Emergency Exit

The scary monster named Wendigo kept staring at Hitori, Hitori continued to stare back at the monster with his hands covered in fire.

Their eye contact did not break, after a second, Hitori started to feel a threat to his life, he quickly pulled his hands in front of him, "Fire-"

"Do not," he saw an arm stretch in front of him, he glanced at Kamiya who shook his head, "It will dodge your attack and… worse if your reflexes are not quick enough…"

Hitori knew very little about the monster Wendigo, in fact, nothing. He had never heard of such a monster and hence was clueless about its powers.

He took Kamiya's order into account, his hands went back to normal, and he relaxed his stance, "It… feels dangerous somehow, even when it is only a level 10 monster."

"Does not matter, cause when we link Hogosho dungeon with these two, it will become your dungeon too, think before you attack," Kamiya warned him. He, too, relaxed and took a step forward.

When Kamiya got a little closer to the Wendigo, it took a step back. Kamiya walked, and the Wendigo moved backward. Finally, when there was no space left to move back, it bowed to Kamiya and disappeared into its hiding place.

Both Kamiya and Hitori let out a sigh, "See? It fears me," Kamiya scoffed, "once you conquer a dungeon, every creature in it becomes your servant,"

"Fierce is my pet though," Hitori shrugged, "not my servant,"

Kamiya looked at him, "there are some exceptional cases." he shrugged, "the rest of the creatures are your servant though,"

"Ah… right, the tigers and other monsters." Hitori nodded.

Hitori walked toward Kamiya, "since how long have you been playing this game?" Hitori asked while observing the snow all around.

"Since the game was launched, six months," Kamiya replied. Hitori frowned and glanced at Kamiya.

"But, you have conquered only two dungeons, you are better than that," Hitori told him with a feeling of disappointment.

Kamiya dropped his head down and nodded, "I was stuck in the leveling area for more than two months. I was killed a few times, went back to take my revenge, and was killed again. This cycle continued for two months…"

"...that must have been…" Hitori did not know what to say. He found out the way to keep all of the monsters away but maybe because he had elemental magic already with him he managed to execute his plan.

"When I found a way out, I started searching for a dungeon, I messed with a few players and had to go one on one with them, and that lasted for three weeks.

"The end of the third month…" a sad expression appeared on his face, "I had to forcefully log out of the game by you-know-who," Hitori nodded, "it took me one and a half months to find and conquer these dungeons with constant interruptions."

Hitori, "..." said nothing but nodded in sympathy.

"If you ask me about upgrading the dungeons… first, it asks for cash, and I had my cash forcefully taken away from me even when… I needed that money for more than just upgrades…" Kamiya had started to get gloomier, "Second, it asks for gems, I used all of the gems that I had,"

An awkward silence spread across the icy fourth floor of the dungeon. No one spoke anything, Hitori thought it would not be the best idea to open his mouth and Kamiya was deep in gloom.

"Uhh," after the silence of more than three minutes, Kamiya shook off the gloomy atmosphere, "sorry," he rubbed his eyes, "let me take you to our lair,"

Kamiya turned around and started to walk towards a portal that probably led to the exit.

"Actually," but he stopped when Hitori spoke, "I can help you with my money…" he looked down as he spoke, "and, maybe, we can split the… uh…"

Kamiya turned his head with light tears forming in his eyes. Hitori was trying not to make eye contact with Kamiya but Kamiya was staring hard.

"You know, split the looted money into a split of seventy yours and thirty mines," a silent smile, the smile of someone who has been hurt, spread over Kamiya's face, "but-"

"But?" Kamiya started to walk back to Hitori.

"Only if you tell me the reason behind your need for money, a proper reason with proof and I will be happy to help," Hitori completed. He lifted his blue eyes and glanced at Kamiya who was on the verge of crying.

He could see how bad Kamiya's need for money was. In the Vr-cade, while they split the shares, and even now… it reflected on Kamiya's face.

Kamiya turned around and quickly rubbed his tears by pulling his glasses. He sobbed a few times but did not say anything back to Hitori.

Well, Hitori was a patient guy so he let Kamiya take his sweet time instead of pursuing him to expose the reason.

Kamiya turned back to Hitori, "would you… mind if we take a small break first?" Hitori was surprised by that idea but he nodded and agreed with Kamiya's idea.

After they saved the game and logged out, Kamiya quickly got out of his seat, "washroom," he said and rushed off to the washroom.

Hitori was fazed by Kamiya's sudden and quick actions. He let out a sigh and started to look around him.

While casually looking around, his eyes gazed at a glimpse of Kamiya's magic case. Then his eyes fell on his console station, on the corner was a magic circle that was not glowing.

Hitori was confused by his actions once again. But he did not bother to think deeply about the little things which barely matter.

"Hitori!" he heard Kamiya's voice from the other side of the alley, "I am sorry," he started, "something urgent has come up, I will have to go!" Kamiya sounded too panicked, "I will see you later at night!"

"Oi, wait!" Hitori glanced at Kamiya's magic case and pushed himself out of the chair.

But he could not stop Kamiya, the boy whose glasses were slipping off from his nose once again, ran out of the alley first before he left the Vr-cade.

He was once again left stunned by all of the events that had happened at 2x speed. He again glanced at Kamiya's magic case before sitting down.

"You forgot your…" he sighed, "never mind."

"But your time is yet to be—"

"J- Ju- just add it to my account, I will come back to take my card," the counter woman kept staring at Kamiya who had left the Vr-cade one hour and thirty-three minutes before his time would be over.