“We were riding a bus and got into an accident. I thought that I was dead, but I found myself here… with her.” The guy slammed his fist on the ground once again. “I got excited when I got to see that cryptic message. I thought that it’s finally my time to shine and show my pro-gamer skills to her. But apparently… she’s also delighted because her favorite actor was here. Screw that Arthur… I hope he would choke on rice and die.”

A kindred spirit. The rest had given them space. They were too weirded out. But his mental state is not entirely different from the rest of the people here.

Jason got on one knee and patted his back. “My guy… What's your name?”

The guy wiped his nose, his eyes still following Arthur’s shadow at the exit of this room. Sharp eyes, a bit baggy, but well-defined nonetheless. His face is a bit thin and fair. This guy can actually get a love life if he really wanted to try. He’s just unlucky this time around. It might have worked if Arthur wasn’t here.

“Ezekiel.”

Jason scratched his cheek and sat beside him. “I’m Jason. We’re going to kill him, Ezekiel.”

Ezekiel chuckled. He wiped his face and finally got a little bit of himself together to sit properly by his side. He’s about to crack and crumble. However, he kept hoping that his crush would go back to him. Few minutes. Then, he smiled at Jason tenderly.

“Thanks. I really didn’t expect to be comforted right now. No one ever approached me, and—”

“If you ever try to explain your backstory to me about how you were bullied in high school and that she was the one that’s just nice to you, this conversation will be the last we’ll ever have.”

“You’re way off, dude.” Ezekiel looked away and scratched the back of his neck. “But that’s fair.”

“Were you about to, though?”

“Oh, definitely. I might as well do it now. But is it true though? You want to kill him? The guy has abs so defined and hard that you can grind cheese on them.”

Jason wanted to scream and bash his head on a rock. He smiled. “We can’t screw with that guy. He looks strong. There’s something in him too that I can’t wrap my head around.”

“Sooo…” Ezekiel looked at him, smiling as his voice trailed. “Wanna just hang back and hurl curses at him from afar? We’ll probably make a cake and celebrate if he dies again. Then, I’ll piss on his grave, maybe.”

They shared a laugh. They’re definitely best friends now, basically brothers in arms. This interaction is enough to have each other risk their lives for their brother in combat. Other than having a kindred spirit of hate towards Arthur, having another person who understands role-playing games is a godsend. His morale is pretty good too, other than his mental state about his crush getting stolen. They spent the next half hour sharing what they knew about this game.

“Do you want to stick with the bow? I’m cool with us looting corpses,” Jason continued.

For the most part, based on his interaction with Arthur and Ezekiel earlier, most of the people here have died. That means he must have, too, when he saw that girl jump from the building. Somehow, it was comforting.

“I’m comfortable with it,” Ezekiel answered. “I usually go with ranged characters or stealth archer builds when I play. I don’t have any experience with shooting bows, but I at least know what kind of stuff I can do with this.”

That rings true to him, too. Jason is fine with using daggers. He knows where to hit things. However, unfortunately, knowing where to hit doesn’t really equate to him knowing how to hit things. Their next step is to gain proper experience. They have to find a lone target, kill it, and then slowly map their way to the next floors until they find the floor boss.

“We need a tank,” Ezekiel added. “And it has to be a chick.”

“Dude…”

“I want to be able to move on.” Ezekiel rubbed his hands together. His eyes sharpened as his brain zoomed to pick out the best words that will not make him extremely suspicious right now. “I’m not saying that putting her in the same party as us will trigger a lot of romance flags that I'm searching for but… I am saying that if it happens, and if it will happen, it would be terrible of me to not act upon it. It is also equally terrible of me to not put myself in a position where this event cannot happen.”

“You…” Jason’s left eye twitched. “You don’t have a lot of friends, do you?”

“You are technically my third.”

“I see.” Jason cleared his throat. Ezekiel is downright questionable, but hearing from someone else, even indirectly that they consider him as their friend feels nice. Jason felt a little bit more confident. “I get it.”

Ezekiel gasped and looked at him, beaming. “This is a good day. I mean, our bus got hit… but this is a good day.”

“My point is…” Jason clapped Ezekiel’s shoulder. His eyes led Ezekiel’s vision to wander the area. He lowered his voice. “It is probably not a good idea to act desperate right now. This is technically your first meeting with everyone else, so let’s make it as cool as possible. Right now, we’re just two weird f-friends.”

“Understood.”

“We have to go out there and scout the area. We find some monsters to kill. And then, we have to return with new information in hand. By then, when we look more battle-hardened, we expand our party and maybe get a chick for you. I’m going to be your wingman.”

Ezekiel balled his fist and screamed. There was no sound. He just opened his mouth and breathed, his eyes welled with tears of joy. “My personal wingman.”

“So that’s the plan.” Jason caught himself smiling too. He did not mind this feeling. “Do you understand?”

“Got it. Step one, we get out there and kill monsters. Step two, get a girlfriend.”

“I feel like you skipped a few steps, but that’s good for me. I’ll scout. My job is to tank and keep the enemy on their toes with my dagger. Then, you shoot them.”

“Well.” Ezekiel smiled. “That’s assuming that they won’t die in the first shot.”