Zoey Parker froze!
More tricks?!
To avoid keeling over from shock, she nudged Gus Harper hard: "Yo, what's an heirloom?"
Her voice trembled, half-panicked.
Heirloom. Sounds pricey!
"It's the rarest gear in the game," Gus said, cracking a sunflower seed.
"To make each Legend pop, we gave 'em unique melee weapons—heirlooms."
"They swap out the melee attack animation and got a slick inspection move."
"Some are pretty funny."
"Most are just badass."
"But they're super rare."
"You can only snag 'em from loot boxes."
"Wanna try one out? Hit the training ground. It'll let you play with your Legend's heirloom."
"But…"
"Trying's one thing, owning's another."
"No clue what you'll pull from a box. No guarantees."
Yup!
To spark spending while showing off the "no-stat-boost" cosmetic vibe, Gus added an "heirloom experience" in the training ground.
Pick a Legend, and you can test their exclusive heirloom.
Feel it! Pick your fave! Then chase it in boxes!
Box mechanics? Gus kept it old-school APEX style—
Random drops. No picking your heirloom's owner.
A punch to the gut, then a sweet treat.
Zoey was sweating bullets!
On the projector screen—
Ethan "Piggie" Vance stood at the training ground's starting point.
A waist-high pedestal held an open loot box, glowing red like Pandora's box itself.
"Whoa," Piggie gasped.
"This vibe is epic."
He stepped up to the box.
Inside, a butterfly knife rested on satin.
Piggie nodded, grabbing it as red light flared.
All black, gold-embossed handle. Sleek, sharp, straight-up cool.
Felt perfect in his hand.
Snap!
Piggie flicked the butterfly knife open like a pro.
The blade gleamed, a clear glass tube running through it, filled with flowing green liquid.
"Holy crap! This is dope!" Piggie said, flipping it twice.
"Open, it's a butterfly knife."
"Closed, it's a syringe."
The slick design and cold-weapon aesthetic hooked him instantly.
And!
Every time he inspected it, his brain lit up, like the knife fed him a full combo of moves, ready to roll.
It felt magic, like he was a butterfly knife master.
Wild.
Piggie was shook.
He knew this came from motion-assist tech.
It's old hat—every somatosensory cabin game uses it to help players pull off moves.
Sports games lean hard on it. No average Joe's acing tennis or basketball without help.
Tech lets you nail "bicycle kicks," "rainbow passes," or "fadeaway jumpers."
But!
WindyPeak took it to another level!
Piggie kept flipping: pick up, put down, pick up, put down…
The smooth combo in his head blew him away!
WindyPeak's upgraded motion-assist tech was nuts—way beyond sports games, precise down to every finger twitch!
Hiss!
After a few tries, Piggie sucked in a breath: "This is wild, y'all. Watch this!"
He raised the butterfly knife again.
Closed the blade, revealing a needle in the handle.
Click! Click!
He flicked the needle, green liquid spurting out.
Next second!
He jammed the needle into his chest, like a shot of pure adrenaline!
His hands threw up a double ROCK gesture!
Then!
Metal clinks rang out!
He whipped out the butterfly knife, fingers dancing like a pro. The blade spun, alive, weaving black-and-gold shadows with flashes of green, like a butterfly's wild dance!
Finally!
He tossed the knife skyward, catching it with a risky, pinpoint flourish!
Snap!
Chat exploded!
'OHHH—too clean!'
"Did Piggie just do that?!"
"Yo, Piggie, you hiding knife skills?!"
'Huh???'
'This is too slick! I'm shook!'
"Nah, that's too cool. Gotta watch it again and chug a soda to chill."
"Piggie's the smoothest dude on Twitch!"
'Back when I had fingers, I spun like that daily (lol)'
'Wait, you for real, bro?'
"Piggie's out here living the blade life! (lmao)'
'…'
Fans were floored!
So dope!
You'd need a decade of knife-spinning to pull that off!
But just as they hyped Piggie's secret skills, he spoke, stunned: "This is nuts…"
Staring at the knife, he said: "That combo? Not me. All motion-assist tech!"
Piggie was blown away!
WindyPeak's crew upgraded motion-assist tech to a "full mastery" level for a cosmetic animation!
It didn't just guide complex moves—it nailed every knuckle's twitch!
His shocked voice echoed in the empty training ground: "No wonder it's an heirloom! This tech is unreal, y'all!"
Piggie couldn't wrap his head around it!
He wasn't a coder, but he knew this upgrade wasn't cheap or easy.
