Once he let his body fall on the couch, he slept. Hao was exhausted. He hadn't stayed up to such a late hour since a long time ago.
But just after he slept for five hours, he was destined to be interrupted.
"Boss, boss… Please wake up!"
Just as he felt his body shaking, Hao heard such a voice in his head before opening his eyes all of sudden. He saw a face that he didn't recognise at first, took a few seconds to realise who he was.
"John?" he asked in doubt while his voice came coarse.
"Sorry boss, but…" John seemed to look at the direction of the door, "but there are many players wanting to be tested."
"R… Right now?!!" Hao didn't even move a muscle. He didn't feel like waking up and just wanted to keep sleeping.
"Well… That's not all…" John seemed to be slightly hesitant, "we just heard something that…" he paused and Hao realised there was something more to this than just testing a few players.
"Ok," Hao moved up and pushed John aside. He felt like his body was dragged down by sand bags. He rubbed his eyes and head, before looking with all red eyes at John, "tell me what happened."
"Won't you… take a shower or wash up your face first?" John seemed to be more hesitant about speaking, feeling little guilty for waking Hao in such way.
"John… Just say it…" Hao didn't like the beating around the bush attitude this youth here was using.
"Ok boss… It's just… I got word from the academy that a guild was established and took the emblem of the academy as the official guild of it."
"And?" Hao already was expecting such a move. If that was everything, then Hao would seriously consider kicking John out of the game for a few days as a punishment.
"They sent a word, no other guild is allowed to be here."
Hao looked at him in doubt before John handed a piece of paper to him. It was an announcement from the council of the academy, stating that the academy would only support one guild and no other guilds would be supported.
And out of John's expectations, Hao ripped the paper into two halves without any single moment of hesitation.
"Boss… You…"
"Who said no other guilds will be allowed to exist here?" Hao threw the paper at the ground while asking John.
"This…" John hurriedly grabbed the two pieces from the ground, tried to put them in the right order. He then pointed at the phrase stating that the academy wouldn't support any other guild but that.
"They said support, not to prohibit any presence of other guilds in the campus," Hao pushed the paper away from John's hands, letting it fall in two pieces at the ground again, "it's just a word trap, nothing serious."
"But…" John was surprised by Hao's explanation.
"As they don't state it clearly, I don't give a sh*t," Hao returned to the couch, "let me sleep in peace."
"O… Ok…" John was still hesitant but he decided to leave.
Just as Hao closed his eyes and slept for half an hour, he was interrupted again with another shaking.
"Get up!"
This time it was a female voice, one who seemed impatient and angry.
"Why can't I sleep in this damn dorm?" Hao was jolted awake while shouting in a fierce way. Yet the face he looked at made him pause for a moment. "Cher? Are you still awake?"
"How can I sleep and you're just acting lazy?" she pointed at her puffy eyes, "just look at this? I'll take more than a week to regain my healthy eyes."
"They look as alluring as always," Hao didn't know why she was fired up like this, but he said his piece that left her startled for a moment.
"Stop fooling around," she hit him on the shoulder, "come, we need to talk."
"Ok," he knew she wouldn't come in person without a good reason. As he followed her to the main room, he noticed John standing with Hil, both looking like they were feeling guilty.
Hao went first to the bathroom to splash his face with cold water. Just as he turned his mind on, he was startled to see lots of pinky colour around.
Pinky slippers, pinky robes, pinky decorations… The entire bath turned into a piece of a pinky hell.
"What just happened in there?" as he walked out, he pointed to the bath and asked Cher.
"I just like to feel at home," she was sitting at her desk. And at this moment Hao noticed she wore just a light pink robe that extended from her shoulders to her waist, covering up a light deep pink gown underneath. "Sit, don't look at me like this, I won't bite you."
He shrugged free from that pinky allure and went to sit over his desk. "Provided that you'll solve this little problem we have here," she added, even before he would sit on his desk.
"What happened?" he said while looking at her in puzzlement. As he did that, he felt a headache hitting his head fiercely. "Is there any coffee here?" he looked but found nothing.
"You'll have one after solving this," she paused before adding, "did you know that few students left the guild and broke the contract?"
"Did they?" Hao yawned as if this wasn't something worthy of waking him up, not worthy getting riled up like this. "And the fee? Who is going to pay for them?"
"How… Why do I have the feeling you already expected that?"
"Come on," Hao looked at her in a weird way, "don't tell me the rich boys here will find it even hard to pay a few million dollars to just break us down."
"That means…" She gave him a weird look and he grinned evilly.
"Just accept their departure and take the money, we need a lot to fund our guild anyway."
"And the rumours spreading in the dorm?"
"About what?"
