Overlord: The Path of Sin

Someone's in trouble

The headquarters of the most popular DMMO-RPG, Yggdrasil, was located in the 1st Arcology of Tokyo. This place was teeming with the wealthiest individuals in Japan, many of whom were leaders or heirs of large conglomerates and businesses.

The headquarters of the game Yggdrasil was a massive skyscraper with 70 floors, situated at the center of the city. One might argue that such a building was too large for just a DMMO-RPG. However, in reality, it was quite fitting for the scale and scope of Yggdrasil.

The massive building had a golden Yggdrasil logo, accompanied by a tree beside the logo adorned with nine different-colored neon lights, illuminating the already bright city at night.

In this 70-floor building, the first 20 floors were dedicated to the game development team, responsible for core game mechanics, quest design, and overall gameplay. Floors 21 to 35 were allocated to graphic designers and art directors. Floors 35 to 45 were assigned to the programming team, responsible for the technical aspects of the game, coding, and server maintenance. Floors 45 to 50 were home to the Monetization team, responsible for monetizing the gacha system and managing cash shop items. Today, this is where chaos was unfolding.

"This shouldn't be happening. How did it happen? The board members will kill me if they learn about this," a young lady with slightly brown hair and dark circles under her eyes exclaimed from her quiet office.

She was currently one of the few members working overtime, and she hadn't gone home for 3 days now. She slept in her office with a thin blanket, surviving on cup noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

She was exhausted, but above all, she was scared. She had created a mess, and if she didn't fix it quickly, it could escalate and cost her job, the one that paid her bills.

"Ughh... I was just trying to have fun with this rich player. I never thought that I had accidentally coded one of the cheat classes to be given to him through gacha," she muttered to herself while viewing something on a huge screen floating in front of her face.

She tapped on her desk, and a holographic keyboard appeared. She started typing on it as the basic profile of a player appeared on the screen.

Formal Account Access: Denied

Real name Access : Denied

IP : Denied

Player ID : 83759290

IGN: LuciLuci

Playing Hours : 868 hours

Level : 90

Purchase History :  - Death Gun : 7000 Yen

Chest of WC : 100,000 - 7

Calamity Spider Thread Heart :  20,000 etc

In game Currency : 20 billion

Communication history: Access Denied

Customer Support interaction : None

She looked at the basic in-game information of the player. As an admin, she only had limited access to his profile. It seemed this player had a secured VR gear, preventing her from accessing more detailed information.

She was feeling extremely depressed at the moment.

Her name was Kirin Suzune, and she was a member of the Monetization team of Yggdrasil, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game's monetization, including the gacha system and in-game purchases. Her job wasn't to review each individual request but to ensure a delicate balance, such as granting players certain items after they rolled a specific number of times, giving them hope for future wins, and encouraging more spending. For instance, she might grant a player a special item after they had rolled more than 200 times, giving them hope to gamble more in future.

Basically, she operated within the confines of legality, yet her role could be compared to a scammer.

A few months ago, Kirin Suzune came across a player with an enormous purchase history, all within just two days. This piqued her interest, and she managed to look through his profile, though she only had access to basic details. This was likely because the player was rich and had a more secure console.

However, she had recently noticed the same player repeatedly rolling in a gacha event, which was actually a scam orchestrated by the Monetization team due to their failure to meet their usual quotas. It made her feel a bit sorry for the player, who was spending a significant amount of money. Though she held no sympathy for the wealthy, considering their role in the world's downfall in one way or another, one thing was certain when she examined the purchase history: this individual was a dedicated, chronically online gamer, spending hours immersed in the game. That's why, she decided to grant him a random gift through the gacha.

However, what she didn't expect was that her random reward would turn out to be a cheat class, one that hadn't been properly stabilized or balanced yet. This class had been accidentally created and was later denied access to the game until further updates. She had intended to reward him with a rare class but ended up accidentally granting him an overpowered job class that wasn't even fully implemented.

Basically, she had made a mistake that could potentially create an outrage among the players. She would be responsible for it because it wasn't the player's fault for receiving the class; it was her fault for giving it to him.

She didn't know that her small mistake would cost her dearly now. Initially, she wasn't too concerned. In fact, it had been months since she had made that error, assuming that she had given him a reward he wouldn't be able to use. The class had a requirement to defeat solo-level 90+ raid bosses, something impossible for any player. However, she had forgotten that this player was a chronically online maniac who spent money without restraint.

Just three days ago, she learned that the player had actually leveled up his class, turning himself into a cheat player capable of soloing raid bosses.

If the board members were to find out about this, she would be in serious trouble.

"Ughh... What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?" She chanted in a desperate mantra, slumping down in her chair, repeating the same phrases like a broken record. Her face had turned pale, and she appeared as though she might faint at any moment. "I don't wanna lose my job! I don't wanna lose my job!"

But suddenly,

"Wait! I can still fix this if I talk to him and come to some agreement. Perhaps I can persuade him with other benefits," she exclaimed, suddenly springing up and checking the time and date on her phone.

"It's the perfect timing! World Tournament is ongoing, and I'm certain he'll attend and win..." Players who win the World Tournament receive a World Champion class weapon of their choice, which they can request from the devs. This also grants them the privilege of interacting with the devs, a privilege otherwise limited to world items.

Although it was not the Monetization team's responsibility to listen to player requests but rather the programming team's, as they were the ones responsible for programming the specific weapon, she had a friend who could help her seize this opportunity to interact with the player. If she could do that, then perhaps she could persuade the player to give up that class by offering him some other benefits.

"Yes! I'll have to do everything in my power to convince him," she said to herself as she made her way to her friend's office, determined to take any action necessary to rectify this situation. Losing her job and facing a potential blacklisting on her resume was something she couldn't afford.