“They’ll copy me over”, he finished. “The Ice Emperor will become a part of this game. An NPC. I’ll give him to Little Droplet.”

“What?” Bloody slurred the word a bit. He was holding his head, overwhelmed by the more than massive amount of info he had gotten. The priority was beginning to mix up in his head, and yet he didn’t doubt a single word. “You mean… You’re going to vanish?”

Ice nodded. “Yes. The Ice Emperor as a player will be permanently gone. He will live in the castle.”

“No way!” Bloody rejected the idea immediately. He shook his head like a rattle-drum. “No way, no way! You can’t do that! You can’t leave!”

“I have to. Bloody…” Ice reached out for the wolfman, but he took a step back.

The man’s lips were quivering, his eyes a tiny bit reddened. “Why would you agree? You… Is it that easy to leave me behind?”

“What?”

Bloody lowered his head. His messy hair fell over his face, hiding it, but his drooping ears were enough to know his current state of emotion. Ice stood in front of him, at a loss.

“Didn’t you promise me that we’d go explore the new areas together?”

Ice breathed in slowly. “I did.”

“And you wanted to help me gather new materials for my weapon.”

“...Yes.”

“You…” Bloody choked up a bit. “We’ve been playing together for years now.”

Whatever exact emotion he was feeling, it was quickly twisting into a rage that Ice could not understand. The wolfman’s fur bristled.

“So, why? Why are you leaving me here? I know that you want to help, but… Am I not important at all? Do you not mind not seeing me at all? Was I on my own, enjoying the time we spent together?” The bright yellow eyes were glistening. They were radiant, almost, as their owner talked himself into his rage. “I mind! I don’t want to be discarded! I want to explore together and fight together! I like having you by my side! Why do I have to lose the person I like to some stupid AI!”

Bloody shouted the last couple of words. Ice’s mouth hung open, stupefied. In the silence, only Bloody’s breathing could be heard.

Ice swallowed heavily, then awkwardly moved his eyes away. “Bloody…”

“What!”

“I’m… still a real person, even if I vanish inside the game”, he whispered slowly. “And… And actually, they said they’d let me create a new character. I won’t leave for long.”

Silence fell over them.

It was Bloody’s turn to stare, dumbfounded, his jaw hanging down. He sucked in a breath but didn’t manage to say anything at all.

Maybe they were both doing the same thing - repeating Bloody’s last sentence in their mind.

“Hey guys, do you-”

The door behind Ice creaked open. Spiderlily stood behind Blackstone, holding some sort of notebook, while the dwarf still had one hand on the handle.

“...”

“Oh, this is a baaaad moment…” Without waiting for an answer, Blackstone pulled the door shut again. Two sets of footsteps moved away from the room.

Bloody pulled a face. He dragged his hands over his slowly flushing cheeks before using them to hide his expression.

“I’m an idiot.”

A hiccup escaped the young man.

“...You’re not.”

“Yes, I am. I absolutely didn’t think that through. I totally overreacted there. It’s cause of this whole mess.”

Bloody’s ears pressed tighter into his hair. Ice still hadn’t moved an inch from where he stood.

“...I think it’s sweet…”

He wasn’t sure if Bloody heard the almost inaudible words. Either way, the beastman slapped his own cheeks and laughed very awkwardly, his body hitching from hiccups. “Anyway, I, hic, should probably… go. Do… hiccup stuff. Talk to Blackstone.”

“Xi Yang…”

Bloody stumbled half a step forward, trying to walk past Ice. He was still laughing nervously, although it got messed up by his hitching breathing. “I’ll… see you later…”

Ice quickly reached out to grab Bloody’s hand. I’m awkward, don’t make me do this was written all over his face. “Wait-”

“God, Jian Lin!” Bloody groaned. He tugged lightly at his hand, but didn’t rip it out of Ice’s grasp. “I really, really don’t need to hear a rejection! Can we just, please, think of this as a drunk episode or something?”

“I-”

“I know people always say, you can’t stay friends with someone you like, but I’ll tell you that that’s nonsense. You’re a precious friend and I’d hate having messed that up, so-”

“I-”

“Please?” Bloody whined.

Frustrated, Ice placed a hand on his own throat. Of course Bloody would misunderstand if he needed forever to talk, but-

But this-

He simply wasn’t used to it!

Blame Bloody for usually being so tolerant with Ice and always waiting! He hadn’t practised talking under pressure at all!

“I’m not… I mean, I-”

A small, frustrated sound escaped Ice. He held Bloody’s wrist tighter, afraid the other would run away. He needed a moment, just a moment.

“I also… also like you, so that’s why… why-”

He made his way through the broken sentence like a child learning how to talk.

“Huh?”

Bloody pressed out a word of surprise. His hiccups stopped.

Outside of the door, a group of people seemed to be approaching. They could make out Blackstone’s voice, urging everyone to leave, but the person approaching seemed to be Knightrider who blatantly ignored her.

Ice closed his eyes and quickly made a decision. “Log off. Please don’t ask, I’ll explain in a minute, but just log off.”

The moment he was done, he said the command to log off. He saw Bloody nod hurriedly as his vision faded to black.