Mervin looked puzzled.

  “A team?”

  “Yep, a team!” Annie said, her tone full of certainty.

  “Why?”

  Annie gave him a look of utter disappointment. “You think we’re diving into some underground byrinth without backup? C’mon, man.” She answered. “We need more people!”

  “I kind of figured just the three of us are enough...” Mervin scratched the back of his neck.

  She let out a long sigh. “Really?” How’re you expectin’ to catch all the details with just three pairs of eyes?” She asked condescendingly, like she was talking to an idiot.

  “Well—”

  “That was rhetorical.”

  That got Mervin to shut up. He looked at Kol for help, but received a silent stare instead, like he too was disappointed in him.

  Annie crossed her arms. “Listen, if we’re gonna do this, we do it right. That means we need people.”

  “Fine,” Mervin huffed. “But who are we gonna ‘recruit’? Everyone who wanted to do adventuring left after Akira’s speech.”

  “Have you tried joining them?”

  Mervin let out a groan, rubbing his temples. “I did try, but they weren’t too keen on helping me out. They said I’m just a straggler. And they were also pissed at me for buying all the maps...”

  Kol shook his head. “You reap what you sow."

  Annie cpped her hands together. “Well, we won’t get anywhere by standing around all session.” She turned on her heel to face the view. “Let’s go!”

  Mervin groaned but followed, falling into step beside Kol.

  ***

  “So, what's the pn?” Mervin asked as the three of them made their way to the town square. “We just walk around and hope to find people?”

  Annie scoffed. “Of course not. We’re looking for the ones who got left behind. The ones who didn’t follow Akira’s grand speech but still have enough brains to know an opportunity when they see one.”

  Mervin raised an eyebrow. “And how exactly do we find those people?”

  Annie grinned. “By announcing our intentions as loud as we can.”

  Before anyone could stop her, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted into the crowd, “LOOKING FOR TEAMMATES TO JOIN US!”

  Heads turned. A brief silence ensued. A nearby bard—an NPC—strummed a discordant note, momentarily distracted. People exchanged amused and annoyed gnces and shook their heads before continuing whatever they were doing.

  Mervin became beet-red. “Why would you shout like that?!” he asked, hiding his face behind his hands. “We could’ve at least tried being discreet.”

  Annie gave him a look. “You sure act different when drunk. Anyways, discreetness is for people who have time. We don’t.”

  “But we do! We have a month!”

  “Exactly. We have only one month. You sure are shortsighted for what you’re trying to achieve.”

  “We are filtering.” Kol stated.

  Mervin looked at him, confused. “Filtering?”

  “The people who ughed? Not worth our time. The ones who ignored us? Probably already have a pn. The ones who looked interested but hesitated? They might be unsure, which could be a problem ter. But the ones who step forward immediately? Those are the people we want.” Annie expined.

  As if on cue, a guy with shaggy hair, face highlighted by blue freckles, and wearing a worn-out coat approached them. “Hello there!”

  “General Kenobi!” Annie and Kol spoke simultaneously.

  “Ah, people of culture!” He said with a wide smile and cleared his throat. “I have come to answer thy delicate call to arms. Abaka Nergui at your service.”

  “You’re in!”

  “What?!” Mervin did a double take. “Why?”

  “Intuition,” Annie answered nonchantly.

  Mervin asked angrily, “Does your intuition outweigh logic?”

  “Well, to be fair, I answered that wrong. It is a gamble.” She turned to face him. “We can either have people who are committed, or people who tag along just because. Because the tter would most likely dip out the moment they see greener grass.”

  “I think knowing what people are actually capable of might help.”

  “That is true, sure, but we don’t have the luxury of finding out beforehand.”

  “But we literally do!” Mervin stated, agitated. “We have a month!”

  “Correction; we have only a month. Let’s say we do things your way—with logic all the way through— but this lead of yours gets us nowhere. What then? We wouldn’t have anythin’ to show for our efforts.”

