Sound of Your Heart

CHAPTER 11: IF THE ONE PERSON YOU WANTED TO KILL...

Chapter 11:

If the One Person You Wanted to KILL is Within Your Reach, What would You do?

FOR VIOLET, every day after she came to this city has been nothing short of trouble, but even so to a girl that has been spending her life in a village thanks to her poor health, it was no different than new adventure. Therefore, she didn't find those days to be bother and in fact, enjoyed them.

Meeting Daniel was perhaps the best thing that happened to her after the violin, because she experienced many wonderful things and a chance to improve. She was certain that she would not have been able to create a masterpiece such as "March of the King" if it weren't for Daniel, so she instinctively stopped considering him a treat and more like trusted aide... Perhaps.

She wasn't really sure about their relationship, right now. After all, it's only been some three days after they met and their meeting wasn't the kind of meeting to mark the start of friendship.

"Finally," now that she mentions it, three days have passed since her phone broke and it was finally a day to retrieve it back.

But... Reality aside, as much as she is happy to have her phone back, she couldn't help but feel sour at her heart once she recalled that cursed mage from the game. She always walked proud with head held high when it comes to that person, but now that she was away for three days, she probably lost a lot levels and even the guild war, ah...

If she lost the guild war while she led her troops, she'd be able to accept that loss, but losing it without even trying... Not to mention that she won't be able to catch up to the lost levels with that person unless he miraculously goes offline for three days as well...

Life of a top ranker sure isn't simple, dammit!

"Why are you sighing so hard? It's not like your phone's been completely lost and data in it deleted," hearing the voice of a man she came to accept as her kindred spirit, she couldn't help but feel worse. Ah, if that damned mage is as nice as Daniel, how perfect would that be?

"You don't understand," she smiled bitterly, "Imagine that you had to compete with someone for a long, long time, but then due to some accident you had to take a break and your opponent got a chance to go ahead of you, how would you feel?"

She couldn't help but feel like the phone that accompanied her for entire year now seemed to weight over tone. How can something so little dictate one's emotions, she'll never understand.

"..."

Daniel thought about her question and figured that he'd feel bad enough to commit suicide.

"Terrible, indeed," she sighed again, "although it's good that I can get my phone back, it would also mean that I have to face that person again and listen to them bragging about my misfortune, so you can guess why I'm sighing so bad."

"..."

Indeed, he couldn't find the words to rebuke her.

If he had to give opinion on the past three days he spent with this crazy woman, he couldn't be more satisfied. He got a chance to reclaim the golden medal, so he should be happy, but... As a gamer, and a top ranker at that, he really couldn't find joy that he lost three days' worth of experience and guild war, so he was left with some mixed feelings.

Top ranker is someone who had highest level in the game, and everyone fought hard to be in top ten or hundred - the game he played gives some bonuses regarding bonus experience and stats the higher your level, especially first three places. Daniel was someone who always vied for the first place with a certain necromancer, so to think that he'll have extremely hard time to get back to first position... Really left him with bitter taste now.

High are chances that he won't be able to catch up to her unless she miraculously doesn't come online for at least three days, but how could that crazy bastard give him that chance.

So he could understand Violet's feelings, to some point.

Having to face that crazy necromancer now, he really doesn't want to play that game again, but he's a guild leader - after all, he has to.

Surprisingly enough, neither of the two considered the possibility of the person next to them being their sworn enemy - after all, the necromancer and mage considered the other to be the most loathsome creature in existence while the two in real life were too amiable and pleasing to the eye.

Twirling the familiar SONY in his hands, he could only be grateful that his playlist was still there. He took out earphones from his pocket and placed one in his ear while hanging the other loosely around his neck so that he could talk with Violet.

Back then, whenever he was on the move, he'd put earphones and ignore everyone around him, but he chose not to do the same thing today.

"You don't have problem with earphones?" She asked and it took him a while to understand what she meant by those words.

"Ah, no - as long as I don't tire myself, I have no problem with hearing. Moreover, those earphones are quite loud so it's fine even if I had one," he pointed to them thinking that it wasn't a waste to spend 50$ on them. If Violet knew their price, she'd call him a wastrel and beat some sense in him. The ones she used were extremely good and loud, and they cost only 3$ - she could buy over fifteen packs of them for the money he spent!

"But won't loud music damage your hearing further?" She couldn't understand this man sometimes.

