40 Plans & Prize

Sofia returned to her group and heard Joey and Clark discussing her whereabouts and their next match opponent. The lady did not realize that she had been gone for an hour and that her group was already bothered about her strange behavior.

"Sorry, I went out for too long!" Sofia said to her teammates before she occupied the seat next to Stephen. Her eyes quickly moved on the stage area and she saw the large screen also flashed all the list of squad winners on the elimination round.

"We almost called the security to look for you! Are you okay, Sof?" Stephen asked with a hint of concern in his voice. The rest of her team looked at her with the same inquisitive gaze.

Sofia smiled at them and replied, "I'm fine. There was a person that I have to give our contact for our squad to have advertising soon."

"Oh, you have talked to the media for sponsorships?" Joey inquired curiously. He somehow had an idea that some gamers would get sponsors and earn money.

"Not really, I just gave our contact details. There was no official agreement yet about sponsorship and branding yet." Sofia answered.

Claire slightly raised her arm and waved her hand towards the face of Sofia.

She then muttered, "You sound like you knew the procedure of the media people, Sof. If I don't know you for so long, I would think that you are a different person!"

"Hahaha, what different person? It's me! Recently, I have been reading the business magazine online so that we would be able to spend our prize in a more profitable way." Sofia cheekily said. She tucked her hair behind her ears and looked away. Reading business magazine online was a good alibi that she came up with as Claire knew that she paid so much attention in front of her computer.

"Tell me the article that you are reading online, Sof! Maybe you can forward me a link. I need to learn that also." Clark mentioned with a certain degree of eagerness in his tone.

"I can't remember which article it was. But if you search business-related magazine and profit, you'll be able to see it for sure." Sofia looked apologetic. She felt a pang of slight guilt for lying at Clark and her team. But, it was the only way she could think of.

"That sounds so ironic though! Spend our prize in a more profitable way? If we spend our money, then we lose it right?" Claire asked Sofia and also looked at the three men to seek an answer.

"We will lose our money so that it will make more money for us. There is a way to do spending money and receiving more than what we spend." Sofia explained.

"Then what are your plans for the prize?" Clark asked.

"We are still students, so, what we can do is to join profitable investments online and save the earning. But after we graduate, we will use the money to create a physical means to gain more money. I will explain everything later on." Sofia said. In her mind, the place was too inappropriate to conduct business proposals or business meetings. But, she had been planning the proposal even before the match. She just did not tell her members about the business plans in her mind for them to focus on the tournament solely.

"Okay, that sounds great! By the way, the FDSS Press Company was indeed doing live coverage of this tournament. And would you believe it if I told you that we are trending online?! This is crazy!" Clark's voice tuned up and told them of his discovery.

The group had been so engrossed with the game that they did not open their social media accounts.

Sofia was not also interested in social media, so, there was no way for her to be aware of the netizen's activities.

Only Clark was the first to take a peek as his brother sent him a message to check his account.

"You sound so hype! Let me see!" Joey said and leaned his face towards the mobile screen of Clark. He then stood straight and rubbed his eyes. "We are not only trending! We are viral top 1 topic?!" he announced in disbelief.

Stephen and Claire quickly opened their phone to see their ranking.

"We are! Wow! This is nice but, our standing is not yet stable. It is too early to celebrate. Let's secure the victory not only of the matches but also the entire tournament!" Claire clapped her hands and reminded the group not to feel overjoyed.

"Yes, that is only natural. I will not reply in the comments yet." Clark said however in his mobile screen that revealed his account, he had almost typed his 'thank you' and replied to the netizens.

~

"Dearest audience, we will have a 15 minutes break to give our operators and technical group to arrange the necessary cable connections for the next match. It will no longer be on a 40-Player map. The next round will be the usual 5 vs 5. One squad will fight another squad. Stay tuned!"

The event host took over the stage and announced that they would take a break for 15 minutes before the next elimination round would begin.

The two commentators were long gone on their tables. They went to the staff room and started to discuss their feelings for the overall winning squads of the 40-Player map.

"This Chronos squad performance was great. But it is because of the no respawn rule inside the first elimination map. If their opponents were able to respawn, there was no way they could survive. I bet, they would be eliminated in the match first!" the older commentator glanced towards his partner.

"You got it right. And the social media had been down for about ten minutes because of this topic! This is just a district tournament! Even the tournaments of the regional, national, and international level have not gained this kind of public discussion!" the younger commentator pointed out. His eyes were looking at his mobile screen while he was completely astonished.

"Oh, they are indeed the hot topic in social media. The generations had really changed. Most of the netizens can now appreciate online gaming activities. Back in the days, I was labeled a nerd because I was playing a video game! I even felt embarrassed to be seen playing!" the older player did not shy away as he shared his past experience on playing video games.

"Yes, the new generations were inclined to play online games now. They even prefer to socialize in game than in real life." the younger commentator expressed.