"Your cousin is a professional player?" the captain asked with obvious assumptions about Noah’s background and training.
"What games does he compete in?" added another teammate. "His mechanical skill shows he has years of high-level experience."
Ethan shook his head slowly, still struggling to reconcile the Noah he knew with the gaming phenomenon they’d just encountered.
"No, he’s not a professional player in any game," Ethan said with growing amazement. "He just started playing this game a few days ago. Before that, he played other games casually, nothing competitive."
The team chat fell completely silent as Ethan’s words sank into their brain. A casual player with minimal experience had just outplayed an entire professional team using knowledge and mechanical skill that should have required years to develop.
"A few days?" the captain repeated with obvious disbelief. "That’s impossible. Nobody develops game sense like that in a few days."
"His aim was already inhuman, but his strategic understanding was tournament-level. That doesn’t happen overnight. Unless...he has wall hacks on, and he isn’t really using any strategy."
Ethan found himself defending his cousin’s legitimacy while simultaneously trying to understand how Noah had achieved such an impossible improvement in such a short timeframe.
"I know how it sounds," Ethan replied with helpless honesty, "but I’m telling you the truth. A few days ago, he was asking me basic questions about game mechanics. Tonight, he just gave us the most brutal defeat we’ve ever experienced."
The professional team struggled to process information that challenged everything they understood about skill development and competitive gaming progression.
"We need to watch this recording frame by frame," the captain decided with obvious fascination. "If your cousin really developed these capabilities in days, we need to understand how. Don’t be offended, Ethan, but I really feel like your cousin is cheating. Nobody can have such aim and mechanical skill in a few days."
As the team began planning their intensive review session, Ethan found himself typing a private message to his cousin through the game’s chat system, his fingers hesitating over the keyboard as he struggled to process what had just occurred.
How do I even start this conversation? ’Hey cousin, you just destroyed my professional team’?
Finally, he sent a simple message: "Noah... was that really you? My team thinks you’re hacking. They can’t believe someone could play like that."
Noah’s response came immediately—a simple smiling emoji that somehow carried smugness despite being just a yellow face on screen.
Ethan typed back almost immediately. "Seriously, my team is convinced you’re using aimbot and wall hacks. They’re going to review every frame of that match looking for evidence."
Noah’s reply was confident: "Let them review it. They’ll see."
He’s not worried at all. Ethan thought.
Before Ethan could send another message, Noah’s status shifted to offline, leaving his cousin staring at an empty chat window with dozens of unanswered questions swirling through his mind.
He just logged off like nothing happened...absolute cinema.
That one game had been extraordinary—the kind of match that would be discussed and analysed for days within their professional circle if Noah turned out to be legit.
Noah woke up feeling refreshed after a night of excellent sleep, his constitution requiring less rest while providing more restorative benefits than his previous normal human physiology.
My high vitality is something else. My recovery rates are through the roof. I haven’t gotten such good sleep ever.
He made his way downstairs, checking his daily system notification.
[You have received your daily income!]
[$355,000 has been rewarded!]
Noah had already changed the wind orb into money. He had around 5 of those orbs, and there was no need for more. When he needed more, he could simply get them himself. For now, money was more important since he had an idle room to open.
His daily income had also increased because of the rice cake that Lola had bought.
Three hundred fifty-five thousand dollars. Just a few weeks ago, I was struggling to afford ramen and dodging debt collectors.
Noah smiled at the astronomical figure that represented more money than most people earned in an entire year. The transformation from poverty to wealth had been so rapid that he sometimes needed reminders of how dramatically his circumstances had changed.
From a daily income of $300 to $355,000. That’s more than a thousand-fold increase.
Downstairs, Noah discovered his father had already awakened and prepared breakfast for both of them. The sight of Alan moving around the kitchen with energy and a smile on his face made Noah feel happy for his father.
The beef jerky was really a life changer.
He looks twenty years younger. The permanent vitality enhancement transformed everything about his health and energy.
After checking on his father the previous evening, Noah had found him sleeping peacefully, no longer the restless, pain-interrupted sleep that had become a part of his condition during the illness.
"Noah? You’re awake," Alan called with obvious pleasure at seeing his son. "Come join me. I made breakfast for both of us."
Alan sounded genuinely happy. Not just healthy, but enthusiastic about life again.
"Dad, you didn’t have to do this," Noah replied with a gentle smile on his face, feeling some concern over his father’s effort. "You should be relaxing. I could have made breakfast or ordered delivery."
Alan waved away his son’s concerns with a confident expression.
"Don’t worry, son. These old bones are much healthier now," he said with obvious satisfaction at his new body. "Come on, let’s eat."
Alan’s smile carried contentment of someone who had rediscovered simple pleasures in life that illness had made difficult, such as cooking for family, moving without pain, and planning activities rather than merely enduring them.
Noah smiled wryly at his father’s obvious pleasure in resuming normal parental activities and joined him at the table for their shared meal.
The breakfast was excellent; his dad’s cooking did not disappoint.
Noah could tell that his father was enjoying it. He knew that his father had probably thought of himself as a burden to his only son.