บท 106: Chapter 106 Loki gets a Day Job
*Author's Note*
I'll have more HP-Verse chapters later, I just needed to get that one out of my system. Sorry for the delay. It took a while for me to figure out how a realistic meeting between Loki and the Goblins would go which caused a MASSIVE WRITERS BLOCK. I hated every idea I thought of and it took a while before I came up with something that felt true to both Loki and the Goblins and would not disappoint.
Chapter 106 Loki gets a Day Job.
Harry almost felt bad for Loki. Almost. He had just portaled them into the hallway behind a door that lead where the Board of Directors were assembled and Loki was going to meet them for the first time.
Loki did his best to hide his excitement. Clint Barton had told him all about Harry's Board of Directors while under Loki's control as Clint had been one of the agents tasked with monitoring and gathering intel on them all. They were incompetent puppets who held no real power outside of paper, so Loki of course knew that Harry Potter was the only true voice of the company. A voice he just signed over.
Loki read over the signing contract multiple times before Odin offered him his freedom. Though a magical contract, the only real clauses of any significance amounted to Loki being unable to quit the job without finding a suitable replacement and nothing he did using the company could visibly break any laws. Yes, the word visibly was clearly written into the contract. That meant bribery, lying, cheating, threats, stealing, blackmailing, potions and subtle magics were all on the table. Both in and out of the company.
The only real threat within the company was Harry Potter. Despite the fact that Harry was handing over all his authority over the company, Loki was aware that Potter never specifically mentioned he was giving up the power of the company. That meant Harry was only signing everything over in print, not in power. Harry likely had the full loyalty of the Board of Directors so even if they were puppets, they were Harry's puppets.
Loki accepted the challenge of course. First he would have to get the Board of Directors onto his side. Harry Potter had a great many strengths, but Loki could tell he was not a people person and not a qualified leader. He was a revolutionary, an agent of change. Loki on the other hand was charismatic, charming, and had been manipulating others for centuries. Loki wanted to see Harry Potter's face when he had the Board of Directors eating out of his hand before the end of their first meeting.
Harry opened the door and the first thing Loki noticed was the smell. It instinctively made him flash his teeth. Only one creature in the nine realms possessed that distinct odor. Loki was unable to hide his revulsion at the sight of the Board of Directors. Goblins.
Harry, pretending not to notice the disgusted look on Loki's face, walked over to Board Member Skullcracker and handed him Harry's notice of resignation and appointment of his replacement.
The notice was short and to the point and after going over it the Goblin handed it to the next member who did the same before looking over Potter's replacement. Harry looked forward to each Goblin's self introduction. Goblin true names were rarely given to others, so the name each Goblin introduced himself as was actually a made up name they gave themselves after coming of age. This was a Goblin secret it took some time for Harry to learn. It allowed Goblins to trick others by signing a magically binding contract using their false name. This led to the rumor that Goblins could not be trusted which was completely earned and was the reason no one other than Harry ever worked with them before this point.
As of this moment Harry no longer had anything to do with the Goblins and could technically leave, but this show was not one he wanted to miss, so he walked back to Loki. Loki used magic to prevent his voice from being heard by others and his lips from being read before he practically snarled, "Goblins?!"
Harry calmly replied, "I said I would provide you with all the resources needed to take over and rule the people of Earth. I said I would give you access to all the resources needed to conquer the world at your leisure. You'll just have to work with Goblins to do it."
Loki shouted with vehemence, "You cannot expect me to work with such lower lifeforms!"
Harry looked offended and replied, "You can't say that! It's not their fault they're so short."
Loki gave Harry a flat glare and stated. "You know that is not what I meant."
Harry chuckled and continued, "It's not as bad as it looks. They've been badgering me about aggressive expansion for years now so once I'm out of the way they'll do what they can to take over the world with or without your input."
Loki sarcastically asked, "Oh? And they will take orders from me?"
Harry snorted and laughed at the question. "Only in lip service when your knife is at their throat. You did bring your knife right?"
Loki somehow gave an even flatter stare.
Resisting a chuckle, Harry continued, "Stupid question. I know. In any case, this is still everything I promised you. All the resources needed to take over and rule the people of Earth. Since Capitalism is King, this company will eventually grow large enough to dictate the lives of everyone on the planet and the one in charge of the company basically rules the planet."
Loki argued, "But you never said anything about Goblins!"
Harry smiled and noticed that the last member of the Board had finished reading the memo so Harry removed Loki's illusion and pointed to his side, "Hello everyone, this is Loki. He moved out of his parent's basement the other day and now has to work for a living. I've signed over everything in my name in this company to him."
