As soon as Reichel made her presence known through the living room’s entrance, the temperature seemed to have fallen by 2 degrees as the atmosphere could only be described by the word ‘tense’. Kyle’s glaring face was enough to let most of the group know exactly how irritated he felt as his tightened lips uttered a single word.

“Reichel...”

Grasping the situation, Bryan ushered Olivia inside, grabbed Kyle’s master, William, by the shoulders and marvellously escaped with the excuse of ‘We’ll go get some coffee ready’. The next one to discover something amiss was Dylan but, sadly for him, he wasn’t as quick-witted as Bryan and lost the best chance of escaping.

He couldn’t help grumbling on the inside as he saw their sneaky fox of a manager, Bryan, leaving. But he still had a chance! Robert was still there. He must have realised something is up, right?!

‘... Sigh... This guy is hopeless...’

A look of pity surfaced on his face when he realised how clueless the little guy was. His eyes were still sparkling as he tried hard to grab Kyle’s attention. The poor fella... Anyway, after Bryan and William left, the four of them headed for the sole coffee table in the room and waited patiently for coffee to arrive. Other than the chatterbox Robert, the rest didn’t speak so much as a single word while waiting.

Cold sweat was trickling down Dylan’s back as he observed the two of them. If glaring could kill a person, then Olivia would have already been a corpse by now. He sincerely hoped their manager wouldn’t take too long with that coffee. Kyle’s expression was too much to bear!

“Don’t glare too much, you are going to strain your eyes at this rate.”

Olivia commented from the side while fiddling with her phone. She didn’t seem to mind Kyle’s glaring and, as if she was used to it, returned a glare of her own. Her pitch-black pupils locked with his own and as if having a showdown, they stared daggers at each other.

“What are you doing here?”

“None of your business.”

“Did you know I would be here?”

“Why do you care?”

“Have you no shame showing up here after what you did?”

“Hmph! Grow up Kyle.”

Like a floodgate on the verge of exploding, the tension between the two of them was slowly rising higher. Even Robert, the little guy, realised what was going on and fell silent, pleading with his eyes for Dylan’s help.

Luckily for them, their manager Bryan seemed to have heard their pleas and decided to make an appearance. He clapped his hands twice, successfully grabbing their attention and said.

“Ok. Ok... Everyone calm down. What seems to be the problem, kids? Let’s talk it out. William, pour some coffee for them.”

Kyle’s master, William, accompanied Bryan as the two entered the room. He held a coffee tray in one hand and placed down one coffee cup after another with the other hand. Next, he slowly filled each of them with steaming coffee.

Kyle and Olivia averted their eyes from one another but neither of them seemed to back off entirely. A light sigh escaped Bryan’s lips as he asked for the second time.

“So, what’s the problem?”

Without missing a bit, Kyle glanced at Olivia who was now taking a sip of her coffee and answered in an irritated manner.

“None at all, I am leaving.”

A drop of sweat flowed down Bryan’s tanned forehead. He didn’t know what to say! Kyle’s actions were too drastic even for someone like him. Thankfully, William was also there. And among the people gathered, he knew Kyle the best. With that said, Kyle hardly had time to stand up before his master coughed lightly.

“Hmm... What a shameful display of emotions disciple. Did you forget my teachings?”

A glare from his master was more than enough to calm down Kyle. Deep within himself, he knew it too. Anger would only make him lose control and regret his actions later. Taking a deep breath, he let out a heavy breath and recollected his bearings before looking back at his master.

“Forgive me master, this disciple was too rush with his actions.”

He bowed slightly and sat down. His earlier behaviour? Nowhere to be seen as he calmly took a sip of his coffee. Other than Olivia and Bryan, the rest of the group were perplexed or, more accurately speaking, confused at his actions and mannerisms. Given the current age of technological advancement, acts of apprenticeship have long since died down, making it even harder to recognise them.

Anyway, having regained his cool, Kyle’s concern was back on the matter at hand.

“So, judging by the information I’ve gathered so far, you want me to join Silverfun Interactive for the upcoming launch of Fragmented Realms?”

Bryan glanced at his good friend William and seeing how he didn’t add anything else, decided to take the initiative to speak.

