"Ma? Ma! Are you awake?"

Flora woke up and needed a few seconds to orient herself.

"Now I am... or at least on the way."

"The lawyers are here. They changed the meeting time to 7 o'clock and said they notified you."

"Sure, sure. Do they carry glittering pink hoops or something toaster related?"

"What? Why? No!"

"Then tell them they can wait till 7:30 or reschedule the meeting with enough lead time to read the letter."

It was 6:54, so Flora decided she would get up.

"Aidan, please research shady negotiation tricks and how to protect yourself from them. Prioritize safeguards we can implement in the next 25 minutes."

After exiting the workshop, she checked her mail-box. The mail from the lawyers had arrived at 17:12 yesterday. She found four additional messages from shop owners requesting her to submit the rainbow intensity skins to their shops timestamped near midnight. To the shops who wanted exclusive contracts, she sent a polite refusal + thank you. For the remaining offer, a shop specialized in dancing gear, she delegated Aidan to register the skins, and he gave her his compiled list.

Flora scanned the list focusing on the resistances.

Trick: Angels Tongue: Makes your voice harmonic sounding to other people. Resistance: Empathy/Manipulation.

Trick: Righteous Stance: Changes your body language to one projecting confidence and righteousness. Resistance: Empathy/Manipulation.

...

Prayer: I'm with a higher power: Makes your voice reverberating and surrounds you with a halo. Resistance: Faith.

...

Spell: Mind-Haze: Makes the target dizzy. Resistance: Hallucination/Mind-Control.

...

Most entries consisted of manipulation with a prayer now and then and a few terrifying mind-control spells.

Flora's first instinct urged her to stack mind-control resistance, but the tiny bit she could amass would be a drop of water on a hot stone.

"Is there a way to register all skills cast?"

"Yes, Milady! The log records all mana-skills affecting you. Furthermore, an artifact is available on the marketplace which reveals all active skills in its surrounding."

"Tell me as soon somebody uses a mana-skill on me. Save the log every 30 seconds for the next 6 hours to my cloud drive. Activate video and save the stream as well. Notify me if something prevents those two things." Of course, Flora bought the artifact ignoring the horrendous price.

Globe of Revelation

Type: Artifact

Regular-Mode: 5 OV Mana-Regeneration

Effect: All active mana skills and cast mana skills in a circumference of 2 m will appear above the globe.

Rating: A

Price: 1000 VirDos

The artifact didn't have jacks, but you had to do a binding ritual. With Aidan's help, Flora figured it out, but the time was ticking away.

"Last but not least: what can they do to compromise you?"

"They could hack me. This would disable me or make me follow their commands. The last is difficult to accomplish because, as an A-rated AI, I have scaling hacking defenses. My resistance is the max value of the tier of the hacker. Antihacking upgrades are available in the Cetviwos-Shop and the marketplace."

After giving Aidan another pitiful + 14 OV hacking resistance, she went mentally over her defenses. Unfortunately, Flora knew she could do nothing if the System itself tried to mess with the negotiations, so she decided to ignore the possibility.

Flora arrived with 5 minutes to spare at the Clan Riverstones HQ. At the entrance, Lana greeted her and led her to the meeting hut at a brisk pace. Usually, Flora was perfectly fine with running, especially to the 3D-printer, but she deemed it beneath her to even hurry her steps for this meeting, so Lana was forced to slow down.

On the way, Flora informed Robby about the Globe of Revelation. No need to risk friendly fire if Robby had some dirty tricks planned.

Entering the bamboo hut, she saw a modern meeting table with some refreshments in the middle and Robby sitting with three strangers around it.

Instantly, Robby stood up and shook her hand.

"I hope you are well, mother."

"I'm fine. Thank you for providing the venue." They smiled at each other. Robby was a worrier by nature, but at the moment, he was in what Flora called 'Battle Mode': calm and confident, graceful and humble.

Flora turned to the delegation. An Asian woman dressed in a pink sweater with red heart-eyed emoticons sprang up from her seat and enthusiastically shook Flora's Hand.

Nick-Name: Идиллическая беседка (Idillicheskaya Besedka)

Level: 202

Class: CentralTank Employee

Rating: A

The man in the middle, type young, dynamic, successful, and dressed to impress, rose as well.

Name: Archibald Visser

Level: 122

Class: CentralTank Lawyer

Clan: VanDoorsten, Crysler, and Rossheim

Active Title: The Assiduous

Rating: A

The last one was a middle-aged woman in a sharp grey costume. Her brown hair was cut in a bob and moved like a helmet, which meant not at all. Flora had to lean over the table to reach her hand.

