the invitation

After a bit of walking around, he found his classroom.

Seeing the desks and students made him feel out of place.

If we speak mental age, he was 21. the other students in his class didn't go past 18. Also, he didn't feel like a student. Not after purposely leading his own armies to their death. Not after feeling blood splatter on his face more than a thousand times. Not after seating on a cold throne for months and months. Not after exterminating a whole race. Not after coldly sacrificing his own friends. Not after those three hellish years.

But he'd have to push away these kind of thoughts from now on. It was just a game, nothing more.

Now back to reality.

He slumped in his seat and waved a hi at his old friend David. Lucky for him, he had never been very talkative or social, so no one came to bother him.

First class was ethics.

He relaxed in his seat and reflexively spied on other's discussion.

He was very surprised. He had probably forgotten, but today, an Olympic mage was coming to their school to make a speech about perseverance. It was Tennor, a middle aged mage know for his super human strength and his ability to breathe fire. He had a lot of charisma, most girls had a secret crush on him. Although his super strength, he didn't look like a body builder at all, he was quite athletic looking and had light stubbles and short curly blonde hair. A guy that looked like he could lead the world to light.

Anyway, he remembered having admiration for that guy in the past. But now he didn't really care.

So the students were lead to the auditorium, where the speech would take place.

Okoma just followed his friend and sat next to him. He was bored and tired, maybe he'd sleep through this speech.

But as the director finished saying hi and let Tennor on stage, Okoma's eyes opened widely. That guy, it was Lion heart. He was sure about it for some reason.

He had taken for granted that the other players would have a similar age to him, but it seemed it wasn't the case.

His mind rushed thoughts. Should he make contact? or should he avoid getting noticed? He had the feeling Tennor would recognize him as the cold king in one glance.

After a short moment, he concluded he should avoid making contact. After all, it was an Olympic mage, Lion heart too. He was an outstanding guy, good man to the bone. But he probably checked out his game score, and he'd be wary of him, even maybe try to protect others from him. Anyone would after reading that description.

So he tried taking a nap. The chance Tennor would look at him were low.

Or at least they were until his friend David, which was known for laughing easily, burst out in laughter at the joke the guy next to him whispered.

Since a respectful silence had been maintained until then, Tennor was a bit thrown off. But he just smiled kindly and looked for the laughing student with an amused face.

It seemed David and Tennor made eye contact since Tennor winked in David's direction. It didn't help calming down David's laughter.

Then, for a split second, as he casted a quick glance across the audience, Tennor's eyes made a short contact with Okoma.

Tennor then slightly froze, and his eyes searched the crowd for him until he found him again. A consterned frown appeared on his face.

Okoma could vaguely tell what was going through Lion heart's head right now.

So the cold king is a kid? Is it okay to let him interact with other students? Isn't he dangerous? Some stuff like that.

But surprisingly, Tennor's face also showed a bit of compassion.

Since people were getting awkward from his heavy silence, even David stopped laughing and was now squirming uneasily on his seat, probably unsure if he was the one Tennor was looking at, he chuckled a bit and excused himself to the public before continuing his speech.

Okoma relaxed.

He'd just have to bail back to his class as quickly as he could. He doubted Lion heart had time to chase after him. He might have been ranked 3rd but his grade was still only a B+. And it's not like that guy would want to form an alliance with him or something.

Back in class.

People were talking about how cool Tennor was and stuff like that. Honestly, Okoma couldn't agree more. That guy rocked. But to him, whether someone rocked hard or really sucked didn't really interest him. A side effect of the tutorial he guessed. One of the few things that really mattered to him were: get a wife and children, become a dentist and live a good life. Thinking about that goal was the only thing that kept him going during the game. He formed some kind of obsession.

And then, as he was spying on other's conversations, the director made an announcement.

"I'm happy to announce that the Olympic mage Tennor Hart has decided to visit every class of the junior and senior grade! A short question and answer for every class!" The crackling voice declared.

Okoma pinched the bridge of his nose. Was this for real? Suddenly, he wanted to meet every senior and junior, huh. Well, Tennor sure had a good eye for determining people's age.

He started thinking, trying to find a way out of this one. Should he just skip classes? But at that point, Tennor would probably ask his loud friend a few questions and still find out his identity, not to mention suddenly skipping was basically confirming his doubts. Anyway, it's not like a little face to face with lion heart could be that bad. He just gave up.

