I sat down on the concrete-hard mattress, running my hands through my hair. The game somehow got my hair to stay upwards without any hair gel involved—which I was glad for, since the gel was damn gross. Droite shut the door, locking it behind her. She gazed over at me, her orange eyes tired and filled with homesickness. I knew the feeling; my brother and father were probably wondering why I hadn't gone to lunch with them today. Shaking my head, I opened my menu and switched to the map, looking over the coordinates.

"Alright, looks like the next city over is a large one," I stated, flicking towards a flashing blue icon. "I don't know how expensive it will be to get into that one, though."

Droite came over and summoned a piece of bread from her inventory. "Here," she said, handing it to me. I gave her a questioning glance as I took it from her. A sigh parted her lips. "I pick-pocketed that off of our neighbor. It won't last long, but... it should be enough to reach another city."

I bit off a piece of the brown pastry. It tasted stale, but it satisfied my hunger enough that my health bar started to regenerate. Droite and I had managed to make it to the nearest city, of which the name was in German and I wasn't going to take a chance at strangling it trying to pronounce or even spell it. Now, here we were, in a cheap hotel in the middle of a Free Level town. No food, except for the small loaf of bread we were sharing between us, and no water. Barely any ammo left from shooting creatures that had come across our path on the way here. Our health meters slowly depleting due to hunger and thirst. It just plain sucked to be us right now.

"You know what this feels like?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. My partner, who had taken a seat on the bed beside me, flicked her eyes over at me. "Survival mode in Minecraft."

She snorted, swallowing the chunk of doughy foodstuff she had chomped off. "Can't believe you still play that pixel game."

"It may be fifty years old, but it's still fun." I finished off my half of the loaf, feeling my stomach calm its shit for the moment. Swiping open my menu, I checked the time; almost midnight in-game. I wondered if time was moving like that outside 115 Online? Or was it faster? Slower? God, I wish I knew. "It's getting late. We should really rest."

"Alright, I'll take first watch." Standing, Droite dusted off her pants, going to the only chair in the room and plopping herself back into a sitting position.

"Wait, you didn't get a separate room?" I inquired, and she looked at me like that was the stupidest question she'd ever heard.

"Of course not, you moron." She sighed, pulling her pistol out and setting it on her lap. As she began to mess around with the settings of the gun—a feature we had discovered on the way here—she simply answered in a tone that grated my nerves. "For one, that would have blown all of my money. And two, considering the FL status of this place, we can't afford to both sleep. We have to do shifts throughout the night if you want to live more than a couple of hours."

I got her point, but for god's sakes she's a woman. I'd never slept in the same room as a person of the opposite gender before, and the mere thought of it bothered me. Staring at her, I didn't make any movement to actually sleep. She noticed, sighing and crossing her arms. Great, both of us were pissed off at each other; not a great start to this little party we had. This wasn't going to go anywhere, so begrudgingly I laid back on the bed, keeping my back turned to her so I could ignore her presence.

It was very difficult to sleep, with my thoughts forcing my mind to stay active and the clicks coming from where Droite was sitting inspecting her weapon. I wondered about my brother, how he was dealing with all of this. Haruto was only six; it must be hard seeing me in the state that my body was in outside in the real world. Worry gripped me; with my mind stuck in here, I wouldn't be able to protect him from anything. My body was catatonic while I was here inside my avatar. I knew I shouldn't have signed up for the beta; my friend Gauche had warned me about it.

I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep until I awoke to Droite roughly prodding my side, her pistol pointed at the door. Groaning, I flipped over and opened my eyes, about to ask what the hell was going on when a rotten hand punched its way through the weak wood of the door. Instantly my body went into action; I swiped my pistol out, checking the ammo quickly before aiming at the hand waving through the panels.

