Unseen Threads

Leo's entire body ached as he lay on the ground, small rocks digging into his skin with an irritating persistence.

""What…the …fuck"

'How is that I can go from dying to whatever…this is' 

From bleeding out of every hole in his face to… this? His body felt fine. No wounds, no blood. Just stiffness, like he'd been lying here for hours.

He slowly sat up, looking around. He was back in the village square but unlike before, it was bustling with people. Users had started to appear in the village in full force. However, Leo felt that something was off about the others…

While Lily, Luna and Horo had appeared solidly, the other players seemed to have some sort of intangibility to them. As if they weren't really there. They had physical bodies of course but it felt different. He couldn't quite place it. 

He pushed himself to his feet, scanning the village square. The players bustled around him, chatting, trading, moving as they should, yet the sensation of wrongness persisted. It wasn't their actions, nor their appearances, but something deeper, something unseen.

He glanced at a nearby player in leather armor. There was something off about him—his movements smooth but hollow, like a puppet responding to distant strings. The way his head turned, the slight lag between thought and motion—it was subtle, but Leo could feel it.

He looked at another player, a woman leaning against a wall. She idly stretched, rolling her shoulders, but the way her body followed the motion felt unnatural, like it was catching up to her.

A cold realization crept into Leo's mind.

These people… they weren't fully here.

Their bodies moved, they spoke, they interacted—but something was missing. They weren't synced, as if there was a gap between their consciousness and their physical forms.

And yet, he felt fine.

Why?

What made him different?

'Ugh?!'

Just then, the sound of shattering glass resounded in his mind. A memory of the time he met that self proclaimed Goddess suddenly returned to him.

Yet somehow It was only her voice that came to his mind, her face and even her figure remained out of focus.

"Astral Sync"

It was only two words yet it was like a key to him. 

These other 'players' didn't have strong Astral Sync, it left them with a slight delay in their actions.

'Does that mean Astral Sync works both ways? Then my Avatar does affect my real self!'

Leo's breath came slow and measured as he stared at his hands. His fingers flexed with precise, immediate responsiveness, no hesitation, no unnatural lag.

 He clenched them into fists, then released. Everything about his body felt right. But if what he was experiencing was "Astral Sync," then why did he have it while the others didn't?

His gaze drifted back to the other players, their hollow fluidity standing in stark contrast to his own movements.

 If Astral Sync was the key to the transformations he and his friends were experiencing in the real world, wouldn't there be thousands if not millions more that could possibly be affected as time passed. 

'I need to find everyone. We need to move. NOW'

He suddenly had a terrible premonition come over him. Something bad was going to happen. He and his friends needed to get stronger and leave this place sooner rather than later. 

"Level 7 already? That's quick. He must know something we don't."

"Is that really a guy? Looks too cute to be one."

"Let's ask for his number, just in case."

Leo could feel a vein throbbing on his forehead as he overheard the conversation between two guys talking about him behind his back. 

"Cutie? You really look the way you do in the real world~!" 

Shocked, Leo turned around to see a woman walking towards him. He quickly averted his gaze as he didn't know where to look. 

She was wearing a form fitting cloth tube top that barely covered her chest, completely exposing her toned midriff while also wearing a pair of black short shorts and knee high black socks. The look gave her an unapologetically erotic appearance that left many men drooling. 

"Oh my god. Her friend is so hot. We gotta go over and talk to them now!" 

Rachel's gaze flicked towards the man who made that remark before shifting back to Leo. She could tell that the way these men had spoken irritated him, even she was a little irritated that some randoms thought they had a chance with her. 

She flashed a subtle yet undeniably impish grin as she quickly strode towards Leo. 

"Rachel?!"

Leo stiffened as she grabbed his head and brought hers closer.

"Oh… They're together?"

"Damn... crushed before it even started..."

Rachel's lips brushed his cheek, making it look like a kiss.

The two men slinked away dejected as Leo growled at Rachel. 

"What the hell was that for?! Do you know how bad that could have been if someone saw —"

"Leo…..?!"

"Leo…?"

"Oh shit."

Leo's heart raced as he turned to see Luna and Lily a few feet away, their faces red. They'd seen everything.

Lily covered her mouth, stunned by the bold kiss.

Luna's gaze flicked between him and Rachel, anger flashing in her eyes.

"So this is the relationship you have with my brother huh?! I knew I should have crushed you back at the cafe" 

"Wait, this is Rachel?! So you really were Leo's lover? He didn't say anything about this.."

"Leo?! How could you! I thought we had something special" 

Rachel put her face in her hands as she pretended to cry, shoulders trembling, but Leo could see the smirk beneath.

'YOU CRAZY BITCH! YOU"RE GONNA GET ME KILLED!'

"Leo, you and I are going to have a conversation about you hiding things from me!"

Luna's gaze was frosty as she glared at her brother like he was some sort of scumbag. 

He shot a glare of his own at Rachel as he stepped towards his sister, hoping to explain the situation. 

'I will have my revenge…'

The words he uttered in his heart were a vow to take Rachel down and embarrass her. 

He shook his head, he couldn't get distracted here right now. 

"I think I know why we have experienced those changes in the real world…" 

The girls' expressions stiffened, they all looked around before Lily spoke. 

"Let's not discuss it here. Let's go to my teacher's shop. We can use their backroom."