MEETING THE BLACKSMITH

Things were stressful at the Nintendo Headquarters earlier at work. Now I know why dad left the company without even bothering to go through the proper process when resigning. I heard he just sent a quick resignation letter to his supervisor. then never showed up again for work the next day. He was a top employee of Nintendo back then. I also have a stellar track record in Nintendo since I did an internship there, and got accepted right after graduation. But my supervisor, Akimitsu, wasn't able to stop me when I just said I wish to resign from this company. I even shouted at my useless supervisor, wrecked his office, and burned all his papers to ashes with the expensive lighter I always carried around for burning useless papers.

You created too many chokeholds and rules on your old Gameboy Games, when you could have revived them, made an official GameBoy Game Emulator and put it in the PlayStore, and helped Nintendo capture a huge share of the emulator app market. What did you do instead? You wasted a lot of company money chasing after those who made GameBoy emulators, and gba files, and made them pay heavily in the law courts, when that will make them penniless. So why instruct me to make a marketing proposal regarding those GameBoy games, when you only junked it in your trash can? Go fuck yourself, Akimitsu. No, don't bother to deny it, it was your idea. your games. You copyrighted every GameBoy game with your name imprinted on every GameBoy cartridge released, and authorized by the dead Nintendo CEO. You downright stole company intellectual property in a legal way. You were Game Development Head back then, before you did something stupid, and that made my father resign, and you got demoted to Game Development Supervisor. You think you can do something to me? I may just be a silent person, but you don't scare me at all. You think I'm just some powerless, debt-ridden ordinary employee you can instruct, push around at whim, and discard when the proposals are not needed? Think again. I secretly bought 60% of Nintendo shares. More than enough to make the new CEO listen to me. Are you the same supervisor that caused dad to resign?You shall pay,

Those were the same exact words I shouted at Akimitsu, to the mixed delight and consternation of my other co-employees. Well, I've had enough of bumbling higher-ups who have too many rules, order co-employees around like slaves, and take tomorrow to act on important decisions. Sure enough, Akimitsu got sacked for poor performance, intellectual theft of company property, disrespectful behavior, and gross misconduct. with all his employee benefits revoked.

Noctis reflected at the events that happened earlier at the Nintendo Hq. The new CEO himself ran to Noctis just as he reached the ground floor of Nintendo Hq, and pleaded with Noctis to stay, knowing that Noctis had a high potential, bought 60 % of Montendo shares, and Noctis helped Nintendo grab a couple of high-profile, beneficial business deals, but could not sway Noctis. In a fit of fury, the new CEO fired Noctis’ supervisor right on the spot, and made the supervisor pay for the damage to the office, deducting it from the back pay. Noctis had returned home by then, but he still got wind of what happened right after he left.

Noctis cleared his mind, and climbed inside his gaming capsule.

The damage caused by Akimitsu is done. No point crying over spilled milk. I can make money with this game, anyway. And I have a lot of investments too.

After VRMMORPG Fantasion already started, Noctis went straight to the Elite Players Corner, in the Lobby, and got inside the Blacksmith shop.

"Hello, Mr. Blacksmith."

“Ah, hello, Lelouch. No, wait. Satsuki, is that you? I thought you were dead."

Yuusei was taken aback by Noctis’ striking similarity to Satsuki.

"How do you know me, Mr. Blacksmith? I think I don't know you at all. I'm not my brother. He just died yesterday. I made sure he was given a quick and decent Shinto burial yesterday, according to his last instructions, at Okinawa Peace Prayer Memorial Park."

"You must be Noctis, Satsuki's younger brother. You may not know me, but I knew Satsuki. We were close friends back then, when the Gamer Guild was still in existence, and in its prime."

So this must be Yuusei, the blacksmith who used to forge and fix weapons and other items for players belonging to the Gamer Guild with his God-Class warhammer, the Mjolnir 2, said to be a close clone of the original Mjolnir.

“It's a pleasure to meet you too, Yuusei. I've heard so many stories about you from Satsuki. Why would an elite blacksmith, who used to be part of The Gamer Guild, show up here in the Lobby? I thought in-game blacksmiths were just NPCS. What happened? At your level of skills, you should have set up shop at the Legendary, God stage , or Creator stage. ”

Noctis cast Yuusei a questioning glance.

Yuusei put a finger up his lips, as if to motion Noctis to be silent, and said in a low tone.

" You shouldn't just carelessly blab that I'm still alive. Someone who used to be part of the Gamer Guild, who got contacts with the Necromancer Guild, wants me

out of the picture. I had to pull a lot of strings to stay incognito. Hush now.”

" You don't have to worry about being exposed, Yuusei. Trust me. I'm here, because I want all these items changed from Rare to Legendary."

Noctis took out all the items he obtained after clearing the first 10 floors of the Novice Floor, and placed them into Yuuseii's counter.

" Are you sure about this, Noctis? If I changed all of these from Rare to God-Class, and ramped up the stats of these items to the max, it would create an uproar. Elite players will flock to me to buy the weapons I customized, and news will spread quickly to the Necromancer Guild."

" Of course, I'm sure, Yuusei. Are you so scared of the Necromancer Guild? They're not the only players who can summon the dead. You've forgotten the vampires and the dark elves, who are on our side. You've forgotten the Dragonriders Guild. You know the dead can't stand a blast of dragonfire, or weapons reinforced with dragonbone. The Necromancer Guild also fears players and Guilds with Holy skills. They're not so fearsome as all that. Here's my advance payment for having these items modified."

He placed two pouches of gold coins, and another pouch full of gems, in front of the Blacksmith counter.

" On the day of the auction, wear these red clothes, and a mask to help you disguise yourself. The effectiveness is only for 72 hours, so be careful."

Noctis placed a carefully folded elegant red tuxedo, with matching elegant red slacks and a red necktie, with a red masquerade mask on top, and placed them on the Blacksmith counter.

He added Yuusei in game, and even added Yuusei's real life social media, before he went outside the Blacksmith's Shop.

Noctis paid 50 gems for the In-game Floors Instant Teleport Machine, and teleported straight to the 10th floor, as he didn't wish to fight his way up again. He left the teleport machine once he reached the 10th floor, and went straight to the weapons and armors shop to buy God-Class weapons and armors he planned to sell to players of other VRMMORPGs created by Tokyo Digital Solutions.

While strolling through the official forum website of VRMMORPG Fantasion earlier, he noticed an active link filled with lots of elite players from the other VRMMORPGs, stating that they are very willing to buy God-Class armor and weapons from elite players of VRMMORPG Fantasion, using real world money, at a high price as they are in-demand, because of their devastating effectiveness in battle, but had a low supply.