Jono was sulking miserably at Gray's side while Gray kept intentionally asking the escort he was given about the advantages of VIP over the others. This was one of the few times that Gray really had the one up on Jono so he was taking his time to rub it in.
"Oh, so I can go ahead of people with value, normal, AND advanced passes!" said Gray smiling while eyeing Jono to see if he could get his face to explode from jealousy. Felicia, the gorgeous female escort and attendant, felt it was quite amusing to see these two bicker so she was glad to bestow any information about the VIP pass and emphasized how it was superior to the others.
"Yes! AND all of your snacks and beverages are included so eat as much as you want all on Alterra Corporation's dime!" said Felicia smiling while also giggling slightly watching Jono start to look a little green even.
Eventually they did stop teasing Jono as he started to go numb and talk to himself so they figured it would be a good time to stop messing around. Felicia finally ended the teasing by adding "Oh, and your suite can be used by you and up to 3 friends, no matter what level of pass they have!"
This last part was meant to offer some consolation to Jono and Gray considered riding his high a little longer but after seeing Jono's puppy dog eyes he caved and said "Dude, I was planning on letting you come already, don't give me that look, it's grossing me out"
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Felicia guided Gray and Jono to a large hall with a stage in it that was used for the larger events and took them up an elevator that Gray had to use his VIP pass on to get it to operate. Along the hallway was 3 rooms, Felicia led Gray and Jono to the second room and led them in to their suite.
"Wooowww…" Gray thought to himself as he looked at the interior of the suite. Inside was a fully automated kitchen on one side and a full bathroom and den on the other side. The main interior contained an ornate kitchen table made out of real wood. Wood was a luxury in this day and age with virtually no free land mass to support huge forests anymore. Outside of the room a sliding transparent door led to the balcony which had 4 large cushy chairs, each big enough to easily hold two people if they didn't mind sitting next to each other.
Felicia strutted in front of Jono and Gray and pointed out the various amenities for them and left a holoboard on their kitchen counter that they could order the food from a high quality chef AI. She opened up the door to the balcony and swept her hand out over the balcony saying they had one of the best views available. Jono was relieved at the bathroom and immediately excused himself since it'd been awhile for him. Felicia sat down in one of the cushy chairs on the balcony and folded one leg over the other seductively as Gray was peering over the railing out of curiosity. Gray turned around and saw Felicia looking at him with both of her arms out on each arm rest while her legs were crossed causing Gray to feel a bit nervous.
"You must try these seats, they are made out of the most comfortable sea foam that scientists have been able to genetically enhance" Felicia said charmingly while stroking the arm of the chair she was in.
Gray thought it was getting a bit warm in there but sat down regardless and felt himself sink in just a little bit as the chair really did feel like a gentle embrace as it supported all of him comfortably. "Um, it's a little too soft, are these adjustable?" Gray asked.
"Indeed it is, let me show you." Felicia got up from her chair and leaned over in front of Gray's chair, she reached out with her right hand and touched a small slider under the arm and swiped her finger towards the front of the chair and Gray started rising in the seat as the chair became firmer, eventually becoming as hard as plastic.
"Wow, that's amazing!" said Gray. He was really tempted to play with it of course because it was something new to him and who doesn't love playing with new things! Felicia sat down beside him on the now firm chair, much to Gray's surprise.
"You have to be gentle with it, or it will break…" Felicia said extremely seductively while looking at Gray. Gray got extremely shy at this point and wasn't sure what to do and absent-mindedly swiped the slider towards the back of the chair all of the way. The chair become soft and cushy again and even more so than before. Because of the softness, the chair sagged slightly in the middle causing Gray and Felicia to slide into each other causing both Gray and Felicia's face to get bright red.
Naturally, Jono opens the door and in a panic Gray jumps up suddenly causing Felicia to fall on to her side. Jono sees Gray standing there not looking at him as Gray is pretending to continue to admire the view while Felicia's face is a little red from before while she's lying on her side on the chair.
"Oh, Ms. Felicia, if you were tired, we could've taken a rest before." Jono said unknowingly thinking that she was lying down to rest.
"O..Oh, I'm fine I was merely showing Gray how to adjust the softness of these chairs and I accidentally slipped a little when it went soft…" said Felicia
Gray couldn't help but think "Good thing the chair isn't the only thing that went soft."
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The three of them returned to the main hall of the game conference and Felicia had said that she needed to attend to other matters but she gave Gray her direct message number in case anything else came up. Jono asked for it too and as one last rib on Jono, Felicia stated "What for? You're not the VIP" causing Jono to cry a little on the inside. Felicia laughed softly then returned to the security office near the front of the banquet hall.
Gray and Jono visited a few booths for other games, Gray went mostly to check out the upcoming games and Jono said he did the same but he was drooling at one of the female models in cosplay attire and not paying attention to the actual gameplay itself.
Gray had developed a theory about these sorts of conventions, the prettier the model, the worse the game. A great game would sell itself and not need eye candy to draw people to it. Naturally the large booth setup for Alterra Online was packed with people. It seems that if you picked up a code from the Alterra Online booth, you could get an exclusive mech decal. While this sort of thing really wasn't important to Gray, he did like to at least collect as many freebies as possible.
When the staff at the Alterra Online booth saw his VIP status, one of the attendants came out to greet Gray. "Sir, may I scan your ID badge?"
"Uh, sure" replied Gray.
After scanning Gray's badge, the attendant looked down at his holoboard and then said "Oh! You are one of the members of 'Enter Team name here'! For having one of your team's fights being selected in our promotional video, you and all of the other members of your team will each gain 1000 merit points!"
Gray's eyes went wide because this was really a large sum at this time and would bring his and the rest of the team up to 2270 merit points each except for Stacia that had 1470 merit points due to purchasing a Juniper SE. He figured it would be best to hold on to it for now though as their Diamond-tier mechs would finally be usable the day before the official launch.
The attendant handed Gray a holoboard that had the promotional video playing and said "If you would like, we can add your name and team name to the video in the places you're used to promote your team instead of just listing it in the credits."
Gray thought for a moment and said "Eh, sure, why not."
Gray watched the video from start to finish and had to admit that although it was a sloppy fight against their first opponent, it sure looked flashy, especially when you Yurika's mech stormed out of the forest with her submachine guns blazing.
After finishing the video, Gray had to admit that some of the matches they picked were a little odd, but it also did show that one could have fun in Alterra Online aside from blowing away the other team. He actually thought it was hilarious that one guy actually started picking up rocks, trees, dirt, and even his own weapon to throw at the enemy when he used up all of his ammunition.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess. Still, I am impressed with the level of realism as I never would've thought one could pick up the terrain like that and use it as a weapon as a last ditch effort." Thinking about the realism further, Gray really started to consider utilizing terrain for future matches on the maps that were large enough to do so.
While thinking further, the lights in the entire conference dimmed for a moment and a loud voice boomed throughout the venue.
"Ladies and Gentleman, the Alterra Online promotion will begin in 10 minutes, please find your way to the main hall!"