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Forgotten Lands - Chapter 13 (Book 2)
🕑 Added 2024-04-01 10:00:05 +0000 UTCB2 Chapter 13 – Proposal
The epic compilations of Zayn overpowering the Regional Bossess and the brothers’ slaughter in the Magma Prairie garnered more views than expected.
Most new Players found Zayn’s beginner guides and videos, but they hesitated about the cost of each video and guide. Watching Zayn’s videos and reading all guides would cost a small fortune. However, the epic compilations were free.
Everyone following Zayn’s channel watched the videos and shared them with friends. Zayn’s fights were exciting. They showed a Classless Player soloing Regional Bosses as if they were mere Elite Monsters. That was much more enticing for all Players – new and old – than Zayn expected.
Most new Players were certain they would never be able to catch up to the Ones who joined Forgotten Lands right away. However, thanks to Zayn, they learned that one’s Foundation was not everything. His movements were terrific, but Zayn’s fighting style was the most impressive. It looked like Zayn merged several martial arts from reality into the game.
Other Players tried to replicate Zayn’s fighting style but had a hard time. Only a minority understood some of Zayn’s customized fighting styles by consulting some professional martial artists on Earth. They received some minor tutelage from the martial artists and noticed that their improvements in reality also helped them grow stronger in Forgotten Lands. Of course, the game and reality were different, but Forgotten Lands was far more realistic than it looked– excluding the monsters, the system, and other fantasy aspects.
The new Players, who had been hesitant about investing in Zayn’s videos and guides, chose to drain their savings to read some of Zayn’s guides. After all, Zayn was the only Player who managed to solo Regional Bosses while still a Classless Player. He defeated ten Regional Bosses in 24 hours. That couldn’t have been a coincidence. That was pure skill and a perfect understanding of Forgotten Lands’ game mechanics.
He was the master every rookie sought. Even amateurs and semi-professional Players would seek his aid.
Zayn’s prestige skyrocketed as millions of Players better understood his true talent. He might still be a Classless Players, but everyone could tell he was not an expert. Zayn was at the top, if not the pinnacle, of all Players!
Millions of Players had heard of Zayn, but there were also many ordinary people who’d heard about him. Some TV stations reported about Forgotten Lands now and then. They revealed clips of the Tower of Nature before – Zayn’s clips.
Zayn was not a celebrity or something like that, but he was pretty well known at this point. That could be taken advantage of. A part of Zayn’s plan was to create his dojo with a large gym. Unfortunately, time was not on his side now that he had created the Golden Age workshop earlier than he had initially planned. It was a little unexpected, but Zayn had another plan for this situation.
He chose to make a trip to the Dragon Lair gym after logging offline.
Leonard Ritheon was not present when Zayn arrived. That was a shame. Many things would have been easier with a Player of Forgotten Lands present.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Blaer,” Zayn greeted the manager of the Dragon Lair gym when he saw him.
Mr. Blaer was a middle-aged man with a well-maintained bodybuilder physique. He was a severe man with short black hair and dark eyes.
“Hey, Zayn. I saw your father earlier. He is doing great. It’s rare to see someone his age going crazy for workouts,” Mr. Blaer greeted Zayn, “Are you here to work out, or do you want to spar with this old man again?”
“Today I’m not here to train or fight,” Zayn said, grabbing a piece of paper alongside his tablet. It showed a scientific report about the connection between the human psyche and body and the stimuli of Forgotten Lands. “Today, I’m here for business.”
The paper was a tiny portion of the proposal he had prepared in the last few minutes.
“I created a workshop for Forgotten Lands called Golden Age. It doesn’t have many members yet, but I would like to change that.”
“I didn’t expect you to come to me for business. That is…surprising.”
Mr. Blaer picked up the piece of paper. He ignored the scientific report and dismissed it, “I’ve already seen the report. Leonard is a nuisance whenever he talks about Forgotten Lands. He talks about it too often, if you haven’t noticed yet.”
Zayn smiled lightly. He made a mental note to thank Leonard in the future.
“So, you hope the Golden Age workshop will be linked to the Dragon Lair Gym. That your workshop and the gym will be affiliated, right?” Mr. Blaer asked after he finished reading.
“That’s about it.”
