Sun had already set.
Max and Nina walked back slowly, with the latter clutching the wooden box preciously. They could've just asked for the item to be delivered, but the girl was adamant about bringing it with her.
"It's a precious gift, so I would like to hold it myself." She said.
He could only smile at her reasoning and let her do whatever she pleased. As long as she was happy, then there was no problem.
Like a gentleman, he walked her until she reached ho safely. Chef Rush was standing in front of the restaurant, waiting for them.
The large man looked at the wooden box and glanced at Max. Nodding, he turned back to his daughter.
"Go inside and put that in the safe place." He said.
"Ah, yes." Nina nodded at her father's words. She went inside the restaurant, but not before saying goodbye to Max.
After she was gone, Chef Rush looked at him with a gaze that could chill even the deepest of hell. Then, the chef crossed his arms and sighed.
"I don't know whether I should thank you for supporting Nina's dream or punch you for making her cry."
"Haha… Please do go easy on if you choose the latter, Chef Rush." Max laughed wryly while looking down. "I just want her to follow her dream. I don't know whether that would make her happy or not. I can only hope. Humans can't really fully understand each other."
Chef Rush was silent and only looked at him. Nervousness settled in. Max was ready to get punched, as the atmosphere was definitely saying so.
However… the punch that he was waiting for never arrived.
"You're too mature for your age." Chef Rush said, looking at the sky. "And she's also forced to mature due to my negligence. So, thank you for allowing her to pursue her dream again. Do co around even when she's not here. I have many nus that I'd like you to try. And here, take it.
I've reheated it."
It was the way Chef Rush showed his consideration. He entered the restaurant without saying any other words after he gave a box. It was the stew Nina made.
Everything went well. Their relationships still stayed the sa as usual. Nothing had changed. Only… Both of them now pursued their dream seriously—Nina with her cooking career and Max with his streaming and parkour.
'Let's return and make an announcent. Streaming today will only exhaust further. And…' Max thought as he let out a tired sigh. 'Let's have a drink.'
***
Morning ca with a headache. Max only bought a quarter bottle worth of whiskey, but it still knocked him out. His alcohol tolerance was as low as it could get.
The bright side was he rembered everything from last night. And he didn't do anything stupid at all.
"Ugh… It really sucks."
Holding his head, he went to the bathroom and washed his face. His complexion looked bad, but that was fine. It wouldn't reflect on his VR stream.
Taking a shower to fully refresh himself, he then changed into comfortable clothes and did his morning email and ssage check.
There was a notification from Punch about him not withdrawing his money at 30, but he ignored that one. Another email ca from Bamboo Talent. The agency seed to express gratitude for working with their talents in one livestream. They seed to show signs of growth after that.
Together with the gratitude, a short word that basically said they wanted to have a good relationship with him was written.
'I already got my pay in the form of information and more viewers. But I appreciate their words, although two days have passed since then.'
Following that, there was no more email that he had to read, so he moved to a ssage. He deactivated the notification everyti he slept, so any ssages would just sit in the application if he didn't check it.
And when he looked at the ssage list, there was indeed one unread ssage. It was from Flexy.
"He finally replied," Max muttered with a wry smile. "Way too slow, buddy. Hanging on for a day isn't exactly the best way to curry my favor to help."
Even when he was grumbling about Flexy's behavior, he still opened the ssage to read the reply.
[Flexy: I am truly sorry for the late reply, buddy. StoneSword couldn't join my team, so I had to find a replacent. Fortunately, that guy knows a skilled soone who can replace him. Unfortunately, soone gave a task which took this long to complete! I finally got that person's agreent.]
[Flexy: Also, that person is really nuts! He might even be the best player I ever t. Ah, and I am happy because you decided to join. You won't change your mind just because I am late replying to you, right? Right?! Please tell that you have still planned to join my team!
I am so desperate right now.]
[Flexy: I am waiting for your reply. [emote:prostrating] Please, I am begging you! Reply to with a positive answer!]
The reply made Max burst into laughter. So, just as he had expected before, StoneSword refused the invitation, and he had to find another person. And it seed like that person was quite skilled but troubleso at the sa ti, so he took a lot of ti convincing him.
'He could have just found other people… Or not. If Flexy said that this person is the most skilled player he has ever t, even when he knows StoneSword, then his skill is the real deal. Spending a lot of ti to convince him might be worth it.'
A player with skill approved by Flexy and StoneSword… Max wondered what kind of person he was.
Replying to Flexy might make him only get the answer later, so he imdiately called that orange-haired strear. The calling screen rang a few tis before his image popped up. His friend looked really tired and had black circles around his eyes.
"Yo, dude. Look at your face. Hahaha, you look like a panda."
Flexy, on the screen, smiled wryly.
"If you saw similarly as that extinct animal, I must have looked really bad. Not that you're any better. It seed like you drank last night."
That sentence surprised Max. Not because Flexy said his complexion looked bad or because his friend found out he was drinking last night, but because the panda was extinct. It was a loss for humanity.
"Well, hahaha. I was a bit stressed, so I drank a little bit." Max responded with a wry smile.
"Understandable." Flexy nodded in understanding. Then, he suddenly jumped close to the screen and shouted, "Anyway, buddy. Are you calling to give your answer? You won't just walk away after saying that you'd like to do this Roach Planet with , right?"
"I wonder." Max shrugged his shoulders, "I an, I was ignored for a whole day and getting stressed because of that. Whose fault was it that led to drink, even though soone knows I can't even handle alcohol?"
Of course, it wasn't Flexy's fault. Max only drank because he wanted to last night. He only wanted to play with his friend.
But the other party didn't know about it. A guilty expression was written on the orange-haired strear's face.
"Ugh… Please, dude. Just yesterday, our last teammate also left for so reason, saying that it was hopeless. Thankfully, the person introduced by StoneSword also knew another skilled person who was willing to join. If you change your mind, I might need to find another person again, which is hard."
Flexy looked desperate. He was holding his head, which probably throbbed in pain due to overthinking.
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