After the others had left the two of them alone, Enzo angrily said, "How can you think for one second that I would betray my closest friend for you?!"
Edward calmly replied, "It's not just me. I didn't just decide this on a whim. The board of directors and the shareholders decided this, and you know that they care about money above all else. They do what they know will be most likely to earn them a profit. Come on, Enzo! We obey the ones who pay our salaries. That's the simple way of the world."
Enzo, still furious, snarled, "I won't do it! I gave my word to Azazel, and so did you! What happened to you, Edward? You've always favored our relations with SoulCalibure, in a way that I know goes beyond mere convenience! And now, for the sake of money, you're really willing to destroy the relationship we've built over so many years?"
Edward replied, "Calm down Enzo! Listen to me. World of Warcraft II is on the decline. We're preparing for a future where none of this will be relevant."
Enzo said nothing for a few seconds. He sat back down in one of the meeting table chairs and caught his breath. Finally, he said, "Alright, I'll listen to what you have to say. But I expect my arguments to be heard, too!"
Edward nodded patiently. "As I told you, WoW II is dying. It's been a year since the last major update. The publishers have decided to release multiple expansions together, a terrible idea from every angle. Players are dropping their subscriptions at such a rate that the total player count is decreasing for the first time."
Enzo impatiently interrupted him. "So what! This game still has 60,000,000 active players. It's still the biggest MMORPG of all time. Everyone knows you can't beat it! Even if WoW II loses a few hundred thousand players over the years, it means hardly anything in the long run."
Edward replied, "That's where you're wrong, and it shows how little you know about business. But the same goes for most people. Shareholders only make a profit if there is overall growth. As far as the shareholders are concerned, even a tiny decline is a very, very bad thing.
"And there's good reason to believe there never will be a profit for the shareholders again: this game is totally out of date technologically. The only reason other games have failed to overtake WoW II is that they used the exact same technology."
Edward paused thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. "However… our shareholders recently gained access to a demo of ABC game's new game. Project Horus. Have you heard of it?"
Enzo laughed nervously. "So that's what this is all about? Yet another rumor of a WoW II-killer, like all the others that failed to materialize? You want to jeopardize the reputation of the guild, just because you're afraid that everything will fall apart? I'll remind you that we heard this exact same story last year when Amazon released a supposedly revolutionary VRMMORPG. It was supposed to revolutionize the world of video games and simulations forever, but nothing happened. The technology was buggy and didn't feel right, so everyone quit after the first month. Who's to say this project won't do the same?"
Edward removed a USB key from his pocket and said, "I'll show you. Take the VRI headset sitting there on the table and try out the demo for yourself."
Enzo hesitantly took the headset and put it on his head.
Edward inserted the USB key in the meeting table's computer terminal, then put on a second VRI headset.
***
Ceasar opened his eyes and looked around him in awe.
He stood alone on a totally deserted planet of smooth, bare stone. A haze rose up on the horizon, and insectoid creatures were faintly visible high above him, their gem-like exoskeletons casting shimmering patches of light to the ground below.
The planet seemed to be in the orbit of a close, blue sun. Solar flares burst out from its edges before dissipating again into the void of space.
Ceasar gasped in surprise as another celestial body eclipsed the sun. "What's this?!"
An immense gaseous planet, surrounded by immense rings that seemed almost to touch the planet he stood on, crossed between the sun and the stony planet. Ceasar was immediately aware of the cessation of heat, and his skin tingled.
Then the gas giant moved away and the blue sun returned. The two planets seemed to gravitate around each other within the sun's orbit, an intricate celestial dance to the unheard music of the void.
The beauty of this scene struck Ceasar to his core. It was nearly a religious experience. World of Warcraft II certainly possessed beautiful, hand-crafted graphics that were more vibrant than the everyday life in the city domes on Earth…
…But they were simply illusions, pretty sculptures that created a fantastical daydream that had little to do with reality.
This was different.
This felt… real.
A man suddenly appeared at Ceasar's side. "So, what do you think?"
Ceasar turned to face Augustus. His voice was much calmer than it had been in the meeting room. "This is incredible. The graphics are so realistic that I don't feel like I'm in a game. Are we in the starting zone of Project Horus?"
Augustus replied, "No, not to my knowledge. It's just the first planet simulated by ABC Games."
Ceasar answered, "It's incredible. This planet must be a thousand kilometers across. What a massive game area!"
Augustus answered, "Indeed. The demo I was given has thirteen planets as big as Earth itself. Apparently, the only limit to the size of simulated planets is based on the laws of physics itself."
Augustus snapped his fingers and the environment changed around them in an instant. They had landed on a totally different planet, one full of lush, green-and-blue vegetation. The two of them stood in the middle of a small village. In the close distance, several NPCs toiled in the middle of a golden field of wheat.
