Chapter 21: I like melons
"It's… so boring…" Michu continued to spread his boredom through the backline. He was together with Lazy Bum and Sandra, but they had been the ones to have a lot of fun by using their skills one by one.
Though Lazy Bum often shook his head when Michu's wails reached his ears.
Sandra felt like she could understand Michu. It was said that energetic people were impossible to control, but Michu had been doing great so far in this aspect.
He was certainly someone who cared about others, "What should I do?" Sandra turned her eyes to Lazy Bum who thought for a few seconds.
He then replied, "Distract him with something… If you are going to form a party later, then speak about his plans or maybe even IRL." Lazy Bum gave valuable advice, then his childhood friend flashed a smile at him.
Sandra raised her hand for a high five, "Thanks! It's the first time I see a naturally energetic person."
High Five!
"Weren't you pretty energetic yourself?" Lazy Bum rolled his eyes, but he knew Sandra well, so he shut his mouth. Using the same advice he'd given right now, Lazy Bum occupied himself with the arrows while Sandra asked Michu about his plans.
What he said amounted to nothing, though.
He told the witch about his plan to level up fast for a subclass, but wasn't it the goal of pretty much every player? More classes meant more fun after all. Then, Michu thought about what he could share and whatnot.
This turned him silent and an eerie silence bothered the childhood duo.
For them, it was a game, but Michu took things too seriously…
"If you can't tell yet, then we can speak about something else… Um, how old are you?" An unusual awkwardness yet again crept onto her face.
After the game topic shifted to real life due to the secrets Michu had within himself, Sandra didn't know what to ask so that she wouldn't step beyond the privacy boundary. She asked for age with trembling lips.
Michu answered, "I am eighteen. What about you, Sandra?"
"How old do I look?" She asked with a faint smile.
Michu narrowed his eyes, deeply looked at her from top to bottom, then said, "Thirty?"
"What?!" A commotion broke immediately after. The witch used her bubble skill on Michu's face as her face flushed red.
She had to be personally stopped by Lazy Bum who had been snickering at her from the side. After the archer separated them both, he returned to the dungeon clearing as the monsters' quantity increased.
Sandra threw her skills too, then turned her eyes to the monke, "I am nineteen. I have already ended school and work as an editor!"
"Editor? What is this job?" Michu had no knowledge about this kind of job and the internet was like black magic for him, so it would be weird if he knew actually.
Sandra threw a suspicious gaze, then asked, "Do you follow anyone on social media? I mean the popular streamers or players?"
Michu nodded brightly, "Yes. I follow Sultry Yuna, Sword Mistress, ItsYourMika, Leviatina… Hmm…" There was more, but Michu couldn't remember. The ones he just spoke about were the most popular and the ones that caught his attention the most.
Their names were often advertised as well, but that was how it was since Michu clicked and clicked the similar profiles…
Sandra scoffed, her arms crossed, "Of course you would follow them." She raised her chin, looking down on the monke, "Pervert."
The monkey looked back into her eyes, not clearly understanding her, "I just like melons."
"..." Sandra blanked, her face lit up in a new scarlet color.
Her childhood friend nearly choked on his saliva and one of his arrows ended up missing the target.
He got glanced over by Venomous, so Lazy Bum waved his hand and blamed some pebbles on the road... "Great friend… It's not good to be that honest, but I appreciate that… Look what you've done."
"I didn't know you could get a fever in the game! Sorry, Sandra!" Michu apologized. Once again, he couldn't tell whether it was his fault or not, but since Lazy Bum had mentioned him while pointing at the witch, it must be the case.
The witch just shook her head after a brief silence, "He understands melons, but not understands his treasured banana jokes?" Either way, it was time to return to their previous topic.
"The pictures your eyes feast upon are mostly edited by editors," Sandra said the sheer truth, but Michu just tilted his head, "Since the authenticity is popular nowadays, those women didn't edit their bodies, but the environment and some stuff too."
"W-wait…" Michu spoke quietly, "So the ocean is not real?" How could they lie to the monkey? Since Sandra nodded faintly, Michu went wide and nearly lost his firefly! He looked so betrayed and lost that Sandra found him cute.
She ruffled his hair and said, "The popular ones are strong enough to visit those epic oceans and other leveling grounds, so don't feel betrayed. Besides, you enjoyed those so it should be fine, right?"
"No… It's not fine…" Michu shook his head, then listened further.
Sandra's work was to take care of photos and edit some videos for lesser popular guilds and streamers. She was pretty good at it and most of her time was taken by her work. Recently though, Sandra decided to taste the VR Gameworld by herself.
And so she was here.
By editing a lot of videos from high-level players, Sandra naturally soaked up their abilities and movements. Even though there was no way for her to understand the most, her body naturally responded and she often did a better job than others.
Michu nodded and asked, "Do you work from home?"
"Yes." Sandra nodded with clear contentment. Working from home was the dream of many teenagers nowadays and it was not exactly limited to editing. Of course, being a streamer or any other influencer was what the majority wanted to do.