  Mervin went quiet, considering Annie’s logic. He then let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. But when this all blows up, I’m gonna say ‘I told you so.’”

  Annie smiled.

  “Okay, so, with that out of the way,” she returned her attention to the new recruit. “

  “What do you bring to the table?”

  “Enthusiasm, mostly, and extensive knowledge of Monster Hunter lore. If those are not enough, I also have a friend on standby over at a booth.”

  “Great! Lead the way, sir.”

  Over at the booth, a buff looking well-built man was standing, looking quite a bit older than Abaka. He had a prominent thick mustache and was completely bald but seemed to be in his prime.

  “Let me introduce you to Broil the architect!”

  Broil turned around and raised an eyebrow, crossing his massive arms over his chest. “Architect, you say?” he asked in a gravelly yet surprisingly friendly tone that managed to be both amused and slightly incredulous. “I’m only a construction worker.”

  “We’ve talked about this, man,” Abaka said disappointingly. “You’ve gotta exaggerate a little bit to cast people’s attention!”

  Broil let out a deep sigh, shaking his head. “I build things, I break things, and I carry heavy stuff.” He eyed Mervin and Kol, then focused on Annie. “You’re in charge?”

  Annie smirked. “Obviously.”

  Broil nodded. “Then I’ll follow—for now. But if I see a reason to walk, I will.”

  “Fair enough.” Annie grinned. “Welcome aboard.”

  “Wh—” Mervin wanted to question her—as Annie had clearly contradicted herself—but was at a loss of words. He slumped his shoulders and followed their newly acquired teammate to meet his friend.

  Abaka cpped his hands together. “Now that’s the kind of energy I like to see! So, what’s next?”

  “Next is we visit some pces to gather information.” Annie stated.

  Mervin opened his mouth again to protest but said nothing.

  ***

  After the first couple of establishments they’d visited, no one kept track of the exact number. Annie kept dragging them from pce to pce, and she kept Mervin especially close to her. “This is the way you gather information,” was her reasoning.

  As repetitive the task was, they did learn many rumors. Haunted vilges, abandoned dungeons, portal glitches, even mentions of a server inspired by Doom.

  “How long do you think she’ll keep this up?” asked Abaka as they sat in a booth inside yet another pub.

  Kol leaned back, watching Annie animatedly bargain with the bartender. “This is the st one,” he murmured.

  “Finally...”

  Broil chuckled, sipping from a tankard.

  Mervin shot him an irritated look. “What?”

  “Listening is a skill, son.” Broil smirked and tapped his ear. “You won’t become that secret-keeper you were talking about otherwise.

  Mervin frowned, slumping back into his seat. “I am listening.”

  Broil raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. “Oh yeah? Then what did the guy two tables over say about the dungeon near the canyon?”

  Mervin opened his mouth but hesitated. He quickly gnced toward the table Broil was referring to—two men hunched over their drinks, deep in conversation. Mervin had heard something about a canyon, sure… but what was it exactly?

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Mervin groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Okay, fine, maybe I wasn’t paying attention to every little thing.”

  Broil let out a low chuckle. “Don’t worry, son. You’ll get there.”

  “Alright, alright. Since we’re talking about future career paths, what was your original pn for this mission?” Abaka spoke up, changing the sour subject. “I’ll start: Since you know I love the Monster Hunter series, I was thinking of becoming a hunter.”

  Mervin groaned, rubbing his temples. “Figures...”

  Abaka gasped in mock offense. “Figures? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You literally said your main skill is Monster Hunter lore,” Mervin deadpanned.

  “And that is a very important skill in an MMORPG setting,” Abaka shot back. “Come on, haven’t you ever wanted to face off against creatures bigger than life? Strategize? Dodge at the st second while pulling off a sick counterattack?”

  Mervin stared. “We don’t even know if the game works like that.”

  “Yet.” Abaka wagged a finger. “What about you?”

