"Ah..."
My cheerful mood vanished at once because I had known this would happen sooner or later.
I had expected Eris to call or message me. If I continued ignoring her, she might even appear at the door of my apartment one day without warning.
Judging by Noctis’s messages and the fragments I had seen in his memories, the two of them were extremely close. Eris was the person he had spoken to most in his phone history. There were countless photos they had sent each other, pointless jokes, and calls that lasted until midnight.
Eris probably knew Noctis better than anyone else in this world.
That was exactly the problem.
I wasn’t Noctis.
I stared at the screen while the phone continued vibrating.
What was I supposed to say if I answered? Should I sound cheerful or sleepy?
How did Noctis normally answer Eris’s calls? Did he say, "Hey," "Good morning," or simply, "What?"
Every option felt wrong.
Even worse, Eris might notice more than a difference in my tone. I had no idea how I was supposed to behave when we met face-to-face.
I stared at the green answer button while my thumb hovered indecisively above it.
In the end, I decided to let the call ring out instead of answering. The safest choice for now was to wait for Eris to give up and then send her a message.
Writing would give me time to think. I could control my words and get through the conversation without revealing my emotions or real personality.
When the phone finally fell silent, I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
"All right... I’ll wait a few minutes and—"
Ding.
The first message appeared at the top of the screen.
[Eris: Heyyy!]
More messages immediately followed.
[Eris: Wassup!]
[Eris: Good morninggg!]
A cute emoji of a cat leaping out of bed appeared beside the message.
[Eris: Hey, are you still sleeping?!]
[Eris: Noc?]
[Eris: NOCTIIIIISSSS!]
My eye twitched when the phone began ringing again.
"God... What’s the point of trying this hard when someone isn’t answering?"
I didn’t reject the call because then she would know I had seen it. After waiting for the ringing to stop, I silenced the phone completely and returned it to my pocket.
Eris didn’t seem like someone who would give up, but at least I wouldn’t feel her attacks anymore.
I didn’t dare take another sip of coffee until I reached the grocery store beside my apartment building.
The automatic doors slid apart in front of me. After entering, I took one of the shopping baskets and stopped near the entrance.
I had to answer Eris now.
When I turned on the phone, I saw that the number of unread messages had doubled. I ignored them all, tapped the chat box, and began typing after thinking for a moment.
[I was asleep. Sorry, I’m a little busy today. I’ll call you when I have time.]
After staring at the message for several seconds, I felt that something was wrong.
"Is this too formal?"
It sounded less like a message to a close friend and more like an excuse an employee would send their manager to explain why they couldn’t come to work.
Eris might become suspicious.
I tilted my head and read it again before an idea came to mind.
"Got it!"
Remembering the style of Noctis’s old messages, I stretched out several words and added cute emojis at the end.
[I was sleeeeping 😴💤 Sorryyy, I’m kinda busy today 🥺 I’ll call you when I have tiiime! ✨]
Perfect.
It was incredible how easily someone could hide their identity with a few emojis.
I pressed the send button.
"This’ll work!"
The message was read almost instantly, and the words "Eris is typing..." appeared beneath it.
The speed was slightly frightening.
Without waiting for her reply, I locked the phone and put it back into my pocket. At that exact moment, a long and surprisingly loud noise came from my stomach.
Gurrrrr...
An old woman passing beside me turned and looked. I covered my stomach with one hand and faced the other direction in embarrassment.
I hadn’t eaten anything before my morning workout, and then I had taken two sips of unsweetened double espresso on an empty stomach. Perhaps the coffee’s bitterness wasn’t the biggest problem.
Perhaps the real problem was my stupidity.
I tightened my grip on the shopping basket and looked down the store’s aisles.
"Time to buy some food and go home."
By the time I reached the apartment, almost all the coffee was still inside the cup. I had tried giving Black Moon a third chance, but the result hadn’t changed. It still tasted like charcoal mixed with boiling water.
After removing my shoes, I went straight to the kitchen and opened the lid. As I poured the coffee down the sink, I spent a moment mourning the money I had paid for it.
"I’m never ordering something just because its name sounds cool again."
At least I had learned a valuable lesson today.
I threw my clothes into the washing machine and stepped into the shower. The moment the hot water poured over my head, my entire body relaxed.
"Ahh..."
The pain in my arms and legs was still there, but it was much weaker than when I had first left the park. Even though I couldn’t see White Snake’s effects with my eyes, I could feel them in the speed of my recovery.
The ability was only two stars, and it increased my regeneration rate by just two hundred percent. If it was already this useful, thinking about what higher-star abilities could do was exciting.
After leaving the shower, I dried my hair and put on a loose T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Then I arranged the groceries on the counter: two slices of bread, plenty of cheese, several thin slices of sausage, and some butter.
I couldn’t claim to be particularly good in the kitchen, but making toast shouldn’t require a seven-star chef.
At least, that was what I thought.
After waiting beside the sandwich press for several minutes, I carefully lifted the lid. The outside of the bread had turned golden, while the melted cheese had begun spilling slightly from the edges.
Even the smell was enough to make my stomach growl again.
I placed the toast on a plate and cut it diagonally in half.
"Perfect."
This time, I had chosen something that genuinely looked good. Taking a box of fruit juice from the grocery bag, I carried everything to the computer.
On my first bite, a strand of hot cheese stretched toward my chin. I quickly pulled my head back and tried to catch it before it fell.
