World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (41 page)

"Settling a
dispute? Is that what this publicity stunt is about? What about
proper procedure, like presenting your plan to the Board of Directors
before you throw away your ownership in the company?" the vice
chairman retorts.

"Sir, you sound
like we already lost the challenge. I would hope for more support
than that from our investors," the CEO replies.

The words hang in the
air for a moment as the two strong willed men refuse to budge an inch
on their position. They know that if Charles had presented the plan
to the Board of Directors, Gregory and Lewis both would have gotten
the board to squelch the plan immediately. Thus, Charles had to
engineer a bypass around the board entirely.

"It's not too late
to rescind the challenge," Gregory tries a different tactic.

"We'll lose all
credibility if we do that," Charles rejects the idea. "The
media has picked up on this gauntlet, and we have seen a spike in new
account registrations, probably from players looking to participate
in this unique online event. We have not received a formal reply from
EDE yet, but I don't expect Richard to decline the challenge,"
he continues.

"Seeing that
you're determined to go through with this crazy publicity stunt, I am
informing you that the venture capitalists are going to sever their
relationship with you. If EDE wins, we will be working with a new CEO
since you will be losing your sixty percent stake in VG. If by some
miracle you win, then I will tender my resignation from the board and
sell my five percent stake in the company. And other backers,
including the chairman, will follow suit. Either way, we are
through," Gregory concludes. The director hangs up the line
before Charles could respond.

That
went a lot better than I expected
, Charles thinks as he
turns his attention back to his desk.

"This is bull
crap!" the middle aged man angrily pounds the conference table.
His skin is leathery with dry, dark patches from his work raising
crops as a youngster on the family farm. However, Jayson Sunderson,
Vice President of Investor Relations, is dressed immaculately in a
finely custom tailored Italian suit.

"I agree,"
another male executive speaks up. The Asian man adjusts his tiny
glasses on his nose, and looks at the CEO. "How should we
respond to this crazy challenge from Charlie?" asks Lei Lang
Yeong, Vice President of Asian operations. He took a red-eye flight
from Hong Kong back to the States for this meeting, and he has the
blood shot eyes to prove it.

Richard T. Gibson
throws a quick smile at Vernon, his Chief Financial Officer for
Eternia Development & Entertainment Co. He slowly turns his head
around the small conference room, making eye contact with each of the
three male executives on his Board of Directors. "I see this
challenge from my old friend as a desperate move," he answers
calmly. "Word on the street is that Virtuous Gaming is running
into cash flow problems, and their so-called 'secret' mmorpg project
is in danger of being dropped. If they could get their hands on our
hardware and software, for free, then it's a gamble that Charles
Winter would certainly make. Unfortunately, he's a poor gambler, with
a lack of understanding of the odds being stacked against him. So,
unless the board is heavily against it, I am planning to announce our
acceptance of the challenge," he announces.

The elderly man sitting
on the far corner at the table chuckle at this answer, and all eyes
turn toward him. "That's the spirit!" he says while rapping
his knuckles on the conference table twice.

"I'm glad you
approve, Mr. Freye," Richard replies. Having poured over fifty
million dollars into the company, William Jefferson Freye is a major
investor in EDE, with one third interest in the company. His shares
are second only to Richard’s fifty-five percent share. Therefore,
Mr. Freye is the one guy in the room that Richard has to seek support
from for decisions that can alter the course of the company. Now that
the man has given his approval, the CEO can focus on making a proper
response but do it in a way that enhances player interest in World of
Eternia, EDE's flag ship product.
We
may even get a sizable increase in new player accounts from this
event
, the CEO thinks happily.

* * *

At the stroke of
midnight, EDE posts a terse response on its home page: "Eternia
Development & Entertainment Inc. boldly accepts the challenge
from Virtuous Gaming Co., and invites interested players to subscribe
to a mailing list created specifically for this inter-company event.
Details will be sorted out between the two companies, and
announcements for player participation will follow shortly."

