Li Tian had frozen in horror after realizing the catastrophe in front of him.
Obviously, with him not moving, Rai wasn't going to walk ahead of him.
"Big Brother Tian?" the boy looked at him in confusion. The elevator door had fully opened now but the person beside had yet to even budge. "Is there something wrong?"
He followed the older brother's gaze and was about to turn his head to see the problem, when Li Tian suddenly grabbed his shoulders to stop him, "Leixue!"
"Y-Yes!" the startled Rai answered.
Ding! After waiting long enough, the elevator doors started to slowly close.
BANG!
Li Tian grabbed the side of one, preventing it from closing any further.
The boy couldn't help but jump at the sound so close to his ears. The Li heir then towered above him, blocking any of his movements. It was a dangerous position to be in, and if it were done against a woman, it would have been a fatal hit to their heart.
"Leixue..." Li Tian said his name again, this time his gaze burning into the boy's eyes.
Being under such an intense gaze so closely, and from such an angle too made Rai's face red with embarrassment.
"No matter what, you can't lift up your head."
"W-What?" the strange request broke Rai out of his stupor.
"There's something I forgot to cover. It's a Li Clan secret so you can't see it. You have to promise to keep your head down no matter what," Li Tian explained as he kept his eyes locked onto the young boy.
"O-Oh. Okay, Big Brother Tian. I promise," Rai quickly agreed and lowered his head. He was slightly thankful too because having such a dominant man staring down at him like that wasn't good for his heart. It wasn't helpful that the person was extremely good looking either.
๐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ง ๐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ...
He kept his head lowered as Li Tian guided him out the elevator and down the hallway. Although curious, he kept himself in check, even as they reached the door at the end.
The door opened and they finally walked inside.
"You can lift your head now."
Rai lifted his head up to look around the home he had just entered. Being the only residence on that floor, the space alone was enormous. It was modernly furnished and seemed pretty new as there was still the scent of freshly opened boxes in the air.
It originally seemed clean as well but as he walked in further, he noticed a few leftover food packages on the living room table.
Well, Li Tian was still a bachelor. One couldn't expect him to be too perfect.
"Silas, Tian here. I brought a guest over," the Li heir called out to the home A.I. He made sure to specifically state in what identity he was in just to be sure. "He's allowed primary access to the penthouse."
Rai was surprised but not too surprised at there being an A.I. While it wasn't too rare of a thing, he couldn't help but feel the difference in status. The Li Clan had installed an expensive high tech system in an heir's temporary home. And this was the youngest heir.
He wondered what privileges the eldest had.
"Welcome home, Master Sky," Silas's automated voice spoke through the unseen speakers. "Welcome, dear guest. Please state your name for registration."
Interrupted out of his chain of thought, Rai quickly answered the technology, "I am Zhou Leixue."
"Affirmative. Registered Little Thundersnow."
"W-What?" the name took the boy off guard. Technically it is what his name meant but no one actually called someone with their name's direct meaning.
"Just 'Thunder' is enough, Silas," Li Tian spoke up to correct the A.I.
"Acknowledged. Registration Little Thundersnow changed to Little Thunder."
"Sigh..." the Li heir let out a defeated sigh and went into the living room to sit down.
Rai's mouth opened and closed but in the end, said nothing.
๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ต... ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐.๐. ๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ฌ๐บ... ๐๐ข๐บ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ข ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ณ๐ฌ...
He walked up to the sofa as well and looked at the mess. "I'll clean this up for you."
In his mind, he was still employed by this Li heir to be an attendant. What other reason would he be brought to the young man's house if not to clean?
"Huh?" Li Tian looked at him confusedly but when he saw the boy starting to grab the trash, he grabbed the small arm. "No. That's not why I brought you here."
"It's not?"
"But you're right. This place is kinda messy. Tch." Li Tian stood back up and went to grab a garbage bag. His mother didn't hire a cleaner and as he was supposed to live as a commoner, chores were his job. Annoying as it was, he still had to do them.
These were the leftovers from his stress-eating the night before. First finding out that the bastard Yijun was cuddling up to the Zhou Clan, then next finding out his little brother was being abused by his own father. His heart and mind were a total mess.
The Li heir squat down and scratched his head as he unsurely began to separate the trash according to types.
Seeing such a mind-boggling scene, Rai stood there staring as the young man slowly picked up everything one by one before putting them in the recycling bags. It was until Li Tian was going to put a piece of used tissue into plastics that Rai snapped out of it.