Normally, devs save that effort for core gameplay, not fluff.
But WindyPeak?
They overhauled tech just to make heirloom inspections look cooler!
Who else but WindyPeak would burn cash to flex like that?
Pure madness…
…
"Too wild, man!" Luke Bennett had said, back when Gus pitched the tech upgrade.
"Why bother with that?"
"Can't do it?" Gus asked.
Luke shook his head: "Nah, it's doable. Motion-assist tech's solid. Optimizing it won't break the bank."
Gus raised an eyebrow: "Then what's the issue?"
"Time. Effort. Pointlessness," Luke said.
"To hit the precision you want, it's tons of debugging. Time sink."
"No complaints here. Titanfall's base lets Caleb Knox handle APEX's core dev."
"I can focus on this."
"But… why?"
Luke shrugged, baffled.
Current motion-assist tech was plenty for sports games.
Why push it for a shooter? Just to make heirlooms flashier?
That's nuts.
"Plus, with our budget," Luke added.
"APEX leans on Titanfall's assets, slashing our workload and outsourcing costs."
"We'll come in under $50 million, with millions left."
"This upgrade? Throws a few million back in."
But!
Gus waved it off: "Why save it? Zoey's budget is ours to burn. She'll just toss leftovers at weirder projects later. Spend it."
Luke: …
After a long pause, he said: "Gus, you're off the rails."
"What's that mean?"
"You're turning into Zoey."
Well…
Gus scratched his head.
True.
From penny-pinching to "screw the budget," Zoey's influence had him caring less about costs.
Wild.
But it felt good.
"Keep this up, and if WindyPeak tanks, no dev'll hire a money-torcher like you," Luke teased.
"Nah," Gus grinned. "As long as I'm at WindyPeak, we're golden."
"Plus, this upgrade's not just for show. It'll carry to future projects."
"Future projects?" Luke frowned. "What needs this kind of precision?"
"Tons," Gus said.
"Like cracking a safe in the world's top bank."
"Or wingsuit-flying over a mountain, tweaking every muscle."
"Or playing a ninja in Japan, dueling a swordmaster."
"Or escaping a psych ward, climbing walls, crawling pipes, clutching a camera."
"Endless possibilities, just needs imagination."
"Worst case? It's just for players to flex."
"A slick interactive skin makes sales easier, right?"
"Who says no to a fancy heirloom?"
"Taunting a downed foe or flexing in first-person—"
"I'd rather show off a knife-spinning combo mid-battle."
"You," Gus said, eyeing Luke, "wouldn't you drop some cash for your fave Legend?"
…
"Whale! Whale! Whale! I need this butterfly knife today!" Piggie shouted on stream.
"Yo, this is fire!!!"
Three minutes in, he was hooked on the heirloom's silky feel!
The interactive vibe was pure addiction!
Especially jabbing the needle, cranking to overdrive, and swinging the knife like a pro!
Pure bliss!
Like Gus said, even if it's just for fun, the heirloom's quality made you want to pay!
Gotta have it!
Piggie checked how to get it: "Heirloom's from boxes, huh? Let's crack a hundred."
Hiss!
Zoey shuddered!
She turned, stiff-necked, to Gus: "These… boxes… how much?"
"$5 each, 50 tokens," Gus said.
Zoey's brain spun.
$5 a box, 100 boxes is $500. APEX isn't a flagship, so the platform's cut is 20%. Piggie spends $500, WindyPeak gets $400. With Zoey's 11x rebate multiplier, that's…
$4,400 lost!
Her heart sank.
Gus's rent was only $1,500 a month!
Piggie's 100 boxes just ate three months of rent!
Zoey wanted to cry.
But then!
Gus spoke, staring at the screen, muttering: "Not enough boxes."
"Huh?" Zoey blinked. "What's not enough?"
"Too few boxes," Gus said, sipping iced cola, shifting to get comfy for his favorite part—watching unboxings.
"Heirloom drop rate's 0.2%. Takes about 500 boxes to snag one."
"We've got free box sources in-game—level-ups, events, pass rewards, token rebates."
"Play patient, you stack boxes in a season. Lucky? Maybe get one free."
"But Piggie? He's not waiting. He's going full whale."
"So…"
Gus grinned: "No clue how much he'll drop."
Zoey didn't respond.
Gus turned. She was slumped on the sofa's armrest, like burnt toast that lost all hope.
"You good?" Gus asked, eyebrow raised.
How'd a good girl turn into this?
"Hmph," Zoey mumbled, flopping weakly. "Just… suddenly wiped out…"