I’m actually going on a date, I thought, as if that was some grand milestone of life I never expected I’d achieve.

  I led the way deeper into the village, into what was easily my favourite cafe in the game. Not that I visited cafes often, but I had good memories of this cute hardwood hut in the middle of the Sky Island Sect.

  A small terrace with flowers led to an open door. A cup of tea had been engraved to a sign, and that was all that indicated this was a public space at all. The interior looked surprisingly modern with a shiny dark wooden floor, cushioned leather chairs and round tables filling the small hut. Sunlight lit the cakes on the counter through a square window.

  The date started well. Or normally, at least. We ordered our drinks and cakes—I got a strawberry cake and the signature sky black tea, while Veyra ordered just a juice, saying she didn’t really like virtual food.

  I understood where she was coming from. Food in Wonderwind was a bit of an oddity. The taste and texture of foods was simulated with good clarity, but obviously, one’s stomach couldn’t be filled by eating in virtual reality. The feeling of hunger itself wasn’t simulated at all, which also made eating just feel weird.

  Nonetheless, we sat by the window, where sunlight shone right next to us, but didn’t hit the table or our seats. Veyra sipped her juice, looking rather awkward, while I enjoyed the first taste of my cake, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise after only eating hot dogs and instant noodles for a while.

  “Yeah, I know, a juice in a cafe,” Veyra said. “I’m a weirdo. I just don’t like hot things in my stomach, that's all.”

  “Everyone needs a hint of weirdness, though,” I said. “Otherwise, we’d all just be boring copies.”

  “If that’s true, what makes you weird?” Veyra asked. “You’re ordering normal cafe cakes like a regular person.”

  “I guess most people probably don’t visit cafes in dark cloaks?” I said.

  “If outfits can be considered weird, I’m way more out of place in a cafe with this dress.” She pinched and pulled at the bodice of her dress, where the upper part of her chest partly revealed itself. “This outfit is really quite the thing.”

  “Mm,” I said, nodding. “I like it.”

  Veyra gave me a look. “They’re really not this big in real life. Younger me just maxed out the boob slider when making the account.”

  “Tits are tits, or however the saying goes,” I said.

  Her deadpan stare continued. “Actually, maybe you are a weirdo.”

  I sipped my tea, smiling.

  Veyra eyed me suspiciously. “You said you wanted to ask me something and get to know me. Feel free to ask whatever, but I won’t promise I’ll answer.”

  She’s not in a good mood, I thought. Was the location wrong, after all? Did she not like coffee dates?

  No, I figured she must have just been nervous. I needed to silly things up.

  I calmly sipped my tea, and with a funny smile, said, “Alright, this is an important one. What’s your favourite color?”

  She blinked, then tilted her head forward.

  “It’s red, right?” I asked. “Or at least, it used to be red. These days, it might be blue. Blue like ice?”

  She continued staring at me, until she leaned back, crossing her legs. “It is blue, followed by red, yes, but not because of ice.” She sipped her juice, looking at me from the side of her eye. “Yours is black, I’m guessing?”

  “Yep,” I said. “Some people say black is not a color, but they’re wrong. Black is definitely a cool color.”

  “Black is a neutral color, neither warm nor cool,” Veyra said, and the side-eye continued.

  “My cloak makes me warm, at least,” I said.

  She smiled vaguely. “Well, black does suit you. Next question, that was lame.”

  “Alright, alright, more serious questions.” I placed my hand on my chin, as if thinking. “What was your favorite game before VR and Wonderwind?”

  “Favorite game?” Veyra said. “That’s Starcraft for sure. The original from the nineties.”

  “Oh,” I said, head perking up. “My dad tried that when I was young. I think he got stuck on some defence mission early on and quit.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Wait,” Veyra said. “Defend the base for thirty minutes? The third mission of the game? How does he get stuck there? That’s literally the easiest mission in the whole game!”

  “My dad is one hell of a genius,” I said. “He manages a construction company, but beating Starcraft was too difficult, apparently.”

  She was silent for a bit, glancing at me, as if trying to decide whether she should entertain the conversation or tell me this was stupid. Eventually, she said, “I used to be good at the game, actually. I got all the way to the B-rank on the ladder, playing with one hand. I think my strategies and tactics were good, but I was too slow playing with just the mouse.”

  “Can I ask, why one-handed?”

  “Eh, keyboard broke,” she said, sipping her juice. “My mom was an A+ rank player in Starcraft Broodwar though. She was actually good.”

  So she probably grew up poor, I thought, if she couldn’t buy a new keyboard.

  “I played one ranked game of Starcraft as well on my dad’s computer,” I said. “I still remember it.”

  “Oh, really?” Veyra asked, leaning forward, and a slight smile started to appear.

  “Yeah, the alien guys came up to my base right away and started building cannons before I even figured out the controls,” I said. “Then I got called a noob, and I lost.”

  She chuckled. “Losing to a cannon rush and quitting, that’s a classic.”

