Zero followed silently, nervous about starting any conversation because he did not want to offend Grim. Offending Grim was like entering a grave of your making.

"Do you fear me?"

"No." Zero quickly typed, barely thinking of his response. Once it hit him, he felt dread, wanting to take back how quickly he responded.

Instead of getting angry, Grim laughed like Zero had told the funniest joke. "I am not that crazy; it is not like I can beat you up through a game."

"There is still PVP."

"There is."

"And your family owns the game, so it wouldn't be hard to find my information and show up at my home to send me to the hospital." Zero explained, planning a whole scenario in his head.

Grim's character stopped, turning to stare at Zero while causing Zero's character to pause. "Have you been thinking about this for a while, or did this pop up suddenly?"

"It appeared at the top of my head," Zero answered. He had thought about what would happen if he appeared before Grim some time back, but never in detail because he believed they would never officially meet. And now, he could only swallow his words from the past and only hope never to anger Grim.

"You're cute." Grim laughed before walking off. Zero silently followed, daring not to say anything else. At least the talking did not go badly. He thought.

About thirty wolves were moving around a cave when they reached the wolf lair. They crouched behind bushes, deciding which action they wanted to take. They were at high levels and didn't need to hide, but since they were hunting together, Zero and Grim had to discuss how they wanted to split the kills and drops.

"I don't need much of the drops; I only came out for experience." Zero rationed.

"I honestly don't need anything. I only came out here for fun. And I wonder if the cave is an undiscovered dungeon."

"Then, should we just go out and regularly kill them?" Zero compromised.

"Yeah."

They jumped out as Zero pulled out his swords, and Grim summoned his minions. Zero did not have time to notice Grim's summons, as the wolves quickly caught them and attacked them without a break.

It took two slices to kill the wolves and four for the high-level ones. The wolves' bodies piled up on Zero's side when he finally reached the cave. Once he was in front of it, the wolves stopped appearing. Seeing that he had finished his job, he looked at the drops.

He picked up 42 wolf fangs, 23 wolf pelts, ten uncommon items, three common rings, and one epic SR-25. For high-level wolves, the drops are terrible. He thought. At least his EXP was moving at a stable rate.

Looking towards Grim's side, he felt his scalp tingle from his summons.

Necromancers are not a common character to play; the fault lies with the summons. A necromancer's summon goes through three stages as they level up. The first stage is skeletons, which are resilient but don't have enough strength. Then, as you level up, the summons enters the zombie stage, which is strong, slow, and relentless. Finally, once you reach the higher levels, the summons enters the last stage: the human stage. They inherit their past life memory roles, becoming the strongest summons, like players.

People thought that was cool at the beginning of the game, and many players became necromancers. But once they reached the zombie stage, it frightened many players, causing them to discard the character. When the company made zombie summons, they made zombie summons. Who can try to level them to humans when you have to see rotting skin each time before that?

And to get hit with the visual scene of rotting skin, Zero wanted to cleanse his mind quickly.

Noticing his stare, Grim touched the head of one of the summons, rubbing it as he glanced at Zero with a wicked smile. "Aren't they cute?"

Fuck no. "Shouldn't the zombies be human by now?" Zero skipped Grim's question.

"Yeah," Grim laughed, "but I think they are cuter this way, so I keep them as zombies."

Zero could barely smile as he looked away, wondering if it was too late to back out. "Let's check out the cave."

"Sure." Grim shrugged, secretly laughing at Zero's reaction, and entered the cave with him.

Once they entered the cave, a message appeared before them.

{Congratulations on being the first to discover the Mutated Wolves' Cave!

Rewards are 20% higher}

"Oh, look, it is a secret dungeon," Grim exclaimed, as if he had known the whole time.

Zero could not help but want to back out, but he pushed forward: "Can we anonymously write our names when we conquer the dungeon?"

"Why? Worried that your Guild will say something about playing with the rival?" Grim teased.

"A different reason."

"Oh, a jealous boyfriend."

Zero wanted to bang his head. "Can we just put anonymous?"

Grim typed out a bunch of laughing emojis before agreeing. Zero was ready for this to be over.

Surprisingly, Leo played with Niko for a few more hours before logging out. Even though Niko made him want to run and hit a wall multiple times, playing with him was fun and easy. However, he would never mention that to anyone, lest he wanted people to stare at him as if he had lost his mind.

He rubbed his eyes, stretching in his chair before standing up. He went to wash and shower, then made some food before entering his room and turning on the TV.

