"Well anyway, we're logging out," said Alzeth.

"Eh?" Mei was dismayed.

At the same time, she was somewhat glad. After the incident with the King Crawler, she felt like she needed a break from the game.

"It's already over eleven o'clock. I generally try not to sleep over twelve," explained Alzeth.

Mei was surprised by how late it was, as she didn't feel like much time had passed. Well, all the more reason for her to log out.

"Bye," said Alzeth.

He then vanished into a flash of light along with Emerr.

"Bye-"

Mei stopped, realising she was too late. It reminded her of when she said 'bye' in chat rooms after someone said they were logging out. Sometimes, she wondered if the person saw her goodbyes at those moments.

She logged out, heading to the bathroom to take a shower. On the way, she saw that light seep out from her father's room. He was probably using his VR gear too, but forgot to turn off the lights. As she went back to her room and laid in bed, she fell asleep with surprising ease.

~~~~~

*DING!*

"gah...." Mei grumbled as she opened her eyes sluggishly. 

She forgot to turn on 'Do Not Disturb'! She looked towards the window. The sky was still mostly dark.

What time was it? She reached for the cabinet beside her bed, fumbling for her phone, her head still on the pillow. She knocked something off in the process, resulting in a startling 'CLANG!'.

6:12 AM

Mark: Hey did your dad get you the VR gear yet btw?

Mark? Ah, she did agree to join him in the game once she got the VR gear. Still, who the heck wakes up so early in the morning to text? Grumbling, she got off her bed. She picked her thermos flask off the floor, drank some water and put it back on the cabinet before opening the messaging app.

Mei: You woke me up! D:<

Mark: Haha, sorry.

Mei found his apology rather insincere.

Mei: My dad got me the gear. I'll add you to the list later when I play.

Mark had sent her his game ID a while ago back in school. 

After sending her message, she put down her phone and exited her room. She saw that he was typing from the prompt, but decided it wouldn't hurt to look at it later.

Walking silently, she wandered down the corridor into the kitchen. Her eyes darted around the room. Nope, the pizza box was not placed in plain sight. Mei began opening all the cabinets as quietly as she could. Not there... not here either... Aha!

After a bit of vigorous searching, Mei found the box of pizza. To her dismay, two out of the eight pieces had been eaten. She grumbled. Her mom was such a hypocrite!

But as they say: beggars can't be choosers. Was that how the phrase was used? Mei wasn't sure.

She ate the cold pizza straight from the box. There was an oven that she could use, but right now, she couldn't be bothered. The cold pizza was still pretty good.

She headed back to her room after her brief meal. Inside the kitchen, there was a pizza box stuffed messily in the bin.

She donned the VR gear again. Now that she was awake, she might as well meet Mark. She picked up her phone and went to the notes application where she wrote down his invite code. After repeating it to herself a few times, she laid down on her bed and pressed the power button.

Loading...

Cold air brushed across her face as she reappeared in the game world. 

It was was still dark at the Greylands, as the clouds blocked the meagre sunlight. As it was still early, not many people were around, be it NPCs or players. Most of the buildings still had dark windows, with the exception of a few shops. Mei couldn't help but shut her eyes and take a deep breath, taking in the morning serenity.

"Ahhh..." 

After relaxing a little, she opened her friend list and stared blankly at the box for the invite code. She got distracted and forgot the invitation code...

Mei decided it was probably time for her to sync her phone to the VR gear. The creators of the gear had implemented a function to sync devices. This was in case people wanted to check their social media, message someone, make a phone call, etc while playing the game.

She fumbled with the system interface, logging in to her account connecting to the cloud. Her phone was swiftly synced. Instantly, a replica of a phone appeared in her hand. She opened her notes application and entered Mark's code.

Friend request sent to Markkkk

That didn't sound very creative to Mei. She wasn't going to judge though.

Friend request accepted!

She raised an eyebrow, surprised by how fast he responded. Seems like Mark was already in the game when he messaged her.

Markkkk has invited you to join his party but you are already in a party. Your party is currently offline. Leave the party?

Yes No

She sighed. After those two had helped her level up so much, it would be very rude of her to suddenly leave without a word. But at the same time, she felt like rejecting Mark's offer would be rude. Mei considered her options for a few seconds before coming up with a compromise. She would send a friend request to Alzeth and Emerr from the party interface, then join Mark's party. If the two wanted to party in the future, they could always accept the friend request and send her a message.

You joined Markkkk's party!

She opened up her party interface.

Party Members

Markkkk (Lv51) 35,000/35,000 HP

Umuton (Lv 59) 10,200/10,200 HP

Mei (Lv12) 865/865 HP

Just from looking at the amount of disparity in the health they had, Mei felt embarrassed. She would just be a burden to a team like that! Power levelling seems kinda lame to her too. That would remove the joy of conquering the early zones. Mei couldn't help but feel conflicted.

Backing off after accepting his invitation be rude, but she had second thoughts now.