Pride Online

Chapter 616: The Plea Part III

“Ah... the French grandmother.”

He muttered while recalling what Waree had told him not so long ago. This lady named ‘Elise’ was what the Pride’s supercomputer, the ‘Alice System’, derived from.

“Is this Alice? She’s really pretty.” He stroked his lips. “I understand now where Nam and Ms. Nittaya got their beauty from.”

He looked at the next photo.

There were not only Mr. Payu and his wife anymore.

This one was of a group of people. And they were super familiar to him. From the far left, it was Sander, his teacher. He looked a lot younger than now, but Wisana remembered the face very well. Next to him was the lady with unique silver hair, Viola. She was arguing with a short-haired man in a white robe. He remembered that he had seen this man in some old photos and a book about the Bunny Burner guild in the Pride’s library.

“Winter?”

Wisana said the name out loud.

Was there a photo of Viola and Winter together? Were they not enemies? Even though it showed that they were arguing, it did not look like they hated each other. There was also a cute girl who was trying to stop them.

The girl whom he recognized as Winter’s little sister. Natalia.

And the last person in the photo...

The man was standing at the far right. He was a long-haired man with a bad-boy vibe. He was clearly bored to see Viola and Winter arguing.

Even though he seemed to be a lot younger than now, Wisana would never forget his smiles and that daring vibe of his. He put his hair up in a ponytail. His eyes were light yellow.

“Pa?!” Wisana shouted. “Pa used to play the game, too? More importantly, he knows Sander, Viola, and Winter?!”

“Hahaha... You seemed so shocked.”

Wisana did not have the time to look more closely when a voice of an old man sounded from behind him. He was startled and quickly turned around. The old man with slicked-back grey hair, looking very respectable, was there sipping his coffee on the sofa since God knew when. Wisana’s lips were parted in awe.

“It seems Vin had not told you anything about his adventure in Pride. He was a bad boy back then, hitting on so many girls just like now.” He smiled cheerfully. “This must be the first time you see this, right, a photo of Vin when he was in Pride. I have a lot, actually, especially the ones of him and my children.”

“Y... Yes?”

Wisana could only blink.

Other than being shocked about the old man suddenly popping up behind him, he was also surprised that his dad was friends with Sander, Viola, and Winter in Pride!

“I... I’m so sorry. I didn’t intend to pry.”

Wisana quickly apologized. The old man smiled gently back at him.

“Don’t worry. Anyone who comes here is interested in those photos. They say that my life should be made a novel.”

He smiled delightfully. It was obviously the same smile as the man in these old photos.

“What’s wrong? You seem confused.”

The old man smiled at him. Wisana was still in awe of the information he had just received.

“Ah... you said ‘children’. Did you mean Ms. Nittaya’s?” He asked.

“Yes.” The old man beamed at him. “Don’t you see, in that photo? There’s a man and a white-haired woman arguing with the man’s little sister being the peacemaker. Those two are my kids.”

“Huh?”

Hearing that, Wisana immediately turned back to the photo!

The man who was fighting with the white-haired girl was... Winter.

And the peacemaker was... Natalia.

Natalia... Nittaya?

“What~!?” Again, Wisana screeched loudly.

----------------

“Sugar?”

“Ah... No, thank you. I like my coffee black.”

It felt kind of stuffy in here.

Wisana was now sitting on a sofa. In front of him was the so-called wizard of e-commerce, Payu, one of the most respectable men. He was even well-known internationally.

It felt strange that the man was pouring him a coffee right now.

“You and Vin have a lot in common.”

The old man chuckled and passed the white ceramic coffee cup to him.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, son.” Payu smiled at him and sipped his coffee. “How’s it? I heard you just took my naughty granddaughter to Chiang Mai. I hope she didn’t bother you much.”

“N... Not at all.” Wisana scratched his head. “Nam... Ah... The little sister behaved well. She didn’t do anything to bother me.”

The old man suddenly let out loud laughter.

“HAHAHA! You don’t have to be so formal. Talk normally and please stop being so distant. It tickles.” He chuckled. “And you don’t have to back her up. She may look cute and nice, but she’s pretty hard to handle. I raised her myself, so I know her well.”

Wisana laughed awkwardly. He did not know if he should go with the flow or not. At least, he really wanted to tell him about the tail light of his car that she had just broken.

But he seemed to love his granddaughter very much...

So, maybe it was better not to.

Wisana drank a big gulp of coffee.

“Ah... Na, my son.”

“Y... Yes?”

Wisana halted and stopped drinking. He had not gotten used to how he called him ‘my son’ since no one had ever called him that before.

“I heard that you’re not into games?” The old man smiled happily.

Wisana blinked and smiled awkwardly.

“It’s not like I don’t, but I’m not good at it, so I better not.”

“I see. I heard that you lost to a five-year-old kid at the mobile Snake and Apple game?”

Payu laughed again. The boy was prompted to laugh, too.

What a lousy dad!

What had you told him?!

“That means Pride is the first game that you play the longest, right?”

The young man froze a little before he nodded.

“I’m very happy to know that. Even a boy like you is addicted to the game, and even becomes one of the most influential players in Pride, too.”

“It’s not that big of a deal.” The boy scratched his head.

“My son.”

The old man’s voice was a little lower this time. The boy noticed that and froze.

“Yes?”

“Let me ask you this. Frankly, what do you think of Pride, son?”

“Eh..?”

The younger man went quiet for a while to think about the answer. He was still confused about what the old man was trying to say. Payu smirked after a while.

“For me, I love it more than anything.” Payu beamed. “It was more than a dream. It was something that my friends and I helped develop with our sweat and tears. I’ve lost so much just to get to this day. However, when I see that everyone in every generation is enjoying it, I think it’s more than worth it.”

Wisana was just sitting there, keeping his face straight. His amber eyes glanced at the old man before he let out a long sigh.

“Even though your happiness comes from the sacrifice of human brains to build the main beta server?”

The unexpected question made the old man halt.

The old man looked back at him as if he wanted to read his mind. And it was Payu who smiled a little and sighed.

“My son, you know this, too?” He asked.

“Yes.” Wisana nodded. “I didn’t want to believe it at first, but linking brain waves can’t be done with any other tool but human brains.”

Wisana sighed softly. He put his coffee cup down. His eyes were still locked on the old man’s as if he wanted to squeeze out the truth. No matter what, this was something he could not accept.

“And what do you think about this?” Payu asked.

Wisana pressed his lips and avoided the gaze.

“Disgusting.” He gritted his teeth. “Knowing that the world that I love is controlled by corpses whose brain is the only thing that functions, what would you feel about it?”

“I feel great.”