The amusement park was packed with tourists and locals crowding around every stall, game and food stand. Above it all, one could hear chatter about the big event of the week.
Nefira vs. The Lone Nomad.
Funny how the universe never gives you a break.
Everywhere I looked, there were posters, holographic screens and floating projectors showing highlights of my previous fights, mostly the ones where I looked like an absolute monster. Own would think I'd feel proud or something, but instead, I just kept my hood up, sunglasses on, and hoped nobody noticed that the guy in the hoodie kinda had the same jawline as the one in the videos decimating opponents.
"Phaser."
"Yeah?" I looked down at her, cotton candy stalls reflecting in her eyes.
"You're really handsome, you know that?"
That caught me so off guard that I literally forgot how to walk for a second.
"Wait, what?"
She chuckled at my reaction, clearly enjoying my brain short-circuiting.
"You are. I mean, Phasnovterich. He's kind of famous for being absurdly good-looking. But even without the title, you've still got that… I don't know. Something."
I blinked, trying not to laugh. "So I have an undefined something. Great. Sounds dangerous."
"Don't play dumb. You know exactly what I mean."
The thing is, I didn't. Compliments like that weren't common currency where I came from. I wasn't used to being told I looked good, especially not by someone like her. For a moment, I couldn't even meet her eyes because she looked too alive. The sunlight hit her hair just right, her smile was too easy, and there was something about her that screamed real, like she didn't care about appearances or titles or the fact that the world was half simulation, half apocalypse.
"Back home, I played MoDS a lot. My best friend got me into it."
That pulled my attention back. I could tell instantly by the tone in her voice.
"She and I were both obsessed, like… properly addicted. We joined the fandom, went to meetups and even stayed up all night grinding for cosmetics we didn't even need. She died in a road accident two years later."
I stayed quiet.
"I was devastated. She was the one who made my life actually exciting. Everything was boring until she showed up. She had this… reckless energy. Always talking about how she wanted to 'live vividly,' even if it killed her. Guess she got what she wanted."
I turned my head to look at her. She was staring ahead, past the crowds, past the Ferris wheel spinning lazily in the distance.
"So you kept playing."
"Yeah, I did. I told myself it was for her. That maybe, if I played long enough, I'd find something she didn't get to. Stupid, right?"
"No. It's not."
She raised an eyebrow at me. "You say that like you know."
"I do."
We stopped by a cotton candy vendor, the kind with an old-fashioned spinner and neon signs. I ordered two, mostly for something to do with my hands. The moment the guy handed us the pink sugar clouds, I turned to her.
"I lost my best friend too."
Her head snapped toward me. "Wait, seriously?"
"Yeah," I said, offering her one of the cotton candies. "And just like yours, she made my life… brighter. I didn't have a good childhood. It was the kind that leaves you wondering if the world is permanently broken or if it's just you. Then she came along and somehow, it wasn't so dark anymore. It's safe to say she was my first love."
Hinesia's expression softened. "What was she like?"
"She was chaotic. She would argue with you about pizza toppings and then randomly drop a philosophical question about whether NPCs have souls. It took her a year to convince me to try MoDS. I kept saying it was a waste of time, that games weren't real."
"And then?"
"Then I tried it. And it was fun. Really fun. For a while, it felt like everything was okay. We'd explore the maps, join events and even spend hours laughing at bugs in the game. Then she got sick. She got stage four cancer."
Hinesia looked down, her voice quiet. "I'm sorry."
"She told me, that if she died, I should take her account and use it. She was a whale and had everything maxed out. I didn't want to, but after she passed, I couldn't stop thinking about her words. That MoDS was her world. So… I did it. I logged in and played as her. It was my way of keeping her alive, even if it was just pixels and code."
For a second, we didn't say anything. The world around us felt muffled, just the hum of the crowd and the buzz of the holographic announcers advertising the fight. Then I laughed softly, shaking my head.
"Guess we're both idiots, huh? Two people who couldn't let go of a game because of their best friends."
Hinesia smiled, wiping a tear that might've been from laughing or not.
"Yeah. We really are."
We walked slowly after that, eating the cotton candy in silence. The Ferris wheel creaked above us, kids screamed from roller coasters, and somewhere in the distance, an announcer yelled,
"Only three hours until The Lone Nomad vs. Nefira!"
I couldn't help but snort. "Can't believe I'm my own hype."
"At least you're popular. That's something."
"Yeah. But I'd trade all of it to talk to her again. Just once. Too bad that will never happen because I'm in another world permanently."
Hinesia didn't say anything. She just gently hooked her arm around mine.