Darith found himself sitting alone in the cafeteria again. Not only Ryan, but it seemed Jacob was also done with school thanks to the game. Though it bothered him earlier, now he didn’t care so much about where they had gone, he felt pretty happy with himself and his high stats. He started to wonder what other things he’d be able to do with his high intelligence, and just then he conveniently spotted Karin entering the cafeteria, instantly eyeing him. He nervously looked away from the beautiful girl, but was hoping she was walking towards him to give him another quest.

“Hi again, Darith.” Karin smiled as she sat across from him at his empty table.

“H-hi again. Karin, right?” He said, thinking it’d be smooth to pretend he had trouble remembering her name.

“You remembered!” She smiled excitedly, making Darith blush slightly and turn his head away. This gave him time to notice once again the many eyes on him in the cafeteria.

“I know this is a lot to ask, but you did so amazing last time, you really saved me with that homework! I was wondering if you’d-” She started to ask as a quest icon appeared above her head.

“I’d love to!” He replied excitedly.

“Really? That’s so nice of you!” She said as she pulled out her grade 11 math book. His eyes lit up at the sight of it, wondering if he could skim through it and immediately learn grade 11 math. As he pulled the book towards himself he saw the quest accepted message. “Could you bring it to me after school again? Same place as last time.”

“Sure.” Darith shrugged.

“Oh thank you so much, you’re a real lifesaver! I owe you even more!” She added, but Darith was barely listening to her now, his attention was on the book. She stood up from the chair and started to step away, but stopped suddenly. This got Darith’s attention, and he looked up from the book to see her staring wide eyed across the cafeteria with her mouth open.

“Wow...” She whispered as her breath seemed to leave her. Darith turned to see what she was looking at and saw two handsome young men walking into the cafeteria. One he recognized immediately, the other taller man he hadn’t seen before, but a quick glance at the names above their heads told Darith who they were.

Ryan - Level 19

Jacob - Level 17

As he watched them walk towards him in their game character bodies, all girls in the cafeteria seemed to be staring at them.

“What’re you guys doing?” Darith said in disbelief.

“Coming to get you, man.” Ryan replied as the two sat at the table, ignoring the fact that Karin was standing there still, staring at them with her jaw open.

“Not that, I mean, why are you guys looking like that in school?” Darith replied.

“Why not? We both picked human.” Ryan shrugged.

“Haha, yeah, Ryan told me about your cute little tail.” Jacob laughed, his voice much deeper than usual. “But dang man, 29? I thought we were doin good in leveling.”

“I tried calling you guys...” Darith commented.

“We tried you too, seems like it doesn’t work when you’re in the, you know.” Ryan said, stopping when he noticed Karin staring at them. “Can I help you?” Ryan asked.

“Well, I was just wondering, a-are you new h-here?” She asked nervously to Jacob.

“Well yeah girl, as a matter of fact I am. Name’s Jacob. You’re Karin, right?” Jacob turned to face her, winking at her.

“Y-you know my name?” She replied flushed.

“Of course, I know the names of all the beautiful girls at this school.” He replied smoothly, prompting Darith to look at Ryan for an explanation as to what was happening, but Ryan simply rolled his eyes. Karin let out an awkward giggle as she blushed.

“Do you think I could get your number, so we could talk sometime?” She asked shyly.

“How bout you give me yours and I’ll call you, baby?” Jacob said smoothly.

“O-okay.” She said excitedly, quickly pulling out a paper and writing her number on it. “I’m free tonight.” She quickly added.

“That’s great, maybe I’ll hit you up. Me and my boys needa have a talk now though, mind giving us some privacy?” Jacob said.

“Of-of course! Bye!” She smiled, waving like a little girl and holding her bag to her chest before turning and nervously walking away.

“What the heck just happened?” Darith asked in disbelief.

“Well, this idiot here spent the entire weekend raising his Charisma to seduce girls. Only works on NPC’s though.” Ryan sighed.

