“Your future bride obviously!”, the words Layla uttered lingered in Kyle’s ears for a few seconds, making his mind go blank for a while. His limbs refused to move and, as if stuck in time, he tried to pull his sweaty hand away from her stubborn clutching.

Alas, the moment Kyle showed intentions of pulling back, Layla’s grip on his fingers tightened as she asked with her watery eyes. “No?” Freezing in his tracks, Kyle’s gaze darted around the living room as he began searching for a way out. Layla’s seductive words and actions would be tempting even for someone with ample experience, however for Kyle? He had no such thing as ‘experience’ to rely on.

There were only two women he had ever been close to other than his mother, one of them being Olivia Brown, whom he had known ever since the Beta of Fragmented Realms started. As for how well acquainted the two were? Well, their relationship used to have its ups and downs now and then but, as of late, it has deteriorated to a point of no reconciliation ever since the two fought in-game.

As for the other one? It was his Master’s daughter with whom, not only did he have an age gap of over five years, she was also the last of three disciples his Master had taken in, making her his junior sister in name.

With that being said, Kyle had almost fallen for her words and was subconsciously ready to agree with her, when, thankfully or regretfully, a way out of this predicament finally presented itself.

Olivia’s cold stare coming from the doorway entrance forced Kyle’s scorching blood to freeze instantly. And, while his heart was still madly beating, the redness on his cheeks seemed to disappear as fast as it had made an entrance.

Noticing the change in his eyes, Layla traced along the direction in which Kyle’s gaze fell and soon discovered Olivia glaring at her. Looking back at Kyle whose focus had now entirely drifted on Olivia, she thought. ‘Oh, I see... So, that’s how it is.’, a playful smirk emerging on the corner of her lips as she moved closer to Kyle’s face in an attempt to kiss him.

Having finally snapped out of the trance he’d originally fallen in, Kyle’s rationality seemed to return, along with the coldness in his eyes. Alas, the space between them was too small for him to dodge in time earning him a little peck on the cheek.

Acting as if she hadn’t noticed a thing, Layla asked while puffing out her cheeks. “Why did you dodge? Am I not good enough for you?” and, as if adding oil to the fire, Olivia’s icy voice echoed from behind her. “Yea Kyle, why did you dodge? Isn’t SHE good enough for you?” Jumping as if startled by Olivia’s entrance to the room, Layla released Kyle from her embrace and took two steps backwards.

“Oh... I didn’t know you were here ‘livia~”, Layla said and embraced her in a hug while softly mumbling something in her ear. Kyle had no clue as to what she whispered, but, judging by Olivia’s annoyed expression alone, it must have been something bad...

“Anyway, I’ll leave the two of you to catch up for now~ Cya, Ky~”, she said and stormed out of the room as fast as she came.

“I-”, Kyle tried to say something when Layla’s alluring figure once more emerged from the doorway, stopping him in his tracks. “Don’t take what I said earlier too seriously~ But, if you want to... That’s another matter~”, dropping yet another bomb before she left, Layla Edmonds finally disappeared, leaving just the two of them in the room.

“Olivia, I-” Unbeknownst to him, Kyle tried to explain himself for some reason. He didn’t have to, nor did he know why, but he felt like he had to do it, somehow. Alas, her icy dark gaze told him all he had to know. Letting out a “Hmph!”, Olivia ignored Kyle’s pleading eyes, as well as his attempt to justify himself and, with loud steps, stormed out of the room.

Ever since then, cold sweat would be running down Kyle’s spine whenever he met Layla.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

Back to the present, feeling Kyle’s gaze on her, Layla flashed a rosy smile in his direction while lightly waving with the palm of her hand from the other side of the couch. Being less than 3 meters from one another, her hand movement couldn’t help attracting everyone’s attention.

Kyle’s brows twitched and, while inwardly asking himself, ‘How am I supposed to react now?’, his gaze fell on Olivia who was sitting by Layla’s side. The emptiness he witnessed in her eyes sent shivers down his spine. ‘Damn it, what kind of sins am I paying for?!’, unable to understand why he was feeling this way, Kyle forced a crooked smile and faintly waved with his hand.

Being the sly fox that he always claimed to be, Bryan sensed the tension in the air and decided it was a good time to call it quits with their meeting. “...With that being said, I feel like everyone is up and ready for the launch! Now, remember, once inside, spread out and search for Realm fragments as fast as you can!”

The group of gamers nodded at Bryan’s words, and, with the exception of Robert who was grinning like an idiot while sleeping on the couch, they all stood up and lightly stretched their limbs.

