Flora Taylor

Daniel then logged out of Universal Guardians, and started to shower.

In the shower, Daniel was talking to himself.

"When would I ever get a true challenge?" Daniel sighed deep down.

He wanted a true challenge, something that will baffle his mind.

He finished showering and put on his clothes. He then went outside of his house, and strolled around his neighborhood.

The full moon was gracefully hanging on the starry night sky. The scene was beautiful.

Daniel was sitting on a bench, pondering things. There was nothing left to challenge him. Gaming was good at first, it was fun, but now?

It was all too easy!

Heck! Even horror games doesn't scare him, nor even build up tension in his brain! Gaming for him was just now something to fulfill his time, and earn money from.

The passion for gaming was slowly fading, as the games are all too easy!

Console games? Easy! Modern Virtual Reality Games? Easy! Computer games? Too easy! Mobile games? Even more so!

The fire that kept him going, was slowly being extinguished, and his years of experience on the industry didn't help. Well, don't get Daniel wrong, he still loved video games, it's just that all these games... They're not even a speck of dust to Daniel!

"Maybe it's time to get a wife?" Daniel said while gazing at the star-filled night sky.

Daniel shook his head as he stood up while smiling wryly.

He then walked back to his house.

"I think it's time to take a vacation? Maybe consider vlogging myself for a change of pace?" Daniel was getting increasingly bored, and said to himself while lying in bed.

He was watching movies on his TV while lying on his bed. He yawned, before taking the remote on his side table and switched to the Gaming Channel.

The news was, of course, about gaming. It reported on the current Era of Gaming and the situation of the world's gaming industry. It also reported about hot topics on the world's gaming, like stream scandals, and game releases.

In the current Era of Gaming, tens of games are released every single week! Although not every single one of it is actually good, it is still something that cannot be imagined way back before the Era of Gaming!

And those games were not just simple, carelessly crafted indie games, nor games that were created just in the nick of time to enter it in a contest! The current technology on game development has already advanced to the point that even a 3D character model can be created within a matter of minutes, and thousands of lines of codes can be typed in a span of a single minute!

This was only made possible with the technological advancement of computers, and the neural technology that can be wired to the human brain to type out codes without a single mistake, and even use the human brain as a 'keyboard' of some sort that doesn't need hands to work, and only thinking.

This created a heaven for game developers, as they can create games in just weeks that took years to complete before the Era of Gaming!

And now, because of the breakthrough in neural technology, the researchers of the world are also researching true virtual reality!

This was what Daniel was waiting for! True Virtual Reality! Something that will challenge him for once! Something so fun that his passion will be reignited because of it!

This is the only missing thing in Daniel's life! True entertainment! He had everything, but not even a single challenge was presented to him since time immemorial, even when he was only starting, he wasn't challenged whatsoever!

This was not the arrogance of a human being seeing himself as a god, but the true situation at hand.

Just then, the news on the Gaming Channel reported something that caught Daniel's attention.

"There will be a convention in the Gaming Island managed by the IGO! It is said to invite world superstars in the industry of gaming and prodigies!"

"There will also be exhibition matches taking place between the prodigies. Of course, everyone's allowed to go and watch, and also enjoy various activities on the convention itself!"

Daniel still had a blank look on his face when he heard this news. He did not even hear this, as he didn't put his eyes on the current gaming prodigies of the world.

Thirteen Gaming Divinities? What a joke!

This is what Daniel's true thought was. Well, he was not underestimating the members of the Thirteen Gaming Divinities, it's just that, they are truly below him! He was not undermining, but Daniel thought that the Thirteen Gaming Divinities are truly overrated.

Don't get Daniel wrong, arrogance his glory didn't get over his head, he was just analyzing the situation at hand, and, as a realist, he was not so keen to compete with them, as it was not worth the effort!

It was simply a thankless task for him.

At that exact moment, Daniel's phone rang. He took it and saw it was an unknown number.

He answered it.

"Hello?" A feminine voice rang in the other side.

"Um... Hello?" Daniel reciprocated.

"Is this Daniel Rodrigo?" The feminine voice asked. "I'm Flora Taylor, the secretary of the president of the IGO."

Daniel was suspicious of the girl claiming that she was the secretary of the IGO's president, nevertheless, Daniel didn't sense any malicious intentions from the girls' voice. Still, a trace of doubt is in Daniel's mind, it never hurts to be too careful.

"How did you get this number?" Daniel asked, squinting his eyes a little bit.

"I got it from Mr. Hundred Kills, Kyle." Flora said. "Are you free? I'm currently at Philippines, I can meet with you..."

Flora gave Daniel a coffee shop's address. It was a 10-minute drive.

"I'll meet you tomorrow at 10 in the morning, is that a good time?"

"Yeah, sure, I've got nothing to do anyways..." Daniel said, still squinting his eyes.

"Can you please bring Mr. Kyle with you?" Flora asked politely.

"Ahh, yes, of course." Daniel said, feeling the doubt slowly slipping. Well, even if it was a scam, he can probably just leave anyways.

Flora said goodbyes, and a few small talk before hanging up.

Daniel returned to watching news while pondering why the secretary of the IGO's president is looking for him, if it was ever real.

"Personal invitation?" Daniel asked himself, shaking his head. They would probably just send his invitation by e-mail.

Next day.

Daniel woke up at six in the morning. He brushed his teeth, and showered. He liked to be clean, very clean, some may even call him someone with mysophobia, a mysophobic.

He then created himself another lavish 'feast.' It was full of protein this time, as he thought it was time for him to hit the gym - and by gym, he meant his house's gym.