  Mervin rubbed his temples. “I don’t even know anymore. I was gonna be a cartographer, mapping out terrain, tracking points of interest. Figured it’d be fun, y’know? But then people started getting mad at me for hoarding maps, so now I’m just...” he sighed, slumping forward. “At this rate, I’m just following Annie around like a lost puppy. Maybe I should get back to fishing.” he said defeatedly.

  “Don’t be like that d. It’s too early to give up.” Broil reassured him, which worked for the most part.

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. And what about you Broil?”

  Broil chuckled, shaking his head. “Well, I wasn’t even applying for this internship on the first pce. One day the company called and handed the offer in my p. The benefits were nice, so I accepted, and the next thing I knew, I was on a pne flying to Atnta, where I met Abaka.”

  “Wait, so you didn’t even want to be here?” Mervin asked.

  “Didn’t say that,” Broil corrected, taking another sip from his tankard. “I just never pnned for it. Life’s funny that way.”

  Abaka grinned. “And now look at you! Already have a bestie,” he gestured to himself.

  Broil let out a deep sigh. “More like an overly energetic sidekick.” He gave Kol a look.

  “I do not have a pn either.”

  Mervin scoffed. “Oh, come on. I know you applied for the internship! You must have some kind of goal.”

  Kol didn’t answer right away. He stared at idly the table, his fingers idly and shrugged. “Not really. I was just… going along with it.”

  Mervin frowned but didn’t push further.

  Abaka, on the other hand, leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands. “So you’re the ‘I’ll figure it out when I get there’ type, huh? Respect. Bold strategy. Let’s see if it pays off.”

  “More like the ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ type.” Broil corrected him.

  Annie suddenly cpped her hands together, drawing all their attention. “Alright, boys! We’ve got what we need.”

  Mervin let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

  “But before that—”

  “Oh c’mon!”

  “—Kol,” she turned to him. “Can we talk outside?”

  “Sure...”

  The two of them stepped outside of the bar, but Annie didn’t say a word like she said she would. Kol knew something was up from the beginning but nevertheless pyed along.

  “What did you want to talk about?” he asked, but didn’t receive any answers.

  Just then another notification popped up in his inbox, reminding him that the session was about to end in 30 minutes. He looked at Annie, but she didn’t even seem to acknowledge the message.

  For a while, the two of them stood in front of the pub in silence, until Kol had enough.

  “C’mon. We need to log out soon.”

  “Yes, yes,” Annie finally spoke. “But before that—” She gnced sideways. “—Kol, turn around.”

  Kol was caught off guard a little by the request but did as he was told anyway and froze for a moment.

  There stood a girl with tied up blonde hair, blue eyes and a smooth face.

  She looked like she was about to blow a fuse—until her eyes met Kol’s. Her expression froze. She didn’t say a word and neither did Kol. His mind scrambled for words, but all he could do was stare.

  Then, her eyes welled with tears.

  And at st, Kol found his voice.

  “Dalia...”

  ***

  Dalia

  Three months ago, I was contacted by DRE, who extended an offer of internship. Given who they were and the benefits, I had no reason to decline. Plus, I had every intention of looking to work at that company. A virtual, hyper-realistic MMORPG previously only existed in dreams and fiction, and now it was reality.

  Thus, I became an intern a month ter.

  Not long after, a number I didn’t recognize reached out to me. They introduced themselves as Annie Hoover. Hoover was a name I recognized, but given how common it was, I didn’t think much of it at first.

  We weren’t on speaking terms anyways. Not like I wanted it to be that way...

  That phone call turned into an hour-long chat. We kept in touch after that and became friends. At first, I tried prying a bit—see if she knew of him—but nothing came of that, so I gave up.

  However, she revealed that she too wanted to work at DRE and was applying for the internship soon.

  She was accepted around the time I finished my term and became a full pledged worker. I congratuted her, of course, but then she said she wanted to meet me in person.

