Chapter 24: 24 - Gossip
Arriving at the Club, the place wasn't very busy yet.
Looking at the clock and seeing that it was still 7:40 p.m., that made sense; from what I knew of the other world, this kind of place got more crowded the later it got.
Arriving at the door, I paid the $10 entrance fee and started looking for the college staff.
With the Club emptier, it wasn't difficult to find the large group with faces I recognized.
Searching a little, I managed to find Jake, who was standing a little away from the main group while talking to another boy.
Going over to them, even though they looked at me for a few seconds, it took them a while to recognize me, and it was only when I got next to them that they were sure who I was.
"Theo? Theo Brooks?" Jake asked shocked as he looked me up and down.
"Bro, is that you?!" Another boy in the group, Josh also asked in shock.
While Jake was very thin and tall, Josh was short and fat, making the two the opposite of each other.
"Yeah, don't you recognize me?" I asked with a slightly proud smile.
Even as I asked, I knew why they didn't recognize me.
Not only did the old me never dress up for anything, dressing poorly everywhere he went and with messy hair, whereas I was now wearing new clothes, which, although they weren't designer clothes, were still much better than the clothes I'd worn before.
As with the clothes I was wearing, you could see the muscles forming on my body, which greatly improved my aesthetics.
"Bro, how did you get... like that?" Josh asked without knowing how to refer to my change.
Before I could answer, Jake, who knew his friend, knew exactly what he was talking about.
Josh's weight had always been an insecurity of his, and seeing me with muscles that had developed so much since we last saw each other was proof that I had found a way to achieve it quickly!
"Don't you remember why his game became popular?" Jake asked with a laugh. "I just didn't know that using Neurological False Feedback to develop physically could cause such a huge boost aesthetically..."
"Oh my God, were those muscles developed just by playing your game? Without the effort of physical exercises and gymnastics?!" Josh asked in shock, almost shouting.
Smiling, I nodded. "Yeah, since the people who used False Neurological Feedback before my game were only very high-ranking Players, Players who already had muscular bodies, the improvement they received because of this technology wasn't very noticeable aesthetically, but for those of us who didn't have a lot of strength in our bodies, it can work wonders with enough time."
Hearing my explanation, Josh's eyes began to shine.
'Maybe I've won over my first Game Creator to become a Player in my game? ' I laughed mentally, imagining that this was very possible.
Even Jake was looking at me with interest. Considering how skinny he was, any muscle development would do his aesthetics a lot of good.
Stepping closer to me and speaking in a low voice, Josh asked me a slightly embarrassed question. "Do you think that if I played your game I could lose weight?"
I didn't even have to think before answering. "Sure, by my calculations, an hour playing Runestone with the Warrior Hero is the same as an hour training in a gym, given enough time it's impossible for you not to lose weight."
At my confirmation, Josh smiled excitedly as he brushed a hand over my shoulder and spoke out loud. "Okay, playing Warrior Hero, I'll remember that! Tonight, your first drink will be on me, Theo!"
I was surprised by this, but I didn't deny it. If he was so pleased about it, why not just enjoy it and let him treat me?
Hearing Josh talking loudly, other students looked in his direction and saw us.
Unlike Theo and Josh, who only took a few seconds to recognize me, since they had more contact with me in college, the other students had an even harder time, with some not even recognizing me.
Surprisingly, the only student who recognized me instantly was Tyler Evans, who, as soon as he saw me, had a grim expression on his face.
'Has the fear of my game passing yours caught up with you, Evans? ' I thought, finding the situation funny.
Fortunately, he stayed with his group of friends while I stayed with Jake and Josh occasionally interacted with other students.
When the drink Josh had offered to buy me arrived, I slowly took a sip of it and felt my throat burning.
'This body still has no resistance to alcohol, right? ' I realized the problem.
In my other world I was already very resistant to alcohol, often going to parties with friends, or even drinking whiskey alone while playing a game, which was therapeutic after a day's work, which slowly increased my resistance to the point where I needed a lot of alcohol to actually get drunk.
Everything I drank went down like a very sweet juice, but in this world, feeling the burning in my throat and remembering that I had never had a drop of alcohol, I knew it would be dangerous to drink like I was used to.
'I'll control my drinking... this is probably the only glass I'll be able to drink tonight...' I thought, a little disappointed.
