Chapter Ninety five

Atharva had come to meet Mrs Briggs because he had a good impression of her. She had clearly mentioned the various ways he could move forward. She went one step even further. She showed him a path where he could earn more and gain even more.

But Atharva was in a fix. To earn more, he not only had to work more but he had to efficient and be on standby. If he is on standby, how can he play the game?

What if the call from boss came when he was in the dungeon? While he was trying to scam XP and coins from NPCs. Or while he was covering with NPCs to trigger a quest.

Should he give up all that and rush to boss's side?

When boss is out there in get togethers, should he be munching some snacks in background, just in case, if the boss, clinches a deal? Or he should be waiting for the boss in the car in the parking lot. When will he have time to play?

No. It's better to be clear from the beginning. He was ready to be slave for twelve to fourteen hours a day but his minimum eight hours to play the game should be free.

"Ma'am, I will be very brutally honest with you. It's not that I don't want higher level post or niche post. I am playing this game basically at the time when I am asleep. Instead of eight hours of sleep, I can indeed make do with seven hours or even six if it comes to that. Still, I would prefer to be free of work demands or be on standby for atleast eight hours. Umm, am I really expecting too much?"

Told like that, it is indeed extreme to expect a good personal assistant to be on call twenty four seven. Few hours for sleep, you cannot expect your assistant to give up that too unless when some big deadlines are looming over or some important issue arose suddenly.

Mrs Briggs was still digesting the dig Atharva made of bosses expecting their subordinates to be on call round the clock.

Atharva continued, "I would surely prefer to follow any youngster you point out, if it matches my current requirements. If not, I am equally happy to follow up with your assistant team to learn from you."

Now the ball fell directly in Mrs Briggs' court. What to do? Which way would be better? Mrs Briggs was certainly not a horrible boss who always thought of herself and never of subordinates. If she were, she would never be a faculty for the thankless department of scholarship in Saint Augustine.

She decided to tackle the matter from another way. "When I talked to you yesterday or before, I don't think you had such strict demands."

"An eight hours break is not a strict demand."

"A boss giving his subordinate a heads up on working overtime is too much."

"Fair enough." Atharva had to agree on that point. If he was the boss and if he had to give heads up every time he had to work overtime to his subordinates... It is indeed a very strict requirement.

"And let's not forget the fact that you are playing eight hours only because the game operates eight hours a day. If the game could be played longer, you would do that too."

"Not necessarily. I don't play combat class. So I really don't need to spend too much, I just have to manage time wisely."

"What happens if your guild wants to to be online for many hours? Which one will you choose? You are not playing the game to pass time. It's already a job."

"Aaa... about that!" Atharva started. "There is a slight misconception here. I am not working in the guild per se. I am donating my work and time as investment. So it's technically not a job, but an investment I want to keep an close eye on."

If it was her home or her office, Mrs Briggs would have surely lifted her hands in experation and walked around in a huff.

"Investment? In a game? In a guild within a game?"

Atharva made assenting noise. "Indeed. If I had more money, I would have invested on sure thing rather than on high risk thing. This is the best time for investing in game guilds."

"Oh! And what makes you say that? Because you have already invested in it?"

"Ma'am, I would not advise you to invest in the guild I have invested. You won't get what you wish. As a newcomer, I have entirely different set of expectations from this gig. As an entrepreneur, your expectations will be entirely different."

Atharva continued, "However, I will say it again that it is indeed a good time to invest in the guilds.

Yesterday, the game company made a clarification statement about gift crates."

Mrs Briggs was even more noob than him, so obviously she had no idea of gift crates. This would take a long time to explain.

"This game became famous initially because they said you can actually make money through it. You could convert game coins to credits. However, they have not enabled that function yet. I have few theories on the reason.

Important fact is that the trial time is coming to end and if many of the players don't earn the money, it will be bad publicity for the game. However good the game might be and it is very good, personal experience, it will be a fact that many players won't be able to earn money from it.

So, before the trial period ends, they gave a clarification statement regarding gift crates. These crates or items in it can be sold to earn money. Majority of the guilds are pooling credits to purchase the items or the crates whichever are cheaper. They are severely cash strapped. The trial period will end soon and they need to grab hold of money one way or the other.

You might be thinking that these stupid players will buy the gift crates and sell it later. It depends on purchaser to decide the value. It is true. However... within the game, many of the guilds don't have enough resources. They need these resources or items creating a increased demand but limited supply scenario. As this is the first time, it is expected that the gift crates might be sold for more than what these players had paid for. The players will be definitely able to earn a bit.

If it was not for the fact that majority of big guilds are searching for investments worth billions and trillions, I would have not thought of investing in a small guild. It's a rare chance to get some shares of these big guilds."

"Billions and trillions of credits! Being pushed into a game by players! This is mind boggling!"