"Kaito, we need to get out of this town before another one gets into this hotel," my partner said in a near whisper, her focus directed at the zombie trying to make its way in here. I agreed with her, standing up and approaching the door cautiously. The creature was beginning to tear the door open with its teeth, a few molars and an incisor falling out of its mouth in the process. I took aim and pulled the trigger; the bullet landed in between the creature's eyes, rendering the zombie dead. The body slumped to the floor, the arm popping out of socket and tearing away from the corpse in the process. Even though this world was simulated, the stench of the rotting flesh made me wince.

Droite helped me open the door (the zombie had been an obese person in its days as a human) and we hurriedly fled onto the street. NPCs were running around in panic as zombies chased them. It was horrible watching a baby get devoured by its own mother. Shutting my eyes, I forced myself to not care; these were only animated people, they were created for this purpose. The only people that mattered were myself and my partner. Running along the decimated street, we managed to escape the town and into the dark of the night.

"We should be to the city by noon," I said, looking over my map. Droite didn't react to that, looking over her stats. I knew she was more concerned about money than anything else at this point; if we didn't have enough, we would have to go to yet another FL. I didn't want to risk that again; neither of us wanted to.

Droite stiffened suddenly and stopped in her tracks. I jogged on forward a couple of paces before stopping as well. She dropped her hand to her holster, preparing to pull her gun out if she needed to. After a few seconds, I realized what she was so freaked out about; someone was following us. I could hear something stepping around in the bushes that cropped up in bunches around this particular area.

"Whoever is there," she began, eyes narrowed, "come out or I'll kill you."

The person following us made a squeak, and they came out of the bushes, holding their hands up. My jaw nearly dropped at who it was; Gauche.

"Eri, calm down!" the muscular guy said, waving his hands back and forth. Droite let out a sigh, relaxing slightly at the sight of him.

"Gauche, what the hell are you doing inside this game?" she grumbled, clearly irritated by his appearance. "I thought you said you were going to China to visit your grandmother."

"Yeah, well..." He rubbed the back of his neck, not looking at her. His eyes landed on me, and he got this weird expression on his face. "Why are you with this moron?"

"Because." I looked back and forth between the two, trying to put the pieces together. Then it all made sense; Gauche's expression was one of jealousy.

I crossed my arms. "We're just partners right now, Gauche. There's nothing between us." That answer didn't satisfy him enough, so I decided to bring up something that was now bothering me. "So if you two are dating, who the hell is that Sachi girl that's always around you?"

Gauche knew better than to answer that, his violet eyes taking on a glaze of shame. I smirked, entertained by the fact that Droite looked at him in shock; yeah, sorry about that, partner. Apparently this guy was cheating on you the entire time you two were together. She sighed, taking out her pistol and without a second thought pulled the trigger. The older guy jumped and cried out as the bullet shattered his shin, amputating that part of his leg off due to the damage taken. Without a pain absorber, I couldn't blame him for sobbing in pain. My partner holstered her gun, walking towards me without so much as an expression on her face to show how pissed she was.

"Should we loot him?" she asked, her voice strangely monotone.

"Kill him if you want to," I replied jokingly. "After all, men like that are just horrible." At least, that's how I thought of men who cheated on their significant others.

Droite turned towards the guy lying on the ground sobbing and clutching his crippled leg. She pointed her gun at his head; quite a feat considering the distance between the two. Pulling the trigger, she killed his avatar with a head-shot, spewing blue shards into the air as his inventory spilled out onto the ground. My eyes widened; did she realize that she just killed a man, in real life? I was only lifting the mood; I wasn't expecting her to just kill him outright.

I looked at her. She seemed indifferent to what just happened; I wouldn't have blamed her due to what she just found out, but that was just cold. Our bodies died in the real world if we died here. Droite sighed heavily to herself, holstering her weapon and approaching the loot dropped by her action.

I went after her, looking through the weaponry. Droite had claimed a sniper rifle, which was nearly as large as her, but it looked pretty banged up. I picked up a Desert Eagle and a Glock. Whatever Gauche had done, he'd gotten more weapons than I thought were available in the first few hours in the game.