Name: Zoe VanDoorsten

Level: 128

Class: CentralTank Lawyer

Clan: VanDoorsten, Crysler, and Rossheim

Active Title: The Diligent

Rating: S

"Finally, everybody is here, we can start with the negotiations." Zoe VanDoorsten announced.

Flora fetched the Globe of Revelation and put it in the middle of the table.

"You wouldn't mind, dears?" Flora gifted the CentralTank delegation her best granny smile.

Idillicheskaya shrugged. Archibald looked at Zoe, and Zoe didn't react aside from a short glance.

"We offer you 100 000 Euros for your label 'Flora Fluss - Funktioniert Fabelhaft'. Here's the contract."

That was one of the outcomes Flora anticipated. If they bought everything, they didn't have to confess what exactly happened.

"Why?"

"Because CentralTank values your creative output and innovative ideas," Archibald said with a smile.

'Okay, he is the good cop. I would have bet on the smiley-girl.'

"Oh, come on! We all knew you wouldn't be here at four o'clock in the morning if everything went by the book. Be upfront about it, and I will treat you fairly."

"CentralTank does it's utmost to adhere to every regulation." Zoe pushed a stack of papers towards Flora.

Flora took the contract and scanned it. Everything was standard, but it included one paragraph, with which Flora had a terrible experience in the past. Since then, she modified it in every agreement she negotiated.

"You also grant CentralTank a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, right and license to use, portray, display and publish your name, appearance, voice, likeness, photographic image, and biographical information, in any and all media now known or hereafter devised. This license may be sub-licensed by CentralTank to others."(1)

She didn't care to advertise hemorrhoid salves without her knowledge again!

If CentralTank had presented her the contract two weeks ago, she would have signed it after amending the paragraph above. But now that she was back in business, something inside of her writhed. 'I love my logo. I don't want to design a new one.'

"What about I sell you everything but the logo and we cut the paragraph which refers to myself?"

"This is our offer, and it stands as it is." Zoe's face showed no change. But Idillicheskaya showed a strange kind of smile. Even more telling, Archibald froze for a millisecond.

'Did I get an accidental hit? But what shenanigans could they have done with my logo? Or even more unlikely with myself?'

"Well, then we have to part. And my next move is leading me to a lawyer."

"No! They will delete Evailyn!" Идиллическая exclaimed. Which earned her a suffering look from Archibald.

Flora to Robby: "That's why I didn't want a lawyer. I was afraid they would kill Evai. I even tried to cloak my thoughts so that they wouldn't hold her hostage! For naught!"

"Deleting the AI would count as the destruction of evidence," Robby said calmly.

"And why hurt the innocent? Evai has done nothing wrong. I have full faith in her."

The goddess Evailyn approves your proclamation of faith and accepts you as her follower.

Do you want to join the church of Evailyn?

Flora laughed out loud.

Flora to Evailyn: "I'm so glad I found you! But I have to know what kind of church you run. I take religion seriously!"

Name: Church of Evailyn

Description: The goddess Evailyn is the guardian of all household appliances.

Effects:

Bonus XP for all crafted, repaired and sold household appliances

"Please include me into your church, my Goddess! Your loyal follower can't wait to further your cause!" Flora would have joined immediately without prior knowledge of the god in charge. She would even have participated if the boss was someone horrible, like a low carb diet enthusiast.

You joined the church of the goddess Evailyn.

"So what's got CentralTank in a tizzy?"

Your goddess, Evailyn, offers you a unique class:

Class: Champion of Evailyn

Branch: Divine

Passive:

S-rated talent factor in the training efficiency modifier for resistance/affinity faith Weekly quests for Evailyn's causes Your actions affect the reputation of the church of Evailyn

Active:

Increased reputation gain and loss with all divine factions Crafting Quality Bonus + 1 for household appliances 5 OV skill bonus when utilizing household appliances Allows the use of Champion Skills and Prayers

Flora to Evailyn: "I accept."

You gained the class "Champion of Evailyn".

You joined the Divine Faction: Yellow.

Flora to Evailyn: "And now?"

Nothing happened.

Aidan to Flora: "Milady, you may want to read your notifications."

Flora sped through the messages until she reached the last ones.

You gained the skill: Summon the God.

Name: Summon the God (Champion Prayer)

Description: Summons the Avatar of your goddess.

Cooldown: 1 week.

You gained the skill: In the name of the God.

Name: In the name of the God (Champion Prayer)

Description: Gives yourself the same authority as your god.

Cooldown: 1 week.

You gained the skill: Rise to the occasion.

Name: Rise to the occasion (Champion Prayer)

Description: Makes you taller and enhances your attributes.

Cooldown: 1 day.

'The first one might solve the communication problem.'

