It's You! (Part 3)

Paying not much attention to the girl, Wang Jiangnan continued guiding the group around the exhibition hall.

Ye Ci saw the object on display - it was a small embroidered handkerchief. Despite the poor quality of the fabric, the embroidery was fine and detailed, clearly showing the effort of its creator.

It was a masked Huntress with a bow in her hand and a panther by her side. The embroidery itself was beautiful.

"Little Ci, does it look nice?" Fang Susu stared at Ye Ci with glistening eyes. Her smile and the dimples on her cheeks made her exceptionally cute, "I'm the one who did this. Does it look nice?"

Ye Ci nodded, and offered her sincerest praise, "It is beautiful." For someone as clumsy as Ye Ci who could not manage even simple paper cranes, it was an impressive feat. She could not even sew a button back onto her clothes, not to mention embroidering something.

"This is modeled after you." with a smile, Fang Susu recounted her first encounter with Ye Ci in the game. She looked just like this, with the exception of the mask. Her elegance was engraved deep in Fang Susu's heart, "It's cool right?"

Ye Ci was slightly embarrassed after being praised. She let out a low chuckle, "Your handiwork is great!"

"I did not finish it alone. A number of us worked together to complete this embroidery, and we mailed it here as a new year gift."

Wang Jiangnan, who had overheard the conversation between the duo as he led the group towards the display cabinet let out a broad smile, "Ahh.. Thank you for the gift. We received a lot of presents from fans, and all our employees gathered to open the parcels."

He then slightly lowered his voice and continued, "Even our CEO and the Chief Developer came over to help. Every one of us was intrigued by the gift. We seldom receive such a gift, especially one representing and combining both Eastern and Western elements so perfectly... because of that, our CEO and the Chief Developer began volunteering to open any incoming parcels!"

"Why is that?" the players were curious, "Isn't that a job for the office clerks?"

"They like the surprise," said Wang Jiangnan with a huge grin. He was momentarily stunned when he laid eyes on Ye Ci.

She did not seem to pay attention to what he was saying. She felt so aloof and indifferent...Wang Jiangnan then remembered that the girl has been trailing behind the group during the tour, it was as if she was either very familiar with the Fate HQ, or did not care about the tour at all. She lacked the enthusiasm and excitement of players when they first visited the facility.

Wang Jiangnan could not help but scrutinize her for a while.

Feeling a gaze on her, Ye Ci looked around and caught the eyes of Wang Jiangnan, who nodded apologetically before retracting his gaze.

Wang Jiangnan did not expect to be caught as he studied Ye Ci secretly. Under that cold and sharp gaze, he shifted his view somewhere else.

When the group was finally back in the resting lounge, Wang Jiangnan allowed the players a moment of rest. He walked up to one of the players that he had acquainted himself with and asked in a low voice, "Is she from World Conqueror?"

The player took a glance at Ye Ci and answered in a similarly low voice, "Nope, she's not from our guild, but studies in our campus. She's a friend of Fang Susu, the girl who sent you the embroidery."

"Do you know her in-game name?"

After a moment of thought, the player shook his head, "Nope. Nobody mentioned it before.. She's just a normal player I guess."

Wang Jiangnan nodded. The player might be right about Ye Ci, but his own instincts told him, that she was not just an ordinary player. Perhaps due to his interaction with video games since young, he developed a sharp intuition to recognize the differences between experts and normal players.

For any other individual, an expert player was no different from a normal player in real life. But Wang Jiangnan had a sixth sense that allowed him to identify a gamer's ability.

He was able to recognize Flawless Reflection earlier on, before he could introduce himself. He had never seen a picture of the player in real life, but was able to tell that Qin Churuo was no normal player at first glance.

Wang Jiangnan was proven correct after the players did a brief self introduction. The guy was indeed Flawless Reflection of World Conqueror, who was one of the top players in the Eastern Continent.

When he was facing this girl however, he became unsure of himself. She had the air of a predator, but he just couldn't be sure. That was why he could not resist inquiring after the girl from World Conqueror members. Maybe because he was a gamer himself, he refused to miss the chance of meeting an expert player. He could not forget about that mysterious girl.

"What's her name?"

