Ethan and Chione ran through the forests that separated them and the next play zone. It was an exhausting journey, even if they didn’t feel any significant physical fatigue. The second they reached the zone, they felt like they lost all their strength. Ethan feel like he could just drop down there and lie on the ground, especially since there weren’t any annoying bugs in this game, but he knew better than to do that.

Being on the zone’s outskirts was a risky choice, mainly because they would need to face enemies coming from outside. Like most games, the zone didn’t immediately kill those who were outside of it.

“Come on, a bit more.”

“A bit… more?”

He could already see that Chione was exhausted. She slumped her body forward, as if trying to use her weight to drag herself. She eventually stopped behind a rock, resting her back on it, facing out toward the zone. She held her handgun in a ready stance, ready to fire the second she saw someone approach. Ethan approached her and stood beside her.

“Guess we can rest for a bit.”

He said as he did a quick scan of the surrounding area.

“You can sit, I’ll guard.”

“Alright.”

Chione slumped down, while Ethan remained on standby. Chione used long-range weapons, weapons that couldn’t deflect or destroy a projectile midair unless it hit them directly. Ethan was far more suited to the task of deflecting and destroying bullets midair. Ethan checked his map again.

“After a minute, we’ll move.”

Ethan felt grateful that the game didn’t simulate sweat. If this was his real-life him, he would be drenched in sweat at this point.

“Alright.”

Chione replied.

“Can I close my eyes?”

“As long as you remember how to open them.”

Chione smiled and shut her eyes. It wouldn’t take long for her to regain her energy. Ethan leaned closer to her and held her ax in his hands. He put his thumb on the button, ready to turn his weapon the second he saw a bullet coming. A minute passed, but no new threat showed themselves.

Ethan glanced at Chione. Despite only resting for a short while, she looked so peaceful. He wondered whether he should wake her up or not.

She’s cute.

He found her sleeping face adorable, although he doubt she actually slept.

“Chione?”

“Hmm?”

“Should we move?”

Chione opened her eyes slowly and looked up toward Ethan. She nodded and pushed herself up.

“Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

They resumed their journey. They headed toward a house on the outskirts of the city and went inside.

“You’re serious about that, right?”

Ethan said as he leaned his back on the pink walls of the second-floor bedroom. Chione raised an eyebrow.

“Hmm?”

She inspected a wooden wardrobe opposite of Ethan, finding it to be empty, with the exception of a small red dot sight for handguns. Her own handgun already had one, and this sight was too small for her gun.

“I would rather you not say a word. About us, I mean.”

Chione turned around and shook her head.

“I’ll try my best.”

Ethan chuckled. Calista had deduced that he was FireRock just from observing her, so naturally, she couldn’t promise that she wouldn’t let anything slip. She then sat down, resting her back over the wardrobe’s mirror.

“I’ll need to think about how to face both of you tomorrow.”

“Both of us?”

Calista was guaranteed to ask her about it in school, so he could see Chione preparing for that possibility. He didn’t get the thing about himself, however.

“I’ll be meeting you in real life tomorrow, right?”

“Oh… yeah...”

The entire thing felt weird to him. On one side, it felt real. The game had the ability to simulate senses to that point, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. The cold of the night before, the smell of hot chocolate, both Chione and Calista’s voices, her warmth as she sat on the sofa, it all felt too real. But on the other side, it also felt like a dream. He couldn’t really accept that all of this was real. Chione’s discussion with Calista, her claim that she liked him, heck, even her confession. It all felt unreal, something that couldn’t happen, as impossible as the sun rising from the west. Maybe it was all just a dream, one he didn’t want to wake up from.

But tomorrow, when he saw her in real life, he probably couldn’t run from reality anymore. To make matters worse, Calista knew about the truth. Who knows what she would do with that information. There was a chance that she would talk about it in the middle of class, and he could already feel the following embarrassment.

“I… I…”

He didn’t know what to say.

“It’ll be alright.”

Chione said, smiling gently. She then looked around the room, the pink walls looking clean as if this place was taken care of.

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“Why do you hate that nickname?”

“...”

She suddenly asked, bringing memories he thought he had forgotten into his mind.

“Ah, you don’t have to answer it if you don’t like it.”

“It’s nothing big. It’s just… I got bullied in elementary school for liking that color.”

“Sorry.”

Ethan shrugged.

“My memory from the time was unclear so… it’s not like I’m particularly bitter about it. Just, getting called like that is unpleasant.”

“I understand. I’ve been bullied too.”

Chione looked at the window, the bright shining sun piercing through, lighting up the room.

“Can I tell you something?”

Chione asked. Her eyes momentarily looked at him, but quickly returned back to the window.

“Of course.”

“The truth is… I’ve liked someone else before. Back in middle school, but not anymore.”

“Okay…”

Chione glanced at him again, as if asking whether or not he was paying attention, trying to see if he wanted to hear her in the first place. Ethan, meanwhile, focused the majority of his attention on her. He kept a small portion of it aside to watch their surroundings, but for the most part, Chione was the only thing he looked at.

“He himself didn’t care about me, but someone else liked him. I don’t know the details, but some weird rumors started spreading about me.”

Chione said, but then she shrugged.

“Calista was originally not my friend. She even believed the rumors for a short while, until it was proven to be a lie.”

“But you two got very close?”

“Yeah. She regretted it and wanted to become my friend, so that’s how we got together. The other person, who spread the rumor itself, was never found.”

“Oh, you don’t know who she was?”

Chione shook her head, her eyes looking distant and dark.

“No. I do wonder if that person had any ill will in the first place. It’s just… the rumors appeared out of nowhere, but they were shallow and could be disproven easily. It felt more like someone’s private complaints being leaked compared to actual rumors. Some believed it, others didn’t, but no one pushed it forward. It just… floated there.”

