Chapter 014 - A dream?

[Alice]: “Ok, then let’s explore those floors for a bit”

Cyan and Alice started to move to the elevator, in their way there they took the chance to check out their messages.

Message [Midas]: “Quest [Start your training II] [2] Cleared, Player Cyan is rewarded with 1 Free Point”.

Message [Midas]: “Quest [Start your training II] [3] Cleared, Player Cyan is rewarded with 1 Free Point”.

Message [Midas]: “Player Cyan track global record position update #291, Awarded 140 Credit”

Message [Midas]: “Player Cyan has completed the 10 km, Awarded 10 Credits”

Message [Midas]: “Player Cyan has completed the 20 km, Awarded 40 Credits”

Message…

In the end after Cyan and Alice ran around 30 laps around the track, they got the good news that the more km’s they ran they more Credits they would get in return, and the better their records the better the reward was also, and after 4 hours of running they both got around ~300 Credits for their efforts, still it was not enough for even affording the [ticket] price.

[Alice]: “There is no need to look so down, we can still use the Free Points to increase our stats and do better”

[Cyan]: “I guess you are right, not to mention that we still have a quest to finish after we finished that we would a get a good boost”

After that Cyan showed Alice around the Tower, beginning with the dorms, as expected her wardrobe was full of schools uniforms too with the logo of [Midas], just the same as Cyan wardrobe, it seems that whatever you were wearing would be copied and made into a wardrobe, Cyan didn’t wanted to think more about the subject after that, not what would happen if someone were to be teleported in their sleep clothes or worse.

[Alice]: “Why are you red now? This is not the first time inside my room”

Even though he was thinking about that, just then Cyan realized he was inside the same room with Alice making his red face even redder, Alice wanted to tease Cyan a little bit more but her conscience didn’t let her go for it as the Class President.

[Alice]: “Right, the room doesn’t have a key and it opens right away, should there be a risk of people robbing your room?”

After Alice said that at loud she got a message on her phone.

Message [Midas]: “Each Player is assigned to one room that only they can open, an invitation to other Players is allowed, however, force entry in other Players rooms will be penalized, please refrain of doing any bad behavior”

Cyan also got the same message Alice had, for now, it was better going to Floor 3 [Food Area] and have something to eat so they could dispel this awkward atmosphere.

[Cyan]: “… then how about we go the [Food Area]… the food there is very good and very tasty after a hard day of training you know”

[Alice]: “Yes I think we should”

.

.

.

[Alice]: “The food here is really great and you think you only need to press a button on the app for ordering”

[Cyan]: “The first time I came here I ended ordering 5 specialties and 3 side dishes before I left the area”

[Alice]: “Really? I didn’t know you could eat so much being so skinny, but I also feel like I can still eat some more”

Because this was the first time Alice was eating here they had ordered the today specialty, and as expected they also had ordered some side dishes and still they felt they could still eat some more when they were starting to get worried about this their phone vibrated.

Alice took out her phone and read the message.

Message [Midas]: “Players will experience an increase of appetite as their stats increases, eating normal food would be insufficient, forcing the player to eat several plates before feeling satisfied, optionally specialty food will have a better effect in Players stats grow”

[Cyan]: “That makes sense, but it is like it is telling us to always order that food no matter what”

Cyan got to confirm his suspicion as he got another message immediately after.

Message [Midas]: “Cyan is advice to order the specialty of the day for every meal”

Alice that was beside Cyan didn’t receive that message.

[Alice]: “Hey it is not [Midas] coaching you too much with all those pieces of advice? I got two o tree but yours keep coming”

[Cyan]: “I guess you are right about that… but that’s probably Willy doing”

[Alice]: “Willy was your friend right? What happened to him?”

[Cyan]: “He is an assistant robot that was assigned to me, however, they were taken away after a day, he nagged me all the time but even if their height is short he is still an amazing robot…”

Cyan could not help but feel sad as he remembers Willy shining chassis and its blinking lights while giving his recommendations all the time.

[Alice]: “You mean those robots that are running around like the one that brought the food just now?”

[Cyan]: “Just like that but Willy was 10 times more amazing, it has many hidden features and it could answer all the question you asked without having to ask [Midas], it was full of tips and pieces of advice, and I think it saved my life once”

Cyan started to brag about Willy to Alice and how his blinking light would flicker when Willy was thinking of something very hard, and how it would annoying him with reminders to go back to train all the time.

