Chapter 15: Aftermath

“What does it say exactly?” I ask, leaning back on my hands as I try not to look at her. The rocks of the sidewalk dig into my hands, but I ignore the sensation.

“Congratulations.” Rose says, then she continues in a questioning voice. “You’ve killed a Beta Tester. Since the Beta Tester had no heir, you get all of the items in his inventory and owned lands. You also gain the title Beta Tester.” She moves her hand in a gesture similar to what I do to get rid of the annoying windows. “There’s another one that says ‘welcome to The Game Of The Gods. As our newest beta tester, a non-disclosure agreement has been automatically signed by you. Unfortunately, the tutorial is no longer available, so you get to figure out how to survive all by yourself…’ it ends by saying ‘try not to die’ with an exclamation point.” She turns to look at me, and gulps. “I’m going crazy.”

“You aren’t even half way there.” I smile at her.

She looks at me curiously, the realization that I know something dawning on her.

“Say Status.”

I consider saying more, but my attention is drawn to the students curiously looking at us from behind police tape. I notice Blake and Damien among them, their gaze on us.

“What the fuck.” Rose says, drawing my attention back to her. “How did you know that was going to happen?”

“Well, if you want to know exactly how we were casting magic back there…” I shrug. “Five million people across the world were chosen to be Beta Testers by beings calling themselves gods. They kinda, uh… gamified our world.”

She gives me a look, “You can’t be serious.”

I turn to look at the cars slowly pulling into the parking lot as parents come to pick up their children. “How else do you explain the blue screen in front of you?”

She bites her cheek, then follows my gaze to the approaching cars. We sit in silence for a few minutes before Rose finally speaks. “I remember Mr. Monroe talking about you being a Beta Tester. So you got the screens too, right?”

I nod, “Now that you mention it, that is odd. The non-disclosure agreement is pretty absolute, but he was able to talk about that in front of you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“So far, I haven’t been able to say the words ‘Beta Tester’ to anyone who isn’t already one.” I tilt my head as my gaze turns to the sky, a lazy cloud floating overhead. “Maybe it has something to do with him talking to me, and not you? You didn’t seem to matter much in his mind.”

“He did seem to ignore me.” She says.

My thoughts going to the dead body that had been our teacher. “Speaking of our teacher, you’re… handling it well.”

She doesn’t respond for a long moment. “You’ve seen me kill men before.”

I stay silent, waiting for her to continue.

She sighs, her eyes meeting mine. “What he was going to do to you, I wasn’t going to let that happen. But…” She looks at the ground, “Maybe I’ll cry later, but it won’t be for that man. It’ll be because it’s so easy now. I’ve almost gotten used to it.”

I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her into me. She rests her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes.

We stay like that for a little while, before I notice the students watching us again.

“Come on,” I say. I stand up, and help Rose up as well. I hold her hand as I lead her away from the students. They seem to realize we’re leaving and take that as a sign that they can walk up to us.

I pull Rose around a corner, then quickly take another left into the girl’s bathroom.

Pulling out my phone, I call Blake. It rings a couple times before he picks up.

“Are they gone?” I ask, looking at the cracked mirror that is a staple of this bathroom.

Blake catches on immediately with a small laugh. “Yep, most of them went into the science building. Where’re you guys?”

I look over to Rose, who is washing her hands in the sink. “We’re in the place that every man wants to go, but would never dare to.”

“You hid in the girl’s bathroom again?”

“So you admit it?”

“Shut up. You guys can come out now if you’d like. The bloodthirsty horde is gone. I can take you guys to Rose Cafe- Hey, just noticed that.” He chuckles, “Anyways, you guys deserve a coffee after the days we’ve been through.”

“That sounds good.” I eye the sweater I’d given Rose to cover the blood. “Also, do you have any extra clothes?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Twenty minutes later, I’m sitting in the back of Blake’s car, wearing a hoodie that shows a bald man punching a giant monster to pieces. Rose sits next to me, still wearing my sweater. It turns out that the two boys had only one piece of extra clothing between them.

“Is this really all you have?” I ask. I pull the bottom of the sweater out so that I can see the image better.

“You’re lucky Damien had an extra sweater.” Blake says.

Damien shrugs from the front seat. “It’s a good show.”

I shake my head, then look over to what Rose is looking at on her phone. She’d searched up “video games becoming real life”, which mostly looks to have brought up a lot of Japanese and Korean media.

“That car is following us.” Blake says, making me look up sharply.

I turn around to look through the back window and Rose does the same.

“Don’t worry. It’s just my dad.” Rose says. “Yeah, I recognize the guy driving.”

