Stepsiblings Part I

“Haaaaww”

A long yawn came from the tall one who just woke up a few moments ago. Wisana looked around and realized that he was on the sofa in his living room, not the bed in his bedroom. Besides, he was still in the same university shirt, from yesterday. Everything was the same as before he got in the game.

Come to think of it, he vaguely remembered that he was rushing into Pride as fast as he could before anything else. That was why he slept on this sofa.

“I guess I should log in to the game when I’m already in bed next time.”

The man said as he was stretching left and right to release the sore out of his body after he had just slept curlily in such an uncomfortable position all night. The pair of amber eyes looked down to check on his body that was entirely fine without any scratches, then he felt relieved. Even though he was a bit sore, he still got a good sleep in a way that the thrilling adventure from last night did not affect him physically in the real world.

“What a relief. I thought I would wake up with muscle pain since I was running around all the time last night.”

He said with an amused smile. It was kind of funny to think that if the game could affect the players physically, the game would probably get shut down a long time ago. He concluded, stretching for another time lazily. He looked at the clock on the wall and it said that it was about 7 o'clock now. Wisana smiled so broadly.

There was still plenty of time left before he had to go to his part-time job at 10 o’clock.

It was true that today was the first day of the summer break, but he did not like his free time to be wasted. So, he decided to spend it on a job as an art teacher for kids in Ngam Wong Wan with his graduate senior.

The tall one walked up to his television, turning it on for morning news as a routine. But a bored expression came across his face since there was not anything interesting on the screen. Then he realized that there was a channel that he had never thought of watching before.

Channel 77, Pride station, a free TV channel that he had never got interested in before, but now a lot of things that happened started to change his mind.

“If you’re having trouble with slow progress in leveling up because the monsters are too tough, contact us, the special train center of Tristan. We have many professional trainers to guide you to get better in a short time. Contact us now...”

Wisana raised his eyebrows when the advertisement showed a guy with blond hair and a full heavy set of armor, speaking in such a diligent voice.

“They’re trying to sell a training course just like that?” He said, scratching his cheek softly.

Inside or outside the game, this fantasy vibe was not any different. This was how people loved Pride. He could see now why it was so popular. Wisana shrugged before he unbuttoned his shirt, heading to the restroom to take the shower that he skipped last night because he was busy finding Warunya in the game.

But he could only take a few steps away when exciting music came from the TV with the logo of the program that gathered into the words ‘Scrabbling About’. A short while later, on the screen appeared a chubby guy with glasses and a brash-looking woman. They were both sitting at a desk full of various colors of potion bottles, and the backdrop looked like a scene from a fantasy novel.

“Hello, everyone. Every morning on weekdays at 7 o’clock, you’re with us, Scrabbling about.”

“Good morning.” The woman greeted.

“Miss Prida, weren’t there the new events managed by the GMs yesterday? I heard that they were such a bang.”

“That’s true, mister Noppadon. Yesterday, we were having two events which were ‘hunting of Lord Inferno’ and ‘take the shot if you dare’. And there were overwhelming numbers of players joining these events.”

“How was it? Did something big happen like how I was predicting it the day before? Tell me the details.”

“Yes, it did. And we’re going to start with the first news.”

After Prida’s words, the screen showed the video of Lord Inferno opening its mouth widely to let out a loud growl before it charged and killed the players joyfully.

“This is the video from both events. The monster right here is Lord Inferno that started going wild at 8.20 o’clock game time. It took only two minutes to rampage through the players so heavily that they did not dare to fight anymore.”

“Mm-hmm. The boss is very tough just like the GMs guaranteed. Was someone actually able to defeat this guy?”

“Of course, our reporter and the cameraman were at the scene to witness a mystery man fly in to fight Lord Inferno with his flame wings.”

“Wings?!” The broadcaster man almost fell off his chair.

“Correct, literally blazing on the man’s back. As much as we know, in Pride, there’s not a class or an item that gives the player an ability to fly before. And most importantly, this man took only 18 minutes to beat the boss down.”

