Chapter Ninety eight

Dame Marcella 's get togethers were always good. Even if they were on the spur things. And she had over twelve hours to handle this get together. Why wouldn't it be great?

In the garden gazebo of Celeste, her own private party place, various people gathered around. The problem was not the investors. It was not even the people seeking investments. The main problem was the tag alongs. The eSports players.

They were stuck up b*tches, an entirely gender neutral term used commonly by service industry people.

The management team in guilds knew who held the money purse. The investors knew how much money could fit into those purses. But few of these players...well, let's just say, fame got into their head. One set saw them daily. No awe from them. Other set didn't have time to play these sort of games. No recognition.

Ah, the fragile ego. You just have to flex and show off. No one here cares if you killed level 100 monster boss. No one wants to know your self created weapon is better that epic grade. They might be, just might be, interested in you if you say your latest tour was a sold out show and the sales from related items were in millions.

Lin Shu was unfortunately saddled with a young lad, a upcoming figure in eSports. Just because Lin Shu recognised him, he decided to stick next to him and regale his immense fighting prowess. Lin Shu cursed his grandchildren. Both the granddaughter and grandson had stuck a poster of this person in their rooms. Yeah, yeah. He played well. Well enough to be recognised by his guild and given exclusive contract. Yeah, he was good looking young man. So the guild was milking his good looks. Still! It does not, absolutely does not, mean he, Lin Shu, can listen to a story which made no sense. It made sense only within a game.

Thankfully, Dame Marcella was perfect hostess. Seeing his suffering, she pulled him along to meet few other people. People who talked his language. Not words like attack power, defense, grades, skills, berserk and what not.

There were management people of few different clubs and corporations. Only common thing was that their guilds were top notch, had great history, had consistently churned out good eSports players. Each one had minimum and maximum amount of investment they wanted and the conditions for them varied too.

All wanted a single time investment though. Few were giving shares as guarantee. Few, their players as brand ambassadors. Few offered solid guarantees like arenas, their merchandise companies. The interest rate would be high. High enough for these mega corporations to feel the pinch. But there was no other way. The statement from was like a lightning. No prior notice. They didn't have enough time to request for a bank loan, their usual practice.

Their think tank people had various thoughts about these gift crates. In the end it boiled down to same thing. Need to grab them this time. The items inside them can potentially help them till they could leave the village.

Once the credit to coin conversion or vice-versa started, they would have some breathing space. So, they had to hoard these gift crates or use all the items within them to progress faster.

After several talks, Lin Shu finished his assignment. He would recommend Mrs Briggs to sign major contract with three guilds and a minor contract with two others. It all came down to interest payment and the guarantees. No hard feelings.

But was his work done? Nope. His next job was to consolidate liquid assets, squeeze them if needed to facilitate these contracts. It was going to be a long day and even longer night. And Mr Hoyt had called regarding new employee. That prick wanted to discuss the salary package. If he was not personally recommended by Mrs Briggs, he would have shown him the immensity of heavens and earth.

Lin Shu pacified Mr Hoyt and gave few suggestions. He had worked under Mrs Briggs for so long, he had enough experience to give some suggestions.

The guild owners cursed the game developers. They kept on cursing till the gift crates or their items came under their tender care. Then, they praised the same developers to the heavens. That happened in future though. Still some time left.

But it has to be stressed upon, deeply stressed up on the fact that people with immense ambition had harrowing days. Their days got better later, at least for some time. But the gift crates had started a whole new way of playing games.

Mrs Briggs called Atharva again. To share the good news. She had signed few deals.

"You really believe this game will take off?" She asked again.

"Honestly, Mrs Briggs, I can just give my thoughts and opinions." The buffet spread in the hotel was delicious. He had already tasted many and gone for real filling of his tummy when he got this call. He stopped eating and walked outside to talk. Less chance of eavesdropping. No service people would be here. They were busy. And no hotel customers would come out here when such a big buffet was inside.

"In my opinion, it all depends on what will be found in gift crates this time and next time. The initial gift crates. No one cared enough. Every one thought it was just freebies during character creation. So, to people's mind, this one will be first gift crate. The chances are that the items inside them will be very good. Only then can normal players can sell their gift crates or items within. I don't know if anything changes if they handover the gift crates. That's a big if. Selling the gift crates in whole would be better option for guilds. If you open the gift crates and you get a really good weapon, due to luck, you can sell only that and hold on to other items for personal use. Let's just assume the gift crates favor the guilds and crates can be sold or handed over directly to guilds."

Mrs Briggs did not ask him why, so he he did not tell why he thinks so. As a good student he had read many theories and he had been applying them to this game. Put of hundred or so, atleast one theory has to be right. Right?