“Mr. Kwiky is still alive?” said Sawyer as we passed by Kiwi-Kwikstop. My youngest sister was pointing out all the changes on the street we lived on and was delighted there was something familiar. Only the paint of the convenience store older than me had changed.

"I was also surprised when I first saw it," I said. "I suppose its location on this corner is great, and that's why it's still in business."

Our car turned left, driving down the street to Vanguard Gaming. "Even this area has changed a lot," Sawyer commented.

"Wait till you see Starling Park up ahead," I said, referring to the place famous for drug deals back then. At least, that was the circulating rumors among us kids. I didn't know if that was true or just crazy stories made by bored children; the latter was probably the case. "It's a touristy spot now," I told Sawyer, who was wearing a skeptical look. "We can go there if you want."

"Yeah, okay," she said. "After we meet Boady's cousin. By the way, have you already thanked her for Boady's help to us in the past?"

Before my family left Egret City because of financial problems after Pops passed away, Boady offered to buy my character in Nornyr Online. It wasn't a whale character with premium items and currency. But that didn't mean that free-to-play characters couldn't have a high value. If they were well-built following the meta and had expensive gear, they'd fetch a reasonable price.

But mine wasn't like that at all.

A tank character had a relatively low price by default because buyers preferred DPSers. To make matters worse, I used an unconventional build and playstyle that wasn't familiar to most tank players—because I had meager resources, I had come up with an anti-meta strategy. The result was an essentially worthless character despite its achievements and ranking on the leaderboards.

It was like selling a house with a highly personalized design. It’d be tough to find a buyer for that unless extensive renovations were done.

Despite all that, Boady, the local whale of our neighborhood, both in real life and in Nornyr Online, bought it for the price of a high-end DPS account. I knew he did it to help my family without it being an outright handout—which I would've refused. And he was a swell guy for doing that.

"Shouldn't I rather thank Boady instead?" I said. "His cousin probably doesn't even know about it."

Sawyer shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno. They're still family, so you should do something for her."

"Like what?"

"A gift, maybe?"

"A gift…I think I have the perfect gift for her." I leaned forward in between the front seats of the car. "Jimmy, you have brought the coffee bag from my apartment, right?"

"Yes, sir. It's in the trunk."

"A coffee bag?" Sawyer asked with a raised brow.

“It's very expensive coffee given to me by a business associate as sort of a get-well present when he heard about my accident.”

I didn't tell her that it was berries pooped out by a jungle cat of some sort—if it was a cat. I had no idea why it was expensive as hell. Briefly browsing through stores online, I found out that it was even more costly than other brands of the same type of coffee. Must have something to do with being sourced from the ‘wild.’ That was what the label mentioned.

“I'm not a coffee connoisseur,” I said. “A cup from a gas station tasted better to me. I was thinking of giving it to you and Mom to try, but I forgot about it in our rush to leave the hotel. Might as well give it to Eclairs as a gift.”

"Eclairs? That's the name of Boady's cousin? Sounds cute. And yeah, that sounds like a nice gift. I don’t drink coffee nowadays, anyway. Flushing caffeine from my system."

"That's settled then," I said with a nod. Perhaps Eclairs would appreciate such an exotic gift.

Jimmy stopped the car by Vanguard Gaming and said, "We're here, sir."

“Thank you, Jimmy.” I held the door open for my sister because I was such a great brother.

"I remembered when you gave Mum that money," Sawyer said as she alighted from the car, referring to the money from Boady.

I chuckled at the memory. "Right, right. She wouldn't believe where I got it." At first, I told Mum a made-up story that the money was my savings from doing chores for the neighbors. The two of us knew that was a load of crap because I spent anything I earned on renting a PC at Vanguard Gaming every chance I got.

Eventually, I was forced to explain that Boady paid it to me. I didn't want to tell the truth because she wouldn't believe it. And she didn't.

It took a lot of convincing, and I even called Mason and Jefferson to help me explain until Mum accepted it. Accepted, not believed. I had an inkling that, to this day, Mum still thought I got the money from selling drugs or some other illegal activity.

"Woah, this place looks awesome now," Sawyer said, wide-eyed at the new look of Vanguard Gaming. She waved at a holographic advertisement for MCO, running her hand through the floating head of a roaring dragon. "Definitely looks a thousand times better compared to when I used to come here to fetch you because Mum's angry that you're late coming home." She laughed as she sauntered over to the WeeCees on display.

I asked an employee if we could speak to Eclairs, and he pointed me to the right side of the store.

