5- Laughing Shadows

"You know martial arts? how come I havent heard about it" Chris asked.

"You didnt ask" Mark replied.

"That is because I dont know! you never talked about it!" Chris said.

"Well, now you know about it, anyway, forget about it, what are we going to do with him?" Mark asked as he pointed at Master Wang who fainted.

"Let my men take care of him, they are coming right now, now, lets go back to the topic" Chris said.

"You wont really let me go huh?" Mark said.

"Of course, unless you tell everything I wont let you go!" Chris said.

"Uhh... how about I teach you martial arts first then talk about it later at night" Mark proposed.

"Okay, we will do that" Chris nodded.

"Good, I will first teach you the basics of martial arts, the most important for now is your body, we will train for now" Mark said.

"Okay, you will be the teacher" Chris nodded.

They then started their training and at night, they stopped and Mark started telling the story of how he learned martial arts.

But he didnt really tell the real truth, It was 50% lies and 50% truth, Mark had no reason he just wanted to lie about his true abilities.

That was what he was taught about, never reveal anything about yourself, they said.

Well, Mark surely followed their teachings.

And so in a blink of an eye, a month has passed, and the release of Alter Online is just around the corner.

Mark and Chris graduated from Grade 11 just a few days ago, and Mark was raked up some achievements as the top student of the whole Academy.

He received a scholar and money rewarded by the academy for his achievements.

Now, they are in vacation for 1 year, it was a vacation given to the students after being considered by the government after many cases of students being stressed out.

Anyway, the school also promoted the Alter Online to be played by the students, they even allowed students to trial use of Virtual Gears from the school for a week for students to experience it.

This caused excitement for the people who were waiting for the game to be released.

While waiting for the game to start, Chris and Mark has been sparring for a while now.

Chris held two daggers on his hand while Mark was unarmed.

Chris's choice of weapons were daggers and he was also talented in using one, he was flexible, fast and do not hesitate to use it.

But even with that, Chris struggled just to get close to Mark.

As Chris was finally able to get close to Mark, he swung his dagger.

*Swing!

*Pa!

A palm slapped his wrist away, Mark then extended his finer near to Chris's ears.

*Snap!

"Ouch!" Chris fell on his butt as he covered his ears from pain.

Mark just snapped his fingers near his ears but his ears were ringing.

After a while, Chris calmed down, Mark came back carrying a towel and gave it to Chris.

"Good Work today" Mark praised.

"Thanks" Chris said as he wiped his sweat.

Mark looked at Chris and observed him, In their 1 month training, Chris's strength and skills had grown, but what Mark was confused about is that, Chris never gained a muscle.

His skin was still very smooth and comparable to a baby, he was like a she, this caused confusion to Mark who had never seen something like this before.

"Is this what they call, A Girlish boy?" He thought.

*Bam!

"Ouch, why?" Mark groaned from pain as Chris suddenly stepped on his foot.

"I felt like you were insulting me" Chris replied.

"Oh... you have nice intuition" Mark praised.

"So you were really insulting me!" Chris roared.

"Now, now, lets do that later, its almost time" Mark said as he looked at the clock.

It was already 6 PM, and Alter Online will open at 12.

Mark and Chris both took a shower at their own bathroom, and ate dinner.

After Dinner, Mark decided to check the forums of Alter Online, and it was booming with Players.

[I'm Excited!!!]

[Our Guild Dragon Vikings are recruiting members, just message me if anyone is interested]

[Frozt Guild is looking for people to join our guild! just message me if you are interested]

[Wow so many guilds are recruiting!]

[Aviant Green Guild is recruiting members, just visit our official website if you are interested]

As Mark read the messages, almost all of them were recruiting members for their guilds.

"Hoo, so many guilds are recruiting, Chris are we also going to join a guild?" Mark asked.

"Join? No, we are going to make one of our own" Chris said.

"Hmm..." Mark just nodded.

"Aren't you going to ask more?" Chris said with a pout.

"Why should I? I dont have to question my boss all the time" Mark said.

"That is true" Chris nodded.

Creating a guild was not that simple, they needed tons of resources, money and manpower, but Chris already have all of them.

So Mark didnt really need to ask about it.

"Oh, what is the name of our guild by the way?" Mark asked.

"Laughing Shadows" Chris replied with a smile.

"Laughing Shadows huh? is there any reason for that?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, I always wanted to be like the shadows, there I dont have to be burdened by expectations, we are neither good or bad, we are the guild that do everything from the shadows and laugh at those who felt they were above everything! We are shadows, they think they are above everyone but no matter what they do, once the shadows emerge at the darkest moments, we are above everything" Chris said with euphoria, it was like she said her favorite quote.

"That is a good speech, but next time, properly hide the script, I saw it once" Mark said.

"Wha-!" Chris slumped back to the bed as he lost all of his energy, he was acting cool but Mark already knew about it.

"Anyway, its already time, lets go now, Mr. Laughing Shadow" Mark said with a teasing smirk.

"Forget about it now!" Chris exploded.

"I'm sorry Mr. Laughing Shadow, what you are saying is impossible" Mark said.

And so while on their way towards the gaming room, they argued with each other.

It didnt take long for them to arrive at the gaming room, it was a big room where 2 Virtual Capsules were placed.

Virtual Capsule had the appearance of the sci-fi laboratory experiment things from the movies Mark had watched, but this one was designed for the game Alter Online.

"Good! by the way, our Virtual Capsule is paired with each other so, we will appear at the same location" Chris said.

"I dont mind" Mark nodded.

"They then entered the Virtual Capsule wearing a specially made swimsuit for divers, and just as usual, it took a long time for Chris to change his clothes.

After Chris finished changing, some doctors and nurses came to supervise them, it was a perk of being rich.

Mark and Chris were checked up by the doctors and making sure everything was fine.

After that, they both entered their virtual capsule at the same time, the machine handed a breathing mask and Mark put it on his mouth.

After making sure the equipments were working properly, the nurses started the Virtual Cabin.