Charles Winter glances
around the bar. After a moment, he finally sees the man sitting at
the side, right behind a pillar. He is annoyed that the man suddenly
decided to play “Where’s Waldo?” and chose a different table
than his customary table at the very back of the establishment. He
walks slowly to the table and joins the other man.

Richard T. Gibson looks
at the man taking a seat across the table but keeps silent. Instead
he drums his fingers from his left hand on the table. After the other
man is seated, he speaks up. “You must be desperate. Why else would
you pull a stunt like that?” he raises an eyebrow and looks at his
frenemy.

“Not desperate,”
Charles corrects Richard. “We just ran out of patience with you,
and decided to force your hand,” he counters.

“Is that right?”
Richard smiles at the spin of the situation. He heard that Virtual
Gaming wasn’t able to obtain an additional round of funding from
angel investors. With declining market share in the casual gaming
market, VG is in danger of running out of cash for operations.

“It is,” Charles
nods. “If only you had come to your senses and sold your company to
us like a good boy, you wouldn’t risk lose everything.”

“Charlie, Charlie,
Charlie,” Richard taunts his rival. “In the gaming world, there’s
only one winner and the rest are losers. My players are hardcore
gamers who will wipe the floor with your casual gamers in this
upcoming live match. There is absolutely no way that I will lose. You
miscalculated. Again,” he grins while wagging a finger at his
companion.

“Laugh while you can,
Richard,” Charles’ eyes harden in response. “When I take over
your company, the first thing I’ll do is boot you out of the door.
There’s no place in my company for a thief like you.”

Richard stares directly
into Charles’ eyes. “Have a care in how you address me, Charlie
Brown. Or my lawyers will be slapping your behind so hard with
defamation papers that you won’t be sitting down for a week!” he
snarls.

Charles smirks at the
threat. “Are you afraid that the truth will get out?”

“It’s more like the
ravings of a deranged lunatic,” Richard replies smoothly as he dons
his all-business persona again. “The village idiot can cry wolf for
only so long before the rest of the village starts to ignore him.”

Charles rises up from
his chair. “I’ve had enough of this pointless chit chat with you.
I suggest you start cleaning out your office,” he hisses. Without
waiting for a reply, the man quickly leaves the bar.

Mark knocks on the
door, stirring the boss from his seeming daze.
How
do I make the rules of engagement tilt more in my favor,
the
chief executive ponders. Richard quickly regains his composure when
he realizes that the knocking sound is not imaginary. He smiles and
beckons the project manager to enter his office.

Mark takes a seat in
front of the CEO’s desk and places his report on the table. “As
requested, this is a preliminary list of possible issues we may
encounter in having the Tower Defense match take place. Once our
engineers get access to Virtuous Gaming Co.’s mmorpg development,
we’ll have a better idea of what needs to be done to integrate our
two systems for this event.”

The company head takes
a brief glance at the report. As usual, it is well organized with a
table of content followed by detailed discussions of technological,
logistical, as well as public relations concerns. “Good work,
Mark,” Richard offers his compliments. After all, the subordinate
only had a day to put this report together. A quick glance at the
heavy bags under Mark’s eyes confirms that the underling had pulled
an all-nighter on this report, and the executive greatly appreciates
it. “When will you be meeting with your counterparts from VG?”
Richard asks.

“It’s scheduled for
the end of this week,” Mark replies.

“You couldn’t get
them to commit to a meeting sooner?” the superior asks, his
eyebrows rising sharply. He was hoping the meeting would take place
tomorrow actually.

The project manager
shrugs sheepishly. “Apparently the people in that company were as
much in the dark to their president’s intentions as we were.
Therefore they need a bit more time to get organized for this event,”
he answers. “May I be frank with you, sir?” he asks.

“What’s up?”
Richard’s eyebrows rise again.

“Are you sure you
want to do this?” Mark asks.