Loki actually coughed so hard at the absurdity of that introduction, Harry could have swore he saw a drop of blood. But it was just an impression. The fact that Harry alluded to the Asgardian Prison as Loki's Parent's Basement didn't do the Norse god any favors when it came to first impressions.
Harry stepped aside clearly motioning for Loki to introduce himself. Thankfully, dealing with Thor for hundreds of years was enough to give Loki a great deal of experience at recovering from absurdity.
Loki stepped forward and stated with confidence, "I am Loki, formerly of Asgard. And I have come to lead you all to your destiny."
Rather than ask what destiny Loki was referring to, Board member Heartripper asked "What is it you offer?"
Slightly offended that his bait had been ignored, he asked for clarification, "I beg your pardon?"
Board Member Stonefist answered, "Potter was only allowed to work with us because it was his gold used for all initial purchases. Gold he acquired through blood and battle." Every Goblin in the room gave a toothy smile of approval at that. The only thing better than gold was gold acquired through the freshly shed blood of your enemies.
Clearly seeing Loki's lack of understandment, Board member Ironcutter stated, "We care not if he has gifted," every Goblin in the room sneered at the word, "his assets to you. What do you offer to this table that would make us care to listen to a single sound from your throat?"
Loki, clearly taken aback, answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I bring the wisdom of Asgard."
Board member Spinesplitter asked. "And you don't bring evidence this wisdom has any value?"
Board member Axebreaker remarked aloud, "It doesn't seem to be very good wisdom then, does it?"
All the Goblins in the room gave a sharp toothed chuckle at this. A few already had their hands under the desk, clearly gripping their blades.
Loki sneered. He hated Goblins. Everyone hated Goblins. They were nasty, filthy beasts and they grew worse over time, so they must never be allowed to exist once sighted. It was clear that these Goblins descended from a culture a great many hundreds of years old, older than any Goblins he'd ever heard of. This meant they were very dangerous. Goblin magic was not to be underestimated. Goblin weapons, poisons, and curses were not to be underestimated. Loki knew Asgardians by name who fell to Goblins in the past because they underestimated them. If Loki called his brother and told him of this infestation, he knew they'd be willing to exterminate them. But that was the problem. They were, at least on paper, his employees. Killing them all would not grant Loki anything significant.
However, Loki was nothing if not flexible. It only took him a few moments to find an answer. He knew what Goblins loved.
Loki showed his teeth with a confident smile and stated, "The wisdom I bring is of the Nine Realms and the treasures they contain. I doubt there are many Tombs your kind has yet to explore on Midgard, but what if Midgard was no longer your only option? Asgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Alfheim, and Nidavellir. Each of these realms contain multiple worlds. Each of these worlds once had nations which lasted far longer than most on Midgard. Civilizations, lost to time and history. Civilizations with trap-filled, treasure bearing tombs untouched by the inhabitants of these worlds due to their respect for their forefathers."
Loki now had the Goblin's undivided attention. His smile grew wider. He never doubted himself of course. So what if he had to point a few dirty Goblins down a few smelly holes? The treasures within weren't being used by the people of those worlds, they wouldn't miss it.
If one had a sensitive enough level of hearing, they'd notice a very low pitched growling sound coming from the Goblins. This was their language, and though there were rumors of Asgardians being gifted with All-speak, Harry could tell that Loki had no idea what they were discussing with each other. Harry did of course. Even if he didn't learn their language years ago, his passive usage of the Mind Stone granted him the ability to understand all languages spoken around him.
The oldest member of the Board of Directors, Goblin Flinttooth, asked, "You have the locations of these tombs and knowledge of means of traversing worlds to them?"
"Of course," Loki confidently replied.
Flinttooth nodded, "We will discuss more of this in a moment. But before we can acknowledge your taking over of Harry Potter's assets. We have two questions. Once Harry Potter leaves, will you have access to him in the future?"
Since Harry likely wouldn't go out of his way to speak to another Goblin for the rest of his existence, the Goblins wanted to make sure they had a way to reach him.
Harry answered for Loki, "Yeah, sure. He'll have my number." Which was Harry's way of saying calls to him from Loki would not go to a very disrespectful Voicemail box.
Flinttooth nodded and asked the second, far more important question. "Second, how many times in the past have you tried to kill Harry Potter?"