"Kaito," Droite said, poking my arm. I looked over at her. "I just killed him, didn't I."

It was worded like a question, but she said it like a sentence. She knew what she had done, and now it was starting to affect her. "Droite..." I murmured, unable to answer as she looked away, regret filling her features. I only looked at her as she stood, collecting half of the money dumped along with a couple of pain medications (this game's equivalent to healing potions). I placed what was left of the loot into my inventory, carefully gazing at her. She had hidden her grief underneath a hard exterior, so I just left her alone for the moment; I understood her pain.

I looked through my inventory as she took over the job of guiding us to the next city. Due to this little... skirmish, I'd received: ten thousand credits, a Desert Eagle in pristine condition, a Glock in less than desirable condition, some ammo for both guns, a laser sword thing (similar to a Light Saber, but not quite so), a black cloak, and some food. I looked at my health gauge, seeing that it was blinking yellow again; I grabbed a loaf of bread from my inventory and ate the entire thing. Droite had done the same, but with a chicken leg. That's when I noticed the status of her cursor, which was hovering above her head; it was red.

I couldn't remember what the red cursor meant, but I knew it couldn't be good. Besides, the poor girl was in a bad state already; I didn't want to push her anymore than she was willing to reveal.

The next city we stopped in was, oddly, named after Berlin, according to the records that popped up as soon as we entered its range. This settlement was called Brimline, an ML (Middle Level) city. The walls surrounding it were high, covered in wire at the top, and had NPC soldiers walking around its borders. A couple of soldiers gazed at us as we approached the front gate, holding up their assault rifles as we came closer.

Droite and I agreed to pay for the full cost together. When the soldiers asked for us to pay the entrance fee, a five thousand credit cost, we gave them our money and went inside. There were other players inside, which made me feel relieved. Finally we could ask around and see how to work the system a little better considering that the manual hadn't been of much use lately. But a few of the others looked at my partner and shrunk away from her. Droite wasn't affected by it much, but I could tell that it was bothering her.

"Oi, Kaito!" someone called from one of the outside restaurants. I looked around for a few seconds before spotting my cousin with his... Oh lord no.

"Mizael," I started, dragging along Droite as I approached the cafe. "What the hell are you doing here and why is your sister in this game with you."

The blonde girl, who had been quiet as she gazed at me, huffed. "Nice way to greet your cousins, Kaito."

Droite kept silent as I conversed with the other two. "Sylvia, you aren't one for games, especially a VR-MMORPG," I started, arms crossed. "And Mizael said he wouldn't be a beta tester for this."

"I lied so you wouldn't come looking for me," the guy muttered, flipping his long hair as he stretched out in his chair. "But looks like we're stuck together for the moment."

Sylvia kicked out a couple of chairs. "Sit down," she ordered. "I want to talk to your little girlfriend here."

"We aren't together," Droite snapped, sitting down before I could reply to Sylvia's comment. I plopped my ass into a chair next to my female cousin, who nudged my side knowingly, like she thought that I had a thing for Droite. I didn't, naturally, but dammit, this was making the whole situation worse.

"Seems like you have a red cursor," Mizael stated, drinking from his cup as he looked over my partner. "Red cursors mean that you've killed somebody already. Who pissed you off this time?"

"Mizael!" I growled. "Droite isn't exactly in the best shape right now, so can you shut your fucking mouth for five seconds?"

Sylvia nodded. "Bro, you need to shut up once in a while."

"I do," he complained.

"Your lips are still flapping. I suggest you check into that."

Seeing Sylvia order her twin around like that was quite hilarious, but the atmosphere was all wrong. I kept my laughter inside, glancing at my partner; she was as tense as a board, staring down at the wooden table and trying to hold tears in. I didn't know what I could do for her, so awkwardly I called a waiter over and bought a parfait from him. As the waiter disappeared, I decided to inspect my cousins, since I hadn't seen them face-to-face in over six months.

