Kai quickly finished his food, reminding his mother what they had to do today before walking upstairs and logging into the game.
Thankfully, his pricey horse was still beside him, looking all around the tree as if he was lost in this world. Kai just couldn't let the guy go, so he had decided in the end to Godstep along with him to a tree branch nearby. Thankfully, DarkSmile had neither jumped down the tree nor had any monsters come for them.
Though under the tree, a few goblins were snarling, looking up at both the horse and Kai. Kai quickly released three arrows—three headshots—before Godstepping back onto the land and continuing his journey.
It wasn't far; Kai reached his destination in around half a day of horseback riding. Nibbling on some bread while feeding DarkSmile some hay he had bought, Kai passed the time researching skills online, checking forum posts, and looking at the leaderboard. Deimos was level 21 and ranked 27—she was always online whenever he logged in. The_Firecracker77 had fallen from third place to seventh, with many new players joining and older ones leveling like crazy. MaouMeisha was still number one at level 35.
Kai, with his measly level 18, was ranked 58. He seriously needed to grind in those dungeons in Somnium if he even hoped to break into the top 25. It was just the beginning, though, and levels weren't everything. Kai remembered that when players reached level 35, they had to complete a promotion mission before leveling further. Seeing MaouMeisha stuck at 35, it seemed like this time was no different. After 35, it happened again at 50, then at every 10 levels until 80, and every 5 levels after that until 95. Then, each level had these annoying promotional missions that weren't easy to complete at all.
There were some other names Kai recognized among the top 30, but none that were really close to him. His friends.. weren't there. They could have started the game with different names or maybe weren't playing at all this time.. who knew? He should probably prepare to do this on his own without expecting any help from them. If any of them had past memories, they would have already started playing.
After about ten minutes, Kai heard hurried footsteps approaching from the distance. The tree he was near stood in a relatively open area, surrounded by a thin forest on two sides. Suddenly, a girl jumped out of the bushes with a nametag of IllegalMeowves.
Kai thought Mimi was really excited to see him—until his eyes left her golden bobbing head and focused on the group of orcs following her.
"Help!" she screamed, looking straight at him while leading the orcs right to his location.
"Not here! Not here! My DarkSmile is here!" Kai shouted, but it was useless.
"Help, you useless boyfriend! They're gonna eat me raw!" she screamed even louder.
Kai sighed and jumped onto DarkSmile, all the while aiming for the head of the nearest orc chasing Mimi. With a small kick, the horse broke into a sprint as an arrow zoomed past Mimi and pierced the orc's skull. It wasn't enough, though. These orcs were all above level 20 and built like tanks. Kai released another arrow right behind the first—another headshot—and the orc burst into red digital particles.
Three more were still behind her.
Kai immediately released two more arrows in quick succession aimed high as DarkSmile finally reached Mimi. Using one hand, he grabbed her and pulled her up—though she didn't quite reach him yet. Kai quickly Godstepped with one arrow, exchanging places beside his another arrow buried in the ground. In the blink of an eye, they were over 100 meters behind the three orcs, now with both DarkSmile and Mimi, who finally found her footing and climbed onto DarkSmile's back.
Kai let her be and continued firing arrows as the three orcs charged in their direction. One dead. Second dead. The third one collapsed just ten meters away—Kai and DarkSmile hadn't even moved from their spot.
Meanwhile, Mimi hid behind him, flailing her weak-ass sword and yelling, "Get his ass! Get his ass!"—as if that was helping.
Kai jumped down from DarkSmile and collected his loot in peace. Soon, Mimi came riding in behind him—it was more like DarkSmile taking her along for the ride than her actually controlling the horse. Without the Earthstrider skill, she couldn't even steer him.
"Stop this! Stop this, horsey!" she started shouting when DarkSmile ignored Kai and continued walking—heading straight for his favorite patch of grass to munch on. The guy had no fear of orcs or monsters after fighting alongside Kai in multiple battles. It was as if he thought he was invincible.
Kai finished looting and looked up to see Mimi struggling to control DarkSmile. She yanked on the reins, but the horse just kept munching on the grass, completely unfazed.
Mimi had short golden hair—the same as in real life. Not too short, though, like his mother's; hers reached her shoulders. Her emerald-green eyes were a stark contrast to her real life black ones. Physically, she looked the same—maybe a bit thinner and taller. Her chest area, though.. well, that had clearly been "modified" in the character creation screen. She must have thought he wouldn't be able to tell, considering how she always wore baggy clothes in real life. He was a guy at the end of the day though and such things could not be hidden from his capable eyes. But then again, his own avatar looked way different from his real self, so who was he to judge?
She did have a pair of white folded wings on her back, though—that was her Nexus Kin attribute. They didn't let her fly, just glide. She could jump from high places and land safely, but actual flight wasn't an option.
Kai pushed her further up and climbed onto DarkSmile behind her, taking the reins from her small hands.
"Should we continue now? Or do you have more monsters hidden under that funny dress to throw at us?" Kai said from behind her.
She looked up, her back completely pressed against his chest. She made sure he could see her squinting eyes as she said, "I traveled through a whole scary forest for you! Shouldn't you give me some nice compliments?"
Kai sighed and patted her head with one hand, completely emotionless. "Nice girl.. Nice girl.. Happy now?"
She kicked him at his lackluster response, then turned back around and pointed enthusiastically in the completely wrong direction.
"Onward now, my steward! We have a prince to rescue!"