The president of EDE
smiles wryly at this question. “Why not? This gives me an
opportunity to double the size of my company at minimal cost.”
Seeing the doubt on Mark’s face, Richard decides to try a different
tactic.

“Let me tell you a
story.” Richard leans back on his black ergonomic chair and folds
his arms. “It’s about a young man who entered college having no
idea what he wanted to do in life, or what his major would be. He
loved online gaming, and was practically raised on World of Warcraft
while growing up. He took some computer programming courses and
discovered that he had the brains for coding. He was proficient in
Java, C and C+, and other languages, and worked with a roommate for a
year to perfect a game engine that became the basis of WoE and the
main product for this very company.”

The CEO pauses for a
moment to catch his breath, and then continues with his personal
story. “The point here is that sometimes opportunity knocks most
unexpectedly, and you need to have the courage to accept the
challenge and to face the uncertainty. It helped me strike out on my
own after I graduated from college, and eventually I became the head
of my own company. In the future, if you come across a similar type
of opportunity you should not hesitate to accept it,” he advises.

The subordinate shakes
his head in doubt. “I’m not sure if I am cut out for that kind of
risk in my life, sir, or be the head of a company for that matter.”

“It is how people
grow,” Richard chides gently. “I hope your opportunity doesn’t
knock for a while, since I appreciate having a trustworthy, honest,
hardworking, and reliable person like you to work for me. However, I
certainly wouldn’t stand in the way of you launching your own
startup, if that’s what you decide to do in the future,” he
smiles. “Anyway, please keep me posted on your meeting with the VG
folks,” he requests.

“Yes sir. Thank you
for sitting down with me,” Mark gets up.

“Always,” Richard
nods in dismissal and resumes his work.

“Welcome gentlemen,”
Charles Winter offers the soon-to-be-underlings his warmest smile. “I
appreciate you taking the time to visit our office.”

“Thank you for
permitting us to visit your facilities,” Mark Whitney replies
politely. “We didn’t expect to see the head of Virtuous Gaming
Co. attend this meeting as well.”

Charles waves his hand
and grins. “Don’t worry. I won’t be staying for your meeting. I
think it is appropriate and proper for me, as head of the company, to
introduce you to the people you will be working with closely for the
next several weeks,” he explains as the company president leads the
small contingent from Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc.
pass rows of desk.

Workers turn to stare
at the newcomers, who will soon be their co-workers once the joint
gaming event is completed.

Charles stops in front
of a door marked “Restricted Access.” He taps his company
identification against a reader panel on the wall on right side. His
card contains a Near-Field Communication (“NFC”) chip. Once the
reader confirms the cardholder’s security clearance to enter the
restricted area, the door unlocks with a loud “click” sound.

Inside the room is a
bunch of workers sitting in front of computers workstations. Some
employees are using Wacom pads for illustrations. Others are
collaborating in groups. Play testers are sprinkled all around; their
ears covered up by headphones and their eyes glued to the computer
screen, the gamers are oblivious to their surroundings.

Watching over these
workers is a woman with curly black hair and wearing a white lab coat
over her cream colored blouse and long gray skirt matched with a pair
of black Manolo Blahnik shoes. She notices the newcomers right away
as they enter the research and development section of the company.
The middle aged woman offers an exchange of nods with her boss, and
then she turns her full attention to his guests. “Hello! My name is
Lisa Huffman, and I’m Vice President of Product Development,” she
says with a friendly smile at the group of men.

Mark quickly walks up
to the VP and offers his hand. “My name is Mark Whitney and I’m
the project manager at EDE.”

Lisa offers a warm
smile and a firm handshake with the short, pudgy man. She studies his
overall laidback appearance; he is wearing a golf shirt of all
things, Dockers slacks, and loafers
.
All he needs is a tan and long wavy hair to go surfing
,
Lisa thinks as she glances at the other EDE workers to confirm that
they are dressed just as casually as the project manager.
How
will our two companies, with very different cultures and dress codes,
merge seamlessly?