LOGIN“There’s a glow!”Nathaniel’s voice snapped Nora back to attention. She checked the screen. Blue light.Blue, grade 3 a beggar’s cudgel. An upgrade from a Wooden Stick, technically usable, if you didn’t mind wielding the weapon of an NPC panhandler.Night_: is he stuck on a wooden stick loop or somethingHeeHeeHeeHee: at least it’s blue now, took me like ten casts total to get mineFishbones: I’ve got a whole pile of beggar’s cudgels in my junk stack, don’t ask whyCutieSweet: isn’t the beggar’s cudgel literally the worst blue offensive item in the game right nowNora wasn’t fully across every weapon’s stats herself, but even the name alone told her that item was garbage. She patted Nathaniel’s shoulder, dead serious. “Keep going, champ.”Nathaniel pressed his lips together and returned to his ongoing war with the ocean.Through sheer stubbornness, he’d crossed 50 XP, leveled up to 3, unlocking a bunch of new options.Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford a single one of them.Godbreaker
With Godbreaker’s sea fishing feature already live and running smoothly, Nora headed straight home after the café meeting.She’d assumed Nathaniel wouldn’t be back yet instead, he was sitting upright in the living room, apparently reading something.Catching the sharp thud of her bag hitting the floor, Nathaniel asked, smiling. “What’s wrong? Who managed to get under your skin already?”“It’s your sister-in-law. She”Nora cut herself off mid-sentence.She looked at Nathaniel directly. “You told me before you’re done helping Richard, permanently. Was that actually true?”Not that she pegged him as the type to let himself get bled dry endlessly, she just wanted the confirmation. Wouldn’t want to end up the accidental villain in some family arrangement where one side quietly kept giving and the other kept taking.“Of course it’s true. I’ve already terminated and replaced the point of contact managing our last remaining venture with his division. Didn’t you know?”Nora exhaled, relieved.
Nora spent three full days at the beach with Sophie before heading back to the office.Richard and Vivian, surprisingly, showed sense, after that first afternoon run-in, neither of them resurfaced. Or maybe it was just that Path to Ascension’s next feature launch left them no time to make more trouble.Regardless of whatever timeline Richard’s team was scrambling under, Godbreaker’s casual gameplay had always been scheduled for two weeks post-beta, and Nora wasn’t budging that date for anyone.Items obtained through sea fishing carried special tags exempting them from the eventual data wipe, inheritable straight into launch. No reason to worry about players skipping it out of caution.The one genuine curveball: a meeting request from Louise Reyes.Nora wasn’t particularly familiar with the name at first, until she placed it, her sister-in-law, technically. Richard’s mother. Wife to Edward’s older brother.She’d asked to meet at a restaurant, citing something she wanted to discuss.Nor
“Nora! New record! We just broke it!”Sophie hung up her phone and rushed over, glowing.By then, Nora had already led everyone back to their private room, waiting for dusk to head up to the terrace. She’d taken the call by the balcony while the others found seats, quietly scrolling their phones.Sophie was the first to break the quiet, and nobody minded.Lawson smiled. “Didn’t we agree, no work talk today? You worried about Godbreaker again?”“Concurrent player count just hit an all-time high, I’m just happy about it.”Sophie held up her phone like it had granted a wish.“I was genuinely worried spoiling the sea fishing mechanic early would cost us players, but numbers went UP instead!”“You forgot Path to Ascension’s cash payouts dried up, didn’t you?”Even outmatched, Ascension running the exact same mechanic had temporarily siphoned off a chunk of players chasing the free money, pulling them briefly away from Godbreaker.Now that the money was gone, they’d all migrated back.“Ha,
Speak of the devil, the moment Sophie finished venting about Richard and Vivian, the two of them wandered up from a distance.Spotting Nora, Vivian smiled instantly. “What a coincidence, Nora! Saw Sophie and figured you’d be nearby.”Nora pressed her lips together, uninterested in engaging.She’d assumed that even if Vivian and Richard knew they were vacationing at the same coast, basic etiquette would kick in once they spotted the group, a wave, maybe, then a graceful exit. Apparently not.“What’s with that face? Vivian came all this way specifically to see you, and you’re still unhappy?”Right as Richard said it, Vivian tugged his sleeve and handed over the bag she was carrying.The makeup remover. Same brand, same bottle as the one she’d broken.“Told you I’d replace it. Came out here just to hand this off in person, nothing else.”Sophie blinked, genuinely thrown.She was finding it harder and harder to figure Vivian out.“Thanks. I’ll take it.”Nora accepted it easily enough.“We
Lunch turned out to be Riley’s grilled spread plus a few sides and drinks.With nothing else to do, Nora suddenly remembered her stream had gone quiet for a while.Her TikTok wasn’t a dedicated gaming account, but once TikTok activated the Godbreaker streaming link, engagement had actually dropped off, worth checking in on.With a free window at lunch, she went live.Viewers flooded in almost immediately. Nora appreciated TikTok’s quiet algorithmic boost, a small but consistent signal of how seriously Marcus’s platform treated their partnership.Plenty of familiar usernames scrolled past. She greeted them casually. “Afternoon, everyone. On a beach trip, figured I’d stream since I’ve got nothing better to do.”She flipped the camera toward her table.Skewers still scattered across the surface, half-finished sparkling water sitting beside them, cozy, lived-in.Fishbones: WOW is that BBQ. beef, guessing.CutieSweet: marbled pork belly is objectively superior, no debateDreamySoft: is nob







