"Eclairs?" I jerked back in surprise, not expecting to meet her. I cleared my throat and swallowed my saliva. My voice was still hoarse. "No, uh, I was jogging and—you're Eclairs, right?" She was the manager of Vanguard Gaming. Why was she working in a convenience store across the city? "You're not her twin sister, are you?"

"Yes, I’m Croissant, the twin of Eclairs," she sarcastically said, rolling her eyes. "I just called you ‘Herald,’ didn’t I? I’m obviously me."

"Well, you did. But you usually call me 'Mr. Customer' instead of my actual name." I scratched my temple while pretending to wipe away my sweat. "You have never called me ‘Herald’ before…have you?"

She scrunched her slightly upturned nose as she sifted through her memories. Her eerie eyes lit up, showing their beautiful aspect, and she excitedly said, "I have! Remember when you bought the AU-VR Helm from our store? It was only afterward that we started that whole Mr. Customer-Ms. Manager thing."

I involuntarily grinned, amused at her reaction. Her not-grumpy side was definitely—Wait a minute, Herald Stone, Follower of the Bro Code. Was I allowed to think Boady's cousin was cute? To distract myself, I suddenly turned around to face the door.

"What is it?" she asked, craning her neck to see behind me.

"This is the time the real Eclairs is going to come in," I said with fake seriousness. "Then both of you will claim that you're the real one. But I already know which one is fake!"

"Oh, come on,” she said, placing her hands on her hips. “You called me 'Eclairs' just now too. I'm pretty fucking sure—oops, sorry for cursing. Anyway, I'm a hundred percent sure that you haven't called me by my real name...like ever."

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. She might be right. I blinked a few times, trying to remember our past interactions. "I'm sure I have," I uncommittedly said even though I came up blank.

People usually didn't address each other by name during casual conversation. However, I'd always mention the other person's name to subliminally make them think I was sincere. Too much, and it'd sound weird. But if I used that trick at opportune times, coupled with eye contact here and there, it was very effective in influencing someone's impression of me.

Often, I’d combo it with pretending that I forgot a person's name and asking them to confirm it.

But when it came to Eclairs, using a chess metaphor, I didn't make this signature opening move. And I had no idea why. We naturally shifted to having an 'inside joke,’ calling each other 'Mr. Customer' and 'Ms. Manager.'

I might've unconsciously considered her a friend when she revealed that she was Boady's cousin. That was a plausible explanation for why I didn't try to present to her the Greatness personified that was Herald Stone.

Thinking more about it, I never did say anything to her about myself other than I was Boady's old friend. She eventually came to know that my family owned Dolly's, but it must've been Boady who told her because I never did.

"Nuh-uh, you haven't." She shook her head with conviction, her short-length brown hair swaying messily. "I have a really good memory, inventory and sales, and all that stuff. I would've remembered if you called me ‘Eclairs’ before this."

I sheepishly grinned. "Okay, you got me, Manager Eclairs. Is that good enough for you?"

"Just ‘Eclairs’ is fine," she said. "Not so sure if I should call you just ‘Herald’ though."

"Why not?" I said. "It’s a good name." Like yours, I wanted to add. But that sounded creepy as hell. Instead, I told her, "When my family was starting Dolly's, one small place, we'd call all our regular customers by name. Of course, we can't exactly do that now as a fast-food chain."

"Right…and you're Derrick's friend too," Eclairs added. "I think I'll just go with ‘Mr. Herald.’ "

I wanted to insist that she drop the 'mister' part, as I always did with other people who acted too formally around me—another trick to make me appear friendlier. And I could also joke that she was making it sound like I was too old. But I surmised that she wanted to keep a professional distance between us.

She probably didn’t assume that I was trying to make advances. Maybe she was just subconsciously doing it as a defense mechanism. Given her attractiveness and her job that entailed interacting with people, I wouldn't be surprised if she was tired of myriad guys hitting on her.

“By the way,” I said, “why are you—?” The door of the store opened behind me.

"Hang on a moment," Eclairs interrupted, raising a finger. She pointed at the person who had just entered—a confused-looking old man. “Duty calls.”

My question about why she was working here could wait. I stood aside as she passed to assist the new customer.

Unashamedly eavesdropping while I pretended to examine the shelves, I gathered that the old man was looking for limited edition snacks released to celebrate the coming MotherCon. He wanted to surprise his grandson with them because there were promo codes hidden inside the bags of chips that could be redeemed for rewards in MCO—definitely, a brilliant marketing tactic.

Sell the game, and sell junk food.

Day one of my fitness journey, and I'm already calling them junk food, I thought with amusement as I headed to the coolers to choose my drink. I completely forgot what I came here for.

