Chapter Text
Kuroo squinted at his screen with incredulous disbelief. His screen was grey, and his character was sprawled out dead surrounded by four, bulky orcs with only a 100 health points or less each. Kuroo was, to say the least, frustrated.
He’d been attempting to craft a special class armor for his character for about three weeks now. It was a non-tradeable and non-sellable set and could only be obtained through crafting or gems, which cost real life money. Kuroo was not about to ask his mother for 2500 yen to spend on an online game. He could practically see her narrowing her eyes at him in scrutiny and then sharply telling him he should spend game time studying. Alternatively, he could also very well see her laughing in his face as he explained that he essentially wanted his character to look cooler, raised stats aside.
So, crafting it was.
Throughout the weeks he had gathered shimmering sparkles from the rainbow in Maeldhane, he had grinded for 150 mermaid tears, he had collected what seemed like a million vials of dark unicorn blood. He had spent hours crafting insignificant, useless items to raise his crafting level and open new recipes. Finally, he had every crafting component necessary save one.
He had looked on the trading post, but the item in question was extremely useful, and was necessary for a good number of high level recipes. Only two people were selling the item and the lowest price was 140 gold. Kuroo had exactly 19 gold, 82 silver, and 4 copper in his bank account and it had taken him almost a month to amass that much wealth. So, the only option was to get it himself.
Unfortunately, that one material could only be found in a chest on a high up ledge in Bahnrek Hills, a level 60-70 area.
In order to get to the ledge, the player had to first navigate and find the hidden entrance to the underground part of Bahnrek Hills. This spot wasn’t particularly difficult to find, especially with Google, but it did take a bit of walking as the nearest portal was quite a bit away and Kuroo didn’t own a mount.
From there, the player had to walk a tunnel, fighting through the hostile creatures which inhabited the place. This part wasn’t hard either. Normally Kuroo just downed speed and health boost potions and raced through the tunnel like some demonic, coked up cheetah.
Once at the end of the tunnel, the player had to parkour up and over a swamp and that would bring him or her to a rocky platform where six beefy orcs awaited. Past the platform was another small section of parkour to reach the chest holding the ultra special, extra rare, super useful crafting item: Leaf Dust.
Kuroo had spent ages figuring out the right parkour path to take, falling hundreds of times into the murky swamp infested with humongous, murderous mosquitos, and it had taken equally as long to actually reach the rocky platform. He sucked at in-game parkour.
However, the orcs were by far the worst part. Kuroo had been forced to level up his character four times and enchant his current armor just so he wouldn’t die instantly. He was sure they were bugged. How else were they so strong and resilient?
Over and over he died to the mobs, but this time he had thought that he was ready. He had stronger armor, higher level skills, and oh so many potions. He had managed to kill two of them, and he had gotten so, so close to killing the other four. He really thought he was going to be able to defeat them. The green bars representing their health points seemed to mock him. It was just depressing to work so hard and get so close only to die two hits away from winning. He was going to have to level up his character a couple more times if he wanted to get the stupid Leaf Dust and then it’d be more time spent in this hell hole of a place.
Kuroo was about to hit the respawn button when another character model hopped up onto the rocky platform.
It was a small male elf with slanted, golden eyes and blonde hair. The elf’s build was slim and short. He was also dressed in the simplest, most basic and plain armor Kuroo had ever seen in the game. Kuroo hadn’t even seen new players wearing such boring, weak-looking armor before. It was so unbelievably unassuming, that Kuroo couldn’t tell anything at all from it. Usually armor could reveal at the very least what class the player was, but this was so horrifically lacking it could be anything.
Kuroo wondered if the character had gotten there by accident before remembering his hours of sweat and tears poured into this stupid area.
It was a huge shock when the player was quick to demolish the four orcs whose health had risen back to full in the time between Kuroo’s own death and the new player’s arrival. And then, wonders of wonders, the character came over and revived Kuroo’s own model. It took a couple of seconds, but soon Kuroo’s soldier was alive and well, regenerating the last of his health easily. The other character started the remaining parkour and Kuroo was quick to follow. The two hopped up to the chest to pick up the loot before Kuroo remembered to say thanks.
kurokat: omg thank you so much
kurokat: you’re my savior i’ve been spending
kurokat: like a week trying to get this dumb shit
kurokat: i was gonna cry loooool
kurokat: before you came i killed the other 2 and
kurokat: i got the other four down to like 100 health each before i died
kurokat: 100 HEALTH
Kuroo rapidly typed into the chat box and waited eagerly for a response. After a little bit, Kuroo worried that he had accidentally disconnected or annoyed the other player or something. Maybe the other player just wasn’t into talking. Kuroo could respect that.
applepi: lol
Kuroo snorted. His rescuer was a regular Hemingway.
kurokat: you’re so strong lol
kurokat: what class are you?
applepi: cleric. mage type healer focus.
kurokat: ??? you’re a cleric and you do that much dmg?
applepi: yeah. most of my spells can heal or buff but they can also do dmg
applepi: most of it is aoe too so
applepi: if i set it up and play it right i can solo most quests
kurokat: what do you do if you can’t finish a quest
applepi: i just try to find someone to come with me
applepi: uh actually
kurokat: ?
applepi: you’re a warrior type right
kurokat: yeah, but i’m more tanky
kurokat: i don’t have a ton of dmg
applepi: that’s fine i can work with that. i need someone to come with me into ternemahr forest
applepi: it’s the only place in my level range to get enchanted wood chips
kurokat: yeah i’d be down. i just need to get to a crafting center somewhere
kurokat: since i got the dust thx to you i cna finally make my armor
applepi: that’s fine. i have all day. we can stop by beneedre’s town square on the way
applepi: there’s an armor craft stand there
kurokat: sounds good :) lead the way!
