When Tanya finished her story, there was no place left for a comment to be make by me, so, naturally, I just tilted my head inside closer to her chin, eyes down at her throat and collarbones aimlessly.

"Where is Jimmy now?" I asked her.

"Probably among Tibetan monks, last mail he wrote me was 3 months ago."

Invisible and thin silence filled the room as her breath brushed against my forehead, her warmth contrast well to the air-conditioned chill.

I didn't know how long we'd been lying there, wrapped together, but my body had already surrendered to the comfort, I would absolutely agree to be here until I die of malnourishment… If it was me a few months ago where I have no friends and no roof over my head with three free meals a day.

Tanya's hand trailed softly and carefreely through my hair, tracing in a circular pattern that eased all the tensions in my muscle even further.

I hated how much my body melted under that kind of attention.

"How about you, Cory?" Tanya whispered, "What was your first kiss like?"

I looked up at the woman's eyes again, just terrified of her calm and almost tired evil look. Her question had caught me off guard, my heart gave a nervous twitch as I blinked, gulping while my mind echoed her soft, honey-smooth voice.

"Me?"

"Mmh." She replied.

"It's not… much of a story," I said, buying myself time.

I expected, in fact, I hoped for her to press on, to ask more question, yet, I only hear the AC noise spewing out colder air for half a minute as she stared directly into my eyes, while mine wondered down to the crevice of her white shirt, seeing the gap created between her two breasts, I took in a deep breath.

"Can we get a blanket?" I whispered.

Tanya, once again, did not answer, instead, she sat up and pulled out the neatly folded one that was right behind her, it was a heavier and more lengthy blanket that could cover the entire bed.

I hesitated, but the way her thumb brushed my cheekbone made it hard to say no.

"It was a weird time," I finally admitted, fake coughing from time to time, "It was in high school and I uh… I had this friend named Absidy. We were close, no no, I mean, not like that, not like lesbian close."

"Continue." Tanya told me,

"I didn't even know I liked girls back then, not even knowing about the rampant culture of homosexuality. And god forbid, I was still having a crush on this guy that's uh… never mind… So me and Absidy, we just… did everything together. We had a sleep over and my parents loved her very much, we went to the movies, skipped class sometimes, ate terrible fast food sold dirt cheap in convenience stores, yadi yada."

"Mhm…" Tanya hummed quietly to tell me that she was still listening as her body was still pressed to mine and her head resting against mine.

"One night," I continued, "we were talking about how awkward kissing must be… Don't ask why, the conversation just came up like that when a bunch of teenage girls get bored, 'cause, you know, tongue angles, nose bumping, all that hard-to-imagine crap. So we thought… why not practice?"

I chuckled softly, trying to make light of the memory.

"It was supposed to be just one time, just to get it over with. But we kept doing it, we scoff it off under the pretense of practicing for when we're get married, to someone else of course, we didn't have any romantic attraction towards one another, at least I did not, I don't know about Absidy…"

"But by the third time, I realized how beautiful she looked. The freckles under her eyes, her soft skin… The way she smiled after pulling away, the handholding and platonic hugging got awkward for me afterwards as I fell for her, despite not knowing what my feelings were called."

I trailed off as I began to feel Tanya's hand moved up and down my arm, gently massaging it.

"And then she moved when we were seventeen,"

I took a deep breath.

"Her family just… packed up one day with no notice. I didn't even get to say goodbye… Fucking hell man, I guess I was mad at her at first, but later then…" I swallowed, feeling the lump forming in my throat. "I kinda became an orphan not by choice and I… stopped thinking about her."

The air went still.

Tanya's hand found the back of my head again, her fingers combing through my hair, she didn't say anything apart from just trying to hold me tighter, like she was wordlessly apologizing for something she didn't do.

I stayed like that for a minute, breathing in her scent, something faintly citrus, faintly artificial, then I leaned in to lick her throat—without even knowing why I wanted to do that, that felt weird and I immediately regretted it—before saying.

"You tricked me," I mumbled, half-joking but not really. "You made me tell a personal story."

"Consider it a trade, Cory." Tanya chuckled under her breath.

"Fineee," I said, glaring lightly up at her chin. "What I need in return is the answer I came here for."

"Mhm…" She lifted her head slightly, her lips ghosting over my forehead before planting another soft kiss. "About the guild war, I'd assume."

"Yes."

