After learning that the old coachmen had come to Rewan and helped the lot from the village so much, I couldn't particularly put my head around what that old porcupine actually wanted.
'Well, he is just asking for 10 gold coins right? I can pay that much…haha.'
I knew too well that people never helped someone just out of 'doing good'. Especially crossing over a whole hidden dimension to just 'help'.
But there was no point overthinking something which I'll eventually find out.
"Shura!"
Just when I was dozing off in my thoughts, I heard a voice that was soothing, charming and relieving, all at the same time.
I turned my head up and saw the beautiful Kijin babe. She was looking stunning in a sexy, short diagonal cut leather armour.
"Jeze!"
Her name escaped from my mouth instinctively, and I stood up, unconsciously holding both of my hands out like the signature move of a certain bollywood actor from a century ago.
Jeze didn't hold back or shy away. Instead, she boldly jumped in my embrace and rubbed her head on my shoulders.
"Hey? How have you been? Easy with your horns."
I said as I gently rubbed her back. She was rubbing her face on my shoulder so much that the horn on her head almost scraped me multiple times.
"I missed you."
"Me too."
After 10 seconds or so, she left my embrace and looked me up and down.
"Weren't you supposed to be gone for a long while though?"
She asked curiously, talking like a wife who was surprised that her husband came earlier from the business trip than expected.
"I just told you, right? I missed you, so I came to see you. I'll be going back soon, I just came to check up on you."
"Oh, really?"
She asked disappointingly.
"Yep, although I wasn't the only one who missed you."
I said as I clicked through my pet space and took out the purple piece of happy blob out.
"Drewwwiee!"
Jeze jumped in happiness when she saw the little slime friend.
Guess she missed him as much as he did?
"Jezzy! I missed you!"
'The fuck? Jezzy?'
I couldn't help but cringe at Drew calling Jezebeth names.
"How are you, little fellow?"
"I've grown two 2 millimetres since the last time, you know?"
Drew retorted in annoyance.
It seemed like he didn't like people calling him slime, or little, or anything that meant small or weak.
After chatting with Jezebeth for a while, and confirming that everything was proceeding smoothly… without needing my input or involvement, I decided it was high time I log out and get up to date with the things related to the tournament.
***
"Hey…"
Scarlett said, as she wiped her sweaty forehead with a fluffy towel.
She was wearing tight gym clothes and was sweaty all over.
It was an extremely pleasing view for the eyes, but sadly, I couldn't enjoy it.
"Hello…"
I said lifelessly. I could feel my soul leaving my mouth.
"You look… drained. Were you up all night gaming?"
She asked with a strict look.
"I was up all night, right. But I wasn't gaming. Thank you for your concern though. I need to shower."
I replied, my voice sounding like a tired old man's.
"Gosh, go freshen up. You look like you're about to die."
And so I did. After a refreshing bath, I felt a bit more alive.
And after having breakfast, I felt as alive as a bird.
"So, what were you up to the whole night?"
Scarlett asked as she picked up the juice glass and took a sip. She had taken a bath too, and was wearing her office clothes, looking all set to get to work.
"Hey, you're so rich. Why do you still work?"
I asked out of curiosity, cutting off her question.
"I'm rich and have a huge business to inherit, I don't want to become a woman who gave everything up to the 'males' of the family to handle."
"Oh, alright. That….that's good good and all. But, why are you not working in your own massive company? Same with your brother too. Is it all that experiencing the outshit— I mean outside world shit?"
I asked while burping a little. I think I had a bit too much bread, but oh well.
"It's exactly like that, alright? We need to first face the outside business and situation's before taking on our own. Are you satisfied?"
Scarlett looked at me with suppressed annoyance and replied, her little nose puffing up.
"Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, alright. No need to get so agitated."
"Yeah? Now would you mind telling me what you were up to the whole night?"
"I was doing some research on the competition."
I said plainly. But those small words were enough to cause her eyes to turn big.
"Wait… do you mean?"
"Yep, I am joining the competition. I already accepted the in-game invitation."
I said, causing waves of facial expression on Scarlett's face.
Her stressed and angry face had turned a bit red due to excitement, and she grabbed her forehead like she couldn't believe it. Her little smile twitched, and after a while, she finally calmed down and coughed.
"You son of a…. Come here."
She almost cursed me before giving me a tight hug, what followed was a kiss on my cheeks.
"Thank you dude."
"Hey, it's alright. Calm down. Goddamn, you look like a fucking monkey's butt."
"C'mon man. You have no fucking idea how stressed I was due to you. Well, whatever. Everything's alright now."
She said in an excited voice, relieved that she completed her task. Somehow, the dedication and happiness in her eyes warmed my heart, and unconsciously brought a smile to my face.
By the time I was busy with the game, the rise of a new legendary class and the announcements of the international tournament had already created huge waves in the whole world.
Heck, it was difficult to not find news and information related to the competition online.
Although, what actually shocked the whole world was the bits of information that were confirmed by Kibea itself.
[Mayhem will experience its first ever international tournament with the same starting point for everyone.]
This came as a shocker to everyone. The actual information meant that the levels that we had in the games were irrelevant in the tournament. It was a battle of skills and everybody had the same starting point as the others.
Of course, it was just in name though. We will have the same equipment and classes as the game, which alone was to cause clear boundaries between players.
But it also ensured that the other players won't be totally helpless. Not to mention, from the looks of things, it seemed like the competition won't solely depend on brute force.
"Well, this should be the time I would be rushing to the player's house to sign an actual contract and NDA. But since you're here already, let's spare the formalities, alright? Gimme a moment, lemme bring my skreener, then you can read the documents and sign them."
Scarlett stood up excitedly and left the dining room, running towards her own room. A few seconds later, she came back with her skreener device and started showing me the rules of the tournament. How players were selected and how to not disclose any information that is asked to be kept a secret.
I read the whole document, it didn't actually mention anything about how the competition will be, it just covered secrecy and privacy policy as well as terms and conditions. Of course, after reading through some points, I started skimming through the others as there were a lot of articles that I had no fucking idea about.
It was like agreeing to terms and conditions of a game without actually reading the hours worth of information in it.
It was stupid, and that's how companies actually exploited others, but humans still repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
"What about the competition? Will it be a PVP? A marathon? Or something else entirely?"
"That is secret even to me, and I'd get to know about it along with the other players."
Scarlett shrugged her shoulders helplessly.
"It's okay. I just hope it's fun. I already got so many things just for joining that I won't mind if I lost at the first level or something."
I said leisurely. It was true to an extent.
"Oh, trust me you wouldn't say that if you knew what was at stake."
Scarlett said mysteriously, but being unsuccessful in making me curious.
I shrugged and stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"Nothing, I need to get my passport renewed. Been a long while since I travelled out of state."
Scarlett gave me a look, but didn't enquire anything further.
I suddenly remembered the last time I was out of the state. It was years ago, and it wasn't just out of state but out of the country.
It was the time when I was known as Zephyr in the metahuman army and not as Flynn Grey.
The futuristic world was very advanced, and the army of the country had levels of soldiers.
At the top of the food chain in the army were meta humans. Meta human were created when they were a children and were injected with some sort of supernatural compound that turns them into something far stronger, and far more intelligent than normal human beings, giving them powers unimaginable to the common folks.
The number of children that survived the dose were of course, very small.
Meta humans were under the direct control of the government, and a single click from an ambassador was enough to turn any metahuman to shreds, due to the chips that were installed within them after the injection of the meta compound.
In the army of meta humans, one of them used to be very infamous.
Zephyr, the failure that survived despite being a failure.
***
Hopefully gonna be back on track with this one.
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