Eleven months before entering The Novus, Amelia’s father told her the news.

“It is done, my dear. You and your sister will be part of the Somnium Project.”

I still remember his face. His tired eyes. His dropped shoulders.

“That’s the least they can do after all those years of service you have done for them,” Amelia replied, while serving him dinner. “So, I suppose they’ll relocate us soon. Where?”

“That hasn’t been disclosed yet, but I’m sure that you’ll spend most of the time in the Caelum Enterprise Headquarters.”

“Dad!” Marissa called from the living room, where she was sitting on the floor, a coffee table and a Glock handgun in front of her. “I've improved my record! Do you want to see?”

“Sure, honey,” the man said with a warm smile as Amelia smirked.

“Time me!”

“Okay, get ready,” he said, preparing a chronometer in his Phone Device. A beeping sound was heard and Marissa grabbed the weapon and disassembled it at a fast speed, leaving 4 pieces on the table. “4.20 seconds. That’s impressive my dear!”

“I’ll soon make it to four seconds flat, just you wait!”

Thanks Dad, now I’ll have to hear those clicking sounds for another week.

Amelia glanced at his father’s gentle smile, and then at his wheelchair.

He’s omitting an awful truth. She swallowed. Only I and Marissa will be able to leave Earth.

***

“‘The Tandem’, argh! Do you know how much I hate that name?!” Amelia shouted, pointing at Alan’s face.

“A lot, apparently,” he replied quietly as she was gulping wine.

“I looked it up! It means Last... The Last! Doesn’t that sound grim to you?!”

“Now that you mention it, yeah, it really sounds depressing.”

He looked at the distance. From the rooftop of their new house, they could see the neighborhood and Unus Town's biggest buildings. The tallest being a four-story house located near Downtown.

The starry night looked like something out of a dream, and Alan wondered if the developers got inspired by the actual space they were traveling on, or if all of that beauty was designed by an artist.

“Hey, I didn’t bring you here to get lost in thought,” Amelia whispered into his ear before shouting. “Drink! The entire bottle, or I’ll get pissed at you. This toast is at Kathleen Maher’s expense, so it’s okay.” She giggled.

“Did you steal this?”

“Shut up. We’re celebrating! For our new house, for our new beginning, for our new friendship!”

“Okay, okay. But keep it down or our new neighbors will complain.”

Alan sipped on his own bottle before realizing that Amelia was staring at him.

“Did you leave family behind, Alan?” she asked, eyes locked on him.

“Kind of,” he replied, unable to look her in the eyes. “My mother passed away 10 years ago, and my father 5 years ago. I was an only child.”

“Did you live by yourself?”

“No. My Professor took care of me. She was my father’s colleague, and she taught me everything I know.”

“And what do you know, Alan Warden?” she asked, hugging her own legs.

‘Maintain the secret as of now,’ Adriano had told him.

I know, I know.

“She taught me a little about robotics, but by the time I got here, that knowledge had became obsolete.”

Amelia hummed and made her empty bottle disappear inside her inventory.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you, what’s your deal with Astrid? Did you guys use to be an item?”

“Why do you ask?”

“After you found out that Marco left the guild, you traveled all the way to Fleurella. For what? To punch him in the face in Astrid’s name?”

“As a matter of fact, I kicked him.”

“You didn’t even mention the whole torture debacle! And then she showed up and... Well, she has always been a bitch, but even I could tell that she acted differently while speaking to you.”

“So what? You heard her, right? She doesn’t want to see my face anymore.”

“And why do you want to start a guild again? To impress her? To get at the top and show her that you are the man she deserves? Those were your words, not mine.”

“Why are you asking all this? Are you finally having doubts about joining me?”

“I just need to know if you have your feet on the ground, moron. Because I won’t listen to a man that has his sights set on getting a woman’s attention. Even worse, a woman that forgot all about you time ago.”

Did you have to say that?

Alan gritted his teeth and gulped his wine.

“I know that I’m old history for her, okay?!” he shouted. “And the answer is no, I won’t use this guild to get her attention, I won’t chase after her, and I won’t use you as a way to spite her! I have my very own problems to deal with, like leveling up, to even dedicate a single second to think about her. Is that what you wanted to hear?!”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“You’re welcome!” He gulped the last of his wine and threw the bottle into the street. “What about you? What would you do if your beloved Lord Marco shows up here and says that he needs you back? You seemed to enjoy doing his bidding yesterday. What caused that change of heart, huh?!” He got closer to her face, glaring at her. “Do you want to know what I’m thinking? That maybe he ordered you to follow me as the ultimate mockery! To give me false hopes, to make me think that I may overturn this streak of bad luck! So you can play with my feelings and dump me once Marco snaps his fingers, so you can rejoin him and tell him all about how I fell into your game! A level 100 helping a puny five like me, yeah, nothing suspicious about it!”

