Cane Whirling Lunacy: A LitRPG Adventure (Vaudevillain Book 3), page 1
CANE WHIRLING LUNACY
Vaudevillain Book Three
ALEX WOLF
Copyright © 2022 by Alex Wolf
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Newsletter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Afterword
About Alex Wolf
About Mountaindale Press
Mountaindale Press Titles
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I'd like to thank my friend Colin and my brother Jackson, who supported me throughout the process. I'd also like to thank everyone who read this book to make it popular enough to publish.
NEWSLETTER
Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life.
CHAPTER ONE
Vert’s corporate office was exactly how Dylan pictured it, a modern square office attempting to be upscale for the younger workers. The ‘work hard play hard’ culture was still very much alive in tech companies, and Vert was no exception to the rule. The beige concrete building held inside it a welcoming open lounge, and Dylan found himself getting comfortable despite his slight nervousness. He’d used a couple of his vacation days from work to make his way over to the company to talk with Rick Sanchez.
The head of player relations had communicated by email multiple times before this meeting, Rick explaining the basics while Dylan asked for elaboration. Eventually, the two decided it would be best to meet in person to discuss everything. It also seemed to Dylan that Rick wanted to show off Vert’s progress. The man’s emails mentioned sales and expansion more than once.
So now Dylan found himself in the lobby of Vert’s main offices, a list of questions for the company on his phone. Thomas and the others had compiled the list from a few surveys sent to members in Menagerie working toward the faction’s overall goal.
That had taken a bit of time to work through.
It was true that Menagerie’s initial event had attracted new members, but most of them were more interested in Dr. Zlo than the group’s actual goal. Most of the survey answers were less focused on Vert’s balance of the game and more focused on getting close to Dr. Zlo. The survey answers creeped Dylan out more than anything else; he wasn’t used to all the attention directed at him.
Eventually, Thomas and the other founders had narrowed the surveys down to a few questions. Dylan would ask about them while going over the contract for the raid boss position.
Footsteps from down the hall attracted Dylan’s attention.
“Mr. Jensen?” a friendly voice asked.
Dylan looked to see a woman, dressed in business casual, addressing him.
“That’s me,” Dylan answered.
“Great!” The woman smiled. “Rick will meet you in the playpen. If you’ll come with me.”
Dylan raised an eyebrow but stood and followed. The woman led him out of the welcome lounge and through a colorful hallway, pictures of the VIS and World of Supers art hanging on posters across the walls.
“Ah, Becky!” a voice said as the two rounded the end of the hallway. “I take it this is Dylan?”
Dylan turned to see a tan man in khakis and a button-down shirt walking into the room. Brown hair, styled with more hair product than Dylan knew existed, sat on the man’s head in a perfect comb-over, adding to the man’s professional yet laid-back look.
“This is him, yes,” Becky said.
“Good to hear!” the man said. He thrust his hand out to Dylan for a handshake. “I’m Rick. Though, I’m sure you caught that from my distinctive voice.”
Dylan took Rick’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “I wouldn’t have noticed until you said anything.”
Rick shook his head and tsked. “Blasted voice equipment. It can never get a good recording of me. But we aren’t here to talk about that! Come, let’s talk business. Thank you for leading him, Becky.”
Rick tried to place a hand on his coworker’s shoulder, but the woman had already moved out of reach. “It was no trouble, Mr. Sanchez. I hope you aren’t held down by a meeting next time.”
Rick turned back to Dylan as Becky left. “We’re always busy here, as you can see.”
“I bet,” Dylan said. “I’ve seen how quickly you’re all growing. It’s impressive, to say the least.”
“Two-hundred percent growth in as many days,” Rick said. The man motioned for Dylan to take a seat.
“It isn’t true, of course,” Rick said.
“What?” Dylan asked.
“The numbers,” Rick answered. “But two-hundred in two-hundred sounds much better than the specific numbers the accountants came up with.”
“I see…” Dylan said, a bit confused.
“Don’t be so stiff!” Rick said jovially. “We’re here to talk about good news, aren’t we?”
