The Child was a little nervous.
According to Old Goose, it was safest for him, who had once been in a professional gaming team with Beer Chen, to handle the recruitment this time.
Their situation was relatively unique.
For now, it wasn’t appropriate to publicly announce the existence of the “Mist Continent”.
Of course, the Child thought part of the reason for this was because Old Goose wanted to be lazy.
As for another reason, Delicious Wind Goose already had candidates he wanted to invite into the game.
It was a girl.
Of course, it wasn’t his wife or daughter or anything like that. Rather, she could be regarded as his sensei.
Although Delicious Wind Goose looked old and was already balding, he was actually only 29 years old — a young man at his prime age.
Before learning armored combat, he also studied karate, horse riding, close-quarter combat, and compound bow for some time up to the “novice” level before dropping the training.
The sensei, who taught him the compound bow, streamed outdoor survival live broadcasts in Australia. She was good at hunting bows and survival skills in the wild and had a good mastery of shooting games.
The players’ manpower was limited. Thus, it was important to have strict selection criteria for the new players. It was still fair to choose those who were closer, but priority should be given to those who would be more “useful”.
Of course, Delicious Wind Goose didn’t force the rest of the players to choose according to such criteria — for example, Lin Yiyi and Jiu Er. After all, he wasn’t particularly familiar with them. So he didn’t find it befitting to influence how those two girls choose whom to bring in.
But he and Wandering Child had known each other for a long time, so he had pointed this out clearly to the Child.
If Wandering Child managed to draw Mr. Chen in, their career as streamers would be more stable; if Delicious Wind Goose got his sensei into the [Mist Continent], they would have a reliable person to depend on in the game world.
All of these plans should be enough. Delicious Wind Goose thought.
Could those two girls get more powerful foreign aid than us?
Hmph, that will be impossible.
So, he sent the Child to Fighting Cat Streaming Platform’s headquarters while he would recruit the reliable “carry”.
[TN: “Carry” is a term used in team games where one person wins the match for everyone else.]
“Hmm… I didn’t expect that this “invitation” would operate in this way.” Wandering Child touched his waist bag nervously and found that the contract was still in it, which made him somewhat relieved.
He walked to the office and knocked on the door.
“Please come in.” A calm male voice came from the office room.
Wandering Child opened the door and found a man with a slicked-back hairstyle and thick glasses in the office.
The man raised his head and looked at the Child in surprise, “Brother Cade!”
[TN: The sound of “Cade” and “Kid” is very similar in Chinese Phonetic translations, thus the in-game name “Wandering Child” is a reference to this.]
“Beer Chen!” Wandering Child rushed to hug his old teammate.
Indeed, Wandering Child’s real name was “Cade”. However, since the name wasn’t amiable for the local community, he nicknamed his game ID “Child”.
With nostalgia, the man also stood up and embraced the previous captain, who was a lot shorter than him and also soon-to-be bald.
Immediately, Old Chen showed a smile, “I didn’t expect it, Cade! You have finally fallen in my hands!
“Hurry up and call me Dad! Otherwise, I won’t give you a salary increment! Also, I won’t update your contract!”
[TN: Filial piety and authority by age is very important in Chinese culture, thus it’s disrespectful to make someone call you “Dad” or “Grandpa”. However, it is also commonly used jokingly between friends.]
“Damn you, why!?” Wandering Child, or rather Cade put up a sour expression.
Making the other party call them Dad was an old bet they made when they were in the same team, Team Solo. Before Old Chen retired, he made the last bet with Cade on this “Dad calling thing”, and then he lost. At that time, he vowed that he would get revenge sooner or later!
At that time, the Wandering Child enjoyed it a lot.
He never expected that Beer Chen would also be so rich despite being a beer drunkard…
“Is this what the legendary Karma is?” Wandering Child looked troubled.
If you were so rich, why did you participate in professional gaming?
“It’s alright. I’m just kidding.” Seeing Cade’s troubled expression, Beer Chen laughed and brushed it off for the time being.
