Fate Online: Shadow

"So what’s your level now kid?" Tom asked Michael.

Michael chugged down a glass of water before answering, "Already Level 14, what you about you old man?"

Michael doesn’t refer to him as dad because he’s still not use to it and instead calls him old man instead, unlike Alice, where he could already call her mom.

*Cough!* *Cough!* *Cough!*

Tom almost choked on the food he was eating, and Alice immediately handed him a glass of water, whom the former immediately chugged it down.

Even Alice had a startled look in her eyes, but her expression immediately returned to normal unlike Tom who stared deeply at Michael with shocked in his eyes.

"How did you level up that fast? Did you find a bug in the game and taking advantage of it?" asked Tom.

"No" Michael answered Tom with a firm voice and then continued, "Didn’t the company already announced it before that there are no more bugs in the game?"

Tom was suddenly startled by that question and immediately shifted the topic to something else, "Now that I think about it, I’m already Level 11, you’re pretty amazing son, but still though, Solitary Tempest, 1st in the World Rankings beat you by a level from rumors going around"

Michael raised an eyebrow at first, as he felt there was something weird at Alice and Tom’s actions earlier, but in the end, he ignored it and instead put his attention to what Tom had just said.

"Really? How did you even know?" Michael said.

"Word would always get around kid" Tom laughed, while Alice already started cleaning up the table.

Alice then did the wishes while the duo talked about the game in the table, but the weird thing this time is that Tom continued to ask how Michael was able to level up almost as fast as Solitary Tempest when he knew that Michael had never played VR games before.

After a few short minutes of talking all about just the game, Michael then joined his mother, Alice in the living room as he also started watching the popular Variety TV show she’s watching called ’Running Man’, where eight people do missions around different locations and where they need to complete them before the other teams.

And even though they need to read the subtitles on the screen because they can’t understand what they’re saying at all, it’s still pretty hilarious for them as it made them laughed hard with how funny the characters are.

Meanwhile.

A man is holding his phone to his ear as he looked at the brightly lit city through the window through the distant horizon.

"Pepper, give me an update on Subject 3077," the man said.

"Yes" a voice of a woman sounded from the other side of the call, but her voice sounded a bit too robotic.

"Subject 3077 is currently Level 14, he had ventured to Special Dungeon 007 before but didn’t conquer it, and now, the subject is currently heading towards another destination"

"..."

"And now, he’s the second player with the highest level in the game except for Subject 3075"

The ’person’ called Pepper reported everything related to Subject 3077 on the man, while the latter listened with a smile and satisfaction on his face.

"Great, that would be all Pepper. Thank you" the man said.

"You’re welcome, Mr. President" Pepper replied.

And after that, the man disconnected the call,

"It seems he’s doing well in the game"

The man said with a mysterious smile on his face.

*****

10 o’clock in the evening.

Because Michael can’t log in to the game until the next morning, he went to a department store that is open 24/7 and went to get some groceries for himself.

"Should I get 2 kilos or just 1?" Michael is murmuring to himself while in front of rows of packed meat as he can’t decide how many kilos he should get.

But in the end, he decided to just have the one kilo of packed meat.

"Ouch!"

Michael was just about to turn around when he suddenly bumped into someone.

"Sorry, sorry" Michael immediately helped the person up as he didn’t expect that he had been immersed into what meat to choose that he even failed notice that someone was actually able to come near him without his notice.

"Amanda?" Michael said startled as he didn’t expect that he would actually bumped into her tonight.

"M-Michael, why are you here?" Amanda was also startled as she didn’t expect to meet this guy here of all places!

"Uhh...I’m here to buy some groceries?" Michael had a cheeky smile on his face as his eyes darted around.

"Hmmp!" Amanda angrily snorted, then she turned around and started walking away, but Michael immediately caught up to her and grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing!?" Amanda raised her voice as she turned around, and tried to shake off Michael’s hold on her wrist, and so Michael let her go as he noticed that some late shoppers and employees of the department store is looking at them.

"What do you want?"

Michael had a stiff smile on his face as he replied to her, "Don’t be mad, I’m just curious of why are you ignoring me, and I know that we don’t each other that much but you’re even worse than Jenny"

"It’s because of that, we don’t know each other, that’s why. Now, f*ck off!" Amanda left in a huff, leaving Michael with a look full of bitterness.

"Is that how you thank someone who saved you these days?"

"She’s fiery as always"

Michael chuckled helplessly, and just continued shopping while ignoring the gazes of the other shoppers directed at him.

But Amanda on the other hand, seems flustered for some reason after she left the department store.

"Dammit, why do I feel butterflies in my stomach everytime we bump into each other!?" she said angrily, went inside her car and slammed the door angrily behind her and drove towards the direction of another store.