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(Edited)
The friends menu was now unlocked. So, the first thing Li Yan did was scan the buttons to request to add the four people whose buttons he got. Lily didn’t accept, probably because she was in a room, but the other three who were just with him quickly agreed.
Now that he had cleared an easy room, although melding, it still unlocked the missing interface options. The friend's menu was straight forward, and he found out that getting the buttons to add others only cost around 100 coins in the shop. Messages were only towards people added to your friend list, and teams just showed a guild interface, similar to an online game. You could request to join a team, or you could search teams. The names displayed under the team names were all nicknames and not actual names, probably due to privacy issues. To create a team was 1,000 coins, but to disband a team was 10,000.
There was a subcategory called rankings and the current rankings for first place was a team called Nightmare with the highest number of team points. The team points included an overall score of the quality of the players, such as coins and items, and then an average of the amount of rooms cleared between the players. Of course, this was just an average of the team’s clearances, it didn’t mean Nightmare had the highest number of rooms and points out of everyone total.
The next thing he unlocked was the forum. The forum was full of just random messages and requests that he wasn’t quite interested in. It seemed that you could take on requests, make temporary teams for certain rooms, or talk about the access card rooms. All of which Li Yan wasn’t experienced enough to give any input on.
“You stay there.” Li Yan told the black two-headed cat before going towards the bathroom. Although they no longer needed to eat or sleep, showering still felt necessary. Especially after spending three nights at Wonderland. Not to mention his shirt had a few cuts.
After showering, he opened the shop interface and bought a basic set of clothing that came with a few outfits for 50 coins. Leaving him with 1980 coins left. He was going to put on the sleepwear, but before he could he got a message from Lars asking to meet up at a bar. The message held a special teleportation invitation, and Li Yan was currently only in a towel so he had to dress quickly before he accepted it.
~~~
“Welcome.” Unlike what he had imagined, he was now in a dimly lit bar with a solemn piano playing in the background. Lars was behind the bar cleaning some glasses while another boy of thin stature was playing the piano on a small stage.
“Hello.” Li Yan nodded, not knowing whether or not to address Lars' name or not. Lars didn’t seem to care either way and invited him to sit on a barstool.
“Do you drink?” Li Yan shook his head no to which Lars just poured him a cup of water.
Li Yan played with the glass a bit, waiting to take a sip until after Lars spoke. But, he didn’t seem too anxious to say anything because he went back to cleaning glasses. The two sat in silence for a while as the boy finished playing the song on the piano.
As he got up, he started to walk over to the bar and Li Yan could finally fully see his appearance. He had striking white hair with black void-like eyes. An appearance that Li Yan wasn’t quite used to. He gave off a similar melancholy feeling that his music did.
“Is this who you wanted me to meet?” The boy asked Lars. Lars nodded and made a drink for the boy, seeming to guess what he would order. Li Yan could tell the two had a close relationship.
The boy turned towards Li Yan and looked at him then turned back to Lars. “His physical condition isn’t good.” Lars nodded. “He can improve it. Can’t you?” Li Yan was confused but still nodded.
The boy then nodded. “Not too bad, but I’ll have to see myself.”
His black eyes stared straight at Li Yan, scanning every part of his body from head to toe. “Hey record holder, are you really a One?”
Li Yan blanked out a bit before fully recognizing what the boy was saying. “How did you know? I didn’t share it.”
“We have our ways. So do others of course. They may not know what you look like, but we know your name.”
Lars nodded.
“How did you pass Mei’s room? Did you use force?” The boy seemed to be genuinely confused.
“No, it’s-” Li Yan paused for a bit before rubbing his neck slightly. “-embarrassing.”
They both gave a questioning look towards the pretty boy. “Well, I actually got scared by the timer so then my back hit the number pad and I got the code right.”
“...”
“So are you some kind of luck god?” The boy was more intrigued by Li Yan and leaned closer, their faces almost touching. Li Yan shook his head. “No no no, I don’t know why that happened.”
“It could have to do with the recent issues.” Lars stated, pulling the boy back by his collar. The boy sat back in his seat, not affected by the child-like action.
