The Restless Anna

"I know, who said anything about lies?" she gave him a meaningful glance before the two reached the highest level. "But for the record, I'm glad you kicked John's ass."

"Stop it," he laughed, "this is a mean word."

"Oh, a girl can't say mean words these days or what?"

"Not like that… But it feels weird to hear such words from a girl."

"I can't be a… bad girl from time to time then?" The two stopped in front of his room. She turned to face him while moving her hands over his shoulders slowly heading to his neck. "Do you hate bad girls?"

"Ahem," he felt some weird heat in his body that made him slightly restless.

"Hahaha, don't worry I was just playing with you," she said with amusement, "it's funny though. Seeing you fighting down there gave anyone the impression you have changed. But…"

She glanced at his eyes for a long moment that made Aroon feel the entire world froze at it.

"But… What?" he slowly asked while feeling the distance between the two was shrinking without a reason.

She really took a single step and that brought her body just in front of him. "You are the same Aroon I knew for the past year."

"That's…" he could already feel her warm breaths coming off her slightly opened red cherry lips. He didn't know why but he could even hear his own heartbeats at this moment like war drums.

"Good," she completed his sentence before touching his cheeks slowly with her hand. "I was afraid you've changed. Please, no matter what stay the Aroon I knew and…"

She didn't continue her words except with a soft kiss over his cheeks. Her move was sudden yet he didn't move a muscle while watching her retreat slightly with a satisfying smile on her face.

"That's your reward for being the new sheriff," she moved away towards the next room. He followed her with his eyes, feeling some regret for not taking a bold move at her at that moment.

"Don't worry," she entered the room and turned to face him with a playful expression as she noticed the change on his face, "with your future deeds I'm sure you'll get more generous rewards from me."

"Click!" and she closed the door, leaving him standing there motionless for a long time.

"Damn," he sucked in cold air of breath before closing the door on himself and throwing his body over the bed.

<Ding! Didn't know you were scared of girls> the system suddenly said.

"Finally," he adjusted his body to sit regularly on the bed, "I thought you went to sleep or something."

<Ding! No, I never sleep> the system said, <Ding! I just decided to give you a moment shine>

"I bet you are bluffing old man," Aroon laughed, "but I was cool, right?"

<Ding! You can ask your girl this question instead>

"Stop it," Aroon laughed shortly before adding, "I got some nice abilities."

<Ding! No you only had the chance to store them at library> the system said, <Ding! And it's locked, so basically you got nothing>

"In some sense… I got them, right?" he shrugged.

<Ding! You better sleep now. need some rest>

Aroon relaxed his body on the bed before glancing at the ceiling. In a reflexive move he threw the rubber ball high above and watched it travel the distance between the ceiling and the ground multiple times.

"Can't I take a glimpse of these abilities?"

<Ding! You can once you unlock the library>

"C'mon, don't be mean," Aroon complained.

<Ding! You have to work harder get more privilege kid>

"Damn," Aroon knew it was a lost case. He kept watching the ball bouncing for a few seconds while recalling this scene from his old memories.

In fact he wasn't the one to have such a habit, but one of his brothers had. After losing them, he started to have some affection towards playing with the rubber ball like that.

"It seems I would last a little longer here," he took out the old picture of his family out of his bracelet and glanced at it for long minutes. "I finally got the system back," he said as if he was telling his two brothers about this feat.

As if they were alive in that picture, and could perfectly hear him.

He glanced at the tired old face of his mother and the bright smiles over his younger twin sisters' faces.

"In another life… You two might have acquired your system by now," he slowly muttered while resisting the urge of tears to flow off his eyes.

"Sorry about that," he took a deep breath before storing the image in his bracelet. His twin sisters were too young to get a system and be recruited in this brutal fight.

And by the time he lost his two brothers, he got the devastating news about losing his twin sisters and mother as well.

Such a thing would break any man, and he was sure he was broken in some way deep down his soul.

"On the hands of a major breakout of dungeons," he repeated the words he heard back at the hospital when he woke up. "I hope you didn't suffer back then," he sadly sighed before closing up his eyes and going into deep sleep.

The next morning he woke up with a brutal hunger and weird headache that made him crave for his daily morning coffee.

"Are you there?" he asked the moment he stood on the edge of his bed, squeezing his temples gently to soothe the pain.

<Ding! It's almost midday now.>

"Good morning," Aroon smiled while stepping outside the room, 'Do you know what I should do today? Any missions for me?'

<Ding! Today is a break for you> the system said, <Ding! tomorrow that dungeon will appear>

'When?' he started descending the stairs with lazy steps.

<Ding! Like this time in the day> the system said, <Ding! So try to sleep early>

'I'm not the one who got me off the bed at dawn,' he yawned before finding three familiar faces down in the living space.

And they seemed to have some trouble with something as he could tell from their faces.

Cheryl, Arora, and Anna were gathered at the bottom with slightly dark faces.

"Good morning," he yawned again while heading directly towards the coffee machine.

"You got a nice sleep it seems," Anna was the first to speak before walking directly to him.

"What did you do last night?" she aggressively said.

"What?" he glanced at her with an innocent look, "I did nothing… Bad as far as I recall."

"You…" Anna paused as she recalled what she heard from others about the fight last night. "Are you the new boss now?"

"Sure," he held his hot plastic cup of coffee and put four pieces of sugar into it before waiting for them to melt on their own. "What's wrong with being the new boss?"

"Nothing," she shrugged, "except that most of us didn't admit your authority and decided to act on their own."

"Most?" Aroon glanced around. Only Cheryl and Arora were there. "Where are the others?" he calmly asked.

"They went… outside," Cheryl paused.

"Say the truth Cheryl," Anna shouted without moving her eyes off Aroon, "they went to follow the leader they chose."

"Oh, they want to play this game then," Aroon realized what he missed. "Does Mark plan to make me face all of them?" he walked steadily towards a random seat before taking a small sip of his cup.