That question certainly caught Loki off guard. But knowing what he knew about Goblins, telling them he'd never tried to kill Harry would not garner any supporters. Loki replied, "Nineteen."
Harry gave a confused look for a moment. He was only aware of seven times, but Loki might have tried a dozen other things that did not work or he was inflating the number for the Goblins.
Flinttooth nodded, "Acceptable. We expect more of you in the future. We welcome you Loki Harrison."
Loki's eye twitched and a blade was immediately thrown at Harry's throat. Harry took it as his cue to leave and teleported out.
The Goblins growled with approval and Flinttooth stated, "Now. Tell us more of these Tombs."
Harry left with a smile since it looked like Loki would not have to kill two thirds of the Board of Directors before taking over the company. Harry couldn't guarantee half of them would have all their limbs intact this time tomorrow, but it was better than nothing. Harry couldn't resist giving Loki that name since Harry and Loki did have the same eyes and hair color and Loki needed a Midgardian Identity.
After the Board meeting was over, Harry got a Text from Loki [You know I'll get you back for this. It WILL happen, and when you LEAST expect it.]
Harry smiled at Loki's threat and replied via text, [You will try.]
Loki really did have a few of the more interested ones eating out of his hands and really was a better leader than Harry who really didn't care. The company had simply been a crutch for him and he'd outgrown it.
A few weeks later when Harry saw what Loki and the Goblins planned, he did have a twinge of regret for what he'd unleashed on the whole of mankind. Loki and the Goblins planned to buy Amazon and a few other evil companies and turn their power over the internet into power over all of commerce.
Of course their liquid assets were not even close to enough to purchase Amazon, but Loki was not bound to the Statute of Secrecy that the Goblins were, so a few visits to a few evil corporations would see Loki's magic Vs CEO Greed. Plenty of ridiculously rich CEOs did in fact know a thing or two about magic, so they would not be entirely unguarded meaning Loki would not have it simple and easy. People who knew about magic had security measures to plan accordingly, so it wasn't as simple as charming a few people into signing a few documents. The plans would have to be much more thorough.
Harry wondered if Loki would try to get the Statute of Secrecy removed to ensure his employees had more power. Maybe Loki would one day become the Supreme Mugwump. Something to look forward to.
The New Years came and went and 2014 started with a bang. The day after Carl Lucas got his powers and escaped Seagate Penitentiary, Harry had the whole place cleaned up and pushed for Mr. Lucas's case to be overturned since he was clearly framed. It took a few months, but his record was eventually removed. By then, he'd already changed his name to Luke Cage and was running a bar. He was dating Reva Connors, his counselor from Seagate who'd helped him get back on his feet after he broke out, but he dumped her after she was arrested for being a part of the Experiments at Seagate.
Harry gave him a card for the Hero Association and confirmed that he could use his old name if he wanted to since he was no longer a wanted criminal.
Summer of 2014, Harry released Immortal Realms without a single advertisement. The fact that the game was a headset instead of a console confused a bunch of people, but once some of them bought it, word spread quicker than the most infectious disease. He named it Immortal Realms since the game was basically a group of worlds that people could go and live much longer lives in.
It only took a week for the game to make the news. A full dive immersion game that worked off wifi where four hours in the game amounts to one hour in reality. If that wasn't enough, Harry had a dozen other gimmicks to draw people's attention.
Anyone with a Brilliance Cell Phone could link their account to the game and after reaching level ten. They could use their Cell Phone's mobile data to connect the headset to the internet without using their plan data. And even without using the Headset, they could play the game from their cell phone and set their PC on something of an Auto-pilot where the PC could follow some simple commands from the phone. The Player character could also go into Auto-Pilot when Players logged out temporarily so if someone spent 30 mins on the toilet, their party would not be waiting two hours in game for them to return.
If a player got a job during the game, they could have their PC perform said job while in Auto-Pilot, giving the Player money to use when they logged back in.
You could even have a PC on Auto-Pilot follow the commands of another Player and do simple gathering quests or fight weak monsters on Auto-pilot for EXP with that Player. Of course, since accumulated EXP could be stolen by killing a Player before they used that EXP to level up at certain locations, Auto-Pilot PCs doing Quests became easy targets for Player Killers. And only the simplest, lowest paying jobs would bother hiring someone who spent all their time on Auto-pilot. There were no skilled labor jobs Players could get away with doing while on Auto-pilot.
There were of course complaints about all sorts of things after a month. One of the biggest complaints was that once a Headset was registered to someone, it would never work for someone else, so you could not sell or gift a used Headset. Of course, this also prevented theft, so these complaints were completely ignored.
