Artjem POV

".. and earthquakes to a girl's guitar, they're just another good vibration, and tidal waves couldn't safe the world from Califooornicatioon!" I sang while our group was moving forwards with a rather slow pace, it would not take long until we would reach our destination, just a day at most.

From the side Elena added in like we have planned. "UHHHHHHH." With her melodic and beautiful voice.

While she was doing the long uhhh, Benjamin also added in with his rather deep but also strangely nice sounding voice.. " Uhhh Uhhh."

I continued. "Pay your surgeon very well, to break the spell of aging...."

Like this we continued until the end of the song.

Afterwards we shared a laugh together and high fived each other since we finally managed to do it without any fuck ups, just in the right way.

We have been practicing now for about 3 in game days. It has been a hard time, many people were annoyed, many ears got cancer from it and no one was spared, not even the children... But we did it. Yeaahyye!

Daisy spoke up. "You know... Your music taste might just be the best thing about you." And laughed at it.

It is so cute when she jokes about something and then laughs at it herself... How I would love to wake up near her and have her joke about something to then hear her adorable little laugh and sealing her lips with mine...

Of course only after a hot night together, otherwise it would be gay...

I was still mad at her for lying to me about her age, but she is cute so I forgive her.

"I would rather have the best thing about me to be you. "I added while looking directly at her eyes.

She frowned and blushed. "Good luck with that."

Strangely from the side Elena just shook her head and sighted in disapproval.

Nice girl, really. I totally ship her. The forbidden fruit...

She also is a nice person to talk to, we are actually very similar. I can talk to her about themes that others would find fucked up. Like we talked today about the first time we saw the legendary video that was hidden in the deep web....

2 girls 1 cup. I have been told that long time ago you could just watch it on special websites but then it kind of got forgotten and now only few people remember the most disgusting video ever and as such you really have to look long and hard to find it.

It is so disgusting. It is so fucked up. I can not eat any brown pudding like substance after watching it. I LOVE IT!

Don't get me wrong, it is the emotions that it makes me feel that I like to hate. That disgust, the absolute darkest of me, and such a simple video can make me feel it...

Actually that video was just about the weakest that you can find. It only featured two women eating shit, nothing too graphic. There are worse... much worse...

For example, I remember watching 3 guys 1 hammer with the age of 18, it was disgusting but in a completely different way.... And despite the similar title, believe me if I tell you they have nothing in common with each other... Maybe that if you have a weak stomach, you will vomit, but that is about the only similarity.

But me being me, there is not much that can affect me anymore, it is just this weird disgusting hobby of mine that I do once in a while.

Not gonna, it is very weird to watch this shit alone. As a teenager I used to watch it with a few buddies, and we shared our laughs and disgust, now that is something I no longer can do. You know, no friends and the current world and all. But I can talk with Elena about it or we can just watch this shit right here...

So yeah, you can find videos online that make you see the worst of humanity, and there is a lot of it. The deep web is a disgusting paradise. Even after the change of the world, it remained the same, only that there is no longer any real need to hide it and the system totally knows of it, it just does not care.

Yes, so we talked about it and how disgusting it was. The others also heard us but only Ben knew what we were talking about walked from us in disgust and then kept on giving us weird looks.

So we could talk about really fucked up themes, which was a lot of fun. That girl has a lot of hidden potential, it is a shame that she has a ranged class where most of it is wasted...

And Calvin also thinks of her as his innocent little sis... pff... I mean, nobody can be this stupid and dense, right?

Anyhow, we kept on walking slowly. The children kept on running around and playing with each other.

They grew... Hannah grew 4 centimeters and is now supposed to be 6 years old, both mentally and physically... Damn, not so long and I will have to take responsibility, damn it.

At least she is cute and obedient. I am sure it won't be that hard. I am just very very lazy...

But there was one more thing that I noticed and strangely I seem to be the only one to do so.

It was about the other child: Fiora.

The children would always play with sticks as swords and do mock battles with each other. Well, when they do so, Hannah always gives her best and is very serious, I considered telling her to go easy on the poor mentally challenged child, that child would always just smile and never showed any real emotion, but Fiora was always fine.

After watching them for a while I noticed that she was a genius in combat. She knew no fear, her movements were natural and without many mistakes and she just did what she thought was the right way.

It kind of makes sense... her mind is blank, she has no concerns, no fears, no desires. She just does things... Similarly to me, I just do it without being concerned about the consequences, just having the goal before me and the knowledge of what I have to do to get there and from there on the body just takes over, it knows the best what it has to do only the brain often restricts it.

But she is still a child and lacks the training.

Ben had doubts about teaching her anything, but I will have to give him a nice little surprise later on by opening his eyes. He will have to make a strong and independent women out of her or to whatever degree we can accomplish that.

They might be both npc's, but they are cute and I like them, so I will help them.

Looking at Hannah that was as always trying her hardest to harm Fiora in an ugly way, was beating in a clumsy manner at her to only have all hits deflected. She did not give up and just kept on doing the same over and over again and of course failing again and again. It would take a lot of time to make something out of her, I thought.

