Grantz settled into their assigned base in an orderly manner.
Time was a little tight the day they arrived at the Central Planet. Only temporary accommodations had been set up.
Ye Muo’s bedroom was exactly the same as the one he had back in Grantz, to the point where he thought he was still in the palace for a moment when he got up the next morning. It wasn’t until his bare feet touched the floor that he realized he wasn’t in Grantz anymore. Then he put his shoes on properly and opened the door.
His gaze flickered in and out of his room as he murmured, “I can’t believe this was all set up yesterday. Adlet really is very capable.”
It only took the butler one day to get the Grantz’s living quarters in order.
Ye Muo marveled at the carpet, decor and even the stairs themselves as he headed downstairs. Everything was in the same style as the palace, like it had somehow cloned itself. Only when he looked out the window did Ye Muo recall that he was in a foreign land far away from home.
Adlet heard the commotion from upstairs and glanced up at Ye Muo. Theodore was trailing behind him with an identical tray. “Come with me, Your Little Highness. Breakfast has already been prepared.”
Theodore rolled over to Ye Muo. [Here is your milk, Xavier.]
Ye Muo made a sound of acknowledgement as he followed Adlet into the dining room.
Even a dining room this large seemed crowded with all the Grantz gathered. They were up to their usual noisy antics. Norton sat at the head of the table, ignoring his younger siblings out of habit as if he was the only one in the room.
The Grantz were just discussing who would be assisting Gu Chuan during the tournament. Secretary-General Lin had brought word earlier this morning that, in order to assist a foreign nation without changing one’s nationality, a list of participants had to be submitted in advance.
Adrian recommended Ano, “Let Ano go. He’s useless anyway.”
Bert sighed dramatically before declaring in an exaggerated way, “Don’t say that, Adrian. Be nicer to your little brother. You’ll offend his delicate sensibilities.”
“Really, guys?” Jacob commented as he ate breakfast.
Ano knew better than to engage them by now. Instead, he turned to drag Dylan into the fray. “Dylan should go. He eats the most.”
He worked out the kinks in his arm before continuing, “As for me, I’ll be too busy taking Ye Muo out to play. We’ve already make plans, right Ye Muo?”
Aria changed topics, “I want to take Ye Muo out too! You’re so cunning, Ano.”
Jacob set down his teacup. “We can all take him out, ah. It’s not like there’s anything else to do right now.”
He and Aria seemed to exist in a completely separate world from the others.
Meanwhile, the others continued their argument.
Dylan snorted as he cracked his knuckles with an unfriendly look in his eyes.
Ano wasn’t the least bit afraid. He still had Helene in between him and Dylan to act as a buffer. “Look at Dylan, Big Sis Helene.”
Helene immediately started rolling up her sleeves.
Bert fanned the flames enthusiastically like he always did. “One vote for Dylan from Ano. Anyone else?”
Helene immediately pulled her sleeve back down and pointed at Bert with her twin brother. “It should be whoever agrees to go, of course.”
Norton ignored all the commotion. He slid the glass of milk in Ye Muo’s direction after the child took a seat next to him.
Ye Muo obediently reported his schedule to Norton, “Ano said he was going to take me out to play later.”
Norton inclined his head. His psychic power was constantly monitoring Ye Muo anyway.
“Can I take Theodore along?”
Norton glanced at Ye Muo and spoke a few more words than usual for once, “Yes, but you must take responsibility for it.”
“Just like Ano will take responsibility for you.”
Ye Muo sobered up in turn. He understood Norton’s meaning. Ano had to look after him as he was escorting Ye Muo on this trip, but Theodore would be Ye Muo’s responsibility alone. “I will.”
Ano took a moment from the heated argument, “Of course I will too. We’ll head out after breakfast.”
Then he turned back and stated petulantly, “I’m not going unless I have to.”
Bert continued, “Who should go between Helene and Dylan? What do you think, Dylan?”
Dylan scoffed in response.
Helene already had one foot planted heavily on the table as she stared Dylan down. “Of course you’ll be the one going. Well? Do you disagree?”
Ye Muo was about to pick up his glass of milk when the table shook. Some of the drink splashed out. A droplet happened to land on his nose. Ye Muo blinked after a moment.
A hush quickly fell over the long table, interrupted only by Helene’s unrepentant laughter.
Aria poked Helene and whispered, “Big Brother’s still here.”
Helene froze. She sat down properly before sneaking a peek in Norton’s direction.
Norton wiped the drop of milk off Ye Muo’s nose. “Helene will be going.”
The dining table remained quiet still.
Adlet came and skillfully replenished the empty plates. He handed Norton a napkin and gave Ye Muo a new glass of milk. “It seems like we do require a more shock-absorbent table after all.”
Norton looked at those around the table. “All of you seem quite idle.”
Jacob, who wasn’t involved in the ruckus, boldly but cautiously replied, “I think I’m alright, Big Brother.”
Norton stated as he rose from his seat, “Then we should start training.”
Jacob couldn’t help but grumble over the channel: [Whoever trains with Big Brother is going to die.]
Norton: [That won’t happen.]
Once Norton left.
Everyone started getting noisy again, “It’s all Helene’s fault.”
“What, no! Dylan’s clearly to blame.”
