JohnWillStab let out a sigh as he leaned back in his chair, it's familiar creaking noise reminding him of the fact he was playing a game this whole time.

"JohnWillStab: Alright, we have a bit of time before the Pedecree is here to pick us up, I better rest up a bit."

"Bonifacius: Good idea, I too shall log off for tonight."

"XsuphicatR: Guess I'll go too..."

"Bromy: I guess I'll go see if I can salvage anything from my lab..."

"Bonifacius: That's right, it's still daytime where you live."

"Bromy: Yeah, so leave me alone now."

JohnWillStab logged off, he remained unmoving for a good while, rays of sunlight were coming in from between his closed curtains.

"No point going to bed right now..."

In case you're wondering, I am neither confirming nor denying his name is John in real life.

"I should go eat something..."

John decided as he stood up from the chair and walked through the sea of empty energy drink cans and other trash, he was wearing a grey, short-sleeved shirt and dark-red shorts. He walked barefoot on the dusty carpet.

When he entered the kitchen he saw that it was in an alright state, the dishes were still washed since his neighbour offered to clean up at his house last month, after that John decided to use paper plates since that would require less dish-cleaning.

He opened the fridge and saw that most of the stuff inside didn't resemble food anymore, he had some soda, mayonnaise and a can of tomato paste, that's the only things inside you could consider food-products.

"...I have to go shopping after all... unless..." John moved over to the cupboard placed under his microwave, he flung it open and saw a package of white bread.

"I knew I had reserves for when I'm out of noodles!" he picked it up and realised it felt... fluffy, he saw that it was already mouldy.

"...I guess I have to go..."

John moved over to his door and picked up a jacket off the coat stand, it was grey and puffy.

As he opened his door he was greeted by one of his neighbours, an elderly woman with curly brown hair, she was always busy doing things in her garden or checking up on the neighbours, her face was seemingly concerned.

"Did something happen?" she asked worriedly.

"No, no - I just have to do some shopping."

The old woman let out a sigh of relief, "Alright, I thought something terrible happened for you to leave your house so early..."

"I've been out earlier than this."

A man walked out from the same open door the neighbour stood in, it was an older man, "Is that... what did you do?!"

"N-nothing! I'm just going shopping!" John explained.

The man breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that! Do you want me to have a heart attack?!"

"No, sorry!" John replied as he made his way outside.

He opened the door and heard a loud bang as he smashed it into someone, below lay a blond guy with a long face, a short beard and sideburns, his orange beanie covered his eyes.

He was wearing grey sweatpants and a long-sleeved green camo coat over an orange shirt.

The man was tall, very tall.

The man was pretty well-built and in his hand was a wooden bat.

A short while of tense silence took place as the man stood up.

"Are you alright!? I'm so sorry!"

The man looked up, his face conveying no emotions as the man stood up and started walking up to JohnWillStab.

Did John fuck up, was this too far? Is this where he dies? I mean it's not like he lives in a fancy neighbourhood, the last three owners of his apartment died and one of them is still missing.

"You." the words came from the blond guy, they caused a shiver to travel up John's spine.

"Y-yeah?"

"What's your name?" he asked placing the bat over his shoulder.

"...I can't say."

"What do you mean?" the man tilted his head to the side at the idea that the man before him was unable to tell him his name.

"I-it's nothing personal, man - but we already went through all this effort to hide my name, I'm not just going to tell you it..."

"Look, man - I'm looking for someone, you know where I can find a 'JohnWillNotStab'?"

All colour left John's face as he saw the man's face light up.

"What, it's you! Isn't it!" the man has practically radiated excitement.

"Nope, I don't know no JohnWillNotStab."

"Then how did you know it's written with no spaces between the word?" the man asked smugly.

John remained silent for a while before letting out a sigh which was clearly visible thanks to the steam it created.

"Fine, let's say it's me. If you're here to kill me, you could at least pick a sharp weapon..." he commented looking at the bat.

The man followed his gaze and widened his eyes as he realised how the situation must have looked to John.

"Oh! No! I was just worried I'd get shot if I came to this neighbourhood."

"A reasonable concern."

John made his way down the concrete stairs and onto the snow which obscured the path to the front gate.

"Wait! Hold up!" cried the blond guy.

"I'll pass, I'm not sure how you tracked me down, but I'm like ninety-nine per cent sure it's illegal."

"I'm just a fan! Come on, bro!"

"Yeah, forgive me if I don't jump with joy at the idea of having you guys in my face..."

"I know you're a little upset about what happened, but -" John cut the man off, "No, I'm quite grateful, aside from having bodily fluids and death-threats mailed to my house, I came out on top after everything wrapped up."

"Bodily... fluids?"

"You don't wanna know."

John made his way through the snow-covered streets, seeing the large house next to him, it had a massive dog chained to one of the posts inside, it began barking-up a storm as John walked past.

The blond guy kept following John silently until he started asking questions again, "Why did you move into a place like this? I can't imagine you're the kind of person who'd blow their cash on drugs..."

