Looking at the wide bustling in front of her, Xue Yiran knew that all the time she had stayed in the Z zone was just like the saying 'a frog under the well'. The Z zone was like a novice village while the upper zone was the real bustling city. Several hologram advertisements were being displayed on the wall of the high skyscraper's buildings. Whether skin care's brands, fashions wear and so on. Several shops that were filled with expensive materials line across from the road.
Above her heads were line of virtual flying's cars moving atop high speed. The realism sensation was thousands of times higher than the lower zone. Yet, this was only the C zone. Then how would the B, A and S zone looked as compare to this.
Since she didn't know where to visit, she followed the wave of crowd. The crowd all move towards the direction of a big gate. In group, they all entered the building. Except that when it was her turn, she was stopped by the robots stationed at the door.
Huh. Xue Yiran was taken aback. Why did it stop me? Did the robot detected that I was a newbie and then decided to stop me?
However, that was not the case as Susu told her the reason why she was being denied entrance.
"Oh." Xue Yiran blushed from embarrassment. Because she had saw others entering, she thought it was a free entry. Who knew that you ought to buy a ticket before you could enter. Susu then helped her to purchase the entry ticket before she was access to go in.
As soon as she stepped in, her ears were filled with loud roar of noise. One thing she was sure is that if this wasn't the virtual net, her eardrum would have been ruptured a long time ago.
Now that she took a look of her surroundings, she saw that she was standing on a high podium. There were several seats around, most which had been occupied by people. Adjusting the realism to a medium, Xue Yiran finally found the noise around her bearable. Just like the others, she strode forward and found an empty spot to sit on. No matter where everyone sat, they could all get a clear view of the arena.
In the middle of the arena, a fight was going on between two class C expert. It was just like the WWE fight on earth but the difference is that the two fighters were all using their skills instead of the normal fist fight.
"Hit him to death."
"Damm, what the hell is wrong with you today iron man. You'd better pay my money if you lose today or I'll hit your f*cking ass up."
Two guys on Xue Yiran left hand side cursed as they root for their respectful participants. It didn't take long for the fight to end. A huge hologram of words appeared, announcing the name of the winner.
"F*ck, f*ck." The guy who was rooting for Iron man cursed out and left the podium angrily. It didn't take long for the empty seat to be occupied by another person. This time it was a girl. She looked at the fighting arena with eager expression. Xue Yiran could see that her hand was shaking due to nervousness. The answer to why soon came after the next match begin. She kept shouting a certain name and from her expression it could be seen that she and the person she was calling shared an ambiguous relationship.
Her cheer soon rang out when the certain person was announced as the victory of the battle. She then looked beside her, her gaze meeting Xue Yiran's handsome face. Her cheeks were instantly covered in red hue of red due to embarrassment.
"Hello." She greeted shyly and Xue Yiran respond with a nod at her greetings. Maybe seemingly to have recognized Xue Yiran from somewhere, she said. "Have we met before? You looked familiar."
"I don't think so." Xue Yiran shook her head sideways, forgetting that the face she was currently using wasn't hers. Hence, she thought the girl must have mistaken her for someone else.
As if coming to a realization, the girl exclaimed. "Ah! I know you. You are the owner of Creamery Creamer store in the Z zone."
Xue Yiran suddenly knew her mistake. She then nodded, admitting her identity to the girl.
"Oh my. This is so excited." The girl started her reencountering of all the delicious snacks she had ate from their store. How good they were and blah blah blah. Her excited voice was somewhat loud which led to several stares in their direction. "Can I have your autograph. The guy fighting down there earlier is my boyfriend. He's a very big fan of yours."
At the end of the event, Xue Yiran signed an autograph for both the excited couple.
So where should I go next. Xue Yiran ponders to herself. With the zeros in her account, she could go for a shopping spree. However, with the two-money swallowing burden she had with her [Susu and the sliver wolves King], she didn't think that would be possible.
How about I opened a branch of Creamery Creamer in this zone. Hmmm. That sounds nice. With her AI helper Susu, the shop findings and acquirement were all sort out within minutes.
The shop she purchased was not as shady as the one in the Z zone. The shop was very big and also expensive. But they were much worth it. Susu instantly started to decorate the second store.
"Oh, I should inform Uncle Mike about our branch store." Xue Yiran opened her chat box and sent a message to Uncle Mike. The reply came instantly expressing the other party excitement.
[AXL: You can manage the store at the Z zone while I managed this one.]
[Uncle Mike: Okay. Have a lot of fun there.]
