Isobell woke Arnel from his nap.

“You have guests,” she said.

Arnel glanced at the digital clock and groggily murmured. “Who is it?”

“Your friends,” she said and left the room.

He winced at the clock. He slept for only two and a half hours. It was still a good nap, but he felt so tired for some reason. One might think that spending the better part of two months, mostly sleeping, would mean that one was well-rested, but it was, in fact, the exact opposite.

He left the bedroom and glanced into the living room and saw Anya, Wei, and another person whom he did not recognize immediately.

“Hey, Arn,” Wei called out to him, raising his hand in greeting.

“Hey, Wei,” Arnel replied, and then nodded to the other two. “Anya, Nagato. Give me a moment.”

The person he did not recognize immediately was Hiroyuki Nagato, the player of Ame. He was a shorter fellow — about the same height as Wei — with black hair and black eyes. He looked elegant in a way. There was something about him, difficult to place, that stood out. Maybe it was his confidence, or something else. Wei said that, in the real world, Nagato was a regional Kendo champion. But that wasn’t quite it.

Arnel did not think long about it as he headed to the bathroom and washed his face. Mostly he wondered why they came to visit him. Was it something important, or was this just a social call? Also, would this be a common occurrence from now on?

He dried his face with a towel and then went back into the living room, where the trio had already occupied the couch.

Arnel took a seat on the sofa. “What’s up?” he asked, reaching for a cup of coffee that Isobell left for the group.

“I figured we may as well come over,” Wei said. “There are a few things we should discuss. But first, have you met Nagato? He plays Ame.”

Nagato politely bowed his head. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Arnel-san.”

Arnel nodded and extended his hand towards Nagato. “It is a pleasure, Nagato… san.” The honorific was strange for Arnel to use, and probably unnecessary. No one, even in Sector 16, used those anymore. Even Wei was fine being called by his first name.

Nagato accepted Arnel’s offered hand, even though it seemed as awkward to him as using honorifics. His grip was surprisingly weak. Was this guy really a martial artist?

“Oh,” Arnel realized, putting his coffee down. “I am sorry. I used your first name.”

Nagato chuckled. “It is fine,” he said. “You can call me Nagato.”

“You can call me Arn,” Arnel replied, withdrawing his hand.

Nagato nodded.

It was strange. Until recently, Arnel almost idolized Wei and Nagato. Maybe idolized was a strong word, but they were both from his school, and they were both Junior Arena champions. It was, in a way, mob mentality of sorts. Whenever his classmates would cheer on Wei and Nagato, he’d felt like he wanted to do it too. After a while, he even believed it.

But now, it was different. Nagato seemed like just another person. Like Wei and Anya. Even the fact that they were strangers was mostly blurred. First and foremost, they were clan-mates now. Nagato knew his secret, and the clan now knew Nagato’s secret. Maybe that was part of why he admitted to being a Calamity so quickly.

“Would you two stop already?” Anya sighed. “We have more important stuff to discuss.”

“Yes, yes. Sorry,” Nagato nodded.

Nagato was seated in the middle, with Wei to his left and Anya to his right. Interestingly enough, Fang was seated in the middle of the couch. Arnel pondered Anya. It was none of his business, of course, but when it came to Nagato, Anya was always very vocal about him.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Arnel asked, looking at Wei.

Wei pondered the question for a moment, and then leaned back on the couch, throwing his arm over the edge. “To be honest, we do have things to discuss, but there’s another reason why we came.”

Anya nodded.

“What’s that?” Arnel asked.

“We are being followed and watched,” Wei said.

Once more, Anya nodded.

“In the real world?” Arnel asked.

Wei nodded. “Yeah.”

Arnel’s eyebrows pulled together as he frowned. Isobell and Thomas did not mention anyone snooping around. Well, technically, they were the ones following and observing him. Could the ones following the others also be failsafes?

“Well, for now, we think they are only following Anya and Emma,” Wei said.