He only threw her a look like watching an i***t.

"So what?"

"..."

Her mind drifted to the day when he explained his condition to her. He does seem to have said that he'll just get implants if it comes to worst.

True, with someone waiting for the worst, what's the difference between it coming sooner or later?

Reasoning with him would be futile so she chose to ignore it for now.

"Shall we stop by to order food or something?" They already finished the daily training and everything, so all that's left now is to go home, eat and enjoy.

Well, since he retrieved his phone, it should be okay to play games until midnight or something.

He missed those days, he's still not sure how he managed to survive the past three days. Probably because he found the new entertainment.

Violet checked the time on her phone, it was almost eight, and there are a lot events scheduled from eight until half past ten.

"Can't we just order some from home?" She had no idea when she considered that place her home. Perhaps, to her, that place is no different than school dorms and seeing as she already prepared herself to live in another place from her grandma's, she really didn't see any differences.

"Sure," he also checked the time before opening the music app, "Just in time. The bus is here, we should arrive earlier if we take it," he mused as they saw public transport arrive.

She shamelessly relied on his wallet once again.

"I'll pay for dinner then," he's already gotten used to it, so he naturally paid for tickets without further notice. Once they found their seats, she googled the fast food delivery they went to past three days and ordered for food to arrive half an hour later at their address, then paid for everything.

Ah, online shopping sure is convenient - you also don't have to worry about being scammed for change nor losing money.

But unfortunately, there are some dangers with it. Not the kind of danger with someone stealing your money on internet, but the kind where you experience the joys of wasting money on games - but by the time you realize what you've done, it's already too late.

Violet is a good example of such case, she already flushed over 700$ on a single game - so even if she wanted to stop playing now, the spent money would make her unable to do so. Don't joke with her, how can she bury that money and forget about it now? She can only make that investment worthy now! It's 700$.

700$, ah!

Glancing at Daniel, she was sure that this refined man isn't a wastrel like her and couldn't help but find him even more pleasing to her eyes. He even paid for her meals for the past three days and gave her a place to stay without asking for money.

This man must've fallen directly from Heavens.

"Hey, can I listen with you too?" So she naturally wanted to get closer to him.

"Sure," he gave her the other earphone and she was surprised to hear that he was listening to classical music and some good soundtracks.

She immediately found him even more pleasing to the eye - perfect, even! As expected, one shouldn't make blind assumption when meeting someone for the first time. Forget about taking from Heavens, he's an angel himself.

Daniel was naturally unaware of her thoughts since he never bothered for other's opinion and merely played music he missed for so long. Regarding her wasting money on games... If he knew, he'd merely scoff at this amateur.

The amount she spent on games is just a weekly to monthly quota he spends on games, and as someone obsessed with games for over five years, one can only imagine the amount he wasted. It's also the reason he never got banned regardless of his toxic play-style - which game company would want to cut off this rich moneybag?

Money truly does make the world go around.

BY THE time they got back, they arrived just in time to pick the food from delivery guy. Violet couldn't wait to sit down and begin to play while enjoying food, so much that she even threw her treasured violin in some random corner, then immediately took over half the couch. Luckily, Daniel had some extremely good WiFi that she couldn't help but envy, thinking that she needs one once she goes back home.

In fact, she even considered that once she successfully enters college, if the internet over there sucks - she will just stay here at Daniel's. He did say that he didn't mind her and she already got used to this place where she could do whatever she wants without worrying about disturbing anyone with her violin practice.

She didn't even think that her moving here was too soon, that's how perfect this place is! Once a peasant tasted the lifestyle of a royalty, it's impossible to go back.

Tapping on the game app, she didn't even notice Daniel who sat next to her and opened pizza. To her surprise, there was an update waiting for her, 48.67MB.

If it were her old place, it would take around two minutes for it to download, but to her amazement it was done in less than five seconds here. She couldn't help but marvel this Internet speed once again. Even the app smoothly ran, without bugs or pauses.

Finally noticing the smell of pizza, she took one piece while waiting for character screen to load. She almost wept tears seeing the familiar necromancer and it's stats. Under the female character stood name "Snowflake" - quite opposite of the dark equipment and bloody red wings of the necromancer, but she was too lazy to change the name now. Not to mention that she was kind of attached to it now.

Under it stood the title of Ascordia's guild leader while above was an empty space. It's should be reserved for marriage title like someone's wife or husband and such, but she couldn't bother to make a wedding since it cost way too much.

