Chapter Hundred and ten

After giving five stars to the village, Atharva exited completely. No need to check the bank account today too. While finishing breakfast, he checked when his family would come. Okay, Sama was working somewhere else. She would be here only tomorrow. But the twins would come with the parents inspite of needing to take a detour.

It was sort of unspoken agreement between the siblings - to travel with parents whenever possible. The main reason - they were dead tired and miss the stop and had to backtrack to reach the destination. Okay, they would reach by afternoon. So Atharva had time to re- confirm the accomodation in bed and breakfast he had booked previously. And then just wait for them in railway station.

While waiting for them, he started searching for his own accomodation when he starts working. University town. Costly as h*ll. Even the suburbs. They had so many rules and regulations. Who would even be able to fulfill those requirements?

Atharva persisted. He did not need even a room. Even a dormitory was enough. He would have few sets of clothes and a VR head gear. His main stay would be in city L. There, his requirement was a minimum of a capsule room with enough space for his VR pod.

Lunch was some food from a vending machine, wolfed down near railway station. Reggie and Yajo emabarked first even as they were carrying many bags. Then his mother came down, finally father exited the train after confirming nothing was left behind. Atharva had to grin. He just had to. This was done everytime they went out. Big bad men with all the gears exit first then young ones and ladies and finally father after ensuring all the luggage was taken completely.

He had not met any of them in four years. Atharva's eyes moistened a bit. The twins, Reggie and Yajo, were still pale and lanky. Did they grow taller? Again? Dad...He looked so tired. There were so many wrinkles on his face. His hair had turned white for most part. Mom....did you become thin again? You are so thin, that a breeze will topple you. And why are you wearing those old sweaters of Sama? They are already paper thin.

Yes, yes, the reunion happened right there in railway station. It was heartwarming. Every one was hugging one another, each saying the other one had grown tall, become thin etc

First pit stop, the bed and breakfast place. Just dump the bags and allow the parents to sleep. The three brothers would walk and talk.

The mandatory hazing of your siblings - oh, no need for that. Atharva escaped from that by promising some things. Yes, he had to bribe his brothers. Wouldn't any younger child do that? Atharva just laughed inside. You are showing off because Sama is not here. When their elder sister comes, she becomes chief honchos. Aaand, he was more close to Sama than these bratty brats. Let's just see what will happen to you both when Sama comes.

The brothers just walked and talked.

Reggie was planning to enter medical field if possible. He had given up his dream of becoming an animal doctor because the family could not afford the tuitions. Atharva promised him he would help. Reggie just wanted Atharva to be guarantor for the education loan. A person with big salary in great company providing guarantee...his education loan would be approved in a jiff. He had been working in veterinary hospital after he finished his schooling. He had not stopped learning even when the situation in the hospital was.... He would not burden his family. Just share the goals and dreams.

Yajo. He liked working in service industry. He was best brown noser. Never had any black remark through out the school. He said he was planning on shifting jobs. Was already searching. No talk about why he wanted to shift jobs. Not a single word about how the company allowed him to take leave when there would be signs that he was planning on hopping the company.

Atharva was so black hearted that he didn't think of hidden things but he had already planned to rope all of his siblings into the game and work for him. Reggie could become a druid or a summoner. If there was something like beast tamer, that would be perfect. Yajo would be running stalls initially. He may be able to sell in shops or even become an auctioneer if possible. Sama was mad about fashion. She can be a tailor or something similar. Thankfully, he did not allocate any specific jobs to his parents. Eh, just some lifestyle jobs which they might like. Far away from murders and mayhems. He had enough coins to cover all of the family if need be. And just like that he had planned for a Murphy guild within the game.

The whole family found a nice place to have dinner and Atharva took his parents to the hotel to sleep. He might be hesitant to use the money in his bank account to pamper them now but it would not be forever. He really wanted to use VR pod but gave up as etiquette demanded he should leave the room.

He didn't forget to add, "Enjoy your second honeymoon!" before escaping. His father's hands were strong. Strong enough to mold four good kids. Strong enough to wallop him even if he had grown as tall as him.

The boys decided to share the same room. Till it was time to sleep. They would be helping Atharva to gather information. Regarding the game and also his accomodation.

The boys got hooked to the game easily. Atharva hid his evil grin. Step one of getting them to work for him- successfully completed.

Now, just his sister and parents remained.

The official numbers in the game website showed astonishing numbers. The amount of gift crates purchased. Even if all have bought basic crate, which they obviously hadn't, the income the game had generated for the company was in trillions of credits. Enough to run few cities for few years.

Of course the game developers shared the happy news too. The acceptance rate was over 99%. Even if you had to pay to play the game, very few had given up. The statistics might change tomorrow. But that's for tomorrow. Right now, the game was a hit. They will use this statistics to pull even more people into the game.

A series of meetings were happening in the government. The gaming company was using game success and immersion of people into the game to get government's nod. Yes, the gaming company was planning many things. Not just credit-coin conversion but to curtail bad activities in real life due to incidents in game. It's called preemptive strike. Also, such barricades showed their good side to the government, so they might approve this coin-credit conversion easily. Atharva was still young and not used to big business. But Mrs Briggs! She was a champion. She had already found about these meetings. She grinned happily when she heard the news. Just when she was thinking life was boring and bland, a whole new way to make money. So fun!