End Online: Volume 3 (14 page)

“I have already tried
that.” Mason seems to recount the incident, “Rix, her father, would have
nothing to do with it. He even started screaming at me in front of everyone in
the inn. I was utterly humiliated.”

“We can look in the forest
tomorrow then. There is no point going out after dark. Is there anything about
the location we don’t know?” I look at Mason as I ask the question, directing
it at the leader of the two residents of Grenton.

“Not much,” he replies. “I
do know it is not only full of low level monsters but also incredibly easy to
get lost in, to the point where everyone ends up coming out of the forest right
where they started. But before you think it, it isn’t an illusion spell or
anything of the kind. There have been plenty of people who have tried various
dispels and ‘clearsight potions’ with similar thoughts. But there is apparently
no magic at work in that forest.”

“Well, we will head off
tomorrow. I will sleep in game at the inn. It is up to all of you what you want
to do, but shall we meet here again in three hours?”

Everyone nods and we
slowly disband. Only Verde remains at the end as she approaches me quietly.

“Mm, Lost. Do you have a
minute?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I forgot!
Yes! What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to know what you
were doing next weekend? If you were interested. Did you want to meet up in
real life!?” She is a bit frantic towards the end, almost fumbling her words.

I am shocked at her
question, yet somewhat sad that there is no way I could possibly go see her.
Especially not with my legs the way they are. Nobody in the game knows my
situation in real life, and I plan to keep it that way, for now at least.

“I am sorry,” my words
come out softer than a whisper. “But I can’t.”

“Haha, it’s okay. It’s
okay. I don’t know how I was going to get out of my house unseen anyway. For
now, I will be logging off till morning so I will see you then.”

She waved me off as she
leaves the inn. I didn’t even have a chance to say anything back to her before
she was gone. Well, tomorrow I will apologize and tell her that there are some
circumstances that prevent me from meeting up outside virtual reality. Surely,
I can tell her the truth some day. But that day is not today.

Now that everyone has
gone, I walk over to the innkeeper and ask for a room.

“Evening lad. Will that be
just for you?” Rix asks me.

“No, it is for me and my
co-“

I break off mid sentence
as I realize Fen is no longer next to me. It is strange because she usually
never leaves my side.

“Just give me a room with
two beds, please.”

***************************************************
***************************************************

-????-

I meet with the shadowy
figure behind an unidentifiable house as we had earlier arranged.

“So, what do you have to
report? Surely you must have something. You have been following the man for god
knows how long.”

“Sorry, guild leader. Up
until he arrived here in Grenton, he had completely disappeared off the map.
Every time I thought I was getting close, he would all of a sudden appear
somewhere else.”

“Go on. It sounds like
there’s more.”

“Indeed, there is. I found
him here in Grenton once he arrived. He currently has five other party members,
two locals, two from Glace, and one unidentified. He is also carrying out a
quest that involves him trying to locate some child. I heard there is
apparently a picture under the name ‘The Mysterious Boy’ on the End Forums.”

“Interesting! Very
interesting!” The guild leader bellows with a cruel laughter.

“Excuse me. Was there
anything else you needed, Chronix?” the first shadow said to the second.

“No, nothing at all! I am
going to make that man pay for humiliating me so!”

With the conversation over
and Chronix now gone, I stealthily leave the alley and return straight to my
bed at the Barker Inn.

***************************************************
***************************************************

-Verde-

It took a lot of courage
to finally ask Lost to meet up in real life. My heart was pounding in my chest
at every moment. Although I honestly had no clue how I was going to get around
my father and out of the house to meet him. But it was the only method I could
think of to get a little closer to him without that meddling wolf girl
interfering.

Then he said he couldn’t.
The moment that seemed to drag on forever suddenly became rocks crushing my
chest.

The emotional control I
have always been so fond over started to become undone. I only invited him to
meet in real life, but it had meant slightly more than that to me. I really
like him, and I wanted him to know.

I hastily leave the inn
and enter the cool night air. Paper lanterns illuminate the entire surroundings
in a pretty array of golden yellow hues.

There are quite a lot of
players strolling along the main streets, a few breaking off into the smaller
paths as they travel towards inns, or even their personal house if they are
wealthy enough.

I walk down the road
outside of the inn and into a few side streets as well. I pass a few stalls
selling fried food and a couple of other delicious night time snacks, but food
is the last thing on my mind at the moment.

