If it was up to him, he wouldn't stop talking until he convinced all of them to join the guild. But he knew at times, speaking too much wouldn't do but harm.
So he had to trust the intelligence of those students, and their trust in Cher. if it was only him, then his chances to gain their support was so low.
It was now up to the students, and he greatly anticipated what they'd decide.
"Here," just as he was totally absorbed in watching the ongoing debate among the students down the stage, Hil came back with a small pink laptop.
"Pink colour?" Hao couldn't help but comment and she responded with rolling her eyes.
"It's you who just surprised us with things without warning," Cher was the one to speak, reprimanding Hao for not warning them before about what he just did on the stage.
In fact Hao didn't know he was going to do that until it happened. He prepared a different scenario that didn't work actually thanks to the interruptions of E and his friend.
"It's just for our good," he said in defence before taking the lap, opening it and starting a writing program.
Then he couldn't continue standing anymore. He grabbed the seat beside Cher and sat in front of her, giving his back to the audience.
"By the way, be prepared to be the first one to try the game," as he started typing a short form of contract, he said to Cher.
"What… Won't you get such an honour?" she gave him a gaze drowned in doubt. Hao shrugged, focusing over what he was writing as he simply said:
"There is no honour in doing that."
"Stop it, rude young man," Cher retorted back, in a light tone that told him she got his joke here.
"It's just you doing it will make a better impact over all of them, not like me for sure."
"I see," Cher went silent for a second before adding in an amused tone, "I never knew you studied law as well."
"I didn't," Hao shook his head, "but I signed lots of contracts already, enough to make me write a simple one."
"What are you writing? Let me see," Cher wanted to grab the lap to see, but Hao hit her hand with his, like he was stopping a little girl from touching a piece of cake.
"I'm almost done," he said while showing an extreme deal of focus. In fact the contract was something he had in mind a long time ago. But the recent actions on this day distracted him from such a vital issue.
Yet it also helped in giving the students time to think and discuss among themselves. So he wasn't that regretful at all.
"Here, check it out," Hao didn't take long as he promised. He gave the laptop to Cher who started to read for a few seconds in concentration before raising her eyes off the screen.
"A promise to pay a compensation fee of five thousand dollars to everyone by level ten? Isn't this… a bit too early?!!"
"No, it will just be at the perfect time," Hao knew the stages up to stage twenty and their impact on the game.
In fact by level five, gaining money will be feasible. But he decided to start paying from level ten just to safeguard against anything unexpected.
"And starting from level twenty, we pledge to give each one a fixed salary with bonuses based on their performance?!!" Cher said this in a slightly loud tone.
She didn't mean it, but her voice was perfectly heard for those on the stage and sitting in the first few rows down below.
And like a bomb just exploded, all the eyes of those who heard were attracted towards her direction.
"You really can keep a secret," Hao laughed in sarcasm, while she gave him a fierce look.
"You shouldn't have given such big promises this early," she pointed at the screen before adding, deliberately saying this in a much louder tone, "not only you promised to give everyone five thousand dollars as a reward at level ten, you also decided to give them regular salaries by level twenty! Isn't this a bit too much?!!"
"Lady, please," Hao got what she wanted to do here. The first time was a mistake, but she saw in it an opportunity to help the students to make a decision.
"Ahem, may I ask about something?"
"Me too!"
The first to respond were none other than Rayan and the youth Hil brought. The two tried to control themselves, but from their faces, anyone could tell how excited they were.
"What do you want?" Cher asked in her sweet voice and aura that couldn't let anyone be freed from her spell easily.
"Well…" Rayan looked at Hao as he asked for help.
"It's alright, there will be such rewards and salary of course," Hao knew what these two were thinking about. If Rayan didn't see five hundred dollars enough, then hearing the five thousand dollars was enough to shock him.
"Is this… for real?" the youth that was brought over by Hil asked, as if he couldn't believe his ears.
"Just be with us and you'll know for sure," Hao couldn't help but laugh while Cher smiled in content. Just looking at these two outsiders, drooling over the grand prize Hao selected in the short contract, made her accept such risk.
But she decided to speak later with him about how to secure themselves from failing such a promise. After all, the number of students here was in the hundreds! And she wouldn't be able to cover up such a cost alone.
It never crossed her mind that Hao would find a way to secure this fund through the game. It was just unbelievable to think that a game could grant anyone such a big source of income.
But Hao knew much more than she did. He knew the risk wasn't in the five grand reward at level ten, but the salary at level twenty.