  I grinned, and the silly talk continued as we chatted about whatever, nothing at all important. Stuff like shows we used to watch as kids or hobbies we used to have.

  Veyra finished her juice and started to resemble her usual self—grinning and teasing me about the fact that I still listened to dubstep classics in this day and age, before admitting that she still had a few Monstercat songs on her playlist as well, though she didn’t listen to much music anymore. We both spent most of our time in Wonderwind, after all, where we couldn’t listen to music.

  After around fifteen minutes, there was one question I still really wanted an answer to. “Can I ask, what’s your real name?”

  “Oh,” she said and laughed. “It’s just Veyra. That’s my real name. This one is an old account I created when the game came out, until my mom told me I wasn’t allowed to play with my real name. So I created SevenStrife. Afterward, I was a little short on money, so I decided to just play on this account.”

  “Veyra is genuinely an awesome name, by the way,” I said.

  She blushed ever so slightly, and we moved to talk about our early days in Wonderwind as underaged kids. We both went through all the noob hurdles of being betrayed by players way older than us, losing our gear and crying about it, until we inevitably logged back in to play more.

  Quickly, I didn’t need to think about what I wanted to say, and the words began flowing on their own. The date just felt comfortable. I wasn’t nervous at all about whether Veyra liked me or not, and I didn’t think about the cheating allegations. We just talked with her about whatever nerd stuff we wanted to talk about, and it was awesome.

  Some time later, perhaps hours, I noticed that the angle of the sun shifted to now point at our table, when suddenly, Veyra flinched, as if she’d just remembered something.

  “Oh my god,” she said. “No, not now, goddammit, why again?”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Her voice was almost panicked. “I swear I’m not doing this on purpose. It’s a forced log-out again.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  Her goofiness and laughter turned to distress. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. This was a really good date. I’m not doing this on purpose. It’s just… why now?”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I had fun too.”

  “I’m not going to sleep yet, by the way. I’ll see if I can log back in.” She wore a hopeful expression. “Sometimes it lets me back in if I’m lucky.”

  She initiated a safe log-off, and just like that, she disappeared.

  I sat still, a little concerned, and also confused. Not one minute ago, we’d been casually talking. Now it was just… over?

  I faced our empty drinks and my plate for a few minutes, when I received a message.

  Veyra: “I’m back in!!! I’m coming, stay there!”

  I really didn’t need to wait long until Veyra burst into the cafe, now back on her Veyra account as a time mage. She ran back to the table with the widest grin I’d seen today. “I’m back! Oh my god, it actually let me back!”

  The grin was contagious, even though I had no idea what was going on. “Welcome back,” I said.

  She sat back down excitedly. “Finally some good news! I was thinking it was way too early to quit today. Hopefully it lets me stay in.”

  “Can I ask… Is there a reason why the forced log-outs happen?”

  She paused. “Right. I guess I’ve avoided speaking about this. It’s not because of my game pod. If it was, I would have just bought a new one.”

  “You mentioned that you hacked your game pod to stop it from logging you out,” I said. “And that was why you got banned?”

  “Yeah, it was a serious problem with guild raids,” Veyra said. “I kept getting logged out thanks to health risks. So I just thought I’d hack my game pod to stop it from happening. I knew that wasn’t allowed, but I did it anyway… So I got banned. Because apparently, ignoring the forced log-out is a serious health risk.”

  “Wait, it forces you to log out due to your health?” I asked.

  Her eyes wandered away. “It’s, uh, a bit personal. I didn’t really want to talk about it. But since we might date each other in the future, I might need to tell you…”

  I waited for her to continue.

  “It kicks me out due to health reasons, yeah,” Veyra said. “I have some sort of cyclic vomiting syndrome. I kind of just tend to puke everything I eat… And the game pod really doesn’t like that.”

  “Oh,” I said. “That’s… That sucks. Is it treatable?”

  “It’s fine,” Veyra said. “I have meds. They sometimes work.”

  I thought of how I could try to show my support, when she straightened her posture and with a nervous laugh, she hastily added, “I can handle myself! You don’t need to worry about me. The forced log-outs are usually false alarms anyway. They’re just annoying. I’m doing fine in real life. My health is just an annoyance, really.”

  “I’ll always help if you need something,” I said. “Might be hard to help overseas, though.”

  “I’m fine!” Veyra said, waving her hand as emphasis. “Really, don’t worry about me! But if the log-out happens again, you’ll know why.”

  I nodded, a genuine smile on my face. “Thanks for telling me. I’m glad you trust me.”

  She laughed awkwardly. “Should we go monster hunting now? To continue the date? You said you lost your ring, right? We’ll need a new one.”

  “I mean, fuck yeah, let’s go,” I said, and after over two hours, we finally prepared to exit the cafe.

  She’s not trying to belittle herself anymore, I thought. She’s not saying she’s pathetic. She’s saying she’s fine.

  I had no idea what the change in demeanor meant, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was seriously falling for her.

  20 chapters ahead on !