“Oh, definitely,” Dylan said. “I just wondered where growth fit into it.”
“Right, right,” Rick said. “I ended up giving you the salesman pitch. You’re a lot better dressed than the last two we talked to.”
Dylan looked down at his simple polo shirt and black jeans, wondering what the others came in to give Rick such an impression.
“Alright, enough banter,” Rick said. “We’re here to talk business.”
The man leaned back in the conference chair. “I have to say, when I first saw videos of your character, I loved the idea. A cartoonish villain that performs all the classic crimes with a twist? It’s absolutely perfect for a game like World of Supers.”
“Thanks,” Dylan said, a bit sheepish. “I didn’t think it would get so popular, to be honest.”
“Of course it’d be popular!” Rick exclaimed. “We haven’t had a villain like this for years! At least not one with as much showmanship as Dr. Zlo. That’s why we’d love to work with you to bring it into World of Supers’ lore.”
“Right, you talked about that over email,” Dylan said. “I have a few questions, though.”
“Fire away,” Rick said.
Dylan pulled out his phone and opened up the list he and his friends made.
“So, the initial announcement for this mentioned becoming a raid boss, but the last event was nothing of the sort. The Orange Visitor was only from the same race as the actual villain. How would that work with someone like Dr. Zlo?”
“Right, right,” Rick said. “Arthur, beautiful founder that he is, was a bit overzealous in his announcement, but he wasn’t wrong. It’s very much possible to make you a raid boss, or whatever it is that you’d call it. However, we can’t exactly have you controlling the character.”
“Why’s that?” Dylan asked.
“Think of it this way. These expansions are something like scripted events. Thus, the villains in them are limited to certain actions. Players acting as the raid boss wouldn’t be able to act outside of certain conditions, which isn’t something a lot of players want to deal with.”
Inwardly, Dylan sighed. He figured Vert would have some answer, but it certainly wasn’t something the man wanted to hear.
“Okay, that
“Well, Vert would make a copy of your character and have them act as the final boss. Of course, during that time, we’d ask that you not have Dr. Zlo involved in other events.”
“Wait, wait,” Dylan said. “You’d only be copying my character. Why can’t I keep playing him?”
“To keep the world feeling real,” Rick answered matter-of-factly. “If we had your character in the final boss area, but you still ran around doing whatever you wanted, players might get the wrong idea.”
“Dr. Zlo has Zlobots, though,” Dylan argued. “It’s completely possible for it to look like he’s in two places at once.”
“Let’s put a pin in that then,” Rick said. “The other option is to work with us and design a boss for the expansion. You’d get most of the creative control, and Vert would do its best to accommodate. We wouldn’t be able to do everything, of course. You understand.”
“Yeah,” Dylan said. Despite Vert’s advanced technology, they wouldn’t be able to work with everything given to them. Some ideas were still out of reach. “I’m guessing that’s what the last person picked.”
“You got it,” Rick said. “He worked with us to make the alien invasion.”
“Speaking of that,” Dylan said. “I had a question about it as well. The last event was rather scripted and limited the freedoms the player normally had inside the game. Would it be possible to try and limit that for my event?”
“You have to understand,” Rick started. “There’s only so much we can fit into the expansion, and the easiest way to make the idea in your head work is to script a few events.”
“What if I’m not all that attached to a strict story?” Dylan asked.
“I’m sure we could talk with the developers about it,” Rick said. “But that’s getting into territory I’m not familiar with.” The man gave a winning smile. “I’m here to help you through the signing process.”
Dylan looked down at his list of questions, only noticing one more that fit into the current conversation.
“What about making permanent changes to the world?” Dylan asked.
Rick raised an eyebrow in question.
“Like, say I wanted to send an asteroid down onto a city or something,” Dylan said. “Like, a giant world-ending event. If players fail, would the city get destroyed?”
“Hmm,” Rick said, clasping his hands together in thought. “I’m not sure, to be honest. Since it is a new expansion, changes to the game’s world are possible, but destroying an entire city permanently means removing players’ progress in the area. Maybe if we created a new area just for your expansion.”
