Within Alex's room Lili quietly pressed her ear against the door and listened to the conversation downstairs. She could hear the handsome man there speaking to Alex saying.
"So where's this girl at? Where's your girlfriend Alex? No point in hiding it, I heard it from the people at the lodge. They said you had a cute little girl with white hair like ice and long ears running around with you. Despite me specifically saying no friends when your under house arrest. Do you have any idea how much trouble your putting us through right now because of your fight at the school. And now what do I hear? You just go around running around with your little girlfriend like everything is ok. And I heard that she was quite small, Just how young is she anyway. Oh man, you better keep it in your pants boy, don't go starting any more trouble. One legal battle and it's expenses is already too much. I don't want to be paying child support as well, for your stupidity."
Then a sweet woman's voice spoke up saying. "Oh honey, don't be like that. Alex is still young. You should feel happy for him getting a girlfriend. You do want grandchildren eventually don't you? Besides we have enough to make it through this together, we just have to cut down a little on the expenses and it should be fine."
Lili could hear the man pacing around as Alex then spoke up saying. "Yeah, mom's right. Will make it through this, I swear dad. And I'm just about to get my channels contracted and I'm even earning donations from my streams now. Soon we won't need to worry about money at all."
Then the man suddenly laughed. "Streams, games, content creation, hahaha, don't make me laugh. There's only one way to make real money, and that's by you focusing on your god damn studies and finding yourself a real job. Not this stupid nerd shit that's never gonna get you anywhere. All it's gonna do is make you a total outcast and a bullied weak loser at school. You know at your age I was already the top dog at my school. I was the quarterback, I had girls, respect, friends and I was a real man. Not like those nerds playing DND and committing those weird cult rituals or whatever. I was a man. Why can't you be that, why?"
Then the woman said. "Ohh, no. Don't say that."
Then Alex suddenly yelled. "Yeah well, what do you know? Your just some hillbilly mountain man! And your poor dad, your poor in heart and in your wallet! You might have given up on your dreams long ago, but I will not, because I believe and I have hope, unlike you! You, you, you fucking ass hole! I hate you dad! You'll see, I'll become a millionaire and then I'll have everything and much more than you ever did!"
Lili clenched her little fists hearing this, she felt ready to run into defend Alex and say something mean to that handsome man. How dare he criticise Alex who was so smart and knowing of many things. Obviously Alex knew what he was doing, right. Damn that mean good looking man.
But then she heard Alex hurried footsteps coming back up the stairs. Quickly she stepped out of the way, as Alex burst inside the room and closed the door with a hard bang. He seemed mad, as he was huffing there in rage looking at the floor.
There was a bag in his hand with a strange symbol, it looked like two yellow mountains standing side-by-side. Then he suddenly gave it to her and said. "Take it, I'm not hungry anymore."
Holding the bag in hand, Lili could feel something warm inside, she could also smell it, but the smell was odd. One part of her was saying that it smelled really good, but her senses were saying otherwise. There was something off about it.
But as she looked upon the bag, she then noticed Alex merely walk to the pc and start up a new game of some kind. Seeing as he was ignoring her and seemed only intent to vent off his anger into the game, she decided to just watch him play while she inspected the bag.
Standing behind Alex she slowly opened the bag. And inside she noticed a white paper cup, with some vile looking black liquid in it. Looking upon it her senses immediately screamed poison, although it didn't smell as such.
She wanted to throw it away, but maybe there was some hidden use for it. So she put the drink on the small shelf on the side.
Then she looked upon the many golden sticks that were stuffed into a small container of red paper. It smelled nice, but strange at the same time. It also looked quite fancy, but just what was it. Her senses after all were sharp and she knew the difference between food that was safe to eat, and food that was not so safe to eat. And once again she came to the conclusion to just put it off to the side.
Then there were some inedible, small red plastic things that felt squishy to the touch, which she also put off to the side. And lastly there was a box of many colours and symbols. Mostly it was white, with some blue text, a lot of yellow text and around the yellow text was a lot of red.
Slowly pulling open the thing she could see a beautiful round thing that also smelled questionable. There clearly was an allure in these things, a good smell that made her hungry belly growl, but there was something off about them also.
And so she came to one final conclusion. These were not to be eaten with the mouth, but with the eyes, like art. They were probably, something meant to sooth the soul and in this case her sense of smell as well. And they were quite nice to look at, so that's what she did.
The Sargent had said that nobles liked to stand around looking at weird pieces of art after all. But why did they do that, this she couldn't understand? Looking at them only made her feel more hungry and not full at all. Just how was it that looking at these things made Alex feel full, or was he talking about a sense of fullness in something else?
