Two in the morning, most people would be deep in sleep unless they worked a graveyard shift, but in this era where games were as common as the clouds, many were still awake connected to the online virtual worlds. During this time in Hazard Frontier Online, Allen was on his way to face the gray Vulpia for the second time.

In a different place, to the west of the central regions, a group of six people stood in front of a small cave entrance. Two of them were equipped with long guns, two with shields, one with a huge hammer, and the last one with a pair of blades. Those drawn weapons represent their cautiousness. They were lightly clothed with dark blue camouflage patterns, perfect for the moonlit night.

“Are we really doing this?”

“Of course!”

The first person to break the silence was the girl equipped with a shield and lance. She had waist-length pale blond hair. The one who answered was the dual bladed girl with blue-tinted platinum hair that reached just below her shoulders. Someone who watched a lot of gameplay videos would easily recognize this girl.

She was BlackPrincess.

Oddly enough, the remaining four members of the party were also girls. The other five looked at BlackPrincess. Although she had just affirmed the task, she still stood still in front of the entrance.

BlackPrincess remembered her partner. He would always ask the same question whenever she invited him to do something seemingly outrageous. He would act hesitant and doubtful toward her, but once she holds her ground and say firmly that they will do it, he would accept. They would then finish the task with the possible results.

’It was all thanks to him.’

In her point of view, LessHealMoreKill was a very humble and reserved person. He would direct all the glory of their victory to her and say that he didn’t do much but only support her. For a battle priest, that was a strange thing to say. His skills and build were more focused on offensive support and damaging spells. The support he meant was him covering for the holes in her defense. When they do dungeon raids, just the two of them, he would always be right behind her to pull her out of harms way whenever she accidentally trigger a trap.

“It’s the usual, right?”

“She’s missing him!”

The other five girls started chattering and giggling. They were BlackPrincess’ friends and classmates in the real world. When she invited LessHealMoreKill to play HazardFrontier, the truth was at that time, her friends had figured out that she was the assassin in the video. She regret sparing minimal effort in hiding her identity.

They invited her to play Hazard Frontier because they needed a strong player, and she fitted the bill. She accepted because it would be awkward for her to deny as they already knew her legendary character after all. In turn, she invited her partner hoping that he could salvage the situation, but unexpectedly, he rejected her offer. She felt dejected after that. She could only accept his decision. He had spent a lot of time supporting her and her outrageous actions that she didn’t thought it was strange if he was actually already tired of being with her.

Seeing her changing facial expressions, the other girls were having a good time. Finally, BlackPrincess realized that she had gone off into a tangent with her thoughts again, something that have been happening quite frequently.

“Oh, you’re back.”

A girl with short-cropped fiery red hair equipped with a long gun greeted her.

“Y-yeah.”

Slightly embarrassed, BlackPrincess tried to clear her thoughts and stepped into the cave. They were here for Class III mission. BlackPrincess was already at Class II Rank 2 while the rest were Class I Rank 10.

’For now, you girls take the suffering in his place.’

With that thought and a devious smile on her face, she led her party into the depths of the dark cave.

Allen woke up after two hours of sleep. It was now a few minutes past five, and the sun had yet to rise. He quickly changed his clothes and went out for a run.

Although he spent a lot of time in playing games, Allen had not neglected to maintain his physical body. He started this routine when he got sick for a week during his first year in VRMMOs. His current food diet was bad, but he tried to make up for it with exercise.

’I need to earn some cash soon.’

Fortunately, Hazard Frontier allowed RMT or Real Money Trade. He almost jumped for joy when he got that information on their website. The only problem now was his in-game situation.

He had accidentally chosen the hardest starting point, and was now stuck in a difficult situation. It would be very hard to complete the quests and to hunt anything. Earning in-game cash was now as hard as earning real life cash.

Even though that was the case, his situation still had some good points. If he managed to overcome this situation, the gains would be high enough to compensate for his difficulties. He doesn’t believe that the quest rewards for his current quest would be small. Also, since the zone was a high level one, that meant that future item drops would also include high level ones. With the game still only proceeding toward its second month, players with high level materials and equipments wouldn’t be that many, since most of them started in the low-risk low-level zones.

’If I trade high-level items, I could make some quick and easy cash… well, not that easy.’

After about an hour, the sun had already appeared over the horizon. Allen stopped by a convenience store to grab something to eat, a cup of instant noodles.

As he sat down by the table, he heard laughter and discussion coming from the next table. There were three guys who seem to be high schoolers based on their appearance. Of course, they were wearing casual clothes. It was Saturday, and there were no classes.

“Last night, before I logged out of Frontier, I heard the NPCs talking about something related to Base 19.”

“I heard that, too. It seems like there was a noob who chose Base 19 as a starting place.”

“He’ll eventually delete that character or beg the devs for a transfer. That’s what I did.”

