[Music Recommendation: "Above the Sea of Clouds" by Yu-Peng Chen (Genshin Impact OST)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

I curled myself in bed, still wearing bathrobes—not even drying my hair. I was lost in the thought of how to solve the problem. But no matter how much I thought about it, no feasible solution came to mind. If only there was a way to somehow escape this scenario and jump into the future where we already surpassed this, free to live happily together.

An escape… how nice would that be. Yes, I wanted to escape somewhere not here, somewhere far from reality.

How I wished life was just a fairytale, filled with sunshines and daisies. Because in fairytales, the good guys always win, and the bad guys always meet their just end. And everyone lives happily ever after.

But this was no fairytale. We need a solution. But what? How? I had no idea.

Perhaps it was my great desire for an escape that I stood up from bed and went to the couch. I turned on the console, and played Armageddon. I told myself so many times that it wasn't the time to play games… but somehow, I felt an urge to do it.

Once logged in, I went to "Open World" mode and explored. I didn't do any world quests, or fought any monsters, I just made my avatar run, and run, and run, until it reached the next town by foot—not using teleportation circles. Fortunately, the changing of scenery and background music helped lighten up my mood. So I continued running and running until I found the perfect place to just sit and relax, on top of the highest mountain in the game—"Mount Altus".

"Ahhh… what a beautiful view," I marvelled at what I saw. On top of the highest mountain, everything looked so small. And the music… so perfect, relaxing, and soothing, both to the ears, and the heart.

As I sat there, staring at the beautiful scenery and listening to the music, a sudden pop up box distracted me.

"Grim Reaper is now online!" it said.

"So it gives notifications when your friends are online, too, huh?" I asked, talking to myself.

Then, I was reminded of what Ken told me—that it would help lessen the burden if I talked to someone about my problem. I couldn't possibly drag Hora and Ken in this serious problem so I thought maybe, just maybe, telling a stranger wouldn't hurt, right?

Thinking that, I grabbed the keyboard from my desktop and connected it to the console. Ken told me during lunch that I could actually just connect my desktop keyboard to the console to avoid the hassle of trying to type via virtual one.

And so, I pinged him, privately.

"Hello, Grim Reaper!" I typed and sent it to him. It was funny how I sought to gain comfort from someone whom I initially thought was out there to fetch me and guide me to the other side—to death. I chuckled thinking so.

It took him a few minutes to reply but I'm thankful he did. I thought he just accepted my friend request out of politeness. But then again, he was so blunt and a bit grumpy for him to be polite.

"Yes, Senara Lee?"

"Pft! Senara or Sena is fine."

"What do you want, Senara?"

See? So blunt. I found myself chuckling again. They said honest people liked honesty in return. In that case, since he's so honest, maybe I could do the same?

"Are you busy right now?" I asked him.

"No. That's why I'm playing."

"In that case, would you mind listening to me for a bit? I'm kinda down right now and they said it helps if I share it with someone. Unfortunately, it's not something I can share with my real-life friends so..."

Ugh. That was so embarrassing. Why did I even think of opening up to him or her? I just met him—or her, yesterday. Wouldn't he be repulsed or think I'm weird?

"What happened?" this time, he replied quickly.

Phew! I thought he, or she, or whatever, was taken aback with my sudden "openness".

"You see… my dad suddenly encountered a huge problem," I started. "Big whales want to acquire the land on which our best-selling restaurant is located. And they want to buy it half the original price. They're also forcing my dad to be business partners and wants him to invest the payment for the land to their suspicious business. So basically, my dad won't get anything at all from selling that land. And what's worse… I think my dad's life is at risk." I typed all of that so fast out of frustration.

A few minutes passed by again.

"I'm too lazy to type," he said.

What the F! Here I was pouring my heart out and he tells me that he's too lazy to type?! Ugh. I was baffled and my blood boiled again in anger.

"Do you have a headset?" Another message from him arrived that flushed all my anger away in an instant.

"Oh my goodness!" I exclaimed. He meant that—he wanted to talk instead. Ugh. Why do I always jump to conclusions? Seriously, I need to loosen up.

I ran towards my study table and grabbed the headset beside the computer. Then, I went back and plugged it in the controller. I just had to look for the circular hole where I could plug it in.

"Yes, I do," I replied. "But I don't know how to call here."

He didn't respond after that. Instead, another pop-up appeared on my screen.

"Grim Reaper is calling you!"

There were two options, to answer and to hang up. I answered the call, of course.

I was nervous at first, but I managed to say, "Hello, Grim."

And on the other side, he greeted me… Yes, Grim Reaper was a "he".

"Hi, Senara."

Wow… what a beautiful voice. Deep, and masculine—a baritone. There was also a hint of youth in his voice. Maybe we're the same age? Or near? I wasn't sure. But one thing I'm sure of, he was a kind person. It was there, in his voice—the sound of worry and comfort.