"Of course not! I decided this is the best place to move in since none of my "fans" would follow me out here, for fear of being beaten, killed and then used to smuggle crack into morgues."

The blond guy didn't reply for a while, he was starting to feel guilty for interrupting John's life.

"I'm Issac, by the way."

John spun around, "Alright, Issac - what do you want from me, exactly?" he asked sternly.

Issac almost jumped when he heard the question, "I just wanted to meet my idol, that's all!" the explained.

"Well, I'm not trying to meet any of you people!"

Upon hearing the commotion a group of men walked out, they were holding metal pipes and bats, one of them was holding their hands in his pockets, this, to John, meant he had a knife.

At first, Issac stood there frozen with fear before turning to John and seeing the blank stare with which he walked towards the people.

"Oh shit, it's John!"

"Hey, guys..." he replied as he walked.

"Is that guy giving you trouble?" asked one of the guys clutching the pipe in his hand.

"Nah, don't worry about it, just some crack-head." John shrugged.

"Alright, where you heading?"

"Off to the shop, I'll get you guys the usual, right?"

"Right!"

A few of the guys talked amongst themselves happily before turning back to Issac.

"I don't think he wants to talk to you right now." said the knife pocketing guy sternly.

Issac gritted his teeth as he turned back and walked towards John's house.

Meanwhile, John was about to enter the shop, the sliding doors were always open since they were broken, he picked up the basket beside him.

He picked up fourteen packets of cup-noodles, fourteen packets of noodle-bricks and a new loaf of bread.

He picked up some more drinks and a four-pack of beer for the next time they'd be drinking in-game.

He picked up a bottle of booze, it was some lemon-flavoured drink.

He made his way to the cash register as the guy working there was watching some videos on his phone.

"You can scan them yourself..." he said, he had darker skin and was wearing a grey hoodie, he too was a well-built man, balled with a short goatee.

"I'm just buying the usual..." John replied as he shuffled through the rows of candy on the side.

The man almost dropped his phone as he turned towards John, "Shit, man! Why the hell are you out this early?! What happened?!"

John let out a sigh, "I ran out of food..."

"And I see you still refuse to get proper food?"

"Don't tell me what to eat, man..."

The man smiled as he let out a sigh.

John retrieved twenty-three packs of a collectable card game, they were bright pink and covered in glitter.

"That'll be 35 unspecified-currency..." the guy said, not even having to scan the items as he started moving the items from his basket into a plastic bag, he dropped in some multi-vitamin pills for free in there too.

John handed the man two twenties and they both knew he didn't want the change.

John waved the man goodbye as he walked out and back the same way he came from, as soon as he came into their line of sigh John was surrounded by the guys from before.

"Did you get them?"

"Yeah, do you have them!?

"Yeah, yeah - I got them," he said with a weak smile and a sigh as he handed the band of hooligans a pack of cards each.

"Ah! You're the best, man!"

"Yeah, we can't ruin our image by buying them ourselves."

"Don't worry about it," he replied with a chuckle before making his way back to his house through a slightly different route, the guys waved at him as he walked.

As JohnWillStab walked he felt a pebble hit him on the side, he continued walking, another pebble hit his side.

This repeated for a solid two or three minutes before an aggravated woman complained from over the tall fence.

"I refuse to play along with your ninja thing... if you want the booze, come and take it."

"First of all, rogue, second of all... come on!"

Over the fence hopped a girl wearing a black hoodie and dark-coloured jeans, "I'm the number one thief in this place, I can't be seen buying strawberry, white chocolate and lemon-flavoured booze."

"Yeah, everyone just assumes you're a dude, I bet they think you just drink pure spirits," John replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, it's weird - but I never get suspected of anything."

John had a deal with the thief, she'd stop stealing his stuff for an occasional offering in the form of her alcohol of choice.

"So, how's your game?" she asked, more out of politeness than anything else.

"Y'know just hanging out with some friends."

She looked at him with the look one would give a helpless degenerate. "You call the NPCs your friends?"

"No! It's an online game! They're real!"

She gave him an uncertain look for a second or two before hopping back over the fence, "Just as an FYI: if you think you'll get a girlfriend online, it's always a dude."

"You're one to talk!" he replied angerly as the thief disappeared over the fence with a thumbs-up.

As John made his way back home, he came across Issac sitting outside the door to his house.

"You're back!"

"I am! It's my house.... why are you here?" he replied.

"Look, I didn't mean to offend you! I'm just -"

"Yeah, I don't care - if you want to lay around in the snow you can go right ahead."

John made his way inside of his house and placed his groceries on his table, he prepared himself a bowl of noodles, spiced masterfully with salt and pepper before making his way to his computer.

An hour later:

He heard a knock on his door, and another, then another.

Eventually, he opened the door (not because the knocking got to him, but because he felt bad for his neighbours).

"YES!?" he demanded as he saw Issac standing at his doors.

"Uhm... do... do you think I could maybe crash at your place?"

"..."

"..."

"..."