Imperium 2 Chapter 1

BEEP

BEEP

With a grunt Huang Hualing woke up from her deep sleep and slammed her hand on the alarm. Her messy hair was scattered across her face as she lazily grabbed her phone to check the time. While she was rubbing her eyes full of sleep deprivation, Hualing suddenly froze. The time was 11:57 a.m.

'MOTHER HECKER!' she thought to herself, 'I only have 3 minutes until the registration begins!'

Not even caring about her appearance or about getting food (aka her true love), she rushed towards her PC setup and plopped down onto her black and red leather chair. As she was logging on, rare excitement was shown on her face that was usually full of laziness.

Hauling has been thinking about this new game created by Exotic Pear Gaming constantly for a week. After hearing about it from her cla.s.smates she searched it up online and found out that is was far more spectacular than her cla.s.smates made it out to be.

From the information and pictures that were leaked online so far, she could see that the gaming animations were detailed and precise. Apparently the NPCs were also given artificial intelligence too and could adapt to different situations to some extent. As she thought more and more about the game Hauling's expression became more and more elated with her mouth curving into a large smile.

Seeing her home screen pop up in front of her Hualing immediately went to the Legacy home page where she could now see the registration sign up. After putting in her personal information she was asked what she wanted her username to be.

'Hmmm this is hard, all my past usernames have been foods such as Baozi *bun*, Kao Ya *roast duck*, or even zhu jiao *pigs feet*. These names are really stupid now that I think about it, no wonder in every game I would be nicknamed Tao Tie *a mythical monster known for his gluttony* by my companions.'

And with that thought, Hauling suddenly became depressed. Thinking back to the times when she came up with these ridiculous usernames, she realized that she was craving these foods when she thought of them.

Hualing said with a sigh, "Maybe I am a glutton."

"Whatever, those were my past usernames. There's no medicine for regret so might as well make this new username domineering!"

Sadly, that is easier said than done. With zero idea of what to name her character she decided to call her best friend Mei Yuan for advice. Hauling quickly grabbed her phone, as she was typing in the number she thought about how clever she was for coming up with this idea. Since Mei Yuan was the smartest girl in the grade and consistently ranked within the top three during exams, Hualing was sure she would come up with a domineering and memorable name.

When she heard the phone being answered, her face lit up with hope.

***

On the other side of the line sat Mei Yuan who was diligently studying her textbook when suddenly her ringtone started going off. Seeing that the one calling was her lazy and hopeless best friend she sighed and set down her work.

Exasperatedly she picked up her phone, "h.e.l.lo? What do you want?"

Out of the other line she heard a sickly sweet voice saying, "XIAO YUAN! Can you do me a favor?"

As Mei Yuan tried to suppress a headache she thought, 'What does this stupid sloth want this time?'

"What is it?"

"Well there's this new game and…"

"You know I'm not interested in your silly games" Mei Yuan shook her head as she thought about the many times that Hualing tried to get her to play games. "I'm hanging up."

"NO! WAIT! I'm not trying to make you play any more games. I just need help with something. Pleeease Xiao Yuan. You're the only one who can help me."

Mei Yuan began to feel a vein pop up on her head as she slowly said, "What is it, hurry and spit it out!"

"Well you see, I've been doing some reflecting and I realized all my usernames are really idiotic"

Mei Yuan was thinking of saying, 'Oh so you finally realized how simple minded and idiotic the names based on food were?' However, to save time she opted for telling Hualing to continue.

"See, now that I realized how stupid they are, I can't possibly use my previous usernames for this game. So I was wondering if you, my bestest most smartest friend in the world can help me in coming up with a name. Remember, it has to be cool."

After pausing for a second to calm her own anger for having her study session interrupted for such a trivial thing, Mei Yuan smirked and said with a confident tone, "Ling Ling, I have the perfect name for you! In fact nothing suits you better than this. You should definitely use Aergia as your username."

Confused about why this name supposedly suited her Hualing asked, "Huh? It sounds nice but, what does it mean?"

"Hehe, Aergia is the G.o.ddess of bravery and wisdom in Greek mythology so I thought it would be fitting for you to use that name."

"Hmmm" Hualing considered this name for a moment before saying, "Alright, then Aergia it is. Thank you Xiao Yuan!" After expressing her thanks Hualing happily hung up and went back to registering.

'Hehehe Ling Ling don't blame me once you find out who Aergia is. Who told you to fall asleep while we were learning Greek mythology in cla.s.s? It's your fault you interrupted my studying." Mei Yuan was currently chuckling mischievously at her phone while thinking about how naive Hualing was for trusting her so easily, 'Hmph, this name is still rather fitting for you though little sloth, because Aergia is the G.o.ddess of idleness and laziness. And only you are indolent and idle enough to fit this name.'