The trio arrived inside the restaurant. Chris and Zy were busy complimenting the structure and the design of the place. Chris has never thought of going to these kinds of restaurants. With his status, it would be just a dream in the sky. Zy, on the other hand, was also surprised. Even with her wealth, her family has yet to go here or to any similar establishment. First is that they wanted to maintain their wealth. They also were a conservative family, and Zy's mother did most of the cooking.
They sat down, and each ordered something.
"Are you sure about this? I don't know anything about fancy restaurants, but in the drama I watched, they throw away or get people jailed if they don't pay or even for just being from the lower class. Won't they find fault with us?" Chris said nervously.
Bel's Cuisine is a highly regarded restaurant, and though it has high prices for its goods, no one will be able to find fault with it.
"What are you whining about? You don't need to worry about the prices or paying for the food. I drag you here so I have some way out of this." Gerard interrupted Chris's daydream.
"Come on, let's pick."
Seeing that Chris wouldn't budge to their pleadings, they decided to give in and order food. They had ordered around a few hundred dollars worth of Cuisine. After filling their stomachs with the best restaurant dishes, reality struck them as they were bewildered at how much they had spent.
Even with a full stomach, Gerard sighed. The invitation of money already struck him. He had forgotten where he came from and the difficulties he had faced.
Understandably, he splurged a lot of money the first time he came to this restaurant. He starved for a whole year; he at least wanted to eat something good for that time, but splurging for another time was not something a person who experienced hunger for a whole year would do. He knows the difficulties of having no money; therefore, he should've been more careful in handling such massive amounts even though he has an extensive reservoir of cash.
Please look at the distinguished multi-millionaires and billionaires, some might be crazy about spending, but some focused minds tend to limit their spending.
"How can a simple lunch make me reflect on my doings? Bel's Cuisine isn't an ordinary shop after all," Gerard put on a light smile.
Zy and Chris, on the other hand, were quite troubled. Chris interjected Gerard in his reflections and asked, "How can you be so calm? Don't you realize how much we ate this lunch? Something terrible might happen if the establishment finds out we can't pay. Going to jail is the least of our worries!"
Gerard could blame neither Chris nor Zy for their feelings. It was understandable.
"There's no need to worry whatsoever. Someone that I know already paid for the meal. You can ask that attendant over there for confirmation if you want."
The 'couple' looked at each other before they asked the attendant if they had paid already.
The attendant glanced slightly at Gerard before confirming that the trio had already paid.
A few minutes beforehand, after Gerard finished placing his order, he told the attendant that was getting their order that if Zy and Chris were to ask if they had already paid, the attendant needed to agree. Being a professional, the attendant didn't say other words and agreed.
Currently, Zy and Chris heaved a sigh of relief.
"If you already had paid, you should have said so. The tension after we ate was no joke," Chris laughed.
"Are you all ready now?" Gerard changed the subject and asked about their mental capacity.
"I'm always ready," Zy said confidently, and Chris responded, "Me too!"
With that, they now walked towards the exit.
However, Gerard stopped and said he'd pay later, to which the employees agreed.
Now it's time for the prelims.
There's still around half an hour left before the actual start of the preliminaries, but it doesn't hurt to be early. It's better to be early than late.
Chris returned to the DoubleZ Gaming Shop, while Gerard and Zy went to their assigned shops.
While walking, Gerard suddenly asked, "Are the two of you dating?"
Zy almost choked herself with a question like that and replied, "What?! What are you talking about?"
"You don't need to deny it. Besides, even if that's not the case, I'm sure you both feel the same way about each other, and it's not my business anyway. I just asked because of curiosity."
Zy turned quiet, and they both continued to walk toward their destination.
After a couple of minutes, they arrived. It was close to the restaurant.
The duo entered the shop and saw that the place was almost full and busy.
"It seems they couldn't wait for the event to start, not that I'm saying I'm not excited," Zy commented.
Gerard stayed still and watched the crowd ready before asking the owner where they would station themselves in.
The owner had a staff guide them to their seats. Luckily, Zy and Gerard were placed beside each other, thus alleviating the awkwardness between strangers.
After a few minutes, the event started, and the mechanics of the preliminaries shocked the players. The Banzrant administrators organized the preliminaries to be a 10-player battle royale which means that out of the 10,000 players that will currently play, the amount of players that the next round will have is 1000, a clear cut from the original number.
"Only ten players from every shop, eh? Don't mind if I do?" Someone from the crowd said.
The statement caused a stir among the players stationed at the shop, but it didn't last long since the notification for the start of the round had already sounded.
Gerard's avatar found itself in the middle of the forest. The area was the right size, making it manageable for him to locate other players. Upon further consideration, he decided to wait. The instructions earlier said that the map would shrink down for the battle royale not get boring; though he wished he was in an arena so he could just beat the other players without needing to locate them, it was such a hassle. As Gerard looked at the screen of Zy, he was envious that the game transported her to a massive coliseum. Gerard could only sigh as he let his avatar go to a tree and lie at the top.
After a while, he heard some fighting in the distance, and the shrinking of the map commenced.
At this time, the branch he was lying on snapped in half, and he fell.
Gerard heard footsteps but decided to have fun in a somewhat dull round.
The battle royale doesn't have a microphone function, but it has communication via chat that is accessible when two or more players are at a certain distance.
"I have found a jackpot. I didn't think I would find a player cowering from others in an official tournament," The guy chatted.
Unbeknownst to Gerard, this man had stirred something up with a statement earlier, and this man was excited as he thought he had found easy prey.
Gerard smiled in his seat, and he didn't move his avatar.
The appearance of Gerard gave the man more confidence as he imagined that Gerard might be cowering on his chair and unable to move.
If Gerard could read his mind, he would think the man must be nuts and living in a messed-up delusion.
In this case, Gerard does possess such an item, something he got from the daily orb just a little while ago, A mind reading monocles. However, it would be invisible to the eyes of others.
Gerard wore such an item for fun to see, or rather 'hear' other players while he fought them since the admins turned the voice chat function off.
"The more confident and arrogant a player is, the more bullsh*t that will come out of their minds," Gerard said.
Zy didn't mind him. More specifically, she couldn't since she was busy on her side.
Gerard's opponent went with a giant magical attack, shocking the former. Well, not technically because it's strong or anything, but because it was a waste. Conjuring spells and the like in Banzrant differ from other games, where the trigger time is always fast, regardless of attack size. Where if someone enters the key for the attack, it will attack. The developers created Banzrant realistically, meaning there is a mana build-up before an attack. Gerard's opponent didn't even paralyze him or something similar.
He could only sigh; with such a display, he wouldn't be able to have fun even if his opponent would let out thousands of bullsh*t words. He gave up and didn't wait for the spell to finish. A couple of strikes and the man fell. He could only say in respect, "A mighty adversary has been felled once again by me."