Hollow Twilight - A LitRPG Novel

Chapter 32

Reid could barely hear Maple talking as they walked through the empty streets of Hollow Twilight. It was like she was on the other side of glass. Every so often he would nod or say some sort of affirmation as she continued to go off about some sort of discovery in space. A new star or galaxy, he had no idea, wasn't paying attention. Couldn't.

He hadn't really heard anything for a couple of days, coasting along on the knowledge that there was a girl who liked him, really liked him. A girl he absolutely liked right back, so much so he could tune out his prior flame while she was right next to him. And that was something he had never thought possible.

"You know I know when you're out of it," Maple said, punching Reid in the arm.

"What?" He shook his head and checked on her expression. Mildly displeased. Not the worst result.

"You can't fake it around me. You and Issac both try this stuff to tune me out when I get all nerdy, but I have to listen to you and him talk about your horny manga or whatever."

"It's ecchi, it's not horny, you just...we don't even like it for that part, it's got cool fight scenes, ok?"

"You mean when they fight in short skirts? Very realistic." Maple gestured up and down at her own body, wearing her lazy sweatpants and a baggy sweater. "I'm pretty combat ready over here, ok? Without everyone seeing my panties."

"I'm not having this fight again."

"Because you'd lose?" Maple stuck out her tongue.

Reid shoved his phone in her face to counter. "Because I need to pay attention to the map. We can't accidentally walk into Lykia's zone, Kari said I have to go in first or I guess something else happens."

"No defense for the manga I see."

"Shut up." Reid felt the tug at the edge of his vision. He wanted to suddenly spin and see if he could catch it. He'd done it once, with nobody around. It never worked. That thing was just always creeping around. At least he had already got confirmation from others they experienced it too.

The pair rounded a corner to find yet another road with more of the same. Dilapidated houses, one after another with so little to tell them apart. They were all variations of the same few designs, not entirely different from most homes in the real world, but with more disturbing similarities. They were too alike in too many ways. They always had the same paint, the same trims, the same doors. Only the degradation could tell them apart in most cases.

One lot was gone entirely, crushed by a skyscraper that had toppled over yet stayed perfectly intact as it fell. Almost like someone had come along and pushed it over.

Reid ignored it all, refocusing on his map. They were coming closer to the area and he didn't need Maple stumbling in ahead of him. He still had no idea what Lykia did or how the Pariah functioned that made it so only one person would fight him. It didn't seem like Kari was implying he was so strong he could do it alone, and she would never give him that credit anyways. This was more like a condition of the fight was that it had to be a one-on-one duel.

Kari also hadn't been helpful in follow-up messages. As much as Reid tried to pry out some information, she gave him nothing. The only addition she had eventually parted with had been that he needed to logout as soon as he won the fight so that he was safe before Paragon showed up and locked him out of that feature. And when she had sent it, it felt more like she had forgotten to say that originally than it was him convincing her to say anything. It was good advice, he would have completely forgotten without it.

"I wasn't tuning you out," Reid said, trying to clean up his image. "I was just thinking about some...stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"