Chapter 1: Who He Is

She wasn't exactly sure who this person was.

Mikan cursed when the boss monster shot out a deflect shield, immediately transforming her character into a tiny ghost apparition. In the middle of her screen, a tiny message popped up: You will be revived to the nearest town.

Her screen then blacked out onto a different map, where she refilled her health bar and zipped back into the battlefield through a blue portal.

After a few minutes of smashing her main attack button and teleporting across the map, the feminine figure of the boss collapsed onto the ground and faded, resulting in rewards and game cash that spilled over the ground. Mikan's hazel eyes scanned over the screen until they landed on a pair of blue-ornate pants. Her jaw dropped to the floor.

"Oh my lord..."

Her hands quivered.

"YES YES YES!" she squealed, bouncing on her office chair. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I DID IT! It's complete!"

Still cheering, she clicked on her inventory, where she equipped the blue ornate pants. A nebulous blue haze now surrounded her avatar as her stats increased by 9% and a satisfying 140% boss damage smacked itself on the stats tab.

"I did it!" Mikan repeated, not believing her luck. She got off her chair, jumped a few more times, and was about to grab a celebratory drink before she spotted the familiar ign (In-game name) pop online.

Her fingers immediately snapped back to the keyboard as she typed to her buddies chat.

HazelOrbz: Dude, I just got the complete GAKUEN set with set effect! All stats 9% and 30% more boss damage. ;D I'm all good until I reach level 100 now!

Mikan then smirked a little before continuing.

HazelOrbz: Aren't you proud of me?

A couple of random buddies piped up to congratulate her, announcing their envy. Sure Mikan grinned at their jealousy. But she didn't want her brag to be directed at them (even though she thanked each of her buddies). She just wanted that person to reply.

Finally, after a couple of minutes, the ign popped up.

Flame: Noob.

Her eyes widened as she angrily typed back, aghast.

HazelOrbz: I just solo-ed one of the hardest bosses on Hard Mode!

Flame: Do Hell-Mode.

HazelOrbz: ...

Flame: Can't, huh? Nub.

HazelOrbz: -_-

"Curse my limitations as a support class!" Mikan growled as she exited the boss room. Her character ended up in a town, where she clicked on her buddies tab and hovered her mouse over his name. "Where is he anyways?" she mumbled.

Flame - Ch1 : Nifridia, it read. She edged her face closer to read the fine text before the buddies list blooped a notification.

Flame: Are you going to stalk me now?

She let out a yelp of surprise before her fingers ran through a lie.

HazelOrbz: No, weirdo! You're probably going to stalk me.

Flame: Who would want to stalk you?

HazelOrbz: You, duh.

Flame: Please. Flatter yourself.

HazelOrbz: I will, pooface!

TobyIllusion: haha you guys are funny.

Flame: I already got the set effect when I was level 60. What level are you again?

HazelOrbz: I'm a support class!

Flame: Excuses.

HazelOrbz: I'm only level 65 anyways! Only 5 levels from when you got the full equipment set!

Flame: I still call excuses.

PermKitty: Poor Toby got ignored.

TobyIllusion: . . .

She bristled in annoyance. Was a small congratulations from him too much to expect? She just wanted a "gratz" or whatever he said to others when they leveled or succeeded in something.

On her computer screen, another character popped up, jumping next to Mikan's. She changed the chatbox to 'General' and waited for the person to say something.

ShadowxStar: Hey, wanna like my character? I'll like yours back.

HazelOrbz: Sure.

ShadowxStar: haha thanks. I'm aiming for 700 likes.

HazelOrbz: Wow. That's a lot. Good luck.

ShadowxStar: I'm actually not that far away. I'm at 694 right now.

