“What a dumbass…” As Kris fades away the other hacker Veritas is keeping his eyes on me and Star. This Veritas guy seems to have no sympathy for his fallen comrade. He didn’t help Kris at all during our fight. In fact, he has done so little, it feels like he’s been uninterested this whole time, as if everything here is beneath him. But we still need to beat him, Star and I aren't in the best shape, so I need to think of some way to come out on top. I begin to distance myself from Star, try and surround him. Veritas, however, remains unfazed. After a moment of watching each other, he lets out a groan. “Stop acting like a scared child, I have no intention of wasting time fighting you.”

  “Really now?” Star rolls her eyes. “Why should we believe you?”

  “Right, your friend called us ‘targets’ and ‘assets’. Who are you guys and what do you even want from us? You really don’t wanna fight? Then answer me.” I make sure I’m ready with Excalibur in case this little negotiation py goes south. The hacker’s brows furrow, his eyes not moving off of me. Maybe Star could try for a fnk attack?

  “Fine, Who really gives a shit anyway…” Veritas lets out a sigh. “He and I work together in a hacker organization that pys this game. The other day everyone received orders to keep track of you both. Our orders never mentioned fighting you, so like I said, waste of time.”

  “So why did Kris-” Star tries to ask but gets cut off by a knife flying past her head. Shit, I didn’t even see him move!

  “If you’d let me finish!” the hacker barks at Star. “Kris is a moron, you hurt his friend, so he got pissed. Nothing more, nothing less. That answer your stupid questions?” Hardly. I shake my head and raise up Excalibur towards Veritas.

  “What is your organization? Who is your leader? And what I want to know most, what do you guys know about Aegis?” Any one of these could give us a good lead. Doesn’t hurt to try. Veritas however rolls his eyes instead of giving an answer.

  “You people are such idiots. You know, interrogations don’t work when you’re not a threat.” The hacker simply moved his hand in a quick motion and his character faded away. Damn it, he logged out. In an instant our lead is gone.

  “Gah! That guy’s such a jerk! I swear if I ever see him again!” Star starts to throw a fit over our escaping enemy, stomping her foot in anger.

  “Sorry, it’s my fault he got away…” looking down I cling tightly to my bde. “Not a threat.” I repeat his words under my breath. If I was strong enough and used Aegis, I probably could have gotten him to talk, right? We wouldn’t be back to square one, right?

  God, what am I thinking? Who knows how much pain we would be in if I was stupid enough to use that ability. Injury or worse, it isn’t worth it for just one step forward. But still, I would have liked at least some kind of clue on what to do next. Just something other than this familiar feeling of having no direction. Why does it feel like this is how it always goes for me? I try my best to push forward only to feel like I’m not enough. I always end up stranded and left behind. A thought that echoed in my head, like a bitter loop for days now.

  I hear a girl snickering behind me that rips me out of my thoughts. R-right, I was in Ms. Carter’s css, though it looks like css has already ended this afternoon. I’ve had my brain overclocked trying to think of what me and Star should do next for the past couple days now. I turn my head around and find Cire pointing at me with her mouth covered, doing a horrible job at holding back her ughter.

  “What’s so-” I reach up to scratch at my hair but feel something strange, my hair has been tied up in a bunch of tiny little ponytails with ribbons. “H-Hey! What is this?!”

  “N-nothing at all.” Cire can hardly make that out between her giggles. “I wanted to give you a makeover, now at least you look cute when you're deep in your thoughts!”

  “Come on, it’s not that funny…” I start pulling on a ribbon trying to get it out of my hair.

  “W-wait don’t do that. You’ll rip your hair out idiot! Here let me help you.” Her voice comes out softer now that the ughter is out of her system, it has this unexpected warmth actually. I face forward and let her undo her own handiwork like I’m at a salon. I can feel my cheeks heating up from my own embarrassment. Thank god there is no one else still here in the cssroom watching us. “H-hey Aiden, can I ask what’s been going on with you recently?” Cire removes a ribbon then moves to the next. “It feels like every time I see you you are lost in your thoughts. But not just that, It’s almost like you are carrying some kind of burden. Like you’re trying to shoulder something by yourself, you know?”

  “I…” I don’t know what to say. It’s not surprising that she realized something was up since we see each other so often. Should I expin it to her? How would I even expin it to her? ‘Hey my favorite game is trying to kill me but I want to keep pying it!’ No, I doubt she would believe me. Or she wouldn't understand why a game addict like me would want to keep this up. I should just keep this between me and Star. “Sorry I don’t think I can expin it really…” Damn it, I know that this is the right thing to do, but why does it feel like there’s a lump in my throat? I’m not lying to her or anything. “... sorry, but even just asking feels like it helped.” She snickers as she pulls out the st of the ribbons.