That section, about a third of the floor space, was separated from the rest of the shop by a tinted glass wall. On the other side were people in bed pods wearing AU-VR Helms. Vanguard Gaming was renting out PCs in the past. Now, in keeping with the times, it was AU-VR Helms.

It was hard to tell through the dark glass, but a person who might be Eclairs was helping someone get on the pods and wear his helm.

"We'll just wait by the counter," I told the employee. I set the coffee bag on the counter and read its description because I didn’t have anything else to do. It was like reading the details on the shampoo while doing important business in the restroom.

But before I could educate myself more about the coffee that came out of a cat's butt, a bunch of kids ran into the store, excitedly yelling at each other.

Their group was made up of three boys and a girl. It was interesting that more girls were into gaming in this generation. In my time, girl gamers were rare. I hadn't seen a single girl playing computer games in Vanguard Gaming back then. The only times a girl could be there was if they were doing school projects or the like.

It made me snort when I saw them wearing Mother Core Online shirts. My heart was filled with delight when I noticed that the youngest kid wore an oversized shirt with a Mardukryon face on it. They were loudly bickering about the best race, as kids playing games were expected to do. If adults were to talk about the best race in a different context, I was sure that'd be a whole lot of trouble.

An employee told them to quiet down and wait because Eclairs was still busy.

Expectedly, the kids, being kids, continued with their hilarious arguments. It was ridiculous and entertaining that Sawyer stopped window shopping to observe them. We looked at each other, and she smirked at me, nudging her head toward the kids to say that I was like that before.

Suddenly, one of the kids blurted out the most offensive thing I had ever heard in my life. "Mardukryons suck balls!" he yelled at the smallest kid.

"No-no, they don’t," he said, almost crying. "Bro-brother told me—"

"They're just stuck on a mountain," said Lizard Boy, the first kid. He had a reptilian monster on his shirt, so I called him that.

"Their players are weak," another boy chimed in, Troll Kid, also because of his shirt. I couldn't believe I was hearing even more insulting words from the younger generation. Didn't he know that I, the Great Herald Stone, was a Mardukryon player? How could he not know such an important fact?

"No! Not weak," said the most awesomest kid, the future of our country. "Mardukryons are cool!"

"Cut that out, you jerks." The girl stepped in front of him.

"You should just go back home," Troll Kid said. "You know they won't allow you to play."

They continued their back and forth, and the most awesomest kid defended Marudkryons because they looked cool. It wasn't a strong argument, but I wasn't expecting much from someone his age.

I discerned from listening—funny that I was eavesdropping on children—his older brother was part of this group, and he was only a tag-along. However, his brother was helping at their parents' store the next block over and couldn’t join then. But this kid still insisted on visiting Vanguard Gaming.

"Come on, you guys." The employee was back and told them that units were now available for them to use. Troll Kid and Lizard Boy went to the right side of the store, leaving the girl and the most awesomest kid alone.

The girl told him, "Go back to your family’s store. We're going to play now," before rushing to join her friends.

But the most awesomest kid didn't follow her instructions. He stood still, his shoulders slumped. Then he sighed and stretched the front of his shirt, looking down at the Mardukryon picture.

"Hey, kid," I said, approaching him in the least threatening way possible.

He looked at me and said, "Mommy told me not to talk to strangers."

"It's fine. I’m not a pedophile kidnapper." Which was something a kidnapper would say.

"What's a pedo—"

"I'm not a stranger." I paused. "Okay, I am. That's good advice not to talk to strangers, so follow what your Mommy said. I'm just going to tell you that Mardukryons are cool. And Mardukryons are going to leave their mountain. Trust me."

"Really, mister?" His face lit up, completely forgetting his mother's advice. "How do you know?"

"Because I'm going to make it happen," I said, full of confidence in the inevitable future.

"Huh? How?"

"Oh, Bill. You're here again?" Eclairs came over in a huff. "I told you many times you're too young to play here. Where's your brother?" She called over another employee to escort the kid back to his family. She turned to me. "Hi there, Mr. Customer," she said with her hands on her hips. "I didn't know you're good with kids."

"Of course," I replied. Inspiring young minds is what I do, was what I wanted to say. Instead, I said, "I was also playing games when I was a kid."

"Same as Derrick," she said as she shook her head, calling Boady by his real name. "I just want to ban kids here, but he wouldn't let me. Actually, I want to stop renting VR units because it's not bringing in much money. But I have a small ownership share...anyway, Mr. Customer. What brings you here?"

"Have you ever tried coffee from a cat's butt?"