Sadly, our bad stamina forced us to slow our run. After a gruesomely long walk, we left the forest and a vast plateau opened in the front of us; it stretched as far as we could see.

“One exploit I found should still work; just be careful, the monsters here have level 4,” I whispered to him and lightly stepped near the edge of forest. Although the sun set over the horizon, some of its last rays were still shining on the top of trees, but after a while even that vanished and we heard a long whistling sound.

Sounds of the ravaging of red foxes filled the night. They were the dwellers of this place in darker hours, and they tore up the poor gray wolves; their whimpers resounded all around.

I urged Lucas with a tug and we rushed without a sound, while the scary noises echoed around us. “Move faster! We can’t survive in one place for too long. The foxes would eat us whole!” It felt nothing like that during my QA work. I didn’t need to face any consequences when I died. This was different - was this the biggest draw of the live game?

Despite an icy wind, the goal was within reach; the clearing that looked so familiar. I gestured Lucas to lie down, and we halted, and that was in time, because a mighty red fox, two times taller than us, slowly walked over and sniffed around.

Lucas crept closer to me, closer than I would like - touching my side, and whispered into my ear, “Charlie, you are beyond crazy. My spark does a maximum of 6 damage, so it would take me at least two hours to kill this monstrosity. I don’t have either skill or mana.”

Triumphant smile showed up on my lips. “That’s true, my dear mage. You would need a full party, with good equipment for this boss. But with my exploit you can kill it, even if it takes two days. Frexie drops tasty things, for example, crafting materials. The most important of them all is a special beer recipe. Whoever scores the first kill has a hundred percent chance to get it, and we can make hundreds of golds brewing the beer.”

Lucas blinked a few times, then gently hugged me around my shoulders, and said, “Damn Charlie, when there is a booze, you are the first in the line.” Before I could protest his closeness, intense cries of battle penetrated the silent atmosphere.

We quickly disengaged and sneaked away from the Frexie — or rather, we crawled into a cover of bushes under her direct stare. An instinctive fear gripped my heart, and it beat so fast that I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.

“Ah, two lovebirds, at level one, sneaking around the dark forest! How romantic!” High-pitched female voice tugged my ears from behind. “We don’t have time for romanticism. Frexie is ours to take, lovers, and don’t even try to sabotage us,” she finished her sentence.

How could I miss her steps? Me, the valiant warrior. Oh, wait. I was level one noob priestess, that’s why. Anger at my inability reached a new high, and I wanted to smash something up, so I squeezed my poor stick in my hands, and it didn’t like that, because it visibly bent.

The mysterious girl had an entire group with her. Judging by their gear, I counted two tanks, a paladin, two mages, including her and two healers — a decently sized boss group. The game started only a couple hours ago, so they probably belonged to a guild, as Ian used to say, ‘Never mess with them’. Wait, wasn’t he playing the live game?

Observing them, I silently nodded and retreated without a word. Not Lucas. He glared at her with fiery eyes and refused to budge. I cast a quick gaze in his direction, only to find him already spurting his nonsense, “Who do you think you are? We were here first!”

The pace of my heart shot up again, and I wished to say something, yet I couldn’t. I needed to stop him, yet I couldn’t, and the world spun around. No way, stupid John! I opened my mouth, but to no avail; my body refused to talk. I hate this; I hate myself. Why was this game so realistic it gave me a panic attack?

Lucas’ remark infuriated her more — she stomped the ground towards him and yelled, “Who am I? You don’t realize who am I, do you?” After her loud words echoed a few times, a howl in the distance grew louder; the monsters detected us. Nice move, stupid girl. I tried to urge him with an annoyed stare to move, but he was fuming and ignoring me.

“I don’t care! You don’t own Frexie! What if we pull other foxes? What would you do then? Kill us?” That’s it. With a loud bang, I slapped him, clutched by a sleeve, and forcefully dragged out.

The other members of her group were grinning at us like as if we were two children. Not what I thought - that they’ll be like the smiles of punks, who sometimes wandered to Patrick’s and acted like the entire bar belonged to them. Then we had to educate them about a proper Irish culture.

Maybe she wasn’t a bad person and only wanted to secure the first kill for her guild? I didn’t care, though; I had to get away as fast as possible, or my body would pass out.

“Scram, before I slaughter you,” she threatened us, but her voice betrayed her warm emotion when she looked at me. “See your sweetheart? She is the rational one, make a haste. My name is Lisa, the fire goddess! Remember and fear that name!”

