Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!

I took a step back so that Kevin partially blocked their view of me.

He glanced at me but otherwise didn't move.

Like many of the companies out there, Infinite Diffusion wasn’t exactly privacy forward. If I met someone in DO it was pretty easy to find out who they were. It was as easy as looking at my proximity history. I didn't often check it because I played solo.

Lily and Koffer on the other hand ran VR streams which meant they had fanbases. Some of which likely followed them around in-game keeping records of people who stood out. Lily ran both in-game and real-life streams.

I’d watched a good amount of her DO content in the past couple of months. She would often hang out with Koffer in their camp outside of town and then swap to out-of-game content so I recognized them.

Lily was a silvery-blonde-haired, blue-eyed, girl in DO, but outside of the game, she looked very different. She was of Chinese descent. Her hair was pure black, her eyes were a light gray and she had an oval face.

A lot of my features were closer to Jennifers than Autumns. I had dark brown hair and deep gray eyes. My character happened to look a lot like me in real life, except my eyes were slanted.

I didn’t know much about Koffer but he was much younger than I thought he was. He had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a round face.

We stood there for a minute or so before Kevin's stomach growled. I wondered if it was the nanobots warning Kevin that he needed to eat.

“Does your stomach always sound like that when you're hungry?” I whispered.

Despite my whispering, they could hear me. Like all of our body functions, the nanobots kept everything at or above normal levels. I tended to let the majority of people's voices drown out, especially in such a busy place.

Kevin turned. “No, it's not normally this loud.”

Lily glanced at us, smiled, and covered her mouth.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the interaction. Did she check my profile? It was highly likely that she looked me up after she was done with the event last night. With the way I had treated Koffer, he probably had done the same.

Maybe they just hadn't recognized me. My profile was emblazoned with DO accomplishments and in bold lettering ‘roleplayer.’ It also had a bit about my implant problems, and people were nice enough to keep messaging me to a minimum.

They stood suddenly, faced us, shared a glance, and approached.

“Azerail?” Lily asked.

Kevin stepped aside, leaving me to confront them.

“Yeah?” I managed.

Koffer was shorter than Lily and me, which I didn't expect since I was only 165 centimeters tall.

“I'm Jasper,” Koffer said and offered his hand.

I wasn't sure I could trust them, but I shook his hand anyway.

Lily offered hers as well. “I'm Fen Li.”

Separating the game from real life was usually pretty easy, but the way the Enlightened treated the Hexed was beyond despicable. They fostered an extremely toxic atmosphere in the game. I couldn't stand for it. Lily was the person who led the Enlightened in this town, and the actions of her people were on her shoulders.

I ignored her hand and made eye contact. “I know who you are.”

She stepped back and put her arms behind her.

“We wanted to talk to you about yesterday,” Koffer said.

Of course, they did. I wondered if they set this encounter up. A quick check on my view history showed that Koffer did observe us entering the mall.

At least they weren’t streaming. If they were, there would be an orange light next to the red one.

“Why would you want to talk to me?” I asked.

Koffer pinched his fingers together, and a notification popped up in my HUD. “Well…”

It was an invitation to join the ‘End of Days Alliance,’ a group they had formed. “What’s this?” I asked.

“It’s a conglomerate of streamers that work together,” Lily said. She glanced at my top and then looked away.

I crossed my arms. “Why would I want to join your group?”

“You’re a Narrative Designer, right?” Lily asked.

Kevin grabbed his stomach as it made noises again.

I ignored her question. “Are you done with your table?”

Two trays with empty paper boxes were strewn across the top of the table. Lily and Koffer glanced behind them. Koffer dashed to the table, picked up everything, and then wandered off.

I gestured at an empty seat, and Kevin sat. Lily must have thought it was an open invite because she joined him.

At that moment Sal’s guy James came over to our table. He had a large tray in his hands and laid it down. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, James,” I said.

He smiled at me and dashed away.

“Kevin, I’m going to grab my food real quick. Feel free to start eating,” I said.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Before he could respond, I weaved my way through the mass of tables and went to my Nainai’s place.

I approached with caution, hoping I could avoid seeing her. No such luck.

“Qīn qīn!” my Nainai said as I approached the shop.

It was the nickname she used for me. It meant ‘dear one,’ which was cute but I was getting way too old for her to keep using it.

“Hi, Nainai,” I said.

My grandma could have been Autumn’s twin except for her blue eyes. She kept her black hair up in a tight bun, which I loved.

“Pǔtōnghuà, Qīn qīn,” she said.

She wanted me to speak Mandarin, so I swapped. “Hi, Grandma.”

“Where have you been, dear one? I haven’t seen you in a long time,” she said.

It had only been a couple of weeks. We usually visited her on Sundays. I’d gotten caught up in gaming like I always did on the weekends. “I was playing games. I’m sorry.”

“Make sure to come this weekend, okay? We’ll have a hotpot,” she said and picked up a tray with several boxes on it.

I reached for the tray.

She pulled away. “You’ll come this weekend?”