A tag above each NPC made it clear that they weren't a real player, but their physical details and animations were incredibly lifelike! Ceasar stared at them in disbelief for a long moment. If it hadn't been for the nametags, he'd have never been able to tell they were AI-generated.
Augustus made a gesture in front of him, and then the two players were suddenly flying upward into the sky. The color of the sky changed as the atmosphere thinned out around them, and then they hung there in space, looking out over the blue and green of the planet below them.
Augustus stared down at the planet, just as calm as ever. "I've had this demo since Project Horus first began development. That is to say, long before now… since the release of World of Warcraft II, in fact. I spend all my free time in this micro-simulation of only twelve worlds in what the developers assure me will be a billion times a billion planets. It goes without saying that, when this game finally launches, a single lifetime will be insufficient to experience it all."
Ceasar pulled his gaze away from the planet, which was much more beautiful than the ruined wasteland of the Earth. "And what of the NPCs in this game? Sure, the worlds might be immense, but will the NPCs be more immersive than in the games we currently have? It's surely much harder to simulate a believable conversation than a pretty landscape. This has been one of the great weaknesses of the games that keep failing to beat WoW II."
Augustus nodded at Ceasar. "From what I've seen, each NPC has its own consciousness and unique personality. Speaking to any of them, you could easily mistake it for a real person."
Ceasar laughed. "You seriously want me to believe that this game will have billions of real-seeming NPCs? You've got to be kidding me! It would take an army of developers and millions of years to code an algorithm that can simulate a real person. Even the modern procedural coding tech can't give us this much of a shortcut!"
Augustus smiled for the first time in their conversation. "Very astute, Ceasar. No, mainstream technology is by no means at that level today. But they're not exactly using mainstream tech. That's right, ABC Games claims to use the source code of Arch's AI, which was developed to oversee all the functions of Earth. They adapted it into a new AI borrowing the 'Cortana' brand, which they, of course, have been sitting on the legal rights to use. It's a self-learning artificial intelligence, endowed with the incredible power of the latest quantum computers. A game-developing AI like this one is perfectly unique and has never been created before. Do you understand now?"
Ceasar thought for several more seconds before answering. "Yes, I think I understand. Alright, if this is all true, then perhaps Project Horus will actually be the revolution the gaming world has been waiting for. But I've not forgotten the main problem, Edward. I gave my word to Azazel and to SoulCalibure. I refuse to sacrifice my honor and betray my word… even if it costs me everything. My position. My freedom. I think you know me well enough to tell that I'm not bluffing.""
Augustus replied again, very calmly, "If it were up to me, this unpleasant problem wouldn't be on the table. I have no more desire than you to betray our allies. But you know the shareholders. They've invested a lot in this company. They're tired of limiting themselves to just pocketing the dividends we've fed them from our work in WoW II. They dream of making our guild a top player on the stock exchange, and anyone who gets in their way will be crushed… even me and you."
Then he added, "But… I've convinced them to change their initial approach. In a few months, the world government will renew the project of prisoner rehabilitation via MMORPG service. Considering the magnitude of the bribes we paid last time around, we'll be first in line to pick new prisoners. You… still have a brother and sister in prison, do you not?"
Augustus's casual words pierced Ceasar's heart. He understood the implication at once: though Ceasar might be willing to give up all his fame and fortune for the sake of his honor… would he also be willing to give up the chance at his siblings' freedom?
At that moment, Ceasar realized that freedom for his brother and sister was what he longed for most in the world. After all this time, it surprised him somewhat.
So Ceasar turned to Augustus with anguish in his voice. "You're asking me to exchange my honor for my family?"
Augustus approached him and put his hand on his shoulder. It was not an unkind gesture. "Listen to me, Enzo. This situation is unpleasant for everyone. But you must seize this opportunity! In this world of ours, opportunities such as these can never be counted on to return. There is no guarantee that the world government will renew this program again in the future… or that the guild will have the means to bribe them again if we skip this round."
Ceasar fell silent, turning to stare deeply into the void of space.
Augustus said gently, "I'll leave you alone to think. The silence of the cosmos has been a tremendous comfort to me in the past. I truly feel like it's given me the advice I need to make the miserable decisions this job requires. Take all the time you need."
Then Augustus disappeared, leaving Ceasar alone with nothing but the planet below him and the abyssal darkness above.
There were no stars yet in this simulated universe.
Ceasar wondered if, when the game finally launched, he would be among the first to see the simulated stars of a whole new universe.
If not, he would be staring up at the unreachable, glittering stars of the real world, and doing so from the inside of a cell from which he would never escape again.
"What should I do?" he called into the void.
Silence was his only answer.
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