After the game had concluded, it was time for each of the Montem players to go home and get some well deserved rest, especially Novis. The effort expended in the match paled next to how difficult it was answering so many questions in post.Now he actually felt a little bad having looked at Ashley and Dan, wis.h.i.+ng he would be in their shoes. Novis was currently with his little brother Bill who was walking down the street, reinacting the fight with Woo Woo.
"Then you screamed and charged at them with that chain thingy and chucked that spear and they were all dead and then you won and everyone was like whoa." Bill rapidly narrated while acting out each scene.
"I know Bill, I was the one who was there." Novis said with his face a little red.
"Hey Bro, why didn"t you tell me you beat Lucas in a one on one?" Bill asked, "Wait more so, when did this happen and how? Like I know you"re good at the game now but the time frame doesn"t match up, even if you faced Lucas a month ago I could never imagine you beating him."
"It"s not what you think," Novis replied," Me and Lucas met up in an internet café and he agreed to teach me a few things. It was a practice game where he was showing me things and he let me kill him as a teaching thing. I guess Tick decided to use this information just to hype up the next match."
"Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense, a lot of media companies will do these type of things."
Novis then went to check his phone. A video of the match between Woo Woo was uploaded online and the highlights all contained scenes of Novis. He watched the video again and again, thinking back to the game.
The video had around 60,000 views which was viral for a local county tournament between schools. Everyone in his town and the surrounding towns would have watched it. But it wasn"t like he would get stopped in the street for it, after all, the warrior character"s face that was shown not Novis" actual face and even though he was famous, it was still no where near the level of Virtual G.o.d famous.
Arthur"s videos had millions of views and were shared worldwide on a much larger scale. One day Novis hoped he would be up there with him.
****
Most of the Montem team had gone home with their parents or friends who had come to watch the game, but there was one player who remained on his won and that was Alex. He stood just outside the gate of his house nervously.
His Mum had to have found out already that he had gone missing from the house and she was without a doubt furious. As Alex went to check his phone he could see 23 missed call"s and several texts from her.
It had only made him more nervous but he had made up his mind with what he had to do. Alex Rang the buzzer and waited for it to answer.
"Mum it"s me." Alex said.
The speaker remained silent as the gates swung open.
When Alex cautiously opened the door he was immediately greeted with a big hug.
"Oh my G.o.d where were you, I thought something had happened to you. Why didn"t you answer your phone? I was about to call the police!" She said in a worried voice.
This was a surprise to Alex, he had expected her to rip him apart for sneaking out.
"Mum we need to talk." Alex stated as he gently pushed his mother away. "I"m playing VSW, and before you say anything ,this is not a request. I"m telling you. You can take my things away you can try force me to study but I love that game too much and it makes me so happy. Even if I did study, once I left home I would only be going back to the game. I went to the game today and everyone"s family and friends were there to support them. All except you. I was alone, I felt sad; now I don"t expect you to support me, but I just don"t want you to get in my way either."
Alex"s mother thought about it for a while. For some reason, her mood was different from usual. Perhaps because she had been so worried that something had happened to her son that she realized what she was doing was more damaging than helpful to her son.
"Alex, When you started to play the game when you were younger you always told me that VSW was your dream. I kept thinking to myself it"s only a phase, he will get out of it. I was just trying to get all your distractions away for you." She continued, "you know I had a dream once too. I wanted to be a dancer but my parents forced me to study and in the end, I followed in their footsteps to become a doctor as well. I thanked my parents for giving me a good job and I thought you would do the same as well. But a little bit of me always wondered would I have been able to make it as a dancer?"
Tears then started to fill Alex"s mother"s eyes. "I"m sorry son." She said as she gave Alex another big hug. "Just try to make your dream come true."
****
Back at Novis" house he had finally arrived home and was relaxing on his bed in his room. Any second now Novis felt like he would fall asleep even though it was only 7:00 PM.
"Tomorrow is Lucas"s match huh." Novis said.
"I wonder how much that boy has improved." Said Arthur. " I believe it will be a good match between you two."
"Do you really mean it?" Noivs asked.
"Yes I do." Arthur replied, "You have grown a lot Novis, more then you think."
Just then Novis phone buzzed. He had turned his phone on silent as he had been getting several messages from the VSW messaging service asking for friend request after the game. However, as Novis looked at his phone it wasn"t a message for his account but was a message for Arthur"s id "Pendragon."
The message read:
"Hey long time no speak, it"s Hastam here. Just writing to let you know next week I will be heading to England to be a guest commentator on a semifinals match. I was hoping maybe we could meet up, or I could even get you tickets to watch the match? Let me know what you are thinking."
*****
Special thanks to AsuraNineThoughts again for the gifts and Updog for editing.