Page 34 of Achievement Unlocked

“I’m gonna stop you before you say what you’re thinking.”

I snapped my mouth shut. Vocalizing the wordswhy I’m not good enoughwould’ve made them too real, and tears were already clawing at my throat.

“What he did has nothing to do with you,” Carly said. “You can feel sad and hurt and angry, but him being an asshole isnoton you.”

“I know.” I wasn’t actually certain, but if I said it enough times, maybe I’d start to believe it wasn’t my fault.

“I know you know, but I’m going to keep reminding you until you believe it too.”

Damn her for understanding me so well. “But…” I wasn’t even sure what I was going to protest.

Carly squeezed my hand. “But nothing, okay? Not. Your. Fault. Also, we’re here.”

I hadn’t even noticed us pulling into the parking lot. I followed Carly inside, and she headed for the romance while I went for the manga.

It was terrifying to think of exploring things with Nigel. He’d had this life I couldn’t fathom. Open relationships. Seeing the world.Living. What if he got bored with me? Easton was a normal, dull rich guy, and I couldn’t hold his attention. Or the man before him.

It wasn’t like Nigel was going to run off with Sonya, but what if there was something just wrong with me? Dwelling on those thoughts would devour me in the worst way, but that didn’t stop me from doing so.

12

nigel

Iloved what I did for a living. Helping an epic game realize its potential, making sure the finished product gleamed, and being able to sayI worked on thatwas a badge of honor. I especially loved being part of a small start-up.

That was, until something went wrong and it was all hands-on deck until the problem was fixed, because there weren’t enough of us to take many breaks while things were still broken. I was pretty sure it was Wednesday. Most of us had been pushing into sixteen- or eighteen-hour days since Sunday, and catching quick naps in our offices when we weren’t needed.

My messenger pinged with a new note fromDarkness. It just saidBack.

Good. I’d been waiting for a few hours for her to reply to myYou around?

Her name was Fallyn, and she was a gaming streamer and content creator whose channel specialized in breaking video games. She focused a lot on Rinslet’s titles, not just because she enjoyed them, but people played the fuck out of them, even the older games. They had longevity, so she got a lot of hits off those videos.

I need your thoughts on an exploit, if you have a minute,I wrote.

She used to love breaking Digital Media games, too. She claimed she’d stopped because they made the same mistakes again and again, so it was no longer a challenge.

I happened to know that it was because she couldn’t afford to fight their copyright claims and Cease and Desist orders. They never had a case, she was careful about fair use, but fighting still took time and money.

Her reply took a minute to come through.Let me grab some coffee, then you can hit me with it.

I was familiar with Fallyn’s story because I chatted with her. Most of the people at AcesPlayed would be horrified to know I had an open line of communication with her, but she was actually friendly and happy to share whatever information she found, especially in games she liked.

Her videos tended to cover the fun exploits—how to get unlimited money, lives, or power. When she found the big, game-breaking things, the stuff that could crash servers or cost people actual money, she preferred to go to the companies first.

It was when those businesses didn’t listen that she made the information public, to get them to fix the problem faster. When I found out that she’d been sending in bug reports on the beta, and the developers had been ignoring her messages because of who she was, I made sure I had a direct line of communication to her.

The issue we were dealing with now hadn’t been discovered by her, but she had thoughts on how to approach it. I’d been bouncing ideas off of her and sending them back to Elliot, the head of the Dev team.

K. Caffeinated. Go. Darkness was the nickname Megan gave her chat profile because as far as the rest of the office was concerned, Fallyn was the dark cloud of doom descending on all of us. Fallyn knew, and thought it was a hilarious nickname.

I sent her over the latest information from Elliot, along with my thoughts and questions, and waited.

It didn’t take long for her to respond.Nope. Doesn’t make sense. What aren’t you telling me?

Despite being grateful for her help, I couldn’t give her everything.The rest is proprietary. Intellectual property and all that.

There’snothingelse you can give me?She asked.

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