chapter 3 - The 'backstory '

Liam was typical young college going boy. He was easy to anger, easy to appeased. His emotions would swing faster than his brain could process.

Liam had gone out carrying bellyful of anger towards Saachi who had greedily consumed lots of money.

But after walking off for sometime, he realised he was not concentrating on real topic- would this article actually work as peace offering to Mdm Paquin? She had seen the world , as the saying goes. She had taught many influential people, she had travelled wide and far and she had rich life experience. Would this story reduce her anger to the extent that Liam was not black marked?

Thus he was now seen knocking Saachi's door. He had even sneaked off from his friends, coming here alone. If needed, he would literally beg Saachi and this situation did not need any audience.

Saachi was still doing mental torture with a lot of calculations and probabilities, he he could listen to Liam only half-heartedly. The gist of 5 minute monologue was that Liam would not mind paying extra but would this 'work of art' really appease Mdm Paquin.

Sacchi could not hold it and he snorted out loudly. (Don't you know, it's manners to snort or talk back only mentally?). Saachi could guarantee that Madame would love the story. But if asked why he was so sure, he could not answer.

The answer laid in the past life of our MC. The game was released amidst all the hype of (nearly) free gaming around the same time, that is, when our hero was still in college and attending classes, writting assignments and taking exams. At that time, it had also made a small splash in Madame's life. No one knew why, when, where of the details but Madame had entered game. She later turned to be part of 'teacher - learner' group - a bunch of academics who wanted to learn and teach new things.

These people had no interest in Leveling and related things. They loved the stories -world building ones and backstories, even night stories.

During early years, they toiled but learnt many things. Later.... that's entirely different story.

Anyways, Madame Paquin took this game as seeing a new part of the world and immediately fell in love with it. So she brought it back to her real life. She taught using these stories, gave assignments on these stories, even made exam questions based on these stories.

Even among them, the story given to Liam was her favourite. Mdm Paquin might appear strict, rigid, prim, proper and other related things but within her heart was rebellion, fight against destiny, dream of future etc...

Saachi had pirated the story from the game( thankfully, it would be released few months later) and he butchered it further, taking deliberate hints from webnovels. He turned it from a normal backstory into a saga of a hero (with possibilities of sequel!)

He refused extra money but assured Liam that the story was still sure safe method.

Next, he started fine tuning the details. As he was entering the game the day it was launched, he would be changing many known things of future. The future would no longer be fixed. So he had to take in details of many things. The time line alteration meant that even the NPCs he would be interacting with would have different future. Thankfully, at least their past was fixed.

He still had to decide if he wanted to be human or other race, start in which direction, which profession to be taken and which way to proceed. Even if all this was castle in air, he still had to make workable yet detailed castle in the air.

The day of purchasing(partial purchase! The remaining would be owned by bank. Don't forget!!!)of gaming pod had come. The advertising was intense as the game was entering last sprint of exposure before opening. People always loved watching bang starts instead of slow burns. And it made great press, which in turn meant more exposure.

The kiosk in MTZ mall was running promotion when Saachi went it. To save few bucks and getting (most probably useless) gifts, he sold his soul. He pretended to be a shut-in novice gamer, buying 'Escape' as it showed excellent graphics and had good reviews, including one of a rather famous beta tester's rantings in his paid vlog.

Saachi remembered this beta tester due to previous life's incident obviously(did you even think for a moment that he would spend money on paid vlog to get few sound bytes? Naive. Saachi is world class champion MISER, especially in this lifetime).

At the time of rapid consolidation of guilds and resources by 'investment' companies, this person had violated non disclosure rules and sold details to one of the investment companies for a super huge amount. But, one of the young members of the company was not happy to pay with huge hush- hush money, so , accidentally the details were revealed by one of new generation rich brat when intoxicated, in a party. The gaming company took this as challenge and hounded the beta tester till he coughed up all the money he received from all the parties and a bit extra too.

After looking at Gaming company's stance on disclosures, especially the hush hush ones, nearly all beta testers closed their mouths. But this one became famous as costliest blabber mouth.