“Are you done?”

“Yes!”

Amelia stood up and jumped down from the rooftop. She then strolled through the empty street without looking back.

Dammit!

This is so unlike me! That guy messed with my head more than I’m willing to admit!

He looked up at the sky, feeling tired.

Oh, man. I don’t know why, but I’m in the mood to hear that song again.

He opened his Menu Window and his finger passed by the *Error* tab. I wonder if Adriano could help me with this. Doesn’t hurt to try.

He tapped on his friend list and sent a message to him: ‘Hey, sorry to bother you. I suppose I should have waited until you contacted me first, but… Could you help me with something? One of my Menu options has been locked since I returned. You’re the Glitch Administrator, right? So, could you help me? See ya. Peace, man.’

Having done that, Alan opened a message from Amelia, from hours ago: ‘Here is the song I showed you earlier. It was not free, just so you know. But I bought you a copy so you can become a Cosmic fan!’

He tapped on the file, and the song started playing inside his head.

‘Can’t you see that I’m behind you?

I never left your side...

Waiting, longing, counting the hours…

For you to return!’

“What a beautiful song,” he whispered.

Although something tells me her voice has been digitally enhanced… Can Users change their voice too?

After hearing the song one more time, he received a new message notification from Adriano.

‘Adriano: The system must have locked your inbox after you logged out. Do you want me to restore it?’

‘Alan: But I’ve been using the messenger just fine since yesterday.’

‘Adriano: ‘After you left, some private messages were sent into your inbox, and the System blocked any access to them. There. I have restored them and those from Ashley Yates too. Now let me sleep, today’s conversation has been the most tiring I've had since I started working.’

“Ashley Yates...” Alan muttered as he tapped his Inbox Tab.

‘191 Unread Messages.’

‘Astrid #1: Alan? Where are you? I hope this is not a prank, you idiot!’

‘Astrid #2: No, seriously. Where the hell are you? This isn’t funny!’

‘Astrid #5: Are you there?’

‘Astrid #11: If you’re reading this, please reply!’

‘Astrid #32: Hi, Alan. Today I reached level 20, and I feel pretty powerful right now! Shooting Stars is in good hands. We are now a group of 10 people. Ten people joined our guild, Alan! Can you believe it! Once you return, I’ll introduce you to all of them. Especially this Helen gal, she is very talented and fights like a ninja. I didn’t even know there was a ninja class! And this Oscar guy, he’s super serious-looking, and Helen teases him all the time. It’s so funny to see him get all red-faced. Well, I hope you can read all of this so you can catch up to what I’ve been up to! Buh-bye!’

‘Astrid #104: Remember Kathleen? Well, guess what? She changed her class to Cryomancer! Ice Magic, Alan! Can you believe that?! I’m sure that she only changed classes so she could have a chance against me. That bitch! But by that time I had already ditched swords and lances, and focused on my fists, so she was in for a surprise when I started punching her ice shield. Ha! I’ve been training with this Theo guy, and he’s teaching me martial arts. He says that using my strength and my magic at the same time is totally possible. But I don’t know what kind of class I would turn into.’

‘Astrid #115: Today, at The Novus’ first Anniversary, we learned that the gold you get inside the system is actually a crypto currency. So it’s real money, Alan! I don’t care one bit. Well, maybe a little, but getting rich is not one of my priorities! I just want to have fun and kick everyone’s ass!’

‘Astrid #182: Once you return, we need to talk.’

‘Astrid #185: Tamara said that I should start a new hobby. She says that being busy with all this guild crap is taking a toll on me. If she only knew the true reason I’m feeling like this... Well, I have listened to her advice. I’ve met new, nice people. The kind of people I don’t usually hang around. They are not warriors like me, so they have shown me a different perspective of living inside the Novus. Now that The Content Creators Patch has been released, they have gone crazy, producing an experimental reality show and a short series. They are trying to see the limits on what kind of content we can produce ourselves, as Users. Their top priority, create new music, because the tracks curated by the developers suck ass! They have my full endorsement on that one!’

‘Astrid #188: There’s something I never told you, but we met a couple of years prior to bumping into each other at Caelum. Since we only spoke once, it’s obvious that you don’t remember me. You used to work at Kintech, right? Can you recall an incident regarding a Maid Automaton appointed to be turned into scrap? The day after that, you gave the owner of the Maid a pendant made with a piece of that automaton’s power cell... Yeah…’

‘Astrid #189: Maybe I should stop writing these messages. It's not healthy. It was at the beginning, but not anymore. You know what I mean?

‘Astrid #190: I’m still hoping that you’ll come back.’

‘Astrid #191: ’I fucking miss you.’

***

A few feet behind him, inside her room, Ashley got a system notification. She opened her Menu Window and noticed a new available tab. ‘Inbox’.