Chapter 10

There was no other person it could be that texted me. Somehow Andrew found out my phone number. I don't know how he did it, but hell, he did it. And such a threat. I bet this is from how much I insulted him. I heard he went to the hospital and tried to tell people what happened. But from his past records, and the lack of witnesses, nobody believed him.

I kind of feel sad for him, but as Maurice always says. "Bitch had it coming." What the hell am I doing? I just finished washing the dishes from dinner, and now I have plans for tonight. Not to waste any time, I've already booted up my laptop. All that had to happen now was the text from Uni that she and Nepgear were ready.

Surprisingly, it was Nepgear who texted me first. It read as such. "Hey Jack, could I come over to your apartment to play? I have my own laptop, Neptune is just being too loud for my liking. If you decline then that's alright." Why wouldn't I say yes? Not only will I get to hang out with one of my friends. But I'll be playing a game with them right next to me.

I hastily type "sure, come on over." Into my phone than click send. Tonight will be interesting to say the least. If I'm lucky, Vert will be amongst them. Then we'll be an unstoppable party. After last night's dragon fight, we need the strongest team we can muster.

After about a couple minutes of waiting, we get a knock at the door. "Jack! It's for you!" Nepgear opens my bedroom door. She pauses at the sight of it. It's not much of a room, but I like it. On the right corner furthest from the door is my bed. The covers aren't set, but hey, it is a boy's room after all. On the furthest left corner, I have a desk set up with of course, a chair. To its left, is a shelf with some sweet action figures. Among these is an Evangelion unit 02. It was a gift from Maurice, sadly he unboxed it.

"This room is… nice! Well, let's get started shall we?" Nodding, she opens up her laptop and boots it up. Logging into her account, I can view her avatar now. Her in game hair is a lighter shade of lilac than her real life hair. Eyes of blue now, unlike her lilac colored eyes. Her armor included a one piece white bathing suit looking thing. Unattached are sleeves on her arms with an N logo on the top of the hands. Upon her legs are white boots that go most of the way up her legs. It's also noticeable that there are lines of lilac in areas of the suit. The weapon she wields is a sword. The blade is glowing purple, it's thin though. Most of it is a machine looking part that can be used as a gun.

I've got to admit, she looks like she could kill my character ten times without breaking a sweat. Entering the virtual world, our characters begin walking together. The text I got from Uni told us to meet her in front of a dungeon. Taking a few more steps, I'm suddenly stopped by a tug on my sleeve. I turn to see Nepgear tugging on the jacket sleeve.

"Hm, what's up?"

"Um… thank you for… earlier. I'm in debt to you." I think her insecurity is showing again.

"You don't owe me anything, just being a friend." I offer her a friendly smile to show her she's fine. Wait, she's right next to me and we're talking in game? I think she's forgotten that she's in my room. All she does is nod at me, then we continue our walking to the dungeon.

After a few minutes of walking, we reach what appears to be a cave entrance. In front of it is a girl with white hair worn in two drills. Much like Nepgear, she wears a one piece bathing suit looking thing. Instead of the lilac lining though, she has silver. On the chest there is a silver circle. The sleeves of her suit are matching with the main body. Her boots are high-heels that cover most of her legs. The only major difference between the character and her real self is, she has no boobs.

Enough of being a pervert, we have business to attend to. I didn't notice before, but Vert is standing with Uni. This is exactly what I was hoping for. "So, the dungeon in front of us contains some rare items, and we need them. More importantly, I need the assault rifle parts contained here."

"You use guns?" I'm curious at this. Grinning, she holds out her right hand. A flash of light almost makes me blind. When I see what appeared, there's only one thing I can call it. A huge ass gun. My jaw dropped. Taking this as a good sign, Uni turns around and starts to walk through the cave entrance.

Having no other choice, I follow. Behind Uni is Nepgear, then to my right is Vert. I look over to the ever so seductive Vert. She takes notice of my staring and begins to speak to me. "Say Jack… would you like to ditch these two and have a little fun?" I have an idea about what her idea of fun is and I want no part of it.

"Sorry, I promised them I'd help them with this dungeon." When I say this she gets a slightly disappointed look in her eyes. It may have been interesting to have fun with her. But I have to help Nepgear and Uni first. Not that I like them more than Vert, it's just that… well, last time I was with her in this game we ended up making out.

"*CRASH!*" The wall next to us suddenly collapsed. Behind the rubble and dust, a worm is there. It has many rows of teeth, and is just scary as hell. Pulling out my revolver, I point it at the worm. The next thing I saw made me never want to mess with Uni ever.

She shot her gun. The blast was so powerful, it shook the foundations of the cave. Even after the worm started to retreat, she just kept firing at it. After all the smoke cleared, I saw a carcass of the enemy. It was bloody, and had so many holes in it. Oh god, she could kill me in one shot.

Now that the overkill is out of the way, Uni collects her items and gold from the kill then gestures us to move along. I don't know who elected her as leader of this ragtag band of misfits, but none of us disagree with her command. Just as we start walking again to reach the boss room, more enemies show up. These ones aren't NPC's though, they're actual players.

