"They aren't part of any, formally at least," she got what he wanted to ask about, "they just played like mercenaries, jumping from one team to another and from one contest to another."
"Ah, I see," Hao nodded before asking, "can you give me Cher's number? also I need that restaurant number and menu as well."
"Sure," she felt how weird he was acting, but she didn't ask. She sent the menu and the two numbers through an online messaging app.
"Let's eat together," he knew that she was out talking with that team all this time. So she didn't eat and he didn't even wait for her answer before he ordered two meals like the last ones they had.
She just wanted to tell him to change the order but felt a little embarrassed for no reason. After he hung up, he called Cher at once.
"Hi hi, have you met my boys yet?" The first thing she said was asking about her two lawyers in a cheerful tone.
"I met them," he said in a strict way, "did you see the contract they offered to me?"
"I gave them the details and they said they'll work on it," she paused for a few seconds and Hao didn't speak either, "is there anything wrong?"
"I just kicked their as*es out thanks to that contract."
"What? No way! I was sure to tell them everything we agreed upon!"
"They just prepared something else," Hao said before adding, "make sure they won't cause any problems."
"I'll fire them! They won't cause anything from now on."
"I meant the ones who are behind them," Hao corrected her misunderstanding and she paused again.
"I'll see who they are first. I'll call you later."
Hao didn't have time to say goodbye when Cher closed the call. "She looks mad," he muttered while looking at his phone in a weird way.
"She is always impatient," Hil said in agreement.
*Ding!*
Just before Hao would put his phone away, a message suddenly came to him. He looked at its content while furrowing his brows in concentration.
"What? Is it from her?" Hil felt curious about the content of the message. But Hao shook his head.
"It's from the game company…" he raised his eyes to meet hers, "the pre-release of the game is going to be tonight at 1 A.M. our local time."
"Pre what?!" Hil didn't get what he meant with that.
"It's something they announced before… Ah, they did that to… Selected people," Hao realised his mistake here.
"I didn't know you are this special," Hil felt curious to know more about him, "who exactly are you?"
"Let's talk about this later," Hao wasn't in the mood to talk about himself. In fact he didn't find anything wrong about telling her about his identity, but not for now at least.
This pre-release was a gift from the Dawn company to all the pro and big teams in the Esports world. "What's this pre-release mean then?" Hil decided to not pursue that matter about his identity for now.
After all, the two were destined to stay together for a long time.
"It's a way from the game to make up for those pro teams," Hao placed the phone on the table between the two before adding, "the game is going to be launched on the internet. Using a special code, those who got it will be able to enter the game and start playing."
"B… Before anyone else?!!!" Hil was shocked for few seconds before she involuntarily stood up as she shouted on his face, "that's cheating!!"
"I know," Hao shrugged, "but it's not like what you think," he motioned for her to sit before adding, "the people with the code will play just a test version of the game. They won't be able to do anything that will affect the course of the original game when officially launched."
"I… Don't get it… Why would they do such a thing then?" Hil listened to him and got calmed down and even puzzled.
If the players wouldn't be able to get an early advantage, then what was the reason behind such early release.
"To get used to these," Hao motioned his head towards the big boxes filling the room.
"That… is also cheating…" Hil didn't know what to say. She moved her eyes through the room while feeling helpless.
"That's not totally bad actually," Hao smiled before adding in a calm tone, "after all aren't we one of those cheaters?"
"But… didn't you say this code is sent to selected players?"
"I got it," he pointed at the phone on the table, "and with that code we can let anyone start playing."
"But…"
"Don't worry, the game is also playable with the old mouse and keyboard," Hao reassured her before adding an important point, "but we have a problem to solve first."
"What?"
"Actually there are two," Hao raised two fingers in front of her face before adding, "one is the people in the dorm. It's good that I'll meet up with them in a few hours."
Hil nodded as she realised what he was referring to.
"The second is the internet here," Hao's face turned serious. He experienced playing using the current internet speed and the experience wasn't that good.
"What about it?" But unlike what he expected, Hil seemed to be oblivious to this problem.
"What about it? Everything! The ping is way off the roof already. We need to replace the current lines, upgrade the internet hardware devices here, and ask for a higher speed."
"This…"
"Just leave the money to me," Hao knew he had to solve this problem fast. He never expected the pre-release to come this early, almost four days before the game.
It was announced that the pre-release was going to be in less than two days from the game launch. But for a reason that date got pushed early. So he had to improvise and try to fix things here as fast as he could.
"Are you going to ask for the lady's help?" Hil asked and he paused for a second.
