<>

“Midnight,” spoke Jin, his voice a magnificent boom across the hollow narrowness of the halls.

Front and center, his back face towards me, walking in the lead, striving towards a goal equivalent of a needle in a haystack.

Flashes of a translucent border, glimpses of a pale murky white, could be seen just over his shoulders. His hand arched, tapping away at something just beyond sight.

“12 days in,” He spoke again when I didn’t answer, “Should be cause for celebration.”

I rolled my eyes, “Wouldn’t that look good on a banner. ‘Congrats. You didn’t die. Keep it up,’ really has a nice ring to it when you think about it.”

Quietly, I heard a sigh, “The bright side will always be dim when you’re around, huh?”

“Bright?” I asked, cocking my head and looking all around, “What bright?”

A groan, tilting downwards, he shook his head, “Again, a happy little ray of sunshine you are.”

“Sunshine?” Again, I perked my eyes to the darkness that surrounded us, “What sunshine?”

“Okay, shut up.”

“Your wish is my command.”

“Is it now?” He glanced sideways, eyebrows arched in question, “Then I wish you’d be a little bit more specific with where you want to go.”

Evidently, Jin had gone weary over the course of our expedition. The dragging noise of his feet, the occasional feeble groaning expressing mild discontent… I’d even dare say having only me as company does not help at all with morale.

“Room with booby-traps,” I repeated for what seemed like the 8th time already, “Can’t get any more specific than room with booby-traps.”

Another groan, he groans a lot, “I’ve brought you to at least 6 different rooms with booby-traps already. Can only remember so much about the game, Sora, I’m struggling to recall any more right now as it is, how long do I have to keep touring you around the place?”

“Until we find the right one,” I stated with finality. “Right one being where we will find our next team member.”

“Bright red gal named Arishia,” Jin said gruelingly. “I know, I know… going through all this trouble, she better be worth it.”

I felt my face scrunched and my lips tighten, “She’s… well, she’s ‘special’ to put it… normally? Besides we find her, then we also find team members 5 and 6.”

“Some guy you saved, oh, and yes,” A tone-deaf chuckle, “I’m sure Ayako will be absolutely delighted to see me again since we last saw each other.”

“To be fair, she does has every right to be pissed at you. As do I.”

Jin looked back again, blatantly unamused, “That doesn’t help.”

I smiled, “You’re welcome. Now eyes front, keep looking.”

“Bossed around by a teenager,” His eyes turned to the ceiling. “Oh, Jin, just where did you go wrong in life, huh?”

Three and four vacant rooms later, progress was still at a standstill. The devil in red was nowhere in sight through the routes we’ve taken.

They’re residing in a chamber to the southeast. That’s what Sukuinote had said.

Probably should have taken his words with a grain of salt, because we couldn’t get anymore southeast than this. Already we’ve exhausted every room on this side of the dungeon yet still, Arishia and the others continued to elude us.

Through our worthless floundering, I fully expected Jin to be ready with a word or two regarding our lack of headway. God knows I needed to vent my frustration. Yet with every wrong room we’ve entered came only a small click of his tongue and nothing more.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Soft gentle whirring following every gesture of his hands, the menu hologram fronting him grew sizeably past his demeanor, taking space and sight away from the front.

I heard him mutter under an irritant breath and my curiosity couldn’t be contained any longer.

“Probably should have asked this twenty minutes ago, but, what the hell are you doing with your menu?”

He looked at me, a glance unfocused, before turning to his menu once more.

“Taking back my access.”

“Access to…?”

“Things I used to have,” He elaborated, far too engrossed in his own little world to bother for much talk. “Admin privileges, essentially.”

“Right…” I nodded my head, “How’s that going for you?”

“How do you think it’s going?” He said in a grouch, expelling a loud defeated whimper as he swiped the menu close. “Forget it! Made it as far as the command console, and that’s how far I’ll ever get without someone else granting me authority.”

The stomps of his feet onwards made evident the simmering anger manifesting inside. Deciding it wise to keep my mouth shut, I trailed along after him to the next 3 rooms that still held nothing of interest.

Then in the midst of things, hoarse snarling from a corner we rounded, fast approaching through the veil of darkness.

“Here comes another,” Jin spoke in annoyance, “They don’t even have to look at you to even know you're here now.”

We started a sprint to an opposite end and took a different route, much longer, and much more convoluted to our destination, much to our dismay.

He had a single eye on me, a glance suspiciously sharp and accusatory.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I told him, distancing myself away. “Like it’s my fault I’m their utmost priority now. You said it yourself, I’m marked for death, I thought we’ve gone over this.”

But it was obvious he still wasn’t in the mood for much chatter.

“Just keep walking,” Jin mumbled.

Quiet time lasted for another solid 30 minutes before being disrupted by a noticeable ‘ping!’ on my HUD, bearing some news that was somewhat nice, I guess.

I tapped on it, read it, and relayed it all onto Jin as we continued our search.

“Tayuma got his party under control, it looks like. NPCs dead, some on low health but no casualties.”

“That’s good,” He said in a tone considerably lighter. “What else did he say?”

“Uh… says here he also tried convincing some fellas to join our little party,” Jin met my eyes with a rousing interest only to concede to disappointment as I shook my head. “None wanted anything to do with me.”

“Of course… of course,” He said, his lips thinning. “Me being a party member probably doesn’t sound too well in a recruitment speech either, right?”

I scrolled through the message, “Mmm, they hate you.”

“Lovely people, I’m sure,” Jin said under a heavy breath. “Just… y’know…”

“Angry people,” I finished for him.

“Yeah.”

A small flick upwards and I’ve finally reached the end of Tayuma’s message, “He says he’s gonna try again anyway, also says to keep him posted once we find who we’re looking for.”

“Looks like he’ll be waiting for a quite a while, then,” Jin planted a hand on a wall’s edge as we turned a corner, “Not a single soul in sight for almost 2 hours now.”

“Jin, what’s this?”

“Mere ramblings of a tired old fool, don’t mind me.”

“No, Jin - there’s… my menu, there’s something new on it.”

Our footsteps ceased their echoes.

Exploring was placed on hold in favor for an oddity taking form in the luminous grey glow of my menu screen as an option listed down below all others, displayed in bold black letters spelled the word, <>

“There,” I said to Jin, pointing to it as he drew up beside me. “Accidentally scrolled down instead of closing the menu, and there it was all the sudden.”

The silence that followed was filled with multiple happenings, particularly in regards to Jin.

I watched his expression swiftly changed one after another. First came distrust and annoyance, secondly arrived staggering awe as his jaw fell open, third and fourth were incredulity and utter confusion as his gaze repeatedly shifted from the menu to me.

‘How and when?!” He said in a strangled whisper, fingers ruffling his hair to frazzles, “Sora - An hour ago would have been nice!”

In my head, gears were turning, knobs were twisting, and I met with his gaze with caution, “I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that what I have here is actually-”

“The Admin Dashboard, yes!” Jin shouted to the vacant air, an arm raised in triumph, “Why do you have it?”

My eyes wandered upwards, deep in recollection, and vaguely scooped up a memory of hands interlocking with one another.

“Sukuinote,” I finally remembered, feeling my eyebrows furrow, “But he said I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it.”

“Doesn’t matter!” Jin said, his eyes suddenly lit with the burning blaze of vigor, “I’m here, I know what to do.”

“It’s only Level 1 access though,” I replied, taken aback by his enthusiasm. “Merely a spectator - the hell can we do with that?”

Then, far from what I thought even conceivable, Jin flashed the widest smile I’ve seen on a man as he answered, “Well for starters, finding the rest of the gang just got a whole lot easier.”