“Yes, I promise,” I said.

She handed the tray to me. “Are those girls still making fun of you?”

I shook my head. It had been years since they had messed with me, but Grandma was always worried about me. “I have a friend waiting.”

“Let them wait,” she said.

The little red light in my HUD disappeared. “I have to go, he doesn’t have specs yet, and I’m watching him.”

“No specs?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

She put a hand on her hip. “We need to talk more, dear one. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” I said. “But I have to go. I made a promise.”

My grandma, like all of the other people in the city, was ageless, but seeing her face fall into a frown like it did was heartbreaking.

I reached a hand across the counter, and my grandma took it. “I will come this weekend.”

“Thank you, dear one.” She gave my hand a little squeeze and then let go. “Have fun with your friend.”

“Bye, Nainai,” I said and lingered.

We shared a moment of silence. She smiled, and I scurried away.

Koffer, Kevin, and Lily were all sitting at our table.

The yellow light popped up as I neared them. I took the only available seat, which was next to Kevin.

Two of the boxes on the table were empty, and half of the fries were gone. I hoped Kevin wasn’t sharing.

Talking with my grandma made me emotional, and I didn't want to deal with the oppressors sitting across from me.

“How do you like it so far?” Koffer asked.

Kevin grabbed a handful of fries, took a bite, and mumbled, “It's beautiful.” He then devoured the rest of them and opened another burger box.

“Do you have a HUD yet?” I asked Kevin.

He pinched his fingers together. “Nothing yet.”

Koffer turned to me. “About our offer.”

“What offer?” I asked.

“Th-the one to join our group…” Lily said.

I remembered Lily’s memories that Kumo had helped me observe and had a revelation. In each memory, Lily wasn’t really in charge, Koffer was. Did that mean that Koffer was the person behind everything, or did Lily take over and run things terribly?

The real question was, did I care? It took me all of two seconds to realize I didn’t. “I don’t wanna join.”

Kevin eyed me as he took a huge bite out of his burger.

Koffer spread his hands across the table. “We haven’t even told you what it’s about.”

“I don’t care,” I said and opened my mapo tofu and rice boxes. The smell hit my nose, and I felt a moment of pure bliss.

Lily leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “You don’t have to be rude.”

I made eye contact with Lily, picked up my chopsticks, and pulled them apart. They made a snap, and Lily flinched.

“Ladies,” Koffer said. “No need to get hostile.”

“What’s the offer?” Kevin asked.

I scowled at him.

He didn’t seem to notice.

Koffer made eye contact with me. “We know you like to roleplay, and that’s sort of what we do, too.”

Called it.

Did that mean that it was all an act? If so, why did they treat the Hexed so badly?

Lily uncrossed her arms and laid a hand on the table. “We have meetings, create stories together, and act them out for our viewers.”

They had officially sparked my interest. I gently scooped up the delicate tofu and placed some of it on top of my rice, and took a bite. It was heavenly.

I swallowed and said, “Why did you round up the newbies like you did? They didn’t even have any loot. It was griefing beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“W-we didn’t plan for that to happen. One of the streamers thought it would be funny to gather them together,” Koffer said.

Lily’s words from yesterday rang in my head. “We may be mortal enemies, but it just means more loot for us!”

“Was it Lily?” I asked.

Koffer and Lily shared a look.

“We need someone from the Hexed side to collaborate so we can make more complex stories,” Koffer said.

I shook my head. “Get rid of the person who separated the undead like they did, and I’ll think about it.”

Kevin opened another burger box.

“W-we can’t just get rid of them, they are a founding member, and we would have to hold a vote,” Koffer said.

“If you want a better narrative, then you need to get rid of the toxicity.” I gazed at Lily. “Whoever they are.”

Lily stood up and walked away from the table.

“What happened?” Kevin asked.

I slammed my chopsticks on my tray. “You want to know what happened?” I gestured at Koffer. “They had like two thousand players—”

“Four thousand,” Koffer interjected, then shrunk in his chair as I glared at him.

“Four thousand Enlightened cronies gather all of the newbie undead players coming from town into a makeshift arena. They were going to slaughter them like cattle.” I said.

Kevin's eyebrows shot up. “They didn’t even have loot yet?”

I shook my head.

“That’s messed up,” Kevin said as a few breadcrumbs fell from his lips.

“Right!” I said.

Koffer sighed. “We really need—”

“Was it her?” Kevin asked and pointed in the direction that Lily went.

“I can’t say who it was, but we really need someone on the other side with some influence,” Koffer said.

I laughed. “I don’t have influence.”

“What do you mean you don’t have influence? Didn’t you see the video?” Koffer said.

“Video?” I asked.

Koffers eyes widened. “You didn’t see it yet?”

Then I remembered Darryl had sent me a VR video last night. “My friend sent it to me. I haven’t watched it yet.”

“You need to watch it!” Koffer said as he stood.

“Okay, Okay,” I said.

When I opened up Darryl's message, I noticed something. “A Zix made it?”

I tapped on the video, and the world around me disappeared.

***