When I said a 6-month posting schedule in the last chapter, I never meant that as a jinx. 2020 is such a b-. All my plans for this year had been thrown out of the window because of the pandemic and my financial stability was like balancing a toothpick on the tip of your finger. Adding with me having more internships and volunteers to accomplish. Thankfully, now that I've finally secured my life a little bit, I finally find some time to write this story. Hirano's story (or at least his current arc) resonates surprisingly well with me, being that guy having to jumble with what I am passionate about and real life, so I just cannot find myself discontinuing this story.

To whoever is still reading, I really thank you all for sticking by!

Chapter 15: A Wink and A Smile

'I'll be a bit late today. Pick me up at 6:30 instead.'

That was the extent of my message to Nariko earlier today. I had hoped that an additional two hours would give me enough time to fix the major issue with my painting. I was wrong.

The last time I talked to Yuuki, I said that it would take me 3 weeks to accomplish this painting for the competition. Now two-third of the time had passed, and week 3 had rolled in. Now, to say that I hadn't finished would only be half true. Technically, I could just call it as is and submit it for evaluation, so I could get back to the ALO routine with her, but that would just be cheap. I did say I'd win the first prize to her; turning back on that would be a slap in that claim. And besides, like Yuuki's artistic willingness to perfect her sword combo, I too had the desire to make this submission the best it could be. Problem is…

It just looked superficial somehow.

The piece this time, to put it simply enough, was a cuddle scene between a wolf and a man in the midst of a heavy snowstorm. Obvious inspiration from the encounters of mine with the white wolf the other day, but with my own twist of artistic imagination on it. Most of the content were already there. The first layer of coloring and the major details had been added. But the ambiance of the bone-shivering weather wasn't exactly living up to my expectation. It didn't resemble the chaotic randomness of nature and, despite my attempts, instead still looked like it was touched upon by human hands. I had been working on that for hours now, and it still didn't look right.

The door to my room suddenly squeaked open.

"Nariko?"

"Hirano-kun. You're still here?"

It wasn't Nariko. She didn't have the cute orange braid and glasses.

"Hey, Satsuki. Your class is finished?"

"Yeah, I'm heading home now." She replied. "Are you doing your art project for the competition?"

"Yep. Almost finished, though so far from so." I groaned a little as I put down my brush.

"You mind if I see it?" She said, as I shakily grabbed my cane and stood up. "Wow. It look so real! You're gonna submit this?"

"Uhh, yeah." I wasn't in the thought she would praise it as such, but she is still a general audience. "I'm not finished yet."

"Really?" She looked back at my painting, in awe. "This looks so good already. I couldn't think of anything else to add…"

"I'm still figuring out how to portray the snow around them. It doesn't look that realistic to me."

Satsuki tilted her head a little, twice.

"Ayeee, that's beyond me. You're a professional artist. I'm artistically deaf. I just see that they look real to me so it looks like good art."

"Alright, that's all I need to hear. Thanks for your valuable input" I chuckled full of suggestions. "I guess I'll ask Nariko. She knows her stuff."

"Na…riko." Satsuki looked at me with her eyes round. "That name sounds familiar."

"She's my new in-care nurse for I believe a couple of weeks now. Quite a character I would describe her. If I remember correctly, she used to be a-" The sound of the opening door interrupted me in my speech. "Ah, there she is!"

The woman with tied up dark blue hair while wearing an unusual sweater while the sun was still scorching outside. Seriously, I had no idea why she liked to sport that kind of attire.

"Ohh? Am I up for an interview or something~?" Nariko jokingly asked. "And is this your-"

"Ah ah." I quickly chimed in before she said the inevitable. "I know what you're gonna say."

"...friend?" She shrugged, obviously deflecting it to sound innocent. "I'm just asking dude. I'm gonna be your housemate for quite a while. Is it wrong that I learn about your social life a little?"

She sent a cheerful wink over to Satsuki. What a silver-tongued lady.

"For real though. Is this your friend?"

I nodded as both glances were on her. Caught a little off-guard at having to suddenly introduce herself, Satsuki gave a light bow to Nariko.

