The next day, the three individuals sat at the table, Rachel was anything if not bewildered.
Yesterday she passed by the room and saw the two of them laying together, playing her granddaughter's VR, they seemed to be going along well, now... all of a sudden the two of them are sitting each in their respective places, in complete silence.
Only the sound of the spoons resonated as they ate their cereal, yes, it seems there is only cereal in this house.
Morpheus looks as relaxed as ever, but Sarah is shivering slightly as if she broke a million pound's worth jar.
"Is everything okay?" She had to ask, otherwise, what's going to happen with her gossiping? with her grandma senses.
"Yes" the two said simultaneously.
"I'm going to help you take the stall Rachel but then, I'll be on my way, I have some things to do.
"Oh..." Her mood immediately soured, she loves the most when they attend the stall together, it's easier for her and also, peaceful and fun.
Unlike her granddaughter who burns everything but well... one has to start somewhere.
Today she burns the food, tomorrow... she might burn the whole street.
Jokes.
'She might actually be a good cooker', she thought, after all, that's something that should be in the blood.
"..." Sarah heard that and didn't say anything, as long as he came back she doesn't care where he goes.
'...'
Scratch that, as long as he comes back and doesn't get a woman, she doesn't care where he goes.
"I'll be off granny, Morpheus, have a good day." After finishing her cereal, she cleaned her bowl, gave her grandma a kiss on the cheek, making the granny blush slightly before patting Morpheus shoulder, then left for school.
Obviously, she didn't forget to put on her shiny red teeth.
...
"Oh my... such a big change... when was the last time that girl actually said 'have a good day'?... you beat her up good, sweetheart." The granny giggled and took the plates of the two of them.
She couldn't be any happier with this change.
"..." He deadpanned, but indeed, he beat her up good.
"It's all thanks to you, how can I repay you for this?" The granny felt conflicted, they had been helped so much that she felt indebted... he's an eccentric young man, has a lot of money yet doesn't have a home, is powerful but kind and likes to serve others with his heart upfront.
She had never met someone so odd in her life.
"You don't need to, Rachel... I was just passing by." He said and moved to the stall."
<Elemental Output: Water>
He cleaned the stall and the entire house while he was at that.
Rachel seemed to be oblivious of the small watery dust that covered the entire house, she only felt that the place suddenly turned slightly colder and refreshing before the entire house was suddenly shining.
The change was so subtle that she couldn't notice.
"You always say that, it troubles me you know?"
"I know, but I won't allow you to repay me, let's go... I will leave you in your place."
"Are you going to be in danger?" She suddenly asked, catching him off-guard.
"Why would I be in danger?"
"I don't know sweetheart, I'm just asking..." She curled up her lips and finished tidying up the dishes before moving back and hooking up her arms with him.
"Let's go~"
**
**
"Sarah, I heard that Ashton got a beating last week, is it right!?"
"Yes..."
"And is it right that he was discharged yesterday!? he's coming today!"
"Anything you have heard is likely right, Mary."
Sarah walked through the campus of Regent High School, one of the most prestigious high schools in London, she had paid for her tuition herself as the one her grandmother could pay had been a place full of disgusting pricks, even then she was grateful with her grandma for that, if she hadn't gone there, she wouldn't have met the people that helped her reach her current stage.
But now, those same people are standing in her way.
The vicious world she belonged to, she doesn't pretend to be there anymore.
But once you step in, it's difficult to leave and she knows that.
Mary Milborough is her best friend and perhaps an only friend, a cute teenager with auburn hair who rather than wearing jaws, wears a pair of big shiny glasses.
The two of them go along well and Mary is obviously involved in all the mess that she's involved too, she has a boyfriend named Brice that's a wannabe gang lord, not much different from Ashton.
The problem is, that boyfriend of hers is usually busy.
...
To Sarah, compared to 'him' they're all pussies.
Perhaps even the actual ganglords.
"Mary, I have something to tell you, I want to discuss this with you after we fini-" Just as the two entered the campus the first thing they saw was the figure of a beautiful white-haired teenager with curvaceous skin.
Hana.
