Acting Sect Leader Maximus Radcliffe
Maximus was informed that the sect's top leadership will be waiting for him in the council chamber the moment he steps out of the teleportation gate. Before Immortal Ascension Pavillion was laid under siege, the sect's top leadership are extremely busy and only met once every few years. Even then, full attendance has been rare. In contrast, the top leadership now seems to have too much free time to the detriment of the sect.
Habits die hard for all twelve pavilion masters. Now that they couldn't scheme against the sect's enemies, the pavilion masters have been spending their time scheming against each other with pranks instead. What started as harmless pranks turned into a major nuisance after thousand of years of transformation as the pavilion masters' ego can't stand being outdone by their rivals. Regardless of the nuisance, Maximus has to express his admiration on how innovative those old fossils' can get cooking up pranks.
Now that the branch in the lower realm has been developing as planned and even ahead of schedule, the grand elder has announced that all twelve pavilion masters will soon be joining him on Eldorin once disciples recruitment enter the second phase. Maximus truly dread the day he has to work with these old fossils. At least here in the main sect, there are lines the pavilion masters will not cross out of respect for the grand elder. Maximus half suspected that instead of respect, it was more of the fact that the grand elder can still spank each of the pavilion masters like little kids despite the fact that he is still recovering from his injury. An emperor realm expert will make short work of king realm experts anytime. As for Maximus, he is in the sixth major cultivation realm and will only be officially elevated to the position of full fledge Sect Leader when he reaches the King realm. So, how the hell does the grand elder even expect him to keep all twelve pavilion masters to be on their best behaviour down on Eldorin? When Maximus seeks advise from the grand elder, he was bluntly told to figure it out on his own.
The meeting inside the council chamber progresses rather peacefully for the first hour as Maximus began with the regular updates. The meeting heats up when the meeting moved on to the decision-making stage. One of the main agenda for this meeting is to decide the distribution of the top talents. One would imagine that now that there is no shortage of talents above grade three, the pavilion masters will be able to talk things out. Instead, the fight has elevated to fighting over earth grade talent instead. Initial estimation indicates that the sect will most likely be able to welcome another ten earth grade talents when nine thousand new disciples join the sect in the second phase with more to follows in the subsequent phases. The sect's recruitment pool is after all vast given Earth eight billion population. Since there are more than enough to go around, Maximus has been mediating for these talents to be evenly distributed but ended up being harshly rebuked by all twelve pavilion masters. Who will ever complain of having too many talented disciples to inherit their legacy? Anyone claiming so are just being a pretentious prick.
"Enough!" The grand elder has to stepped in again to stop the bickering. He knew the rivalries between the twelve main pavilions were entrenched in deep tradition and plays a major part in propelling the Immortal Ascension Pavillion to become the largest merchant group in the immortal realm. When the sect was first established, the founder had established three main pavilions and dictated that the three pavilions should compete above board without resorting to sabotaging their own allies to bring the biggest profits and benefits to the sect. What started off with the initial three main pavilions has grown into twelve as the sect's strength and domination over the commercial world grows. "Since none of you can come to an agreement, I will make the final decision. The two earth grade talent is off limit to all of you. Since you have so much free time to plot useless pranks against each other, go down to Eldorin and recruit your own earth grade disciples. I will also make it interesting for all of you. Maximus, you are not allowed to reveal to them the cultivation talent for the next batch of new disciples. You will have to use your own judgement to assess whether they are worthy enough to be your direct disciples. Also, none of you are allowed to reveal your status directly or indirectly when recruiting your direct disciples."
*****
Lin Feng
Since the sect announced that each disciple will receive two close beta slots and be able to redeem an additional slot with sect merits, he has been diligently spending all allowable gaming time farming sect merits. He already has plans for all three close beta slots.
According to the information he has obtained, the game world will not experience a reset when the game is released officially in the future. It was explained that the AI engine behind the game world is extremely complex. The game studio can't guarantee they can get back the same game world after a fresh reset. Without such guarantee, the game studio felt that it is best not to reset the game as this will just led to new gaming variables and restarting the tedious process of debugging.
That would mean all close beta players will have a first mover advantage in comparison to all the new players that will be joining the game much later. This is extremely important as Lin Feng fully beliefs that
Until now, everyone on Earth only possess twenty-four hours in a day. Sure, the wealthy can use their wealth to get others to do their bidding, but ultimately the wealthy still can't buy them even an extra second no matter how much they are willing to pay. Though there is still certain limitation to the technology, the possibility of skipping almost all sleeping time needed in real life will mean the extra hours saved can be used elsewhere. For professionals that earn a living by their billable hours, "Immortal Online" twelve gaming hours translate into one hundred and twenty hours. Even if the professional only used half of those additional time for work, they can substantially increase their earning potential. Even if none of those extra hours are used for work, it would be no different than taking a five day break after working for a day. Lin Feng sees the time dilation technology as an invention that can rival the importance of electricity when it was first discovered. It will definitely be a technology that will impact the life of every single human on Earth.
Take him for an instance, Lin Feng belief that his closest university dorm mate and best friend will be one such individual that can help improve his real life circumstances playing
Yang Wenming came from a prominent family of successful officials since his great grandparents time. Given Yang Wenming's family background, Lin Feng can't blame him for being overly cautious when meeting strangers for the first time. What ultimately bringing the two of them together and being best friends are their sense of justice and drive to make a difference in the world.
After his graduation, Yang Wenming's family had his whole career planned out for him by getting him a job in the First Procuratorial Department. Though Yang Wenming is given more opportunities to build up his credentials for rapid promotion, he still has to produce results to proof himself worthy of the opportunities given. He has to work harder than his peers since young to justify the resources the family has invested on him. Most outsiders would have been jealous of his current success given that he is now one of the up and coming prosecutor in his department after only less than two years on the job. They discounted Yang Wenming's success owing to his family background and anyone in his position is bound to succeed unless he is a total idiot. This is a sentiment Lin Feng fully disagree given he knew first hand how hard Yang Wenming has to work to obtain his current success. It can't be denied that Yang Wenming has more opportunities to work on high profile cases, but his participation came at the cost of his personal life. Partially, Yang Wenming was working his bone off due to his family's expectation but the more important reason is to ensure justice has been served and criminals can't worm their way out just because they can afford the best lawyer money can buy.
Yang Wenming spent so much time in the office that Lin Feng once questioned him on the logic of renting his own house given that he is barely at home. The money could have been better spent elsewhere. On another meeting, Lin Feng even joke that Yang Wenming will probably end up being single for the rest of his life if he continues to spent most of his time including weekends in the office.
"You don't worry about my marriage. My family will arrange for someone appropriate."
Yang Wenming's mater of fact answer left Lin Feng not even sure how to continue their conversation.