A group of people wake up in a video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

Shade returns with a warning.

Chapter 29 recap

“There’s just one problem, Kaida,” I say, cutting into her overly enthusiastic planning session. “We don’t have any gold. Unless you’re actually planning on letting Veyron gamble away the twelve pieces we have left.”

NEIL
I could feel my face burning as she asked me, but she was sitting in such a relaxed way I could do nothing else but try my best. I had tried not to stare at her breasts, but I knew they were there, and my body was telling me exactly how well it knew the same thing, and I had no idea what I should do about that. Her question, though, wasn’t ‘what did I want?’ but rather ‘what might we want?’, which was a very different thing altogether. She was being so incredibly open about it; all I could do was try and match that, even though I could never do so.

Breathe, Neil.

f people wake up in a video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

Chapter 28 recap

“Oh, Kaida, here’s your… sash,” I say awkwardly, holding out the torn fabric to her.

Kaida blinks, taking it gingerly. Her eyes dart between the sash and me, her brow furrowed in confusion. “What happened to it?”

I glance away, rubbing the back of my neck. “He, uh… he tied me up with it. And then… well, he cut it off.”

I shook my head angrily, dispelling the memory that clung and reeked like Dace’s pinche weed. Through my still-clenched teeth I said, “I’m not seventeen anymore, and you are fucking with the wrong goddam woman!”

NEIL
I couldn’t really sleep that night, my nerves all over the place. What if I got another stiffy while talking to her, for example? I woke again at about four, and realised I wasn’t going to drop off again. I rolled over in bed to light up my computer, and yes, there was a room in Durham. Before I could chicken out, I booked it. I doubted that the B and B would complain, as they would keep my money for the extra nights, and kept the space to fit in another guest.

The woodworking classroom smelled of sawdust and machine oil, a scent David had come to appreciate over the semester. Unlike other classes where he felt constantly out of place, here the expectations were clear: design, measure, cut, sand, finish. A project either worked or it didn't. No social navigation required.