Miraculously, I woke up from my three hour nap in time to get ready for school.

  I managed to get out from under my covers and started slipping into my school uniform despite my grogginess. Although school uniforms were long out of practice for most schools, the higher-ranked schools kept the custom, claiming it helped with academics and the like.

  With a simple black being the main color, we had a blazer with the school symbol on it, a white dress shirt under it, a bowtie (for formal events), skirts that go down to the knees and socks that reached the thighs for girls, slacks and normal socks for boys, and surprisingly comfortable dress shoes to finish it off.

  Many students grumbled about the necessity of uniforms, but I didn’t mind. We had some freedom anyway. For example, accessories were allowed and you could wear a hoodie under the blazer, or wear a jacket over the uniform. All in all, you had to wear the uniform, but minor changes were allowed as long as it was easily identifiable that you were wearing the school’s uniform. I stuck to only wearing the uniform with no additional clothing.

  Pulling the last sock all the way up, I let out a yawn.

  There, all ready to go.

  I slipped my phone into my pocket (yes, my skirt had pockets), pet my VR helmet goodbye, and slung my bag around my shoulder before heading downstairs to grab a snack.

  Apparently, breakfast was an extremely important source for energy to burn throughout the day. But it’s not like I had extracurriculars after school, so I hardly ate in the morning. Not to mention, I get a stomachache pretty easily if I eat a meal so soon after waking up. Thus, I grabbed something small, like an energy bar to eat on the way to school.

  “Ah, you’re heading out for school?” my uncle asked.

  “Mhm,” I nodded.

  “Have a good one!” he said with a wave, eliciting a wave back from me.

  I opened the front door to exit.

  “Thanks.. Oh yeah, I’m hanging out after school today, Uncle. So I might be a bit late for dinner.”

  “That’s rare.. Well, have fun and stay safe!”

  “Will do!” I said as the door closed behind me.

  A gust of cold wind greeted me, causing me to shiver.

  Ugh, it’s chilly. Maybe I should’ve worn a jacket after all?

  ~ ~

  I munched on the energy bar while walking in silence, gazing at the slight snowfall.

  That reminds me. I need to get back to grinding at Dragontain again.

  One of the recent updates added a new high level area. It was a snowy mountain with dragons as its main type of mob. Dragons were usually area bosses at the minimum, so to have a whole location where Dragons were the main type of basic mob… they were clearly catering to the top players for that part of the update.

  Of course, being one of those top players, I explored it a bit and had some fun there. But other than the initial enjoyment from a new update, I didn’t care too much for it; the loot was okay and I could make some nice money... but none of that was something I really needed.

  There was a nice realm of floating islands you can purchase there, which I did, of course. There's a limited number of them but I made sure to snag one; you could see dragons flying about in the sky from there after all.

  If you climbed the mountain a bit, you’d come across a hidden cave that had a dragon statue you’d use to teleport to the floating islands. That's where you purchased them. Otherwise, you could simply teleport yourself to your island.

  However, as nice as the islands were, I already had a main base: a unique wizard tower gifted to me by the game devs for becoming one of the few ascended. It was out in the wilderness for the most part but I didn't mind since I could simply teleport. Convenient right? But I digress.

  Where was I?

  All in all, I still didn’t have much reason to go to Dragontain unless I wanted to pick a fight with some other top players by PVPing. But that’s too much of a hassle, and it’d cause too much drama as I actually knew most of them. In the end, the new region was whatever to me.

  However! That’s how I felt before I knew you can actually get a dragon as a pet!

  Although, it was made to be extremely difficult to obtain based on chance.

  I sighed.

  I wished you could have simply looted a Dragon’s nest to steal an egg, but instead you had to kill Dragons until one of them dropped the egg, which supposedly had a 0.0001% chance to drop. No one had gotten one yet.

  Ugh.. the impossible drop chance makes me wanna cry!

  I’ve seen so many dragons die and yet, not a single egg. Not to mention, I was actually reaching the limits of my spare Ring of Massive Inventory with so many dragon corpses stored in there. I could store them in my Inventory, but I stored them all in a separate ring for ease of access when I sell them. Organization, you know?

  Aghhhh I want a pet dragon so badlyyy!

  I heard some honking while beginning to take a crosswalk, but didn’t pay it any mind until I was violently yanked back by my collar pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Ack!”

  My arms flung up from the sudden motion, dropping the energy bar I was munching on, and I grabbed my neck which was practically being choked from my collar pulling me backwards. Befuddled, I started taking in my environment when a truck zoomed by honking in front of me.

  “Seriously Alice!”

