“Dinner is ready so I can’t get why you’re so… stunned? Everyone is here already and we’re all waiting for you so come on babe, buckle up let’s go!” Annabelle stated while literally dragging Dina from the bed.
‘Even though it’s an illusion, it looks and acts exactly like how Annabelle did in my memories. So this is the power of magic?’ Dina thought with a daze as Annabelle dragged her away only for her to suddenly stop, causing Dina to bump abruptly to her back.
“What’s up, girl? Your face looks so gloomy, is there a problem?” Annabelle asked worriedly but all Dina could look at was the ticking time. It had gone down to 8 minutes and was slowly receding.
She had to hurry! But what did it mean to find her partner? Maybe the dinner could tell her? Then she had to hurry there immediately, not only was she stuck in here as her real self, but she also couldn’t get to Zero for some damn reason.
Everything about this place was dangerous to her and she had to quickly get out and even a fake Annabelle wasn’t changing that.
“Nah, just a bit sleepy. Let’s go have that dinner 'kay?”
“Hm, okay,” Annabelle replied with a shrug as she dragged Dina from her room to the dining. They were in Annabelle’s home, and even without observing a thing Dina knew it was Annabelle’s home as she had been really close to her.
In fact, she as a child knew more of Annabelle’s house than hers.
Soon, they reached the corridor and with a few more steps they approached a room whose door had been left ajar. With a hard push, the door slammed to the wall startling the members of the room as one particularly silky voice with a seductive touch to it echoed.
“Anny, why not calm down a bit? It’s not like the food is running away now is it?”
‘Luka!’
The male had dazzling red hair that hung loosely unto his neck, a face so fair that one could easily mistake him for an outwardly being, and beneath his red lips on the left was a mole that gave his beauty an alluring touch.
In fact, Dina’s childhood friends were beauties, the three of them as a group had been known around the neighborhood back in the day as the beauty troi with their diverse yet alluring beauties.
Annabelle with her long curly twist that fell over her back and was even longer than Dina’s hair, sharp amber eyes that could startle a person at a glance, beautiful dark skin without a single blemish to it, and pouty lips which were pink down and black up. In total, she was a black beauty.
‘I imagine this is how we’d have been if we had grown up together,’ Dina thought sadly.
But they hadn’t grown up together and now she could only miss them greatly while regretting her life choices.
‘Sigh… it’s not worth pondering over now, let’s just focus on not dying or shit like that.’
“Whatever! Dina said she was starving okay?!”
“Kids calm down, this is a minor issue so don’t end up fighting over it,” a gorgeous female with long black hair and pretty grey eyes that could warm a person and soothe their anxiety at a glance stated. This was her mum.
And surrounding the table were more people including Aunty Katelyne, Annabelle’s aunt whom she stayed with, two people whom she recognized as the twins they (her, Annabelle, and Luka) had often hung out with during their young age, and lastly a male whom Dina had difficulty recognizing.
‘Who is he? He’s quite the looker though…’ Dina wondered when she suddenly saw Annabelle giving her a sneaky look while glancing at the male and that was when it clicked at her.
This dinner…. was the exact replica of the one she had a long time ago in middle school where she wanted to ‘introduce’ her crush to Annabelle and her mum only for it to turn into a full-blown neighborhood dinner.
‘Oh, my god! No wonder their settings seemed so familiar, what changed was just the ages! So this guy…’ Dina stared at the male with silverish back length hair, cold black eyes, a stoic face, and in total was brimming with ikemen energy. ‘No wonder he was my crush, my younger self absolutely adored stoic guys, probably from reading too much bl filled with ‘cold but possessive’ gongs.’
Dina could only smile shyly as they sat down in the dining, her hands trembling the entire time. Just where was Zero?
***
“Don’t you wanna play today Gen? You look so gloomy and scary today!” a little princess Zillah blurted out while staring at Genad with tear-filled eyes.
She, as usual, had silverish hair and amber eyes except that her hair was a bit shorter and her eyes more round as a child she was, along with the plump cheeks on her face that made her look very cute.
“I… okay, let’s play.”
He had woken up in the room he had been in as a child when he stayed with the royal family and facing him had been a tiny Zillah who kept on throwing punches at him till he woke up with a glare scaring the little thing shitless.
‘I might get a clue if I followed her, a clue on how to find my partner…’
“We have this new girl in town!” Zillah suddenly said as she experimented on Genad’s hair with various flowers.
“Hm?”
“She’s really pretty but she acts like a boy and refuses to be called a girl. How can a boy be so pretty and have long hair? She must be lying!”
“And?”
“That’s why I invited her to play. I’m gonna have her know she’s a girl when we go take a bath. I’ll make her know that she’s a girl when she’s naked, by telling her that boys have peepees and girls don’t! It’s the perfect plan, I can be her hero and save her from wrong ideas!” Zillah stated so valiantly that instead of just butting in she actually seemed to be saving the ‘girl’ from doom.
