The cave was half-dark, save for the orange shimmer of their campfire. The flames crackled lazily against the storm outside. Every now and then, the wind pressed its weight against the cave's mouth.
Phaser sat cross-legged on a smooth rock. He tore open another can. The scent of preserved beans and meat filled the air. Across from him sat Haruno. She held her own can near the fire. Her fingers rested lazily on her lap as she stirred with a spoon.
"Hey. Can you tell me what your life was like back on Earth?"
Haruno raised an eyebrow, not looking at him at first. She scooped another spoonful, blowing on it before eating.
"Why do you care? Not exactly the most thrilling topic in a blizzard, you know."
"I just want to know how one of the lost popular content creators of MoDS lived their life."
Haruno smiled faintly, shaking her head.
"Fine, fine. But I'm warning you, it's not tragic. There's no trauma arc or sob story."
"Good. I've had enough of those lately."
She poked the fire with a stick, sparks leaping into the air.
"Well, I was born in the UK. Normal town, normal family. My dad's an accountant, mom's a nurse. No big drama, no secret royalty. I went to a decent high school, and then university for arts. Graduated, thought I'd make something of myself."
"Let me guess. Reality punched back?"
"Oh, it hit hard. I spent months unemployed, just stuck at my parents' house doing absolutely nothing productive. Then one night, out of boredom, I started watching game streams. That's when I decided to try it myself. I borrowed a camera, used my old laptop and then the MoDS beta came out. When it first dropped, I didn't think much of it. But it was immersive and brutal. I streamed it just for fun, using the name Outer_7. Before I knew it, people started following me. I got good. Like, really good. I was there from the beta until the full release. That game sort of… became my world."
The fire popped again.
"And then came Haruno Nishikata, the most beautifully written antagonist I'd ever seen in a game. Cold, cunning, untouchable but she had this quiet pain to her. Like everything she did was to avoid breaking apart inside. I fell in love with that character. Not romantically of course, but I admired her."
"You cosplayed her, didn't you?"
Haruno laughed, covering her mouth shyly.
"Yeah, at one of the MoDS conventions. I saved up for months, even worked odd jobs just to afford the outfit and props. When I walked into that hall in full Haruno gear, people actually gasped. It was surreal. My follower count exploded after that."
"So that's when you became famous?"
"Pretty much. I started doing more streams and more cosplay events. I even pulled Haruno's relics and her signature weapon in-game. It cost me way too much money, by the way. But I didn't care. I loved her story. She was everything I wasn't."
The flames danced higher as she fell quiet for a moment, lost in the flicker of the fire. Outside, the blizzard wailed.
"Then one day, I was setting up my stream. MoDS had released this weird survey thing. It looked like a questionnaire about immersion or something. I clicked 'Yes' for everything and gave my opinion. And the next thing I knew, I woke up here dressed as her with her weapon in my hand."
"That's… actually beautiful, in a strange way."
Haruno smiled faintly, stirring the fire again. "Maybe. I thought it was a dream at first. But when I realized it wasn't, I figured, if the world wanted me to be Haruno Nishikata, then I'd at least be the best version of her I could be."
The blizzard outside had grown stronger. Inside, however, the air was warm and heavy with the scent of smoke and faint traces of canned beans. He rolled the empty tin can in his hand before speaking.
"You know, funny thing, I got a survey too."
"You did?"
"Yeah. It was one of those 'player feedback' forms. I filled it out. I remember writing something about how they should focus more on the main story instead of adding so many filler events and over complicated seasonal arcs."
Haruno blinked in surprise, then slowly smirked.
"No way. I wrote the same thing, or at least something close. I said the developers were losing track of the lore. There were too many romance banners and limited skins. It was supposed to be a story about life, collapse, and rebirth, not about beach outfits and Valentine's confessions."
Phaser laughed quietly, shaking his head.
"Exactly! It felt like they forgot what made MoDS special in the first place. The tension, the mystery, the sense that every mission actually mattered and such stuff"
"Guess the devs decided to take our feedback seriously," Haruno said dryly, resting her chin on her hand. "Too seriously."
They both shared a quiet laugh.
After a pause, Haruno leaned closer to the fire, watching the flames curl around the blackened stones.
"You know, I actually found a few Outers before this whole mess. They were good people. Players, like me. I even hired them for a quest to find the third fragment of the Azure Sword. They didn't make it back."
"Let me guess… the assassins?"
"Yeah. Your assassin group, actually."
"That wasn't personal. It was a mission. It could have gone smoothly had we met earlier but what's done is done."
Haruno's gaze softened slightly, but she didn't smile.
"I figured as much. It doesn't matter now. You were after Thales anyway, weren't you?"
"Yeah."
"Too bad you caught him first."
"You would have caught him too, huh?"
"Of course, but you got to him before I did. Can't blame you for being efficient. You are studying in the same university after all."
"Do you still have any relics apart from Faceless Identity?"
"No. Just the mask. I didn't participate in the Dungeon Rush event either. Too much noise, too many eyes watching. I didn't want Outer_7 to draw too much attention."
"Outer_7… the legend herself."
She rolled her eyes, chuckling. She didn't believe it was a coincidence that she got the same number as her past username.
"Yeah, well, apparently everyone here thinks the famous Outer_7 is literally me. I don't speak in the Outerchat so yeah."
"So what's your goal now?"
"To get the Blood Odachi. Sooner or later, I'll have to annihilate every single one of the Japanese Clans that destroyed Haruno Nishikata's bloodline. And mine, by extension."
He studied her quietly for a while, then asked the question he always wanted to ask another Outer.
"You mean you've integrated with her already?"
"Yeah. The second I came here. It wasn't even a choice. I could feel her soul screaming inside me, clawing, trying to merge. But I didn't resist. And thankfully, it didn't consume me. Now I share her memories, her instincts and her trauma. It's strange, living two lives in one mind."
"I know the feeling. I integrated too."
Haruno looked up. "You did?"
"Yeah. My counterpart wasn't as raging as Haruno. He was calm, actually. When the fusion happened, it actually made me stronger but I inherited his emotions like liking his sisters and family. Guess I wasn't ready to let go of who I was. Took time to adjust through."
A long silence followed, filled only by the whisper of firewood and the storm's growl outside. After a while, Phaser asked quietly.
"How many Pearlesia do you have now?"
Haruno blinked, caught off guard by the shift. "Twenty thousand."
"That's impressive. You can get a few relics with that."
"I could but I won't. I'm not relying on the Masquerade System. I want my strength to be mine, not borrowed from some divine mechanic."
"I feel the same way. Systems, quests, perks, they're all cages dressed as blessings. I do my daily objectives though, which only involve doing normal Phaser stuff."
Haruno set her can down and looked at him.
"You know, Phaser, I never thought I'd end up talking like this. Sitting in a cave, eating beans, and talking about merging souls and such shit..."
Phaser chuckled quietly. "Yeah. Not exactly how I pictured meeting a legend like Outer_7."
"And not how I pictured meeting the top two most handsome man in MoDS."
"Flattered?"
"Maybe. Or maybe just curious about what kind of story we'll end up writing next."
"Yeah, about that, we should talk about escaping this place."