Alice saw how Cyan was cheerfully talking about Willy so she just listened Cyan described Willy as his friend for 10 minutes without saying anything else, soon Cyan realized he had been talking for too long so he stopped and looked to his empty plate.

[Alice]: “It is nice you know”

[Cyan]: “Willy?”

Alice shook her head

[Alice]: “Talking with you while sharing something to eat, it has been so long since the last time we talked this much, I really missed it”

Cyan and Alice were in silence for a minute until another notification popped up in their phones interrupting their memories.

Message [Midas]: “Cyan, Players will experience grow fatigue after their bodies had been stopped training for more than 20 minutes, it is recommended to sleep for the time being”

[Cyan]: “I think we should go back and try to get some sleep, it seems we will be weakened like you thought we would”

Alice nodded and followed Cyan to the dorms floor. Alice room was the #351 while Cyan was the #105 so they were actually quite far apart.

When they reached Cyan room he turned around and looked to Alice that was looking at the floor without saying anything.

[Cyan]: “Well I think I will be resting for now”

However, Alice didn’t say anything nor did she move.

[Cyan]: “Alice?”

[Alice]: “…can I stay?”

[Cyan]: “That…”

[Alice]: “Just for today, I just don’t want for you to disappear again”

Cyan could see the tears dropping from Alice's face, she had been enduring it since she arrived here this morning, and if you thought about it its only has been a few hours that she had to say good to her parents and then be teleported to the Tower, teleported to an unknown place created for training Players, and even though Alice had found someone she knew and could rely on, that only made her put her worries at the back of her head, so just for today, she didn’t want to sleep all alone in an unknown place while the guilt for abandoning her parents and the fear of the unknown consumed mind, not to mention the fear that Cyan would disappear once again.

Cyan nodded and entered his room, his bed could only be used by one person so he indicated Alice to use the bed while he would be sleeping on the floor. Alice soon returned with her pillow and sheets so Cyan wouldn’t have to sleep in the cold floor without nothing, after they just lay down without saying anything else to each other, Cyan soon started to feel very fatigued and pain starting to invade his body, making his eyes start to feel very heavy, however, he could not help to ask Alice about her status too.

[Cyan]: “How are you feeling?”

[Alice]: “I am ok, I am just a little bit tired”

Of course, Alice was undermining how tired she felt at this moment, she had been forcing herself so much today that she was in a very weakened stated right now.

[Cyan]: “You should try to get some sleep”

[Alice]: “Just a little bit more”

None say anything as a silence invaded the room for 1 minute.

[Alice]: “Cyan”

[Cyan]: “Yes?”

[Alice]: “It is nothing…”

Cyan could only feel a little bit frustrated but he didn’t say anything else. However, Alice could not keep what was inside her mind.

[Alice]: “Do you think they ok?”

Obviously Cyan knew Alice was talking about her parents, it just dawns onto him why she was crying moments ago, at this point Cyan could also figure out from were Alice got the videos of the military men fighting against the dog monster, from her dad.

[Cyan]: “I think they should be ok, you Dad it is an army officer, after all, there is no doubt he is ok, remember that time when I went to your house and your dad was wearing his combat uniform…”

Alice laughter as Cyan recounted a history of the past making her cheer up a little bit.

[Alice]: “haha you were so scared of my Dad at that time”

[Cyan]: “I couldn’t help it your Dad is scary you know”

There was nothing to be ashamed Cyan thought, he was really scared of Alice Dad, with a scary face, and menacing expressions while wearing an army uniform and while glaring him, it took all of Cyan courage to stare back him, but after he did, the scary face fade away and a gentle but strict expression replace it.

[Alice]: “He asked me about you, you know, why you have been going more to the apartment even when we are neighbors”

Cyan notice Alice head peeking out from the bed and above him, staring at him while also hoping for an answer, she also really wanted to know the answer.

[Cyan]: “That…”

[Alice]: “it was because other students in the school threaten you?”

Cyan could only help but to honest here and nodded his head.

[Alice]: “you should have told me”

[Cyan]: “I couldn’t have…”

Cyan wanted to explain himself but he was cut off by Alice.

[Alice]: “Idiot”

After that Alice retracted to her head and turned her back to Cyan, Cyan could only agree to Alice opinion of him, he was an idiot, after that neither of them talked anymore and very soon Cyan was in the land of dreams once again.

.

.

.

“Runaway”

“I will not leave you behind”

“You must leave or we both die”

“I will not leave you here to die too alone”

“Idiot”

“…”

“You have always been an idiot, now leave”

.

