Ryu logged out after narrowly escaping his death, and immediately his stomach rumbled as he found himself unexpectedly hungry.

Ryu took off his headset and headed for the kitchen.

“Dinner will be ready in a bit,” said Caragh, spotting him as he walked in.

Ruri was lying on the couch listening to music, with the TV playing the 6 o’clock news in the background. Ryu grabbed a glass of water before taking a seat at the table. A few minutes later Caragh brought the food to the table and everyone took their seat to begin eating.

“So why’d you finish early today?” said Caragh.

Ryu was pretty sure Ruri would have told her already, so he assumed she was trying to start a conversation.

“I finished my work early, so my boss said I can leave. How was your day?”

The conversation lasted a few more seconds, most of it forced. Ryu’s family wasn’t exactly a picturesque image of a happy family. They took care of each other, which was what mattered. The sound of the news filled the silence, and Ryu listened in as the news moved onto the esports section.

“There’s been some interesting developments in the virtual world this week,” said a female reporter. “The leader of Mega Ultra Miracle Unit has resigned after losing another of their castles to Carpe Diem. This is the seventh castle they’ve lost this month after Carpe Diem declared war against them…”

“I have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m guessing you guys do?” said Caragh.

“Mhm,” murmured Ryu and Ruri.

“I don’t really take part in that stuff though,” said Ryu, looking at Ruri. “Ruri might?”

Ruri’s eyes darted between Ryu and Caragh. “A little.”

“We’ve also gotten reports of movement in the eastern front, which we’ll be following closely. For now I’ll hand it over to Nick...”

Ryu tuned out at that point, finishing his meal before leaving for his room. It was only Monday, which meant he had school tomorrow, so he figured he may as well try and study a little. He couldn’t deny that he liked seeing Livia angry. But he was too lazy to actually pick up a book and, god forbid, flip through the pages, so he found a website on maths, “Naan Academy”, which sounded tasty enough.

Curious, he clicked on “Number Theory”, thinking it sounded harmless enough.

“Oh god.”

He had no idea what he was looking at.

Ryu half hoped columns of green numbers would start scrolling through his vision, but that was ridiculous and it would never happen. Instead he felt the urge to keep scrolling and clicking through pages, not out of curiosity but rather because Dot was telling him to in his head. What was that Bot up to nowadays?

And so, for the rest of the night Ryu excercised his fingers by scrolling through seemingly random pages for no reason other than, quite literally, feeling like it.