1 Chapter 1

The sunlight peeked through the windows, shining their light on the young boy's eyes. He sat up, stifling a yawn. Slowly, he gets out of bed while rubbing his eyes. For a moment, he was able to glance at the mirror and notice his messy hair and his tired face. The way he looked could be described as pathetic, he never liked how he was and the longer he stared the more upset he grew. He turns away and grabs his headset. He thought to himself; if he wasn't going to spend much time in the real world, is there even a point in fixing himself up? Sighing, he puts on the headset and turns it on.

He looks around the lobby for a bit to see if there is any news or if anything interesting was happening. Suddenly a message appeared from one of his online friends.

"Hey, Kevin! Let's play!"

He didn't have much to do, so he quickly sent a message to accept, joined the party, and went to meet up with him.

"I just logged on, and you immediately noticed. What are you a stalker?" Kevin said teasingly.

His friend's name was Toby. He looked at Kevin and gave him a smirk.

"It's not stalking! You're just so cute, I noticed you immediately."

He gave a sigh and pulled up his friend list. "Hm? Is John not online today?"

"Oh yeah, he said he's studying today," Toby said while messing around with the effects menu.

"Ah, I see." He closed the menu and turned to Toby, "What do you want to do, now?"

They looked at what games they could play for the day, but most of them seemed uninteresting. They had played most of them already anyway, so they decided to go walk around the lobby area. Despite the fact that the main thing to do is the party games, there are many smaller mini-games and secrets rooms. They sometimes hang out in one of the rooms and mess with some effects. After all, they can't meet each other in real life.

"Hey look! There's the fairytale pond!" Toby exclaimed, "I remember that's where I met you."

"It's been a while. I think I was still living with my parents at the time." Kevin went to sit down on the bench.

Toby sat down next to him. "I wonder why we decided to play together. I thought you were annoyed with me!"

"Maybe, but I'm happy I met you. Being with you is a lot of fun, you know?"

Toby smile a bit. They sat in silence for a minute before someone spoke.

"Hey, will you always be with me?" Toby suddenly asked

Kevin stopped walking for a bit. He was taken aback but after a little bit of thinking, he answered. "Of course I'll always be with you! You're my friend"

Toby smiled and they kept walking around and looking at the hidden little details around the lobby.

They spent a while talking about life and what their plans are for tomorrow. Soon, it turned into night, and they had to say goodbye.

"Hey, let's hang out again tomorrow!" Toby said before logging off.

Kevin looked around the main lobby area for a bit longer before logging off too. When he was back in the real world, he realized he hadn't eaten all day. He went to the kitchen to grab a quick dinner. It's been a while since anyone has visited him, not even his parents. Once he became of legal age, they kicked him out and told him to get a job. He had nothing.

Now he is able to at least feed himself and get power, but sometimes it would be a struggle. His job isn't necessarily hard for him, but he at times lacks the motivation to do it.

"Now that I think of it, the deadline is soon."

The night sky was clear, yet no stars can be seen. He decided to clean himself up then work for the rest of the night.