"Queen!!! Your story had reached a hundred thousand reads!"
The peaceful Saturday morning inside Blue de Apartelle was disrupted by the shout of Lorraine from her room. Her voice had probably echoed towards the other building next to the apartment. Lorraine excitedly ran out of her room and went to the dining area where she saw her friend, Kate, drinking tea.
"Shhh... Will you stop shouting Raine! Candace is still sleeping and Queen is out to grab our groceries." Kate said in a hushed tone and reprimanded Lorraine in between the sips of her tea.
Lorraine giggled and grinned widely at Kate. She opened a cabinet then grabbed a glass of coffee bean before gently scooping it and placing some to her coffee maker. "Don't mind me, Kate. I am just so excited to see the number of reads in this story!" the girl chirped while showing off her phone screen.
"Hmmn... I've seen that earlier than you." Kate quietly stated and did not even bother looking at the phone screen in front of her face. Lorraine pouted for a while before she heard a car parked on their driveway.
"Oh, that's Queen! I'll go, help her carry our groceries!" Lorraine sprints towards the main door oozing with energy.
"Hey, Rainne! What's up?!" Queen asked when she saw her friend in a good mood.
"Your story reached a hundred thousand views! OMG!" Lorraine squealed again while grabbing the groceries in the car.
"Wow! That's great!" A smile slowly curved on Queen's face before she burst out a laugh. "Hahaha... You are happier than me Rainne!" she added in a teasing tone while eyeing the girl.
"Well, It's just... I can't believe we can reach this number of reads!" Lorraine defended while they walk together towards the dining area.
"Me too!" Queen replied, the feeling of a great sense of satisfaction slowly crept within her chest.
"You're back!" Kate smiled at her when the two entered the dining area.
"Yes. Unexpectedly, the queue to the cashier is empty. Your twin is still asleep, Kate?" Queen asked while arranging the things she just bought. Lorraine took two mugs and poured the coffee on it. She then handed Queen a coffee.
"Well, the game MMORPG ADVANCE had launched a new update. We played last night but I slept around 2 in the morning. I guess Candace played the game for the whole night." Kate answered and shrugged. Among the four of them, Candace is the heaviest gamer. It is not new to them if she spends out a whole night inside the game.
"What's the new update on that game this time?" Lorraine asked while Queen nodded her head.
"Funny but the new in-game update is similar to your other gaming story, The Quest of Killing. Candace was even laughing hysterically when we saw it last night!" Kate chuckled and looked at Queen while shaking her head.
"Really?! The Quest of Killing is mostly Candace's idea! What a coincidence!" Queen subconsciously commented.
"For real?!! So if I do some quests now, I have a chance to get discount vouchers to buy shoes as a reward?" Lorraine burst with joy upon hearing the new update. She knows about the story and the idea of putting it in a real game is so unprecedented and surreal!
"Yeah, something like that. You can check the game later, let's prepare our breakfast first." Kate suggested and placed her empty cup of tea in the sink.
Queen sat on her chair. She then took her phone out from the pocket of her jeans to checked in her story. Sitting beside her, Lorraine stubbornly opened her phone to check the new updates of the game MMORPG ADVANCE.
This had been their usual daily routine. Kate is the cook. Queen buys the food supplies. And Lorraine cleans the dining area after they had their meal. As for Candace, she does their budgeting and made lists of the things Queen needs to buy.
As soon as she successfully signed in to her account, several messages instantly pings. It was all an unread notifications on her news panel. She quickly tapped her fingers into the notification button and read each message until four of which caught her attention.
SweetScentFlower commented on Chapter 98. 'Do you ever know how to spice up your story? Geez, place some bed scene. That's how it should be.'
Carmela69 commented on Chapter 98. 'Stop being a disgusting prude writer, put your characters inside the room already, and make something hot between them happened!'
TrippleTwo commented on Chapter 98. 'This writer doesn't even read out suggestions. It's useless staying here if I don't see bed scenes in the next chapters!'
FabulousFate commented on Chapter 98. 'The progress that I am expecting is slowly making me disappointed. Characters are in legal age. What's stopping you to make a romantic scene? Come on author!'
