Chapter - First Day

Chapter 14 – First Day

"By the way, how high is your base stats?" Bestie asked.

"10 HP, 9 Attack, 7 Defense, and 9 Speed," Berry replied casually but Bestie was extremely shocked.

"For real!?" Bestie asked in shock and Berry nodded.

"With your base stats alone, you are in the top 1% of all the players in this game," Bestie added.

"Is it that amazing?" Berry asked.

"Obviously! Do you know that professional Dodgeball Master Players will mostly have a base stats of around 7 and the highest will usually be an 8? Also, they usually only have only one of the three stats at 8 but you have two at 9," Bestie replied.

"Maybe because I practice martial arts," Berry replied.

"You should add to your sentence, 'diligently'. I guess your hard work is bearing you a massive fruit," Bestie was amazed at his brother.

"Brother, you should play this game seriously and hones your techniques the best you can. If you get the chance to enter the Thunder Tiger Team, you should give it a go," Bestie spoke.

"I am not interested in gaming. I play this to learn more about the game to help me with my job. I also am not a fan of getting popular or becoming a public figure," Berry replied.

"…You have the talent and hard work, are you not going to utilize them to the fullest?" Bestie asked. Based on the battle they had and added with Berry's base stats, martial arts, and hard work, it would be a waste if Berry did not use it.

"I told you I am not interested," Berry gave the same answer. The duo walked away from the field to the city.

"If you become a professional gamer and succeed, you will be able to save money faster to further your studies. You should give this a go. You want to lessen mom and dad's worries, right?" Bestie tried to persuade Berry.

Bestie felt it was a shame if Berry did not want to try this. Although Berry got the job as an assistant, since he was closed to the team, Berry could try to show his talent to the team and joined them.

Berry jolted a bit when he heard about his mom and dad. However, he did not give any more reply to Bestie and continued walking silently to the city. Bestie decided to keep his mouth shut either since Berry was adamant about his decision.

Berry and Bestie found an inn and they logged out.

On the field, a girl sat silently. She was the one that Berry sensed earlier. The girl was watching the video of the fight between Berry and Bestie. The video had Berry and Bestie's face filtered and thus, she did not get to record their faces. Even so, their in-game name was clear in the video.

"Hmm… Nothing interesting in this battle. Although it looks like Berryier is stronger, Bestiel Lion is too weak. He is all bark and no bite. What pro gamer? A total weakling. Did he think a pro gamer can dominate sports games?" The girl shook her head.

The girl looked at Berry and spoke, "Nothing special about the winner too. All he did was threw some balls… I will just give this video to my brother. He can judge himself if these guys are talented or not. They did not look like one in my eyes," the girl ended the recording and looked around to record a few more battles.

"Let's continue scouting! I hope there will be a few interesting battles," the girl looked around and she left to another place.

Back at home, Berry got out of the VR Capsule and it was still morning. He played quite early in the morning and did not play for long. He went to Bestie's room but Bestie locked the door.

"This guy…" Berry was speechless. Berry went back to his room and spent his time reading the forums about Dodgeball Master.

In the evening, Berry's mom and dad came home. Belinda stayed at the hospital to take care of Bendy while the others had a simple dinner at home celebrating Berry's new job.

Spring 3rd, Month 1, the Year 2301

Berry wore formal clothes and got out of his house to the train station. Berry was sweating a bit because he was nervous. He would be working at a big company and it was different than working at a fast-food restaurant.

Berry arrived at the Blue Leaf City and took a bus to the Thunder Tiger Company. Berry arrived in front of the company and the view he saw during the interview was still the same.

Many fans were camping in front of the building waiting for their star. However, there were more of them compared to before. Maybe because the cold had dissipated, there were more of them.

Berry gave his recruitment letter to the guard and was led to the HR department. There, he signed the recruitment document and was given his work ID. He was also given the key house to the company residence which was located at the next building.

