Free and Unfettered 131 Zenith

Zenith was the creator of 'Pride and Honour', which was seeing an explosive popularity in the world today. The profits of the company had exceeded all projected amounts, which would have caused any other person to burst with pride, but for Zenith, things like that didn't matter.

The thing that mattered the most to him was that he had fun, that he was doing something he wanted to do, and that it was working as expected.

Zenith had created 'Pride and Honour', not for the money, nor for the power, but because he himself wanted to play it.

Although the A.I. that he created was one of a kind, it did not mean that it was infallible. After the A.I., code name T.O.N.Y., had been created, he ceased all operations. In essence, 'Pride and Honour' was running itself. He had no hand in any management, nor did he interfere.

However, a few days ago, a video surfaced on the Galactic Web that caught his eye. It was one of the earlier designs he had created, Nine Destan.

One of his early creations, though her character model had been outstanding, her personality had been a bit… flat, to say the least. Although her background was rather complex, after designing it, he had lost a bit of interest when it came to the time to input her personality, so Zenith had randomly allocated one.

The character that had been born from his negligence had been disappointing to say the least. She had all the stats and potential as a 'main character' as you could say, but the bland and cowardly personality that had been shoved into the character model made her disappointing.

However, for many of Zenith's faults, he held a pride as a creator, as an artist, and he couldn't bear to get rid of her, so stay she did. In a sense, he regarded Nine as his daughter of sorts, so he tweaked a bit of her father's, 'Avner Destan', also known as Cosmos Empire's Emperor, personality. Regardless of what Nine did, he would always be more partial towards her. Nothing too avert, but you could say that his defences were lower towards Nine.

Still, the way things run, it would depend on the characters themselves for what happened in the 'story'. He had no hand in the way things would turn out according to their actions, and it was as far as he was willing to bring himself to 'manage'.

However, that video that had gained such an explosive popularity of Nine fighting had ignited something within him that he didn't know how to explain. The excitement and joy that had been fading from him the longer he looked over the game, slowly killing him with the responsibilities that had been tying him down, reignited as his heart flared.

Suddenly excited beyond belief, when something out of his predictions happened, Zenith stood up, his chair sent twirling into the distance.

Alarmed, his assistant pushed up her glasses as she suddenly had a bad feeling. She felt like her boss was about to go off the rails again. That look in his eyes were something that she was used to seeing the past couple of years.

The assistant shed a few tears in her heart. She was bound to be laid with overtime again! Hurriedly, the assistant chased after her boss.

"Boss! Where are you going?" he asked, his mind frantically whirling to come up with a solution.

As if by some miracle, her boss stopped in his tracks. Just as the assistant was about to tear up from gratitude – did her boss finally understand – Zenith turned around and placed two heavy hands on his faithful assistant's shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.

"Lily," Zenith said seriously.

Lily unconsciously gulped, waiting breathlessly as Zenith was never this serious. Her face unconsciously flushed. She had never once seen him look like this, even in the direst of times.

"I leave it all to you," he said, sprinting off into the distance.

Shocked, Lily dropped her tablet onto the floor, staring at her retreating boss. Tears welled up in her eyes. She knew it! She had been tricked again! Ah, she really felt like curling into a ball and wailing. She shouldn't have listened and instead dragged him back by the coat!

Zenith dashed out of his competent assistant's view, quickly locking himself in his office. Casually, he pulled out the gear used to play 'Pride and Honour' and put it on.

The man logged into his – well, not new account, but rather, the account that had been wandering aimlessly in the forest. He just didn't understand. He designed this place. He designed this world. He designed the monsters' habitats as well as the Magic Beasts, so why was it that he couldn't find his way out?!

Zenith ruffled his hair in frustration, inwardly cursing that he had disregarded all opinions and decided that as a new and upcoming virtual reality game, Pride and Honour needed no such thing as 'maps'. It had to be as realistic as possible!

Honestly, he had done himself no favours here, but the man toughed it out and walked – and ran. He ran until it felt like he was dying, but all he saw were trees and shrubs. Honestly, the man was trying his best not to suicide here, but he felt like he was about to go insane.

Why was his sense of direction so bad! Wasn't he walking in a straight line?

Faint, the man decided to rest nearby on at the foot of a tree when he heard voices. Instantly, whatever fatigue that had accumulated disappeared from his mind. Quickly, the man rushed over to them before they could move away.

"Hey!" he called out loudly. "Help! Help me!"

He burst into the clearing with eyes maniacally wide, startling the people there.

"Hello!" Zenith said, elated.

The people in the clearing warily eyed him before echoing his greeting back.

"Yes, hello," Zenith said absently. "Could I get directions out from this place to human civilisation? No, actually, if you bring me to Cosmos City, I'll pay you!"

At this point, Zenith was desperate enough that he would pay any amount of money to leave this cursed forest. Honestly, if it hadn't been for these people here, he would probably not have seen a single soul for a few more days. Just the thought of it made him feel like he would go insane.

As he was lost in his thoughts, Zenith's eyes casually landed on a familiar face.

"Eh, aren't you the Eldest Prince, Deltan Destan?"

Instantly, the group of five turned hostile and wary, looking at him with sharp eyes.

"If you know he's royalty, you sure are being impudent," the sole female of the group said, her eyes cold and piercing.

Zenith saw her fingering the giant broadsword on her back and gulped, hastily amending himself. He held his hands up in a sign of surrender.

"Oh, Your Highness, forgive me," Zenith said. "So, will you take me to Cosmos City?"

The blonde woman was about to open her mouth to give him another cutting remark but was stopped by Deltan himself.

"Why do you want to go there?" Deltan said.

Zenith had no idea who these people were. He only recognised Deltan because he was Nine's older brother.

"I want to see Nine!" Zenith said bluntly, not seeing the frown that his words caused.

The group of five exchanged glances, obviously communicating, but Zenith noticed none of it. He impatiently waited for them to agree or disagree. Obviously, if they disagreed, he would follow them from afar. At the worse, he would just die and respawn somewhere in civilisation, so it wasn't a lost case.

"Okay," Deltan said, eyeing the eccentric man warily. On the off chance that Nine recognised him, he didn't want to face his younger brother's wrath. His punch still scared him to this very day…

"Great!" Zenith said, perking up. He shoved them fistfuls of gold, ignoring their bemused faces. "Let's go!"

Chapter end