Chương 92: The Chosen Few

"So that's it, huh?" Jin asked slowly at the round table of the Skyrim development initiative, aka, the small desk in his one-room apartment.

"Alduin has fallen, the dragonborn has emerged victorious, and alas, we must weep for there are no more new lands to conquer," Francis said poetically with a solemn nod of his wrinkled head.

"I'm happy for one," Hashimi said decisively.

"Still can't believe it only took five years. We made an actual continent there, I swear."

"Those idiots outside will finally stop bothering us, at least, I guess," Francis muttered decisively, finding the silver lining to a glorious ending.

"They've been following you as well?" Jin asked curiously.

"Your three Rooms had more of an impact than you think. It's not often our sect sees something so transgressively revolutionary and also profitable." Francis shrugged.

"Nobody cared who I was until I gained a boost in my reputation due to those successes. Now everybody thinks that if they can poach just one of us, they'll become the new Jin." Jin blinked incredulously.

"What about me, am I dead or something?" Francis and Hashimi exchanged a complex look.

"Well, you'll be promoted the moment you reach the core formation stage. I see you every day, and even I can feel that you're almost there. I also refuse to believe Skyrim won't be at least moderately successful. Hells, basically all the demos we've sent out have resulted in an acquisition letter for the full thing the moment it's available."

"The error reports, too, don't forget that," Hashimi said humorously.

"Yes, that too!" Francis exclaimed.

"I don't even understand why certain interactions lead to the object flying into the sky?"

"Object?" Hashimi countered.

"I almost shat my pants when I got launched into the clouds by that giant."

"Ironing out the errors would take too long. We've created a monstrosity of data here, untangling this spaghetti until we find the reasons for the errors would delay us for several years. Better just finish it and move as we said. The time could instead be spent on other things," Jin said, repeating the decision they'd all already made.

"Ah, that," Francis said with a sigh.

"I guess… I guess we won't be working on anything together anymore, will we?" he asked. Jin pursed his lips. As someone from modern Earth, he knew exactly how difficult it was to create a functioning and positive work environment. Unfortunately, Hashimi and Francis would not be able to help him much with his future projects. After all, with a new title came new requirements, and there were often non-disclosure clauses between ranks.

"I think I'll focus on my cultivation for a few years, core formation, I think I could crack it," Hashimi said cheerfully, although her smile also held a certain bitterness.

"So it really will be goodbye, huh?" Francis muttered.

"Bao will be the only one I'll have left." Jin's lips twitched. He'd held up his end of the deal. Bao was now retired. She'd helped him build the engine, and now he was paying her a handsome living stipend every month and would do so for the rest of her life. She would live in the Illusion Room Sect as one of the few mortals and would never budge a finger again. She'd gotten her life of leisure, not through marrying a rich man, but through her own efforts. Just that… despite all of this…

Despite the fact that Bao didn't need a man anymore. She'd somehow, at some point, still ended up in a romantic relationship with Francis.

"You'll never meet anyone like her, that I can tell you," Francis said with a small grin.

"Hashimi will be off cultivating to rejoin you. I'll get a servant slot after Skyrim and enough income streaming in from our Rooms to last me a few decades. Maybe I'll enjoy my last years on this plane." The mood in the room suddenly became sombre.

"You could invest everything you have into materials," Hashimi started slowly.

"Spirit Stones provide an overabundance of qi, alchemical pills to fill the gap left by a lack of talent. Three pillars and one major crossing is all that's left. A dirty advancement is better than none."

"Exactly," Jin interjected.

"You're good at what you do. You helped save some time with The Last of Us; we could have done it too. But with Skyrim? Such a big project? Your ability to combine everything into a meaningful whole, find the smaller issues and correct them before they spiral. If you stopped here, stopped creating, the world would lose out."

"You hit the nail on its head," Francis said bitterly.

