Gabriel was ignoring me.

No, ignoring wasn’t the word. If he had been ignoring me, that would’ve meant I was actively going out searching for him and being denied. Doing that was his job, not mine. And yet, there was no glimpse of that gleaming crown of hair, no brash yelling interrupting my mornings. One week had passed in this unsettling silence, and then two.

Gabriel wasn’t ignoring me, he was avoiding me.

Even from the darkness on the cliff-side, I had seen his wide eyes, a deer in the headlights. Then, the weight under my slackened grip vanished. He had logged off, disappeared. Even when I buried him in the fields, thrown him all the way to the Amethyst Domain, drop-kicked him into the Somnian Lake, he had never just… left like that. Fled.

What the hell, you’re just a kid?

Spaces began filling in my head. The inconvenient afternoon hours in which he chose to provoke me. The immature insults, the cocky naivete. Hell, his reaction basically proved it.

He had always looked to be on the younger side. Players weren’t allowed to alter their physical forms—not drastically, at least. The VR set’s scanning system only overlooked simple blemishes, such as acne, dark shadows, or scars. Meanwhile, character customization was limited to hair and eye color. Most people got around it once they entered the dungeons, where they found artifacts, masks, and every other gadget to change their traits.

Additionally, not only were voice-altering artifacts rare, but they were tricky to use. Gabriel definitely must’ve had one. To some degree, I understood why he did, given his degree of popularity within the community.

Still, if all I needed to do to keep him away was to figure out his identity, then I should’ve done it earlier. It would’ve saved me from so much trouble.

Sunlight rolled across the tall grass as I alighted in the Eastern Fields. The damage had long been patched up, given by the glade that rippled seamlessly around me. It was almost as if I had never reduced it to a giant pit of dirt mere weeks ago.

It was empty, nothing but the stalks of grass rustling against my thighs. I was the only blemish in the stretching landscape, a figurine of black lost in the green.

Today marked the third week that I hadn’t seen him. For the first time since last year, I was left alone, as I had always wanted. Always needed.

And yet, there was an unease I couldn’t quite brush off.

He had made a routine of challenging me, but it was all cut short by the thud of my fists against his armor that night. His face bearing the brunt of my petty misgivings. And I had taken out my anger on him. Irrationally.

Maybe that’s what the feeling was—an inkling of shame. He really was just some kid.

I sighed.

Or maybe I didn’t have anything to do with his disappearance at all. I clearly hadn’t been friendly towards him, so he could’ve realized he was wasting both of our time. Whatever the cause, once I checked in on him, I could enjoy my peace and quiet, guilt-free.

But how could I find out where he had gone? He hadn’t appeared at the Eastern Fields, nor was he anywhere near the cliffs. It was unlikely that he had gone to the other cities.

I turned towards the Capitol that shone in the distance.

That was an instant no-go. I cringed just thinking of the interactions I’d have to go through. I couldn’t even remember all the people from there who wanted my head, much less talk with them.

Besides, the Capitol was huge. I couldn’t scour the whole city in one day—I wouldn’t even know where to start looking. There was no tangible way to check on him, and I had no connections.

One person popped into my head at that thought. Michi had said she knew of him before, right? I pulled up her profile, the single one on my friend’s list.

Private message with user m1ch1ko [Michi]

5:09 PM

[kas1027]: michi

The North American server’s settings were based on Eastern Standard Time, as the majority of its players, including me, lived in that zone. I wondered if it was the same for Michi. Even if it was, I suspected that it would take her a while to reply, as normal people ended work around this time.

Surprisingly, her icon popped up as online.

[Michi]: oh, it’s Stony!

I stared at the message.

[Michi]: sorry, I was surprised you messaged me

[Michi]: honored, actually

[Michi]: and the thing is, I have a thing with giving people nicknames

[Michi]: but no one really knows your actual name

[Michi]: considering most of your display name is numbers

[Michi]: as for your mask

[Michi]: well

[Michi]: it doesn’t leave much to the imagination

[Michi]: it doesn’t even have eyeholes

[Michi]: it’s just a slab with horns

[Michi]: like a stone slate

[Michi]: thus… you’re Stony.

[Michi]: but what do you prefer? Kas, maybe?

[Michi]: or Mr. 1027?

[Michi]: no offense, but I’m not calling you Demon King

[Michi]: I wouldn’t be able to take you seriously

[Michi]: you aren’t replying. Did you like Stony better?

[Michi]: hello?

[Michi]: are you still there?

I closed the chat.

Forget it. This wasn’t worth the effort at all. It wasn’t like I actually enjoyed his company, anyway. He was just some kid with a savior complex who decided it was noble to annoy me. I didn’t need to waste my thoughts on him anymore.

I wasn’t going to be the idiot in the fields, waiting for something to happen. Now that neither Michi nor Gabriel was confronting me, I didn’t have to worry about unnecessary things anymore. I could finally carry on as I had always wanted to do.

First, I had business in the Delphian Forest.

/ / / / /

In Akoras, there were seven main dungeons in total. Six of them resided in domains, or environments, such as the two in the Northern Mountains. Out of all the domains, the Delphian Forest was more like a dungeon of its own. As far as anyone knew, no one had ever made it to the other side. In fact, most didn’t even make it past the first stage, as I liked to call it. With a design based on western folklore, it shifted randomly and contained several high-level mobs. The forest was so obscure that none of the cities could claim it.

Naturally, it was the domain that I visited the most.

As I walked, trunks widened and loomed toward the sky, obscuring the light with thick, clawed branches that dripped with moss. Like heavy snakes, mushroom-studded roots webbed out into a wild, twisting road. There was no wind here, yet the branches sometimes shook and snapped, as if a massive, invisible beast was lumbering through the thickets.