"So Cory…" Her eyes softened. "How much do you already know?"

"Me?"

I pondered for a bit, before ultimately taking a deep breath and started talking.

"Olga was probably telling the truth based on Hailie, Jared, then ErikDop's testimonies and actions."

"There were seven members in that cave, plus Jared pretending to be an NPC. They attacked her and pinned it on her acting out, to try New Destiny turn against her… I don't know if they really plan on killing her or they held back and let themselves be killed, but I digress."

"That gave momentum to the fuel between ex-Destiny and ex-Omnitetris, so someone must be profitting off of this… Who? It could be a rival gang, notably, Lion's Destiny, because they came in attacking, but apparently they were pawns… And if I know Jack, the guild leader, he isn't one to do something like this, and he isn't a good liar, so I believed him when he said he didn't know anything about this."

"Then that left us with a suspect, Ann Murphray, one of the most influential figures in the shadows of Darkmoon Adventure… I believe Ann had her fingerprints all over it."

"She arranged for LyraBell from Lion's Parade to meet ErikDop—one of the seven in that dungeon who Hailie accused of attacking her—to leak info in return for shelter, a fair trade… Lyra was there to buy back the wristwatch I borrowed from her and later sold to Ann, while Erik was there to hide from the guild, I guess?"

"That leak helped Lion's Parade plan their ambush while he snuck to deactivate the nexus barrier… Then Ann sent me to capture Jared, which incites more investigation, and reopening the court case, which brought more people to the hideout… And when the court case just barely happened, was when Lion's Parade attacked with perfect timing."

I paused to breathe. Tanya was squiet still.

"And then there's Lady_Valerie and two other mercs who were fighting on Lion's Parade's side. This early in the game, only one person could afford to hire that kind of power."

"Ann?" Tanya tilted her head slightly, asking rhetorically.

"Jah."

For a moment, Tanya didn't speak.

Then she smiled… That god damn faint and sharp smile that wasn't really a smile, more or less, mixed mockery and content.

Tanya kissed my forehead again.

"You came to the wrong person," she said softly. "I don't know much either."

"Geez…" I groaned.

"But," she added, "I do know this much: Ann didn't do it alone."

I frowned at that information, letting her continue.

"She had help," Tanya said, carressing my cheek, "I don't know who… But she mentioned to me that the theme of adventuring was getting rather… boring. That instead of a brothel like she usually did, she wanted to try running an underground mercenary ring."

"Holy shit…" I muttered.

"She said with how immersive this VR tech's become, and how influential players could be to the NPCs… She was eager to see how much she can change the in-game world."

"..." I didn't answer that time, just really pondering about how we both were game breakers, and it seems like Ann had found her joy.

Tanya continued:

"To build reputation, she started making moves on well-known players, and livestreamers who slipped up, letting her mercenaries do the work, and the word shall spread, those who needed her will find her eventually."

"...Livestreams?" I widened my eyes.

My thoughts flashed to Rina, one of the five in Hailie's new team… And her stream on Tweak under the username RinaWenswood.

The god damn orc hunt! That makes so much sense, what the fuck? Pearl's near-assassination by Lady_Valerie… If Valerie could've pulled it off and killed him, Ann's reputation would've skyrocketed, but two random no-names like Marc and Hailie fell victim instead.

"Oh my god," I muttered, sitting up slightly. "That was Ann's marketing stunt?!"

Tanya chuckled, brushing her fingers along my collarbone as if trying to calm me down.

Yet I couldn't, because I was practically hyperventilating at this point, my mind was spinning too fast as my eyes widened.

Who was helping her? Don't get me wrong, I think it was very possible for Ann to pull this off alone without any help, but like… It would've make sense for her to have a partner in crime if she wanted this much control and world-level manipulation.

I racked my brain for names… For people I'd met, people who might have the resources or influence, nothing fit as first glance, perhaps it was even someone I didn't know… Or didn't expect, like the woman in front of me, the leader of Omnitetris, or uncle Gimsen? But those are ridiculous theories.

Tanya successfully pulled me down again, mostly because I wanted to feel more of her tits.

"You're thinking too hard," she whispered.

"Because it doesn't make sense," I said, my voice cracking slightly, almost like I'm tearing up like a little twat when I wasn't. "I don't even know what to do with this information."

Tanya smiled faintly, her lips brushed against my skin.

"Good luck to you, Cory dear."

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