"I've made the same realisation working alongside you two. The reason I failed in the past is because I'm just not a leader, nor a visionary, of content or aesthetics. I'm someone who can help others maximise their potential. However, after you and Hashimi leave, whose potential is there left to maximise? Increasing the value of your two's output made me a valuable contributor who did his third of the work. Working with someone else? I'll just be a burden, mainly because they'll be burdens in turn."

He paused and hunched over with a sigh. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"When you reach my age, heaven, I've stopped counting after 200… You think about your legacy more than you think about staying active. Skyrim will be a revolution, a great explosion of fire atop a stagnant lake. It will also be my farewell, my way of saying… You might not have heard of me before, and you never will again. But for this moment? For this thing? I was here, and I too, once shined…" Jin felt a solitary tear roll down his cheek.

"Shut up, old man," he whispered painfully. Francis only gave a weak smile at that and turned to Hashimi.

"As for trying to reach core formation. I've been doing my best my whole life. Where has it gotten me? Sixth pillar of the foundation establishment. Slightly talented, more successful than 90% of cultivators. But at this stage, being slightly talented doesn't matter anymore… A well-formed core will add a thousand years to one's life, but that's assuming you're at least middle-aged in body when you get there. You'll both reach it young and expand your lifespan by thousands of years. Me?

I'll be adding maybe another 250 years on top of the twenty I maybe have left now. Considering the stuff I'd have to ingest to get there… A dirty foundation for the core… I'd spend the rest of my life fighting for a potential increase of a hundred years. I might still fail, too." He shook his head, wispy hair flying left and right.

"No, at some point, you stand up from the table, grab your chips, and you leave." Jin and Hashimi remained silent, looking down with furrowed brows in nearly identical expressions of grief. Francis, meanwhile, smiled.

"You idiots. If I haven't met you in that great heist of yours. When we tricked Lung Junior and righteously acquired parts of his scenario. Without meeting you, I never even would have shined in the first place. Don't fault an old man for being content dying a mere candle, after all, without your help, I wouldn't have even managed that."

"I'm a genius," Jin said decisively.

"I'm holding onto more sect contribution points than I know what to do with. I doubt I'll need pills even for the next stage. I still have more than half of the spirit stones I received in the tournament. I didn't even have to deplete the spoils, and I'm already one single step away from core formation. If I gave you everything I had, are you still sure you wouldn't succeed?" Francis, finally, was stunned into silence. Then he ran red in the face.

"Shut up!" he screamed angrily.

"Keep your charity to yourself. Even with your help, I'll be dead soon anyway. A minor blip in your life, considering your talent. What if what you gave me was the decisive factor between your success and failure? You think I could live with that, being the reason you didn't fulfil your full potential?!"

"What if he gave half?" Hashimi suddenly spoke up.

"I'm not a genius." She paused with a thoughtful face.

"Well, actually, I'll be core formation by the time I'm 30, that's a genius, right?" She shook her head.

"Someone in here is skewing all the statistics… Anyway, what I wanted to say was… I also have a bit too many points, which makes me feel like I'm wasting them, honestly. Convert all that into spirit stones, pills, even a mentally deficient child could skip a few steps. I'm fairly sure this is how Lung Junior ended up in the inner ring, actually."

"You two idiots," Francis said with a trembling voice as he shook in place. He abruptly stood up, refusing to meet their gaze.

"You think this is a joke? You think not investing in yourself won't come back to haunt you? I refuse to be complicit in your self-sabotage! Don't let your naivety ruin your future!" he screamed before storming out of the apartment in a whirl of wispy hair and robes. Hashimi and Jin were left to brood in silence.

"Maybe he's right," Hashimi eventually said with a tired sigh.

"And even if he isn't, you know what they say about donkeys and water."

"You can lead them to water, but you can't make 'em drink," Jin replied, but shook his head.

"There has to be a way." He turned his attention to the pile of orders on the table and bug reports on the table.

"We have 300 pre-orders on Skyrim, which will be a rush of income. Also, if they liked the demo, they won't dislike the follow-up. We made everything tighter, better, more impactful. It will spread, I know it will spread. I just need a decade, and helping someone like Francis, who just needs a few bags of spirit stones and pills, will be a drop in a bucket. He won't be able to refuse."

