"Billions and trillions of credits! Being pushed into a game by players! This is mind boggling!" Indeed, Mrs Briggs never thought that gaming industry had turned this big. She wanted a slice of this pie.
"It's the effect of hyper inflation of early days of the game. Right now, each bronze coin is worth more than two hundred credits. I expect the rate to drop to fifty credits or less soon. So, these guilds would not need such a huge investment often enough. That's why I said this is the best time to invest and grab more."
Atharva tried to explain.
Villages were sort of closed environment for players. A OP player or OP skill or even an OP equipment won't disturb other places much. Thus, better quality items can be given in these gift crates. But once the players leave the village, better equipments or skills can have long lasting effects and the effect would be over a large region.
"Let me verify." Mrs Briggs said as she had no idea of where to begin.
She sent few messages while she started to chat with a lady on the phone.
Being a decent guy, Atharva took his drink and walked around to enjoy the scenery and give some privacy. He was not an employee under her yet. Based on the murmurs, Mrs Briggs would make a solid killing later on. Maybe, he should ask for some bonus. After all, he had shown her a way to make a killer investment.
Hey! This juice is not bad, he thought as he sipped the drink and enjoyed the scenery. He had seen pics and vids of these beautiful plants and flowers. The real deal is indeed better than pictures or videos. No wonder they charge too much. Just the upkeep of these plants would bankrupt few nurseries.
Atharva was called back. " I talked to Dame Marcella. Mraci to her friends. Unfortunately, not many of her friends are alive still. It's just fortunate that I am still one of her friends. She is a facilitator."
Atharva understood. "Ohhh!"
Facilitators were upgraded version of middlemen. Main difference is that they are incharge of putting 2 parties together. It didn't matter to them if the deal happens or not. Their only job is to find ideal or near ideal person capable of the job. They would be paid by either party or both just to arrange a meeting and a huge bonus if the deal happens.
It looks easy money but it was not. They needed to have huge, absolutely huge connections to pull the parties together. They needed to be tight lipped. They should have integrity. And most importantly, they should be of upper echleon. The last requirement is mostly because upper echleon people rarely accepted meeting others. Meet only through referrals, in other words.
Mrs Briggs continued, correctly assuming he knew what a facilitator was. " There are two meet and greets today. And if I get a favorable deal, you will have a good bonus.
You will be working under me for next few months before I dump you."
So brutally honest.
" And you can go on to work under one of the youngsters I choose."
Okay. His career path is fixed. Just like that. No more talks of huge restrictions and all that.
He was shooed off, literally. " Go on. You have to attend the meeting today. You don't want to be late for that."
Only as an after thought did she add, "Some one from my office will contact you today afternoon or evening about the job."
He did not leave till he drank last drop of that drink though. Who knew when he'll get another chance to drink it?
Mrs Briggs just shook her head at his Scrooge like mentality. It didn't show often but he did have that tendency. Need to curb that. She made a mental note and started to work right there. She had to collect liquid assets more than few billions before her people attended the meet and greet. She didn't have enough time. Even she had to attend the meeting today in Saint Augustine. Yes, the same one which Atharva would attend.
Thanks to the special feat he had done, Atharva was considered a special case. There had been many meetings regarding him. This one was technically a meeting but it was more like award ceremony. They decided to have meeting after awards ceremony, in the same venue. Oh, joy.
The venue was also shifted to one of the massive auditorium classrooms. Unless one had pass, it would take a long time to reach there. So, she was not really shooing him off to have private business talks but helping him to be on time.
Atharva spurlged and decided to take a cab. Never mind the fact that the cab would stop at entrance to campus and he would either walk or pay again for golf carts ferrying students.
He had money in the bank. A job offer. Though the offer letter was not yet in hand, it's a done deal. A great lady like Mrs Briggs would not scam a little fry like him. Spurlge.
After making sure that his suit didn't have any crease, he called his family to show off. Jealous siblings - check ✔️.
Proud parents - Double check ✔️ ✔️ .
Inspite of him staying in Saint Augustine, he had not ventured deeply in the campus. He needed the guide to reach the meeting place.
Then, Atharva was confused. Why is the meeting in a auditorium? Yes, it's a classroom, but it's still a big *ss auditorium. The meeting is to be held here?
There was still some time. If there is any error, he still had some time to reach if the meeting was in another place.
As usual, he had to 'talk' with AI based machines. You didn't expect the leading premiere institute to still employ people to do basic works, did you? In all the four years he had been in this campus, he had more interactions with AI than with people. Probably that's why he could integrate nicely in the game and accept NPCs as people with real thoughts, behaviours and varied characters.