"Ah. Let me at least help you, Big Brother Tian," he quickly took the tissue and placed it into the burnable garbage bag. Somehow the simple mistake made the untouchable Li heir a little more approachable.
The young man wasn't as perfect as he appeared.
After a short bout of cleaning, Li Tian crashed onto the sofa again and let out his usual unabashed loud groan, "Haaaaaah! Chores! Hate em!"
Such relatable words made Rai unwittingly chuckle silently. He didn't think a Li heir would ever even do chores and here one was, complaining about them.
"Alright, it's time to teach you. Come here, R-Leixue," Li Tian cursed inwardly at almost giving himself away. Being in a relaxed mood had incidentally lowered his focus. He pat the spot on the sofa next to him and grabbed two controllers.
The boy was oblivious to the Li heir's thoughts and sat down. He gingerly accepted the controller passed to him. "A controller?"
"Yeah. I'm going to teach you how to have fun," the big brother stated as a matter of fact. "And gaming is so fun that it could consume all of your time without you even knowing it."
"I-I see... Does that mean you game a lot?"
"Tons! I usually focused on one game now and I'm pretty good at it," the young man was not humble at all. "So I believe it's something I should teach you as well. The game is called Trinity Wars Online, or TWO for short."
It wasn't something Rai expected to be doing after being selected as an attendant. Even if that changed into being an apprentice or whatever, he still anticipated being treated more like a gofer. But learning how to play games?
"It sounds interesting..." the boy admitted. "Is there anything I should do in particular?"
"Yeah. There's this big competition coming up. If you get good enough, maybe we can put you in the team," Li Tian said and quickly opened the options for setting up a new account.
"I can be on your team?" Rai's ears perked up. "Will... this be helpful for you?"
"Well we're actually really lacking in team members at the moment, so it would definitely help," the young man thought about it and answered truthfully.
Since Li Tian happened to be his benefactor for choosing him, Rai thought it would be a good way to be of use to the Li heir, even if the opportunity was a bit unorthodox. Although he had never played the game itself, some game mechanics were just common knowledge. "What type of team member are you missing, Big Brother Tian?"
"Well I'm a mage class, my only team member is a fighter class... So we need a tanker, a ranger, a rogue, and a healer which is technically every other main class," Li Tian chuckled foolishly as he counted his fingers. "But some classes can double up like mine, so we make do most times."
The information stunned Rai. His team only had two members? When the big brother mentioned having a team, he wasn't expecting only one other person.
At least there were more options for him to choose from but he decided to ask the other's opinion first. "What class do you think I should take?"
"What I think?" the older one thought for a while. Looking at the boy in front of him, he couldn't see him as tanker nor did he want him as a rogue. A healer? Nah he didn't want his little brother tied to some church. They could use potions for the time being. At his level, he could afford a bunch. Then there was only one answer left. "You should be a ranger."
"A ranger?"
"Yeah. There are a few archetypes. You can take on more archetypes or advance classes as you level up," he opened up the ranger class and an entire page came into view on the big screen. "You can choose one you want to aim for later."
๐ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ธ? Rai's mouth was agape. The screen was already so big yet incapable of housing all the different names available! As he scanned them, he began to notice a discrepancy. ๐๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ... ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ... ๐๐ด๐บ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ค?๐๐ญ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ต? ๐๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ? ๐๐ข๐ป๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฏ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ??
Why did the classes slowly not make sense? How could you put a beastmaster and ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ in the same setting?
"Are these actually all the archetype classes in the game? T-There's so many..." ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ'๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต... he wanted to add the last bit.
"Hmmm? Oh. I forgot to explain," Li Tian went back to the main menu and clicked the map option. On it appeared three different worlds with completely contrasting settings. He pointed to each of them as he explained, "This game incorporates three different dimensions; medieval fantasy, steampunk, and galactic. That's why the range is a bit wider than most. It's a given rule where the three worlds don't interconnect with each other... At least for now."
Rai's eyes widened in surprise. It actually sounded pretty cool!
Li Tian went back to the character selection and showed the list of rangers. "Anything that catches your eye? You can freely go through them yourself," he said and passed the main controller over.
The boy took it and scanned again until one name finally made him stop.
Gunslinger.
He didn't know why but he just felt drawn by it. He clicked the description button and read through the details. The more he read, the more intrigued he felt, especially finding out that after a certain level, they could make use of some of the Engineer's abilities to make his own weapons.