“And in the end, that dude didn’t care?”

“No. He doesn’t seem to be the type that cared about those things.”

Ethan let out a wry smile. He could imagine this teenage boy acting cold and uncaring, pretty much like how FireRock was supposed to be.

“So we both got our scars, huh?”

“Yeah, makes us appreciate each other more, don’t you think?”

“Are you flirting?”

Chione giggled at Ethan’s question.

“What if I am?”

Ethan couldn’t believe that this was happening. He was torn between enjoying this moment with her, or questioning whether this moment was true in the first place.

A car rolled down the road in front of their house, speeding east, its loud sound bringing their attention back to the game. They checked their map, finding a new zone appeared.

“The stadium?”

A soccer stadium.

The game didn’t show the number of remaining players, so they couldn’t tell how many people were left.

“Should we go?”

Chione asked. Ethan crouched and went to the window, peeking out to the street below them. It extended throughout the entire district, with tall buildings covering the landscape in the distance. They needed to cross it to get to the stadium.

“Yeah.”

Ethan and Chione rose to their feet and headed down. Instead of taking the road, they made their way through the wide plains extending behind their house. They made their way south, running behind the tall buildings that rose high into the skies north of their position. It filled the left side of their view. Ethan glanced that way. The distance between them and the buildings at the center of the city was around one kilometer, not counting the shorter, smaller buildings filling the city’s outskirts.

It would take roughly less than three seconds to reach them, depending on the weapon type. It required a professional to hit them from that distance, but considering the scale of this event, he needed to be prepared for it. From the plains, they entered the city outskirts, navigating through small and narrow alleyways with concrete buildings on both sides of their path.

Ethan checked his map, trying to figure out the best route. They couldn’t take the main road since there was a high likelihood of campers watching the rooftops. A couple of shots would be enough to take them both down, especially since they didn’t have a vehicle. The back alleyways provided them with plenty of cover, making it a safer option, but the complexity made them hard to navigate.

Ethan kept his eyes on his map, while Chione held her handgun in her hand, her eyes watching their surroundings. Ethan managed to find a high-level energy longsword and kept it in his hand to defend against sudden attacks. A player appeared on a road in front of them. That player noticed them and started firing. Ethan tore his sights from his map and started weaving left and right, all while slashing through his enemy’s rain of bullets. He closed the distance, forcing the enemy to retreat. Using his superior mobility, something he gained after swapping armor with Chione, he caught up with the enemy. The enemy wore a full armor suit, most likely defense. He reloaded his assault rifle, but Ethan sliced through his back, not giving his enemy any chance. The person dropped down to the ground, swapped by a crate. He kneeled down to check its contents. Not finding anything useful, he stood up and guarded Chione who checked its contents.

“How many players do you think are left?”

Chione asked as she scanned its contents. She then stood up, Ethan not seeing any visible change on her. She then looked at the rooftops of the skyscrapers towering beside them. Ethan followed her eyes, but he couldn’t find any signs of life. They were all empty, like an abandoned city.

“I think it’s best to assume the worst-case scenario.”

The game itself had two hundred players for each qualification, divided into a hundred teams. They weren’t told how many qualification matches were held, however, but it was safe to assume that the game could handle at least that many players. From the map size, the entire play zone was significantly larger, thus it wouldn’t be weird if there were more this time.

As to how many of those players were left, it remained a mystery for Ethan. Unlike other games, the loot was spread equally across all the map, with no hot zones or the like. The game also allowed the player to freely choose their spawn point in the sky. Thus the likelihood of early engagements was lower, but that didn’t mean there were none.

Many of the early engagements came from unlucky players running into better-equipped ones, however, either that or unequipped players fighting each other.

For their goals, staying alive was the most important. But for others, the more kills they get and the more damage they dealt, the better the rewards, even if they didn’t win. Instead of hiding for first place and risk getting nothing if they lose without kills, they would rather give it their all now and reach for a better participation reward.

These types of players were the true threat for Ethan. Those who wanted no less than first place would hide and only fight when necessary, but these players, who see him as nothing but a boost to their reward, would do all their can to try and put up a fight. Even if they couldn’t kill them, they at the very least would try to deal some damage, as it also raised their points. Running away or letting them pass wasn’t an option for them. It was kill or be killed.

After confirming that Chione had picked up everything she wanted, he started running again, heading for the stadium. Ethan checked the map, trying to predict where the other players were. East of the city was the stadium, the next zone location. The stadium itself was on the rightmost section of the current zone, which would start to move again within a few minutes. Since the city occupied a large portion of the current zone’s left side, most players should come from the west. This became a large problem, as connecting the city and the stadium was nothing but a single highway, with large spaces of empty fields north and south of it. Taking this highway would bring them under fire from all sides.

“Head south.”

“Roger.”

Ethan and Chione turned right at the next street. Running in front of shops and buildings that occupied both sides of this street, they headed south for the bottom tip of the circle. That tip wasn’t far, but it wasn’t close either. Ethan did some quick calculations, wondering if they would reach it in time. After all, after reaching the bottom tip, they still need to head for the stadium while following the zone’s southeast perimeter. The zone dealt significant damage this late in the game, and they didn’t really have that much medical equipment on them.

The game didn’t allow revives, so players tend to stock up on armor instead, in a way to prevent the damage from happening in the first place. The more things a player brought, the slower they moved, putting another layer of consideration.

“Ethan, a car!”

Chione pointed toward a purple sedan parked in front of an empty store. They headed toward it, Chione jumping into the driver’s seat.

“Eh?”

“Hold on tight!”

“Eh?!”

The second he stepped inside, Chione stomped on the pedal and the car darted away.