By the side was long list of mounts and pets, in upper left corner was BR which went over 300M, making her feel truly powerful.

There's a sprite running around her, the one she had to top up over 150$ in an event to win, giving her 350% exp boost, 25% all attributes bonus and much more. Although her heart bleed whenever she recalls the lost money, just the good stats and BR she got from it made up for that loss.

Under the character, in the middle of the screen was a huge red button "PLAY" giving her an odd sense of being back home after a long journey, but once she saw her level of 879... She grit her teeth in annoyance. If she didn't lose those three days, she'd already be over level 900, begun her class promotion and be able to wear new equipment set!

One could change equipment every 100 levels and one shouldn't underestimate the difference between them. Someone in level 900 could almost one-shot people in level 800, and recalling that overpowered crazy mage, he's sure to chase her around to kill her.

Just that thought made her reluctant to play as she angrily bit on her pizza slice, not noticing the somber expression Daniel was making.

Just like her, he was staring in a similar character screen on his phone, but he didn't show his anger like her. Instead, he had a calm expression, but his eyes emitted a chilling cold that could freeze one's bones if they dared to look at.

Compared to her necromancer, there stood a mage in dark blue robes, all being ancient grade.

His BR was a bit higher, 321M, but he also had the same sprite circling around his character. Underneath it was his character name of 'RRVACH' something he rolled randomly and couldn't bother to change now. Under it was the title of Darkness's guild leader while he also had no marriage partner. To have a weakling for wife his sworn enemy could target later in game would really make him die from anger.

If you were online and someone attacked your partner, but you didn't come to help them, you'd get some kind of penalty by system such as ATK or attribute debuff, and to him who fought for the first place - it was simply unacceptable!

He had more mounts than Violet, but seeing as most of them were obtained through events one literally had to waste money like crazy, it's quite natural - he often took first place in those events being rich like crazy.

Yes, he's long became a victim to online shopping.

Looking at his level of 890, he couldn't help but have the same thoughts as Violet in that regard, it will be quite a pain to gain ten levels - especially with 10% of experience bar loss upon PvP death. On level where you need over 70 billion experience just to get a single level, and needing half a day to make up to those 7 billion experience points, it really is easier to drop the level rather to gain one.

Life of a top ranker sure isn't easy.

He's been oppressing players ever since he started to play this game, to think that now had to hide and run away in order to level up... Is this karma? He didn't mind others, but that Snowflake...

Ah, whatever. It's no use to worry about pointless things. Once he hits level 900 it won't be that big of a difference, since one can't improve level until they finish with promotion, as experience points will just stack up - and class promotions usually take from a week to entire month. Not to mention that you can always just buy promotion material with money, which he didn't lack, he might actually be able to overthrow that crazy necromancer.

With that thought in mind, he pressed the 'PLAY' button, not noticing that the girl next to him did the same thing in almost exact moment.

Both having spent over 500$ in game, they got a special VIP privileges, also having the max VIP level in game. When people with max ViP level logged in into the game, server would release a message notifying everyone about their arrival. As expected, it was the same situation now as well.

'Welcome back to the deity god, RRVACH! Their brilliance illuminates the Battle Continent!'

'Welcome back to the deity god, Snowflake! Their brilliance illuminates the Battle Continent!'

Battle Continent was the name of entire map of the game setting. It was further separated in many zones and countries where different level caps weed required to enter and fight monsters, highest level being 1500.

Noticing the arrival of their enemies, the two could only glare at the screen and wait for the other to begin with their taunting messages. However, even after five minutes, neither sent the first message in the world chat. Rather, all other players overwhelmed the group chat that it actually began to bug, asking their gods where were they past few days.

Noticing something odd, the two of them went to the ranking board to check to situation, and although they fell from first and second place to eleventh and twelfth, their levels were the same as three days ago.

It was really odd coincidence, but rather than ponder if something was wrong, they felt a huge burden lift from their shoulders. God does exists and he seems to have heard their prayers.

Seeing as their guild members were panicking too much in the world, guild and even private chats, they both decided to respond to calm them down.

Anyone who's played this game was well aware how shitty the chat actually is. Only max of 30 characters, not to mention that the message won't necessarily be sent even after ten times, and would sometimes censor some completely irrelevant words, the best approach was certainly a voice message. The only flaw is perhaps, that you couldn't record it and then undo it if you don't like it, but it released the message immediately until you pressed the stop button - with a second delay if nothing else.

