Signing autographs was a very exhausting job for one's hand, especially when signing them nonstop.
At one point, Aiden felt like the line was never going to end.
Sometime during the signing, a lot of people realised that Aiden was there. Celebrities attending comic con was a very common scenario now, but any celebrity would amass more and more people when they were doing such an event.
A lot of people also got to know about <Morpheus> because of this.
Many had heard of it, but they had never tried it, so knowing Aiden was the writer was something they didn't expect. Only die-hard fans would know it.
Most people see the product, but the writers still keep being the people who are working in the shadows. A lot of them never even get recognition.
Aside from his hand feeling a bit numb, most of the event was pretty peaceful. Though, there was one instance when a girl hugged him and refused to let go.
It was creepy behaviour, and the staff needed to remove her. Aiden had felt like it was very unexpected, but someone told him that these things happen from time to time.
These days, some people would deliberately do it for social media too.
Anyway, Aiden didn't take any action against her, and the guards escorted her out of the comic con. Thinking about what had happened the last time he was at comic con, Aiden wondered if the incident was going to repeat itself.
But in the end, he consoled himself by concluding that he was overthinking.
Those types of things were not an everyday occurrence. Anyway, the girl was out of the event now.
After the comic book signing event closed off, Aiden had a lot of time, and he finally decided to enjoy himself.
"How's this looking on me?"
"Idiotic."
Wade gave a snarky smile at Aiden's question. They were currently in one of the rooms allocated to them, and Aiden had just changed his clothes.
He was currently wearing a cosplay outfit. A flamboyant blue shirt, brown leather pants and high-heeled boots. Alongside that, he was donning a black coloured bandana that hid half of his face.
Yes, it was a cowboy outfit.
It was from an anime that Aiden had watched, and he had purchased it online, thinking that it was the perfect getup to move around at comic con.
"I thought you would say that it looks cool," Aiden said, wondering if a cowboy outfit didn't just match him.
"Anyone who wears it would look idiotic. It's wacky and out of time."
"It doesn't matter when everyone is wearing something wacky outside." Aiden shrugged. "You are too old for this."
Wade's face cracked hearing that. He frowned, wondering if that was really true. He had never tried anything that was popular in the current times.
Guess he was really old.
As Wade was in that predicament, Aiden walked past him.
"I'm going to go check out a few gaming stalls. Need to get autographs for Uncle Sam too."
Aiden left after that and roamed at the convention. A lot of people were walking in groups, but no one seemed to recognise Aiden.
In such a crowd, he could easily stay hidden with his cosplay outfit.
'Now, I should get done with Uncle Sam's list.'
Apparently, Uncle Sam wanted to be here today, but his aunt had dragged him to a wedding. He had sent Aiden a photo of him standing in front of a wedding cake with a depressed face.
[Uncle Sam: Aiden, if you can please get me autographs from a few game creators, I'll make sure to give you a big piece of my will. By the way, get me a few indie games too. Love you, my favourite and only nephew.]
That was the text he had gotten with a long list of autographs and games his uncle wanted, saying something like a lot of it would be at cheap prices.
'Let's see. What kind of games does my uncle want?'
He thought, taking out his phone and looking at the list.
[Gangster simulator 6 — Finally out after 23 years of wait. Please buy it as I want to play it before dying.]
[Cybertron 3077: It's finally without bugs. Get it. Please ask if there are actual naked mods in it or not just to make sure everything is fine.]
[Pika Girl Fun: Don't ask why I want it.]
'... It's surely a very complicated list.'
He thought, deciding to get them one by one. Quickly, he went towards different stalls to buy the things that Uncle Sam had requested.
He also got the autographs he wanted. Though, it did take a bit of time as Aiden needed to stay in a long line.
The good thing was that no one recognised him.
After doing all this, Aiden was finally free to try something fun.
He roamed around, checking out a few anime stalls and getting some merchandise for himself. He also bought some novels, including one from an author that he's been following for a long time.
That author was a web novelist, and Aiden liked his web novel about a guy trying to make it in Hollywood. Though, his new novels were something different.
In the end, his steps stopped once he came across a stall in the gaming area.
'There's a lot of people here.'
He thought, walking towards it and noticing the logo of Gamescom studios, a company that was famous for its innovative open-world games and fps shooters.
Aiden had played quite a few of them.
"It seems like a showcase of their old games."
Aiden muttered and saw that a lot of people were playing against each other in a multiplayer fps mode. He recognised the game which was called <Call of Honour>.
It was a pretty old, almost a decade-old game, but its multiplayer was very famous back in the day. Aiden had grinded a lot on it.
"Should I try it?"
He muttered as he saw a character dying in the game. A seat was getting emptied.
Taking his chance, he quickly walked up to a staff member and asked if he could try it.
"Can I try it?"
"Yeah, it's a free showcase of our old games. There's no limit to players. Just go sit and play."
"Thanks."
***
A bearded man looked over at the people playing the multiplayer mode of <Call of Honour>. They looked very serious about winning the game, yet they seemed like they were having a lot of fun.
A lot of them also seemed to be lost in the game.
Seeing this, the man couldn't help but smile. He felt happy that people were still enjoying the old games that he had once worked hard to create.
"The reception we have been getting is amazing. People really love these old games."
An employee from Gamescom that he seemed to know suddenly came up to him to strike up a conversation.
"Yeah. They were the rage back in the day. It's already been over 10 years. Technology and graphics have improved a lot, but the vibes of the old games are still unmatched."
"True. I really wonder why there's rarely this type of rage for games these days."
The employee muttered, and the bearded man laughed.
"It's because back in the day, companies focused on quality. There's no such thing as micro transactions and items people could buy with real-life money. They got greedy. Priorities changed. The game market makes more money than movies now due to this."
Saying those words, the man clicked his tongue, having an annoyed expression on his face.
The employee was going to say something when someone shouted in a shocked voice.
"Wow! That guy blew up the whole playing field. He defeated 24 people at the same time."
More voices soon followed it.
"How was he able to do it?"
"Is something like that really possible in multiplayer? Was it a hidden gimmick?"
"Wow! I never knew about it."
"I did hear that certain playing fields in multiplayer have certain gimmicks one could use to kill a lot of people, but I never saw something like this."
The bearded man looked at what was going on in the game. One player had taken advantage of a hidden gimmick that was present in the 'Nazi abandoned base' field.
It was a gimmick through which you could turn on a bomb that would kill everyone in a large range but turning it on was a very hard thing to do.
Almost impossible.
One needed to make sure they tick a lot of boxes for the bomb to even appear, and a player had done it in front of his eyes.
With just that, someone had won the game.
'Is he a professional? How did he know about this?'
The bearded man thought as he looked at the player who had won the match so quickly. He was a man wearing a cowboy outfit with a bandana covering his face.
It was Aiden.
Everyone was clapping and cheering for him.
"Excuse me, can you tell me how you found out about that gimmick?" The bearded man approached Aiden.
"Ah, I found out about it when I was young. I used to play this game a lot and was very surprised by the world in the game. Everything looked very real, so I used to just explore different war sites during campaigns sometimes. It was very fun. I realised that the game was very close to reality then and found these gimmicks."
Aiden said, surprising the bearded man, who gave out a smile.
"It's good to know that someone is exploring my game so much. I'm Cory Daniels, the creator of this game."
