Chapter 6: A New World

"It hasn't even been 3rd period and your son has pulled a student's ankle joint out of place."

The crowd around Diem had hushed up quickly after his stunt. Well except for Blake, who was busy sobbing his eyes out. Even after the teachers arrived, no one uttered a word. All they could do was avoid his eyes.

Soon enough, he arrived in the principal's office with his father, who arrived shortly after.

"I'm very sorry Bill," Diem's father said to the principal, "But you must know that my son has never done such a thing like this so there must have been a cause of some kind."

The principal scratched his coarse beard.

"Well, we do have reports that your son was being... well beat up and he retaliated accordingly. The parents of the other child, who also have a large share of their money in the school, would like to keep this hushed up as well but I must digress that your son will have to take a break from school."

Mr Nanon shot upright in his chair, "Expulsion!?"

He was ready to make an argument but the principal raised his hand and Mr Nanon regained composure.

"It'll only be for a week and then the holidays will start and your son can return after that."

"But why?" Mr Nanon asked in distress, "What about the other boy? Will he be facing the same punishment?"

"Well no, but there's a slight issue we are facing with your... son."

"What issue?"

The principal shuffled around uncomfortably in his black leather chair.

"You told me that your son had been in an accident recently and his brain got injured in the process, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, your son after the fight seemed to be arguing with himself and even swung out at thin air."

At this moment both adults swivelled their eyes, expecting to get an explanation from the silent boy who was busy ignoring the bug on his shoulder.

"I'm a bug now. Wow. That's quite hurtful." Kairo said, cradling himself.

Diem was rather wired up after the fight, running on pure adrenaline at that point and that was the moment when his shoulder finally piped up.

"I didn't know you took martial arts as a child."

"More like I was forced to but that's none of your business."

"Well, buddy we're going to be comrades from now on because you stuck with me so let's at least try to be friends."

"I don't need you around me, ok? My life's great as how it is."

"You sure about that?" Kairo smirked, cocking his eyebrow, "Because from where I'm sitting it looks like your living in a boring world, with no friends, dysfunctional parents and a sister that desperately tries to ignore you so yeah your living the `dream`. "

Diem was already pissed at this point and tried swinging at the small pixie, oblivious to everyone watching.

-

On the drive home, neither of them spoke and Diem was glad. He didn't want to hear about how "disappointed" his father was.

"I didn't know you continued to practice."

"Huh?"

"Your training from those martial arts lessons." his father replied.

"Yeah well, you spent a lot of money on those instructors and mum kept on pushing for me to do them so I had to."

Then there was a short awkward silence.

"I know the both of you are struggling with your mum in hospital but you know I'm still here if you want to talk about things. You don't have to act tough around me."

"Act?"

The cheery laughter floated around the car as his father pulled up into the driveway and Diem could feel chuckles vibrate from his left shoulder.

"What?" Diem asked indignantly.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," he said as he climbed out of the car.

"You don't need to do your work either," he suggested unlocking the front door, "You can do something else, like playing video games, just like any other normal kid would do at your age."

"Mum would kill me."

"More like she would have killed the principal meaning you would be in school so I think you'll be just fine."

-

Diem collapsed onto his bed, already bored.

"Your dad's cool."

"Mmmh."

"Are you still mad with me?" Kairo asked head tilted to the side.

"Nah."

"So what's the issue?"

Diem swivelled his attention to the most expensive cylinder next to his bed and sighed. His father acted like they had tons of money but his company would soon run their pockets into the ground.

"Oohhh."

Mr Nanon's company was a games company, called RDN, that ran on new and upcoming gamers who would rise to stardom gaining attention all over the world but that sort of thing hadn't happened in a decade. No new budding talents had appeared to advertise and win competition money so now none of the good talents would try and get recruited by them and so his father was clutching at straws, hoping that one of his children could find a friend on Second To None who could build up the company's reputation and possibly save them from bankruptcy.

"So why haven't you plaid the game yet?"

Morally, it felt wrong for Diem to play the game in search of a treasure chest.

"But you don't have to play with the idea of a search in mind. Your father's just clinging to a false hope so he wouldn't fully expect you to land yourself on a gold mine."

Diem mulled this thought over his head.

"Your going to be on a long break from school anyway so it'll be a great way to avoid boredom."

-

Diem sat down in the cylinder, putting the headset on and listened to the door close on itself. He listened to the game start itself up in the darkness whirring and buzzing and all of a sudden the chair vanished from underneath him and he was either floating in the darkness or falling in a pitch-black bottomless pit.

WHAT

WILL YOUR USER

BE CALLED?

The words echoed around his brain just as well as a blue projection image screen popped up with the words.

"Diem."

WHAT RACE WOULD

YOU

LIKE TO PICK?

"Human."

Diem had been hearing about the game for ages and knew that even though the other races were good they specialized in one sort of class whilst the human species could choose any.

WELCOME TO

SECOND TO NONE

DIEM

Then light flowed into his eyes and saw the open world that laid down below. He looked out into the medieval-styled villages in awe but what caught his attention was the large castle-like building that lay right beneath his feet. He looked down at the empty air beneath him and sighed in distress at the start of the game's location as he plummeted to the ground.