Ch 2- Preparation

Kelly has become a homebody who relies almost entirely on the StarNet to procure everything he needs for daily life. Kelly opened his bank account to see how much money he currently had. One of the nice things about virtual cabins is that they can supply nutrients directly to the inhabitant and people can live in them for quite a long time. However the special nutrient they require is quite pricey, with the upcoming release of Lichen Kelly wants to play continuously. Thus he planned to stock buy the special nutrient solution, however looking at his account balance he felt unsatisfied. Kelly pondered over his options and opened his contacts page on his communication device and hesitantly hit his agents contact.

"Kelly! I saw you streamed again for a few hours in the middle of the night! Great job".

"Stop right there. I want to ask you something".

"Of course! How can I assist you?".

Taking a deep breath Kelly stared at his agent "is it possible to upgrade my contract? I've gotten a decent amount of followers and I'm planning to lengthen my streaming time. So I was hoping the company would coordinate with me and give me better benefits".

"Ah… this…" the agent froze for a moment "I can't decide something like this, let me reach out to my superiors. How many hours are you willing to stream? Your answer may be the deciding factor for whether you can get a new contract or not".

Kelly bit his lips and resigned to his fate " 12 hours". The agent looked at him quietly "are you also willing to use your real voice and face?".

"Ugh, not my face. I can use my voice but only if the contract is worth it". The agent nodded happily "I'll go talk to my superiors now and will call you back in a jiff". The holographic screen disappeared and Kelly pressed himself against the back of his chair and threw his head back.

'Ah how the great have fallen'. Kelly felt he had no choice though as he really didn't have the money to hoard the nutrient solution as he wished. So he had to compromise his bottom line a bit for the sake of this new game.

It only took ten minutes before his agent called him back, panting as he spoke. "I've talked to the boss, he said we can go ahead and upgrade you to a B-class contract. However, he also said if you're willing to show your face and voice he would be willing to give you an S-class contract. What do you want to do?".

Kelly sat there stunned, since he signed on as a nobody he currently had an E-class contract and received very little commission from his viewer's gifts. However, being a contracted anchor means he at least received a base salary every month and was much more stable for a newbie streamer so initially, he signed the contract without any qualms.

"Can you send me both contracts so I can compare the conditions?".

"Of course, but don't take long the boss is waiting for your answer. I'm sending the contracts to you now, get back to me ASAP".

"I understand, thank you".

"Awwww I think that's the nicest you've ever talked to me, little cutie". Kelly's face turned black and his agent hurriedly cut off the call.

Sighing Kelly stared at the two contracts displayed in front of him with furrowed brows.

"Ha, the boss really wants to work me to death".

The B-class contract stipulates streaming no less then 12 hours a day with one day off a week and a 50% commission from his viewers' gifts. which was many times better than his current 15% split. The S-class contract states he has to stream at least 8 hours a day with two days off a week and an 80% split for him. These benefits are amazing except for the fact that he needs to show his face and voice. Kelly scratched his head in aggravation, he really doesn't want others to see his face. But the lure of money and benefits is way too good, he sighed and dialed back his agent.

"Set me up with the S-class contract, I need you to select a good camera as I don't have any at the moment".

The agent spoke excitedly "of course! I'll have the company give you the highest quality sound and picture equipment. We can't risk your beautiful face not being fully captured".

Kelly's lip twitched in irritation but he held it in since he knew what his choice meant.

"I'll tell the boss and have HR draft up your contract, it should be emailed to you by the end of the day. Make sure to sign it and send it back as soon as possible. Once you have signed and received the camera equipment for your virtual pod you'll have to start upholding the contract".

Kelly nodded to express his understanding and ended the call. The next process all went smoothly from signing the contract to the installation of the best camera into his virtual pod. It took three days from the initial phone call for everything to settle and in the meantime, Kelly had already stopped using a voice changer. He wanted his viewers to have time to adjust to his voice before he shocked them with his face.

"Just a reminder to all my cuties, starting tomorrow I'll be showing my face while streaming. So be here or be square, oh and try not to be too shocked".

Starbby0- 'pfft I doubt we could be any more shocked than when we heard your real voice. You're so coquettish, catcher'.

Kelly read the barrage of comments and his face turned dark and he kicked Starbby0 out of the room. "Anyone else have something they'd like to say about my voice? Hmmm?".

The barrage was silent for a moment as if they could feel the threat emanating off of Kelly.

"Well then, goodnight everyone. I'll see you all at 10 am sharp, and remember we'll be streaming eight hours straight!".

Kelly signed off and sighed at his own misfortune. As he sat in silence his communicator suddenly made a "ping" sound. Kelly glanced down at it and saw he had a notification; he lazily clicked on it and saw that Gaia Tech's social media page posted an update. Kelly suddenly straightened up and clicked on the update; guiding himself to the page. Listed at the top of the page was a video from Lichen's head game developer.

'Hello everyone I'm Carl and I am the head developer in charge of the Lichen project. I'm excited to address some frequent questions and hand out some spoilers for the game. Firstly, there's been a lot of questions about character designs and looks, and we've seen a lot of dissatisfaction about players not being able to control either. I'd like to stress that it's part of the experience that will make this game so unique. Although players cannot choose race their looks will be strictly based on the players' original looks. That is to say that the character you play will resemble the player to some extent. We ask players to understand that we won't be changing this part of our design regardless. Although races are predetermined the class of the player will not be fixed. The main brain will highly recommend the path you should take based on stats and potential, but the player doesn't have to follow what is recommended. We've also had people ask what it means when we said their race is based on their soul. It means exactly that, the main brain has known each of us from the moment we are born and is always tracking every single move in our life. It puts a person into a race based on everything it knows about you, there are technically around twenty races however several races break down into smaller categories. We have mythical and rare races and I personally cannot wait to see how the main brain sorts all the races'.

The more he listened the more ecstatic Kelly became 'I really made the right choice changing my contract' Kelly felt reaffirmed in his decision. If it's based on how we've lived and who we are as a person then my race should definitely be super badass. Kelly let his mind wander and imagine how cool his future was gonna be, as he continued to listen to the developer's report.

'The spoiler I have for you all today is some of the races you'll be meeting in Lichen. Some of the most common races we think people will fit in are the obvious human race, elf, dwarf, demonic, angel, and beast races. Several of these break down into smaller categories such as the demonic, elf, and beast races. Here's a small gameplay video for you all to watch, the characters shown are all NPCs living their daily lives.

Kelly watched the gameplay and instantly fell in love, the scenery was mesmerizing and the NPCs were varied and unique. He saw many interesting creatures and humanoids he'd never seen before and was anticipating the game's release in a month.

Carl walked away from the live broadcast room and received the recent reports on the game tests from his colleague. He skimmed over the report and went to hand it over to the CEO. Carl knocked lightly on the office door and stood there apprehensively as he waited for permission to enter.

"Come in".

Carl pushed open the door to reveal the young CEO. "You have the final testing report for me?".

"Yes sir, here it is".

The man took the report from Carl's hand and read it over carefully.

"It seems to be functioning just as we had hoped, this game is gonna make a huge splash and change our society as we know it. I myself cannot wait to see what this game will bring to me". The CEO gave a slight smile and dismissed Carl then looked at how the numbers for the virtual pod drawing were going. He stared at the content displayed in front of him and pressed a button on his desk to summon his secretary.

"Alice, I want you to look into our member's accounts and find those who have the highest achievements and participation in our most successful games".

"Understood sir, I'll bring the information immediately".

"Hmm," the man waved his hand and sent his secretary out then went to his personal game pod and logged in to Lichen.