Gunther

I am Tristan Ace Gunther.

I am the eldest son of a businessman and his assistant that he fell in love with almost immediately after she worked for him in his company almost two decades ago. They hooked up and bam, I am one of the results of that incident.

My younger sister is Chrysalis Ivy Gunther, a mouthful, so I don't call her that unless the situation needs it. I am also a good friend of Stevenson Ashford for a year or more now, and I felt that our friendship took a bigger turn when I decided to work with his sister on the same Tech Store he is doing part-time job to get him his own copy of Fantasy Burst Online and its required console as a gift.

Today is just another day for the three of us to walk to Steven's workplace for our shift. Truth be told, there was never a dull moment that I spend with my friends, but learning hard work was probably the best part of this experience thus far. Afterall, my dad raised me as a spoiled kid. He doesn't miss on anything I wanted as a child, but it costed him the time he could have spent with me and my sister so we grew up mostly without his guidance. He was only there to provide us with material things we need, but he was never a parent to us. At least not for me.

"Hey Tristan, what's wrong? You've gone silent all the sudden." Steven said, smiling at me as I raised my head to look at him. He was radiating, glowing like he was some sort of a savior in my eyes. Truly, this man saved me from loneliness because of my family situation even though he himself was going through a lot.

I envy him a ton because of it. I know I can't be as strong as him, mentally and emotionally. All I can do is watch him and stay within his shadow as I try to be like him. No. I can't be Steven. I am only an imitation of him.

"Nah dude. You're the one who needs to watch out. Look at your face! Your eyebags are waving at me." I told him in response, putting on my best smile as I pointed out his obvious sleep deprivation from his activities last night. Even if he doesn't say it, it was obvious to me that he stayed up late at night playing the game. It made me smile genuinely knowing that my friend enjoyed the gift I've been planning on giving him for a long time now.

He rolled his eyes at me then spoke in a bored tone. "Yeah, hello Tristan. Meet my eyebags." It made me chuckle inwardly because Steven is usually a very quiet fella who doesn't like to speak informally if he can help it. He's a serious person who takes his job very carefully, so to see him do something like this is a breath of fresh air.

We were shooting remarks left and right for the entire duration of our trip from Golden Crest University to our workplace. Time passed by faster than I expected that we were soon dressed up in our uniforms and are ready to rock another shift till later at midnight.

So far so good. Our shift goes well from start to finish. The Manager didn't make it today as he has some plans to spend time with his son, something I found myself being sour upon knowing simply because my father can't even make time for his family despite being the owner of a much more thriving business. Ashley and Steven's company stopped me from thinking about it though, and I have to thank them for that.

Our work for the day was done as soon as it began. We closed up shop near 1 AM because we decided to help the Manager clean up the place before we go. That way, the day shift next to us won't have to do it themselves, says Steven and his unbelievable kindness sometimes.

My family driver offered to come pick me up even though it's already very late that time, but I didn't want to leave my friends behind. "Are you dudes gonna be okay? I'm gonna hail you a cab if you wanna" I said as soon as our car is parked right next to the shop. Steven refused to join me in the car, 'cause he said that he will owe me a little too much if he does so. It made me chuckle a little.

"No, no, it's okay. You should rest up, Tristan. We have all the weekend for us tomorrow." Steven replies, waving me goodbye in the process. Just earlier before our shift ended, the two of us shared our account IDs in Fantasy Burst Online to one another. I offered to join him level up so he may meet my friends, especially my sister living outside the country which I only get to see whenever we play something together.

I gave out a final response to Steven right after his refusal. "Ok then. Stay safe, buddy."

"I will. You too."

•◦⚜◦•

I tossed my backpack to the couch haphazardly as soon as we reached home, if I can even consider this one. I will then sit next to my pack and rub my palm against my face, feeling my exhaustion catch up to me to make me yawn and desire sleep.

Minutes will pass by in silence which I will break by getting up from my seat and undoing the tie on my neck so I may change to my sleepwear. I did so very lazily but my senses become awakened once more when my eyes lingered towards the console sitting on the table next to my bed, along with its headgear that sits on top of it.

That's right, Chrysalis will be waiting for me in the game.

I half dragged, half carried myself to my bed so that I'll be in a better position if I ever fall asleep while playing the game. It was never asserted as a problem during launch, so I don't see anything wrong with letting it run all night should I fall asleep.

I expelled a long breath.

"Link Start!"

My virtual screen first went blank then it becomes white, displaying the words "Welcome To Fantasy Burst Online!" like it did when I first played the game after its launch. I felt my body being lured to what felt like a magnetic field, then the view changed and I was already where I logged out last time I played the game.

I decided to scan my surroundings to see what is going on around me. The inn here in the Starting City looks less lively today than it was yesterday when a poster for a dungeon hunt becomes available downstairs. Even so, it was easy to spot someone that looks like my sister's avatar, only that she isn't here today.

