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Lanny Partay's surprising revelation had taken me completely off guard. Cheat codes! They were the stuff of legends and myths. Rumors always abounded as to their existence, and the stories of their power were borderline unbelievable. But very little evidence had ever been seen to verify their existence. Still, there were numerous stories concerning strange occurrences in the Roblox world. Some of these things could be attributed to glitches, which were far more common and unpredictable, but others could not be explained at all. Now I found myself in the office of a man who was most likely crazy, looking at what he alleged to be a list of cheat codes that would enable us to beat the system in a game that involved killer clowns!
It was clear that Lanny was skilled in the art of the deal. I sat and listened, enraptured, for what seemed like hours as he carefully explained what the cheat codes did and what they were capable of. According to him, the list of codes he had would endow me with special powers while competing in the clown servers. He promised to provide me with, among other things, the power of invisibility, teleportation, and immortality. While I was participating in the competitions, he would be working his magic outside the server's main hub. On this particular matter, Lanny was rather vague, but overall his presentation was so suave, that I paid little attention to what I viewed as minor details.
After he had spoken for a long time and covered virtually every detail conceivable, he leaned back in his large chair, put his hands behind his head, and asked me a question. “Well, what do you think?”
I sat still for a moment and ran over the idea in my head. As I did I could feel Lanny's eye burning holes into me. The was the seminal moment, where he would learn if his presentation had been convincing enough for me to take part in his plan. Finally, I looked up and met his anxious gaze with my own.
“Okay Lanny, I'm in. Let's do this thing.” I said.
Instantly his face transformed from a look of anxiety to one of pure unadulterated joy. He flashed a grin that seemed to cover his entire face.
“Excellent! Excellent!” he roared. “Pete, my boy, you've made a splendid decision. Just splendid!”
I smiled back at him weakly, trying my best to disguise that feeling of buyer's remorse that was now flooding over my being. I regretted going along with his plan the instant I agreed to it, but seeing him so happy made it impossible to redact my commitment. Lanny, in all likelihood, could sense this and choose to play his excitement as hard as he could to further enhance my feelings of guilt. He was a sly one, and more and more I felt that I couldn't trust him.
“Well,” I said. “Now that that's out of the way, what do you want me to do for now?”
Lanny stood to his feet and proceeded to lead me out of his office and towards the exit of the theater. “For now Peter, I don't need you to do anything. Just go home, get some rest, and continue to enjoy yourself at The Tilted Table! When the time is right, I'll call on you. Don't worry!”
And with that, I found myself standing back out on the quiet street once more. Behind me, I heard Lanny quickly shut the door behind me, and then lock it.