"I'm Satsuki Mihakawa, Hirano-san's friend. We talk quite often."

"We met during orientation of our first year, and have been hanging out since." I decided to back her up a little.

"Cool!" Nariko responded, in perfect English once again. "It's a pleasure to get to know you. As Hirano-kun might have already introduced, I am his carer from now on."

"It is mine as well."

"Anyway, are you ready to leave, Hirano-kun?"

"Yep." I nodded.

"Do you mind if I help you guys pack up?" Satsuki said.

"Of course not. Thanks for your help. You can…uh…hold the canvas for me."

"Should I wrap it?" She asked.

"No no no. It's still drying. It'll have to be contactless for now."

Satsuki nodded and begun packing up the easel holding the canvas. Nariko, already familiar with her cues, got all my belongings into my bags. I did my parts as well, but there's only so much I could do. Once we were ready, we headed down to the university gate and for the bus stop

"Alright, bus will be here in…five." Nariko checked the bus app on her phone.

"Eh, just in time."

"Uhh, Hirano-kun?" Satsuki asked.

"Yeah?"

"Are you free tonight? Since you said you're almost done with your work."

I tilted my head a little. "Yeah, I don't think I have anything to do. I'd try to finish this, but I can do it tomorrow morning."

"Nice! Then…uhh…do you mind helping me with a quest on ALO tonight?"

"Hmmm…" She could've asked the Sleeping Knights for that but... "Sure. It's been a while since we played."

It's not always about getting benefits out of a request. Sometimes they probably just wanna have some fun with others.

"Thanks, Hirano-kun. I'll message you after I get back?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Soon enough, the bus arrived.

"It's coming, we should line up."

Just as I said that as both me and Nariko moved over to the line of commuters…

"Ahh!"

A shriek shot through my ears from behind me. When I turned around…my painting was flat on the asphalt.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I don't mean to!"

Whatever she's speaking right now, I couldn't really remember. That slap of asphalt on my canvas was exactly what was slapping on my eardrums right there. My careful stroke of the brush, my meticulous details brought about by thirty two retries. THIRTY TWO. Laying flat…just there. Like my feelings right now.

"Oh god." Nariko shook her head as she calmly picked up my destroyed masterpiece. I could still feel the paint clinging onto the asphalt. That sound of her separating those two…that's my chest eating me from the inside. "Oh, there he goes. Every time he's in deep introspection."

"No, I'm just…" I said as I was passed the painting from Nariko. "I'm just wondering how to properly punish you here, Satsuki."

"Oh my~~" Nariko leaned away from me, her eyebrows clearly meant what she wanted to mean.

"Just no." I glared over, actually making her roll back her statement.

"Ahhh~~ My boy clearly is mad" Then she whispered to Satsuki. "You better watch the rage of a calm man."

"Imsosorryimsosorryimsosorryimsosorry. Pleasebeniceonmeplease!…"

Satsuki was literally on her knees trying to beg for forgiveness. Keep in mind she had done this before, ruining my color mixing, and I kinda let her go scot free. Now no forgiveness shall be given. For ruining another painting…

"Ohh…"

…or maybe not.

The painting looked like a mess just like I thought, but a lot of the spots that got hit by the asphalt…they ended up creating a very chaotic pattern on the canvas. With a little bit of reimagining in my head, this is pretty much how I would like it to turn out. The chaotic nature of the blizzard was best expressed by basically rubbing the painting on asphalt. Crazy huh? With a bit (a lot actually) of rework around this, I could come to a complete and finished piece very soon.

"Hmm, maybe I'll let it slide this time as well." Both surprised, Nariko and Satsuki looked at me in confusion. I simply just grinned. "But next time you take care of me, you're staying away from my work."

Just as I said that the bus arrived and commuters began to board. At the same time, Satsuki was breathing sighs of relief but soon seemed to realize what I was implying. "You mean…" She looked at me one last time before I boarded the bus.

And I instinctively flashed her a smile and a wink. "I'll see you tonight."

Later…

It had been quite a while since I logged into the game. Didn't think I would miss my avatar, even though the feelings were mild. But indeed things changed and life was catching up to me. Now the avatar had this one nostalgic aura to it. It felt like a reunion of some sort.

