Masa kindly sent me all the way back to the old mansion. He claimed he was just going to make sure I placed the teleport in a secure spot, but I suspected that he was worried I would get lost again. Tch, I wasn't some Level 1 newbie, you know? I admit that I didn't mind his company and was somewhat sad that we had to part ways soon. He assured me that he was going to be visiting Shyi'eld as often as he could until school started again, and might even be taking advantage of the faster time here to do his homework. Ooh, I hadn't thought about that, not that I had any homework to do.

We stood in the middle of the living room where I had just set my teleport. Masa was going back to Nevda Town before walking to the Kagawa tunnel to hide his teleport somewhere in the vicinity. Once he did that, we should be able to teleport to at least three places at any time. We also agreed to charge the slates up to the maximum charge it could hold before we used them in case of emergencies. I told him that I was probably going to make Nevda Town my base for now and earn money to buy equipment while levelling up. He nodded and said, "I'm going to do the same. Having a goal to work towards is more meaningful anyway."

"Great, well then, I guess I'll see you around then," I said, forcing a smile onto my face. "You can just text me if you ever need someone to do a quest with."

He tilted his head, then gave a quiet chuckle. "You're not going to get rid of me that easily. I still want to visit Sabah and Sarawak, remember?"

"You only have birds on the brain," I retorted, but my grin was genuine this time. "In that case, you can text me the day before you come over so that we can meet up at the Adventurers' Guild, all right?"

"Sounds good to me," he said, patting me on the head before he vanished before my eyes.

I was left stunned at the suddenness of his departure, but couldn't help touching my head where he patted me. That guy! He must have been too shy to see my reaction so he stepped on the teleport and timed it so that he would disappear right after that. Sheesh, how shy could you get?

The grin on my face simply refused to leave as I made my way back home. Just as I stepped through the door of the hut back into Malaysia, I whipped out my phone and texted Muhammad. He informed me that my parents happened to be out again, so I happily returned to my room. They had gotten into agriculture ever since they came to live here, so they were often out sourcing for materials or visiting farms to learn. That was one of the reasons why I had so much time to myself, although they most likely assumed I was holed up in my room as usual.

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When they returned home, I greeted them and we made plans to go to Singapore. They were surprised, but pleased that I had returned. My mother set down her shopping bags and hugged me as she apologised for having to cut my trip short. "Nah, it's all right, I promised Masa that I'll see him again soon," I told her.

"Well, I understand that you want to see your boyfriend again soon, but airplane tickets are not cheap, you know," said my mother, shaking her head. My dad merely gave a deep sigh and shrugged.

"Ah...firstly, he's not my boyfriend, and secondly, I meant I would be seeing him online," I explained. "We're playing an adventure game together."

Well, I wasn't exactly lying, was I? It just happened to be a real adventure "game". My mum gazed at me and I tried to hold her gaze for as long as I could. She finally echoed dad's sigh and said, "Anyway, now that you're back, we'll be returning to Singapore tomorrow morning. Muhammad will be taking care of the mansion, so your dad will drive the car."

"All right, then I'll go and pack my bag," I told her as I turned to go back to my room. "So, how long will we be staying there? It would be nice if I had time to meet up with some of my old secondary school friends too."

"I suppose we can stay a week or so," said my father, scratching his head. "I may enjoy driving, but going back and forth hours at a time is exhausting."

Yeah, if only we had teleports here too, I thought to myself. Come to think of it, we had only discovered portals in Malaysia and Japan. What if there were portals to Shyi'eld scattered all over the world? Maybe there were many more "players" that we just hadn't met yet! This was an exciting idea, but my more realist side warned that not all the players would be as nice as Masa. Feyril mentioned that prospective players were tested to see whether they were "worthy", but their criteria might not be the same as what I expected. After all, they had chosen me and I was distinctly ordinary.

I wanted to raise my Level and Skills to be high enough to protect myself, at least. Well, being the same or slightly above Masa was a more achievable goal to start. But for now, I would just enjoy my break in Singapore and share my experience in Japan with my friends. I was sure they would be just as fascinated to hear about how life was like there apart from what was depicted in anime and manga. Maybe I could even brag a little about sightseeing with my handsome local guide! I stifled my chuckle as I dashed up the stairs to my room.