Reunion

"Sean!"

He ran towards me frantically, pushing through the crowd as fast as possible to get to me.

"Hey hey hey wait, can't you see I'm..." Isaac stands in between me and uncle Magnus, but he's scrawny in comparison to my uncle, so Isaac got pushed aside like a door and dropped to the floor.

"How'd you end up here?" My uncle asks, in a tone I've never heard associated with his voice, it was concern, fear and shock all at once, not his usual care-free and cheerful vibes.

He puts his hands on my shoulders, I can feel them trembling as if asking me to answer quickly.

"A house fire." Before I even got the full word "fire" out my mouth, he embraced me tightly between his arms.

I thought I grew taller over the years but I'm still at his shoulder level unfortunately, 5 foot 7 is not bad in my opinion though.

After a while he lets go of the embrace, hands still firmly placed on my shoulders.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry..."

But it's not...your fault? My uncle's far more sentimental than I remember him being, this really isn't needed at all, it's not like he started the house fire.

However, I didn't want to be rude and just tell him what he said wasn't necessary, he was tearing up a little bit, I don't think I should be interrupting his moment here.

"How'd you find me?" I asked.

I thought about finding my uncle when I first entered the game lobby, but considering how many people will die and enter this place everyday, it'll be like searching for a needle in a huge pile of hay, so I didn't bother.

"Well because your smartass destroyed the previous record for 1-1, you got a whole army of recruiters tailing you, didn't you realise?" He said while bitter laughing.

His words there were his usual demeanor, jokes around light-heartedly with a laugh, but I can tell he's still unhappy about the fact that I died.

"And one of those recruiters were talking to him, Mr...Frostbite." Isaac rose back up from the ground, his suit were dirtied and messy after the fall, he had to adjust his glasses before looking at my uncle's nametag.

"Frostbite?" I asked while pointing at my uncle's nametag above his head.

"Just a name I thought worked well with my main weapon."

"Oi ignoring me again?" Isaac's expression is now more ugly than ever, he was wearing a comical rage face with his horrendously dyed hair all messy.

"I'm from the third alliance...Living Cemetery! Mr. Frostbite, do you wish to wage war against us?!"

I think I understood why there were eyes staring at me from a distance, and a recruiter waiting for me right outside the game lobby now.

I broke the record for campaign stage 1-1 huh? Neat.

"No I don't wish to, but I'm certain my nephew here knows better than to fall for your trap."

"IT'S NOT A TRAP, IT'S JUST A GOOD DEAL!" It was actually extremely entertaining looking at how Isaac loses his cool and just go totally ballistic because my uncle spoke the truth.

"Yeah I did indeed refuse his offer, several times already actually." I said to back my uncle up.

"He said it, he's not joining your alliance." My uncle said to Isaac while wiping away his tears from earlier and returning to a neutral face.

"You're declaring war. Earpiece, I want his current alliance!"

"You didn't have to say that..."

It was completely fine just thinking it, Isaac's earpiece would've responded too, but he said it just to establish the fact that he's serious, which we never really had any doubts on in the first place.

"Ice Age, your alliance is weak, you're endangering your teammates here Mr. Frostbite."

"Yeah good point, but I can just quit though."

And he did, he quit the alliance with a single thought on his head and the earpiece got it done.

"What? Why would you do that?!" Isaac still pissed at my uncle, asks aggressively on his decision to quit his former alliance.

Although it's Isaac that asked that question, my uncle turned to me when he answered.

"My alliance is full, I don't want to request for anyone in there to be kicked to make space for you. We can form our own alliance. I'll get you back in life Sean."

I actually had a guess and it was as I expected, he quit to form an alliance with me, to get me out of this game.

It should be a heartwarming moment where I start expressing my gratitude with tears running down my eyes, but I didn't.

"Ok." That's all I said in response, so this debunks one of my theories on why my memories of myself feels so alien.

I don't just act differently in front of my uncle, I simply changed a lot as an individual.

I think my uncle noticed my lack of display of emotions, it's unlike the past me, but he laughed it off anyways while tapping on my shoulder.

"Well then..." Isaac adjusts his hair as if calming himself down.

"It's only you two that the Living Cemetery will hunt down. You..." He turned to me.

"You're only a beginner, 1-5 and 1-10 are both multiplayer campaigns that awards boosts mandatory in tournaments, but now, do never attempt to even enter these stages, Living Cemetery will hunt you down. And you..." Isaac turns to my uncle.

"Don't attempt 1-10 either, we will make sure you stay in there if you do." His insults and threats were...really weak.

Isaac then took a step back, rubbed his eyes a bit before speaking to both of us. "You guys messed with the wrong person, young men."

My uncle wasn't young, but he did look really young for his age of 39.

He had barely any wrinkles, the physique of a healthy athlete and wavy hair combed in a middle part style.

After Isaac's...not so threatening threats, he walks away with swift but heavy steps, I can tell that he's very much still furious.