“That wasn’t an NPC.” Darith commented.

“Non-player characters, yeah, anyone not in the game is considered an NPC, they can even give quests and stuff.” Ryan said.

“How do you not know that much when you went ‘n hit 29 so fast?”

“I’ve been in the game world most of the time, didn’t try much in the real world.”

“It’s crazy yo, you can use all of the stuff in the game in real life!”

“I got my strength up high enough that I can almost lift a car, still working on it though.” Ryan grinned. “Come on, let’s get out of here and do something like a dungeon! I heard some other players saying you can get really good equipment and spells from them.”

“I can’t, still got class.” Darith replied.

“You kiddin me with that shit? Forget class.” Jacob sighed.

“I can’t, made a promise to my mom. Besides, I’ve got to wait for my other party member, promised I’d only do stuff in the game with her.” Darith said.

“Other party member? Did you bring Liana into the game?” Ryan asked, and Darith nodded.

“Shit, your crippled sort-of-sister? How’d that work? What happened to her?” Jacob asked.

“She can walk and everything, it’s amazing!” He said excitedly. “She’s a really good healer, level 28 now.”

“Nice, then let’s wait for your healer and do a dungeon, should make it a lot safer.” Ryan said excitedly.

“How’d you guys level to 19 by the way? Did you get attacked by any other players?”

“Just like you probably, stayed in the guard areas.” Ryan shrugged.

“Guard areas?” Darith asked.

“Yeah, you know, city guards patrolling the area? If you stay anywhere near them then they attack any players that try to PvP.” Ryan replied.

“We didn’t see any guards... What kind of places did you level up in?” Darith asked.

“We were in some field/forest area called Avistion Outskirts. What about you?” Ryan replied.

“A desert and an ice cave... But there weren’t any guards...” Darith said while recalling hearing Avistion before.

“Oh man that sounds rough, so you already had to PvP?” Jacob asked.

“No, not exactly...” Darith replied, but as he spoke the bell simultaneously rang throughout the school.

“Aw man. I hate that sound.” Jacob sighed as Darith started packing his books in his bag along with Karin’s textbook.

“You’re really going to class?” Ryan said with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’s actually really easy now with a high intelligence stat. I can memorize stuff crazy fast.” Darith said excitedly.

“That’s cool. Then let’s meet up after school at your place and go find a dungeon?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah! Sounds good.” Darith smiled back

“Aite, Imma go seduce all the girls that used to make fun of me.” Jacob grinned.

“Don’t you think that’s kind of abusing the game powers? Using it on random people like that?” Darith asked as he recalled Karin’s attitude shift. Something about it bothered him.

“Of course, but who cares! Gotta enjoy this game to the fullest.” Jacob grinned back. Darith looked at him disapprovingly and headed out of the cafeteria towards his class, but the way Karin acted towards him left a sour taste in his mouth. He recalled Jacob’s real appearance, and how Karin would never talk to him like she had under normal circumstances. He then started wondering what would happen if he also raised his Charisma stat, and an image of himself being surrounded by hot, bikini clad women filled his mind. His face went red and he shook his head to clear the thought out.

[Gabriel - Repair]

“You up, man?” Gabriel heard a voice, opening his eyes slowly as he came to. He was laying on a table in a dark room with a pillow under his head, and sat up slowly to see a brown skinned man in a white coat standing over him. Gabriel’s head was pounding, covered in cuts and bruises.

“Yeah.” He replied, rubbing the back of his head.

“Cops got you all over the news, they goin’ all out to find you. Only a matter of time before they start lookin’ up this clinic, you gotta bounce.” He said.

“Yeah.” Gabriel replied, rolling off the table in the lab room onto the floor. He felt a bit dizzy but was able to keep his balance.

“What the hell happened man, I heard our old crew got taken out! And now this, and the cops?”