Berry was surprised when he heard that but that was not all. The Thunder Tiger Company owned seven buildings.

The building that Berry was currently on was the main building. The main building had 50 floors where the offices, gaming studios, and meeting rooms were located.

As for the other six buildings, three of them were 30 floors apartment buildings located around the main building which were the company residences.

Another one was a six-floor stadium-sized building which was used as a sports center to train the sports players in their respective sports. The Sports Centre was also located next to the main building.

The last two buildings were small 2-story shop building used as the company's official shop where they sold the company's merchandise. One of these buildings was nearby while the other was in the other part of the city.

"You can move into the apartment anytime you want," the HR staff spoke.

She looked around and got closed to Berry and whispered, "You look like a nice kid. So, here is an advice. You need a lot of patience working as an assistant. Many of the players have bad attitudes because they think they are above everyone."

The HR employee smiled at Berry. Berry smiled back and bowed lightly at her and replied, "Thank you for the reminder."

"The Dodgeball Department is on the 22nd Floor. You can report to the team there. Good luck," the HR staff smiled. Berry left the HR Department and headed to the 22nd Floor.

While inside the elevator, Berry was thinking about what the HR staff told him earlier. "Hmm… I don't mind their bad attitudes because I am used to it. As long as they don't cross the line, everything will be fine."

*Ding*

The elevator arrived on the 22nd Floor. Berry walked out of the elevator and he arrived at a small hallway. At the side of the hallway was an automatic glass door and behind the glass door was the receptionist counter.

Berry walked to the glass door, scanned his work ID at the card scanner and the door opened. Berry got in and walked to the receptionist counter.

"New staff?" the beautiful receptionist asked while smiling.

"Yes. This is my document and work ID," Berry handed the document. The beautiful receptionist checked his information on the computer for a few minutes.

"Please wait in room 2201," the beautiful receptionist pointed at a room to her left. Berry nodded and took the document back. He scanned his work ID and entered room 2201.

Berry got inside and there were already three people there. All of them sat quietly at a seat without talking to each other. Berry found a seat and he sat silently there too.

Half an hour later, there were about twenty people inside the room including Berry. Most of them stayed silent while some were chatting with each other. There was one guy there that was quite noisy. He talked non-stop making others felt uncomfortable.

After that, a man came into the room. He was tall around 180+ cm and had quite a muscular body. If Berry were to assume his age, maybe late 20s to early 30s. He wore casual clothes. A pair of Jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket unlike everyone else in the room who wore formal clothes.

The man scanned everyone in the room for a few seconds before he spoke, "I am the General Manager of the Dodgeball Team, Hunter. In simple words, the no 1 person on this floor. The Dodgeball Department is under my control and I am your boss."

Everyone in the room became nervous. Hunter looked at the tablet in his hand and scanned the document about everyone in the room.

"Hmm… Many of you here are the new assistants. All assistants will be assigned to a different team. Your work is to assist your senior and superior in the team and also the players. In the beginning, you will mostly be doing odd jobs like making coffee, photocopy documents, moving objects, and so on," Hunter spoke.

"Assistants are at the bottom of the ladder and I tell this to make you know your place," Hunter spoke.

Everyone in the room frowned. Berry was the same too and he remembered the advice that the HR Staff told him earlier.

"However, if your seniors, superiors, and players cross the line, you can report to me. Send a letter, email, or anything you want to me and after investigation, if your claims are right, the offender will be punished. If you made a baseless accusation, you will be fired," Hunter added sternly.

Everyone's mood lightened. There might be bullying and other similar stuff that happened but they could claim justice if they felt they were wrong.

"New managers, we will talk in my office later," Hunter continued. "Now, I will assign you to your team," Hunter called name by name and told them the team they would be joining.

A few minutes later, "Berry," Hunter scanned the room for Berry.

"Here!" Berry stood up immediately. Hunter stared at Berry up and down and he spoke, "You will be assigned to the U20 Reserve Team."

"Yes," Berry replied.