After Maria logged out of the game, she got up from bed, took a light shower before going out dressed in her casual clothes rather than the pajamas she always wore whenever she logged in to play Unitale.
She went over to her brother's room and knocked on it before saying, "Brother, may I come in?"
"Maria? Oh, come in!"
Once her brother gave her permission, Maria gently opened the door and walked into his room. She looked around and noticed that it wasn't only her brother that was present. It was no wonder she heard some clamoring from inside the room when she had knocked earlier.
"Good afternoon," Maria said with a polite bow to her brother's guests.
"Oh, if it isn't the rumored little sister!" A young lady about the same age as her brother spoke up and said in surprise.
"Yes, I am my brother's little sister."
Her reply left everyone laughing and amused at her words. She couldn't understand what was so funny so she only tilted her head in confusion.
There were 5 other people in the room besides her brother and if she wasn't mistaken, 2 or 3 of them were friends from school while the others were people that Maria was seeing for the first time.
Normally in school, the siblings wouldn't have any contact with each other, but this wasn't because they had set up a plan to avoid each other or anything. It was mostly because they were of different grades and their classrooms were far apart from each other.
Also, their break times at school didn't match so they couldn't meet or see each other so often except during the times when they came to school and went home together.
"Hello, my name is Cindy and I'm your brother's girlfriend! We'll soon be family in the future so it's very nice to meet you! I hope you take care of me well in the future!" The young lady from earlier said as an introduction.
Maria's ears pricked up when she heard the word 'girlfriend' and she turned an eye towards her brother before saying, "Oh? This is the first I've heard about a girlfriend. Anyway, it's nice to meet you as well. I am Maria."
Seeing the odd look in his sister's eye, Gerald quickly stood up from his seat and defended himself.
"Hey! Don't joke around like that! Don't listen to her, Maria! Nothing is going on between us. We're just very close friends!"
"Sure..."
"I mean it!" Gerald eyed Cindy and gave her a look asking for her to clarify herself but the girl only stuck her tongue out in denial.
"Tsk, anyway, everyone, please introduce yourselves. As you all just heard, this is my little sister, Maria."
"Hello, I'm Regis," a dark-skinned youth said. "I'm the Citadel's vice-guild master."
"Nice to meet you... but what is Citadel?"
"Ahaha, well, that's our guild which is also led by your big brother. I'm surprised he hasn't said anything about it to you."
"No, he never talks about these things with me."
"Oh? That's even when your family has invested some capital in us?"
Maria turned to look at her brother and raised a brow, "Brother?"
"I was going to tell you someday, but it's not like you'll even care, right?"
"No, probably not..."
"..." Gerald sighed and patted Maria on the head and began introducing the rest of his friends.
All of them were part of Citadel, the guild her brother was leading. All 5 of the people present were executives of the guild and were friends in real life. 3 of them were indeed from the school since Maria recalled seeing them from time to time whenever they got out of school. As for the other two, they were Gerald's close friends from elsewhere.
Other than Cindy and Regis who had already introduced themselves, the other 3 were young men. Their names were Steve, Hendrick, and Norman. Cindy, Regis, and Steve were the people that Maria somewhat recognized because he's seen them around her brother while they were in school.
The other 2 were new to Maria but they were both parts of the guild Gerald was leading. Hendrick was just a close friend who became an executive member while Norman was one of the guild's major shareholders since he was friends with Gerald and had invested early on in the guild.
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After their introductions, Maria bowed to all of them and said, "It's nice to meet you all. Brother Gerald, I believe that the live stream will start soon. Should I ask the maids to bring us some refreshments?"
"Don't worry about us! We're already prepared for it so there's no need to call the servants. If you want we can share some with you?" Gerald offered.
"It's okay, I'll go get my own," Maria replied.
She didn't want to take their share but when she was about to go call the servants outside, Cindy walked over and grabbed her arm before bringing her over to the couch in front of the TV.
"No need to trouble your servants! We brought plenty so we can just share!" Cindy said as she sat Maria down.
"O-Okay..." Maria stiffly replied.
She wasn't used to this. She had just met them so Maria was still trying to act prim and proper. However, with how assertive and friendly Cindy was being, Maria really couldn't refuse her.
"It's starting!"
Hearing her brother's words, Maria turned her attention towards the large TV in front. On the screen, the UT's monthly live stream had just begun. Naturally, there was an attractive female MC who opened up the streaming session.
