"Four hundred twenty-eight?!" Zoey Parker yelped, yanking her feet off her desk at WindyPeak's Seattle office.
Chloe Quinn nodded grimly. "Yes, Ms. Parker."
Zoey blinked, dumbfounded. "There's, what, 582 games total?"
Chloe confirmed, "Exactly."
"Four-two-eight?" Zoey repeated, reeling.
Chloe nodded again, stone-faced.
Zoey sucked in a breath. Logically, this was perfect—a trash ranking meant Vampire Survivor would flop, aligning with her Investment Rebate plan. But something stank.
She'd been tracking the game's buzz. Streamers like Jada and SlickRick were hooked, playing like lunatics on Twitch. GameBox and PlayTab forums were flooded—one in ten posts was about Vampire Survivor. With that hype, top ten was a lock, not 428th.
"Over four hundred?" Zoey muttered, eyes narrowing at Chloe. "This data legit?"
Chloe shook her head. "We can't see daily vote breakdowns in the backend, so no way to verify."
"But…" she added, flipping her notebook, "there's something fishy with IndieVibe's random rankings."
Zoey leaned in, serious. "Spill."
Chloe, ever the sharp assistant, had been logging Vampire Survivor's metrics: media mentions, forum chatter, and IndieVibe homepage appearances. "The expo's random rankings refresh hourly, fifty games per page, to ensure equal exposure," she said. "Fair promo, per IndieVibe's rules."
Zoey nodded. She'd briefly considered asking IndieVibe to bury their game to tank sales but ditched the idea. Victor Lang's fairness crusade seemed ironclad.
"But," Chloe continued, "in the past week—168 refreshes—Vampire Survivor hit the top ten of page one zero times. Page one? Zero. First five pages? Zero. Page nine? 130 times. Page ten? 30 times. Last page? 6 times."
Zoey's face darkened. "So, not once in the top five pages?"
Chloe swallowed hard, nodding. She'd never seen Zoey this pissed.
Zoey popped a lollipop, crunching it to calm her nerves. "Let's say the random rankings are a glitch. But 428th? With half the Twitch streamers playing, 98% positive reviews, and forum posts out the wazoo? This is a straight-up scam."
Zoey wasn't dumb. Sure, she dreamed of being a slacker, the saltiest fish in the pond. But lazy didn't mean stupid. A finance major from an elite university, raised by a titan of industry, she could smell a rat a mile away. Someone was rigging the game.
"They're messing with me?" she growled. "Stealing votes under my nose?"
Yeah, she wanted to tank investments, but that was her call. Nobody got to play her for a fool. "They think I'm soft?"
Crunch. The lollipop shattered. "They don't know who they're dealing with."
She waved a hand. "Chloe, book tickets to Seattle. I'm asking IndieVibe what their deal is."
Seattle to IndieVibe's HQ was a quick trip—under an hour by train.
"But," Chloe cautioned, "random rankings are one thing, but accusing them of vote tampering… we need hard proof."
Zoey smirked, tossing the lollipop stick into the trash with a flick. "I'm Zoey Parker, daughter of Victor Parker. I say they cheated. Proof's optional."
Chloe shivered. Zoey's usual laid-back vibe hid her lineage—daughter of a business mogul with ruthless clout. IndieVibe's board would quake if Victor got involved.
"Tickets, now," Zoey snapped, tossing Chloe a lollipop.
Chloe caught it, flashing an OK sign. "On it!"
As she booked, Chloe smirked inwardly. Someone was about to get wrecked.