The next morning was pretty much the same.

Making the bed -> Stretch -> Brush -> Change into running gear -> Light snack + water -> Pack food for the cat -> Go for a run.

Last night, I spent about 30 to 40 minutes checking for the Stroke Family, Damian and Evans, before deciding on how to approach them. Other than that, I also went online for a little while in Arcadia, but nothing really impressive was going on there. Hence, I returned and went to sleep early.

On my morning run, as promised before, I met up with Fredricka, who was wearing a black T-shirt matching her black shorts. Since Fredricka usually did a 5-mile, I decided to follow along with her. Even though I can't do it all the time, doing it once a week was fine. Hence, I went all out on it.

Honest thoughts at the end of the run? I shouldn't have done it.

I was barely breathing, with my heartbeat at its peak. Fredricka asked me if I needed a ride back home, but I rejected her, saying that all I needed was about 15 minutes to rest before I would recover enough to walk back home.

During the run, and even 15 minutes after it, Fredricka kept talking on and on. She went from talking about her university preparations, how her father would probably change cities this year too, to talking about how the newest models of smartphones weren't good enough.

Though most of the things were pretty much nonsense, she did talk about her experience in Arcadia Online, along with telling me about her aims within the game and the guild that her family was building. This time, the choices were quite a bit different from my own timeline, making me wonder how she would fare this time within the game.

Nodding at her words most of the time, while wondering if she would get tired with all this talk, time passed pretty quickly in the morning before we waved goodbye to each other and then separated on our own ways.

Returning home, I took a proper bath before changing into a casual dress. Moving towards my next destination, Evan Castro's shop, I recalled the information I had about that man.

Evan Castro, an old man who had opened a flower-shop with his wife. They had a pretty fulfilling life, and with their children tending to their own lives, the old couple usually enjoyed their time with each other. Unlike Ciana, Evan did not have any major problems in his life, and more often than not his struggles were shared with his partner, making him brace them with grace.

Hence, the approach with Ciana was almost impossible to implement in this case. Instead, I decided to start with a warm conversation and then flow it accordingly.

In the guise of buying flowers, I first met with Evan and began engaging in a heartfelt conversation. Swiftly shifting conversations, I became close to him as he opened up to me a bit more than before. Within the conversations, I took the name of Charles Richard and others, wondering if he would know about them, but sadly no luck this time either.

Since that task failed, I moved towards the next task as I subtly changed the topic to Arcadia Online. I asked them if he had heard about the game and if he would like to play it sometime? Inciting him with the idea of regaining youthful energy as he and his wife might go on an adventure, I checked his opinion on it.

"I would love to do that, but we don't have that kind of money to buy the headgear. It's quite costly, you know? Also, our kids are kind of busy in their own lives. No time to spare for us, haha. So, even though I would love to play the game, I don't think we have the time to do that," he politely rejected it.

This response was within my margin of error, and hence, I moved on with the things that I had prepared for him and his wife.

"Actually. About that… would you be interested in a program I was trying to work on?" I introduced them to a scheme where they could join my guild that I was planning to create. As a sponsorship program, I can buy the headgear for them in exchange for them to listen to a few in-game requests of mine.

Giving me a chance, they listened to me as I explained the benefits of the game and the reasons why I was suggesting it to them. A little convinced, they thought about it, but the time problem still remained.

"Ah! Not now, but I think in 2 weeks a new update will come that allows the players to play even in their sleep," I then dropped an info that probably only the developers knew right now. If possible, I would have kept it for myself, but thinking about how it was going to become common knowledge in less than a few weeks, I guessed it wasn't that much of a deal.

Evans, along with his wife, then asked a bunch of questions, which I answered as nicely as possible, making them think about it for a few minutes before both of them decided to go along with my idea.. The deal came to a furious end as both of them decided to try it out after the next update comes.

By the time they join the game, Ciana will have already created a guild. I thought as I waved them by before moving to my next target. As for the guild leader, it won't be me. I don't think I would even let anyone know of any connection to the guild with me. Other than of course Ciana, who would be creating that guild.

There is a special system, a kind of special quest, that allows players to own a guild, or perhaps any other group in the game, through a contract, without being a part of it. This was hidden information that only a handful of people knew even in the late future, which I was going to exploit to the best of my ability.

Moving to my next target, the middle schooler nerd gamer, Damian White, I then changed my approach once again. This time I didn't need to get chummy like with Evans but present my motives directly to him.

Standing outside the middle-school where he was, I waited for about 30 minutes before the classes were finally over. Then, finding him among the crowd, I moved closer to him, asking him if he could spare a bit of his time.

It looked a bit shady, so he rejected it at first. But after convincing him for a few minutes, he decided to spare some time for him. Though, from the look in his eyes, it seemed he firmly decided to reject it no matter what I said. Good thing it was something that I had already anticipated.

Damian was a computer programming fanatic. And also an avid gamer.

Other than his daily struggles with his studies and sports, he spent most of his time programming. When tired of programming, he would then play his favourite games, often breaking records in them. While it was his strong point, it was also a weakness that I was going to use right now.

"I heard about you from a friend. Said that you were great with games and programs. Will it be all right if I interest you in a part-time job of sorts?" I asked as I presented him with a monetary program where he would need to play Arcadia Online, grind a few quests that I would ask him to and join my guild, which he was free to leave 18 months later after the contract period ended.

There was a degree of freedom within the guild, and if he has any personal requests, he can ask me to add them.

Other than money, since he likes programming, I will also provide him with a subscription to a few premium coding sites and apps that we would like to register for. Though that would need to be on hold until the next update, which was coming at the end of this month.

Looking at him, as he was clearly tempted with the contract, I smiled as I waited for his answer.

"Why do you value me so much?" He asked the most obvious question, to which I smiled and then listed the dozen achievements he had, making him a bit surprised before a bit embarrassed as I praised him.

Well, Damian wasn't a genius, but he was pretty good in his own regard. If nurtured properly, he could become a valuable asset that many in the guild would kill to have.

"Also, have you heard the name Evan Castro? Charles Richard? Ciana Grace? Or Sarah Rose?" I asked in between.

"No, what about them?" He asked confused, showing no signs of hiding anything.

"Nothing. Just a bunch of competitors," I answered before nodding and explaining to him the rest of the details of the contract. By the time it was over, I shook his hand before leaving with a slightly tired look on my face.

So none of the three are the ones, huh? I sighed as I knew that I would need to go out of station next week if I wanted to continue working on this.

But… It was a nice change of pace as compared to how I did things in my past life.

All right. Now let's check out the Stroke Business. I thought before putting a bright smile on my face and then walked towards a certain hypermarket nearby.

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