“You mean begging? Hahaha!”

In Hazard Frontier, you can only make one character per account, so if you want to make a new one, you have to delete the previous character.

“I only made that character in Base 19 because I wanted to experience having the Precursor achievement. It sucks that the achievement disappears and all the NPCs forget about you when you delete the account.”

“At least that allows the Precursor achievement to be reset, right? It’s unfair to take that achievement away only to delete your character afterward.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Hey guys, did you see the post in the forum an hour ago?”

“What post?”

“Base 2 cleared a Class III dungeon with their newest party.”

“Base 2… you mean Moon Hunters?”

“Yeah!”

“The newest party should be the all-girls one led by the dual-blading girl?”

“What’s their Class?”

“When they went in the dungeon, the leader was Class II, while the others were Class I.”

“The hell? They challenged a Class III dungeon?”

“Apparently, it was a special event quest. After clearing it, each of them got some rare materials, and the Class I members classed up.”

“Damn… I heard they started not too long ago.”

“Some were saying that the leader was the assassin in that legendary battle of 2 versus a thousand.”

“Really? If that was true, then it was no wonder they managed to clear that dungeon.”

Allen continued to eat his noodles as he eavesdropped on their conversation. When he heard about BlackPrincess’ achievments, he was filled with mixed emotions. He was proud of her, and at the same time felt envious. There was also the fact that he was currently not making any progress while she just keeps on rising in rank.

’I need to catch up!’

He quickly finished the noodles and slurped the broth, then left the store. He decided to walk by the park on the way back to his apartment. There were others jogging and doing calisthenics. Some were doing slow meditative exercises, while others danced in groups to a music, following the instructor leading them.

As Allen performed some stretches, he noticed a familiar figure sitting on a bench. She was wearing a shirt damp with sweat and jogging pants. Her hair was black and short, barely reaching past her chin, and matched her dark, almost black, irises within her upturned eyes.

“Hi!”

He decided to approach and greet her. Hearing his voice, she twitched in her seat and slowly turned her head to look at him.

“A-Allen… H-hi… What are y-you doing here?”

Her stuttering looked cute to Allen. She was obviously flustered upon seeing him. Her question also was something she just said without thinking properly. They always chanced upon each other here on mornings like this.

Lyka was her name. She was Carl’s cousin. Leaving home for personal reasons, she went to this city two years ago to study for middle school, and lived in the home of her aunt, Carl’s mother. They got to know each other when he and Carl hang out and she tagged along. She then got hooked into a VR game, a shooting game, because of their influence.

“Morning routing, as usual. I just had breakfast.”

“I-I see.”

Her face blushed into a bright red, reaching up to her ears. She had realized the foolishness of her question and had felt embarrassed about it.

“Can I sit?”

“Yeah…”

Allen sat beside her. There was no real meaning behind it. He may act cold to others, but that doesn’t mean he was like that to everyone. They sat there for a few minutes without talking about anything. Finally, it was Lyka who broke the silence.

“Uhm… are you busy today?”

“Not until three in the afternoon.”

He could not login to Hazard Frontier Online for 12 hours. The 12 hours will end by 3 pm.

“Then… can I… invite you… to go out?”

“Sure.”

Allen could see her clench her fist and made a guts pose. He knew that she liked him. It was pretty obvious since the first time they met. He was not a dense person. He also liked the girl. She was cute and interesting, and if she took the courage to confess to him and ask him out, he wouldn’t reject her.

“Is Carl going to?”

“No. Actually, he promised that he will go with me today, but he suddenly changed his mind after saying that he was going to play a game and join a group called Base Moon… something.”

All signs of bashfulness disappeared as she started grumbling about Carl. Allen only smiled by the side.

“What time and where will we meet up?”

“Uh… up to you, Allen.”

“How about nine? I’ll pick you up.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going first, then. See you later.”

“Yes. Thank you, and see you, too.”

Allen stood up and patted her head. He watched her blush once more, then headed back to his apartment.

As he arrived, the first thing he did was check up on some information online. What he heard at the convenience store was true. There was even an uploaded video of the dungeon clearing’s final boss fight.

He sat back and thought about the fight. The boss was said to be Class III Rank 10. It was a giant centipede with a fully crystallized exoskeleton. Its only weakness were its joints.

’It looked weak.’

That was his first impression right after the boss was defeated. The gray Vulpia he fought was much tougher than that. Even though the centipede boss looked more fierce in appearance, in the end, it was moving in a repetitive manner. After a few minutes of testing the waters, the party easily figured out its attack patterns and took advantage of those. They easily disposed of it. To the eyes of others, it may seem like an expert skill. Allen knew that BlackPrincess didn’t even consider the fight a challenge.

’Too easy.’

Despite that, she looked like she had fun. After the boss died, the she and her party members could be seen making a celebratory pose.

