Chapter 119 - The Winchester Estate (1/2)

Several more days of training with Kelly's team passed by quickly. Kelly's team adhered to their scheduled time perfectly so they didn't have as much time to just enjoy themselves.

The biggest thing they worked on was organizing smaller fire teams within the group of 16 and working as a unit. Gray, Kelly, Alice, and Geoff each led one, but the members of each fire team were still up for debate.

It was now Sunday, August 17th, and it was the day Gray was going to get to meet Yurika's parents.

Gray checked his messages when he woke up and saw that he had one from Kelly that said they MUST decide fire teams today and he needs to come up with a solution if we can't reach an agreement on it.

"Sure, make me the bad guy..." Gray said to himself, he wasn't going to make everyone happy with his choices and that is why he was hoping they could've come to an agreement. Gray sent a message back to Kelly that stated he wanted her and the rest of her team to submit the names of 3 people they want to be on a fire team with and they have to pick at least one member from his team on it.

Gray sent the same message to his own team, asking them for 3 people they'd want to be on a fire team with and to include at least one member from Kelly's team.

Kelly sent him an acknowledgment and said they would have it to him before their last training session today.

Gray stretched his arms and yawned and figured it was a good time to get out of bed. He heard footsteps stomping towards his room like they were running and suddenly Yurika burst into his room.

"Gray! What the heck! I said be ready by 11am!"

Gray looked at Yurika, she was wearing a cute white dress with a single black belt around the waist and even had tied her hair back into a single pony tail, and thought this was probably the most wholesome he's ever seen her look. Gray then panicked for a second then looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:50am and was a little confused. "Yeah, so we are going to log in to the virtual world at 11am, right?"

"Yes! So why aren't you showered, dressed, manicured, pedicured, shaved, and dressed yet?"

Gray wasn't sure about the manicured and pedicured part, but the rest made sense. "Why would I have to? We're going in to the virtual world, I can smell however I want to smell and look however I want to look!"

Yurika became stunned for a moment then said, "Son of a... I got up at 6am, shaved EVERYWHERE, bathed, scrubbed, sanitized, moisturized, plucked my eyebrows, painted my fingernails and toenails, fixed my hair, changed outfits a dozen times, and now you're telling me I didn't have to?!"

"If it helps, you look very nice!" Gray said with a smile.

"Damn straight I do!" Yurika said proudly. "I just feel like it was a bit of a waste now..."

"We can go out after and you can strut your stuff."

"I might have to take you up on that."

"Good, so go back to your room and get in your incubation pod, where are you logging in to?" Gray asked Yurika.

"Um... I can only log in to my room and Alterra Corporation's Headquarters, you?"

"Same... my room or Alterra Corporation's Headquarters, looks like we'll have to do Alterra Corporation's Headquarters if we want to show up together."

"I'm a bit nervous to do that after what happened to Caleb, but since I am Edward's target or whatever I should be fine. I'm more worried about you honestly."

"Eh, I'll be fine, I'd be more worried about logging in without you since if he wanted to go after me in the virtual world he wouldn't want to do in front of you I imagine."

"Ok, in that case I'll see you there shortly!" Yurika said then gave Gray a quick kiss before returning to her room.

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Yurika logged in to the virtual world and appeared in the basement of Alterra Corporation's Headquarters that was designated as a common zone for Diamond-Tier players to log in to.

Alterra Corporation had setup this zone for them because after knowing the truth of the virtual world, the Diamond-Tier players would need a spot they could log in and out from privately. The concern was that friends and family of Diamond-Tier players might panic if they noticed the Diamond-Tier player staying logged in to the game for days at a time. In other words, they were just taking another step to try and protect the secret of the virtual world as long as they could.

Yurika checked the time and saw the clock change to 10:59am, then Gray started to materialize next to her. She stared wide-eyed at him once he finally appeared.

Gray was wearing a full dress suit and tie, black dress shoes with almost a mirror shine, and had his hair slicked back straight. The cologne that emanated from Gray smelled extremely classy. The sterling silver cuff links matched his pocket watch and even the clasps on his shoes. Gray strutted around, pulled out a pipe from somewhere and took two fake puffs on it, then said to Yurika, "Are you ready to go darling?"

"I'm going to assume this is just a joke... and I'm going to turn around and close my eyes and count to 20 nice and slow. When I finish, I expect to see you standing their in something that is nice, simple, and casual. If I do not see this, you will not get to see me without a dress for the next century!"

Gray's face turned white as he quickly logged back out, gave himself a few seconds to select his original outfit, then logged back in. He materialized in front of Yurika again, this time in khaki pants, a buttoned long sleeve shirt, and a pair of black loafers.

"No pipe?" Yurika asked Gray.

"No pipe!"

"Good! Now let's go!"

Yurika walked over to the elevator to call it for them, Gray adjusted his pants slightly and he smiled looking down at his socks with Mario on them.

"What are you doing! Come on!" Yurika said as she turned to look at Gray.

"Coming!" Gray felt relieved she hadn't seen his socks as they rode the elevator up to the main floor to catch a tram out to Yurika's side of town.

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