Heaven was truly a strange place it seemed, as were the nobles. She couldn't understand much of the things here and so she looked to Alex for guidance. If anyone knew what to do, then it was Alex and so she decided to just watch him closely and learn like that.
Looking at him playing she could see that he was now playing a shooting game. There seemed to be lots of guns in the game. She could even see that one gun that she had used to shoot those bad men.
Watching Alex play she could see that the game was clearly not making him happy. He was now wearing a headset so it was a bit hard for her to hear, but luckily she did have pretty good hearing. For instance whenever the round as the game called it started he would grit his teeth and say. "Fucking bastards, this time I'll get them for sure."
And then he would die and the game would say. "Counter terrorists win." which would then make him curse out loud at the screen.
There also seemed to be many other voices there speaking to him saying things like. "Planting the bomb, peep peep peep, bam bam, ahhh, Kurwa why you sleeping. Fucking hell, these bloody Russians are everywhere. What are you speaking, I don't understand your English. Get me a sandwich fucking bitch boy. Fakk, sandwich, I don't care! They take every round cos you push on A! Why why why? Defend, stay and defend you idiot! Stop using the sniper noob, you can't hit shit with it! You idiot stop jumping and give me smoke! Bloody hell, I need some tea."
What were they talking about she wasn't sure, but little by little she did kind of start understanding the idea of the game. And that's when she learned it, she finally figured out what was, a, and b. Realising this was like a bomb had just gone off inside her head, damn she was smart.
But then Alex suddenly yelled. "Ahhhhh fuck this!" Then with a light bam he slammed his headset in the table and jumped into bed while yelling into his pillow.
She could see those dollar signs popping off now, it seemed Alex was getting lots of dollars now, but he wasn't happy. Hmm, maybe dollars were truly only just on the screen there and of no real use. And that's why she needed to find the money, maybe then Alex would be happy.
Lost in thought she then saw another round start, but Alex wasn't playing anymore. Though the voices in the headset were calling out to her it seemed. "You fucking useless bitch, do something next round you idiot! Move on B, or I'm gonna report you! Ah, bloody hell, what's the point of it anyway? Come on you pussies, let's go get those terrorists! We have a real American on our team after all, so it should be easy. Or well, by the sound of that squeaky voice It most likely was just some little girl, hahaha! Come on you little girl, move, hahaha!"
Hearing their words, Lili felt mad. She wasn't a little girl, she was just a bit small. No, she was not small, she was just a young bud of a real growing woman. Yes that's what she was, she was a woman. But how did they know that she was a girl? Could they see her somehow, she wasn't sure? But they seemed to be in need of help, so that's what she was gonna do. Hopping on the chair, she put on the headset and managed to make the character move.
Doing what Alex did, she picked the sniper rifle, something that looked like body armour and then moved towards B. Moving inside the big gray building, she turned to the right, peaked into the room on her left and there she noticed the terrorist. A man stood there with a gun and a towel on his head. Seeing the terrorist she immediately did what Alex had done, she put the cross on the towel man's head, and then she shot him. It only took a fraction of a second and as the bam sound came, the towel head man fell and a little bit of blood flew. It looked kind of unreal, why was his head still intact and the towel so clean.
But the people in the headset seemed happy as they cheered and said. "Good job man. Nice shot. Real russian sniper man. I guess your more than a little girl, your a real popping bitch, hahaha!"
Then she moved forward, past one open room and towards the dead towel man. Coming in close, she then noticed another towel man on the left, he shot, he missed one and she put one in his head. Once again another dropped to the ground and people cheered in amazement.
"Bloody hell, no bloody way that just happened? Aim bot much? Can't be legit, there's no way anyone is that fast. Mother Russia would be proud of you cyka blyat."
Hearing the strange words Lili couldn't really understand them. But it seemed that they were impressed for some reason. But what was so impressive about that what she had just done? All she did was move the character, aim and shoot.
Nonetheless she moved forward and walked around the big structure all the way to A, where she then shot two other towel heads. Then the round ended and they won. After that this cycle kept repeating itself again and again. Rounds came and went, until finally the game came to an end.
And as the round ended, some people cheered for victory, while others seemed mad. She too felt happy for the voices in the headset, but she also felt a bit bored by it all.
Here she wasn't saving any beautiful elves from the undead. Here she was merely mindlessly shooting these towel head people, and sometimes they changed and she then shot at the men in black. But what was the point of it, why was she shooting at these men? What was the story here?
But whatever was happening here, it did seem to have an effect on the dollars popping up. Now the dollars were popping up quite frequently. She could also even feel Alex's eyes on her. He was looking at her with what felt like amazement. And as another round came to a close, which then ended the game, Alex asked. "Wow, just how did you do that Lili? How are you so fast?"
