Alfred reminisced his time on Continent of Magic Online. He was one of the most extreme grinder. He was among the top 5.000 players. He might have gotten higher ranking if he wanted to, but because of his persistence on using mechanical related job, which is gunner-blacksmith hybrid, he had severe limitation on his character’s power.

But he continued to play so much that even with his class limitation and lack of powerful skills other pure combat classes have, he was constantly being sought after by op guilds. The catch to that was that because of so, he holed in his room most of the time.

He was a very gifted child, though, so even though he played for hours a day, his grade did not suffer much. At first his parent was worried as they believed that he had high potential that’s wasted as he play games all the time. Early days of playing was filled with constant fight. Till his parent was tired of it. They agreed that should he get fair enough grades, he may play as his usual.

As his parent already half giving up on him playing too much, they never checked on him that much.

As everyone thought that he was a lost cause as a game addict, however, out of nowhere he suddenly stopped playing and put the same devotion in his study, and more.

Because his parent never checked on him, they never know. They just assumed that if he is holed up in his room, that means he is playing.

Alfred never told them much about it also put a great factor on the subsequent surprise. At the end of his high school life, Alfred gave his parent three great surprise

The third surprise came from the national test result. He scored among the top 3% best in the country in physics. Most of his other scores were also in top 10%.

It was a tremendous achievement, but it came as the third surprise because before the test, his parent already got two large surprises before then

His dedication to study and pursue real life knowledge was as fastidious as his playing. Alfred put much of his time studying more than his school work. He studied college level engineering class, and sometimes even read dissertations of subjects he put interest in. His pocket money, what his parent thought he was spending on game, was actually spent on several online classes and engineering software.

His trip was actually to seminars and not with friends

But his biggest break came on one competition. A prestigious company calls for an architectural competition, open for students only, to design the face of their new branch building.

The contest specified that no graduate students and professionals were to enter. But it never also specified that high school student was barred from entry.

Not that they normally would. Not that many high school students can produce design made as an output of CAD program, much less 3D Modeling.

But not Alfred.

He studied and tinkered with them a lot so he was decently proficient on it.

There’s this design that’s been on his head for a while, that he thought is well suited to what the company actually wants. So out of the blue, he decided to apply to the competition. Being alone, it took him several days to complete, and he submitted his design proposal just an hour before closing time.

Two week later, he got a call. A week more, he presented his case to the board. Two more weeks after, his parent shed tear of pride as the Company’s president took photo with Alfred, which then were published in several newspaper and magazine over the course of the following weeks.

A prodigy was born

The second surprise was that he got early admission to one of the Ivy League school, partly because of his achievement

And so time passed.

Alfred put his all in his study, read several book, took some trips. As Royal Road started to gain popularity, he played a bit, though nowhere near as extreme as he was on Continent of Magic. He was very fascinated by it, but because of his high workload and his part time job, he only spend a couple hours a week playing.

The break came in his last year of school.

He was scouted by the firm where he won his architecture competition during high school. Their rep called him through the university and both of them then set up a meeting.

“It’s good to have you here,” said the company rep. he introduced himself as Mr Anderson. He was well groomed in his 40ish, with a slight grey on his black hair. He wore a dark grey suit that looks pretty expensive as well as professional. Based on that, Alfred judged that he was of a pretty high standing in the Company, and thus put serious effort in the conversation

“I read your letter, and it greatly pleased me that you still remember me,” said he

“Moving on,” said Mr Anderson, “What do you think of my offer?”

Alfred moved a bit. The offer was decent. Not the highest out there, but probably better than average.

“I am still taking it into account,” said Alfred

Mr Anderson understand his gesture and correctly interpret it

“What I can give to you is freedom, much more than any other of your offer,” said he

That captured Alfred’s interest. Seeing that, Mr Anderson pushed on

“We only require you to be physically present about 3 to 4 days a week, granted that you are able to finish your work on your own. Granted, during presentation and early deadline, you will have to be present for more. At the beginning, we have mentoring system on which you have to follow one of our senior architect to understand the work, but upon that, you are free on your own. We have compensation system based on your ability and extensive corporate training we offer. Every time you gain new skill or finish our training, we will take it into account on your performance review, and your salary may increase on that. And among all, it’s up to your pace,” said he

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Alfred was quite intrigued. Seeing that, mr Anderson pressed on

“Most of your other offer, I believe, concentrate on high hours and time commitments which leave you no time to do anything else. And of course, their commitment to develop talents is questionable,” said he

Alfred certainly acknowledges that what Mr Anderson says is true

“It is pretty intriguing,” said Alfred, “but there is one thing that I do not understand. How is your company be able to offer something that is …”

“Better?” mr Anderson chuckled.