Within this school, the girl is always stoic and minds her own business, everyone knows she's an idol but she doesn't like to be approached with those intentions, overall she's a very polite girl.
And also, she's the school belle.
As if sensing her gaze, Hana turned around, the girl had been walking probably towards her own classroom when she spotted the girl with jaws.
"Sarah..." Hana said and approached Sarah but her gaze seemed to be looking for someone.
"..." And that made Sarah grit her teeth.
"It's good to see you, Hana."
"Oh..." It was Mary's time to tilt her head in bewilderment since when do these two know one another.
"You too... where is Morpheus?" No matter how much she looked everywhere, she couldn't find him.
!!!
The raven-haired beauty's eyebrows twitched!
"H-He doesn't study here... Hana." The girl's eyebrows twitched!
"Oh, true... and where does he study?" The girl tilted her head cutely and asked with interest as if she was just going to move schools the moment she hears the answer!
"He doesn't study at all! Hmph! Let's go, Mary... I'll see you later, Hana." Sarah abruptly took the bewildered Mary's bionic hand and started to move away, leaving Hana to her own designs.
Even when by herself like this, no one approached Hana, she had rejected so many people that no one bothered trying.
And what if they wanted to get forceful? let's say that's not a convenient thing to do...
'He doesn't study anywhere, Hana... you should know this much.'
'...'
**
**
"How did you two meet each other?"
"Grandma's store... she bought food from grandma." Sarah summarized, not wanting to speak about the silver-haired girl.
'If you have a crush, at least conceal it better will you!?'
Says the girl that shamelessly fondled her crush's butt last night when they haven't even known for a week, while also happening to have a boyfriend.
...
Once inside the classroom, the tension got immediately palpable.
Ashton was there, completely healed, of course, as long as he got his enhancements up and his torso in order, he'd be okay.
"Sarah, you're here..." He stood up, leaving his bunch of friends
"Good Morning, Ashton..." Sarah took a seat at the furthest corner of the classroom, near the window and only greet the boy briefly.
"Sarah, you and I are going to talk later!" Seeing his girlfriend cutting him off so swiftly once again, he was about to explode, yesterday it was the same, he was left alone while she moved on to play with some other man!
The man that beat the shit out of him, no less!
"We will definitely talk..." She glared at him, perhaps more anxious about this conversation than even him.
[Classroom, assemble.]
The AI's voice resonated, indicating the beginning of the class, the boy could only sit down begrudgingly.
"Place your chips in the terminal, it's time to load this week's package..." As always the students did as requested, they introduced their chips in a terminal that's on their tables and the information for the week's classes was transferred in it.
Then the chip got released and they introduced it in their brains once again.
"Excellent, students... before we begin, there is an important announcement, as of the next period, Regent High School will join the ever-expanding list of institutes that shall start imparting classes and packages through the VRworld. This initiative has been long considered and postponed, but the directive considers now is the best time to go ahead with it." The AI summarized and the students had a mixture of reactions at that moment
!!!
Within the ever-adapting curriculum of the UK's schools, most of the signatures are more related to the world within Virtual Reality than reality itself.
Entertainment, business, entrepreneurship, innovation... everything... within the VRworld.
Hence, it is no longer necessary to even consider having impersonate classes in a campus
And this is precisely the reason as to why there are a mixture of reactions... some of them already spent so much time in it, that the impact was minimal, some of the others were fifty-fifty... even if they were to receive their knowledge within the Virtual World, it wouldn't change much.
Sarah, for one, doesn't like it... especially now.
She had been a drug dealer, selling drugs in the street and living a life outside the VRworld, indeed, she does play in there, but it is not most of the time.
Now, there is also her grandma's business that she's looking forward to assisting her with.
But eventually, the thought that everything would be alright and that it is just a few hours a day in the VRworld, filled her mind and soothed whatever worries she might have.
It's not that bad, is it?
She can meet Mary there anyway.
Having explained the new directives to the students, the usual classes started.
