“He doesn’t return my calls,” I said. “Maybe if you tried?”
Dad nodded. “Yeah. Soon.”
It was the answer he always gave, but soon never happened. Dad just couldn’t work up the courage to face Francis anymore.
“You need to do something, Christopher.”
I knew Dad wouldn’t like what I was about to say, but I didn’t have a choice.
“You remember the businessman I was telling you about?” I said, making sure to meet my dad’s stern gaze. “Terrence Pierce?”
Dad slapped the table and looked away from me. “No way,” he said.
“He wants to invest in the business. With his money, we might be able to beat Star Horizon’s offer.”
Dad’s face started to turn red, a sure sign that anger was building in him. He had enough self-control that he’d managed to rarely show it to Francis or me, but it was obvious when he was getting into a fury. I understood why. Ledfield Tours was such a source of pride for Dad. It had always been a family-run business.
“I know how you feel about investment, but is keeping our pride better than losing the company?”
“We’ve never let an outsider have a share of the business,” he said, almost spitting the words. “My dad didn’t, his dad didn’t, I sure as hell didn’t. And you won’t be the first one, boy. You’ve got the weight of decades of family history pressing down on you. You better straighten your shoulders.”
I nodded.
“Promise me,” said Dad. The anger was gone, and there was a pleading tone to his voice.
“Okay.”
“No,” said Dad. “Say the words. Promise me you won’t let an investor take a share of the business.”
I stared at my dad, and I said the words. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do next, but I said the words all the same.
Chapter Four
One day Before the Game
I spent two days travelling to the nearby towns of Gorgefall and Kendrick, visiting the banks to see if one of them would give us a loan. After two refusals, I learned that my great-great-great grandfather had once borrowed money against the company. He had been late on repayments, and his tardiness had ruined our credit score. When I got back in town, I felt drained.
“You look like you could use a break from reality,” said a voice next to me.
A man was stood to my left. He wore smart trousers and a striped shirt. He had a badge pinned to his chest showing a computer logo. Behind him, he’d set up a stall with a big banner stretching across it that said ‘Pana Reborn’. Resting on the stall was a black headset.
I knew what it was straight away. I watched enough TV that I had seen the adverts showing people having a good time with black headsets fastened on them. This stall was for Pana Reborn, a virtual reality game that had dominated the entertainment industry for the last decade.
I was a gamer myself, but I did it just to relax. Some people seemed to take gaming as a vocation. There were reports of people becoming addicted to Pana Reborn. Some people lost their jobs and even their marriages to the role-playing game. I’d always wanted to try it, but I had the company to think about.
“Can I interest you in a subscription?” said the man. “A one-off fee of 500GD for a year.”
“If it’s only for a year, it’s not really a one-off, is it?” I said.
The man leaned in close to me. He smelled of cigarettes. “I can see that you’re no fool. Between you and me, there are tons of stuff you’d still need to pay for. The beginner’s starter pack, for one. Because you don’t want to be roaming around naked, do you? And you might be interested in getting a Season Pass for 350GD. In entitles you to every future expansion pack, completely free!”
“Even if I could spare the GD, I’m busy,” I said.
I was about to leave when the man grabbed my arm. “We’re releasing an expansion pack,” he said. “Pana hasn’t changed in five years, and now we’re ready to open up a new area. Not just a new set of quests or a little village.”
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to leave without hearing him out.
“No, nothing small like that,” he continued. “We think big at Pana Inc. So, in just a few days’ time, we’re dropping something enormous on the world. Something massive! Listen to this... In three days, we officially open the Island of Artemis.”
He outstretched his arms as if he were revealing the whole island to me. Instead, all I saw was his slightly-sweat covered armpits.
“Sounds great,” I said.
He scratched his head. “Wait. Don’t I know you?”
I looked at his face. He had a ginger moustache resting on his upper lip. The bridge of his nose was marked from where something had sat. I realized he’d been wearing the VR headset at some point.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Are you from around here?”
“No.” He put his fingers on his chin and studied me. Then his eyes lit up. “Got it! I’m fan-TAS-tic with faces, and I must have had yours stored in the memory banks somewhere. You’re with the tour company, aren’t you?”
“You know us?” I said.
He nodded. “Corporate head office brought us here a decade ago for some team bonding. How’s your dad?”
I suddenly wanted to be far away. “Great. I better go. Good luck with your subscriptions.”
