My Virtual Lover

Live 12: NullWorld

The next day

“I finally bought a new phone” Anthony smirks while he looks at his brand new phone in his palm proudly. He gleefully looks at the white Vivo phone he bought with his pocket money from his job looked it was a nice cell phone for a decent gaming experience and other daily necessities at least. Anthony was quite happy with the new phone, the smell of a new metal raining his nostrils.

Anthony looks at the white cellphone, his dashing look is reflected on the back of the phone. He has yet to receive an email from the graphic designer. He logs to Holorealm. He enters the magical social world of Holorealm. His avatar descends from the sky like the rest of the Holorealm users, his leather shoes hit the ground as he kneels elegantly.

His long ivory hair is swayed from the wind, he needs to tie his hair since his long hair is burdening his eyesight. Anthony's avatar is resembling a butler, he has floppy dog ears on top of his long white hair. His ear twitches every time he hears people talking around him, it’s a cute animation that only Holorealm could produce.

Every user in Holorealm has their own house and room decoration that reflects their personality. Anthony enters his house which is located in another area instead of in the city square. A simple teleportation device is placed in the center of the city square. It appears to be a circular area with a standard ring enveloping it.

Anthony walks to the circular area, the ring open by itself; allowing Anthony to enter the teleportation device. A hologram then appears before Anthony, showing his username NullWorld. After that, he can choose which area to teleport to from the hologram screen before his face.

He smiles as he teleported to the rural area, which is a countryside area where bars and classic cafe are located. Anthony’s avatar body dissipates like molecular cells, transported to the area where he usually stays. He closed his eyes, and the moment he knew he was welcomed with his online friends.

“Null! There you are!” a pink-haired woman shakes her hips sexily at Null. “I miss you so much Null! Aren’t you supposed to be my butler!?”.

“Sorry about that, I’ve been busy lately” Null scratches his hair nervously. “What did I miss?”.

She talks about various topics, from her current boyfriend to her demanding parents. Anthony has always been a great listener, to the point that he's deemed as everyone’s older brother. He hates to be called gentle, even though that’s what he is. Anthony looks at the women who cuddle up to him, he loves spoiling them.

However, sometimes he feels suffocated by his ‘friends’ aggressiveness. He often finds himself in a difficult position where women are always swayed by his kindness, thus making them fall in love with his online persona. It was hard for him to reject these women individually since his gentle soul couldn’t take it.

“Hey! Did you hear!” a woman suddenly appears from behind him, hugging Anthony’s avatar possessively as if he is hers. “There’s a fight going on in the City Square! It’s another Holorealm drama!”.

Anthony is not curious at all, he only exhales when he hears the word drama. The word isn’t exactly as bright as what people think, since he was once involved in a drama. He would love to see himself in the corner rather than involved in a drama. But his peers ask him to join in and watch the drama, the women are pretty hyped up.

“Where’s the drama?” they gossip like a flock of birds. “Let’s go together!”.

“I’m not interested in any online drama, so if you excuse me-”.

Despite his protest, the girls are carrying him to the square through the same teleportation circle where he just arrived. He didn’t even get to arrive at his house, he returns to the square with heavy feelings. The girl pushes him into the teleportation device and tells him to meet up there, Anthony nods his head in disbelief.

As soon as his avatar dissolves into another area, he sees the crowd has gathered in the far corner of the city center. He walks there reluctantly, peeking from the crowds since he’s tall enough to see what’s happening. In the middle of a crowd is a young boy avatar cowering in fear behind a girl with crimson hair.

Wearing a sailor uniform, her outfit doesn’t match the intensity of the girl’s glare on an old man avatar who stands tall before her petite body.

“That young boy is cheating! We’ve been playing for days and look at him climbing the first rank like it’s nothing!” the old man complains as he brushes his bearded chin.