I can’t possibly give up
on the guy after he said no to meeting up one time. I simply have no idea on
what to do next.

I feel a shiver run up my
spine and glance over my shoulder. A short “Yeep!” comes from me as I get
frightened by the person standing barely three feet behind me.

They are standing there in
a red halter dress, the frills on the dress swaying in the night wind around
the long slender legs extending from it. The girl wearing the dress has snow
white hair and crystal blue eyes that give off an incredibly intimidating aura.

“Fen!” I gasp, “Why are
you-“

Before I can finish what I
am saying the girl suddenly appears in front of me, her eyes almost glowing.

“I told you… again and…
again… Stay away.”

“Y-you are completely
unreasonable! I like him you know! How could I possibly stay away?!”

This girl, as frightening
as she can be is once again threatening me. Although after having my hopes
crushed by Lost, her intimidation is slightly less effective.

My words seem to cause her
to be taken aback, shock showing in her eyes. She raises one of her hands in a
motion that seems slow but is actually incredibly fast, grasping the top on my
head.

“You have… no… right.”
Each word Fen spoke seemed to carry an enormous weight behind it. I only had a
moment to think before a splitting pain ran between my ears, burning everything
it touched.

The wolf girl disappears
from my sight as a warning message appears in front of me. It runs through a
long list of commands. It comes so quickly that I barely have any time to read
what it says.

My knees wobble and give
out, causing me to collapse onto the hard packed dirt. I can feel a few tufts
of grass pressing against my ear as reality around me appears to distort,
crack, and then shatter.

Everything finally goes
black and I feel like I am swimming in oblivion. There is absolutely nothing
around me, yet this nothingness feels like it is made of mud. I struggle to
move my arms and legs, only to feel my consciousness fading with my strength.

***************************************************

I open my eyes and feel
that there is something strange on my head,  something like a jet helmet
with a large clear visor covering my face at the front. Raising my head, I grab
it with two hands and yank it off. Holding it in front of me, I don’t recognize
what it is at all.

In my hands is a helmet made
out of some kind of pink synthetic material. It appears to be a fairly advanced
piece of technology but as to what its function is, I do not know. Placing it
on the the bed, I pay more attention to my surroundings.

The room is finely
decorated, from the royal purple curtains draped over half the windows to the
sparse. but expensive mahogany furniture. There is only a single desk, with a
computer, a wardrobe, a few upright chests of draws but nothing out of the
ordinary.

I can’t spot anything that
would strike me as odd, but I still back up into the corner of the bed with my
knees tightly pulled against my chest. I feel my bottom lips trembling as the
words come out of my mouth almost unintentionally.

“W-w-where am I?!”

-Lost-

I pay for Fen’s and my
room upstairs, ensuring with the innkeeper that the room is indeed two separate
beds and not one double bed. Waiting in the lobby afterwards, I am considerably
confused by Fen’s absence.

‘She is normally
always around me, so where did she go?’

About ten minutes later,
the wolf girl in question enters through the front doors. Walking straight
towards me, it is as if she already knew where I was before entering the room.

“Where did you go?” I ask
as she arrives in front of me.

“Outside…” She answers in
her usual tone with a small smile on her face.

“Why?”

“No… reason.”

I try not to press any
further. It isn’t like she can’t go outside or anywhere without me. Contrary to
that, I feel somewhat more at peace when she isn’t around. Almost like
something that has been constricting my chest suddenly loosens its grip.

It simply feels rather odd
right now her disappearing. Even if the smile on her face doesn’t falter or
shows any signs of deceit. Something inside of me feels uncomfortable when I
wonder about where she went.

“Well, it is night time
now so let’s head upstairs to our room.”

The girl gave a little
affirmative ‘unn’ sound before happily following behind me as I lead us to the
third floor.

Inside of the room that I
paid a full gold coin and fifty silver for, there is a small round table on one
side of the room. Two chairs on either side has the same intricate bronze
framework and decoration as the table, completing the set.

Along the opposite side of
the room, two single beds are positioned up against the wall. Each appear to be
of a relatively simple make, yet they had extravagant cloth sheets laid across
them with a thick woollen blanket folded up at the end of each bed to provide
extra warmth if required.

