Once inside the internet cafe, Alora went to her usual seat which was always empty and put on the headphones as she clicked a few buttons and opened up her favorite game called Dungeon warriors.
[Morpheus is here!]
[Hey!]
[Nice to see you again, Morpheus]
[Hi Morphyy]
[OMG I missed you so much]
[Morpheus! My man!]
As soon as she logged in, she was bombarded with messages.
Her nickname in the game was Morpheus and according to everyone else and her own set in-game status, she was supposed to be a man.
[Morpheus: Heyo! How are you all?]
[I keep dying without you]
[Morpheus: Lol]
[What's your rank, Morphyy?]
[Morpheus:...]
[Morpheus: You don't want to know]
[Lmao]
[Is it so high that you might give me a heart attack if you reveal it?]
[Morpheus: Lol]
[You should help me out Morphyy~]
[Morpheus: Help yourself, woman!]
It wasn't new for girls to hit on Alora. She was a man in the game and her rank was pretty high which caused people to be attracted to her and most girls would come up to her acting pitiful in order to win her over, all the while thinking that she was a man.
It was as if they were all playing the perfect role of a damsel in distress and she was supposed to be the knight in shining armor that comes to their rescue.
Just who in the world do they think that they are trying to trick?!
They were all lying just like her!
She was pretending to be a man in the game while these guys were all pretending to be helpless girls.
Yes, they were guys... They were all freaking men who wanted to roleplay as a girl in the game.
[Morphyy is so cold!! Me is sad]
Alora cringed as she read the message, almost feeling a shiver go down her spine.
[Morpheus: Shut up!]
[Morpheus: I'm entering the dungeon. If anyone wants to join, do it now or I'm leaving you behind]
Alora was a great player who had climbed the ranks all on her own so if she asked for people to join her party, everyone would be more than eager since they knew that they won't have to die or work too much if they were with her.
She was like a free ticket to pass through all the difficult levels without even having to break a sweat.
And just like they had all hoped and expected, this time as well, Morpheus was leading them from the front and protecting them all as they raided the dungeon. Alora was in charge of fighting against the monsters in the dungeon while the rest were in charge of collecting all the bounty that was dropped with the kills.
After the game was over, the collected bounty was equally distributed among them. It didn't matter if you worked more than the other or if you didn't work at all, in the end, everyone was still going to get the same amount of bounty.
Alora knew that she wasn't gaining anything by carrying a party with her. If it were someone else, they would never want to team up with such people who would only want to leech off of them but Alora only had one reason why she still formed such parties. It was because fighting the monsters was a lot more fun than collecting the stupid bounty.
She didn't care if she was taking ten people with her or two, she didn't care if they did anything useful or not. As long as she had someone who was willing to help her collect the bounty, she was satisfied and that was what others loved about her.
Morpheus was always so easygoing. He was in it for the game and not for the win.
After having played at the internet cafe for more than a few hours, one of the staff members came up to her and lightly smacked her head as he asked, "Aren't you supposed to be studying for your finals?"
Alora almost let a curse slip through her tongue.
She was shocked at the sudden appearance and action of the man.
"I still have two months left for finals," Alora whined as she rubbed the spot where she had been hit.
"I swear, you aren't gonna panic even if it was a demon who was standing in front of you," The man sighed as he commented.
"What's so scary about demons?" Alora beamed as she asked, "Do you know something?"
"What?"
"Demons are much more handsome than angels."
"..."
Alora smiled brightly as she continued, "It's because they need the good looks to tempt people."
"What type of comics are you reading nowadays?" The man squinted and Alora laughed in turn.
"You don't believe me? Think about it. If a demon was ugly and scary, you won't ever want to follow it but if it was a handsome hot man, would you not follow after him like a lost puppy?"
The man looked at her with a disgusted face as he spoke, "Only you'll think like that."
Alora only smiled in turn.
"She has a point there." A new voice interrupted their conversation. It was a woman who looked to be a lot younger than her real age, "Demons are good looking. They have a face that tempts you. Makes you insane and in the end, you'll eventually fall in love with them because their temptation is just too strong. That love becomes an obsession and it eventually ruins you."
Alora looked at the woman and smiled brightly as she commented, "You sound experienced."
The woman chuckled as she moved closer to them, "It's just something I read in a book."
"I would want to read that book too," Alora smiled as she spoke.
"I'll send you the title if I remember it, but I'm not sure whether you'll be able to find that book," The woman handed her a warm cup of coffee as she asked, "I wonder... Would you be tempted away too?"
"Huh?" Alora's smile paused on her face as she felt a little stunned and confused.
"You should run, honey." The woman met her eyes as she spoke in all seriousness, "If you ever come across a demon, run as fast as you can and don't look back. Looks may fool you but you must never forget," She pointed at Alora's heart as she continued, "They don't have a heart."
"..."
"No matter how much you love them, it's impossible to make them love you back," The woman pursed her lips into a thin smile as she added, "So run and avoid them as much as you can. Do not give him a chance to tempt you away."
This woman was being a little too serious about this topic but for some reason, Alora also felt a little amused as she responded seriously with a smile, "They sound cool."
The woman chuckled as she heard this and shook her head in disbelief as she snapped out of it and spoke, "As expected of you. You really aren't afraid of anything, are you?"
"I'm afraid of a lot of things actually," Alora stretched her fingers which had gone stiff after playing for so long, "I'm afraid of having a boring life."
"Believe me, honey. Your life is going to be anything but boring," The woman muttered under her breath with a soft chuckle and Alora failed to understand the deeper meaning behind the woman's words.
.
.
.
.
.
Alora looked around at the familiar scenery. She was once again in this place that she called dreamland. The temperature here was pretty high, making her sweat a bit as she walked through the jungle in search of a creature that she could possibly play around with.
"That's weird..." She mumbled as she looked around. She clearly remembered destroying some trees, but now that she was back here, she couldn't find any evidence of her being here prior to this and it was weird since this had never happened before.
This dreamland was always consistent. If she killed something here, the thing would certainly not pop up again, this was also one of the reasons why she thought this place wasn't just a dream.
She stepped closer to the tree and analyzed it only to realize that there were more trees so it was certainly possible that she was in a different area of this forest. If that were to be the case, it would be her first time in this part of the forest which also meant that she would be getting to see many new creatures popping up.
With an enthusiastic smile on her face, Alora decided to happily explore this forest since it was so calm. She took two steps and stopped as she felt something tugging at her feet and it made goosebumps crawl up her legs as she hesitantly looked down only to be met with a rather hideous creature that looked similar to a human but dead, rotting and yet, still moving.