After that, I fell asleep thinking about so mories which I barely rembered and woke up the next day at 10 AM.
It's Saturday, so there was no school, but my mom always wakes up early in the morning, even on the weekends. But today, she didn't.
I did tell her yesterday not to wake up, but I was just saying that to hide my embarrassnt. I didn't say she shouldn't wake up.
I sighed as I said, "It's not like I hate it."
I got up from the bed and grabbed my tablet as I went downstairs.
I could hear so sound from the stairs.
Is mom watching television?
"Hey, mom, good morning."
"Oh! You are awake. Take a bath. I will prepare breakfast for you."
"Got it."
I grabbed my clothes, which I had recently washed because I was too lazy to go upstairs again.
I tried calling Elena, but she didn't answer the call.
I played so news after I took a quick shower, like always.
When I went to the kitchen, my mom had already served breakfast on the table.
"You slept well?"
"Yeah."
"Were you playing the ga till late at night?"
"Sothing like that."
"So that's why."
"Huh?"
What does she an?
"I tried to wake you up in the morning, but you weren't waking up."
"You did?"
So she tried to wake up. I was worried about nothing--
"I did the usual thing too."
"..."
She never ceases to amaze .
Moms are dangerous.
"Oh right!" she clapped and said, "Elena is coming tomorrow, right?"
"She did say that."
But I am not sure now.
I will ask her today.
Co to think of it; weusually play at night but today, but what about today?
She didn't tell the ti for today.
I quickly ate my breakfast and rushed over to my room.
I tried to ssage Elena, but she didn't reply.
I tried calling her, but she didn't answer the call. Usually, she would answer it in seconds.
"Maybe she is playing a ga?"
Yeah. That must be it.
Elena would never ignore .
I patched myself with the VR gear and logged into LWO.
I glanced around to make myself comfortable with the visuals.
[Adas, you are early today.]
"Lily!"
[Yes, I am Lily. Your Lily.]
She doesn't sound like Lily.
Lily never talks this sweetly, and why does her voice keep getting cuter and cuter?
"We don't have school today, so I am here to find Elena."
[Reina?]
"Yeah!"
[She isn't here.]
"How do you know that?!"
[I checked your friend-list.]
"...!"
[Don't look at like that.]
"Don't do anything without my permission again, got it?"
[You can check your friend list to see if they are online or not.]
I opened my nu and checked my friend list.
There are three people on my list.
Elena, Rikka, and Ricky. And all of them are offline right now.
"She is not here."
Then where is she?
Is she actually ignoring ?
But Elena would never do that.
[Did sothing happen?]
"Nothing. It doesn't"
It doesn't matter.
I waited for an hour, but Elena never ca.
Thinking she might have replied to my ssages or calls, I logged out.
I checked my phone, but there were no replies or calls.
"Maybe she is in a bath or sothing?"
She sotis sleeps in her bath.
I tried calling her again, but she didn't answer.
I kept trying to call her, but none of my calls reached her.
I had started to get paranoid.
Is she ignoring ?
I logged in again at noon, but Elena wasn't there.
This ti, I waited for more than an hour, but she never logged in.
[Adas, what's wrong?]
Lily kept hovering around my head and playing with my hair.
"It's nothing." I opened my nu as I said, "I will be back at night."
As I was logging out, I heard the words, [Okay, I will wait for you]
I was feeling suffocated. Not because of lack of oxygen, but because of my worry.
Dammit!
I tried calling her a couple of tis, but she didn't answer.
"She must be busy with sothing."
Yeah. That's right.
Elena would never ignore .
She will be there when I log in at night.
I ate dinner, but I couldn't taste anything.
"She will be there. She will be there. She will be there." I chanted to myself.
Don't overthink, Das.
She will be there. She has to be there.
I logged in again, hoping to see her, but she wasn't there.
What a liar.
"Didn't we promise we would level up today?"
Dammit.
Now I have no other choice.
"I will go to her house and see what's going on."
[What are you talking about? You are logging out already?]
"Yeah, I am sorry."
I opened my nu and was going to log out--
"Hey, Adas. What's up?"
It's Ricky and Rikka!
They might know...why would they know?
"Miss Girlfriend is not with you?" asked Ricky.
"Well..."
I told them everything.
I don't know why, but I told them everything.
"We knew she was scared of the sea." comnted Rikka.
"What?!"
"We tried to take her there a couple of tis, but she always kept her distance with the sea."
Was she scared of the sea?
Why the hell don't you know it?!
Why I don't know it, and they know about it?
I thought I knew everything about her, but I was wrong.
She is scared of the sea and because of ...she went into the ocean...because I teased her.
"There is a secret SS level quest in the sea." said Rikka.
"We tried to convince Reina a couple of tis, but she never agreed." added Ricky.
"..."
"Well," Ricky patted my back and said, "Let's chat while eating sothing."
"There is a caf around here, right, Rikka?"
"Yeah, it should be around here."
They dragged to the caf.
How are we supposed to eat in a ga?