  I looked over my shoulder to see a girl dressed in the same uniform as me. It was my one and only friend at school. She glared at me from behind her glasses. Looking back in front of me, I noticed my energy bar piercing a small layer of snow like a certain sword in the stone.

  The Energy Bar in the Snow. Only the chosen one could pull it out to become Queen...

  “My source of MP...” I uttered sadly.

  “How hopeless can you be? You almost got hit by a truck!”

  “Huh? Something like that would be nothing against my barri-.. er,” I stopped, before clearing my throat. “I- I mean, that would’ve been bad. I guess.”

  “That’s all you have to say?” she said, exasperated. Her ponytail swayed from side to side as she shook her head. “Come on. You’ve got to be more aware of your surroundings.”

  “Come on, Chloe, you know I can’t die from getting hit by a truck.”

  Her eyes twitched after I said so. “You..!”

  I let out a slight giggle. In truth, my heart was pounding from fright. My arms and legs were trembling as well. But since I was okay, and Chloe saved me, I was able to joke around like this.

  “Don’t giggle! Geez.”

  “Sorry, sorry. I’m just happy you saved my life.”

  Despite that, the corners of her lips curled up ever so slightly. A smile grew on my own face.

  “I won’t always be here to save you, you know. Seriously, you’ve been so absentminded ever since—!”

  ‘— since your parents passed away.’

  I knew what she was about to say and she trailed off as if realizing herself what she was about to say.

  “Sorry..” she said after a few moments. “I didn’t mean to—..”

  “It’s fine,” I said, my smile unwavering.

  Being childhood friends, Chloe stayed by my side even when my parents and I were caught in an accident, my parents losing their lives. It was a dark time for me, and I had sort of lost my way. Things were chaotic and I could hardly remember a thing, but I did remember that Chloe was my friend that was always there for me. She was the only thing that didn’t change, when my entire life flipped.

  I’ve long since moved on from the whole tragedy, or so I’d like to think, but that isn’t to say the thought of my parents didn’t make my heart ache. I simply had no tears left to cry.

  We walked in silence for several minutes until Chloe spoke up again upon seeing our school.

  “Hey.. you did your homework right?”

  “*Cough* What’s a homework?”

  “Seriously!”

  ~ ~

  Other than being chewed out for not doing my homework, the school day went without a hitch.

  Chloe and I were making our way out of the school like usual when I remembered my afternoon plans.

  Oh crud… I almost forgot about the hangout with Kenta.

  The anxiety came back full force now that it was even closer to the scheduled time. It was around two-thirty right now, so I didn’t have time to head home.

  I sighed.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Hm? What’s wrong Alice?” Chloe asked while warming her hands.

  “Ah no, I umm have something to do. So you can walk home without me. Alrighty?” I said.

  “M’kay,” she replied before stopping in front of me. “Don’t be so lost in thought when walking though. Pay attention to your surroundings!”

  “Yes ma’am~,” I said while rolling my eyes. “I learned my lesson from this morning, now shoo shoo.”

  “Sure,” she said, unconvinced as I lightly nudged her ahead.

  Ten minutes later I found myself near the front of the VRG Cafe Kenta mentioned.

  Feeling nervous, I held my hands behind my back while approaching the entrance.

  "Celia?"

  Hm?

  I flinched from hearing my in-game name in real life, but thought I misheard. Regardless, I reflexively looked for the source of the voice. Looking to my right, I noticed a big friendly looking man that could only be him.

  “Kenta?”

  As we made eye contact, he seemed to do a double take before smiling greatly at me.

  “Ahaha! I knew it was you! You’re so.. small, just like in-game!”

  “I’m not that small! You’re just monstrously big,” I protested with a slight frown.

  To me who was only five feet tall, Kenta standing six and a half feet tall obviously towered over me. Incidentally, my in-game character model was slightly taller than I was at five foot three. Kenta’s character model wasn’t different from his actual height.

  He walked over and ruffled my hair like he’d always do in-game. After a second of shock, I ducked down and backed away from him with both my hands on my head to avoid any more ruffling.

  “D-Don’t do that,” I mumbled while pouting. “Don’t you know a girl’s hair is precious to her?”

  “You didn’t mind in-game though,” he said without a shred of shame.

  “I DID mind!” I corrected him. “Plus, it’s different in-game.”

  “Haha! Well enough about that, let’s head inside and get out of this cold,” he said, changing the subject. “Shall we?”

  Nodding, I walked to the entrance with Kenta. The automatic doors slid open, and hot air blew down on us as we entered the building.

