Lucien woke up at around 12pm and has been lounging around on his sofa since.

His gaze wanders to the clock on the wall, seemingly waiting for something.

Then his eyes shift to his monitor on the desk, but he shakes his head then refocuses his mind to the phone in his hands.

The clock ticks, until he couldn't take it anymore, he grabs a hoodie and rushes out the door.

He gets on a bus to the nearest pc cafe, and rents out a computer for one hour.

The place smelled of sweat, and smoke lingered in the air like it was a major hot spot for stressed chain smokers.

But Lucien didn't care, he strode to his spot unfaltering, like he finally found a solution to a problem he's lost sleep about.

His tense brows seemed to finally relax as he sits on the non cushioned gaming chair of the pc cafe.

Lucien wiped off the imaginary sweatdrop from his temple.

He registered into a new account, pausing for a bit, then settling on the name "CrimsonWraith," he didn't want a name so similar to his original account, so he decided on a sort of "sibling" name.

Logging onto the game, the sight of a certain apartment brought nostalgia to the boy.

He's been playing for seven years, yet the familiar sight of the beginning apartment made his eyes glisten.

Lucien knew that at the start, a zombie would crawl up his vents and do a plunging suprise attack, as that was a tactic that DeadHorizon™ games would use to reel in new players and immerse them in their game.

So he grabbed a frying pan from the kitchen and anticipated the zombie's arrival, hiding behind the sofa.

Not a second late, the moment the zombie fell, Lucien swinged the frying pant whilst it was still in mid air, causing it's decayed organs to splatter all across that side of the room.

Lucien pumped his fist in triumph, complementing his fast reaction time.

While in the darkness, a certain someone bathed in the gloominess of the shadows and tapped his fingers impatiently.

But Lucien didn't know this, and continued to play his game on another account.

After the one hour ended, Lucien stepped outside, the chilly air made his ears red, and he trembled for a bit due to the cold.

He zipped his hoodie all the way up, and waited for a bus to get back home.

While on the trip back, Lucien couldn't help but think about his scythe.

The beautiful, shining curved blade, made his captivating amber eyes come to life.

It was as if, in that moment, someone showed him a lifeline to a battle he's bound to lose.

He reached home, layed down, but couldn't close his eyes, thinking about the numerous things he could do with the scythe of darkness.

The thought etched into his mind, making him unable to sleep, despite his body being already tired.

So he waited, waited, and waited, the clock striked 12, and he rushed to his computer like it owed him debt.

He typed the words "BloodReign_666" and entered his password, then logged in.

He respawned in his base, what greeted his eyes almost gave him a heart attack.

There, on his bed, calmly sat KillSwitch.

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "What are you doing!?"

KillSwitch's response came in leisurely, he casually ridded his nails of dirt before responding.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "And?"

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "What?"

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Sigh, Do you really not want to get married?"

Lucien came to a realization, and finally could not stall anymore.

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "I.... I...."

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "B-baby..."

Lucien instantly felt a sense of embarrassment shock him through his fingers while typing, closing his eyes before hitting enter.

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "Um, what are you doing on my bed?"

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Waiting for my naughty wife to come home, when he usually plays EVE as soon as he wakes up, this time only logging on at midnight."

Lucien gulped.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Don't you find it even slightly suspicious?"

Lucien typed on the keys like he was fighting for his life.

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "No! I- I can explain."

KillSwitch patted to the spot next to him on the bed, signalling BloodReign to come over.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Go on, im waiting."

BloodReign awkwardly directed his character to go near KillSwitch, before pressing the "sit" action.

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "It's because you...."

Lucien halted,

Lucien racked up his brains to come up with an acceptable answer, something that can satisfy KillSwitch, but nothing that can bring even more dire consequences to him if he said it.

Finally, a light bulb turned on in his brain, he answered,

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "It's because I had to see my friend! He got into a bad accident."

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Hmm.... Is that so?"

Lucien held his breath, hoping that his excuse could bypass KillSwitch's suspicions.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "....Fine."

