CHAPTER 44: TANYA

When Tanya unlocked the door and I stepped inside, the first thing that hit me was how much it didn’t feel like a stranger’s apartment. It felt like a place out of a catalog, neat, sharp, controlled. The floors were polished wood, not a single shoe out of place in the small rack near the entrance.

A coat rack stood lonely, holding only one black trench coat that looked like it had never been wet before in its life. Everything screamed minimalism, but not the poor kind, either. this was the kind where every object was intentionally chosen, expensive without being flashy.

The living room stretched open, lit with gentle amber from a standing lamp instead of harsh white bulbs. A long gray sofa, straight and firm, hugged the wall, accompanied by a single coffee table with nothing but a ceramic cup sitting on top. No mess, no magazines, no snack wrappers, no piles of laundry threatening to kill me if I breathed wrong.

It was clean in a way that felt alien to me, sterile, like an operating room.

I sat down on the sofa like a trespasser about to get arrested. My knees were stiff, my hands balled up. Eventually, I chewed at my fingernails, a nervous tick that always showed up when my brain got loud.

Meanwhile, Tanya muttered something about "taking a bath real quick" and disappeared down the hallway.

So, I was left alone... Who the fuck trusts a stranger that much?

Okay, think, Cory... Think... Why the hell did this happen?

A guy stole my username, CJS69, then I asked Ann about it, and Ann told me to call this number, and a woman called Tanya answered, telling me to come here. But then I met her on the bus? What the- What... What the fuck is going on?

I need to learn more, Watson.

And so, I did what any completely normal, law-abiding, respectful guest would do: I snoop dogged around.

At first, it was just scanning the walls. Bare, not a single photo frame, no childhood pictures, no family moments, not even one of those cheap abstract canvases people hang up to look "deep" but just white walls.

I opened the door to the bedroom and something caught my eye, a sleeping pod, no, not exactly a sleeping pod, VR pod... I froze, my eyes widened. That was a Darkmoon Adventure pod, which, shouldn’t surprise me, biggest game of the decade.

But...

The early access one, only given to the top 50 players, including me and Ann.

What the hell am I looking at here...?

The model was very much recognizable because that’s literally the one I’ve been using all along, with the reinforced base and the smoothed silver shell.

And right beside it sat a PC setup, two monitors, sleek mechanical keyboard, mousepad so large it could double as a yoga mat.

I nearly choked on my own spit. She played... She played Darkmoon Adventure, and she was one of the top 50 players?

Ann, what the fuck have you gotten me into?

I came in the room and leaned in closer, practically crawling on my knees toward the pod like it was an altar, before catching myself.

I rubbed my arm, muttering. What are the odds? First she saves my ass from a robber, then she just so happens to be one of the top 50 players? No, this was a set up, ain’t no way I found Tanya on the way to find a Tanya... Must be one of Ann’s prank... But, that wouldn’t make sense because... How did she know I was going to take the bus? She was on there before I was, already with bags of groceries.

My brain immediately started spiraling, coincidence, fate, some weird cosmic joke?

By the time I was kneeling like a little gremlin in front of the VR pod, Tanya’s voice cut the air behind me.

"Curious, are we?"

I jolted so hard I almost headbutted the machine.

When I fixed my spinning head and turned, there she was, fresh out of the bath, with a white towel wrapped lazily around her body, steam clung to her skin, her hair damp and slicked back, a little water still trailing down her collarbone. She didn’t seem embarrassed or aware about it at all... No way she doesn’t know I’m a raging homosexual who often exploits dumb teenagers, of course, I still respect the age of consent (for the record, damn lawyers)

Even though I was about to die of secondhand embarrassment, my brain went blank, except for one screaming thought: Boobs. Oh my god, boobs.

"Uh... Hi" I answered awkwardly, realizing that I’m in her bedroom, which, if someone were to do that for me, I’d probably behead them.

She turned around walked back to the living room, so tore my gaze away and scrambled back to the sofa following her, practically hugging the armrest. My face was on fire, and I chewed my knuckle like it could erase the image.

She went to the kitchen to grab something, calm, casual, like she wasn’t basically naked, before returning and sat across from me.

Guess how she sat?

Cross-legged, towel dangerously short, like she didn’t even care if I get a wittle peak, and she tilted her head slightly.

"So," she said, voice as flat and cold as always. "Giantess gave you my number?"

Giantess must be Ann’s nickname, stemming from the forum post, which was weird hearing for the first time in real life.

Wait, but that wasn’t the topic at hand, right... The username, CJS69. I need to know more about the bastard who stole my perfect handle, so I clenched my fists.

"Yes," I said, way too loud. "Was that your boyfriend or something? Username squatting is disgusting, like identity fraud, I will rip his eyeballs out for that, where is he? Why did you want me to come here?"

In hindsight, that was pretty dumb, threatening someone on their home turf, I’d be dead if they wanted to.

Tanya blinked slowly, like she was calculating whether it was even worth answering me, then, she took out a pack of cigarettes that she got from the kitchen, reached for the lighter on the coffee table, and lit the ciggarette, even though we were indoors.

"That was me."

"..."

Excuse me what the actual fuck?

"I mean, not you, like, the guy who uses the username CJS69-"

"That’s me... Stargazing, anarchism, ring any bells yet, Cory Jay Smith?"

She used my full-name, god damn it, that was the greatest threat a shut-in could’ve got.

I could not even answer, my jaws dropped, yet her lips barely twitched, not quite a smirk, not quite nothing.

"Sorry for taking that, but someone else took my username so I just went down the lists of the one I remembered, and you were quite close to that, Miss #3 All-Time Player." She smiled.

"But you’re a woman!" I shot back instantly, pointing an accusatory finger. "The game doesn’t allow cross-gender avatars, ID verification and shit, you have to make a female character, don’t lie to me!"

She tilted her head again, strands of wet blonde hair falling over her cheek. "And yet," she said calmly, "Here I am."

"W-what the hell does that even mean?!" That sentence alone fried my brain, I stammered,

"It means," she said, leaning back like this was the most boring topic in the world, "I can create a male avatar"

I felt like I’d just been drop-kicked into another dimension, my jaw opened and closed, fish-like, as if words could just assemble themselves if I flailed enough.

Finally, all I managed was: "That makes no sense. None, at all, zero, nada. You’re cheating, aren’t you? A hacker? Oh my god, I’m sitting in the apartment of a hacker while living with the developer’s daughter, jesus fuck what the hell... WAIT WAIT WAIT, ARE YOU TRANSGENDERED?"

"I’m not a hacker and not transgendered."

"Then what?!" I shot back, my voice climbing higher with each word. "Nobody else could’ve pulled that off, and you... ugh... so calm, so smug, walking around in a towel like you own the damn worl..."

She shifted slightly on the sofa, leaning forward just enough that the towel slipped an inch.

My words died in my throat, my face felt like it could fry an egg.

Okay, she may be a red flag, but her tits are huge, so, is she really a red flag, boys?

"Are you," she said in that same cold monotone, "uncomfortable?"

"I... no, uh, shut up-" I stuttered, curling into the armrest again, wishing it would swallow me whole.

The silence that followed was unbearable. The kind where the air thickens, pressing against your skin... She was still staring at me, and one more time, both in game and in real life, I couldn’t read her at all.

No smile, no frown, just that sharp gaze pinning me down.

And then, she moved.

Closer, slowly, she slid from her side of the sofa to mine, not saying a word, just closing the gap like it was inevitable.

Until I was backed up against the armrest, nowhere to move, staring the blonde woman.