VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 136: Lucky Winner

"You’re bringing the robot? Do you really think that’s necessary?" Percy called back to Valerie, as he was in the middle of loading one of her bags into the shuttle. Valerie rolled out of her apartment building with a small black case sitting on her lap, while Jinu trailed behind her and carried two more bags.

"First off, his name is Jinu." Valerie quickly replied with a scowl, as if she was offended that her man-servant had been referred to by anything but his name. How undignified.

"Jinu?" Percy muttered in confusion, before recognising the face stapled to the androids face and bobbing his head in understanding.

"Secondly," Valerie continued, "I am betting that this place, which you still haven’t told me anything about by the way, doesn’t have the type of accommodations I need. So unless you plan on helping me get in and out of the bath, then the robot is coming with us."

She finished speaking as she reached the shuttle, placing the case she was carrying in the backseat and securing it tightly, as Jinu put the rest of her bags in the boot, having to squeeze them in to make room for her chair too.

Once she was sure the case wasn’t going to move, Valerie frowned softly and tilted her head. Percy had been suspiciously quiet and, when she raised her head to look over at him, she saw him with his eyebrows raised as he thought deeply, as if he was seriously contemplating what she had said.

"Hey! I don’t know what thoughts are going through that idiot head of yours, but get them out now!" She shouted at him, her face flushed red. Percy snapped out of his thoughts with a strange look on his face, before flashing her his usual goofy smile.

"Sorry, I was just imagining you like one of those mermaids they used to tell stories about."

Valerie scoffed in annoyance, rolling her eyes as she turned away from Percy and started to get into the car, leaving her chair for Jinu to collect. Percy chuckled softly at her reaction, staring at her for a few seconds with a soft and complicated gaze, before shaking his head and getting into the shuttle himself.

Once everything was packed up and the robotic assistant was sitting in the backseat, Percy turned on the engine and took off, rising straight up into the air. Countless people in Valerie’s neighbourhood stared at the shuttle as it rose, as they had been since it first descended outside of her apartment building.

While she wasn’t exactly in a poor neighbourhood, it still wasn’t well off enough too see a Soaring Shuttle like it was a common occurrence or... Well, ever at all, really. Plenty of people’s eyes flashed as they took pictures with their implants and uploaded them to brag, as if seeing someone else’s wealth was something to brag about.

Naturally since they were uploaded, it didn’t take long for people to recognise him. His face was quite recognisable, in all of its stupid attractiveness, but no one noticed Valerie. Half the pictures didn’t even include her, and what did usually had half of her body cut out of the frame. Only one picture was actually taken properly of her, and that was just used to spread rumours about their connection.

As stories spun about why he was here, more people added that they had seen the two of them together with Kaleigh in a coffee shop not far from here. Rumours spread and stories spun, but none of the stories ever came close to suggesting a romantic connection, or even a friendly one, between the two of them.

Most of them assumed she was some kind of charity case or had won a competition of some kind. A "Win the day with Prince of Stars" type deal, which made people jealous that they hadn’t won this completely imaginary competition, and even petitioned to have another one run despite there never being a first one.

There was also the suggestion that, because of Jinu, they were taking her on as some live in maid for their, Percy and Kaleigh’s, love nest. That story won them a lot of sympathy points as people were so proud of them for helping out someone so useless and destitute.

For some reason that story spawned all sorts of new stories based on Valerie’s appearance and condition, until entire backstories had been crafted for her and woven by the public through baseless rumours until they were convinced it was the truth.

The two stories even intertwined, until the final verdict became that she won a day with Percy, and he had been so inspired by her "Bravery" - whatever that meant - that he decided to employ her as his live in maid. How kind of him, and what a true hero he was.

In the shuttle that was the talk of the town, Valerie’s phone buzzed in her pocket. However when she pulled it out to check, it was not about her scandalous new rumours. She was still blissfully unaware of those.

Instead it was a message from Lucy, asking her if she was going to be playing today as she really loved playing together last time and being the party’s tank.

Valerie smiled softly before being hit with a pang of guilt, as she took a few seconds to text back. Crafting a simple story that she had been caught with terrible shifts with work and was having to take the week off to deal with it, and that the two of them shouldn’t wait for her to enjoy themselves.

"You’re not telling them?" Percy asked, glancing over at her briefly.

"It’s rude to do that you know... But no, I’m not. Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I know how they’ll react and I just... I don’t want that. Not until I’m stronger, then I’ll tell them. Plus, they wanted to play to have fun and not stress about things. They deserve a week of fun, at least."

"Meh, You’ve taken enough on your shoulders. You’ve earned the right to be selfish once in a while." Percy replied with a warm, comforting smile.

"Besides, there is something I’m kind of worried about..."

"Oh? What’s that?"

"I’m wondering, if we can get the magic we have in the game, who’s to say it stops there? What if we turn into our game characters race too, or even get their appearance?"

"And you’re worried about it because he did the thing again, didn’t he?"

Valerie sighed heavily, "Yes... yes he did."

"Ah, so what was it this time? Fairy princess? Adorable girl with a sad past?"

"Fox-kin femboy healer, and a fluffy one at that." Valerie answered, smirking to herself as she tried to contain her laughter, her mind filled with images of her tall, intimidating brother with adorable fluffy ears sprouting from his head.

She glanced at Percy, who was thinking the exact same thing, and the pair of them immediately burst out laughing without having to say a word.