I dragged a finger from my left to right, triggering my Inventory menu. Above the menu were displayed a series of sub-menus namely the Character Profile which includes basic information about your character, their current skills such as handling a blade or forging a weapon. Bag, which contain more sub-menus for weapons, armor, consumables, and other similar items. Ability/Spell Sphere where we usually get to level up our certain skills according to our classes and gain new ones like a skill tree, and the Friends List menu right next to the settings containing various things including the log out button.

I choose the Friends List menu, and a short list of player names displayed on the white transparent box before me. I begin to search the name of my sister's avatar.

"Ivy... Ivy.. where are you..." I murmured as I scrolled through my friends list with increased vigor. I don't have much on my list, but for some reason it felt like I was scrolling forever.

"What do you think you're doing, Tristneve?" A voice called out my in-game name, catching me by surprise. I looked around me for any signs of where the voice came from, but failed.

"Behind you, dummy." The same voice said that prompted me to turn 180° from my right to find the stature of a woman standing there in her assortment of leather and steel armor. A steel longsword is strapped to her back, whereas two sturdy leather pauldrons were found on both of her slender shoulders. Her armor contained a long, but thin coat that flaps along her movement, at least that's what I saw it do the last time Ivy and I went to hunt a mini-boss somewhere.

Her avatar resembled her long hair, only that it was the cerise in color. Her eyes are intense and round, blood red and brimming with life. A pair of short elf ears were seen behind a large portion of her hair that falls to her front, giving away her character race almost immediately.

"Hey there sis! How were you?" I asked, giving my sister a smile, but she winced in retaliation instead.

"Quit acting that way. That's sort of gross, you know?" She said, shooting me down even though I was trying to be nice to her. I pretended to be hurt by what she said and held the steel chestplate protecting my avatar's torso before I put on the loneliest, most dramatic expression I can muster.

"Do you hate me that much? Don't you want me to be your brother anymore?" I murmured as I began to wipe out invisible tears from my eyes as part of my dramatic act. If I wasn't only a huge part of the Basketball team for Golden Crest, I'd most probably join the Drama Club. They can't possibly ignore a professional like me.

Ivy's frustration teetered to the edge and she visibly groaned. It was adorable seeing my little sister lose her cool in front of me, and in front of many other players in the room with us. She has always been shy and hard to approach even as a child. It came to the point that people thought she was an ice queen of sorts, because she shoots an intimidating aura to everyone who approaches her back then. There was even a moment she was called to the Guidance Office of her school because she kicked her classmate's weiner for bullying her friend.

Mom and Dad then separated us to teach her a lesson while she study abroad. Till now that we're both in our college years, I still haven't seen my sister face to face and honestly, I probably won't even know how to feel if I do so. There are just so many things I want to tell her that I wasn't able to tell her back then, and Fantasy Burst Online... it just had to be the medium for me to show her that she's never alone, that she still has me.

"Fine, hello Tristneve. My day was good because it's weekend here. Happy?" She spoken while rolling her eyes that reminded me of Steven. I laughed at her silly remark and found the most appropriate time to finally introduce her to my friend.

"Oh actually, one of these days you might see me with a very cool guy." I started to say, pulling up my friends list and typing in Steven's character ID in order to send him a friend request. Ivy raised an eyebrow without actually asking anything, but I figured she might be interested to know about this man too. "Alright. I'm going to send him a message to meet us here tonight."

"Is this the same person you told me about a year ago?" Ivy asked as I messed around with my friends list menu.

I promptly nodded my head to respond to her. "Yep. He's got the game recently and I wanna show him the ropes, ya know?"

She nods her head in response too, allowing me a moment to type a message for Steven to read.

𝗧𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲

𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘺, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘩?

Steven's reply was quicker than I expected. Looks like he's active tonight.

𝗔𝗿𝗼𝗻

𝘖𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺, 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺. 𝘈𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘯𝘰𝘸.

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow in question.

𝗧𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲

𝘎𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰? 𝘊𝘰𝘰𝘭! 𝘞𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘨?

𝗔𝗿𝗼𝗻

𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸.

Just like that, the conversation ended. I turned my head away from my menu and averted my attention to my sister who is now sitting in one of the booths here in this inn. She has her arms and legs crossed together and her eyes were closed.

"Okay, what do we do tonight? I've been grinding for levels to the forest north from here and so far, I'm able to get to level 15." She said, sparking another discussion between the two of us.

"That's great! Why don't we pick up a quest from some of the NPCs around here? I've been dying to do that for days now, ya know?" I responded, pointing my thumb outside the window to tell my sister we should get out of this place now.

"A quest? Can't hurt to try" She replied immediately. Ivy will rise to her feet and march towards the staircases leading downstairs by the entrance to this inn. I quickly followed suit and we once again ventured out to the Starting City as a two-men party.