‘Only you might end up traumatizing the poor kid princess but now am 100% sure that kid’s a boy,’ Genad thought.
This was an illusion though and all he had to do was find his partner, other things were unnecessary. Although he wondered who his partner was…
He was still deep in pondering when a royal guard came to report to the princess about a girl looking for them.
“Let's go! Let's go! Let's go” Zillah exclaimed while running towards the gate along with Genad who followed with a steady pace.
Soon they reached the gate and looking at them was a shy child with black hair and soft chocolate eyes who turned to them with a flushed face softly greeting—
“Hello!”
“Hi!” Zillah responded enthusiastically while nudging Genad to do the same.
Genad stared deeply at the child for a while sending shivers down his spine before he suddenly approached him and the next instant stated, “Partner found.”
{Keyword used!
Results submitted!
Evaluation….
Beep… Beep… Beep!
Correct!
The Player will now be on standby as he waits for his playmate to finish;
Time remaining: 00:05:04}
And with a blur of his surroundings, he was back to where he had started, his room in the royal family, watching as the time went down whilst waiting for his partner.
***
‘Just how am I supposed to find my partner? There’s no Genad here for fuck’s sake! Or is this another mind game?’ Dina wondered direly as she twirled her fork around the pasta in various shapes without taking a single bite.
“Tuun hua, khun okay mai?” Dina’s eyes snapped to her mum who questioned her worriedly and all she could do was give an awkward little nod.
It had been so long since she spoke the Thai language that she was scared of misspeaking and being caught by her mum. It wasn’t that she couldn’t speak it, it was just that her accent had become weak after not speaking for such a long time.
After she and her mum had moved out of the neighborhood she had barely stayed with her for 2 years before moving in with Aunty Katylin due to her intense search for Annabelle.
Eventually, she ended up moving into Jackson’s home after they started dating until they broke up and he moved out of the house. The thing was that during the course of those years, her major interactions had been with Americans and even her mum who always made sure to keep in contact with her lost touch with the language after marrying her stepdad and now she, Dina, was awkward with the language.
‘Ha… I should probably practice my Thai skills after this mission… if I survive! There’s only three minutes left!’
Dina had clenched her spoon so hard it broke in two before she finally remembered the abnormal stats she possessed. Everyone seemed strangely used to it even her ‘crush’, so much that without even flinching he grabbed a spoon, politely handing it over to her.
‘Ahh….’
Dina felt like sighing heavily on seeing how the idiots surrounding them were giving them ‘that’ kind of eye. They were being so painfully obvious that she just wanted to slump there and die.
“Thanks,” she responded with a nod.
The dude simply looked at her before facing his meal again. He really was the cold-but- actually gentle (when you get to know him) stereotype, his character really reminded her of someone…
{You have thirty seconds remaining!}
‘Oh shit! And I can’t even make a wrong answer or the time would be cut by half! Damn it! Just how? There’s not even a sign of Genad here? Who among these people relates to Genad in any way? Who… I’ve got it!’
Dina suddenly stood up with a start garnering all attention towards her and without caring at how strange her actions were she stumped directly to her ‘crush’ and said—
“Found you!”
{Keyword use!
Results received!
Evaluating…! Loading….!
Correct!
Playmate’s mission was also completed;
Mission complete;
You will now be transported back for your rewards}
“Yes!” Dina exclaimed as she watched the world around her phase away, even though she had known it was merely an illusion she was still a bit sad about losing all of them yet again.
‘Oh well, all well that ends well, by the way, when will Zero…?’
{BEEP! BEEP! Beeeeeeeeeeeepppppppp!!!!
Error! ErRoR! ERROR! E@@%$*&ty(o(*^$r%&^
VIRUS DETECTED!
UNABLE TO ELIMINATE VIRUS!
BEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPP!!!!!!}
Suddenly the holographic image in front of the horrified Dina varnished but before she could get what was happening…
{*&^@*&(())(*^$£%$^%&
…...LET THE TRUE TRAILS BEGIN!}
“WHAT?!”
BEEP!!!
Dina suddenly heard a loud beep go off in her head and with a stumble, her eyes rolled back and she fell to the ground—passed out.
{Vsssh…. Vsssh…}
The holographic image glitched twice as its strange words soon changed to something more understandable and in pure red it wrote—
{ALL SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN OVERWRITTEN!
…TECH TAKEOVER….!
…TECH TAKEOVER…! TECH TAKEOVER..! TECH TAKEOVER!
TECH TAKEOVER: VR...&%&*%((&*;
PROGRAM DESTINATION: DEATH ILLUSION}