“It’s better if you don’t know.” Gabriel said, stretching his arms a bit before walking towards the exit of the room.

“Who did it, at least tell me that, I was a part of that crew before too.”

“Tai.”

“He the one that did you up like this?” He asked, Gabriel didn’t reply, just kept walking. “Shit, that little Asian punk? How the f-.” He replied angrily.

“Something wasn’t right about them.” Gabriel commented.

“What’re you gonna do now?”

“Find him and kill him.” Gabriel replied without hesitation.

“Shit, alone? Like this? You’re gonna be the one getting killed. At least let me come with you.” He said.

“Nah, I need you to take care of my mom. She’s gonna need someone to look out for her.” Gabriel said, opening the door and stepping out of the room.

“She’s got you, don’t she?” He replied, following Gabriel out of the room into a lit hallway. Gabriel didn’t reply, he just walked down the hall into an open waiting area of the building with a reception desk on the side. All people in the waiting room had an animal with them, be it dogs or cats, and they all stared at the battered Gabriel as he headed out.

“Don’t do anything stupid man!” His veterinarian friend called to him as he left through the glass door of the building, ignoring the warnings. He stepped out onto the busy city street, the sunlight blinding him a moment as his eyes adjusted. He clenched his fists and started walking down the street in the direction of Tai’s restaurant.

[Darith + Elise - Staring Contest]

Darith nervously walked into the studio room after the final bell rang, spotting Karin already in her dancing outfit across the room with her friends. He also noticed Elise again, sitting on the bench to the side of the room like before, but her blue streaks in her hair had been removed.

“You got rid of the blue?” Darith commented to her, causing her to look up at the chubby boy.

“Yeah.” Elise replied, looking away back to her textbook as she did.

“Oh. I thought they looked really cool though.” Darith shrugged.

“You’re doing more stuff for my sister, right? Karin!” She called across the room reluctantly. “Man servant number 15 is here.” She said sarcastically, making Darith turn red. Karin turned and saw Darith, smiled and ran across the room.

“Could you finish it?” She asked excitedly.

“Yup, really easy stuff.” He replied confidently as he handed her the book with the answers written on a paper tucked inside the pages.

“Thank you so much! I won’t be able to tutor today either, it’s still really busy here.” Karin replied as she took the book and double checked the paper.

“No problem, you can ask anytime!” Darith replied as he watched the experience gain pop up in front of him from the quest completed.

“You’re the best!” She said as she set her book down beside Elise’s bag and went back across the room to her friends. Darith was about to leave until Elise stopped him.

“You know, she’s never going to date you.” Elise said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh, I know.” Darith replied shyly.

“Or kiss you, hug you, hold your hand, she’s just using you.” Elise said, still not looking up from her textbook.

“Yeah, that’s okay.” Darith shrugged.

“That’s okay?” Elise asked, eyebrows raised as she looked up from her textbook at him.

“Y-yeah.” He got nervous having her eyes on him, he couldn’t help but think she was looking at his fat and being disgusted, and couldn’t keep eye contact with her, so pretended to spot something interesting on the wall.

“Why just help someone for nothing?” She asked sounding slightly annoyed.

“Not for nothing, I’m kind of using her too.” Darith said, trying to defend his dignity a bit.

“Using her by doing her homework for her?” Elise said in disbelief.

“Well-” Darith hesitated, he couldn’t answer that he was doing a quest. “I really like math, that’s all.” He shrugged.

“Riight. You like math. Here, then do mine too.” Elise said, holding out her textbook.

“Ah, well-” Darith replied slowly, remembering that Ryan and Jacob were waiting for him. His excitement about going to a dungeon was slowly overpowering him.

“Thought so, it’s only fun to do math if it’s for a pretty girl in a cute little outfit, huh?” Elise said sarcastically as she pulled the book back.

“If that was true, then I’d be doing yours too.” Darith replied to defend himself, only realizing a few seconds later what he was implying. His face then went bright red.