The second stage of the forest was nowhere near as intimidating as the third—it was also relatively unchaotic. Conversely, Gabriel and I had fought in the third stage before, and a battle I did not reminisce about. I didn’t even know how he managed to find me there, nor how he even survived to get that far.

It had become too dark for me to see ahead of me, which meant I was almost there. I summoned a globe of light, raising the ghostly glow as I looked around. To my left, something small startled and scuttled away silently.

It bounded over what seemed to be a shallow pit imprinted in the dirt. Four smaller pits were carved around it, forming a track larger than a shield.

A deep growl made me turn away from it.

I swerved the light behind me, but only darkness prowled in the space there. Above me, however, were two blazing orbs of blue.

I had to crane my head up to meet the glare. As I did, more pairs of eyes gleamed between the trees. It seemed I had found what I was looking for—or rather, it had found me.

My light vanquished in a gust of hot wind. I flew to the side as large bristles of fur barely brushed past me. No time to waste. I propelled myself up the trunk—higher, higher—until I gained enough momentum to launch downwards, spear flaming.

One crack, and the Delphian Wolf’s fall shook the entire forest around me.

The other eyes within the forest flashed, and drooling, dark maws emerged from the trees. They raised towards the spidery branches, letting loose a series of howls. It was the death song for the fallen, the only noise Delphian Wolves ever made. Before the echoes of the song had even stopped, they leaped upon me.

I was ready for them. Dashing over the gnarl of roots, I drove my spear home, over and over. One wolf fell silently to the earth. I spun and caught the second in the jaw. Blood splattered across the lichen-crusted ground.

Adrenaline pushed through my veins as I slid and slit the underbelly of another. Perhaps this was what I wanted—a fight. There was more to the game than just the peaceful scenery, after all. Maybe my near-daily duels with Gabriel had scratched an itch I didn’t know I needed.

But my spear slashed out a final time. In the end, the wolves had all fallen before I could even finish the thought.

I stared at the shaggy masses, fiery eyes now dimmed. Because the furs were darker than shadows, it was hard to see the outlines of their ears, larger than my head. The most feared beasts outside of the dungeons, yet dead so soon.

I flicked the blood off my spear as their drop panels opened up: level 400 Delphian Wolves. Lower than I wanted.

As I reached out to deny the drops, deep rumbles vibrated the air. Emerging from the shadows, more pairs of blue fire bore upon me. There were five, ten—no, dozens of them. All at once, the eyes disappeared, and swift masses spiraled around me like a hurricane. The pack had heeded the death song; they were here to avenge the fallen.

Loyal and stubborn to a default, deadly and clever as they were.

I sighed, dispelling the drop screen. “Enough, already.”

The end of my spear slammed into the ground just once. Purple light skittered outwards along the floor, and the forest crashed as the entire pack dropped.

The impact had caused canopied branches to break from the trees. The silent green hue that emerged from the cracks shone on me, a sole figure amidst mounds of black, bloodied bodies.

I pushed that empty, disappointed feeling down as I surveyed the corpses. I didn’t believe even half of what Michi said, but she was right about the factions. I needed to ensure that I stayed out of it. To do so, I’d have to maintain my army.

With a wave of my hand, the flesh from the wolves melted, leaving behind a pile of dry bones. I activated [Reanimate]. With a dancing clatter, they reformed into the skeletal pack of wolves, joints bound together by purple shadows.

The first that I had killed loomed the closest over me. It lowered its head, eyes pitch-dark instead of fiery blue. Absent-mindedly, I brushed the front of its skull. Factions like Blue Rose and Argentum could definitely take down a few skeletal Delphian Wolves, but it didn’t hurt to have more.

If only I could summon all the players I had killed before without depleting so much of my mana. Unfortunately, even though I had almost maxed out [Reanimate], it was still too taxing to use on people. Perhaps the game was trying to make a statement about human life. Nonetheless, I’d have to stick with what I got for now.

I waved my hand, and the wolves crumpled back into heaps of bones. With a downwards motion, they pressed into the earth. Besides the blood soaking in the wooden roots, it was as if nothing had ever been there.

Fighting the Delphian Wolves had taken longer than I thought. It was getting late, and I needed to log off soon to finish my next work deadline. As I checked the time, an unfamiliar red bubble in my friend’s list caught my eye. Someone had messaged me several times. I opened the chatbox, and the screen illuminated the shrouded forest.

6:44 PM

[Michi]: I didn’t know you were so sensitive about your name...

8:31 PM

[Michi]: hello?? are you mad?

Whoops, it seemed I had accidentally ignored her. My eyes flitted down to the newest pings.

10:23 PM

[Michi]: In all seriousness, I need to talk to you

[Michi]: It’s about something important.

/ / / / /

Night had fallen when I emerged from the woods. Even from so far away, I could see the city, its distant lamplights glittering as brightly as the constellations overhead.

Michi had told me to meet her in the Capitol for something urgent. I stared at the road leading towards it. Our last meeting had been weeks ago, that same night Gabriel had vanished. Sure, she had tried messaging me several times afterward, but we hadn’t gotten close at all. It was quite bold of her to try to set up another meeting when she knew how little I valued the information she provided.

Well, she already knew I didn’t like her. No hard feelings.

I turned in the opposite direction, looking for a better point to log off. I was confident in my abilities, but spawning at the edge of an ever-changing forest the next morning was not an excellent idea.

I had barely taken five steps before something rustled behind me—something human.

“Hey!” The voice was hoarse and unfamiliar, but it was the same accusing tone I had heard for years.

I stiffened. Slowly, I turned around, reaching for my spear. The shadowy form’s face was obscured, and it wore a long hood, but it could only be one person. A little shakily, it began striding towards me.

I lowered my hand. “You.”

Don’t you ever give up?