"Do you have any money, Adas?"
I opened my nu and showed them my coins.
"Only 400 Ders!" they both exclaid.
"I am new, rember?"
Even this 400 Ders, I got it from monster hunting yesterday.
"It's on us." stated Ricky.
"No, it's okay. I don't want to eat anything."
Like I will let myself owe an adult anything.
"Co on now, don't fret too much."
They ordered coffee and cakes.
I still don't know how I am going to eat it.
"Co on now, dig in."
I grabbed a piece of cake and ate it thinking; it's not like I will be able to taste it...huh?
"It's delicious."
It tastes the sa as the real one, but how?
"Interesting, isn't it?"
"How does this work?"
"I had the sa reaction when I ate for the first ti." said Ricky.
It's a ga, so sothing like being able to taste is...hmm, it's possible if it's stimulated well.
"When you eat sothing, your brain recreates the sa taste in your mouth in the real world or sothing like that."
Oh! I was right.
Our real body is connected to VR gear. Not only that, the dive gear is deeply connected with our brain, so the sensation of everything in the VR world is just our brain creating it.
This cake here is nothing but a program, and the data is saved in it. When we eat it, the information is transferred to the dive gear, and sends signals to the brain. The brain recreates the taste based on the ingredients used. And it stimulates our taste buds.
It was easy to guess.
"Thanks."
I can't believe I am thanking an adult.
"No need to thank ."
"But you paid for my share."
"No need to thank us, take it as thanks from us." said Rikka.
"Why are you thanking ?" I asked, confused.
"We aren't thanking you. We are doing this because you are Reina's boyfriend."
"Huh?"
"We would never say this in front of her, but she is a good girl."
I know that.
"You see, we are playing this ga just because it was a VR ga. They are pretty popular, and you can have a real-life experience with them. But after we t Reina, we started enjoying this ga."
They usually badmouth her, but they are praising her right now.
"She is an aweso girl. After we ford a party, every ti we went on monster hunting or quests, she always made sure we were okay. She even died many tis protecting us." added Rikka.
"Say, we are strangers, right?" Ricky asked.
"Well yeah."
"She never cared about it. She treated us like she had known us for a long ti. No wonder you fell for her. Anyone will fall for a girl like her."
No one will fall for her. She is mine.
"Umm," I glanced at Rikka and said, "Are you sure you should say this in front of your wife?"
"Huh? Oh! I was just saying it hypothetically. I wouldn't fall for her; besides she has an arrogant personality."
Tch!
I thought they would fight, but they are too cool with each other.
"You see, she always yelled at us when we were even 5 minutes late."
"Seriously, she is too annoying." They both said in unison.
They are badmouthing her again.
"So you should make up with her soon."
Why are they worried about us?
They are just strangers.
Just because we added each other as friends in the ga, doesn't an we are friends.
And what do they an by 'Makeup with her'?
It's not like we are fighting, but she is angry, right? She is avoiding , right?
"How about you two? Have you never fought before?"
"No, we have." They looked at each other and said, "Plenty of tis."
"But we love each other. And besides, we are married, so that doesn't matter."
They are not like other adults.
"Hey, tell honestly." Ricky jumped closer and said, "What did you think when Rikka told you we were married?"
What did I think?
"You guys are crazy."
"Hey, you are too honest."
"You asked to be honest."
"Well," Rikka glanced at Ricky and said, "Everyone said that to us."
"Oh?"
"You see, we have lost many friends because we got married after graduating from high school."
"..."
"We got comnts like, 'You guys are crazy,' 'Are you out of your mind?' and many other comnts."
They are not called friends.
They are nothing but pieces of shit.
"We also had a hard ti convincing our parents."
If they got married at 18, then their parents must have opposed it.
'How did you convince your parents?' I wanted to ask that, but I couldn't bring myself to ask.
"My parents were okay with it. But with Rikka's father, it took a while convincing him."
"We were ready to elope anyway." Rikka comnted.
"So what I want to say is, the things you get, the things you have, be grateful for it. Never take it for granted because not everyone has it, and it's hard to get sothing you want when you need it. I." He looked at Rikka and said, "We have personal experience."
"I know that."
I know that very well.
"You will learn it; this is how the world works."
"Yeah."
"Well then," They got up and asked, "You want to level up? We can help you."
Elena told that we would level up today, but she is not here.
"Nah, I will pass. I want to level up when she is here."
"You love her, huh, Mister Boyfriend?"
They seem like good people.
Maybe I can trust them, or perhaps not.
"Should we log out?" he asked Rikka.
"Yeah"
"Are you guys not going to play?"
"We already played enough."
"See you tomorrow." Rikka added.
"Yeah, I am logging out too."
They opened their nu and logged out.
I opened my nu and logged out--
I glanced around and said, "Just kidding."
I can't log out.
I won't log out.
"There is sothing I have to do first."
I checked my friend-list, and I made sure that those two have logged out.
Now then, no one here knows --
[You are not going to log out?]
Dammit!
I forgot about her.
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