“What does it say exactly?” I ask, running my hand through my hair nervously.

“Congratulations.” Rose says with a puzzled expression, before she continues in a voice imitating a commercial you might see on TV. “‘You have killed a Beta Tester! Since the Beta Tester had no heir, you get all of his stuff! You also gain the title Beta Tester!’” She moves her hand, likely doing something with the blue window, “Then there is another one that says ‘Welcome to The Game Of The Gods! As our newest Beta Tester, A non disclosure agreement has been automatically signed by you. Unfortunately, the tutorial is no longer available, so you get to figure out how to survive all by yourself! Try not to die!’” She trails off at the end. “I am going crazy.” She says with finality.

“You aren’t even half way there.” I say with a smirk.

She looks at me curiously.

“Say Status.” I respond.

I am about to say more, but my attention is captured by the ring of students watching us. I see Blake and Damien in the crowd, but decide against waving them over. Some of the people next to them might take it as a chance to crowd us and I am really not in the mood for that right now.

“How did you know that would happen?” Rose says, bringing my attention back to her.

“Well, you asked for an explanation for what was going on…” I say shrugging. “Two Million people across the world were chosen to be Beta Testers for beings that call themselves gods. As far as I can tell, they are changing our world into a video game.”

She raises an eyebrow at me, “You can’t be serious.”

I lean back on my hands, watching as more and more vehicles pull into the parking lot. A school shooting means that everyone has to go home. “How else do you explain the blue screen in front of you?”

She looks away from me, going into deep thought.

We sit there for a few minutes before Rose continues, “I remember Mr. Monroe talking about you being a Beta Tester. So you get the screens too?” She asks.

I nod in response, before continuing with a thoughtful expression. “But now that I am thinking about it, I am surprised that he was able to talk about it around you, the non disclosure agreement is fairly absolute.”

Rose stands up with me, “What do you mean?”

“So far, I haven’t even been able to say the words ‘Beta Tester’ to anyone who isn’t already one.” I respond, looking at the crowd with a frown on my face. “Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he wasn’t talking to you, but to me? You didn’t seem to matter much in his mind, maybe he just didn’t even notice you standing there?”

“Maybe.” She says, shrugging.

My thoughts go to the man that is lying dead in that classroom. “Speaking of him, you seem offly calm about the whole situation. You killed him.”

Her gaze goes to the sky, almost as if she is looking for something. “You have seen me kill men before.”

I continue to look at her, waiting for more.

She sighs, “He planned to kill you. I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Her eyes briefly glance at me, before looking back at the sky. “Maybe I will cry later, but it won’t be for him. It will be because of the fact that I no longer feel the pain from killing someone. I’ve almost gotten used to it. That makes me want to cry more than anything else.”

I wrap my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to me.

She leans against me, a breath of relief escaping her mouth, “I have a list in my head. It’s a list of all of the people I have killed or have died because of me. The list has gotten longer than it has any right to be and his name will be added to the list.”

“If it is any consolation, Mr. Monroe was a really, really bad man.” I say, squeezing her to me before I stand up.

It occurs to me that Mr. Monroe’s assistant was never found, which means that they could be anyone in the crowd. I hold my hand out to Rose, helping her to her feet.

“We really shouldn’t be out in the open like this.” I start walking towards one of the school buildings, pulling her with me by her hand.

Some of the students follow us as we move towards the school building, probably hoping for some information about what happened.

I turn around a corner towards the entrance and immediately turn again, pulling Rose into the girl’s bathroom.

Pulling out my phone, I call Blake. It rings a few times before he picks up.

“Are they gone?” I ask him, looking at the cracked mirror that is a staple of this bathroom.

“Is who gone?” Blake asks, his tone calm.

I sigh, making sure my irritation is heard across the call. “The people who were following us when we left.”

“Most of them entered the science building. Where did you guys go?” The sound of people talking comes from his end of the line.

I look over at Rose, who is currently leaning against the wall across from the sinks, her gaze distracted by a blue window, or her own thoughts. “We are in the one place that every man wants to go, but would never dare to.”

“You hid in the girl’s bathroom again?” He responds, exasperation clear in his voice.

“Exactly.” I say with a smile.

