章 39: Astounding Progress Pt. 1

"Percy you're back!" she squeaked in delight.

Percy's eyes wandered around the room for a while as he came to before landing on Tiara's overjoyed face. His upper lip curled as he looked at her. 'Fucking bitch.' Was what he wanted to say.

But he could only stare at her and sigh. "You came straight back here?"

Tiara nodded, "You know how we disappear randomly from the game when our connection becomes strained right? It happened this time, and never have I been more happy that our connection got weak…" she scratched her neck, "Although I'm a bit disappointed that it got weak… at least we got saved from those monsters! Lucky!"

"Tiara, our connection was fine."

Tiara let out a small laugh, "No it wasn't… we need to work on it…"

"I died."

"What?" Tiara looked up at Percy. She wanted to lean closer to see if he was serious but her body… moved? She leaned closer to look at him. Both Percy and Tiara gasped at the movement.

"You can move…" he breathed in shock.

Tiara's eyes widened as she looked down at herself. She leaned back again. "Oh my God…"

Percy screamed, covering his mouth which was in a wide smile. "Tiara, did you just move?!"

"I DID!" She tried to stand up and groaned, "Okay maybe not fully. But I made progress!"

Percy's hand fell to his lap to reveal his smile to her. Tiara caught that and couldn't help but smile too. "Yeah, you did."

"But what do you mean by you died? We came back here before the monsters could kill us, right?"

"You came back here. I was taken back to the intro scene… the white room where they play the intro animation?"

"You went back there?" Her voice was filled with awe. "Back to square one… so does that mean you died?"

"That's literally what I just said a moment ago!"

Tiara was thrown into confusion. Percy wasn't dead in real life… but Prince Hao Yuan was. She remembered his long hair, which had been cut short later and his determined look. She would never see that person again?

"It's all my fault." She looked down at her lap.

"No, how is it your-"

"I could have killed that monster who killed you. I got swallowed and was right on its heart. On its heart, Percy. I could have killed it."

Betrayal and surprise flashed on Percy's face. "Then why didn't you?"

Tiara shook her head, "I healed the monster instead." She bit her lip and regretted everything she had done in her life until then. Why did she have to do that? She didn't know, but something had pulled the strings in her heart right then and she heard an instinctive voice in her telling her to heal the monster. That it was the right decision.

Prince Hao Yuan died because of her. And he was never coming back again.

She expected Percy to burst out again but all he did was sigh again. "Why?"

Tiara explained how she felt inside the monster's body and as she voiced those feelings out loud she realised that she was starting to sound even dumber.

"I'm sorry… I just…"

"What?"

"Nothing," She looked the other way. She was too ashamed to admit it now.

Percy held her shoulders and glared at her. "You just killed me, don't you owe me some answers? You healed the monster, fine. But why did you give up trying to kill the monster after you realised that it's dangerous?"

Tiara frowned. "You'll hate me… and we won't ever be able to Connect again. Mitchell's project will fail."

Percy rolled his eyes. "It's Dr. Huang's project."

"Yeah," Tiara agreed.

"And we won't not be able to Connect, okay? So just tell me what it is."

Tiara bit her lower lip again and Percy found himself eyeing it with annoyance.

"How are you so sure about that?" she whispered. She knew that he would hate her immensely for the way she thought, and that would be just supporting his belief that she was one irresponsible piece of dead weight.

On the other hand, Percy was undergoing another storm of confusion himself. Strangely, he remembered feeling the emotion called 'death.' And for some reason, he thought it was the most beautiful feeling in the world. Even now, all his ambitions and hopes to play the game alone. And that run in with the other side of the System… it was all very mind-numbing.

"I'm not going to leave you alone in all this. We are in the middle of it now, and we're getting out of it together," Percy's mouth started speaking before he could organise his thoughts. "And we'll Connect, no matter what."

"Percy…" Tiara's tears returned as she heard him say that. Percy, out of all the people in the world. She leaned forward and placed her head on his sturdy shoulder. "I thought you would handle everything like always. I left it all to you to get us out of this mess, so I didn't even try," she mumbled against his shoulder. "I was selfish."

Percy tensed and looked down at her hair which was getting longer now. And the dark brown he had first seen in her hair was getting lighter too. He lifted his hand to stroke her hair gently. "It's fine, Tiara. Let it go now." It took every blood cell in his body to not chide her all over again. He didn't know how to treat her… like an adult or a kid? Can he depend on her or not?

"But Prince Hao-"

"Prince Hao isn't real. I am. And I'm here, right?"

Tiara looked up at Percy's dark eyes. She suddenly felt aware of every hair on her skin as she realised how close this was. But she didn't lean back. Neither did he. "Yeah…"

"And," Tiara continued, glancing at the phone. "You might want to check the call recording of the last call on your phone."