It was hot enough to burn the tip of my tongue, but it still tasted a hundred times better than the coffee.
While eating the first proper meal I had made for myself, I turned on the computer. There were still hours before the stream. Continuing the RPG from yesterday seemed like the most sensible choice for now, but I was also curious about the popular FPS games in this world.
After typing a few words into the search engine, a long list appeared.
At the top was a five-versus-five tactical FPS called Breachline. Players planted bombs, hunted each other through narrow corridors, and purchased weapons at the beginning of every round.
"I know this."
At least, I understood the basic idea. The maps and weapons were different, but it looked like a mixture of several games I had played in my old world.
The second game, Last Bastion, was a survival game in which one hundred players were dropped into a city overrun by monsters. They had to fight not only one another but also the creatures roaming across the map, which looked quite interesting.
The third game was Nexus Frontline.
Instead of ordinary soldiers, players selected characters inspired by world-famous Nexus users. Every character had unique weapons and supernatural abilities.
In the promotional video, a woman snapped her fingers and trapped the enemy team inside illusions, while a man covered in ice froze the entire battlefield within seconds.
"Isn’t that a little unfair?"
Thousands of comments beneath the video demanded that several characters be weakened in the game’s latest update. Apparently, the players agreed with me.
I wasn’t planning to play an FPS today because I didn’t want to enter a game I knew nothing about and humiliate myself immediately after my first stream. Still, I would definitely play one in the future.
For now, I was only preparing.
I looked through the games’ file sizes, system requirements, and viewer numbers. Breachline was preferred by more serious players. Last Bastion had a larger audience, but a single match could last nearly forty minutes.
Nexus Frontline was by far the most popular among streamers. Naturally, it also had the highest number of people shouting, losing their tempers, and swearing at their teammates.
Perhaps I could join them.
While drinking from the straw in my juice box, my gaze moved toward the phone lying on the desk.
The screen was dark, and since the phone was on silent, I was temporarily safe from Eris’s attacks. Even so, I somehow felt as though the device was watching me.
I let out a deep sigh.
"What’s wrong with this girl?"
I had already told her I was busy today.
I picked up the phone but didn’t open the chat directly. Instead, I pulled down the notification screen and checked a few of her latest messages through the previews.
17 new messages
1 photo
I swallowed without meaning to.
From what I could read in the previews, Eris had also trained that morning.
[Eris: Training is finally overrrrr.]
[Eris: I’m so tired...]
[Eris: I’m dying.]
[Eris: Look at me!]
A photo icon appeared beneath the final message, and a dangerous thought slipped into my mind.
Could it be...
My eyes remained fixed on the photo icon.
If she had taken it immediately after training, she had to be sweaty. Perhaps her clothes were clinging to her body.
Had she sent me a sexy picture of herself like that?
My heart began beating a little faster as an overwhelming desire to check the photo rose inside me. However, the moment I touched the message, it would be marked as read. If I saw the picture, I would have to answer Eris.
"What’s wrong with me?" I muttered.
It was only a photo. It might have come from an extremely beautiful red-haired, blue-eyed girl and been taken immediately after her workout.
Her clothes might reveal the shape of her body, and the photo might even look incredibly sexy. Nevertheless, it was still only a picture, and I could survive without seeing it.
I decided to put the phone back on the desk.
My thumb betrayed me.
Click.
The chat opened, and the photo Eris had sent filled the entire screen.
My eyes widened.
"Oh..."
It was exactly as I had imagined.
Eris was lying on her back on the floor of what was probably her training room. Her red hair spread around her head, with several strands stuck to her sweaty forehead. One hand rested over her brow as she looked at the camera with a face flushed from exhaustion.
The light-coloured athletic shirt she wore clung to her skin with sweat. The fabric had darkened slightly over her chest, making the outline of the dark sports bra beneath it faintly visible.
The shape of her body was too clear to hide.
After staring at the photo with far too much attention for several seconds, an uncomfortable feeling of guilt formed inside me.
Eris was Noctis’s only and closest friend. She had probably sent him this photo without attaching any improper meaning to it.
She trusted him. She must have expected Noctis to look at the picture, laugh, and then send something teasing her in return.
However, the person looking at the photo wasn’t Noctis.
It was a strange man who had stolen his body.
Me.
"I shouldn’t have examined her like some pervert..."
I was truly a terrible person. Even so, I looked at the photo one final time before closing the screen.
"Just to make sure."
At that exact moment, another message arrived.
[Eris: Hey, if you read it, answer me!]
She followed it with an emoji of a red cat folding its arms and sulking.
My entire body tensed.
"What am I supposed to write?"
I held my head between both hands.
"Why did I open the message? Ahh, damn it!"
I couldn’t respond to all seventeen messages one by one. If I said something about the photo, an inappropriate word might slip out, but completely ignoring it would also seem strange.
When my eyes moved toward the list of games on the computer screen, I found a way to escape.
I opened the phone’s camera and pointed it at the monitor. After taking a picture of Breachline, Last Bastion, and Nexus Frontline displayed side by side, I sent it to Eris.
[I’m looking for a new game for tonight’s stream.]
It was short, simple, and completely unrelated to her photo.
A perfect attempt to change the subject.
The moment I sent the message, I closed the chat and placed the phone facedown in the farthest corner of the desk.
A few seconds later, light spilling from the edge of the screen told me that Eris had replied, but I didn’t look.
I had answered her, and that was enough for now.