Tennor arrived to his class about an hour and a half later. As soon as he walked in, his eyes quickly observed the face of the students. His eyes stopped on Okoma. A small victorious grin temporarily flashed on his face.

The students stopped talking, waiting for him to begin.

"Good evening students! Ready for a fun question and answer session?" He asked enthusiastically.

"Woooh!" The students cheered.

Tennor chuckled.

"Good, good. I'll start the session now then. So, any questions?" he asked.

Third of the students raised their hands.

"Okay, you there with the blue shirt." he pointed.

"Does it hurt when you spit fire? how does it work?" the student asked.

"Uhmmm, I get that question often. No it doesn't hurt, but explaining how it works is complicated. But to make it simple, I do it very similarly to how dragons does." he tried explaining.

And so, this went on for a few minutes, questions being answered and students in awe, until students didn't have questions anymore.

"Okay! Time for me to ask questions! " he said enthusiastically.

The students seemed confused but exited. Tennor faked looking around the class in hesitation and then pointed at Okoma.

"You! What's your name?" He asked.

" Okoma Horkensov, sir." He answered politely.

"Hi there, Okoma! Have you seen my game score?" He said, quite straight to the point.

Okoma racked his brain. What's this score thing he was talking about? Clearly, it was related to magic Olympics, but he didn't have much knowledge on the matter. He looked around him, the others also seemed clueless. Probably scores was a therm known by people well versed in the subject. Thus, Tennor probably wanted him to ask about it.

"No, sir. What are game scores?" He asked back innocently.

Acting. A skill that had been completely necessary to his survival during the tutorial. Of course, he had completely mastered the art.

Tennor seemed a bit thrown off. He squinted questioning eyes at him. He suddenly grinned.

"Well, anyone that has read the notice would know how important they are... but I guess you still haven't read it? I highly recommend you read it as soon as possible, after all, an event is about to take place. I'd make myself ready if I were you." He said mysteriously.

Okoma's stomach churned. What event? What notice? He was left in the dark. He worried, maybe the game would keep interfering with his life... that'd be a disaster.

The other students seemed very confused. Okoma imitated them.

"Of course, sir..." he said hesitantly.

Tennor smiled brightly.

"Well, that's it for today. See you again, kids!" he declared happily before going away.

Okoma frowned, he had to find that notice as soon as possible. Who knows what it was about.

Back home, Okoma stared blankly at another fancy note. His face was paling.

The note said

"Greetings, cold king. This note is to warn you about the mass release of the god's game : dragons requiem. As one of our most prized beta testers, you have been selected as a promotional player! Congratulations! A new feature has been added to your cold crown: powers of old. When you wear your cold crown, you will get back part of the power you had when you cleared the game! From now on, as a promotional player, you will slowly get your power back!"

As he read the first part of the note, Okoma's mind became blank. The note continued:

" Tonight, at 9pm, every humans will receive an invitation to join the God's game: dragon requiem, the humans who accepts will be brought to the official opening event! Of course, as one of our dear promotional players, you are already signed up! You will automatically be brought to the event. The opening event will be full of activities and action! Don't forget to prepare and bring your friends and family!"

The note ended without further information.

Okoma's mind was rushing to get everything under control. The creators of the game were unpredictable so far, and the only thing he knew so far was that they weren't merciless. They had spared the humans who had failed in the beta, so it seemed they didn't want to hurt innocent people. But except from that, he knew absolutely nothing. The beta game didn't give much away about them except they liked fights and tactical warfare. He wasn't sure "playing" dragon requiem would be safe. He had to keep his family from entering the game. Still, just randomly saying to not accept the invitation would be weird, suspicious even. He didn't want his family to know his involvement with the game and more importantly, what he did in the beta. He knew his family would see him under a new light. Hell, his mom still called him her angel. Actually, he was pretty sure no one knew about this side of him, except his half brother. And he didn't want anyone to know about it. But, knowing his family, the only person who probably wouldn't accept the invitation was his father, who was slightly paranoid. Though, he didn't know what the invitation would look like. An email? A phone call? Who knew. He had to be careful to be able to save his family.

The only problem was his half brother. They didn't exactly get along well, although their similar age. Also, he wasn't sure he even wanted to keep him from accepting the invitation, after all, that guy would probably love whatever the gods were scheming. That bloody guy. But he knew his family really cared about him.