"Eh, hello everyone, sorry for not being online for the last few days..." She began to speak first, but as if possessed by devils, Daniel also chose the same time to speak.

"There were some problems last few days, but to those fuckers from Ascordia and that obnoxious guild leader of theirs..." He took a more violent approach, but it's how he always was in game.

Hearing the annoying voice of her sworn enemy, Violet chose not to lose to him.

"To that bastard RRVACH who thought he had an upper hand, I'm here to kick your ass!"

Eh, wait, why does this seem wrong? Why would I hear his voice?

"The weak puny necromancer who's still a level under me even after me being away for three days, come if you dare, I really need experience bag to kick for leveling up!"

"..."

Ah, wait, what did he hear just now? He's still releasing his message and unless he opens her voice message, he shouldn't be able to hear what that necromancer was saying and he was certain that he hasn't done such... A... Thing...

As if realizing something, he slowly turned his head towards Violet who already had her eyes fixed on his phone, as if trying to dig a hole through that character window in the left upper corner on the screen. Twitching his lips in bewilderment, he slowly moved his eyes to her own phone and wondered if there was such a possibility in this world.

Surely not f*****g possib- the hell?!

There was a solemn silence between the two lasting for few seconds, it almost seemed like the time came to stand still.

"..."

"..."

There was not an ounce of anger on either face, the two pairs of eyes staring at each other were just too serene like the two were complete strangers that had nothing to do with each other. They continued like that for so long that they even forgot to stop the voice recording, but some people who were curious and played them were too disturbed to contain their feelings.

It's fine if they clicked on both voice messages, but they obviously chose only one, yet heard both guild leaders! What did that imply? The two people were together!

Moreover, by the content of that message and creepy silence that followed, it's obvious that they were unaware of other's identity! Who in the entire game didn't know of hatred between two guild leaders? Not having a guild war daily is already considered a holiday for players of that game! Just the amount of notifications about someone slaying from another's guild would often cause the server to BUG and their phones to crash!

Unlike guild league to decide the best guild weekly, guild war is purely up to guilds to do as they please!

The game creators found this event, especially when it come to Ascordia and MARVEL, to be too bothersome, so they set guild war to be eligible only on Sundays; firmly believing that they won't have BUGs anymore. But the two had such an enmity that their war lasted over twelve hours and entire client crashed! They were unable to restart game until next Wednesday, so realizing the severity of situation, they returned it to normal.

Although the two guilds fought daily, it was for an hour at most, and not during important events - so they compromised.

What could they do? Ban bunch of top tier VIPs because they liked to PK a lot?

Like hell they could afford to live their money incomes! (Yes, the biggest number of money wastrels belonged to the two guilds, the biggest even being a guild leader of one.)

That's how serious the grudge was between the two, even THE game creators were unable to do anything about it!

As expected, after the dreadful silence, the two finally made their move.

"Finally, you fell in my hands, if I don't kill you - I'll change my name!"

"If I don't snap your neck like a twig, I'll even change my surname, forget about a name!"

After that, bunch of crashing sounds and curses followed as the world chat finally became silent.

No words were needed anymore. The guild members were like crazed Vatican fanatics with God when it came to their two guild leaders. How could they possibly keep calm when their two deities were fighting in real life?

In the next second, another two messages resounded through the server.

[MARVEL]'s guild vice-leader [Silvermoon12 (VIP 14)] has announced guild war on enemy guild [Ascordia]!!!

[ASCORDIA]'s vice-leader [Eggman(VIP14)] has accepted the guild war with enemy guild [MARVEL]!!!

[Sacred Ruins] have been opened. All online members of the two guilds, please teleport to the desired location.

[Experience loss penalty has been reduced by 50% for the members of two guilds until the war has been called off.]

[Mana regeneration has been speed up by 80%. We wish you a glorious victory.]

[Penalty for refusing is 15% ATK debuff for 24 hours.]

Time remaining: 00:59:59.

Needless to say, with six members in top ten rankings being from two guilds, the world levels fell by two on that day. That meant that each of them died at least forty to sixty times in an hour. Violet and Daniel's character gained debuff for the first time in history of Age of Gods since they were too busy fighting in real life to focus on game.

And after? The game naturally crashed once again and players couldn't log in for the next five hours until the problem got fixed.