Vol. 1 - Chapter 25 - Being discovered by a friend
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On the other side Mathias, who got out of his capsule and looked at the clock on his old phone, showed that it was 13:35, and along the way, he noticed some missed calls from a work colleague coming from 13:15 and 13:20.
<[Vlad]>
Looking at the name, he said to himself, pondering what happened for his colleague to call on Saturdays, and with that curiosity in mind, he called back, and immediately he heard the voice of a young man along with the voices of a small group.
"Ohh, Matei, you are alive? Hey guys, shut up for a bit. I am talking with a friend from work."
From the line, he could hear the voices of other young guys not caring much about what the one called Vlad said.
"Big brother, did you really get your hands on such high-tech stuff? How much was it?"
"Buzz off, I am serious." said the one called Vlad, while from the phone line, the sound of something being hit was heard.
"ARGH, I will tell mother."
"Yeah, sure. I dare you to say something to mom, you will instantly be sent back to the province, and I'll also talk with dad to let you inherit the farm."
"N-NOOO! Okay, big brother, I will not disturb your talk."
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Getting back on the line, Vlad asked again with an awkward voice.
"Sorry for the small disturbance. I just got my hands on the newest product on the market, the capsule for the game 'Satisfy'. Wanna come to my place, hang around a bit? Maybe eat something in the 'Old Town' since I will check the game at night."
Staying a bit to think, he replied to this work colleague of his with a calm voice. "I'll be done with some pizza. We don't have to go to the 'Old Town'. The prices there are killing my heart and pockets."
"That is right, let me check with the kids." pausing, Mathias could hear Vlad ask the kids a question.
"You two, do you want to eat pizza at home?"
"No problem, big brother, since you bought this VR game, maybe you let us enter the game while you talk."
"Bah, maybe? I shall check with the customer service staff to see if I can let other people enter the game using my capsule."
"YAYY! Did you hear it, Ian? We can enter the game and be like that big brother with the black spear."
(E/N:Did Mat get famous so fast?...)
"Let's watch the video of the black spearman again." said the voice of another young man that Mathias picked up on the line.
"Matei, you hear them? We will probably eat at my place. I'll do the orders, so when you get to my place, we can start by eating and later talking."
"Sure, I will buy some beer on my way. See you in 20 minutes."
"Ciao, don't buy some cheap beer, okay? I know you don't like spending your money or going out partying when the rest ask for partying in the clubs." reminded the one called Vlad, making Mathias chuckle a bit before ending the call.
Checking the clock, he prepared himself and went outside of the apartment, moving toward the metro station that was about 5 minutes away. He checked the right of access using his magnetic pass ticket, and after climbing down for a few more minutes, he got to the base level of the station.
Looking up at the timer displayers for each tram, he nodded, seeing that he only had to wait for about 2 minutes. Standing silently at a safe distance, he looked around himself as other travelers waited, staring at their phones screens.
'At least take a break here and straighten your bodies.' thought Mathias seeing those people, but his mind went in another direction after feeling a gust of wind that blew on his jacket.
'The temperature is chilly since it is autumn already. Right, in about two weeks, those two little rascals will start their 9th grade and 11th grade. I will call mom after I go back home and check how the situation back home is and how those brats are doing.'
Finally, after waiting two minutes, the tram arrived and entering inside. He walked to a corner of the tram and didn't bother to check his phone, only holding on to a supporting holder.
The journey was swift, only having to take the metro for 3 stations, and once he began ascending, he felt the wind blowing on his face, blowing his long hair.
Annoyed by this, he picked a hair tie from his pocket and quickly tied it down in a man bun, and after that, he continued his journey out of the station and stopped at a pedestrian sign accompanied by a traffic light.
Stopping once again for one minute, he passed the pedestrian and walked in the direction of a boulevard, but taking a detour when encountering a market.
Inside the market, he walked directly to the alcohol section and took a pack of local beer that was of good quality that he enjoyed drinking, and after paying for them, he walked with a bag containing the 8 beer pack on the boulevard, moving straight ahead, only turning right on a small alley that led him to a residential area.
Getting in front of one apartment block that was only four stories, he called on the interphone so they would unlock the door.
"Who is calling?" responded the voice of a young man.
"It is me, Matei, open Gabriel." replied back Mathias, before the entrance door of the block was opened.
Entering the block, he started climbing the stairs arriving on the second floor, and at the door '11' he knocked on the door, that a young man about 12 years old, with dark hair and brown eyes, responded. "Big brother, did you buy something for me?"
"Only beer, can you handle it?" asked Mathias, with a smirk on his face entering inside the apartment while ruffling the hair of the boy.
"Don't even think about it, you brat. When you turn 14, maybe I will let you drink some weak stuff."