Kuroo grinned to himself. Whoever applepi was, he was good at the game and he would be a tremendous help. They chatted a bit as they traveled to Ternemahr Forest and Kuroo finally crafted his armor, which had ridiculously high defense stats as well as bonus damage. His character also looked damn good, which in Kuroo’s book trumped any stats.
The two spent the entirety of Saturday playing Fourth World, completing quests and gathering rare crafting items together. Kuroo had never had so much fun with the game before.
applepi: i’m actually surprised you managed to get so far without a duo partner
kurokat: what do you mean
applepi: usually tank players don’t have enough damage on their own
applepi: so they need someone else who is either high damage or
applepi: someone who has healing capability to keep you alive long enough
kurokat: yeah idk how i managed either lol just tried till i got it
kurokat: but hey now i have you to help :D
applepi: mm
kurokat: i mean, if you don’t mind playing with me lol
applepi: lol playing with you is fine
applepi: but i have school on weekdays so i usually only spend
applepi: an hour or two maximum on weekdays
applepi: and that’s only if there isn’t another game i want to play
kurokat: oh yeah totally lol
kurokat: i’m not a total neet i don’t spend my life on this game or anything
kurokat: i have school too and i have volleyball practice almost everyday lol
kurokat: but if you’re on, i’d like to play with you
applepi: yeah that’d be nice
Kuroo inwardly rejoiced. His new friend had been right; Kuroo’s character didn’t have a lot of damage and that made leveling up difficult. He couldn’t quickly grind the monsters that gave off the most experience or gold. It didn’t matter if he had a lot of health, health regen, and other defense stats if he didn’t have enough damage to kill the mob before it killed him.
With applepi however, they did just enough damage and applepi could heal him up so they had as much time as they needed to kill whatever they faced. Besides a healer type, Kuroo also learned that applepi was an intellectual kind of player. Most players, including himself, just ran at the mobs and button-mashed, hoping to come out on top.
However, whenever the two started a quest or sought out an item, applepi came up with plans. He’d direct Kuroo where to go, when to start fighting, when to draw aggro, when to let him take the aggro, etc. Kuroo had never completed quests and farmed so efficiently.
Besides all that, applepi was fun. He wasn’t overly dramatic or talkative in chat, as so many players were. In fact, he barely chatted unless he had to. However, every now and then he would crack a joke or make a sarcastic comment out of the blue.
Kuroo could talk as much or as little as he wanted, and that was nice. He knew that applepi, whoever he was, was out there and read everything he typed.
The game and applepi quickly became his best method of relaxation.
For the first week or two of their partnership, they didn’t play that much together besides the weekends. Kuroo didn’t want to bother applepi or seem too eager by asking what his schedule was or if they should set up a playing time. The result of this would be that they would always just barely miss each other, or only catch the other online at the tail end of one of their playing sessions.
applepi: sorry i have to get off soon
kurokat: aw man i just got online what shit luck lol
applepi: i can play maybe half an hour more but i really have to do hw
kurokat: yeah same. i’ll take what i can get tho let’s play :)
After four or five instances of this happening, Kuroo noticed that applepi was slowly able to spend more and more time online with him during weekdays.
kurokat: you’re able to play more lately :)
applepi: yeah
kurokat: did something change
applepi: yeah
kurokat: are you gonna tell me lol
applepi: no
kurokat: fair enough lol
Kuroo couldn’t help but think that maybe applepi was waiting for him to get online to play.
They quickly settled into a routine and days of playtime together turned into weeks turned into months. Kuroo realized that his life consisted of school, volleyball, and Fourth World almost exclusively.
kurokat: oh my god i’m a nerd
applepi: ? you just realized
kurokat: yes!!! i used to be so cool
applepi: i doubt it
kurokat: hey :( i’ll have you know that i was the coolest cat
applepi: cool people don’t say they were the coolest cat
kurokat: well i am and i do
applepi: if that’s what you need to tell yourself
applepi: to sleep at night
Kuroo smiled. Every time that applepi teased him, he felt startlingly happy. Kuroo liked to think it meant that the other boy was becoming more and more comfortable with him. Kuroo wasn’t ashamed to admit that applepi was quickly becoming one of his best friends. He hoped that applepi felt the same way about him.
kurokat: so what do you do when you’re not playing games
applepi: school
kurokat: ok outside of school
applepi: sleep
kurokat: lol what about hobbies or fun stuff
applepi: playing games
kurokat: do you ever hang out with friends
applepi: …
applepi: i don’t really have a lot of friends irl honestly
kurokat: o rly? why not
applepi: i don’t like to stand out really idk
kurokat: awwww you’re shy? that’s cute
applepi: shut up
kurokat: wait so does this mean i’m your only friend?
applepi: i have two other friends you egotist
kurokat: lol sorry
applepi: they both go to diff schools tho so i guess i talk to you
applepi: the most
kurokat: we’re totally besties
applepi: shut up
Kuroo couldn’t help but feel happy about that. He had a lot of friends from class and volleyball, but he didn’t really talk to them a whole bunch outside of school or club related activities. Besides applepi, he really only had a couple of close friends himself.
For now, he was content to just log in to Fourth World and play with this boy whose name he didn’t even know for hours on end.