"She's not from our guild" replied one of the players after a brief pause, "She was never there when we had our meetings in school. She's here because she's friends with Fang Susu. I think she's a freshman." the player, realizing that he had not answered the question asked by Wang Jiangnan, grimaced before he continued, "There are two words in her name… Flawless Reflection told me about it before, but I just can't remember. They're rather hard to pronounce."

"Oh… I see…" Wang Jiangnan was disappointed.

Noticing his defeated expression, the player spoke up, "Do you need my help? I can find out about her name."

"It's alright." Wang Jiangnan declined the offer and redirected their conversation to something else. Hell, if that player went ahead and asked in his stead, wouldn't it be like telling the world that I was interested in that girl? If it somehow became a scandal, it would be bad.

Gossip is a fearful thing.

Wang Jiangnan did not wish to cause any problems for himself and for the girl as well.

The next event of the tour was something that every member of the group had looked forward to. It was to test out the game in Fate's facilities. The players would be able to play the game in sandbox mode, utilizing their creativity to create items and various sorts of things in the game, which will then be used by the developers as sources of inspiration in the coming patches and expansions of the game.

This was why Fate welcomed players to their headquarters. When everybody adds fuel, the flame rise high. Only the gamers themselves know what was best for the game.

At the same time, the developers in Fate HQ tried their best to put themselves into the players shoes.

Wang Jiangnan led the group into a gaming lounge. 25 of the 100 gaming cabins within the lounge were already open. A young lady immediately greeted the group upon their arrival.

Wang Jiangnan introduced his colleague with a smile, "This is our Developer No.387. Her name's Lin Dan, and she's here to help each of you to activate your character cards. All you need to do is to tell her your IGN, and she will activate a one-time-usage memory card containing the full details of your character. You can log into the game by plugging this character card into the gaming cabin. The usage of the cards however, is limited to only 1 hour. All data within the card will be erased when the time's up as a measure to protect your in-game belongings. So, every second counts. Feel free to voice out any opinions you have about the game!"

The excited players immediately swarmed over Lin Dan for the character cards. It was a thrilling experience to be able to contribute to the development of one's favorite game. Not only that, they were doing it in the headquarters of the game itself! It was a very wonderful feeling!

Ye Ci was the only one who stood at the edge of the crowd. Noticing her behavior, Wang Jiangnan walked up to her and nodded, "Miss, are you not getting your character card?"

As the saying goes, "never slap the smiling man". It was unreasonable for Ye Ci to react coldly to Wang Jiangnan who was smiling at her. She can't really tell him that she was not interested in playing. If she's not interested, why come in the first place? To avoid gossip, humans must at times conform to the norms.

"I'll wait for my turn. I'm not in a hurry anyways." Ye Ci nodded.

She could not even remember how many times she had met Wang Jiangnan. When she first met him in her last life, he was already known as the "Father of Fate". She met the person again during the PvP tournament. And when they met next, Ye Ci had already reincarnated into her current life. At that time, Wang Jiangnan was a little known developer full of ambition that he was unable to realize. He even had a conversation with her about his ideals. It was all still fresh in her mind.

The Wang Jiangnan in front of her right at this moment… He seemed to be moving towards his ideals.

But… What about her?

Where does her ideal lie?

That's right… She feels so familiar. That detached smile, and the intensity of her words… Wang Jiangnan could feel a sense of familiarity from the girl, but he was still unsure. He spoke up after a slight pause, "It'll take some time for them to complete the activation process. I can get a card for you right now."

"Uhh… I don't think it's a good idea. It feels like I'm using the backdoor." Ye Ci was momentarily stunned.

"It's okay, I'll get them to queue up over here later." as the future main developer of Fate, Wang Jiangnan had certain outstanding qualities. His tone was gentle, but it was laced with an overbearing aura that would not allow somebody else to refuse him.

Although faint, the pressure could still be felt.

"Alright then." Ye Ci met Wang Jiangnan's gaze. It was a gaze filled with perseverance and determination. Somebody with such a pair of eyes tend to be more tenacious than others, mused Ye Ci.

She followed Wang Jiangnan to a special looking computer, which was quite a distance away from the group. Their conversation would not be overheard if they kept their voices low.

Wang Jiangnan asked in a low voice after turning on the computer, "What's your in-game name?"

Ye Ci lowered her gaze, and spoke up slowly after a moment of thought, "Gongzi You."