William and Cynthia didn't have high standards for a car. It just needed to get them around. Ideally electric, so they didn't have to bother with gas—just park it at home and charge it up.
New energy car showrooms are usually inside malls, which made it convenient to grab lunch at the same time.
While eating, they browsed car reviews online. Their budget was set between 13,000 and 26,000 dollar.
Since they didn't have any special requirements, they picked one with a look they liked and went with it.
The final price came out to 19,000 dollar. The car needed a few days to be shipped, and it would be delivered right to their office building.
After buying the car, William suddenly remembered he had scheduled an interview with Marcus that afternoon. The others wouldn't arrive in Riverdale until tomorrow, but Marcus lived nearby—just a 30-minute high-speed train ride away.
While William and Cynthia were on their way back to the office, Marcus had already gotten on the subway.
"What do you think of him?" William asked, deciding not to get back to work during the wait.
Cynthia said, "He's good at games, but we'll need to see how he is in other areas."
"If his personality's bad, then forget it."
"Yeah."
New Fortune Tower.
Marcus looked up at the tall building, his heart pounding. His mind was screaming at him to back out, but he was already so close—he had to give it a shot.
"What if they reject me right away?"
"What if I'm not good enough?"
"What if I say something wrong?"
…
Every second in the elevator felt like torture to Marcus.
Earth Games.
Marcus was probably the first outsider to ever see the Earth Games logo. Standing at the door, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't see anyone inside, so just walking in felt wrong, but knocking felt weird too.
"He's here," William said, checking the message on his phone before getting up and heading to the door.
From the hallway, he saw a nervous-looking young guy standing at the entrance. He looked decent, just a bit short—maybe around 165 cm—and seemed to be around the same age as William.
"Hello."
When the door opened, Marcus was clearly stunned for a second, then quickly straightened up. "H-Hello!"
Cynthia smiled. "Come in."
Once inside the studio, Marcus, still carrying his backpack, didn't know whether to sit or stand. He just stood there awkwardly.
"You can put your bag on the table," William said. "No one's using those computers yet."
"Oh, okay." Marcus obediently followed the suggestion.
For some reason, even though the guy in front of him looked younger, Marcus felt like William seemed much more mature.
That made sense, though. William's mental age was almost thirty, and he'd already been through a lot over the years.
"You can start by introducing yourself," William said, trying to guide him along.
"I-I'm Marcus, I'm number one in Piano Tiles" he stammered.
After that, he just looked at William and Cynthia across from him, saying nothing more.
"This your first job?" Cynthia saw through him at a glance.
"Yeah."
"Alright." Cynthia took a deep breath.
Marcus got nervous and quickly stood up. "Please give me another chance!"
Watching Marcus bow, William could tell that no matter how awkward the guy was, his personality wasn't bad. He just hadn't been through much yet—he might be a little clumsy, but everyone starts that way.
"Relax," Cynthia said with a smile, easing the tension. "Why not show us your gaming skills?"
Hearing that, Marcus peeked at William. When William nodded, he finally relaxed and sat down.
He took out his phone and opened a game, and his whole vibe changed. The nervousness was gone, replaced by real confidence.
The game was, of course, Piano Tiles, Marcus's strongest area. He could now beat "Flight of the Bumblebee" easily—three perfect runs in a row, each faster than the last.
"Impressive."
Cynthia, being terrible at games, couldn't help but admire him.
William saw how natural he was with the game. He'd thought Blue Star players wouldn't be quite on the same level as Earth's, but now he wasn't so sure. Maybe talent really is unpredictable.
"What are your salary expectations?"
Marcus had done well. William couldn't think of anything else to test him on. Worst case, if it didn't work out, they had three months of probation to let him go. Might as well bring him on board and see.
"Huh?"
Marcus clearly didn't expect the interview to be this simple. Flustered, he said, "I-I'm fine with anything. Any salary is okay."
"That won't do." Cynthia shook her head and decided to teach him a lesson.
"Your salary reflects the value of your work. If you say you don't care how much you make, that means you don't value your own work. What you just said basically tells us you're worthless. If that's what you think of yourself, why would we treat you seriously in the future?"
Marcus was suddenly fired up. "Then… then can I ask for 1400 dollar?"
"No." Cynthia shut him down instantly. "During the probation period, we'll start you at 830 dollar. It lasts three months. After that, once you're official, it'll go up to 1200 dollar. Anything you want to say?"
Marcus stood there, mouth wide open, confused. She had just told him not to undervalue himself, and the next second she slashed the salary. Did those two sentences really come from the same person?
William, listening from the side, was just as shocked.
"So this is what a capitalist looks like?"
"If you can't decide right now, you can go home and think about it. I'll give you a day."
"No need, I'm in." Marcus looked like he was afraid he'd lose the offer if he walked out that door.
"Looking forward to working together." Cynthia smiled and held out her hand.
Marcus shook her hand, then shook William's too, still looking a little dazed.
Next came the paperwork. Cynthia would handle the contract.
The company already offered full benefits. And since Marcus needed to rent a place, Cynthia suggested adding a housing allowance.
William had no objections. They set the housing allowance at 200 dollar. Considering the average rent in Riverdale was around 400 dollar, that was a decent help.
He passed Marcus the contact info for the rental agent they had used before and told him to go see apartments. If he didn't find one today, he could crash at their villa for the night. His first official day would be tomorrow.
After sending Marcus off, William told Cynthia to head home too—he needed to push an update for the game.
At the very beginning, William had given up on updating Piano Tiles, thinking it wouldn't get many downloads and wasn't worth the time and effort.
But now, the download numbers had exceeded expectations. Even though new telecom rules limited the revenue, it was still a great chance to build up the studio's reputation.
See? Even without making money, Earth Games is still pushing updates. That kind of thing gets good feedback.
Another reason was that Marcus didn't have any real tasks yet.
No new project meant he'd just be sitting around, so William decided to add more songs to the game—give Marcus something to "conquer."
Since he didn't plan on reusing Earth music, William went online and bought the rights to 20 popular tracks. He simply added the audio files to the game folder, did a bit of light integration, and they were good to go.
But even after finishing all that, William didn't immediately publish the update.
Instead, he sent the test version to Marcus for him to go through carefully—a way to let him get familiar with his future work.
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