The night walk home was quiet and slightly windy, it helped me feel more at ease while walking home. Walking up the hill made me feel exhausted but my mind was feeling calmer than how it was earlier. That was until I reached home and Lisa was waiting for me.
"Did you see the news Gihyuk?"
I nodded as she made a hand gesture that was telling me to come follow her into the living room. We sat there for a moment before I decided to break the tension.
"When she logged out, she really did die didn't she?"
I spoke quietly, looking down at my hands. There was silence again. We didn't know that girl that well, but the fact someone died right in front of us would give a horrible lingering feeling.
"Eternalgreen and inkcorpse, you know they live here too right? They didn't take it well either. They only come out to eat. I guess were all just blaming ourselves for not being able to help when she was right in front of us, but it wasn't any of our faults."
I looked up to see how Lisa looked, and even though she was talking and acting strong, it was clear it was also taking a part of her, she was just good at hiding her discomfort. I also shouldn't let this ruin how I'm feeling and let it affect how I live. It might seem mean, but her death doesn't mean much to me because I wasn't close to her.
"Well, lets not think too much of it, like you said it's not our fault."
I smiled and stood up to give her a small high five. I did a small stretch before waving my goodnight to her.
"I'm feeling kind of exhausted so I'll see you tomorrow morning. I'll probably just take a break from gaming for tonight."
I spoke and started to walk towards the stairs. The smaller girl stood up as well to start walking to her room replying to what I said.
"Yeah, I think everyone would be after the news."
I took my shower and ate some ramen before laying in bed. There was still something that felt really strange to me, the glitches couldn't be by coincident. The way she was messing up her fighting was pretty visible even to me, but again maybe I'm thinking to much into this, maybe it really was just the cause of the girl playing for too long.
I just decided to play a song, heat waves, staring at the ceiling in silence before my tiredness got to me and I fell asleep pretty fast after the whole event of today and yesterday.
Once I woke up, I actually felt pretty energized. It was probably from the fact that I kept staying up late playing the game, now that I slept long I got most of my energy back.
I looked down at my phone and noticed a message from my mom. I was so concerned over the game I forgot to check in on her, though it's not like I text her everyday.
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To: Lee Gihyuk
From: mom
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Message: Hey hun, I remember you talking about that game, Oasis was it? I saw the news, as your mother I just can't help but be worried, stay safe okay? You're working so hard for me, I'm sorry.
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I stared at the text, a small smile from feeling loved and concerned for, but I didn't like how my mom had to say sorry.
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To: mom
From: Lee Gihyuk
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Message: Don't worry mom, I'll be careful, I kind of felt scared too so I didn't play last night. I hope you're taking care of yourself too, and also don't feel sorry, you took care of me so now it's my turn to take care of you. I Earned enough money to pay most of your hospital fees too, don't worry I did it legally. So I'll come visit soon to give them the money."
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Once I sent it, her next message was her feeling surprised and clearly happy, she made it clear to not over work myself and it took a few tries to prove I wasn't over working myself.
Mom has been caring for me for so long, I can do this much for her especially since my father couldn't do it. I took a deep breath before seeing another message, this time from the name of Flower shop girl.
"Oh it must be Jueng."
I was right, it was her clearly just reminding me that we were to meet up in game around 10. I looked at the time before realizing there was only about 30 minutes left before the meeting time. I got scared for a moment, but then realized I didn't have to dress up or anything, I had a small breather.
I walked downstairs to make a quick eggs and rice for breakfast before going back upstairs. I gobbled up my food, waited a few minutes before opening the Silver Mind and hopping in, I was ready to go back into the world of Oasis.
"Play the Land of Oasis."
The screen then went bright, before the scene became the bustling city life that was shown in game. I took a deep breath before walking towards the middle of the city, the meet spot with Jueng Beum. looking at the menu to see what time it was, there was around 5 minutes left, so I didn't really have to rush.
"If I remember, when she added me in game, her username was Skorpion right?"
I looked up from the blue window that was in front of me to see where I was going, I was close to the statue, and there I noticed a similar username. I guess she decided to come early. I hope I didn't make her wait long or anything. I walked up to her with a small wave of my hand.
"Hey I'm here."
Seeing her character up close, her character was around the same height as me, she was around 5'7 so I was only one inch taller than her. She had short dark hair, a dark green outfit that looked as if she was a night, but had enough space to move around lots.
"Oh hey, you're here."
I nodded with a smile. I didn't notice it much, but she had a strong aura around her, just like Lisa. Even though it was just a game, you could feel the power that came out powerful players. I guess she noticed I was curious to what her class was when she spoke again.
