章 27: Tower of Skaldi
Someone covered Ziro's eyes from behind and asked, "Guess who?"
"Stop it, Alina,' Ziro groaned.
Alina held Ziro's arm and smiled at him.
"What? Why are you smiling at me like that? It makes you look like you are planning something evil," Ziro commented.
"I can say the same to you." Alina wrapped her arms around Ziro's neck and continued, "You were standing in the middle of a busy street and staring at nothing."
"I wasn't. I got a notification, so I was checking it."
"What was the notification?"
"Nothing. It was empty. The game is being updated, so maybe it was some glitch?" Ziro shrugged.
"The game automatically logs the player out whenever there is an update or something wrong. So it wasn't a notification of the update."
Alina dragged Ziro with him as they talked.
"Where are we going?" Ziro asked.
"It's your second time here, but you didn't get to see the beauty of this world." Alina grinned at Ziro and uttered, "Let me show you around."
"So… it's like a date?"
"Pretty much? And, this world is a lot better than the real world."
Alina showed Ziro around the map. She took him to the mountains, desert, and forest for outings. And then they went to the cafe to eat.
Ziro had no money, so Alina paid for him with a smug look on her face.
"What now?" Ziro asked with excitement in his voice.
"Now to the sea— well, you can call it a beach."
They went to the beach, but it was crowded, so they climbed the mountain near it to get the best view of the sea.
They gazed at the blue sea, and after a while, Alina asked, "How is it?"
"Beautiful," Ziro answered.
"I wanted to show you in a better and cooler way, but…"
"What do you mean by the better and cooler way? This is the best and the coolest view I have ever seen in my life," Ziro proclaimed.
"I.. wanted you to experience it first hand."
"Like?"
"Book the beach and spend the evening with you," Alina said with a distant smile.
"In a bikini?"
"In a swimsuit. And we could do anything we wanted. When someone rents the place, it disappears from the game's map, so no one can come inside or even see us," Alina explained.
"Alright. Where can I book the beach?" Ziro asked with a serious look on his face.
He was about to buy the beach instead of renting it.
"You need a ticket for it," Alina replied.
"And where do I get the ticket?"
"You can't get them. You get them in the events as a prize."
"Events? Like fighting other players? Or exploring an unknown map? Maybe killing monsters? Or perhaps, tournaments?" Ziro guessed everything.
"Yup. They do different types of events in the last week of each month. We should get the notification after some raids about this month's events."
"I will win the next event and take you on a beach date," Ziro asserted with a straight face.
"As if a level 1 player can win an event," Alina scoffed.
"I read the first paragraph from the article you sent me about this game, and it said that players could use your real world's ability; like sword skills, martial arts, parkour, or any other skills in the game."
"Yeah, it's true."
"You know, if you think about it, it's just like walking and running. They are skills too, so if you can walk and run in the game, then you can pretty much do everything you want in the game too."
Alina rolled her eyes and groaned, "Even though I am a veteran, a newbie is explaining things to me."
"Excuse me, don't call me a newbie. I will surpass you in no time," Ziro declared while snapping his fingers.
"I am really glad I chose this game out of all VR games," Alina muttered.
LNA was the only VR game that wasn't a pay-to-win type of game. Other games were full of micro-transactions in every little thing, and rich players whaled their way out to the top.
"What about the other rules?" Ziro asked.
"What rules?"
Ziro moved his hands towards Alina's breast and squeezed them.
"What are you doing?" Alina questioned with a glare in her eyes.
"I am happy about our date today, and I enjoyed it, truly. But I would prefer to go on a date in the real world, after all. There I can do things I want," Ziro said and tried to kiss Alina, but he was stopped by an invisible wall between their faces.
"Groping is allowed, but kissing is not," Ziro sighed in disbelief.
Alina frowned her face and uttered, "That reminds me of an important thing I wanted to talk to you about."
"Go ahead," Ziro nodded.
"You know what happened yesterday at your house, right?"
"You mean how you sucked me dry?"
"Yes! And don't ever mention it in front of me!" Alina hissed.
"Continue."
"I have been thinking all night, and it occurred to me that if we keep going like this, we will end up doing things normal friends shouldn't."
Ziro raised his brows and said, "I thought we were already past that limit."
"So I am calling for the kissing ban," she added.
Ziro furrowed his raised brows and made an inexplicable expression on his face. "Please tell me you are kidding."
Alina stared at Ziro with no expression on her face and then burst out laughing.
"Ahaha! Of course, I am kidding. Oh, my lord! Your reaction was so funny!."
"..." Ziro was feeling multiple emotions at once.
"You should have looked at your face. Ahahaha!" Alina wouldn't stop laughing, and that just made Ziro more frustrated.
Ziro took a deep breath and said, "Stop laughing immediately, or I will log out from the game and head directly to your house. Then do something to your real body that you will hate me for forever."
Alina immediately stopped laughing and frowned her face.
"Miser," she commented.
As Ziro and Alina were talking, Ziro looked past Alina's shoulder and saw two players going deep into the forest.
