บท 5: Chapter 5
"Are you doing okay?" Vincent asked curiously.
"Yes, yes, I am fine" the driver quickly replied.
"Hey, if there is somewhere else you need to be, it's okay, just tell me and I'll understand, you don't have to give me any refunds" Vincent urged. He was not some difficult to deal with wealthy man, he was just a sixteen-year-old high school student.
Although there was no quest in this game this man was his driver and Vincent, although he did not care for the man personally, would not passively watch someone cry or suffer.
"A player shot my daughter, she's in surgery" the driver finally replied causing Vincent's mouth to open agape.
"I'm so sorry" he replied his voice lowered to the extreme, he suddenly felt deep shame.
Saying nothing more they arrived at his apartment building and a guard opened the door for Vincent. He got out but instead of going up he walked to the passenger door and leaned on the window. The driver rolled it down and Vincent poked his head into the car through there.
"Hey, you should go see your daughter. Just give me your number and I'll call you after. I have some cars so maybe these guys can drive me around" he said to the driver.
The driver was surprised by his kindness for a moment. This wasn't the first time players had entered the game. Those players who called themselves Beta testers had come in as far as two years ago and he knew their traits, they would never do anything that would not benefit them and they did not care in the least about the Originals who they called NPCs. This person was surprising. He hesitated for a long time before he opened his mouth.
"Sir, could you. . . buy my car?" He asked, although his expression was still stoic as when he was scolding Vincent earlier, Vincent could see the nervousness in his eyes.
He immediately understood, although his daughter was a victim of circumstances. He had no money to pay for her medical fees.
"Okay, just hold on, I'll quickly go up and come back. Just wait here" he quickly said and retreated from the window.
"Gavin, you stay with him, I'll just go up to my apartment, I'll be right back," he said to one of the guards who nodded.
Vincent hurried to the elevator, while Jim followed him. As he got into the elevator, Vincent noticed some men enter the building and although they were some distance away, having just entered the lobby, he could tell they were also his guards. As the elevator door closed, he noticed two of them going for the stairs.
Reaching his floor, he took out his keys from his pocket and inserted them into the lock. On opening it, he was relieved to find that no one had gotten into his apartment and the briefcase was still on the bed.
Jim did not enter with him and instead closed the door behind him to give him some privacy, Vincent was glad that he knew when not to follow.
Hurriedly, he began taking stacks of cash and they would disappear into his account as he picked them up.
[Received: $100,000]
[Received: $100,000]
[Received: $100,000]
. . .
All until he picked up the last.
He now had a balance of $86 million and some change when he checked his profile.
Hurrying into the wardrobe, he took off the shirt and trousers he was wearing and instead went for a gray hoodie and some jeans. Strapping the gun to his waist, he took the pen from XO Security and put it in the pocket of the hoodie. For some reason, he had developed the habit of playing with it. Jim had noticed him playing with it in the car, so they tweaked it a little so that he would have to turn it to activate the clicking functions. Without activating it, he could click as rapidly as he wanted to.
After changing, he took out a baseball hat and hurried back outside.
In the hallway, he was shocked to see Jim subduing a player and another one passed out on the ground.
"What happened?" He asked surprised and confused.
"They attacked first out of nowhere, probably some curious players" Jim replied.
Vincent had noticed now that Jim was the easy one while Gavin was strict with handling things. Perhaps Gavin would have killed them after all he had the right to.
"Let's go," he said to Jim and locked the door again before heading back down. Once he got to the lobby of the apartment building, Jim stopped him.
"You can pay your electricity bills here" he gave a tip, pointing at a security guard standing behind a cubicle behind the entrance gate.
Vincent was surprised, he had thought the ceiling fan and lights in his room were just for show. He was already starting to worry about how he would charge the computer that was still alive with a UPS battery. Then there was the charging of his phone too, he felt grateful that Jim had noticed.
"Can you please go tell Gavin to have the driver wait a little longer?" He asked.
Jim chuckled and spoke into his comms which Vincent seemed to have forgotten about. Shaking his head, he walked to the guard.
"Good day Sir" the guard greeted when he was some four feet away from the cubicle.
"I want to pay the electricity bills for my apartment. And um, is it possible to upgrade the door?" He asked.
"Yes, of course, it is, hold on, I'll put in a request for you. Your electricity bill will be five hundred a month by the way" the guard replied casually and professionally. Vincent heard some typing sounds and figured there was a computer under the desk.
"Are the guards outside yours Sir?" The guard suddenly asked.
"Yes, is there a problem?"
"None at all Sir, please just have them be careful, they have been attracting the attention of your fellow players and some might be curious enough to try something." The guard warned.
Before Vincent could say something, he noticed Jim was already speaking into his comms again so he just smiled at the guard.
"Thank you," he said to the guard raising his brows jokingly.
"So how many month's bills are you paying?" The guard asked.
"Ummm okay let's start with five months" Vincent replied not sure if he would continue to stay in this apartment for long or just buy a house.
"And the door? We have a few upgrades, here" The guard nodded and handed him a leaflet that displayed some options.
Vincent selected one, a bulletproof door with a comms system and anti-theft facial recognition system costing $60,000 and another $10,000 to install.
After paying the total of $72,500, the guard informed him.
"It will be done in. . . Oh wow, six hours from now"
Like the guard, Vincent was surprised at the speed but he remembered to thank him and gave him a $500 tip.
Stepping out of the apartment building once again, Vincent decided he would not come back to this place unless he found a reason to keep playing the game and to play above all other players, so far. . . While it was interesting, things had been too boring for his liking.
It was as if the heavens had heard him because a car suddenly screeched to a stop just a short distance ahead of them. Someone got out of it and rushed to the side walked with a gun stretched and aimed at another man with a briefcase in his hand.
"Where did he get a gun and a car from?" Vincent frowned. He didn't know why he felt so conflicted. The players were destroying this world and yet at the same time, he wanted more thrill.
"The black market, you can get anything from there" Gavin who had walked towards him at some point muttered.
Before anyone could react, the NPC at gunpoint drew out his gun and shot twice at the player, the player tried to shoot back but he missed and the second shot from the NPC went straight into his skull. As the player's body fell, the NPC rushed to it and started to gather loot.
Vincent was shocked, and all the other players froze too. What the hell? NPCs could kill them for loot too?
"That's why your security is as tight as it is. There are NPC organizations developed in expectation of players, right now they are waiting for you players to amass more wealth and then it will be chaos" Gavin shook his head when he saw through Vincent's shock.
"Let's go Sir" Jim warned when he noticed the atmosphere of the street started to change.
Vincent nodded and was led back to the Taxi, Gavin got in the passenger seat and Jim in the backseat with him. The driver, also noticing the odd atmosphere floored the car and they were soon gone.
"Not every one of the players would kill indiscriminately, it's the same with us Sir. You can be at ease. We lose more harming you than we'll gain" Jim chuckled when he noticed Vincent looking around at all three of them.
"The real world is not much different, is it? Crime rate will be high for a while but never underestimate the law" the driver who seemed to be a man of little words spoke up at this moment.
Vincent had to admit that they were not wrong. The real world was just as shitty, if not more. Here it was a little exciting for them especially as they wouldn't die.
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