“Where have you been, Hiro?!” Jacob just finished taking a shower. He was wrapping his waist with a thick towel when Hiro came into his house without knocking on the door, as if the man already thought of it as his own home.


    “Good morning, Jake,” Hiro replied without giving any exnation. The drowsiness had returned, and he felt his body was getting weak. He needed to logout immediately and had a good sleep before login to the game again at the promised time with the leader of the Immortal Knights.


    Hiro almost forgot that he had promised toe with four people, yet he had not told the people he was going to invite about his ns.


    “We are going to a hidden dungeon tonight with the Immortal Knights, Jacob,” he said nonchntly. Hiro didn’t ept any rejection. Jacob looked surprised, but he didn’t refuse. It seemed he had started to take on Hiro’s interest in hidden dungeons.


    “Cool! Another hidden dungeon?!”


    Hiro nodded while sitting on a wooden chair with his chin propped on his hand. His eyes felt heavy and tired. He had forgotten that the hand he used to support his chin was covered by a tattoo. It instantly caught Jacob’s attention.


    “Wow, look at that tattoo! Where did you get it?” He was always amazed by whatever Hiro had.


    Hiro raised his left hand so that Jacob could see the details of the tattoo on his hand clearly. The tattoo looked cool, but it was actually a cursed sigil, and there was nothing good about a curse, especially if it was in the real world.


    “Wait, let me make a call.”


    The people Hiro contacted were none other than Cara and Noah. Of course, he couldn’t easily convince the two of them to join him without mentioning the various promising offers.


    Cara said that she couldn’t log into the game tonight because there is a very important event that she had to attend. The event ended at 9 pm, however, if Cara was allowed toete… then she would be happy to join in. Even so, she had one condition, Hiro should go with her to meet one of her friends who became a big fan of NightFall after the girl was saved from the first yer killer. It was thanks to Hiro.


    The request sounded easy. But, as a yer who never get any attention from his achievements due to his older brother was too popr, Hiro felt that getting a real fan was quite awkward.


    Meanwhile Noah, he had no big ns for tonight. Still, he refused to join a raid party. For him, joined a raid would decrease his chances of getting rare items from the dungeon. In the end, he did not give an answer whether he agreed to participate or not.


    Hiro didn’t have the right to force them. It was a bit disappointing but still, he couldn’t do anything.


    “So how is it?” Jacob needed a confirmation. Actually, he had already guessed that the result looked bad from Hiro’s expression and reaction earlier.


    “I already told them where we will meet. But, I don’t know they wille or not.” Hiro shrugged his shoulders.


    Jacob sighed with Hiro’s answer. He hoped they could fight together again. This time, he admitted he liked Noah a bit, despite his narcissistic and annoying nature. He could feel that Noah was not that pure after seeing his actions to protect the defenseless cleric in thest second against the dragon monster.


    “I’m going to go out and take a break, Jacob. If you have time, it’s best to increase your strength before we meet at the meeting point.”


    Finally, Hiro could leave the game.


    [System off]


    [Logout]


    Hiro took off his VR helmet and found that the sun was shining brightly outside. It felt warm when it touched his toes. He looked around, but there was no one in the room. Hiro didn’t even see Alice’s shadow.


    Out of curiosity, Hiro stood up and went around, looking for the girl. Inside the apartment, there was only one room that was used as a bedroom, and it seemed that Alice was in that room. Not wanting to make her misunderstand, Hiro decided to take a bath using a water heater. The water felt normal even though the snow had filled the city. At least he didn’t take an ice bath.


    After cleaning his body, Hiro felt his stomach grumble. He wanted to eat something that could make his body feel warm. However, when he checked the refrigerator in the kitchen, he couldn’t find anything other than mineral water in a bottle that had frozen.


    Finally, Hiro decided to knock on Alice’s room and ask her where she kept the food.


    After several knocks on the door, he did not get any response.


    “Where did that girl go? Is she not inside?”


    Hiro’s assumption about Alice leaving him alone in the apartment grew stronger after he purposely pounded harder on the wooden door, but he still got no reply. Hiro decided to open the door and see what the girl was doing.


    Screech!


    Hiro poked his head into the room to take a peek. And at that moment, his eyes widened.


    Alice seemed to fall asleep sitting in an office chair with wheels. Her neck was tilted to the side, and it looked painful. Meanwhile, a white light was emitted from the surface of the android bracelet she was wearing. The light extended like a projector and cast the three giant transparent screens that were disying on a standby mode image in front of the chair Alice was sitting on.


    Hiro was amazed to see the three giant transparent screens. He had never seen anyone could pull out such arge screen from an android bracelet. Normally, the android bracelet could only disy a skinscreen that adjusted to the user’s hand size. He had no idea that the android bracelet could be used like a sophisticatedputer.


    However, he couldn’t stay there forever. Seeing Alice, who seemed to work too hard until the girl fell asleep, Hiro couldn’t let her stay in that position. He wasn’t that heartless.


    Hiro approached the girl to carry her onto the warm bed. When Hiro touched her, the android bracelet instantly turned off automatically, as if a super-advanced security system had been nted in it.


    It was the first time Hiro touched Alice. He realized that the girl’s body was very light. Her skin also felt cold because she was only wearing a thin tank top.


    “Sleep tight, Alice.” Hiro muttered afterying down Alice on the bed. He also covered her body with a thick nket.


    But, before he walked away, Alice’s hand suddenly gripped her wrist tightly.


    “No… don’t go… Yuujin. Please.”


    Alice furrowed her brows without even opening her eyes.