Kapitel 14: Solo Ranker

Ling's phone fell to the ground and its pieces spread on the floor. By this, he drew the attention of his classmates chatting nearby.

Eh, what is his problem?

The hell? Why is this jerk suddenly making a commotion here?

Jeez, you're lucky! We'll let it slide since we are busy looking for someone!

Now that his classmates were talking about him, he realized that they started losing interest in bullying him. But first and foremost, Ling pick up his phone's pieces and apologized to them.

"Sorry about that, I'm just shocked after seeing my--"

Ling paused for a second with an obnoxious expression on his face. In his mind, he was asking himself whether he have to tell the main reason why he dropped his phone, or not.

Soon, he shook his head and added these words.

'No, I can't tell it to them. Probably, they'll think I'm crazy, plus, I just started to play this game a few days ago, so it's hard to believe.'

For him, he was giving them a new reason to bully him.

Yet, it seemed like one of his classmates noticed him acting strange. "Seeing what?" Asked the woman who had a soft voice.

Even though he didn't see who was that woman, still, he shook his head. "It's nothing, I thought I recognized someone." He lied, then when he picked up the last piece. Ling raised his head, seeing a woman beautiful woman that really caught his eyes. "Isabella..."

Well, Isabella didn't pay too much attention to it as she knew Ling was not the type of man who could lie. This was how she read his personality. "Here, Ling." She gave the last piece and seated back in her chair.

'H-How she knew my name?' Ling uttered to his mind, then immediately took it in Isabella's hand. "Thank you, Isabella. Sorry for bothering you." He whirled around along with a red face as he was aware that he inevitably held Isabella's soft hand.

"Wait..."

Ling frowned his brows, then backed his glance at her. "What is it, Isabella? Did you need something from me?" Ling responded nonchalantly.

"Why do you constantly apologize? You know that you didn't do anything wrong, isn't it?" She asked him in a weak tone, knowing if their classmates caught they are having a conversation, probably they were going to be hysterical.

Ling faintly smiled at her while gradually rubbing the back of his head. "Well, this is how I used to, which means it's my habit." He said in a low tone as he was also aware of the situation. "If you don't have further questions, I'll get back to my seat. Thanks again!"

"Habit, huh..." Isabella said these words with a deep sigh.

...

To begin with, the ruckus that happened easily subsided. Now, Hary was looking at Ling as he noticed he was acting quite different after having a conversation with Isabella. Well, this was the first time he saw Ling having a conversation with the others, especially with a girl.

"It's bad, Ling. Your phone is totally broken." Hary murmured as he grabbed Ling's old model phone.

"As you can see, yeah, it's broken. But it's fine since I rarely used my phone." Ling smiled, then moved his head closer to Hary. In his mind, Hary was the only person here could believe him. "I wanted to tell you something, but promise me that you won't tell it to anyone."

Of course, Hary was curious about this since this was not a usual Ling. So he nodded his head without making any second thoughts. "What is it, Ling? Come on, spill it out?" Hary said in an aggressive tone.

"Well, I tried to not assume. But... I think I'm the one they are talking about online." He said in a serious tone.

"Online? Are you starting to do now something illegal? Like sending your naked photos...?"

"Eh? Of course not. I'm talking about the ranker that defeated the Battle Orc..." After he spits these words, he looked around just to make sure none of their classmates were eavesdropping on their conversation.

Hary furrowed his brows and his eyes went serious. After that, he mildly tapped Ling's shoulder. "I understand what are you feeling right now, Ling. If I were in your position I will feel the same thing."

"You didn't understand, Hary! I'm saying the truth, I'm Blood the ranker who defeated the Battle Orc alone." Ling tried to explain himself, yet, Hary stood up as he had special basketball training today.

"You know, Ling. You should focus on your leveling, so we can play together right away. If you want to become like him, you should hard work and get rare items. Apart from that, there's a rumor that Ranker had similar movements to the pro players. So I can say that someone like you playing the for exactly two days could do something like that."

Hary stood up as he was ready to leave the place. "I'm going out first, Ling. I have early training today, I think we are going to meet again on Monday since tomorrow is weekend."

"But I'm saying the truth... Why don't you try to believe me."

...

Several hours had passed, and Ling back to his house with a miserable expression on his face. Why? It was because his best friend didn't believe in the revelation he said to him.

While lying on his bed and dumbfounded at the wooden ceiling. Ling took a deep breath, then smoothly released the air.

"I'm one hundred percent sure that I'm the man they were talking about on the online platform. But what I could do? I don't have any idea how I can reveal myself."

It came to his mind to post that he was Ranker that had the screen name of Blood. However, he shook his head as this idea wasn't possible. It was given there were a lot of people looking at him, so it was inevitable that someone would pretend that they were Blood.

On the other hand, when Ling managed to kill the Battle Orc. He immediately clicked on the log-out icon of the game and didn't have the chance to check the rewards he received. Back then, was around 7:00 PM. It does mean he would be late for his part-time job if he doesn't hurry.

He took a glance at the console positioned over the pillow, thinking if he should enter the game or not. "I'm too sleepy, but I have to earn more money. So I can pay with our house rent and for my grandmother's medication."

As soon as he remembered the face of his grandmother, Ling wore the VR helmet and clicked the green button.

Swoosh!

[Welcome back to the Ranker's World Online, Solo ranker!]

"Solo ranker?"