Turning to look at the stunned Alex laying there on the bed, she merely tilted her head and said. "Mmm, well I train a lot. And connecting your core, the body and the mind is also important."
Saying this Alex seemed amazed, but why? Had he not been listening to her at all before? After all she had already explained these basic things to him during their training together. It wasn't like she made him meditate for fun.
But maybe this was a good demonstration of what a mind, body and core connection could do. But was her speed truly that amazing, even though her body was still so weak and her power so miniscule?
Well she didn't think so, but the voices in the headset seemed to at least think so, as they suddenly started yelling weird things out loud. "Oh yeah boys, we got an E girl in our team, oooohhhh yeah! Oh, what, do we actually have a girl on our team? Oh damn you sound cute, what's your name, not that I'm suggesting anything, but you know? Please marry me. O ho ho, a girl with a sniper, me like, me like very much."
Hearing so many excited sounding voices all talking to her at the same time, she didn't know what to say. It felt so overwhelming to her, so all she could give was an honest answer to the people in the headset. "Mmm, I'm Lili. And I'm a growing woman, but I don't have a real sniper with me. I'm just playing a game right now."
Saying this the voices laughed happily at her in the headset and kept on talking and talking about weird things. She didn't really want to talk to these strange voices, whoever they were, and she didn't really want to play this game, but Alex seemed to disagree.
And so round after round she played under the watchful eyes of Alex and with his explanations she began to learn more. In some rounds she shot the men in black and in some others she shot the towel heads. The maps changed from time to time, as did her weapons sometimes change as well.
She hardly ever died. She could hear the enemy so clearly, she could guess their positions with ease and she could shoot them in under a second easily. The enemy was too slow, too noisy and too easy to hit. And so the game was easy, boring and worst of all really repetitive.
She didn't really want to play this game, but Alex insisted, as they were apparently getting lots of view's and dollar donations, which was apparently good. So she kept on playing for a long time and Alex seemed really excited watching her play.
Like so the night went on, until finally a feminine voice came from the stairs saying. "Alex, it's three in the morning already. Go asleep."
Alex seemed annoyed hearing this as he yelled back. "Yeah yeah, just one more game Mom."
Silence followed for a moment, until finally the voice then said. "Ok, one more game. But after that I want you immediately in bed, ok. Remember, sleep is important if you want to grow into a tall man like your father."
Alex sighed hearing this as he answered by saying. "Yeah yeah, I know Mom."
Then Lili could hear the person's footsteps get further away, down the stairs somewhere. Sighing heavily Alex looked to her with a regretful expression and said. "Well I guess it's best if you soon start heading back home then, don't want my dad catching you after all, or his gonna be pissed."
Lili felt sad hearing this, she didn't want to leave Alex, but then again she didn't want to play this game anymore. So she happily nodded to Alex's words, played one more match as Alex called it and then the stream ended.
Alex gave her some nice torn up old shoes with holes, socks, old boxers, some big loose pants, a white shirt and a big white hoodie.
Seeing all of them, Lili wanted to refuse. She didn't deserve such things surely. After all they hadn't even found the money yet, but Alex insisted and so she took them all.
Placing the clothes into a big black plastic bag, Lili then said goodbye to Alex and climbed out the window. Coming to the roof she silently landed on the soft grassy ground and scurried off into the night.
Like so the first of many such gaming sessions with Alex came to a happy end. From there on the days seemed to pass much the same. During the day they made content, she taught him to meditate, and how to use his powers, and when it got dark she sneaked into his home to play.
Alex would open the window for her and so she would climb up the sides of the building to his room like so. Playing the games they gained many dollars, Alex apparently was becoming rich and he had a lot of money now.
But still this she couldn't understand. When she finally dared to ask where the money was, Alex merely showed a smile and a number of dollars on a screen on his phone. He said that they were nearly there, they apparently almost had enough for her gaming set up and pc.
Though he said this, she just couldn't understand it. How was one to buy something with a number on a screen? What did dollars have to do with money, and what were bucks? And why was Alex trying to offer her those weird looking things called hamburgers?
She didn't like them, they didn't seem safe at all to eat, and they were clearly damaging Alex's body. But still Alex ate them for some reason. He said that he didn't care, because they tasted good. But she had tried them and they didn't taste good. She liked her magically enhanced strawberries much better.
And like she didn't dare to eat his food, he didn't want to eat her food now. But why? Why would a noble like Alex eat such harmful things? Did nobles hate living long lives or something? Or were these things Alex ate merely the same as that what the story of beginnings talked about.
