The next day, Vendross came to school in his car and signed in to school. The school was almost as he remembered, with its fences now rusty and grass slightly greener.
"Yo Vendross! Long time no see." A Familiar voice greeted Vendross's ears prompting him to turn around, what had met his eyes was the face of an old friend, Allen.
The two exchanged a nostalgic handshake before Vendross answered; "How are you dude, you got buff since the last time I saw you!". Allen answered with a smirk, "It's been great ! Could be better though..", they both took some time and caught up before Vendross asked if Allen had seen Jordan.
"Doesn't seem like he's here yet" Allen shrugged. "Are you here to sign up as well?" asked Vendross. "Nah, I'm just here to see you since I heard that you woke up." said Allen.
Vendross stopped as he processed the words "Do you mean you're not going back to school again?" he asked. "No no, you've got the wrong idea." Allen waved his arms,"I've already signed up last year so i don't need to anymore." he says as he grins.
"Wait, but that would mean... you're my senior!?" Vendross looked upon him with only annoyance in his expression. Allen chuckled smugly "Yes! So from today onwards, you, and Jordan may only refer to me as Lord Allen!"
Vendross's ears perked up at the name of his last friend in their group of four, "By the way.. where is Afel anyway?" He asked Allen with a slight lift in one of his eyebrows. "Jordan didn't tell you anything yet, did he?" Vendross shook his head, "Tell me what?" he asked.
"Well....it's a long story" Allen spoke as he scratched the back of his head "Hey, how about after you sign your school form then I'll tell you what happened" said Allen ."You'd be better." Vendross told him, and Allen nodded, promising as he walked with him to the office.
After signing up, Allen brought Vendross to a coffee shop nearby. A tense atmosphere developed as Allen spoke. "Vendross, while you were in that coma for the past 2 years a lot of things have changed. This all happened when a weird link was sent to me, Afel and Jordan's phone.." Allen crossed his arms "We were together when it was sent and.... having been dumb enough to download it just as you had." Allen hesitated and glanced outside before looking back at Vendross.
"Right as we signed in to the game, bolts of lightning struck all of us and knocked us out, but only for like a week. " Allen pulled up his sleeve, the word 'player' tattooed on his forearm "We all had this weird tattoo on us. Mine was on my arm while Jordan had it on his leg, and Afel even had it on his tongue !"
Vendross inspected the tattoo but reeled back when Allen pulled the sleeve back down, "That's not all, the game gave us these..." he looked down at his hands under the table, "These abilities of some kind." He gestured his thumb at himself. "I have a time stopping ability, Jordan got Alchemy while Afel has the mark of the beast, kinda like Doom guy, you know the Doom franchise right?"
Allen looked deeply into Vendross's eyes with a look of concentration with a hint of fear all while whispering, "And ever since that god-awful day, we have all been attacked and challenged by other players".