Dylan nodded. It seemed reasonable enough.
“Any other questions?” Rick asked.
“Oh, plenty,” Dylan answered. “But I don’t think you can answer the others.”
“Ha!” Rick laughed. “You might be right. I remember one of the others that came in before you. They had all sorts of questions on the inner workings of our VIS tech. I couldn’t give him any answers; I’m in the relations department, after all. Besides, between you and me, I think that man was a corporate spy.”
Dylan laughed. “Oh yeah?”
“A lot of people want their hands on our tech right now,” Rick said. “Though, I don’t know why. We’ve patented the process and everything. It’s not like they could make anything from it. But enough talk about others. Are you ready to start making some lore?”
Rick pulled out a stack of papers and slid them over to Dylan.
Dylan rifled through the papers, looking over the contract from Vert. Legalese covered the page, making Dylan’s head swirl at the confusing words.
“I feel like I need a lawyer for this,” Dylan said.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Rick said. “There’s nothing too complicated about it. Basically, it’s your standard NDA agreement with a list of caveats. You’re able to talk about our agreement, and the news can ask a few questions, but you can’t leak any of the story we’re making, and if we make a few new mechanics, you can’t leak that either.”
Dylan rifled through the papers as Rick talked, noting the essential areas. Years of leasing apartments had taught him how to read through the legalese and get to the heart of the issue.
“Hold on,” Dylan said after a bit of reading. “This contract still says you get the rights to use my character’s image even if I don’t have him as the main boss?”
“Right,” Rick said. “See, our marketing team would like to use the player’s images for the art on each expansion. Link things back to the player, you know.”
“Okay,” Dylan said. “But if I sign this, you’ll have me turn over all the rights for marketing Dr. Zlo the character.”
“That’s not a problem, is it?” Rick asked.
Dylan thought about it. The contract seemed innocuous enough, and it was something Dylan might have signed off on before playing Dr. Zlo. Now though, the man couldn’t help but think about things with something of a devious mind.
Dylan realized that if he signed the contract as it was, Vert could attempt to keep Dr. Zlo for their own purposes. There wasn’t a time limit in the agreement, other than the general copyright laws that were too strict. That meant Vert would effectively own Dr. Zlo, something Dylan wasn’t fond of at all. Menagerie was making a decent amount of pocket change now, thanks to Dr. Zlo’s Viewtube videos. There was a chance Vert would take those if Dylan signed off on this.
“I’m already using Dr. Zlo for marketing purposes,” Dylan explained to Rick. “If I sign off on this, you could take my videos down, couldn’t you?”
“We wouldn’t do that,” Rick said hastily.
Dylan almost snorted. He didn’t have to be devious to know that was the biggest lie he’d heard all day. Dylan already knew that if a contract specified something that the other party could do, but wouldn’t do ‘out of good faith,’ well, then the contract probably needed a clause limiting the other party.
“I can’t sign this as it is,” Dylan said. “Even if you wouldn’t do that, Rick. If someone replaces you, I won’t get that same guarantee.”
Rick’s winning smile faltered for a second before returning full-force. “You’re right, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking about it after the event. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, I guess.”
“It’s not a problem to use Dr. Zlo for art,” Dylan said. “But I can’t hand over the rights to the character.”
“I understand,” Rick said. “I’ll just take this then.”
Rick grabbed the contract.
“Let me get the legal boys to rewrite it a bit, and we’ll send it over when it’s ready,” Rick said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t come to a conclusion here.”
“It’s not a problem,” Dylan said, standing to meet up with Rick. “I got to see a bit of your amazing company, so I think I came out ahead.”
“Aha, interested in working in video games?” Rick asked.
“Oh, not really,” Dylan said. “I’ve got a good job right now. But I’m always interested in the floor designs of other companies.”
“You work as a consultant or something?” Rick asked as he opened the conference room door.
“Architecture,” Dylan answered. “Just finished working on a contract with my city recently.”
