Hil disappeared for a few moments before coming with someone else. The first thing Hao heard was the repeated knockings of high heels coming towards his direction.
Then a tall and slim lady appeared into his field of vision. She was almost five inches taller than him, wearing a black long dress that was covered in sparkling little shining crystals.
She exposed her shoulders, revealing the pointy bones and long neck of hers. Yet she covered her face up with a fine black net that acted like a veil, extending from the edges of her black hat with a black feather on its top.
"Hi," a soft voice came, not revealing anything about her personality. As Hao stood up, he managed to steal a glance over her face.
She was good, a real beauty indeed. She looked to be in her thirties, yet from her eyes Hao felt she got much more experience in life than the years she lived in.
"Hi madam, I'm Hao," he extended his hand to greet her, yet was met with only the tips of her fingers covered with a long black silk-made sleeve.
"Call me lady," she said, sitting on the seat that Hil was sitting at. She placed one leg over another, letting her long dress fall over her soft skin, revealing almost high up to the middle of her thigh.
"You can go and leave the two of us together," she said without even sparing a glance to Hil. The latter felt a little awkward for a moment, before she hurriedly left.
"Sit," she didn't need to invite Hao who already sat in front of her. He kept looking at her, trying to unveil her mystery.
And she also kept her firm and sharp eyes over him. This was the first time to meet him, but something was ignited in her the moment she saw him; the will to fight a game against him!
"You… are a gamer, right?" Hao also had such a hunch, yet he didn't hide it.
"You can say I don't play for long time," she leant her back over the seat, removing her hat in slow manner, revealing a bun bulk of brown hair, neatly organised in place. "And you?"
"I play," Hao shrugged, "I already beat Hil and became the new boss here."
"I heard," she didn't show any response to the words he selected on purpose, "after all the bosses of my dorm never hide anything from me."
The four eyes met for a long and silent moment. From the early seconds, this lady felt the ambition of Hao. The latter also could sniff her strong spirit in the air.
"Are you good?" she asked, and Hao only smiled. "What? Don't you know if you are good or not?" she raised her eyebrow, while carefully examining the youth in front of her.
"We can't tell without sparring, right?" Hao didn't know why but since seeing her, he changed all his ideas about her. At first glance, he acted as if he was dealing with his rival, a gamer, an experienced one as well.
"Hahaha, that's so nice of you to say that," she laughed, yet she didn't reject either what Hao proposed. "Let me guess, you were playing in pro leagues before coming here, right?"
"Oh, sharp senses indeed," he didn't hide this from her, "and you seemed to play in the same leagues."
"That was a long time ago," her face didn't change yet Hao felt the nervousness that she tried to suppress.
"Let me guess then… The Illuminati, was it?" his eyes were totally closely watching her face. For a second he saw faint twitches in her forehead and cheeks, as they appeared they soon vanished.
"Did you recognize it from our admission ceremony?" she was smart enough to pinpoint how he got such an idea.
"It's a trademark of such a big name."
"Was," she firmly and calmly corrected him, "that was all in the past."
"Then why do I have the feeling that you are still in the game," Hao leant back on his seat, acting all calm and collected.
Without even knowing it, the two replaced each other's seats. Hao turned this meeting from being interrogated to being the interrogator.
"You are mistaken," she seemed unsettled by such a change in roles, "I can promise you that."
"What a loss," yet Hao didn't plan on giving up the advantage he gained so far, "if you were still playing, I could have recruited you in the team."
"A team?" she raised her eyebrow, seemingly some sort of habit for her.
"That's what I'm doing here," As he got the initiative, he decided to push forward all the way to get what he wanted. "See around you and you can tell."
She noticed the presence of all these big boxes since coming into her suit. Yet she didn't think of checking what was inside.
"Can I?" she asked in fake courtesy, and Hao didn't find anything weird about letting her take a peek.
"You are most welcomed," he stood up, walking by her side to the first box he opened before with Hil. Just as that lady came closer enough to see what was inside, her face suddenly changed.
Hao didn't know what she was feeling or thinking right now. For a moment he felt she was intimidated by what she saw, at another he got the feeling of regret from her, then anger, and lastly a weird anticipation and excitement.
"Are they yours?" she asked and he simply nodded. "All of these…" she pointed at the remaining boxes here and Hao also nodded.
"There are enough to arm up fifteen elite members of my team," he said, while slowly stressing over the word: My.
"You are talking a lot about how this team belongs to you," she already got his point from the first hint he threw.
"I paid for all the expenses after all," he shrugged while returning to his seat with her following up.