"I'm a tank, I dual wield axes too."
The seriousness from her is leaving and the gamer nerd was coming back as she showed me the two axes she had. Both looking like the metal part is made from an emerald gem, while the handles looked like the roots of a tree clamping onto those emeralds.
"My skill is nature based since I'm a elf, so I thought something like this would fit."
I agreed with her nodding my head before deciding to join in, showing off my sword. I had a playful grin as I was ready to boast about the sword. The sword had a gold outline, and a gold line that went through the middle when unseated from the cover. When it's in its sheath, it looks like a normal starter sword, but once unsheathed, it looks exactly what a holy knight's sword would look.
"This is my weapon, best of all I got it for free, though I haven't really used it much."
The girl was clearly interested in the sword before looking me up and down.
"And I just remembered why were here, the sword's amazing, maybe an.."
She leaned in close to whisper to my ear, making me flinch.
"It could even be a epic grade sword."
She moved back while having a hand on her waist before continuing what she was going to say.
"Everything else that you have on, your outfit? It's clear you're just a newbie. Those armors are just scams too, considering your health would go half from the monsters that are just past the city walls."
I stood there kind of in shock, even though the trader said they were good enough even until level 25. God this game is too realistic, even NPC's can be scammers. I let out a small groan before Jueng suddenly pulled me by the arm.
"Well lets not waste time, lets go look around and get you something better."
I nodded and followed along, putting my sword back into my inventory. We walked into the crowd, it was filled with people, it was pretty hard to see who were NPC's and who were real players.
"Wait, I only have 1k gold coins."
I spoke as she stopped and looked at me before letting out a sigh.
"Even though for a newbie that's good, armor like mine cost over 20k gold coins."
I had wide eyes, shocked from that fact since so much money, wasted on a game! I could feel my soul leave my body, but I took a deep breath and nodded, I didn't want to seem like too much of a cheapskate.
"I just want to find something that's not too expensive, maybe something that I can use for a while without having to buy anything every time I level up. The rest can be like, health potions or something."
After I said that, the search began. We looked at stalls of other players who were selling their stuff, we found some good armor with nice defense and stats, but it didn't feel right for me, most armors were heavy and the typical knight-like style. We did find some health regeneration potions and even some buffing potions, but now we were only left with 500 coins.
It felt like forever until we found this one stall, far from the rest, and truth be told it was pretty sketchy, but we found armor that had really good stats.
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Name - Sky's blood
type - body armor
rarity - epic
Information - Made by using sky fairies wings and spotted saxifrage which can only be found growing on cliffs, the "Sky's blood" armor is made.
specks - Light weight and makes the body lighter and take less damage when falling. Can merge into clothing to make it look like normal clothes, can be done anytime. 50% more defense and 30% more speed.
Throwback - some areas are weaker than the rest, opponents with high precision can hit through the gaps and cause damage. Not as much defense as typical heavier armor.
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"I'll sell it to you for 350 gold coins! yeah? yeah?"
The guy spoke fast, clearly wanting to sell it and I was ready to buy it since it felt really comfortable and nice, but Jueng had some suspicion over the guy selling it.
"Why do you want to sell it so much? This could cost more than 350."
I looked at Jueng like she was a mad woman, why would you purposely say that when I clearly want to save money.
"Well, I just need more money fast, so I don't care even if it's little."
Hearing the man say that, I felt the same struggle, I knew that feeling. I pushed the girl to the side lightly and paid for the armor. He seemed really happy and thanked me. Skorpion pulling me to the side with a worried look.
"There's clearly something suspicious about that you know."
I chuckled and just shook my head.
"It's fine it's fine, it was cheap anyways."
She looked at me before sighing. Then she suddenly seemed surprised.
"Oh jeez, it's already 2pm, I have to go for work."
I opened up my settings, the blue window popping up in front of me to confirm the time. It really was 2, time passed by so fast. I had work in 2 hours.
"Well you should probably go, thanks for the help today, any way I can repay you?"
I asked as I patted her shoulder and she just shook her head, the shy or well, more poker face she had turned into a small smile.
"Just happy I finally got to make a friend and spend time, but maybe treat me to food next time."
I nodded in agreement before she said her goodbye's then left.
"After the whole event, it was nice to have some calming time."
I took a small stretch as I walked back towards the center of town. Since there was still 2 hours left before work, It should be fine to look around some more.
"Oh right,I should put the armor on now."
To be continued...