Chapter 26: 26 - Casual Encounter
Hearing Selena talk about an exclusive contract the City Government wanted to propose made Gabe frown. He didn't like the concept of exclusivity, especially when that exclusivity meant that his future growth rate would be slowed down. In all the ways he thought about it, Gabe couldn't be satisfied with that exclusivity.
"It is impossible for me to develop games for Sandstone Bay exclusively, ignoring the possible potential market I would have in other cities just for some amount of money. I believe that Ms. Carter would not propose something like this to me just for fun, so considering this, I think that the city government's exclusivity proposal does not mean that I cannot post the game in other cities at the same time that I would release it in Sandstone Bay. That is, if I understand this correctly, if I release Chapter 02 in Sandstone Bay, only then will I be able to release Chapter 01 in the other cities, right?" Gabe tried to make sense of what he had been told as he looked at Selena and tried to make out something from her expression.
On the one hand, he had achieved something good. A small smile that she showed from the corner of her mouth made stating his hunch already a little worth it, since from a beautiful woman like her, seeing her small smile was already quite pleasing to the eyes. Yet on the other hand, besides that smile he didn't get any more response from her. She just stared at him while taking a sip from her glass of wine.
Seeing that Selena had no intention of answering his inquiries for the moment, Gabe continued, "I'll take that as a yes. If the Sandstone Bay government's proposal is that I release games early in this city, I wouldn't think that's impossible. As long as the game release gap isn't too big between now and then for other cities, and the benefits I receive from doing this are not small either. As this involves my future, if I don't receive benefits that will help me in the future, it makes no sense for me to accept an agreement like that."
Gabe finally finished talking and realized that Selena had no intention of adding anything further, so he just put any thoughts of her aside and went back to eating. Despite feeling that this woman was attractive, he had no intention of acting in a way that would be begging for her attention. He'd already said what he had to say and wasn't going to go on and on just for her to keep focusing on him. If she didn't want to talk now, she could talk later.
To Selena's surprise, when the young man in front of her had finished saying his thoughts, he looked at her for a few seconds and didn't say anything else. When she insisted on remaining quiet, he just shrugged and went back to eating, not even looking at her again - just focusing on the food in front of him like that was all that mattered.
For her who was used to everyone around her trying their best to get her attention, this was something new. It often happened that men, especially, would try to act like they didn't care about her to try to conquer her attention, but she always noticed those men looking at her surreptitiously to see if she was still looking at them. However, this young man in front of her, after he finished speaking, just went back to eating without showing an ounce of interest in her! She could feel it; this boy really didn't care heads or tails about her!
'Doesn't he know about my power?' she thought, a little surprised, but she soon discarded that thought.
Considering the young man thought so far ahead for every detail he noticed, it would be impossible for him not to think about how she had reacted to him. 'He just doesn't care about me in the slightest!'
Seeing Gabe Howard's calm confidence, Selena quickly understood a bit more about him. As much as her potential dazzled other Developers, it only worked for low-potential Developers who felt they could never catch up to her. When she met other Developers, mostly Developers who also had the potential to reach Rank A, they just treated her naturally without trying to gain too much attention from her.
But to her surprise, this treatment she was receiving was not coming from anyone close to a Rank A Developer, but from a Rank F Developer, the bottom of the pyramid of Developers was showing such confidence that it shocked her.
And that confidence wasn't arrogance, as arrogant people were downright nasty. It was just confidence, confidence that he didn't have to grovel to anyone and that one day he could make it to the top, but despite that, he still treated everyone with the same respect he received from them.
'Interesting…' Selena thought, even more intrigued.
"David, contact Wilson for me and tell him that we are not very interested in Mr. Howard's exclusivity deal, but if he still wants to do a deal with us, we can offer some cadence time or maybe develop a game for him. City-exclusive in-house training, as long as the city provides the Mana Stones and generous compensation. How about that, Mr. Howard?" Selena said with a smile as she analyzed Gabe's reaction.
Hearing Selena's proposal, Gabe thought that this was really advantageous. If the city government provided him with another Seed and Mana Stones to develop a game for them, he would not have to spend anything on the development and this could earn him many Mana Units in the future.
