Pride Online

An annoying chatter came through the phone in Wisana’s hand, getting a blowing wind sound from him in return. The tall one threw himself on the bed weakly.

“Yeah, I know.” Wisana drawled his voice. “You told me more than one hundred times already that there were some guys hitting on Orn in the game. So, what? Why should I care?”

“What? Are you sick or something? Why don’t you get all panicked?” The other end of the phone repeated, sounding so surprised that it made him burst out a loud laugh.

“Yeah, keep it in mind, mister Tunwa. A man like me is calm enough to not make a fuss out of that. Because I know Warunya well. It doesn’t matter how many people there are to flirt with her. No one’s gonna get together with her because right now she’s not interested in a romantic relationship.”

He was just acting cool now, although he was begging his dad for the console yesterday and hastily logging in to the game to check on her. But well, why would he want to tell his annoying best friend that?

“Oho! Why do you suddenly act so pro?” Tunwa retorted. “We all know that you’re only smoother behind her back, Wisana. You\'re just a typical headless chicken when you gotta talk to her in person.”

The said headless chicken got up from the bed, wishing that he could actually slap his friend on the head through the line.

“So, you don’t believe me, Na?”

“No. Was I not being clear enough?” Wisana grinned so widely.

Why would he believe this guy when he already proved that with his own eyes. If there was some guy there to hit on Warunya, that would be just Lord Inferno that would not stop following her!

“I have to say this as your friend, Na.” Tunwa continued with a loud laugh. “There’s a guy that is hitting on Orn. This one is the real tough man, also very good looking.”

The listener raised his eyebrows.

“Who?”

“No clues. I\'ve never seen his face. He\'s wearing a mask all the time.”

Hearing this made Wisana let out a chuckle.

It was not like he wanted to brag, but yeah, that was him!!

“Hey, but I can confirm he seems to be good-looking because Warunya’s so interested in this guy. She\'s never tired of talking about him with Nuch all day and all night. I\'m curious to know what the face behind the mask looks like, too. What if he actually looks ugly?”

“Well, Tun, he’s just a guy in the game. Why would you care?”

Yes... please stop caring about the masked guy! So, he could play the game peacefully!

Also, the face behind the mask would be just like this. It was not that ugly!

“Well, then, if you don’t believe me, I don’t know why I\'d keep talking,” Tunwa said, sounding like he was giving up. “Do you have work tomorrow?”

Wisana grinned as his best friend finally changed the topic.

“No, I don’t. I work every other day.”

“So, I can hang at your place tomorrow?” his best friend asked with a delighted voice. Unlike the room owner that frowned.

“What are you going to do here, Mister Tunwa.”

“Obviously, to meet your stepsister! Mrs. Nittaya’s daughter has to be so pretty as well. Aren\'t they like partly French? Please, Wisana, my best buddy, my love, let me come to your place, pretty please?”

“No. Stop meddling in. Go be a player in the game, not in my home.”

Wisana cut him off, incredibly sharp, making Tunwa forget all his words.

“Fine! I won’t be there. You\'re such an overly possessive man. ‘Can I meet your sister in Chiang Mai?’, No. ‘Can I meet your stepsister here in Bangkok?’, No. So I\'ll leave you guys alone, then, you stingy friend.”

The possessive brother laughed out loud, shaking his head.

“I’m not being processive over them. I just don’t want them to be associated with you and have their futures ruined.”

“Wow, sir,” Tunwa yelled through the phone. “Has anyone ever told you how irritating you are?!”

Wisana burst out laughing at that.

The familiarity that they had with each other made them feel so comfortable bickering like this and it became their routine already. Then Tunwa let out a sigh.

“Well, I need to sleep now. I have to meet up with Nuch.”

“Oh, where? In the Milky Way?” he teased.

“No. Do I look like that Kobori guy to you?”

Tunwa yelled at Wisana for the last time before he hung up. And Wisana was left there, laughing, so satisfied with the comeback he used to roast his friend. Wisana seemed to be on fire today. He put the phone on the headboard of his bed, glancing at a clock on the desk. It was past 8 now, he grinned so widely. Today he already did the chores, took a shower, had dinner, and separated with his stepsister into each bedroom.

Thinking of her, she was kind of nice. After she was crying, she managed to bring her normal mood back so fast that it made him wonder. When they were at the dinner table, she was so smiley and delighted like she did not actually cry very hard just a few moments ago. (Well, no, she did not.)

Well, there was no use overthinking. It was not like he could do anything about that anymore.

Then he glanced at the P.M. console that was fully charged, he grinned.

“Let’s go.”

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After he launched the game, he found himself being formed from many hologram pixels in the clearing near Tristan capital. There was no one around, and the monsters here were just a few funguses and the brown hown. The cold breeze of spring was blowing on the line of trees and the green grass.

“So, we’re back at the same spot where we logged off, huh.” He said after he could log in successfully. He looked around. All his clothes and items were the same as yesterday. At first, Wisana thought that he would appear in his pajamas like how he appeared in his university uniform.

So, the game only used the actual clothes that the players were wearing on the first log-in.

“Welcome back to Pride World, master.” A few seconds later, the sweet voice of Jinnie greeted him.

“Hi, Jinnie.” Wisana greeted her back, smiling. “How long was I away in game time?”

“You\'ve been offline for 38 hours and 27 minutes.”

Her answer made Wisana let out an ‘Um.’ in acknowledgement. It seemed like the time was so different. He was offline for ten hours, but here online, he missed a day.

“Jinnie, is May here?”

“Please wait a moment, ...Miss Maysa is now online. Do you want to contact her?”

“Sure,” Wisana replied with a smile. A second later, a blue information window popped out in front of his face with the word ‘Connect’ that it kept flickering for a long time. He started to get tired of waiting.

“Still doesn’t pick up?” Wisana asked, finally.

“No, master. She is not available.” hearing that, Wisana raised his eyebrows before he waved that screen away, still confused.

“Then, can you tell me where she is right now? I\'ll come to her.”

“Please wait a moment, ...Now Miss Maysa is at...”

Bing bong! You’ve got a mail!!

She was speaking in monotone, then she suddenly shifted to a cheerful voice for the mail notification, making the owner confused by that. Then he got amused at how the girly computer managed the information as he opened another information window quietly.

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Mail Inbox:

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Can’t talk right now. Things just got so messy, trying to fix it. Let\'s meet in the next 2 hours at Placeton Hotel in Tristan.

My room is 308. Password is ‘Vincent’.

And don’t wear the mask. I repeat, DO NOT WEAR THE MASK!

Maysa

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After reading his friend’s mail, Wisana got even more confused.

What was she up to? He really wanted to know why Maysa was acting strangely mysterious all of a sudden like this.

Also, why meet up in the hotel, though? Was she avoiding someone?

“It’s gonna be so long until two hours pass...” The muttered complaint came next, as he noticed that the monsters around were purposely keeping their distance from him. He guessed that the level’s differences rule was working. He remembered Maysa said that if players had more than 20 levels higher than the monsters’, they would fear the players and would not attack first.

So, let’s not waste time on them. Even though he farmed from these kinds of monsters all night, his levels would not be improved anyway. The proof was that when Wisana glanced at a brown hown, it immediately ran off with its tail between its legs. He frowned after it, feeling displeased from getting ignored so hard.

“I was just looking, and you ran like you were seeing a ghost (sigh!) Jinnie, can I have a direction to Tristan?”

“Sure, master.”

After that, a transparent screen popped out with the map on it, showing a freckling green dot to represent him and where he currently was, and a red dot for Tristan capital. And when he saw the distance between the two dots, it was not that far away.

“Let’s go take a walk in the city.”