Not much had changed in Moscow after the takeover of the Hegemony, after the failure of Democracy in Russia, they had reverted back to a Socialist State. While the citizens felt more oppressed, they were happier overall as their quality of life had improved dramatically. The main reason that the country's citizens didn't revolt against the new government is that everyone's assets were seized putting both rich and poor at the same level. Luxuries were carefully regulated and were given out as rewards by the government for contributing to the Terran Hegemony through a point system. Nobility didn't receive a point salary like the commoners, instead they would just tax the commoners at a flat rate.
Queen Manyeo had only one biological daughter, Princess Bang-gwi. When the Princess moved to Moscow with her mother, she fell in love with St. Basil's Cathedral as it looked like a dollhouse out of a fantasy book to her. Queen Manyeo let Princess Bang-gwi convert St. Basil's Cathedral from a museum in to her private palace.
Princess Bang-gwi was merely 19 and was considerably more open and honest than her mother, Queen Manyeo. She wanted to gain her independence from her mother so she could have fun instead of constantly being fawned over by the other nobility as the queen had made it known that she would inherit the throne.
Even without makeup Princess Bang-gwi was still beautiful, she liked to wear a long and light pink hanbok with only a small amount of gold embroidery and a light pink waistband held it to her body. Her hair was black and kept shoulder length and usually flowing free because she wanted to keep it the same way her idol, Miss Maven, kept it.
"Jwi! Jwi! Come here quick! I want to do this too!" Princess Bang-gwi was jumping around excitedly while watching a video of the small concert that Miss Maven had performed in New Venice that Gray and Geoff had seen.
A woman in her 40s came in with a slight look of worry, her name was Jwi of the Chuhan family, a vassal of the royal Kwin family. Jwi was average looking, had short black hair kept up neatly, and usually wore a dark colored hanbok without any golden embroidery. Jwi was the attendant for Princess Bang-gwi and had been watching over her since she was a baby thus came to treat her like a daughter almost.
Princess Bang-gwi held up the tablet with the video of Miss Maven opening with a soothing melody wearing a beautiful pink gown. Jwi smiled thinking that Miss Maven might finally be a good influence on Princess Bang-gwi, but her mind was quickly changed as she saw the curtain and Miss Maven's pink gown vanish in flames to reveal the leather outfit under the gown.
"I WANT that! I want to do that!" Princess Bang-gwi said excitedly.
"I don't think your mother would approve… and she would kill me!" Jwi lamented
"Nah! She loves it when I sing!" said Princess Bang-gwi proudly
"Indeed she does Princess, but not lighting yourself on fire!" Jwi countered.
"Boring… hey, Miss Maven is almost at old Germany according to her tour schedule, she will be crossing into our empire before the treaty expires. Can we go see her? Please? Pretty please?!?"
"Not that close to the start of the invasion, we need to keep you safe!" said Jwi
Princess Bang-gwi pouted at this since she was actually against invading as she just wanted everyone to have fun. Upon seeing how cute Princess Bang-gwi was when she pouted, Jwi added "…but we will have a military recruitment campaign two weeks prior to the treaty ending and I suppose taking one night off wouldn't be bad if you can keep a low profile."
Princess Bang-gwi's face lit up and she gave Jwi a huge hug and said "Thanks Jwi! You're the best!"
__________
The tours of the different teams were fairly uneventful as most of the players followed a herd mentality, especially when they thought of it as a training mission so they assumed they would be getting freebies at the end of it.
Gray and the 11 other Diamond Tier players at the base didn't disappoint them either by giving the players all a mission that simply to complete the tour with them. Most players loved doing quests and missions so it wasn't hard to maintain their focus. Unsurprisingly most players took interest in the mech bays and asked when they would be given their mech. A lot of them got excited upon hearing that it would be right away but had their hopes crushed when they were informed of the costs of just taking it out for a joy ride. The second most popular spot was a tie between the armory and the Simulator Pods.
Gray remembered Yurika affectionately petting the flamethrower she had used in a mission and figured there are more gun nuts out there just like her probably so the armory wasn't a surprise. The simulator pods were popular purely for their matchmaking function as players loved to compete with each other as well.
After the tour ended, room assignments were handed out to every new player and their incubation pods were moved to their new rooms. The new players shared a room of 4 and only the Diamond-Tier were special getting private rooms each. Many of the players tried to bribe the Diamond-Tier players with 'real life' credits to trade rooms with them, but none of the Diamond-Tier players took it as they knew those virtual credits were actually worthless. The Diamond-Tier players had actually be warned not to purchase merits from the new players with those real life credits as it would be taking advantage of them.
"So dude, what do we do now?" Jono asked Gray.
"First pick up your key from the armory when you get a chance as I said before. It makes piloting a mech much easier when it is calibrated for you. Also, think of this game as real life, merits are everything, as I said in the tour, matchmaking and missions are the easiest way to earn them although you can barter with some NPCs for them. As for which ones, I've only been able to do it with one." Replied Gray.
"Duh, I mean, which team are you on, I need to form my own team so we can kick your ass!" said Jono.
"Steel Wolves, don't you remember from the promotional video at the game conference?"
"I was uhhh… too busy looking for Felicia from the balcony…" Jono said honestly.
Gray face-palmed, but he could understand somewhat. "Well, do what you want to do, if you do make your own team, make sure you can trust every member with your life, you only get one in this game."
"Relax dude, it's just a game, I'll just play something else or wait until the next full dive VR game comes out. Alterra was just giving this game away anyways if you became an employee or subsidiary of them." said Jono.
"That explains the mass hiring in the virtual world, they're trying to gather all of the pilot candidates and get them in the 'game'." Gray thought to himself.
"Sweet, well, I'm going to hop in to matchmaking then to find me so expert players that can match my godly gaming skills so we can form the team 'God Pilots Squad' and take our designated place at the top of the ranks!" Jono said brashly.
Gray laughed at Jono thinking that his arrogance and self-confidence was completely ridiculous but at the same time that is also what made him a lot of fun to be around because he enjoyed putting Jono in his place. "That… that is an awesome team name…" said Gray.
"Of course it is! I'm off then, going to head to the simulators before they fill up!"
"Wait Jono, one last thing, don't forget to activate your AI trainer before you start your matches, it needs to watch you battle to be able to help you."
"Duh, what kinda idiot wouldn't turn it on right away?"
Gray laughed despairingly at that and said "Ha, yeah, only an idiot would not do that for a whole day of matchmaking…" as he cried to himself on the inside remembering that he was that idiot.
Gray met up with the rest of his team after the tours and had to ask everyone "So... anyone else think we should expand our current team? So many new players now would be the best time to snag a few of them."
"I agree, but remember we need to trust them. Speaking of which, you have a follower Gray" Caleb said.
Unbeknownst to Gray, Xyra had actually followed Gray even after the tour was over and was now standing behind Gray without making a sound still looking down. What surprised Gray wasn't that she followed him but that he didn't notice her despite her being a little taller than him. "Does she have a stealth mode or something?" Gray thought.
"Uhhh, everything Ok Xyra?" Gray turned and asked Xyra.
"…join…" whispered Xyra
"What?"
"…join… team…" Xyra's face flushed a little bit with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry we still can't understand you." Gray couldn't believe how quiet this woman was despite her size.
"I WANT TO JOIN YOU GUYS!!" Xyra finally burst out scaring everyone else.