Just as the X-Men were gathered to watch the race in real life, Thor, Siff, Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg were gathered in the newly opened Hub 73 to watch the race with other Players from the group they formed in Elder Scrolls: Warcraft.

When news broke about the Guild Token that Strange had obtained, the Players that Thor had befriended explained to him what it was for, and he was so excited that he also started gathering Players to form his Guild.

Thor's Guild was obviously called Asgard, and he, as the God King of the Guild, wanted to take the guild to the top of the entire game, to win as much glory as possible for his homeland among these midgardians.

Now, besides him and his friends from Asgard, the other Players that were around them were the other Players from his Guild, which despite not having gotten a Guild Token yet, was already formed and had its entire hierarchy organized.

Just like the Asgardians, the friends they made were also people who loved to fight, drink and battle, so seeing a sports car competition in an illegal street race made these Players' blood boil and their excitement reached the roof.

When they explained to Thor how it worked and why it was so interesting, Thor was also interested and decided to come watch it.

In the worst case, even if the race was bad, just being able to drink and have fun would be worth it for them.

Unlike people watching in real life, who could only watch through news camera footage, or seeing it with their own eyes in real life, the Players at Hub 73 were able to watch in a different way.

Notch had set up 3 different styles for them to watch.

The first Tier was free, just like people in NY and at home in real life, these Players could watch in person at a location on the virtual map the representations of the Players' cars in real life in the virtual world, or they could watch in their apartments in the Oasis and follow up with images from the various Oásis drones that recorded the event in real time.

The second Tier was paid, costing $3, in this Tier Players would have some options, such as a seat in a virtual Helicopter at Hub 73 to pilot or use an AI pilot to pilot for them so they could follow the race closely, they could stay on the ground and teleport between the various Checkpoints in the race or choose one of the various cabins around the map with friends who have also purchased that Tier.

The third Tier was the most expensive, costing just $5. In this Tier, Players could sit in the co-driver of the cars participating in the races, being able to choose which car they would like to be sitting in and change cars whenever they wanted in the race.

These tiers were only released 1 hour before the race started, and in the first 10 minutes more than 79 million people had already chosen some tiers and this race had already earned Alex US$182,022,000!

Almost 200 million dollars in just 10 minutes!

When Alex saw the numbers going up on the System screen, a big smile appeared on his face.

'Doing this event really was a great idea, investing in E-Sports and events like this is certainly a good investment for the future, even more so for a game like Need For Speed, if I can turn this into a sport as popular as Formula 1 and Nascar, this will be a huge goldmine that will grow alongside the game!' Alex thought with a smile as he looked at these numbers.

He had only spent 10 million dollars on organizing this event, considering the cars used in the race.

Luckily he had managed to get a deal with the NYPD, where he would take the cars seized from illegal races just like Bryan had done in Fast and Furious 4, and rent those cars in exchange for a token fee for the police and a few good words for them.

With this he was able to obtain customized cars ready for the race, the only work he had to do was to choose only cars with similar engines.

Returning to Thor, at this moment he had an infinite glass of beer that he bought for $0.30 while talking and laughing with his friends in one of the boxes they chose in Tier 2.

"How I love these beer glasses!" Thor said as he wiped the spilled beer from his mouth from his last attempt at trying to drink all the beer in the glass.

"The only problem with this cup is that they only make it available during events, if I could I would buy a cup like this for every day of the week!" A bearded man with a lumberjack style said after burping.

"Don't even get me started, if I could I would buy a glass of this every day." Volstagg said as he grabbed a piece of barbecue from the table and took another sip of his beer.

Suddenly, Siff interrupted what they were talking about while pointing at the television in their cabin. "Look, Notch showed up!"

On screen, Notch was physically in the place where the race would start while he had a microphone stuck to his ear and spoke to the camera.

"Hello Players from around the world! Welcome everyone to the first in-person Need For Speed ​​race!" He said with a smile as he opened his arms.

When he said this, the thousands of people around him began to scream as the camera rolled and showed the amount of people around them.

Everywhere the camera pointed was packed with people.

Even on the balconies and roofs of the buildings, despite the hot sun, everything was full of people.

When the camera returned to Notch, he continued. "For those who weren't able to make it to NY to watch this race with us, don't worry, this race is also being broadcast on Oasis in the new Hub 73, and for those who really wanted to be here, the next race may be closer to you than you imagine!"

When Notch said this, the audience screamed again, until he disappeared from the screen and the camera began to show the drivers and the cars they would use.

Whenever one of the celebrities that the public liked appeared, the scream would come up again, livening up the atmosphere of the place to its peak.

Even Thor and his group were excited about wanting to be there in person to watch this race.

"That chariot race of yours is so exciting! We should do one of those in Asgard when I'm king!" Thor said excitedly as he raised his glass.

His Asgardian friends were excited and agreed. "Yes! We can take these Midgardian carriages and even make some flying tracks haha!"

But unlike his friends from Asgard, the Guild Players also agreed, but with a different reason. "Yes! We can try to organize the first mount race in ESW, this will make the Asgard Guild's fame reach the peak of the game hahaha!"

Although these Players didn't know that Thor was talking about the real Asgard, the idea they gave made Thor and his friends' eyes light up, thinking about how interesting this would be.

Thus, their goals of being the strongest Guild took a slight detour, causing another great opportunity for Alex to make money without his knowledge.

As they discussed how they could organize these races, time quickly passed and the race was about to begin.

The Players didn't know it, but Alex had some surprises for the Players during this race.

But unknown to Alex, in the sky above the city there was also a surprise he had no idea was coming.

And for a city as crowded as NY was currently, this surprise could cause worldwide devastation!

////NunuNote////

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