3 3: An 'interesting' match [pt1]

The butler tried to usher Olivier in before anything bad could happen to the kid. Seeing the look and angry expression on the old lady's face, it was highly likely that things would go wrong.

"Hey, is that how you treat someone who helped your kid out? Where is my compensation? I want my money. You, people, are rich enough to afford it anyway."

Olivier was not startled when the old lady began to make demands from them. He had expected this to happen the very first time he had seen the old lady. Her refusal to go away was also an indication of her greed.

"I am sorry miss, but I cannot help you. You were the one who decided to help the kid out. Besides, we are not even sure who this kid is. We cannot pay you any money."

The old butler was experienced in dealing with such rude guests. He cleaned up after his master at least once a week. It had been even more when young master Olivier had been living with them.

But even now the old butler had what it took to force people out of the way.

"This is not fair. If you are not going to pay me, then give me the kid back. I will just go and ask for money from his parents."

Alarm bells rang in the old butler's head. This old lady was crazy and lacked all the moral ethics one was born with.

Even if the old butler had not recognized the teenager's looks, his consciousness would not have allowed him to send this kid back with the old lady.

"I am afraid that we will no longer be able to accommodate you, miss. You should head back and rethink your actions. Until you have reflected enough, kindly do not step foot anywhere near our home."

The old butler closed the door before the old lady could make any more remarks.

In the end, the old lady was left disappointed and she went back. Olivier also knew that he needed to leave now.

"Thanks for the help, old man Adolf. I will be on my way out now and-"

Of course, things never went the way Olivier wanted them to. So why would this time be different? The old butler stopped and blocked Olivier's way when he tried to leave.

"I am afraid that leaving this estate right now would not be possible for you, young man. You remind me a lot of my previous young master, Olivier William. Have you ever heard that name before?"

The old man asked with a concerned voice. His worried expression made Olivier feel bad for him. But he still needed to head home.

"Old man Adolf, I am Olivier William. Now, I would like it much more if you allow me to"

"Oh good. So, you are young master William's son? Olivier William jr I presume? Can I see your ID? Any social identification?"

It only drew on Olivier that the old butler did not believe his identity. But Olivier could not blame the old butler for his disbelief.

Was not every day someone regressed to their teenage days while the world remained the same.

So, Olivier handed his working ID card over to the old butler in front of him. The old man took it and then sighed.

"This belongs to your father, not to you young man. Do not tell me that my young master has fallen so down that he is not even able to afford identification papers for you. I ought to call him and-"

Olivier tuned the man out as he was dragged inside. His only chance at running away and attaining freedom had been taken away from him.

Olivier was taken to the central room and he was surprised to see that nothing much had changed about this place. The T.V., placement of the couch, and even the decorations had remained the same.

"Here, you watch TV. while I make a few phone calls."

Olivier was handed the T.V. remote and made to sit down. On a normal day, Olivier would not have cared and just turned toward the Esports channel but not today.

Today he wanted to check on the news. He had a feeling he would be able to gather what happened to him if he did so.

[-the championship-winning team decides not to hold a party. Former coach and co-founded of Winded gliding guild were found to be dead in the cabin booth. Death was caused by a bullet wound and-]

Olivier's thoughts came to a halt. His original body was lying on the screen in front of him, dead for the world to see. But he was still alive and kicking right here.

His senses were disassociating with his body and Olivier did not know what to do.

On the screen, he could see Lucas crying and everyone else in disbelief. The culprit who did this shooting was nowhere to be found. Nothing was showing in the camera recording of the room as well.

One second Olivier had been alive, the next second he was dead.

"-I am a sorry young man. But I do not think your father is picking up…. holy! Put the remote down and do not watch the TV."

The old butler took a quick look at the TV screen, only to pale. He had not heard anything about Olivier William's death but it did explain why the young man was not picking up.

The old butler looked from the screen to the teenager in front of him.

He had kept a close eye on news regarding his former young master and there had been no news of marriage or even dating in his life. It was likely safe to say that the young man in front of him did not have a mother figure to take care of him.

The butler looked up once he heard footsteps running down the stairs.

Master William and his wife were not here right now. Neither was the family head here right now. The only one in this home currently was Natasha Williams, the young lady of this house.

The 17 years old lady ran down the stairs and in front of Adolf.

