Chapter 131 Presen
The the stream on the display that Benjamin was currently seeing was basically exactly what he was looking at just before he logged off the last time, the inside of the carriage. It was sped up to four-times speed, so he wasn't able to actually specifically notice what was going on at the moment, but at the very least he could see that Kiron and Komer were sitting together in the back of the carriage, while Bree and Sky were driving again.
It felt kind of like spying on them, but maybe it wasn't so bad considering that he really had no idea what anyone in his group was doing, as he was just barely able to even see who they were in the first place. Prime Industries themselves probably already felt like this was morally questionable, and as such made it that there was a time-limit to how much you could use this function while there were other players directly within sight, as a small message popped up telling him that exactly that was the case, and that he would only have about 30 seconds to make sure everything in the game where he was at was alright, and then he had to wait thirty more minutes to take another look.
But apparently, as long as there were no players in direct sight, Benjamin could simply watch as much as he wanted. However, since Komer was in sight, the stream soon stopped and Benjamin was brought back to the main screen.
"Huh, interesting…" He muttered to himself, in respond to which Tony asked what was going on.
"Ah, through this, I can see what's going on around my character in the game right now, and I can message people on my friendslist as well. There even seems to be a party display where I can see the rough state of all of my game companions." Benjamin explained, showing everyone the display before Benji scrolled through a bit.
"You've got a pretty big party there… Two little girls, a little boy, a lizard, a bee, and some regular guy? Kind of a weird combo…" He asked with a frown and wry grin, before Benjamin nodded.
"Yeah, and it gets weirder. The pink-haired little girl and the little boy are actually around 25 years old, the Lizard is a half-dragon whose father is a literal god, the other little girl is a walking, talking Mushroom, the Bee is as big as my fist, and the guy is the youngest son of CryTec's Owner." The old man laughed out as he took a sip of the coffee he just made himself, and both Tony and Benji stared at him in complete confusion, while Katy and Sean played around with Rover on the floor.
Tony, with a wry smile, then spoke up and asked what was on his mind. "Erm… I'm not even going to ask about the majority of those, and skip right to the end… CryTec's Owner's son? Are you serious?"
"Haha, yes, I am. You see, there are different phases in the game right now. During the first phase, I and the four others that helped the developers with our knowledge got to play. Now in the second phase, a week after I began to play, the largest investors got some spots for the game, and the largest investor seems to be CryTec. The Owner had his three sons play and build merchant companies in the game to choose who will inherit the company. That way I met the youngest son of the three while he was trying to scam me, and turned him around to be my companion."
"Huh? He tried to scam you? What the hell?" Benji asked confused, not seeing why Benjamin chose to make him his companion, while Tony was sitting next to them, feeling his stomach fall down a large hole, especially after what Benji said next. "Scammers are trash, so why'd you help him like that?"
While eyeing Tony who was obviously uncomfortable, Benjamin smiled softly. "Just because he was a scammer doesn't mean he was a bad person. Other than his two brothers, he had neither any help from other company executives, nor a full economic education. He found that this way worked pretty well for a while, so he stuck with it. But he's a good kid, and he's already becoming a great Merchant. He just didn't know any better at the time, and he deeply regrets what he did, so don't judge him for it when you meet him in… 10 days?" Benjamin chuckled as he looked over at Tony, who seemed to be glad that his father said something like that and seemingly made Benji think about the issue a bit more. After all, Benji didn't know that Tony used to be a scammer himself.
"Eh, if you say so. I'd still feel weird about… wait, what did you just say?" Benji replied, completely confused at what Benjamin just said. "You mean in the game, right? That's coming out in a bit more than two weeks, and I can't afford to buy the capsule anyway, so what do you mean?"
"Well… You see, the five of us, the 'Originals' that helped the developers, each got another spot to give to whoever we want, that can play the game one week before it officially comes out." Benjamin started to explain, before Benji's face completely dropped and he simply stared at his grandfather in a mixture of excitement and confusion.
"So, I thought I'd give that spot to you as a graduation present. You don't need to pay for the capsule or the game, everything will be delivered here for now and then you can bring it with you home or to college. You can use it as a regular bed as well, so you can probably swap it out with your dorm bed. And it's completely silent as well, so I doubt your roommate would mind."
As Benjamin was explaining this, Benji immediately stared at the old man, before the young high-school graduate jumped up and ran over to give a hug to his grandfather.
"Holy shit, thank you so much! That's amazing!" Benji yelled out while Tony was sighing loudly.
"Thank you dad, he's been speaking of nothing else but that game for weeks. You've been doing a lot for us lately…" Tony said with a light smirk, before Benjamin nodded slowly.