After that, he continued searching for more information, but no matter how thorough he was, he could not find anything related to the gray Vulpia.

Time swiftly passed. Seeing that it was almost eight, he took a bath and changed clothes. Checking his wallet, he made sure that he had enough money in case of emergency situations.

By nine, he had arrived in front of Carl’s house. His mom had seen him waiting outside and invited him in. She knew that he was waiting for Lyka.

“Please wait for a while. She’s still in her room, picking her clothes, probably.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am. I’m not in a hurry or anything. Where’s Carl?”

“He rushed back up after eating breakfast. Did you need something from him?”

“No, not really. I was planning to ask something, but it’s not really important.”

“I see… I have a question for you, though.”

“What is it, ma’am?”

“Are you going out with Lyka?”

“If you mean we’re going out somewhere, then yes?”

“Haha, silly boy. You know I’m not asking about that.”

“Sorry, ma’am. Haha. No, we’re not going out… yet?”

“Oh? Are you planning to ask her out?”

“No… I’m not.”

“You don’t like her? She’s shy and may act rashly sometimes, especially when it’s about Carl, but she’s a good girl.”

“I know. I just don’t want to be the one to ask.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like you said, ma’am, that Lyka is a shy girl. I want her to break out of that shell and take the courage and ask me out herself.”

“Oh, I see. You’re a very thoughtful person, so unlike my son.”

As they conversed in the living room, a set of footsteps came from the stairs leading to the second floor. A girl wearing a pink dress and heels came down. Allen gazed at the cute 15 year-old girl with a warm smile. Seeing him, she also smiled brightly while blushing a bit.

“She really went all out, huh…”

Carl’s mom whispered beside Allen. He smiled wryly after hearing that.

They left the house and rode a bus together. When they arrived at the mall and entered, Lyka gathered the eyes of some of the passing males. She was only 160 cm tall, and it further emphasized her cuteness. The white clip on her hair matched well with her pink dress.

“Where would you like to go first?”

“Up to you…”

Bashful, she spoke in a low volume. Allen smiled warmly at her, gave her a pat on the head, then led the way. As he started to walk, she reached forward and hesitatingly held his sleeve. When he didn’t shake her off, a happy and contented smile formed on her face.

They first went to a karaoke box. It was Allen who singing most of the time, while Lyka watched and listened. She would sway with the tune and laughed at the mistakes he made. When he kept on challenging her to sing, she accepted for the last song. Her singing voice was soft and calming, and Allen can’t help but admire her. She did have the right to laugh at him. Compared to her, his singing was embarrassing to listen to.

Next, they played a few games on the arcade. There was a shooting game which they played and successfully completed with a perfect score. The other people watching were stunned at their performance.

They took a break and ate at a stall in the grocery area for lunch. After that, they walked around and entering different clothes shops. They tried on different clothes, but didn’t buy anything. The sales attendants had forced smiles on their faces when the two left. They then laughed at the same time as they exited the stores.

The last place they went to was the top floor, where VR hardwares and softwares were being sold. They checked out the games available and the latest state-of-the-art hardwares.

“It’s this!”

Lyka suddenly exclaimed as she pointed at a game box. The people around who all stared at her. Inside this shop, th customers and the employees where conversing in low voices, and having someone suddenly speak in a loud voice would indeed be attention grabbing.

She lowered her head in embarrassment. Allen patted her head to comfort her as he looked at what she point out. It was a game box of Hazard Frontier Online.

“This?”

He asked to confirm as he approached the display case.

“Yeah. That’s the game that Carl bought yesterday and said he was going to start playing today.”

“Hmm… do you want to play it, too?”

“No. Hmph. Carl wouldn’t help anyways. If you were gonna play it, too, then maybe…”

“I actually just started last night.”

“Eh, really?”

“Yep. Don’t tell Carl, though. He doesn’t know.”

“Then, maybe I should buy this…”

“It’s a hard game, though. Maybe you should try other games first, to get yourself used to something other than a shooting game.”

“Uh… okay.”

Slightly dejected, Lyka followed Allen as they left the store. She kept on looking back as they walked out. Seeing her mood, Allen treated her to a cone of ice cream. After the treat, her mood finally got better. They walked around some more, then headed for home.

Allen had brought Lyka back to Carl’s and got a treat of homemade cake from his mom, before heading for his apartment. He was in a good mood as he was able to see Lyka’s cute expressions, and didn’t spend too much during the date. He also got free cake which he would eat for dinner, and possibly save some for breakfast.

After storing the cake in the small refrigerator, he quickly changed his clothes and booted up the Virtual Gear System Drive. The 12 hours of being unable to login had good benefits. Although it slowed his gaming pace, he was able to relax and rest his mind.

A relaxing chapter. The title reminds me of Nana to Kaoru (evil smile).

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