Sylvia was still as short as ever, but her hair was very short compared to what it looked like six months ago; it was cut all the way to her chin, and the weird feather type adornment in her hair wasn't straight up like her twin's. Mizael had tattooed red marks onto his face and arms, his hair much longer and falling around his waist. God, if I didn't know better I would think he was a girl.

The waiter came back, giving me the parfait and disappearing into the cafe. Gently, I pushed the cup to Droite, giving her a soft smile as she gazed at me in confusion. Sylvia had shut up, I noticed after Droite had cautiously started eating the treat, and nudged me in the side. I turned to her with a harsh glare, which she just shrugged off.

"Seriously," she whispered offhandedly, "you like her."

I pretended not to hear her, taking up a conversation with Mizael. "I was thinking," I began, catching his attention, "that we could all start a Legion together. That way we can reach the last floor quicker and all of us can get out at once."

"That sounds good," he said, dropping his empty cup on the table. "But I rather not co-found one. I'll join one if you and Droite create one together."

"Same," Sylvia stated. "Mizael and I are in a Legion but we hate it there. Maybe you two can make one."

I looked at Droite. I didn't mind the idea of creating one with her, but I didn't know if she felt the same. She was finishing up the parfait I had bought her. With a tiny smile, she gave me a small nod; she agreed with the idea.

"Alright, so does anyone actually know how to create one?" I asked. The table went silent. "...What?"

Sylvia sighed. "It's on your home menu, idiot."

I glared at her. "Excuse me for not having enough time to thoroughly inspect everything." Swiping open my menu, I sent an invitation to Droite through the Legion section, who accepted the request. She and I then sent invitations to my cousins, who accepted and dropped out of their Legion.

"We need a name," I said after the process was done. "Droite, do you have anything?"

"Something with Photon in it," she said quietly.

Mizael and Sylvia piped in too. "Photon Dragon?" they offered in unison.

I shrugged. "Sounds good," I said, typing the name into the text box. Once I hit the check-mark button, it brought me to an image creator screen. Swiping the menu, I passed it over to Droite, who looked at it curiously before realizing what I wanted her to do. She went to work and in a few minutes she had finished off the image. A dragon head with a read crest and skin in all kinds of blues. She confirmed the image and pins formed on our outfits.

Sylvia looked at the pin. "I figured that it would be something like this."

Mizael smirked. "Well, we have a PK on our side; makes this a whole lot easier."

At that, Droite frowned and looked down. I sent a glare towards the other male; he was crossing too many lines here, bringing up what my partner did. He shrugged.

"Droite, come on, let's go find a hotel," I said, standing. She followed me, her bangs shadowing her eyes as we left my cousins without a word.

Finding a hotel wasn't hard. There was one across the street, and it was a lot better than the one Droite and I had shacked up in before. I paid for a single room, nearly using up all my money to do so, and helped my partner there. Her resolve was starting to fracture; she probably wouldn't like to be in the open when her control finally broke.

Our room had two beds, which I was grateful for. Droite went to the one on the left side of the room, collapsing onto the mattress and hiding underneath the covers. I left her alone, sitting down on my bed and lying back. I swept open my inventory, looking over my stats; I had leveled up during the chaos of earlier today. Now I was a level eight, my HP a little over a thousand. I sighed heavily, shutting the menu and pulling the blankets over my body.

I heard Droite quietly sobbing to herself, her shoulders shaking as I gazed at her. She had her back turned to me but it was pretty damn obvious that she was upset. Biting my lip, I forced myself to ignore her; I didn't want to aggravate her any further than she was. Unfortunately that action didn't last long, and the urge to comfort her bothered me enough that I got up and went over to her. I tugged on her arm, turning her over so I could wrap my arms stiffly around her. She didn't know how to take this, but she simply pressed her face into my neck.

Even though I wasn't entirely comfortable with this, I held her. This was our reality now, and we had really no choice but to accept that our actions would choose our fate.