2.16 - Meeting in Person/Spreading the Wealth

The next morning, Scarlett woke up 10:00 am which was later than her usual. She didn't have enough time to get any workouts in before she headed off to the airport. She told her father about this over the phone so he sent her a driver who seemed to be one of her father's old friends. Not only that, he even helped her with getting a "small" working space for them to live in.

"Harry?" Scarlett was a bit surprised.

"Sup, kiddo! Hop in." He said and Scarlett smiled and got in the car.

"So... you are meeting your friends at the airport then after that..."

"We will go to your restaurant but before any of this, we need to pick up Valerie and Aiden. After that, I will tell you the address of my teammates, Blade Dance and Silent Night. The rest are coming by plane." Scarlett added.

"Now I see why I am driving a Limo..." Harry said under his breath. Scarlett heard him and smiled but didn't say anything else.

There seemed to be no traffic on the road today which Scarlett found odd. Because of this, they reached Valerie and Aiden's house fairly quickly. They had already been waiting when a limousine pulled up at their house.

Scarlett rolled down her window and looked at the two who had frozen in place. "Aren't you guys coming in? We kinda have a tight schedule and I still have to pick up Blade Dance and Silent Night." They woke from their stupor and shook their heads as they put their stuff in the car and got into the limo.

"Isn't this... a bit much?" Valerie asked making Harry, who was about to start driving slip of the stick shift and hit the radio. Everyone looked at him but he just looked forward and pulled up the tinted partition.

"What do you mean?" Scarlett asked in all seriousness. This was the only vehicle her dad had that could fit up to 10 people comfortably. If possible, she would have liked something a bit more modern but it was alright for an old fashioned car.

"...Forget it. It will be nice to see the surprise on their faces..." Aidan said and Valerie nodded. It was only at these moments when Scarlett's EQ truly 'shined'.

After picking them up, they headed for an apartment complex that was in the slightly lower than middle class section of town. Scarlett called Silent Night.

"Are you already here?" He asked.

"Yep. Me, Valerie and Aidan are waiting for you outside. Please make it quick as the schedule is getting tight." Silent Night, aka Feng Ming looked at his sister, Blade Dance, aka Feng Yue, who had a lot of suitcases full of clothing and said, "We might need a hand taking some stuff down." He quickly added on.

"What floor are you on?" Scarlett said as she got out of the limo.

"Floor 3, Room 13."

"Alright, I'll be there in a moment." Scarlett hung up the phone and entered the apartment complex. She had never been in one but she knew an elevator when she saw one. She entered the elevator and pressed 3 on it. The door closed and soon she was on her way up.

While inside the elevator, she heard an old song playing on the speaker overhead. She liked the song and started tapping her feet to the beat...

'I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling

Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you...'

At this time, the elevator opened and she came back to reality qnd stepped out of the elevator. On the wall, she saw signs on the wall. Through these signs, she got to know that the brother/sister duo lived in the middle apartment.

Not long later, she stood in front of room 12 and pressed the button beside the door. Over this button, there was a screen and when she pressed the button, the image of a young boy and girl with familiar features appeared on it.

"It's Scarlett." Scarlett saw them widen their eyes and very quickly, the door opened.

"Scarlett!" Feng Yue flww towards her and gave her a bear hug. Although she was thin, she had a lot of strength, qlmost crushing her chest and flattening her mounds.

"Woah there! We don't have time for this." Speaking of not having time, the phone notification just went off at this time.

'Me, Cecilia and Storm just landed. They said that we have to wait about 10 - 15 minutes before we can get off. We are entering through B Gate.' - Tyrant

Another one came up as soon as Scarlett finished reading the first one.

'Where are you at? I'm at Gate D but I don't see you guys.' - Athena

Scarlett clicked her teeth as she texted them saying that she was runninglate and would be there in 10 minutes.

"Good to know that we weren't punctual. Everyone grab some bags and let's go." Scarlett commanded with an authoritive voice that shocked Feng Yue and Feng Ming. Valerie and Aidan, on the other hand, were not. They all got as many bags as they can and came outside.

"A limo?" Feng Yue and her brother were shocked. Feng Yue turned to Scarlett and said, "For my future happiness, I ask that you accept my proposal for marriage." She said, giving Scarlett the chills.

"Sorry... marriage is completely off the table." Feng Yue felt her heart being crushed into billions of pieces. She hung her head and sighed as she and her brother put their stuff in the trunk of the limo.

When everyone got into the car, she told Harry to double time it to the airport. The limo's wheels burnt out as he sped off towards their final destination.

In 8 minutes, they arrived at the airport. Scarlett hopped out and seemingly flashed through the door of the airport and through the crowd of people before arriving at D Gate. She scanned the area for a familiar looking woman before finding her.

Sitting on a small chair, a woman around her age was looking at her phone while chewing bubblegum. She blew a bubble and it popped. She then looked up as she felt someone looking at her. She was shocked to see the extremely familiar person in front of her.

"Athena?" Scarlett asked with a smile.

Athena smiled back and the looked around Scarlett to see more familiar faces coming from behind Scarlett.

"Damn it! You run way too fast! Are you some kind of olympic athlete or something?" Aiden asked as he breathed heavily. He was completely wiped from the run they just made. His sister, Valerie, and the brother/sister duo, Feng Ming and Feng Yue were still in shape.