  Sighing happily, I embraced the warmth of the cafe as I felt my face flush from the temperature change. The front section was akin to a normal cafe or restaurant where tables to eat at were abundant. To our left was the counter with a cashier behind it that greeted us. The VR pods must’ve been in the back.

  “Welcome!”

  “Thanks!” Kenta replied. I only gave a nod in response myself.

  I had expected it to be somewhat crowded, but there were only a few people scattered about. We found ourselves a table in the corner that would have enough seats for everyone.

  Speaking of..

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked. “You said you were going to be hanging out with some friends too, right?”

  “Oh, yeah, they’ll be here soon,” he replied. “We’re just a bit early.”

  “Ah I see..”

  Just like that, an awkward silence fell over us as we waited. With the awkward silence getting to me, I started busying myself by aimlessly examining different parts of the cafe.

  This silence is deafening.. should I say something? What should I say? Ah I could bring up how I almost got hit by a truck this morning… No, would that be weird? I don’t want him to think I’m weird. How do I hold a conversation!? Is me being silent making this awkward? I’m fine with the silence, but I don’t know if he is!! Am I weird?!?! What if other people are looking at us, thinking we’re dating?! They’re gonna think I'm into older guys and that Kenta is a p-p-pedo! It’s not like that! This is bad!

  I stole a glance at Kenta only to find that he seemed completely relaxed.

  Am I the only one uncomfortable?

  “Hey, I’ll be right back,” Kenta said, pointing to the counter with his thumb. “I’m gonna get us some drinks.”

  “Oh, uh, you don’t—..”

  ..—have to get me anything.

  He was already gone before I could finish which elicited a sigh from me.

  I realized I was fidgeting too much and tried to calm myself by breathing slowly.

  “I’m back!”

  Kenta was back as fast as he left but now he had two drinks in his hands.

  Already!?

  “I didn’t know what you liked, so I got you a mocha,” he said, setting a drink down in front of me. “It’s on me. As thanks for yesterday.”

  “Th-thanks.”

  I don’t know what a mocha is… a type of coffee?

  I wrapped my hands around the cup, enjoying the heat that spread through my hands.

  “So, that’s your school uniform huh,” Kenta said suddenly after sipping his own drink. “It looks good on you.”

  “Um, thanks,” I replied.

  Did he realize I was uncomfortable? Or was he simply bored and starting a conversation because of it? Whatever the case, I now felt conscious about my every movement.

  “I uh, had a uniform in high school too,” he continued. “It wasn’t as cool as yours though.”

  “I- I see..” I said.

  My uniform isn’t anything special though. I guess he’s trying to fill the awkward silence. But.. How do I continue the conversation from here?!

  I frowned as I struggled to pull my own weight in the conversation. He was totally carrying the conversation alone. I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do about it. My mind was blanking out.

  Just as I was at my wit’s end, the entrance doors slid open bringing my attention to two guys that were walking in and glancing around.

  One of them had a mischievous look as if they were always up to no good. With dark messy hair, dark clothes, a couple piercings and an impish smile plastered on his face, I was kind of intimidated. On the contrary, the one next to him was the exact opposite. Neat and tidy hair, glasses, and a neutral expression. He had a studious, goody-two-shoes look that would be at home on a straight A’s student. He was even wearing a school uniform as well, though it was different from mine. A smile tugged at his lips upon sighting Kenta and me.

  Agh, he intimidates me too, but in a different way. Such a ‘good student’ look makes me feel guilty for not giving school my all.

  Still, I had a weird familiar feeling as if I’d seen them before, but I couldn’t place my finger on it.

  Upon noticing them, Kenta waved his hand to get their attention.

  “Who are they, anyways?” I asked Kenta. “They feel oddly familiar.”

  “Ahaha, they’re—,” Kenta started with a grin.

  “Yo,” said the scary, bad boy looking guy.

  That voice..! That wicked smooth voice!

  “Huh!?” I exclaimed. “I- Igny?!”

  Then the goody-two-shoes looking guy next to him is—!

  “Huh? Who’s this shorty?” replied Igny, A.K.A Ignus Fatuus. “I didn’t know you were into petite girls, Kenta.”

  “What nonsense are you spouting?” Kenta replied, unamused.

  It all clicked. They were Ignis Fatuus and Thenaraz, the Yin and Yang of the ascended! They were known as the definition of duality within Adventuria with Igny being a Dark Knight, and Thenaraz being a Paladin. They were something of an inseparable duo.

  We partied before many times, along with Kenta and another person.

  Wait, if us four are here.. by friends, Kenta simply meant our party?!

  “Don’t be rude, Ignis,” Thenaraz said. “That’s Celia’s voice isn’t it? It’s nice to see you here, Celia. I never would have thought you’d finally attend an offline meetup with the rest of us.”

