Chapter 277: Integrity
“They’re out for blood.” Andrew spoke with his eyes glazed over, due to several calls being put on hold through his ear implant. Both the implant in his ear, and his wrists, were illuminated by several green and yellow lights. He was standing just inside Nicholas’ office as he and Mike stood side by side in the middle of the room, staring forward at the wall of various screens displaying live streams of Tarolas.
“Nearly all major streamers from every network are present in Tarolas. They all just watched Seraxus fly in on the back of a dragon and have his way with the place. I don’t know how you expect me to convince anyone to invest into your gameworld when a young kid is given control of something so destructive. I think it’s time to admit that Samantha’s world needs tweaking.” Andrew crossed his arms.
“It’s because of the breach a few months back. His power should’ve never grown this much, or gotten this far.” Mike mumbled back weakly.
“They’re waiting to interview you.” Andrew ignored Mike’s response and motioned towards Nicholas’ Simbox in the corner of the room. “They’re going to ambush you, tear you to shreds.”
“They’ll blame the person who made the game instead of the users playing it.” Mike shook his head in disbelief as he said this to himself. Nicholas didn’t reply, but instead took in a deep breath and released it slowly, watching as Seraxus terrorized a smaller Tarolas village, far off from Stormtop. He was gleefully killing all of the dwarf NPCs living in it, while mocking their beards and height. No one was showing up to stop him, due to them all being gathered in Stormtop and having no easy way to reach his location.
“Unbelievable…” Andrew watched it with disbelief, turning to the viewership count. “He’s the top streamer, currently. He passed Makaroth and Feng.” Andrew pointed out, as Seraxus was now being watched by 20 million people.
“They are hate-watching him.” Mike replied.
“Doesn’t matter. This’ll be the image associated with our game, now. Nicholas. You have to put a stop to this. Nerf the sword. I’ll give you a freebie, alright? I’ll admit, this one wasn’t actually a fault of Samantha, but some outside entities. You nerf this thing and fix this problem, and I won’t consider it a part of our agreement.” Andrew pleaded with him.
Nicholas didn’t immediately reply, but instead turned towards a screen that was displaying Samantha, standing idly with her head tilted downward.