Leo sat at his desk, eating while listening to the TV as background noise. He grabbed his phone and finally checked his messages, seeing that Cecil had sent him ten messages and called him once.

Sighing, Leo could feel a headache coming on. He decided to call Cecil back.

"Leo!" Cecil quickly answered. "Did I do something wrong? I feel like you have been ignoring me all day."

"Cecil, what did I say about pushing too much?"

"I," Cecil paused, sounding close to crying. "We have not hung out in a while, and you are distancing yourself from me. I don't want to be alone."

"But you are not alone; we do have other friends."

"But they are not you! How about we hang out after class tomorrow? I saw a new barbecue place opening up near the university."

"No," Leo quickly answered before continuing, so Cecil wouldn't start crying. "I have to live-stream tomorrow. How about over the weekend? We can check it out with the group."

"The group?" Cecil reluctantly questioned.

"Yes, the group, because we are all friends, and it has been a while since we all hung out in person."

"Leo-"

"I will see you tomorrow." Leo quickly interrupted, ending the call.

Leo only had two in-person classes, while the rest were online. He and Cecil took the same foreign language class, which was tomorrow. However, Leo did not want to see Cecil at all. As years passed, Cecil started becoming more demanding, and he kept trying to smother Leo with his pheromones, thinking he could cure him.

It only pushed Leo away and made him sick to his stomach.

After ending the call, another problem came up: a message on his SociLuxe app.

[Mad Dog: Team up again tomorrow?]

Before he logged out of the game, Niko practically demanded his social. Leo handed it over, almost laughing when he saw Niko's name. He couldn't understand why Niko would use the nickname that people called him as his social name.

[Masks: I have to live stream tomorrow after class.]

[Mad Dog: You still go to school? How old are you?]

[Masks: 21]

[Mad Dog: So a baby, huh? I am 26.]

[Masks: How am I a baby when we are only 5 years apart?]

[Mad Dog: If you don't want me to call you a baby, play with me tomorrow.]

Leo bit his lip, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. Niko seemed childish, different from the way people would describe him. That may be why he keeps continuing a conversation with him.

[Masks: Do you mind waiting? I stream for 4 hours.]

[Mad Dog: What is your streaming name? Is it the same name as your social?]

[Masks: Yes.]

[Mad Dog: Then, I will see you tomorrow.]

The conversation cut short, and Leo stared at their chat for a few seconds longer. He couldn't understand why, but Leo looked forward to playing with Niko tomorrow.

He was different from the rumors and seemed chilled to talk to, minus his teasing nature. However, his online nature could differ from his real-life personality, as the rumors stemmed more from real life.

But it was not like they were going to meet offline. Like Leo, Niko could not stand being around pheromones, so he felt their meetings would only be online.

He sees no problem talking and playing with him if it remains that way. The only downfall is ensuring his Guild, especially Cecil, doesn't find out.

"Ah, why does this sound like a secret affair?" Leo muttered, lingering on the conversation longer before succumbing to pushing Niko's profile.

Niko's profile picture only showed a white cat, while his Bio only said, "Fighting is my specialty."

Leo silently chuckled before moving on to looking at Niko's posts. Niko barely posted any word posts, but he had many pictures on his profile. The photos contained his cat in different poses and outfits. Leo found them cute, seeing another side of the known Mad Dog.

Then he passed by a photo of Niko holding his cat, causing Leo to pause. Even though he felt that he was asexual, it did not mean he couldn't appreciate beauty, and looking at this photo of Niko made Leo understand why people called him breathtakingly beautiful.

He had waist-length white hair, which people would hardly believe was real if not for his almost white eyebrows and eyelashes. His eyes were round and beautifully hazel, while his lips were downward-turned. His heart-shaped face fits with his lean, muscular body, which was a body type people did not see with most omegas.

In the picture, he holds a smirk with a tilted head, leaning back on the couch, causing his neck and collarbone to peek out more. One hand rests on the cat in his lap, and another on the sofa. His stance and aura screamed dominance, almost like an alpha.

Leo unconsciously swallowed, but he noticed that this photo had more likes and comments than his other photos. He knew that if he went into the comments, they would question how a man who can quickly snap be so beautiful and can be an omega when everything about him screams alpha.

Leo couldn't help but also wonder how someone could be this good-looking. Something stirred in him, but he did not understand what it was. So, he quickly exited the profile and turned off his phone, switching to his laptop.

He still had some assignments to finish before going to bed. Whatever he was feeling, Leo pushed it to the back of his mind.