"I had no idea you ran a café, Raven-san." Neon said as she entered, finding the atmosphere inside quite comfortable.
If only I could come here often, she thought. A shadow then crossed her eyes. She was going to die soon.
But before she died, there was one thing she absolutely had to do.
Watching Raven prepare coffee, Neon made a sudden decision. She walked up to him and hugged him tightly.
"What are you doing?" Raven was caught off guard, his hands hovering awkwardly.
"Just let me hold you for a moment, okay?" Neon said, her voice laced with sadness.
Seeing her emotional state, Raven couldn't help but suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hey... why are you laughing?" Neon playfully punched Raven with her tiny fist. She didn't understand why he would laugh at a time like this. I'm about to die, and he's happy?
"You didn't really think you were definitely going to die, did you?" Raven found Neon adorable in some ways. He couldn't resist reaching out and gently pinching her cheek to feel the texture.
"What else?" she replied blankly. In this situation, what other solution was there besides death?
"Of course, there are other options," Raven continued. "As long as the game ends before the zombie toxin in your body fully takes effect, you'll naturally be fine."
"What?"
Neon froze upon hearing this. Her mind was unable to process it immediately. After all, injuries sustained in the game persisted outside of it, leading them to assume the zombie toxin would remain indefinitely as well.
"Is that really true?" Neon looked at Raven with hopeful eyes.
"Of course," he said. "And you don't need to worry about being eliminated in the next round either."
"That idiot Da-Paan not only lost a huge chunk of his points, but I also took his Magnum Buckle and broke one of his legs. After the next round ends, he'll naturally be the one eliminated." Raven couldn't resist giving Neon's cute cheek another light pinch.
"That's wonderful!"
Overwhelmed with excitement, Neon instantly jumped up and wrapped herself around Raven. She felt like she had suddenly gone from hell to heaven.
Unable to contain her joy, she repeatedly kissed Raven's cheek, leaving several faint lip prints.
"Uh..."
Only after calming down did Neon realize what she had done. She quickly scrambled down from him and reached out to wipe the marks from Raven's face, attempting to destroy the evidence.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, I got too excited..." Neon was flustered and didn't know what to do. What will Raven-san think of me now? A creep? A bad woman?
Raven calmly touched his cheek, which still carried a lingering scent, and smiled at her. "It's alright. Just focus on the game. You don't have to worry anymore, but you can't be complacent either."
"Here. I traded some other Buckles for this Boost Buckle from Keiwa. You personally finish off the final crucial points and the zombie horde."
Raven handed the secret weapon to Neon.
Taking the Boost Buckle, Neon was once again deeply moved by Raven's thoughtful gesture. The emotion in her beautiful eyes as she looked at him could no longer be described as mere gratitude.
However, the one thing she wanted to say, her confession, still remained unspoken. For the first time, she lacked confidence in herself. Did she truly deserve a man as outstanding and charming as Raven? It made sense that his attention was always focused on the Game Navigator.
To avoid the pain of rejection, she decided to maintain their current ambiguous relationship for now.
After spending a long time in the café, night fell. Neon stayed overnight at Raven's place. This was her first time spending a night away from home, and in a man's house no less.
The thought of Raven sleeping just beyond the thin wooden wall made her heart pound like a wild deer. She expected to be lost in anxious thought all night and struggle to sleep, but surprisingly, she slept deeply and sweetly.
Unbeknownst to her, Raven himself had already returned to his own world to sleep and was not in that room at all.
The next morning, Girori summoned them to prepare for the third round of the game.
After waking up and freshening up, Neon logged into her ID Core with Raven and prepared to start the game.
The scene shifted. They arrived at a base in the suburbs to deal with the third wave of the zombie horde.
Morio Koganeya, upon entering, immediately came up with a strange idea. He first found some trapped civilians, then led the Zombie Jyamato toward them, and then rescued the civilians. By perfectly "glitching" the system, he earned double the points.
But at that moment, Da-Paan suddenly attacked him from behind. He was now almost fully infected with the zombie virus. He began frantically biting the 'Sheep' Rider.
"Hey, are you crazy? Why are you biting me?" Morio shouted.
Kanato Sumida, operating on the idea that he was already doomed and should take as many people with him as possible, started attacking indiscriminately with maniacal fury. His few remaining points were deducted yet again, immediately dropping him to the bottom of the rankings.
Raven and the others noticed the commotion and rushed over.
"I'm finished! I'm going to be infected too!" Morio cried out in terror.
Neon's perception was once again shattered. She couldn't believe the darkness in Kanato's heart, that he would try to drag others down with him even now.
"Hahaha, I'm already done for anyway! Before I die, I'm going to cause some serious trouble!" Kanato yelled.
"You're next!"
With that, he lunged toward Keiwa Sakurai. The zombie virus had almost completely invaded his brain, making him extremely aggressive.
Keiwa was utterly terrified. The pure-hearted Rider couldn't understand why his opponent was acting this way.
"Don't just stand there like an idiot!"
Seeing the danger, Raven rushed forward, grabbed Kanato's head, and forcefully drove him straight into a nearby abandoned building. He then slammed him violently onto the floor.
Boom!
A large dent was left in the solid concrete floor. With just one blow, Kanato was completely incapacitated.
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Happy Holidays everyone!
Six chapters after not updating for a few days, haha. Enjoy it!
And if you want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]
I also have a ko-fi, in case you got some christmas gifts for me, lol. → ko-fi.c-om/juanfiction