New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Walking to the stand with a dozen different microphones, Constantine looked weary. She'd been up ever since the servers crashed, trying to understand what had happened.

Even when she tried reaching out to Gaius, there was no response from him. So, she was just as much in the dark as everyone.

But she needed to reassure the players and the rest of the community, lest her investors start pulling out of the company before it crashed financially.

She cleared her throat, getting bombarded with questions, before greeting everyone.

"Good morning to everyone, be you here, at home, or watching from your devices at work or on your daily commute. Let me start by saying that Evo-Gaming is terribly sorry for the interruption in service and that we are working our best to fix the issue ASAP.

"The hackers have yet to make themselves known or make any request, but rest assured that we are ready to accede to any reasonable demands they might make. Our top priority is getting all the players back online and reconnecting the servers.

"EG is aware that the gold transfer servers were also targeted, and our guess is that is what the hackers were after. Unfortunately, our system is all in one code, and taking one down takes all of it down.

"We realize now that this might have been a mistake. It was a security measure in hopes hackers wouldn't try to tackle it at all. We assume this must be a powerful hacker group, as taking down our entire server is not a one-man job.

"As soon as they reach out, we will do our utmost to get everything back up and running as fast as possible. If you are out there, listening in to me, we await your demands. The sooner you make them, the quicker this is resolved, and the more likely we will consent to anything you ask."

She paused, looking at the central camera on her, making sure it recorded her resolute face before looking down at something.

"On another note, we were already calling a press conference today, initially, to make a big announcement. Sadly, this incident will shadow this happy announcement, but I will make it, nonetheless.

"With the end of the year quickly approaching and more than half a year already passed since the first tournament, EG wants to congratulate every player in the world for reaching heights that would have seemed impossible months ago.

"And it is my pleasure to announce that, starting on New Year's Eve, the next tournament preliminaries will start. That is, of course, if our servers are back online, ha ha," she laughed, trying to smooth over the crowd of reporters.

Her calm demeanour about the hack had already calmed the torrent of questions, and the reporters were already more malleable.

"I can't give more details about it just yet, but do expect this to be a grand event. As for the tournament itself, the format this time will be wildly different. Since guilds have been established and play such an integral part of the game, the tournament will have two facets.

"One that will pit guilds against each other, with many enticing rewards for the winning guilds. Even the losing guilds will get something out of this. The recognition of being part of the largest and most powerful guilds of New Eden!" she exclaimed.

There was not much of an uproar, dampening her mood a bit, but the light clapping still made her smile.

"The second facet of the tournament will be the individual part. Not unlike in March this year, players will have to fight against their peers and win, either through points or elimination phases, to reach the top and prove they are the number one in New Eden.

"Last year, our number one was a little unexpected and very unpredictable, which made for less of a show than intended. But we do hope this year's participants will show us a grand spectacle and wow viewers worldwide with their prowess and guile!

"The two phases will happen in succession, with the guild facet first, giving a chance to the losers of the guild phase to reclaim glory in the individual phase. This will give everyone a chance to prove they deserve all the glory and clout to be called the strongest players!"

The reporters frantically wrote down every nugget of information she was giving them, hungry for more, and Constantine grinned.

'Now, time for the show.'

She tapped a button on her phone, sending a message to someone, and waited a few seconds before opening her mouth to speak.

With the reporters busy writing, they failed to notice her little movement, and weren't the wiser, when the giant screen behind Constantine suddenly switched from her face to a black screen.

A symbol appeared on the screen, catching Alex by surprise. He knew this symbol!

"I've seen this somewhere before," he exclaimed, jumping from his sofa at home.

"What? Where?" Kary asked, confused.

On the screen, Constantine suddenly started arguing with a scrambled voice, which was broadcasting over the venue's speakers. The voice was calling itself the oracle, and saying that they were responsible for the server's hack, and started making a plethora of unreasonable demands.

Alex thought about where he'd seen the logo, and it suddenly clicked.

"I saw it at Violette's home. Her mother was wearing a broach with it on it! I'm certain." Novel Fire - novelfire.net

He immediately tried calling Violette, trying to reach her and ask where her mother was. But his phone rang before he could finish dialling her.

It was an unknown number.

Alex frowned before answering and putting it on speaker.

"Who is this?"

"You know who it is. You were about to call me. Are you the one who gave her that logo, Alexander?" Katherine's voice echoed, anger very heavy in her tone.

"I am not. I was about to call you and ask if you had…"

Alex heard something crash and break in the background, along with Violette's voice asking her to calm down.

Alex and Kary heard Katherine take a deep breath.

"Fine. Then I guess I have some work to get to. Don't get too far from your phone. I'll call back soon enough," Katherine ordered, before the line hung up.

"What was that about?" Kary asked.

Alex grinned. He pointed at the TV and raised the volume.

"We are about to find out."