32 Cards of Destiny

In the end, he accepted the contract, which evaporated into thin air after it was completed. The contract he had made with MI9 was a similar, but extremely low level contract that would simply inform MI9 when Luke breaks it.

Luke then removed the earth magic and allowed VidBro to stand up. In fact, he wasn't against having another player join him, especially if he was a video uploader. He was just angered by the threat.

'Sigh. Maybe my age is finally catching up to me!'

With this, turned back to VidBro and said, "Do not tell anyone, and I mean anyone about who my enemies are."

Then he looked away from the nodding VidBro, towards the two MI9 members.

"You guys should go now. Tell Barton that I will come find him when the tide of the times is near. I will also keep in contact with MI9 for more locations."

Next he looked at the four pro players from South Asia, who would later all be poached by Chinese teams when the servers combined, and said, "Will you join me or not?"

They had not heard the conversation between Luke and VidBro, but assumed that they had come to an agreement. Naturally, they would not reject such a free ticket.

Immediately, they all accepted the mission.

Luke then said, as the MI9 members slowly vanished in the forest.

"Let's head to my apartment. We will take rest there for the night. We have a lot of things to do tomorrow."

At this moment, strong gust of wind blew, causing the hood on Luke's face to flutter as it slight off his head, revealing the lustrous silver hair beneath. It also revealed his cut jawline and almost pale skin. His skin had grown increasingly pale due to the two advancement in the Priest pathway, which made his body impervious to the sun. This made his skin lose all tan and become white.

Within the next instant, Luke quickly pulled back his hood and continued as if nothing had happened.

He also made a mental note to use magic to hold his hood in place while outside. He did not want a random Resistance member noticing his features and reporting it to Rachel.

It was for a brief moment, but VidBro, who always has his recording function on, was able to capture these features of Luke.

The group then moved into the city, with Luke riding his 'Lukemobile' and the others walking. Naturally, he had used mind magic to conceal the bike's presence and replaced it with a horse.

Once they reached his apartment, Luke used wind magic to lift up his bike and bring it into the apartment at the top floor.

'Settle down and take a break. Meet me in the living room in 10 minutes." With this said, Luke turned around and went to his room to take a shower with water he heated up.

"Let me introduce myself. I am VidBro, a video uploader. Is it alright if I take an interview of you all?"

After some hesitation, all 4 players agreed, since publicity was always useful for a pro-gamer. Especially them, since the pro-gaming industry in their countries wasn't as developed as other countries, and most of their income comes from fans.

This low income was also one of the reasons the Chinese groups were able to rake in many players from around the world to represent China in the pro-leagues.

After a round of questioning, the interviews were concluded within 8 minutes and OriginalMagus asked the question they had all been wondering about.

"How did you find us?"

"This…"

VidBro made an embarrassed face and spoke after a moment.

"From the woods where we were spawned, I chose a direction and kept walking. Soon I found a friendly farmer who was on his way to the capital, and decided to join him. However, just as we were about to reach the capital of Leon, the horse was spooked by something and broke free from the flimsy harness. I then gave up of the carriage and decided to walk to the capital to ask the guards for help according to the quest the farmer gave me. I then came across you guys and decided to hear you guys to try and see if a mission was triggered. But nothing happened, and so I decided to come closer when I saw your nametags. Just then, The Sage saw me and you know the rest."

"I see. So it was luck"

"That's… Yes…" VidBro said reluctantly.

When Luke came out of his room, he found all 5 players had not moved much, and were only talking with each other.

He was currently wearing tracks and a t-shirt, with only his mask on. This mask was one with one half in black and the other half in white, as "The sage" was written on the black half of the mask.

"Just how many masks do you have?" asked VidBro out of habit with his ruse personality.

"Enough to fill up an entire cupboard. This is one of my casualwear!" Luke explained enthusiastically.

Over time, he had also grown a sense of belonging in collecting masks, mainly full face, white ones with various designs and patterns on them.

"Anyway. I brought you guys here to tell you guys about pathways."

"Pathways?" asked the clueless VidBro.

"Yes. Currently there are 4 main pathways; Magician, Warrior, Priest, and Hunter." Replied OriginalMagus

"Ah! Classes!" replied VidBro.

"Yes. And in order to choose a pathway, you need the corresponding knowledge. Currently, I have the starting knowledge for all the pathways, but I only have the later parts of the pathways for the magician, priest and warrior pathway." Added Luke.

"However, I will not give it for free. I will have you join my organisation." Continued Luke.

"Organisation?" All the players present were confused.

"Yes. It is a secret organisation called 'Cards of Destiny' or COD for short."

Instantly, all the members present thought of a certain VR FPS that was still incredibly famous even after more than 4 decades!

"Since it is still rather small, I will allow you guys to become the upper echelons of the organisation. All the upper echelons are codenames using fortune cards."

"The Sage, Phoenix, Romeo and Juliet are taken. Choose one for yourselves from the rest."

While saying this, Luke removed a stack of 71 crisp cards from under the table. Currently, he had given The Phoenix to Barton, Romeo to Gard, and Juliet to Harlem, who had both reached around level 12, and had given him the required knowledge.

There were odd expressions on the faces of the players, as they saw The Sage in a new light.

'So he is inexperienced!' they all thought to themselves in their minds.

Soon, OriginalMagus was the first to agree and chose the HangedMan card, which represented being dumped.

SaintessKatrina looked at OriginalMagus with slight pity in her eyes as she picked the Angel Card which represents a peaceful single life, after being in a relationship before.

WeedGod picked next and he chose the Link Card, Signifying he was currently trying, and close to succeeding.

SwordSlasher chose The Mario card, portraying the sad story not of one's love being taken away, but of being left behind as your love goes with someone else.

Lastly, VidBro randomly chose one from the pile, since he was never in any relationship, and The Sage suited him the most.

He got the Nimbus, which was similar to the Sage, but without the knowledge and wisdom part attached to it, showing innocence.

"Welcome to the Cards of Destiny!" As Luke said this, Faction notifications popped up on all the players' interfaces.

==============

Faction Interface: The Cards of Destiny

Leader: The Sage

Number of active members: 9

Current enemies: None

Faction points: 0 (Indifferent)

==============