Chapter 1.20

"Excuse me, excuse me," Ling Xia helplessly called out while trying to push through the large crowd surrounding the person he was trying to talk to.

He squeezed through the small gaps between people, and his mask almost fell off from how much he was moving. Finally, he got to the front of the crowd and heaved a sigh. Burt Danvef was truly a popular man, even in a foreign country he attracted so much attention.

"Mr. Danvef!" He spoke in English with a slight accent, calling out to the man sitting in the luxurious chair.

He was ignored, though, because so many others were also calling his name in vain. And he thought this was supposed to be a high-class party. He shook his head in disappointment.

But there were more pressing matters than this. Ling Xia quickly came up with a plan to catch Burt's attention. It was reckless, but it would most likely work. If worse came to worst, he could just hypnotize Burt's memories away.

"Hello!" he called out once again, successfully failing in making the popular man notice him. "Wei Liqin, my name is Ling Xia! Yang Lizhen told me to come get you!" he shouted, casually throwing three names he was sure a real person would recognize.

He didn't yell too loudly, but it was enough to overwhelm the manners-oriented people here. As he expected, Burt immediately turned his head to face him, the fast motion leaving originally combed-back hair looking messy. A few locks of hair landed on his eyes, obscuring the sharp vigilance beneath them.

He raked his hand through his hair, pushing the stray locks of hair back into place and revealing his eyes, and Ling Xia instantly recognized the man. He had only seen those eyes in one person before.

His name was Wei Liqin, and he was a part of the trainee program for fleet zero for three years. To put that in perspective, the training for this most secure and secretive fleet spanned only one year.

It wasn't because he was held back or anything like that, that only happened in school. If somebody did anything worthy of being held back, they would be fired and not allowed another chance.

No, Wei Liqin stayed back purely out of stubbornness. He wanted to master what he learned in the training before he became an actual member of fleet zero, at least, that was the reason he had given. That meant that he was always on the top of the leaderboard for activities, and his reaction time, logic, and combat skills were on point.

Ling Xia and him were friends, and Wei Liqin had mentioned to Ling Xia that he was planning on finally moving up to become an actual member of fleet zero in his third year, the same year Ling Xia was in training.

Unfortunately, this expected reality was not realized, and he was trapped inside this simulation for eighty-plus lifetimes. It was odd because he usually had pretty good luck. Not great, but not bad either.

Wei Liqin cleared his throat, snapping Ling Xia out of his memories that helpfully explained Wei Liqin to the readers. He knew Ling Xia well enough to know that he had gotten absorbed in his thoughts again. "I'm sorry, friends, but I must go," he said, his voice reaching everybody around him.

He stood, following Ling Xia to a private place. With each step, the alertness in Wei Liqin's eyes softened into reminiscence. There were no private places in this open room though, so they ended up beside the staircase again.

"Ling Xia?" Ling Xia nodded to confirm Wei Liqin's thoughts. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's you!" Wei Liqin exclaimed, overcome with happiness. A broad grin swept across his face, and his eyes lit up as he almost jumped up and down from sheer excitement.

Ling Xia sighed in indulgent exasperation.

That was another thing about Wei Liqin. He was overly cheerful near his friends. To the point where Ling Xia was overwhelmed by it, and he had met some extremely happy-go-lucky people in the past. Fortunately, Wei Liqin wasn't the oblivious type, at least, when there was something serious going on.

"I've been trying to find a way to get out of here for years…Lifetimes! How are you able to control your actions? Oh! Did you escape to the real world already too? Without me? But I'm so glad you're here, now we can both be free!" Wei Liqin shouted in joy, moving his hands all over the place to properly exaggerate his words.

Ling Xia nodded along silently, waiting for Wei Liqin to be done. Not letting Wei Liqin finish his thoughts would not end well, Ling Xia learned that the hard way. Plus, there was almost always useful information hidden in there.

"It's great isn't it? Oh, I can't wait to leave this place!" Wei Liqin threw his head back and breathed a huge sigh of relief, not pausing for even a second to hear what Ling Xia's answer was.

"Wait, you did come for me, right? Thanks! And, oh! After we save all the others and defeat the people that trapped us here, we should definitely go out for dinner at Jing's Family Restaurant. That place has the best food! It was divine! I miss it so much." Wei Liqin closed his, basking in those memories until they shot open again with an alarming idea.

"Oh no! How much time has passed in the real world? Everything we once knew hasn't disappeared, right? Please tell me that Marshal Han is still alive! He's the only person I live for! Nah, I think it'll be alright, the enemy wouldn't bother trapping us trainees in here because they want us to sleep through their world take-over. They wouldn't expect us to be too powerful to stop them or anything!