"If he doesn't start now," Hashimi said softly.

"Then he won't have a decade. Every year he loses now represents five he loses in the next stage. Cultivation is a multiplication of vitality, not an addition."

"We have to do something. The two of you, if you come to the core ring…" Jin looked down at his crossed legs.

"We could do great things," he eventually said.

"Maybe he's right, you know, he is older after all. What if helping him delays us?" Jin snorted.

"Don't believe anyone's bullshit." He had his own interpretation of cultivation after so many years practising it. It wasn't anything spiritual, to be honest. It primarily required having the right talent, finding the right technique, intelligence, and willpower. But still, at the end of the day.

"A burdened heart is more harmful to cultivation than lack of resources," Jin said bluntly.

"What if not helping him will harm us more because we'll be distracted thinking about it? In this world, do what you want. If I want to help you, why refuse? Asshole." Hashimi laughed.

"Then you'll have to convince him to accept your help in a way that spares his pride, or rather, his worry for us." Jin shook his head.

"I'll have to sleep on it," he decided, before looking at the letters stacked on the table.

"Regardless, we have other things to do now."

"300 orders, package and prepare, individual letters for each sect," Hashimi said with a laugh.

"You think Francis stormed off to avoid helping?" Jin narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Probably not." He determined eventually.

"Let's get this over with." Now that he knew he needed more resources to potentially help Francis in the future, he had to think of more ways to make money. -/- Jin woke up the next day, not having made any real progress on his plans. Skyrim would first have to build a reputation in the sects, which could only happen in a few months when more people started finishing the scenario. It was only then that he could confidently implement some of the ideas he'd have to increase the game's reputation.

As for how to force Francis to accept his help and continue using the man as an assistant in the core ring… He'd yet to make a breakthrough. A knock suddenly sounded on his door, and he stood up unceremoniously to open, not bothering to put on his robe, assuming it was one of his colleagues. What he found instead was a completely random female disciple he'd never met before who was looking at him with a blush. It was summer, so he only wore a flimsy set of boxers to bed.

"What?" Jin asked bluntly, maintaining the mantra that if he wasn't embarrassed, the other person would have to bear the brunt of the shame.

'You caught me masturbating? Oh yeah, well, why were you looking, you freak…'

"There's a person in the library who really wants to meet you. They offered a reward to come get you, so I took it," the brunette girl said, awkwardly trying to look him in the eyes.

"Why couldn't they just come here?" Jin asked, confused now.

"Oh! They're a disciple from another sect; they can't leave the library." Jin instinctively wanted to close the door, but refrained. Xin Erwa, who wanted to beat him up, Xiao Yung, who wanted to kill him, Tian, who wanted to kill him… actually, a lot of people probably wanted to kill him.

"Who is it?" he asked suspiciously.

"Some guy named Kong Ching from the Stars Bursting Sect, said he wanted to talk about… sky rimming?" the girl muttered with an even heavier blush. Jin deadpanned and made to close the door.

"He's willing to hand over a few spirit stores, just to talk to you," the girl muttered, refusing to meet his eyes now.

"Alright, let's see what this is about," Jin said with a sigh. If it was about Skyrim, he couldn't really skip an opportunity to make more sales.

"Actually, about your next project, do you need-" the girl started, emboldening now. Jin slammed the door in her face and went to get dressed. After he came out a minute later, the girl was thankfully gone. He made his way to the library, where he found a young man with blonde hair and an offensively bright twinkle in his eyes already waiting for him.

"You must be Kong Ching," Jin said politely.

"You said you had some spir- I mean, what can I do for you?" he asked, wondering how many copies of Skyrim he could pawn off. The so-called Kong Ching clasped his hands together and bowed, drawing the eyes of everyone else present in the library's foyer, which was a not insignificant number of people, from the Illusion Room Sect and from others.

"This disciple seeks guidance on the Dao of the world!" Kong Chin exclaimed loudly, face facing the floor. Jin froze. This… What was this?