“Listen,” said the man. “I’ve got something that will interest an outdoorsy guy like yourself. Like I said, we release Artemis in a few days. Corporate would kill me for saying this, but I’ll level with you. Subscriptions to Pana are dropping. There’s a new game out, and it’s killing the market.”
“So,” continued the salesman, “We’re having a competition. They say it’s to celebrate the release of Artemis, but really it's to drive subscriptions.”
“Good luck,” I said.
“You haven’t heard what the competition is.”
“I don’t have time to level up and kill rats,” I said.
He laughed. “So, you’re a gamer, then. I knew it. I saw the glint in your eyes. But listen, this isn’t like any other RPG. You’ll love the competition we’re running.”
I sighed. “Go on then.”
“To celebrate the release of Artemis, we’re doing this,” he said. “We’ve hidden something on the island. Something called Helder’s Bane. The first person to find it gets a lifetime subscription to Pana Reborn. Not only that. The first person to find Helder’s Bane gets a whopping 10,000GD.”
Now he had my attention. That amount of cash would be enough for me to match Star Horizon’s bid on the Gossard Forest tours.
The salesman explained everything to me. The island was due to open for the first time in a few days. At which point, in-game ships would take players from the mainland of Pana over to the new island of Artemis. Passage on the ships was included in a subscription fee, but spaces were quickly filling up.
“What exactly is Helder’s Bane?” I said.
The salesman grinned. I could tell that in his mind, he thought he’d secured a sale. “That’s the thing. I can’t tell you. It’s for you to figure out once you’re in Artemis.”
I told the salesman that I’d think about it.
“Don’t forget,” he called after me as I walked away, “Slots on the public ships are filling. The longer you wait, the further behind in the chase you are.”
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it alone. I’d need to take Cal with me, and that meant paying for two subscriptions. Not only that, but I’d need to buy gear for us both.
If I was going to do this, I needed help. I needed money.
Chapter Five
That afternoon I found myself in the office of Terence Pierce, the founder of Pierce Parachutes. I couldn’t help but think that Pierce was an unfortunate name to give a parachute, given that the last thing you wanted was a hole in it. Terence was an ego-driven man, though, so it was no surprise he’d put his name to his product.
I’d first met him a few years earlier when I�
��d taken a booking from him. He wanted his staff to go on a team-bonding activity, and he’d chosen a tour through Gossard Forest. Rather than listening to me, though, he’d spent the entire afternoon answering his phone. I was surprised, then, to get a phone call from him later asking to invest in our company.
The walls of the office were covered with frames, in which were clippings from newspapers of articles about Pierce Parachutes. In between them, taking pride of place in the center of the wall, a 1GD bill hung from a nail.
Terence walked into the office and sat down behind his desk. Before offering a handshake or even saying hello, he nodded at the GD note.
“Do you know what that is?” he said.
“The first GD you ever made when you started your business?” I guessed.
He smiled. “That’s what I tell people. But actually, I got it back as change from buying a sandwich a few years after starting the company. I put it on the wall to give people the impression that I built the company from scratch. In reality, my father gave me the startup money. I had enough cash to start the business and then buy out every place within 50 miles that makes parachutes. I don’t really have any rivals. There’s a lesson in that.”
“Have rich parents?” I said.
“Partly. But the full lesson is; the person with the most money comes out on top. Skip the queue and pay to win.”
I couldn’t help but think of Star Horizon. They were a national tour chain, and their resources dwarfed ours. Terence was right, I knew. But I wanted to change that. I needed to show that money didn’t always win. The problem was that to do that…I’d need money.
“What can I do for you, Christopher?”
As I opened my mouth to speak, Terence picked up the telephone on his desk.
“Sheila,” he said into the receiver. “Can I have a coffee brought into my office? And my guest would like a…”
He moved the phone from his face and looked at me.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“Just a coffee,” said Terence into the receiver. He put the phone down and looked at me.
“Now, you were saying?”
I explained to Terence what I’d learned about Pana Reborn and the opening of Artemis. I told him about the competition and the prize money on offer. Terence had seemed uninterested until I mentioned figures.
“10,000 GD for playing a game?” he said, disbelief written on his wrinkled face.
“For finding Helder’s Bane, not just for playing.”
“Helder’s Bone? What is it, a dog or something?”
“Bane,” I corrected. “And nobody knows what it is yet.”
Terence looked over at the door behind me. I turned around to see if was closed.
“Where’s my damn coffee?” said the old man. He picked up the telephone on his desk. Turning it over, he sighed.
“Someone’s unplugged it again,” he said.
I started to get the uneasy feeling that not all of Terence’s mind was present.
