“Well, if you will excuse me now. I have stuff to do.” Arthur said as he turned around to leave. The old man stared at him silently as the boy left the shop and closed the door behind him. Nobody knew what was going through his head at that moment.
A few seconds later, Nina came back. “Oh? Did Arthur already leave?”
“… Yes,” Miro replied casually.
“I wanted to give him some of my soup, what a bummer.” She muttered.
“Where did you find that kid, Nina?” The old man asked her with a completely stoic expression.
“He came across the shop purely by coincidence. I didn’t look for him.”
“… Hm.”
“Do you really think I would come across someone like him that easily?” The woman added. At this point, Nina was certain Arthur was very different even by the Gifted standards. He had something in him that felt really special and yet something she couldn’t wrap her head around properly.
He was mysterious yet also simple. Weird, yet also charming. Smart yet seemed like an airhead. All these contradicting things existed in one single individual somehow and they mixed so well to create someone she would never forget even if he never came back.
It was weird how impressionable he was. Her grandpa seemed to share the same thoughts purely from the way he was asking her about him.
“Hey, Grandpa.”
“Hm?”
“Do you think we should ask him to do ‘that’…” Nina’s voice trailed off to the end of the sentence as if she was hesitant to ask the question. However, Miro understood what she was trying to convey.
“Who knows? If he truly can be someone we can rely on, then that’s akin to us confirming that he might become one of the strongest in the future. Only the strongest can truly pull it off.”
Nina didn’t say a single word after that. Her expression grew a little darker for some reason. ‘The strongest, huh? I wonder if that’s the case. But, I have a strong hunch that he might be the one we’re looking for. If he is, then, we might finally be able to go back… Go back ‘there’.’
***
Meanwhile, as that conversation was happening, Arthur was walking through the street with a relaxed look on his face. He was in a great mood at that moment and nothing was going to change that.
Everything around him felt like it was bright and colorful. Even the scrawny looks of the players and people alike felt far more pleasing to the eye. The magic of happiness was truly mystical.
“Ok, let’s find somewhere to log out.” He muttered as he looked around him. Although he knew when he logs out, nothing can harm him, he still didn’t want to risk getting screwed over by something he wasn’t aware of.
After looking around for a while, he decided to log out in a corner of one of the alleys. Standing there, he opened the settings in his menu and tapped on the button ‘Log Out’.
Almost instantly, a light grasped Arthur’s body out of nowhere and completely engulfed him a in second. The boy’s vision was obstructed during that time, and by the time it came back, the entire scenery shifted.
Now, everything was dark around him. Then, he heard the sound of the glass gate opening slowly, revealing his old room. Arthur was a little dazed for a second before he slowly rose up and left the capsule.
Surprisingly, after sitting in the same position for several hours, Arthur didn’t feel sluggish or sleepy. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The boy felt extremely energetic, and even surprisingly a little stronger.
He could feel that his muscles were pumping with energy that they didn’t possess before. With wide eyes, he looked at his arms and legs. “Is this the effect of the serum? How did it already start making changes? I barely used the capsule for a few hours.”
Looking over his shoulder at the machine, he could only wonder what kind of things happened to his body during the time he was playing. The serum worked almost like magic.
“I don’t know what kind of stuff they used to make that. But, I can’t complain. I might get in shape just from this.” Laughing to himself, Arthur walked to his room’s window and opened it. Immediately, his eyes were assaulted by the sun.
“It’s already morning, ugh.” Groaning, he walked out of the room to prepare breakfast. “Luckily, today is my day off or boss would’ve destroyed me.”
Arthur’s days usually started very early since he liked the quietness of the mornings. He would make breakfast, and depending on the time of the year, he would either go to school after or go to work.
His schedule was pretty busy for someone his age and he hated that a lot. He can’t forget the times when the bell rang for the end of the school day and his peers would start talking about their plans for the evening while he had to go to work to earn some money.
He felt that it was unfair and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was envious of their lives. However, he also knew the importance of this responsibility he had to bear since young. He had learned to be his one and only support. Others either ignored him or simply didn’t care. The only one who did care was already dead so he couldn’t even rely on them.
The world truly hated him, and Arthur hated it as much. Well, that was at least what he liked to tell himself. In reality, Arthur was perhaps the person who loved life the most. He loved it so much that he would do anything just to experience fun in it.
It was a very sour candy, and he was ready to keep sucking it till he finds the sweet part.
After making breakfast, he sat down on the couch and checked his phone. “Let’s see what kind of stuff happened in the game while I was playing.”
With how massive Divinity Online was, Arthur was certain that interesting stuff must’ve been discovered rather quickly by the player base. Hell, even he discovered some pretty interesting stuff of his own.
“Hm, ok, as I expected. Divinity Online is trending worldwide. Let’s see what they’re talking abo-”
Opening a random site, the very first title he saw was ‘Unknown player Persona is dominating Divinity Online.’
The boy blinked in shock before he scrolled through the article. It talked about the sudden appearance of this unknown player and how they are now the number one in the world, far away from his nearest competitors.
“I’m headlining… Wow, I mean, I’m number 1 so that does make sense. But still… Every single site is talking about me one way or another.”
As he scrolled through his news feed, all he saw was the word ‘Persona’ plastered everywhere. People were talking about him as if there was no tomorrow. Even with a simple look, the number of over-the-top comments and questions he saw almost made him spit his coffee.
“What the hell do you mean ‘Persona is my daddy’?! You need help! Also, who is saying ‘Step on me, Persona!’ I am not into that, dumbass!”
In a matter of minutes, Arthur’s mind felt completely overwhelmed. The entire world seemed to be talking about him more than the game itself and he didn’t know why. Granted, he was currently the first in the world, but that should’ve not been this insane.
Even popular internet personalities and celebrities alike were participating in these discussions.
“… Oh my god, this is getting out of hand. Why am I suddenly so famous? Am I supposed to bank on this?” He asked himself. “Uh, no, I don’t want that. My life is pretty good as it is now.
I don’t want some insane people to bother me. Screw this!”
Then, he closed his phone and opened the TV to watch something. However, expectedly, the news was also talking about the game, and talking about him. Changing from one channel to another, he couldn’t find a single one that didn’t involve him.
“This… This is a nightmare!”
A//N: Hand me all your PS!