But I had to do it, it was out of the question to drink enough to lose control of myself.
If I was at home it wouldn't be a problem, but doing it in a place with so many people is looking for trouble.
Thinking about the $200 I'd brought to spend and realizing that I wouldn't have much to spend it on, I decided to get a menu and look at what snacks they served here.
'If I'm not going to be able to drink a lot, then I'll take the opportunity to eat different things, after all, tomorrow the False Neurological Feedback is going to consume all those calories I ate today.' I thought as I shrugged and looked at the menu.
While I was choosing my food, an interesting song started playing and Jake looked at a girl he was interested in, plucking up the courage to ask her to dance.
Luckily for him, the group of girls she was with started coming towards us.
I was still focused on the menu looking for something to eat, when a female voice came from beside me.
"Hey Brooks, you've changed huh, is that the power of making a successful game?"
Lifting my eyes from the menu I saw one of the girls who had asked me for tips on her game last week, Regina Gill, better known as Gina.
She was a pretty girl, blonde, tall, blue-eyed, well-developed body, too bad I didn't have much interest in romance.
I think being alone for so many years, rather than making me desperate for a woman, made me realize how self-sufficient I was without them.
But I still knew how to enjoy good-looking company, it's not like I was a misogynist.
"I guess so? Maybe the combo of everything, making a successful game, realizing the potential within me, improving my appearance, all of that together has to change you somehow." I replied, smiling as I shrugged at her.
Gina was surprised for a few seconds by me openly admitting this, before laughing.
"Really? It seems your self-confidence has increased more than I imagined." She commented as she came a little closer to me to look at the menu with me. "Are you looking for something to drink?"
"Not really, I don't have much resistance to drink, so I'm looking for something to eat to make up for the fact that I'm not going to drink much." I laughed as I pointed to the snacks I intended to choose.
She was surprised again at me openly admitting this. "Really? But you won't think it's bad to keep up with us having only had one drink?"
"My stamina is so low that it's likely that this one glass I'm going to drink will drive me crazier than five glasses you're going to drink, so really I'm just being economical." I shook my head in denial.
"That makes sense... but who told you that I'm 5x tougher than you?" she asked, feigning suspicion.
"Ohh, although I know you often go out to places like that with the rest of the gang, that comment wasn't meant to say that you're used to drinking a lot, but to show how weak my resistance to drink is." I said in a soothing way, but still maintaining confidence.
Regina was pretty and pleasant to talk to, which obviously led to her becoming the most popular girl in our class, and this combined with the fact that we lived alone and she was over 21 only led to the result that she was always invited to any kind of party that anyone in our class went to.
Hearing my answer, Regina looked at me suspiciously for a few seconds before letting it go and changing the subject.
"Since you don't want to drink, there's nothing I can do about it, but I also want to thank you for the tips you gave me for my game last week. I was averaging 130 Players and falling, until I implemented some of the tips you gave, including the fact that the more monsters the Players killed, the more their weapons would evolve, and that worked wonders for my game, now I have a total of 250 Players online on average per day!" She said proudly.
Hearing that, I was pleasantly surprised. "Really?! Congratulations! Do you know if the others also used the tips I gave them? I just followed how my game was going, not paying much attention to other people's games."
Gina thought about my question for a moment before answering quietly. "Some colleagues adopted your tips on the first day and their games started to grow rapidly, like mine, while others were still skeptical about what you said, acting arrogant because they were above you in the college rankings, but after your game passed them by, everyone quickly went to look up which of the tips they could apply to their games, with some even shamelessly forgetting the tips and coming to ask me which tips I remembered."
After saying this, Gina rolled her eyes and nodded to a group of students standing a little away from us.
Following her gaze, I noticed a group of several guys around Tyler, making me understand the reason for their arrogance.
And Tyler, who had only been frowning before, was now staring at me as if he was going to attack me at any moment when he saw Gina talking to me in such close proximity.
And to make matters worse, Gina came even closer to speak in a low voice. "And from what I heard, seeing your game getting so close to his, Tyler also asked around about the tips you gave him and finished implementing them today, trying to get as many Players as possible so as not to lose first place to you."
Hearing this I found the situation even more interesting.
'He's using my tips to try and beat me? I think tomorrow's Rankings will be even more interesting than I thought...'
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