That makes sense I guess. His daughter has been shot at multiple times the last couple of days.

Blake pulls into a parking spot, and we all exit the car. The two boys walk over to the cafe and enter, but Rose’s hand on my arm stops me from going.

“The message that I got. It said that I no longer have access to the tutorial. What does that mean?” She asks.

I run my hand through my hair, and pull it into a ponytail as I think, “It means that you don’t get the tutorial.” At her annoyed look, I continue. “Which also means you don’t get to choose a weapon, and you don’t have access to a mentor.” I smile as I look sideways at her. “But hey, look on the brightside! You don’t have to die.”

“I don’t have to die?” She repeats my sentence and looks at me with disbelief. “You died?”

“Kinda. Doesn’t matter now though.”

Her look of disbelief deepens, but she continues on anyway, “What do you mean by a weapon and mentor?”

“When I entered the tutorial, I got to choose a weapon. I chose my gloves.” I show her the gloves on my hands. “Then I was transported somewhere else and met my mentor, Sheyla. She told me a little about what’s going on.”

She continues to ask me questions, but about halfway through my explanations I decide that cup of coffee sounds nice. I pull her into the cafe where the two boys are waiting, then keep my voice low as I continue to explain things to her.

Blake and Damien look to be having their own serious conversations, so I order Rose and I a mocha and iced tea (thank you nameless beta tester for your monies).

We walk over to a small table with our drinks, and I finish up by telling her the little I know about Taylor and the Shop.

Rose sips at her tea, digesting the information that I’ve given her. “So your mentor says that some kind of event is happening in two or three days, but you don’t know what it is.”

“Mhm.” I say, my gaze distracted by something outside.

“Elena.” Rose says, drawing me back to her. She follows my gaze out the window. “What were you looking at?”

“Radioactive chemicals must be getting more common, cause I thought I just saw a glowing butterfly.” I turn back to the window, searching for any signs of the creature, but it appears to have disappeared. Absentmindedly, I take a sip of my mocha.

I curse as the hot liquid rolls over my tongue. Immediately I activate the healing in my gloves, hearing the poor burned appendage.

“I don’t see anything.” Rose says after a long moment, turning back to me. “Also, I might be richer than my dad right now.”

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, using a spoon to stir my mocha with a vengeance after its unprovoked attack on my tongue.

“I don’t think Scott Monroe only worked as a teacher.” Her gaze moves to a screen I can’t see.

“You should’ve paid for our drinks then.” I say, my thoughts go back to the Beta Tester I’d killed. “It’s weird.”

“What is weird?”

“How you get benefits from killing other Beta Testers. I’m just surprised the system would want us to kill each other.” My hand tightens around my cup of mocha.

“The whole thing is weird.” Rose says, sipping at her tea.

“Good thing weird is kinda my thing.” I say, leaning back comfortably.

“You can say that again.”

“Hey! You’re not supposed to say that.”

She snorts, then we both break into laughter.

We continue to talk, the two boys joining us as the conversation turns to simpler things.

A buzz on my phone distracts me. Pulling it out, I notice a text message from an old friend.

Come see me.

“Everything good?” Rose asks.

“Yep.” I say, putting my phone away. “I was just thinking about our dinner date with your dad.”

She grimaces, “Please don’t say it like that.”

I laugh. “Sorry guys, it does look like I gotta go though.”

“See you tonight then?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.” I respond, sincerely hoping that some kind of disaster will happen before the interrogation disguised as dinner. An earthquake, yeah, that would do it. Or maybe aliens can attack? I’ve always wanted to see a UFO.

I order a ride on my phone, then wave goodbye to the three of them when it arrives.

The driver is quiet, which is nice. It leads to a nice ride to the suburbs.

Soon enough, we stop in front of a house. I’m not an expert on architecture, but it reminds me of a traditional Japanese house.

I get out of the car, giving a “thank you” to the driver.

I shoulder my backpack, which I’d barely remembered to grab from Blake’s car. Then I walk through the small garden path to the front door of the house.

I knock on the door.

The other side is silent.

“Mr. Tanaka? Mr. Akiyama? Are you home?” I call out.

A few moments later a young man a couple years older than me opens the door. He wears a traditional gi and gives me a slight bow of his head. His mouth twists into a barely perceptible smile. “Elena, it has been too long. Sensei is waiting for you.” He speaks perfect English, but there's a Japanese accent that you can pick out if you listen close enough. “And if you’re not going to call me senpai, at least call me Tanaka. Mr. Tanaka is too…

“American?”

“Definitely.” He waves me to come in.

I smile as I step into the dwelling.