The m Liam and Serena woke up te, something which hadn’t happened in a long time. After a sumptuous breakfast they stepped outside Merida’s ic.

  Serena looked towards the sky, enjoying the sun on her skin. Opening her palm, she caught a few snowfkes in her bck glove. With a bright smile she pulled her new, favorite red coat tighter.

  Liam g his sister, gd that she liked the clothes he bought her, thinking that they made her look like a well-off young dy.

  For him it was also the first time that he seriously thought about what to wear. A modern, thick, dark-blue jacket hung over his shoulders, bined with a pair of washed-out bck trousers.

  Liam knew he probably wouldn’t win a modelling test, but it was good enough for a casual day out.

  Soon a car arrived and took the siblings away. After a short drive they reached a the edge of the upper-css district sisting of multiple rge buildings.

  Liam gnced upwards in awe, following the sturdy bridge carrying broad rails from here to the outside of the city with his eyes.

  On Falva Star trains drove about twice per hour, each of them a lot of room for passengers and cargo. They were heavily fortified, able to protect themselves in case of a beast attack, at least until the army arrived.

  Passing below the rails the car soon stopped o a spicuous building close to the train station. When the siblings got off the car, they found two young women waving at them.

  “Hey! You are Liam and Serena, right? o meet you for real!”

  “Hello!”

  Liam looked at the women, one blond and one red-haired, and quickly uood their identities.

  “o meet you, d Mel!”

  “Hi!”

  The four friends needed a few seds to warm up but with Cye’s lively personality they soon versed happily.

  A few mier a new car arrived, stopping before the entrawo men in casual clothes, looking like your everyday shot off and looked for inspicuous spots in the surroundings.

  Only a moment ter did the door open, revealing a woman wearing a broad scarf, c a rge part of her face.

  But even her inspicuous, baggy clothes couldn’t hide her stunning figure. Luckily the friends decided to meet at a side entrance of a shoppier, so there wasn’t that much traffic.

  “Ah!”

  A low shout could be heard, causing a few people to look strangely at thia. But the young woman only had eyes for her idol.

  Fortune rolled her eyes, approag the group.

  “Could you please keep it down, or else all my precautionary measures will be wasted.”

  “Sorry, Fortune. Ehm… Hi, Fortune!”

  “Ok, ok. Why are you so excited? We see each other every day. o meet you all. And don’t call me Fortune, my name is Rachel Dourand.”

  thia’s eyes became even brighter.

  “Your real name? Rachel? Aren’t you always extremely protective of your real name?”

  “Yes. That’s why I hope you keep it a secret. I’m showing you quite a lot of trust here.”

  “Don’t worry. We won’t let it slip.”, nodded Liam solemnly.

  Meanwhile, Balm wore a thoughtful expression asking Rachel:

  “Did you say Dourand? As in Douraronics?”

  “You actually know this name?”

  “Yes. I heard it from my father. He is w in the same industry.”

  “Not bad. Yes, that pany belongs to my father.”

  “Your father has a pany?”, asked Cye straightforwardly. Just looking at her face, Fortune could guess what she wao ask.

  “Yes. But retty lowkey and only market towards other panies. I ask if my father would be ied in sp uild, but don’t get your hopes up.”

  “Oh, no no, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  Cye waved her hands in embarrassment. Luckily a familiar car arrived at that moment.

  “Oh look, Silva is ing!”

  Everyourheir heads, watg a familiar taciturn ma off and open the back door, revealing a tall woman wearing a fluffy white cap above her curly, shoulder-long brown hair.

  But when everyone looked at her, another door opened and a young man in spiodern clothes jumped out. He looked around, quickly notig the group and ughed loudly:

  “Haha, hey, everyohanks for taking me along!”

  Rachel immediately lowered her head, notig a few curious looks. If she had known that Felix would attract attention so quickly, she might not have agreed when Silver Bde asked if she could bring her brother along.

  Silva also noticed the situation. She threw a side-eye at her brother, telling him to tu down.

  Felix apologized hastily. He didn’t want to antagonize his new friends at their first meeting.

  With the whole group gathered, the mood quickly became lively. Only Serena held herself back. Silva noticed that the young girl seemed to be appreheowards her. She didn’t uand the reason but also found no good time to ask.

  Liam lightly patted his sister while they ehe shoppier. It was a vast space with dozens of big stores. But the group was here for a specifie close to the entrance.

  Soon, they stood within a spacious store which was built like an arcade. People could freely test ‘a’ games on ‘old-fashioned’ soles here.

  The store wasn’t too crowded, allowing even Fortuo move with some freedom. However, the people ing to such a pce were naturally avid gamers. They not only reized Fortune, but evehers.

  The group had to spend a few mio pacify their fans before they could have some fun.

  They quickly gathered before an old PC, watg a team of five pying a strategy game. Felix’s eyes lit up as he felt it was time to prove his knowledge:

  “I’ve pyed this one before! It’s an old strategy game, which was ohe most-pyed game in the federation!

  See, you have two teams of five pyers. You choose one of 459 champions, and yoal is to destroy this core here. But first you o get rid of those towers…”

  Liam blinked his eyes incredulously listening to Felix. Why did this sound so much like a game from his past life? Letting his eyes wander around the gaming area he was met with a strange sensation.

  He watched a team of five buy ons and rush B. He watched a single pyer swing his pickaxe to destroy a cartoonish chest and reveal a bunch of ons. He watched a girl speeding through a realistic-looking city, chased by police.

  Suddenly Liam felt a tug on his sleeves, bringing him out of his stupor.

  “Borther, e!”

  For a moment Liam didn’t know what Sere. But notig how everyone approached a PC, he realized that his group wao py a round.

  Being the st to sit down, Liam and Serena nded in a separate team. thia grinned brightly as she joihem, causing Silver Bde to look at her strangely:

  “Cy, why did you wait so long?”

  “Of course it’s to py with the expert!”

  “Hey, this isn’t aboul! You don’t even know if Liam has pyed this game before. If you want an expert, you have to join me!”, reminded Felix unhappily.

  “Nah, I trust in the expert. I’m sure you know this game, right Liam?”

  Looking at the ughing thia, Liam didn’t know what to say.

  Luckily two random people came at this time, taking the free spots, causing the game to begin.

  After a short discussion thia vinced Serena to go to the bot ogether with her, while Liam roamed the jungle.

  When the game began Felix aggressively pressured the mid was quickly frustrated as Liam always showed up just as he was about to go for the kill.

  Simultaneously Liam somehow mao get thia ahead, while Serena was happily healing her.

  Liam was gd to see thia and Sere along well one, and made sure not to let them suffer any hardships. Very much to the distress of Fortune and Balm opposite them.

  Luckily everyone had their fuhough the game ended rather one-sidedly.

  Trying out a few mames the group were amazed when Liam proved his prowess in most of them. Although he wasn’t an expert in all games, he simply had more experiehan most of his friends. Only Felix could go head-to-head with him, kindling a small rivalry.

  Afterwards the friends grabbed something to eat, spending their time leisurely until Silver Bde brought up a topic she had been thinking about.

  She suggested establishing a gaming house for their guild. In her mind it should taihing from fts for the embers te unity spaces to discuss tactics.

  After some p, everyone involuntarily g Liam, w if Silver Bde came up with this idea to protect their expert.

  However, thia and Mel didn’t think much about it. They were extremely hyped up, knowing that all the top guilds had something like this. Even if the guild members didn’t live there, gaming houses served as physical headquarters, representing their guilds to the outside.

  The two guild leaders were naturally overjoyed, but how to fihe project remaio be discussed.

  mykrail