Delayed Transfer

Mark went to the small game café established exclusively for the circus people. When he arrived there, he was only familiar with Nedertu and Toby. The three other computers were occupied by someone he didn’t know by name but he recognized them as part of the circus. Apparently, when he assigned Nedertu to manage the café, he directly ignored the established rules and let himself occupy one of the computers semi-permanently since a quick look in Toby’s computer said that Nedertu had been playing all night.

Toby was the one sitting in the manager’s chair playing the game and based on the time monitor, he had only been playing since this morning.

Mark noticed that Toby was already level fifteen and based on the back-end data, the teenager’s character was the highest leveled character in the game.

Mark suddenly thought of creating a contest, something like a race to level twenty or thirty but decided against it since he wanted the gamers in the circus to enjoy the leveling-up process which was the true adventure in the game instead of just racing to the highest level.

Mark knew that Star Wars The Old Republic online game was one of the best story-driven and voice-acted MMORPGs that came out and from what he knew, the developers spent a huge amount of their budget on the voice actors.

While Mark was watching Toby play the game, four people entered the small café. When they saw him, they greeted him but immediately turned on the gamers.

“It’s our time now!” One of the men who entered said and Mark recognized him as one of Linuel’s actors.

Mark saw Toby and three of the people who occupied the computers grumble but they immediately stood up and allowed the newcomers to replace them. Even Toby stood up and allowed one of the newcomers to replace him. He was pouting though, which made Mark laugh.

The gamers who stood up greeted Mark but they headed directly to the list that was located beside the Manager’s computer. After they signed up their name they immediately exited the café.

Mark checked out the list and based on what he could see, the schedule was now filled for up to five days already and this small game café was allowed to run twenty-four hours a day.

“Hey Nedertu! Did you claim that computer permanently!” Mark shouted at his driver.

Nedertu stood up hurriedly when he heard Mark’s shout.

“I was just trying out the game,” Nedertu said abashedly.

“Go ahead and follow the rules that I set up for this café. If you really want to play the game, I’ll give you a laptop that you can connect to the network and play the game using it.”

One of the newcomers ran outside to call off their friends to replace Nedertu and Toby. In the meantime, Mark retrieved the best gaming computer that money could buy from his inventory and showed it to Nedertu and Toby.

When the catman and Hamil’s son saw the gaming laptop, they gasped since the laptop looked really high-tech with the back of the laptop and keyboard and mouse lighting up with neon LED lights. Even the headset was part of the set and the color scheme of the laptop and the peripherals were the same. Mark connected the laptop to the network using a cable and then installed the game. He then showed the login screen to Nedertu and Toby.

“you can use this laptop to play the game and the good thing about this one is you can carry it anywhere. Since I still can’t establish a wireless network, you will need to go here or the main café to connect it to the servers for you to be able to play the game.,” Mark said.

“Are you giving that to me?!” Nedertu said.

“Of course not! You will have to work for me without pay for five years since it cost that much!” Mark said and everyone in the café stared at him.

“I was just joking,” Mark said while laughing then he gave the laptop to Nedertu.

Nedertu then ran outside to get a chair and after a few seconds, he returned and started playing the game using the laptop. The catman was so fast that before Mark could offer to give a chair to Nedertu, he ran and returned with the chair immediately.

“Mark, can I have a laptop?” Toby hopefully asked.

“Nope. You will need to sign up here if you want to play. Nedertu is my employee so he’s entitled to perks that I can provide while you’re a teenager that has some responsibilities. Your mother will twist my ear if I allow you to play the game twenty-four hours a day.”

Toby grumbled but knew that Mark was correct.

“Nedertu, are you still playing the game? It’s time for lunch so let’s go.” Mark said to his coach and the catman reluctantly exited the game and closed the laptop. He put the laptop inside the bag that Mark had provided and carried it while Toby and the others inside the mini game café were looking enviously at Nedertu.

The laptop meant that the catman could play the game anytime he wanted. While they were walking Mark asked Nedertu a question.

“Did you like the game so much? Diving in a dungeon is still better since you can experience the adventure in real life,” Mark asked Nedertu. Toby was following them since he was also going to their carriage for lunch.

“The game is like reading a very good story or watching a movie but instead of passively reading what the characters are going to do, you can actually control them and choose which path the story will take. As a matter of fact, instead of watching or reading the action scenes, me being able to control the character is very exciting,” Nedertu said and Toby nodded in agreement.

Toby separated from them to head to their family carriage and Mark and Nedertu headed to the Convenient Store. There they found the twins and Liriel who was being looked after by Lisa while Milena, Norleen, and Connor were busy selling the items inside the store.

Milena then put the board that says “close for lunch for one hour” in the door and Mark prepared their lunch.

While they were eating, Isaac asked him a question.

“Mark I know we're not allowed to play the game inside the café, but can we watch?”

“If I allow you and your friends to enter the café, it will be full of children and the customers who are paying a lot will be bothered by you. If you really want to play the game and want your friends to watch you I can give both of you a gaming laptop and connect your gameplay to a television. I’ll ask Hamil if we can park our RV near the servers so you can connect your laptops to the server,” Mark said.

“We don’t need to move the RV. I’ll just set up another tent just for me and the twins and their friends beside the game café,” Nedertu said and the twins cheered.

“Now let’s talk about the hours of gaming that I will allow you to play each day,” Mark said.

“I think six hours is fair,” Isaac said trying to sound very reasonable. Mark and the others laughed when they heard what Isaac had said.

“I’m sorry boys. I can only allow you to play the game for two hours a day. I don’t want you to stay indoors for many hours a day. You will need to play with your friends outside,” Mark said to the twins.

At first, the twins looked like they wanted to dispute but Mark saw the consideration on their faces and then the boys talked to each other and they could hear the boys talking about their responsibilities as captains of the Star Wars Pirate Fleet.