Kai decided to simply sit there for a couple of minutes and catch his breath. He felt overwhelmed – and not just because of the alcohol.
The tournament, the victory, shaking the CEO’s hand, and finally Maeve’s incredibly blunt and straightforward way of going after him… It was all a lot to digest.
Was it so obvious that he was a virgin? Or was it simply not usual for men his age nowadays?
The encounter had stressed him out and turned him on. What was wrong with him? According to Marco, every male and half of the females in this company would gladly be in his position. Why did he turn into an idiot with the IQ of a cucumber when it came to women? It was pathetic.
He sighed and shook his head.
Slowly, the world stopped spinning and he could see clearly again. Although the sky was overcast and the moon was hiding behind thick clouds, the artificial illumination was enough to see the park in its full nocturnal beauty.
His ears had also stopped buzzing. He could hear nightly noises now, which he wasn’t accustomed to at all, because there was no speck of green around the tenement canyons he called home. Soft wind blowing through the trees, crickets chirping, frogs croaking, someone crying…
Wait, what?
He lifted his head in surprise and listened.
Indeed, someone was crying softly, and close by.
Kai looked around, listening attentively. For a moment, the sobbing had stopped, and he almost thought he had imagined it. Then he heard it again. It was coming from the bridge over the pond, but he couldn’t see the person because trees hindered his view.
Slowly, Kai got up. He still felt shaky when he made his first steps, but it quickly got better. He decided to take a look. Maybe someone needed help?
The soft sobbing continued as he moved closer, and he was certain now that it had to be a female who was crying. He walked past the trees and stepped onto the bridge.
Kai froze. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Had he fallen asleep? It couldn’t be her. Impossible.
Yet he was awake, and he would have recognized the waist-long white hair and slender figure anywhere.
It was Alice who was standing there on the bridge, crying.
Seeing her like this felt like a spike in his heart. What reason could she have to stand there, alone, crying? She of all people?
The surprise was replaced by a deep feeling of tenderness. He wished for nothing more but to walk up to her and hold her, to make her tears stop.
Instead, he stood there for who knew how long, silently watching her. Like a creep.
After a moment, she must have heard or sensed something as she stopped sobbing and lifted her head.
Alice turned and looked at him. The illumination reflected by the lake hit her face and made it appear unearthly beautiful. He stared at her.
“I’m sorry,” he stuttered like a complete idiot. “I didn’t want to scare you… I… I just heard you and…”
She smiled, wiping away tears with the back of her hand. “You didn’t scare me. It takes more than that.”
“Um, ok… Are you alright?”
She nodded and put on a fake smile, trying to cover up how she felt. It was a good act. If Kai hadn’t seen her crying only a minute ago, he totally would have bought it.
Seeing her vulnerable like this made his feelings for her outright explode. So far, he had mostly admired her, her beauty, her courage, her skills. She had almost seemed like a superhero to him. Now, he realized that she was a human being like everyone else. The urge to step closer and comfort her became almost overwhelming.
“I’m fine,” she said. “That was nothing.”
Kai understood. He nodded, slowly coming closer.
“I won’t tell anyone what I saw. Actually, I didn’t see or hear anything at all.”
She smiled, and this time it was a genuine one.
“Thank you, Kai.”
His heart almost jumped out of his chest. She remembered who he was! She remembered his name!
It took him all his self-control not to show how excited this little thing made him. She was the supernova, and he was a nobody. The lowest member in the food chain. He would never have believed she’d even remember their encounter in the cafeteria, let alone that she’d remember his name.
Yet she must still have seen something in his face as her smile turned warm.
“I saw you in the tournament today. It was pretty impressive.”
His jaw dropped, but he couldn’t help it. Staring at her, he wondered if he had heard right or if she was maybe making fun of him.
But then he looked into her face and saw genuine kindness there. Could it be that she liked him? Well, surely not like that… or maybe a little bit?
Then he realized that he must look like a complete dork, staring at her with an open mouth and visibly drunk. Quickly, he got a grip on himself. At least, as much as he could.
“You… did? Really?”
She chuckled, and the sound of it shot happiness through his body like a bolt of electricity. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I have?”
He didn’t have an answer to that.
“I like watching the finals when time allows it,” she continued. “It feels like an eternity since I was allowed to participate for the last time. You were the best player on the field.”
Kai was grateful for the darkness that covered up his blushes as he knew that his cheeks had turned fire-red. Her acknowledging him was almost too much for him to handle. The whole situation felt like a dream. If it was, he hoped he’d never wake up from it.
“Thank you,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “I wish I could see you in action sometime. You’re so badass.”
“But you already have, don’t you remember?”
Again, he stared at her. How could she know it had been him, back in the spider liar in TSOTA? His avatar looked nothing like him.
“I do,” he said. “You saved my life. I think.”
She nodded, turning serious. “Most likely, I did.”
“Thank you,” he repeated, at a loss for words.
He hadn’t even noticed that he had come closer to her. She towered a few inches over him, and it wasn’t because she was wearing high heels. Her expensive-looking black-and-white boots were flats.
