Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: celtic

The next day, the atmosphere at the Seven Kills club was both joyous and tense.

Seven Kills would be facing the finals in a week's time. The semifinals among the top four were now going through their last match, and the winning team from that match would be the team competing with Seven Kills for the final championship.

Therefore, Seven Kills was currently celebrating the fact that they had locked in their position in the top three in the competition while also continuing their training under pressure. Although they were a veteran team, they hadn't shown such an outstanding performance in a long time. The last time they had won the Team Competition Championship was six years ago, during the second year after their captain and previous core had joined the team. That had been their most brilliant period.

Now, Lord Four's addition to the team allowed them to experience the same brilliance from that time, and they were full of hope about being able to step into the champion position once again.

.

When Victor walked into the club, he was met with this kind of energetic and passionate training atmosphere.

He had specifically chosen to come over during the lunch break, and as a result, he saw that Tyron had gone straight to the lounge to wash his face as soon as he stepped out of the virtual training ground.

In fact, he didn't have to do such a troublesome thing. Now, many young people liked to use the system command 'Clean', but it was different for Lord Four. He never did that-- Lord Four was very much like the kind of old antique who had very limited interest or goodwill towards new technology. He often chose to walk instead of drive and would read books rather than browse the internet. He was also used to dealing with small matters personally using his own power.

After seeing him act this way many times, Victor gradually began to feel that these habits of Tyron's gave him a certain mystery and charm.

--Even Tyron's attitude when he read was different from others, from the way he lowered his eyes to the way his index finger lightly touched the edge of the paper, it carried a unique classical flavor. The feeling was like seeing a noble, aristocratic prince that had just come out of a painting. It was so elegant and beautiful that people could suffocate from it!

Victor felt that, based on this point alone, Lord Four simply did not appear to be a modern man.

.

Of course, these characteristics of Lord Four occasionally made others feel that he was very adorable.

For example, right now, Victor was talking about the licensing authorization for his online avatar, "Mr. Odin, it's like this. Because our contract hasn't yet expired, you can still authorize me to continue acting as your legal representative. Yesterday, people from Ecom came to look for me, wanting to obtain the licensing rights for your avatar. I think this is a good opportunity. What do you think?"

"You can call me by my name." Tyron said.

Then, after two seconds of silence, Tyron added, "What is this avatar licensing authorization?"

Victor said, "It allows them to make virtual models based on your image and then use them for videos and games. Ecom has already made thirteen installments of simulated competitive games based on the A-League, and they are all basically very popular. At least 96% of the players in the A-League will give them permission to use their avatar. Not only is it a good source of income, it's also a very good channel for publicity."

"Use my image to make a competitive game? Aren't I originally already inside a virtual game?" Tyron thought about it, then continued, "I don't quite understand this process."

Victor raised his head and looked up, catching Tyron as he pondered for a while, his eyebrows drawn together in a slight frown, his dark golden eyes showing a rare degree of seriousness and confusion.

Victor: "…" Argh, my male god is so cute I'm going to die!

.

Victor was fascinated by his adorable appearance and only thought of something after being dazed for a long time. He rummaged around in his online storage for a good while before finally bringing out a packaged virtual model.

Victor then unwrapped the bow on top of the package, and the packaging opened up all at once to reveal the virtual model contained within&#k2013;&#k2013;

A life-sized model of Lord Four.

"…" Tyron looked at the copy of 'himself', and his eyes widened slightly.

Victor blushed a little and said, "Last time, after you gave me permission, I thought about giving it a try and making a model myself. It's not very elaborate yet, but I wanted to bring it out and show it to you."

This model was basically the classic image of how Lord Four appeared on the field. He wore a hooded mask, and had his dagger and short sword, coolly standing there motionless with both arms folded over his chest.

"If it's Ecom's A-League game series, it basically lets the player play as a club manager or something. You will appear in the game as an NPC, and the player can try to invite you to join their club, or they can buy or rent you out in the transfer market…"

"Buy? Rent?" Tyron repeated his words, "Buy me?"

Victor couldn't hold back his smile as he said, "They're buying the contract for the NPC Lord Four in the game. After they've purchased it, they can put NPC Lord Four in their team and bring him along to participate in the competitions. Players will be able to set up tactics and give commands during the matches, but the details of how that will work will depend on how Ecom sets up the fourteenth installment of the game."

Tyron chewed on this for a while and finally understood. "That's quite interesting."

.

Tyron turned his gaze back to the model that Victor had made and tried to reach out and touch it. He was really able to pinch a strand of 'his' choppy hair.

He then tried to remove 'his' hood, but the moment he took it off, the model flashed and the hood was on 'his' face once again.

"The model without a hood hasn't been made yet, so it can't be shown." Victor said, "This way, you don't have to worry about your face getting exposed. Other than the hood, your mask and clothing can't be removed either." Certain players would probably be extremely disappointed, heehee.

