“Argh I just don’t get it!” Ten cried out.

“Are you talking about Angel?” Mag asked.

The two of them were having a conversation about how Ten’s studies were going.

“Wolf told me he was one of the best teachers in the Fourth… but for the last couple of days… we’ve barely talked… all he does is assign me things to watch and read and then tests me on it!”

Mag nodded his head.

“And anytime I have a legitimate question, I never get a proper answer… he’s always trying to dodge conversations and I know he has some kind of social anxiety disorder but still…”

“That’s just how Angel is…”

“Then why would Wolf assign him as my teacher? It makes no sense?!”

“It’s because the knowledge he has is quite valuable… the problem is that he has a hard time conveying it…”

“But hasn’t he taught other tads before?”

“Well… no… you’re his first ever student…”

Ten dropped his spoon and looked at Mag with disbelief.

“Then why would-”

“Hold on, let me finish… Ikara was originally responsible for teaching all new tads about Neuroscience… but since she’s no longer with us… Wolf probably decided that the next best person was Angel. Unlike him, Ikara was really good at communicating concepts which made her a great teacher. But if I had to say who has more of a mastery over Neuroscience, it would be Angel no doubt…”

“But why join the Fourth if he can’t stand being around others? Couldn’t he just leave and go do his own thing?”

“There’s an unspoken rule here at the Fourth that everyone follows.”

Mag’s tone suddenly lowered.

“It’s frowned upon to openly talk about a person’s past unless absolutely necessary… whether that’s a person’s previous protocol or what their life was like before they joined the Fourth.”

Ten leaned forward, listening closely.

“Angel used to be a top tier researcher for BANE until he defected and joined the AA… I don’t really wanna get into the details because only Wolf knows exactly what happened but… because of this, he has nowhere else to go but the Fourth…”

Ten was silent.

“As annoying as it is trying to talk with him… he’s a huge asset to the Fourth because of his firsthand experience… in fact…”

Mag looked at Ten’s right arm.

“The person who built your new arm after Dreya ripped it off was none other than Angel…”

Ten began to inspect his new mechanical arm.

“You said it yourself didn’t you? If you wanna learn more about this place… about a lot of things you don’t understand… Angel is your guy…”

Ten couldn’t help but feel a little shameful. Mag was right. He’d been approaching things from the wrong angle.

***

After dinner, Ten decided to pay Angel a visit to his room. Before he could even knock on the door, a spherical orb peaked out of the corner of the door.

“W-what do you want? Are you h-here to ask me more questions? I already t-told you… everything you need to know is in the f-files I sent you…”

It was an invention made by Angel that acted as a security detection system to deter anybody from soliciting near his section of the hideout. In fact, it felt completely isolated and silent. Not a single whisper to be heard.

“I-I just wanted to say sorry…”

No response.

“I didn’t know that… you were the one who built this arm for me…”

Ten brought his artificial hand towards the camera.

“It’s a little slow and lags behind quite a bit, but I’ve been getting better and better at controlling it… though sometimes… I still slip up…”

Still no response.

“I’m sorry for being so persistent… it must have been annoying… I won’t bother you with any more questions…”

Ten slowly turned around and began to walk away.

“Wait…” Angel’s voice called out and the door slowly opened up.

“Let me fix that arm for you… it needs to be recalibrated…”

It almost felt like a different Angel was speaking now.

Ten slowly crept into Angel’s room. He was draped in a heavy looking blanket sitting in front of dozens of screens.

“You can leave your arm on the table next to you… I’ll get it back to you tomorrow… I'm a little busy today...”

Angel was completely locked in, spamming away at his desk with commands and inputs. His stutter seemed to have vanished.

As he took off his right arm and placed it on the table, he couldn’t help but become curious to what Angel was doing. A dungeon raid? It sounded like something he would hear about back in Elysion.

Ten slowly crept forward to get a closer inspection of what was on Angel’s screen. It was a dragon! And his ‘in-game character’ was a mage who was casting some sort of plant magic. Just like Zena!

“What is that?” Ten blurted out uncontrollably.

Ten’s sudden voice made Angel leap out of his chair screaming while hiding his face behind his dense blanket.

Ten couldn’t help but recoil as well, falling straight on his asscheeks.

Angel’s in-game character had taken a direct hit from a fireball causing a death screen to appear.

“You…” Angel began to growl.

“JUST GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!!” Angel screamed at the top of his lungs as he chased Ten out of his room, shutting the door between them.

Ten had frantically scurried away, completely frazzled at what had just happened.

He eventually turned a corner and stopped to catch his breath.. 

“Damn it…” he cursed in a cold sweat.

Ten had visited Angel with the intention of smoothing things over but he only made things worse.

But at the same time, he couldn’t get his mind off of what he saw on Angel’s screen. It was almost as if he was taking a peak into the world of Elysion itself. What exactly was that?

He sulkingly made his way back to his room to continue his studies in silence.

***

The next day, Ten decided to consult with Mag. Naturally, the ‘game’ that Angel was playing popped up mid-conversation.

“Oh, he must be playing that new MMORPG that came out… I think it’s called Bladecraft Seven…”

“Bladecraft Seven…” Ten repeated.

“How do I get it? The game?”

Mag looked a little surprised at Ten’s sudden request.

“Ah well…” Mag thought to himself for a little bit.

“Oh, you can borrow my old VR headset.”

“What’s that?”

“It basically lets you physically enter into the world of the game/”

“But I saw Angel playing it on his computer?”