She dismissed us with a proud stare. Her priest shook his head in disbelief and whispered something to her. Lucas opened his mouth, so I had to silence mouth with my free hand and drag him away. Lisa, you say? I heard of her in the game’s pvp tournaments; maybe she was more famous than I remembered? She used to be quite strong, but then fell out of the glory.

After I pulled him far enough away, Lucas was fuming. “Charlie? What was that supposed to mean? You just stood there and then ran away with your tail between legs!”

I lowered my gaze, but I was still pulling his hand, because the sounds of spells and ferocious battle filled the forest, and the other dwellers ran towards Lisa and her group. Past us. “You know why. Do you remember the girl we met at the bar in highschool?”

He let me drag him and only ran his mouth, “Let’s say I remember how impossible you are in the reality; let’s say I know you get nervous. But this is a video game! If you won’t stand up to bullies here, where else?”

“Well, we don’t need to get Frexie,” I whined in a quiet voice. I couldn’t look him in the eyes, so I moved ahead. He glanced back at the clearing, where he could discern spark spells between trees. “Please, let’s go.” He followed me with a long sigh. “Lucas, don’t worry. We’ll get something even better.”

“I know, I know. You are right; they are stronger and have more numbers. I guess I got excited because of what you said all about the drops. The thing is, the debt collectors are on my heels as we speak-”

“Expect that we won’t make much money in the beginning,” I ended his sentence. Stupid Priest class, I would clear the tenth level class quest with a warrior already. “I can’t promise something exciting as Frexie, but the Goolems are fun to catch and kill! You’ll see!”

Lucas could walk only by sheer will, because they were playing for over four hours. Normally he would gobble his third energy drink already, but could he quit with her beside him? Charlie, cheerful as ever, was jumping from one boulder to another as they walked past the mountains.

Not only he looks like a Charlie, but their lively characters are similar. Well, John needed a few whiskey shots before, but it’s there. Should I have buried her along with my feelings? Am so selfish? Can I tell that to her? No, I can’t bear to lose her again. But what about my feelings? He… She’s my friend.

They reached some other region, and she was leaning against a rock and glaring at the ground. “Come on, Lucas! Answer me! What are you thinking about for so long?” Pointing down, she swayed her head to get his attention. “Can you dig or not?”

“Dig here? Why the heck would we dig?” Lucas looked at her with disbelief and thought if it was a good idea to follow her. Not because of his feelings, but because Dexter texted him about his fantastic adventures in the dungeon. The normally childish, inexperienced Dexter, who was bad at games, already got to a level 2.

“I told you that during our walk, were you thinking about energy drinks again?” Charlie squatted down and examined the ground with her small hand. But then she narrowed her eyes, as if she remembered something, and said, “Or perhaps you were gawking at my boobs again?”

Without waiting for his answer, she started digging a hole, and because they lacked any tool, she used her staff and even bare hands. Lucas couldn’t force himself to move and was thinking about contacting Dexter. It wasn’t too late to level up; this Charlie was crazy. Maybe something went wrong during the ID transfer. He needed the money, or face death.

She dirtied her sexy robe, and the staff looked like it was going to break soon. “Lucas, if you won’t help me, it’s going to take forever. Damn stamina, I can’t even dig a hole without being exhausted.” His heart ached when he saw her like this. He nodded to her in acknowledgement and then sank to his knees, the ground soft beneath him as he dug beside her.

It took them more than an hour, but the hole was over a three feet deep, so they were proud of it. It baffled Lucas how something as simple as a digging a hole could be so satisfying. Well, because I was beside the girl I love. Anyway, Charlie said she was going to pull something in, so he should make it deeper; if he wanted to. As if, when she left, he just lay on the grass.

Something rumbled and woke him up from his light sleep. He squinted his eyes as he tried to spot what was running at him, but they were still a far away. He hastily scrambled to his feet and prepared for a battle.

The one running was Charlie; she ran barefoot and chasing her were strange small things. They looked like small children, three-foot tall at max. But instead of skin, a stone covered them. Their head was bigger and round, and dark black stones replaced their eyes.

“Move!” she urged him and didn’t dare to look back. As Lucas jumped out of her path, she gracefully jumped over their hole, and her three pursuers fell into it.

“There you go! Way to catch monsters!” She jumped happily, but then collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. “The- The run was exhausting, though.” The things down there were bashing the wall, but they couldn’t move, and every time they moved their limbs, it sounded like a two rocks met and cracked.

Lucas trembled. Level nine mini bosses? “Do you want to tell me what that is?”

Charlie, still on the ground, pointed upwards with her hands and grinned happily. “Our feast!”