.

.

[Alice]: “Cyan wake up”

Alice was trying to wake up Cyan that was moving has to have a nightmare, after shaking him a few time Cyan finally wake up. After rubbing his eyes a bit Cyan looked to the worried Alice in front of him.

[Alice]: “You were… having a nightmare… and keep shouting my name so I have to wake up you, what you were dreaming about?”

In his dream, Cyan and Alice were over a pile of dead bodies and then? He could not remember anymore, did he left Alice alone in the end? That’s not possible he thought. Cyan brushed out his head and dismissed the dream.

[Cyan]: “That… I can’t remember, it was just a dream anyway… I am sorry for scaring you it would not happen again”

Cyan had also been shouting something else “I will not leave”, Alice could not make sense of what Cyan was saying, however, she didn’t insist on the subject as Cyan didn’t want to talk about it and was trying to avoid it, it must probably be a nasty nightmare to remember so I was better to leave it at that.

[Alice]: “I understand I will not ask about it anymore…”

Alice stood up and took her pillow.

[Alice]: “then let’s meet in the [Food Area] later on, don’t forget to check your status and messages”

Without saying anything more Alice left the room.

Cyan tried to remember the dream he was having once again, but he truly couldn’t remember so he gives up trying, after that he checked his phone and realized they had slept until the next day, as for messages there were some global announcements of [Midas] about Players records, and there were some other notifications about changes in his status.

Notification [Midas]: “Player grow 1 STR”

Notification [Midas]: “Player grow 1 STA”

Notification …

There was notification that his stats have increased on their own, the total amount was 1 STR, 1 DEX, 2 END, and 2 STA, a total of 6 stats increased, probably this is what Alice was mentioning for him to see, and her status probably had increased also like this too, this was known as Player stats grow that Willy was talking about

Cyan checked his new status.

[Status]

[Information]

Type: Player Name: Cyan Status: Normal Location: [Training Tower] Level: 0 Profession: None Sub-Profession: None

[Stats]

Strength (STR): 17 Tier 0 Dexterity (DEX): 19 Tier 0 Endurance (END): 17 Tier 0 Stamina (STA): 21 Tier 0 Intelligence (INT): 12 Tier 0 Free Points: 21

Looking over his status Cyan could not help but to feel happy how his status was increasing each day now, and also that he could increase them on his own as part of Player grow, but the increase wouldn’t be instantaneous unlike [Midas] rewards, however Cyan could not help but think that the stats rewards from [Midas] felt like some kind of an artificial grow gain, and it was different from stats growing on their own. On the other hand, now could start train seriously from now on.

Now that he knows that [Midas] rewards were not the only way to increase his stats, however, he was now stuck in thinking what to do with his Free Point, after all with 21 Free Points he was feeling the need to put them in into his stats right away, but in the end Cyan decided to postpone it, even though it was a very tempting thought to just put 21 points into his STA stat and double it in an instant it was better to wait for now, even though the idea of never running out of stamina was still lingering in his head.

Cyan took a bath and changed into another uniform before going to the Floor 3 [Food Area] where Alice should be, however when he got there he was shocked to find Alice sitting in the same table than that wall of muscles known as Boss, Alice took notice of Cyan and raised her hand signaling him to come over where she was, Cyan could not help to wonder how they were eating in the same table now, this Tower could hold up to 1000 Players and the [Food Area] could host all of them at the same time, and right now there were only 351 Players in the Tower meaning the [Food Area] was looking deserted right now, so ending in the same table was not actually a coincidence at all.

First Cyan only had noticed the presence of Alice and Boss on the table, but after coming closer he realized that because Boss was so tall he couldn’t actually see that there were other Players sitting in the table as well, in total there were 4 Players including Alice, the first one Cyan could remember that was called Boss the Player that they had met yesterday on Floor 5 and had caused a very strong impression on him, together with them was Karla and Karga also, the other two players they had met yesterday in Floor 5, now that Cyan looked at the duo side by side they actually looked very alike, he could not help but to think them as brother and sister. In the end Cyan took a sit to the left of Boss and to the right was Alice, in front of Cyan where the two brothers Karla and Karga.

[Karla]: “Oh you are here newbie, you sure take your time you sure had a rough time last night sleeping in the same room than Alice eh?”

Immediately Cyan face went full red as Karla was winking at him while pointing in the direction of Alice, did they perhaps saw them entering the same room yesterday? The answer was yes, yes they did.