Pride Online

Chapter 65: Entice the tiger to leave its lair (2) Part I

“Welcome to the Pride, master.”

“Hey, Jinnie.” Wisana greeted the AI perfunctorily, feeling out of breath from hurriedly logging in to the game.

He had no idea why Maysa was rushing him in like this, not even letting him finish his dinner or take a shower. That was why he looked so awful with messy hair and sweaty clothes from tidying up the room a while ago.

If there was nothing actually urgent, he would pinch her on the cheeks!

He thought as he was looking around, seeing the tall belfry at the center of the city and these big buildings. He knew then that he was standing at the square in the Tristan capital.

“Jinnie, give me the directions to the Mirage hotel.”

“Yes, master.”

A few seconds later, a screen popped out, showing the city’s map.

Wisana could not help but feel anxious. What was this urgent about? Why did they have to meet up and talk at the hotel? He hoped that she was not in a five-year-old body again. Even though she looked cute in it, her mood swings were kind of hard to deal with. After he finished setting up his destination, he closed the map. Then he started walking.

Today Tristan was more vigorous than usual. If he paid more attention to the details, he would see that the city was cleaner than when he first got here. He remembered that the city used to be a bit dirtier, and there were some cracks on the walls sparsely, too.

Right now, the buildings seemed to be a little bit different. They looked brand-new like they were just built a while ago.

He was not sure if this had something to do with the new patch or not.

“Breaking news, breaking!”

He could only take a few steps away before there was a shout from a corner of the street. Wisana saw a man dressed in a light-yellow vest and a red cap. His hands were holding a big sign as he was yelling so loudly that it sounded like he was using a megaphone.

“Today at 18 o’clock, the Pride’s staff will be holding a ceremony of the year at the city central dorm. There will be many winners from the events to claim their honorable prizes. And everyone is invited to join the greatest event of the year. Come join the ‘Pride Academy Awards.’ The party starts at 16 o’clock at the city’s central dome.”

“There’ll be an award ceremony, too?” Wisana said amusedly. “Is it gonna be like the Golden Doll Awards in the real world? If so, there’ll probably be many game celebrities attending the ceremony.”

He said as he shrugged, thinking that he would ask about the details from Maysa or Manoch later.

“And most importantly, in the Pride Player Awards, we’ll have a special award for the winner of the hunting Lord Inferno event as well. This could be the first time that the famous Vincent reveals his face in the ceremony!”

PRUUUD!!

After that announcement, Wisana choked on his saliva, bulging his eyes at the announcer immediately.

“What’d you say!” He cried. “Vincent’s getting the award?”

He asked, then he remembered that he was the one who defeated Lord Inferno. So, the prize from the event was supposed to be given to him!

But damn, who would have thought that there had to be such a huge ceremony like this?!!

WHOOSH!

While he was freaking out, there were large-sized posters appearing on the walls like magic. They were unrolling and sticking themselves to the surface, showing pretty artwork and the name of the event, the Pride Player Awards, with pictures of various players that Wisana had never met before.

It did not take long before the event posters appeared everywhere in the city.

So, this was how the game announced the event, huh? It was like snapping the fingers, and the posters just sprouted on the walls.

He was amazed by technology just for a few seconds before his eyes caught a familiar-looking photo. It was the photo of Lord Inferno lying dead with a man with framed wings blazing furiously on his back.

It had a title, saying, ‘Who’s the monster?’

And there was the caption below, saying ‘Taken by Maysa, the amazing girl who you’ll meet at the award for the winner of the ‘Get the shot if you dare!’ event.’

A second later, the photo changed into a picture of Maysa smiling sweetly at him. Wisana could not help but feel a little bit amazed after he saw all this.

May really won the photo event.

But anyway, when did she have the time to snap this shot? And why did he look so brutal in the photo?!!!

After that, he looked at another poster next to it. This time, the amber eyes widened, his mouth gasping. Wisana tried to gulp down his sticky saliva strugglingly!

“Whoa, didn’t they go too hard on this one?”

This poster was a bit different from the first one in that it had a motion picture of the great fight scene on it. It was focusing on the good-looking face, even though more than half of it was covered by a mask. The motion picture was edited from many video clips to make it an intense battle scene between the masked man and the Lord Inferno. A picture of the man dodging the strong attacks and flying straight to the monster with the impact that made more than 2 million damage!