Seeing Robert enjoying his nap, the two-meter-tall Dylan pinched his cheeks lightly in an attempt to wake him up, but only got a mumble out of him. “I can’t eat anymore...”, with a vein popping on his forehead, Dylan further stretched Robert’s cheeks as he mumbled. “Don’t give me that, when I’ve been sitting on the god damn chair for two hours while you were soundly sleeping on the couch!”

Kyle let out a sigh while glancing at the duo’s casual high jinks. Robert and Dylan had really hit it off with one another ever since they joined the gaming studio. Unlike everyone else, the two of them came all the way from overseas and, seeing how the gaming studio provided basic necessities, the two decided to live here for the time being.

Dylan, who usually enjoyed the peace and quiet, had been dealing with Robert’s rowdiness for over a month now, slowly changing into a more open person. It was a good change; Kyle thought and felt the goosebumps coming as he reflected on everyone else’s relationships.

Leaving his best friend Jacob out of the equation for now, ever since Layla joined, she had been teasing anyone and everyone, making it hard to communicate with her. As for Olivia? She never even bothered to play friends with the rest of them. “Business and personal life shouldn’t mix together.” She would say oftentimes, making it even harder for the happy-go-lucky group to close the distance between them.

“Will you join us for dinner tonight? I have prepared my specialty just for today!”, said the green-haired giant, who was finally done waking up Robert. Dylan was on dinner duty tonight and, since this was going to be a big day, he’d decided to make something special for the occasion.

Dylan Cote had grown up in a town that dealt mainly with seafood. And, surprisingly enough, cooking turned out to be a long-term hobby of his. As for tonight’s dinner? It was something he rarely made ever since he left home. Deep-fried crabs with potato chips.

As soon as the words ‘dinner’ and ‘specialty’ left his mouth, everyone in the room began salivating. Dylan’s cooking might not have reached the level of an expert chef’s, but it was still magnitudes above everyone else’s.

“Of course!”, answered Kyle, Layla and Olivia almost at the same time. Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, the three recalled the first time they tried Dylan’s specialty. Once you started, there was no stopping until no food remained on the table. That’s all that could be said about the fried crabs he made.

“Is... Is it fried crabs? Gulp.”, mumbled Robert with a loud gulp, and to that, Dylan answered with a wide grin on his face. “They were on discount in the marke-”

Before Dylan was even done with his words, delighted smiles were plastered on everyone’s faces as they all rushed to the kitchen in a matter of seconds.

‘It’s not even ready yet...’, thought Dylan while shaking his head from left to right.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“Phew...”, exhaled a satisfied Kyle while contentedly rubbing his belly. Dylan’s food was truly heavenly, he thought while turning the doorknob to his designated room.

Bryan’s gaming studio not only provided the basic living necessities for them, but it was also equipped with the latest gaming gear, just in case someone wished to stay for the night.

Alas, the moment Kyle opened the entrance to his room, the resounding click of a door opening emerged directly behind him. Recalling who the owner of the room directly opposite his was made him frown, as he would rather not interact with her. However, having paused for so long in his steps, Kyle couldn’t pretend he didn’t hear her, right?

Slowly turning around, the figure of Olivia standing in her light blue pajamas reflected in the cores of his eyes as she casually threw a look in his direction.

“...”

“...”

Neither of them saying anything, the situation quickly turned awkward. And, while both had things they wished to say, their stubbornness restricted them from doing so. Tightly gripping the toothbrush in her hands, Olivia was the first one to break the silence.

“I won’t lose this time.”, she said while thinking. ‘A good night would have been enough! What is wrong with me?!”

“Hmpf! Good luck with that.”, he answered and thought. ‘What is up with her?! This isn’t even a competition!’

Turning around, Kyle shut the door behind him and, with heavy steps, went towards the bed in the corner of the room. “Damn it... A good night would have been enough.”, he mumbled and lay flat on top of it.

“Sigh...”, sighing for the last time of the day, Kyle turned his head sideways and glanced at the earplug-like item resting quietly on top of the drawer. The little earplug like object, or the Nano-merser as it was widely known as, was the piece of immersive gaming gear that would allow Kyle to become Reizel and travel through the countless worlds of Fragmented Realms once more.

Unlike other gaming gear, the Nano-merser was a creation on an entirely different scale. Its main function was to connect the player’s consciousness with that of his in-game avatar while also letting the user have a better rest throughout the night.