Unknown to me, a smile was shown on my face.

Elena came to me and beamed me a warm smile. “If only the others knew that behind that mask there is a decent guy hiding and being afraid to hurt himself by showing his true self... A hard crust with a sweet filling inside.”

I frowned. “No idea what you are talking about, I am a manly man with a manly crust and a manly filling inside.” I then gave a weak jab to her shoulder. “And what about you, when will you be riding that guy of yours?” I said with a dirty grin.

She frowned. “Pff, might take a while, he is as dense as ever. The more advanced my attacks get, the harder he tries not to notice them... It is so frustrating.”

I frowned too. “What an idiot... you know, if he does not make a move on you soon, then I might make my move on you.”

She just showed me a silly smile, like a mother would show her stupid, ignorant child. She patted my shoulder and said. “ Of course you would...”

Hmmm, so she is not against it... I had a proud smile on my face and she just laughed at that.

Yes, but despite me saying that, I would rather have her with that stupid brother of hers... so exciting! Me and Daisy are totally shipping it.

Well, anyway. We walked further ahead, to my luck we did not fight often in forests. Before us was a wide hill which we had to walk up to cross and maybe relax on it.

We just walked upwards and were still enjoying ourselves.

There was actually something I have been wondering about for a while now. Why exactly are we traveling together?

We just met out of nowhere and started to be all buddy buddy.

Now, there are things like we probably would not find another group in our low levels otherwise and the game rewards you for teamplay, but still.

I did not know those people, they did not know me. It is a weird situation. Now we have grew to know each other much better, I have a basic understanding of who everyone is and they all should by know have an understanding about me hehe.

There were still questions like who should be the team leader, I actually still was the leader from the time Ben gave me the right, but I don't want to be.

So I decided to touch that theme. “Hey, by the way, who should be the team leader?”

Calvin was surprised. “I thought you wanted to be... I also thought about it, but we don't know each other good enough to have absolute trust in any one of us and as such the position of a leader is superficial right now.”

“No, I know who I am, being a leader is too much unnecessary work. I would rather go in and--”

Daisy interrupted me. “Fuck shit up?” and laughed at that.

She is such a cheerful person, would she be a guy, I would totally hate her guts but now that she is an adorable woman, I want to do different things to her...

I am talking about sex of course, nothing disturbing, jeez..

“Exactly!”

Elena spoke up. “Let's see in the next dungeon, the most suitable person will be decided there.”

We all agreed.

When arriving on top of the hill, we could see someone laying on the ground before us. That guy had casual cloth on and had his face covered by a straw hat. His clothing overall seemed rather luxurious, to good for laying on top of a hill, taking a nap.

“Hmm, I will go take a look. “ Calvin said and everyone just went around that guy, avoiding him and having no interest in that guy.

I was however curious, maybe he was trouble.

Walking up to Calvin I saw that he had a cold expression on his face and walked to the man with a poker face.

Before we could even open our mouths, the guy started. “Hello Calvin, Artjem.” he took the straw hat from his face, revealing a very handsome young man with long white hair and red eyes. “What a nice coincidence meeting you here.” He beamed us a smile.

Calvin still had a poker face and eyed the weird man. “Dick Bush...” I also noticed that name floating above his head, with an arrow downwards indicating that he was to strong for that area. However, it was not so impressive now. Now that we soon also would reach that level.

I started to laugh. “AHAHAH, Your parents must really hate you! DICK! And then Bush. OMGFAOHDIQW I can't even...”

He smiled amused at my reaction. “Dick is short for Richards. And you are really as foul mouthed as I have heard.”

“Then why is not Richards above your head?”

“My mother used to call me Dick, so I choose that name.”

I completely lost it. “AHAAHHA, she called you a dick!”

The man had still an amused smile on his face, not affected by my taunts.

Calv spoke up. “Nr.2.. now Nr. 3”

The man, again, smiled. “Yes, thanks to you. Really impressive by the way. Nobody saw such a thing coming until some people took a look at the ranking and then the video resurfaced of you.”

“How many of those spies came from you?” Calvin asked with a murderous but subtle glint in his eyes.

“Just 2... No offense, I was just curious, nothing more.”

I could not hold back. “Wow, you are a real dick for doing that, you know that?” I said with a straight face but high fived myself in my head.

Calvin's poker face wavered for a split second as he rolled his eyes but quickly came back, I was also sure that I saw a small smile on his face.

“So? What do you want?”

Dick looked at Calvin. “Nothing. Just like I said, I was curious... Say, do you maybe plan to join a guild already?”

Calvin's face was still cold and he eyed the man. “And you happen to be a part of a guild that would fit us perfectly?”

Dick laughed. “Hohoho, but why do you think you are good enough to be able to join my guild? Like I said, I was curious. That's it... I am sure you are heading to the Fortress of Bliss right now, right? A.. rather difficult dungeon. IF you manage to beat it AND then beat the test.. come and find me, I imagine you want to also conquer the Raid and I happen to have such a team that would be happy to welcome you.” he stretched his hand towards us. “What do you say buddy?”