After thinking on it some more, she figured this to be exactly it. These things Alex ate were things of the devil. They were things that although we're bad, people still ate them because they were addicting.
This was clearly not good, not good at all. Satan was affecting heaven with his evil schemes it seemed. It was just like he had done to Adam and Eve a long time ago. Even as she sat at the lakeside and watched the nobles sometimes come to row their boats, she saw it there. They were all sickly, and many of them were fat and had many disabilities.
These nobles were clearly not as great as the Sargent had said. They didn't have artificial augmentations on their bodies like the Sargent had. No they were merely stupid people who were foolish enough to fall for Satans temptations. The only exception to this seemed to be the goddess in the brick house and the handsome man, although they too weren't all that healthy.
She had to help these people, and that's exactly why she made herself a real iron shovel. Using this shovel she now planned on bravely adventuring into Alex's fields. Tomato fields Alex called them, and there she would plant her light stones, to make the tomatoes plentiful, big and tasty.
Once Alex had a taste of these magically enhanced tomatoes growing in his fields, she was sure he could never again eat those hamburgers, right. And once he did that he would become taller, healthier, muscular and handsome. And it would also help him connect his mind and body to his core. Which was something that Alex hadn't yet been able to do.
Sure Alex had the desire to train and become stronger, but his mind wasn't yet ready. Just like his body wasn't, for his body was being constantly poisoned by those hamburgers that also made him fat.
With this in mind, she didn't go to see Alex during the other Friday that was apparently the last Friday of the month. No, she instead dressed in those comfortable white boxers, put on that comfy white hoodie and small black socks. And lastly she put on those torn up shoes of Alex and tied them, just like Alex had thought her and then she grabbed her iron shovel.
Everything was now ready, Alex did although tell her to wear those pants, but wearing only boxers was more comfortable for her. And so with everything ready she sneaked off into the night and headed towards Alex's tomato fields.
First was the small field just a hundred or so meters down the road from the brick house. The field was hardly any larger than the one in the forest, but finding light stones and placing them every twenty or so meters away from one another did take some time.
With it done, she hardly felt exhausted at all. Eight light stones was not a problem for her, so she then moved on to the other field just past a small tree line. The larger field was in a triangle type of a shape and required twice as many stones as the other one.
Within a hour or so she although managed to do it, but now she was already getting a bit sweaty and exhausted. She was getting close to her limits so she decided to rest for a moment. Going to the stream of water that separated the larger field from the fields that were around Alex's house. She then undressed and took a quick relaxing dip in the shallow stream.
Feeling a bit refreshed she carried her clothes to the other side and got dressed again. Now she needed at least thirty light stones to cover all of the tomato fields that were around Alex's house here. But luckily the soil here wasn't deep and was quite rocky as well, so she easily managed to find the stones that she needed here.
But as she dug holes, made light stones, buried them into the ground and slowly moved closer to Alex's house, a powerful light suddenly went off blinding her for a second. It seemed like the light was attached to the left side of the house. But why had it suddenly gone off, this Lili couldn't understand.
And so she merely decided to carry on doing her thing, until suddenly the left side door of the house slammed open and out came the handsome man. His muscles were fully visible and he wore boxers much like hers, except that there was a sizable bulge there, and he also had a big double barreled gun in hand.
Seeing the gun, Lilis eyes widened in shock. Then the man saw her and yelled. "Haha, I fucking knew it! Come here little girl! It's ok, I'll take you to the police."
Hearing this, Lili could just feel her heart be filled with dread. Why did he want to take her to the police again? Didn't Alex say that it would be ok, and that he wouldn't take her to the police?
No, she didn't want this. Alex didn't know everything. But if that was true, then did Alex even really know how to get the money?
Lili felt so confused, she was afraid and so she dropped her heavy iron shovel and ran. If this dad of Alex didn't want her here, then so be it. She wasn't getting Alex any money by playing video games anyway, so she ran and ran.
The man yelled to her. "Hey, no wait! Stop! I swear I just want to take you to the police! I'm not gonna hurt you little girl!"
But she didn't listen, no she didn't want the police. She wanted to find the money and she knew exactly where to do that. Alex never spoke of it, but the Sargent had said that libraries were great places of knowledge. You could find pretty much the answer to everything in such places, that is as long as the books aren't burned there.
After all the kindness Alex had shown her, and for the nice things Alex had given her, she needed to do this. She needed to help him get the money. After all he liked money and she liked him. She wanted him to like her also and to kiss her again. Plus he did deserved the money for all the good he had done to her, so she needed to find him the money, right?
And once she had the money, then maybe she could give a part of it to the handsome man also. Maybe then he wouldn't want to take her to the police anymore. After all money was powerful and it could do many things, right?