He finally let go of the breath he was holding in, he looked up at the monitor again, and before he could thank KillSwitch for his leniency, KillSwitch's response came in like a punch to the gut.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "I'll turn a blind eye to your cheating as long as you add me on Wechat."

"What!!"

Lucien yelled in suprise, simultaneously typing his shock in the chat, his mind started to ring alarm bells.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Divorce?"

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "No!!"

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "If i tell you... You wouldn't dox me right?"

<[ KillSwitch ] : "I won't."

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "Promise?"

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Promise!"

A pause,

Due to the rush of adrenaline, Lucien's eyes darted around the game screen, his eyes finally settling on his in-game mailbox, on top, a red dot appeared.

His Scythe!

Without thinking to reply to KillSwitch first, Lucien immediately pressed "open," and what popped up was a congratulation letter from DeadHorizon™ games for being chosen for the marriage event, and the bonus prizes attached at the end of the letter.

Lucien couldn't contain his happiness and jumped for joy, the whole reason for why he even got married finally came!

Suddenly, remembering an irritated KillSwitch, he swiftly typed his WeChat name.

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "It's Lucien Hayes."

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Lucien..?"

Lucien looked down, feeling a bit regretful, he really didn't want to out himself like this...

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "That's right."

KillSwitch's response came a few beats late.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "Your name is cute."

Lucien's eyes flickered, blinking his eyes again and again to check whether the text on the screen was real or a hallucination. 

<{ [ BloodReign_666 ] } : "How could that be? Did you forget I'm a boy? Did you mean "cool?'"

KillSwitch snickered, the word "cool" never even set foot in his mind, this kid was just too desperate.

<[ KillSwitch ] : "But it's true. You can accept my friend request."

Okay, let's see how "cool" your real name is then!

Lucien clicked his notification bell and a friend request sat at the very top, "Grey Dusk"

Lucien lightly scrunched his brows.

He accepted the friend request and wanted to make sure that he wasn't adding some stranger, so he sent a confirmation text.

{ Lucien } : "KillSwitch?"

{ Grey } : "That's me."

Ever since Lucien had started posting edgy and controversial comments in online forums, he had been getting random friend requests from strangers.

This made him a bit wary from posting all that nonsense, so he gradually stopped making comments when this fear got to him, he didn't want to be stalked, he thought.

A notification sound disrupted Lucien's quiet reflection, it was a message from Grey.

{ Grey } : "Did you get the prizes from your mailbox?"

{ Lucien } : "I did."

Lucien took a sip of water, a sudden thought hit him, and he typed in the chatbox,

{ Lucien } : "If you don't mind... could you give me your scythe? I'd like to upgrade mine to +1."

In the game EVE, weapons can be upgraded normally by using lost artifact notes that can be found by looting and defeating zombies, but there is another option which was to present the same identical weapon to a player with the "blacksmith" occupation, this method is called "Dual boosting."

Naturally, the more powerful the weapon, the harder it is to be able to dual boost, some believe that this option only really affects pay-to-play players, as stronger weapons needed more resources to get, and resources are readily available to purchase in the shop.

When a weapon goes through dual boosting, the duplicate feeds into the original weapon, making it seven times stronger, and a ( + ) symbol appears on the bottom half with a number signalling the amount it has gone through dual boosting.

Grey sat on his ash-coloured couch, his hands on the laptop's keyboard was relaxed, and his lips turned into a slight grin before typing an answer.

{ Grey } : "Of course, married couples naturally share everything right?"

Lucien knew he was being teased, he disliked this feeling and wanted to tease him back.

{ Lucien } : "If that's the case, then I'll give you the couple's heart shaped bed in exchange, maybe you can dual boost that too? ^⁠_⁠^."

Grey let out a sarcastic smile, does he like to play games? If so, then don't cry if we go too far.

{ Grey } : "I'll have to thank you for that, maybe if i dual boost the bed, we can perhaps do a dual cultivation?"

Lucien felt that the person he was talking to right now was a madman, he just wanted to give back what he received, but apparently Grey believed in the saying "If they throw a rock at you, throw back a stone fortress."

It was really too ridiculous!