Another complaint was character slots. Everyone can only have one character and if a character is deleted, they must wait 24 hours to make another one unless a fee is paid to skip the wait. Buying a second Headset would not work, as it would only register it to the buyer and grant access to the same character as the first headset. Certain things like Crimes and Punishments from old characters will carry to new characters unless a fee is paid.
Probably the biggest selling point though was that people could play it during sleep. The system that caused muscles to be used to allow exercise in game to affect the body was disabled during sleep, but even six hours of sleep was 24 hours in game, meaning even those with tight sleep schedules could more than double the amount of time in their life by playing the game.
Then of course there were the health concerns. A game like this had never been released, so there were no laws or regulations that existed to ensure the game was not detrimental to the Players over the long term. This let people complain about whatever they wanted without having ever played the game.
Each safety concern was answered. Playing the game did not fully disconnect a person from their body, it made their mind ignore their body, the same way it does during sleep. If someone poked someone while they were playing the game, they would no longer ignore their body and could regain control at any time.
If used while awake, the Muscle Mover function could be enabled or disabled so fighting monsters all day every day would not in fact turn the player into a human blob.
The most complaints from players came from the difference in treatment between those playing under 18 and those playing over 18. Those playing under 18 had access to a lot of free stuff, but only if they attended the local school which taught the unique language of the world and knowledge of the world. They had access to free training and teachers while those above 18 who wanted to attend said school to learn the same things, had to pay for it using in-game currency. Of course, the kids complained that they had to attend school in a game, but once they started learning magic and how to fight monsters, most stopped complaining.
The funniest complaints were about the combat difficulty. Plenty of people learned the hard way that swinging a sword like a stick does not slice. Some learned to pull their sword as they slashed to cut, others just exchanged swords for maces and axes which worked perfectly fine being smashed into things. People with the Artificer Class made guns of course.
Harry actually released the game a month early for Wizards to let them get used to it. The Wizard Headset looked a bit different to prevent it from feeling muggle, and most Wizards started in the same city, an exclusive city for Wizards. There was even a Wizard school there, and Sirius Black agreed to be the Headmaster. It was called the Marauder's School of Mischief and Mayhem. The other teachers were of course NPCs and since they were quite good, Sirius was able to convince Hogwarts Headmistress McGonagall to allow students to use the headsets. It didn't take longer than a week for most Wizards to get a headset. Due to centuries living under the State of Secrecy, all Wizards have an innate desire to go out and explore and release their magic, and the Immortal Realms gave just that. Due to prior training and knowledge, most Wizards started the game with levels in their Wizard and Druid Class, since modern magics combined them. This gave them a massive head start over others, but they needed it because most were quite slow on learning new things.
It took two and a half months before the secret classes were discovered. Since multiclassing was expected, once a Player reached a certain level in one or more classes and fulfilled certain criteria, they could gain access to a secret class. Like a level 30 Wizard who was also a level 30 Druid could gain the Necromancer class if they found a certain book or visited a graveyard at night and met certain undead NPCs. If someone became a level 30 Thief and a level 30 Druid, they might encounter a Ninja and gain a chance to acquire the Ninja class.
Before the end of June, a number of countries banned the game because several magic classes worked through the use of gods and those classes didn't like magic or gods other than their own. Harry didn't care. Less jerks in the game wasn't something he would complain about since it was their loss.
The map of the game was massive. All starting areas were basically small countries on islands in the sea. After reaching level 50 in any class, you could leave the little islands and go to the main continent which was at a much higher elevation. The topography of the world was basically set so that the lower the elevation, the slower time moved. Sea level was lowest, levels 1~50 and time moved at 4x Earth. Continents were for levels 51~100, and time on them moved at 20x Earth. Level 101~200 regions were floating continents with expanded spaces and pocket dimensions. Time in them moved at 100x Earth. Above level 200 players could visit different realms where time moved even faster, but getting to that level was not possible through grinding alone. In fact, Harry doubted 90% of players would reach above level 105 in any class. Reaching level 101 meant you have 5x more time to grind levels than level 100, but the difficulty was far more than just five times. It would be years before anyone reached level 201, centuries of in game time.
Of course, there were also secrets spread throughout. Some high level areas contained in pocket dimensions were hidden in low level areas forcing Players to explore a lot while weak to find treasure lands they could return to once their level rose. If they entered while low level, the speed they experienced would not increase accordingly, so if a level 1 player was taken to a level 100+ zone, the player would see everyone moving 25x faster, including the monsters. So those without confidence had no way to grind levels in regions much higher than their level.
