VL) Chapter 3 Part 3

And now here I was, standing in line, staring at the sign board in front of me. I could feel myself salivating due to the wondrous smells of the different types of food I had never had. Even if I had had them, they were not fresh and were probably tainted.

“Hehe, you’re drooling.” I felt something soft against my chin. I looked down to see Elara’s hand wiping my drool with a piece of cloth. The people around us were also staring, causing me to blush slightly. It was kind of embarrassing. I gently pushed Elara’s hand down. “Thanks.”

Elara smiled back at me. This girl really had a wide range of emotions, and she expressed them all on her face. There was no way to not tell how she was feeling. “Alicia, what do you plan to buy? Money is no problem, so pick whatever you want.”

“Mmm… I want a cheeseburger, fries, sausage, rice, and, and….” My eyes were growing as wide as saucers. I really wanted to eat everything I saw, but I knew I couldn’t fit them all in my belly! My eyes scanned the menu until it landed on this brown thing with colorful chips on top and a mound of white stuff on the side. “That! The Choco Grande!” I had seen a picture of it in one of the trash bags I dug through before. I had many dreams of eating such a treat.

“That does look good. Maybe I will get that too…” Elara rubbed her belly.

I had seen many girls rub their bellies before. It was either gas, or they were pregnant. In Elara’s case, it was probably gas. At least, I hope. I nudged her gently and whispered, “If you have to fart, I can make a loud noise to cover it up.”

“What!? I don’t need to fart!” Elara yelled out.

“Shhhh! Everyone will know if you yell!” I smacked her head. Was this girl trying to tell the world she needed to fart!? “Don’t you know strong denial is just telling everyone that you have to fart?”

“Why would they think that!?” Elara seemed stupefied by my great intelligence.

I gave a proud smile as I said: “I read it in an ancient book! Something Kono… Konosub… I forget the name. It was hard to pronounce, and even now, I still feel I am not pronouncing it correctly. It was in the trash and even dated from the 2000s! Although half of it was missing. Once it got to the fart part, it was over. But it was a good read. What I do not get, though, is that there seem to be two histories of this world. One where people wielded magic and even demon lords roamed the land and then there is the history where no magic existed. It is truly strange.”

“Umm… Alicia, I hate to say this, but I think you were reading a fiction book. A fantasy-style novel. And well… magic or skills, I guess they are called, has existed since the viruses appeared and the first players were born. While I am a second-generation player, not all people are born with the system just because their parents had one. It’s based on the type of system and skills the parent had. Some of the races that a player gets have hereditary traits which pass the system along.” Elara explained a lot just now, but my mind was blown. There was such a thing as fiction!? This is really… I quickly looked around to see quite a few people staring at us and shrank back. I just want to get my food and run away!

We stood in line for a whole ten minutes. Ten minutes! I had to wait ten minutes to get the delicious smells in front of me! “Geheh!” I let out a strange laugh as I licked my lips and picked up the burger in front of me. This was the ultimate deluxe burger! It had lettuce, tomato, bacon, pickles, ham, cheese, and more cheese, and most importantly of all untainted meat! Beautiful juicy meat! I was just about to take a bite out of this amazing piece of artwork when I felt a tug on my shirt. I looked over to see an Elara staring at me in a panic.

“What’s wrong? You can’t have any!”I quickly pulled my burger away. I was not letting her have any, no matter what! This was mine! She said so!

“I don’t want it! The sirens are going off! A void tear has opened in the mall!” Elara exclaimed, and I let out a sigh of relief. As long as she was not asking for any. But it did sound like something important was happening. Not that I care. I had such great food in front of me.

“Geehii.” A strange sound came from my side. It almost sounded like the sound I made a few seconds ago. I turned to see a short, greenish figure with strange green glowing lines made of zeros and ones standing there, giving me a creepy smile. His eyes were staring right at my food!

“You can’t have any either!” I yelled with a snort. How dare it eye my food! This was a crime worth killing for!

“Gaaboo!” The strange creature suddenly raised the big club in its hand and smashed it down towards the table! I could only stare at the table full of my amazing food as it went flying through the air!

“Gaaboo, my ass, what the hell were you thinking!? My fucking food!” I stood up and was about to kick the stupid creature when it suddenly reached out and slapped the burger I had in my hand to the floor before it took off running! “Fuck! Get back here!”

It must have been aiming to destroy my food from the very beginning! It was as if the gods or whatever they were called were telling me not to eat tasty things! I will never let this strange thing off!