Chapter 44 - Meetings

"That's a good wine!" Peter muttered silently, glancing at the crystal glass in his hand. The waves of crimson liquid crashed against the delicate structure.

'Still, there is so much work,' Peter thought, moving his eyes back at the stack of paper lying on his desk.

Peter scanned the remaining documents with a long stare.

"There are supplies, weekly cargo, monthly report," Peter whispered to himself. "Right, there is that guy too," he suddenly noticed before sharply turning his head towards the clock.

'Dang, he will be here in a minute.' Peter noticed, instantly lowering his head over the paper.

"That's... quite normal, isn't it?" He muttered under his nose, reading into the short document.

'No matter how you look at it, it's perfectly normal, huh?' Peter entered a focused state. The numbers of the transactions, history of avatar, recorded moments... Everything was right there, in front of his eyes.

For a Veteran like Tom, reaching level fifty could take a few days at most. So with that, everything should be self-explanatory.

"Isn't it a bit...-knock," a loud knocking put a stop to Peter's thoughts. "Come in," he shouted towards the doors. He kept his eyes on the document in hopes that this strange feeling would tell him something else.

"We brought a comprehensive report of the observation. The scapegoat acted perfectly as planned," A young girl in her twenties reported as she passed a thick stack of documents right on Peter's lap.

"Wait, who is this guy...?" Peter only glanced at the front page before gasping in surprise. "A young master of an ex-military family? Heck, how come this didn't come out when we screened him before?" he asked in an irritated voice.

"We had an error in the database," the girl answered without any hesitation. "Because he left the area right when our servers were under that massive attack, we failed to keep any records of him," the girl continued. She moved forward before sitting down in one of the guest chairs.

"The thing is, I looked up his records from the time he was away," the girl suddenly changed her tone to a disappointed one. "He had an extraordinarily ordinary life. Just another nerd out of the mill, scheduled to make massive bucks once activated."

"Perfectly reasonable citizen..." Peter fell into deep thought for a moment. "Heck!" He quickly shook his sleepiness away. "He is just too ordinary to be truly ordinary," Peter sat down and looked at the thick case with documents. "Can you cover for me? I need to read it before meeting him," Peter asked as he raised his eyes at the girl.

"Why even ask?" The girl shook her head in response. There was a sense of hurt pride in her eyes.

"Give me an hour. After that, we will see what this guy is made from.

**** **** **** **** ****

Tom sat in the back of a black van as he rode towards the Online Hub. The days where he could just sit on his bike and get there alone were over. Now that he made his stance on Marvin's problem, Tom had no other choice but to follow through with the act.

Before long, Tom's car stopped at its destination. Walking out of the vehicle, Tom presented his suit.

As this was supposed to be a business meeting, there were some formal needs regarding one's attire.

"Good luck," said the older of the two siblings that escorted him.

In a family structure, one could be a father, an uncle, a brother, or just a friend. This system was derived directly from the times when the uncles and Tom's dad served together in the military.

A father meant the leader of the family, its commanding officer. The uncles were the people who fought in the real war together before settling down. Brothers and cousins alike belonged to the new generation who followed in their parent's footsteps.

'I wonder if this will work,' Tom thought while climbing the stairs and then taking a lift.

He picked two 'brothers' rather than 'uncles' for a simple reason. People roughly the same age as him could serve as a realistic detail of a mundane scenario. So rather than bringing people looking like bodyguards, he brought people looking like his friends.

Soon, the lift reached the topmost floor of the building, releasing Tom into the hands of Peter.

"Welcome," the officer of the Online Hub stood up and invited Tom and his entourage inside.

"I'm sorry it took me so long," Tom bowed politely before taking a seat in one of the comfy chairs.

"So, I'm sorry for being direct, but I just don't have the time to discuss it for long," Peter sat down and said, his smile souring. "I know it wasn't long since I gave you the mission, and I would like a report about its progress," Peter explained, looking as if he was troubled by the matter.

'Strange guy.' Tom's eyebrow twitched a little. "It's okay, let me explain," Tom said before taking a moment to fix his position in his seat.

"I can get to the level fifty at any time I would like. It's just that I'm trying to push my avatar to its limits, to enhance my chances of obtaining a strong ability," Tom explained, omitting all the unnecessary details.

"So you are saying you are intentionally stuck?" Peter raised his glance from the papers he held to Tom's face.

"Yeah, that would be pretty much it," Tom nodded his head. "I'm intentionally leaving all the stones on my avatar as I log out," Tom suddenly revealed what could be pretty much heresy.

The ultimate point of Dungeons Online was to exchange the 'data' stones. Be it for levels for their avatars or raw cash, everyone would cash in. But for someone to purposely waste the stones away?

"You are just letting those stones go?" Peter asked while opening his eyes wide.

"Yeah, for quite a while already," Tom explained before shaking his head.

"All right," Peter said after a moment. It appeared that he was pretty shaken by the revelation. "I will give you two more days to hit the fifty," he smiled as he looked at Tom and his escorts. "Now, get the hell out of my office!" he then shouted in a mild, clearly amused tone.