116 Name the dragon!
Cara picked up the baby dragon and let it stand on her palms. Positioning the dragon among the four of them.
“I’ll go first,” she just chimed in.
“I’ll start with Cupcake!”
“What?!”
“Kwak?!”
Not only Hiro, Jacob, and Noah that were surprised by the name Cara has suggested, but also the dragon. The dragon fell and kissed Cara’s palm, as if it was too surprised by the name it got.
“No no no, of course not!” Hiro shook his head. He could feel a strange throbbing at the top of his eyebrows because he didn’t expect a sadistic girl like Cara to suggest such a cute name.
“How about Pudding?”
“Or Pie?”
“Maybe Yogurt?!”
“Or Brownies?”
Cara said so many names at once, and the expression on her face instantly changed from looking at the dragon with an exasperated look to one like that of a girl who had not eaten delicious food in a long time.
His actions made the baby dragon fly back to Hiro’s shoulder due to trauma.
“Please grab some food already, Cara. You seemed starving.” Jacob smirked at Cara’s behavior.
“You crazy girl.” Noah muttered. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Looks like the baby dragon doesn’t like the names you gave it, Cara.” Hiro was frank.
“Yeah—I thought so.” Cara let out a disappointed sigh.
“My turn!” Jacob raised his hand to get the other’s attention.
“How about Hydra!?”
“Kwakk!”
The baby dragon threw her face away after waiting for Jacob to give it a name. A thoughtless refusal.
“The baby dragon doesn’t like it.”
“Anastasia? Belinda? Malinda?”
“Or maybe Khaleesi?”
“Kwakkk!”
Still rejected.
“You’re naming the baby dragon or mentioning all of your ex-girlfriends one by one?” Noah snorted in annoyance.
“My turn.”
“Pfth.” Jacob gave up. It didn’t work.
“Ahem, I have a really cool name.”
Hiro doubted that. He began to give up and lost hope on the three of them.
“The Strongest Dragon Breed.”
Noah said it proudly, a smirk plastered on his face.
“…”
Even the baby dragon was too stunned to make a sound.
“Is that even a name?” Cara asked in a whisper to Jacob, who was standing next to her.
“I think that’s the worst name between us,” he replied in a whisper too.
“I can hear you.” Noah threw a death glare towards Jacob and Cara.
“All right, Guys. Listen, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.”
“But, actually, I have a name in my head.”
“This dragon has a bit of a cocky character and it is full of curiosity.” Hiro explained his observations so far after accepting the dragon as a pet.
“I think he just copied his owner’s character,” Noah interrupted.
“Agreed.” Cara and Jacob added at the same time.
“What!? No, I am not cocky.”
Hiro frowned as he looked at the three players in front of him. They seemed not to agree with his statement. It was very clear in their expressions as they showed flat faces.
“Ok, just hear me out.”
“His character reminds me a lot of the first game that I have ever played during my lifetime.”
“Spyro the Dragon & Skylanders.”
“I am thinking about naming the baby dragon Spyro.”
Kwakk! Kwaak!
The baby dragon suddenly made voices while jumping to fly towards Hiro’s face.
“Oh my goodness, he liked the name!” Jacob was amazed.
“Eh—?” Hiro realized it a bit late, but it seemed like Jacob was right.
“Do you like that name?”
“Kwak!”
And the decision had been made. Hiro had found a suitable name for his pet.
After letting Cara, Jacob, and Noah examine the baby dragon until they were satisfied, Hiro said goodbye to the three of them. He had to go offline to continue his search for proving his real feelings to Liberty.
[System off]
[Logout]
When he first opened his VR helmet, Hiro saw the figure of Alice smoking in front of a window that was left open. The girl looked at Hiro with her eyes that never left the smokey makeup.
“You’re back.”
Hiro relaxed all the muscles in his body. He felt stiff from playing long enough with the original body sitting on an old sofa. Even though it was softer, it was still not as comfortable as the hard bed in his apartment in Japan.
He suddenly missed the apartment. Hiro didn’t know what happened to the apartment, as well as his belongings.
“What did I miss?” Hiro knew that Alice’s movements showed she wanted to show him something big.
The girl changed her position. This time she was completely facing Hiro. She leaned against the open window.
Ding!
[You have a new message from Anonymous]
Hiro gets a notification on his android bracelet. He then looked at Alice questioningly.
“Check it.”
Without asking again, Hiro opened the message he had just received from the girl standing in front of him.
The message had a file attachment, a videotape, and he knew why Alice didn’t tell him directly, even though they were both in the same room.
…
[Breaking News]
A professional gamer, Yamaguchi Yuujin, who had been presumed dead from falling in the White Oak Canyon waterfall, suddenly appeared alive in an online game that was very popular recently. Last Shelter Online.
A very strange and impossible event, a person who had been declared medically dead appeared in good condition and unusually strong in an artificial world.
Yuujin’s appearance in the Last Shelter Online game had been directly validated by the founder of Ninecent, the game’s founding company. They stated that the player with the WynterRain username was the real Yamaguchi Yuujin. And he was ‘still alive’.
Dr. Jeff Johnson seemed to hold a sudden press conference just to validate the appearance of the dead player.
“He’s alive. He will be forever with us. In Last Shelter Online, the second life that everyone is looking for is real.”
“Within a month, we’ll launch a new mirror world of the game that everyone can enjoy. Don’t worry, this time… we’ll provide an unlimited amount of gears. Just prepare yourself.”
A very wide triumphant smile spread across the man’s face with thick glasses.
Beep!
[Video has been deleted]
“What?! Why?” Hiro complained to Alice, who suddenly deleted the video before he finished watching.
“That damn witch!” Alice threw her cigarette butt out the window and kicked a nearby wooden table with an empty flower vase on top of it.
Smash!
The flower vase fell and broke. The girl suddenly looked so angry.
“How dare they take advantage of Yuujin like this?”