Chapter 4 - Mysterious Genius

"Ate Cana, you're eating midnight snacks again..."

After buying the snacks some dishes, Cana called all the Internet Cafe employees so that they can enjoy them all together. The smell of the dishes suddenly filled the place immediately causing a huge wave of wailing and protests from the guests. The time for dinner already had long past yet they were being forced to smell sweet and delicious aroma from the dishes. That wasn't pleasure. That was a planned trap for the guests to buy some snacks and noodles.

"Line up orderly if you want some snacks and instant noodles." Cana called out loudly.

"Ate Cana, you should eat home cooked meals at least twice a day. Then, we'll eat instant noodles." No one rejected the temptations. They could only grab some Internet Cafe snacks and some instant noodles and eat while jealously watching the employees eat their full course meal of dishes and soups.

"If you also want to go out and eat, please don't ask any of my employees to go on any errands for you." Cana said.

"Next time, could you please tell us in advance? Can't you help deliver it to us?" A customer said.

"The Internet Cafe only has so many people. How could we deliver it all back? Enough of this nonsense, if you want to eat so much but are too lazy to buy it, go ask for their number. Wouldn't they be willing to deliver it?" Cana said.

"Ate Cana, do you have their number? Could you lend it to me so I can copy it down?" A customer asked.

"What would I do with their phone number? I have people to run errands for me. Why would I inconvenience the restaurant." Cana said.

This time, not only the Cafe guests, but the employees cried together until their cheeks were streamed with tears. Silver found an opportunity and took advantage of it to ask: "Boss is surnamed Clive right?"

"Yup, Cana Clive. I've seen your I.D. card. Your not as old as I am, so I don't mind you calling me ate or big sis. You also won't lose out." Cana said.

"Whatever you want, Big Sis..." Silver forced a smile.

"Today's shredded meat with chili sauce is really spicy. Little brat, go eat it all." Cana hadn't eaten a lot. She only tried a mouthful before putting her fork down and hurrying to drink some water. After carrying a glass of water back, she kicked Silver's stool and said: "Are you done yet? Hurry up."

"What's the hurry?" Silver asked.

"It's almost time." Cana lifted her wrist to let Silver see her watch. It was currently 11:55 PM. There were only five more minutes until the opening of the new server.

"You're also going?" Silver was a little shocked. After playing Cana's account Grazing Haze, a tenth server account, if it had started on the opening of the server, then it would now be a full five years old. Of course although that account couldn't compare with his professional peak level account, it was still quite good among ordinary players. It wasn't that easy to just simply give it up.

"Take a look at the excitement." Cana said.

The opening of the new server was quite exciting. What had originally been an ordinary day became a time when the internet cafe exploded with so much business. The areas were packed with players. As far as the eyes could see, all of the people had already opened up the registration interface waiting with their mice hovering over the still gray fifteenth server icon.

Entering the server, players rushed to get on the leaderboards, to clear the first dungeon, to be the first to kill a boss, etc.. There were too many things waiting for the players. The opening of the land caused people's hearts to bounce out, out of excitement. Cana looked towards these guests and couldn't help but be aroused by this sort of environment. She looked back at Silver, who was still picking his food. She was shocked unexpectedly that he was unaffected by this sort of environment, lacking in that sort of pioneering quality.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Cana looked as if she were more anxious than the guests.

"What's the rush?" Silver truly was calm; he wasn't faking it even a bit. But he couldn't deny Fairy Trail's successful marketing of the new server. Fairy trail's competitiveness among players ranked very high in every category. they relied on genuine skill which couldn't be casually made up with money or luck. Only, to a famed veteran who had bathed in glory, these things were only mediocre and ordinary to him.

Only after seeing how Cana's expression were filled with murderous intent, did Silver begin considering that it was worth it to give the boss some face. Finally, he reluctantly put down his rice bowl and looked for a free computer station to sit and play at.

"Shit, it looks like I'm forcing him to play. What type of person is this?" Cana berated Silver behind his back. The employees all were suppressing themselves not to laugh one bit. They discovered that this new network manager was a little bit different than the others. To be able to casually make their boss go into a bad temper just like that, this wasn't something an ordinary couldn't do.

Cana sat at the station beside Silver and registered her Grazing Haze account. The popularity of the other fourteen servers hadn't dropped much because of the opening of the fifteenth server. The older the server the more this was true. This was because starting in Fairy Trail with a new account wasn't easy. Cana had played Grazing Haze for five years until it was considered a fairly good account by the ordinary standards. How could it be abandoned so easily? What's more, later, everyone would try and rush to the cross-server Heavenly Land.

