Also this contract included details about the responsibility each member had, like playing regularly, exerting full effort to help the guild's interest, and also keep the secrets of the guild from leaking outside.
Any of these breached was equal to breaching the contract. Also it held a clause referring to the final contract that everyone would sign later, referring to it as the additional contract with detailed clauses and responsibilities.
Signing seemed simple process, but it was a little boring. In the five minutes, the two signed close to fifty contracts, and these were all taken by Hil.
"Can I sign mine?" Rayan approached Hao first, and then the other youth asked for the same thing.
Seeing the two outsiders seeking to join them proactively like this was satisfying to Hao and Cher. That was a good sign. Even those who didn't enjoy the benefits of Cher treatment here were eager to join.
"Distribute the contracts now," Hao waited not for five minutes but ten. As they signed over a hundred contracts already, it was enough to start testing waters.
There were close to three hundred people here. Hao and Cher stopped signing for few moments, watching Hil's boys moving in between the first couple of rows.
"They are signing," Cher said in a relief, "I feared they wouldn't."
"After all we've done?" Hao said while raising his eyebrows, "after what you did for them? That would be really rude of them."
"They have the right to decide their future," Cher seemed to show her kind side at this moment.
"Stop being this nice, after all we should lead with firmness and not gentleness."
"I like to be kind rather than strict."
"I hope you won't regret this," Hao could only sigh before returning to sign the contracts. He knew changing that kind heart of her to be the heart of the CEO girl wasn't hard, but it might take time and few setbacks.
Cher didn't see these students as an investment, not like her company at least. In her eyes, they were like family. And she couldn't be cold to any family members.
But Hao knew that to succeed in their guild, they had to be cold and rude at many times.
The two kept signing and for the next ten minutes, not a single one refused to sign the contract.
But everything good must come to an end soon.
"I don't want to sign this slave contract," just reaching the middle of the theatre, the first student to reject joining the guild appeared, and in such high profile way.
Before Hao would even turn to see his face, that student raised his voice again as he shouted at everyone:
"Don't sell yourself cheap! If even our good for nothing academy can pay us such a price, then that means others can pay much more than that! Besides, did you miss that hefty fee? One million dollars for christ sake! That's a slavery contract, not an opportunity."
"If you wanted to quit, then be brave and speak only for yourself," before Hao would say anything, Cher was stirred up. She seemed to forget the sweet talk just now about being gentle as she stood up, grabbed the mic from the table and opened it.
"If you think for a second that I didn't serve you right in this contract then leave. I don't need to defend myself. I already served you right before and did you justice when others turned their backs on you."
Hao knew she was getting a little harsh, but he didn't stop her. In fact he recognised that kid. He was one of E's gang.
'If you wanted to play like this, then you'll have to be more prepared to face the lady's wrath. Making a girl mad? Humph, you are digging your own grave, dude.'
Hao thought to himself, feeling no sympathy towards E or any of his gang.
If it was another student, then he would only refuse the contract and leave in silence. But E's men seemed to work for a specific agenda, trying to stir the masses against them.
But with Cher's direct intervention, things calmed down before even smoke would rise up.
"If you don't want to join then leave, bro. We aren't holding you back!"
"Saying ill words about our lady? That's really something!"
"You should leave tonight not tomorrow. Staying in the place of lady's grace anymore is a crime I won't take!"
"Yes, leave now! I don't want to see your ugly face here anymore!"
Many students stood up to defend their lady. Hao looked at this and felt how nice it was to have such a backing.
That student didn't dare to stand here anymore after attracting such hatred from many students. He hurriedly left and Hao knew he wouldn't dare to sleep his night here.
"Continue," Cher said while standing motionless in her place for a few seconds, "if you want to leave then leave while showing me dignity and respect before anything else. I don't want to see such a bad example again. You are all my kids, so let me be proud even if we aren't destined to be together anymore."
After saying this, she returned back to the desk and resumed signing the contracts like nothing ever happened. Hao raised a thumb to her in his mind. She perfectly dealt with that troublemaker and made an example out of him.
He knew E and his gang would think thrice before making anything funny like this ever again.
As he expected, E and his gang didn't stir up trouble anymore. Yet as the first student declared his refusal, others also started to refuse while silently walking away.
Even if Cher stopped that troublemaker from getting things worse, his words held logic that must have shaken a few students here.
"We lost almost twenty-three students… not bad," as they finished signing the papers, the two kept watching the ongoing process of signing.