The first thing I do is
walk directly across the room, and exit the room through a pair of bronze and
glass double doors onto a balcony overlooking the streets below. The entire
balcony balustrade is made out of maple hardwood. With a slight reddish tinge,
it appears to be both stable and warm at the same time.

The streets below still
appear to be quite bustling with players, all happily haggling with each other
underneath the paper lanterns that emanate a warm and gentle glow.

Fen reveals her presence
behind me by leaning on my back, entrusting her body onto mine. Feeling heat
rushing to my face after feeling a glimpse of some of the curves on her body, I
quickly manoeuvre myself in a circle around the girl and back inside the room,
leaving her to either continue standing there or follow me in.

She closes the balcony
door behind her with a displeased face, yet not saying anything.

“Goodnight, Fen.” I say to
her as I climb into one of the beds, unequipping my armour.

As I close my eyes, it is
only a few minutes before the system assistance helped induce a sleeping state
and my consciousness faded away.

***************************************************

The morning sun is shining
through the glass on the balcony doors as I open my eyes. The light fills me
with a warmth that seems to nourish me down to my bones.

‘No, wait. That isn’t
what this feeling is.’

My mind gradually began to
start functioning normally, giving me a better perspective of around me. The
warmth I can feel isn’t produced by the sunlight, but by a body that had
managed to slide under my arm and was firmly attached to me.

Pulling off the bed sheet,
I see Fen, who has wiggled her arms around me pulled her body completely
against mine. Her dress has also been ruffled, with the hem lifting up and
revealing a slender milky white thigh resting across my hips.

She would be the perfect
girl in any man’s dreams, except for the drool that is coming out of her mouth
and soaking into my tunic.

I’m not even sure why I
asked for a room with two beds, I had already figured out this would be the
resulting situation.

Silently I slip out of her
grasp and leave the bed. Despite my efforts to keep her asleep, as soon as I
stand up her eyes slowly open.

“…Mmm.” Fen grumbles half
asleep still, stretching her body under the sheets before getting out of bed as
well.

“Why do you always have to
climb into my bed? It isn’t good for a man’s heart, in more ways than one.”

Not only is she visually
beautiful, but she is also incredibly dangerous. Even I don’t know the full
extent of what she is capable of.

‘I think I will have
to explain to her the difference between what is okay and what isn’t one day
soon. Drooling is okay. drooling on me, is not.’

“Because I… want to.” She
states to me as a matter of fact, almost as if it is perfectly natural.

“Let’s go downstairs, that
prince of no virtues is already online and probably waiting downstairs for us
as well.” I can only sigh. There is one idiot more than likely already
downstairs and another one that is lacking common sense in front of me.

As I think about it, if
Fen’s existence began with the game. Does that not make her not even six months
old? Well, the program known as ‘Fen’ would have been running for nearly six
months at least.

She doesn’t say anything
back to me, but she does quietly follow me out of the room and downstairs.

In the common area
downstairs, there is a small fire burning off to the side, eliminating the
morning chill while multiple serving girls run around serving breakfast menus
to the many players present.

I spot a player off
towards the back of the group. It was not hard to find the person I was looking
for, their steel armour is polished to a near mirror finish which is honestly a
little hard to miss.

“I see you are up nice and
early.” I said to him.

Prince Charming may only
be a head taller than me, but he has a strange way of looking down on me. He
clearly doesn’t have anything to say back to my attempt at starting a
conversation and simply looks at me.

‘At least he
acknowledges I am here all on his own. This is a significant improvement from
how it used to be.’

“I guess not… Are you
waiting for Verde?” It is a stupid question. Of course he is waiting for the
only person he seems to pay attention to. But at least it may start up a
conversation.

“I am.” Short and to the
point. His response carried nothing more than it needed. He does, however,
throw a prolonged glance at Fen.

“It appears Mason and
Matrix just logged in. We are nearly all here.”

At least I tried to start
a conversation with the man.

Five minutes pass by and
the two brother also show up at the barrel like table we are gathered around.

“Lost, looks like our
adventure is about to begin once again.” Mason seems highly excited about
exploring the forest.

“Well, I wouldn’t imagine
for it to be too much of an adventure. We are only searching through a
beginners hunting area.”

“It may be small right
now. But I am sure with you it will turn into something interesting.”

“You seem to be in a
rather good mood today.” I give a short laugh, “Did something happen?”

