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Over the past week, Alex and Jake had been running alt accounts in Death Race Battle Royale, staging epic showdowns and showcasing insane techniques. Their gameplay videos had gone viral, setting off a massive trend.
Though their alt accounts were being hailed as godlike, plenty of skilled players were emerging from the community organically—players who genuinely impressed both Alex and Jake with their creativity and mechanical skill.
This was exactly what Alex had envisioned. As long as grassroots experts kept emerging, they'd sustain the game's vitality. Regular players would create innovative tactics and playstyles, inspiring others to imitate and innovate further.
He and Jake could gracefully step back, simply enjoying the game and playing against these skilled competitors. After all, invincibility got boring fast. Games were way more fun when you faced worthy opponents.
Plus, with hardcore players actively participating and providing feedback, the development team could identify issues faster, implement improvements quicker, and even discover entirely new gameplay possibilities they hadn't considered.
During this period, Alex had his team closely monitoring player feedback. They'd opened dedicated channels on the official website and social media, actively soliciting input.
Based on player suggestions and complaints, the team released multiple patches for Battle Royale mode—balancing weapon spawns, adjusting fuel consumption rates, fixing exploits, refining the missile targeting system.
The gameplay was getting tighter, more engaging, significantly better balanced with each update.
One evening, as Alex was running Battle Royale matches with Jake like usual, his phone rang. Unknown San Francisco number.
"Hello?"
"Alex Morrison? This is Hunter Matthews from Infinite Realms corporate. I'm the director of our racing content division."
Alex sat up straighter, pausing his game. "Hey Hunter, what's up?"
"I'll cut to the chase—we'd love to fly you out to our San Francisco headquarters. We want to collaborate on establishing a brand-new competitive esports format based on Death Race. Your expertise would be invaluable in designing the complete ruleset and tournament structure."
Alex wasn't surprised. He'd been expecting this call since Death Race launched. After all, creating innovative esports-friendly gameplay had been the entire point.
"Yeah, I'm interested. When were you thinking?"
"As soon as you're available. We'll handle all travel arrangements, accommodation, everything. Bring whoever from your team you need."
"Give me two days to delegate company responsibilities. I'll bring my Death Race project lead."
"Perfect. I'll have my assistant coordinate the details. Looking forward to meeting you, Alex."
After hanging up, Alex leaned back in his chair, grinning.
This was it. The opportunity to help esports flourish in this world, give young people a path to turn their passion into careers, let ordinary individuals become stars.
Two Days Later – San Francisco International Airport
According to memories from this body's original owner, this wasn't Alex's first time in San Francisco. His wealthy family had taken annual vacations, visiting basically every major city and resort worldwide.
So with those inherited memories, Alex wasn't unfamiliar with the city.
An Infinite Realms representative met them at the airport—professional driver, luxury SUV, the full corporate treatment. They were taken to a five-star hotel downtown to settle in and recover from the flight.
The next morning, a car arrived to take them to Infinite Realms headquarters.
As they drove through the campus gates, Alex felt a genuine thrill of excitement—probably emotional residue from the original owner's memories.
The Infinite Realms headquarters was absolutely stunning. As the world's largest gaming company and a leader in VR technology, they'd spared no expense. The entire campus radiated futuristic design aesthetics. Statues of iconic in-game characters and landmarks dotted the grounds. The main headquarters building was an exact architectural replica of the United Government's office building from the game itself.
Walking inside felt like stepping directly into Infinite Realms. The immersion was incredible, almost unsettling.
Alex met Hunter in a spacious, bright corner office with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the bay. Hunter was the archetypal corporate executive—impeccably tailored suit, perfect posture, precisely styled hair.
"Welcome to Infinite Realms, Alex!" Hunter greeted him enthusiastically, extending his hand. "How's the hotel? Everything comfortable?"
"Thanks for the hospitality," Alex said, shaking firmly. "The hotel's incredible. Might have to extend my stay for a vacation after we finish."
"Absolutely, stay as long as you like!" Hunter laughed. "We'll comp it."
After brief pleasantries, Hunter personally gave Alex and Nathan (who'd come as the Death Race project lead) a full tour of the headquarters building—showing off the motion capture studios, the massive server farms, the game testing facilities, the esports broadcast center.