  I was skeptical at first, but when she said she would be working in Canada—the one I’d work in—my doubt disappeared. We pnned to meet up at night, which I wasn’t too happy about, even less so after she didn’t show up, and only left a text, apologizing.

  The next week spent with constant work—preparing quests and such. After that, Annie texted me; “Let’s meet up inside the game.” No time, no pce, and no expnation.

  That’s how I spent most of my time in that session: searching for Annie. I was about to give up before a message in my inbox appeared. Well, it was more like a coordinate to a pce to a hidden corner on the map. I was very angry at that point but decided to see what she had to say for herself.

  I was ready to rip her a new one, before I turned the corner at saw him.

  ***

  Dalia stood frozen a few steps away, staring at him like she’d just seen a ghost. Her lips trembled as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

  Annie, standing slightly behind Kol, exhaled softly. “I’ll give you two some space.” She patted Kol’s shoulder before stepping back into the bar.

  For a moment, neither of them moved.

  Dalia tensed her body and clenched her fists one moment and let go the other, unsure what she felt in that moment. Finally breaking under her emotions, she dropped her bags and dashed to embrace Kol. She held onto him tight, as if he would disappear any moment... again.

  Say something. Anything. Even just one word. These thoughts circuted in Kol’s head.

  “I’m sorry...” is the only word he managed.

  Dalia’s face twitched and broke away from the hug, anger returning to her face.

  “Sorry?!” she raised her voice. “That’s it? You’re sorry?! You left, Kol! The least you could have done is keep in touch—but you didn’t even do that!” She wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her coat. “Do you have any idea what that did to me?!”

  “I—”

  "No, you don’t!" she shot back. “I tried keeping in touch. I wrote to you on your birthday, on Christmas, on Easter, every excuse I could find, but I heard nothing back. I remember sitting in my room on my birthday every damn year, waiting—hoping that you’d call or at least send a shitty message!”

  She paced back and forth, not even looking at him as she reopened every wound. “You were my best friend, Kol.” Her voice trembled, barely above a whisper. “And you broke my heart.”

  Dalia looked up, finally meeting Kol’s gaze—see if his face was still as unmoving as she remembered—and stopped.

  His eyes were red. Tears ran freely on his face.

  She was right. He had failed her on too many levels. All the years of silence—every missed birthday, every unreturned message. She had every right to hate him.

  He couldn’t feel anything but burning in his chest.

  His knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground.

  Dalia’s body moved on its own, like was instinct, and rushed over to him. She knelt beside him, and in the next moment found herself wrapped in his arms.

  The two of them stayed like that in silence for a while. Perhaps it was the heaviness of the moment, or shock of Kol’s breakdown that kept them on the ground. Perhaps both.

  “I’m an idiot...” Kol muttered softly.

  Dalia gave a heartly chuckle. “Well, gd to know that at least that hasn’t changed.”

  Kol let out a shaky ugh, the first one they shared since over seven years.

  Dalia pulled away and rose to her feet and extended an arm to Kol.

  Kol looked up at her, still kneeling. For a moment, he couldn’t move—couldn’t bring himself to accept the hand she offered and just stared at her.

  Dalia’s eyes softened as she stood there, her hand outstretched, a soft smile pying at the corners of her mouth. “Well?” she asked, her tone now free from anger, carrying warmth and compassion instead. “Are you going to sit there all day, or are you going to stand up and act like the idiot you’ve always been?”

  Kol stared at her hand. Slowly, he reached for it. She pulled him to his feet with a quiet strength that he hadn’t realized she still had.

  “You guys made up yet?”

  Annie poked her head out the pub door.

  Dalia smiled. “Yeah, I’m done with him, for now—” She turned to gre at Annie. “—But not with you.”

  “Yeah, yeah—save it for ter.” She waved her hands. “For now, just come in here, both of you.”

  Kol wiped his face, as if that would erase the fact that he’d just broken down in front of Dalia. He took a deep breath, regaining some composure, then followed her inside the pub.

