Compensate Me

Katherine was an expert at this; she had done this for loads of smaller publishing houses, making the books go higher in rating than was expected. She had to admit, she was a wee bit picky about which books she took into consideration. She only took books that she personally liked or the plot of which inspired her. She could only work her magic if she was truly invested in the story. It was a wonder that she got enough work to survive in the entertainment capital of the country even though she was a freelancer.

When she was done doing the outline of the sketch and had a couple of alternate ideas plotted out, she stretched her muscles and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Looking at a screen all day long really affected her, even her anti-glare, protective glasses weren't much help when all she did was stare at the computer.

She cooked herself a quick lunch and sat in front of her PC to watch some videos. The notifications started to pop up. More people wanted to know what their queen Rinten would do to get back at RayKon53, but she was careful to look through. As she was scrolling through the server she saw a private message pop up.

She squealed when she saw the name.

[RayKon53: Eh? Do I know you?]

The user was already offline and Katherine couldn't help but feel excited.

'Who exactly knew others on the internet? He stole my gold so I must introduce myself to him,' she thought smugly. It didn't hurt that the person's name reminded her of her favourite, the scrumptious Cage Cavanaugh.

[Rinten: No. You played me last night. Compensate me, senpai.]

The message was already sent and Katherine couldn't help but slap herself in the face.

Compensate? Why did it sound like a proposition? She quickly typed out another reply, wondering why there wasn't a delete option.

[Rinten: Sorry. I meant the mission yesterday. I am not propositioning you, I promise.]

She sighed and closed the tab. She knew she had effectively scared away the person with her creepiness. Now she could only hope that he would appreciate her uncanny humor and let it slide.

- - -

Cage was back in his hotel room, albeit for a few hours to rest up before taking the next flight to another city. He couldn't even go out for a couple of hours to catch a break. He had waited long enough to meet the famous MC from the show he loved and had a chat after the interview was over. He was delighted to get the opportunity but he wanted nothing more than a couple of hours of sleep at that point.

He took a long shower and caught up on some sleep. He was up and ready in no time, with half an hour to spare. He wanted to play for a little longer on days he was more stressed, and recently he had a lot of those days.

He was stunned to see the server having pinged him so many times. He didn't give it much notice and went to check on his booming private messages.

[Rinten: Take my bow, senpai. You have eaten my gold.]

'What an odd thing to write when you don't know someone.'

Was this someone from his family playing a joke on him? Or had one of his guild-mates changed their handle? And even more so it was sent a long time ago.

[RayKon53: Eh? Do I know you?] He typed out, thoroughly confused by the message he had received.

He waited for a minute before heading over to the server and looking through what the fuss was about. Someone was calling someone else a queen. Someone was saying he had committed a sin. Cage was confused. He didn't like associating much with people online, especially gamers, so he was confused about the recent heightened pinging of his account.

[Rinten: No. You played me last night. Compensate me, senpai.]

Cage guffawed when he read the message. It had just come in and he was getting a little too excited with this conversation. His perverse mind wondered where this player had gotten their dialogues from. He had read some pretty gruelling role-plays and this one made him laugh at the sudden flirtatious tone.

The only thing he was playing last night was himself. There was no one else in the room, unfortunately.

[Rinten: Sorry. I meant the mission yesterday.] The next message said. But Cage's mind was already full of naughty insinuations. [I am not propositioning you, I promise.]

Cage sniffed. He would have rather liked it if a random person on the internet flirted with him. His love-life was either too turbulent or too bland, and it was usually the opposite in front of the camera and out of it.

Cage went to the server and looked at the person's chats with the others and realized that they were considered quite the celebrity. The whole fuss about the game was that he had taken their rewards before they could get to it. He quickly went back and typed out a reply. He was really curious is the person on the other side was a girl or a boy. He was having a hard time calling them a common noun.

[RayKon53: That's sad. I was looking forward to your ministrations, my lady/kind sir? My trainer tells me that playing games keep you in mint condition.]

He left it at that, not wanting to let the person think that he was coming on too hard. He had to say, he was getting a little lonely and even a bot on the screen would work for him at the point in time.

His manager knocked on his door soon after and his plans to continue playing were obstructed. He got up and left, his laptop tucked under his arm, a small smile on his tired face.

- - -