Another secret was that if someone reached level 51 in any class and deleted their Character and remade it, they could go to or even start on the continent and get the 20x time despite being level one. This function was because Harry included a few other races in the game and would only allow someone to select a race other than human if they reached level 51 in any class as a Human first and became friends with that race, then deleted their human character. This was because most races other than humans did not live in the Sea, but on the Continent or higher level areas.
Nowhere on the box or description of the game did it mention that after reaching level 51 and leaving the sea, time would go from 4x to 20x. Harry also made sure this knowledge would not become available through the NPCs until the first player reached level 51. Players would be able to learn that the NPCs believed that those who lived on the continent lived for hundreds of years, but the NPCs would not mention how that worked, only that Players could not go there until they were strong enough.
The reason for hiding this was because it was too much for any country to take. 4x speed and 20x speed were completely different. At 4x speed, you still lived one out of every two or three days on Earth, so there wasn't much of an issue. At 20x speed, even people who only played while sleeping and only slept 6 hours would have six days in game for every day they spent on Earth. No country would want their citizens to spend more time in what was basically a foreign country than their home country.
The factory that made the headsets wasn't even on Earth, and Harry had enough for everyone. They never sold out and were relatively cheap for what they could do.
Even at 4x speed, No Lifers who played at all times still took a while to get a single class to level 51. Harry kept track of a few and figured the first would make it before the end of July. To keep the public distracted, Harry finally opened the Hero's Association. The remains of SHIELD had been converted into staff and Coulson and Steve Rogers were now the heads of the Agency. Fury took on a supporting role, he was tired. Harry sent him a Headset so he could play around and unwind.
Harry was surprised that a few governments contacted him and wanted him to make a Prison using the Headsets. They assumed Harry could make a headset that fully disconnected people from their body and using it could allow dangerous meta-humans to be imprisoned safely by locking away their mind.
Harry gave them the finger. He didn't mind if the prisons bought headsets for the Inmates, but he'd designed them to ensure they could not be used to trap people.
The Hero Association began gathering Mutants and metahumans while also giving Novaforce equipment to qualified individuals. Some of the AI were profiling all the cops in the major cities and the ones who seemed to be the good ones were offered Hero Training and Novaforce equipment to become Nova Guards.
The military and a number of others tried to take the Novaforce equipment, but that didn't go well. In fact, it was very awkward. Even when confiscated using fancy badges and papers filled with signatures, the crystals had their Novaforce diverted to other crystals so it could not be used, and using the built-in spell of Gryffindor's sword, those assigned Novaforce equipment could call the equipment back to them when they got home, making the confiscation of the equipment a joke.
By the time word got out that level 51 players could spend 20 days in the game for every day on Earth, the news was filled with footage of flying Nova Guards fighting crime, arresting metahumans breaking the law, and famous Heroes training others to do the same. A week later everyone knew and no one cared. Without news channels to hype the facts, people didn't think it was that big of a deal and the news channels which did eventually pick up the story were ignored since Nova Guards and Hero stories were cooler than old people complaining about video games everyone liked.
On July 31st, Harry's birthday, Harry and the girls spent the day watching the Highlights Reel of Immortal Realms while eating popcorn. Watching ultra confident Players brag to their friends how awesome they were and then watching them getting killed by a horned rabbit had the group laughing until their sides hurt. Noob areas had horned rabbits, big insects, and skeletons depending on the area. The weak monsters infinitely spawned there, but higher level areas had monsters spawn less frequently, so grinding forever in a higher level area was not possible.
It wasn't like players couldn't find training. There were training grounds and Players could pay for training or just watch others. The best option was to enlist in the local military to get training and even a bit of pay since those who passed the training could get the job of Guard duty which was a simple enough job to be done in auto-pilot. So training on how to fight and pay when you're not playing? Plenty of players did eventually figure this out and once the Player Made guides were posted on the internet, it was one of the main ways to train.
The day after Harry's birthday, he noticed a message after checking on the system logs from the Andromeda Galaxy. Peter Quill, Groot, and Rocket the Racoon had been arrested. Harry smiled. It was time to visit some old friends.
*Author's Note*
Again, sorry for the wait and somewhat of a short chapter. I decided to just finish it and get it out of the way. I'll get the Guardians of the Galaxy Chapter out tomorrow. I'm still piecing together how to get them together while letting Harry have fun while not letting Harry OP his way into breaking everything right away.
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