2 pm: At a cafe within Black Eagle Training Centre
The 3 of them sat together at a table after finishing their lunch.
"Fat...you only ate 1 bread and drank 1 cola." Feng looked at the pale looking Fatty, his face concerned.
"I can't.....Blurp....." vomit comes out of Fatty mouth. His fingers raising as it shivers, pointing at Hu Wei.
"Holy shit! Do not die on me, you fat fuck." Feng stood up anxiously as his friends seem to on the verge of a concussion.
"Sorry.....I think I might have pushed him too hard" Hu Wei apologises with an embarrassed face.
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Having cleaned up the mess made by Fatty, his head laid on the table, back hunched as Fatty recovers from the morning exhaustion. Hu Wei sat straight back and imposing as always, looking at Feng with a mug of steaming coffee in front of him.
Feng, who is sitting opposite them, stirred his coffee a couple of times before knocking the teaspoon onto the cup; as he puts down the spoon by his side, he spoke:
"Alright, first thing first. The 2 of you are joining me in the game Gods Art as core guild members. You will be paid a full-time pay which my lawyer will go into detail with you another day."
During the last couple of months, he had made his final arrangement with Yu Han and Xin Ru. Yu Han would join the game with them as she serves as their corporate lawyer, and Xin Ru will be the administrative manager.
The 3 of them had agreed on the Guild's basic structure with the management team, core guild member and outer guilder member being the distinct 3 sectors.
Both management and core member will be paid a full-time wage equivalent to a professional executive on the market, and the guild funds will be from the joint account set up earlier.
As Xin Ru had passed the credits to Feng as an investment and would get back her share in the future, they had set the control of the funds to belong to Feng while Xin Ru name is added as an authorised signatory to make it easier for her to manage to guild funds.
Listening to the words by Feng, the 2 of them were confused.
"Look Fatty, I know after graduation you have nothing planned, so just follow me. As for Hu Wei, this will help you even in your professional career. In fact, it is only beneficial to you and would not affect your training much." Feng continued as he persuades them.
In his mind, he knew convincing Fatty is going to be easy. The problem is Hu Wei. Looking at how hesitant he is in front of him, he continued.
" The game's main advantage is the time difference to reality and the realism in its fight. As such, you can expect yourself to implement what you learn in the fights in the game into real life. Part of the reason I am winning you is that my friend is a beta tester and has been guiding me along on how to fight."
Hearing his words, Hu Wei ear pricked up as he got interested.
"You mean a game that can improve my fighting technique?" Hu Wei asked
"Yes indeed. It is like how other athletics use VR to assist in their training. As such, I can guarantee your techniques will improve." Knowing he has Hu Wei in the bag, Feng turns towards Fatty.
"Money....fucking lots of money....which equates to girls in the future," Feng said emotionlessly.
"Deal!" Fatty replied with no hesitation.
Dam, this Fat shit, Feng thought. Why is he so easy and straightforward.
With that, his fishing line has caught the final 2 fishes he needed for now.
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7 pm
After finishing his training on the 5th level, Feng arrived home, as usual, to have his dinner with Xin Ru. Turning on the projector screen, he switches to the news channel, a habit he had picked up recently as he waits for news on Gods Art.
"This is the 7 pm news. I am your host...." The voice on the Television narrates its usual line as they ate their dinner and talked as usual. Towards the end of the dinner, the news Feng had been waiting for finally arrives.
"...and to end things off, we bring to you some exciting news." Male newscaster.
"Really? What do you have in store for us?" Female newscaster
"The trend of late in the gaming world has been about virtual gaming, isn't it?" Male newscaster
"Indeed it has been. Professional leagues and players have formed in the country for some time now, and a professional player is almost as popular as top idols. However, the industry has been stagnant for some time now, has it not? Female newscaster
"Yes, it has. But we have received news that a new company in the block are going to revolutionise things." male newscaster
"Really?" The female newscaster worked with the male newscaster perfectly in sync. "Let's join our reporter on the ground for more information"
The scene cuts to a reporter at the news conference of Abstergo Reality.
"As you can see, the scene behind me is the press conference of this newly launched virtual reality game called Gods Art..." Female newscaster 2 then begins to narrate all the good stuff about the game with some cuts to the answer from the Abstergo Reality representative as the news tick below list out the benefits.
"Hmmm...finally we have some news about the game" Xin Ru spoke to herself.
"You were worried?" Feng asked
"30 million credit!! Of course, I have to be" Xin Ru interject.
Good. So far so good. Thought Feng. At least, there is no difference till this point from his previous life.
Turning on his Qwatch, a white screen appears in front of him.
As a piece of epic music turns on in the background, a large green field appears in front of him as the grass moves toward him as if he is running on the field itself. Finally arriving in front of a village, the view zooms towards the sky showing an enormous and bountiful world.
The village becoming almost a small dot as it is surrounded by forest and rivers, with a mountain behind.
The exact same scene had played in the news slightly earlier and of course, this is the homepage of Gods Art which had just gone online today.
Feng came online so as to make a booking for the VR helmets early on. Base on his memory the helmets would get sold out later even before the game starts as word spreads about the game.
The purchase of the helmets are limited to 1 per person and is slightly troublesome compared to usual as the buyer has to provide a piece of their DNA swab, which actually caused a bit of an uproar. Abstergo Reality thou ignored the unfavourable views as they pushed on.
Quickly he filled in the details of the 5 of them as he made his purchase. Now all that is left to do is wait for the swab to arrive at the address he provided them, do the swab and send it back.
Looking back at Xin Ru, he saw the glimmer in her eyes as her excitement builds up while she digests the information given by the news.
Stroking his chin, a smile broke out on his face as he observes the kid like the expression on Xin Ru. The way she curls her body when a dragon appeared on the screen, the way she looked as if she is running on the expansive field of grass.
For the first time, he understands what it means to want to protect the smile of a person. Perhaps if he had not been that power and money-hungry before he would realise the joy of something so simple.
He sat there appreciative of the 2nd chance he has been given. When the news end, Xin Ru turned towards Feng, grabbing both his hands in her palms as she excitedly asks
"When can we enter the game!?"
"Hey hey.....calm down" he replied smiling. "There is still some time till we can enter approx 6 months. Just in time for you to finish your work in school and train up at home."
"Calm down?! You do realise the monetary possibility with this? Xin Ru asked before stopping for a moment as she realises the irony in the statement she had just made. After all, Feng was the one that dragged her into this so how could he not have realised it.
" Ahem...thinking about this, it's the school holidays now. Why don't I join you at the fitness centre?" she changed the subject.
Hearing her question, Feng had no objections at all. except...what is he going to tell Fatty tomorrow when they meet?
O well, whatever will be will be. As the Chinese idiom goes "When the boat gets to the bridge-head, it will naturally go straight".
Pointless to fret over things he nodded his head towards her in acknowledgement.