Spending My Retirement In A Game

For now, the workers that Tim brought with him walked all around Benjamin’s property to see if there was anything there that could be improved security-wise. There were a few things here and there, and most of it had to do with the system having to be upgraded a little bit.

"I did kind of overreact, didn’t I?" Tim asked with a wry smile as he was sitting on the couch, and Benjamin immediately just started to quietly laugh, "Possibly, but I don’t particularly blame you. Hearing what was going on must have been a little bit upsetting to you, right?"

"Obviously. I mean, anyone would be upset after hearing something like that. Your lives are literally in danger, and you’re just sitting here doing... well, nothing." The young man pointed out, although he had to be quickly corrected, as this wasn’t actually what was going on. Andrew looked at Tim with a light frown as he stood up from his seat, "Well, we ain’t doing nothin’. There’s a reason why we’re all here, you know? So that we’re safe. Obviously we can’t actively do anything against this shit, Samuel is literally controlling the minds of people. We can’t prove that shit. It’s literally magic. So, all we can do is hide in the safest place we knew of, and that was here."

"Fair enough..." Tim replied slowly, "I mean, from everyone’s explanations, it does seem like this place is pretty well-equipped with everything that you may need to protect yourselves."

"To an extent, at least, yeah." Haruo replied quickly as he placed down a bowl filled with water onto the ground to give Elly, Tim’s seeing-eye dog, something to drink on a hot day like this, "We don’t know what other tricks Samuel might have up his sleeves. And I doubt that he just gave up, especially now that we know all these things."

Tim quietly thought about what Haruo said and then just nodded his head in defeat, "That’s... that’s true... it’s not like we can create magical defenses here."

Benjamin crossed his legs and leaned his chin onto his palm while trying to think about how he could make Tim feel like his visit wasn’t completely useless, before he got a bit of an idea, "Sure, not magical, but..." He muttered quietly, "But non-physical ones." The old man suggested, and the others turned toward him with clear confusion.

So, Benjamin started, "It’s simple, right? We need to be able to figure out what exactly Samuel is doing. And we coincidentally know someone that’s related to one of the few people that can put pressure onto Prime Industries."

"Wait, you mean that you want me to call my dad and have him speak to Samuel? Like, ask him to stop trying to kill you?" Tim asked a bit surprised, and Benjamin just replied with a quiet laugh, "Yeah, something like that. I would have suggested that we just try and figure out a way to get information on what Samuel is doing exactly. I mean, you guys are the biggest investors in this project, so it wouldn’t make sense if you didn’t have any sort of authority over them."

"That’s fair, but how is it going to help exactly? I doubt that in any possible scenario, Samuel is just going to lay open his plans for this whole thing." The young man pointed out. Benjamin thought about it for a little while and then nodded his head, "Alright, that is true. But instead, we may be able to figure out how we can find or contact Samuel ourselves, which hasn’t really been working over the past while." Benjamin explained, "He’s obviously just been ignoring all of us. But if we can just speak to him, I’m sure that there’s going to be a way for us to... well, convince him to do the right thing."

Tim turned toward Benjamin with a wry smile, "What are you, the mafia? Are you planning on threatening him or something?"

"Maybe, if we have to." Andrew pointed out bluntly, and Tim seemed pretty surprised about this, but the fighter simply scoffed a bit, "What, you think we’d be nice about this? The guy is literally trying to kill us, he’s the reason why my home is destroyed and my unborn child is dead. He can be happy that we’d just threaten him."

Despite the fact that he couldn’t even see Andrew’s pissed off expression right now, Tim felt shivers and goosebumps all over his body, simply due to the feeling that this man’s voice gave off just now. After a bit of thought, it seemed like he came to a conclusion, "I’ll call my father. I’m going to try and have him put a call through directly to Samuel."

Immediately, Tim pulled out his phone and used voice commands to call his father, and then placed the phone down onto the table in speaker mode. It took only two rings for the phone to be picked up.

"Ah, Tim! Did you arrive properly? Did you eat already?" The voice of a man echoed out through the phone, and Tim simply sighed in response to hearing this.

"I’m fine, Dad. I’m here now, with the people I told you about before. Ah, and you’re on speaker." Tim pointed out, and immediately, his father became a bit more silent for a few seconds, and then he said, "The people that allowed you to create such an amazing company in that game?" He asked, and Tim immediately replied with, "That’s them, yes."