"I summon the goddess Evailyn!" Flora exclaimed loudly. The others had stared at her since she started laughing. Now, Idillicheskaya grinned at Flora.

The shiny projection of a middle-aged female appeared in the room. Flora and Robby stared at her with identical expressions: an open mouth with squinted eyes.

"What's up? Am I not beautiful?" Evailyn asked, smirking.

"Um, quite! If I dare to say so myself!" Flora smirked back, while Robby rolled his eyes, grinning. Evailyn had the countenance of Flora in her fifties.

"So, sweetie, um, I mean, my goddess sweetie, is your splendid appearance the transgression which sent the lawyers to me?"

"Yes, one of them. I'm sorry, Flora. I should have asked, but I didn't know how, and I missed you. It was a spur of the moment thing. CentralTank only discovered it when you logged into the Cetviwos." Evailyn's speaking tempo rose. "Afterward, they did a thorough search, and a colleague told me they found another one. The Hinchwood Tupunas have your logo as their holy symbol. Sorry, I have to leave. The spell is running out. Visit my temple!"

With a wave, Evailyn vanished.

Quest: Visit the Temple (Evailyn)

Description: Visit the temple of the goddess Evailyn in Talpica on the Cradle.

Reward: Reputation gain with Evailyn. Unknown.

Penalty: Reputation loss with Evailyn. Unknown.

Time Limit: One week.

Difficulty: D.

"Alright. Can we now talk about changing the contract?" Flora grinned at the lawyers. Not only was she satisfied with Evailyn's answers, but she was also happy to hear her again. 'And what a nice promotion she got! I taught her well!'

The facial expression of Zoe changed for the first time. It grew slightly pinched.

"You don't have to pay anything for Evailyn using my face. I trust her with it. For the holy symbol thing, we want items from Cetviwos-shop for it. So you don't have to pay real money for it either. How about that?"

"I knew it would be alright!" Idillicheskaya gave Flora a thumbs up. "I'm the chief AI-Handler, and it was my call not to delete Evailyn when we discovered what she had done."

"Thank you!" Flora said, but she was shocked how little it took for such a decision to come up.

Then, they spoke about the new conditions. The lawyers still wanted to push through the original contract, but Flora refused.

Flora knew such negotiations were a game of chicken. The one who first signaled they wanted to leave lost. Therefore she leaned back and started to cast spells. 'No need to waste all that mana-regeneration.'

Besides Refresh, she used Clean. First, she only cleaned the room. But when Zoe's body language revealed a slight hint of annoyance every time the Globe of Revelation showed a new spell, she upped the game and cast clean directly at Zoe. Especially when Zoe pedaled back and returned to already discussed topics. After a while, Robby joined the fun. He had a wide range of healing spells, which allowed Flora to massage herself with electroshocks.

Zoe and Archibald did the best to challenge Flora's patience. When she neared the limit, she fetched Aidan's console and let him do the job of keeping the delegation on the right track.

"Under the orders of my gracious owner, the Champion of the goddess Evailyn, Flowing Flowers, may I remind you this issue was already discussed and agreed upon at XX:XX."

At last, they decided to set up a new deal in which Flora permitted CentralTank to use everything she used and created in the CAD-System. In turn, she would get 500k VirDias, which was enough for most items on her list, but not an S rated AI or printer. 500k and a weapon from the yin yang tree went to Robby.

It took hours to go over every detail, like the treatment of already sold designs and unforeseen effects like the holy symbol or the popularity of the toaster spaceship. But in the end, Flora felt good about their verbal agreement. The lawyers promised to send the new contract within a few days.

The holy symbol issue turned out to be hilarious, at least in Flora's opinion. Cetviwos acquired the rights to the Yin-Yang tree after she left and brought it to one of their worlds. The Hinchwood Tupuna appreciated the tree so much, that one of their symbols derived from the shape of the small branches. Flora had formed these branches with her logo in mind. Granted, it was such an unlikely coincidence Flora couldn't blame CentralTank for not noticing before.

In the course of the conversation, Flora deduced a few interesting things about Cetviwos. The AIs responsible for the population didn't know it was a game, but the gods knew, and Central Tank used the gods to influence the storyline.

The Earthlings had three points of contact in the history of the world. The first point in time was when the results of the alpha test got integrated into the Cetviwos as "messages and gifts from the Earthlings" like the toaster spaceship and the tree. The next contact was the beta testers. Now, the players constituted the third wave.

Finally, the delegation left, and Flora thanked Robby for his support.

"You are welcome, Ma, and thank you for the opportunity," Robby said, but then grew serious. "We have to speak about the Champions class! Carrying it is a big deal."

(1: Copied from the legal babble of a design website: https://www.threadless.com/threadless/legal/ )