Reo slowly sat up on the bed after he had been forcefully logged out from the SVN. He felt in a trance from the shock as he held his side, it was like he could still feel the burning pain from the blade.
'I died didn't I? I really died?' he couldn't believe it. He just started the game! He hadn't even left his beginner's village yet!
"Am I really that useless?" he smiled wryly as he thought about it.
He sighed as he fell back into the bed and closed his eyes, he clenched his teeth from the frustration and anger but eventually calmed himself down. Laying there, he immersed into the feeling of his situation for quite a long time before he ultimately fell asleep. Before he closed his eyes, he remembered his last memory from inside the game.
'What was that roar? A wild beast? And those blue eyes… could it be her? No that doesn't make sense! What would she be doing there? It doesn't even matter anyway, it's all over.' And with that, he fell into a deep welcomed sleep.
There was a knock at the door, Hina who was sitting in the dining room using her phone went to answer and saw Natsu standing outside.
"Oh, hey little sis! where's the idiot?" Natsu smiled at her cheekily.
"He's probably playing the game on his SVN upstairs" she giggled as she let him in.
"I doubt that" Natsu suddenly chuckled mischievously.
Natsu walked into the house and immediately moved to the stairs. Natsu and Reo were friends since childhood and any shame that should have been between them never even existed in the first place, he felt very comfortable at the Minami's.
"Why didn't you come over with Ren? He hardly comes over anymore" Hina said with a slight pout as she locked the door.
Ren was Natsu's little brother and was Hina's age mate. While Reo and Natsu got up to mischief as children, Hina and Ren ended up getting along together because of their shared grievances over troublesome elder brothers.
"Him? I told him I was coming over and asked if he wanted to follow me, he just ended up stuttering and stammering like an idiot. I felt I shouldn't force it so I just left without him" Natsu paused at the stairs to reply her.
"Is there something wrong with him? I wonder if I should call him?" Hina looked at her phone with slight worry.
Natsu smiled knowingly at the sight. "Don't worry about the idiot, he will come around soon enough"
He bounded up the stairs to Reo's room and left Hina wondering if she should call Ren. After a while, she tapped on his contact and decided to call. They were good friends after all, she should know if something was bothering him.
Natsu upon reaching Reo's room barged into the room without knocking and found him asleep on the bed with his right arm covering his face. Walking across the rug to the bed, he proceeded to give him a well placed knock on his head as he yelled.
"Wake up sleeping beauty! I have administered your true love's knock!"
Reo woke up abruptly from the stinging pain just in time to hear the bullshit statement.
"The hell do you mean 'true love's knock'? Fuck! You are courting death!" he yelled as he pounced on him.
"Shut up, who do you think you are? Feng Hao? Do you think you are Feng Hao you idiot!?" Natsu yelled back as he tried to retaliate Reo's frenzied assault.
Reo didn't let up as they wrestled for quite a while until Natsu was finally able to extricate himself.
"What are you doing sleeping off anyway? Sleeping beauty in-game and sleeping beauty in the real world eh?" Natsu chuckled as he stood up from the floor and sat down on the chair by the table.
"Eh? What do you mean?" Reo paused from getting off the floor at the weird statement.
"In the game you idiot, who decides to sleep in the middle of the forest?" Natsu said nonchalantly as he opened up Reo's system and opened a browser.
"Oh the game" Reo's mood suddenly turned sour.
"You know I think I sort of died…... somehow" he said as he slowly stood up and sat on the bed.
"What do you mean dead? You're not dead" Nastu turned to him with a puzzled look.
"What do you mean I'm not dead, I'm the one playing the game and I told you I'm dead! Wait how did you know I'm not dead?" Reo quickly found the suspicious part in the statement.
"Because you are right here" Natsu said turning the laptop screen for Reo to see.
It was the game's forum website where players came to discuss events and share stories from their time in the game, on this particular page was a fairly large picture.
It was dawn and the sun's early rays could be seen shining down through the forest canopy onto a very curious scene. There was a huge rock, no a boulder. There was a huge boulder with arms and legs sitting down at the edge of a burnt patch of the forest. It sat crossed legged with its arms in between its legs as it watched over the prone form of a red robed muan that seemed to be sleeping right in front of it. Curled up against the boulder's leg was a girl in a white priest's robe with brown hair sleeping peacefully without a care. It looked like a very peaceful scene, hmm…. Very peaceful indeed.
"Wait, the fuck? What the fuck!?" Reo's eyes widened as he took in the scene.
"I'm not dead? And Amba… he came out to save me? And it really was that girl! What is she doing here?"
He was feeling waves of different emotions battering at his psyche but he still calmed himself down to ask the most important question at the moment.
"Who the fuck is the bastard that took this picture!? What does he mean by Sleeping 'beauty' huh!? What's his IGN, I'll kill him!"
Natsu laughed as he saw Reo rage at the caption that certainly pointed at his sleeping form. The poster made sure to circle him out and made emphasis on the image below with all sort of comments. A lot of people ending up joining into the fun by adding and embellishing the story, making it 'juicer' with each comment.
"Hey where is this? I heard anyone who could wake him up will get a magic weapon"
"F*ck! The guy above me is gay! Do you really believe this nonsense?"
"I'm a girl! can I try?"
"Beautiful sister, are you in mecida? I am a 'sleeping beauty' too!"
"Wait is that a golem? Is that really a golem!?"
"I don't care about the guy. Who's the cute girl? A princess?"
"Princess snow!"
"So he's the prince then? Princess snow needs to give him a true love's kiss!"
"FBI open up!!!"
Reo watched the ensuring comments trying not to cringe. He felt wronged!
"I thought I had died!" he said sounding almost resigned.
"Did you receive a message confirming your death?"
"Well no but I got stabby stabbed by a poison dagger from a level 28 assassin, 28!!!" Reo really felt wronged.
"Well you're right there just exposed to god knows what's out there. And I think you should hurry back in and leave that village very soon. Your golem has attracted you some trouble." Natsu said as he showed him some particular comments.
An official guild had asked for the location of the 'sleeping beauty' and many enthusiastic commenters had given out the location. Looking at the comments, Reo could only imagine what would happen if he was surrounded by members of a guild questioning him on how a level 10 player in a beginner village got his hands on a golem. There would be no way out!
"Fuck I need to get back in there and run for my life!" Reo jumped up as he grabbed his SVN and hastily put it on.
"Well my job here is done I guess, I'll quickly find the fastest way to Gorm and come over. It might take some time though. I'm about 2 kingdoms away." Natsu mentioned as he stood up to leave.
"Thanks bro, I owe you one" Reo waved at him as he switched the SVN on.
"Of course you do, you idiot!" Natsu replied but Reo couldn't hear him, he had already been immersed and his consciousness was now in the game.