Entering The Void

Chaos Year 3, Day 109, 7:46 pm.

Click…foosshhh…

Opening the VRSC's lid, I stepped out into the real world. A gentle breeze blew past me, further disheveling my already messy hair. But honestly, I couldn't differentiate the experience between the real world and the Chaos world. I looked to the west of my room following the wind's direction.

'The heck? Why is the window open? No wonder it's so cold here.'

Unsurprisingly, my t-shirt failed to block the chilly air. So, I strode out of the room after closing the glass window, and then stepped into the living room to find Riko, but she wasn't there.

'That's weird. She always watches TV at this hour. What's the devil doing now?'

Riko's shoes at the entryway indicated her presence at home. So, I moved towards her room, next to mine. While walking, all kinds of thoughts began swimming around my head.

'Maybe she just needs to finish mountains of homework given by that crazy teacher of hers.'

'Or maybe she is chatting with her friends over a video call on her laptop…..or with her boyfriend?'

'No wait, did she call her boyfriend over to the home? I mean, she knows I'd be late playing the game, and mom's out too on her business trip to Okinawa.'

With every step, my thoughts grew darker. Hastily, I reached her door, with a firm resolution to kick that bastard boyfriend out.

"Riko, I'm coming in." I knocked on the wooden door before pushing it.

"O-onii chan? N-no, wait." She exclaimed, scurrying across her room, and then pressed against the door. "Stop pushing! You can't come in now."

'She is acting kinda sussy. Don't tell me my hunch actually hit the mark.'

"Why is that?" I strengthened my grip on the door handle and leaned my shoulder against the door to add to the force. "You are not naked in there, are you?"

"Wha…why on earth would I be naked?" She whimpered while using her whole body to keep the door closed. "You think I'm a nudist or something?"

"Then why are you holding the door? Is the Three-Eyed Raven controlling you?"

"No…Hmngg" She kept struggling with all her might.

'Geez, enough.' I didn't want to use my full strength against a girl, but Riko's strength seemed a bit too much for a regular 14 years old girl. 'Is her boyfriend also holding the door together with her?' I shoved the door with all my might and therefore managed to open the door.

"Kyaaa.." The force of the door opening propelled Riko to fall over the floor.

There wasn't anyone else in the room other than Riko and me. However, the scene waiting for me behind that door was no less surprising. Riko sat there on the floor, wearing a sleeveless white one-piece with red ribbons over the chest. She had bright golden eyes and long blonde hair spread down to her hips touching the floor.

"Shinobu..." I gaped at my little sister, who looked like she could die of embarrassment, grasping the end of her dress tightly and trying her best to just hold it down. "Why are you..? But you never liked cosplaying."

"S-shut up! You were the one who always used to force me to cosplay." Her eyes glistened, tears would dribble down her red cheeks any moment now. "Because of you, it turned into a habit now."

click..click..click..

"Hey, stop taking pictures! Get the hell out!" She started yelling at me. "Urggh...I want to die!"

"Oh c'mon, it looks so good. Fits you perfectly." I tried to cheer her up.

"J-just get out!" She looked away, pouting.

"Yes, yes, I'm going." I moved to step out of the room, but stopped in my track and turned back at Riko, remembering why I searched for her in the first place. "Oh Riko, give me something to eat. Anything would do. I'll have to go back into the game in like 20 minutes."

Leaving Riko glaring at me, I walked out of the room. Entering the dining room, I waited there at the kitchen island. A few minutes later Riko came in.

"20 minutes you said? I don't have anything ready yet." She said while tying the apron strings behind her back. "Want me to make you instant ramen?"

"Anything's fine. Just make it quick." I replied.

"You know you could just make it yourself. It's, like, super easy." After a brief pause, she spoke, her tone higher than usual.

"Well, you know it turns into a disaster whenever I try to make something." I said while passing a wooden spoon to her. "Remember the time I tried to cook rice?"

"I could teach you. I mean how hard can it be?"

"You know I don't have that much time."

"Ya right, you and your stupid game." She scoffed. "Hand me the mesh strainer."

"And, even after I learn, I'm sure anything you make will taste a lot better than whatever crap I come up with."