“You want us to spread your workshop’s name throughout all branches of the Dragon Lair Gym so that you can expand your workshop with well-trained Players and people curious about Forgotten Lands. Since we’re mostly a dojo, you might convince many professional and semi-professional fighters to join Forgotten Lands and your workshop. In exchange, we will be linked to your workshop, videos, and beginner guides. That doesn’t seem like an enticing offer, to be honest.”
Zayn raised an eyebrow.
“The Dragon Lair Gym has branches all over the continent. We have 650,000 members, and a third of them are trained fighters. The Dragon Lair Gym is known for its extraordinary training program. That’s why we have more than 100 professional fighters, two of whom are former World Champions. Do you even know what you’re asking for?”
A smile blossomed on Zayn’s face.
“Of course, I know what I’m asking for. I also know that I can ensure that your member count increases to 1,000,000 in less than a month.”
Zayn was confident as he spoke, but Mr. Blaer could only frown deeply.
“You must have noticed that all gyms gained more members since Forgotten Lands launched. Some of your gyms must have gotten dozens of applications on good days. Do you not realize the reason behind their applications?”
He tapped the tablet screen where the scientific report of Forgotten Lands’ stimuli was shown.
It was Mr. Blaer’s turn to frown. He squinted and read through the report.
“You’re saying our newest members joined the Dragon Lair Gym because of Forgotten Lands. All of them. I doubt that.”
Zayn didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that Mr. Blaer didn’t play Forgotten Lands. It was pretty obvious.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Most gyms encounter the same phenomena. Most new members join their gyms because they want to improve their physiques and control of their bodies to become better in Forgotten Lands.”
“You might not believe me,” Zayn approached the tablet and switched to MeTube, where his account popped up. He went to the dashboard and released a short video he’d created with his brothers not long ago. It was a video about the effects of training outside Forgotten Lands and how much it influenced their fighting style and power in Forgotten Lands.
“I added a link to the Dragon Lair Gym’s website in the video. Ah, and I talked about the Dragon Lair Gym for…like five seconds or something like that. If you think that my influence in Forgotten Lands is useless or that Forgotten Lands is a ‘mere’ game, I advise you to overthink your opinion. Forgotten Lands is much more than just a game. It’s our future!” Zayn declared dead serious, ‘quite literally.’
Zayn showed Mr. Blaer the video and ensured the manager would watch it. The free video had gained over thirty thousand clicks even before Mr. Blaer finished watching. Zayn refreshed the page just before the video reached 100,000 clicks.
“I’m not sure what your tactic is, but it doesn’t work–....” Mr. Blaer stopped mid-sentence as his phone rang. After excusing himself, he accepted the call. Zayn observed Mr. Blaer intently.
“The website is down because we have too many online applications for the training programs?! How–....”
The middle-aged man paled, and his head flicked to Zayn, “I will call you back later. Fix the website as soon as possible and call Mr. Wang. I think I found what he is looking for… Yes, I’m talking about the expansion program… Yes, I know that I was against it… Shut up and fix the website!”
Mr. Blaer hung up and stared at Zayn, unsure what to say.
“Your videos did that? You didn’t say more than two sentences about the Dragon Lair Gym… How?”
“The internet is crazy,” Zayn shrugged, “But what would you do if someone who is the best at something when he tells you that you can do something simple to become much better at something? You follow his advice. At least, I would do that, even more so if that advice might allow you to earn a fortune.”
“I heard that you can earn money in Forgotten Lands, but I always thought that it was exaggerated,” Mr. Blaer mumbled, but Zayn shook his head, “It’s not exaggerated, but you might not believe me when I tell you that you can earn millions. You should call Leonard and ask him how popular the Forgotten Lands channel ‘Zayn’ is.”
Zayn thought about it for a second. He didn’t want to sound arrogant, but it felt like Mr. Blaer would better understand the influence of Forgotten Lands and its capabilities to earn a fortune that way—with Leonard being the scapegoat. Zayn was a little bit sorry about that—but just a little bit. He could make up for that.
“If that’s not enough for you to decide that my proposal is beneficial enough for the Dragon Lair Gym…how about you ask Leonard if he’d be willing to quit his job and change his gym if that were needed to increase his chances of joining Zayn’s guild, Golden Age.”