This Heavenly Land wasn't a single map. It was another world like Celestial world for celestials. The map was as big as the combined worlds of the other fourteen servers. This place had difficult instant dungeons, powerful equipment, precious materials, and also freedom. All the experts and veterans would meet up there. The Heavenly Land was a player's final goal destination.

It was about to be midnight on new years eve. In the final fifteen seconds before the release, the Internet Cafe had players who couldn't wait but begin the countdown for the release. As the sound grew louder and louder as it went closer to "ZERO" erupted, the dull color of the home page login window faded away as fast as the wind blowing to their faces. Everyone in the Internet Cafe united into one. They collectively extended their arms and hands and inserted their account cards into the login devices. Their mice collectively clicked on the Fifteenth server icon.

Cana turned her head towards Silver and spurted out blood. While everyone else entered the game, this guy leisurely opened up a web page to look at. Raising her eyebrows, she saw that the page he opened up was some sort beginner guide and walkthrough which explained how to get through missions and dungeons to take.

"Shit, you don't even know how to do this? You even need a guide to do this?" If it wasn't for the first-edition card, even if she were beaten to death, she wouldn't have believed that this guy had fifteen years of gaming experience playing this game.

"I haven't done this in so long, there's no way I could remember this!" Silver slowly unhurriedly said.

"You've never helped anyone do it before?" Cana said shockingly.

"This type of experience... I really don't have any." Silver said.

"No sense of community." Cana said in a disdained manner.

"I had no time." Silver said.

"People with no time wouldn't come to play. Gamers are people with spare time." Cana said.

"I was busy playing games." Silver said with a serious face.

"Then what was your job." Cana asked.

"Playing games." Silver exclaimed.

"Oh, are you a professional gamer?" Cana said.

Silver laughed: "I was a pretty high level one too."

"A pretty high level one? Pro-gamer?" Cana stared blankly.

Silver proudly nodded his head.

"Then you've retired!" Cana said.

"How did you know?"

"Isn't it so obvious? Cause you're already so old." Cana said.

Silver bitterly laughed at what she said.

"I was wondering, how were you able to defeat that guy in less than a minute. It turned out you were a professional even if you were an amateur." Cana said.

"Amateur?"

"I know all of the professional experts. Gray? I've never heard of your name. On the other hand, i've heard of of Silver though. If your not an amateur, then what are you?" Cana asked.

 "Ha ha ha, so it's like this." Silver laughed. 

"Don't fake it. You actually haven't retired. It's just that you weren't able to win a seat in the main team, so you were kicked out right?" Cana said.

Silver was speechless.

"No offense...But..." Cana realized that her words, had somewhat hit his sore spot.

"It doesn't matter." Silver let out a sigh.

"Don't be so discouraged. 25 years old isn't that old. If you keep practicing, maybe you can fight your way way back." Cana said.

"That's what I was planning on doing." Silver smiled. 

"If that day really happens, then I need to request a favor from you." Cana said.

"What is it?"

"A Signature." Cana said.

"Why wait until that day? I'll sign it for you now!"

"How shameless! Who would want your signature? I only want you to ask for my idols' signatures." Cana said.

"Oh? Who?"

"Irene Belserion and Silver Buster. Silver might be a little difficult. That person likes to hide." Cana said

"Oh, so it's like this?" Tears started to stream down Silver's cheeks. Silver was currently chatting with you face to face, sister.

"Yup. Only he almost never appears in public. Even if you're an amateur, I didn't know you were this out of touch. You didn't even know about this?" Cana said to him. 

"Okay, now stop playing around. Let me see your plan!" Cana waved her hand. She was no longer angry at Silver's slow and unhurried attitude.

But after her line of sight returned to the computer screen, Cana still couldn't help but say: "If you understand something clearly, you can just ask me or any one of the other managers around."

"I want to do a bit of some research first. I'll only do some missions first some attributes and skills. Other missions with rewards such as experience or equipment, it's faster to do instant dungeons." Silver said.

"Right, this is the type thinking a veteran gamer should have. Only, you don't need to research it by yourself. Flip to the last page of that guide!"

"Oh?" when Silver flipped to the last page and looked, a sudden wave of shame and shock hit. Thinking about it, this pocket guide hadn't changed much this past ten years. This was something players couldn't update that much. For missions that veterans would often choose, how could no one have come up with this type of strategy already? Right now, he needed this type of strategy. Just as Silver was ready to follow this strategy to take on missions, tears immediately started streaming down his face. He was once regarded as the games walking textbook figure! Now with a beginners guide in his hands, how could he endure this level of shame?