Victor opened up the command menu as he spoke, then chose the 'daggers drawn' action. The arms on the model of Lord Four moved, taking the short sword and dagger out of their sheaths and holding them in his hands.

This kind of high-tech black science had really created entertainment technology that was beyond the capabilities of worlds based on swords and magic.

Tyron thought in his heart, 'you interstellar people really know how to play', while he continued to play with the command menu and watch as 'he' performed all sorts of pre-set actions.

He flipped to the end of the menu, then saw a term he didn't recognize: Kabedon.

Tyron gave it a try, and the model suddenly moved.

The model walked over and pressed close to Victor, pushing him all the way to a corner and then held his hands up!

Victor: "…" Argh!!!

Innocent little Vic was shot at while lying down. He didn't have enough time to react and was instantly pressed against the wall. He curled pitifully into a ball, then looked up at the model of Lord Four before turning his head to glance at the real Lord Four.

"……"

Tyron looked at this position, thought for a second, and then understood what 'kabedon' meant even without having it explained to him.

So this kind of gesture was called 'kabedon'?

.

Victor finally managed to cancel the system command and extricated himself. His face was red with embarrassment as he repackaged the model and tied it up with a bow before stuffing it back into his online storage.

"That, that's it." Victor said, "If you agree to let private businesses buy your licenses, Ecom will start making the model and put it into the game. The authorization fee that they offer to players on the A-list is usually hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the exact price depends on the person; by the way, your qualifications to join the A-list is already under review--the quota for A-list players from the Earth District is very limited, so the process will be a little slower."

"Oh. This authorization can be granted." Tyron said, "Private businesses can also make use of it."

"You're really going to open it up!!" Victor was instantly thrilled, "Male god! This means that many people will be able to make videos and models and my circle of colleagues will be saved! Can I also post the videos that I've made?"

There was a second of silence.

Tyron revealed a smile, then suddenly reached out and slapped his hand on the wall next to Victor. He leaned down to look at him.

"…" Little Vic, who was once again pinned up against the wall by a kabedon, shivered as he looked towards his male god.

Tyron hooked his finger, "What kind of videos did you make with me? Hand it over."

And then, Victor's expression was dazed and he didn't know why matters had progressed to him and his male god sitting together and watching the clips he had edited together to form a video of Lord Four.

It was full of Lord Four's most handsome and magnificent scenes.

……

The next day, fans of Lord Four were pleasantly surprised to discover that his gentleman legal representative had issued a new statement.

Lord Four had opened up the authorization for people to use his virtual image!

Non-commercial licensing was free, and the commercial licensing fee was 5% of the total profit.

What did this mean? This meant that those with Kirin arms could start making images, models, MMD, and even independent games with Lord Four's avatar!

The big creative masters who followed the e-sports competition circle were shocked and ran off to spread the word. That night, many people burnt the midnight oil.

Even if they didn't play video games, many people were interested in making portraits of Lord Four or other similar things.

After all, Lord Four was this year's e-sports circle's hottest (and most handsome) news!

Apart from the fuss that had been kicked up about the match-fixing which led to the suspension of the individual league tournament, he was now a legend that had become a god with a single match. Earth District's official media had already specifically released over ten seconds of news focused solely on him. The official news had made it a point to congratulate an e-sports competitor! Did they understand what kind of concept this was?!

Over the next two days, major video sites had a large portion of their site taken over by videos of Lord Four. At a glance, half of the hottest videos on their home pages were related to Lord Four in some way.

There were videos like this: "Teaching you rats how to draw a golden-eyed handsome man. If Lord Four blesses me, I'll add 2200 points!"

And this: "[MMD] Homemade model, Lord Four and Flower Blower's pas de deux"

And also this: "Killing_Angels-Lord Four Centric MV, for (licking) personal (screen) satisfaction" ← Indeed, this was the one that Little Vic made.

.

In addition, Ecom officials also released a trailer for the fourteenth installment of their game:

The starting scene was dark as the camera was covered by a pair of dark wings. When the wings unfolded, Lord Four looked back towards the audience indifferently with his golden eyes--After two seconds, the camera no longer showed Lord Four. Following that, the trailer showed all kinds of cool scenes that featured other players.

Scrolling Comments:

"Lick, lick, lick!"

"A-League simulator, I choose you!"

"Long live the War God! I already know the secret to winning Aerial Combat mode in this installment of the game!"

"Lord Four's five initial attributes will definitely be at the A rank, and he'll have an additional 'aerial combat expert' talent. If I've guessed wrong, I'll eat my keyboard!"

.

However, according to what Ecom has done in the past, the game would only be released after the A-League individual competition and team competition were both completed.

Fans, e-sports followers and players would all have to wait for another month before they could play the game.

The time for the individual competition to re-open was coming up soon, while the final showdown for the team competition would take place on Monday the following week.

After the host's enthusiastic and cheerful announcement, the two teams competing for the championship of the team competition stood together at the front of the stage.

Seven Kills vs Heaven's Inquiry.