"So that means that the marshal will be fine! That's phenomenal! Wait, how did you know it was me? Oh! It was through spiritual power, wasn't it? That's right, I thought the same thing. If technology can sense traces of spiritual power and locate them, we can too! Geez, I didn't think you would remember my spiritual power! Thanks!

"Oh, yeah! You probably want to know how I got rid of the system's manipulation! One day, I noticed something was wrong with the world because Mu Ninghua wasn't in the U.S. and then suddenly, the system started making these weird whirring noises, and then I heard something break, and then it's presence was gone from my head, and I was free to do whatever I wanted without its constraints!" he described it all in one breath.

Ling Xia nodded with an absolutely serious face on. But Wei Liqin ranting did give him useful information. Like how the real person noticing something wrong with the world would make the system malfunction and disappear. And Wei Liqin also just analyzed so many things that Ling Xia did and the system. He truly deserved his spot as number one trainee of fleet zero.

Ling Xia watched Wei Liqin and concluded that he was finally done. "I didn't track you down using spiritual power. I'd have to have to sense yours in the real world if I wanted to do that, remember?"

"Right, and we didn't know how to manipulate it before we entered the system! Good point!" Wei Liqin jubilantly stretched out his arm and patted Ling Xia on the shoulder, moving his entire arm up and down with each pat.

Ling Xia gave him a half smile, although it was entirely genuine. "I only wonder how all these worlds didn't have any effect on your overly cheerful and impossible-to-maintain attitude at all."

Wei Liqin burst into laughter. "Never! You'll be seeing much, much more of this, my friend! Get ready!"

Ling Xia shook his head and slight laugh left his lips and Wei Liqin's stupid but missed jokes. "Right, so to the serious stuff?" Ling Xia asked.

Wei Liqin agreed, but then brought up an important question. "Mhm, but what serious stuff?"

This led Ling Xia to take a few steps back, scouring his memories for what was so important that it needed to be done now.. "That is… a good point." Ling Xia said, still pondering on the matter, but he eventually came up blank. "Nothing."

"Exactly! So now we can relax. Come on, I'll introduce you to the friends I made abroad until Yang Lizhen's free!"

"Woah!" Wei Liqin pulled Ling Xia to the same table he was sitting at before and pushed him down onto a seat. Wei Liqin plopped down onto the seat next to Ling Xia's, his enthusiastic actions in stark contrast to his now emotionless face.

"Hello, friends." Wei Liqin greeted. "This is my friend, Ling Xia, I hope you all will take good care of him for me," he said, connecting with everybody's eyes to show his seriousness. His eyes lingered on Burt's best friend, Matthew, for a second longer, making sure that the man had seen him.

See, although Matthew and Burt were the cream of the crop when it came to business and management skills, they also had a bit of a reputation. In the US, they were known as promiscuous people, exhibiting no restraint. They did ask for consent first, but that fact was unknown to many.

The important thing was that they also had a reputation of sharing each other's bed partners. Many people who slept with one of them reported sleeping with the other as well.

So Wei Liqin had to look Matthew dead in the eye to clear things up; Ling Xia was not a bed partner. Luckily, Matthew noticed him, and gave him a subtle nod to acknowledge his words.

Matthew took the initiative to introduce himself because this Ling Xia fellow seemed important. "Hello, my name is Matthew Thompson. It's nice to meet you, Ling Xia." He politely held his hand out for a handshake.

Ling Xia took his hand, his grip firm as Matthew's own. They shook hands for a few seconds until Ling Xia withdrew his hand, befuddled because Matthew hadn't taken back his hand. Matthew was surprised, that was why he hadn't drawn his hand back. Ling Xia seemed like a weakling on the outside, but now he appeared to be just as strong as Matthew.

Ling Xia moved on, shaking hands with many of the people surrounding Wei Liqin while introducing himself. Soon, the entire group was acquainted with Ling Xia. Most people either didn't care much about Ling Xia or were desperately trying to suck up to him to curry favor with Wei Liqin.

Behind the group of flattering or neutral faces was a woman with fury in her eyes. She held her head down, so nobody would see her vicious expression, but her smoldering eyes still glared at Ling Xia as if trying to burn holes into him.

With clenched fists and a forced smile, she raised her head, moving to the front of the crowd. But who was Ling Xia? He instantly noticed her and her intentions.

"So, Mr. Ling, what corporation do you own?" the woman asked, gracefully stepping closer to Ling Xia.

