3. The devils temptation

"You are late, as always."

Two small eyes lurked from underneath Ning's hood, a questionable person in Bao's life that had a whole information network at the disposition of his fingertips, a concept that Bao never understood and never will. Both of them didn't like crowds or people in general, that's why Ning always hides his face under a hat or hoodie, now that Bao thought about it, he couldn't seem to remember ever seeing his whole face, despite being his best friend.

"Don't say that, you exactly knew that it would've been like that in fact, it wouldn't even surprise me if you knew the time when I left the house." He sat down at the other side of the table.

"1459"

"Sorry?"

"At 14:59, that's the time you left the house"

"I... I don't even know what to say at this point and no don't even try to explain it to me, I won't get it anyway right?"

He never witnessed such a wide smile on Ning's face, goosebumps let all his hair stand straight at its sight.

"Hahaha, it's been too long since we met each other, 369 days to be precise. Do you remember, our first encounter here?"

"As if it were yesterday. The only ones who visit this kinda place are weirdos like us, who seek solitude and distance from society after all."

Many would think that a character, such as Ning would have selected a special kind of place as a hideout, but in reality, it was nothing more than a plain, traditional old cafe, with no robots or futuristic machinery that creates coffee, only an old man behind the counter. Because of the manual labour, everything took its time, from taking the order until serving it, that's why most people avoid this place, making it look like an abandoned restaurant or shop.

"Your coffee" The old man from behind the counter brought to cups of coffee.

Bao looked at his friend's face since he never ordered anything, again that creepy smile.

"Black without anything as always, I hope your taste didn't change during your detention. By the way, how was it?"

"Hell. But I'm sure that that was just a rhetorical question as if you wouldn't already know how it looks inside." He took a big sip from his cup, just how much did he miss this taste.

"No, I didn't I need to get my information from somewhere after all."

He always hated this side of his friend, you'll never know if what he says is the truth or if he is just playing around with you.

"So, let's get to the main topic, why did you call me here today?"

Even the visible mouth under his hood darkened now, he took a look over his left and right shoulder before leaning forward.

"I got some new information for you, apparently they finally did it. They developed the first-ever VRMMORPG and the best is yet to come... It plays in a fantasy medieval setting, just like you always dreamed about!"

Bao could barely hear what he was whispering, but what he heard was enough to let his fingers itch. A fantasy world, dragons, adventures, dwarfs and even more, it would all be possible just at the reach of his hands but what about his family? Fireworks were going off in Bao's head, it was an all-out war between reason and responsibilities against addiction and dreams.

"I... I don't know, isn't it illegal? Where should I get the VR system from and where should I even play? I can't use it at home my parents are going to kill me!"

"Psssh, keep your voice down. I know a place that is disguised as an internet cafe, just that instead of internet access you receive a VR system. Man, this is your only chance, you've always dreamed of it and I mean is it really going better after your rehab? To me, it looks like it is worse than before and your parents are the ones who sent you there in the first place, you don`t owe them anything."

"What do you know, they even sold our family heirlooms to pay for my one year stay and more importantly I don't want to get back inside that hell."

"Okay listen, I'll write you down the address of the cafe, so you can think over it for a while. If after that you wanna go then say that N.W. sent you and if not you know what to do with this napkin."

He wrote down the information and hold it right in front of him, like a ticket to hell and the one holding it would be the devil.

"I'll think about it."