He then take Alfred’s silence as a yes

“We are trying to venture into a new horizon,” said he. “Say, do you play Royal Road?”

Alfred think for a bit

“A Bit,” said he

“As an architect, what is your opinion on that?” said Mr Anderson

That question took him aback

“It’s … pretty good?” said he

“Come one. You can do better than that,” mr Anderson said with firm eyes

“the building in royal road have much more fantasy element,” said he

“That’s all?” said Mr Anderson

“Well, there’s more. Most of them are geared for spacious area and heavy traffic, with large spaces around. After all, value of land has … little value,”

Mr Anderson laughed

“True. Normally you don’t expect a patron who brought swords or even longbow to a real life building,” said he, “But you are right on the fantasy element. The amount of people playing Royal Road slowly but surely changes the way people judge something artistically,”

Alfred got a hint of what he was trying to say

“You meant me to play RoyalRoad and advertise the firm through it?” asked he

“That’s part of it. Though your training will be for real life works. But yes, part of it is to advertise our new division. A lot of company started doing that. Major soft drinks now has factory in RoyalRoad, for example. So does a few clothing and sport brands. There’s even a McDonald store in all starting city in Royal Road,” said he

“But of course architecture firms are an exception. Most of the design we do in real life, take example a 30 storey hotel. Glasses will be a major part of it. And then there’s the HVAC system, and other electronic. Lighting put major effect on every projects nowadays. Those are stuff that will never be able to be implemented in RoyalRoad, even if it might be possible,” said he. “Can you imagine empire state building in the Royal Road?” Mr Anderson added

“… of course not,” said Alfred, “that would be too out of place,”

“Right,” said Mr Anderson, “that will be out of place. But think of it in reverse. Millions of players of RoyalRoad continuously exposed to imperial – fantasy themed buildings. The interest in sculpture and medieval architecture has risen exponentially ever since. Gothic and Roman architecture suddenly increase in demand. I will not be amazed if Royal Road will bring forth another renaissance age,” said he

“And that’s where you will come, “said Mr Alfred

“Exactly. Our company, TSA, believe in it. We are willing to invest in it,” said he

“That is pretty remarkable and daring vision,” said he

“Do we have same opinion?” asked Mr Anderson

“Mr Anderson, I pretty much do,” said Alfred

In fact, his award-winning design was actually inspired from one of the castle in Continent of Magic.

Probably some of the people in TSA knows that, which is why he was scouted. Probably even Mr Anderson knew of it

“So … what do I do?” asked he again

“Well, simple. You need to study a lot. We still require you to improve yourself as architect, that’s given, so you will still attend normal works and trainings. But other than that … you will be in Versailles Continent,”

Alfred think of it a bit. It was probably the most fun thing that he could even do as a job

“You will make a new account. The job will be architect. Afterwards, learn from some of our staff. Our staff has explored architect job for a while now, so you will just need to follow his footstep and guidance. Also, as painter has aquous painter, we believe that architect has secret job as well. It is your task to find it. Then we will power-level you to level 200 in a week, while you increase your skill bit by bit. Architect job in RoyalRoad has problem with materials. On that we will also recruit several people to provide support. You will have nothing to worry about but be the best architect there is in RoyalRoad”

Mr Anderson moved his body closer

“Do we have a deal?” asked he

Alfred take his hand

Mr Anderson wanted Alfred to started right away, even though the recruitment will be till he officially graduated. He won’t be paid for a couple months of playing, but Alfred pretty much don’t give a damn on that – for him it was a fair amount of bargain.

Three hours after the meeting, Alfred deleted his old RoyalRoad account, and create a new avatar