He motioned to Cade to find a place to sit, took out a disposable cup, and served tea.
“Neckless called me earlier, telling me that you came here to show me a contract?” Old Chen asked curiously, “Is that the project you are working on?
“Is it an investment? That’s your non-disclosure agreement, right?”
Cade knew that the “Neckless” that Old Chen referred to was “Delicious Wind Goose”. His other nickname was Neckless Crazy Goose. It meant that he had a crazy, aggressive fighting style.
Delicious Wind Goose’s real name was Xiang Tiange.
He appeared to have a short neck not because he was obese, but because he was too muscular… His image was rather intimidating.
“Not really.” Wandering Child shook his head and handed the contract to Mr. Chen from the bag.
It was a thin three-page document. After seeing the thickness of the contract, Old Chen frowned slightly.
“1. Please select a short and fluent name. As you address and introduce names to each other, the name will not be translated into that world’s language but only transliterated.
“2. Please treat this world as a real world. Don’t try to develop or spread bugs of any kind.
“3. …”
Old Chen frowned deeper and deeper as he read the contents, but he still patiently read the entire three-page contract carefully.
At the end, Old Chen saw that the last page did not allocate any space for a signature, but instead displayed a small QR code box.
After he finished reading, he wanted to say something but hesitated.
After slowly putting down the “contract”, Old Chen looked at Cade and asked questioningly, “Do you really think there is nothing wrong with this?”
“Forget about that first.” Cade avoided this topic and asked directly, “If this is true, would you want to join?”
“Of course, I want to, but…”
What’s the nonsense about the “real world”? World Creation Engine?
I’m not stupid.
How can I believe this to be real?
“That’s fine then.” Cade immediately interrupted Old Chen’s words, took out the third contract, and said to Mr. Chen, “Try to put your finger here.”
“Then what happens? Are you pulling my leg…?”
Before the word “leg” was properly enunciated, Old Chen felt a sting on his finger that was touching the contract.
A burning sensation came from the fingertips—like it was approaching a flame.
Immediately afterward, Old Chen saw the three contracts suddenly fly by himself and burn to ashes in the air.
A strange scene appeared before his eyes, “Who are you?”
An aristocratic boy with a cold face, who seemed to be only 13 years old, said in a majestic tone. Although Old Chen couldn’t understand which language it was, there were subtitles.
“Lyon, my lord. Lyon Coleman… We are from Roseburg.” The robber, with sly eyes, slightly arched his waist. There was a look of triumph in his eyes.
“Catch them, and spare none of them—”
In the face of malign plunderers, the young feudal lord wielded his exquisite rapier firmly and raised it high without fear.
…
“What?” Old Chen saw something suddenly.
That is Cade!
To be more precise, it’s Cade when he was young…
He held an oak barrel in his right hand and a torch in his left hand. His figure was thin, and he appeared firm and resolute. A guard, equipped with a gun, aimed at the wooden barrel in the Child’s hand and fired!
Boom—!
Immediately afterward, a giant ball of fire burst out, completely engulfing Cade and the robbers!
…
“Hmph, it seems to be Neckless this time?”
Old Chen saw Delicious Wind Goose wearing plated leather armor, holding a long sword. He was the brave and loyal guard beside the black-haired and blue-eyed youth. Then, an alien-like lizard monster suddenly appeared in the sky and slashed a girl in half!
…
In the end, Old Chen saw the black-haired and blue-eyed youth raise his hands solemnly like a God.
Behind him, a pair of wings protruded from the shoulders and waist each.
The wings on the shoulders held up to the sky.
The wings at the waist bent to cover the body.
There were countless pitch-black cracks on the body, resembling a cosmic space rich with shining stars.
The camera then zoomed into his jewelled azure-blue pupil.
Finally, the pupils shrank slightly and transformed into frightening silver-white vertical pupils!
Old Chen felt a chill crept upon his back as intense fear enshrouded his heart.
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Credits to MindMatrix for editing this chapter and improving the readability.