Calvin just shook it. “Sure.”

Dick then continued. “Maybe we could do something even more fun afterwards, but of course only if you are worth it.”

I spoke up. “You know, for some random dick we just met, you are very arrogant, fuck off.”

Dick offered me one of his kindest and most apologetic smiles. “Oh, I am sorry if you think of me that way, I really am just offering you to join the best guild there is but... I only take the best.”

“Yes and I only join the best, why should I even be interested in that shit?”

Richards out of nowhere showed us a very mischievous smile. “Because I plan to fuck all of this shit up very soon.”

I could only reply with the same smile. “Now we are talking...”

Benjamin POV

When the both of them caught up to us, I could see that Artjem was all fired up for some reason.

Calvin came up to me and Daisy and started to ask question about the Dominion guild and told me about the man they have just met.

“.. it was their guild leader. Actually in the guild that I have been before and I assume Daisy is still there, well that guild and Dominion have been in rivalry since the very beginning but while we concentrated on the exploration of the game, they mostly built up resources and recruited other people, putting exploration as their second priority. While I say that we were rivals, it was mostly peaceful. They have lots of amazing people there and we did do some raids in collaboration. I am still not sure if we should join them, but on the other hand I would also not count on my earlier guild taking me in... Who knows.”

Calvin had a thoughtful look on his face. “They spied on us and studied us, they want us by all costs, I am not sure how far they would go for it, but they mentioned something about it soon being a lot of fun if we were with them... How he mentioned it to Artjem makes me worried. There must be some shady shit going on. Something like a genocide. Artjem would enjoy it, I am sure.”

I laughed at that. “Come on man, he is not as bad as you make him to be.”

He frowned. “I know, that was a joke. But I am still sure they will be doing something big and not everyone is going to like it.”

“You are surely overthinking it. Like I said, they are not an evil organization, just a bunch of players that want to have fun and have their own kingdom. Nothing special.”

I thought back on the level 28 Raid that we have beaten a few years ago. It was absolutely huuge and took us months until we had enough information and then weeks inside to finally beat it. After we managed to pull this insane stun of, we then claimed the zone this Raid was in as our own. We build a small kingdom and have been governing it, not many people were living there, but we still managed to have a nice and working economy and government.

The king had nothing against it. We, the players liberated the zone, we unlocked it in the first place and he had no intention of claiming it. From the very beginning those zones have been homes to us, the players. It is there that most of us are. I mean of course the interested in combat, the others are all in the native kingdom. Well, at least it is officially called that way but a lot of players have high ranked positions as nobles or just have a lot of money and influence, playing their small versions of game of thrones all day long.

Dominion is probably the only combat oriented guild that also has large interest in politics. We never questioned it, after all their kingdom is the most advanced and influential so it seems to work. To be fair, we did not put nearly as much effort into our little kingdom as they have and most of the work is done by Npc's there, but we care about the people and money is of no concern to us.

“Yes..” Calvin just walked of to talk with his.. sister. I am still weirded out by this, but it is none of mine concern, hopefully I will get used to them. I mean until now there was not much happening, but something tells me that soon it will..

I walked to where my little girlfriend was. Elizabeth, as so often was playing with the children. They all have an almost sisterly relationship.

Fiora is the small and naive child that everyone is cherishing, Hannah is the middle child that looks up to her older sister and protects and plays with the younger one and Elizabeth. She just likes them . I wonder if it has anything to do with them all being Npc's, we are certainly not discriminating here, well other than a few remarks from Artjem, asshole, but they are sticking together. I wonder why.

I greeted her from behind by hugging her and biting her ear. “I wish we would already be at the city, I desperately need to spend some quality adult time with you.” whispering that in her ear I looked at the children that just stared in surprise at me.

She blushed but did not reject it. “Not in front of them...”

Kissing her neck a few times and finally parting with her after she started to moan in a not for children appropriate manner, I continued. “Showing children how much their caretakers care about each other is actually a very healthy thing to do. “

This came out of me with no thoughts put into it, I just said the first thing that came to my mind. I was not even sure why I said it at all.

She turned around with teary eyes and kissed me deeply. “I am glad you think that way.” She beamed me the brightest smile I have seen on her.

I felt like an asshole. I was an asshole.

Despite not really feeling that way about her, I was toying with her feelings.

Was Artjem right? I knew he was, but I just did not want to be this. I did not want to toy with the deep love someone feels for me. How ironic.

She was a one in a million. Would anyone else feel such deep affection for me? No, they would not.

Even if forced, I do care about her, I do want to be with her and I knew that I needed to say it out loud and not treat her as granted anymore. I knew that she was not ignorant of my behavior, she must have noticed the distance between us, she must be hurt by it but blames herself.

I just knew that I would need to speak soon, or I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Literally.

AN: This chapters Benjamins story is awkward without what comes next.... Just tom any things missing from the story since it is not told in order. Should be clear in the end of part 1.

Funny thing I noticed, the abuse of doggys in the second chapter really threw a lot of people off. I regret nothing. Wanted a MC that people can hate to love or love to hate.