CHAPTER 41: GOOSE CHASE

I realized who he was not, he’s the bastard who squatted my username! My brain didn’t hesitate as I pulled my twin blades out like muscle memory. My hand were trembling, my vision tunneling until all I saw was that smug silhouette standing over the porch of Ann’s cabin as I looked up to his taller figure. His cigarette ember glowed faintly red, flickering with every lazy draw he took, as if he wasn’t aware of how close he was to being skewered, or worse, he knew, and didn’t care, because he was confident that he could take me on.

I have 100 ways to murder you, asshole

"You!" I snarled, my teeth grinding together, my voice cracked through the still night, startling the virtual crickets chirping nearby. "You... You goddamn username squatter! Do you even know how long I’ve been..."

I didn’t even finish as my feet carried me forward sprinting and I swung in a cross. I was ready to cleave him in half, and yet.

The system stopped me.

The Pacifistic Curse

thud

My movement literally halted my entire body, removing all senses of muscle and I fell face-first on the ground.

My body jerked violently, the blades fell out of my hands as I struggeld to get a feel of my legs again to stand up and stab him "I’ll kill you! You son of a bitch!"

He didn’t even flinch. Just tilted his head, a smug shadow of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, he exhaled smoke into the digital air, leaned lazily against the porch post, and looked down at me like some superior entity watching a trapped animal.

"You are cute when you’re mad," he said softly, the words spilling out slow, deliberate, like honey dripping too lazily to catch.

"Shut up! Don’t you dare... don’t you dare talk to me like that! Answer me, why did you choose my username?!" My throat burned as I took out a throwable explosive and hurl it at them, for them to just not explode and return back to my inventory, over and over, my weapons falling uselessly to the ground.

Then, as if he was mocking me, he stepped forward. This CJS69Fake guy eached out... and patted my head.

"Good girl," he murmured.

If I was a black woman, the words I’d use right now would be stated in the Geneva Convention.

My whole system rattled, my stomach flipping with fury and embarrassment. My vision blurred red, I opened my mouth to scream again, but he had already flicked his cigarette into the dark grass and disappeared, leaving on traces of his silhouette that dispered into thin air right afterwards... He had logged off, and vanished into pixelated dust.

The porch light dimmed, the cabin returned to silence, and my ragged breathing filled the void.

"FUCK YOU!" I screamed into the empty night, my voice so shrill that it made my own ears ring. "FUCK. YOU. COME BACK! Don’t run! Don’t you dare run away from me like that! You cowardly piece of..."

No response, sadly, only the hollow echo of my rage left.

I dropped to my knees, chest heaving, fingers digging into the dirt until my nails clipped through the Earth’s core itself. Hot tears stung at my eyes, though I refused to let them fall.

Finally, with no one left to curse at, I violently clicked the log out button.

The real world came crashing back into me like a slap as I ripped the pod open. My new bedroom at the Sonder estate was dark, far too polished and pristine, every corner filled with quiet luxury that only made me feel more out of place.

I crawled over to lay on the wide, queen-sized bed, panting into the expensive silk sheets, staring at the high ceiling. The chandelier shadows looked like they were laughing at me.

Sleep? Forget it, the bastard had wormed his smug face into my brain.

Instead, I sat up, shuffled to the desk where my PC had been carefully set up by Sonder’s staff, oh my sweet wonderful baby girl, always a good reminder of my old, cramped, dirty apartment where I actually belonged.

I booted up the bad boy, my fingers flying across the keyboard to type the address, navigating instantly to the Darkmoon Adventure forum. There was only one person who could make sense of this.

"Ann."

I hadn’t messaged her in... what, months? Years? Our DM was dusty, pages long of stupid inside jokes and half-finished plans, now buried under silence.

Well, actually, not... She sent me two pictures of her giant dildos as promised which were HOLY FUCK HOW THE HELL ARE THOSE LEGAL?

Are those physically capable of entering a person’s body?

If that largestone one goes inside me, I think it’ll come out of my eye sockets.

I wonder what would happen if I insert them into Hailie and defile her...

Ahem, anyways.

I didn’t get distracted that easily, I typed out a message:

[Cory]: Ann, who the hell is your friend? The one who stole my username. The one with CJS69. He was online just now, at your cabin. What the hell is going on?!

I sent it, sat there, fists clenched.

Minutes dragged like hours.

Then finally, a reply pinged.

[Ann]: Oh, him.

I froze as my heart skipped a long beat. That was it? That was it? I started hammering again:

[Cory]: Oh him??? That’s all you’ve got?? Ann, I’m serious, I nearly had a meltdown, who is he?? You knew someone was using my username and you said nothing? I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!

[Ann]: We just had an intense session together just hours ago and now you’re thinking about men already?

That was a tasteless joke, which made my skin crawled, but, karma, mayhaps?

[Cory]: Don’t you dare dodge the conversation right now.

[Cory]: ANSWER ME, ANN!

Another long pause, I bit my lip until it bled.

[Ann]: I can’t say much, it’s a very complicated situation... He’s... Not really someone I want to get on the bad side of, and of course, I do not want to get on your bad side, cutie... Especially when you’re going to help a bundles in my next operation, but hear me out on this one, all right dear? I know you will understand... Hear, let me help.

I nearly tore my hair out, hissing at the monitor "Ann, you cryptic bitch..."

But then a second later, another notification popped up.

[Ann]: Here.

And below, she sent a phone number of my region.

I blinked, my chair squeaked as I sat back. She just... handed me his number? Like that? I guess a phone call was easier and faster than messaging back and forth.

But I noticed he was in town, the phone number was of the same city of my apartment and the mansion.

I didn’t even think twice, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, fingers fumbling as I punched in the digits. I jumped up in and down in place as it rang once, twice, thrice... Then, click.

I stayed silent, waiting for someone to speak first, and they did.

"...Hello?"

I froze, the breath caught in my throat.

A voice, soft, low, and almost melodically calm, a feminine voice, definitely that of a woman, and not like the dude in the game... Whose number is this? Couldn’t be him, because, like, Darkmoon Adventure VR scanned your ID and you can’t just be a woman using a male avatar, was this his wife or something?

But this definitely wasn’t some sort of loser than squatted my username.

"Uh... um, hi, sorry, is this...?" I stuttered like a fool, "Ann Murphray gave me this number, I’m trying to track down some guy who, uh, stole my username on Darkmoon Adventure. You wouldn’t happen to know..."

A gentle laugh spilled through the line, soft as velvet, sending goosebumps up my arm.

"Mhm... I know who you’re looking for," the woman said. "You must be the real CJS69?"

My heart skipped like a broken record. "Y-Yeah, that’s... me."

Jesus, too many people are learning about my name... Fucks with the whole idea of being anonymous.

"Well then," she purred, "my name is Tanya, and if you really want to meet him... why don’t you come over? I will be waiting."

I blinked. "Wait, what? Come over? Over where?"

She gave me an address. I scribbled it down on the PC’s built-in notepad, the numbers spilling into existence almost automatically. Then I read it back.

"Apartment... Street... City..."

And my blood turned to ice.

"...No way. No. Fucking. Way."

I recognnized this address.

It was my old apartment building, the exact same one I just moved out of yesterday! And not just the building, the address led to a unit only three floors up from where I used to live.

My voice cracked. "W- Who are you, how do you..."

Silence hummed on the other end, then, without elaboration, Tanya hung up on me.

The flat, empty dial tone filled my ear.

I sat there frozen, phone clutched so tight my knuckles went white.

Finally, I slammed it down on the desk and whispered, trembling:

"...What the fuck?"