Hao took in a deep breath before adding, "yet it's the only shortcut towards learning really great skills without any limitations to level or even class."
Hao's last words were shocking indeed. But that was the truth. Skills were limited by the factions and classes of the champs.
Yet there was an exception; that glove. If any player managed to master a skill, he would be able to use it regardless of anything else.
It might look like a cheat, but it was something hard to accomplish enough score to learn a skill using the glove.
"Anyway, I just introduced the game to you," Hao returned to sit back on his desk. Even Cher was attentively looking and following everything he did and said. "And now let's find ourselves a monster to kill."
This came like music to their ears. There was nothing more alluring to any gamer than killing monsters except for fighting and killing other players.
The camera mode was on the god eye mode. Hao kept moving around in slow pace without the need to waste his stamina over running.
*Screech!*
Just as he took a turn over a small hill, a loud screech appeared and echoed in the entire place.
"Monsters are designed to look more real than any other game," Hao said while pointing at the rat monster in front of his champ, "this one is called the white rate. It's not for its white hair of course but for its grade. White is the lowest and weakest grade. Also this big rat here is just level one."
*Screech!* The rat seemed stirred up and restless when it spotted Hao's champ. Even if the distance was over twenty metres apart, it seemed that monster senses were quite sharp.
"This monster's hearing sense is quite good," Hao pressed the ball, shifting the angle of the camera. "Let's see how important such an angle is in any fight."
Yet before he would start the battle, he first opened his profile and showed the details of his skills.
"My Slash skill is assigned to the Q button. Its cooldown is simply three seconds. It only gives as little as three points of damage right now. As for my W, it's for the Stab skill. It can create four damage points for now. In higher levels, this skill can cause bleeding effects. Ah, I forgot to tell you that all skills are upgradable and have levels as well."
He paused for a second to catch his breath before adding, "as for its cooldown, it's also three seconds. The last skill is the Swing, it can cause a little damage as one point with three seconds cooldown as well. But it's the main defensive skill, used to push any enemy backwards for one metre at the current level. And it's assigned to the E button. Later on it can cause a stun effect as well."
Hao then opened the settings of his buttons, assigning the ball button for the auto attack during any fight.
"I'll let my ball do the auto attack. It's just a simple swing of the sword, creating the lowest damage of one point for now. But as you all know, its cooldown is as low as one second, allowing me to use it all the time."
He returned to the game to see that rat moving right and left in front of the screen. Shifting the camera made that rat look much bigger like it was a behemoth.
"Each monster here has its different aggro zone, meaning if you don't trespass it, the monster won't attack."
"But it looks restless!" it was Hil who gave such a comment.
"That's because it sniffed me coming," Hao shrugged, "but it's not a proactive kind of monster. So it will just keep moving like this."
"I see," Hil nodded from the side, coming closer to watch the screen directly.
She wasn't the only one to do that, all those on the stage came and soon a small crowd appeared standing behind Hao.
Even Cher moved her seat and sat behind all of them. If not for her face, she would have stood already with all of them.
Yet the students here were courteous to her, leaving a gap for her to see through with ease.
Hao didn't hurry to attack. From his past gaming experience, he knew these moments were important to read his opponent.
He didn't recall much about monsters. So he had to wait for long seconds, patiently watching and analysing that rat.
'So its speed is much higher than mine… This will be quite challenging,' Hao thought to himself before suddenly saying: "I'll start attacking now. Keep tracking my hand movements as I won't move slowly."
Just as he said it, he moved his champ forward. Just taking three steps placed him in the aggro zone of the monster.
*Screech!*
Once he became in that zone, the pattern of movement of that rat changed. It screeched in a fierce way, while the graphics of the game showed a real masterpiece of that monster.
It stood up on its rear legs, and in the next moment it jumped towards Hao, trying to bite his champ using its sharp looking short teeth.
However Hao was prepared for that. In other situations, other champs would rely upon evasion to not get attacked. But Hao didn't use that.
He simply used the Swing skill directly from the start.
"Swing? Isn't it a bit too early to use it?" This comment spread among all of the students here while watching in puzzlement what Hao was doing.
Yet just as he pushed that monster back, its tail moved and hit nothing but empty air, almost missing him by a half a metre distance.
"That rat was going to use its attack as a feint, then with its tail it would hit me. If I fell, I'd be a small meal for it," Hao explained what happened here while he moved his champ forward, using a series of auto attacks while swiftly showing his worth as a pro gamer.
"He… Is moving fast with his fingers over there," Cher was the one to express the surprise everyone felt. After all, the screen was still divided into two halves, showing his finger movements like a flash over the keyboard.
One skill after another landed on that rat. The rat tried to break free but Hao was constantly pushing forward. Getting the upper hand from the start and controlling the tempo was something crucial in any fight, against monsters and players alike.
