Chapter 52

~ Her Thoughts ~

SW/SW/SW

Elvaria did not even realize that her avatar’s face was a complete reflection of Kail’s little sister’s face. In all her life, she didn’t even know until she met the girl in question. The hairstyle, her brows, the shape of her eyes, her small nose, and her lips… her features were the exact split of Elvaria.

…and the conclusion? Nothing.

She didn’t want to know where the heck Kail was, nor care about his disappearance. All she cared about was Ace. He was missing, but he had been logging in until now. A big company couldn’t have overlooked this simple bug since this game was not a beta anymore. If anything, it should’ve been fixed. And her avatar having the same face as Kail’s sister had nothing to do with that.

Speaking of Kail, his whereabouts and the police being reluctant to solve the case were also suspicious enough that they worried her. She hadn’t had serious trouble that needed police intervention so she didn’t know what they usually did, but was the police this… lax?

Goodness, she needed to refocus her aim! Her first priority was to find Ace, not Kail! She had tons of questions ready for him! How dare he leaving her alone like this?

A small gasp escaped from Elvaria’s small lips when her eyes captured a familiar figure. He was sitting in the corner of the room, crossing his arms and seemingly sulking. That face, that hairstyle…

…it was Ace!

While Elvaria did well to hold the swelling emotions deep within, she just wanted to run and gave him a tight hug, but she resisted. She didn’t want to embarrass him in public.

Calmly she took step forwards, her heart beating like crazy as she studied his features. He looked older and somewhat… crueler? However, Elvaria just couldn’t shake the feeling that he was Ace. He had to be.

He had to be…!

“Is this seat taken?” when she spoke, his broad shoulders tensed almost immediately.

However, if he was indeed Ace, why would he give her that foul look? No, her intuition couldn’t be wrong… she must’ve mistaken that look as contempt.

He just nodded, lips set in a tight line.

She had to make sure he was Ace all along, “Are you new here?”

“…yes,” Elvaria held the urge to cringe. His voice was awfully… hoarse. She almost mistook it for a monster’s voice.

“Oh, that makes the both of us! This is so exciting! I’m Elvaria, by the way. Oh, silly me… of course you already knew,” she referred to the name above her head, showing who she was. “…so, what level are you? My friends helped me reached level thirty seven.”

He appeared reluctant to answer, “…one thirty.”

“Oh, my god! Thirteen hundred! You’re way above me!”

“…I was helped,” somehow Elvaria felt that he was lying, but he maintained eye contact with her the entire time. He couldn’t be, could he?

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Hmm, really? You look like someone who needs no help. In a good way,” she quickly added, fearing that he might have misunderstood her meaning.

He nodded silently and focused his gaze on the garden outside, ending the conversation. But Elvaria wouldn’t have it that way, so she murmured, “My friend… he was missing.”

0000

“Who the hell is this girl?” Johan sipped his melon juice as he looked at the big screen in front of him. “Coming in out of nowhere and talking bullshit.”

“We can track her IP address,” a familiar bespectacled woman spoke, halting her coding for a brief moment, “if you want, sir.”

Johan studied the girl’s expression. It was just him or she seemed… giddy at the prospect of talking to his puppet. He snorted, not quite understand how a teenager could fall in love with someone so unreal. What a silly teenager crush.

“Just leave her be. She’s no threat to the project.”

With that decision, Hilda’s life was miraculously spared…

0000

“Really?” he arched a brow, seemingly uninterested.“Can you just PM them?”

Elvaria shook her head no, “It’s not as simple as that. He’s blocked my account, so I can’t send messages anymore,” then she inclined her head to see him in the eyes, “isn’t that just cruel?”

“…it is.” Elvaria studied his face, but sadly found nothing. He seemed to be incapable of projecting emotions, which was weird. But Elvaria wouldn’t give up just like that! She had to push harder!

She had her fingers interlocked and slowly murmured, “The weird thing is… he is logging in all the time, but he hasn’t showed himself at all. It’s as if he was isolating himself in the world of game. No matter how beautiful or perfect this world is, he has to realize that this isn’t real. It’s just codes.”

As soon as she finished talking, Elvaria noticed apparent changes in his facial expression. His scowl deepened and his jaw hardened. His normally cold, bottomless eyes were now engulfed in unspeakable fury.

…and in that instant Elvaria knew true fear.

There was something unearthly about him that was capable to break the border between virtual and real world. She had no idea what that was, but it terrified her to the core. Her knees were trembling and hands shaking under the table…

…she was scared…

…so scared…

When the bell signaling the start of guild battle rang, she sighed in relief. She had a hunch that it had saved her from a fate worse than death. Reluctantly she waved goodbye. Even with her back facing him, she could easily feel his hostility as she followed the rest of Travonka members to the teleportation sphere.

Could it be that he was Ace?

0000

As soon as Kail stepped outside of the waiting arena, someone had already waited for him. Crossing his arms and leaning against the wall was LordDPS himself.

Amber eyes met bottomless ones.

“…can we talk?” he cautiously asked.

0000

The great arena was unlike any she had imagined it would be. It wasn’t based on Roman gladiatorial arena. Rather, it was a huge deserted capital. Where the cloud would be blue, this one was murky purple and there was no wind blowing.

Looking back, Elvaria was met by a swirling prismatic crystal as big as a one story house. She tilted her head, not entirely sure what it was.

“Welcome to the 87th guild war with I, the esteemed and beloved speaker you all adore!” a cheerful male voice spoke out of nowhere. “The theme of today’s guild war is desecrated capital! We’ve hidden multiple single-use spells in this arena, so use them to your advantage! You have three hours to either annihilate the enemy’s guild master or destroy the crystal in their base camp! If the result ends in a draw, then the winner will be decided by the least amount of death! Remember, if you can’t revive your teammates less than five minutes, it’s your loss! They won’t ever come back to the arena!”

Elvaria effortlessly summarized what he had said. Travonka had three winning conditions in this battle: kill the enemy’s commander, destroy their crystal, or kill the enemies as much as possible while keeping an eye on Travonka’s death count. It was quite simple. To be honest, she had expected more complicated rules.

She turned on her heels and gave the swirling crystal a long stare. This crystal represented their lives. If it got destroyed, then Travonka would lose and ultimately had to step down from rank 17th (out of 56 guilds). It wasn’t such a big number, but DPS said it took forever for them to remain in what they currently were.

Elvaria nodded, finally understood what the crystal supposed to be.

“Make use of buildings for protection and ambush, and lay waste to the opponent just like the theme that’s presented before you! Let the war begin!!!”

Elvaria placed a shaky hand on her chest in attempt to tone down the loud beatings in her heart. The energetic cheer and the heated atmosphere... they sent a chill down her spine.

So this what a guild war felt like…

Summoning her rapiers, Elvaria steeled her determination to win.