Fixing his tie like an elder, he accuses the boy of cheating and playing the games using a BOT or asking his friends to lose on purpose for him. The bowl-cut-haired boy shakes his head, telling the girl that he’s accusing him of no reason. It was strange that the seemingly tomboyish girl is involved in the drama, she doesn’t seem the type of girl who stirs trouble for no reason.

“I heard that the boy, Sunsun is accused of cheating in that Holoream minigame called Holotetris!” the crowds are whispering among themselves, but loud enough for Anthony to hear. “The first ranked player Davis is upset with the result! He’s terrorizing the poor child! Madness isn’t it!”.

Anthony crosses his arm, doesn’t seem to care about the gossip that they talk. The young man’s online friend then appears behind him, tapping his shoulder to surprise him. Anthony is unamused with their appearances, rather he wants to get this over with so he can return to his house. The butler is expecting to see the woman begs for help or cause a ruckus, but her reaction baffles him.

“Solve it between you guys, I have no business in here” she replies uninterested. “I don’t care”.

She walks away, unashamed with the previous words she said in front of the crowd. The young boy and the old man gawk their mouth in unison, they demand her to pick a side but she chose not to pick any side. She refuses to help them, then the boy shouts at her for abandoning her online younger brother.

“Are you going to abandon me!? I am your little brother!” he shouts at the girl in a panic. “You need to stick up for me!”.

“You are my little brother” she answers the young boy reluctantly. “Doesn’t mean I’m defending you fully, I am neutral”.

She doesn’t know how the incidents occurred or why does it happen, the girl doesn’t care less about the feud of two Holorealm celebrities. Anthony finds himself amused by her firmness and straightforwardness, instead of picking a side, she demands the two to tell their stories in turn to find the truth.

It was a heating discussion between the two competitive Tetris players, they’re threatening each other with lies and manipulation. The crowd is excited when they see such scenes unfold before them, it’s truly disgusting for Anthony to see that his online friends enjoy the drama that takes place before them.

The problem starts from Davis making a questionable discussion thread on the Holorealm board about a cheating Tetris player, he is implying Sunsun in this case. Sunsun who was offended replied to the thread with a new thread with the title ‘I was accused cheating’.

The girl freezes in her place when she hears the two people before they are still quarreling while telling the stories from their perspectives.

“So you’re telling me that all of this starts because of a stupid discussion thread?” the crimson-haired girl shakes her head in annoyance while shrugging. “Seriously? How old are you guys again? Twenty? And you’re still this childish!?”.

She glares at the two avatars before her, her grunt and growl are visible for anyone to hear. Her outburst of anger makes the crowd’s spine shiver in cold. Gossipers remain as bratty as they are, giggling, and laughing at the one involved in the drama. Sunsun and Davis gulp when he hears her cursing at them.

“I am working, living my days peacefully, and now this happened!?” she yells from her microphone.

There’s a sound of a fist slammed on a desk, it appears the person behind her avatar is in rage with her involvement in the drama. Her fist slamming makes the crowd goes silent in a matter of seconds, swallowing their saliva in fear of her next rage outburst. She tells the two to ask someone for help instead of her, she already had her hands full to find the money for his daily life.

“I had enough of your rambles” she sighs heavily at the two people before her while rubbing her forehead. “Let me ask you guys, does being number one in the Tetris game make you rich?”.

The two then gaze at each other, perhaps confused with her remarks.

“No, you’re all just unemployed and childish! Leave me out of your kiddy discussion” she leaves the scene without looking back. “Both of you are cowards, if you dislike something then just say it to the person! Tsk, amateur”.

At that moment, Anthony is officially entranced by the girl’s courage and absolute power in controlling the situation. He peeks at the username above her avatar.

“Tempesta, I’ll try to find a way to talk to her” his frown is replaced with a smile.

He checks her profile from Holorealm friends feature in his status, it can detect and shows him the nearby avatar profiles he requires.

“Tempesta, wow she had like 1.7k followers!” he gasps. “She’s one of the Holorealm celebrities”.