"What did you say?" Right now, in the school's rooftop two people stood in front of one another.And Ashton is going through a procedure many boys his age go through, break up.But he actually has a hard time believing what's going on, because as far as he knows, several days ago everything was okay... surely women aren't this volatile, right?"I said that we're finished, Ashton... I don't like you anymore... I want to finish this relationship... tell me how much it was for the repairs of last week, I'll pay them and we will go about our business..." With her hands in her pockets, Sarah put an end to everything.She tried to be as polite as she could, knowing full well that regardless of however everything ended, it was her fault... she's the one that was headstrong enough to call him even when she knew the two of them weren't likely to beat up Morpheus.In fact, she was headstro
The Magic God sat atop a gigantic building that was at least a hundred stories tall, his gaze fixed to the dawning horizon.It's a building in High Barnet, not too far away from Rachel's stall.He had left the cute granny in her stall attending way more customers than usual, apparently, now they even wait for her before she presents herself.Asked her whether she needed help to which she said that he could go about his business, that she'd be alright so long as he came back in the evening.She was lying, with the increase of customers she might likely need another hand, but the old lady didn't want to impose, so far she's blessed that her small business is going so well thanks to him.In truth, it's her own effort, he did but to add a little advertisement, but the cute granny is just like that....Deciding to give her the chance to grow
Sarah ran...She ran with everything she had towards her granny's stall.The thought of what happened just now remained within her bionic circuits, those people are dead... not only the ones that threatened her life and her freedom but also, the ones that had nothing to do with it.And she's the cause, it might be indirect, but she's the cause.The matter is already in the news even though it happened an hour ago."Granny!"When she caught a glimpse of her grandmother, the beauty released a sigh of relief and Rachel too ran to hug her granddaughter.She had received the news in her interface, and she knows that the bus is the one that Sarah takes to come to Barnet from high school... she had been worried the entire time.Today was a splendid day, there were many customers, a total of thirty and many people in need wer
While glancing directly through the window, no conversation between the two took place for a brief while, the vehicle had already activated its camouflage, so they couldn't be recognised any longer."So... where are you from, Morpheus?" Without taking her face away from the 'path', Null asked, perhaps only wanting to get rid of the silence.Is it awkward for her? who knows."I'm from lands you won't ever be able to reach..." He spoke mightily, turning his gaze to the beauty that is now clad in black slick armour with purple neons, just like the first time they met."... from space?" rolling her eyes at the way he spoke, she tried to deduce his existence, there are too many mysteries around him, if she can at least have him utter something useful out of those lips, that's a win."Something like that..." As far as Morpheus is concerned, those questions lack importance, his origins
"We have arrived... activate the camouflage, Morpheus... the darkness one, we don't want your true face to be seen here..." Null took some kind of weird medium-range weapon with a connection, she walked forward through the door, followed by her twenty units.<Darkness Mantle>Using the first tier spell, a mantle of darkness covered Morpheus' body as he followed the V2 platoon.The flying ship came to a stop near the beach's shore, the sky was already about to darken.*RUMBLE!*Flying close to the shore, the compartment opened and gave the corps a view of the entire Brighton's shore, it was a city filled with lights and one could even see lights shining underneath the water surface, indicating the presence of an underwater complex."I don't see anything..." that was the Magic God's first observation, as much as he moved his senses all around, he couldn't
What could only be described as a modern military campaign formed within the plasma barrier, V2's flagship continued to shoot missiles, most of them would be deflected towards the skies while the rest impacted the facility's antennas that were raining hell on them in the form of missiles and beams.*RUMBLE!*'I only have enough magic for a 1st Tier Spell, it seems I'm going to have to go back to the good old times.'After placing a magic array in both Sarah and Rachel, combined with all the spells he had used recently, 2nd Tier and 3rd Tier, this is no doubt the day Morpheus has consumed the most out of his magic core, and even as it actively regenerated he'd have to rely on his Seraphin features, light magic and... several other interesting gimmicks.Null had been falling at a regular pace as she analysed the entire facility with her vision, trying to figure out their objective.
