Chapter 142: A Celebrity?
It was Friday morning and London Heathrow airport was busy as usual. But at the arrivals department of the airport, it was even busy than a regular day. A large group fo people were lined up across along the railing, it was jam-packed and many of them held signs in their hands. They all had woken up extra early that day in hopes they would get to see a specific person.
"Hey what are all these people doing here?" A person asked, "Is there a celebrity coming or something?"
"I'm not really sure but I asked one of the people earlier they said its some professional player from that VSW game."
"Ah, I've seen a couple of games myself on TV, never tried it though. It looks interesting."
All the people there had been tipped off that the Pro player Hastam would be arriving today. People were live-streaming the event, they held up giant signs with Hastam's name on it and some even had gifts. They just couldn't wait to see him.
Hastam was a rare case though between pro players, even if you were on a Pro team it was hard to get on the same level of fame. Of course, the people who were die-hard fans of the game and aimed to be professionals would know who he is but not others.
The general public would only know what team was good rather than specific players, apart from the odd few names that went worldwide. Similar to football. The reason why Hastam had more fame then others was because he was also a famous live streamer and it was because of him many people had found out about the virtual sword god in the first place.
The flight had landed and people were starting to walk through the arrivals area. The people were eagerly awaiting, until finally. A young man wearing dark black shades walked through.
"Ahhh it's him, look, look!" A girl screamed.
The other people waiting for their family members unaware of what was happening today were shocked by the sight. They were getting pushed left and right by the crazy fans.
"England, the homeland of VSW and where the Virtual sword god is from, what a nice feeling," Hastam said as he waved to the crowd of people.
Security had now rushed over and made sure that no one got out of hand. Bus as Hastam stared into the crowd of people he noticed something. He slightly moved down his sunglasses to get a clearer view.
"Another one, why are they all here?" Hastam thought.
Since he had arrived and gotten off the aeroplane, Hastam had seen some strange people. As he looked around, he could see others with Spirits floating by their side.
"Have they all come for the same reason as me?" Hastam thought.
It was a first for Hastam. He had never seen another spirit before but he always guessed that there was the possibility. When he saw his first one though he decided to stay away and not approach the person.
The spirit and the person controlling it didn't really give him friendly vibes and assuming he could see them, it meant they could probably see him as well. But all the other people with spirits seemed to have ignored him.
Some looked at him and his spirit Xin for a while but quickly decided to go on their business as usual.
Although Hastam was here to commentate on the match going on tomorrow, the real reason he was here was because of the Virtual sword god. Hastam had also assumed that whoever this person was, also had a spirit like him and now seeing others he was even more sure of himself.
A group of men in black suits then had arrived to collect Hastam from the airport. They were from Goldware Crop and had been in charge of arranging everything. Once escorting Hastam out of the airport they took him into a cab and drove him to a hotel.
The journey took around an hour and finally they had arrived. It was a luxurious room for one person. A huge queen size bed, with an on sweet bathroom and even a separate room for the living room area and wardrobe.
Goldware corp seemed to always take good care of their visitors But Hastam thought it was a bit much for someone who was only going to be here a few days.
But he couldn't feel too bad, they were a huge corporation that had the money to spend after all.
"And here is your schedule for tomorrow evening." The man in a black suit said as he handed Hastam a leaflet. "Make sure you arrive at the front desk on time and call us if there are any problems."
The three men in black suits then quickly left the room and left Hastam all to himself. He looked at the leaflet and his time schedule was completely filled from 9 o'clock in the morning till 6 o'clock in the evening.
It started with interviews form Tick. Introductions to the two teams and they even had a signing session for him to attend after.
"What is this, I won't even have time to explore or go tour around the city!" Hastam complained.
He then dropped off his bag and jumped on the nice relaxing bed.
"Hey Xin, did you know any of those spirits from earlier?" Hastam asked.
"No, at least none of them were people from my world," Xin replied.
"Strange right, and if you noticed, every single one of them looked like a character from the game. We've been looking all this time for your comrades and had never come across a spirit. Yet today we saw at least four others with a spirit."
"It just means there is a good chance that my comrades really are in this world as well along with me," Xin replied.
"Yeah, we will keep looking, still I wonder why they were all at the airport, they couldn't have just arrived in England like me could they, and if so for what reason?"
Hastam then let out a big breath of air as he looked at his schedule again for tomorrow.
"Hey the stadium actually isn't too far from here, I think we could walk it, why don't we go check it out?"
"It does not bother me," Xin replied.
Hastam then opened up his suitcase which contained a black wig with straight hair that went down to the collar bone. He placed the sunglasses back on his eyes and was ready to go outside.
His level of fame now was to the point where if he walked outside, someone was bound to spot him and when that happened, it just caused a chain reaction of other people coming over.
He decided to not disguise himself at the airport because he felt like he owed something to his fans. They had taken the time out of there day to come and see him and the least he could do was wave and talk to a few of them. Rather than just hide behind the wig and walk past them.
Hastam then started to walk outside while following the GPS location he had inputted on his phone. The stadium was only ten minutes walk from where he was staying.
When he had finally arrived at the stadium, before entering he decided to hop in a nearby convenience store to grab a few snacks. He never did like aeroplane food and was starving after the flight.
After grabbing some crisps and ice cream Hastam had stepped outside and nearly dropped the ice cream out of his hand. He quickly went back into the convenience store and started to look from a distance.
"They're here too!" Hastam said.
Out of the stadium front entrance door, three men and one female, had all walked out together. Each one of them a different age and all had different styles of clothing. It was an odd group to see walk together but what had caught Hastam's attention was the spirits above them.
They were the same group of people that Hastam had seen at the airport.
"If there here, did they really come for the match tomorrow?" Hastam said.
After making sure he wasn't seen by the others and waiting for them to disappear from his sight. Hastam decided to enter the stadium.
The stadium was large in size and it was the first time Hastam had been to one in England. The seating area looked like it could hold around 50,000 people and Hastam was getting excited just thinking of the people watching him play.
"Remember it's the kids that will be playing here, not you," Xin said.
Hastam then walked out from the seating area onto the stage floor. He looked around before jumping over the barrier and it didn't seem like anyone was inside. There was security placed on the outside of the arena but Hastam had a special pass that let him go in anyway.
He walked up to the VR pods and started to run his hand along the side. Every venue around the world seemed to have its own style of doing things and Hastam had never played a game in England but in two years the Esports Olympics were to be held here.
As Hastam started to think about his own career and what the future held, a voice from behind called out to him.
"Who are you!" the boy shouted.
Hastam turned around to see who was there.
"Wait aren't you… Lucas?!"
but hovering above Lucas, was not a spirit from the game like the others but Lucas himself.
****
Special thanks to AsuraNineThoughts, edboy49 and Samantha_Lyons_8955 for the gifts they really help me focus on writing and my dream of becoming a full time author.contemporary romance
done.co