[AXL: Sure I'll.] After saying bye, Xue Yiran closes the chat box only to see that Susu was already done. She then opened the virtual forum. This time there was no need for advisement since the store popularity was already mind-blowing. If the people were to hear that another branch was opened in the C zone. They would flood there in no time.
Due to the popularity of the store, hundreds of thousands of people would line in front of the store in a long straight unending line. Such view would dampen the hope of many people, leading them to leave.
On the forum, they would complain bitterly on how they couldn't get anything after several hours of waiting.
And for those who are in the upper zone, the cost of then going to the lower zone would reduce a lot. So as soon as the post got to the forum, it was instantly filled with thousands of comments. It garners a million of likes in a minute. Such was the enthusiasm of the netizens towards the new store that just launched in the interstellar world.
The likes were increasing and such was the comments. Just like that, the store welcomes their first tens of thousands customer.
"This is truly going to be a long day." Xue Yiran sighed looking at the wave of crowd in front of the store. She was looking forward to the day the store would be launched to the real world.
Xue Yiran would have exhausted her mental strength if she were to attend to the huge wave of customers. Luckily, her helper Susu was there to help her out by cloning a look alike of her.
...
"Dammit." In front of the Creamery Creamer store in the Z zone, a girl cursed out when she saw the news on the forum. "What are we going to do? It's already thirty minutes it has been posted. Thousands of people would have crowd at the store by now." Her expression was that of someone who wants to cry. "What are we going to do now Ian.?" Yes, the girl was Lavinia.
"By night, it should get to our turn and next time we will visit the C zone on our next date." Ian answered.
"Yeah, right." Looking at the long line in front of them, it really wants to make her OCD act up. "I told you to use your influence to make way for us but you wouldn't. Now we're going to stay here up till night."
Ian was really helpless at her request. It's not like he didn't want to but would those people even agree to.
Although he was the Starry Sky empire Prince, his authority was only bound to the Starry Sky planet and not the virtual net. The virtual net was created by the federation. An organization all emperor planets wouldn't want to offend.
The virtual net was bound by rules. Anyone who dare to break the rules would be banned or either to pay an enormous fine. Lavinia also knew about that so her earlier words were just meant to pent out her frustration.
After several hours, it was finally their turn. Lavinia ordered everything that was on the menu. Though this were just virtual simulation and wouldn't fill her stomach, they were all for her taste bud to enjoy. You heard that right. Hers alone.
Ian could do nothing except to order his own potion. The two then left for the S zone. Arriving at their private quarters, Lavinia couldn't wait to see her order. Opening the wrap of a hamburger, she took a big bite of it. Feeling the bursting taste in her mouth, she moaned out loud from excitement.
"So good. This is so good." Her waiting finally paid a heed.
"I've to go now." Ian suddenly announced.
"What. But we haven't spent much time together." Deducting the hours they used to wait in line at a certain store, they really hadn't spent much lovey dovey time together.
"I'll be going out for training with my instructor so I don't really have much time to waste." To Ian, he'd already wasted several important hours by standing in line. If it wasn't for making it up to Lavinia, he would have logged out of the virtual net earlier. Tomorrow, he would be going out to the wilds for training. There were still some amounts of preparation he had to prepare for so he had no time to waste. After bidding farewell, Ian left the virtual net leaving Lavinia all to herself.
Ian stepped out of his virtual cabin pod and walked into his study room. Ian study room was very much empty except for the desk and chair in the living space. Surely, that's what a modern person would think of after seeing such view. All of a sudden, everything changes when a blue light scanner scan Ian's body.
[Scanning ... Access accepted] After the mechanical voice rang out, the whole study room began to change. Virtual screen covered all the walls in the study room. They were all playing battle experience of several people in the wilds. All of their dangerous encounter and how they narrowly escaped death. There was a background interpreter explaining the whole details of the battle.
Ian sat on the chair as he listened attentively to the interpreter whilst watching the battle. Although there are several battle videos on the net but one should know that they should never be compared to the video he was watching.
The characters in those videos were those SS rank experts who had left their planets to travel around the space. The battle videos worth of those SS rank experts worth trillions of coins per person. If such video were priceless as that, then how could Ian afford to get many of them.
Well, all this could be referred back to the interstellar laws. According to the laws, only the emperor and crown prince of the planets could access these expert videos without paying any dime. Which is why Ian was able to enjoy such privilege.
Watching the intense battle, Ian couldn't help but said in awe. "Even though they were still at a lower level, they could still compete against star rank beast. They really deserve the title of expert." The battle video was very much beyond his level but it wouldn't hurt to imagine yourself at that state. After several hours, he switched the info to details of fierce beast living outside of the wilds and their behavior. And just like that, the days went by.