Zen came to a very familiar bar and did not know if he should be thankful or sad that he had eight fewer drinks to buy.“Hey, kiddo! You’re back. How did it go? I heard that you were quite the star, among other things.”Vera, the barkeeper, was still as short as ever. Zen forced a smile and nodded. Maybe this was why people drank. The act of pouring their worries down with a cup and forgetting about reality for a moment was the same as how the original third young master indulged in virtual games. Only, it was now drinking in a virtual world.“I’m back for the game clip highlights for the event,” Zen told her.Vera chuckled. “Ninety-two shots now. You might not have that bad of a hangover tomorrow. Are you sure you want to down all of them in one go? There has been no announcement for the next event yet. You don’t have to hurry.”Zen shook his head. This was precisely why he was here tonight, ri

As Zen rolled the food trolley with Bolt and Yelena in tow. He thought about the few ways he could react to seeing everyone in the guild again.  The first was to pretend that everything was alright and go back to that more playful atmosphere to lighten the serious mood. There was nothing wrong with lingering in the celebratory mood after their victory against Guild Carnage. However, his reaction that morning when Liu Feng woke him up was a little too strange for the Seer to overlook it. The best option was to remain silent and not attract too much attention to himself. It usually worked while he was still working as a chef when he was a civilian. On good days, his boss would completely forget him and Zen remembered how he would share the stolen meat with Celine on days like that. It was a good solution if the situation allowed him to play a background character. Unfortunately, Zen had no idea his party members would allow him to remain a background character.

The invigilators took their leave after helping to clean up. Zen heaved a sigh of relief now that the two troublemakers weren’t in the same space. He hated to play mediator for a commando and a muscle woman.Now that the party was together again, Zen took a good look at them. The ninety-two shots he drank gave him more insight into the kind of people they were. Zen should not be very shocked at some of their brutality. However, there were some things he felt the need to let them know.“I saw the game clip highlights,” Zen cut to the chase. “Some of them weren’t very pretty. I hope you’d bear with me as I recall everything from the notes I made after watching them. It’s quite a long list, and most of them are observations on my end with personal opinions. To Kanzaki-san and big brother Wind, I hope you won’t make r

Although nobody spelt it out explicitly, Zen could tell that they did not like the idea of adding someone else into the party. He wasn’t sure if it was because they did not like Damian or if they just did not want anyone else joining them.Regardless, the young cook was determined to persuade them. If Oritha could switch sides, talking to Damian and getting him to lend them his abilities would be possible too. After all, he had a less disagreeable personality to work with.The Cyborg was a mysterious person, and even after asking Faceless to stalk him, Zen had yet to receive any useful information about him. Apart from how the Cyborg hardly eats and spends most of his time locked in his room, Faceless did not get any useful information.“Why him?” Sasha asked, clearly distressed.

Meeting in the VR game was very different from seeing each other in person. Many of the newly joined guild members who were diving for the first time did not know how to use the various commands. Most of them only excelled at smacking objects and breaking them. Some of the chattier and brash guild members found themselves becoming disliked by the NPCs.Akiko deadpanned. Her expressionless features were dull as she watched the group of over thirty people act like immature civilian school children. These were the people she had in the army to create the miracle they needed? No matter how capable Remi and Charlie were, it would be a lot of work organising these youths who had no chemistry with each other or any idea about teamwork.“Listen up,” Akiko barked. She wasn’t used to raising her voice but surprisingly, it did not hurt her throat in the