did not smile: " Who is it? "

He grinned evilly: " Chelsea "The Gaming Queen" Rhodes. "

I shook. He was not making this easy for me. Chelsea Rhodes, or better known as the queen of gaming, is one of the world's most influential and famous figures because of the gaming revolution that had happened during the 2050's. Because of the growing amount of people playing games during the last five decades, and more money getting invested in the scene, the gaming industry was now one of the most important industries, and their superstars were even valued higher than the superstars at the early 2010's.

She had risen to fame during all of this, and after becoming one of the most prominent figures in the, at the time, most played Fully-Immersive Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, FI-VRMMORPG for short, she had reached stardom. Today she had a net worth over 10 billion dollars. You could say she was one of the most important people on earth right now, and he wanted me to kill her? It was an impossible mission, if not pure suicide to even attempt to kill her.

I was turning angry: " Are you pulling my leg? It's impossible to kill her for a professional assassin, let alone me. Do you want me to die that badly, that you would send me on a suicide mission? "

He shook his head: " You gotta calm down Jack, I would not send my favourite bouncher towards certain death if I didn't already have a plan in mind. "

I could not tell if he was lying or not. But I had no options but to follow with the current scheme of things. " What do you have in mind? "

He leaned in towards me with his hands held together:" As you know, she lives in a completely different world from you and me. She is currently at the top of the food chain, whilst we are down here with the rest of society's bottom feeders. It would be nigh impossible for you to cross paths with her under normal circumstances.

Pausing, he leaned back in his chair before folding his arms over each other: " So that's why you are gonna get close to her inside of a game, and slowly but surely, make yourself climb up towards her level. And when you finally get close enough, you are gonna take her out like that enemy commander of yours."

It sounded simple, but the plan was full of holes. What gave the man confidence that I even would be able to climb up to the level of professional gamers in a short amount of time?

" You do understand that this plan is doomed to fail from the beginning, if there isn't more to your plan than this." I said whilst trying to found a more comfortable position in the leather chair.

Mr.Camorra looked me deep in the eyes as if he tried to read if I was serious: " Listen here Jack, this is not some plan that I just happened to come up with yesterday. We have been preparing for this plan for over a year now, and you just happened to stumble in it at the right moment. "

" Oh, okay.." My bloody luck to stumble on this kind of trouble. Always the lucky one, are you not Jack?

He picked up the box on table and threw it at me: " Take a look inside of his box and your doubts will disappear."

The box made a thud when I caught it in my hands. You could hear that the thing inside of the box was taking up most of the space.

I removed the tape that had already been removed and reapplied again on the two lids, and opened up the box. I do not now what I was expecting, but this funky-looking helmet was not close to that.

As noticing my reaction, Mr. Camorra elaborated: " That's the module required to play the newest FI-VRMMORPG called Safe Haven, produced by the Oracle Corporation."

My body shook when I heard what company had created the game. The Oracle Corporation, the world's biggest company that was worth over 2 trillion dollars. They have their fingers in every field possible, except for gaming. Or that was what I had thought until now.

He continued: " Mr.Oracle himself has watched the growth of games the last decades and decided to earn his fair share on it. It has taken them nine years creating this game with the help of some of the world's brightest minds. Apparently the game is supposed to be as close to reality as it get, boasting 98.9% realism, almost 20% more than the highest game out on the market. "

I had to try hard to not look amazed. If this information got out in the news, I do not know what kind of storm it would create.

Mr.Camorra leaned forward so he almost whispered in my ear: " Nobody is supposed to know about this information yet, as the game is about to be announced tomorrow. Because of the contacts in my organization, I was able to get a hold of a module before they hit the market. "

Looking up, my face almost touched his: " So what is my role in this? "

He leaned back in his chair again: " Let me finish. This game is not close to being the same as its predecessors. This game is gonna introduce something they are calling "potential scaling". It's gonna factor in your real body's "potential", both your physical and mental, and your stats at the start of the game is gonna be a reflection of how high your so called potential is. The higher the potential, the higher the stats."

I raised my eyebrows:" Is this not gonna create some kind of backlash from the player base? Gamers are not known for their overall fitness level."

Mr.Camorra just laughed at my question: " They do not care. The game is run by a super computer that controls everything, they are just gonna let it dictate the flow of the game without their intervention. The fatties and everybody else are gonna be too hooked on the game to even care about the initial difference that is gonna appear between certain players. "

I realised that he was right. The thought of being able to get your hand on a copy of a game that is almost reality, will probably make most people ignore the potential scaling, and just accept it as a part of the game.

I put the box on the table again and turned sterned: " So you want me to go inside this new game, Safe Haven or whatever, climb up and become one of the best player, and then get close enough to Chelsea Rhodes to kill her? "

" That sounds about right. Even though it sounds like less of a challenge when you say it." He said whilst smirking at me.

My face was still serious. I realised that if I went through with this it meant either two things: A, the death of Chelsea Rhodes, the world's most prominent gamer; or B, me ending up in a landfill somewhere so desolate, that no one would ever find me again.

None of the two alternatives attracted me that much, but I was not really in a position were I could chose another alternative.

I sighed: " I guess that means we have a deal."

He smiled so widely that I could almost see all of his teeths: " Fantastic. I will have one of the men outside send you home. I will text you all the information you need from the usual number."

I was not happy, but what could I do. I stood up, turned around and walked towards the door. I could hear the sound of three men chatting outside of the wooden door. I took a deep breath.

Mr. Camorra tried to get my attention:" Ey Jack, don't forget the package! "

I did not listen.

When the door opened up, the smell of tobacco hit me like a sledgehammer. Great, now I will smell like a damn chimney when I come home. The men waiting outside the door did obviously not expect what I was about to do towards them, because if they did, they would have pulled their guns quicker.

My right fist landed squarely on the nose of the guy standing closest to me, it made a sound, crack. The bone was broken. The other two guys turned to look at me confused, whilst the guy with the broken nose was probably still processing that I had punched him.

I did not want them to have the time to pull their guns, so I finished of the first guy with a elbow to the solar plexus, and down he went.

The other two guys had now reacted to their friends getting attacked and tried to get to me, but they did not pull their guns, bad choice.

Because of the narrow hallway between Mr.Camorras office and the kitchen, two guys standing beside each other was already pushing the limits. It did not help their range of motion that their friend had landed in front of their feets, but it certainly did help me beating them.

I kicked the first guy launching towards me in the chin. His head flew back like he had gotten tackled by a NFL quarterback. He is not getting up.

The third guy was not better off. His friend falling backwards towards him destroyed his attempt to tackled me. So he was left awkwardly holding his friend up as I finished him of with a roundhouse kick to the temple.

Like dominos, one, two, three, they all fell to the ground without touching as much as a single strand of my hair. All whilst Mr.Camorra was standing behind his desk with the expression like he had seen a ghost.

That felt good. It revealed some of the anger I had built up during that suffocating conversation with Mr.Camorra.

I turned around and walked towards the desk to pick up the box again: " You do not mind do you? "

He was ghastly pale: " N-not a-at all. Its all yours."

" Well thank you Mr.Camorra. I hope you have a lovely night, and I will be hearing from you soon. "

Walking outside the door with the cardboard box under the left arm, I had to make a big step over the unconscious bodies laying over each other in the hallway. What a mess.

Apparently had my spectacle not gone unnoticed. The kitchen personnel looked at me with fright as I walked past them one by one. I tried my best to smile amiably as I walked by them, but they only got more pale instead.

When I finally got out of the bar and stood on the streets of Las Vegas again, I sighed heavily. What a great mess you have gotten yourself into jack, what a mess.

Chapter three - Fin