Jacob was unusually crestfallen, “I know I excluded Big Brother on that message…”
Aria regarded him with pity. “And I remember telling you not to act up under Big Brother’s nose. You’ve never been able to exclude him, he just didn’t bother to respond to you.”
……
Lakely was still livestreaming. He had toured around Sonan and Allurya’s bases already and taken pictures with some of their star participants.
However, the superstar participants already knew the rules of the Central Planet well. They were all sequestered away in their bedrooms or bathrooms.
Bedrooms were another off-limits area, but not to the degree of the living quarters of the nation’s leader. Spying on others was allowed on the Central Planet. People were allowed to freely enter most rooms. Of those that they were not allowed to enter, they could still peer inside. Some particularly idle individuals even camped outside of the rooms of superstar participants to try and get some footage of their rooms and identify which items inside belonged to them.
The activity attracted its share of attention online.
Lakely was somewhat excited. “Looks like we’re in luck today. Sonan and Allurya’s new recruits seem quite energetic. Now that things have settled down and restrictions have eased, there have been a steady stream of people heading to the commercial districts.
“As usual, there is no training for the first few days. We’ll probably see key members out and about lately. After all, the robotics street of their nearest commercial district is known as a must-visit destination. I’ve turned on notifications for their coordinates.”
There were several types of events during the resource tournament. Large-scale command battles, small skirmishes between squads of predetermined size, and individual matches. Due to the first type of events, there were actually quite a number of participants involved. Most of the attention was centered around key members of each team. Aside from exceptional cases, most key members participated in all three events types or at least the first two.
[Lakely is really dedicated to laying in wait. Also, that robotics streets really is cool. I would buy a souvenir if it wasn’t only open to tournament participants. Oh well. At least I won’t blow my paycheck this way.]
[They’ll probably come over the next few days. There’s not much to do now and there aren’t many people around yet. Besides, I know anyone who can see that giant fish won’t be able to resist taking a closer look.]
[I want them to fight so bad… (But isn’t that fish called a great white shark?)]
[You guys are so bloodthirsty. I am too. (It’s been nicknamed ‘the king of the sea’)]
Lakely suddenly paused. “Wait a sec.”
He tapped the skin behind his ear to open an interface.
Displayed was a map of the Central Planet. Lakely zoomed in to the area Sonan and Allurya occupied. There were a number of tiny red dots scattered around Sonan and Allurya’s bases.
[Lakely actually bought a personal coordinate tracker! And such a detailed one at that. Must have cost a fortune. I heard these things are charged by the minute. RIP Lakely’s wallet.]
[Commenters like him earn a fortune. This is nothing.]
[The Alliance sure knows how to rake in the big bucks, even monetizing things like location data. At least we can find some comfort knowing that a portion of the money will go to the contestants themselves. You could almost say we’re donating to them with a few extra steps added.]
[Did you buy coordinates for core team members on both sides? There aren’t enough displayed for everyone. That ping just now probably means someone went to the place Lakely set up notifications for.]
“People from both sides are outside right now. Bring out the popcorn.”
Lakely quickly headed to the commercial district. He changed Allurya’s coordinates to another colour so they were easier to tell apart. There weren’t as many dots in the center of the commercial district. Just five split of into two groups. Three yellow dots represented Allurya while two red ones represented Sonan.
“There’s still quite a distance between them. If we hurry, we’ll be able to see everything go down!”
[I can’t believe I’m going to get to see it firsthand. Hurry up, Lakely! Buy a teleport with my donation!]
[Hurry up, hurry up! What if they’ve already finished fighting?]
[Did you guys even consider the possibility that they may not run into each other?]
[That’s impossible. Not all of the contestants have arrived yet. The streets are practically deserted and there are only AI assistants around because the actual staff members aren’t ready yet. You can see from one end of the street to the next. At least in the other instances you can run into other netizens. Lakely has an entire one to himself.]
Lakely didn’t have time to banter with them. He swiftly bought a teleport and headed to the designated coordinates.
Any action not possible in real life would incur a cost on the virtual Central Planet, even if you were the only one in the instance.
……
In the end, only Ano managed to successfully head out with Ye Muo. He was in high spirits despite knowing he’d have to make up for the training afterwards.
He had the air of a proper guardian around him, remaining a step behind Ye Muo like Norton usually did.
Ano crossed his arms and graciously said, “Let me know if you see anything you like. I’ll buy it for you.”
Ye Muo was gracious in turn. “Thanks, Ano!”
There was hardly anyone out on the streets.
Ye Muo peered at the shop displays on both sides. He thought Jacob would be interested in them.
Theodore trailed behind Ye Muo, freezing up from time to time. This worn shell was beginning to give out.
However, Theodore’s analysis suggested Ye Muo was the sentimental sort, which is why it never swapped out this shell.
Theodore gradually fell behind Ye Muo.
Ano took note of the group of three up ahead before glancing over his shoulder. Those two didn’t seem that weak either. These two groups were the only ones of any note on this street. Ano quickly dismissed the thought. The five of them wouldn’t pose any threat even if put together.
Ano strolled down the street, watching Ye Muo and Theodore run about in front of him.
Theodore paused once more. This time, it was because of the data it got wind of instead of another malfunction.
It had been attempting to discreetly infiltrate the system since their arrival. It made sure to cover its tracks. No one had noticed anything so far.
Someone was approaching in the virtual world.
