Chapter 75- Master Rook.
Master Rook took off on a run with the girl on his shoulders, her screams ringing at the top of her lungs.
The force of the wind slammed into her face. Her hair turned into a tangled mesh, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Still she managed to point the way forward for her grandfather, who was racing through the middle of the chaos.
"Left! No—right! Wait, the other left!" she yelled.
"Make up your mind!"
"I can’t see straight when you’re bouncing me like this!"
While they argued they nearly collided with a scooter. Master Rook leapt clean over it. The rider almost had a heart attack at the sight of an old man carrying a twelve-year-old girl sailing over his head. The rider cursed after them; the old man fired a few choice words back without breaking stride.
Master Rook moved with surprising speed and strength for his age, cutting through the crowded streets. Five minutes later they stood in front of Leo’s apartment building.
They entered, found the correct door from the address Leo had written on his registration form, and the girl knocked twice.
Knock. Knock.
...
No answer. ...
Seeing no movement inside, Master Rook pulled the girl aside and hammered the door hard enough to rattle the frame.
"Hey, brat! Are you in there? You dead?"
Still nothing.....
The noise was loud enough that the landlord, Mr. Hargrove, who happened to be passing by, hurried over in alarm, afraid the old man might actually break the door down.
"Hey, hey! You’ll break the door, old man!"
Rook fixed him with a sharp glare. "Where is the brat who lives here?"
The intensity in the old man’s eyes made Hargrove stammer. "W-why are you asking? D-did he borrow money from you? Are you a loan shark?" He muttered under his breath, "Is that how he managed to pay off the rest of the apartment dues...?"
Realizing the misunderstanding, the girl quickly stepped forward. "No, no, Mister. We’re just worried. He’s a member of our fencing salle and hasn’t shown up for three days. We wanted to make sure nothing serious had happened."
"Oh." Understanding dawned on the landlord’s face, though he still eyed Rook as if the old man might pull out a collection ledger at any second.
"That brat barely comes home. He practically lives at the smithy."
He gave them rough directions.
Not long after, they arrived in front of the smithy. The girl’s hair, which she had managed to somewhat tame while they were knocking at Leo’s door, was once again a wild mess; her shirt had come loose. She could only sigh as she stood before the glass door and caught her own reflection.
She knocked a few times.
No answer again....
She tested the handle. The door was unlocked.
It opened with a light chime of the bell mounted above the frame.
They entered the shop.
Master Rook carefully closed it behind them, then drew a deep breath.
"Come on out, brat!"
His voice shook the small shop. The girl clapped both hands over her ears.
Leo, who had logged out and collapsed into sleep from pure mental exhaustion, jolted awake.
Earthquake?
He stumbled into the shop, hair sticking up in every direction, and found an old man and a young girl in a school uniform staring at him.
He rubbed his eyes, half-convinced he was still dreaming.
The moment Leo stepped out, Master Rook lunged. He was only an inch from seizing Leo’s collar when he noticed the young man’s condition and stopped.
He studied Leo carefully. The once-vast pool of ki that had burned with vitality was now a thin, flickering remnant.
Leo’s face was pale and haggard. His body looked fine, but his spirit felt as though it had just returned from the edge of death.
"What happened to you?" Rook demanded.
Leo blinked, then forced a weak laugh. "Ha... ha... I just couldn’t get enough sleep."
"Like hell. Tell me the truth. Your ki is nearly empty. That only happens when someone has been close to death."
The girl looked shocked. "Gramps, don’t exaggerate. He doesn’t have a single bruise on him. You can’t say that about a perfectly healthy man."
Leo was stunned.
Did the old man see through the weakness carried over from the game?
Wait—does this old man also play?
He decided to tell them.
"Yeah. I almost died recently. I fought thirty people, killed twenty-nine of them, and nearly got finished myself."
Silence.....
Both the old man and the girl stared at him. Then the girl burst out laughing.
"Brother, your jokes are really something!"
Leo kept his expression serious. "Have you played Myth Online? Everything I just described happened inside the game."
"Oh—so you killed people in a game. Hahaha, no biggy!" the girl said cheerfully, still wiping her eyes.
Rook’s eyes narrowed. "Then why are you this weak right now?"
Leo sighed. "The effects carry over. Haven’t you experienced it?"
The old man looked blank. He cleared his throat. "Ahem... I don’t play."
The girl laughed even harder, nearly doubling over. "Gramps couldn’t decide which starter gate to pick, got frustrated, and just refused to play at all! He sat there for an hour staring at the screen, then declared the whole thing was a scam and logged off!"
Leo was dumbfounded. "Even that can happen?"
He stared at Master Rook and the young girl standing beside him in the smithy, still turning the idea over in his mind.
Earth coming into contact with the cosmic civilization was a fact, but he couldn’t tell them about that. He couldn’t just say the game was real and that they would merge with Earth soon.
...Right? No way they would believe me. They might think I’ve gone mad.
The more Leo thought about it, the more sense it made to convince them to log into Myth Online.
He earnestly began to persuade Master Rook, believing the old man would surely awaken an extraordinary talent.
"You should really try it. Make all your disciples play as well. The game is so realistic it can be used to train combat sense and hone reflexes far beyond what we manage in the salle on ordinary days."
He paused, then continued. "And I make a living from this game, so I’ve been gaming a lot lately and might not be able to make it to the salle every single day. How about you join the game? We can hold the training sessions inside it whenever possible."
Master Rook didn’t like the idea of training in a game, but when Leo mentioned he made a living from it, he couldn’t simply order him to stop. He started considering the proposal.
Leo did his best to make it attractive.
"That world is vast. Truly vast. Master Rook, right now you don’t have any real challenges left, do you? Aren’t you starting to feel that you might have reached your highest point—that there are no rivals left who can push you further?"
Master Rook’s eyes sharpened. His heart began to beat faster at Leo’s words.
"Join the game. There are so many talented people—and talented NPCs—inside it. You will definitely find it worthwhile. You might even get the chance to break through to something new."
Every word that left Leo’s mouth made the old man’s heart skip. A competitiveness he had long thought lost flared to life again.
Master Rook was silent for a long moment.
His weathered face gave little away, but the slight narrowing of his eyes showed he was weighing the suggestion carefully.
At last he nodded once.
"Alright. Let’s do this. We will hold the sessions in the game if possible. But twice a week we still need to meet in the real world. Discipline cannot be allowed to grow soft."
Leo nodded quickly, relief and excitement mixing on his face.
"No way... Gramps agreed to play?" the girl muttered, eyes wide. She had tried to persuade her grandfather so many times and he had never agreed.
She looked at Leo with a grateful expression.
With that settled, Master Rook and the girl turned and left the smithy.
The door closed behind them with a soft thud.
Alone again, Leo stretched, stifled a yawn, and returned to the narrow cot in the corner.
Within minutes he was asleep.
...
Outside the smithy, Rook once again scooped his granddaughter up onto his shoulder before she could even protest.
"Let’s go. I’ll drop you at school."
"Wahhhh!"
Her hair, which she had just barely managed to arrange, immediately began to come undone in the wind. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes.
"Uwahhhh! I don’t wanna go to school looking like this!"
Master Rook paid the protests little mind.
He had carried her this way since she was small, and the ritual had never changed.
When they reached the school gates he set her down gently.
She shot him a quick, accusatory glance, then darted toward the public washroom without another word.
A few minutes later she emerged with her hair smoothed, her uniform straightened, and her expression carefully composed.
As she passed him on the way into the building she offered only a light "Hmph."
Master Rook watched her go with the faintest hint of a smile. Then he turned and made his way back toward the salle.
...