Time skip of a year

After numerous visits and meetings with the companies, Ben had decided, which one he would buy. Gerfinity and Rocket Art were too expensive for their potential and their employee. Play It Again didn't have in the least a future in the VR market.

In the end, there was only GamesWorld and Gameforger, which fitted relatively his conditions. As both did only have about 2 and 3 thousand employees, Ben decided to take over both companies and merge them into GamesWordForger (GWF).

The cost of overtaking both was nothing in his eyes, the more costly thing was to invest in better computers, more servers, and equipment for 3D-designing. In the end, Ben had lost around 147 million euros.

Ben had also received the number of Klaus from Eren. Their relation had greatly improved, which was mostly due to them using each other to be better in school.

Learning in the breaks and working together on projects and homework became a normal thing for them. Their class was surprised by that development but with the pressure of school, nobody would think about it too much.

Having the phone number of Klaus, Ben called him, hiding his age and source of the number.

After a short explanation and the reason for the call, the conversation became a lot more professional.

"Do I understand you, right? You want the right to produce a game on our next helmet? What makes you think that there is a future helmet?"

"Mister Müller. I hoped, we could skip that part. We both know that there will be a next helmet. With the help of Neurolink's data and researches, Magic leap has the potential to be leading the future. I am just an entrepreneur, who wants a part of the profit. GWF may not be as big as Nintendo or Ubisoft, but we are sanguine to be able to create a great game. So, what do you think?"

"You are right about Neurolink and the helmet, but this doesn't make GWF worth enough to use our technology. We already have a contract with another company, which is a lot bigger than…��

"I know that! But I think the more games there are on the market, the more customers you will have. It also gives you a lower risk. What is if their game is a flop? What is if your companies make a bankrupt before you can sell your product?"

…

The discussion continued a lot longer till Ben had convinced Klaus. Not only did he start a cooperation between Magic leap and GWF, but he could also buy 8% shares from shareholders, who lost faith in Magic leap. The loss in faith was understandable, Magic leap had a reputation of giving big promises and delivering the minimum. The other reason was how fast Magic leap burned through funds, in 2010 it raised $2.6 billion from a list of investors and in 2020 they had raised another $350 million.

GWF was led by the two older CEOs, Marc Stenzel & Fritz Traub. While they were publicly the CEOs, they only had each 5% of shares and the true boss was still Ben.

With the instructions of Ben, GWF was working under high efficiency. The company may not have been big, but it had amassed a lot of talented individuals over the years.

Having done most of the work, Ben mainly focused to max out his stats and regularly invested in the stock market. LifeUp was beginning to stop growing as the market was mostly satisfied by the need for its main product.

And so, the last school year ended up being common. The exams took place and like the other times, Ben did pretty much great. Especially in sports, he broke many school records.

To be able to maintain his strength and agility growth, Ben used nutrients and more equipment. His will to train was weakening with every day. The only reason he still pushed forward was thanks to the memories of his last miserable life and that he knew he would never have to train again so hard.

The development of his body was on the one side intimidating the people in his surroundings, but on the other side, many thought he was a model or a famous athlete.

But either way, it was annoying for Ben. Sure, he may have liked the special treatment at the beginning, but then he just wanted everything to turn back like before.

Only the people, who saw his slow development still treated him the same.

After all this time, people were starting to ask questions about his body, his training, and what he was eating. His muscles were well-proportioned, but also huge.

After Ben finished school, he went to many martial artists and tried to perfect his own art.

What seemed like a good idea was mostly disappointing, martial art was only used at its basic. Looking at the martial artist in Germany was like looking at the weakest martial artists in history. Every little improvement would help in the future, so he just turned a blind eye to the sadness he felt by the cultural loss of humanity.

It was also the time when he created his Close combat skill. Using a skill before that time would have the risk of learning wrong things, so he waited to make it after being trained by experienced martial artists. After perfecting his basic knowledge, Ben also watched expensive videos of other martial artists over the world.

He couldn't be compared to an old martial artist as he fighting experience were almost non-existent, but he could replicate perfectly every useful martial moves that existed.

…

While Ben spent his time, news about the FERMI project spread over the whole world.

„First public test of a portal!"

„Sergy will host a big scientific event!"

„May we soon travel to new planets?"

„End of the world or beginning of a new era?"

„Portals no more science-fiction?"

The news triggered different emotions, but most of them were positive.

´Wouldn't that mean more jobs?´

´The land would become cheap again!´

´Finally, hope for humanity!´

´Can't wait to see another planned?´