End Online: Volume 4 by D. Wolfin

about
three weeks to a month ago. Don’t you remember? You said that you had some
other business to take care of for a while, but you didn’t come back after.”
    I don’t know why I just
lied about what happened. The time she disappeared is true, but I made up the
rest to test her.
    “Oh, yes! I remember that.
My father required my assistance with his work for a while. Sorry, it took
longer than I expected.”
    The words roll off her
tongue as if they are the truth and I almost believe her, but my stomach still
sinks as I realize that her memory has indeed been affected. I feel
particularly dejected about the situation, but I decide to go along with the
charade.
    ‘I don’t know why she
is hiding it, but I probably shouldn’t be prying.’
    “Mason,” I call out to the
elder brother of the party, “two hours is unprecedented from what I have seen
before. How many views has your video gotten so far?”
    “Sorry, it isn’t live just
yet. Due to the size of the file, it is going to be uploading all night.”
    “I see…”
    I had wanted to talk more
about the response to the video; I am quite interested on the viewership of
videos and the money that they bring in. I don’t have the skills do it properly
myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested.
    “Now that we are all
together, let’s head off to Swordbreak!” I call out to the gathered party.
    With the change of
subject, everyone drops what they were doing and comes over to me. We form our
party of six and quickly head out of the acacia grove. Travelling downhill and
away from the mountain range behind us, the brothers comment on the excessively
long path of flattened grass. No one pays it much attention, but the reminder
causes me to feel awkward.
    Fen hadn’t cared that I
saw her underwear. If anything, she had genuinely wanted to know my opinion of
them, even going as far as to ask if they were not good enough and if she
should remove them.
    I don’t know if this game
censors genitals or not, but I am not particularly interested in finding out.
    Even now, the wolf girl is
walking a little too close for comfort. Ever since the incident I have been
trying to create distance between us to alleviate my awkwardness, except she
always manages to be right there when I look over my shoulder. I keep trying to
create distance and she keeps trying to get closer. The result is a strange
kind of stalemate.
    Eventually, I give up and
she takes the opportunity to hook her arm around one of mine and stick to me
like glue.
    Dry, yellow grass, as high
as my knees, cracks and falls to the ground underneath my boots. I feel small
thorns from the grass attach to me and pierce through my clothes. I lead the
whole party as we calmly walk through the wide open savannah.
    It is a shame that there
are so many players around, but at the same time it is a blessing that we don’t
have to deal with every enemy in our path. A few lions are within the effective
area of my intimidating aura, suddenly sprinting towards me with a bunch of
angry players trailing close behind. Although when I easily finish off the
enemy in a single attack, the players finally back off.
    It takes three hours to
pass through the savannah, and not one section of the area is less crowded than
the rest.
    Past the savannah is an
area of small hills covered in red ash and paperbark trees. The hills also have
large rocks jutting from the ground, making some areas difficult to pass
directly through.
    There seem to be fewer
players in this area, though that may be due to the lack of enemies and
wildlife. While we stop for lunch, Matrix expresses great fascination with the
paperbark trees, pulling off large sheets of bark and then peeling that into
even thinner layers.
    I feel a vaguely familiar
feeling, similar to a spark of inspiration. It is the feeling I get when I am
looking at an area where there are herbs available. Focusing on my supernatural
sense to locate herbs, I get the impression that I should