Noticing Ziro's gaze, Alina looked back and muttered, "That's Kevin and Kiana. What are they doing here?"
Ziro nudged Alina and whispered, "Let's tail them."
"No!" Alina whispered violently.
"Why not? Aren't they your friends?" Ziro teased.
"They might be here to defeat the monsters," Alina shrugged.
Ziro grabbed Alina and dragged her to the forest after saying, "Then let's go defeat the monsters too."
Alina and Ziro quietly followed Kevin and Kiana. After following them for a while, they entered a cave near the beach.
Ziro squinted his eyes and thought, 'Are they planning to do what I think they plan to do?'
Ziro nudged Alina and whispered, "Let's go back now!"
If Ziro and Alina went near the cave, they would have gotten caught, so instead, they decided to wait in the forest on top of the cave.
"I don't think we should do this. This is a bad idea," Alina stated.
"It's not."
"What if they saw us?" Alina asked with an anxious look on her face.
"Then we can just say you were showing me around." Ziro shrugged and said, "That's what we have been doing, right?"
Alina nodded and hugged Ziro from behind.
Alina still wasn't sure, and it was definitely a crime to stalk like that. Ziro was aware of it, but he wanted to get dirt on Kevin for some stupid reasons.
"That's a lame excuse, not going to lie."
Ziro and Alina turned around to see Kevin and Kiana standing behind them. Alina looked back and forth at Kevin and Kiana and said, "You two were in the cave, so how did you two get here?"
"First, answer my question." Kevin turned to Ziro and asked, "Can I ask why you were following us?"
"We weren't. Alina was just showing me around."
"Did you seriously use a used excuse?"
Kiana nudged Kevin and said, "That's enough. Now tell them the main reason why we were here."
Kevin sighed and said, "We were looking for you. And your location on the map showed you at the beach, so we came. But we didn't know you were with your boyfriend, so we decided to walk out to give you two some space. But for some reason, you two decided to follow us."
"Alright." Ziro raised his hand and said, "I will be honest. I thought you two were humping in the cave."
Kiana's face immediately flushed while Kevin glared at Ziro and said, "Why would we do that?"
"You two are married, so that must mean you two can kiss and do stuff in the game, right?" Ziro questioned.
"Well, yeah. And we sometimes kiss," Kevis answered.
"How does it feel? Compared to the real world kiss."
"Pretty much the same. You can even feel saliva."
"Wow!" Ziro exclaimed and asked, "What about…"
Ziro made an 'okay' sign with his thumb and index finger and inserted his finger of the other hand inside the 'okay' sign.
"Have you two done it?"
"Nope. We can do it in the real world, so why would we do it in the game?" Kevin shrugged.
"Well, I am definitely going to try it in the game once I get married to Alina," Ziro asserted nonchalantly.
After a brief silence, Ziro rubbed his thumb on his chin and asked, "Why does the rule like this exist anyway?"
"What rule are you referring to?" Kevin questioned and said, "You mean the rules on the intimate relationship in the game?"
"Yeah."
"It's one of the common and forced rules on all the VR games in the world," Kevin replied. "The first VR game, well not first— it was a tragedy. The second VR game and the following five VR games didn't have this rule. But things happened, and VRGAG, which stands for Virtual Reality Game Associated Guidelines, announced that—"
"Are you two really having this nasty conversion with serious looks on your faces as though you are discussing something important?" Kiana remarked.
Kevin pointed his gaze at Ziro and said, "He started it; blame him."
"Enough of this!" Alina quipped and said, "Kevin, Kiana, I want Ziro to participate with us in the Monday raid. But he needs to be at least level three to participate. Would you guys help me carry him, so we can help him reach level three real fast?"
"Wait…" Kiana raised her hand and said, "We have four members now, so we can create a party."
"Oh!" Alina exclaimed and nodded, "That's right. Let's make a party first."
Kevin and Kiana were already on the friend-list of Alina, but Ziro wasn't. So they first added each other as a friend and then created a party of four members.
"Great! Now we can also get those party rewards from the raids," Kiana asserted.
"And about your request earlier," Kevin glanced at Ziro and said, "I think you should take him to the 'Tower of Skaldi', You can level up faster by clearing floors."
"Yeah, but only three players can enter the floor at once. We four can't go at once," Alina replied.
Kevin sighed and motioned Kiana. Kiana nodded and said, "He is telling you to take him with you— you two, alone."
"I see." Alina squinted her eyes and said, "So you won't help us."
Kiana and Kevin both sighed and looked at Ziro, then said in unison, "I can feel your pain."
"Thank you," Ziro nodded.
Alina was dense when it came to indirect explanations.
Alina glared at Ziro and asked, "What are you guys—!"
"They were trying to say that you should take me, so we can spend some time together."
"And we don't end up being the third wheel," Kiana added.
Alina curled her lips and muttered, "yeah, I realized that."
Kevin and Kiana opened their menu and said, "See you in the Monday raid." Then, they logged out.
Alina and Ziro glanced at each other, then Alina said, "Let's go to the 'Tower of Skaldi'."
-- 贈り物
が届きました