I even forgot about my sweaty self. If Mum were here, she’d scold me, even though I was already a thirty-year-old man, for letting my sweat dry from the air-conditioning. And she’d be right because I might catch a cold.

Am I stinking? I sniffed my shirt. Eclairs didn't react or anything. She wasn't exactly the paragon of tactfulness, so she would've said something if I smelled.

Passing the shelves, I noticed many products with MCO logos on them. Some had pictures of different monsters or magical weapons. Even the label designs of several beverages had changed.

AFU Corp. was going all out to promote Mother Core Online and the coming convention, and they partnered with various companies to boost their brand, including Dolly's. The companies were required to develop a marketing scheme to hype up the event. As for Dolly's, we had a tie-in with Phoenix Hot Wings, owned by Mr. Armand, and had new menu items scheduled to be revealed in May, along with the start of MotherCon.

I checked around the beverage coolers to see if there was something with a Mardukryon picture on it.

Sadly, there was none. Mardukryons looked badass and marketable, but they weren't a popular choice of a race at present. From a business perspective, it was best to pump out MCO-related products in proportion to the character populations.

Mardukryons would undoubtedly be popular if our Gate were connected to the rest of Hierakon. Herald Stone, the savior of the Mardukryons, still had yet to find the way off the mountain. But we were getting there; I could feel it in my aching shins and knees.

"Should I get an energy drink?" My hand hovered over a bottle with flashy signs about all its fitness benefits. Then I decided to choose plain old water.

I had heard Nelly rant before about how energy drinks were unhealthy. It was best to stick to water; no shortcuts with this or that performance-enhancing products, which were most likely lies. Just keep to the grind like an F2P player in a game.

"Although the prices of these things are definitely not free-to-play," I muttered. This store was selling expensive brands of water because this was an upscale neighborhood. Water was water; the expensive price was mostly packaging and branding. "Capitalism..." I sighed, walking to the counter.

Eclairs was talking to the old man, probably trying to sell him MCO premium currency, while the cashier packed the bags of chips he bought into a paper bag. I was tempted to buy some snacks myself to see what MCO freebies I'd get.

Would that count as breaking my rule of being F2P?

Technically, it wouldn't if my primary purpose of buying was to eat the chips. But I probably should avoid junk food since today was the start of Herald Stone, the God of Fitness.

And Herald Stone didn't need freebies to get hard!

"Is that what you're buying?" Eclairs pointed at the bottled water I held. "Are you going to get anything else?" I shook my head. She placed the bottle next in line to the chips on the counter.

"I meant to ask you earlier," I said. "But why are you here? I suppose that your family also runs this place?"

"Not exactly," she said. "Derrick…Boady…is the sole owner of this store. He has a couple more stores in the city, and I check in on them in his absence. Gonna be a couple of months until he returns to this country from his humanitarian stuff in the Nahebani Federation. Oh! And get this—he donates all his profits to charitable foundations like Helping Hands."

Divine bovine! Boady is on a roll with these philanthropic acts. I should follow in his footsteps to bolster the neglected aspects of Herald Stone, the Helper of Mankind. How about a charity marathon as a fundraiser? And I'd join in running. The cameras would love that. Corporate social responsibility shit and fitness goals combined.

"How about you?" Eclairs asked. "Why are you in these parts? Don't you live in your old house? Oh, wait. I remember your sister mentioned it's still under renovation. I guess you're staying somewhere here in the meantime, huh?"

"At Grand Scaup's," I said, trying my best not to make it sound like I was bragging.

"Ooo, fancy." She grinned at me. Then she turned to the cashier by the counter. "Krisha, I'll be outside for a few minutes to chat with Derrick’s friend here."

She grabbed something from a shelf next to the counter and waved for me to follow.

I had a raised brow as I exited the store.

Was I reading too much into it that she referred to me as Boady's friend instead of hers? I assumed she considered me one. I didn't have to wonder about it for long because she cleared it up.

"Employees chat among themselves," Eclairs said. "The next thing you know, there's a rumor that guys are following me, visiting me at work. They're awfully interested in my love life, or lack of it. Who knows what bullshit story they'll come up with?" She gasped and covered her mouth. "Oops, there I go again. I don't know what's up with me—I can usually put a lid on cussing."

"It's fine," I said with a laugh. I see, that's what it's about.

"Here you go." She handed me the thing she got from the counter. "A protein bar since you said you were working out."

"Thank you," I said. Insanely nice and considerate of her. What was Nelly's opinion about protein bars?

"So, Mr. Customer Herald, how goes your MCO life?"

"I changed my race and picked Mardukryon."