"Bah, I already tried some wine from dad bottles. It is not a big deal. Right, big brother Matei, let me introduce you to my classmate, Ian." said the young boy, after he closed the door, moving close to Mathias, who took his shoes off, entering the main room to see a young adult the same age like him working around a device that was exactly like his own, the 'Satisfy' capsule.
Around this young man who had short blonde dyed hair with brown eyes, a fit body, and slightly taller than Mathias, was a young boy the same height as Gabriel, who, when noticing Mathias, looked with big eyes as if he saw a ghost.
"Ian, what is with that face? Did you go dumb for no reason? I told you, he is the cool big brother who likes to talk about interesting things." said Gabriel trying to make some sense into the other young boy.
"No, is not that? Let me pick my phone and show you something." said that boy, walking toward the couch in the main room, and picking his phone.
He quickly typed something on the screen and showed young Gabriel a video.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Mathias got curious about the video and walked closer to the boy to look at the screen, and when he saw the video, he felt that something was familiar.
In that video, he could see a person wearing clothes similar to the [Cidarian] Set and wielding a spear resembling Ragnius. That person whose face, eyes and name were blurred fighting from the perspective of some else was exactly what his character looked like.
"Hey, kid, what is this video about? Where is it from?" asked Mathias, not disturbed or affected by the video, while standing behind the young man.
"Matei, I wanted to ask you, what is with that video? Don't tell me you are playing 'Satisfy' too?" asked the young man, who moved away from the capsule, later going for a firm handshake with Mathias.
As they were shaking hands, Mathias just shrugged his shoulders, saying to Vlad.
"It was probably some kid from the game who recorded me fighting when I was doing a quest. Don't stare like that at me. I might look like a cheap guy, but I have my reasons for playing the game."
"Sure, sure. Let me show you the video at a better quality."
As Vlad said that, he walked to his desktop station, which worked so smoothly, it could short circuit Mathias's laptop just by giving some of the RAM's this desktop was running at.
Gazing at the large screen in front of him, he could see the same forum he was checking when he was bored with new information on Satisfy and updates from the developers.
"This kid who took this video of you got promoted to "Respected Community Member" by updating this video of you fighting the gang members of Saharan." said Vlad, while pointing at the frame the profile of the uploader had, letting Mathias sit on the expensive gaming seat and look at the uploader.
"Do you want to report this guy? He is using your video to get some quick profits. I am sure the mods of the forum will delete this guy thread."
Seeing that this forum thread already hit 12 million views in about one week, he shook his head and told Vlad with a calm voice. (E/N:Now thats a lot of views for a game that isn't considered "Mainstream" yet) (A/N: The game is supposed to have 2 billion users, playing along with numbers here)
"Why should I do that? Can't you see that it generates the attention of the general public? When I joined the forum community, we were only 60.000 members, simply put, a small bubbling community. The views on the forum are per unique IP's so they can't be manipulated by bots. In the span of about one month, the game grew to 12 million possible players. However, I shall send this boy a message, a small reminder." (E/N: IMO isn't this way to fast ?)
Getting his cracked phone from his pocket, he used the lightning-fast connection of his friend Vlad, and accessed his forum account on the mobile version.
He didn't even watch the video on the forum but directly sent a private message to the user who recorded him and posted it online.
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< This is Mathias writing to you, Maple Mist.
While you should have asked me for the 'okay' in order to release this video, I will not follow any procedures that will affect you. I don't know your motives for posting the video, but it doesn't affect me. Be it for monetary reasons or you purely wanting to help the 'Satisfy' community grow bigger, I can only say that's good for you. This shall be a small jolt for this great game that needs our support.
P.S: Next time if you encounter me in Saharan and record me, try covering all the face when editing. >
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Sending that private message, he heard his friend ask him with an inquiring tone.
"What did you write to that guy?"
"Nothing much, just reminding him that if he sees me again and records me to edit my entire face."
"Tsk so like you. You really are not angry for being used by that guy? If it was me being recorded and posted on Ytube, I would be angry and copyright strike that video."
"No, I don't care that much. At most, it will help out that person a bit, financially wise if he gets anything from it, but I mainly think of how it helped out the community get together."
Saying that the two watched the video, where the brats also joined to watch. He could see himself moving smoothly using the range of the spear to keep the thugs away, causing them to be unable to land a hit on him.
It could be said to be a flawless performance from the outsiders' standpoint, but Mathias, who knew what he was doing in the video, shook his head when seeing the two thugs rushing toward Fayrene.
"Big bro, why are you upset?" asked Gabriel, noticing Mathias shake his head.
"That part could be ended faster, and maybe she wouldn't be put at risk at all. I could throw the spear like a javelin toward the last one and end the fight. Hah, but I guess it is a decent performance from me. I still have to train more to get the hang of the spear, but I'll get there one day."
"Wow, Matei, I never thought you would be so ruthless with those guys. Seeing you on this video and knowing you at work and how you always are helping everyone, hard to imagine."
