“So… you’re retired now?” she plated the special sweet that he loved for him while thinking about all that he had just told her with a confused look.

He was saying he was retired now and that he had also started playing that weird game everyone including her dad plays these days.

She understood the retirement part, it pretty much meant he wasn’t going to work anymore, but even after all these years, she could not understand their liking for games.

“What do you even do in those games? Haaa…”

She knew very well how her bestie Alex could not eat too many sweets even though she loved it, so she had made her something special as she usually does. Along with her black coffee without any sugar.

“First it was Alex, then dad, then my big brother and now you as well, El? Why do you all play that game, geez. I don’t understand it at all.”

Olivea, or Olive as they all called her was a simple person that had lived a simple life even with her extraordinary background.

She wasn’t interested in grand things, she liked baking so she learned it from the best places around the world, and now she was doing what she loved.

She was recognised for all her work and people loved what she made. And, she was happy with just that much.

“You should have at least told me about it, you know? I was so worried…”

“I know. I thought Alex would tell you-.”

“Why would she tell me about it if it was about you?”

“Exactly her thoughts as well, but she did this thing-.”

“I didn’t do anything, Olive~. He’s just making excuses.” With a sneaky smirk, Alex took a spoonful of the pretty dessert her cute friend had made for her.

It was heavenly, as always.

“Right? I can tell you’re making excuses El!”

She was angry right now… which was a cute sight.

Her pretty and cute face was all red from anger, her red nose pointed at him, and her eyes glaring at him with that upset look… if anyone from either of their family saw her like this, Elio would be lectured for hours until this little gem of theirs calmed down.

“I…”

He looked at his darling partner with a little anger in his eyes, before shifting that anger into genuine sadness and looking down at his plate.

“Yes. I’m making excuses.”

Even if this was her prank, he was the one that forgot about this important thing.

He did not tell her, he was unreachable for a few days, there were no replies, and he did not pick the calls either.

Olive did not know he had started playing games again, and that too the same one that her father was obsessed with since a while back, so she did not try to contact him through the [Common] communication ID.

If he did not reply back to her today, she was most definitely going to ask Alex if he was alright or not through the CCI.

“I’m sorry. It was my fault.” looking up straight in her eyes, her sad eyes, he apologized. And since the apology was genuine enough, she accepted it and shook her head.

“You will have to treat me if you are sorry, mister. And tell me everything you did after you started playing that game.”

There was a helpless smile on her face now. The anger had all melted away, and she had forgiven her dear friend.

“What the hell…?”

This was a little too anticlimactic though. Alex did not like it. This was not fun!

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“Aren’t you going to shout at him some more, Olive?! Cry perhaps and make fuss like you should? He did something so horrible!”

She was trying to provoke her… even while knowing such obvious provocations were not going to work on someone like her.

“I’m fine, Alex dear. He apologized, that’s all I need~.”

She smiled at her warmly, and patted her head with her gentle and soft hands.

She liked her and she liked him. Both were her friends, and both were amazing people.

One was her childhood friend, someone that was the same as her brother to her. While the other was the partner that he met by fate, someone just as amazing as him that she adored just like a big sister.

“He’s at least better than my dad and brother, you know? He apologizes for ignoring my messages and calls.

Those two dummies are always busy with god knows what in that game.”

She sighed lightly, took a sip from her teacup, and shook her head.

“You two at least talk properly about that ‘other’ world of yours. Those dummies don’t even know how to explain what they do there to me.”

She wasn’t really interested in the games. She was happy baking and making these pretty things so she had not even tried this <New Origin> that most of the people around her play nowadays.

“And, unlike you two, those two have a job and people to look after every day. They should understand that the ‘other’ world of theirs isn’t reality.

It’s just a game at the end of the day.”

She was the one of the rare few that thought like that. And she was not wrong either.

This game was most certainly just a game, but calling it anything less than a reality was not right.

“Olive, I thought the same, you know?”

Until Elio started playing this ‘game’ even with his long experience in the field and as someone who knew a great lot about this game, he had also considered this game as nothing more than a very well developed game.

“But <NO> is much more than just a simple game.”

His experiences in that world, the friends he met, the pain he felt to the happiness… it wasn’t real but it was nothing less than reality.

“This game may not be reality that we know, but it most certainly is a reality.”

A unique reality with its own laws and functions.

It was a world different from this one, a world that actually existed independently.

<NO> was not just a game, it was much more than that.

He wanted his best friend to know that as well…

“Do you know what I did after I started?”

And now that he had this chance, he was going to try and convince her to play this ‘game’ as well.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep