Read story 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐑𝐘 - ELEVEN.

ELEVEN.

You had to be dreaming. Obviously you were still sleep deprived from that late night yesterday—and now that was eating away at your dream, forcing you to hallucinate.

Not like that would have been the first time, anyways. A gunshot embedded with some drug had hit you once, and the worst thing that had happened was that Dream's Mask song started to play on repeat in your head. As did James Charles's voice. Then you had suddenly seen Colleen Ballinger moving towards you at startling speed—

"Are you actually Arata?" You blinked, "I mean, AI is getting scary right now..."

Well, you doubted that AI would be able to capture his true essence. Even doing nothing, Arata had the unmistakable charm and charisma that all, if not most, idols possessed.

"Are you thinking about that hallucination you had a while back?" Arata sighed, "that must have been rough."

See, Arata truly knew you. He knew everything about you; you knew everything about him.

Daichi cleared his throat.

"So, seeing how you two actually know each other, then I trust that you will be able to help Arata assimilate into the school once more."

"You're asking him?"

"You're asking me?"

Both of you turned to look at Daichi with incredulous looks on your face—and Daichi raised an eyebrow. You two were undoubtedly in sync, and the student council president didn't know whether to be alarmed or amused by it.

"Arata is very popular—even before he was an idol trainee. While you, [Name]..." Daichi paused, "you tend to create the opposite effect."

"How unpopular are you, [Name]?" Arata furrowed his eyebrows, mirth evident on his features—"you used to be very popular back in Sora, if I remember correctly. I mean, look at your face. You could have joined me to become an idol."

You scowled. Sora was some high level assassin-spy academy you two had once attended—it wasn't exactly fun, what with the brutal missions and the injuries, but there weren't cowards. Who even was scared of a snake? They had dealt with other animals before.

"Terry the snake happened. And the person who pulled me to the forest started this whole mess. I don't think I'm unpopular, per se, and it's not exactly like they dislike me. I think...they think I'm scary." You explained, frowning. The details of the incident was still etched in your memory. If only you could remember your biology half as well as you remembered your embarrassing moments.

"Some school lab incident," you told him, with a look that read I'll tell you more later.

"Forest? I thought that was a school garden," Arata interrupted you, confused.

"That's what I thought too!"

Daichi looked extremely concerned and simply done. He pinched his nose bridge, exhaling a long breath.

"You two—"

"There's a burn on your wrist. It's going to scar." Arata seemed to ignore whatever words you just told him, and instead touched your hand gingerly, with some sort of...tenderness you couldn't quite place your finger on. It had been extremely long since you two had last seen each other—but so far you two hadn't done anything but exchange smatterings of words. But his gaze always lingered on you, soft and sweet like you remembered.

"Whatever it is, I don't care. My point is, perhaps you two would like to catch up while directing one another around the school. [Name] always gets lost. He shows up for Mathematics with Chemistry textbooks, he shows up to the science lab—which he is temporarily banned from, by the way—with his English textbooks."

"Typical."

"You haven't been in the school for ages," you accused, "what right do you have?"

"Well, I had idol work," Arata furrowed his eyebrows, before dropping his voice. "And in the meantime, I had to also look up suspicious activities from idols. The Burning Sun scandal was already enough."

"Oh. But Wonyoung's safe, right?" You blinked your eyes.

"Yes, yes, she's safe." His voice was fondly exasperated. "I bet you own Miu Miu and Innisfree products, since she advertises those."

"Mm, not much. Not really," you shrugged. "I think I just have, uh, flawless skin."

"Okay." Arata shot you a suspicious look. "But well, about the living arrangement in this school..."

"Hm?"

"You mentioned you lived with a council member?"

"Oh, Jun," you said dismissively, "it's kind of funny, actually—since he made a bet with me on academics."

"That's like a death wish. No one ever has the guts to compare results with you. Yours are...inhuman."

"That's really nice," you rolled your eyes, "whatever. It's his fault."

"Have you even started studying?" Arata raised an eyebrow.

Um, no, actually. You hadn't.

But it wouldn't hurt him to know.

"I'll even pay you a few hundred, [Name]."

You stared unconvincingly at Arata, who was currently on his knees with his wallet out invitingly. Admittedly, that was an attractive offer, but a few hundred was too little — considering how you would have to spend almost a whole month — only if you were lucky — to get Arata's stupid little account up to level 50. It was going to be a tedious process, especially when Arata was only at level 13.

"Don't you have better things to do? Go tweet something and feed your rabid fans." You waved your hand dismissively, "plus, I have my own things to do. Don't bother me. I have to study for the bet, for example."

"I know you have nothing to do."

"I have work," You lied.

You were unemployed.

Okay, maybe not unemployed. You were a freelance (fanfiction) writer, meaning technically you were employed, but since you hadn't been getting any job offers except one of erotica novels—which you had declined—you had nothing better to do. And in truth, a few hundred dollars would be very welcoming considering your current financial situation. Missions were scarce here. Whatever killing here would simply be considered murder, and that wasn't the most ideal.

"Right." Arata brushed it off, "work. Or whatever you call sitting and reading manga all day long. I know you have the time."

"Why are you so desperate, anyways?" You pinched the bridge of your nose in exasperation, letting out a heavy sigh, "and why do you want to bring your account to level 50?"

"Because I told my fans I was at level 50," Arata admitted, "and they want me to stream, and probably want to see my account—but uh, I haven't played that game in ages."

When you didn't respond, Arata continued his ramble. "And," Arata winked, "and, you get to release stress the non sexual, non STD way. Isn't it a win-win?"

"Playing a MMORPG game isn't releasing stress," you grumbled, "in fact, I get even more so worked up when playing it—the monsters and everything are so stupid."

"Well, uh, maybe make new friends?"

"Increase the money offer." You narrowed your eyes, "then maybe I'll consider."

"I'm broke. You know that."

"Yeah, right." Arata being broke was like being told the earth was flat. You didn't know what fishy job Arata did, but it sure paid a lot. In fact, you would want to be hired for that job (Arata had offered) but after careful consideration, perhaps it wasn't a good idea. You didn't want police knocking on your door at 5am as you desperately tried to wash off blood stains from a piece of clothing with a dead body buried messily in his backyard. Well, that certainly brought back memories, and while you also did know how to cover tracks along with get rid of police...

Yeah, a normal school life.

"Okay, fine," Arata breathed out, "a thousand?"

"I can't actually believe we reunited after months and this is happening."

Fuck yes.

"Alright then," You purposefully kept your voice to one of boredom, so as to not give away the enthusiasm that he's currently feeling — "send it over now."

"Damn. That was fast. So you were going to take up the offer." Arata frowned — or at least, attempted to—he seemed much to be more relieved than anything.

"That will teach you not to lie to your fans." You shrugged, "I mean, you got yourself in that situation, didn't you?"

"Heartless."

"Liar."

"Broke."

You had nothing to say to that. Arata was telling the truth, anyways — though it contradicted his earlier accusation of calling you a liar.

"What's the username? And password. You can't just merrily skip away without telling me your account information."

"Oh, right. I forgot." Arata scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "uh. You're gonna laugh." At this, you raised an amused eyebrow.

"It can't be that bad."

"ihaveapisskink," Arata said glumly, "I don't know. I told my mother to make an account for me, and this happened. I think she did it on purpose. The main reason why I remained at level 13 was because no one wanted to co-op with me. And anyways, the password should be my birthday."

"Oh." You said, blinking your eyes, "oh. That is a bad name. Should I be demanding more money from you?"

"Can't. The rest is going to these ridiculous school fees. And myself. And you, of course."

"Ooh, sugar daddy." You perked up.

"If you don't know how to play this game, you can always watch those streams online," Arata suggested, "I recommend that Saito streamer. He's extremely popular— though, it might also have to do with the fact he has an aesthetic advantage."

Saito... oh, wasn't he that guy... student council guy...

"So..." You trailed off, half confused, "aesthetic advantage, as in, he's hot?"

"All he does is play—or I think demolish is a more fitting word—the games; give scathing remarks in his apparent hot voice, though he hardly talks, and all the fangirls go crazy over him." Arata complained, "he's overrated. People call him Saito but apparently a friend uses that name and he isn't actually Saito. I hate him."

"Yet you're recommending him."

"Well, he does play well," Arata said, annoyed, "though sometimes I wished he embarrassed himself in front of everyone."

"How harsh."

"You haven't met that guy yet, [Name]. If trash could have a personality," Arata paused for dramatic effect, "that's him."

Oh. Maybe you should watch his streams, just for fun. You know, just to spite Arata's obvious repulsion of him.

"Okay," Arata amended, "he's not that bad. But still, I would avoid him. He has a really foul and vicious tongue." He shuddered. "And I have been at the receiving end of his insults for far too long in game. Like, once in a server. Have fun playing. Personally, that game gives me PTSD, more than that gunshot to the arm. I'm going to go now—and trust me, don't skip any of the daily quests. I know when you have skipped one."

You just cheerfully waved him off, ignoring all his comments about the streamer Arata was blabbering about and all those annoying little reminders. Instead, you focused on the fact you were now a thousand dollars richer. You wouldn't have to worry about rent this month, and could focus you efforts...on a video game.

You sighed, watching as the computer screen slowly came to life. Putting your headphones on, you readied yourself for an uneventful, repetitive, and boring evening that would mostly involve you killing random bosses to pick up the same scroll a few hundred times.

[ Collect 300 scrolls to obtain 15000 EXP. ]

[ EXP will be deducted with each failure to kill the monsters. ]

[ Quest: Help Grandma Ming to build a library. ]

[ Items missing:

251/300 scrolls

5/5 wood ]

It was a tedious task. Stupid, even. Games like this meant countless grinding — more of time than actual skill, and you were bored out of your mind. You would have used an auto clicker, if not for the fact you would get banned and Arata's money would disappear.

And the fifty minutes you spent killing zombies would also disappear too.

Was there a way to quickly get the stupid quests over and done with? You wondered—you didn't know how long he could deal with this. In the fifty minutes, you had not even leveled up once. Well, technically there was—but dungeons required parties of 2-4 to complete, and because of the stupid username, no one wanted to group with you. And Arata didn't have any in his friend list.

I should just wait in the forest near the dungeon for some lonely player to appear.

The path leading to the dungeon was very quiet—and you was the only player there. All had already progressed past that particular stage, and while you enjoyed wandering around aimlessly and exploring the map, picking up miscellaneous items, it did not bode well for your questing prospects.

Finally, there was a sheaf of a blade, and you quickly turned to see a game character—a girl character, at that—ruthlessly and viciously smashing up a tree. The tree finally gave way to the brutalness, and it withered and disappeared into the girl's inventory. She didn't look like she had anyone with her—so you decided to take this opportunity.

You read her display name: 1256717. While that wasn't as embarrassing as the name Arata had left him with, it wasn't exactly the best. At most, it was a scramble of unintelligible numbers that if you bothered enough, would have deciphered for the fun of it Hmm. Maybe both could unite in some sort of 'stop discriminating against bad usernames' campaign. But it gave you a reason to reach out to the girl.

[ ihaveapisskink: hi ]

[ ihaveapisskink: bad username too? ]

You patiently waited for the girl to reply.

After a minute, there was a short ping! sound and you checked your inbox.

[ user 1256717 has invited you into their party[ . <Accept> or <Decline> ]

Blinking his eyes in bewilderment, You immediately clicked the <Accept> button, watching as you could now enter the dungeon.

[ ihaveapisskink: I see you sent me a party invite— here to lament about the cons of having a stupid username too? ]

[ 1256717: I only sent you a party invite to clear the dungeon. ]

Wow. How specific.