"You know what, it gets old after a while."

I had been using this avatar for almost a year now. The only few things I added along the way were pretty much armors for combat purposes rather than customization, and they didn't have much effect at all considering my playstyle lacked any sort of necessity for them. If anything, they slowed me down even more. So I figured, why not change my appearance up a little. A little bit of change doesn't make me vain.

After logging into my inn, I spent a couple of minutes in front of the wardrobe mirror looking over the options. Eventually, I decided to settle with the same length but comb over white hair, lending my forehead some rooms to breathe. It ended up looking a lot more neat than my old fluffy, and arguably messy, hair of mine. I also polished up my dressings a little. The light metallic plates that acted as my 'armor' for so long had been replaced with an even lighter brown sleeveless gambeson, buttoned together by four leather belts, worn over a dark green long-sleeved tunic shirt. I lost half my armor value thanks to that redecoration period of mine, but hey, half a small number is still a small number, so what the heck.

"Hmm, this looks better than I thought it would."

Clapping my leather boots on the floor a couple of times with my hands straightening my breeches, I would say this looked quite stylish. I was partly inspired by the renaissance dresses, and it turned out to be worth the looks. Would this be effective in combat? Probably not optimal at all, but I didn't take this game so seriously as I used to anymore.

'I wonder how Yuuki will like this new look.'

The brief thought passed through my head all of a sudden. I hoped this would make for a great reintroduction to her and the Sleeping Knights after a while being away from the game. But to my surprise, today Yuuki was offline. The friend list indicated that she had been off for only two hours, but it was so rare to ever see her not online, considering she was a 24-hour non-stop player.

Now that I thought about it carefully and thoroughly, it wasn't hard to explain at all.

That night we spent together in that inn. The story about her friend Merida and her late-sister Aiko. How they both passed away when Yuuki came to ALO. Yuuki also said she was a sickly child back in her elementary years. Also, the entire Sleeping Knights trying to avoid my questions about their personal life, to which even Satsuki noticed how funnily similar they were to me. It was obvious when you put all pieces together.

It's not just Yuuki, but perhaps all the Sleeping Knights members as well. Their lives were probably accompanied by illnesses and constant hospitalization. Which illness or disease in particular I wasn't sure, but I could say with confidence that none of them are easily accepted. The fact that they stayed in the game for a very long period of time would be an easy confirmation that they were being monitored by hospital staffs twenty-four seven. There are systems like that in my city hospitals too, and I could choose the care under that program, but the constant smell of disinfectant were too much to deal with everyday. But they existed, and they were probably participants in these programs in where they lived.

It all made sense. Why did it take that long for me to get it? No wonder why I once said to Yuuki it felt so at home with the Sleeping Knights. We were one of the same. We were all dealing with the same crap that we were in no ways prepared to deal with, especially for teenage youngsters who were probably fueled with hopes, determination and optimism for the future before being slapped with a cold hard brutal fate.

'Hirano-kun, where are you right now?'

While I was lost in thoughts, a message popped up in my chat inbox. It was from Satsuki. Oh shoot, I was about to be late!

As quickly as possible, I cleaned up the items I had sprawling around during my avatar redecoration, then checked my gears, have my saber equipped in my hips before looking in the mirror again one last time.

"Hmm." I stroke my chin a little as I pondered over my newfound appearance before flashing a wink and a smile to the mirror. The same one I gave to Satsuki earlier. "A year and it's still here."

A little optimism goes a long way.

It took a while for my trip to reach the arranged destination: The Ruins of the Stranded. Or rather outside of it. Because the place was characterized by an unusually thick and low-level layer of fog, covering an entire swath of forest. The fog itself had this eery feel to it. It was thinner the higher you go, but flying over it…you just had this urge, this unknown phantom force that made you want to fall into it. To be swallowed and engulfed by the menacing formless grey mist that was taking hold of whatever is inside it.

Far outside the fog, on top of one of the trees, the Undine's ice blue attire quickly stood out from the natural green surroundings. My arrival also attracted the girl's attention, as she gave me a quick wave.

