"I swear I didn't do anything!" I exclaimed, hands raised in the air, voice shaking despite my best attempt at calm. My eyes darted around the room, catching the wide, suspicious glares of every executive present. They all had this particular gaze:
'What the fuck did he do?'
The room was definitely closing up on me with the stern gazes I was getting. "Explain this. Right now."
Roku stammered, pushing me aside with beads of sweat forming on his temple. "Sir… I—uh…"
I cut him off, stepping forward, trying to sound convincing. "Look, it wasn't me. I was just—" My words died in my throat as the words on the big screen blinked, flashing red warnings over and over: VIRUS DETECTED. SERVER IS DOWN. TRY AGAIN LATER.
Gasps erupted around the room. Someone shouted from the back, "Did he just hack the presidential server?" The room went into chatters, having them subsequently toss stern looks to me.
"I can fix this. I need to call a friend, I will be back." I was still trying to remain calm and after some few questions, I was escorted out of the room by one of the securities. I pressed myself into a quiet corner of the hallway, the security's scrutiny digging into my spine. If I messed up, then who knows how many years I would be sentenced to prison.
My back was against the wall, hands sweating as I dug my phone out of my pocket. "Only 1 bar? Give me at least 3 bars, I need to make this life changing call I beg you. I swear if it works, I will give up watching Hentai!" Dialing Okada's number on one bar felt like summoning the dead back to life both impossible and hard. "I swear..."
Finally, least expected, a groggy voice came through the speaker. I held the phone tight to my mouth yelling in. "Okada!"
"Kaito? What the hell—somehow I can't access anything on the Internet. What happened? It's literally down for everyone. What have you done?"I ran a hand through my hair, swallowing hard.
"It is all my fault. You know I said my flashdrive had a virus on it? Roku plugged it into the server… and now… I'm dead. I can't think of any other way this could happen." There was a pause on the line before I heard Okada's voice.
It was a groan, then a sigh then his tongue grazing his teeth. "You stupid genius, Think, Kaito. What else could've brought a virus into that flashdrive?"
"How am I meant to know? There are like two thousand plus porn videos on that flashdrive. Anything could have generated that virus." The silence was suffocating and my brain was barely running for an answer. "My game! It… it has to be my hentai game. While I was coding it, it glitched on the drive.Everything… all of this must've started there. Why didn't I think of it?"
And there was it, his 'i knew it all' arrogant laughter that pricked my soul anytime I heard it. "You know what you have to do. Or do I have to spell it out for you?"
"....." That exact moment, my soul left my body. My shoulders slumped in defeat knowing where he was heading at however it was just impossible to admit it. "I… I have to delete it,"
I muttered weakly as if I had lost all my life's savings in one gamble. Deleting the game meant erasing everything I had worked for, everything I had poured myself into. But if I didn't, this virus would keep spreading. Not just the server but everyone's devices, every system connected, could be compromised.
Millions could be affected, and it would all trace back to me.
It would be because of me!
"Yeah… and don't forget to delete—"Okada couldn't finish his sentence before the bar dropped to zero and the line went dead. I stared at the empty connectivity bar on the right corner of my phone. I sank down against the wall, gripping my phone tightly, teeth gritted. "Delete the game… before it deletes me," I whispered to myself.
"Hey, are you just mumbling to yourself or searching for solutions?"
"I'm ready." I let out a deep air out of my lungs, following the armed guard out of the hallway and back into the room. Back into the room and I detected how angered they were. I laughed inwardly to clear off the fear clouding my mind and went to the laptop.
"How am I sure you won't make it worse?"
I didn't know how to respond to him but somehow deep in my bones, I was hopeful that my idea would work. I plugged the laptop into the main server, the room was dead quiet, all eyes on me, executives, guards, even Roku who looked like he was about to pass out. The moment the drive connected, the system recognized it and, of course, Windows did what Windows does best and opened everything it wasn't supposed to.
BAM!
Right there, projected for the entire boardroom, were my folders. Embarrassing folders and subfolders with names like: Wet Me, Sex with my MILf stepmother Succubi, Bunny Girls Unleashed, Step-Sister Siege 3, Milky Fantasy Reloaded and so many more.
"Oh dear God…" I muttered, afraid to turn my back to check their expressions. I navigated quickly, ignoring the scandalized murmurs from them, until I found it buried deep under a private folder.
I right-clicked it.
The system froze for half a second and pressed my finger down on the "Delete" key, holding it there, waiting for the system to confirm. The confirmation popup flashed:
Are you sure you want to permanently delete this game? This action cannot be undone.
My hand froze. The cursor hovered over the 'Yes,' button. Minutes ago, I was sure I wanted it gone but now, I wasn't so sure again. "Kaito," Roku hissed from behind. "Why are you just standing there? This isn't time for freezing asshole! Hit yes!"
I didn't answer and Roku panicked. "For the love of—" Before I could react, Roku grabbed my wrist, shoved my thumb onto the keyboard, and clicked delete.
Succubus.exe file permanently deleted
I exhaled, stepping away from the laptop. "She's gone," I whispered, sounding like a man who'd just buried his only child. Roku patted my back not knowing whether to comfort me or push me out a window. "You did the right thing," He muttered.
SERVER CONNECTION RESTORED.
The projector screen came on. Everyone gasped in the room as they switched their phone on and tried searching something on the Internet. "Damn, it went! It went! He fixed it!"
"No, I was the one that fixed it." As usual, he always took my glory for himself. Thank goodness everything worked so I will just let him slide. My head snapped toward him so fast I almost sprained my neck.
"Young boy, what's your name again? I loved your enthusiasm and you have some sweet coding fingers. How about coming to work under me?"
Unbelievable! Roku muttered something under his breath before storming out of the room. I stayed still for a moment, blinking, half-wondering if I should run after him. Instead, I bowed slightly, trying to look professional which wasn't easy considering half the people here had just seen "Step-Sister Siege 3" plastered on a 200-inch projector screen.
"I'm… I'm so grateful, sir,"
There was a faint smile on his face that rare kind of smile powerful men give when they've decided you're useful to them. "To add to that," he said, leaning back comfortably in his chair, "send your account details to my financial secretary. I'll have you wired twenty thousand dollars this instant."
For a solid three seconds, my jaw didn't move. My brain completely shut down and rebooted.
Twenty. Thousand. Dollars.
For fixing my own damn mess, such generousity.
"Thank you, sir!" I finally managed to speak, probably a bit too loud, but at that point I didn't care.
My hentai game might've died, but somehow, my wallet had been resurrected. Maybe I was wrong, the game might be gone but I just got something even better than a hentai game!