Then the scene started to fade and come to the man’s face. He was looking at the camera as he was smirking, driving all the girls there to screech so loudly that the man jumped.

The man who got all the attention, even though it was just his photo on a poster. The man named Vincent.

“He’s even more handsome than me.” Wisana was being sarcastic as he was letting out a long sigh.

After that, there was a text showing up like in Maysa’s picture.

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

The hottest man who defeats the king of the demons easily,

Who is he?

Find out at the Pride Player Awards!

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

Sure, keep dreaming!!!

The hottest man shouted in his mind before he ran off from the spot immediately. Now he knew why Maysa had to rush him to be online like this.

He had never expected that the Pride would do this to make him reveal himself. But did they really think that just a couple of prizes would bring him out? No way, even though they had a billion piling up in front of him, Wisana still would not be caught in such an obvious trap like this!

“(Screech!) I’m definitely going! Today I’m going to meet Vincent.” A girl screamed out after Wisana ran past her.

“Aw! So, it means that Maysa will be there, too? We can’t miss this.”

“I have to go.”

“Vincent will be there? That’s great!”

“God, is he going to actually unmask himself? Kyaa! Just seeing his smile, and I’m melting already!”

On his way to the hotel, Wisana believed that everyone who was talking about the award would include the keywords Vincent and Maysa in about 90% of their conversations.

He then understood clearly how chaotic it would be if his identity was revealed!

The tall one walked into Mirage Hotel, going straight up to room number 307 immediately. His two hands were knocking on the door, expecting it to ask him for the password again. But that did not happen, because the heavy wooden door just swung open, making him jump.

“You’re here!”

“Y... you scared me.”

The one who opened the door, sticking her face out of it was Maysa.

“Why did you open it all of a sudden? I haven’t even said the password, yet. And how’d you know it was me?”

“Stop asking too much,” she said, her eyes looking around the hallway.

“No one’s following you, right?” the clear voice said anxiously.

“Of course not.”

“Good. Now get in here and talk!”

Wisana hurriedly went inside before the big wood panel was slammed shut with a loud bang.

This room was completely different from the previous hotel. The atmosphere was clear and bright. Every window was opened wide to let the cool breeze come through. As well as the balcony that was left open and the curtains were waving when the soft wind touched them. His golden-brown eyes caught a small table in one corner of the room, noticing that there were two sets of coffee cups and some snacks on it.

That was why he knew right away that Maysa was not here by herself.

“Where’s Ae?” He asked with full confidence.

“He’s in the market. I told him to go buy some necessary supplies.”

“Huh? If he’s in the market right now, then who was with you in the room?”

“Oh, that one just left,” Maysa answered perfunctorily before she walked up to the door to lock it again.

“Who just left? Ae?”

“No. Warunya.”

PRUUUD!

He choked on his saliva again.

“Orn was here?!”

“Why are you so shocked? Yeah, I brought her in,” she said as she threw herself on the couch, tiredly.

“What were you thinking? Lucky that she left before I got here. But what if she saw me?!”

“It’s not like I wanted to, but I needed to talk to her.”

“To talk about what?”

“About many things. We talked about sharing the prize from the Lord Inferno event with her, and about your identity. I reiterated to her to not give too much of your information, especially about the butterfly effect and your actual levels.”

The tall man sat on the bed, eyes leering at the other like he was censuring her.

“Now you’re the troublemaker, May. You could have gotten me busted!”

“Huh? Why do you think you have the right to criticize me with that, Mister Vincent!” She could not help but quarrel with him. She wriggled her eyebrow, looking so annoying that Wisana clicked his tongue.

“So, why did you rush me in here? What do you wanna talk about?” The man tried to change the subject when he could not come up with a smart comeback.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Maysa said frustratedly. “Didn’t you see the city’s atmosphere on your way here?”

Wisana nodded, then he let out a long sigh.

“I’ve never thought there’d be this kind of award event, too. It’s such perfect timing for me to lay low for a while!” he said, clenching his jaws. Maysa let out a chuckle.

“You think this is a coincidence?” She asked.

“I know that the Pride staff is trying to lure me out.”

“Good. But believe me, it’s not just about the prize. There’s something else that you should know.”

“What do you mean?” Wisana turned to look at his buddy, looking anxious.