“Riiight.” Elise replied while rolling her eyes at him.

“What I meant was that, well, I mean that you, too, argh nevermind.” Darith sighed in frustration, embarrassment taking over him and causing him to quickly turn and start walking away.

“Not very good at talking to girls, huh.” Elise shrugged to herself.

“N-no, I can talk to girls, I talk to my sister and mom all the time!” Darith spun around to blurt out back to her. She was looking back in her book already, but hearing this made her giggle at him. “What?”

“Well, for starters, you’re so nervous you won’t even look me in the eyes. It’s kind of annoying actually.” She replied.

“I don’t have a problem looking you in the eyes.” Darith said back, sounding like an angry 3 year old now with a bright red face, speaking this long to a girl as pretty her was making his palms sweat profusely as he kept his fists clenched, doing his best to stand in ways that flattered the way he looked as much as possible. It wasn’t helping, Elise could clearly see he was overweight.

“Is that so, then stare at me for 10 seconds.” Elise said, looking up and locking eyes with Darith. He looked back at her as best he could, and as he looked into her deep blue eyes he saw the perfect, soft looking skin around it and tiny strings of blond hair hanging down. Her tiny, cute, perfectly shaped nose, and her beautiful lips. It felt weird, uncomfortable, staring at a girl this pretty for so long made him feel creepy, she was too pretty for someone fat and ugly like him to look at, he thought, and before 5 seconds were up he looked away, causing Elise to laugh at him.

“Is it really that hard?” She smiled. Darith stepped forward and quickly pulled her textbook into his hands.

“Grade 9 math? You’re in grade nine?” He said as he looked from the book at the answers she had written already in her notebook.

“Yeah?” She said, a bit surprised that he took her book away.

“Well, so what if I can’t look at pretty girls, at least I can do math, your answers to 4 and 5 are wrong. Here,” He pulled out a pencil and quickly wrote the answers and their solutions beside her wrong answers. “You’ve got to carry these numbers over properly, otherwise you’ll keep getting wrong answers.” He said, then handed her back the book and turned around, walking out of the room for a second time, this time feeling like he had won.

“Wait! You really like math?” Elise stopped him. He turned to face her again but ended up only looking at her shoes.

“Y-yeah.” He shrugged. Elise hesitated for a moment, recalling Miranda’s words that it was okay to ask for help sometimes.

“I’ll make you a deal, if you help me with my classes I can teach you to talk to girls a bit, that way I won’t be taking it for free like my sister does.” Elise suggested.

“I don’t need help talking to girls.” Darith replied defensively.

“You need help looking them in the eyes when talking to them.” She replied jokingly. Darith didn’t answer right away, he wanted to say no because he didn’t have the confidence to spend time with girls like this, even this conversation was making him sweaty and anxious. He couldn’t imagine spending more time with this girl to teach her anything, what would he say? How would he act? Did he need to dress special? Maybe he’d smell bad. All of these thoughts ran over his mind until he thought about Jacob using his charisma to talk to girls with ease. If he thought of it like that, maybe he could get charisma points from talking to her.

“A-alright.” He replied finally.

“Great!” She patted a spot on the bench beside her, implying he should sit now and teach her.

“O-oh, I can’t tonight, some friends are waiting for me.” Darith replied, feeling pretty cool about having prior engagements. It was his first time really saying no to a girl.

“How about tomorrow then?” Elise asked, not phased by his refusal.

“Tomorrow should be fine.” He replied nervously.

“I’ll see you then!” Elise added, and as she did a quest icon appeared above her head. This made a grin grow on Darith’s face and he hit accept without thinking.

“I accept!” He said weirdly, while poking at the accept button, but to Elise she saw him poking thin air. Darith noticed this and went red again. “See you tomorrow!” He nervously spun around and left the room. Elise raised her eyebrows and smiled to herself at how strange he was, then went back to her textbook.