Olympus: It's Not Just a Game

Chapter 27

Mr. Huber reeled back in amazement. "Where is he?" he bellowed. "Where's Karl?"

The figure in the cybersuit rotated blindly in the direction of his voice. "Really, sir," he chided, "I must protest! Go back to the monitor." The fierce secretary herded Mr. Huber out of the dimly lit room as Mr. Avery spluttered feebly. Dazed and defeated, Karl's father staggered back to his chair in front of the video screen. He looked up at the monitor. Peter Antipas looked down at him, sardonically. Karl stood in the background, utterly bewildered.

"I see our high technology has confused you," Peter condescended to explain. "Perhaps I can make it easier for you to understand." He snapped his fingers and called out, "Show Olympus!" The background behind him began to dissolve. The objects surrounding him collapsed in on themselves, and new ones materialized. When things stabilized, they saw Peter sitting behind his table in the cabin of his ship, the "Gray Maiden." Karl was still there, only now he was clothed in the tattered garments he had worn as a slave on a JonaDab's ship.

Lord Peter gestured around him. "Welcome to my ship—again. And look! Here's Karl. Just where you left him." He sneered, ever so slightly. "Please don't misunderstand me. He isn't really here, of course, any more than he is in Manhattan. He's in cyberspace, and, last time I asked him, he wasn't in any hurry to get back to earth."

"I'm not coming back, Dad!" Karl stammered. "You told me I couldn't play Olympus in your house until it made me rich or smart. But I can play it without you, you know."

"Karl, I didn't mean for you to run away!" his father protested. "I don't want you wasting your life on this ridiculous game: not in my house, or anywhere else!"

"Your house, your rules," Karl answered back. "But you can't stop me from playing Olympus. I'm not coming back home until Olympus makes me rich, like you said."

"Rich!" Mr. Huber barked. "That's a joke!"

Lord Peter coughed, softly. "Excuse me," he interjected, "but the boy may easily become quite rich in Olympus."

"Rich in Olympus?" Mr. Huber snarled. "It's a fantasy world." He turned back toward Karl. "When I say rich, I don't mean in play money. I mean real American dollars, Karl."

Karl opened his mouth to answer, but Lord Peter interrupted. "Mr. Huber, this may surprise you, but people can make a lot of real American dollars in Olympus."

Mr. Huber turned back to face Lord Peter with growing impatience. "Oh, sure, this big company that makes these video games, it's sucking the blood out of these foolish teenagers. Whoever runs this company must be making millions—maybe billions! I just don't want them sucking the life out of my son!"

Lord Peter leaned forwards and stared at Mr. Huber. "I'm playing this game, sir, and I made slightly over thirty thousand real American dollars last month."

Karl started. "You did what?"

Lord Peter turned to look at him. "I made over thirty thousand dollars last month," he repeated, matter-of-factly. "And I expect that figure to grow substantially this month."

"But how?" Karl gasped. "Can I make that kind of money?"

"When they first set up this game," Lord Peter answered, "they had shops and so forth to sell things to the players. Those shops were staffed with computer-generated characters." He paused, significantly.