Leveled Up Love

Chapter 1-1

Zack silenced the incessant ringing of the doorbell with a quick eye-tracked command on his OptiGlasses. Blessed silence arrived as the smart-house system muted the noisy interruption, allowing Zack to return to Star Fury. He could not afford the distraction when he was in the midst of an intense dogfight. Virtual stars flashed past as he kicked in the afterburners and his integrated, state-of-the-art leather gaming chair tilted him in place, adding to the immersion of the game.

Speakers whined, providing the surround-sound effect of his straining engines and the audible ping of lasers striking energy shields. Zack turned up the volume with another swipe of his OptiGlasses as repeated thumps and muffled shouts originating from the heavy front door provided the insistent intrusion of unwanted reality. His new speakers drowned out the thumps with ease. The upgraded system was the best on the market right now. He’d even had to get techs in to install them weeks ago. Nothing but the best for Star Fury.

The muffled shouts rivaled the speakers though, and Zack missed a key input. His ship spiraled into darkness and flames as his shields failed and lasers tore his ship apart. Swearing, the generously padded young man pulled himself out of his chair and stalked to the door. He adjusted his stained shirt and sweatpants, which had stuck to his pasty skin as he walked, and smacked his lips. Days-old flat pop had left an overly sweet, furry sensation lingering in his mouth.

“What?” Zack snarled as he yanked open the door, bypassing the automatic commands just to vent his fury.

On the other side of the door stood Zack’s ex-guardian and present trustee, Philip MacComack. Zack hadn’t needed a guardian since he turned eighteen over six years ago, but that didn’t stop Phil from interfering. Phil’s forehead was shiny from sweat, and he was panting. His skin was too dark to turn bright red the way Zack’s did when he overexerted himself, but Phil was still flushed from the effort he had put into assaulting Zack’s door. The graying older gentleman’s tie was askew, his coat unbuttoned and his foot half-raised as he readied another kick at the door. Phil placed his shiny leather foot down before Zack could shut the door, pushed the younger man aside, and stalked in. Moving Zack was absurdly easy, considering Phil was at least three decades older and smaller than Zack, but athletics had never been Zack’s strength.

“Damn it, Zack, why did you stop returning my calls?” Phil demanded.

“I was busy.”

“And running your trust isn’t a full-time job? I had to fly in from New York for this. And you know how much I hate the heat of Oklahoma City.”

Phil stormed past Zack and slapped his briefcase down on a nearby table. The briefcase landed with a squelch that turned Phil’s expression from anger to disgust. He wrinkled his nose as he finally noticed the mess he had walked into.

A wall of smudged windows showed a stunning view of Oklahoma City: sleek silver buildings, crowded multi-level highways, and a meandering river with an expanse of parks and shops dotted along the bank. But the panoramic scenery was overshadowed by the layers of grime and clutter in the open plan black and white marble condo. To the right of the entrance hall, the luxurious gray and white kitchen with a granite-top island was cluttered with empty pizza boxes, discarded plates, and abandoned coffee mugs. Directly in front, past the dining room table that Phil now regretted using, sat the pride of Zack’s existence—his state-of-the-art, multi-monitor gaming rig.

The only decoration in the apartment hung beside the monitors: a promotional poster for the Star Fury tournament, featuring supermodel host Zoe Cross wearing a skimpy version of the Armada dress uniform. Zoe’s thick black hair hung loose around her shoulders, and her exposed skin glowed golden on the glossy poster. The redesigned uniform showed a lot of skin. Zack had yet to put up the other posters he had of her, collected from the very start of her modeling contracts with Star Fury years ago. Of course, she’d branched into acting and hosting video game shows since her debut over a decade ago. Ever since then, she’d captured the hearts and loins of gamers everywhere.

Zack and his teammates were Corsairs—basically space pirates who played by their own rules—but he could appreciate a woman in uniform. Besides, Star Fury hadn’t released a promotional poster for the Corsairs since the last model retired. Rather than be upset about the clear favoritism being shown to Armada scum, Zack had decided to appreciate what was available.

Not a hardship when it was Zoe.

The poster and gaming console were the only clean items in the room. His gaming chair was surrounded by discarded clothing, pizza boxes, and empty pop bottles. A pathway through the mess led to the bathroom to the left and his bedroom beyond that.

“What is this?” Phil asked. “And what happened to the cleaning service?”

“Pizza. I told them to take a break till the tournament is over.” Zack turned to look back at his massive computer setup, eyes hungry as his ship’s escape pod floated in space, waiting for him to return and respawn. “The tournament which I’m currently training for. The first round is this afternoon, and—”

“Your damn games again,” Phil said as he wiped the bottom of his briefcase with a discarded napkin.

“You know, they’re not just damn games…” When Phil opened his mouth to argue, Zack sighed and shook his head. “Forget it. I don’t have time to argue about this right now. Why are you here?”