It might sound simple and easy to understand, but the technicalities behind this little piece of equipment were not only profound but complicated as well. Why? It was all due to the latest technological research known as ‘Immersive Dreaming’. After the Virtual World came into being, several other technological branches opened up for mankind to discover.

And the one used by NANO Games to create the Nano-merser was called immersive dreaming. The immersive dreaming research’s focus was to create a connection between the Virtual World and the subject, while the subject itself was in a slumbering state.

Having made great progress in the immersive dreaming department, NANO Games thus created the first-ever immersive dream gear which they came to call the Nano-merser. It was a device that was easy to use, improved sleeping conditions, and more than anything, having a size smaller than the usual headgear, it was convenient to move and store.

With less than an hour before the servers went online, Kyle adjusted the Nano-merser on his head and closed his eyes before pressing the triangular orange button on top of the device.

The darkness instantly lifted, revealing a small white room before him.

[Time until launch - 00:28:37]

With a blink of his eyes, he checked the timer on the topmost of his vision. ‘Less than half an hour.’, he thought and glanced towards the blue screen before his eyes.

[Welcome back, User-3873!]

3873... That was the number on the copy he received during the Beta testing period. It had stuck with him for over 2 years now making him reminisce the past every time he read the familiar message.

[Would you like to create a new avatar or use an existing one?]

The following question was presented right below the welcoming message. And, needless to say, Kyle clicked on the ‘Use an existing one.’ as the figure of Reizel emerged before his eyes.

Reizel’s eerily blue pupils stared back at Kyle’s azure green as he inspected the avatar’s condition. He hadn’t seen him for over a month now but, from the looks of it, his avatar was doing just fine. The battle wounds inflicted on him were already removed along with the gear he was once equipped with, leaving him with a single pair of white linen clothes.

“Glad to see you again, buddy.”, he murmured to the still avatar before raising his palm to feel his cheek. ‘I’ll be counting on you once more.’, he thought and clicked the switch option on the bright blue screen.

Kyle’s figure quickly dispersed into particles while the light slowly returned in Reizel’s sky-blue pupils.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“Huff...”, exhaling a mouthful of cold air, he lay down on the grassy ground. He could feel the refreshing prickling from the grass on the backside of his neck as a trickle of blood flowed out of his mouth.

‘Sigh... To think this is how my life will end...’, he thought and glanced at the leafy canopy before him. Swaying lightly along with the air current above his head, a couple of yellowy-green leaves floated slowly towards the ground, helping him realize something in his last moments.

‘Damn, how similar we are...’, like a leaf falling down from a tree, everyone had to meet their maker at some point. No one would remain everlasting. The only question remaining was whether one would live to be the leaf, the petal or the fruit of the tree? How would you live your life?

Would you shine with the brilliance of a petal, swaying along as the wind wills, or would you rather be the fruit that satisfies everyone’s desire? In the end, most of us would end up living the life of a leaf amidst the canopy. Working our whole lives, waiting to be noticed by someone only to fall and wither. This is how the man felt as he gazed at the flailing leaves.

‘Do you regret it?’, he inwardly asked himself as the light in his eyes slowly dimmed. Unable to observe the leaves above his head any longer, the man focused on his other remaining senses.

‘It’s warm.’ now that he could no longer see, the warmth he felt coming from his right hand turned out to be so much more distinctive. ‘Regrets, huh?’, it would be wrong to say he had none of them. And, truthfully speaking, he had one too many. As for whether or not he regretted the way he fell? The answer would definitely be a no.

The next sense to leave him turned out to be his hearing. Ever since he fell down, not only could he hear the ambient noises coming from mother nature, he could also hear someone whispering faintly by his side. Alas, he couldn’t understand what the voice had been saying for quite a while now.

‘This is it...’, he couldn’t help thinking as he finally felt the last remnants of warmth slowly leaving his body. The man knew he had no more than a few seconds before death embraced him but for some weird reason, he couldn’t shake off this feeling of forgetting something... ‘What was it again...’, he wondered as a sense of crisis emerged from the deepest parts of his being.

And, like a flash of lightning going through his head, he finally recalled what was missing. He had to say it, even if it killed him, he still had to say it! His body, however, refused to move. As if stuck in time, it stayed there, unmoving and unrelenting.

‘MOVE, DAMN IT!’, screaming inwardly, his pale lips shivered as he pushed himself to the limit... Only to utter a single word before his end.

“...Li...ve...”, he mumbled with all the strength he could muster before his last breath left him.

And, before the darkness finally embraced him, he couldn’t help thinking. ‘How comforting...’ as a smile so faint that no one would even be able to observe it emerged on his frozen expression.