Inside an arcade building, the sound of rhythmic breaths reverberated as loud pounding bangs were heard from a metal wall. The door separated an outdoor basketball area full of zombies from the building.

Von ignored the zombies outside after confirming that that they couldn't break through the door. He took deep breaths as he felt his body ache from the his unrestrained use of energy. He had probably torn a few muscles after putting his body through such an immense flow of power.

He also felt his wire-frame burn after transferring large surges of it in a short period of time. It was similar to electronic devices. His body was the hardware and the energy was electricity. Supplying the hardware with constant voltage will cause it to overheat and damage the hardware, that is if it doesn't have a fan. Luckily he was made of flesh so the only side effect was pain.

However pain was pain and there was a limit to how much a person could take before completely succumbing to the request of of sleep.

"I don't have much time.." Von grit his teeth as his eyebrows lowered in effort.

Collapsing on the floor would only give him more pain the next morning, as someone who sleeps more than fifteen hours a day daily, he knew the troubles of stiff sleeping postures. He needed something soft.

So he looked around the arcade, his eye passing through the darkly lit room. The only thing that really illuminated this place was the moonlight coming from the windows on the front. The zombies there didn't seem to have noticed the noise behind him so he was safe for now.

Walking limply, Von marveled at the arcade stands around him. It looked like that even classic games like Pac-man and modern rhythmic games had a big impact in this world.

"I wonder if this arcade still has access to the energy services" He had noticed that his core's supply has crossed the ten percent mark and hoped that he could at least gather fifty percent. That is, after his wire-frame cools down. He would only collapse if he did it now.

After walking around for a bit, he came across to what looked like a master room. The door was also made of metal and was extremely tough. He tried to open the door but was unable to.

Von contemplated whether or not he should break through it but decided against it. Doing that would require energy from the core as he felt like his body would shut down from one push up. Using energy was also not practical. Like he had said, his wire-frame was under intense pain right now, applying more energy would only make him collapse on the floor. Not to mention that his supplies were extremely low right now.

As Von was thinking of a way around the door, he saw a tiny figure behind the window of the door stare at him. The figure was that of a small boy. The boy's face and hair were a mess as it was covered with dirt. Yet the boy didn't mind his appearance and stared at Von with blank eyes.

Von also gave a blank look, albeit a more tiredful one. The boy spoke first,

"Why are you here" The boy said bluntly, less of a question and more of a demand.

"To rest" Von was also blunt, he was really tired.

....

The two stayed silent, each not knowing what the other was thinking.

The boy glanced down,

"There's a floor right there" He said as if it were the most obvious thing

Von looked past him,

"There's a bed there" He countered back

...

Silence once again.

Von sighed, he was just too tired

"Can you at least give me a blanket?" Von asked

....

The boy looked at him for a few more seconds before stepping back.

He came back with a spare pillow and blanket before opening the door and closing it quickly after tossing it towards Von.

"Thanks.." Von said with a weak smile before collapsing towards the pillow and sheets.