Infinite Realm

"It's been a while since we've met, Juro buddy." An old voice spoke up.

"Hmm. The feeling's mutual." Juro Noguchi, Sato's maternal grandfather, responded to the other party's words.

The other party wasn't an unfamiliar figure to Juro and even the way they spoke showed that they knew each other. Surprisingly, it was Wu Shiyi's master as well as one of the few grandmasters of martial arts in the ISJ.

After Wu Shiyi had come over to Sato's house and sent the invitation from his master meant for Sato's grandfather, Old Juro had accepted it and decided to meet the elusive figure behind Wu Shiyi at a restaurant close by. When he got there, he was surprised to see Wu Shiyi's master, Xiao Feng, waiting for him. 

Xiao Feng was an elusive figure who oy began his meteoric rise in the martial arts when he was 24. Unlike the Noguchis or the Hans that boasted of a century-old family with deep ties and experience in martial arts, the Xiao family was just a simple family with descendants in various industries. It wasn't centered in any department and wasn't as strongly united as all the other top families. It wasn't even one of the top families of the Chinese Federation and was just a regular household. Yet this simple family had given birth to a martial art genius in the form of Xiao Feng, who had constantly broken records before coming to the top after relocating to the ISJ.

After a few pleasantries as well as some catching up, Old Juro faced his long time old friend and asked,

"Old Feng, so why did you decide to meet up with me? Don't tell me it's simply for catching up with each other cause from what I recall of you, you would have simply called to do so." Juro turned to face his old friend of more than 20 years with a skeptical look on his face.

"Oh come on. Why do you have to be so direct with your words? You make old me sound like a heartless bastard." Old Feng, or rather, Xiao Feng, chuckled as he picked up a cup of tea from the table and sipped it.

Seeing this, Juro smiled at him but was a bit doubtful of his words.

After spending time with each other for more than 20 years, it would be a lie to say that Juro couldn't read a few of Xiao Feng's behaviours and it was easy to tell that something was wrong. The question now was what exactly.

"*Sighs* Fine. You've always been such a strong-headed fellow so I'll tell you. Isao has begun making some moves with the Family's authority, probably with the Family's name too. He's been calling in various martial artists together. Some suggest that he wants to organise a tournament while others think he wants to launch a huge dojo or something, and honestly, I don't which is true. However, I did hear some news that he seems interested in the VR game, Infinite Realm, and has already begun making preparations to form a guild of his own." Old Feng explained in one breath.

After listening to his words, Juro unconsciously frowned in response as he kept a pondering expression and made no comments. Xiao Feng left him be and resumed with his drink as he knew that this information meant a lot to Juro.

Isao, or rather, Noguchi Isao, was the current head of the Noguchi family as well as Juro's elder brother with a 2 years difference between them. Compared to Juro, Isao didn't have as much talent and potential as he did in martial arts and was slightly worse off compared to him, and by the Noguchis' heritage trend, Juro would have been the head of the family. But certain matters came into light and certain events came into play with Juro leaving the family and Isao taking the spot. Nonetheless, the relationship between the two brothers wasn't bitter but estranged.

After he had left the family, Juro had stopped contacting most of them and the same was true for his family members. Both sides had tacitly decided to avoid coming in contact with the other, though they might be watching each other in secret.

Old Feng's timely news came in just after Sato had settled into IR and Old Juro was having to accompany his wife in the hospital, however, the importance of this information wasn't ordinary.

Though Isao's martial arts skills were beneath his, in terms of cognitive ability, scheming, and planning, Isao was ahead of Old Juro by far. This meant that every single move of his, especially on a large scale, had a huge meaning behind it and couldn't be taken for granted. This time around, Isao's act of calling on all martial artists would surely have a meaning behind it, and just like every tactician, the meaning was meant to benefit him and the family.

"Why are you telling me this?" Juro asked Old Feng.

In truth, Isao's act of summoning all martial artists was understandable. It was most likely to host a martial arts contest and as the head of one of the supporting pillars of martial arts in the ISJ, Isao has more than enough power to pull it off. As for the benefits, they were a lot.

As martial arts was trending during this period, thanks to the fact that one's skills could be carried over to VR games and worlds, and used to gain an upper hand in combat-related matters, the amount of focus placed on the industry was a lot. Every gaming guild had a dojo that they partnered with to train their players. Even the military worked with a few of the too martial artists and training centres to develop both their human and AI troops' hand-to-hand combat ability.

Also, there was the fact that exercise was already a renowned vital factor for good health, and even with the introduction of nutritional drinks, exercise still maintained its position and was even more needed.

Apart from the peak of the technology, the higher the quality of nutritional drink taken in, the tougher the exercises have to be in other to fully digest the drink. The same was also true when an individual who has never taken a nutritional drink in their life, does so at the age of 30 and above for the first time. They would need a detailed set of movements to help their body welcome these new ingredients and avoid clashing with the body's functions and system. This was where martial arts came in and so, everyone who planned on taking a higher quality nutritional drink one day, would also need to learn a martial arts technique or two to help in the digestion.

Therefore, with the improvements in the gaming and VR sector, together with the milestones made in health and lifespan extension research, martial arts began to boom and became more popular than ever.

With the boom in the industry, many tournaments and shows were made, and the amount of money realised in such tournaments was a lot; at least counted in the millions in ALDs, and hundreds of millions in Yena [1]. If Isao were to organise a tournament, it could simply be surmised that he was interested in having a share of the pie from the martial arts industry.

'But that has nothing to do with me.' Juro prepared to live. He had to meet Alice in the hospital and accompany her for the rest of the day, worried about both her health and mental state.

"I'm sorry but I will have to take my leave. I have an appointment to meet up with."

"Don't leave too quickly, old friend." Old Feng was surprised. Before having a small realisation.

"You think it's just a tournament? If it were that simple, I wouldn't have bothered you with such info. It's too pointless and we all knew that sooner or later, the Noguchis under Isao would want a share of that pie. No. The reason why I mentioned all of this was because of my last statement. Rumour has it that they have eyes on IR and intend to firm a guild with some of the world's best." Old Feng said.

"If they succeed, they will become the strongest and real the most benefits in the game. If they don't, no problem either.'

"Get straight to the point." Juro cut in.

"Okay, okay. Sheesh." Old Feng sighed.

"There has to be something about that game that has Isao making such a huge decision. This isn't something a family head of a big family, such as the Noguchi, would do on a whim.. There has to be a deeper meaning behind it and value to the game, and I'm interested in it. So, how about it? Why don't we form a guild of ours?"