Seeing Cynthia at a loss for words, Silva smiled faintly.
"I wanted to take a look at the construction this evening. If you want to, you can come with me and can choose an apartment."
"Thank you."
Cynthia nodded vigorously, suppressing the tears threatening to erupt. But suddenly everyone stared at Silva with wide eyes, clamouring.
"What?"
"So jealous."
"Silva, I want to choose an apartment as well."
"Yeah, let us choose, too."
Silva chuckled, turning to her friends.
"I don't know how many apartments are finished. But naturally you can come with us."
"Great!"
"We're going to see our gaming house!"
"Nice."
Suddenly everyone was looking forward to the evening. The conversation shifted from Cynthia's troubles to the gaming house. The young woman was glad about the distraction.
The friends got comfortable in Cynthia's room, talking for a while. After half an hour Rachel had to enter the game as she was needed as a caster.
Not taking any risks of disturbing Fortune, the rest of the friends also returned to the game. However, today they were a bit split. Some were eager to watch all the tournament matches while others found those random matches rather boring.
Thus, after a while everyone followed their own interests. Only when someone from Dream Avenue had to fight did they all gather to show their support.
Cyclone's return also attracted a lot of attention. Many voices, both positive and negative, reached her.
The young woman's heart was filled with warmth as she saw the concern in the guild members' eyes. However, her expression turned frosty as journalists surrounded her.
Cyclone decided that today she wasn't in the mood to explain herself and thus went on a quest together with Silver Blade and Balm.
Silver Blade still had the strange quest she received as she bought a supposedly stolen dress in Leanon City, shortly before the Black Hand's quest.
The quest attached to this dress was nothing major, but it served to distract Cyclone.
Meanwhile Liam decided to spend the time leisurely. He went to the smithy whenever he felt like it, spent some time with Serena whenever she felt like it, and watched the tournament.
When he was bored, he would seek out some strong monsters to train. Right now, he didn't feel much pressure as all the top players showed themselves in the arena occasionally, which was proof that no one was putting all their effort into levelling right now.
Of course, there were some exemptions like Phoenix Feather and other level maniacs. Right now, it even appeared as if Phoenix Feather didn't register for the tournament at all.
Like this the second day of the tournament passed quickly. Everyone participating from Hotpot won their qualification matches today, as did the team as a whole. Many of the lower seeds also went through the PvP matches.
Towards the evening Dream Avenue even received some good news. Varge, the berserker, won all three matches in his seed and advanced to the next stage. During an interview he announced his willingness to join Dream Avenue which greatly delighted Cyclone.
As the friends left the game everyone was in a better mood. They sneaked out of Cynthia's room like thieves and entered the elevator.
Cynthia's mother was nowhere to be seen. Only as the door was about to close did Cynthia loudly shout that she would be going out to eat something with her friends and a distant 'hm' answered her.
Cynthia was glad that she could leave the house. The friends went to their new favourite restaurant 'One thousand tastes' together.
In the comfortable atmosphere they talked about the day again. Finally, Mel also got one of her question's answered. She had been wondering why Cynthia didn't answer her phone in the morning.
It turned out that ever since she had the console, Cynthia used her phone less and less and sometimes even forgot to charge it over the night.
This explanation immediately caused Silva and Mel to joke around. In their memories Cynthia was practically glued to her phone. It was almost unthinkable that she would have a day where she would even forget about this favourite device of hers.
However, thinking about it the girls used to have long calls, but this was now replaced by the console, which allowed them to chat as long as it was worn.
The conversation shifted as everyone marvelled over the changes brought by Fate of Crunaboul.
Soon, all the dishes were eaten clean and the friends left. They drove for a few minutes and finally reached their much-anticipated gaming house.
This was an impressive high-rise building. Its foundation was made of stone, painted in a cherry pink which Cyclone and Balm had chosen as Dream Avenue's official colour. Above the green foundation the building reached high into the sky with more than 15 floors, which was slightly above average in Red Oak City.
The friends gathered in front of the building. A special feeling bloomed in their hearts as they looked up at the large sign saying 'Dream Avenue'.
At this moment the sliding door opened, and a woman stepped out. It was Miss Ellford, the gaming house's engineer. The mature woman was surprised for a moment as she only expected to meet with Silva.
Luckily Miss Ellford was quick to adjust. She happily welcomed the entire group, showing them around.
Entering the building the friends found themselves in a spacious lobby. Here, the guild members could use the elevators towards the higher floors, while visitors could go straight ahead and enter the experience centre.
The friends were eager to see everything. Miss Ellford sighed inwardly but she obliged their wished nevertheless, showing them around while never losing her professional smile.
The experience centre was already taking shape. It housed everything one could wish for. It had many consoles which could be used for a fee, obviously more suitable for casual players.
There were also areas dedicated to telling Dream Avenue's story and achievements, placed next to an extra-large trophy case. A large merch store was taking form as well.
Additionally, the centre had a few rooms meant for holding courses about the game, which could hopefully attract more advanced players. Naturally a restaurant area was essential.
But the centre also had some unusual extras like a public fitness centre and a cinema. All in all, it was a place aimed to attract people and let them slowly feel connected with Dream Avenue.
After surveying the experience centre the friends were all greatly excited. Although some cables still hung loosely, some walls were missing paint, and the kitchen wasn't furbished with appliances yet, everyone could imagine the bustling scene in the future.
Greatly invigorated they took an elevator towards the upper floor. As much of the space was occupied by similar-looking flats, Miss Ellford didn't show everything to the party.
She mostly showed off the more interesting areas like the places for training, the large, shared living room, and the canteen.
All the shared areas were in the highest floors. Thus, this was also the place where the construction was still undergoing.
Only the flats on the lower floors were already finished as most of those only needed some renovations. Cynthia had Miss Ellford advise her and eventually chose a flat on the fifth floor.
When the friends inspected it together, Cynthia could barely hold back her tears. She couldn't believe it. But now the decision was finalized, and she was determined to move in tomorrow.
The flat already had all the furniture needed. But if she wanted to change something, Cynthia could easily do so as the guild leader.
For now, though, she was easily satisfied. The flat was more than luxurious for a single person to live in. It had a small kitchen, two baths, a large living room, and two bedrooms.
Cynthia's friends all looked jealous, dreaming of their future lives in the gaming house.
Finally, the friends had seen everything and left the gaming house. Miss Ellford was visibly relieved, prompting Silva to apologize sincerely.
This made the friends feel awkward. They also apologized quickly before driving home and allowing Miss Ellford some well-deserved rest.
As it was already getting late everyone was prepared to go to sleep so they would be well rested for the tournament the next day.
Only Cynthai still had to fulfil a monumental task. She had to declare to her parents that she was moving out. Obviously, her evening wouldn't be a quiet one.
When the friends met the next day in the game, Cyclone looked exhausted but also happy. Her parents weren't pleased, but she remained steadfast and managed to assert herself.
The friends happily congratulated her. Cyclone smiled brightly as a huge worry was taken off her mind.
The best thing about her secret being discovered was ironically that she now didn't need to fear discovery. She could look forward to the future and focus fully on her guild.
Even the guild members noticed Cyclone's improved mindset as their first fight against another guild started a few hours later. It was Dream Avenue against Unity of Life.