[ ihaveapisskink: that's good i needes someune to clear the levecl 2]

[ 1256717: *needed *someone *level ]

[ ihaveapisskink: what are you, an English major? Pardon me, your highness. It seemed I have offended your literate ass with my foolish typos. ]

[ 1256717: shut up and help u fucking dimwit ]

[ ihaveapisskink: where's my pretty please with a cherry on top? y'know, you're my beloved partner in this game, shouldn't you ask me with nicer manners? ]

[ 1256717: do you want me to kick you out from this party or not? ]

You debated sending another annoying reply to the bossy and curt girl, but instead refrained from it. At least she was willing to put up with your stupid username. Who knew? Maybe this could even be the start of a blooming friendship.

[ ihaveapisskink: ok fine ]

[ ihaveapisskink: so do we enter now?]

[ 1256717: . ]

[ ihaveapisskink: ?? what does that mean ]

[ 1256717: hurry up ]

[ ihaveapisskink: what the fuck was that dot for ]

[ 1256717: I was telling you to hurry up, you dumb shit. ]

[ ihaveapisskink: aw, my feelings are hurt :') I think I need a kiss to make it better. Also, a dot doesn't even mean anything. ]

[ 1256717: we are in a game. We can't kiss. But now you know what I mean when I send. I will fucking find your IP address . ]

[ ihaveapisskink: I was just joking around. Don't take it so literally. Thanks for englihtening me on what you actually meant. ]

[ 1256717: *enlightening ]

[ ihaveapisskink: so you have enough time to point up my spelling mistakes but don't have enough to write 'hurry up'? ]

[ 1256717: . ]

[ ihaveapisskink: okay fine I'm coming ]

What pissed him off was that you had to skip the dialogue of the cave NPC to catch up to her, which made you annoyed. Lore is important, you thought with a scowl, people should learn to appreciate all the hard work that goes in the dialogue.

[ ihaveapisskink: Listening to the dialogue is important. You should learn to listen to it. You never know when it come in handy ]

[ ihaveapisskink: Hello? ]

[ ihaveapisskink: Uh ]

[ ihaveapisskink: Where did you go ]

[ ihaveapisskink: I guess this isn't working ]

[ ihaveapisskink: hm ]

[ ihaveapisskink: okay how about ]

[ ihaveapisskink: Fun fact! Honeybees flap their wings 230 times every second. At birth, a panda cub is smaller than a mouse and weighs only four ounces. Horses and cows can sleep standing up, but they can only dream when lying down. ]

[ ihaveapisskink: okay looks like this isn't working ]

[ ihaveapisskink: I have another way ]

[ ihaveapisskink: Ronaldo is better than Messi. ]

[ 1256717: shut up ]

[ ihaveapisskink: looks like you finally replied, do you really think Ronaldo is better than Messi? ]

[ 1256717: I'm busy killing bosses and you r spamming the chat ]

[ ihaveapisskink: thanks for carrying me ]

[ 1256717: . ok ]

Well, it was true that the girl had helped carry you throughout. Your screen flashed with various in-game notifications, thanks to her heartless assault of those poor goblins.

[ You have gained EXP! ]

[ ihaveapisskink: wow, how much damage did you deal? ]

[ ihaveapisskink: okay nvm back to ignoring ]

[ ihaveapisskink: I'll let you do your own thing, then. ]

You tapped your mouse impatiently. Your co-op partner didn't bother to update you on what was happening, and she moved too fast for you to keep up with her. Though she was around the same level as him, you suspected the girl had some secret professional account she used on other days.

[ ihaveapisskink: what can I do? ]

[ 1256717: just shut up. I can't play properly when my screen is flooded from unwanted messages from you. ]

[ ihaveapisskink: how blunt. ]

[ 1256717: . ]

You kept your mouth shut, but you were internally grateful to the girl for letting you gain XP so fast. But you suspected that tomorrow you might not be so lucky in getting a co-op partner who, firstly, didn't care about your questionable username, and secondly—could carry you in-game.

You watched as the girl character slashed mercilessly at the last boss, effectively killing it.

[ You have successfully defeated the dungeon boss! ]

[ You have gained EXP! ]

[ ihaveapisskink: You know, I think this arrangement could work. ]

[ ihaveapisskink: we should friend each other. ]