If not for the problem with the lawyers, he would have called her already.
"I'll handle this for now," he sighed, "but you'll have to solve everything else."
"To be clear here, what's the speed you need?"
"The highest, the most stable, and the one without any limitations," Hao stated his three conditions before adding, "I want you to go and start arranging these before doing another thing."
"What?"
Hao didn't answer directly as he stood up, went to the box he opened yesterday before patting over it. "We need to unpack everything and arrange these in the other rooms."
"You want me to have rooms emptied at the dorm?" She stood up and came to his side.
"Not out there, I meant the side rooms here," Hao motioned with his head before adding, "from now on, this room will be the base of our pro team, and the dorm is the headquarter of our guild."
"What a fancy arrangement," Hil said while chuckling, but Hao was still looking serious.
He knew this pre-release was the real deal. Those who would fail to adjust to the new game wouldn't be of much use to him. Those who'd excell would deserve to come here and use his up to date gear.
In brief, during the upcoming few days, he would see how his guild and team would perform. It would also become apparent how far he could go with the students here.
"It's good that she went and recruited them today," as Hil went out, Hao was left all alone inside. He was still standing in his place, lost in his thoughts while looking towards the boxes around.
In his mind, he kept thinking about how to guide people in the pre-release version of the game.
He was thinking about making crash courses for students here. And now that pre-release just came to solve this dilemma for him.
According to what he heard when he was in his team, this pre-release would be in a separate map where all selected players would go there and get used to the new game playstyle.
The good thing here was that the game didn't limit players from meeting and fighting. Despite this would come for no benefit in the real game, Hao knew experiencing fighting early had its benefits.
"Am I going to meet up with old friends?" he muttered to himself before bitterly smiling, "will I meet her?"
He just hoped to meet her up in the game. But he knew that would be hard this time. After all, the number of teams getting this chance was simply too much.
And what he planned to do here, all other teams would also allow their newly recruited guild members to test the game. The number of people there would be simply too much. And this map was rumoured to be very vast to accommodate such a number.
"In a way or another, I'll find you…" he clenched both fists while feeling more intimidated by this thought.
"Come here," just at this moment, Hil returned back with a group of students from the dorm. From the look over their faces, Hao felt they were afraid of him.
Of course his mysterious visit today left a deep impression in their minds. He acted mysteriously, and that clash at the end with E and his little gang just made it clear it wasn't easy to deal with him.
He wasn't that friendly looking boss, not when compared with their last one, Hil, at least.
"Come here," Hao recalled seeing a few of their faces before, but there were still fresh faces he hadn't seen yet.
He knew they were the ones who shut their doors or the ones at the last floor that he didn't visit. "See this box? Watch me how I'll take things out and install them and then try to copy me."
He didn't care about getting to know them. He would stand at the top of the pyramid of his guild, and it wouldn't be realistic to just know the names of everyone.
But before he would do anything, Hil stepped in and stopped him as she pointed to one of them as she said:
"He is John, aka Jon235, and he is Ibra," she pointed at two as she added with a big smile, "they are the two I told you about."
"What?" Hao froze in his place for a second, looking puzzled and at a loss.
"The two who are good players at another game than Apex," she said in a low tone that was meant to remind him, but made the two smile in embarrassment.
"Congrats on winning the match with Hil, you played well," the one named Jon235 extended his hand to shake Hao. the latter shook back while recalling what Hil said about these two.
She said they were rumoured to be as skilled as her or even better in their shooting games. He smiled in greeting to Ibra who seemed to just prefer keeping a distance from him.
"What games did you play?"
"The Army Call game," John said, "we both have been playing that game for years now."
"I see," Hao recognized the game. It was one of the most famous shooting games where players would fall into hot war zones and start killing each other to get points.
"We are good," Ibra said in a tone that looked more like a machine, "but we don't intend to play that new game."
"Why is that?" Hao crossed his arms, knowing that this topic was brought much earlier than expected.
He intended to discuss this in the meeting tonight. But if these two were as skilled as Hil described, then it wasn't a waste to speak with them here about that.
"My head hurts," but unlike what Hao expected, Ibra gave such a weird excuse.
"Excuse me?" Hao didn't get it, so John had to interfere as he said:
"He meant these games require too much thinking to cause him a headache."
"Aha, what about you then?" Hao realised what Ibra meant, and he was interested in hearing the reason of John.
"I just hate long games," John shrugged, "I have nothing against MOBA games except for their boring set up at the early phase of the game. Having to wait until minute ten and beyond to see some action, that's boring."