Another Him

"You should smile more, you know?" Andy nudged on his rib.

"Why should I? I don't feel like it."

Since Rei met Andy, one of his colleague, Andy kept on pestering him. Andy always attended on his every classes. Even now, just as Rei enjoying the breeze under a tree behind the school building, Andy suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Are you stalking me?"

Andy sat beside Rei.

"This place is quite and calming. How I cannot find this place sooner." Andy ignored Rei question.

Rei shrugged his shoulder and continued typing on his laptop.

"What are you making?" Andy was curious. He peeked on his screen.

"Are you programming?"

"I'm learning."

"Why?"

"Not your business"

"You're wrong there." Andy pointed out his mistake on his coding. That's the bug that causing his program to not run. Rei already desperate about it for the last three days, and this Andy has found his error just in a minute.

"Are you a programmer too?" Rei looked at him in surprise.

"I'm learning too." Andy answered smugly.

.

.

.

<Congratulation, Host! You've succeeded once again!>

Rei regained his consciousness.

He slept on a big comfortable mattress. A soft blanket covered his body. He stared at the dragon carving twisted its body on four pillars in the chamber.

<Where were you?>

<Somehow this one got blocked, Host. Thankfully, it finally could resurface again>

Rei checked on his wounded shoulder. It was secured by bandages.

<Do you know why and how you were blocked?>

<This one also do not understand, host.>

"Are you awake?" A soft voice greeted him. Rei turned his head towards someone in front of the door. It was the King himself.

"Your Majesty? Thank you for saving me." Rei got up and bring salute to the King. However, the King hurriedly walked towards Rei and lifted his body.

"Let's sit first." The King guided Rei to the bed and sat on the edge.

"No need to be so formal. Don't you recognized me?" The King whispered.

Rei looked at the King with contorted expression.

"Are you one of the player?"

The King beamed.

"I'm Andy!"

"Andy? As in Andy, a freshman of T university?"

The King nodded vigorously.

"I'm Andy, that one of your classmate."

"How did you know it was me? You even stalk me to the System?" Rei looked at him incredulously.

Andy ignored his question for the umpteenth time.

"Oh, see here. I could even shape shifting, now!" The King stood and backed off. He closed his eyes, and looked focus. In a minute, his body transformed slowly. He became smaller, and white fur started to appeared on his skin. His final transformation showed the white furred wolf.

"You are that white wolf? It can't be! I several times saw both of you."

Rei remembered when he met the Queen for his assigned task to look for plants to cure the King. He saw the King unconscious, while the white wolf stood beside the bed. However, he recalled how the wolf seemed like showing no recognition of him.

"Yes, I am the one that save you from that giant in the forbidden forest." He smiled happily.

"I also know it was you in the form of the concubine that gave the tea. So I eagerly drank it." His expression became sour. Is he pouting?

"However, I cannot predict that you'll also put something in the tea that rendered me unconscious."

Andy changed his form back into the King.

"Thank God, my clothes are still intact every time I do the shape shifting. Or else, I'd be full body naked right now." Andy cheerfully explained.

Rei facepalmed.

"So, the wolf that was always with me, it was you?"

The King, or his real world colleague friend - Andy, nodded.

"Why you do that far?"

"I do not want to become out of character. So, I tried some run around the bush ways to tweak the rules. And it succeeded!"

Rei shut his mouth. He bowed his head. His body trembled.

"Are you upset?" Andy peeked around Rei's fringe.

Rei burst out laughing.

"This is not the first time we met, right. I mean in this system." Rei asked after the subsided laugh.

Andy nodded.

"Can't you imagine, I was transmigrated into your ugly subordinate in the first time. Then became your father in the next one!"

Rei snickered. He remembered both of the characters in his previous transmigration. The subordinate with his face wounded, and the mafia slashed police higher up slashed biological father.

"Why you just tell me about who you are, now?"

"Because I just got the chance now. And I need to make sure of it first."

"What make you sure of it, now?" Rei was curious

"Don't you know you have a mark behind your nape?" Rei touched his nape.

"Really? I don't know about it."

"Yes. Apparently some feature of our body from the real world was still depicted in this system." Andy gave his reasoning.

"You must be a professional stalker." Rei backed off.

"I am not! I am Rei's professional stalker."

"Should I be afraid now?"

Andy laughed.

<Hey System! How you usually choose your Host?> Rei knocked on the System.

<We usually cannot choose our Host. It just like the program already chose who would be granted with transmigrating system.>

<Then it means, there are more than one system that guided every hosts?>

<About that thing, this one cannot be sure, host. Since this one has not met any other system, yet>

"How could you enter this system?" Rei suddenly asked.

"Because I made one." Andy answered readily, twilight in his eyes.

***