After the spar both Liam and Silva were quite exhausted. They headed for a small bar in the gym, gulping down a bottle of water each while conversing leisurely. A few minutes later Silva left, saying she needed to freshen up before their friends arrived.
Liam stayed behind, now completely alone in the gym. He enjoyed the quiet environment as he began to hone his skills.
The gaming house's gym had everything one might need. Even some newly invented areas which were conductive to training the game's skills were installed, which amazed Liam greatly. The facility was easily ten times more helpful than training at home. Liam quickly made up his mind to come here every day from now on.
Sadly, Liam didn't have much time today. About an hour later he left for the changing room, made use of the adjutant shower, and put on fresh clothes. Feeling greatly refreshed he took the elevator down towards the lobby.
Liam was just in time to meet the leaving workers who had finished some instalments in the kitchen area. Now there were only a few tweaks left until the construction work was officially finished. On their way out he thanked them for their hard work even as the festival was ongoing.
As the gaming house came closer to completion, Liam also felt the anticipation building inside him. Discovering how conductive the gym was today, Liam looked forward to moving in. After all, living with Merida was never a permanent solution.
Although the same could be said about the gaming house, Liam could see himself staying here for next five years, which would naturally be a major part of his life.
Just as Liam was dreaming steps came from the entrance and Dominic's sonorous voice came from the entrance:
"Liam! I didn't expect you'd be the first to arrive! Are you alone?"
"Hi. I came earlier to test out the gym. Serena should come soon."
Next to Dominic walked Kel, alias Bloody Edge. At the mention of the gym his impressive muscles twitched, and his eyes lit up:
"Damn, I should've thought about that! No need to go to those overcrowded public gyms anymore. Ever since people learned that you can train your game skills in real life, gyms have become hell. Overcrowded and greedy..."
Dominic on the other hand let out a sigh:
"Well, guess we'll go tomorrow morning..."
"Of course we will! Don't be so reluctant, it will be good for you."
"I told you a million times already. No matter how much I train or how little I eat, this body of mine simply won't slim down."
"I know, I know. Sorry. It will still be healthy though."
Stopping Dom and Kel from quarrelling, Liam interjected with his own opinion:
"Whether healthy or not, we not to train our skills. We can't fall behind. I'm ashamed to admit that I have been training less ever since there was the incident at the dojo, but now we have no excuses anymore."
"Sure. It will be fun hitting the gym with the group!", said Kel with a smile. Just then the elevator opened and Fortune, Acacia, and Quickstep, or rather Rachel, Adrian, and Quiana stepped out. Immediately Rachel's laughing voice came:
"Did I hear gym?"
Liam, Kel, and Dominic welcomed the newcomers but suddenly Kel's expression shifted strangely as he looked at Rachel. He couldn't help but imagine the gorgeous woman in gym clothes...
Rachel noticed Kel's gaze and rolled her eyes. She was experienced enough to guess Kel's thoughts. As the two groups gathered Rachel gave Kel a clap at the back of his head, causing the young man to look away, embarrassed.
Rachel didn't take it to heart and the friends continued joking for a bit while more of their group arrived. Final Fend, Brag, and even Melodious Edelweiss were invited this time as an empty cinema was no fun according to Cynthia.
Speaking of her, the young woman was almost the last to arrive despite this being her home, drawing joking remarks from her friends.
However, even then the entire group still hadn't gathered. Five more minutes passed, and Silva finally arrived.
"Hey, did you take an hour to freshen up?"
Liam couldn't help but ask jokingly. However, this remark drew him strange gazes from everyone. Felix, who didn't know where his sister had gone earlier, asked suspiciously:
"How do you know what my sister has been doing?"
Before Liam could answer, Silva's voice rang out calmly:
"We have met in the gym."
"Oh, you too?"
"The gym? Hey, great idea."
"Why didn't I think about that?"
As the topic came back to the gym, the friends reacted in a similar manner to Kel earlier. Only Cynthia, who was already familiar with it, asked Silva excitedly:
"You were to the gym? Did you try the reinforced chamber for skill training? It's great!"
"I was planning to but then Liam arrived, and we had a spontaneous spar."
Hearing this, all eyes were immediately trained on Silva. Cynthia, her heart for gossip ignited, was the first to ask with a smile:
"Come one, tell us. Who won?"
"That will remain a secret."
"Who knows?"
Two voices rang at the same time. Silva and Liam looked at each other as they spontaneously gave the same answer. Noticing the looks of their friends as their craving for gossip remained unsatisfied, Liam and Silva couldn't help but break out into laughter.
Cynthia's eye twitched. She walked away, hatching plans in her mind, determined to find out the result, leaving a lingering threat behind:
"Just you wait. I will definitely find out!"
With Cynthia taking the lead the others quickly followed. Finally, they entered the cinema, taking place on the soft, dark red seats. Cynthia, having already consulted with a worker earlier, had no trouble setting everything up.
Using a connected PC, she went to MyTube and chose a few highlight matches to create a playlist. She decided to start with Liam's fishing rod beatdown. The video was already exploding in popularity being the fourth most watched of all the videos, right behind all the three finals.
This naturally signified that Hotpot was part of three out of the top four videos. Although these were only the results on the local internet, incorporating Falva Star and a few close-by neighbouring planets, it wouldn't be much different in other parts of the federation.
Profiting from this the most was Fortune. With Hotpot's popularity constantly on the rise, her work also received even more attention. Unfortunately, Falva Star only had a population of less than 40 million and the neighbouring planets added together might reach no more than 100 million.
Thus, Fortune's views were about to reach a cap locally, the increase in new fans gradually slowing down. Fortune had already done what many famous creators in the federation did, forming connections with other sectors and star systems.
She had employees and partnered companies in neighbouring sectors who waited for her to send them her newest videos so they would upload those on their local networks.
However, communicating with other sectors was difficult. The channels were limited, only able to support a certain amount of data transfer, and most people could only wait patiently until it was their turn. Not everyone was like the Colville family, controlling their own channel, which could be activated on short notice.
Thus, it would take time for Fortune to increase her influence in other sectors. Until then Hotpot's fans could only watch her already available work. But even so the views were climbing steadily, showing the team's popularity.
Learning of this, the friends were greatly excited, but they also felt the pressure. Now their reputation was spreading like crazy, but this also painted a target on their backs. Everyone would want to overcome them, just as Dream Avenue wanted to overcome the likes of Kings and Queens and Leo's Pride.
However, the friends wouldn't be intimidated easily. With hard work and perseverance, they were sure to keep their lead!
Soon, they proved that their mindset was already in a productive state. Even as they watched the various matches for fun, they subconsciously began to analyse their and their enemy's performances.
"Wow, I didn't notice it during the fight, but Conter really likes to faint before dodging."
"You're right. He does it so much it's almost not a faint anymore."
"Liam, your match against Apollo is really an eye opener. I always thought no one would be able to break his movement but you've seen right through him."
"It's not that difficult. I would say it's like dancing. If you lead, you can dictate where he has to move to. Makes it easy to hit him."
"How could it be easy to get the lead against that guy..."
"Silva, you're impressive as well. I didn't notice how many spells you blocked in the match against Human Faith. Without that we might have lost even earlier."
"Ahh, it's ok. I could only do so because our healers had my back. Otherwise, I would have fallen early."