“Emma?” Arnel asked.

“Cassandra,” Wei said.

“Right.” Arnel nodded.

“I swear someone’s been following me to school lately. Today, when we logged out, I looked out my window and I saw a flash,” Anya said.

“A flash?” Arnel asked.

“Yeah, like someone taking a picture.” She must’ve been holding back because only then did fear show in her eyes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Arnel pondered the words. He wanted to know more details, but the conversation was tense. Anya spoke as if she was defending herself — as if no one would believe her.

“All right,” Arnel said and nodded. He didn’t want to bring up words like “proof” or “evidence” to back these claims up. For all he knew, what Anya saw could’ve been a drone reflector glinting off one of the buildings, or a thousand different things. But Anya seemed to believe that it was real. Questioning her sanity would not be a good move.

“Let’s talk motive and suspect, then,” Arnel said. “Who and why?”

“I think it’s Sigil,” Wei said, crossing his arms. “As for why, I think they want to get to you.”

Arnel nodded. That was a likely explanation. If they knew Anya and Emma’s address, as well as who they were in Singularity, then it would be a simple matter to follow them to Arnel’s place and find out his true identity.

“Were you followed here?” Arnel asked.

Wei shook his head. “We did go slowly at first to see if anyone followed us, but then we took a Flyer and bounced around the other Arcologies before coming here,” he explained. He spoke with such confidence as if to suggest that this wouldn’t be the first time he was evading followers. Well, he was very popular at one point.

Arnel nodded. He was satisfied with that answer. Following someone in an Arcology was a difficult thing to do. If there was malicious intent, Theta would flag them as a potential criminal, and preventive police forces would handle it from there.

The only way Arnel could think of to follow someone would be to hire an unrelated person to gather information on someone. But perhaps even that would bring Theta’s attention. The only other way was for a non-citizen to do it. They did not have the chip, so Theta wouldn’t be able to track them.

“Then, we are thinking that they want to know who I am?” Arnel asked. “Or are we talking something more drastic?”

Wei shrugged. .”I hope it’s the former. I’ve heard some things about Sigil. They did not make it to the top with clean hands.”

“What do you mean?” Arnel asked.

“It’s just a rumor,” Wei said. “But I heard they had people assassinated.”

“In the real world?” Arnel asked.

“Of course in the real world!” Anya hissed. “And it is true! It is not just a rumor. They had the leader of One Star assassinated when he was flying in from Sec-Four.”

“One Star?” Arnel asked.

“It’s an Alliance from ten years ago,” Wei explained. “But yeah. His flyer exploded. It was hit by a missile.”

Arnel blinked. How could an Alliance have a missile launcher?

“Officially, they say the ferals did it. And you know what? They probably did. For a price,” Wei said.

Wei’s comm suddenly beeped and he sighed. He pulled out the transparent, slab-of-glass device and grumbled. “I just got flagged.”

Arnel frowned.

“Whatever,” Wei said and shoved the comm back into his pocket. “I’ll deal with it later. It’s just a warning anyway. Let’s change the subject before we all get detention.”

Arnel nodded. “What about Anya though? Maybe we can have her stay over at one of our places for a while?”

Anya shook her head. “I already took care of it. I’ll be staying over at Katarina’s for a while.”

Katarina was a classmate and Arnel remembered that the two were very close friends.

“She’s in our class’s clan, but we are still in touch. We hang out from time to time. It’s fine,” Anya said.

Arnel nodded. “All right then. Emma, then?”

Wei shrugged. “She also said that it has been taken care of.”

“Meaning?”

Wei shrugged again. “I don’t know. To be honest, I think Emma is… not an ordinary person.”

Anya nodded. “Remember what that Adventurer’s Guild lady said about her connections?”

Arnel nodded.

“Well… yeah. You know.” Anya shrugged. “For now, I think we just have to lay low and keep it in the back of our minds,” she said.

