6 No way, nothing's wrong

Click!

The ID card is being pulled out.

"Sun Dui... You're using your hobby account huh? You've logged in to play in the morning all the time... Did you even get enough sleep?"

Little Zhang rubs his eyes, he seems to not be fully awake yet, speaks to me while sitting on his bed.

"Ah, I got some good sleep tonight, I just need a little escape from the stress that's all..."

"Hmm... I'm amazed by how even an Online Emperor like you still has the problem you can't overcome *yawn*."

"Ha Ha.. that doesn't matter now, please clear my schedule for some hours of studies, I think I need to get my GaoKao preparation ready!"

"Ah... you usually ran away and avoid talking about GaoKao or academic performance, is there anything wrong with his majesty today?"

"Oh stop it! Just do what I said! No way! Nothing is wrong with me!"

I take off the headphone and VR bracelet, walking toward the curtain, and open it up harshly. Zhang Wei, my vice-captain, and my roommate cover up his eyes from the light exaggeratedly.

'His majesty' huh? I used to like that title when I was young and egoistic, but now that I'm at the peak of the Peace world, I realized fame and repute aren't that important and that's not all I want from playing games.

All my years in playing VR games, I remain it because I want to escape reality, but I thought of that American girl I just met.

"Only way to make your reality better is to face it"

Those words from her still rang in my mind. Although I was treated like an emperor whenever I was online, lately I had been feeling no different from a loser.

The glory and respect I gain from the league are real, fame, and reputation aren't.

Back then, I'm just an arrogant ambitious young boy who was addicted to an online game, I'm happy to be in the league and carried away from the praises people said to me, I boast about my victory all the time, but when I log out of the game or whenever I'm offline, I can feel all the pressure that suffocate the atmosphere around me.

Now that I applied a little bit more of a work-life balance and learn that the team isn't made of a one-person, my ego lower, yet... I still find it difficult to cope with real-life problems.

'Face it' she said, I guess if she can do it, I can do it too. They call me a Winged Tiger, there's no way I'm letting that little cat surpass me!

I while I wait for little Zhang to change his cloth, I prepare a contact list to call in the chat room. When Little Zhang is done, we walked down from our room to the dining hall. Our club headquarters is a modern-minimal style resident, Because professional esports athletes like us have a high income, so is our club and our budget, especially the team with 'me' as the 'Online Emperor' or 'Virtual King' of the league, our reside is pretty huge.

I decorate my room (actually our room, since I share it with Little Zhang) in a Xianxia and cyber style since I like reading ancient novels and online gaming and both things can go along with each other.

On the dining table, there's a streamed bun, veggie soup, roasted pork, and bowl of rice that we ordered online, sometimes our club hires a cook for our meals, but when we need some privacy and wants only our club member in, we usually just pick up a phone to the nearby restaurant or street food and order some food for ourselves. I take a bowl of rice and dig in veggie soup and pork. Heaven, I'm grateful that I still have this luxury of breakfast despite my busy schedule.

The rest of the team looks like tired dogs that just woke up, I guess I'm the only early bird here.

"By the way, is it okay if our club has some little white cat?" I ask my vice-captain on the dining table.

"I think some of our members may be allergic to cat, but if the air filter works then maybe it's fine"

He answered with a streamed bun in his mouth.

I guess since I grew more mature, I became the father of the club, eventually. I used to be like a younger brother or a grandson of the esports team back then, now I'm the senior of the club, time flew fast.

After our breakfast, We have some breaks to let the food digest before logging in to Peace Online for our team's daily practice.

I walk back up to my room and walk into a connected space of the chat room, it's pitch black in here with a few cushions laying around until I turn on and command "Open up our 'special place' virtual space" and I called that contact list I've prepared earlier.

Now I insert my ID card and I turn into my main avatar 'Yu Hou Chun Sun'.

The pitch-black screen room earlier turned into a landscape of pond, mountain, and island-like palace on the water with an octagon shape pavilion sticking out, there are a few Victorian-style teacups and a kung fu tea set with jade cups lying around in the pavilion's table, Yu Hou Chun Sun was sitting on a pavilion bench seat.

I look out at the pond and at the water Lilly, willow tree, plum blossom, and duckweed. It calmly hovering on the water surface, it's so peaceful to watch them.

Then, the silhouette of a man appears in the bright blaze of lights before a form of a human appearance. Then, a man with western polite cloth appears.

"Long time no see, pal!" I said.

"It's late now in America, what are you calling me for?"

"I just wanna say hi to you" I tease.

"You never called me to be in this 'special place' of yours, tell me what is it you liar! I gotta go to bed soon so hurry!!"

"Okay, I'll tell you now that..."