"Sorry, I'm late. Did I keep you waiting?" I asked.

By the time I landed on top of the tree with her, she just finished tying her hair back up to the usual dual-braid that I knew perfectly well.

"Not for long. It's perfectly fine, Hirano-kun." Florence smiled before she noticed. "…did you just change your appearance?"

"Yeah." I hovered a little bit away for perfectly clear vision. "What do you think of this new look?"

My Undine friend looked a little hesitant, her breathing seemed to be withheld for a brief second. Her mouth was covered by the back of her hand, as she sheepishly peeked a look up and down my body, with the occasional glance away. This flustered attitude actually looked kinda cute.

"...I think you're very nice-looking." She replied rather straightforwardly, but she surely picked her words. "Very well-dressed."

You know what, I like this reaction of hers. I'd write this down.

"Thank you." I bowed amusingly. "So anyway, what's the quest you want me to help with today?"

"Ah, it's…" She looked over the menu again. "It's called 'The Deep Mist', according to the article. The reward is the 'Flare' spell. Summon a sphere of light that illuminates the surroundings and reveal all concealed enemies for ten seconds."

Wait what?

"That sounds stupidly broken." I piqued my eyebrows in surprise at the skill's description. "Does it also debuffs Metamorphasis and other Illusion spells like that?"

"It appears so, yeah. It reveals everyone in the vicinity of the spell in their true form, even illusion monsters"

Really? Ten seconds of being permanently spotted. Imagine trying to use a smoke spell to disengage from the fight then this thing is cast. Or even trying to ambush at all with the person wielding this. Poor Spriggans. They were already the most unpopular race of Alfheim and now this basically made the one questionable advantage into mincemeat and shoved it back to their bottoms.

"Yeah with that description I can imagine you would want this for sure." I chuckled. "I wonder how many people are going to go for this?"

"Hmm…not that many actually." She replied, to which my eyebrows piqued. "Players seem to think that the surrounding it's just too short ranged."

What?…

"Serious? What's the range exactly?"

"Ten meters."

That's not short at all.

"'It takes up 2 spell slots instead of one, and you have to put yourself in danger to use it. Smart players would just run away and cloak up again. It's a joke spell - not worth the time getting it.' - End quote. From a forum post I read yesterday." She said

Cheeses crust.

"Ayy…" My eyes nearly rolled out of my head. "I mean, I kinda get it to be honest."

With the playerbase's tendency to play solo nowadays, what even is teamwork anymore? If anyone needs an example, that fight with Yuuki in that wolf quest is one. And with people's hard work so easily ruined by a few's incompetence, I wouldn't blame people for continuing to play the game solo.

"But hey, that's good for us, isn't it? It's not gonna be so competitive." Satsuki said with an optimistic smile.

Indeed it would be.

"Though fighting in mists. That's not something I'm too familiar with, keep in mind."

"Ah, don't worry, I can light up targets with spells. The only thing you may want to pay attention to is obstacles around you, so you don't run into them when you're doing your speedy things." Florence replied

Ah then it didn't sound so bad anymore. It would be an issue for sure, but at least I wasn't fighting blind.

"Anyway, are you ready Hirano-kun?" The Undine smiled as she spawned the long Asian-style bow onto her hand.

"I am set. Let's light up the forest shall we?"

XXXXXX

The fog situation was actually worse than I thought it would.

"Oh watch out, there's a ledge here."

While we could figure out the general direction thanks to a compass system that was activated when we accepted the quest, whatever was in the way from here to there was anyone's guess. The fog also clouded the majority of our vision, as we were only able to see what was a few meters in front of us.

"How deep is it?" Florence asked as she edged closer to me, keeping me within her vision.

"Hold on." I summoned my wings and hovered down. "It's not deep, you can jump down from there."

"Ok…" She replied as she briefly sat down and let her feet over the ledge before dragging her body off of it. I simply held her hand as she recovered from the leap. "Thank you, Hirano-kun."

"You're welcome." I nodded with a smile. "This seems like a creak. I'll see how to get across."

Florence only gave me a nod as she clutched the bow tighter in her hands while I left the ground gently like the wind. I briefly left her sight for a couple of seconds as I scouted the terrain. The moment I landed on the other side of the creak, a high-pitched screech suddenly seethed through the damp chilly air.

