New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 963: Meeting The Storm

She walked with Ri-Chu, heading over to the other young man, who had been patiently waiting beside a pile of crates.

When Kary got near him, she started feeling faint traces of mana on him, which led her to believe he was a player. The feeling was too weak for him to be awakened yet.

Hearing footsteps, the young man turned around, meeting Kary's gaze first, in which she could swear she saw a spark of blue. But the mirage was fleeting, and she felt no mana reaction, so she ignored it.

'Must have been my imagination.'

She extended her hand, opening her mouth to speak, but he spoke first, before she could place a word.

"Kary Deveille, also known as the vice-guild leader of Paragons, Phoenix. It is a pleasure to meet you face to face at last," he said, his knowledge about her catching Kary off guard.

His words were filled with confidence, contradicting his supposed enthusiasm for wanting to meet her.

"I see you know about me. I am sorry to say the knowledge is not reciprocated, as I know nothing about you. To whom do I have the honour?" she asked, as the young man, whose identity remained a mystery, grabbed her hand.

"My apologies. I should have introduced myself first. My name is Liu Yan. My friends call me Yan and the online community calls me Stormbringer. I believe you have met Stormbringer before," he said with a confident smile.

That's when Kary clicked on why he was being so confident-because he was not a nobody. No one had ever gotten an interview offline with him since he was so secretive about his true identity. But everyone in the community knew he was a young upstart.

As luck would have it, in ToB, Stormbringer had reached the Heavenly Thousand before even reaching max level, as he had chanced upon an extremely rare monster, and gained looted a piece of legendary equipment in his first week.

And as ToB went about gear, Legendary pieces would stack with the user's level, meaning you didn't need to change them out once you found one.

With this, he had risen at a vertiginous speed through the rankings, stopping in the top ten only once he had reached the max level.

This explained his carefree attitude. He used to be at the top, just like her.

And, although he was lagging a bit behind in New Eden, he was still a top hundred player. Kary was also impressed by his lack of an accent.

"Well, Stormbringer, it is a pleasure to put a face to the name finally," Kary said with a smirk. "I am surprised to find out you are not from North America. Your speech patterns and lack of accent on your online interviews could have fooled anyone," she added.

Liu Yan smiled at her, his eyes almost turning to slits.

"I may be Chinese of descent, but I was born and raised in the States. I'm from New Jersey. But we are veering off from the reason for my being here today," he said, going back to a serious expression.

Kary became serious as well, simply for one reason.

If he was in the ranking where he was, there was no way he was not awakened. Which meant he was suppressing his mana to the point she could barely feel it.

"Yes. That was my next question. What brings you here, and why were you so eager to meet

us?"

As they were talking, Ri-Chū stood there, to the side, stunned by who he had been talking to all along. They had never really shared their gamer pseudonyms, and only that they both played New Eden.

The only reason Liu Yan knew he was part of Paragons was that he claimed he had recognized him from the tournament of champions. Yet, Rì-Chū couldn't say the same.

Kary silently texted Alex, telling him he might want to come to the hangar ASAP.

To which he simply responded, *OMW*

"As I'm sure you know, I am still without a guild, since I always preferred to play solo. But I have a nagging feeling that I won't be able to do that for much longer. Something inside the game feels off, and it's the same out here. So I came with an offer," Liu Yan said.

Kary raised her hand up, stopping him before he could continue.

"I mean no disrespect for interrupting you, but this isn't something that I alone will be deciding whatever your offer is. I already told him to come out; just give him a few seconds."

Liu Yan frowned at her words.

"Him? Him who?"

And as the words escaped his mouth, Alex made his entrance.

With a heatwave that almost singed the young man's eyebrows and a momentary blaze of black fire, Alex used a mix of two of his remaining demons' powers, in an attempt to dissuade any would-be assailants, if there were any.

He had immediately assumed it would be someone from the Zhong-Kui, since they were in -China.

But, when he saw the young man looking at him with a mix of surprise and confusion, Alex immediately reverted to his human form.

"Sorry... Kary said to come ASAP. I thought there were enemies..." Alex said, now feeling stupid for making a grand entrance.

"No. Colour me impressed," Liu Yan said, clapping his hands.

"He does have a sense for the theatrics, doesn't he?" the young man added, looking at Kary, who was shaking her head.

"If we were being attacked, I would have alerted you with mana, not a text," she admonished

Alex.

Alex's pitiful face, as he apologized again, made Yan bellow out in laughter.

This interrupted Kary's admonishing and made Alex wonder who this guy was all the more, now that he knew it wasn't an enemy.

They waited for the young man to stop laughing before he spoke again.

"I apologize if I seemed rude for laughing, but this scene was just too comical not too. The alleged strongest player in the world, even though he's sunken down on the level leaderboard, and the most renowned guild's guild leader, getting sermon'd like a child. It's not every day one would expect to see that."

"Happens more often than you'd think," Kary grumbled under her breath.

"In any case, could we go somewhere more private to hold a discussion?" Yan added, wiping away a tear sprouting from his eye.

Alex looked at him strangely but figured it was safe to be around him, given Kary didn't seem

hostile toward him.

"Sure. Come on board."