The world in front of Null's bionic eyes seemed to come to a stop when Morpheus did nothing short of teleportation and arrived beside the robot.His palm moved swiftly, like the judgement of the Death God.*RUMBBLEE!!!!***BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!*Sparks flew through the entire place, releasing a blinding light.Morpheus' palm that shone with white lightning, stopped right when it clashed against the robot's forcefield."I have seen your movements, <singularity>..." The Robot's two red 'eyes' shone brightly, moving slowly to regard the cluster of black mass in front of him.It had a lot of difficulties locking its senses over that black darkness mantle that seemed to be sucking light itself."You have seen me? SO WHAT?!"*BAANGG!!!*Still, with his palm clashing against the forc
While Null infiltrated the facility.Outside, what could only be described by the Earth's ancestors as a 'Alien Invasion' took place.Explosions raged through the skies as the battle became more and more intense.His shining eyes moved through the battlefield where he noticed, movements, formations, protocols taking place while he engaged an ever-increasing number of drones, ships and robots.Morpheus hand, coated with Morphenus, impacted against the 'newer' version of the wisdom king's form.*BOOOOOMMMMM!!*But rather than be protected with a layer of plasma, this time it was some kind of highly compressed heat whose purpose wasn't to defend, rather, it was erasing his Morphenus!"You're learning, huh!"*BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!*Still... it didn't serve it to anything, Morpheus still impacted his fist ha
"You're back! how was your day~?" Rachel smiled warmly and opened the door for them, there was a delightful smell in the house, obviously, she had fun cooking."Granny!""Dear, you look happy..." Both grandmother and granddaughter hugged one another while Morpheus and Hana stood on the side, regarding the warm reunion. They knew that Rachel has seen the new restaurant and wanted to know what she thinks about it."I am... my day was wonderful, what about yours? how was your day." The one tasked to question that was Sarah, she smiled and awaited her grandmother's response."It was... amazing! There is so much I want to say... come and sit, Null and I prepared your dishes." She beaconed for the entire group to enter the kitchen and sit.Morpheus nodded and came in together with the girls, heading straight for the kitchen where Null was with an apron, cooking... said android turned around, a little surprised when he took her by the waist."Null..." He pressed her against his body, and t
The bells resonated across the campus, signifying the end of yet another day of studies, Hana walked peacefully, her friend had already departed on her own; leaving her to wander the halls of the campus by herself, moving to the front where a self-driving vehicle awaited with dark windshields.A majestic Bentley."Did your girl also say that she'd go with Bryce?" Hana entered the Bentley parked at the campus entrance, Sarah was inside having arrived earlier."She did... but Bryce said he's busy" The two of them gave each other a small kiss on the cheeks and Hana slumped on the passenger seat releasing a sigh."When are we going to tell them?" Sarah asked with crossed arms, it's obvious that bastard Bryce is playing around with their friends."I don't know... do we have the right to tell them? we're doing the same." Hana placed her bag on her delicate tights, the two of them had played it nice this time, a competition of sorts.Prior, Sarah had taken the passenger seat while Hana sat i
After telling Sarah that he'd head there to pick them up, Morpheus hung up the call on his phone, quite the useful artefact he believed it to be.On the other side of the city was Sarah, sitting on the rooftop with a heavy blush.Now the connection is cut down for real, signalling the unimpeded eruption."KYAAAA!!" Like a stupid little girl, Sarah swayed back and forth, unable to contain her happiness.'I have the best boyfriend ever!'But then she slumped slightly, 'But I have to share him...'Sighing she remained on the rooftop for a while before preparing to make her way back, but when she opened the door to go downstairs, she found a gruesome vision."Sarah."A voice said softly, a tall boy appeared in front of her, marred with tattoos and a hooligan appearance."...?"She heard a voice just as she was preparing to make her way back to the classroom, a man crept from the stairs, impeding her way forward.The girl regarded a boy... too known to her that it even produced disgust, so
