23 Episode 3: News (2)
Logging out of the game, a young man by the name of Hasegawa Zayden could be seen sitting quietly within his capsule. As his body rested in its seat, the man slowly awakened into the real world. "Yawn..." Tiredly stretching his body. Zayden uttered out a long yawn as he slowly got up from the seat.
"Just what time is it now...?" Muttering out in drowsiness, his eyes glanced over to the direction of his window, where he noted that the outside was now in complete darkness. Soon after, his gaze turned toward the clock hanging on the wall, which read: 0100. "Huh... It's already this late?"
Scratching his back, Zayden began to walk out of his room, quickly making his way over to the bathroom. There, as he reached the sink, he turned the tap on. Moments after, he splashed the cold running water onto his face.
"Phew..." In the next instance, he grabbed onto a towel that was hanging on the towel rack, wiping his face clean with it. "Ah, that's much better."
While Zayden was washing up, his eyes stared into his reflection through the mirror in front of him. Much like the appearance of (Shinto) within the game, there wasn't much disparity between his real-life counterpart and his avatar.
Zayden was a young man around his mid-twenties who boasted an attractive look with his dishevelled jet black hair and blueish eyes. Oftentimes than not, he would be mistaken as a teenager due to his looks. However, contrary to the perspective, he would typically give off a mature aura around him.
...
Soon after brushing his teeth and washing up, Zayden made his way over to the living room, where he gave a glance over towards Jisa's room. "Hmm... She must be asleep by now."
Letting out another drowsy yawn, the young man scurried back into his room as he jumped into his bed. In the next moment, he grabbed onto his phone that had been resting on the desk beside it and switched it on.
"Let's see, what did I miss..." As the light of his phone shone brightly within the dark bedroom, Zayden immediately felt like coughing up blood upon what greeted him at his lock screen. "W-Wha...?"
The front notifications on his screen were filled to the brim with messages and pings from his Line and Discord app. Little did he know, he had received more than 99+ messages from those two apps alone.
"This..." Scrolling down, he noticed that he had received multiple private messages on his forum account as well. "There are so many messages..." His eyes shook at the sight. He knew not whether to laugh or cry at the endless notifications he had gotten.
"Sigh..." Sighing out helplessly, Zayden began bracing himself for what was about to come next as he opened his Discord app. "Let's see what awaits me..."
[ @Arceus (99+) ]
[ @Hikari (1) ]
[ @Rienla (1) ]
[ @... ]
[ @Jisa (2) ]
"Cough..." Though he may have braced himself before opening up the app, the messages that he had received were far beyond what he had expected. "T-There's this much?"
The number of messages from each person varied between 99+ messages to a long block of text. Most of them were mainly from the top 50 unified rankers or his guildmates.
"...hah. Let's get this over with..." Shaking his head helplessly, Zayden slowly skimmed through all his messages as he began replying to the ones who he mainly talked to, starting with Jisa.
...
@Jisa: Hey, I'm going to sleep now. If you're hungry, I left some food in the containers in the fridge. So heat it up and eat it. Oh, and make sure to wash up!
@Jisa: Don't you dare instantly go to sleep after getting out of the capsule, you hear me? Ahem. Anyway, night! I gotta head out to school early in the morning tomorrow.
@Shinto: Right... Of course. I'll be sure to eat if I'm hungry. Thanks!
@Shinto: Ah, and, don't forcibly wake me up. Night!
...
@Rienla: Hey... Just what's going on? What's up with your sudden disappearance in the rankings??
As Zayden moved on to the next few messages, all of them had a common theme amongst them. "Ah right... The news of my rankings should've spread like wildfire right about now. I should've known..." With a sigh, he replied to Rienla.
@Shinto: Aha... Well... It's a long story.
@Shinto: You'll hear about it later on. For now, I'll be on break for a while :)
...
Moving on with his long list of direct messages, Zayden finally reached the one that had (99+) messages. Of course, it was from none other than Arceus.
@Arceus: OI! SHINTO!
@Arceus: WHAT THE HELL?!
@Arcues: EXPLAIN THIS SHIT!
[ Rank #1: Arceus ]
[ Rank #2: Titus ]
[ Rank #3: Vladimir ]
[ Rank #4: ... ]
@Arceus: I AINT SATISFIED AT ALL. WHAT THE HELL'S UP WITH THIS RANKING?
...
@Arceus: YOU COWARD!
@Arceus: I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS!
@Arceus: STOP GHOSTING YOU PIECE OF SHIT!
"U-Ugh... This guy..." With a glance over at the messages that Arceus had sent, he felt helpless. "99+ Messages... Was it really necessary?" Shaking his head in a tired manner, he closed the DM. "I'll just... Deal with this later."
Completely ignoring everything that Arceus had spammed, he turned towards another DM.
...
@Hikari: Zay? Ya there? You alright?
@Hikari: Did Arceus do something to you? Do I have to bring down judgement upon him?
@Shinto: Nah, I'm fine. Arceus didn't do anything. Though... If you want, you can punish him for giving me a 99+ message spam. Although... It was kind of warranted on my end.
At the moment that Zayden sent out his message to Hikari, a reply was immediately sent back.
@Hikari: Ah! Zay! Took you a while to reply, huh? -_-
@Hikari: I'm guessing you're about to head to bed?
@Shinto: Yep. I'm about to doze off soon.
@Hikari: Hehe, I see! So, how's your break going so far?
@Shinto: Ah...? Chris told you?
@Hikari: Of course! Did you think he would have left the guild in utter chaos otherwise? You leaving out of the blue like that left the place in disarray y'know!
@Shinto: Aha. Well... Chris' order was quite sudden...
@Hikari: Mhm. It was about time you took a break!
@Shinto: Huh? What do you mean?
@Hikari: Hey, don't act dumb! You wouldn't have taken a break otherwise!
@Shinto: Cough. Well... There wasn't really an opportunity for me to take a break, so...
@Hikari: Uhuh. But now you do! So make sure you take a break, alright?!
@Hikari: Oh btw! Don't worry about the guild. Besides the constant bombardment of questions we get on the forums, the whispers and rumours of your sudden disappearance in the rankings, the inability to contact you in-game, Bunnix's anger running on fumes, the somewhat depressive mood of the guild cuz' you didn't say a word, we're fine!
@Shinto: ...what?
@Shinto: How is that fine?!
@Shinto: Isn't that more of a... "Hikari's going to kill me when she sees me" kind of thing??
@Hikari: No, no! I'm just listing the hectic chain of events that happened today at the guild. With your sudden disappearance and all... It was chaotic!
@Hikari: Ah, speaking of which! What happened?
@Shinto: Err... Well, something happened. But, you'll find out in the future.
@Hikari: Aww! Why not tell me now? Is it a hidden class? Is it? Is it?
@Hikari: If so... What kind of hidden class is it?! What's the rarity? What're the attributes? Oo! What are the new skills??
@Shinto: ...Hikari.
@Hikari: Aww, you're no fun! I was only joking :p
@Hikari: But It seems I hit a spot, hmm?
@Shinto: Ahem. Would you look at the time! I think I'll be heading out now. Gn!
@Hikari: What? Hey, Zay! Come back here!
@Shinto: No can do. I'm gonna drop dead any minute now. So, see ya tomorrow.
@Hikari: Fine -_-
@Hikari: Have a good night's sleep then!
...
Upon ending the conversation with Hikari, Zayden closed the app. Soon after, he silently placed his phone back on the bed stand whilst his head laid down on the pillow. Slowly, he drifted off to dreamland.