I know how this works. They find a dungeon, hide out until players come to collect the rare items there. Then ambush them. However, I don't plan on losing to some petty thugs. I know that my friends can take them, but they need their HP for the boss fight at the end. The best part of it all is… I might get them to like me more if I defend them.

"Let's make this nice and simple, hand us your items and we'll let you go." What I presume leader of this bandit group gives us the instructions. Like hell I'm going to give in to these demands. "No way, last time you said that you killed them all." Ok I don't know who the leader of this bandit group is, but I'm equally pissed of no matter what. "It's no fun if they know they're going to die."

"Shut the hell up. Ambushing three lovely ladies… that's pretty low." Am I begging to get murdered right here?

"Why you son of a bitch!" All of the bandits raise their swords in anger. I raise my sword in the right, and my new revolver in the left.

"Girls… stay back. You need to save your HP for the boss. Not to mention, I still have some leveling to do to catch up to all of you."

"What!? Why would we sta…"

"Because I don't want to see any of you get hurt!" What is coming over me?

Giving a frustrated nod, Uni decides to step back. Vert soon follows. It's me against over thirty bandits now. Not even NPC ones at that. What the hell have I gotten myself into? No time to take it back now, I have to fight. For all of our sakes.

A few members charge at me. Thanks to my new revolver being fifteen percent more accurate, I fire a shot in two of their faces. Instantly, their avatars fall to the cold hard floor dead. The next ones to run at me are met by a sword in their guts. For bandits, they have really crappy gear. After the fourth one has fallen, the remaining ones charge at me. I'm surrounded by noobs. They're like zombies, one you can handle, but add the horde and then it gets hard.

Doing a horizontal slash, I hit three of them with a light hit. It stuns them for a bit, but not enough damage for a kill. Pointing my revolver in the other direction, I fire a shot into a crowd. A few people were standing behind the person in the front. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. I get distracted from the shot though and a bandit lands a clean hit on me from the other direction. It doesn't take down that much of my health, but still, I should be careful.

Swinging my sword a few more times, four bandits take another hit. Alas no cigar, only one died. Swords hit me from the opposite side again. Damn, when I kill one, it's like three take their place. But I can't give up. Using my last two shots I had loaded in the revolver, I kill off only two more. With only a short sword left, I feel like this is a losing battle. Another sword hits my side.

"Agh!" Damn, my life is already in the yellow from these strikes. Wait… why my character can't move. Looking next to my health bar, I notice a lightning bolt symbol next to it. That can only mean one thing. Paralysis poison was on those blades of theirs. No wonder they make themselves look weak, once you get hit enough, the poison will take effect.

My avatar falls over. Surrounded by bandits now, I accept my fate. A sad one at that, perishing to protect your friends. All hope seemed lost, their swords kept coming down on me like rain. The health I had left was rapidly depleting. I'm sorry Vert… I'm sorry Uni… and most of all, I'm sorry Nepgear.

"*Flash!*" A purple light erupted out of nowhere. When I could see again, everyone was dead. Except one person, a lilac haired girl. She had saved me. "Ne… Nepgear, thanks, guess now I'm in debt to you." Now I'm the one who has issues?

"It's fine, all I'd like is a thank you. In real life preferably."

I turn around from my computer, only to see a smiling Nepgear. Vert and Uni would understand what I'm about to do next once I explain it to them. Putting my index finger on the power button of my laptop, it goes into sleep mode. Apparently Nepgear did this before me since her screen is already black. Guess I should thank her before she starts to debate within herself if she can get impatient.

"So… thanks Nepgear, you really saved me back there." Dammit, why'd I have to use the most common line in the book?

"You're welcome. Actually… it was my own way of saying thanks for comforting me earlier today."

Oh yeah, I had been so focused on saving my ass back there I forgot about that. It's not like I wouldn't, I made a girl cry by doing almost nothing. That takes talent. In the process, I think she gained a little self-confidence. The way she dissed herself in the car made me want puke right then and there. No one should ever say they're not worth worrying about.

"It was nothing, you would do the same for me." Giving off the most heartwarming smile I can, I look into hers eyes. They're beautiful, just the shade of lilac is so perfect. She returns the smile and closes her eyes. We were having a moment, a moment that might result in many good things to come.

I had been so wrapped up with talking to Nepgear, I didn't realize my hand was on top of hers. I jerk back, hoping she didn't notice my hand was on. I'd hate for all my chances for a realationship with her to be ruined by subconscious desires.

"Well, it's getting pretty late, I should get going." True enough she was right. My wall clock read ten thirty. Time sure does fly when you're having fun. "Ok… see you… see you tomorrow Nepgear." Damn, the stuttering my voice is so annoying.

Smiling happily, then nodding, Nepgear leaves. I could've sworn I saw something in her eyes before she left. It looked to be a power symbol. Impossible, she was far away, just an illusion. But the strangest part of it was I saw them glow for a split second. This was getting crazy. Interesting, but crazy.