If it was up to him, he would better pay the salary much earlier than this. After all, level twenty was a grand milestone, one that he placed much importance upon.
"Hil, go and make copies from this," as Cher nodded to him, he delivered the lap back to Hil. As for the other two, they retreated and sat, this time with each other, as they started whispering in low tone.
Hao didn't have time to ask Rayan about his friends. The latter promised to bring more of his friends, but Hao didn't know if they did make it or not.
"It seems things are going to be much better than I initially thought," Cher said while moving her eyes among the students down below. In the past ten minutes, the students kept chatting in a more enthusiastic way.
Of course hearing such a big reward was inspiring, even if it was a single time reward. Since when did these kids get a chance to be paid such a big sum in their lives?
So it was expected how such news left a deep impact in their minds. Hao knew most if not all would agree now to join the guild.
But he focused his eyes over a single person, E… Would he join? Decide to be the spy and thorn in their backs? Or his hatred would work against his patience, and walk away?
Just when Hao was looking at him, E also looked at Hao. During the past minutes, E kept sitting while his little gang were moving actively among the students.
But when Cher exposed the part about money, his gang seemed to lose their supporters and finally gathered one by one in lowered and dark faces around E.
'So you are leaving?' Hao saw E standing up, giving him a challenging gaze before walking away.
Hao didn't care about this pal so much. Anyway in such a big guild he dreamt about, having lots of people with dark minds and twisted intentions would be a reality.
"Hil is taking her time indeed," from the side, Cher said in complaint. Hao looked in a weird way towards her before he noticed her eyes weren't looking at him, but focused on the station next to her.
"Are you excited to try the game?" Hao chuckled and she pursed her lips in response.
"You know if you just abandon such mean comments from time to time, you'll be a great friend indeed."
"At least I'm a friend," Hao laughed and she rolled her eyes.
"Keep dreaming," she shifted her head away. Hao looked at his phone before saying:
"We still have twenty minutes until the pre-release is on."
"Do you think getting them all to sign will take only twenty minutes?" she raised her eyebrow in doubt.
"We can't do anything before filtering them," Hao firmly said and she could only sigh from the side.
Hil took more than ten minutes before coming back with lots of papers. She was going down the stage, but Hao stopped her.
"Let the two of us sign them first," he said, holding one paper before giving one to Cher, "you sign with me and we swap papers, then Hil will take it."
"But…" Cher was worried about the delay such an arrangement would take.
"Hil can use little help here to distribute the contracts, right?" he looked up at Hil who was jolted awake and nodded. In the next minute she came back with John, Ibra, and a group of five people.
They were the same people who helped in unpacking the boxes in his room. It seemed Hil really trusted them.
"We sign, you distribute," Hao said to organise things up. Then he stood up, faced the students as he reopened his mic.
"Ahem ahem, please I need your attention for a second here," Hao said while pointing at the pack of paper on the desk, "we have the contracts ready. If you want, just sign under party B area. If you don't want to, then you can…"
Hao was in the middle of his talk when he saw Edward coming back from outside. He paused for a brief second, feeling little weird inside about such move before continuing his words:
"You can leave now. We will give all of the students one day to pack their things and leave the academy. I hope you all can understand."
His words landed and all the students sat in silence and clear hesitation.
"Boss, there is something we want to ask about," yet one of the students was brave enough to stand up and speak, "we heard words about a grand prize of big money… Is that true?"
"Yes boss, we need to know before deciding."
"Please boss, can we read the contract first?"
More students stood and spoke. From their tone, Hao noticed the change in their attitude towards him. At least they started calling him boss.
"Hil, can you show the content of the contract on the screen," Hao didn't answer them directly, as he turned to speak to Hil.
"It's easy," Hil took one paper and went somewhere behind the stage. In the next minute, and under the nervousness electrifying the atmosphere here, the contract appeared on the big screen for all to see.
"You can see it now and decide," Hao pointed at the screen before adding, "I'll give you five minutes, then contracts are going to be handed over to you. It's your future, I hope you decide wisely about it."
Hao returned to his seat and looked up at Cher and she nodded. Hil came back and gave pens to the two to sign.
And the two signed under party A zone.
In the contract, Hao placed good conditions indeed for the students. But he also placed a few traps for anyone trying to be smart.
For example, he placed the punishment for breaching the contract not only expulsion, but to pay a hefty fee of one million dollars in compensation.