“Precisely so, our plan is to create a small group of elite players and take the game’s top ranks.”

Kyle listened carefully at Bryan’s explanation before asking what bothered him the most.

“What about player numbers? The beta only had a mere 100,000 people as the entire player base. With the game’s official release there will be no upper limit to that number.”

Even though he didn’t say it directly, what Kyle’s words implied was that their resource gathering wouldn’t be able to compete with that of the big guilds. The difference in numbers would be made apparent as soon as the game launched.

“That is exactly what we are aiming for.”

Closing his eyes for a moment, Bryan took ina whiff of the fragrant coffee before taking a small sip. A satisfied sigh escaped his lips before his gaze was back on Kyle.

“With your present achievements, people will naturally want to flock around our little group. As you know, Fragmented Realms is centred around three things. The first one is Realm acquisition, followed by management and expansion.”

Pausing for a moment to take a breath he continued.

“The preliminary and hardest part of our plan is for you guys to use your beta testing experience to create a public realm the earliest possible. We will then advertise it using your name as the main pillar for our guild. Once we achieve that, we will pretty much be set to go.”

Finished with his lengthy explanation, Bryan took another sip of his coffee as he looked back at Kyle. Kyle, on the other hand, considered his words carefully as he thought over the situation. No one seemed to be in a hurry, as they all waited patiently for his answer. After all, their whole plan was centred around his decision.

“...It’s risky.”

“Of course it is. We are just a start-up company. And unlike the giants of the gaming industry all we have is a small number of connections and you as our lucky star.”

Bryan was rather direct. Unlike what one would expect, he didn’t shower him with promises he couldn’t fulfil and just straight up informed him of their current predicament. Truthfully enough, they did have quite the gathering of experts, making a seemingly impossible task have a small chance of success. But it was still way too risky.

After a while of thinking, Kyle let out a muffled sigh and glanced back at Bryan before adding.

“So, what’s in it for me?”

With both of his parents providing a stable income, Kyle wasn’t financially in need. But since an opportunity to make some good cash showed up, it wouldn’t be good to undermine himself. After all, he was the top player of Fragmented Realms during the beta version. A lot of gaming companies were out to get him with quite enticing offers.

If it weren’t for his master whom he respected from the bottom of his heart, he wouldn’t even have bothered with such a small company. But that wasn’t solely his way of thinking, even the rest of the group had similar thoughts. After all, if it weren’t for being told that Reizel was part of the group, why would they join?

“Of course, we have prepared a contract fitting of your services. If you would follow me to my private office, we can discuss this in further detail.”

Kyle nodded slightly and stood up. He didn’t outright reject him nor did he show any signs of agreement, he would need some time to think things through. But, for now, he would rather discuss those matters in a more ‘private’ environment.

“Lead the way.”

Bryan and William both stood up and with Bryan leading the way, the three left for his office. Kyle turned back to close the living room’s door and gave a last glance at Olivia who was similarly staring at him, before leaving.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“You actually managed to start up a fire?!

Like a rabbit jumping to the highest of its abilities, Zeke’s surprise could be seen from his actions. His focus was solely on the fire as he didn’t expect Reizel to show up any time soon. Not to mention jump scaring him like this...

“Yea... It was hard without the proper tools but I somehow managed it. I even got a title out of it!”

You could see the excitement he felt just from the silly smile on his face going through the notifications. Reizel didn’t interrupt him as he checked out the place.

‘How long was I away for? 30 minutes?’

He was surprised to find that not only did Zeke start up a fire, he even cleaned up the mess he'd created in the short amount of time he was away. Now that the ‘inedible’ parts of the frog had been thrown away, the lake’s bank was no longer blanketed by the stench of blood. Feeling elated, he went towards the edible parts of the frog he had gathered earlier. Since they have fire and raw food, there is only one thing left to do...

“Hey Zeke! Come help me skewer this bad boy up. We are having barbecue for dinner!”

As of now, he only had one hand available, making it impossible for him to finish the job on his own. Zeke didn’t loiter around either, happily running over to assist. It wasn’t out of the willingness of his heart, but hunger was known to drive even the smartest of people into madness. And the two of them were no exception to this rule. Luckily, there was enough food for both of them and Reizel wasn’t stingy enough to let a starving man die.

