Zoey Parker sat at the head of the conference room, looking like she'd lost a bet with the universe. A stripped daisy stem dangled in her hand.
Yeah, she'd resorted to plucking petals like a lovesick teen.
It'll flop, it won't, it'll flop, it won't, it'll… Damn it!
Why'd she pick a five-petal daisy?
Bad luck.
Superstition was nonsense, she told herself, chalking her twitching eyelid up to too much coffee, not some cosmic sign.
But Zoey was spiraling.
Vampire Survivor's hype was insane—bigger than Cat Leo and Who's the Daddy combined.
Thanks to the Investment Rebate System's time reduction card, the profit window closed one hour after launch.
Sell under 13,334 copies at $15 each, and she'd net a tenfold rebate on the $200,000 loss—$2 million in her pocket.
But with Twitch, Reddit, and GameRant buzzing, breaking even in an hour didn't seem impossible.
Zoey prayed to the universe: Crash IndieVibe's servers. Just for an hour. I'll take my $2 million and bounce.
Future sales? Whatever. Her cut was pennies anyway.
…
Meanwhile, at IndieVibe's San Francisco HQ, the Program Engineering Department was a war zone. Keyboards clacked like machine guns.
Toby Marsh, the new Chief Program Manager, strutted to the front and clapped.
"Listen up, don't stop typing!"
"This is crunch time for the Indie Game Fest!"
"Server stability is everything."
"Victor Lang himself laid it out: nobody screws this up, especially not us."
"Here's the deal," he barked. "If the servers lag for even ten seconds when the games launch and results drop, kiss your bonuses goodbye."
Then he grinned. "But nail this—keep the servers humming under pressure—and the company's covering overtime. Plus, I'm springing for a team spa day!"
No coder could resist a free massage.
The room erupted.
"Hell yeah, Toby!"
"Servers won't crash, even if I do!"
"Spa day, baby!"
"Let's do this!"
"Eight o'clock's coming—move it!"
…
Back at Tech Tower, the clock hit 7:59 PM.
Zoey rallied herself. One hour. Survive this, and you're golden.
Sure, Vampire Survivor was a hit, but sales took time.
Players had been testing it for two weeks, mastering every trick.
Nobody was camped out, card ready, to buy it at launch, right?
Right?
Ding-a-ling!
The alarm she'd set blared at 8:00 PM.
Launch time.
Zoey snapped upright, eyes locked on the conference room's projection screen.
Luke, Jake, and the team swiveled to watch.
The real-time sales graph flickered, then started climbing—steady, not crazy.
At $15 a pop, Vampire Survivor needed 13,334 sales in one hour to hit $200,000 and break even.
Impossible, theoretically.
IndieVibe's record for small games was 8,900 sales in a day.
An hour? No way.
The graph showed about 100 copies per minute.
At that rate, they'd hit maybe 6,000 sales in the hour.
Zoey did the math: $200,000 - (6,000 × $15) = $110,000 loss.
Tenfold rebate? $1.1 million.
Not bad.
She smirked, almost relaxing.
Ding!
Her phone buzzed. An X notification:
"Gus Harper (@GusTheWizard) posted new content! Check it out!"
Zoey glanced at Gus, eyes narrowing.
Slacking in my meeting?
No wonder he'd been dodging her looks, head buried in his phone.
Future employee of the month, she thought, nodding.
The more Gus slacked, the worse the games. Perfect.
Curious, she opened X to see what he'd posted.
His pinned post stared back:
"Gus Harper (@GusTheWizard): Stoked to announce Vampire Survivor v1.1 drops tonight at 8 PM! Two new maps (with Easter eggs), four unlockable characters, five new weapons, five new items, three superweapons, and the first upgradable superweapon! Come try it out!"
Zoey's smirk vanished.
Her heart sank like a brick.