AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I meet her gaze through her glasses, its intensity sending shivers down my spine. "Oh, uhh... we're just going through a rough patch, is all. We're off and on, remember?"
"Right, right, like that girl's laid-back about anything in her life."
Goddamnit, does he have to sound so intrigued?
The glass door glides open, and in strides undoubtedly the prettiest girl in the office. I can't help but stare, especially since it's my first time getting a good look at Juliana since what transpired over a week ago. Conference room or not, all I see is the hot tub's ambient glow on her features, her mouth gaping on a lust-filled moa—
I burst to my feet, mirroring Elias, as he buckles his suit jacket.
Juliana plasters on a polite smile, one apparently reserved only for my brother, as her gaze swings to him, bypassing me with a flicker of annoyance.
He clears his throat, accepting her handshake.
"Mr. Kingston." She nods, a bit shyly, earning a hearty chuckle.
"Juliana, I know it's been quite some time—years, if I recall correctly—but please, Mr. Kingston is my father. To you, I'm just Elias."
When she giggles, I'm tempted to yack all over his shiny Oxfords, particularly as she breezes past me without a glance, aiming for the podium at the end of the long table.
I sit back down awkwardly, catching Elias's smirk.
Great, this is gonna be a total blast.
With swift precision, she connects her clunky laptop to the projector, boots up a myriad of programs, half of which are cluttered with code and indescribable things, before the first slide of her presentation fills the screen. She even fiddles with the dials on the side of the podium, drawing the electric blinds across the floor-to-ceiling windows, shading us from the sun.
After a deep breath, she looks to Elias.
"Whenever you're ready."
If I didn't know any better, I'd assume Juliana doesn't have a shy bone in her body.
Her voice booms through the conference room, radiating confidence in both her tone and posture. Throughout her extensive explanations of her game's backend, including server management, code, network architecture, data integration, most of which I nearly blacked out for, she hasn't stumbled once.
Whether she's drawing strength from her obvious passion over her indie game, or from her resentment toward me, I'm not sure. Although, I'm leaning toward the latter.
For only the second time in the past fifteen minutes, our eyes connect. A fire burns behind hers with promises of murder, before they swing back to Elias, who rests his chin on a fist, captivated by every word that leaves her lips.
I grind my teeth, looking down at my notes, which are—wow, would you look at that?—half-assed and hardly legible, even to my own eyes.
With a sigh, I return my attention to the vertical, mobile gameplay captured on the screen.
Cosmic Kitty Defense, that name will never cease to amuse me. I've heard a bit about it from Jeremy and Juliana, but I've never actually seen the game. And at first glance, from someone who's never touched a controller and thinks whoever does is a raging nerd...
It looks kinda fun.
My pulse spikes, watching the pixelated aliens encroach toward the farm in the center of the screen, filled with adorable, helpless kittens. Which are... surprisingly detailed. Same with the grassy textures. I arch an eyebrow, watching the blades sway against some invisible wind.
"This is Mabel." Juliana points at the sole human character in the game, a grandma holding a pitchfork. "Controlled by the player, she's tasked with protecting her farm. Initially, she can only perform melee attacks for defense, but as the waves of aliens increase, so do her powers. She'll gain new weapons, all of which adhere to the game's theme, right down to their names, like the paw-some plasma cannon, purr-fect laser pointer, catnip cluster bomb, et cetera. And, from the game's latest update, the kitty litter sand trap—as you'll see here."
Juliana gestures in perfect sync with the video, as the player zooms through their inventory, selects a gray icon, and taps on a cluster of aliens. In response, Mabel treks to the nearest side of the farm on surprisingly quick feet, sticking close to her kitties, then hurls a projectile to the exact location, bursting a cluster of sand beneath their feet, effectively slowing their movements.
My teeth sink into my bottom lip. Good grief, does she pitch for the Yankees? Quite the cannon arm, Mabel has there.
Another minute rolls by of demonstrating other abilities, each with their own unique set of graphics and defensive strategies, until the gameplay stops and a new screen pops up, asking the player if they'd like to proceed to the next level. Instead, Juliana swings back to her slideshow.
"Advertising," she reads off the bold title, then abandons the bullet points for her memory. "I advertise on social media platforms and a few search engines, targeting users who are interested in tower defense games and real-time strategy, redirecting them to download CKD on their specific operating system's app store."
She clicks the little remote in her hand, flipping onto the next slide.