Alice shrugged. “It’s my job. No need to thank me.”
“You’re amazing,” he blurted out, and he could have slapped himself a second later. Was he insane? Or was it the alcohol speaking?
A sweet smile appeared on her face that made her look like a young girl. Kai wasn’t sure how old she was, but he assumed she was a couple of years older than him, maybe in her late twenties. It didn’t matter to him anyway.
“Thank you,” she said. “But things aren’t always as they seem, you know?”
“If you need someone to talk to…” Kai said, and again he wondered about himself.
She turned her head away from him and stared out at the water, frowning. “Sometimes, I just think I can’t take it anymore.”
“What?” He leaned against the rail next to her, and all of a sudden there was an almost tangible intimacy between them. As if they had known each other forever.
Alice sighed. “I can’t talk about it, Kai. There’s so much no one is allowed to know… Sometimes, all I want is to scream into the void. And there’s loss. So much loss…”
“You could quit,” he suggested. “You probably have more money than you could spend in a lifetime.”
She turned her head and looked at him again. At that moment, the moon appeared from behind a cloud where it had been hiding all night long. It filled everything with a silver light that made the whole situation appear even more surreal than before.
“It’s not that easy,” she said with sadness in her voice. Her eyes shone at him in the silver light, and so did her hair.
Suddenly, Kai had the crazy idea to lean forward and kiss her. It seemed like the most natural thing to do.
They looked into each other’s eyes for a mome
nt.
Then their bubble got pierced violently.
“Alice?” a male voice said from behind them. “There you are.”
She flinched as she heard it, then turned away from Kai and toward the speaker. Her body language changed completely as she moved. She straightened up and put on a bright smile.
“Raven,” she said.
He approached in a slow, confident way. The tight black-silver clothes showed an athletic yet slim body. His silky shirt was sleeveless and revealed that his arms were tattooed from wrists to shoulders.
“I was wondering where you went,” Raven said, studying Kai from head to toe in a condescending way.
He was a head taller than Kai. His long, black hair framed a slim, perfectly symmetrical face. Up close, he seemed even more like an anime character. Kai immediately felt intimidated by his presence.
“I needed some fresh air,” Alice said, walking up to Raven. She kissed him, and he placed his hand on her hip.
“Have you met Kai?” she asked.
“I don’t think I have,” Raven answered. His narrow eyes studied Kai in the same way someone studies a bothersome insect, wondering if he should simply crush it under his heel or rip out its legs one by one first.
“Hi,” Kai said, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
Finally, Raven turned his attention away from Kai and toward Alice. He brushed a wisp of hair from her face before he kissed her forehead.
Something about this guy gave Kai the creeps. He couldn’t say what it was, but even if the situation weren’t so awkward, he would have felt uncomfortable in his presence. Not to mention the fact that seeing him kissing Alice felt like a fiery dagger in Kai’s heart.
“Let’s go inside,” Raven said, taking Alice’s hand.
“Bye, Kai,” she said. “Again, congrats on your success in the tournament.”
“Bye.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper as the incredibly beautiful couple walked off.
Seeing them together, Kai wondered how he could ever have been so stupid and dreamed of landing a girl like her. He sighed.
After moving a few feet away, Raven turned his head one more time and looked back at Kai. His face didn’t show any particular expression. It was cool and motionless. Yet Kai understood the non-verbal communication.
Keep away from my girl, or else.
Kai swallowed. He didn’t want to find out what ‘or else’ could mean with a guy like that.
***
When Kai returned to the cafeteria, the party was still going, though many people had already left. Luckily, his friends were still there, sitting at the same table, with a lot more empty shot glasses piled up on the table between them. Kai’s stomach cramped when he saw the empty tequila glasses. How was it possible that they could take so much more than him?
“Hey, look who’s here!” Marco greeted him, spreading his arms. “We were starting to worry Maeve had sacrificed you to Cthulhu or something.”
“Huh?” Kai blinked, confused.
Everyone at the table stared at him, grinning. It took Kai a moment to realize one of them must have seen him talking to Maeve.
“Um, no…” he stammered. “I wasn’t…”
“Riiight,” Marco said, stretching the word to demonstrate that he thought Kai was bullshitting them. To make it even clearer, he pulled down the lid of his left eye with his index finger.
Kai sighed and let himself drop next to Claudia. She wrinkled her nose.
“Did you barf?”
“No, Cthulhu did,” he replied resignedly.
Claudia burst out laughing, and the others joined in.
“Ok, folks,” she said after a moment. “This was lovely, but I need to hit the sack.”
“So do I,” Francois said, yawning.
“We all should,” Marco agreed and rose from his seat. “After all, we have to work tomorrow.”
***
Kai was stunned for a moment after they entered Marco’s apartment on the campus. The lights sprang on automatically as soon as Marco opened the door, and a female computer voice, similar to Kai’s Alessia, greeted them.
“Good evening, Marco. I hope you had a pleasant night. Congratulations on your success.”