"Adolf, I was calling for you. Where were you and…who is this child? Where did he come from? Now that I look at him, he looks a little familiar."

Natasha asked it all in a single breath. Her loud enthusiasm caused Olivier to focus on her energy instead of the depressing thoughts his brain was forcing him to think.

"Ah, young miss Natasha, can you do me a favor? Can you take this child to your room and entertain him for the time being? I need to make a few calls around."

Natasha did not look happy to have her free time taken up by a kid she did not even know that well. But the one who asked her this favor was Adolf.

So, despite her initial misgiving, Natasha decided to take him up to her room where her classmates were waiting for her.

"Listen, I do not know who you are or why Adolf asked me to take care of you but I want you to behave yourself. We will be playing Echoes, but I do not even think you know what that game is."

Natasha did not wait for Olivier to reply to her before she opened the door to her room. She did not notice Olivier's eyes shining when she said she wanted to play Echoes. It was a game that was much beloved by him after all.

So even if Olivier wanted to do nothing with Olivia, he decided to suck it up and follow her to her room.

The gathering was relatively small when compared to what Olivier was used to.

There were only 4 people in total excluding him. And one of them was Natasha.

"Hey guys, sorry for the delay. Would a 2-vs-2 team fight work? Even though it is my first-time playing Echoes, I will not hold you, people, back."

Natasha quickly took her seat and opened the game system in front of her guests. Olivier was excited to see his beloved game being started again. And he waited for something to happen.

But nothing happened. The people in front of him had no idea how the game worked or what the functions did. They were even on the wrong menu for the game.

"Huh? Why is it not working? Did the seller give me a faulty key? This is the correct game, right?"

Natasha questioned as she looked around. It looked like the right game so she did not know what else was wrong.

Finally, Olivier was not able to take this insult to his beloved game. He knew he needed to what the current game state of Echoes was.

Finally, after much difficulty and looking around, the game started. And the first thing that came up was the character selection screen. It was the most basic of things one needed to do in any game.

But for Natasha who had likely not played games before, it was a difficult thing to navigate through. She pressed custom buttons to get a character that would never work in a real game.

She had chosen a shooter with all close-range skills. It was a terrible combination, especially for a newbie.

"Natasha, I think you might want to reselect your skills. I do not think your current selection would work very well with your character class and-"

"But that is so boring. Let me try something new and exciting. Besides, I am good at games so once I adapt, you will be the one in trouble. Shall we cue up for a mock online battler first before we play local player?"

Natasha asked but she did not give her friends a chance to submit their input. She was already queuing up before anyone realized what happened.

The others in her team had concerned expressions on their faces. Those who played Echoes in ranked mode knew how brutal it could be. People were not kind and understanding toward rookies.

And Natasha was a lady with too much self-confidence. She might say she was alright with losing but was that the case?

[MATCH READY IN 3…2…1…GO]

The game spawned Natasha's right in the middle of the map.

Olivier finally got a chance to observe the team that Natasha's friends had chosen for themselves.

A berserk, an assassin, a shooter, and a sword user. It was an OK team but there was no 'real support' in the team.

Without a healer or someone who could buff the damage, this small rag-tag team would not get very far.

Especially since the children playing these characters were not experienced in high-level plays. Even their attempts to navigate the map were childish.

"Hey, so should I kill these red monsters? Or do I need to farm them or something? Sorry, but I am not very well-versed in gaming terminology so I might make some mistakes."

Natasha apologized and her distraction caused her to lose quite a few initial hits. The mage from the opposite team was here already and using his wide-area skill to weaken and kill enemies.

It was quite a common tactic on the online ladder. Mages were quite powerful in the early part of the round with their all-rounding magic but they lacked combat capabilities in the later part.

Even a fully-charged mage would find it hard to kill an entire under-leveled team if there was not a significant difference in skill or level cap of the avatars.

"Natasha, do not panic. Things like these happen. If the mage wants to farm, then let him farm. You need to focus on not letting others farm the land. I will be there to help you soon."

The girl sitting on the right most spoke up. She was the one controlling the assassin and Olivier was surprised to see that she had leveled up quite significantly.

Out of everyone in front of him, the assassin seemed to be doing the best so far and she would soon enter a frenzied state to boost her damage even more.

Suddenly, this match had gotten interesting to watch.