“You should be able to come out now, most of the bloodthirsty horde is gone.” he says, referring to the students that were following us. “I can easily take you and Rose to the Rose Cafe- hey, just noticed that,” He says, remarking on the play on words. “You guys deserve a coffee after the days you have been through.”

“That would be great. Also, do you have some extra clothes?” I say, eyeing the sweater I put on Rose to hide the bloodstains from her bullet wound. A little bit of blood landed on my shirt as well.

Twenty minutes later, I am sitting in the back of Blake’s car, wearing a hoodie that shows a bald man punching a giant monster into pieces. Rose sits next to me, still wearing my sweater. It turns out that the boys only had one piece of extra clothing between them.

“Is this really all you have?” I ask, holding my newfound sweater out so that I can look at it.

“You are lucky that Damien had an extra sweater.” Blake says. Damien gives me a small wave from the front seat.

I sigh, leaning over to see what Rose is looking at on her phone. She is looking at the google search for ‘video games becoming real life’. Judging by the frown on her face, she isn’t having much luck.

I glance behind us, “Doesn’t it seem like that car is following us?” I point at sleek black car two cars behind us.

Rose twists around, looking at the car I am pointing at. “It’s probably somebody that my dad is having follow me. Yeah, I recognize the person in the front seat.”

I guess it makes sense, his daughter has been shot at at least twice in the last two days. I would send someone to follow her if I was in his place.

Our car pulls into a parking spot and we all get out of the car. Both of the boys enter the Cafe, I move to follow them, but Rose puts a hand on my arm, stopping me.

I glance at the car which was following us, it parked a couple spaces away.

“The first message I got, it said that I no longer have access to the tutorial. What does that mean exactly?” She asks.

I run my hands through my hair, putting it up in a ponytail as I think. “It means that you don’t have access to the tutorial.” I state the obvious, at her annoyed look, I continue “Which also means you don’t get to choose a weapon and you don’t get access to a mentor.” I look sideways at her, “But hey, look on the brightside, you don’t have to die.”

“I don’t have to die?” She repeats my last sentence. I open my mouth to explain, but she shakes her head, continuing, “no, that doesn’t matter right now, what do you mean by a weapon and a mentor?”

“When I entered the tutorial, I got to choose a weapon. That is where I got these gloves.” I show her the gloves that are still on my hands. “Then, I was transported to another… place. There I met Sheyla, my mentor. She told me a little bit about The Game Of The Gods.”

Rose nods along with what I am saying. She pauses when I am finished, almost as if she is expecting more. When she sees that I don’t plan on saying anything else, she continues “My status says that I have a hundred mana. Is mana what you used to trap those men behind an earth wall?”

“A hundred mana! That is totally unfair, I started with eighty.” I say with a frown. When I see Rose’s expression, I continue hurriedly “I didn’t use mana exactly, I used something called Psi. It is another kind of energy.”

I realize that our conversation is barely getting anywhere, so I adopt my best impression of a teacher and try to teach her everything that I know about The Game Of The Gods.

About halfway through with my explanation, I decide that I really need a cup of coffee. I walk into the Cafe, keeping my voice low so that no one can hear me explaining things to her.

Blake and Damien are caught up in their own conversation as I order a mocha for myself and an iced tea for Rose.

We walk over to a small table next to the window as I finish up my explanation with the little I know about the magical shop where I met Taylor.

Rose sips her iced tea as she digests the information that I had given her. “So Sheyla says that some kind of event is coming in two or three days, but you don’t know what it is?”

“Mhm.” I respond, distracted by something I thought I saw outside.

“Elena.” Rose calls my attention back to her with a worried frown. She follows my gaze outside. “What were you looking at?”

“Radioactive chemicals must be getting real common, because I thought I just saw a glowing butterfly.” I respond, carefully looking outside the window for any sign of it. Absentmindedly, I take a sip of my mocha.

I curse as the boiling hot liquid rolls over my tongue. I activate the healing in my gloves, curing my tongue of its burnt state.

“I don’t see anything.” Rose says, her gaze turning back to me. “By the way, I am rich now.” She says out of the blue, calmly taking another sip of her tea.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, stirring my mocha with a vengeance in response to its unprovoked attack on my tongue.