"Is that guy there? That old one? The... what was he called? Iron?" Tim’s father asked, and after a slight chuckle, Benjamin replied, "Well, in the game, I go by Eisen, but in reality my name is Benjamin Joyce. It’s a pleasure to meet you."

"...Likewise... But excuse me, Benjamin Joyce? The craftsman?" He inquired, and with a bit of surprise, Benjamin replied, "That’s me, yes. Have you heard of me before?"

"Have I heard of you? Haha, before I founded my company as a simple start-up back in the day, my father wanted me to get a hands-on job! We applied to have me become an apprentice of yours, but we were told that you didn’t take any apprentices at the time." He explained, and Benjamin slightly frowned. He thought about when exactly that might have been, and then realized.

"Was it a bit more than thirty years ago?" The old man asked, and Tim’s father nearly immediately replied, "Yes, it was! Do you remember my application?" Tim’s father asked curiously, but Benjamin simply sighed out lightly before quietly chuckling, "I’m afraid I don’t, sorry. Yes, there was a time where I took a break from teaching apprentices around then, due to family circumstances. But I think we should be happy about the timing, considering that everything seemed to have worked out better for you in the end."

"Haha, yes, you could say that! But truly, I am happy to hear that my son is in good hands. I have only heard good things about you! Ah, and I love the Whiskey you produce, Mister Joyce."

"Thank you, I’m happy to hear that." The old man replied. He really was happy to hear something like that. It was a really nice coincidence, "But well, there is actually a reason why your son called you. There is a bit of an emergency going on on our side with our capsules and the game. But when we called Prime Industries, we were simply cut off and told that they do not have time for us at the moment, before we could be put through to our contact, Samuel Morgan, the head of the project. We thought maybe you may have better chances to reach him for us and put us through." Benjamin explained rather bluntly. Obviously the reason was made up, as he couldn’t just say ’He is ignoring us ever since we found out that the game is actually a game, and since he is trying to kill us, we need to speak to him’. But still, to the others, it still seemed like Benjamin was being a little bit overly blunt about just wanting to talk to Tim’s father to get to Samuel Morgan.

But it seemed like he luckily didn’t care all too much, "Hm, Samuel Morgan? Yes, I think I may be able to reach him. I can probably try to connect you to him via my son’s phone if you wish to speak to him yourselves?"

"That would be great, thank you." Benjamin replied, and Tim’s father simply laughed quietly, "Don’t mention it. Tim, call me again later, alright?"

"Of course, Dad. And thanks for the help." Tim said with a light smile on his face, before his father hung up the phone so that he could call Samuel and Prime Industries. For the next few minutes, everyone was pretty silent, because they were unsure if this was really going to work out properly like they all hoped it would, but then, out of practically nowhere, Tim’s phone received a call that Benjamin quickly, and silently, answered.

"Hello there, this is Samuel Morgan from Prime Industries! I was told that you had an issue with the capsule? First, could I please get your name?" Samuel asked with a nauseatingly happy voice, and the old man immediately proceeded to do something that would cost him the ability to properly speak for the next couple of days.

He spoke after trying to put his Demon-power and royal-authority into his voice to make it reach Samuel as well as absolutely possible.

"Benjamin Theodore Joyce." The old man muttered quietly, and everyone in the room with him completely froze up after hearing his voice and feeling the power that was magically pushed into it at the moment. Luckily, it seemed like vocal-based magic was transferrable through phones, because even Samuel seemed affected.

"Wh-What are you calling me for? Th-This... this is harassment, you know?" Samuel asked, obviously nervous but still trying to act smugly, but Benjamin wouldn’t have it, "Shut up with that act of yours. Both of us know that you fucked this all up. You want to get rid of us, but you failed. You didn’t want us to figure out the secrets of that world, but I just wanted to tell you that I just started remembering things. It won’t take long until I figure everything else out, and then you’ll be done for."

"Heh... R-Right... What g-good will remembering do you, huh? You don’t have any power in this place! Here, you’re just an old, crippled man!" Samuel said, sounding weirdly desperate, but Benjamin simply grinned in response, "Oh? That so? Then I wonder why you’re so nervous just because of a simple conversation."