"They are just excited to wait for the results all this time."
After two hours, Hil returned from the outside while laughing. She went to see how many were there, and she was surprised to see all of the students still waiting in the theatre.
"They all hold high hopes to be selected," John shrugged, "it's not their fault actually. If not for our crafty boss here who gave them vague hope, they wouldn't have waited there."
"Why is it my fault?" Hao pointed to himself in innocence. The entire A team as Hao called was sitting in the main room, eating lunch together.
The atmosphere was just bright. After the challenge ended, all of them came here, talking endlessly about the fights they had.
Hao watched from the side while they kept giving comments way off the mark. But he didn't interfere to correct them.
After all, having such moments was good for any player. Feeling such OP was a good feeling indeed.
"You should have let me go there an hour ago to place the list of lucky names," Hil rolled her eyes while everyone else laughed.
"He is just like that, cunning, dirty cunning bastard," Cher joined the fun, making Hao choke while eating.
"Cough… Cough… Just go easy on me… Cough… Cough…"
"See? He is deeply rooted in his guilt," Cher laughed while the others gave him a look full of sympathy.
"Alright," Hao raised his hand to stop them from pickering at him, "go and place it. We will have to meet up with them after we eat anyway."
"I've already placed it there," Hil raised her head as if she was proud of what she did.
"And you dare to pick at me? Come on, you are the cunning one here."
"Hahaha, she did nothing wrong," Cher supported her girl, "she did that per my words."
"Cool," Hao shrugged, before pointing with his plastic spoon in her direction, "then you are the cunning one."
"I won't say no to such a word," she laughed, as if this was something to be proud of.
"What are we going to do now, boss?" Rayan started to get infected with the students here, speaking to Hao like he was his real boss.
"We will meet up with team B," Hao said before eating up another spoon of his food and waited a few seconds to chew and swallow it, "we'll select one as their leader."
"And the gears?" John asked.
"And their training places?" Mark asked.
"Someone shall pay for their gears," Hao said without looking at Cher.
"I already ordered the gears," Cher said in defence.
"And I just notified the students living in the nearby rooms to start evacuating," Hil didn't wait for Hao to come at her as she instantly added.
"That's great," Hao placed his spoon aside as he finished, "everything is done here. You will meet up with them and select their leader," he pointed at Hil when he said that.
"Why me? Why not you?" Hil asked in surprise and doubt.
"You are the vice captain," Hao said as if the reason was simple to guess, "and you are the one who will deal with them all the time. As for me, I have something important to discuss with Cher."
Everyone got used to him addressing Cher with her real name. When Mark tried to imitate him, he got a threatening glaring look from Cher that made him regret doing it.
To all of them, she was their lady. But for a reason, she was just Cher to Hao.
"What about us?" Ibra spoke in one of the rare moments he did that.
"You should go and start training," Hao pointed at the direction of the side rooms, "you played well, but there are many rooms for improvement for all of you."
"Are you going to coach us?" Hil asked and Hao could only nod.
"Not directly of course," Hao thought about his own plans, "I'll prepare a few tips that can help you and team B to improve their playstyle."
"That's great," everyone smiled when they heard what he said. After all they knew no matter how good they played, they couldn't get close to his level.
Hao watched them go to their rooms to train while Hil took Ibra and Rayan with her to screen the new students and select a leader from them.
"Don't ask me about the contracts," as the room got emptied from all of team A, Cher looked at Hao while the latter shook his head.
"Not only that, I want to speak about your role in the guild."
"I'll play," she said as if it was something so hard for her.
"I can tell," Hao didn't believe her act. She looked at him in silence, as if she was blaming him for exposing her act.
"Anyway, your role in the guild isn't just to play," he put a serious look on his face while resisting the headache he had since he woke up, "you have to deal with it like you deal with your fashion company."
"Don't tell me I'll have to select a CEO board for the guild!" she raised one eyebrow before she raised both when he nodded.
"It's just like the company you run, nothing different about it."
"But…"
"Instead of employees, you'll have players," Hao started to break things down for her, "in the guild you'll face everything you faced when you started your company… The market competition, the problems in production, the intense war about talents, public image, advertising and getting sponsors, and above all the fight over having achievements that will make your brand higher."
"That's… Are you sure you aren't confusing this with anything else?" she was still looking in doubt at him, not buying a single word he just said.
"Let me rephrase my words then," but he didn't drop this point as he added, "as we established the guild, war erupted against me. I can be considered as your company's ace designer or something. Then when they failed, they started poaching players from our dorm, causing trouble using some dirty rats in here… not to mention the rivalry that will erupt between us and the academy's other guild… Isn't all this similar to your real world?"
"..."