"Is not really so mind-boggling. That's just me when someone is trying to hurt me and those close to me only that outside of the game, I can't hold a spear or sword because the police will instantly handcuff me on first sight."
"Haha, probably they will think it is some toy and leave you alone like those cosplayers who got on the news not too long ago in the U.S."
The two laughed before the young boy, Ian, touched Mathias's hand a bit and asked with a shy voice.
"Big brother, that beautiful lady that released that purple missile on the thug, is she your friend?"
Turning his gaze on the boy and seeing how he was interested in Fayrene, he nodded his head, thinking to himself while replying. 'Horny kid, aren't you young for those things?'
"Indeed, she is my close friend I made in the game."
The discussion turned toward his spear skills until they were disturbed by the interphone calling in the apartment.
"Ohh, finally, the pizzas are here. Let's eat before we get back to Satisfy."
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While the group was welcoming the pizza order, and also opened the cans of beers, only Mathias and Vlad. However, as they were eating and drinking, Mathias saw Gabriel looking at him as if wanting to try some beer.
"Kid, get yourself a small glass cup. I'll do some trick for you that might settle the curiosity."
"I knew big brother Matei is the best." replied the kid before drifting toward the kitchen.
"Wait, Matei, no. If mom hears that brat touched his lips on alcohol, I shall say adios to my money."
"You worry too much. Just watch."
Vlad kept his quiet, and when seeing his younger brother coming with a glass cup, he then saw Mathias open a new can of beer and starting to pour a bit of beer. It mainly was beer foam. Noticing that, he barely held his chuckle and thought to himself.
'Man, I haven't thought of doing that. No wonder. He has two younger brothers and knows the tricks.'
The young boy's face was satisfied as he was boasting to his colleague, but he mostly drank the foam and a small portion of the actual beer.
Mathias gazed with his green eyes at the boy and grinned a bit when staring at his friend's face while doing a silent sign before going back to eating.
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In another part of the world, a young man about 16-17 years old lived with his parents in a house in Texas, who had in his room a VR capsule, but now he was standing at the computer.
He noticed the new notification of a message he received on the principal forum for Satisfy, and wondering who it was, he clicked on it.
Not long as he was reading the message, his face got a bit scared, saying to himself.
"Could it be the person who fought the gang members in Titan? Mathias? What was his name? Let me check again."
Saying that he went to some files on his computer that contained the video recordings of his playtime in Satisfy. Clicking one video that had a description on it, he ran the video until a young adult, Mathias, appeared in sight.
The name on the screen matched with the message he received, which had him ask himself.
"Don't tell me he wants to delete the video? But I even turned down the monetization and cancelled the gifts option of my account on that video I posted after I saw it skyrocket in views. I read online that I can get in trouble for such things, especially with the laws that got harsher with things going online."
It was only after he thoroughly read the message Mathias sent that he relaxed.
"Phew, this guy really is cool. He didn't even care if I was taking money from the video and only thought about the game doing good. No problem, next time I will see you in Titan fighting, I will record and post it, with the edits thoroughly done this time.
"Bro, you will for sure be one of the giants of this game as long as you don't quit. I saw those LTS players and how they play the game, but none were like you, moving using something similar to the martial arts movies. Those guys only know to follow the game system and use the ingame skills, unlike you."
Ending saying that, he went to type his response to Mathias, that was as humble as the young guy could be. After that answer was sent, he checked the forum's top threads and could see that his own was still leading by a lot and was still growing.
Clicking on his own thread and checking the newer comments, he saw this [Katz] person give a mean comment, bad-mouthing Mathias and his skills for being low level and uncoordinated. That he could beat those Titan gang members with his eyes closed and one hand behind his back.
Annoyed by this comment, he moved his mouse to block this toxic guy, but just when he was about to block him, he saw the comment of another guy that was sent fresh, [Atlas].
Those Titan thugs are elite monsters that can stomp on your giant ass whale as quickly and efficiently.>
"Well said, man, but you too are toxic. If you keep going back and forth, I might have to block both of you because I don't want admins or moderators to delete my post because of some idiots."
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Somewhere in Athens, a young adult about 23 years old whose skin tone was Mediterranean, with dark hair and brown eyes, full beard, laughed at his computer screen while reading the reply of the user [Katz] that was cursing him in the most pathetic manner he could hear.
"Hah, what is with this spoiled shit? Learn to insult you, idiot. Maybe if I was having an argument with a Turk, it might be interesting since they have solid arguments to diss on my face, but this spoiled rich Asian brat doesn't even know to throw insults."
Quickly typing something under the name [Atlas], he found out that he was blocked.
"Ahh, blocked? Did the mods get inside the thread? Crap, I hope I didn't mess up the thread, and they deleted it. Such a video should be seen by all starting beginners."