"Hello, fellow Unitale players! Yun Chi here and I'll be your MC for this live stream!"
The MC was a famous live streamer that streamed her many gaming sessions on the Switch Online Platform. She had just begun streaming her UT gaming sessions and they were already popular.
The Universal Gaming Company naturally took notice of her and invited her to be the host of their live streams.
"Today's an important live stream session from the company to the players! We'll be revealing some information about the current events of the game! Mainly, the Main Scenario Quests which had recently became the main attention of the player base!"
The live stream chat began clamoring at her words. Many people wanted to know more about these Main Scenario quests and whether it was worth their time to do. Many guilds and organizations were invested in expanding their guild members and influence into the game's economy by doing reputation quests and other similar quests to upgrade their relations with the game's NPCs.
It was imperative for these guilds and organizations that were being supported by companies from the real world to expand their influence into the games market by improving their relations with the game's NPCs so that they could gain some land and connections to establish in-game shops and other services.
The NPCs of the game were very similar to humans and they would peruse even the game's auction houses to purchase materials, weapons, and other items from the players. The guilds and organizations saw the monetary merit in establishing shops that sold items and other sorts of interesting services which both the players and NPCs could use that would then generate revenue for them inside the game which could then be converted into real money using the Currency Exchange System.
After the MC Yun Chi revealed a few more things about what they were going to discuss in the live stream and the rewards that the players would get if they watched until the end, she finally moved onto the next sequence of the live stream and introduced the people who would be revealing more about the game's contents.
From the camera panned out and from the side of the room, 3 executives of the company walked onto the stage and joined Yun Chi there. After a few greetings, introductions, and banter with the viewers, the company executives began talking about the game's recent major events and the important information regarding them.
Maria didn't really feel the need to hear any of this because most of the events were regarding those on the first planet, Eur. She was currently on a different planet so she felt detached from all of the developments on Eur where the entire player base was concentrated at the moment.
However, when the guild, Fallen Angels, was mentioned she naturally pricked up to listen. She had already left the guild to her inevitable circumstances, but she was still interested in what her friends were doing.
Seeing that they were the forerunners of the first Main Scenario Quest of planet Eur, she was happy since she knew that the rewards were bound to be bountiful for them. With the mention of the main scenario quest, the developers on the live stream began discussing that in detail.
The main scenario was a long line of quests that could influence the development, flow, politics, and economy of the world they were in. Also, the rewards from completing the main scenario quests were very abundant. Some rewards included gaining noble titles and land from the kingdoms the players were affiliated with.
These came from the personal rewards rather than the faction collective reward. After discussing the rewards, they turned towards the rewards for the current main scenario quest and the developers revealed the use of each reward.
Naturally, the transfer gate's functions were revealed and the information about the major and minor worlds followed it. The reveal about the multiple worlds of the game shocked the viewers.
After the initial shock, the live stream's viewers began clamoring excitedly about the news. They also became more interested in the stream and the information that followed after the reveal. Now, the competition for the first main scenario quest was going to become even fiercer when it was revealed that the transfer gate was a unique reward only for the first main scenario quest.
"Damn! We really missed out! The Fallen Angels are nearly at the end of the entire questline!" Regis lamented.
"It's alright since they're our allies so it's best if we help them complete the quest! I'm sure they'll repay our kindness with a share of the profits from the transfer gate!" Norman replied.
He was a growing businessman despite his young age and he knew that it was beneficial for them that the Fallen Angels were already so far ahead of everyone else in the main scenario quests' questline.
"I'll have to contact Elizabeth and offer her our cooperation... Actually, can you help me with that, Maria?" Gerald turned to Maria and asked.
He finally remembered that the Fallen Angel's GM was her little sister's best friend. Everyone else was surprised to hear that Gabriel wanted to leave it to his sister but when they heard that the Fallen Angels' GM was best friends with Maria, they immediately understood.
Looking over at his sister, Gerald eyed her with bright, hopeful eyes.
Maria ignored the hopeful stare and continued to listen to the live stream, pretending that she didn't hear anything.
"Hey, are you going to be like that to your brother?" Gerald said after seeing that Maria was deliberately ignoring him.
"I'm busy already on my end. I can tell her about it, but any further communication and negotiations are yours to bear. I won't help brother."
"Just giving Elizabeth a call is enough for me. Anyway, what are you doing now in the game? I heard that you left the Fallen Angels, why?"
Maria remembered that event and she sighed, "... please don't remind me..."