His champ kept using his skills once available, auto attacks when they were in cooldown. As for his moves, they were nimble and always on the spot to react to any attempt from the rat to retaliate or run away.
The rat once started attacking showed a red metre of its health points. It was roughly thirty points that took less than a minute for Hao to empty it.
*Screech!*
At the end, the rat fell with a loud screech before dying. Its body fell heavily, releasing many particles of dust around, in a very realistic scene.
[Congratulations! You killed the white rate monster. You gained five point experience. You can now dissect the rat and get its materials]
The message appeared in the middle of the screen, flashing for a few seconds before vanishing.
"Monsters give experience points and materials, it's a normal thing," Hao said before he went to the monster and a message popped up.
[Do you want to dissect this monster?]
He agreed and his champ started an automatic animation for five seconds.
"The higher the grade of the monster, the longer this time is. If any champ gets attacked in the middle of the process, it will fail," Hao said while waiting for his champ to finish, "in later stages of the game, there are skills to help us shorten this time."
[You got a white grade rat claw material]
[You got a white grade rat tooth material]
"They are going to be stored in the inventory. Of course these materials will be deleted when the game is officially released," Hao said in a reminder, "in general, any material can be used to make different weapons and gears. But that will be left for another time."
Hao knew talking about weapons and gears for now would make everyone more distracted. So he preferred to keep this for later.
After all, making gears in the game was a genuine branch that would require lots of work and research. After all, the game would only provide basic forms of gears that were considered weak and pretty much useless.
Players had to invent their own gears and try to use materials from the game to do this.
Of course this was a very complicated thing, something that Hao didn't yet fully grasp.
His team decided to seek help from some engineering college students. After all, making gears was as complicated as their studies.
"As you watched, I was able to kill that rat thanks to my timely reactions. Such moves can't be executed if I was using this mode."
He pressed the ball again and the camera angle shifted. "You all need to get adapted to the two modes, most importantly the fighting champ mode."
He didn't intend to continue playing. He pressed the ESC button and logged out from the game.
"Now, I want all of you to come and try playing here," Hao pointed at the third desk and station as he added, "this will be left here all the time. Whenever you feel ready during the next two days, just call me and I'll come to assess your performance."
He took a paper from Hil and a pen, wrote down his number before giving it to Hil. "Hang it here so everyone can see it."
"Ok," Hil paused before asking in anticipation, "what about me?"
"And me," Rayan stepped forward and then the youth Hil brought over also said the same.
Hao knew they were asking for their chance to try out the game.
"We can try it in my place," Hao shrugged, "after all you are all the seed of my elite team. Let's see how good you really are."
Hao then turned to the students before adding, "the game asks for a code to enter it. Whoever wants to join, can ask me or Hil. whoever is available will allow you to enter the game."
"I want to!"
"Me too!"
"I want to try it now!"
"I won't sleep tonight!"
"I won't sleep for the next two days!"
The students all stood up, shouting in excitement while giving such comments.
"Ok, ok, just calm down," Hao had to control this mess before adding, "I'll take a tour of your rooms now. Go and wait for me."
Like the building was going down over their heads, everyone raced to leave this place. Hao could only watch this and helplessly laugh at their response.
"Gamers… We really lose our heads over any good game," he muttered before he felt a tug at his arm.
"What about me?"
It was Cher, and from the look on her face, Hao knew she also wanted to be part of this.
"Aren't you the lady who brought this game to us?" the youth Hil brought looked really smart to see through this.
"Ahem, you can stay here if you like," Hao made an inviting gesture before adding, "after all I took your room."
"So you are sleeping out?" she asked while leading the way to the big room.
"I'm going to sleep on the couch," Hao laughed and she rolled her eyes.
"In your dreams," she was in a good mood to throw jokes and tease him like this. Hao only walked by her side, while Hil, John, Ibra, Rayan, and others walked behind them while moving the two desks and the stations from the theatre to the room.
Hao planned before to test everyone and select his elites from. But this would take much longer than expected. So he would settle with those around him, the ones who were rumoured to be good.
Then he would roam the rooms later on and assess everyone. If he found a gem, he wouldn't hesitate to add him or her to his current roster.
"By the way, where are your friends?" Just as they reached the room, Hao waited outside while stopping Rayan.
"Ah, about that…" Rayan looked like he was caught stealing or something.
"No problem, they are the ones who lost big," Hao patted his shoulder, but Rayan seemed to think about something.
"I'll make sure they come," he said as if he was taking a vow.
"You don't need to go this far…"
"It's not for you or me, it's for them," Rayan stopped Hao from continuing his words, "they deserve to be here."
"Ok," Hao decided to drop this issue for now. Of course he was sure the game allure was big, but none here saw enough of it yet.