“So, Granny, how were things like during your childhood?” Laura asked.

“Just so you know, dear granddaughter, during my childhood, everything is harder than your childhood,” Ann would try mimicking the way an elderly would speak.

“Pfft… You’re really like a boomer,” Laura couldn’t help but laugh at Ann’s almost perfect impression.

“C’mon, I am not a boomer. How could I joke like that if I am?!” Ann switched back to her usual speaking method.

“Uhh, who knows you’re an immature boomer,” Laura shrugged.

“Hey, watch your mouth, you young one!” Ann switched her tone again as one of her hand was extended towards Laura. Ann’s pose was so close to a viral meme of a blue blob of a slime...

“Hahahahahaha!!” Laura laughed so hard tears started to form at the corner of her eyes.

 

“What are you laughing for?!” Ann asked again.

Now, for some reason, when Laura looked at Ann, she would be reminded of the blue slime meme and would end up laughing again…

“Hey!!”

“Sorry, sorry, I was reminded of a cute blue slime that was viral back in the modern world… HAHAHAHA!!” Laura ended up laughing again…

“You’re crazy! You belong to the mental hospital!” Ann was in utter disbelief. Yet, she couldn’t say anything because she actually had no clue what meme it was…

 

After a while, Laura finally managed to suppress her laughter and disassociate Ann to the slime meme.

“Okay Granny, let’s just skip the rest of today’s session. We need to talk,” Laura said.

“Yeah… but why is it that whenever I hear the word ‘we need to talk’, I quickly think that it’s what couples say before they talk about breaking up?” Ann said as she looked at Laura with a little disgust.

“I’m not insinuating that we’re a couple talking about breaking up! I am straight!” Laura quickly said.

“Me too!” Ann answered.

“Good!” Laura said before adding, “Don’t say anything weird like that again, Granny!”

“I can’t help it!” Ann protested.

 

“Okay, okay… Going back to the topic, let’s talk more about our origins,” Ann said after getting one last dirty look from Laura.

“Alright, then do you know about this…?”

The two started sharing the common topics back at their original world.

 

“Yeah, it was also hard back when I was alive there too,” Ann nodded.

“Eh, if you’re a boomer, then you don’t know what millennials or gen Z are experiencing,” Laura sighed.

“Look, I am not familiar with all those categories. But all I know is it’s really terrible during the time I live. Even if you work your bottom off, you’ll still struggle with living… Yeah, housing is quite… a pipe dream,” Ann heaved a long sigh when she remembered the dark time where she worked so hard that she ended up passing away…

“Huh, wait, that sounds similar to my era too…,” Laura began to ponder.

“Hey, we might as well be from the same generation…?” Ann asked, now genuinely curious about who Laura was.

 

“But there’s no way you didn’t know the pandemic if you are really someone from my generation…”

“Uhh, I died young,” Ann said after some deliberation.

“Huh?” Laura turned to look at Ann with curiosity.

“Yep. I was still in my twenties. Haven’t even gotten married,” Ann began to pity herself.

“Whoa… You’re actually older than your current body, whoa…,” Laura said with a mocking look on her face.

“I bet you’re the same, no?” Ann imitated Laura’s expression.

“Urk.”

“Haha, spot on, am I right?” Ann smugly smiled.

“Okay, okay, yeah… But I’ve been here ever since this body’s whole life… So I already forgot about it. You didn’t even know how I felt as if I was a crazy person, living for more than a decade with this memory of another world. People thought I was in a delusion,” Laura sighed.

 

“Huh… You were born as a baby again here?” Ann asked.

“Yeah. And if that story of yours is true, then it’s not been long since you suddenly woke up in someone’s body here?” Laura asked to clarify Ann’s story, now she was more convinced and didn’t have any thought that Ann was only pretending and that she was a vile person.

“Yeah,” Ann nodded.

“Whoa, body snatcher.”

“Not my intention!”

“But now you want to get that body to yourself, no?” Laura asked.

“Uh… Listen up. I know that this world is the setting of a game in our modern world. I know that the rightful owner of this body is no good and is destined to die anyway. I’m just… making use of what’s meant to be disposed anyway?” Ann tilted her head, trying to be seen as innocent as possible.

“That’s such a twisted logic,” Laura said with a look of disbelief before saying, “but that makes sense.”

“Hey, I am glad you actually agree with me!” Ann was very relieved.

Maybe, she didn’t need to be wary of this heroine at all! Maybe, she could genuinely be lifelong friend with this heroine in this world!

 

“So, in that game, who am I? What happened? Tell me more about it,” Laura asked, eyes full of curiosity.

“Uhm… I think it’s best to talk about it later. I want to talk more about original world first,” Ann said, hesitating to tell the whole story to Laura.

Before I know she is really my ally or not, I shouldn’t divulge every information to her!

“Oh okay. Anyway, back to the story of our modern world… I also died young, in my twenties,” Laura said with a bitter smile on her face.

“Huh? No way! What happened?” Ann asked, wondering if Laura had suffered from the same fate as herself. If so, they could really bond well over… dying from overworking. Truly a corporate slave.

“I told you that there was a pandemic. One that you didn’t know of,” Laura began explaining, “The pandemic took many lives and I happened to be one of its casualties.”

“Oh gosh… That sounds terrible,” Ann gasped. At the very least, she was thankful she didn’t have to live and experience what sounded to be a very terrifying pandemic. In her mind, documentary of past pandemic with tragic stories replayed in her mind.

