A few hours earlier...

A distinguished gentleman, dressed in a crisp and designer suit that he wore with a lax and casual attitude, sat in a large office.

He sat behind a sleek, ergonomic desk that was kitted out to act as an entire computer on its own. Despite its minimalist design, the desk itself was easily more powerful than most high end computers that people could afford nowadays. But such things happened when it was easy for you to get access to cutting edge parts when most could barely afford the simple high end.

The sign on this man’s office door read ’Noel McGuinness, Rift Diver CEO’, a sign that displayed itself to the room as the door opened and his secretary, a young man dressed in slim, smart trousers and a dress shirt, strolled into the room.

"Sir, you called for me?" The assistant asked with a warm smile that hinted at a little more friendliness than one would expect from their positions, or perhaps exactly the right amount depending on your expectations.

Noel kept his eyes, which was glowing with a soft green light, on the desk in front of him. Although it seemed completely empty, it was simply due to optical encryption. Only he could see the holographic displays, which showed surveillance footage of a particular young man with a gothic aesthetic. He was one of the original Beta Testers, one of the people who won it through a competition.

"Yes, I did. It is time to roll out the update. Tell the boys to make it last for a week, give the players some breathing room after the issues with the energy drink."

"An update? Oh.. Yes sir..." The assistant said with a disappointed sigh. He wasn’t just disappointed to find out that was why he was called in, but to hear that the game would be shut down for a week.

All of the employees had been given free Neural Crowns and an employee discount when it came to D-fuel. He had been having lots of fun playing it after work, and now he would have to find some other way to occupy his alone time.

Noel chuckled softly, glancing up at his assistant. He gave him a once over, before narrowing his eyes.

"You’ve been enjoying the game, haven’t you? You are a Magic Swordsman, right?"

The assitants eyes widened in slight surprise, before bobbing his head, "Y-yes sir, that’s right." He said softly with a slight blush on his cheeks at how much his boss knew about him.

"That’s what I thought. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you had that kind of power in real life? The ability to do magic?"

"Oh... I’ve never thought about it. Maybe... Rob a bank or something?" The assistant answered with a giggle,

"Isn’t that what everyone would do when they get superpowers? Either that or become a super hero."

"Yes... I suppose it is the obvious choice. Anyways, I won’t keep you from your work. Go push the update, and close the door behind you please." Noel answered with a half hearted smile, glancing at the invisible displays on his desk again.

"Yes sir." The Assistant answered with a beaming smile, turning on his heels and skipped out of the room.

Noel’s smile dimmed the moment the door closed, as his focus returned to the display of the Gothic young man. He was rambling to himself, pacing back and forth in his bedroom as he spoke to no one.

With a glance to his right, Noel could see the young man’s details. Not only his entire civilian records, but his in-game name and stats. This young man in question was one of the players that chose the Warlock class.

Someone had been eager to brag about it, and it had become popular with those that loved everything dark and ominous, but it was especially popular with those who wanted easy power. It was for these reasons and more, such as the utterly pathetic number in this young man’s bank account, that it made him the perfect subject for what Noel needed.

The gothic young man stopped his pacing as a creepy smile spread across his lips. In plain view of the camera that he did not know existed, the goth lifted his hand as an eery green flame burst to life in the palm of his hand.

Noel did not express any surprise at this action. Instead he was just watching the goth like he was observing an animal in the zoo, with emotionless indifference. This was not the first time he had seen this.

With dreadful calm, he pressed a few invisible buttons on his desk and opened an encrypted communication channel.

"We’re initiating the update. Prepare the enforcers, it seems it will be any day now before B-019 decides to take action. Just remember to record it, no need to waste our public demonstration.

In the meantime, have the other subjects records reviewed. Every second, every angle. Manual review only. I want to know everything they are capable of, with no mistakes. We can’t be blindsided when it comes time for the presentation.

Give special attention to 3, 12, and 17. They have already shown anomalies and could make for useful backups." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Yes sir." An emotionless voice responded from the other end of the line.

"What should we do about McLean? Should we inform him?"

Noel’s face immediately fell at the mention of that man’s name. His hand clenched into a tight fist, as he wore an expression of disgust.

"Leave him. He has expressed no desire for our enforcers. He can learn the hard way the result of his meddling."

With that, Noel shut off the encrypted line and went back to staring at his desk with a soft, wicked smile on his face as he revelled in the feelings of what was to come.

As much as he hated that man, he had to give it to McLean. He had handed him such a wonderful business opportunity, and had done so while rambling on about ’Elevating Humanity to a higher plane.’

What nonsense. The Enforcers were the best possible outcome, but what use would the customers have for them if they didn’t have something only Enforcers could deal with?

No one wanted a cure without a disease. But if you owned both, and were solely able to develop the growth of both, then you could charge both the cure and disease endlessly. Create an eternal war of power that neither could stop, for fear of being overpowered by the other.

So what if it ruined the world or created more chaos than all of the corporate wars combined? Just think of the profits.