"Yes, I think it's a great deal. Of course, I only ask that the City Government wait until I finish Residual Devil. With the game ready, I wouldn't mind making a game exclusive to the city," Gabe readily agreed, "Of course, I can only give my real confirmation after seeing the benefits the city will provide."
David was shocked that Selena had offered this deal to Gabe, as he knew that kind of deal never happened for Developers Rank F; it was normally reserved for Developers Rank D and above. But remembering how interesting Residual Devil was and how many players it captivated, he knew that Gabe had already earned the right to such a deal, unlike other Rank F and Rank E Developers who were still considered minor Developers in the eyes of the government.
Selena also smiled at Gabe's reaction and stopped talking, just focusing on continuing to eat and drink, leaving it to David to discuss the small details with the lad.
David and Gabe talked about Gabe's plans and how he was developing the games, until David gave him a really good tip.
When Gabe told David that he was using the game's Mana to continue developing the Chapters, he shook his head a little and asked Gabe, "How many Max Mana Units do you have in your Mana Pool?"
Gabe saw no reason to hide the amount and responded, "300 Mana Units."
Hearing that Gabe had already 300 Mana Units, David was shocked! But thinking about the amount of downloads his game had, that was understandable.
"300 Mana Units… If you use your Mana Pool Mana to develop part of the Chapters daily, it's basically like you are absorbing 300 Mana Units every day, which means 3 more Mana Units for your Mana Pool. As you spend most of your time at home, you don't need to have so much Mana stored in your body, especially since you haven't developed any super skills yet, so use that Mana without any restrictions to further accelerate your development!" David suggested with a smile.
Hearing this, Gabe soon understood.
'He is right! I got so focused on saving Mana in my body for some emergency and using the game's Mana to develop Chapters that I wasted a few hundred, if not a few thousand Mana Units, that I could have used to develop the next Chapters,' Gabe thought a little sheepishly.
Seeing Gabe's bright eyes and the smile that appeared on his face, not only was David pleased, but Selena was also pleased with his reaction, showing that her judgment really was right.
'That's not arrogance, just confidence,' she thought as she saw how humbly he accepted criticism and suggestions.
The conversation continued to last a few more minutes until the three of them said goodbye and Gabe went home. Mr. Brown offered to drop Gabe off at his place, but Gabe just politely declined and decided to go back alone, as he wanted to take this time to collect his thoughts with the new information he had received from this conversation.
As he walked home, Gabe was surprised to see a girl with red hair walking down the sidewalk while walking a small dog. If it weren't for the gun on her waistband right on display he'd even think this was a helpless girl, but for her to be confident enough to openly carry a gun like that could only mean she was either a cop or a Player. And considering how familiar her appearance was, Gabe was instantly reminded of a Player he'd been tracking recently and thought of how big of a coincidence it was to see her in person.
But he didn't do anything more than that. He just watched her pass by for a few more seconds before looking straight ahead and continuing walking as if nothing had happened.
Caitlyn, better known as Amoura, was walking her puppy and also noticed that someone was watching her. Using her hair to disguise her gaze, Amoura noticed that it was a very handsome young man with blond hair and a rather tall body. But despite the young man's good looks, Caitly remained on high alert, ready to draw her weapon at any moment should the young man try to do something. Except the young man just looked at her for a few seconds, as if he was enjoying the view, and then looked straight ahead, ignoring her afterward, leaving Caitlyn confused.
'He looked at me for so long. Why didn't he do anything?' She was confused.
Thinking that he could be someone dangerous, she wanted him to stop looking at her as soon as possible, but after he stopped showing interest in her so abruptly and showed that he wasn't a threat, Caitlyn felt confused by his actions and wanted to understand why he decided to stop paying attention to her.
Often women's reactions were a little confusing for men, but this was nothing more than a small episode for the two of them. Caitlyn remembered this handsome young man she'd seen while walking the dog, and Gabe remembered the pretty young woman who was possibly Amoura he'd seen on his way back from the restaurant. Neither of them spoke a word to each other, but the two vaguely recognized something in each other.
When Gabe finally got home, he decided to take Mr. Brown's advice and spend his 300 Mana Units on developing Chapter 03. He intended to follow this routine every day, thus accelerating his development to reach Rank E.
//NunuNote//
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