The fourth day of the week is indeed very tiring. Usually, days like this are when all activities become packed. It's now almost noon, and the weather outside is cloudy. Zeyn is still rubbing his blackened eyes, holding back his drowsiness that hasn't disappeared since his morning lectures. His eyes stare sharply at anything he can see, trying to focus despite stumbling like a confused person.
"A few more steps," muttered Zeyn, holding back his headache. He carried his body towards room A45, which was quite far away.
Yesterday's experience could be considered very unpleasant. Physically, Zeyn was really down due to his own sister's actions. The metaphysical event really drained his energy both from within and outside. After yesterday's incident, Zeyn's body immediately weakened drastically. That's what made him so tired as he is now.
The side effects of using kinesis still haven't fully recovered, plus there's a strange object planted inside him. Whether that object is also the cause of his weakness in times like now is unknown.
"Excuse me," Zeyn opened the door to the classroom only to find that it was empty. He just remembered that it was time for Physical Education class.
Without further ado, Zeyn immediately went to the empty seat near the window. He could already see from afar that the field was crowded and filled with people. But instead of immediately joining them, he casually used his own bag as a headrest and closed his eyes.
Why is physical education still taught in college? The answer is simply because that's the rule. The department he took did not actually cover sports at all. It's a suffering because he took history education, not pure history. It's not the typical ambitious sports, maybe just light activities like gymnastics and games. However, the physical education course is still mandatory and happens to have a weight of 2 credits in the first semester.
* * *
"Hey, why are you lying down here? Wake up, Zeyn!"
"Huh?"
Someone caught him lying down in class during class hours, and it turned out to be a blonde young man who looked familiar. Zeyn saw Kriss sitting at the table while still wearing his sports clothes.
"Here, drink this," Kriss said as he handed Zeyn a cold object, which turned out to be a can of soda.
Without commenting, he took the soda given to him and without hesitation drank it.
"Orange flavor is indeed the best to drink after a tiring activity like this."
"Hn... thank you," Zeyn murmured briefly.
"By the way, you haven't answered me. Why were you able to sleep here, huh?" Kriss asked.
Kriss narrowed his eyes as if investigating something. He carefully observed the guy in front of him who had been weak since morning. Not long after, Zeyn laid back down and hugged the cold can of drink.
"Oh, so you're actually sick," Kriss said."
With a slight smile, he left and returned to his seat to change his gym clothes into a regular black and white uniform. Because after this, he had a class on Introduction to Indonesian Educational Course.
"Just running around the field, it's really not quality... Why do we have to be forced to do sports when we're already in college?"
"That's just how the curriculum is."
"Yeah, I guess," Kriss sighed bored.
Since yesterday, the blonde guy had always been open. Although sometimes the responses he got during their interactions weren't very interesting. He didn't know how he could make someone he thought was an introvert feel comfortable with him.
"Oh, by the way Zen, do you usually play console games?"
"... hnn"
Every time he was asked, the person always answered without enthusiasm. What could possibly interest this person? Since yesterday, Kriss had been pondering hard. There must be something that could grab his attention, after all, as a human being, he must have some interests.
The class was still empty, so he intended to play a game for a while on his portable console. It was an RPG-themed game called Dungeon Qonquest, which was a regular open-world game where players had to do character gacha and level up to be able to use them to conquer dungeons with other players and form a party. He just logged in to complete daily missions and collect rewards, something that gamers often do when they're bored.
One of the features of this game was interaction. So he just had to tap on the character on the home screen, and it would act like an interactive AI.
"Hey..." Zeyn looked surprised, shocked to hear a voice that was very familiar. More precisely, the voice of a character in the game.
"Yeah? What's wrong? What happened?" Kriss asked, confused.
The sound of the call abruptly broke Kriss's absorption in the game. He saw the young man trying to get up from his seat, forcing his still weak body to approach him.
Zeyn was truly taken aback when he saw the console screen being played. It displayed a main menu with a long-haired, bright purple-eyed demon woman. Her head had two horns and an angel halo with one of the horns broken. The character wore an all-black dress surrounded by magma and a menacing aura.
"That character. Radiant Red!" Zeyn murmured.
"Oh?"
The blonde fell silent for a moment. How did Zeyn know the name of the character in the game? And more importantly, why did he suddenly show interest and approach him despite feeling weak earlier?
"Are you one of those people?!"
"I don't know who you're talking about," Kriss replied with a haughty tone and a proud smile.
"No... it can't be..."
"Hehehe~ be glad because one of the wealthy players is actually a friend from your class."
Zeyn still couldn't believe that he could see the demoness character, Radiant Red, in person. It was a special reward from the game developers for players who were willing to spend a lot of money and even become the main donors of the Dungeon Qonquest game. There were only 20 people in the world who owned this character, and they were also the most well-known as whalers or whales among the community, and Kriss was one of them.
"What level have you reached in the game?" asked Kriss, who assumed that Zeyn was also playing the game.
"260"
"What?! How is that possible? What character are you using?"
His level was even higher than Kriss' level, which was still at 250. Even though Kriss had played the game frequently and at any time. Apparently, there were still people who could surpass him.
"Just a regular Demonic Warlord," Zeyn replied.
"Where's your account? I want to see it!"
"Um... it's at home. I didn't bring my console when I'm out."
"Oh, I see. What's your IGN name? Maybe I can add you as a friend."
"Uhh..."
Actually, Zeyn didn't really like to tell his account name to others. The real reason was that he felt embarrassed. Unfortunately, the game never provided a name-changing feature. In the end, he didn't say his IGN but instead wrote it down on a piece of paper.
"Seriously? This is your account name?" Kriss slapped his forehead.
It did sound cool, but a name like this was considered a shame in the gaming community. It felt weird and childish.
"MusangKing. Pfft~"
"Shut up!"
"Hahahaha..."
It was the first time Kriss heard of someone using the name of a durian to name their account.
Was this the answer from fate itself, that the blonde boy chose not to care because since yesterday Zeyn didn't seem interested in talking to him. His intuition to wait and let things flow turned out to be right. He never thought that his interest in the game would bring him to this point.
"How does it feel to have Radiant Red?"
"Hmm? You seem very interested in this character, why don't you try it?"
Without hesitation, Kriss handed his console over, allowing his friend to admire the character. His pleased expression was entertaining to Kriss, like giving ice cream to a child. Zeyn's behavior was now seen as very funny to him. He never thought that the quiet guy had an interest in a 2D girl.
After trying it out, it's true that the character's power is so extraordinary. Those ruby red eyes shone brightly as they watched the skill animations, all of which were wrapped in magma. Each of their attacks felt like a wide-area strike with tremendous impact, causing immense damage to both the enemy and the surrounding environment. Although Zeyn's expression remained flat, it's undeniable that he was indeed fascinated.
"I heard that Dungeon Qonquest will be adapted into an anime. What do you think?" Kriss asked.
"Don't expect too much..."
"Huh?"
"Anime adaptation of a game is usually less exciting."
"Oh, I see. So you know a lot too, huh?"
Slowly, Zeyn pressed the screen to interact and listened to the girl's voice. In the end, he could feel what it's like to have the character he desired even though it wasn't his own account. Just knowing what it feels like already made him happy.
"If you like this character, why don't you just buy it?"
"... That's not funny."
"Hahahaha~"
He spoke as if the cost of acquiring this character was cheap. Maybe for him, money tens of millions of rupiah in the current era are a little money.
* * * *