“Didn’t you realize it was unplugged when you spoke into it?” I said.
He shrugged. “I just talk into it, and Sheila comes running. Maybe she’s gotten sick of me.” He leaned forward. His shirt sleeves moved up, showing a gold watch that hung off his bony wrist. “I accepted your meeting because I thought you might have seen sense about taking my investment. Not to talk to me about a game.”
“This isn’t just a game,” I said. “Well, it is. But there’s more to it. 10,000GD, Terrence. Just for being the first to find Helder’s Bane.”
“Surely there will be thousands of people looking for it? What makes you special?”
“Two things. One, I explore things for a living.”
He shook his head. “You run a tour through a well-known area of Gossard Forest. There isn’t much to explore.”
“Two,” I carried on, “I have you on my side.”
“Rather presumptuous of you.”
“You’re a business man. You like a good investment. What was it you said? ‘Skip the queue and pay to win.’ It’s true that plenty of players will go to Artemis Island to find Helder’s Bane. They’ll be going over on the public ships. From my research, I know they'll set sail a few days after launch and will take five hours to get there.”
“And what’s your advantage?”
“You,” I answered.
I knew what I had to say next. After leaving the salesman and going to my flat, all I could think about was Pana Reborn. I’d spent hours researching the game, and especially the new island. I uncovered something interesting.
There was a detail which had bothered me. I couldn’t understand why the public ships sailed a few days after the launch of the expansion pack.
Then, in a buried post on a quiet forum, I found the answer. In a world of play to win, it was obvious. The public ships sailed a few days after launch because Pana Inc was letting people charter private boats to get there and begin the hunt early. The chase for Helder’s Bane was being skewed toward those with money.
After I explained this to Terence, he leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. He smiled.
“So, we charter a private ship, buy the best gear a – what do you call it? Newbie? – can buy, and then you win. It’s that simple.”
I shrugged. “Well, there will be other people there, too. But Pana is a game about fun and survival. You must keep your character alive, or you have to respawn, and that sets you back hours. I know how to survive in harsh climates. Dad made me learn.”
Terence sat back in thought. I didn’t feel right, sat there. I hated companies with money winning just because they had more resources, and I knew that I was contributing to it. But what else could I do? I couldn’t let Star Horizon ruin Ledfield tours.
Finally, Terence looked at me. “I’ll invest. But I have a condition. I expect a 60/40 split of the prize money.”
“Fine,” I said.
“One more condition,” said Terence.
“What?”
“My son goes with you,” said the old man. “He’s an idiot, and I need him to start thinking about things. Maybe this trip would help.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rex is what I believe you would call a ‘jock’. He loves sports, beer and more sports. I know that’s something of a stereotype, but you’ll understand when you meet him.”
Chapter Six
I didn’t really have much of a choice. I didn’t want Terence’s son to go with us, especially after hearing the old man’s description of him. Still, I needed his money.
Getting back to my flat, I picked up my phone to complete my daily ritual of listening to my brother’s answerphone. Predictably, he didn’t answer, and when I heard Francis’ recorded voice, I left a voicemail.
I left a message telling him about the game. I explained that I’d be spending up to 48 hours at a time in a capsule, only stopping to take safety-regulated breaks. I told him that Terence had agreed to buy him a subscription too, and that he should come with us.
With that done, I spent the rest of the evening researching Pana. The more I read about the game the more I realized that finding Helder’s Bane would be tough. The makers of Pana were well-known for leaving riddles, false trails, and quests that had no solution. They seemed to love to fool around with the players, all in the interest of showing them a good time.
As the moonlight sifted through my window, I climbed into bed. We would enter Pana tomorrow, and the quest for Helder’s Bane would begin.
Chapter Seven
Entering Pana
Entering Pana was unpleasant. Their subscription sales office was an impressive building made almost entirely of glass. It had plush leather seats in the waiting room, and a receptionist with a smile sat behind a marble desk. Since Terence Pierce had already bought our subscriptions, Cal and I didn’t enter this lovely building. Instead, we made our way to the Game Centre.
The Game Centre didn’t stand as proud. Tucked away on an alley that ran by an
industrial estate, it was a building where rainwater fell from a leaking gutter and splattered on the ground. There was a Pana Inc logo above the door. That was the only thing that distinguished it from the taxi offices and bathroom supply warehouses nearby.
We stopped at the door. Cal looked at me. “You sure about this?”
The Scout of Artemis (LitRPG Series): Press X to Loot Book 1 Page 2