  “You know you apologize too much? Maybe try a thank you instead?” Cire ruffles my hair and begins to return to her normal seat next to me, picking up her bags.

  “S-sorry… And thank you Cire.” I try my best to blindly return my hair to its normal look.

  “Well, It's not always a bad thing.” She says as a smile forms on her face. “If you do ever need help Aiden, I don’t mind being a shoulder you can lean on.” Making her way to the door she waves goodbye to me, however someone else opens the door before she can do it herself. It’s a familiar girl with white blonde hair, Luna.

  “Huh? Oh, um hi Cire.” Luna seems surprised to find Cire right in front of her.

  “Luna!” Cire on the other hand wastes no time jumping into her friends arms and leads Luna into the room. “You look so cute, did you want to go out after css? Sorry I must have missed your message!”

  “A-actually, I was hoping to see him today…” Huh? She’s nervously pointing to me? Cire turns her head back towards me with a bnk expression on her face. She looks back and forth between me and Luna. Then rushes over back to me as fast as she can.

  “How did you manage that? You’re dating Luna?!” Cire whispers into my ear, not so subtly. “What, did you win her over by barfing everywhere?!”

  “What?! Come on, I-it’s not like that!” I stammer back from embarrassment. Luna looks to be more embarrassed as well. Crap, did I protest it too much?

  “Alright alright, I won’t question you guys any more. Sadly I do have pns today, so I’ll leave you alone. Though I will get the scoop from Luna ter!” Cire practically skips with joy back to the cssroom door. Turning back as she leaves she is grinning from ear to ear. “Don’t have too much fun now!” and with that, the whirlwind that is Cire has left.

  “Handful like always that one…” Luna sighs as she walks closer. She makes her way to my desk and sits down in Cire's seat. “Sorry, I didn't know your number, So this was the only way I knew to find you.”

  “R-right. Here you can add it now if you’d like.” I take my phone out from my pocket and hand it to Luna. She nods and pulls out her own. Her hands move quickly and in a moment a text appears on my phone. Then she hands my phone back to me. “Make sure you save it, okay.” Looking down the message reads: Let's keep fighting!

  “Yeah. I'll do that.” I can’t stop myself from smiling. I nod and raise my head to her.

  “A-anyway, I wanted to talk about what we should try doing next. I've been thinking about that the past few days.” So we were both in the same boat then. Hopefully she had more luck brainstorming than me.

  “Any luck on your end?”

  “Well… no not really, the best I could come up with is trying to plead to one of the devs to take us seriously. Think anyone at AetherForge would actually listen to us?” AetherForge being the company that created The Realm Of Timeless Lands.

  “Honestly? No. That team there is so understaffed, anything about Aegis hurting people without major proof would probably be treated as a troll.” If anyone would, the game director William Donovan would have. He used to be very friendly and active in the community. Almost acting like a community manager at times. Then shortly before the game came out he got into a nasty accident. Ever since Donovan has been completely MIA online, just like everyone else at AetherForge.

  “Guess that means the hackers really are our best shot?” Luna questions worryingly. “I’m so sick of those guys already though.”

  “Same, but that's all we have so far.” I say with a sigh. “Veritas did mention a hacker organization, guess our best bet is going to be for one of them to approach us again.”

  “But it seemed like Veritas was so against it. Who knows how long that will take.” Her fists clench. “I for one still want to see if we can find anything on our own.”

  “Alright, I’ll try to keep looking online for anything.”

  “And I’ll look in the game then, see if anyone I know has heard anything about this organization or Veritas.”

  “Ahem.” A third voice suddenly surprises me and Luna, making us both jump. Ms. Carter is standing at the doorway. “I don’t remember my cssroom turning into a pyground. I’m afraid I need you both to get lost.”

  “Oh, sorry Ms. Carter. We will be heading out now.” Luna responds with an answer straight out of an honor student py book, I wonder how her grades are anyway? She is friends with Cire after all. “Aiden, come on. Let’s get going.”

  Right, this isn’t the time. I follow behind Luna as Ms. Carter’s eyes follow us with a death gre as we leave. Man, she feels more like a walking ndmine than a teacher. We make our way down the halls without saying anything, passing by many other students and couples flirting after css. Finally we made it out of the building and I almost breathe a sigh of relief being away from all the normies.