There was also his little brother who would be hard to convince. The only way to stop him would be to intervene right before the invitation. Though, he wasn't sure if he would get an invitation for the game. Maybe the god would only invite mature humans? Otherwise, it would go against how they have acted so far.

He'd just have to warn him without manipulating him.

Manipulation, Okoma's second strongest weapon during the beta. Although he didn't really feel proud about it, he was very good at it. He had to convince them to not accept the invitation without mentioning it's name and staying discreet about it.

He first went to his mother. She had a child with a cruel guy who swiftly left her, luckily, she quickly met his dad soon after, had him and his sister, and now his little brother who was 6 years old. She would be the kind to accept the invitation out of curiosity and carelessness. She was a bit naive and probably would not suspect anything from the invitation.

He went downstairs to see his mother who was probably at the kitchen table going through her social media. He found her there, but reading a book instead. His dad was watching tv in the room next to them.

He approached his mom with quick steps.

"Mom! Something just happened to David's mother." He said seriously.

"Oh really? Is she alright?" She said worriedly.

His mom didn't know David's mother, but her general character and morality pushed her to sympathize.

"She is alright, but it's still kinda bad. She received an invitation to a dance club two weeks ago, and she accepted thinking it was free. She went to it, now they keep bugging her to pay for it! She's really stressed out. We really can't trust anything these days." he said with a tinge of bitterness.

"That's terrible! I hope they solve that problem quickly." She said before returning to her book.

He slowly moved to his dad.

His dad was the kind of stubborn guy that looks grumpy and acts like a thug, but deep down is very kind. There were chances he might accept the invitation out of boredom. He'd just have to play with his prejudices.

"Sup dad." he said casually as he stood behind the couch his dad was sitting in.

"Hm?" His dad said.

"I just saw an article on the internet and couldn't help but think that what you said the other day was true." He said vaguely.

"What are you talking about?" His dad asked while slightly turning his head to him.

"You said that I should always be wary about companies and government gathering information on me, well it's true. The article was talking about how creative they had gotten. They do that easily through games and stuff. Can't be careful enough anymore. Anyway, I'll leave you to your tv." He said before turning away.

"Hm." His dad seemed to approve.

He went to his sister's room.

She was a popular kind of girl, for her pride and reputation was very important.

He stood in the door frame, arms crossed, looking at his sister texting people.

She would not talk to him if he just started talking, she was a queen at ignoring people. He had to do a little provocation.

"Juni, what's with that weird shirt? Did you get it from a homeless person or something?" He said with disdain.

"Of course not, idiot. It's actually a shirt designed by the famous Olympic mage Vanessa. What are you doing here anyway?" She asked him with a glare tainted by disdain.

"Well, I just came to ask you if you knew where the Sketrim disk is?" he asked her.

"you mean that dumb game you and dad play? Why would I touch it?" She retorted.

"Ok I just wanted to make sure." He said while shrugging before leaving her.

He just made sure to remind her that playing video games was for losers.

Now... His half brother. That guy was two years older, but acted like he was ten years older than Okoma. His name was Davon. A duchy guy who liked playing fps games, although a lot of people considered them invalid due to gun's real life efficiency. In this world were mana reigned free, guns were only efficient with ordinary people. As soon as you brought in a mage or anything of the sort, guns soon became useless. Of course, there was mana upgraded guns, but they were too hard to fabricate and not worth the money. Anyway, that guy was a very competitive person. Seeing that invitation would be a challenge for him. Now, just how could he convince him to not say yes? For sure, that guy hated losing. He also didn't really like teamwork. He liked shinning on his own. Which is why he picked up boxing instead of basketball. He also was a stubborn guy. So, just what could he do?

He knocked on the door, after all, you never know what he could be doing in there.

"Yeah?" His step brother answered from behind the door.

"I'm coming in." he said before opening the door.

"What do you want? " Davon said while playing a random gun game on his computer.

"I'm gathering money for a project. So I was wondering if you were in for a bet." He told him with a slight smirk.

His brother glanced back, making Okoma's smirk grow bigger.

"Alright, what bet are we talking about?" He said, interest seeping through his voice.

"20$. I bet you'll start playing a new game before the end of the week." He said firmly.

"The end of the week? That's in two days." He pointed out.

"What can I say, I need this money quickly." He said 'honestly'.

"Wow, thanks for the free money, lil bro." He said while sarcastically stressing the last part. " Anything to hinder humanity's worst trash human being." He finished with an insult.