694?! Her eyes nearly budged out of their sockets. She double-clicked his profile, and sure enough, the blue numbers below his name flashed 694. It was definitely a lot, considering how new the game, GAKUEN ALICE, was. Because of its novelty, it was a small community. The beta trial had only ended a month ago, and no one seemed interested in things other than leveling to 100, which was the current maximum level. MIkan glanced at her own profile in sadness, the numbers reading only 15 likes.

Sighing in envy, she went back to ShadowxStar's profile and clicked the green arrow next to the numbers, upping it to 695.

-HazelOrbz raised ShadowxStar's likes-

HazelOrbz: Omg you have so many likes. How do you do it?

-ShadowxStar raised HazelOrbz's likes-

ShadowxStar: Haha thanks. And I just trade likes and stuff :D Just like what I did with you~

ShadowxStar: Oh, and I did quests that give you Likes too.

HazelOrbz: Ahh I see. I should do that more often.

ShadowxStar: Haha gl~

HazelOrbz: Thanks, you too!

The character jumped off the platform and disappeared when he touched the portal. However, seconds after he left, a red box blinked back at Mikan, reading: ShadowxStar wants to be your friend. Accept buddy request?

She instantly pressed the yes button. Her happy expression then turned amused when she saw a green-colored text invading the general chatbox.

Flame: What are you doing?

Flame: You're not talking in buddy chat.

HazelOrbz: Hm? Mr. Hotshot is personally whispering to me now?

Flame: Please. Flatter yourself.

HazelOrbz: I will.

Flame: ...

HazelOrbz: ...

Flame: Wanna do Hell-mode boss runs with me?

Flame: If not, I'm going to sleep.

Her fingers typed but immediately stopped in the middle when her stomach growled loudly. Her eyes flickered to the clock, which read 7:03 PM.

HazelOrbz: I wannnttt to. But I'm hungry.

Flame: Go eat, noob.

HazelOrbz: I wanna see what Hell-mode is like though...

Flame: Eat. It's so late.

Flame: And it's too pro for you.

HazelOrbz: It's 7?

HazelOrbz: And wow. Wow.

Flame: Oh yea, it's 10 here.

HazelOrbz: Ah, I forgot too. Time zones.

HazelOrbz: Don't you have class tomorrow?

Flame: Starts late.

Flame: How about you?

HazelOrbz: School starts next week.

Flame: Oh.

HazelOrbz: You should go to sleep still.

Flame: Go eat first.

HazelOrbz: ...

HazelOrbz: :c fine. I'm gonna go eat.

Flame: Have fun.

HazelOrbz: Pftt.

Mikan reluctantly got up from the computer screen and hobbled to the door, taking one last glance at the faraway chatbox. Something moved, but she sighed and opened the door, heading into the kitchen. She boiled some water and poured it into an instant udon cup, covering it for a few minutes before releasing the heated cap.

With a half-expectant heart, she brought her simple dinner over to the computer and frowned, clicking the buddy list. Flame wasn't on her list of online friends. Instead, when she clicked 'Reveal Online and Offline Buddies,' his name popped up in grey in contrast to the surrounding blue names.

She huffed a small sigh of disappointment. He really did go to sleep.

Mikan scrolled up her chatbox, only to see a spam of green texts from Flame that she missed while preparing dinner. Slurping her noodles, she read them while smiling.

Flame: Why pft?

Flame: ...

Flame: Are you eating right now?

Flame: Of course you are. Idk why I asked.

Flame: You look worse with that blue aura.

Flame: Noob.

Flame: You must've really wanted the set effect.

Flame: Could've gotten it easily through Hell-mode, nub.

Flame: ...Gratz btw.

Mikan choked a little on her udon. After chugging down some soup, she sighed and grinned like an idiot. Finally, she got that 'Gratz.'

However, when she read on, her heart fluttered a bit.

-Flame raised HazelOrbz's likes-

Flame: Good night, Hazel.

-Flame is offline-

Sort of a Drabble that I wrote haha~ Yeahhhh. I think I should go to sleep. It's literally 1 AM right now. Night guys C:

-blessifier