“Thanks, babe,” Marco said nonchalantly with a wave of his hand. Then he noticed Kai looking at him and laughed. “What? She’s the closest I’ve ever come to a girlfriend. Not everyone is a Casanova like you.”
Before Kai could protest, Marco playfully poked him with his elbow and walked on.
“Welcome, Kai,” ‘Babe’ said, and after a short moment of surprise, Kai decided not to wonder how she knew who he was. Most likely all systems at Helltek were connected somehow.
He followed Marco through the hall and into the main area of the apartment. It consisted of a spacious living area and a small kitchen. On one side, another hall led to more rooms and bathrooms.
“Whoa,” Kai said, looking around.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Marco agreed. He walked to the fridge and grabbed two bottles of water, then handed one to Kai.
“Here,” he said. “Figured you need this. I also have aspirin and other shit.”
“This place is easily bigger than where I live now. And I have to share it with four other people,” Kai said.
“I know,” Marco said, throwing himself into an armchair. “It was the same for me when I moved here. I could hardly believe it. It comes fully furnished. I didn’t have to buy anything. And this is one of the small ones with a view of the opposite building. You should see one of the higher-level ones. It’ll blow your freaking mind!”
“Why?” Kai asked, sitting down on the sofa. “Why is Helltek so generous?”
“Because they want to motivate us to be the best we can. They only recruit exceptional people, following the quality not quantity mantra. Wanna know why?”
Kai nodded, drinking his water. It felt good in his tortured stomach.
“Because we explore the unknown. You already noticed that VR isn’t what people are told it is. If Helltek didn’t recruit only exceptional people, their testers would drop like flies. They mean it when they say it’s a high-risk job. And it’s the reason they pay us so well. So the best people stay.”
Kai thought about what Alice had said earlier. That quitting wasn’t that easy. He wondered if there was more to it.
“How many people have you seen die or get seriously injured?”
“Personally, not so many, but I’ve only been here a year and a half. We don’t get official numbers either, but rumors are that a severe incident happens every week. At least once.”
“Shit…”
Kai remembered the horrifying scene he had witnessed at the sickbay and shuddered.
“Yeah.” Marco nodded grimly, then he decided to change the subject. “So, what about you and Maeve?”
Kai sighed. “Nothing, really.”
“Come on! We all saw you talking to her. She looked as if she wanted to fuck you on the spot. Lucky bastard! Then you were gone for quite a while. So did you…”
He made a gesture with his hands, clapping his fist against his palm, then chuckled. “Or rather, she you?”
“No!”
“Seriously?"
“Seriously. She was very… blunt. But then decided that I was too drunk and let me go.”
“Damn,” Marco said. “It means she’ll get back to you eventually. Someone’s gonna get laid!”
Kai said nothing. He didn’t want to admit that Maeve scared him. Besides, after his encounter with Alice, he wasn’t interested in touching any other woman. Even though he knew that was stupid.
“So, where did you disappear to then?”
“I threw up in a flowerbed,” Kai said with a shrug.
Marco looked at him for a second, then started shaking with laughter.
For a moment, Kai wondered if he should tell him about his encounter with Alice, but then he decided otherwise. Somehow, he felt that what they had shared was a very private thing. As
much as he liked Marco, he wasn’t sure that he’d understand.
“Ok,” Marco said after he’d finished both laughing and his water. “I need to get some sleep. And you should, too.”
He left the room for a moment, then returned with a pillow and a blanket. “Make yourself comfortable. The bathroom is the first door on the left.”
When the light was out and Kai lay on the sofa, all he could think about was the conversation with Alice. He smiled, remembering every detail. In his fantasy, her prick of a boyfriend didn’t show up and destroy the moment, however. Instead, he imagined how he kissed her.
It would never happen, and he knew it. Raven had clearly shown him that she was his girl and that he didn’t tolerate a rival. The guy appeared to be ruthless, and Kai certainly wouldn’t want to mess with someone like that. He wondered why good people so often ended up with awful partners. But even if it weren’t so in Alice’s case, it was very doubtful that she could ever like him.
He sighed and imagined kissing her again before he fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning, Kai woke up with an erection. He quickly disappeared into the bathroom for a cold shower before Marco could notice anything and make fun of him.
The shower was nothing like the old, broken thing in the smelly bathroom in his apartment but tasteful and ultra-modern. He could set the exact temperature on a display. When he was done, he knew that this was a life he wanted badly. If only he could gain the next 500 progression points quickly. Too bad the next tournament was three months away, but he swore to himself that he’d use it for a level up.
He and Marco grabbed a quick veggie bagel in the cafeteria, downed it with some coffee, and then went to work.
Topher and Lex were already there and acted as if they hadn’t stuck their tongues down each other’s throats the night before – and who knew what else. The others arrived shortly after. Everyone was tired and hungover, but Kai was told that it was ok. No one expected them to work at full capacity the day after a tournament. They would only test some routine stuff with a minimum level of risk.
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