Pras abruptly returned to the real world when Steven just kicked him out right away. The first thing he felt in the real world was a sharp pain on his brain which urged him to slither to his bed to lie down. However, there were scratching noises on his door complete with the occasional hard push as if a four legged creature tried to stand up to break the door open.

Limping due to nausea, Pras forced himself to approach the door and opened it. In that instant, the two hounds and one cat lunged at him, causing him to fall flat on the floor. They weren’t exactly attacking him, but worriedly sniffing and licking at him, complete with whimpering noises. As for Galung, it purred loudly while rubbing his head to Pras’.

Pras scratched their heads absentmindedly while wondering if the pets instinctively realised the stress Pras felt earlier in the game. At least their action now had helped him calm down a bit, along with the easing up of pain on his head.

“Mankind is a weird creature, huh?” Pras mused to himself as he reminisced some info he read before regarding how mankind seeks companionship from other species. “Maybe the companion beast thing is based on this,” he concluded.

“They certainly missed you,” said a rather light voice from Kristya, Pras’ elder brother, who was passing the room. The taller and darker skinned Kristya continued, “They were waiting in front of your room for quite a while. They even refused to move away. Galung and Danzo did get distracted by snacks, but Bozter didn’t move. Pretty weird.”

“They’re just being good boys,” Pras lied as he rose to sit and play with the pets.

“Are you okay, though?” Kris asked while leaning on the wall and watching his little brother concerningly. “You’re kinda pale, you know?”

“Just too much gaming.”

“AdVRSe?”

“Uhuh,” Pras nodded.

“Yeah,” Kris agreed. “You shouldn’t use that thing too much, especially if you are already physically tired. A more traditional video game is less taxing,” he continued as he walked away to his room. “Take care, lil bro.”

“Yup, thanks.”

After playing for quite a while, the three pets finally calmed down and rushed downstairs. Pras, realising he was dirty from all the lickings, decided to take a quick shower and change his clothes.

Though it was already night time, Pras chose a cold shower to help clear up his mind. It was also then he vaguely tried to remember about his movements during the fight against Lyra. It was still vague, but he did realise that Grok was right regarding Tier keeping a crouching stance and played around with his bow.

He had to admit that his brain’s choices are kinda weird. Or perhaps the stance and ‘that dance’ was being adapted because it lowers his already tall profile and also gave him a more level view towards his opponents.

Pras quickly dismissed any further thoughts before he spent too much time in the cold shower. He couldn’t risk getting ill. Then, to help with easing up his brain, Pras went downstairs after changing up. His aim was the remaining chocolates he got from Manna.

Alas, it was disappointment that slapped him when he opened the fridge only to find out that the chocolates were nowhere to be seen. Irked, Pras turned at his mom who was watching some colossal Korean drama.

“Mom, where are the chocolates?” he asked.

His mom didn’t answer with words. She just raised her hand high, then her fingers pointed at Diah who apparently was in the process of gobbling up the chocolates.

“Really?!” Pras protested at his sister.

“What?” Diah retorted nonchalantly. “You are not happy with me eating these chocolates from your secret admirer?”

“What secret admirer?” Pras grumbled while taking some slices of cucumber for Danzo and Bozter - who dashed quickly approaching him when they heard Pras opened the fridge. “That’s Ma… my deskmate got it from h… their secret admirer. They don’t want it, so they gave it to me.”

Diah giggled. “Ega has a secret admirer? Wow, I didn't expect that.”

“Not Ega.”

“Then who?”

“None of your business.”

“It’s Mana,” Pras’ mom finally spoke.

“Oh!” Diah exclaimed excitedly. “The girl Pras had mentioned last time? Don’t tell me she’s the one that Pras kept messaging lately.” Diah turned to Pras and pressed on, “Is she pretty?”

“Long dark hair like those in shampoo commercials, fair skinned, very very cute, had a significant regal and confident look,” Pras’ mom mused, though her eyes were still fixated on the TV screen. “Saw her once or twice when taking Pras’ semester grade book.”

Diah's smile turned eerily sinister when she heard of the explanation. He teased Pras, “Definitely my youngest brother’s type. Let me give you a tip, lil bro, these chocolates are meant to be given to you. Everything else is just an excuse.”

I… we can be your reason.

Manna’s words suddenly rang in Pras’ ears right after Diah finished her words. It was also then his heart started racing almost uncontrollably as he remembered Manna’s soft embrace when she caught him from falling due to nausea.

However, as soon as the warmth rose up, a cold grave chill struck his feelings squarely. Pras ensured himself that all of those behaviours were just Mana being a nice person in general despite her seemingly untouchable upbringing.

Pras sighed. “Last time I checked, I never asked a shaman to cast a love curse on her.”

“Why is a shaman involved in this?”

“They’re not.” Pras shrugged. “Therefore it’s impossible.”

“Come on, Pras, nothing is impossible” Diah chuckled.

“This one is,” Pras sighed. “I’m out of her league.”

Diah looked at Pras from bottom to top. “You’re tall alright, girls tend to like that. We just need to fix your clothing and hair style.”

Pras shook his head disappointedly. “Being tall is not a factor if I’m ugly.”

“Lil bro, you're not ugly.”

“Duh, I am.” Pras defended himself. “Last time I teamed up with random people in Zurefgar, they were intimidated by me. They are less intimidated when I turn into a gorilla.”

Diah frowned. She asked with a rather judging tone, “Why did you turn yourself into a gorilla in a game?”

“At least it’s more handsome than me.”

“Gosh, what is wrong with you?” Diah groaned. She stood up and approached Pras. She continued while waving the last remaining part of the chocolates, “Like it or not, these chocolates are not simple platonic signs. Yes, they were redirected gifts from other people. But you might find yourself getting a ‘real’ chocolate in the future.”

She then giggled teasingly, “My lil bro is a man now. He's gonna have a cute girlfriend.”

Pras emotionally snapped due to the last sentence of his sister. Realising he was still keeping the slices of cucumber captive and the two hounds, a sinister plan snuck its way to his brain.

Smiling wryly, he raised the two cucumber slices and threw them at Diah while shouting a command, “Attack!”

Chaos ensued as Bozter and Danzo lunged inadvertently towards Diah to catch the slices of cucumber. Diah, as usual, overreacted and let out a wailing screech. This, in turn, invoked the wrath of their mother.

Pras got an earful of sermons for training a dangerous command to their dogs. While Diah got it worse for her overly loud reaction.