[AN: As a writer, I’m trying to improve and all, and I have a hard time really writing 1st Pov, so I’m trying something if there’s a - - section in the middle of a line, it’s a thought... I’ll try and keep it not in the way. Idk... Gimme some feedback if you want~]

Handing Elise a plushie- they’re cute after all- I flopped down onto my bed mumbling, “So what’s up? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.”

“Not much, once I left the Nationals scene I stayed in touch with a lot of people,” Elise explained, accepting the plushie and sitting down next to me, “After going to Uni I then got into game stuff and here I am... it’s been a weird path. How about you?”

“Nothing much~ I pretty much... I don’t know, I lived life normally. I’m transferring to a new university soon~!”

“That’s great! I hope it goes well~!” Elise congratulated, feeling my tail, “This tail is mega soft... I could stroke it forever!”

“Mnnnnnn... that sounds inappropriate Eliseeeee. So Rebecca and Victoria told me that this game is really, player skill-based... So are a lot of the national or Olympic athletes going to play this game? Hahhhhhhhh... keep stroking it there please~ it feels amazing...”

“Sure no problem, it’s fun to pet this soft fur after all,” Elise giggled, “I was talking to some of them, and surprisingly, most people aren’t going to be playing. We might see one or two athletes here or there, probably people not currently in the competitive scene though.”

Sitting up to face Elise, I asked, “Got it~ your social skills show their brilliance once again, Elise~! So what else is going on? Like... how do you juggle the game stuff and school?”

‘Like damn! I want to be making money from gaming while attending University... gotta get that pocket money after all!’

“My University is one of the more chill ones, and with my schedule, I have class every other day! On the gaming side though, outside of the game, when I’m not studying I spend my time practicing my sword skills,” Elise murmured, moving to sit right behind me, “The game is pretty dependent on player skill, so I spend a lot of time maintaining my sword skills~”

Leaning back into her, I retorted, “Sureeee, ‘maintaining’ your skills I see~ sureeeeeeee Elise... you only do the most basic drills to keep your technique, the rest of the time is spent on keeping your physique.”

“You’re not allowed to criticize me, Lilith,” Elise chided with a teasing smile, “How much have you done for either of those ever since you’ve left nationals~? Furthermore, how much have your skills deteriorated~?”

Looking away I whispered, “... I haven’t done anything really... and my skills haven’t deteriorated either...”

“See! I’m being unjustly attacked!!” Elise cried with fake indignation, “You’re more of a cheat than me!!”

Pouting I complained, “You’re lying! I’m not a ‘cheat’, I have a lot of places where I suck too!!”

Patting my ears with a smug expression, Elise giggled, “I know~ Like how you suck at lying, are very clumsy, have a really bad memory, how yo-”

“Stooooppppppp it, Elise!! You don’t need to name them!!”

Can’t let Elise start listing off my secrets, what if Rebecca overhears or something... my life would be over! Elise knows too much about me... why did I open up so much at nationals when I had no one else to talk too!! *sighhhhhh*

Deciding to change the topic I asked, “Elise~ you’ve got all the insider info right? Anything fun you can tell me about?”

“Hmm, let me think about for a second,” Elise answered, stroking MY chin for some reason, “Oh yeah~! There are two things that the game people don’t know if they’ll actually do or not, first is streaming support, second is esports. Did Victoria tell you about esports?”

“Nah... She just mentioned it, but didn’t have time to explain it to me.”

“Cool cool,” Elise nodded, hugging me from behind, “I’ll explain it then, it’s not too hard to explain~”

“Pretty much,” Elise began, resting her chin in between my new fox ears, “I’ll start with streaming... The deal with streaming is that the company wants to implement it, but can’t really find any way with the time dilation that the game has. Once they find a solution, I think they’ll probably implement streaming.”

“Ohhhh~ That’d be cool... if they ever figure it out, it’ll probably be with some techy mumbo jumbo that I wouldn’t understand, still cool though~!” I exclaimed, scooting down in between Elise’s legs so she doesn’t have to raise her chin so much, “What about esports then?”

Leaning back against my pillows while hugging me, Elise explained, “The esports would be easy to carry out, however, the game company has recently been rethinking if it even wants to have esports within the game... so far it’s looking... meh? I’m not too involved with it so I don’t know many of the details.”

Snuggling in closer, I asked, “Why did they suddenly get cold feet? Is there a specific reason?”

Thinking for a second, Elise responded, “The company wants to lure the big gaming affiliated organizations to the game, to make it big and stuff... so originally they were going to use esports. However, a new idea from one of the higher-ups is making them consider a different approach instead that might work better with the MMO style of the game.”

“Sooo likeeeee... are you allowed to say anything on what that ‘different approach’ might be?”

“Yeah, everything I know is pretty common knowledge... I think? I probably have a few misconceptions though,” Elise pondered, “they were talking about how the guild system might work... making the professional gamers compete for new raids and stuff. However, that was shot down for now though because it doesn’t bring enough... such as no trophies, how the raids aren’t for a while, and how you can’t really televise that.”

“I see~ so they’re considering just like... going with something else, adding onto that idea, or just going with esports?”

“Pretty much,” Elise agreed, relaxing while hugging me, “Not really my job though... I just play the game now... the hard testing has already been done~! If esports is a thing though, our tester guild will probably try and join in... we’ll probably be under some restrictions, but it would still be fun~!”

“Cool~!” I exclaimed, sinking into her hug, “You really taught me a lot just now~!”

Esiyx

I'm back~! I hope you didn't think i was dead... sorry about that...
I started releasing the rewrite of my first book though~!
You should search up "Spell Bound" because it hasn't been approved by WN yet...
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Today's AN might be a bit longer lol...
Yeah I realized I only did the thing I talked about in the beginning once... leaving it there though because you knowwww.... just in case...
Hope everyone is doing well... uhh...
School is harddddd... one of the reasons I haven't released as much... plus me being a lazy ass...
Oh yeah, I realized my novel (Spell Bound) wasn't blacklisted, yay~! fun times, it just hasn't been approved yet, so das cool~
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Oh yeah... sorry for the short chapter... I just wanted to get one out so you all knew I wasn't dead...