“Well. If I am to brag,
not only has my latest video hit seventy thousand views when I wasn’t paying
attention and I even received an offer from an advertiser to pre-order the
first advertisement slot on my next video.” Mason speaks while maintaining a
big grin on his face.

“That’s incredible!” I
exclaim “How much was the offer? Did you accept?”

“The offer was for two
hundred dollars. Of course I accepted it.”

All of a sudden the whole
conversation in my mind seemed to stop like a broken record.

‘And all you’re
excitement is over this?’

Seeing how cheerful he
seems to be. I had thought it would have been something considerably higher
than two hundred.

Our conversation continues
for the good part of an hour. Matrix was his usual quiet awkward self, while
Prince Charming showed a little interest in the group and joined in from time
to time.

After the second hour,
however, the conversation slows to a stop. Extended silences overcame the group
as we began to grow tired of waiting.

“Where is Verde?” Mason
asked, his earlier good mood ruined.

“I’m sure she is coming.”
I answer back to him, not even believing my words myself.

“Well, we can’t wait
forever. We are simply wasting time waiting for someone who clearly has more
important things to do.” Mason says in an overly ridiculing tone.

“Mind your tongue! I’m
sure she has a reason why she is delayed!” Prince Charming raises his voice at
Mason, clearly angered by the sarcasm in his comment.

“Why. I’m sure we all know
she is probably currently-” Mason sarcastically starts to insinuate something
before the prince grabs him by the shirt and shoves him backwards.

“I will defend my lady no
matter what. I will go find her, and be back only after I do so!” With those
words, Prince Charming storms out of the inn in large strides.

I give Mason a criticising
stare until he starts to look guilty.

“I think you went a bit
far there. Don’t you think.”

“I’m sorry, Lost. I think
I am a bit high strung from sitting around and doing nothing. I play this game
full time and am trying to make a living out of it. Pointlessly wasting large
amounts of time seemed to put me in a bad mood.”

“Don’t let it happen
again. We are a team so there should be no infighting whatsoever.”

“I understand. I won’t let
it happen again.” Mason casts his eyes towards the ground, regretting his
actions.

In my mind, I know I am
partly at fault too. Being the leader I should be controlling the situation. It
simply happened so quick I was as stiff as a statue with my mouth hanging open.

With the situation now
calming down, I leave the inn with the others meekly following behind me.

***************************************************
***************************************************

-Verde(Verity Lee)-

A gentle knocking on the
door resounds from outside the room I am currently in.

“Verity,” A females voice
comes from behind the door, “it is time for dinner, can you come eat with us?”

I don’t say anything back.
I am so terrified at the moment that I can’t even open my mouth. In my silence,
I hear a sigh from outside of the room.

A man had come knocking
earlier as well. He left shortly after I didn’t reply, just like this lady
hopefully will.

“Oh, you must be on that
VL thing again. How many times do I have to tell you that you need to use it a
little less.” The door slowly opens and what must have been the most beautiful
woman in the world walks in.

She has dark auburn hair
waving down to her shoulders and a tight fitting blue dress, which reveals her
voluptuous figure. The most striking part about her image though, is her face.
Her skin is like silk, with a natural colour that emanates femininity. Her
facial features are perfectly symmetrical as well. There could not be a single
possible person who could rival her beauty.

The lady stops in her
tracks as she sees me pressed up against the back of the bed, absolutely
terrified.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?
Did something happen?”

“….” I try to speak, and
my mouth opens and closes, but words refuse to form.

The lady takes another
step towards me before I finally manage to speak.

“S-s-stay back. I-I don’t
know w-who you are, j-just stay a-away.” My voice croaks as I speak and nearly
falters, but I manage to get the words out.

The lady is clearly quite
intelligent. She immediately realizes something is seriously wrong and
hurriedly leave the room in shock, calling out to the man that was knocking
earlier.

“Dear! Come quick!
Something has happened to our Verity!”

Thundering footsteps
follow quickly as a slightly chubby man in a suit with short hair and
reasonably good looks appears in the now open doorway. He speaks immediately
without wasting any time.

“What’s happened!?”

“I’m not sure, she is
either experiencing a delusion or has lost her memories!”

“What are you talking
about?! What could possibly cause such a thing?!”

“I don’t know, dear. But
it seems serious.”

“Call Doctor Petroni
immediately! Have him meet us at the hospital!”

As the woman gradually
starts to calm down, the man correspondingly begins to get more worked up.