 

“What was the disease like?” Ann asked, her mind imagining the gruesome symptoms of the deadliest pandemic ever known up to her death. Swollen body parts, seizures, gangrenes…

“Well, actually, it’s similar to flu or coughs… But it won’t go away and eventually it will make it hard for you to breath… It’s very contagious too…,” Laura began to narrate from experience.

“Whoa… Uhm…”

Ann was at loss for words as she couldn’t imagine that kind of disease becoming pandemic that took many lives. She always thought that the diseases that could turn into deadly pandemic would be so frightening. She had a hard time processing what she thought of it.

“You might not believe it until you live to experience it,” Laura sighed as she saw Ann’s complicated expression.

“Uhh, no thanks, let’s hope we won’t experience any pandemic here.”

“That, I agree.”

 

After a little bit of silence, Laura asked, “What about you? How did you die?”

In Laura’s mind, she imagined Ann dying in a tragic accident or because she had been chronically ill or something like that. She started to pity Ann.

“I died… of… overworking… I guess?” Ann stuttered.

“Huh?” Laura blinked several times.

“Look, it was hard. I was a corporate slave that had lack of rest for a long time. I did many overtime, hoping it’d get better and I finally could rest. But hey, I got more than I wished! I managed to get a forever rest! Imagine! Hahahaha…,” Ann wanted to wail.

“Uhhhmmm… Okay… T-that’s not a bad joke, but uhmm…,” Laura didn’t know what to say.

She contemplated for a moment before adding, “But I do know that there are many cases of people dying due to overworking. I think it has to do with their unhealthy habits and risks for heart attack, combined… So yeah, you’ve had it hard, I guess.”

“Right?”

 

“Actually, I had been overworked for a long time too before the pandemic. You see, my corporate is a big one but they are so stingy. There is a shortage of staff yet they didn’t do anything. Oh, and my boss! He’s so fat, bald, his beard unkempt, his skills lacking, yet he’s soooo bossy and act like he knows it all! He was born with a golden spoon so he could be the boss, but what if he was just like the rest of us?”

“Right, right!”

“And you know, the HR… Huh? Wait!”

At this point, Laura noticed something as she turned to look at Ann with utter disbelief on her face.

“What?” Ann asked.

“Why are you agreeing with me as if you worked in the same place as I did?”

“Uhhh, I worked in a similar corporate. And my boss is exactly as what you just described,” Ann said before she finally realized what Laura was surprised about.

 

“No way!” The two girls exclaimed at the same time.

“Hang on… Y-you… Y-y-y-you… You couldn’t be…?!” Laura stuttered so much that Ann wondered what happened.

“What is it?” Ann asked.

“You… Your name… is also Ann back then?” Laura asked.

“Yep. You know me?” Ann asked before she added another question, “Do I know you?”

“Uhm… Wait, the name Ann is so common. I’ve literally jumped on several Anns here that bore resemblances to the Ann that I knew that I was called a weirdo many times that it was traumatic and eventually I lost hope that the person I know was also here, and I even began to question the credibility of my past memories… I might be making things up…,” Laura began to pour her heart out.

“That… seems harsh,” Ann sympathized, now starting to understand why Laura didn’t really want to call her by her name back then.

 

“………,” Laura was staring at Ann wide-eyed, her mouth opening and closing, but she didn’t say anything.

“What? Just say it!” Ann was impatient at this point.

So, is she someone that I know or not?!

 

“Hold on, I’m thinking!” Laura said.

“Just reveal your full name back then in the modern world as well as the name of your corporation and the year you were working there, problem solved!” Ann was so impatient.

“That’s not fun! I want something more exciting!” Laura said.

“You’re really a weirdo!!!”

“Wait, I know!” Laura finally had an enlightenment.

 

“So, uhm… Do you know that there was a middle-aged woman working in our company… supposedly we’re working at the same place back then. She has this typical old lady get up. Her hair is tied up in a bun, her glasses thick…?” Laura asked.

“I think I know her. Yes, we definitely worked at the same place,” Ann was convinced, an excitement growing in her heart as she looked at Laura, trying to guess who she might have been.

“Okay. Now… She might look very uptight, but she’s actually the culprit of the disappearing food in the fridge, do you know that?”

“Oh, yes! I know that!”

“But how did you know that? Only me and one specific person knows that because…,” Laura stopped her words, looking at Ann in utter disbelief.

This time, Ann was also looking at Laura with a face full of disbelief, her mouth wide open as she said, “…because me and my best friend trapped her with a sandwich full of wasabi and that made her stop taking the food in the fridge without asking the owner of the food again…”

 

“…”

The two girls only stared at each other in silence, their mouth and eyes wide open.

Then, slowly, they pointed their trembling finger to each other.

“A-A-Ann…? Annie? That, really you?” Laura asked.

“No way… No way… Are you Lori?!” Ann’s pitch turned high the moment she mentioned Lori.

“YES! YESSS!! I AM LORIII!!” Laura’s voice turned into shriek.

“NO WAYYY! LORIII, IT’S ME, ANN, YOUR BESTIE IN THE CORPORATE SLAVE LIFE!!” Ann also shrieked.

The two girls then hugged each other in their excitement.

 

They were so happy they could finally reunite! Both were already thinking that it was impossible to encounter the acquaintance from their modern world, let alone to meet with their best friend here…

And yet, against all odds, here they were, finally finding each other…

‘I’m glad it’s you.’

Though not spoken, the two conveyed their feelings through their hugs and silent cries of joy.

 

Due to this, Ann didn’t even realize when a window box popped up next to Laura.

Written in the game box was…

[Congratulations on finding out the heroine’s secret! The heroine’s ‘more information’ section has been unlocked!]