"You haven't eaten anything since we arrived. Are you sure you won't consider putting something in your stomach?" Ambrose asked in concern.
"Alright, you win. I will find something to eat." Roxie replied.
She did not eat anything from the space.
The space was currently empty and bare. Uncontrollable anticipation welled inside her. After planting numerous seeds, the emptiness in the space would not be there for long.
"Great." A relieved expression was on Ambrose's face.
Roxie walked out of her room and shut the door behind her. Kai scanned her from top to bottom.
"You have changed your clothes. Your wounds seemed to have healed up too." He commented.
Roxie nodded with a smile.
"Yes. I think it might be due to the superpower I awakened. I found out that the injuries on my body had closed up after a little rest. I don't know how it works." Roxie explained.
Kai didn't ask any other questions after he got a reply. Nobody knew if Roxie was telling the truth or not.
Kai and Ambrose would not ask if it was the truth or not. For players, secrets were trump cards.
It would be in abundance.
Roxie would not pressure Ambrose and Kai to talk about their secrets too. It was some kind of unwritten rule.
Roxie went to the fridge to grab the ingredients for making a sandwich. She wasn't in the mood for anything complicated right now.
Roxie wolfed the food down. She was more famished than she had imagined.
Once she was done with her meal, Roxie went outside.
There was a protruding rock a few distances away from the house. It wasn't too far but it was not near either.
Roxie sat down and looked upwards.
Night was already upon this side of the world.
Even with the gray haze covering everything, the tiny and twinkling stars could still be seen.
It felt like these stars wanted to share their brightness and light regardless of the situation of the sky. Somehow, it was like these stars didn't want to see the grey skies win.
Roxie wanted to be resilient.
The path forward was filled with thorns. In history, only the winners get to change anything. She wanted to be a winner.
Someone walked over to her and sat down. The rock she was sitting on wasn't that huge so the distance between Roxie and the new arrival was a little bit close.
Roxie used her side eye to observe the new arrival.
It was Ambrose.
He didn't look at her. He was looking at the sky itself.
It felt like he wanted to see what she was staring at.
Silence hung between them.
Nobody tried to speak first.
Once she was sure there was no threats nearby, Roxie lost herself in her thoughts again.
If she managed to get to the end of this apocalyptic system and this game, what would happen next?
Before she was chosen to be a player, she thought earth was the only world that existed.
She thought only earth has humans and other intelligent beings. The arrival of the apocalytic system changed everything.
Nobody knows if all these worlds players traveled to were parallel worlds or something else. Everything was mysterious.
Her attitude towards the apocalyptic system was complicated. She didn't know whether this system was irrevocably on the evil side or if it was just a neutral grey.
If the system was evil and by chance, she managed to end it all, would she go back to Earth?
Earth had been destroyed due to the asteroids that fell. Everything was confusing and messy.
The only thing Roxie could do now was just to put one step in front of the other and keep moving.
The easiest thing right now might be to give up but giving up was not an option now.
Giving up means death. Giving up means she would be the bones under the feet of the winner.
"Roxie." Ambrose's voice drew her out of her thoughts.
"Yes." She turned to him.
Although Ambrose just called her name, he still wasn't looking at her.
His eyes were trained on the gloomy skies overhead.
"You said you met a person that was similar to me in the past. I want to know more about this person." Ambrose said.
Finally, his eyes left the sky and he stared at Roxie.
It was Roxie's turn to look elsewhere.
She observed the houses around.
No noise was still coming from these houses. It felt like there was nobody around. Still, Roxie knew at least one person was still in one of the houses around.
Why did Ambrose want to know about this?
Roxie shrugged.
His reason for asking this question was not her concern. Although she could choose not to reply, she would give him a response.
She had already said something about her benefactor earlier. Trying to keep the same thing she revealed openly as a secret was just being pretentions.
"Like I said before, this man is my benefactor. I was in a dark period in my life but he came like a ray of warm sunshine. He is like a diamond in the midst of stones." Roxie explained.
The similarities between her benefactor and Ambrose could still be classified as a coincidence. Even with this, Roxie was used to being cautious.
Two extremely similar people wouldn't appear without any fishy thing going on.
Was Ambrose the twin of her benefactor?
Roxie sighed. It was better not to spend too much time thinking about this.
She would investigate more about Ambrose's similarities with her benefactor later.
"Wow. From your words, I am already having a good feeling about him." Ambrose replied.
After those words, silence settled between them again.
"Roxie." Ambrose's voice came.
Roxie didn't look at him. She hummed to show she was listening to him.
"Have you ever considered having a romantic partner?" Ambrose asked.
Roxie's eyes narrowed.
She replied as she shook her head, "I don't really have the time for romance now. Besides, once bitten, twice shy. My first trial in romantic relations ended on a very bad note."
"Having one bad try doesn't mean you will totally scrap everything. That's not how this world works." Ambrose said.
Roxie shrugged, "I know the world doesn't work like that but I am not ready to try again. Maybe in the future. For now, romantic issues are not allowed."
"Your words are understandable." Ambrose responded.
"Ambrose, why are you asking all these questions tonight? Did something happen?" Roxie questioned.
Ambrose's heated gaze settled on Roxie's face.
Roxie locked eyes with him.
"In theory, what if I say I am interested in you?" Ambrose finally replied.
He was interested in her?
She had an interest in him too but the things she would face in the future didn't allow her to string people along for the ride. She didn't want to use her issues to harm other people.
This path she was treading might be the type she would have to walk to the end alone.
Her heart throbbed.
Her decision still stands.
The things she was feeling for Ambrose was complicated. She didn't know if she was projecting the budding feelings she had for her benefactor on him.
That was not fair to Ambrose.
He was his own separate individual. Lumping them together was just a recipe for disaster.
"In theory, I probably won't respond to your advances." Roxie replied.
After her reply, the two of them didn't say any other words.
Roxie didn't explain the reasoning behind her rejection. She was glad Ambrose talked about all these things earlier.
She wasn't in a good place right now and she was not in the mood for romance.
It would be bad if the feelings Ambrose had kept fermenting without his knowledge of her stance on romance itself.
Her heart ached.
She bit down on her lips.
Everything was better this way.
Rejecting him was the right decision.