"Of course, don't worry about it. Anyway, none of you need to feel jealous, because my friend at Prime Industries is giving the whole family a personal tour of the company next week, and everyone can test out a demo version of the game then." The old man explained, before Tony chuckled.
"Well, I guess if I get the chance to work there, I should test everything out at least once, huh?" He said, and this confused Benji even more than when Benjamin told him he would get a capsule for free and a week earlier than others. "Wait, what do you mean with 'Work there'?" He asked, before Tony began to explain.
"Ah, your Grandfather said that he referred me to his friend at Prime Industries, so I have the chance to get a job there. And for that I should probably know as much about their products as possible." Tony laughed out, and Benji stared at his father and grandfather.
"What the hell, couldn't you have told me earlier?" He exclaimed, while his younger siblings peacefully kept playing with Rover, and Benjamin chuckled.
"I only just told your father yesterday night as well, so when should we have told you about it?" He said, and Benji nodded with a long sigh.
"I guess. But it would be pretty awesome if you'll work there then! After the capsule comes out, I'm sure everyone will want to work there."
"Probably, yeah. Anyway, let's not talk about those things for now, alright? You're all here to get your mind off things, have a nice vacation, and relax. So let's wait a few days and do just that for now. Let's all get dressed for the day and then go to the mall. They've got a great Ice-Cream Parlor there too." Benjamin told them with a smile, and immediately Katy jumped up and stared at him.
"Grampa! Did you just say Ice-Cream?!" She asked with an excited look on her face, and Benjamin nodded with a chuckle.
"Yeah, Ice-Cream. Get dressed so that we can go grab some, alright?" He asked his young granddaughter, who then immediately grabbed Sean's arm and dragged him to their room so that they could all hurry, because Katy wanted Ice-Cream, and she wanted it now.
—
"You happy now, Katy?" Benjamin asked the young girl sitting next to him, with Ice-Cream all around her mouth, before she quite furiously nodded.
"Yes! Tastes good!" She exclaimed before taking another scoop of the Ice-Cream in the bowl in front of her, before the old man turned to look at the others sitting at the table.
"You all like it too?" He asked, before getting a nod from everyone.
"It's incredibly hot today, so this is great right now." Tony admitted, and Benji and Sean simply agreed, the latter happily offering his grandfather part of his banana-split.
"Thanks Sean, but I have some myself. Just enjoy yours." He responded to his, as usual, quite silent grandson. He was never much of a talker, only ever saying anything if he was around his family, and practically never in public.
"So, where do you all want to go next?" Benjamin asked into the round, and since Sean and Katy seemed to be as happy as they could be, only Benji and Tony had to think about it, but in the end, their two choices were quite obvious.
Either the game shop, or the gadget shop.
"Well, they're both directly next to each other, so we can just go there after finishing here and then choose. What did you say you want to test out? Some Smart-Glasses?" The old man asked his grandson, who quickly nodded.
"Mhm! There's a new model out that looks basically like a regular pair of glasses, and since you can get them so that they work as actual glasses, I thought that they would be a great replacement for my contacts. Wanna try the glasses-look out when I start college." Benji explained while looking at his phone and texting one of his friends.
"I mean, you do look pretty good with glasses." Tony admitted, and Benji responded with a frown while lightly squinting his eyes.
"I haven't worn glasses in five years, how would you know?"
"I look great with my glasses, so why shouldn't you look great with yours?" Tony smirked as he pushed up his glasses by the bridge of his nose a light bit, causing his son to laugh at him.
"Damn Dad, what are you, an anime character?"
But his father simply frowned at him with a wry smile. "What's that supposed to mean? Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Nah Dad, it's fine. Grampa basically is one as well, isn't he?" Benji chuckled, and Tony simply agreed. "That's a good point, seems like it's in my genes, huh?"
Confused, Benjamin looked at the both of them. "What are you two talking about right now?"
Seeing that his grandfather didn't know anything about Anime to be able to get what they meant, Benji began to explain. "Well, you're basically the real-life version of what eastern people think the manliest western people are like. Translated, that means you're a mountain of muscle."
"I'd like to complain, but… I don't think I can." Benjamin sighed out as he waved over a waitress to pay after seeing that everyone was finished.
"There's no reason to complain in the first place, Grampa. You're 70, looking like that is completely insane even if you're young, so why shouldn't you be proud of it?" Benji asked as everyone stood up, and Benjamin shrugged lightly.
"I don't know, but I guess that's a good point. Anyway, let's get going now."