"H-How did you get yourself that car!?" The voice of a frantic girl resonated in the classroom as Sarah made an annoyed expression, still feeling pride inwardly.Sarah sat on her desk with a redhead screaming all over, annoying the entire class until the teaching bot came back to the classroom."Secret." She answered, not paying attention but giggling still, one could tell she was happy."You have a boyfriend!? what about Ashton!?""Secret, and he's not the 'new' boyfriend... he's the love of my life also... fuck Ashton."She answered again, giggling stupidly unaware that she just said the 'secret', not paying attention to the growling fool to the other side of the room."A-And you came out with the school belle as well!?" The girl said, referring to Hana, they were seen coming out of the Bentley together."Secret, definitely a secret!" Telling her friends that she's sharing her boyfriend is a no-no.The class went on normally, they entered the VRworld where she noticed a lot more new
"Oh my dear, t-this place is..." Rachel gasped, looking around after Null took her hands out of her eyes, brightening up the previous darkness that isolated her eyes from seeing the 'marvellous surprise'. It was a shop for sale, one where her store is going to be next, no longer having to move that stall all over, now she can come here early in the morning, and everything will be prepared for her. "This is for you Rachel, actually... we're going to refurbish the house as well." Null smiled, feeling slightly content at the granny's reaction to everything around, the shop was clean, with glass screens and modern flooring, completely different to her humble stall, it was elegant, and obviously, this wouldn't be its last state. Rachel was simply delighted that she had such a shop, a ten-metre square front shop of the same size in the back a kitchen with all the equipment. 'Oh my...' tears were about to come out of her bionic pupils. "B-But that..." "Don't worry Rachel, everything wil
"You seem to be a little surprised, <Sigularity>" Marianne held her fluttering hair, the gales of wind didn't give her a rest; beneath them were the clouds, and the concealed reactor together with an endless expanse of fields and underground facilities, what used to be myriad green colours had turned into a mechanical mess that consumed this planet."..." Morpheus regarded her in her battle pose, wondering what she intends... he has already expected several motherships to be rounding him as they speak, but that doesn't seem to be the case; before he was limited due to his lack of mana, but now... if they wanted to take him down they needed at least a quarter of this planet's weaponry, let alone just her body."Is it because I managed to discover you?" Regarding his awkward silence, Marianne started to float around, analysing his entire profile up and down again and again as if learning his every contour."How did y
Morpheus had camouflaged himself and gone on his way with a phone in his hand, he flew across the skies of England, following V2's signals."I only have the location of another two reactors, one of them within the UK, another one outside... the ones outside are going to be even more difficult to find, but they shine for their absence; overly exaggerated security methods often serve to pinpoint either a reactor, a military base or a secret corporation..." V2 explained along the way, intending to unravel his intentions but also, render support to his fruitful endeavour."I just want to know where they are, when the time comes... no further time shall be wasted." Right now there are too many things in his mind that he believed wouldn't enter his line of thought for a long time; romance... such a void feeling, yet those girls had carved their way in.'I can't allow such things to distract me.'"You said
A short journey afterwards, the Bently arrived in front of the pair's high school in central London; a radian academy brimming with school life; couples and of course, neons.Morpheus visually flinched at the sight of that many lights, turns out Sarah's jaws had been some kind of trending as there were several girls and boys using them; thankfully, his Sarah had already moved through that phase.Several of the students marvelled at the sudden entrance of a pricy vehicle, but the two of them didn't exit straight away or head into class looking for their friends.It's Morpheus' first time seeing the campus, so they decided to stay a little longer; moreover, for once they're not late or anything of the sort, so it's not an issue."We're here." Sarah sighed, another day another class... with the fantastic amount of events though her life at the moment, she felt the least motivated to start going to 'clas
Commander Krashev is an individual not to be trifled with, standing atop a gigantic iron carcass, he casually brushed his hair as the torrents of water crashed against his soaking body and clothes.*SPLASH!!*"We're here commander! there is no presence of the recusants whatsoever!" He heard from his communicator as the maritime vehicle resurfaced from the deepest abyss.His gaze roamed the land in front, the territory of treasures, the United Kingdom."It seems the Wisdom King has been truly disabled, what a surprise, to think there is someone capable of taking it down, we must tread carefully."He gave his orders to the crew as the modern submarine floated in the lands of the destroyed city of Brighton, the underwater facility completely obliterated, the city... decimated, a new lake formed as the prologue of unimpeded destruction."What the fuck happe