  “Hey-” We make it to the bushes by the school entrance when Luna starts to speak but immediately gets cut off by the ringtone from her phone. “Sorry I need to take this.” She smiles at me, but she turns and her smile quickly fades when she puts the phone to her ear. It sounds like a woman on the other end but it’s hard to tell. “Hello… Yeah… Well I’m kind of busy… Yes, it’s important… I promise, okay?... Alright see you.” With that she quickly hangs up the phone. “Right, I was gonna ask if you wanted to head to that cafe? I still wanted to talk some more.”

  “The Velvet Cup? Sure I don’t mind.” It’s a good idea for a hang out spot, I do want to apologize to Boss about the whole vomit thing. Part of me wants to question Luna about that phone call, but judging from her expression I don’t think that’s the smartest idea I’ve had.

  “So, you have any hobbies or anything outside of TROTL?” she asks calmly as we walk, meanwhile the question feels like a punch to the gut for me.

  “N-no not really.” God I’m such a loser. I don’t think saying ‘Oh I do watch anime also!’ would help me too much either. “What about you Luna?”

  “Well, I am a gymnast for our school’s club, but I’ve dabbled in a little bit of everything.”

  “Everything?”

  “Seriously, you name it: sports, martial arts, painting, even chess. Mom and Dad thought I was little miss gifted and wanted to show me off to the world, but turns out I’m just a normal girl.” Seeing her say that with her eyes looking off in the distance, I can’t help but chuckle a little. “Hey, you making fun of me now?” She turns and ughs as well.

  “No it’s not that. It’s just, from my perspective even getting to try those things seems amazing. Hell, you even give me a run for my money in TROTL.” I pause for a moment feeling my face burning up. Jeez saying this in front of her is embarrassing. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think you might be more gifted than you think.” I watch as her cheeks slowly turn redder to match mine.

  “Hey, you don’t need to say stuff like that… Why are we talking about me anyway? I wanted to know more about you!” Oh boy, here we go.

  “Alright. Ask away then.” I pretend I have even a sliver of confidence in myself. Hopefully no more hard hitting questions.

  “Hmm what to ask? Oh I know, what is it you like so much about TROTL anyway?” Luna holds her hand up to me like she is holding a microphone.

  “Uh, I guess at first it was the fact that it was the first full dive VR game I pyed. But even back in middle school and high school I enjoyed pying online games with friends so I also enjoyed the online elements of the game. But now, If I had to say I just enjoy the story and the world inside of the game. It’s a world I enjoy spending time in.” Wait, I kind of just rambled on there didn’t I?

  “Oh so I guess that makes you kind of a lore nerd then.” Luna says pyfully.

  “Well I don’t know everything…” I don’t even attempt to deny it.

  “Is that so? Well do you happen to know who Orion is then?” Of course, Orion is the name of an old hero from the age before the demon king gained power. He is famous for ending a demon uprising that gained traction because of the birth of a half human half demon prince. It was said that he was blessed by the goddess of fire Ignathera to survive hunting demons in the Molten Storm Peaks for so long. I even heard recently that his blessing might have made his descendants the first Phoenixborn! … Damn it, I guess she caught me there.

  “Okay so I might be a bit of a lore nerd.” I raise my hands in surrender.

  “So he’s self aware after all!” Luna makes herself ugh. “But I think that is part of what makes you gifted too Aiden.” Gifted? Me? Are we sure we’re talking about the same Aiden here? Before I can respond Luna’s phone rings once more. She calms herself down and looks at it. “Sorry, I need a moment again… Hello?” This time however the woman on the other end has raised her voice startling Luna. “Huh? ... Wait… Mom Wait I… No I Don’t… Mom, I'm Trying… What? … Are you Serious? … Fine… I said Fine, Okay!” Angrily Luna hangs up her phone. Hell I’m pretty sure she is a few words away from throwing it on the ground. “Sorry, something came up. Sadly I’m going to have to leave you behind today.”

  “Um… sure no worries.” Should I say something to her to try and cheer her up?

  “See you Aiden! I promise I’ll make it up to you!” she yells out as she starts jogging away. Maybe I should have stopped her after all, ask her what's wrong? Who am I kidding, I doubt it’s anything I could fix. Well it’s starting to get te anyway, I guess since I’m already on the way I might as well keep heading to The Velvet Cup… But still, with how that phone call sounded from my end I hope she’s going to be alright. I take out my phone and look at the message she sent me. Maybe it’s just a feeling, but I think she might need to hear that message as well. I send her a message saying the same thing: Let's keep fighting!

  Finally getting to the turn at the street corner I am almost at the cafe, however my eyes widen in surprise and I stop in my tracks like a deer in headlights. Walking down the street in front of me is Cire, but she is with someone I recognize. An old friend from high school Tristan.