"I also paid my expenses here," she didn't feel any pressure at all and before he could jump again and attack, she took the initiative, "after all you are living in the place I built."
"I heard you paid a hefty price to keep it running," instead of defending, he attacked, "I admire you for paying such a price for gamers like me."
"I can still pay more," she narrowed her eyes, getting the hint he threw in his words.
"You can't," yet unlike what she expected, Hao firmly shook his head before adding, "and if I guessed it right, you are well aware of how fierce the upcoming competition is going to be."
"What makes you say so?" a strategic retreat and smartly buying herself time to better study the person in front of her.
At this moment she was sure she just walked into a hostile territory. She underestimated Hao, thinking wrongly she was going to meet a normal gamer.
But from the mere exchange of blows with words just now, she realised she was dealing with a fierce lion and not a cat. To make things worse, that kid compared to her gathered information about her, putting her in such adversity from the beginning.
"You looked at the gear, yet didn't ask any single question about them," Hao said.
"I could have seen them on the internet then," she smiled, as if getting amused by his words.
"That's not true," he shook his head again, "if you saw these on the screen only and not in the flesh then you would have tried to touch them and examine their specifics."
That was what Hil did. After all, the gears of the upcoming Dawn game weren't a war secret. Any good gamer community will have many footage about these equipment. But it wasn't that easy to really own or saw them in person.
"What difference will that make?" She didn't confirm nor deny his hypothesis.
"According to what I know, the Dawn company didn't show just anybody these gears yet," Hao started to punch again, digging deeper under her thick veil, "that means you are someone related deeply to the company or one of the pro teams."
"Which one is it?" for a few seconds she remained silent before showing a wide smile. She looked in true amusement at him, totally changing her purposes from coming here.
She heard that a new student on his first day just beat Hil. She knew Hil very well and knew her capabilities and hidden talents. So for someone coming literally from the streets to beat her ace was something worthy of her attention.
But it never crossed her mind that this person would be far more interesting than she initially thought.
"I can't tell for sure," Hao knew she was trying to further study his way of thinking, "but I can rationally crack down the options into a single one with most probabilities out of the two."
"Which is…"
"Neither of both," Hao threw his bold idea directly at her. Just as she heard that, she showed for the first time a true surprise expression over her face.
"How?" She tried to control her surprise by a sweet chuckle while placing one hand over her mouth while her eyes were dead serious.
"If I didn't know things about the sad Illuminati story then I'd go for the option of you being related with the game company," Hao slowly said, knowing that this moment would decide everything later on.
"Continue…" after a momentarily pause where she weighed if she should let him speak further or end this meeting abruptly, she decided to go for the former.
'Good sign,' Hao inwardly commented to himself. The Illuminati team was a well known team in the world of gaming many years before.
Yet as far as Hao was aware of, the team ended up in a devastating break up. Most of the players got tempted to join other worldwide teams, acting now as famous team captains or even held executive posts at few.
Only a few members who wouldn't exceed five ended up losing everything. Either they were left behind by the teams they joined midway for different reasons, or the initial ones who rejected every tempting offer from the start.
Hao didn't know before meeting the lady which side she belonged to. But now he was almost certain that she belonged to the latter side, the ones who were so damn loyal to the team and rejected any offer to play for another.
Such a person with such a mentality would never accept joining any team even after all these years. In fact Hao expected such ex-gamers to hold deep grudges against the people who betrayed their team.
Despite not knowing what really caused the breakdown of such a mighty team in the past, few rumours pointed towards the developers of the Apex game to be the main reason behind that.
"I can be so bold to think that you are one of the Illuminati loyalists, the ones who denied everything and kept holding the flame of the Illuminati burning till now."
"Clap!" "Clap!" "Clap!" In response to his words, she clapped in applause that Hao couldn't tell if it was real or she was just making fun out of him.
"You could have been a great storyteller in another life," she said with a faint smile that wasn't a smile at all.
"And you could have been a great actor in another time," Hao wasn't bluffing or joking with her. Only her eyes exposed her true feelings. That narrow and extremely cold gaze was enough to make Hao feel more reassured.
After all if the lady held such grudge and enmity at the gaming world, then this would end up playing best in his advantage.
"I can't comment on that silly story of you," she decided to keep her true identity hidden, even if Hao already guessed it right.
"I don't want you to say anything," Hao said before throwing his next bait to her, "I only want for the two of us to cooperate here."
"Cooperate?" She laughed a long and fake one this time, turning her head aside as she pointed at the boxes in the room, "for your team?"
"It can be our team," Hao said, totally ignoring her response, "after all we share the same goal here."
"How so?"