  ***

  Annie had already cimed her seat at the booth, her usual smug grin in pce. Abaka, Broil, and Mervin all gnced up as the two walked in, their expressions now dispying curiosity to the guest following Kol.

  Abaka was the first to react, leaning forward with an exaggerated smirk. “Oho! Who’s this lovely newcomer?”

  Broil smacked him upside the head.

  “Ow!”

  “You a friend of theirs?”

  “...Yes, I am.” Dalia’s eyes shifted between the unfamiliar faces before settling on Kol. “It’s complicated...”

  Mervin groaned. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but today’s been one step too complicated for us.” He shot a look to Annie. “Can you give us a simple answer, please?”

  Dalia, thought for a moment, then pulled in Annie and Kol and whispered something to them.

  “Okay,” she started. “This is the simplest answer I can give. My name is Dalia Campbell.”

  “I’m Annie Hoover.” Annie added.

  And finally, Kol spoke.

  “I am called Kol Campbell Hoover.”

  Silence fell over the table.

  "Wait—what?" Mervin blinked. “Hold up. Hoover? Campbell? But you never mentioned having a middle-name before.”

  “... It is a sore subject.”

  “How does the family tree look like between you three?” Abaka asked.

  “I am—was... an orphan, before getting adopted by Dalia’s mother.” Kol expined, before his expression turned dark. “Then, things happened, and I was relocated to my current family; the Hoovers.”

  Silence once again fell over the table as they let this revetion sink in.

  “That was... a really bare-bone expnation.” Abaka said, only for him receive another smack on the head, this time nearly knocking him off the bench.

  Dalia let out a small ugh despite herself, shaking her head at Abaka’s antics. “I see your group dynamic is... unique.”

  Mervin gave her a tired look. “You have no idea...”

  “I guess a bit more context than just my name is needed—”

  But Annie cut her off.

  “Nope, we are gettin’ sidetracked too much.” She waved her hand. “For now, all you need to know is that she’s an employe of the company.”

  She turned all their attention on her.

  “I’ve expined to them what I found out before—” She turned to Kol and Dalia. “—TLDR; we have three leads. First is Mervin’s ‘sewer lead’—something about a malfunctioning portalstone. The second lead is the ‘Thunder god’—but that’s about all we know of it. And stly, there is a rumored that ‘a great weapon’ is locked away on an unknown server.”

  Annie then looked at Dalia specifically. “What do you think?”

  Dalia’s looked back at Annie in surprise, then her arms folded. “Let me just stop you right there.” She said, halting Annie’s question. “As an employe, I cannot help interns in any form, per company policy.” She stated ftly. “If I help you, I risk my job.”

  “But that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to you about certain things.” Annie countered.

  “That’s the same thing.”

  “No, it’s not.” Annie smirked. “You can’t assist us. But if you just happen to share some relevant general knowledge, well...” She shrugged.

  Dalia sighed deeply, rubbing her temples as she fell deep in thought, the consequences of what she might say.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she spoke.

  “The only thing I can say,” she began. “Is that there is a faulty portalstone in the sewers, but all it does is spit people out on random servers. It’s a dead-end and so is weapon. The trail cuts off at the name of the server ‘Korikangoku’”

  “How do you know its name?” Abaka asked, his tone genuinely inquisitive.

  Dalia hesitated for a moment, her eyes flicking everywhere, clearly uncomfortable with the attention. “I was the one who discovered it. On my own ‘intern mission.’ Honestly, it was a miracle they even hired me after that...” She admitted as her voice trailed off.

  Mervin groaned, clearly frustrated. “Great. So we’re back to square one?”

  “Do you know anything about either of them?”

  “I told you—I can’t help.” Dalia stated firmly.

  The group fell silent. There were no great choices. The tension in the room mounted as they contempted their predicament.

  Then, like a sudden gust of wind breaking the stillness, Kol spoke up.

  “We go for the weapon.”