"I'm starting to think that it is a great idea for us to be here. Scarlett can force you to get off your ass and do workouts with the entire group." Valerie said as she eyed the foreign goddess in front of her. Athena is the only person here who is from a different country and is not familiar with the chinese language. Luckily, everyone here spoke english. Athena was also her real name so there was no awkwardness.

Athena was similar to Scarlett in build but a little shorter and more shapely. She had long, wavy, dirty blonde hair with hazel colored eyes. She is from Athens, Greece so her her best attributes were not very common in this country but Scarlett remembered them being quite common in Greece when she looked it up.

That being said, Scarlett's mother was American with a bit of greek in her. It truly is funny how her father and mother met that is a story for another time.

"Scarlett? Where is Tyrant and his group at?" Athena asked as she saw that 3 people were missing.

"Tyrant is coming in from B Gate." Athena nodded.

No longer than a minute later, They were in front of B Gate and saw 3 familiar people coming into the airport.

"Scott... Cecilia... Will... welcome to the capital. I, Scarlett, will be your host today." Scarlett's tour guide role-playing made them notice her.

"What tour guide has such expesive tastes?" Storm, aka Will, retorted. "If you were actually a tour guide, I would fear for my life and safety." He added on.

"Hmmm... It seems that I didn't see Blackwell drop a ledgendary staff then... what a shame..." Her words made Will choke and he began coughing.

"For real?" Everyone asked at the same time. Scarlett shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not too sure anymore..." She looked at Will with a playful smile. "...Maybe if someone were to take back what they said about me..."

"Oh, Scarlett, my goddess! Please forgive me! My mind was addled. I know my wrongs. Please give me another chance!" Will even got on his knees at the end and began to crawl up to her leg.

The bottom of her shoe made contact with his forhead and sent him tumbling backwards. A look of disdain and disgust appeared on her face as she quickly backed away. "You can have the staff, just please back away!"

Will got up off the ground with a smile and ignored all of the wierd looks he was getting. Everyone looked at him with disdain and then back to Scarlett who had now calmed down.

"I am tired of being here. Let's head out, shall we?" Everyone nodded.

When they got outside, the limo was out infront of the entrance. Scott, Cecillia and Will all opened their eyes wide and looked at Scarlett.

"You know what? I am glad that we spent all of our money on these plane tickets. Now we have a reason to use Scarlett's money instead." Will said this and was met with a swift chop to the forehead from Scott, aka, Tyrant.

They put their bags in the back of the limo and everyone got inside of it.

"Ahem..." Scarlett cleared her throat, grabbing everyone's attention. "We have about 6 hours till the server maintenance is complete so I thought we could use the time to celebrate our first meetings with lunch." She then turned to the closed partition. "I know, I know. It will be on your father's tab."

"Uh... who is our driver exactly?" Athena suddenly asked.

"He is one of my father's long time friends from the army and the Founder of a very well know restaurant chain named 'The Empirian'." Her words shocked them and Harry, who was in the driver seat felt like he would ring Scarlett's father dry with this lunch.

They arrived at the Empirian and were led into Harry's personal private room and were given the finest food they had to offer. Everyone except Athena drooled over the food.

Athena seemed to have this kind of air around her that led people to believe that she was stuck-up or too arrogant but she was only nervous because she was seeing, who she thought to be, her idol in the flesh. She didn't talk too much but when Scarlett talked to her, she was very full of energy. Scarlett made a few plans in her head as she joined in on the conversation. She wasn't good at keeping a conversation going unless...

"So Scarlett... It is very clear that you are loaded. What is your background?" Feng Yue asked while sipping on her punch.

Everyone's ears perked up as they were all curious.

"Well... my mother and father were both Special Forces Team Leaders for different countries. They met during a joint operation and a few missions later, they were all over each other. Fasy forward a few years, they got married and a few years after that, I was born. Unfortunately, my mother passed away from complications during my birth. Since then, my father slowly stepped away from his military duties and not too long ago, he retired as an Army General. Now he just uses the money he earned from serving the country to provide for me and for himself." Scarlett gave them a basic rundown.

"Wow... you are almost like a 2nd generation nouveau rich kid." Will blurted out, earning another chop from Cecilia this time.

Scarlett chuckled and said, "No... he is pretty much right. But I can say confidently that there is no other nouveau rich like me."

"My... how humble." Cecillia rolled her eyes, earning a laugh from everyone.

Soon, there was a couple of hours left until the maintenance was over. Scarlett called her father and asked if the place was ready.

"Yep, everything is in order and Grace even sent you some... experimental VR cabins. Supposedly, they allow you to sense the game as if it were real life. There was also something Electronic Muscle Stimulation or something. Your muscles will work acording to how you move in the game. how would it work if you got a cramp or something? Anyway, you should come on over."

"Alright." Scarlett looked at everyone and said, "My father said that all of the vr cabins and rooms have been prepared."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Aiden asked. He was already getting up and soon everyone followed him out. Getting back into the limo, everyone was very excited. Scarlett had already called Harry and he was back to being the chauffeur for them once more.

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The building was on the other side of the city but closer to capital high than her own house was. When they stopped in front of the building, even she was shocked.

"Um... Scarlett?" Scott asked, still looking the building that had at least 20 floors in it.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Thanks for everything."

"No problem..." Scarlett looked at the front of the building and saw her father standing there, waving at her.

As everyone stepped out of the limo, they officially took their first steps into what would be a new era.