As Zel quickly finished eating and washing up, he and his Grandpa walked to the training hall in silence. This was pretty normal for them as Zel was a pretty silent kid most of the time so he didn't have to do anything special to maintain the illusion that he was still him outwardly. As they walked in, Zel was shocked and due to his tiredness last night he didn't even notice what the training hall actually was, which was just a souped up Internet cafe with monitors and VR pods stretched all around the room what type of training were they even doing there.
"Hey go off an setup the register I know you've never taken any interest in this but I still need to pay the bills" Taric said.
"What do you mean" Zel thought to himself, "how could a 20 year old not take interest in a hub for virtual reality". Zel began to walk around the hall, even going upstairs finding a couple high priced VR pods surrounding a holographic Arena setup, plus a lobby with a projector screen most likely for showing professional VR matches. Zel knew VR was popular, that was part of the reason he even made New Orbis in his free time. But he was mostly intrigued with the possibilities that could be explored with it. In all honesty, Zel didn't know much about the world of New Orbius he had let the game run by itself at 200x the speed of reality to see how the world would develop and how the AI would handle their different functions and goals set up for them other than creating and developing certain aspects that no other game used and getting rid of the auto skill and skill completion system most games used the NPCs ruled the game. They were as lifelike as any normal human being with their fare share of myths, legends, geniuses, hero's, and problems just like the real world except including magic and metaphysical phenomenon; and with there being real breathing GODs that interacted with them. Frankly, he had left the game finished for about a year so the whole world could have changed - not to mention it was ever expanding seeing as there was more than one realm included in the game. The only real advantage he had was he knew how the game worked inside and out. Lost in thought, he slowly made his way back to the front desk as two men walked in through front door.
The two men walking in painted a strange picture, with one of them buff and tall with round but distinct features, a bald head with tattoo on his arms that hinted he was definitely not to be messed with. The other was shorter and skinny, but his tight fitted clothing showed sculpted muscle underneath with his long, dark, black hair in a tight bun and angular face with sharp eyes made others feel. He was silently dangerous coupled with his silent steps he gave off an eerie feeling that most would want to stay away from.
Zel inwardly was reeling thinking it was impossible for his grandfather to have anything to do with these two thugs that just walked in.
"Hey Zel, where's the old man" the burly man asked in a loud voice.
"Uhh i think hes trying to turn everything on want me to get him" Zel trying to hold down his panic and trying to find anyway to escape from these men.
"Hey who you calling old? I'm still in the prime of my life" his grandfather yelled, flexing as he came down from his office on the second floor.
"You guys better be ready, we will probably get busy when this new game comes out. Do guys have any appoints or general combat training set up for later?" his grandfather asked the two men that Zel was starting to piece together actually worked at the training hall.
"I think I just have the couple group session, but Kai said he had a session with that semi-pro girl who came in last week" the tall guy said, referring to his short companion who simply nodded and kept objectively staring off into space.
"Hey Zel, you thought that girls was cute huh? I'll tell Kai to get her number for you" the big man said while laughing.
"I uhh" Zel stammered, not quite knowing what to say.
"Ok Felix stop messing around and help me finish setting up we open in 30" his grandfather said before they walked off while Kai gave a courtesy nod and walked off following them.
Zel sat there in a daze realizing he really had to dive into those memories of his with his high IQ, recalling them wouldn't be too hard. As he sat there, the day progressed with almost no more weird occurrences most people came in and just checked into pods or sat around and watched pro-match highlights while a couple signed up for training sessions Zel sat there lazily sifting through memories realizing his grandfather was way more unique than he thought he was. As a former Military commander and Special operative, he didnt know him for a lot of his young life only meeting him in the last 10 years after his parents died trying to connect with Zel. He started a game mechanics training center teaching people how to fight in VR and just a general gaming Cafe hoping that would bring some joy back to Zel and help him connect with kids his age after his parents died His grandfather even enlisted some of his ex-military pals as trainers for virtual combat. The gym eventually got popular in their city because a pro player started training there a few years back. The pro even claimed his success was all due to the actual fighting skills the gym taught, coupled with the cozy atmosphere and the weekly fighting tournaments the Training hall became a huge business success even a couple pro-teams came looking for training and offers to be their team combat trainer gave his grandfather constant headaches. Having never really touched a VR game before other than to study their mechanics. Zel never realized how serious people took some of these games, and he really didn't know the whole truth if he saw how much time and effort pro-players put into perfecting certain skills and combos - his eyes might have fell out of there sockets I mean there were pro leagues and even world tournaments Quinton was pretty much locked in studying and work for most of his life so he never really understood. With the way martial arts and the human mind have evolved and the almost unimaginable things people could do with their bodies and minds nowadays. He should have realized the pro-scene would be insanely competitive not including how a lot of people made their money off video games, it would be almost unrealistic to think people wouldn't take it serious who can blame him though he had just died and came back in someone else body you can't really plan for that.
"This is going to be way harder than I thought" Zel became depressed at his lack of a clear advantage over other players became abundantly more clear. As he was sitting thinking a mysterious women silently made her way into the hall...