Chapter 71: High Sky
Not only was it a restaurant where customers sat at a table and ate the food served there, but in fact from the entrance of the restaurant to the section where the tables were, everything was decorated perfectly to give the feeling that the guest was really there having a meal in heaven. The restaurant's walls, ceiling, and floor were covered with high-resolution folding screens that projected images of recordings made in the sky to customers, with endless landscapes of light blue for when customers visited the restaurant during the day, and which gradually became darker until it was a projection of a dark and beautifully starry sky to give the feeling of the night outdoors to customers visiting during the night.
A few small fog projection machines were positioned around the room to give the impression at times that a cloud was passing between the customers, but with a low enough density so that no one there would get wet or make the food wet and spoil the taste of the customers' plates.
For such a unique experience, accompanied by such delicate and delicious dishes, it went without saying how expensive and exclusive that place was. Anyone had the right to make a reservation to eat there, but for normal people, it might have been necessary to wait for months to be able to eat and experience it all. But for VIPs, getting a table in that place was relatively easier.
Being the son of an important businessman in the city, Carlos was obviously one of the VIPs who could get places a little more easily. He still had to make a reservation days in advance, but that was nothing as alarming as waiting months like ordinary people.
When he heard Noah agree to join his team to compete in the upcoming Valorwatch championship, he was genuinely happy. He knew very well how many things Noah had abdicated in order to get money from Fortresses and become stronger, and that worried his best friend a lot.
Even though he was rejected several times, Carlos never gave up trying to make Noah have a little more fun and set aside thoughts of Fortresses from his mind. Calling Noah to parties, games, concerts, and all kinds of things that Carlos knew Noah would have fun with, he would invite his friend, and every time Noah accepted, Carlos was extremely happy.
When everyone accepted the meet and greet, Carlos made a reservation at the High Sky Restaurant using his status and invited everyone to meet Noah. He was still a little nervous about the issue of Noah's ability, since Noah had only told him that he had just become a Blessed Rank E, but had never shown his own skills in front of Carlos. Not to mention, Noah's personality was often very cold and distant, which worried Carlos, thinking that this could make his other friends not want Noah on the team.
There were four players currently on the team. Carlos and two boys were all without a Blessing, who had bought the generic Blessing package to be able to play too, and only with their own strength and skill they had managed to move up from Rank F in the game to Rank E. That in itself was a big achievement for the group, since 80% of the players without a Blessing never managed to leave Rank F because of the ease that Blessed Ones had over them in the game.
The other player on the team actually had a Blessing, and his Blessing was not weak. In fact, this player was the Ace of their team, having a Blessing from the God of Explosions. James was able to create small fireballs that would explode after 3 seconds. It was not an easy Blessing to use, as he always needed to calculate the time it would take for the ball to explode, which by itself, using it in the middle of a life and death battle was very difficult, as he also had to control the force that he would use to throw the balls as well as have a good aim. Different from Blessings like rays of light, the fireballs that he produced actually had mass and weight, which meant that they were affected by wind and gravity, making his Blessing very problematic to use. But when he used it well, he was able to deal with several enemies at the same time.
Being a Blessed Rank D, James eventually became a little arrogant. It wasn't anything that made his personality unbearable, but at times it was a little uncomfortable to be around him because of the attitude he had. A perfect example of this was what was happening now.
At a table in the VIP area of ??the High Sky restaurant, four young people were sitting while eating a portion of chips and talking very warmly about something they were obviously very interested in. But while three of those young people were laughing from time to time, one of the young people had a frown on his face that was apparently angry about something that was happening, so much so that he started to grumble out loud, making the other young people a little uncomfortable. This young man, of course, was James.
"Is he really going to make us wait this long? We could be playing during this time instead of waiting for a Blessed Rank E to show up. For someone with such a low rank, I think he is much more proud than he should be," James complained as he took a potato chip and ate it.
Carlos was unhappy with what James said and complained in return, "Don't be like that James. How many times have you been late in our meetings, even in those meetings that were close to your home? I already said that my friend's house is a long way from here and he doesn't have a car, so he had to come by bus. I already imagined that he would be a little late, not to mention that we still have 10 minutes before the scheduled time."
"I had my reasons for being late for those meetings, but he's a Blessed Rank E and doesn't even have the money to buy a car? How much money does he get for strength? I can't believe he doesn't have enough money even to buy a cheap car," James grunted discontented.
Carlos ignored James and went back to talking to their other teammates while occasionally looking through his smartwatch to see if any message notifications had arrived.
Just three minutes later, Noah came in with an attendant who was obviously looking at him more than she would look at a regular customer. This was something that made Carlos have a good laugh, since as soon as he looked at Noah, Carlos saw that he had not even noticed this difference in the reaction of the attendant who was around their age.
'She is very cute. If he wasn't so distant when it comes to feelings like that, he would surely have gotten her phone number to make an appointment to leave at any time,' Carlos thought with a laugh.
The other team members saw that Carlos was laughing at something and followed his vision before noticing a young man with black hair, with slightly delicate facial features, but with a confident attitude that made them look him up and down several times.
This young man had managed to grab the attention of many people in the restaurant even though he was just walking towards a table. This attention came predominantly from females, of course.
James, seeing the attention this young man was getting, was himself a little jealous, since people would only look at him that way when he said he was a Blessed Rank D, which aroused the respect of many and the envy of others. But this young man was just walking around naturally and he was getting more attention than anyone else in the place. Even wearing a plain black shirt, black sweatpants, and white sneakers of obviously inferior quality, this could not obscure him from other people's vision.
Noah, completely oblivious to what Carlos's friends were thinking, just waved to Carlos and sat down next to him after greeting everyone else at the table. Carlos' two friends responded to him with a friendly smile, which he returned, but one of the boys looked at him with a slightly angry expression, which did not go unnoticed by Noah, who understood body language well. This also meant that Noah didn't smile when he greeted the disgruntled youth and just gave him a light salute.
Noah understood very well the body language of people he focused on, but he didn't get the signals left by other people around him because he just didn't care enough about them to pay so much attention to what these people were "saying bodily" for him.
"Well guys, this is Noah, my childhood friend that I called to play Valorwatch with us. Please treat him the way you treat me, because he is like a brother to me," Carlos said with a sincere smile on his face.
historical
Noah saw that the two who were polite to him at the beginning nodded at what Carlos said and did not object, but when he saw the expression of the "arrogant boy" who seemed to have something against him, Noah could not stop thinking to himself, 'This is becoming too repetitive. Why is there someone like this everywhere I go? Is it a consequence of receiving a Blessing that it turns people into assholes? This whole thing is starting to become cliché...'
Noah thought of the boy from his first Fortress after his powers awakened, the girl he forgot her name, and everyone else he didn't care enough about to keep their name in memory and saw how equal they all were. 'I'm not taking it anymore. I better just deal with this before it goes on and becomes more boring than it already is,' Noah decided when he saw that James was going to say something.
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