  “It-It’s nice to see you too, Thena—” I stuttered before being cut off by Igny.

  “What?! This girl? Celia?” Igny exclaimed. “There’s no way you’re actually this cute, I totally thought you made yourself look that way in-game because you were insecure IRL.”

  This guy—!

  “Huh?! Well you’re exactly as I expected you to be IRL, rude as always!” I retorted. “You’re a part of why I never came to these offline meets!”

  I didn’t mean it completely, but it wasn’t a lie either. Igny was probably the party member I spent the most time with, aside from the only other girl in the party, but not because we got along. We stuck together mostly out of spite to hold numerous contests to determine who was a better player. In the game, I could stand a chance. But IRL, there’s no way I’d beat him at anything.

  “Hah!? It’s because you never showed up to prior meets that I was convinced this was the case.”

  “Now now, come on guys,” said Kenta, getting in between Igny and I. “It’s Celia’s first appearance at an offline meeting, let’s put aside immature banter and celebrate!”

  “Kenta, you said you’d be hanging out with your friends!” I hissed.

  “They are my friends though,” he said with a smile. “I just never said they weren’t your friends as well.”

  “Ggk!”

  So there you have it, his nearly smug expression said.

  You sly brute!

  I sighed weakly, unable to come up with a counterargument.

  “Good one,” Igny said while patting Kenta’s back.

  “That’s dirty, Kenta,” I said in defeat. “So. If the whole group is supposed to be here, where’s Artena?”

  “Artena usually shows up a bit late—,” Kenta started.

  The sound of swords clashing rang out, and Kenta pulled out his phone with a sheepish look.

  “My bad, I just got a notification... Oh, speak of the devil. Looks like Artena isn’t able to attend, something came up.”

  That was a notification sound?? That’s so like Kenta to have clashing swords be his notification sound.

  “That’s a shame,” Thenaraz said with a shrug.

  “What the hell, do you and Artena have some beef, Celia?” asked Igny. “Why is having full attendance for our offline meets harder than soloing a raid boss???”

  “N-no. I don't think I do,” I replied, trying to think of recent meetings with Artena. “Wait, why are you blaming me for Artena’s absence?!”

  “‘Cause the moment you show up, Artena is suddenly busy. Can't simply be a coincidence can it?” he continued.

  “Alright alright!” Kenta interrupted. “Let’s get something to eat before hopping on Adventuria.”

  Thenaraz nodded in agreement.

  Somehow, Igny and I set aside our bickering, and enjoyed ourselves. Igny even apologized to me, eliciting an apology from myself.

  This isn’t so bad.

  Real life hadn’t felt so colorful in a long time.

  ~ ~ ~

  I set my phone down next to me on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

  So Alice actually showed up to the offline meet huh.

  Kenta sent me a message saying so. I just finished changing clothes, but there’s no helping it.

  I couldn’t go, because if I did...

  Alice would figure out who Artena really is.

  It all started when Adventuria first came out. It was the biggest release for a video game ever. Taking advantage of the newest VR technology that allowed a full-dive, one could immerse themself in a completely separate reality. News of its launch was prevalent everywhere I went. So much so that even someone like me, unrelated to videogames, was exposed to it a lot.

  I recommended Adventuria to Alice knowing she enjoyed games. But I also recognized that on the team of developers who made the game, the names of Alice’s late parents were on there. Adventuria was a game her uncle was a developer of as well. Alice never realized this, but it was why her uncle was completely fine with how much she played it, even getting her the VR headgear needed at the beginning. I had a lot of allowance saved up for myself, allowing me to acquire the equipment necessary.

  I wasn’t really someone who played video games, but I thought I’d at least play it for Alice who was going through a very rough patch in life. I never expected to have fallen in love with Adventuria as much as I did, even becoming one of the top players alongside Alice.

  However, Alice never realized who I truly was throughout it all. When she didn’t recognize me at our first meeting in-game, I thought it was funny and went along with her mistake introducing myself as Artena— my character’s name.

  It just stayed this way. I thought of revealing myself several times, but after so much time passed and so much bonding as Artena, I couldn’t do it.

  Plus, she talked about me to ‘Artena’, saying how thankful she was for ‘her best friend, Chloe’.

  To potentially reveal that she was talking to me, about me, was beyond embarrassing. And to me it felt like I was betraying her trust if I revealed myself. So I left it at that.

  I am her best friend, Chloe, in real life. And I am her elven companion, Artena, in Adventuria.

  I could never show up to our party’s offline meeting with Alice—.. No. With Celia attending it.