“And what exactly do you mean by that?” glared Michelle as she tightened her grip.

“All right. That’s enough, you two,” I spoke as I looked at them, making Marie sigh for a second before her expression changed. Eyes widened she looked at me as if she failed to understand my words.

“Huh? What did you say?” Michelle, who was even more baffled at my words, turned around with a rather stupefied look. Perhaps maybe this ‘Mikael’ acts like a puppy in her presence that she is shocked that I would say something like this?

‘Did I fail to act my part?’ I thought before sighing on the inside. Well, I wasn’t going to be bossed around by anyone anyway so I couldn’t care less.

Removing my innocent cover, I then looked at her with a serious gaze as my eyes matched with hers,

“I said. That’s… enough.”

She took a step back with her expression filled with more and more questions.

“Are you going to help us clean?” I asked with the same serious voice. Mustering up some courage she spoke,”O-Of course not. I am not going to-”

“Then sit,” I spoke as I then signed at the empty seat opposite to where Eliza was sitting before turning back at her. She was looking at me as her eyes were questioning things more and more.

It’s kind of an attitude you can say? As someone who has killed over hundreds of people, there is bound to be a difference in how I speak or how my presence is different from others. Normally I would hide it but this time… let’s just say I decided to show a bit more of my true nature to increase the impact of my words here.

“Do I need to repeat myself?” I asked as I put my hands in the pockets and moved one step closer to her.

“N-No… I will sit,”she spoke in a low timid voice as she gulped before slowly moving towards the chair, sitting quietly without making a single noise.

I observed the others looking at me with a surprised gaze before I took a deep sigh as I raised my hands up, stretching my arms with my finger crossed.

“Well.. let’s get back to cleaning then,” I said before completing my stretch and picking up the broom again.

For the next 2 hours, we cleaned the entire house, as everyone peeked at me at almost every other second. Though it is how it should be. I mean, after the stunt that I just pulled, it would be more odd if they acted normal.

The one who was observing me the most was Michelle herself. Though luckily, neither she nor anyone else uttered even a single word. They just kept looking at me, waiting for the work to be finished.

And after that was done,

I saw Daniel and Marie talking about something, while Eliza was just drinking water slowly and slowly, sipping it from the glass that I gave her. As for Michelle, she just stayed there for a few more minutes, before standing up, and slowly walking towards me.

‘Hmmm… what does she want now? I don’t want to start another drama now,’ I thought as I looked at her reaching towards me and speaking,

“I never thought you would speak to me in that way.”

‘Guilt tripping me?’ I thought as I looked at her slight glare, her hands fidgeting as if she was disappointed in me. Though I was used to these tricks because of my former girlfriend in my past life who cheated on me…

“Michelle. What day is it?” The first thing was to change the topic. I can’t win against her if we go with what I said before.

“Huh? It’s April 14th… wait! Why are you calling me that?” she asked with a surprised expression as she realised that I was calling her ‘Michelle’ and not ‘Mikki’

“Calling you what? Isn’t your name Michelle?” I asked moving forward with this topic, making her even more baffled as she suddenly stopped her thoughts.

“That… but… you didn’t call me with that name before,” She spoke with slight hesitation and I smiled at her as I thought ‘Check,’ and continued,

“Do you like me calling you Mikki?” I asked before smiling as I continued,”I don’t think you ever said you appreciated me calling you that.”

It may have been a gamble, but my experience of dealing with toxic people says that she never did anything like that.

“That… that is… “ she grew more agitated as she looked at me and deep on the inside I thought again,’Check again,’ before I moved another step,

“Actually. Can you answer a question of mine, Mikki?”

She just looked at me wondering what I would ask next and,”Can you tell me what I mean for you? We have been together for quite some time so… can you tell me what you think of me?”

‘Checkmate,’ I thought as I looked at her mouth slightly opening as words failed to come out of her mouth. I noticed Marie and Daniel looking at the exchange with a really interested gaze from a distance.

‘Wait… Is Daniel recording this? That bastard!’ I thought on the inside. I can’t afford to change my expression right now, otherwise I would have beaten him up.

“I thought we were friends,” she finally spoke as a single tear fell off her eye and I almost laughed on the inside as I moved closer to her, held her by the shoulders and spoke,

“Of course, we are.”

“No… that’s…” running out of words, she just looked at me. What? Did she want me to be her lap dog or something? Not even in your dreams, sucker.

‘Now that we have established a stable ground. Let’s begin round two,’ I thought as I continued,

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Listen Michelle. You are a really great friend of mine. You really are. And so is Marie. Now I can’t really see two of my close friends fighting, can I?”

I got what I want, now I need to make sure to close the whole thing, tight enough that she would need to think ten times before approaching me.

“No… that is… I was just talking with her-”

“It’s all right. My bad. You do know that I am an over thinker right? I am sorry, I just didn’t want anyone to be hurt here… it’s my birthday. I hope you understand,” I said as my expression was really ‘sad’. Her eyes failed to comprehend the situation as she wanted to speak, but didn’t know what to speak.

“It’s all right. I know I have hurt you… I am really sorry… I shouldn’t have done that,” I said as I stood up before moving away from her as I continued,”I hope you enjoy the party.”

‘Chapter close,’ I thought as I made sure to close most of the opening. Now the only way to start another solid argument was either to be too smart or a complete idiot. Michelle was neither.

“I… I just came here to wish you,” she spoke as she turned, trying to strike a conversation.

