Prelude IX

(Larry Yo-Boy's BiPrism News + Magical Supplies)

"Hello everyone, I wanted to welcome you back to quite possibly the best of the government approved retirement resorts that are still on the chopping block. Yes, the final budget cuts have not been finalized, but unfortunately, we are on the second apron." Larry began, as he pulled up a list of worlds, current legislative proposals and where exactly BiPrism fell in all of them.

"As you can see, there are seven worlds that are beyond reproach. These are the top Axe world, the top bow world, the top of the top straight magic world, the top Otome world, the top mechanoid war world, the top future tech world, and finally a fringe world that is purely gothic horror and intended for criminals who are serving out life sentences. Those are the seven that are set in stone, guaranteed to exist regardless of how much the budgets get cut."

"That leaves what everyone is referring to as the three apron layers. These are a tiered approach to looking at lifetime add revenue generated, repeat sales customer bases, and a whole lot of other formulas that ultimately state how much can these servers stand to survive on their own? Unfortunately for us, here at BiPrism, we are now squarely on what is called the second apron, this is mainly due to certain companies whose logos are red in nature, who have pulled out in a seeming attempt to pull away authority from the originating family, and provide power to branch members who are now located on servers that constitute first apron worlds." With that Larry doesn't state the name of this exact company, though a number of news articles about the Redding Foundation pulling out of various charities and advertising venues does seem to scroll across the screen at a rate that might appear slightly slower to the average customer, but then again all news items were going at that rate for this segment, making it coincidental at best for any legal purposes.

"Most of our status at the second apron is due to our overall lifetime revenue generated, and from the fact that a good percentage of recent retirees who have joined the server are within their thirty-year retirement window. That's right, in case you missed it, that part got through and was deemed constitutional, namely your retirement was until death, or until thirty years after the time you were uploaded to a retirement server."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Again, this is a lot of legal mumbo jumbo to say, it is likely that everyone on the third tier is royally ruined. That said, there are a few global competitions that will be happening here to help change planetary positions on the different aprons. That's right, for the first time ever, we will have cross server competitions, something we have all been begging for, will now be possible. Of course, this is mainly due to trying to see how hard it would be to have a massive group of people migrate from one planetary server to the next, but we expect add revenues galore and of course legalized gambling to take place during these sanctioned events."

With that, a flashing symbol for BettingDM flashes on the screen with the promo code Yo-Boy50/50 flashed on the screen.

"What does this all mean for us? Well, quite simply put we have the chance to change our seating on these different aprons. Based on how we perform in a number of categories, everything ranging from Magic, Magical combat, Physical Combat, Enchanting, mechanical war, mechanoid warfare, and a myriad of other categories that will all be used to determine where and how each planet rates among the peers, and which one has people that actually perform better overall."

There is a slight pause before Larry gets to the actual heart of the matter, "of course, this begs the ultimate question of how many servers overall will be saved. Tier 1 has a noted top ten, Tier 2 would save a total of 30 world, ten from Tier 1, and the twenty from Tier 2. Then finally Tier 3 would save all 60 unique worlds that are up for being eliminated from the budget."

"This is all of course assuming that people want to go and fight for their worlds, or if they will take the sure fire Golden Ticket and opt to lose everything they have worked this long for, in order to be guaranteed a spot on one of the seven guaranteed servers."

With that a lot more legal information flashed across the screen, but overall, there were several key dates and events that were listed, each seeming to promise a major sporting event, which ultimately meant more revenue streams that could be used to preserve the servers.

After the dates and times flashed, the server went dark, and Larry looked utterly angry with himself.

"You did great," a supportive female voice called out from off stage.

"I got people to gamble away money they likely couldn't afford to spare, so that I might get a chance to keep this job," Larry responded bitterly, having taken to heart how long ago he almost lost everything dear to him due to his gambling addiction. Now seeing everything, he felt the inexplicable need to wager everything on Team Cass. Yet, that was a slippery slope and one he could not, no, one that he would not allow himself to traverse again.

Silence filled the stage as the duo realized they were looking ahead to either a miracle happening, or to having to make drastic changes in their lives.

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