'A bat?' The thought flashed through my head as I heard the sound. It didn't sound like the roar of a large creature.

The sound was followed by flaps of wind. Multiple of them. The latter flaps louder than previous ones. It didn't take long to realize that something was coming my way, but even that wasn't fast enough.

"Thurrghh!"

I saw a brief vision of blues before a huge thud pushed me straight into the creak behind me. I hit the water before the rocks beneath it slammed its cold wet body of solid onto my back. During the confusion, the water pushed me downstream quite a distance, until I ran into the shallow part where I could get a foot in.

I soon realized something was weighing down on my stomach. The creature that pushed me into the creak. Upon processing what was going on, it screeched straight at me again, trying to beat its wings to escape my grasp. But the right wing only twitched weakly in response. The impact earlier on me probably damaged it pretty damn hard.

"Hey, buddy. You alright?"

I tried reaching out for the creature. It appeared to be a dragon of some sort, covered in thick ice-blue fur, yet it was surprisingly warm as it squirmed on my stomach. Its eyes were bloodshot red, as it gave out another hiss upon seeing my hand. It also tried to bite me as the hand got closer, but I retracted it before it happened. Nevertheless, it failed to intimidate me away, as I reached my hand out again, this time with my palm upward, spread out bare before it. It looked at the hands for a brief few seconds, and slowly, slowly…the hostility faded away. Now filled with curiosity, the dragon put up its head and sniffed my hand. I simply let it do so before my fingers closed in and fiddled in its fluffs.

A few pettings later, its trust had been granted.

"Hirano-kun! Are you alright?!" I could hear Florence shouting repeatedly from upstream. She must have been worried.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" I finally gave out an answer. "Where are you?"

"I'm at uhh…uhhh…"

I realized that it was rather unproductive to ask that, so instead, "Can you mark yourself or something?"

That seemed to have done the trick, as shortly afterward one of the trees in the upstream direction suddenly glowed yellow around its silhouette. I gently turned the dragon around and held it firmly within my chest and flew in the direction of the glowed tree.

"Nicely done." I landed right beside the tree, where Florence was also standing next to, touching the bark with the tip of an arrow, also glowing yellow. "What did you do?"

"Oh, I just cast a glowing spell into the tip of the arrow and touch the tree with it. Cost much less mana than casting the entire tree." She replied as she lifted the arrow. The glowing quickly faded. Smart…

"What is that, Hirano-kun?" Florence noticed the injured dragon. Its right wing still twitched slightly, clearly in pain.

"The thing that pushed me down there earlier. It looks confused. Do you have healing spells or something you can use?"

"Healing? Sure." She noticed the right wing, already knowing the spell. "Grow, thou shall grow healthy…"

Once the codewords were said, glowing green dust quickly materialized on the palm of her hand. Florence then blew it, and the dust spiralized onto the dragon's wing. It twitched again, before seemingly expanding a little. And finally, it moved.

Now strong and healthy again, the dragon strongly and proudly beat its two wings and took flight, gliding around both of us in a short circuit. Having recognized their benefactors, the little creature took its turn and landed on both our shoulders or arms to give a little affectionate sniff on both our faces, but not without beating its wings wildly, like a kid showing off its proud toy.

"Ahaha, stop it!" Florence laughed as she tried to brush off the dragon's advance but to no avail. "I never thought game AIs are this smart."

"Oh, I heard they can develop sentience now, knowing what emotions are. That's what I've heard." I said as the dragon took to my side instead. I pet him and let him stand on my arm. "I don't think this is a native creature though. It looks more from an ice biome or water biome."

"I think you can check for names if they do name her…" Florence reached for the dragon, but her hand making the gesture to call the game interface instead, exactly how we did for our avatar. Surprisingly, it also worked for animals.

"Pina. The owner is a player called Silica. Now we can find this person and return the pet to them!"

"We have to find our own way out first though," I replied. "I figure it's probably gonna be just down the road, considering there's only one way we can traverse this quest's map."

"Sure, that makes sense."