“Let’s just say that Scott Monroe didn’t need his teaching job.” She responds, her gaze moving towards a blue window that I can’t see.

“You should have payed for our drinks then.” My mind goes to the small amount of money that the Beta Tester I had killed had left me. Also those unique knives. Those must have been the weapons he chose from the tutorial. “It’s weird.” I say suddenly.

“What is weird?”

“How many benefits you get from killing another Beta Tester. I’m just surprised that killing would be encouraged so much.” I explain, my hand subconsciously tightening around my mocha cup.

“This whole thing is weird. Why give random people powers beyond anything else their world has ever seen? You are looking for reasons where there are none.” She says, a strange emotion evident in her voice.

“Maybe.” I respond, unconvinced.

She pulls out her phone, quickly checking something before looking back at me.

Rose

I check the time on my phone, 12:06, for some reason I thought it would be a lot later. It feels like more things happened today.

“[Status]” I say, still amazed by these blue screens that are appearing in front of me.

I look at the status screen in front of me with curiosity. I used to be really into MMORPGs when I was younger. To my younger self, this would have been a dream come true.

 

Rose Demor, Age:16, Lvl: 1, Class: N/A, Mana: 100, Health: 200, Sponsor: N/A Titles: Beta Tester, Mob Boss In Training, Watched By The Gods Special conditions: None Physical Condition: Healthy Physicality: Athletic 50% Brilliance: Genius 40% Equipment: Enchanted Bracelet

 

I glance over at Elena, who is still looking outside the window, waiting for that butterfly to appear.

“[Define Title Mob Boss In Training]” I say, remembering Elena telling me how titles worked.

Title: Mob Boss In Training Description: You have knowledge of the underworld, and the intrigue involved throughout its depths. 90% Bonus to scrying and gained ability to see loyalty of your subordinates. Knowledge of poisons, weapons and traps increased.

Interesting. “Elena. How do you scry?” I ask, pulling her attention away from the window.

She shrugs. “No clue. You can try using your mana.” Her attention goes back out the window with a concentrated look.

Elena had explained to me how to access my mana, but meditating just seems so… boring. I stretch my arms out, reaching towards the sky as I stretch, it doesn’t hurt to try.

I close my eyes, trying to think of nothing.

Thinking about nothing is hard because you keep wanting to think about how you are thinking about nothing.

But I try my best.

After a few minutes, I kinda feel like I might notice something a little different about my body.

The feeling is so small, that it could be my imagination. I sigh, bored with trying to meditate.

I look at Elena again, watching this beautiful girl that I have inexplicably fallen in love with. Her hair frames her face as she rests her chin on her hand, still looking out the window.

She notices me staring and smiles at me. I really have only known her for a few days, but I feel this connection with her that I can’t quite explain. I honestly expected to never see her again after she was shot because of me. But she stayed with me, holding me when I truly needed it.

I love her.

And it feels so weird to even think that, but it is true. There is a feeling deep in my heart calling me to her, I haven’t ever felt anything like it before.

“So… Does this count as our first date?” Elena asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“I don’t know, how do first dates usually go?” I ask in return. I feel a little embarrassed at my lack of experience when it comes to dating, I’ve never had a relationship before.

I mean sure, I’ve flirted with plenty of guys (and a couple of girls), but I’ve never felt safe enough with someone to date them. I could never know that they would be safe around me. My father’s string of shallow relationships doesn’t set the best example either.

“Well, not that I have any experience, but I think that it requires two people and both of them agreeing to go to a romantic place. Then they flirt, having fun as they do couple things.” Elena says, a sly smile on her face.

“Couple things?” I ask, my mouth matching hers in a smile.

She nods her head, “Yeah, like holding hands.” Her hand slowly goes to mine, almost as if she expects me to pull back. “And looking into each other’s eyes.” She continues, my eyes getting lost in the beautiful green that makes up her eyes. She leans over the small table towards me, “And sometimes, they kiss.” I tilt my head back, looking up at her as I feel her warm breath on my skin, our mouths just inches apart. She smiles provocatively at me, before pulling away, “but most people wait for the second date to do that.”

She winks at me, the conniving witch.