Gray felt his heart drop slightly when he recognized the voice coming from behind him, then immediately did his best to hide his emotions.
"Kyam? Is that you? How've you been?" replied Gray to the guy who called out to him a moment ago.
The man was Kyam Berlin, a face Gray was trying to forget. He was a little shorter than Gray with neatly cut blonde hair wearing a business suit, which seemed a little out of place for a gaming conference. Gray and Kyam both originally went to the same Military school, Washington Military Academy, and even started in the same classes, but Gray left when he wanted to change majors and follow his own path instead of what his high school recommended. Gray didn't like being called dropout, but he couldn't exactly refute the point either as he did leave after his 2nd year.
"I've been excellent obviously, I've been assigned to lead a squad by the federal military branch in Washington City. The military was given 200 of the 800 total Diamond-tier slots and we've been tasked with leading normal players and finding potential recruits. How'd you even get one?"
Yep, that's the one thing Gray really didn't like about this guy. Kyam gave off a typical self-entitled demeanor and would always find ways to inflate his own importance. Gray imagined this was probably the norm for the upper echelons of politics and military leadership, but that didn't mean it was acceptable.
"Oh, I won mine. Typical Main Character Luck and plot convenience honestly" replied Gray honestly.
"Main Character Luck and plot convenience, what are you talking about?"
Gray turned to look at you, the reader, then whispered "Sorry, won't happen again"
"Never mind that, I just got lucky is all" laughed Gray.
"That's no surprise, I would've been very disappointed if you had earned it as it would mean that many of the other Diamond Tier slots would also be taken by other dropouts and losers" said Kyam with a hint of malice.
"Yeah…" Gray didn't have much else to reply with at this point so he just looked down while scratching the back of his head.
"Oh, I'm sure you heard that Kelly Lagerty and I are… temporarily taking a break… she was also given a squad to lead so don't bother her." Kyam replied.
Gray hadn't heard from Kelly since he left the academy so he thought that it wouldn't be a problem since last time he saw her in passing, she pretended like he didn't exist.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure not to disturb her in game."
"Good, now excuse us, we've been invited to a panel discussing strategy and how to apply it to Alterra Online. Gray, you should come, you could learn something!" Kyam said while walking past Gray and the others to take the elevator down to the main floor with 7 other squad members all dressed in similar professional attire.
As Kyam and his squaddies left, Caleb walked over to Gray and said "Don't worry, I may consider you inferior and below average in many aspects, but don't think too much about what Kyam said. Looking at his voiceprint my AI recorded, Kyam appears to be slightly intimidated by you. Also, I noticed that Kyam keeps his feet apart roughly three inches less than the average male of his height when standing still naturally despite wearing fairly tight pants. What this implicates is that Kyam has much less 'packaging' to get in the way between his legs."
Gray looked at Caleb. "Thanks, I'm sure in your own way you're trying to console me, but I really could've done without that last part. It doesn't so much amaze me that you made that analysis based on how wide he keeps his feet apart, but that enough people took measurements of it to create a standard for it."
"He's making that up right?" asked Jono.
"I… don't want to look it up to find out" replied Gray.
As the three walked together to the elevator, both Gray and Jono walked with their feet spaced a little wider than normal after thinking about Caleb's analysis of how standing width correlated to the amount of 'packaging' between one's legs.
__________
In one of the balconies across from Gray's, Kelly Lagerty and her squad were enjoying themselves making fun of the other players as most of their moves appeared amateurish and wasteful in the promotional video, especially the ones that would wave their guns while shooting at a single target.
Kelly wasn't a gamer at all, but she had to admit that the realism that Alterra Online offered piqued her interest and she saw the value of it as a training tool since real wars never happened in this modern age. Why did wars cease? It was no longer profitable like it was in the past. As much as people would gush about freedom and fighting for justice, almost all wars were fought for greed, as in someone wanted something that someone else had and so they would take it from them. It was strange to have an active military in a warless society, but it was considered precautionary. Just because it wasn't profitable right now didn't mean that it wouldn't be in the future through future developments.
Kelly was assigned four other female cadets to her squad that were some of the best pilots in her generation. The main reason wasn't because the military academy was being sexist or anything, but Kelly had chosen the team name "Strike Maidens" and the male members of her squad all asked to be transferred since they didn't want to be a "Strike Maiden".
A familiar name appeared on the promotional video as her squad watched it, only she remembered the name but Kelly pretended not to recognize it. She didn't hate him, but she felt it was a disappointment that he didn't stay.
"'Enter Team name here'? What kind of team name is that?" asked one of the other female squad members.
"They all lack basic knowledge of piloting, but the strategy wasn't bad, just very basic." Said another squad member.
Without thinking Kelly replied "Everything starts with the basics, the expert in anything was once a beginner."
The rest of the squad rolled their eyes at Kelly.
"Kelly, we know, just relax and unwind a little bit. This conference feels more like a holiday with the level of treatment we've been given!" said one of the squad members.
Kelly shrugged, smiled, agreed with the rest then decided to just enjoy the time off like the rest of her squad.
__________
Gray was hoping to run in to Felicia again while wandering around the conference, but he had a feeling that he wouldn't as Caleb was a natural barrier to the opposite sex. Caleb was actually very well-respected to high-level AI professionals and other industry leaders, but he just was terrible at dealing with people directly. Usually these arrogant types loved to brag and flaunt their status so Gray was happy that Caleb didn't brag… that much…
"Caleb, with all of your success, you're probably loaded, right? Asked Jono.
"I make more in a month than you two make in a year… combined…" replied Caleb.
"Well, I'm glad to see you don't waste your wealth on stupid things like creating an AI harem or the latest armlet that costs more than a hover car or even clothes that all of the hottest celebrities are wearing." Said Gray.
"What're you talking about? I'm actually poor." Said Caleb
"How is that possible? Do you just give away all of your money or something?" asked Jono slightly shocked.
"I am loathe to admit that I do have my own vices. I am addicted to Pay2Win gaming. Have you heard of TheLegend27?" asked Caleb.
Gray and Jono both nodded.
"Of course! That is the screen name of the person in the top rank of all of the big Pay2Win games like Crash of Clans, Aging of War, and Nuns of Glory!" exclaimed Gray.
"I am TheLegend27"
Both Gray and Jono opened their eyes wide and said in even greater surprise. "TheLegend27?!?"
Caleb puffed out his chest slightly as both Gray and Jono were somewhat in awe of Caleb at this moment.
"No wonder you're broke… you'd have to spend thousands each month on each game to maintain the top spot" Gray said to Caleb. "Talk about a huge waste of money."
"It is, but I command thousands of armies and players who live to serve my bidding! I control the fate of the other players!"
"But you do know you actually haven't won anything, right?" said Gray "Eh, never mind, for someone as intelligent as you are I am sure you are aware of how much money you're wasting."
Caleb shrugged in reply. He was perfectly aware of how much he was wasting, but he was TheLegend27 after all.