And when Hil and her people finished, the number of students walking away was carefully counted by Cher.
"They might have their own plans," Hao said but his eyes fell over E's face. He was in fact speaking about this traitor, knowing he didn't sign the contract for good intentions.
But E didn't know that with signing the contract, he placed himself in a very risky situation. Just one misstep and he would have to pay a hefty fee. 'Let's see how you'll keep yourself out of trouble all the time, bastard,' Hao inwardly snorted while Cher was totally oblivion from his thoughts.
"Is it time?" breaking him out of his thoughts, Cher asked in excitement.
"Hahaha, didn't you stop playing for a long time already?" he teased her. She wanted to hit him on the shoulder but refrained as they were watched by everyone.
"Ok, ok, let's do it then," under her threatening gaze, he stood up, held the mic, and went to the centre of the stage.
"To those who decided to join our guild, I'm welcoming all of you," he formally said in greeting before adding, "from now on, we will have the Illuminati name on our backs to defend as if our lives depend on it. Let's work together and see it reach the very top together."
The response to his formal words and attitude came in the form of a strong applause by everyone. It was like what he said, it was the beginning of the legendary story of their guild.
"And now it's the time… The game has already started so..."
As he said that, he looked at Cher, "Our esteemed lady… Please start the station and open the game."
Hao then turned to the students here before adding, "let's close off the lights and focus on the stage. I'll explain things…"
As he said that, the lights in the entire theatre went off except for the stage. Also the screen behind was showing a black screen, waiting for the station to start.
"Tonight we will enter a special map in the game. It's dedicated towards testing the game and getting familiar with its mechanics and system. But this won't impact any of our characters once we start playing the official game."
"Now our lady opened the station. As you can see, this is one of the special edition stations dedicated to the game. They are all gifts from our lady, and only selected elites will have a chance to play on them. In addition to using it to play the game, you can surf the internet and use any footage and video editing programs to make good shots and live streams."
"How many are out there?"
"How can we determine the elites?"
Couple of students asked in enthusiasm, making Hao's smile wide across his face. "The elite selection will start from tonight. Anyone wanting to enter the game will contact Hil first. Then he can try his luck."
Hao pointed at Hil who got used to being assigned things she didn't know about. "Then when you are ready, you can ask for an assessment test. I'll be the one leading this test, making sure the selection will be fair."
Hao paused while the screen behind showed the welcoming screen of the game. These stations had only the game inside, making them enter the game once opened.
"But this opportunity will be only for the upcoming two days," Hao warned, "after that the selection process will change. Instead of just showing your skills, you'll have to defeat one of the existing elite members in our top roster. Doing so will make that player lose his place and you'll take his."
He thought about such a system before. If he just accepted the good seeds here and didn't give others a chance to fight for their spot later on, it would be bad.
He knew players might start with enthusiasm, then their fire might die. Also some players were slow to catch up to the elite level. And he had to also prepare for any newly joined good player to the guild.
"As you can see, entering the game is locked by this warning message. Without our help, no one can enter the game."
On the screen, a warning message of error appeared. It was saying words like: The game is still not launched. Please return in three days. But it contained a small box for writing the code as well.
Hao went to the station, wrote the code he memorised already by heart. Nothing appeared but a long line of black dots that didn't tell what he wrote.
The code was made of sixteen slots, a mix of many numbers, letters, and symbols.
"It's ready," he said to Cher as he pressed enter. The next moment the screen changed and the interface of the game showed the welcoming picture.
It was a champ, with his face hidden behind a mask. He wore a full body armour made out of red and black leather, held a big broadsword and wore a silver cape.
"The game is different regarding the champions' selection. Unlike other games which had a fixed roster of champs to select from, this game considers each player as a stand alone champ."
"What does this even mean?" The question came from no one but Hil. of course this was brand new information for her ears.
"In the game, everyone will start with a champ without any class," Hao said before pointing to the screen, "then the game will open the cam of the screen, take a picture and remodel the champ over each player's face."
"What?"
"Really?"
"Wow!"
Exclamation of surprise came while the cam in front of Cher's screen started to take a series of pictures to her face. Every few seconds, a message would pop up, asking her to look right, left, and even turn around.
The process took a few minutes to finish, but the end result was really shocking to all. A character appeared wearing the same armour in front of everyone, while her face looked like a 3D model of Cher's.
"This is the concept of players being the champs means," Hao pointed at the screen and paused for a long minute, giving the students here a chance to absorb this new experience.