“Are you interested in teaming up?” The boy asked. Li Yan shook his head no. “You sure?”
“Yes, I don’t want to team up for now.” Li Yan confirmed. The boy looked slightly regretful, but didn’t press any further. “A shame.”
Lars just clicked his tongue and continued to clean the glasses at the bar. “Maybe you could join our organization.”
“Organization?”
“We wish to free ourselves from Nora.” Lars casually dropped the truth, almost as if he was asked the weather. “Not in the way of the one million, everyone should realize by now it’s a scam.” He gave a scoff.
Differing from what Lily had said, Lars and the boy both seemed to agree that Nora was a sort of evil. “You don’t have to join any of our teams or anything, but there are some meetings and possible requests that you may have to do.” The boy explained.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell others?”
“It’s not much of a secret if people dig hard enough. We have enough strength to fight back.” The boy waved his hand.
“I still need time to think about it.” After all, Li Yan hadn’t had enough time to develop his own opinions surrounding the IER, so it made no sense to hastily pick a side. “That’s fine.” The boy nodded.
“Perhaps we could make a temporary team next time?” The boy suggested, receiving a surprised look from Lars. “You want to play at an easy level?” Lars asked.
“Easy?” The boy was surprised. “Why don’t we just go to medium?”
Li Yan shook his head. “No, I’ll only be doing it easy for right now.”
The boy gave a sigh. “Tell me when you get to at least medium, or just contact Lars. I’ll show you the benefits of a team, but promise that until then you won’t join a team, okay?” The boy smiled childishly, but the determination within his eyes was surging.
“Hmmm…okay.” Li Yan didn’t plan on joining a team anyways. “But, I’m not promising myself to you guys either.”
The boy nodded in understanding. “That’s fine.” He took a sip of his drink and after a bit of silence he looked towards the piano on the stage. “Can you play?”
“No.” Li Yan said, also turning to look at the piano. The stage had a warm glow of light reflecting off the piano’s top, making the scene very serene, but desolate. There was a small microphone off to the side, probably for comedians or singers, but it was moved towards the shadows. In this way, the piano was the sole focus of everyone watching. Except, the only people in the bar at the moment were Lars, Li Yan, and the boy.
The boy took a bit before responding. He seemed to be thinking about something important as he stared longingly at the piano.
“You should learn.” The boy, who looked no more than fifteen, moved his hand over the rim of the glass in a mature mannerism. Completely unlike the age he presented. He slowly put his finger into the small glass, moving the ice to the bottom, holding it almost as if he was drowning it. The surrounding ice floated around his finger, making the scene look suffocating.
The drink was no longer drinkable.
“It’s sad, you know.” The boy glanced towards Li Yan, staring him directly in the eyes. Almost as if he could see the piano keys reflected in his eyes, the boy opened his mouth once again. “Not being able to play.”
~~~
The boy’s name was later learned to be Shiro, fitting of his white hair. He was of Japanese descent and unlike his appearance, he was actually older than Li Yan.
As learned from him, the IER stops time in a sense for people on Earth. Disregarding the fact the time on Nora is different from Earth, as dead people they naturally do not age.
“Think of Nora as a life preserve.” Shiro had said. “When you go back, you’ll be how you were before you came.”
Of course, this was all theoretical, but it seemed to be a welcome and agreed upon consensus among the players. Maybe due to denial, or just pure helpless optimism, no one wanted to think differently. Fighting to stay alive, just to come back to Earth fifty years later from when you died would be odd and chaos inducing, as said by Shiro and the others.
Humans were interesting. In their most desperate times, filling in the gaps are no longer theories, but actual facts.When there is nothing proving you wrong nor right, it must be correct because there is no other choice. Or there is no room to be “wrong.” That’s how Li Yan felt so far about the IER and Nora in itself.
Truly, it was impossible to say if Norians were human or not, but one thing is for sure is that they have human characteristics. In terms of personality, reactions, and looks, considering the management officer from earlier was a Norian and not another being.