Queen looked at the carpeted floor absentmindedly. Those comments are getting nastier than what she had read before. Bed scene! How can a no boyfriend since birth create a bed scene?
"What's wrong, Queen?" Candace who just woke up entered the dining area after following the smell of the food her twin sister is cooking.
"Crazy comments, Ace." she deadpanned and placed her phone on the table.
Queen inhaled deeply and released the air loudly. The sound of it made Kate and Lorraine automatically snapped their heads to her direction. They looked at her with confused expression but Queen did not say a word to their questioning look. She does not intend to ruin her friend's good mood. She finished her coffee and secretly ponders on the earlier comments she had seen.
"Oh! MMORPG ADVANCE had increased their level cap to one thousand five! Their database must be at the very high end!" Lorraine announced her opinion after reading the updates of the game on her phone.
"This current update is a breakthrough to the online gaming society. News reporters and social media are so hyped about it." Candace told Lorraine before grabbing water on the fridge and walked back to her room.
"Are you playing again, Candace?" Kate called her twin sister.
"Yes sis, I'll have my breakfast after my character reaches level one thousand. You guys, go ahead and eat first." Candace replied.
"Why are you so quiet all of a sudden Queen?" Lorraine asked when she noticed the change in her friend's expression.
"Hmmm, It's nothing. I'll go take a shower first, I'll be returning after I'm freshened up." Queen replied and grabbed her phone on the table. Her two friends nodded their head and did not say anything.
'Hopefully, the shower can freshen up my mood.' she secretly thought while heading to her room.
Upon arriving at her room, Queen took a quick peek on her laptop. She double-clicked on the draft folder and selected document 99. This is supposed to be the next update she will be publishing on her ongoing story. Another sigh escaped from her lips. She opened her email account and clicked on the new message.
To: Kate
Subject: Check attachment. :)
After attaching the file named, document 99, she swiftly clicked the send button and closed her device. Kate usually checks her drafts before she published them. Queen finally grab her towel then went to her bathroom and finally took a shower.
Meanwhile, in the dining area, Kate and Lorraine are setting the table for three people. They did not bother placing utensils for Candace as she might take her time leveling her in-game character. Kate's phone vibrated notifying that there is an unread message. She picked her phone and saw the email sent by Queen. After downloading the file, she quietly read the draft.
"This MMORPG ADVANCE update is not just similar to the story... The Quest of Killing. This is the story itself, Kate! Even the new map features. Everything in the story is in this game! I don't think if this is still a coincidence." Lorraine voiced out after reading every single data about the update of the game. She eyed Kate who is busy reading the draft on her phone.
"Well, you know Candace, her connection in online gaming is pretty solid even before our parents sent us to study overseas. I didn't even expect her to go back playing after six years of being away on that game." Kate replied without looking at her.
"It's just crazy... beyond imagination to see this new game update mirroring the book, Kate." Lorraine said and started placing food on her plate.
"Don't think too much about it, Raine. Maybe a developer on that game had read the story." Kate prompted and also started eating.
"That might be the case, Kate." Lorraine mumbled before she puts her focus on the food.
After a while, Queen joined them. Kate is still reading the draft while eating. Lorraine ate in silence and enjoyed the savory food. After they finished their meal, Loraine cleaned everything in the table and started washing the dishes.
"I have noticed recurring corrections in your drafts, Queen. Look at this. In this paragraph, the sentence formation is correct but the structure can be enhanced." Kate told Queen as she zooms out the words on her phone.
"Tamara has beauty, intelligence, and she is also funny." Queen read the sentence loudly and looked at Kate in the face.
"Later on, you will encounter a grammar lesson about parallelism. If you want to be an excellent writer, you must pay attention to the structure of your sentences." Kate said and then deleted some words in the sentence. She then replaced those words and showed the revised sentence to Queen.
"Tamara has beauty, intelligence, and humor." Queen read the new sentence once again.
"Thanks, Kate." She gave a sincere smile at Kate and nods her head.