It was great that Sandra could live off with that job and even play a game.
Michu then asked a weird question, "Can you teach it to others?"
"Do you want to learn it?" Sandra asked with a slight tease.
"If it's a job that anyone can do with a laptop, then maybe my sister or mom could do it… It hurts to see mom always coming back late while tired. And when I wake up, she is no longer at home... " In a nutshell, Michu's mom worked too hard and had no time for her family or even herself.
"That's…" As Sandra was at a loss for words, Michu suddenly blinked his eyes.
[Bright Firefly has taken a liking to you. It has never been scared within your hands and you allowed it to absorb enough sun rays. Your tender heart has reached him!]
[Bright Firefly will guide you in this dungeon.]
[Each time you enter the dungeon, it will guide you to the boss.]
[Bright Firefly has become your friend!]
Shrouded in the orange light, the firefly got its freedom and soon landed on Michu's shoulder. It waited for him to speak!
Michu's face instantly brightened and a pure smile spread itself. He looked at the blonde witch while giggling, "I can fight! Here I go, dungeon boss! Ah, wait… Yumi!" The monke rushed to Venomous to share the news.
Meanwhile, Lazy Bum said, "He is a rollercoaster of emotions, isn't he?"
"Yeah… I don't know if we are lucky or not," Sandra laughed, but just for a little.
Lazy Bum corrected her, "You are lucky. If I couldn't bring you out of your lair, then it's naturally someone else's job to do it." As Sandra avoided his gaze, Lazy Bum yanked her arm, "Teach his sister a little. It sounded like she is younger, so girls her age already play around with photos."
"I will think about it." Sandra shook off Lazy Bum's weak hand, then ran away from him as he spoke too much about real life's situation.
The archer sighed, "I wonder how he would react if he knew that you are lazier than me."
-
On the other side, Venomous bit her lips.
She wanted to shout at her friend for being so loud. He had valuable information within himself, but all of this became known to everyone including the tank.
Her eyes saw how the tank typed on the keyboard, so Venomous said, "Let's reunite with others first."
"Okay! And why are you angry?" Michu asked, his voice quiet.
This time, Venomous just pulled him closer and whispered to his ear. Her voice was mild as Michu realized his mistake.
But all he knew was that Yumi was angry.
"We are going to be working with a lot of players until we form our party. But even if we get a party, we will also stumble upon a lot of players, so this kind of information must be kept within our circle. Who is the foreign one right now?" She asked, her breath tickling the monke's ear.
"It's that dude," Michu answered, but he also raised his hand to point at the tank.
Venomous quickly moved, her hand slapping that stupid hand back to its proper place. Then, she pinched Michu's waist, "Keep everything to yourself and in our party chat. Open it up and type."
A system spread itself before Michu's eyes, but within those, black magic was reflected.
"T-type... " Michu's trembling finger found 'I', then his eyes went several times through the keyboard to find 'G'.
He also forgot about the space bar so his whole message looked like an enigma.
"From now on, you and I will exchange messages every day. I will be the one to call you in the morning. You will do it after your school… And whoever comes first in the evening."
"But nothing much is happening at night… I guess I will send you goodnights every day…" Michu concluded, then the party moved to reunite with other players.
That was when the tank spoke first for the first time, "How about we slow down? If we don't clear everything in this corridor, then those monsters will come back at us…"
"I refuse," Venomous instantly refused, her green eyes merciless, "If you want to stay behind, then go ahead and good luck."
The tank bit his lips, then shouted at Venomous, "Who are you to decide it anyway?! In the party, every member decides!" He knew that Lazy Bum and Sandra were new additions to Venomous' side.
He turned his eyes at them and said, "Boss is not close by! It's so damn far away! We all know it since it's not our first time in this dungeon. Let's clear every monster and keep ourselves safe. Are you with me?"
Sandra didn't want to argue. Her eyes just averted to the side and looked at Michu who was quite conflicted inside. The dude, in his eyes, was quite weird, but he couldn't tell more. It was quite harder in this whole dungeon.
His friend was also quite merciless, but Michu found no reason to question her. She had been so helpful to him that Michu just accepted that side. It also wouldn't cause many problems to the tank.
Thus, Michu's confusion cleared up by itself and he stood close to Venomous. A smile spread on her lips as she noticed that.
Lazy Bum then said, "If we look behind, then for the whole time you'd been the least useful. Fair, you can taunt and make some monsters busy. Alas, you can't keep up with these two and I feel much safer with them rather than you. If you don't like it, then good luck. We can manage to survive with Sandra's water traps somehow."
The tank trembled, the fury within his heart billowing, "Fine… Let's go as fast as possible…" His eyes seemed to be under control, but one could see many curses within those. Michu felt like this guy was no good immediately after glancing at those.
He secretly whispered to Venomous, his breath now tickling her ear, "He might be a gangster."
"Haha!" Venomous laughed, which was rare, "I remember it well… We met with dead gangsters around us. I strongly believe we will see the same scene soon... "
"It's too early for nostalgia, though!" Michu laughed too and both of them entered the world unique to them.