Ibrahim looked around him after Aya left. He was observing if someone was watching what had happened just now. If so then he surely raised doubts about what he had just done. But he didn’t feel regret. Although all the information about Aya Darwish's life was known to everyone, only one piece of information was kept hidden .. her name in the game ! No one knew her game name, and no one ever knew the reason for that secret. If he didn’t know her name in the game, how could he communicate with her? He did not think before whether he would choose the same name he used in the game before or choose another one this time, but after he told her he would not be able to change it, otherwise she could not find him. As for Tiba system city, he did not plan to start from it, but rather from Memphis system city. At the last minute he changed the name of the city fearing that he would provide those who would monitor their talk with additional free information that would help them in the future to find and spy on him. He was not worried about her not communicating with him in the game. No matter what, playing inside the online games made everyone feel comfortable and safe, especially the one who was in the same position as her. He took a deep breath when he felt that no one was paying attention to him. The meeting went peacefully, or so he hoped. Minutes later he saw two people walking completely stunned towards him. They were looking around themselves with unbelievable look over their faces. Ibrahim didn't need to think hard to figure out who they were. He guessed it. Who else would come to this place and look around themselves in this strange way? Mohamed and Mostafa were the two players who staged a series of miraculous battles against the sorlonians at the game before. As everyone used to speculate, they were actually friends before they entered the game. As soon as they saw the banner with the studio name on it they moved rapidly towards him .
“Hello, my name is Mohamed.”
“And I'm Mostafa. Surely you're Ibrahim?”
“Yes, welcome to Sphinx Studio. Tell me, did you find your way to here easily?”
They moved to sit on the empty seats in front of Ibrahim then Mostafa said :
“You didn't tell us how did you find us Ibrahim?”
Ibrahim was not surprised by his question. He knew very well that Mostafa was the brain who loved to think but not talking a lot, but Mohamed was talking. Ibrahim told him the answer he prepared in advance for anyone like him who might ask such a question, saying spontaneously:
“I searched for the names of the successful players in the recent famous ten online games, then I excluded who belonged to any studio, no matter how famous he is, and then I sent out invitations to the ones who haven't yet joined any studio. I consider myself lucky for you to agree to be part of my studio.”
Mohamed stepped in and said quickly:
“I never imagined that I would join a big studio for games. It was a dream of mine since childhood. Once I received your message, I thought it was a joke from someone. Then I spoke with Mostafa and I found out that he also had received your message, so I knew that your offer was real.
Mostafa stepped on Mohamed's feet to stop him from continuing his usual gossip. Mostafa was the brain while Mohamed was the muscle.
“Don't mind him, he becomes like this if he's excited about something. I looked at Sphinx Studio and found only one site for it. I surfed it a little and found out it wasn’t stating any previous experience at any game. Is this really a newly-created studio?”
“It's really a recent studio I set up yesterday. Dou you mind that my studio is new one Mostafa?”
The best way to defend was to attack, and someone with a great mind like Mostafa when you surprise him he got confused immediately. This was really what happened to Mostafa, who thought that when he focus at this point Ibrahim would try to evade it with any excuses and then start to try to compromise them as much as he could. Reality showed him that he was wrong as he was struck by Ibrahim's question which he didn’t anticipate. So he quickly said apologizing:
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“No .. I didn't mean it.”
Ibrahim was aware of what Mostafa and Mohamed really wanted by joining his studio. They came from a very poor environment. So he said with confidence:
“Don't worry about the poor experience of Sphinx studio. In my opinion any studio is worthless if it doesn't give his members privileges, or else it doesn't have the right to be a studio in this field. Regardless of the fact that you're one of the first to join Sphinx studio and that's what makes you the founders of the studio. That means you're going to get privileges that are different from the regular members of any studio. That what you should worry about.”
“Privileges? Are we going to get privileges? This is wonderful Mostafa. I never imagined that I would get privileges once I join.
Mostafa stepped harder on his feet this time to silence him before saying :
“Why are you going to give us all these privileges? We haven't started playing yet, so maybe we're not going to be good players who deserve these privileges.”
Ibrahim smiled with complete confidence in his ability to bring these two veterans into his side. He said simultaneously:
“The privileges you're going to get are one free capsule for each one of you. This capsule will be paid by Sphinx studio. As for your salary, I'm going to multiply it three times than the normal wages of any studio. Of course, these privileges are not permanent. I run a commercial studio here not a group of friends making a studio. So you're going to be like everyone else who join the studio, always subject to regular assessment from me with strict evaluation of your responsibility in the game. So if you don't play hard, then I'm going to drop off your rank and have your own privileges to be cut down and you will become like any regular player. The privileges of a regular player in Sphinx studio only to get paid a normal salary like the salary of normal players in any other studio and about the capsules you got from me their costs will be cut monthly from your salary. If you keep up not working hard then I'm going to be forced to throw you out the studio.”
He didn't begin his talk answering Mostafa's question, on the one hand, he tried his best to seduce them by stressing on the financial temptations that he knew it will play a major role to make them accept his words. On the other hand, he provided a logical justification for those privileges for the two of them and for those who might be listening to their small conversation. He also tried to deliver a hidden message to them saying in a subtle way: “I'm the leader here and I set the rules here not you.”
“For the reason about why I’m giving you these privileges it's very simple. When I founded Sphinx studio I made a budget based on at least 100 members joining me, but in fact not this many accepted my invitation. I've only gotten the approval of five people yet including the two of you. So it's easy for me to give you these privileges.”
He didn't want to tell them the truth about how many players he had accepted at his studio. Maybe eleven out of five wasn’t that big of a difference, but if someone was listening to their talk right now, he would realize that this studio was a doomed project that was going to fail before it starts. His studio would appear harmless and couldn’t possibly have any danger to their plans, so they would stop monitoring them.
“That's great! I'm really excited and can’t wait to start playing Rioneed. Tell me, are we going to do advertising in other studio? Do you have any plans to attract the other studios players? We have to work hard to increase our players base, because the more we have the more fun it is. Why don't you do online advertising from now? Or send messages over the phone to other players like you did with us? There's a lot of things to do that if you..”
This time Ibrahim interrupted him after he felt that his enthusiastic tone might cause unwanted attention. He also knew him very well. If he was excited about something he would do before he thought, and perhaps this would cause countless problems, as he always used to cause trouble in the game.
“I don't think that increasing the number of players at this early stage is in your best interest. The more the number we have the less privileges you get!”
“Don't listen to me. We're a successful studio with only five people. Why do we need a large number of players? We are 50 better than 500. Don't think about any suggestion I said. Advertisements don't necessarily attract professional players like me and Mostafa. I want you to be confident in our abilities!”
His attitude changed completely to the opposite! No matter what Mostafa might think, no matter what plans they might have, their bank account will convince them. So it wasn’t surprising for Ibrahim that the two of them settled their minds on joining his studio. After a long discussion about their plans in the next game, Ibrahim ended the meeting and the three of them began to remove the studio banner and flyers from booth. Although Ibrahim was enthusiastic about discussing Rioneed game with Mohamed and Mostafa, his nerves were so tight and he was so worried. When he left the Modern Cairo city safely in the aircar he breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was a very dangerous experience, but in the end he reached his goal. When he reached his apartment it was approaching 11 P.M. . he ordered food for dinner, and then fell into a deep sleep.