[Ex-Nightmare Forge Studios Employee Suspected of Stealing Trade Secrets, using them for the creation of his own games.]
The headline was glaring.
I only needed one look to understand that it was talking about me.
My heart sank at the sight, but I didn’t panic. Instead, I nodded quietly and took out my phone.
"Boss, what is the meaning of this? Did something happen? Is this true...?"
The new employees whom I had hired were understandably confused. However, I quickly reassured them that everything was fine.
"Don’t worry. I understand what is going on. None of it is true. It’s a bit hard to explain, so for now it’s best if you all just get familiar with the equipment. I’ll handle the situation for now, and I’ll let you know more about the situation when I can."
The three looked at each other, obviously at a loss. In the end, however, they still decided to listen to me and moved towards the main studio.
I felt grateful and moved towards my seat.
"So this is how they chose to retaliate."
I got a better look at the article.
———
[Daily Malovia] — Seth Thorne, a former developer at indie horror game studio Nightmare Forge Studios, is under suspicion for allegedly stealing proprietary materials and trade secrets during his time at the company.
Insiders close to the matter claim Thorne may have used internal design documents, engine assets, and unreleased gameplay mechanics to develop his own line of horror titles shortly after his departure earlier this year.
His new games, released under an independent label, reportedly bear striking similarities to concepts that were still in development during his tenure at Nightmare Forge.
.
.
.
———
Daily Malovia was a fairly popular and reputable source.
"They sure didn’t hold back. It must’ve cost quite a bit of money to get an article like this out. Perhaps they even used the money that Zoey has given them."
My teeth slowly started to grind together.
It was becoming clearer and clearer to me that Zoey was right. I was a pushover, or at least, that was how I used to be in the past. This was the reason why the Guild was taking so many liberties with me.
They believed that they could get away with anything.
This...
I was starting to be really pissed off.
Not only did they steal from me, but they were also claiming that I had stolen from them.
"Hoo."
It was rare for me to get angry, but I was really starting to get angry.
Taking several deep breaths to calm myself down, I started to check the comments.
—Seth Thorne? Isn’t he the guy who recently made headlines with the Severed Stars Guild? That maniac with the sunglasses? It’s no wonder...
—I played his games. A quiet day in the office, I think...? It was nothing impressive. At least, nothing compared to Death Company by Nightmare Forge. It’s really a pity that people would go this low.
—There’s really no moral integrity in people these days. It’s disappointing to see.
—Used to be a big fan of his games. It’s a pity that he was like this. No wonder such crappy computer games were doing so well. Turns out he was just stealing.
Not one positive comment.
The comments were flooded with negative comments, all directed at me.
Staring at them, I felt my grip on the phone tighten.
I wasn’t naive. I could see that a lot of the comments were most likely paid by the company in order to further push the smear compaing.
I’d normally not be worried, but looking at my socials, I could see that the smear compaign was working.
—It makes sense if you think about it. He’s obviously doing well at the Guild. Where do you think he has the time to develop games? It’s obvious that he’s stolen from them.
—Didn’t they go bankrupt not long ago? That’s some pretty shady stuff. Stealing while they were down. I’m thinking of boycotting whatever this developer is making.
—His games are shit anyways so who cares?
—What a rat.
Click!
I had to turn off the screen of my phone to stop myself from staring at the comments. I could see my own blood pressure rising the more I stared at them.
"Should I just go ahead and sue them?"
There were ways for me to prove that the programs and music was mine. This wasn’t hard for me to prove. The main issue was the fact that even if I did end up suing them for defamation, the likely situation was that the case would drag on for several years.
The amount of money that I’d need to spend on legal fees would also be quite exorbitant.
It was simply... not worth it.
However, I couldn’t let the situation continue like this.
My reputation was on the line.
"Ah, fuck."
Leaning forward, I rubbed my forehead. The situation was really giving me a headache.
"What should I do?"
It wasn’t like I was starvered for options. There was the Guild Master. I could very easily send him a message, and he’d probably help me get rid of them in a couple of seconds. That was how much power he held.
But the issue was that I didn’t want to rely on him too much.
The more I relied on him, the more control he had over me. This was something that I didn’t want to happen.
’Maybe I’m overthinking, but I’d like our relationship to be more equal. If I bother him with something like this, he might bother me for more annoying stuff later.’
"Ugh."
I groaned.
"There’s also Mr. Jingles and my new skill. I could attach the Realmwalker to the CEO."
Those options were also viable. I could repeat a similar stunt to what I had done with Nova Studios.
Those were great and all, but it felt like a little bit of a waste.
I didn’t have many clothes that I could use with Mr. Jingles, and since they were one time use, I had to be careful when choosing my target.
Then...
Realmwalker?
"That’s also a waste."
Sending the Realmwalker to spy the CEO would mean not having the Realmwalker with me. That wasn’t an option I was willing to take for a mere gaming company CEO.
The Realmwalker was too valuable for me at the moment.
I needed a meatshi—valuable companion when handling anomalous entities and the like.
"Then...?"
I rubbed my forehead harder, feeling a headache coming. I knew that I was making my life harder by rejecting the several options that I had available, but I knew that choosing such options would have a downside that I preffered not to take.
However, given my current situation, it seemed like I didn’t really have much of a choice.
"No... Maybe, I do."
Leaning back on my chair and carefully studying my phone, I eventually unlocked the screen again and logged into my socials.
Seeing the flood of hate comments that still poured in, I chose to ignore them all and instead decided to do something I’d never dared to do before.
I made a post.
"They call me a pushover, right?"
I gritted my teeth.
"Fine! I’ll show you who the fucking pushover is!"
I decided to burn all bridges.
[Seth Thorne]
: I will be streaming in a couple of hours. Here is the link. I will be adressing everything there.