The sensation assaulting Liam’s body gradually subsided. He covertly moved his muscles to gauge the difference.

  My body is only somewhat stronger, and the effect mainly be felt in the defense. Martial arts and the game stats don’t seem to mutually boost each other much. I’m at most simir to a level 30 pyer with unon equipment.

  While Liam was thinking, his and Serena’s taxi arrived. Soon, they were back at home, tiredly sloug on the couch.

  Liam felt like dozing off but under his sister’s urging he was dragged to the kit to prepare dinner.

  While cooking some soup, he gnced annoyedly at Serena, who didn’t take her eyes off his hands:

  “What are you staring at?”

  “I’m making sure that you adhere to the recipe.”, stated Serena looking like a chef who had to take care of their clumsy apprentice.

  “Don’t you trust in my skills as a chef?”

  “I have thought about it for a long time and after eating Merida’s food I came to the clusion that you are indeed a bad chef!”

  Liam’s body froze aared at his sister with an open mouth.

  “Then why even drag me into the kit?”

  “Because my brother’s cooking still tastes the best… as long as I keep watch!”

  “You little…”

  Liam didn’t know whether to ugh or cry. He tio cook, doing his best to please his little supervisor.

  Soon Merida came bad was weled by a juice piece of tender beast meat.

  Merida watched the siblings serving food with a warm look. However, she kept mulling over certain a problem since receiving a call today.

  Merida was somewhat absent-minded during dinner until Liam announced something:

  “Merida, I have to tell you something. We might be moving out in the near future.”

  “Really? Good, good.”

  Liam felt a pang of guilt in his heart notig the doctor’s relieved expression. But Merida seemed to uand his thoughts and quickly expined herself:

  “Don’t misuand me! I love having you here. I have to admit that I felt lonely at times, but sinoved in it has been much better.

  However, I received a call from Mara today.”

  “Mara? Your daughter?”

  Liam was surprised, but he could already guess the dire this would be heading.

  “Yes. Mara has been offered a job and will return to Falva Star.”

  “Wow, gratutions!”

  “gratutions!”, echoed Seree her slight unwillio leave Merida. But the overly mature young dy khat they couldn’t stay in someone else’s apartment forever.

  “Thank you. And don’t be sad Serena, we see each other any time. I’m sure you guys and Mara will get along great. She’s also pying Fate of aboul.”

  “Sounds great. What do you think Serena?”

  “Yes…”

  Liam smiled calmly, patting his sister’s shoulder.

  “So, what job did Mara get?”

  Immediately a sparkle could be seen in Merida’s eyes as she spoke in the voice of a proud mother:

  “My silly daughter relied on her luck to bee some kind of ‘chosen one’ and will now return to mahe Falva Gamier.”

  “Chosen one?”, asked Liam with a puzzled face.

  “Yes. If I uood correctly, she has been chosen by some AI as someone allowed to talk with it.”

  “AI? She is talking with C?”

  Liam reacted overly surprised, drawing strange gazes from the two women.

  “Yes. Is there something wrong?”

  “No, nothing is wrong. It’s just… extremely special. Just imagine hoyers there are. If you talk to ight be able to influence all of them.”

  Liam casually made something up to mask the real reason for his surprise. He never expected that someone else could talk to C as well. Curious, he dug a little deeper:

  “So are there more of these ‘chosen ones’?”

  “I guess so. Mara told me that eaet will build gamiers, and they all need chosen ones.”

  “What is the purpose of these gamiers?”

  “I’m not sure, Mara didn’t expi.”

  Liam, Merida, and Serena talked some more during the rest of dinner. It was mainly Merida proudly introdug the achievements of her daughter, eared to be everything but silly.

  While the trio spent a harmonious evening, the same couldn’t be said about Silva. The young woman wore a geous red dress, drinking precious liquid surrounded by a few dressed-up men and women, one more fake thaher.

  A brightly smiling, blond woman was stantly throwing out pliments:

  “Silva, gratutions oing the first clear! As soon as Fate of aboul came out, I knew you would be successful! Have you pyed many games before?”