“Well yeah… he’s socially anxious and the VR headset makes the game waaay more realistic… so when he interacts with other players… or even NPC’s…”

Ten sort of understood. Angel sure was a strange member of the Fourth.

***

Tenshi has joined the server.

Magman has joined the server.

“Ah… feels way smoother than Bladecraft 6…” Mag smiled.

Ten looked around completely bewildered. There were a couple of players attacking goblins a little further up the field they had spawned into.

It really was like he was in Elysion again. No wonder the ‘protocol’ had felt so real.

After a couple of hours following Mag around, Ten finally completed the main story quests and unlocked his first set of gear. He instantly took the sword and a cloaking cape that gave him increased agility.

He held up his newly acquired blade, cutting through a beautiful blood orange horizon. Staring into his shining reflection, mesmerized by a feeling of familiarity and nostalgia.

All of a sudden Ten disconnected from his VR headset and found himself face to face with Angel’s green eyes and his brown paper-bagged face.

“AHH!” Ten screamed.

“RAH!” Angel jolted several meters backwards like an injured animal.

He was holding Ten’s right arm.

“I-I was knocking on the door a-and calling out your name… b-but you weren’t responding!!”

“Ah sorry…” Ten said as he got up from his bed.

“W-whatever… like I s-said… I'd get it back to you b-by today…”

“I didn’t get a chance to say… sorry for what happened earlier as well…”

“It’s fine… I-uh… overreacted…” 

He set the arm on Ten’s table, but instead of leaving right away, he just stood in the center of the room staring at Ten dorkingly.

“W-what were you doing… with that VR headset…”

Ten’s eyes lit up as he saw a wide open opportunity. Mag had told Ten that Angel was a crazy gamefreak. Anytime he wasn’t working on something important, he would be gaming.

“Bladecraft…Seven…”

Angel's eyes lit up for only a quick second and then returned to normal.

“O-oh… ok…” he said softly as he turned around and started shuffling away.

Ten had put the VR headset back on and called back out to Mag.

Angel turned around and murmured, “Mag?”

He then closed the door and jolted off.

***

After a couple more side quests, Ten felt completely exhausted. Using the VR headset for long periods of time had taken quite a toll. Just as he was about to call it a day, Mag receives an in-game message from a familiar username.

“It’s Angel.” Mag said.

Ten turned around curiously.

“He wants to party up for a dungeon.”

Ten was a little nervous, but it was his only chance at getting Angel to open up to him. The whole classroom dynamic just felt awkward and forced.

The two of them spawned in the ruins of a forgotten shrine. Angel was standing on top of a broken pillar, staring off at the surrounding scenery.

“Angel! Long time no see! The last time we teamed up was back in Bladecraft 6!” Mag cheerfully approached him.

A deep manly voice bellowed from Angel. It was nothing like his timid in-person voice.

“Mag…” He slowly turned and glared at Ten.

“I specifically invited just you…”

“Ah come on Angel, what's the harm in bringin’ a plus one? The loot tables will be much better right?”

“That’s true… However… this dungeon has quite a high skill ceiling… having a brand new player in our party is too much of a liability…”

Mag had also mentioned that Angel was quite the roleplayer when it came to videogames. Ten smirked and stepped forward pointing his sword towards the sky.

“Liability? I’ve played plenty of these games before…” 

Ten was referring to Elysion and his knowledge in swordsmanship. The world of Bladecraft was one of the only places in this cruel new reality that he could thrive in.

***

As the three of them scoured the dungeon, Ten’s competence inevitably began to catch Angel’s attention. Sure his stats and equipment weren’t the most optimal, but his pure skill with the sword made up for quite a bit.

After a long and arduous confrontation with the final boss, Mag managed to obtain a rare item drop that Angel had been spending the entire day farming for.

“Haha! Lucky me!!” Mag said inspecting the glimmering artifact.

After reading the description he made a goofy face.

“Well not sooo lucky… I don’t really need this for my build… Who wants it?”

Angel seemed a little impatient as he tried to get Mag’s attention. These sorts of situations were a drain on Angel’s social battery. What would Mag think if he were to volunteer himself as the recipient? Would he think he was being too selfish? Too greedy? What would his in-game character do? That’s right!

He deepened his voice, “I would be honored if-”

But Mag was already standing over Ten, who was laying on the floor nearly passed out. Angel’s overanalysis was the cause of his indecisiveness yet again! Curse his lack of self-confidence!!

“Here Ten… since you worked so hard… I’m sure Angel already has plenty of these.” Mag said as he transferred the item over to Ten’s inventory.

Angel watched in shattering horror.

“T-thanks…” Ten said in a weak voice.

Angel dropped to the ground in quiet agony, reluctantly accepting the rationale of Mag’s decision.

All of a sudden he looked up.

It was Ten. He was holding the rare item in his hands, getting ready to offer it to him.

“Please Angel… teach me…”

A short and powerful request. Ten was quite the roleplayer himself.

Angel didn’t know how to react to such a schmaltzy scenario. He looked to Mag but all he was met with was a smile and a nod.

“F-fine…” He murmured in embarrassment.

Ten’s eyes began to glimmer with hope again.

“B-but… I have some ground rules…”

They would discontinue the in-person classroom dynamic they had been doing for the last couple of days and instead converse over Bladecraft Seven. Over the week, their previously flimsy student-teacher relationship was reignited through dungeon raids and faction battles.

The difference was like night and day as Ten began to get a growing understanding of Neuroscience and the magical workings of neural potential.