‘Even though you didn’t wish me even once,’ I thought as I smiled at her,”Thank you so much Michelle. I really appreciate it.”

“I stayed up all night to select a gift for you,” she said, trying to start another one.

‘Even though you didn’t bring any when you came here,’ I thought as I spoke with the same smile,”I will be looking forward to it.”

And then a silence covered the entire area. Nobody was speaking. Michelle was just looking at me with a deep look, her face almost teared up as she moved slowly towards the door as she spoke,”I… despise people like you. All men are worms. Burn in hell!”

And then she stormed out of the house as I looked at her blankly before turning at Daniel who was as amazed as I was.

“You got that?” I smiled as I looked at his smartphone and his grin widened even more as he spoke,”All in high definition.”

“Pfft… Hahahahahaha! You guys are… hahahaha… “ Marie burst out laughing as she fell on the ground. Holding her stomach, she started laughing more and more, and looking at her even Daniel and I started laughing out loud.

For the next few minutes, we kept laughing as Eliza just looked at us silently, before moving towards the door and closing it.

After the laughter calmed down a little, Marie looked at me with a cheerful smile as she asked,”say Mikael, where did you learn to speak like that? For a second, it felt like you were a totally different person.”

“Well that, huh? Actually. I was reflecting what had been going on all this time, so I searched on the internet on ways to… manipulate people into speaking the truth… “ a slight evil smile formed on my face as she looked at me dumbfounded with an equally evil smile forming on her face,

“You didn’t!”

“I just learnt a few key words and steps… that’s all. Other than that, I just used her words against her… not the first time she had tried something like that on me,” I spoke with a smirk making both of them shake their heads.

“Our poor innocent Mikael is no more,” Daniel prayed with his eyes closed.

“Our innocent Mikael is no more,” Marie joined him with the same serene expression.

-Bonk

-Bonk

“Ow!”

“Ow!”

I hit both of them with the broom in my hand as I shook my head before asking,”what next now?”

Caressing his head, Daniel spoke,”I brought UNO. Wanna play?”

“Sure,” I said as I stood up, while they did too.

“UNO!!!” Eliza spoke cheerfully as she joined us too and all four of us went into the room, as we started playing UNO for the next hour or so. Time passed as the games changed, we laughed out every now and then, soon evening came and the bell rang.

-Ding Dong.

“Coming!” I shouted as I ran towards the door and found mom standing in front of the door with a big cake in her hands. Taking that cake from her, I moved inside the room.

“Good evening, Mom,” I said as I placed that cake while Daniel and Marie wished her as well.

Eliza ran and hugged mom, making us all smile as I opened the cake and took out a plate that Daniel brought from the kitchen. Marie brought the knife and the candles, and soon we cut the cake, celebrated with only the five of us, before the night fell.

“Goodbye Mikael. We will be busy for the entire month or so starting tomorrow, dad said that Arcadia Online will begin from next week and we need to help him out with the work. I wish I could help you out but even I don’t know what is going on. All I could say is what I said last week, make sure to play the game from day one. It might change your entire life,” he spoke with a real serious voice and I nodded with equal seriousness, as the three of them bid farewell to me, I nodded at him thanking them from all my heart.

The door closed as I smiled and happily moved into my room as I spoke,”I will be going to my room for now.” Looking at my bright smile, mother chuckled as she answered,”Sure.”

Closing the door from the inside my expression changed as the happy go lucky expression vanished and a really surprised expression replaced it.

‘What the fuck! Is this really a parallel world?’ I thought as I couldn’t find a single expression of pretentiousness in Daniel or Marie’s eyes before.

Not wasting time, I used my smartphone to check up on a few things. And after searching for another hour upon hour,

“Hmmmm…. This is a bit troublesome,” I thought as I looked at all the information I gathered through the internet.

Strictly speaking, not everything was changed. Most of the things were similar to my past, in fact almost everything was the same.

‘Except somewhere around 2072-75, something changed around that time,’ I thought as I looked at the collected pieces of information. Many companies that were supposed to be at their peak right now, were now nothing but a mere small market, while others whose names I haven’t even heard, were leading the industry now.

“Let’s calm down for a few moments… Let’s start from the start… what did Charles say before…”

{“It’s the last bullet… Make sure it doesn't go to waste.”}

‘Last bullet… there were bullets before that…’ my eyes closed as I thought of a certain possibility…

“Another Regressor?” I thought before something else came into my mind. But then…

“Why didn’t Charles use that gun on himself then?” Clearly he could have used the gun on himself… or was there something else there to it?

‘I need to find Charles,’ I thought as I recalled Charles and began searching for information about him in my memories. If I am not wrong, he should be still preparing for the Police Examination.

‘What was the University again? Hmmm… Umeria University was it? I guess I am lucky it’s in the same town as I was,’ I thought as I realised the University wasn’t that far from here.

“Let’s visit him tomorrow. The more I delay, the more things might get complicated,” I decided as I then began searching for the information about other things including Arcadia Online, and see if there was any change in that too. And before I knew it, midnight came and

-Click!

The door opened with mom glaring at me as she caught me using the smartphone while also writing something.

“What are you doing?” she asked with a piercing gaze.

“Uh… porn?” I answered, making her irk out as she took out her slipper and threw it at me.

“Sleep!” she ordered before taking the slipper and closing the door with a bang.

I chuckled a little before sleeping with a blissful smile on my face, while also caressing my forehead where it was hurting a little.