Breaking News

Soundlessly the VR pod in the middle of the room opened up just as the sun peeked over the city, allowing a cranky Thet to come out yawning

Walking up to the counter he picked up the auto brewed coffee, grabbed a premade sandwich from the fridge and took bites and sips as he got dressed

Finished with his meal and now neatly dressed in a light blue uniform he left his apartment, hailing his company's bus

"Morning Leo"

"Morning Thet, did you get the game yesterday"

"Yes"

"How was it?"

"Alright"

The guy he took seat next to nodded and returned to browsing the news on his watch

Thet as well sought to look through the headlines but used the bus's built in seat screens, it was way better than looking at the small window of his watch

[Lost Heaven had plans of boosting the Dungeon Lords by giving them a headstart of two days, its CEO admits, the possible panic could have caused mass emergency exits dissuading him from such a desecion]

The top headline read, confusing him on why they would need a boost, if anything it was the players that could make use of it

[Lost Heaven takes a massive hit in its Dungeon Lord player base as they complain about the game's lack of 18+ content, saying it is a waste of time with no adult features]

'How did they test it out already?'

That should not be possible with their starter monsters, though it could be that someone had a unique trait to make it possible

As much as he wanted to find out more the leering gaze from his side made him scroll down lest rumours spread through his work

'I see the benefit of a small watch here'

[Book Of Life postponed its shutdown for unknown reasons, many speculate…]

'Only two headlines despite being a hype, kind of a let down'

Since more news seemed scarce among the trending topics he searched for his subject of interest through the forms

[Game difficulty]

He typed, and no less than thirty thousand posts were already up, and that was the filtered results for only today

'Okay, let's see the players' side of things'

Looking through all the reviews made by well known individuals he noted a few similar and interesting comments

[Despite the ease of levelling we still don't know any way to rank up, maxing the stats is a ridiculous notion that would kill the reason for classes]

[The lack of experience counters is nothing new, but the lack of skill explanations is a setback for this game]

[Gathering and escort quests don't seem like a hassle anymore after being introduced to this combat system]

'Everyone is being a crybaby'

Thet smiled, happy that he had things to fight for him, otherwise he would join their ranks

'Most of the problems here are not detrimental to me, the exp gauge and the realistic combat are not a problem, I can't get classes hence no skills, though that is a problem of its own, as for the rank up problem, well I could merge two of my creatures to get something of a higher rank so it is no big deal'

That was most of the issues out of the window, and honestly these things only need time and some thinking before the players got used to them, the only real problem was

'Why can't I find a single post from the dungeon lords'

It should be teeming with their posts, he had no doubt the players were dying to know how they were progressing so this complete absence was concerning

'I will check by asking them myself'

And so he created a post, or wanted to at least

[Dunegon Lord are not permissible to share information on the forum, please do so in game]

'Trying to keep us a secret? That is just…well, smart I guess'

Though he did not doubt the dungeon lords' ability to spread the info through other unofficial means he also knew that a lot of falsehood would be shared as well, which could possibly give them the upper hand as the enemy had no solid expectations

'This is a benefit despite not being able to talk here'

Which was okay in its own way

"Please unboard the bus"

All this scrolling made him unaware of time, it felt like a hot minute had passed before the driver's voice echoed through the speakers, reminding them to get off

Getting off Thet joined the silent group of his division, a bunch of people who were just as serious as him when the work clock ticked, what with their jobs allowing no mistake whatsoever

Armed with their badges, specialised scanning devices and a tablet each of them went about his own sector, one filled with small tanks housing the main ram of the VR world, though in Thet's company's case it was to calculate the profit and success chances of new and upcoming VR games

Now this ram looked nothing like any other electronic, for it was created to be a 1:1 replica of the human brain, except its colour was that of obsidian, Neuram it was called

"Sector G: Unite 28 Requires a cooling check due to its third overheating this week, initiating cooler check now"

Thet spoke, meaning to convey the reason behind his actions to the camera in his badge, and the dozens of them lined through the sector, just in case something happened, since every piece of these very expensive rams was well worth everything he could gather over the span of his lifetime

"Sector G: Units 29 through 76 are looking fine, data feedback is optimal"

"Sector G: Unit 77 is consuming twice as much CSF, specialized maintenance team supervision required"

And so he went about his usual day, checking every and each Neuram while applying required maintenance where possible, and as carefully as he could

His shift took a total of twelve hours, from dawn to dusk, though three of that was a break in between lest he overexerts himself and makes mistakes, one could say he was cared for, as long as no mistake occurred that is

When it was time to go home Thet did not rush back to take a nap like usual, he felt like eating something homemade today and so stopped to do some shopping

While picking out some of the exotic breadfruits he noted the shop going eerily quiet, all the footsteps and chatter vanishing, if not for the sound of his own echoing footsteps he might have thought his ears went deaf

'What's happening?'

Turning to the nearest shopper he saw her looking up, where the projection screen was, so he joined her and…

"....??"

[Breaking News: The VRAIM decides to close off all channels of VR Game Creation and take reign over the registration and shutdown of such projects in an annual schedule, the number of VR games will be limited to twenty, with one shutting down every year as a new game is released, effective immediately]

Thet could not believe it, neither could those in the shop, no, it could be said that the entire world was just as shocked

For such a decision to be made meant that people would only have a limited choice that they might as well stick to for years, people usually played a game they liked, that would usually shut down in three years if normal, while they waited for the hype that thrilled them to no end, and then the next and so on, so there were a lot of new games coming out every now and then

But with this then…. They would only get one game per year? That was insane!

"What are they thinking"

Thet wondered aloud, breaking the silence that had ensued which sent the shoppers, receptionist, and even the janitor into a texting spree

Even he got a few quick messages but did not choose to read them, possibly the staff from his work tagging all about the news

"I just hope this does not ruin anything in VR games"

It would surely carry a huge effect, that Thet did not doubt, only hoped good change occurred and not the worst