Wei nodded. “Yeah. Soon enough, we will know for sure. Depending on how things at Rakab go, we will either become very well known or a footnote in some Alliance’s history. For all we know, these incidents could be completely unrelated.”

Even Anya agreed with that statement. Maybe she was hoping it was true. Still, Arnel misjudged her a bit. Maybe she wasn’t as defensive as he thought she was.

“So, Rakab,” Aren said and nodded. “What should we do with it?”

“That depends on you,” Wei said. “There are other ways to become famous, and to get into the Abyss.”

“I don’t know much about Singularity, but I know enough to say that there really isn’t any other way,” Arnel said. “We cannot get fame anymore, so our only option is to impress people, not NPCs.”

Wei nodded. “I can think of only three ways, but they are all pretty much the same.”

Arnel nodded. “Go ahead.”

“We explore the frontier, is one,” Wei said.

“It would take months, if not years,” Anya said.

Wei nodded. “Yeah. The other one is competing in a tournament. The Summer and Autumn seasonal leagues are coming up. If we make it to playoffs, we’d be guaranteed into the Abyss.”

Arnel pondered this option. “NPCs compete in those events, no?”

Wei nodded. “Yes.”

Arnel shook his head. “I think Aurora’s blessing would give me away. It would create more problems than it is worth.”

“Then your only option is to fight at Rakab,” Nagato said. He had been quiet until now, more like an outsider to the previous topic and conversation than a part of it. After all, Nagato was never close to any one of them, not even Wei.

Wei nodded to Nagato. “Yeah. As long as we can keep your Calamity status hidden, it should be fine. With Nagato on our side, our cover story that we are a rising superstar clan is even more believable. Look at the talent you have,” Wei said, even shamelessly pointing to himself and then Nagato.

“You also have a siege role character in your roster,” Anya said, nodding.

“And you yourself are probably a strategic weapon class,” Wei said.

“Strategic weapon?” Arnel asked.

Wei nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably what your role is. Honestly, your class is busted. More often than not, when people say someone is a strategic weapon, they mean the player, not the class. I can think of only a few people in the world who have both the skill and the class to earn that title.”

Arnel smiled awkwardly. He wasn’t sure if Wei was praising him or telling him that he had to also level up his skill.

“I think,” Nagato began, “So long as they do not attack us with the major Alliances backing them, that we stand more than a fair chance, regardless of numbers.”

Wei nodded. “We will need a fortress, however. I talked to the Adventurer’s Guild, and they are still willing to build a stronghold for us. Whether we finalize giving them building rights or not.”

Arnel nodded. “We may as well go through with that then. As for the building rights, I think we should finalize that deal.”

Wei smiled. “Good. I was thinking the same thing. I will do that when I log in. I have a few ideas for some more things that they can build.”

“As for our first topic,” Arnel said, glancing at every one of them in turn. “We should live together, maybe. After Rakab, we could find a place — a base of operations so to speak.” He also wanted to get away from Thomas and Isobell, or at least, surround himself with more people.

They all nodded to the suggestion.

“Great,” Arnel said. “We’ll figure something out. For now, let’s focus on Rakab and the Labyrinth. I know there’s a Calamity in the Labyrinth — if we kill it, the rewards might help us in the upcoming battles.”

Wei smiled. “Look at you — already starting to even think like someone who plays Singularity all the time.”

Arnel chuckled. Of course, secretly, he did not care about Rakab or rewards. They were all stepping stones towards what he truly wanted. He did not say anything in reply though.

They stayed for a while longer, discussing strategies and backup plans before eventually running out of topics. They simply did not have the information required to make sound plans. They did not know who or how many were coming after them. They only knew that someone would be coming after them.

Somehow, Arnel felt relaxed about the whole thing. However, there was a tiny burning kernel in him that anticipated the coming days. It wasn’t fear. It was excitement. It was the same kind of blood-boiling battle lust that overcame him when he fought Eto.