Meetings similar to the one at Gambler's academy were held at every other academy within the region.
But most of these meetings went longer. They actually discussed what might be the reason for such extravagant gifts along with the invitations. They thought of more than dozen possibilities, both good and bad, but they couldn't be sure of the Joker's intentions.
Finally, all of them only came to one conclusion, they will be visiting this place.
After all, no matter what angle the other party has, it would be rude to refuse a greeting after taking such an extravagant gift. Particularly the elders and the dean. Their puppets are tens of times better than the puppets of the kids.
If the other party can just afford to give away things like these, they are wondering what he has in store for them to sell.
The next day.
The whole city seemed empty and deserted. Everyone including the citizens, shop owners, students and the instructors, city guards and even the staff of the Exchange center, all went to the hub for the grand opening.
The whole city seemed to have been evacuated.
Except for the people below Divine Plane cultivation, everyone else managed to get an invitation and they all went.
Of course, there are some thugs and people who deal things in the grey area that were not doing this, they instead sent someone from their team to check this out. There are also some skeptical people within the academy who didn't attend.
And of course, among the students there are barely any students of the third term or more easily understood, Late Stage cultivators and there are almost not peak stage cultivators who are known as the fourth term.
The freshmen don't know where they were sent to, but to their knowledge these people went to various missions and assignments.
Anyway, for the hub's opening their absence made little difference.
More than ten thousand people are in front of the hub's building within the grounds. The building indeed looked bit, it occupied almost the same size as an academy grounds. But the academy grounds are large estates, while the hub is one big building, a castle or a fort.
The deans were last to arrive and as if they are on cue, they all arrived at the same time.
The elders, instructors and students are already a bit disgruntled by that time.
Of course, they didn't have anywhere to project that.
But the moment the deans arrived, the hub reacted and all these frustrations were gone.
"Welcome Everyone! Welcome to the hub!"
An excited voice was heard from all over the place. Even the deans who are the strongest there didn't manage to pick up where the voice is coming from.
At that moment, a large projection shot out of the building. It is of a man, who is wearing a formal and ceremonial attire, but half of his face is covered with the mask of a clown.
The projection is huge, as big as a mountain and with a bright flash, it compressed itself and became the size of a regular human.
The projection is very realistic, but that only applies to the features, the glow that it is emanating made it apparent that it is a projection indeed.
The projection hovered towards the deans who are standing at the forefront of the large crowd.
"Hello, honorable deans of the academies. I am Joker. It is very nice to meet you. Thank you for accepting my invitation and coming to my humble establishment."
"This establishment is anything but humble, Mr. Joker. And also, this is not exactly a meeting is it?"
One of the deans, the dean of the Apollo academy spoke calmly.
Joker turned to him and smiled
"I understand what you mean, Sir. But I must apologize and hope you can understand. Because of my past adventures, my body is no shape or form to physically present in front of you. What is left of me is what you are seeing right now.
I hope you can accept this crude way I presented myself in front of you."
The deans didn't know what to say. They just stayed silent. Joker's smile widened and his glow brightened a bit as he said.
"I hope you all liked the present that I gave you yesterday. If you did, then you are going to like the hub even more. Welcome to my Hub."
As soon as he spoke, the massive stone doors of the hub opened up and a bright light flashed. A few birds made of pure energy flew out and burst into a light that turned into one word.
'HUB'
The opening is flamboyant to say the least.
The deans thought little of it, except for the Dean of the Gambler academy of course.
The old guy was just short of clapping and cheering out loud.
They slowly stepped in and they gasped as they looked at all the things inside.
Joker's image hovered in front of them as he glided in air, just a few inches above the floor. He snapped his fingers and there are many glows on either side of the aisle.
"The buzzing machines that you see on either side of the aisle are what I call Arcade Machines and this place is called Arcade, the very first part of the Hub.
Here people can play games that involve using their skills. The first game to your right example, is a shooting game. All a person needs to do is stand on that platform and wear the helmet and the body suit that was associated with the game.
A holographic screen with the targets will appear and the person based on their attack style can simulate their attacks through that suit…
Well, the explanation is too long winding, we can call one of your students and they can demonstrate directly. Just wait a second."
Joker disappeared and reappeared in the middle of the student crowd that is on the back and they didn't even manage to take a glimpse of what is inside the doors.
He looked around and asked.
"Who among you deals with long range shooting attacks?"
The students were surprised and didn't react, but one of them was sharp enough to raise his hand in daze.
"Perfect, come with me."
Joker's projection touched the guy's hand and both of them disappeared. They reappeared back in front of the deans.
"I found one."
Joker quickly guided the kid who was frightened out of his wits to see all the deans at the same place to wear the body suit and the helmet.
"Now when you see the projectiles on the holographic screen, imagine yourself performing the attack, it doesn't matter what kind of long range attack it is. If you are a mage, just extend your hand and perform the attack like you usually do, if you are an archer, just imagine you have a bow and arrow in your hand and channel your energy into the suit to do the attack.
Don't worry about destroying anything, just go ahead and do it."
The kid didn't understand what is happening, but he just nodded and got ready.
A very lively holographic screen appeared. It is very large and almost looked realistic. It is a forest setting a bird flew by.
The student aimed his arm and channeled fire elemental energy. He was about to throw a fire ball and when he discharged the attack, instead of a fire launching out of his hand, the energy was dispersed by the suit.
The student was puzzled, and that confusion turned into shock and awe as a fire ball appeared on the virtual screen as it shot the bird down. Burned it to crisp.
Not just the student, the shock of the deans is even bigger and it only grew as the kid performed a few more attacks and shot down a few more birds.
"This is a game designed to practice the reaction speed and energy conservation of the long range attackers. I am sure, no matter what level of cultivation they are at, they can always use some improvement in those areas."
Just like this shooting game, there are other games suitable for all kinds of fighters. Warriors specialized in hand to hand combat, spear users, elemental users, formation experts, inscription masters, swordsmen, knife throwers, there are even games for people who just lift and throw large rocks on other people."
The deans are all looking at hundreds of machines are all lined up and arranged in the area, every machine is of different shape and when they are activated they are showing a different type of projection and interface.
"How do they work? Did you create them yourself?"
One of the deans asked.
Joker smiled and said.
"I cannot answer how they work. It is not that I am too secretive about the working, I can reveal most of it, but it takes too much time and it is way too complicated. And yes, it is indeed created by me.
These are actually byproducts of one of my research."
All the deans' ears perked as they heard his words, particularly when the word 'byproducts' was used. Everyone went into a deep thought not revealing it out. Well, everyone except for one.
"I want to try one. What do you recommend? I am a brawler by the way. A hot-blooded brawler through and through."
The dean of the gambler's academy raised his hand and jumped on his feet as if he is afraid he wouldn't be able to attract Joker's attention.
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