She’s the first to push away. She bites her lower lip and wrings her hands as if she’s forcing herself to do something. She takes one step back. Then another until her back is pressed against the wall. She says goodnight, turns around and practically runs to her room. I’m left standing there, open mouthed, wondering if I did the right thing by kissing her or if I just ruined a perfectly good friendship.
I open the door to my room and lie in bed. But it’s quite a long time before I fall asleep.
Chapter 42
The next morning, my mom insists on making breakfast for everyone. She makes menudo, which is a Mexican soup made with beef broth, hominy, lime, onions, cilantro, oregano, red chili peppers, and tripe. Where she got the ingredients from, I don’t know, but the meal is a delicious comfort food for my sister and me. My mom even shows Lillian how to make the soup, which is rare because she’s always insisted on her recipes staying in the family.
While the four of us eat, I notice that things are a little awkward between Lillian and me. She barely looks at me during breakfast, and I’m seriously worried the kiss last night ruined things. Thankfully, we get some time to ourselves when my mom and Marie leave to shop for new clothes and stuff to replace the things that were destroyed in the fire.
Once my family leaves, I confront Lillian about things. “Lillian. I’m sorry if I overstepped last night. I’ve been having feelings about you for a while now and it all just spilled out. I didn’t mean to ruin things between us.”
Lillian listens to me, then tilts her head as if considering things carefully before answering, “Anthony, you didn’t ruin things. That kiss last night was wonderful. You can’t know how many times I’d thought about being with you.”
I can’t help but grin. So Lillian does like me, and I didn’t ruin things. Even better, she enjoyed the kiss too. For a minute there I was afraid I’d lost my mojo.
I move to hold her hand, but she takes a step back and continues, “But I don’t think now is the time to start a relationship. The two of us need to focus on getting you leveled up and ready for the System Games. Once that’s finished, then we’ll have the time to deal with us.”
I don’t think it’s fair or necessary to put off whatever this is between the two of us, and for the next ten minutes, I do my utmost to convince her of that. I try to argue that going out on dates won’t interfere with my training, but she’s adamant. After realizing that I can’t change her mind, I sigh in disappointment.
Lillian, realizing that I’ve given up for now, quickly changes topics to training and what she has scheduled for the month.
“With only four weeks till the Dungeon Games start, it’s going to take a ton of work to get you from level 8 to level 10. Thankfully, you have the full support of our company and Ludas Inc. After they heard about the attempt by another corporation to murder a System User permanently, most of the System corporations filed formal complaints to the Oversight Committee.” Seeing the confused look on my face, she continues, “They’re not doing us a favor or anything. They’re acting in their self-interest. After all, what’s to stop the same tactic from being used against them?”
“And Ludas Inc.? What do they have to do with my training?”
“Well, our friend Harold over there has convinced his boss that helping us benefits them. He’s spun it so that they look like knights in shining armor coming to help the new corporation on the block. The result is that Ludas Inc. has agreed to give us a deal on security protection and power leveling services. It’s not something I’d normally consider spending money on, but we honestly need the help if we’re going to get you back to level 10 before the end of the month.”
A notification pops up in front of Lillian, and she tells me, “They just sent me a message requesting we meet them at a dungeon. Hurry up and change.”
I watch Lillian tap her inventory screen, and her clothes change from her PJs to jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket.
Looking down at my work uniform, I realize that I don’t have any other clothes. Everything I had likely burnt up in the fire. Gesturing at my clothes, I tell Lillian, “I don’t have any other clothes. So, I guess I’m ready to go.”
“Wait, don’t you have a change of clothes in your inventory or the armor you wear when you go into the dungeon?”
“Uh, no. I kept them all in my room to free up space in my inventory. I only have like nine inventory spaces, and it all gets full pretty quickly with loot. So I’m used to storing everything in my room. You know, my home base.”
She shrugs, “Ok then go there and change.”
“But you said that my house burnt down. Isn’t everything in my room gone too?”
She scoffs, “Well, only if you were an idiot and didn’t upgrade your home base with fire protection. But only a complete moron would—” She doesn’t finish the sentence as she sees the look on my face. “You did upgrade your home base like the guidebook recommended, right?”
“Well, I never really finished reading the guidebook. When I looked up the home base upgrades, everything seemed so expensive I put them all out of my mind and forgot about them.”
Lillian gives me a look like I’m an idiot and I see her left eye twitch in annoyance. “Then yeah. Everything you had there is gone.” She shakes her head once. “Upgrading their protection against fire and natural disasters are usually the first things people do when they get their home base. It’s like buying insurance for your home. Sure you probably won’t ever use it, but you’d be sorry if you needed it and didn’t have it. So the expense is worth it.” She shrugs. “Oh, well. You can add the upgrades when you transfer your home base.”
“Huh?”
She takes a deep breath before continuing, “Anthony. I swear to god that I’m going to hit you if you don’t finish reading that guidebook soon. You do know you can transfer your home base’s location, right?”
“I recall reading that somewhere. You can change your base’s location for a fee? But isn’t my base destroyed now?”
“No. Your house was destroyed. Your home base is part of the System. It still exists along with all the upgrades you never seemed to purchase. When you find a new place to live you can pay the fee to get that same home base transferred to a new location. I recommend you get a System locker upgrade for your base when you do. It will hold all your stuff and transfer with your home base when you move it.”
Another message pops up in front of Lillian, and she tells me, “Well, we’re going to be late. So I guess you’re going to dungeon dive in your work uniform today.”
The reference to my uniform reminds me that I never called my boss at the Quickie Stop Mart. I have to borrow Lillian’s phone to make the call since I broke mine when I was kidnapped. Mr. Smith isn’t mad that I never showed up and is just happy that my family and I weren’t home when the fire broke out. He’s kind enough to offer us his home as a place to for us to stay, but I assure him we’ve already made arrangements. He’s surprised when I ask for some time off, but he understands that I need to take care of my family and find a new place to live.
After I hand Lillian back her phone, the two of us leave her home base and port near the location given by Ludas Inc. Walking through the port, I find myself standing in the middle of an unfamiliar city. A sweltering heat hits me, and I feel myself begin to sweat immediately. Wherever we are, summer is not kind here.