"So you are never gonna learn cooking?" Riko narrowed her eyes, glancing at me, not even looking ahead while using the strainer.

"Nope. Get ready to cook for me forever." I grinned. Then she just sighed, giving up convincing me.

Soon Riko finished cooking and served me the ramen. She also sat down with me with another bowl for her. I guess it doesn't make sense to make something again later for herself.

"So why did you come back earlier?" Riko asked, while mixing her ramen with chopsticks.

"We will enter a void next. Then it might even take the whole night before we can log out again. So I came back for dinner before that." I answered before slurping down a long unending ramen noodle.

"Hmm…so what's this void?"

"You really want to know that?"

"Well, it's something to talk about, better than eating silently." She shrugged.

"True, let's see… You know about dungeons, right?" I started explaining while eating sporadically. Riko nodded with her mouth full of ramen. I continued, "Voids are also kinda like that… except we enter into whole different worlds…. or sometimes they are other dimensions or timelines of the Chaos world."

"Oh, I see. So, it's like isekai'ing into other worlds?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yep, kinda like that." I replied, smiling. 'It's always fun to talk about Chaos to outsiders.'

…...

Logging in, I found Boss and Annette-san chatting away, sitting in front of a campfire. 

'Oh God, talk about wrong timing. Should I really join them right now? Geez, this is an awkward situation.'

"Oh hey, Rio, welcome back." Boss waved, spotting me immediately.

"Hey." I went ahead and greeted them. "You two are early."

"Nah, we didn't go offline. We were just fooling around." Boss said nonchalantly. Beside him, Annette-san slightly smiled, tucking her bright golden hair behind her left pointy ear.

"Did you have a nice meal, Rio?" Annette-san asked. Her kind smile together with that everlasting elegance, complemented by her white dress, put me at ease.

"Yeah, I had." I replied, sitting down on a rock beside the fire. "What about you guys though? You can keep going without eating anything at all?"

"I told Boss to go and eat but he won't listen. And I already had my lunch before logging in." Ah, right. It should be around 4 pm in France right now. Adding another dry wood into the fire, Annette-san continued, "I used to go camping with my father and brothers when I was younger. They would hunt animals and I'd cook them for us. It feels so nostalgic now, the three of us sitting here around the fire."

"Those are the most memorable days, right?" Boss added. "I also went on camping trips a lot as a part of the boy scout. It wasn't always so merry, but it was lots of fun."

"Uwah, I want to see the young Boss in scout uniform." Annette-san blushed immediately, realizing she said that out loud.

I listened as they continued reminiscing about their old days. I couldn't join the conversation, since I had no recollection of fun outgoing events. When all my classmates went on a school trip in the 7th grade, I had to stay home looking after Riko, since Mom was always out for work. So all I could do was laugh and nod along with Boss and Annette-san, while they explained how their camping went wrong sometimes.

Soon, the others came back from their break time. Then we all stood before the void gate shrouded in mysterious thick fog. No one knew what could be there on the other side. Hence, we readied ourselves for the unknown, expecting the worst possible outcome, death.

"Pika, you are up. Teleport us through the gate." Boss commanded. 

The best way to reach the gate four meters high above the ground was teleportation. Many mage subclasses had inbuilt teleportation skills, to help replace themselves on a battlefield. They could teleport themselves or others together with them anywhere inside a certain range. The range, casting time and number of players a mage could carry depended on the subclass, skill level and magic power of the mage.

"Okay, Boss." Pinkpika responded. "Don't touch my ears or tail, guys. Or else I won't be able to concentrate." 

'Ah damn, I thought I would use this chance as an excuse to pet her.'

We had to be somehow physically connected to her directly or indirectly through others.

"Let's just do a team hand-stack." Boss spread out his hand first.

"Ah, that makes sense."

"Alright."

Shortly, we huddled together, stacking our hands in the middle. Pika began mumbling the chanting spell of the teleportation skill. 6 or 7 seconds later we were teleported into midair, and then we started freefalling. For some reason, the four meters height turned into more than 100 meters at least on the other side.

"FUUCKKK!!"

"PIKA! TELEPORT!"

"No use trying. She doesn't have enough time to chant."

"I really need the pause button right now."

"I DON'T WANNA DIEE!"

"KYAAAHH!!"