VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 25: Butterfly
Percy and Valerie sat across from each other in a coffee shop close to the studio, laughing and joking with each other as they recounted what they had missed in each others lives and reminisced of the old times when they knew each other better.
But quite quickly, their conversation led into the revolutionary game they had both just participated in. Such was the nature of being absolute socially inept nerds, games would always come to the forefront of conversation. Honestly it was surprising they lasted this long without doing so.
"...And I just love how they do the elite enemy encounters," Valerie rambled excitedly while Percy bobbed his head along with a warm smile,
"Usually they would do just a skull or some other icon next to a health bar. But man I could feel how strong it was. It was like a hand squeezing at my heart, telling me that this thing was definitely going to kill me! It’s amazing!
The one I met was a rabbit, and I’m sure you’d think a rabbit is nothing, but you should have seen it! I only got away because I lured some people over and let some handsome idiot get his head blown off instead of me."
Percy let out another laugh, shaking his head and leaning back in his chair.
"Handsome idiot, huh? I guess that would make you the crazy lady with the wolf."
"Crazy lady with the... Wait! That was you?! Oh my god!" Valerie threw herself back in her chair, letting out a loud and uncontrolled laugh that drew a few looks from those enjoying their coffee around them, but she didn’t care. Every time she thought of that shocked and confused expression on that idiots face before it was blown to pieces, she wanted to laugh. The fact that she now knew it was Percy who was that idiot, made it even funnier.
Every time she was just about to calm down, she looked at his face again and it brought back the hilarity all over again.
Smirking to himself, and trying to hold in his own laughter, Percy muttered, "You know, I was wondering what it was that killed me. I don’t know if I should feel better now knowing it was a rabbit."
"Yeah well..." Belladonna replied, finally calming her laughter and wiping the tears from her eyes, "If it makes you feel any better, it was a really tough one. Plus you did such a good job as my bait, so you should be proud."
They chuckled again and were in a more light conversation about different game mechanics when their coffee finally arrived. The waitress practically dumped Valerie’s down in front of her, spilling a few drops onto the table, while delicately and slowly placing Percy’s down.
She even made sure to linger for a few seconds, leering at him like he was a piece of meat and spinning the cup around to show where she had written his name, along with a phone number.
With a wink at him, she left with a proud smile on her face, confident that she was much better than the cripple he was wasting his time with. She was right too, in all possible merits, Valerie knew this woman was better looking than her. That was just simple facts.
However, as she watched Percy’s face twist in annoyance and a hint of disgust at the sight of the phone number, she had to restrain her giggles.
A strange sensation tickled the back of her neck as Valerie lifted her coffee to her lips, ignoring the droplets spilled. For some reason, she felt the urge to look over her shoulder.
Her eyes rapidly scanned the room, searching for something. But even as she did so, she didn’t know what it was she was even looking for. It was just the instinctual feeling of being watched that made her glare at the other customers and as she took a sip of her drink.
As soon as the liquid touched her tongue, it was an explosion of taste. This was some damn good coffee, far too good to be the Synth-roast that she had ordered. This had to be actual coffee beans!
She quickly pulled the cup away and placed it down as if it burned her, and started to look over Percy’s shoulder to get the waitresses attention.
"Is something the matter?" Percy asked, finally getting over the phone number as he sipped his drink.
"Yeah... There must have been a mistake. They gave me someone else’s drink... god I hope I don’t need to pay for this, I don’t need real beans on my budget. It’s tight enough already."
"Oh, is that all? I did that. Like you said, it’s my treat. And if I’m going to be writing this off as a recruiting expense, I have to make it convincing. Can’t have a possible valuable recruit drinking synth swill, now can I?"
"Oh, uh... No. I guess you don’t. Thanks for that." She smiled behind her cup as she raised it to her lips and took another, proper drink this time. This time the rush of delicious taste was less shocking, and she had actual time to enjoy it. She even realised, on further inspection, that it had been prepared exactly how she liked it.
The right amount of milk and sugars - also the real stuff - to make her perfect drink. There was even a dash of chocolate dusting sprinkled in there. Which was even more odd, considering she had initially ordered a black coffee for pricing reasons.
At that moment, seemingly summoned by Percy’s mention of recruitment, Valerie’s phone began to ring as the screen showed that it was her brother. She immediately answered it and turned it to video mode as her brothers goofy face appeared on the screen alongside his girlfriend.
The two were complete opposites. Her brother was roughly 6’4 and made of muscle, as alongside regular gaming he was also a boxer. Although he mainly did it for fun, alongside his regular gym work.
Meanwhile his girlfriend, Lucy, was 4’10 and an adorable little dork. Black hair was always braided and she always wore round, wire framed glasses on her cute face.
What was new, however, was the ring on Lucy’s finger with the large glimmering rock on top of it.
"Oh wow, hey guys! I see the Anniversary dinner went well, Congratulations!"
Her brother, Jason, put his massive arm around his tiny fiance and pulled her closer, squeezing them both into the frame.
"Yeah, You were right about the ring too." He said with a laugh. They talked a little about the engagement, sharing details about the proposal before Jason moved on to the other event that had happened today.
"Thanks for covering for me at the beta test by the way, how did things go? Did you enjoy it at least?"
"Oh absolutely! It’s amazing. Definitely a must play, it’s like a whole new world. Super realistic, with a lot of variety and hidden details in the races. I’ve yet to unlock a class, but from what I’ve heard there is already some pretty good one’s that people have been messing around with.
Honestly, I think it’s going to be the game of the decade. Also... I met someone at the test that you know, and wants to talk to you."
She gave them a playful smirk before turning the phone around to face Percy. He gave them his best winning smile and gave a friendly wave towards the camera, but he had barely opened his mouth to give his own proposal before Jason immediately shot him down.
"No." Was all he said, in a completely blunt and monotonous voice.
"Damn... Not even letting me tell you the details? You know, the boys in legal worked really hard to craft the perfect deal to get you back." Percy said with a laugh. He pretended to be hurt and shocked by the rejection, but he had known it was coming since before the legal workers drafted up the offer.
He just didn’t care. All he had to do was present it, even if he knew that Jason would never accept it. That was his job done.
Without skipping a beat, the two men immediately started talking details about the game, with Valerie chiming in to give her own accounts of the new world that they had the pleasure of experiencing. By the time they had finished, their coffees were only half drunk and ice cold.
Thankfully, it was more than enough to convince both of them, Jason and Lucy, that they should play the game. They even made a promise to each other to play together some time, all four of them. It was going to be easier for Valerie to party up, but for Percy he would have to find some time away from the guild to actually enjoy himself.
After a few more minutes of conversation, Valerie eventually hung up the phone, finished her cold coffee and said goodbye to Percy. Although even as she was leaving, she still couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder with a suspicious eye as that same strange feeling tickled the back of her neck.