“The year-end audit and next year’s proposed budget. We’ve put off submitting the documents as much as we can, but if we don’t get it signed in the next week, we’ll be fined.”

“Okay, so do it.”

“Oh, for the love of Moses!” Phil took a deep breath to regain his composure. “We do this every year, Zacharius… you’re the named beneficiary. Accordingly, we need you to sign off on the audited statements. Where are you going!?!”

you“Got to respawn,” Zack said as he walked back to his seat and began the process of getting his pod to respawn at the nearest station. “I thought we changed that bylaw.”

Phil drew a deep, long-suffering breath as he popped open his briefcase and retrieved a tablet and stylus. “You wanted to. I refused.”

“Oh, right. Why did we do that again?”

“Do you care? Are you even going to pay attention to the explanation?”

Zack shrugged, not taking his eyes off the screen. Phil huffed, and in the reflection from his monitors, Zack caught the old man’s eyes narrowing. He almost felt a little guilty. Almost—until Phil thrust the electronic tablet at him.

“Sign.”

“Why can’t we do this remotely?” Zack muttered. He grabbed the tablet and tossed it onto a nearby couch. A precariously perched, half-filled coffee mug nearly tipped over.

Phil caught the mug and looked around vainly for a safe place to discard it. He settled for a relatively clear place on the floor. “We. Tried.” Phil drew a deep breath as he struggled to stay calm. “Someone sent us to spam.”

“Oh, right.”

Zack vaguely remembered that. The trust had sent some bothersome email in the midst of a fleet battle for Veobos IV, and Zack had nearly been ganked because of it. Somehow, they’d used an override to ping his OptiGlasses, forcing him to deal with it to stop the notifications. That was when they got added to the spam folder.

They just didn’t know when to quit.

“So you’ll go away once I sign this?”

“Review what you sign first!” Phil said.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Zack turned on autopilot as his ship launched from the station, then he took the stylus. He held it toward the tablet Phil offered, then pulled back his hand. “What about the foundation?”

“Zack, that’s the least of—”

“Did the board cut the budget? Is that why you’re telling me to review this?”

“Zack—”

Zack pulled the tablet from Phil’s grip and scrolled through until he found the paragraph outlining the budget for his charitable foundation. Sure enough, his bilge-sucking board had proposed a fifteen percent cut to the funding. Zack gritted his teeth.

“Double it.”

“Zack, is that—”

“Double the foundation budget, or I don’t sign.”

Phil sighed. “The proposed budget is more than enough to support the current hospitals and doctors. The board—”

“Then find another hospital to support and put another doctor on the committee.”

“You know I appreciate your dedication to the charity your parents started. They would appreciate it as well, but you should also take an interest in the business they founded. They wouldn’t want you left destitute.”

Zack laughed. “Destitute? I’m about as far from destitute as you can get.”

He gestured to the luxurious apartment. Phil looked around, once again grimacing as he took in the mess. His face said that Zack was a lot closer to destitute than he realized.

Zack’s ship blared a warning, and he turned his attention to the screen. Blast. An Armada patrol was moving in fast. They must have been hanging out just outside the station’s sensor range to catch respawns.

“Look, make the change so I can sign.”

“Zack—”

“It will annoy the board and help sick kids. I call that a win.”

“You really should review—”

“Just make it work.”

Zack turned off autopilot and executed a quick succession of offensive maneuvers, putting his newest laser cannon through its paces while Phil edited the document on his tablet. Zack no longer had time to pay attention to Phil. Three against one was no laughing matter, even if the ships were a class below his.

Anyway, Zack wanted to get a little more practice with the weapon before he decided on his final setup for the tournament round that afternoon. Using something so new in competition was risky, but it also would keep his opponents on their toes.

Phil punctuated his tapping on the tablet with long-suffering sighs that Zack ignored. He had ten years of practice learning to ignore Phil. The trustee was always complaining about something or other, but in the end, he managed to give Zack what he wanted with minimum effort on Zack’s part. It was why Zack kept him around in spite of Phil’s occasional meddling.

Zack had destroyed the entire patrol by the time Phil shoved the tablet at him again. That laser canon had been worth every coin. He took his eyes off the screen long enough to glance at Phil’s face and confirm that the trustee had done as Zack had asked. Phil look grim and resolved. That was about right.

“One more thing. Somebody on my gaming forum just lost his job. Send him something to help ends meet, all right?” Zack used his eyes to make a few swipes on his OptiGlasses and send the user’s contact information to Phil.

The trustee sighed but didn’t protest. “Anonymous as usual?”

Zack shrugged. “Say he won a raffle or something.”

“You know, it isn’t easy to—”

“Hey, it’s what I pay you for.”

“About that. You really should review the rest of this document before signing.”