Caelus Online

3. Plans On The Rocks

The following two weeks had passed like a blur for Chester, filled with meetings between various business partners, and executives from other companies within the Branford Group, as well as guiding Gareth through everything he needed to know. With a lot of effort, nearly everything had fallen into place, and he was almost ready to enter Caelus Online.

During this time Chester received a message from Ben who was shocked after finding out the electrical overload Chester had predicted came to pass. The hydroponics company suffered major damage with all their production equipment needing to be replaced, causing their share price to plummet from $12.53 to $0.97. This staggering revelation had left Ben stunned and convinced, leading him to help Chester and follow him into Caelus Online.

Looking to get more help for his future plans, Chester decided to get all of his close friends and acquaintances involved, convincing them with Ben's help to play Caelus Online full time by inviting them to be employed under a new company within the Branford Group, Augurium Esports.

To convince everyone, Chester had explained that he had advanced knowledge of the game, however, after a conversation with Ben they had decided to keep the issue of Chester’s time travel between themselves in order to keep everyone’s scepticism at a minimum. Instead, they chose to use Chester’s family status as a Duke to say they had gained advanced information about the game and the potential profits it could bring. With Ben on board, it was possible to swiftly persuade everyone to help, all agreeing to meet up on Friday, 2 days before the first day of early access to the game to discuss everyone’s roles when they enter Caelus Online.

Caelus Online came in three different bundles, the Standard Edition which only came with the game and has no added extras, the Deluxe Edition which came with some beginner items and one day of early access, and the Forerunner Edition.

The Forerunner Edition was by far the most expensive version as it included a gaming pod alongside a plethora of extra benefits, the most important of which was the two days of early access to Caelus Online. These two days would give those players entry to the early stage grinding spots before they become crowded, a chance to make first-time server achievements which would provide small stat boosts, as well as a chance to stumble upon unique quests before anyone else.

****

Friday evening eventually arrived and Chester’s friends all started to gather in the Branford Manor’s games room. The games room had the feel of an old gentleman’s club, with a snooker table to one side and big leather sofas on the other. In the corner near the door was a well-stocked bar with a large selection of fine spirits, liquors, wines, and beers.

Walking in, Chester could see that they were just waiting for two more. Looking around he saw that Ben was sitting at the bar with Ali and Roxanne, one of the two girls of their friend’s group.

Roxanne was a strikingly beautiful woman the same age as the rest of the group of friends. Her long red hair freely flowed down her exposed back, while her athletic body was accentuated by her conservative backless black dress. As she spoke with Harold who was behind the bar mixing a colourful cocktail, Chester could only think how men’s eyes would be drawn to her cherry red lips.

Looking over to the other side of the room Chester could see Russel and Tyrell who were playing snooker while getting to know each other. Tyrell was a black man of similar height to Chester sporting a classic buzz cut. His face was well defined with a short goatee while his build was average. Dressing to match the venue, he was wearing jeans and a black shirt with the top buttons undone, his look was slightly smarter than usual appearance.

Both Tyrell and Russel had met Chester at university and only interacted with each other a few times at parties, however since both of them were from south London they had a lot of common ground to talk about.

Walking up to the bar, Chester called out a greeting to Tyrell and Russell while raising his hand in a short wave.

“Sorry I’m a little late, Gareth threw me a few last-minute questions which ended up needing a long explanation.” Chester greeted the rest while sitting on a free stall.

“That’s the guy you promoted to do your work while you play games, right?” Roxanne joked with a cheeky grin.

Faking a gasp, Chester plays along with Roxanne’s teasing.

“Oh no, how did you figure me out!”

Gaining a few laughs, Chester turned his attention to the whiskey on the rocks which Harold had prepared and placed on the bar for him.

After a short while the last 2 members of the small gathering finally arrive, casually entering the games room.

“Sorry we're late; we were stuck behind some tractor blocking the whole country lane.” Connor called out in his American accent.

Connor was a skinny man a year younger than the rest of the group. His blonde hair was messy and his blue eyes shone with confidence, complimented by his handsome face. Dressed up in a suit with the top button undone, his style looked like he had just left work and was going to his local dive bar.

Following Connor inside was Marie, a petite girl half a head shorter than Russel making her the smallest of the group. Her shoulder-length brown hair framed her round face while her body which carried some weight was quite curvy. While Marie was not as beautiful as Roxanne or as tall as the others in the group, she made up for it with her cheerful and bubbly personality.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting everyone!” Marie called out from behind as they made their way into the room, exaggeratedly waving her hand.

Speaking up from the bar, Chester stood up to get everyone’s attention.

“Thanks for making it tonight, everyone. It’s a shame that Ash can’t make it since he is still in the Amazon playing with plants, but this will be recorded and sent to him as soon as he is back within the range of a cell tower.”

Seeing a couple of those who know Ash well crack a smile, Chester continued.

“Once everyone has had a drink and settled down, I will start the discussion, after all, what’s a business discussion without booze?”

Seeing a few agreeing nods and a few exasperated shakes of the head, everyone either moved to sit down on the sofas or waited for Harold to pour them a drink. After the group had settled down, Chester turned on a projector that displayed an image of Caelus Online’s cover over the wall.

“So let me start off by saying that this game has the potential to make us billions if we can capitalize on everything I explain here. So, first to summarise a few key details about the game.”

Clicking a button on the remote in his hand, the screen changed to the first slide in the presentation showing a panoramic image of the world from the trailer.

“Firstly, think of Caelus Online as a parallel world. Everything from the world’s environment to the sentient NPC’s are realistic, so it’s best to treat it like a second Earth. As you can imagine, this has major potential in itself with a whole new economy.”

To let his words sink in, Chester paused before he moved on to the next slide which showed a number of charts.

“Secondly, the game will go through 2 phases. Initially, within the first 3 months, there will be an in-game population of around 25 million players worldwide, after that it will explode to around 1.3 billion by the end of the first year.”

Chester pointed towards the charts which showed the estimated growth of the game’s player base over time, starting at around 5,000 players for day one, 50,000 by day two, then reaching 600,000 by day three.

“As you can likely guess, what we are able to achieve within the first 3 months will determine how much we will benefit after the large influx of players after 3 months.”

Seeing the nods of understanding from everyone, Chester moved on to the next slide showing the hierarchical structure of a guild, including the member ranking structure and a list of priorities.

“There are several areas we need to focus on, and I will assign an area to each of you. To begin with, we will need to form a guild. The guild will be the cornerstone for everything we want to achieve. Connor, can you become the vice guild master and temporarily fill in the role of acting guild master?”

Hearing Chester’s request directed at him; he raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? I thought you would be doing that?”

Understanding Connor's surprise, Chester started to explain.

“Normally you would be right, however this time there is a large list of things I personally need to do, so I won’t have the time to begin with. As such I will need to leave you in charge of recruitment and general management. Honestly, without the guild we will not have enough manpower, and I think with your past experience of leading guilds and acting as a senior officer under me when we were younger, not to mention your recent experience in commercial management, makes you the best fit for the role.”

Walking over to a nearby table with a large collection of documents on top, Chester picked one out and handed it to Connor.

“Don’t worry, I have written up this document for you that has all the information you will need to know. Everyone else here will also play a role within the guild, but I will get to that in a minute.”

Receiving the document, Connor gave Chester a nod.

“Got it, you can count on me.”

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