New America, Holy York, America’s Esports Federation Headquarters.
Ding!
The elevator door opened, and a man in a brown suit rushed out, carrying a briefcase and a stack of papers.
"Mr. Thomas..."
The secretary was about to stand up, but then Thomas hurried straight for the door and opened the door with his body.
"Am I late?"
Thomas asked.
"They haven’t started yet."
The secretary said with a smile.
With a sigh of relief, Thomas opened the door, and then, he entered a meeting room, and all the eyes turned towards him.
There were about twenty to thirty people sitting—and at the head of the table was the head of the entire federation.
Ronald Graves.
Thomas walked to the back of the room, then sat next to his co-worker, who looked pissed off about him being later than others.
"You’re late."
Annie said with a twitching eyebrow.
"Sorry, the traffic was a bitch. It luckily doesn’t look like they’ve begun yet. And am I sensing the atmosphere wrong, or is everyone in a quite of a bad mood?"
Thomas said.
"Why wouldn’t they be? Ronald received quite an angry video call from the President of the New America this morning."
Annie said.
"Oh... What was it about?"
Thomas asked.
"The result of the World Tournament—what else? Our country made a mockery of ourselves. We were last place."
Annie said.
"I don’t count that as last place. We, at least, made it through the qualifications where a hundred other nations failed."
Thomas said.
"That, unfortunately, doesn’t matter. Everyone only remembers the result of the World Tournament.
"Other countries are laughing at us. Our own citizens are calling for everyone to be fired. The president’s approval rating is plummeting."
Annie said.
"I expected it to be bad, but not this bad."
Thomas said with a sigh.
BANG~!
In that moment, Ronald Graves slammed his hands on the table, and the whole room quieted down.
It was like they were inside a library—not a single sound was heard—except for the sound of Ronald’s breathing.
"Tenth place. This cannot continue like this. The next year we might not even qualify for the World Tournament.
"This is an embarrassment!
"Innerworld was created in our part of America. We created it. It was us. Not Koreans, not the Chinese, not the Russians.
"It was us!
"And not only did we lose to our close rivals, but we even lost to Thug America, and that angered our beloved president the most.
"Thug America and New America have been at odds with each other for years. The players are always feuding with each other.
"There is not a single day in Innerworld when players from both parts of America aren’t fighting each other.
"And this year, we lost to them. For the first time ever. It cannot continue like this. Something needs to be changed."
Ronald said.
In that moment, one of the men sitting by the meeting table raised his arm, and everyone turned their gazes at him.
"Yes, Reynold?"
Ronald said.
"The reason why the Asians are so good is because of their commitment. They have schools specialized for Innerworld.
"Innerworld has an age limit of sixteen—nobody younger than that can play the game—but the children start training for Innerworld at a very young age over there.
"I think that’s what we need to do."
Reynold said.
Whispers sounded as everyone shared their opinion with each other. It sounded like most of them agreed.
"That’s one thing that we need to do, but we need something to change—right now—for the effects of that to come fruit, it’ll take ten years, at least.
"We don’t have ten years.
"The president asked for an immediate fix, and we’re here to figure that out."
Ronald said with a serious look on his face.
Everyone had a difficult expression on their face. There wasn’t a magical solution to the problem that the president wished for.
In that moment, Thomas nudged his glasses up his nose bridge, and then he stood up with the briefcase in hand.
"What’re you doing?"
Annie whispered at him, almost shouting, and even wanted to pull him back to his seat, but he just shrugged her hand off.
"I have a solution."
Thomas said.
Ronald’s gaze landed on him. It was a powerful gaze. Thomas immediately felt the weight of his presence on his shoulders.
It didn’t help that now everybody turned to look at him.
"And you are?"
Ronald asked.
"T-Thomas... I work over at the recruit department... I-I have thought about this for a while, and I-I have an idea..."
Thomas loosened his tie slightly so he could breathe more freely and then cleared his throat.
"Speak."
Ronald said.
"W-what do all the top nations have in common?"
Thomas asked.
Everyone just looked at him. They expected him to give the answer to that question. They weren’t in a mood to do guesswork.
Thomas took a deep breath, and then slowly, he gained more confidence in his own words, and he continued talking.
More clearly, and with greater conviction.
"Aces!
"Those nations have that one player that they can trust. One player that can carry the responsibility and hopes of entire nations on their shoulders.
"They have that special player.
"Korea Republic has Kang Bael!
"Phoenix China has Xuan Guo!
"Dragon Japan has Sakurai Shizuka!
"Red Russia has Lev Zorin!
"Saint France has Alexandre Mercier!
"Old Germany has Kai Schneider!
"Who does New America have? Nobody. We have great players, yes, but we don’t have that one special player that everyone can trust to get the job done.
"We need to create that player. That when the time comes, we can trust him to defeat the best players of the other countries.
"And to bring us the victory."
Thomas said with a serious look in his eyes.
"Keep going."
Ronald said with an interested look on his face.
"A Talent Draft. Recruit all the talent between the ages of 16 and 18, and we will put them all in one place—to compete, to train, and to improve together.
"In that competitive environment, I believe that someone will rise—like a phoenix from the ashes—and that someone will become the one to save New America."
Thomas said.