When Zen and Damian arrived at the rendezvous point, Liu Feng was already bored out of his mind. He’d killed several monsters that charged at him and earned some interesting items. The injured student was slowly recovering but not fast enough. The recovery told Liu Feng that the injury during the event would not be permanent. It was a concerning confirmation.
“You’re here,” the long-haired man smiled.Zen nodded and looked at the number of unusual animal corpses surrounding his terrifying sworn brother.“What are these?”Shrugging, the Chinese man expressed disinterest. However, he held up the new loot he collected from killing these beasts.“I got these from killing them. Are they useful?”Confused, Zen came closer to Liu Feng, side-stepping the corpses carefully. Damian ignored their discussion, more interested in the corpses as he questioned the other students for a personal recount.Reaching for wJust an hour into the game, everyone forgot about their initial sleepiness. If anything, they were pumped with adrenaline, running in every direction. Some ran for their lives from monsters, some ran in search of targets, and others ran to avoid getting targeted.Zen ran to look for a new babysitter with Damian in tow. The cyborg did not feel breathless, and Zen was envious. He wanted mechanical body parts too! He bet he could learn to use robotic limbs faster than the gym could build muscles on his scrawny body.By now, the game had changed drastically. Player map parts were no longer high in demand, and Guild Survivors had all five map pieces consolidated. Akiko had already located the first treasure and was holding onto it while she searched for a new one that Zen tasked. Likewise, Oritha and Sasha were on the lookout for their second treasure of the game.Liu Feng, Zen and Damian were supposed to be searching for the last treasure when they bumped into someone the
It was dark, and every tiny sound was magnified ten times by the echo in the cave. Zen was afraid. He felt his fear escalated when he heard Johan’s voice echo.The madman knew where they were. How? Zen had no idea. Nobody was in the area when he first found the cave, with Damian following behind him. The area tracker showed nothing. How did Johan know there were people in here?“Come out, come out, wherever you are! I smell more than rats in this place. Don’t worry. I won’t bite. I’ll just drink your blood from the bloody pieces of your flesh. HAHAHAHAH!!”Trembling but holding his breath and doing his best to erase his existence the way Liu Feng taught him, Zen shifted his body in front of Damian, pushing the cyborg closer to the wall.While Damian appreciated the gesture of bravery and his attempt to uphold Zen’s protection service, he knew it wouldn’t work. Johan “Terrorist” Bin Hashim gained his repu
Twenty minutes flew by very quickly. Without any threats for the rest of the game, Zen settled into a more relaxed mode, opting to do silly things like build sandcastles and jump the artificial waves at the beach while his two most powerful party members slogged.Was this really ok? Damian could understand if Sasha joined him to amuse the child-like gamer. However, when the Amazonian joined in with the sand sculpting contest they hosted and dragged him into helping her to build a sand totem, Damian had to question their sanity.Why were they having a beach party when people were frantically fighting for their lives in this event? Didn’t they just escape a narrowly close death experience?“What’s wrong?” Oritha frowned. “Your hands have stopped moving. I still need five more compact sand bricks.”Staring at her, the cyborg studied her. There wasn’t a lot of hate anymore for some reason.“Didn’t you hate me
Everything was up to Damian now. Zen tried to squash all his feelings. Whatever the cyborg chose, he respected it. Zen did not want to regret freeing Damian even if they could not be in the same party.Akiko and Liu Feng did not remain idle either. They distributed the blank map parts between themselves, so each person had sixty-one map parts. Hopefully, it was enough to secure two rooms in the luxury dorm. Moving rooms now would be a massive pain, and they couldn’t afford to lose their guild gathering place.Damian looked at the system notification. He already knew what he had to do. There should be cameras watching him now and many famiglias paying close attention to him. There was no better time to do this.“I would like to decline. Sorry, everyone. I can’t come home right now. If anything, I want to take this opportunity to make an important announcement.”For once, there was more attention on Damian Gorski than on Zen. The gamer held
After the event concluded, most students chose to return to sleep. Damian decided to pack up his things as he was in the last place of the latest event. He had to move rooms when the evacuation notice came. The cyborg had no idea how he would fit all his machinery in a room any smaller than this.Earning himself a Class C room wasn’t easy. After stacking the bed vertically towards a wall, he only managed to get everything he needed to fit in it. The deluxe room had a little more space than a standard room which couldn’t fit Damian’s charging station through the door. Now that he had to downgrade to a basic room, the cyborg worried that people would steal his workshop if he left it outside his room.With a heavy sigh, the cyborg looked at his packed workshop. It was sad having to say goodbye to this spacious room. He still had a lot of work to do even if the orders were on pause, thanks to his whistle-blowing stunt earlier. Not all their clients were
As soon as Damian left, Zen started preparing breakfast. There was no point returning to bed if he had to wake up in two more hours to make breakfast. It didn’t hurt to start earlier. The members of Godly Food had similar ideas as they excused themselves. Akiko and Sasha headed back and prepared the room for a guild debrief while Oritha informed Zen to send her a message as soon as breakfast was ready. The Amazonian couldn’t miss her daily workout.Within moments, only two people remained in the kitchen. The blind man didn’t mind spending his early morning in silence with Zen. He remained silent as the shorter teen worked. The dutiful chef didn’t forget his hospitality and served a cup of Liu Feng’s favourite tea after the water boiled.“Sorry,” the blind teen apologised when Zen served his oolong tea.Why was he apologising?Before Zen could refuse the apology, something more shocking happened. Liu Feng stood up and lowe
Soon after they cleared the air, Liu Feng received a private message from Damian informing them he had moved all the equipment into the hallway outside the spare room and was waiting for access. Thankfully, the guild meeting was in progress, so nobody saw the cyborg on their way to the meeting room. According to Damian, Liu Feng’s special order had also arrived.“The microwave and fridge have arrived,” he told Zen. “I’m going to help register Damian’s access to the new room while he helps us install the new appliances. We’ll host the celebratory feast in our room after the guild meeting.”Nodding, Zen bade Liu Feng goodbye as the busy man left to help their newest party member settle in his new room. The cyborg hardly left his room, so nothing should happen. Even if someone spotted him in their dormitory, it would be alright. His sworn brother would be there to handle it.As Zen busied away cooking breakfast for the guil
There was a reason why Damian Gorski never attended parties, apart from how he never received any invitations. His family threw celebrations regularly, but the cyborg would often opt not to participate. Firstly, he couldn’t eat anything. Secondly, he wasn’t a social butterfly. The attention exhausted him, and while he loved them dearly, being in their presence was simply too much. Damian preferred the solace of his cold laboratory, tinkering with the latest invention instead. His family understood his eccentric personality and did not force it. However, the same could not be said about Zen and his party. With the Seer personally escorting Damian to the main room, he could not refuse.“He’s here!” Liu Feng announced as he entered the room. All eyes turned to their newest party member eagerly as the tantalising smell of food invaded the Seer’s nostrils. Was that fried dough sticks and black coffee?To maintain privacy from the prying eyes