With Zeke helping out, the process was hastened, and after a while, a bunch of frog skewers were being cooked above the campfire. Roasting skewers turned out to be quite the painfully slow process and as if that wasn’t enough, the two couldn’t help salivating at the scent of burning meat...

“Hmm... Oh! By the way, I didn’t catch your name earlier. What was it again?”

Even though they had been together for a while now, they didn’t chat a lot. The two had their priorities set and talking wasn’t one of them. With the food being prepared and nothing better to do now, Zeke decided it was a good time for them to get acquainted. After all, Reizel no longer resembled the madman he first saw.

With his attention was drawn away from the roasting skewers, Reizel glanced at Zeke’s direction before answering his question.

“That’s right... I almost forgot about it. I am Reizel, nice to meet you.”

Truth be told, introductions were neither his favourite nor his best part of making acquaintances. With a forced, stupid grin plastered all over his face, he introduced himself. The cold demeanour from earlier was nowhere to be seen.

“Reizel? Hmm... This might sound weird, but for some odd reason, it feels really familiar. Like, I ‘ve known ya since forever?”

‘What is this guy saying? Bro, we met each other like an hour ago...’

It wasn’t his fault for thinking like that, after all, no matter how hard he thought this through, the name Zeke didn’t ring any bells with him. And to make things even worse? His memory consisted of less than two days' worth of experiences. Anyway, leaving that matter on the side for now, he had to say that this Zeke guy was most probably like him. Lost inside the forest with no memories of his past and trying to find an exit. But, unlike Reizel, he most probably wasn’t lucky enough to find a log cabin in the middle of the woods.

After listening to what Zeke had to say, it didn’t take long for him to provide an answer of his own.

“Sadly, I can’t say the same. No matter how hard I think about it, it doesn’t ring any bells.”

Zeke didn’t seem as surprised as he first expected him to be. Letting out a light chuckle he looked Reizel in the eyes and said.

“Yea, after all, Zeke isn’t my real name apparently...”

If confusion could make question marks appear above someone’s head that would be the best way to describe Reizel at the moment. If Zeke wasn’t his real name then what was? And why did he hide it from him? Did he have ulterior motives after all? A torrent of swirling thoughts overtook his mind as his gaze turned icy at Zeke’s direction, waiting for an explanation.

“Wait! Wait... Hear me out first!”

Zeke saw the change in Reizel’s eyes and couldn’t help shouting in an attempt to explain himself. After all, he wouldn’t say something like that if he wished to hide it in the first place.

“Confirm this for me before anything, I am not the only one who can see those blue screens, right?”

With a slight nod of his head, Reizel patiently waited for him to continue.

“Right, so, as I was saying. Believe it or not, I have no clue as to who I really am. I woke up in this godforsaken forest about 2 days ago and have been wandering through it for an exit ever since then.”

Even though he didn’t show it outwardly, he was quite confused at that. Weren’t they in a similar situation after all? So why did this guy believe he was the only one... It was right at that moment realisation actually hit him.

‘Wait... Does this guy think I know where I am and what I am doing due to my clothes and items..?’

His thinking wasn’t too far away from the actual truth. After all, Zeke’s thought process was exactly just like that.

“So... You know how our ‘names’ are labelled in the status screen right?”

The moment he said that, his expression turned gloomy for some reason. But, who was Reizel to worry about someone who had previously lied to him? Without a care in the world, he ushered him with a cold gaze and words like ice.

“So..? What is it?”

Zeke was hesitant but being under that cold and icy glare he couldn’t help muttering as his cheeks reddened.

“It’s... Ca..”

“Say it clearly. I can’t hear you.”

“God damn it! It’s CamperBoy59!”

“...”

“...”

Silence filled the place for a few seconds with only the campfire’s firewood crackling as it slowly disintegrated. And amidst the silence, a burst of uncontrollable laughter spurted out of Reizel’s throat.

“Pfft. Ahaha!!”

“I knew this would happen! That’s why I didn’t want to say it!”

Zeke was red up to his ears as he saw Reizel laughing and rolling on the ground.