Finally they arrived at a sleek conference room to begin the day's main agenda.
"Alex," Hunter began once everyone was seated, "we're incredibly grateful for your contributions to racing content. Death Race has given us genuine hope for revitalizing the entire category."
He pulled up a presentation on the main screen.
"After extensive analysis and deliberation, we've decided to incorporate Battle Royale gameplay into our official esports framework—developing it as our premier competitive format going forward. Obviously this requires your expertise and collaboration to establish the complete tournament structure, ruleset, production standards, everything."
Hunter advanced the slide.
"The official esports series will continue to be branded as 'Death Race.' In exchange for your partnership, we're prepared to offer Stormwind significantly expanded privileges and guaranteed revenue streams."
He listed them:
"First: we're upgrading Stormwind Studios to senior-tier supplier status immediately. This grants you authorization to develop top-level dungeons, official storyline content, and premium equipment."
Alex's pulse quickened. Senior tier. That was huge.
"Second: maximum profit share on all Death Race-related items and cosmetics in perpetuity. We're talking seventy-thirty split in your favor on ALL microtransactions."
"Third: promotional priority for all Stormwind content across the platform. Featured placements, homepage banners, in-game notifications—everything."
Hunter smiled. "We'll provide a comprehensive proposal shortly, but I want to be clear: we're committed to maximizing Stormwind's interests here. This is a genuine partnership."
Alex nodded slowly, processing. This was way more generous than he'd expected.
"I appreciate the offer," Alex said. "But I have one significant concern I need you to address seriously."
"Of course. What is it?"
"You're aware that after Fast & Furious became popular, imitation and copycatting became rampant. Gameplay plagiarism especially. Various shovelware studios flooded the market with garbage knockoffs, which destroyed player trust that we'd just spent months rebuilding."
Alex leaned forward.
"Right now, Death Race has reignited player enthusiasm. I'm confident it'll drive the entire racing category's growth and support a thriving esports ecosystem. But only if the gameplay is protected."
"Currently there are dozens of studios directly copying my Battle Royale mechanics, reskinning them for different settings—fantasy battle royales, mech battle royales, even naval warfare versions. Soon we'll be flooded with derivative content."
His tone became more serious.
"If this gameplay becomes oversaturated and commonplace, all our efforts will be wasted. Players will get diverted and fatigued. The esports format we're trying to build will collapse before it even launches."
Hunter and the other Infinite Realms executives were nodding, clearly taking this seriously.
"You're absolutely right," Hunter said. "Gameplay mechanics aren't legally protectable, which is why plagiarism is such a problem on our platform. And historically, we've taken a relatively hands-off approach to managing derivative content—we wanted to encourage creative diversity."
He paused, choosing his words carefully.
"But this situation is different. The racing category's revival is genuinely hard-won. And our esports initiative's success may depend entirely on Death Race's unique gameplay remaining distinctive."
Hunter's expression hardened.
"If we allow indiscriminate copying and shovelware studios to flood the market, it'll absolutely destroy the player experience and eliminate Death Race's competitive advantages."
He looked directly at Alex.
"So here's our commitment: we will actively protect Death Race's gameplay mechanics. Any content suspected of plagiarizing Battle Royale mechanics will be rejected during the approval process. Period. We'll enforce this strictly."
Alex felt relief wash over him. "Thank you. That means a lot."
His request wasn't purely selfish. He genuinely didn't want to see racing content and esports collapse again after finally gaining momentum.
But beyond the gameplay protection, Alex was even more excited about something else Hunter had mentioned almost casually.
Senior-tier supplier status.
That meant Stormwind could now develop the highest-level dungeons and equipment in Infinite Realms. Official endgame content. Main storyline integration.
This perfectly aligned with his plans. Once the Avengers experiential content had been live for a while, building audience familiarity with the characters and universe, he could launch the official Avengers dungeon—Stormwind's first true premium endgame content.
He could finally transform his favorite Marvel characters from his previous life into NPCs, raid bosses, and epic storylines within Infinite Realms itself.
Tony Stark as a questgiver. Thanos as a world-ending raid boss. The Infinity Saga as a multi-tier endgame progression system.
The possibilities were endless.
Alex smiled, shaking Hunter's hand again. "When do we start?"
Plz THROW POWER STONES.