"Maybe I should consider building my own business...." Daniel let his thoughts wander while eating breakfast, as there was nothing interesting in the television. A restaurant maybe? Or maybe a farm? Strawberry farm? Bee farm? Well, at this point, he literally can invest in anything.

After finishing his meal, he sat down in front of his office's computer, and then searched for good games. Any kind of game, Daniel would want, he just wanted a challenge.

He then found a game called Emperor's Blade. Daniel went ahead and played it.

Emperor's Dungeon is a first person single-player dungeon crawler. It's like Diablo, but has much outstanding graphics, and more weapons, as well as RPG-like leveling and skills.

Daniel chose the Chaos Monk class, which basically fought with gauntlets on and energy.

The Emperor's Dungeon's basic story was that the character the player was playing was hired to go down the dungeons along with twenty-nine more experienced adventurers. They were to exterminate the threat in the dungeons, which is an extremely powerful fire dragon.

However, there was another unseen threat, it was a demon, lurking in the dungeons. The character's party was wiped, and the character was the only one left. The character was knocked out. As the character wakes up, he/she is in an unfamiliar place. An inside voice 'explains' the situation inside the character's head, telling the character to find a way to descend down the dungeons, to defeat the demon that wanted to have fun and transported the character in that place. It's the only way to get out of the wretched place.

Sounded like a cool game, so Daniel tried it, and.....

Not even three hours later, Daniel already finished the game.

Daniel yawned, "about time I go to that place." Daniel said to himself. It was 9:40 in the morning.

He then put casual clothes, jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. He then went down the stairs, into his garage, and drove his car into the place Flora and him agreed on.

He went inside, and it was pretty fancy. "Nice place, I should put this in my lists of place that I can actually go to.... Of course, that is if their coffee is good."

Daniel was saying this to himself, however, somebody quickly noticed him, and screamed his epithet. "Phantom God!"

All attention then turned to him. Daniel then thought, 'okay, this is not good.'

However, Daniel still appeared calm on the outside, and just smiled. He then nodded slightly to the one who screamed, who was a girl. She was embarrassed and elated at the same time, meanwhile, the crowd whipped out their phones and took pictures of Daniel.

"I guess I should put a face mask the next time, huh...." Daniel sighed. He was too popular, Daniel knew this himself. He had to put on a face mask, and sunglasses the next time he goes out of his house.

He then went to the counter to order some coffee. This caused the girl staff to scream silently, and the cashier, who was another girl, smiled.

"I want to get..." Daniel looked at the menu, and decided on one drink. "A chocolate espresso please."

"One chocolate espresso. What else would you like to add, sir?" The cashier girl was holding back her excitement, and tried her best to maintain her cool.

"Maybe a chocolate crepe cake?" Daniel asked himself. "Yeah, one of that."

"Anything else, sir?"

"No, that's all."

"That would be... 200 PHP, sir."

Daniel whipped out a 200 PHP bill on his wallet, and gave it to the cashier. He then looked around, and saw one of those cards.

"I'll also buy one of these, how much?" Daniel asked as he picked up one of the cards.

"550 PHP, the 500 PHP will be loaded into the card, sir."

Daniel bought what he wanted, he also loaded the card with 10,000 PHP. He then sat down on a table for two as he waited for his order, and the self-proclaimed president of IGO's secretary.

Minutes later, his order was served, and he got it. He then took his phone out, and read a novel. There was nothing good to play anyways, why not just read? Reading is pretty good. Daniel always used to read when his parents were alive.

He loved to read books, and it was his first time to read in months now. He missed it.

At exactly 10:00 AM, a woman entered the coffee shop. The woman was definitely a foreigner, and had pale skin. She wore glasses, and had red lips or lipsticks. She had thick eyebrows, and is definitely beautiful for a Filipino's tastes. She wore a one-piece red dress, and her red hair was tied back in a ponytail. She wore heels, and was about Daniel's height.

Daniel paid no heed to the woman, until she ordered and sat on Daniel's table.

She sat with an upright posture. While waiting for her order, she introduced herself.

"I am Flora Taylor, the secretary of Takasagi Hosei, the president of IGO." Flora smiled as she took out her ID in her bag.

Daniel took the ID, and read the details. 'Okay,' Daniel thought. 'I don't think that it's a fake ID in the least.' Daniel studied fake IDs back in his days, and trust him, he doesn't have the means, but he knows how to create fake IDs that cannot be detected by current technology.

He knows what a fake ID is with just a look, unless the difference with a real ID is just on a microscopic level, in which case, he cannot.

"I was sent specifically here by Sir Takasagi to personally invite you to the IGO conference which is to be held at the Gaming Island two days later." Flora said with a smile.

Daniel returned her ID, and took a sip from his chocolate espresso.

"Okay, I'll be blunt. Why the trouble?" Daniel asked.

"Because you are the renowned Phantom God. Plus, you just revealed your identity, we ought to invite a rising gaming superstar personally." Flora said as her order came up. "Ooohh, excuse me for a sec."

She got her order, which seems to be a simple hot chocolate, and a chocolate oat cake.

"Anyways, I was saying, that I was sent here by Sir Takasagi to invite you, Phantom God, in the IGO conference. We need you, please attend." Flora said.

"Yeah, sure, it's not like I have a schedule..." Daniel said. He didn't have anything planned in the next few days anyways, why not see this IGO conference and see what is going on?

After that, the two just chatted away. At the afternoon, Daniel ate, and at 3 PM, he went to the gym, did some stretches, before working out for a full 30 minutes intensely.

He then hit the showers of the gym, before going home, and playing again. He then ate dinner, and went to bed. Just another regular day.

When will there ever be a challenge?