  “No, never…”

  “A natural talent! Your potential is unlimited and your eye for people immacute! Say, are you pnning on founding a guild now that the system is open? With your team as a foundation, you make it big!”

  “No, no. I am thinking about being a sponsor.”

  “I wish I had your eye for business…”

  Silva knew what this woman was fishing for. Although she came to this social gathering to draw out some sponsors for thia, it was useless telling this to the woman in front of her.

  After all, with her retionship to thia, Theresa would most likely prefer burning her mohan sp the guild.

  At this moment, two men arrived, both pristine white suits and with perfectly styled bck hair. It only took one look to figure out that these two were brothers.

  “Ladies, mind some pany?”

  Immediately Theresa’s eyes lit up. In her mind these two brothers were only oep below the Colvilles.

  “Ken, Way’s our honor!”

  “Haha, don’t say that. It is our honor to talk to the current rising star.”

  Not far away, indifferent eyes g the gathering group. Brayan wore a stylish grey suit, standing together with a few of his close friends.

  A mao him noticed Brayan’s gaze, speaking with narrowed eyes:

  “Ken and Wayne Deney? Opportunistic idiots. Look how they flock to her…”

  “The business world is just that realistic. Don’t mind them. After uild stands, they will e crawling back. But at that time the price will be high.”, answered Brayan coldly.

  His few friends nodded calmly. However, who knew how many of them wished they could be in Ken’s position but were held back by their close ties to Brayan.

  Now they were forced to watch as more people gathered around Silva, seeking opportunities. Finally, the young woman took the ce to officially annouhe formation of Cye’s guild and ask others if they were ied in deals.

  Theresa’s eyes immediately went wide, her voice rising by an octave:

  “thia will be the guild leader?! Are you crazy Silva? Why don’t you keep the guild in your own hands?”

  A few of the gathered people looked at each other puzzledly, one of them voig his doubts:

  “Who is thia?”

  “thia is…”

  Before Theresa could tialking, Silver Bde interrupted her, knowing it was important to trol the versation:

  “thia of Meyenn, some of you might know her. She is a good friend of mine.”

  “What good friend, she is just…”

  Theresa gritted her teeth, about to unleash a tirade. Everyone could see that there was some bad blood between her and thia. But wheried to talk, she was immediately interrupted again, this time by Wayne:

  “Of Meyenn? The on producer?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Ah, I heard of it. An up-and-ing pae their short history!”

  The others rolled their eyes. They realized that Wayne was trying to curry favor. pared to the bigshots present, Of Meyenn were barely passable.

  However, despite their thoughts, many were quick to echo Wayne’s words:

  “I’m sure with thia in the lead, this guild will soon be known throughout Falva!”

  “Good choice, Silva!”

  “Sign me up for iment.”

  Ken also chimed in with a sunny smile:

  “I think it’s clever to not lead the guild yourself. Silva, what do you say, each of us could provide ten million to buy 26% of the shares and we could lead the guild to success. Together.”

  Silva felt some disgust with the way Ken spoke the st words, but outwardly she put on a polite smile:

  “Sorry, but the shares are already locked. We discuss sponsorships, however.”

  Immediately the atmosphere froze. Although Silva always used the word sponsorship, everyone guessed it was only her way of putting it nicely. No one expected that the guild really didn’t pn to give out shares.

  “You… have you misspoken?”, asked Ken carefully.

  “No. The guild shares are separated between my party members, and we don’t pn on handing out new ones.”

  Ken looked at Silva incredulously. Even Theresa almost criticized Silva but she ged her words at the st moment:

  “Silva, was this thia’s idea? Why are you going along with this?”

  Silva swiped her eyes over everyone, sighing inwardly. She was tired of dealing with these selfish people.

  “I said what I have to say. Let me know if you are ied.”

  With those words Silva turned around and walked away, leaving dozens of stunned faces behind. Theresa took a deep breath. Suddenly she came up with an idea, approag Ken.

  The only one following Silva was Wayne.