"About the disparity in treatment," she said before pointing at her station, "some dirty students started complaining about the disparity of treatment. We have the latest tech and they only played with their old gears."
"Hmm… Who is behind such a mess?" Hao asked, yet he had already a candidate in his mind.
"We don't know," she helplessly shook her head, "but we need to deal with this in a more serious way than you think."
"Sure, it's a big deal indeed," despite his words, his tone and attitude didn't give her any impression about that.
"Can you take this more seriously please?" she crossed up her arms and unintentionally in such a position, she made her two pumps bulge even further and it became much harder for Hao to not gaze at them.
"Stop daydreaming and focus," she snapped her fingers to awaken him from his daze.
"It's your fault to be this sexy, not mine," he sighed, in a way that seemed as if it was her fault to blame.
"It's not the thing we are discussing right now," she raised her eyebrows in surprise at his daring words and eyes. Even when she snapped him out of it, he still stole a few gazes from the side.
"That problem is very dangerous indeed," he looked at the direction of the corridor before pointing out in that direction, "but it's also very easy to solve."
"How come?" she didn't change her posture, looking in a challenging way at him to dare and steal another peek again.
"We will do this…" he returned to look at her but this time he was focusing on her eyes. He explained his counter move, and at the end she couldn't help but like his way of thinking.
"You seem like you expected such a thing," before she'd go into the bath to change her clothes and wear something more appropriate, she threw such a comment and doubt.
"It's just something I faced before," he lied. Of course he studied many scenarios before coming here. And this was simply one of them.
It was a natural way of thinking. If anyone wanted to target him at this early stage, it was easy to just spread such rumour.
Even if they had the full support from the students here, rumours like these were aimed to destabilise such trust one piece at a time.
Yet the counter for it was very simple. As Cher finished dressing up, she walked to the theatre while her heels kept knocking in rhythm on the floor.
Behind her, Hao walked with Hil, and the rest of the team was moving while carrying one desk back to the theatre with the gears.
"Spread the news," as Cher sat over the stage like a queen, she added, "let all know that they have this chance to prove themselves. Whoever wins a fight against any of our boys here will take his place in the team."
This was simply Hao's plan, and also the way he'd follow from now on to keep his elite team pumped up all the time. Whoever wanted, he or she could come here and challenge any member of the team.
Having a privilege to use advanced gears would come in return to a proof of superiority.
It was also a shortcut for Hao to filter any hidden or missed talent here and add them to his team. By replacing the weak with the strong all the time, he would be sure his team would be in their best condition.
None would slack this way and would feel all the time threatened to lose their spot if they began to be lazy.
Hao didn't intend to participate in this competition. It wouldn't be fair, and he was sure no one in his right mind would pick him.
Unlike he and Cher, others grabbed their seats and sat in one line in front of them.
"Are you sure our boys can handle anyone?" as the news started spreading, and students began to pour in the theatre, Cher whispered in slight worry.
"Always remember… Our loyalty is for the guild and elite team, not in the players," Hao gave her a side gaze, while unconsciously stealing a gaze at her hidden two gems.
He couldn't just forget the scene he woke up to see. Cher noticed his look and just snorted in response without saying anything to him.
She wore a decent piece of art, a dark green dress that was long enough to cover up her heels. But from the top, she still exposed one shoulder and her long neck.
She released her hair this time, letting it fall loose over her shoulders.
What Hao said was true indeed. Their aim here should be focused on strengthening the elite team and guild all the time.
So even if their enemies found this way to bring them trouble, it was also a good chance for Hao to filter the team and guild.
"I want to challenge him," as students started to pour in, one of them stood and pointed at one of the youths Hil invited.
"Ok," the youth stood up and nodded. The two went and sat over the two desks while Hao moved at this moment.
"In this pre-release version, we can't meet up in the map but we can still challenge any player as long as he is in our friend list," Hao said before he entered the code to allow the two to enter the game.
"Log in with your names then select the setting menu," Hao said, "you'll find an option called player setting. In there you'll find another option for controlling player relations. Just type each other's names and add each other as friends."
Hao started explaining this and the two youths followed his instructions. "Then get back to the game by pressing ESC. press F8 then and you'll find a box to issue a challenge to one friend. Select the player you just added and you both will appear in a special arena for fighting."
This was something he experienced when trying out the game months ago. After all, the pro teams wouldn't have just settled by fighting monsters and clearing dungeons.
They needed to fight other players from other teams to know how this game would impact their future. So the game developers created this fighting arena and allowed its access for players of different teams.
Hao returned to his seat and watched the fight between the two break out.
Well… Hao didn't place much hope on such a fight from the start. Selecting that dude because he was an outsider was just a useless move.
But it was the instinct of humans, to refuse anyone not belonging to their world, and even belittling him.