Ling Xia gave her a kind smile back. "I actually don't run a company," he said, to everybody's astonishment. Suddenly, the people who were trying to flatter him moved away from him, hiding in the crowd.

The woman, with a malicious gaze, gasped loudly. "You don't?" she asked, as if trying to clarify.

"Mhm, that's right," Ling Xia responded with a smile, fully knowing that these would be the reactions he would get. "But I work for somebody."

The surrounding people seemed to be even more disgusted by the possibility of working under somebody else. Even the woman took a step back.

"Oh!" she awkwardly exclaimed, trying to regain her composure. "What do you do?" the woman hesitantly asked as if she knew she would be appalled by the answer.

"I'm mostly a consultant for my boss, he asks me for some advice, and I give it. Sometimes I actually lead projects though." Ling Xia showed his teeth in a bright, obnoxious smile. He took great joy in disgusting his enemies to death.

The woman's face twisted. "Um… then who do you work for?"

It was at that point that Ling Xia dropped a bomb. "V."

Mouths gaped and astonished gasps reached Ling Xia's ears. The blood drained out of the woman's face. "Yo–you work for V?" She was shaking in her boots.

The reason they were all so terrified was because the name 'V' had taken over the business world by this point. And by that, it also meant that it took over the entire world because this specific world was based entirely around business.

In only five years, he had taken the world by storm with his quickly rising company. His stellar employees pushed out groundbreaking scientific inventions every year, diving into many different industries and coming out on top.

For some, the name was venerated, and for some, it was notorious. The only thing that was certain was that if somebody made an enemy of V or anybody that worked under him, they were bound to pay.

So, the woman was frightened senseless.

"Oh, yeah, I don't think I got your name," Ling Xia pressed on just to scare the poor woman even more.

As expected, the woman was distraught. 'He's going to tell V my name so that he can get revenge!' she thought, distressed at the possibility of dying an early death.

She bit her lip, unsure of what to do. Her eyes glanced at her boyfriend for help, but he was avoiding her gaze, trying to hide in the crowd. Suddenly, she realized that there was a circle around her that everybody seemed to think was uncrossable territory.

She was alone.

Ah, what a cruel world. As soon as the woman offended somebody important, they cut off all contact and pretended not to know her.

Meanwhile, Ling Xia honestly didn't know what was taking so long. He really just wanted to know the woman's name. It wasn't like that name was gonna be her downfall or something.

The woman fidgeted, stuttering out, "My name's Emma. Emma Blankoff."

"Well, it's nice to meet you." Ling Xia smiled genially while labelling her as his enemy in his head. And as Sun Tzu instructed in the Art of War, Ling Xia kept his enemies extremely close to him.

Bewildered, Emma returned his words. "It's nice to meet you too. I, um, I hope we'll be great friends."

See, now Emma understood. Ling Xia was naive to the point of being ignorant. Emma would take full advantage of this and squeeze every last drop of usefulness out of Ling Xia before she threw him away for interesting Matthew. Matthew was hers and hers alone.

Ling Xia's smile widened, turning almost mocking. He could clearly see every thought going through Emma's head, and it made him want to get revenge in the most wicked way.

"So, Emma, what do you do?" Ling Xia inquired, acting harmless.

"I'm the heiress of the Blankoff family corporation. We're the leading firearms manufacturer."

Ling Xia raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise. "Oh? Well, then you probably know how to shoot a gun well."

"Yeah, I learned how to shoot very early on. It was required for me," Emma explained.

They continued exchanging pleasantries like this, and Ling Xia learned more and more about Emma. He was glad she was willing to give away free information like this. Just like time was money, so was information, but that seemed to have slipped the heiress's mind.

When everybody else saw the harmonious atmosphere between Ling Xia and Emma they breathed sighs of relief and went back to their own conversations. They wiped the scene where Emma was asked her name from their minds and continued with their day as if nothing was wrong.

Notes:

No notes this time, but lots of stuff to say.

First, sorry for not updating yesterday, my eye hurt a lot, decided to go to bed early, and then school happened, and then work happened, and now here we are.

Second, go check out ch. 1.17(unless you read this after 9/17/21)! I changed it up a bit(just the word choice and the finer details), and I think I portrayed the main character much better than last time. It's amazing what just a few words can do to the way a reader(or author because this is pertaining to the way I perceive it) sees a character.

So please look at it. I don't want my character to seem pitiable at all.

Okay, uh, third, why did I say that I have lots of things to say when I only had two? The way my brain works eludes me.

Alright, see you next time! Hopefully that next time refers to a Thursday this time.