“Whoa, was he that good?”

“That’s right. And here’s the picture of the mystery man.”

SLAM!

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

Hard footsteps were heard when the body of Wisana hurried back from the bathroom with a panicked look on his face, forgetting that he only had a towel to cover his bottom parts and a toothbrush in his mouth full of foam.

When the amber eyes of his caught the image on the screen, he suddenly felt like his knees were about to give up and fall to the floor. The news program was showing a video of him in the mask swooping to dodge the attacks from Lord Inferno courageously. And the most important thing was, the shot was a clear closed-up photo! Even though he was wearing the mask, it was still frighteningly clear!

Crap! So, those that he thought were just the players who were doing the photo quest, were in fact, the staff from a TV station?!

They really took it up close, scoundrels!!

A few moments later, the photo was put away, and they were back to the studio again, the two announcers’ expressions got a bit more serious after watching the video.

“After this battle ended, another thing was that the man did the damage to Lord Inferno in total up to 125 million points.”

“125 million?!” The man on the screen seemed to be too surprised by that fact, so he yelled out aloud. “So, this means that he just broke the record that the head of the Dominion guild, Marcus did at 60 million points down, too?”

“It pretty much is. The GMs also stated that this damage is currently the maximum that the game system can calculate. This also means that the man would hit more damage if the game system can handle more damage points than 125 million.”

“Now I really want to know who he is.”

Hearing that, Wisana pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth with a sour expression on his face.

Sh*t. Who would have thought that he would go viral over one night like this?

He guessed that he overdid it a bit, huh.

“Here we have the interview with one of the temporary party members with the man.”

After she finished, the screen showed a video of a pretty woman.

PHUUD!!!

And this image got Wisana startled that he spilled the toothpaste foam in his mouth all over the floor. The girl on the screen was Warunya who he remembered leaving her there in fear of getting busted by Tunwa and Nuchjaree. But one thing that was hilarious about the scene was that his two best friends were pushing themselves in to be in front of the camera. Wisana chuckled at how these two always wanted to be on TV.

“His name is Vincent,” Warunya said shyly. “He’s so strong. I don’t know him personally though, he just saved me once. So, I felt that I should help him in return by volunteering to help him fight the boss.”

“Do you know why he ran off?” Another voice asked, pointing the microphone to Warunya.

“I don’t know either. Right after the battle ended, he was rushing to get his friend and flew off,” her gentle voice answered, and the video ended there, bringing the audience back to the studio.

“That’s all we have from Warunya.”

“Well, even though they were in the same party, she knew only his name. This is so mysterious.”

The male announcer let out a knowing smile.

“I agree. After the rumor about this Vincent guy goes viral, more than 5 hundred thousand players are searching for this name on Google and the association of explorers and they get nothing. It's so strange that there’s no trace of information or background about him anywhere.”

Her comment made Wisana force out a wry smile right away. Because how could there be? He first logged in just yesterday, and the name Vincent was a made-up name that he came up with a couple of hours ago, sis!

Well, it was just how the Thai media was. They had to act like everything was a big deal and overreact to it.

“So, it can be said that now Pride world is keeping an eye on player Vincent. Well, well, Vincent, if you’re watching this, you’ve gone viral overnight. Please reveal yourself already, there’re many millions of people that are curious to know you.

“And why the hell are you so insisting?!” Wisana slapped himself on the forehead harshly.

Yes, he knew that he was going viral, but that was without his intention. This was so messed up. He just wanted to be in the game in peace. He did not want people from his real life to find out about him being in the game. But the first one on his list, Warunya, was the one that seemed to be interested in Vincent the most!

He was not sure if he should cry or laugh about this!

~Someone’s calling, pick up now... Someone’s calling, pick up now...~

While he was freaking out, his phone rang, making Wisana jump before he could grab it. He looked at the screen and saw ‘Beloved Dad’ was calling. He raised his eyebrows.

“Isn’t it too early for this?” He slid to accept the call, still confused. “Hello, Dad?”