No one really knows the truth, but they hold on to this set of unsettled rules to rely on. A beautiful yet tragic system, Li Yan thought.
After talking a bit to Shiro, Li Yan headed out of the bar that he learned was owned by Lars, named creatively “Lars Bars.” Lars said it sounded like the candy so he kept it. Li Yan had never tried the candy himself, but he did think Lars had a humorous mind.
Once Li Yan was gone from the bar, Shiro looked at Lars in silence as Lars ignored him. “We need more people, that is true.” Shiro finally seemed to back down and let out a breath. “But, I didn’t expect newbies to be so stubborn nowadays.”
“I think it’s just him.” Lars mentioned off-handedly. “That’s why you were interested in him in the first place, right?”
“True. I think if he would have agreed right away I would have not let him in.” Shiro laughed.
“Aren’t you scared he’ll snitch?” Rev came suddenly and settled herself on a barstool.
“Why are you here?” Lars finally revealed some obvious emotion on his face– disgust. “Aren’t you just mad you couldn’t recognize me? You’re still too young.” Rev laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
“He won’t.” Shiro suddenly said.
“Huh?” Rev seemed to forget her earlier question for a bit before remembering. “Ohhh.”
“If he does, we have people who can handle it anyways.” Shiro smiled, but a threat could obviously be heard in his tone.
“Ah, I should’ve known you’re not as nice as you appear to be, old man.” Rev shook her head while smiling. “I’m going, tell me when we are going to invite the new member in.”
Shiro didn’t verbally answer her, but gave her a wave of his hand, signaling her to leave. Although the bar was in Lars’ name, Shiro acted like he owned it. He didn’t bother to say any formalities to Lars before heading past the bar and into the lounge area to take a long awaited nap.
Back at the bar, Lars looked at the untouched drink left by Li Yan in slight remorse.
~~~
“Blice stop!” Li Yan wanted to stop the cat from scratching up his stuff, but they seemed to really not want to listen. “I’ll have to pay to fix this.” He sighed, watching the vicious cat. The cat head on the right stared at him cheekily while the one on the left kept licking her paws, seeming to not want a part in the petty battle.
From the amount of time he spent with the cat so far, he could tell that the left had the consciousness of Bunny while the right had Alice. For some reason, Alice seemed to be fairly hostile towards him, frequently trying to antagonize him in different methods. Perhaps it was a form of revenge for what happened before.
Speaking of before, Li Yan thought back to Wonderland. There were still many elements he didn’t quite grasp. Such as the end where the two men were revealed to be in a sort of occult. He really couldn’t have guessed it nor did it seem completely reasonable. Perhaps it was true, or perhaps it was just Alice and Bunny’s imagination that added to the end. No one would be able to tell except the people involved, but now it seemed that the only accessible ones were unable to fully communicate.
He glanced towards Blice who was curled up in a ball, the two cats giving each other a bath with their saliva. Almost like a mother and daughter cat, the two took care of each other and would never separate.
~~~
“A melding room? What’s next, no room?” A man with vibrant red hair sighed, running a gloved hand through it.
“Did you not check these rooms first?” A woman with white hair sneered, kicking the man in the waist. “Stupid.”
“Hey now, I did in fact check those rooms. They were all fine at the time.” The man sighed. “Maybe it has to do with the rebellion shit people are talking about.”
“We really never get a break!” The man cried out, leaning back on his chair and covering his eyes.
“Let them rebel, they won’t get far on their own. It’s better to lure out the rats out anyway.” A familiar man said, taking off his kitsune mask. A long scar went across his right eye, but his dark hair easily covered it.
“Things are just getting started, we can take our time.” He gave a slap to the table as he stood up and started to stretch. “I’m heading out again.” Then, he dissipated from the room, leaving behind only a hint of his woodsy scent.
“Again?” The man with the red hair covered his face. “Hey bro, you might get fired if mom comes back.” The white haired woman laughed.
“Don’t even mention it.” He waved at the woman who then disappeared from thin air similar to how the man with dark hair did earlier. Then, he sat alone in the room, readying himself to do another week's worth of paperwork.
~~~