He thought about making this his aim in the future when he remembered the big brother's words.
The worlds don't interconnect.
Didn't that mean his choice was actually more limited since he needed to be in Li Tian's team in their world?
"Umm... Big Brother Tian, what is your archetype?" he asked him. A mage class should be more concentrated on the medieval and steampunk side.
"Oh. My archetype is a hidden class. It won't show up on the list until you find it in the game yourself," Li Tian smiled smugly. "I'm a Blood Warlock. It allows me to incorporate a wider range of techniques according to the blood I infuse or pact I make."
The explanation piqued the small boy's curiosity. He began to bombard questions to the big brother with starry eyes, "Infusing blood means you steal someone's blood? Is it like a vampire? Does this make it an evil class? It sounds so cool!"
"Hahahaha!" the Li heir laughed at the questions. Never had he felt so enthusiastic about answering a child's continuous inquiries. "Good and evil are two faces of the same card. I could be either if I choose to. I'm not like a vampire but more of a parasite. I steal their life force through their blood. If I make a pact with a good entity, I could probably use healing magic, and if it's a more evil entity, my magic attacks would be riddled with bonus curses. But thanks to these pacts I can also use swordsmanship and not just magic. I'm a very OP class aren't I?"
"Woah... that's amazing! Is it like that because it's a hidden class?" Rai had stars in his eyes.
"Yes. Hidden classes are a bit more special and very difficult to get," the smug Li heir stated as a matter of fact. "Of course there are also some weaknesses to it but I won't get into that now."
"Then... what dimension are you from?"
"My team is from Medieval Fantasy, which means to join it, you have to be from the same world."
"Oh..." the boy's voice got a little quiet. It seems like he had to aim for something else then.
His disappointment did not go unnoticed by the avid gamer. He immediately asked, "Is the archetype you want not from it?"
"I-It's from Steampunk, I think. But it's okay. I can find something else," Rai stuttered and looked for something else.
If money could buy his way in the game mechanics, Li Tian would have done it. Unfortunately getting a different archetype setting into a different world was not an option or the game would be broken. He rubbed the small boy's head apologetically. "What's the one you wanted? Is there something special about it?"
"It's... gunslinger..."
๐๐ฎ? ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ. "You like guns, Leixue?"
The question made little Rai blush. "Ah? N-No, it's not like that... I don't think. I-I just thought it would be cool to learn about something that I can also do in real life... but of course, a kid like me could never actually hold such a weapon."
His father would never allow it either.
"That's not a problem," Li Tian grinned at him. "Someday in the future, I can bring you to my Clan's weapon range. We have every type of gun available on the market and some that aren't. But you know, you can also learn archery in and out of the game too. We also have that at the range."
Such an amazing offer was handed to Rai like it was nothing. Just last night he felt like he had descended into hell, but now, he was picked up by a famous heir to play games and learn to use guns? Wasn't the disparity a little too big??
He shook his head inwardly and told himself not to think too much. The Li older brother probably thought nothing of such a thing anyway.
He quickly answered the smiling person in front of him, "Thank you very much, Big Brother Tian. I wish there was more I could offer to you."
"It's fine," Li Tian waved his hand. "Get good at the game and raise your level properly. Then you can think about helping me out."
"Okay!"
"Also, if there's nothing suitable, we can still look for a hidden class in the game. It might take a while but it's still doable."
The offer was very considerate of him that it made Rai feel a little bad for being picky. He decided not to trouble Big Brother Tian too much and just do his best. "Thank you, Big Brother Tian. I'll try to aim for something first."
He went back to choosing the right character for himself. Even if it was just under medieval, the available choices weren't bad. Some rangers could master beasts, others could hunt certain prey more efficiently, and there were even some that were also good at close combat. Each had its own pros and cons.
In the end, when the time comes, he could only choose one. He had to level himself up to better suit that future archetype.
"I think I'll go with this one," Rai hovered the one he thought suited him best and clicked select.
It brought him to a page listing all its characteristics. Good eyesight, fast reflexes, increased concentration, high damage, and excellent mortality shots. The biggest flaw only being its extremely low defense. As long as he had reliable teammates, who guarded him well, it should not be a big problem.
Reading the description, Li Tian gave a slight smile. "Not bad. So you'll aim for this archetype for now?"
Rai nodded his head and looked back at the older brother. "Yes. I'll go with the Sniping Ranger."
.....