Right now, a beautiful girl lies asleep on Kiriya’s bed.

  She lay there peacefully, her rare silvery-white hair spread across the pillow, her cheeks flushed a faint pink from the alcohol. Her long lashes trembled softly, and her legs beneath the short pink skirt had kicked the covers aside.

  Staring at her face, Kiriya couldn’t help swallowing hard. In his twenty years of life, he had never seen a girl more beautiful than her.

  “Hey, wake up.”

  He nudged the girl’s arm, but she didn’t stir at all. He sighed and stood up to leave, only for the girl to snap her eyes open suddenly. Her arms flew around his neck in an instant, and she buried her face in his chest, sobbing brokenly. “Why are you doing this to me… Why…”

  Warm, damp tears quickly soaked through Kiriya’s shirt, leaving him flustered and awkward. Even so, his arms moved on their own, wrapping around her back. The sweet, soft scent of the girl filled his nose, her body pressed tight against his, and the warmth of her skin against his wiped his mind completely blank in an instant.

  He was a normal man, his heart racing uncontrollably, even as his rational mind screamed at him to stay clear-headed. The scene unfolding before him was straight out of an anime.

  Had the heavens finally taken pity on him, dropping a girl with flawless looks, family background, and figure right into his lap? He bowed his head instinctively, hiding the fluster of his racing heart.

  But reality refused to follow the script. The next second, the girl shoved him away hard. Tears still glistened on her cheeks, and she wailed out the words that left him completely dumbfounded, her voice thick with sobs. “I’m so hungry…”

  Kiriya’s mouth twitched. All that heart-wrenching sobbing, and it was just because she was hungry?

  He’d just started to stand up when the girl got to her feet too. The second her eyes locked onto his face, she froze for a split second, then let out a shrill, ear-splitting scream.

  Thud!

  A keyboard slammed into his forehead without warning. Before he could even recover from the dull, throbbing pain, he was shoved violently out of the bedroom. The door slammed shut with a deafening crash, followed by the sharp click of the lock sliding into place.

  Kiriya stood in the living room, stunned for a few seconds, and muttered under his breath. “…This is my apartment, right?”

  He banged on the door for ages, but there was no response from inside. He circled to the balcony and peered through the glass, only to see the girl already wrapped up in his blankets, fast asleep again.

  Kiriya dropped down onto the floor, his mind a total mess.

  Kiriya’s luck had been absolute garbage since that morning. First, he’d gotten a call from work, telling him he was fired on the spot. Then he’d gone to the bank to withdraw the half-month’s rent he’d saved up, only to have his wallet stolen on the way, and his bank card eaten by the ATM to top it all off.

  Broke and penniless, he’d dragged himself back to his apartment, only able to pluck a single bok choy from the flower bed downstairs, planning to boil a thin vegetable porridge to get through the night.

  He’d barely put the porridge on to cook when he heard vulgar jeers from thugs down below. He leaned out the window and saw a group of lowlifes surrounding a white BMW, plotting to make off with the girl inside, car and all.

  Kiriya’s blood ran cold. Without a second thought, he sprinted down the stairs. He shoved the thugs blocking the car door aside and wrenched the door open. A wave of strong alcohol fumes mixed with the faint, sweet scent of the girl hit him square in the face. The girl passed out drunk in the driver’s seat was none other than the one now asleep in his bed. Her left hand clutched an expensive bottle of red wine, and her right hand held a bulging handbag in a death grip.

  The thugs erupted in anger, but Kiriya steeled himself and said in a cold, sharp voice. “Move. She’s my girlfriend.”

  The thugs didn’t buy it and forced him to prove it by bringing her up to his apartment. Trapped with no way out, Kiriya could only lift the limp, drunk girl out of the car, lock the doors, and carry her all the way up to his floor.

  He’d only been trying to do the right thing, and now he’d locked himself out of his own bedroom.

  He sighed heavily, and his gaze fell on the half-empty bottle of red wine the girl had brought with her, sitting in the corner of the living room, along with that bulging handbag.

  He unzipped it, and his pupils blew wide in shock.

  Inside was a MindGear headset, the three letters EAO emblazoned on the body.

  EAO, short for Eternal Art Online, was the virtual reality magnum opus ten years in the making from Nexora Corp. It boasted 100% neural link immersive gameplay and a massive roster of highly intelligent, lifelike NPCs.

  And today was the final day before EAO’s official launch. The matching MindGear headsets weren’t set to go on sale until the next morning.

  How had this girl gotten her hands on one early?

  He was still puzzling over the girl’s identity when a pleasant ringtone sounded from inside the bag. It was the girl’s phone, the caller ID showing only a single word: Sis.

  Perfect. He could get her family to come pick her up. Kiriya answered the call at once.

  “Hello? Lina, where are you? Why haven’t you come home yet?” A soft, urgent female voice came through the line.

  “Hello,” Kiriya had barely gotten the word out when the woman on the other end went on high alert, her voice turning sharp and icy. “Who are you? Where is Lina? What did you do to my sister?”

  “Your sister is fine. She’s asleep in my room.”

  There was a split second of silence on the line, then an enraged scream exploded through the speaker. “You bastard! What the hell did you do to her?!”

  Kiriya’s jaw tightened, and he spoke through gritted teeth, holding back his own anger. “Can you just let me explain what happened first?”

  The woman paused, her tone softening slightly. “Where is she? Give me the address, I’m driving over right now!”

  Kiriya was just about to speak when the phone let out a low battery warning. The next second, the screen went completely black.

  He stared at the dead phone and sighed helplessly. “Just my luck.”

  The living room fell silent. Kiriya curled up on the couch, his chest tight with frustration.

  Lina was passed out cold in the bedroom and wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. Not only was he locked out of his own room, but his plans for a quiet night’s rest had gone completely down the drain.

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  Bored out of his mind, his gaze landed on the MindGear headset on the table. Wait a minute. I remember installing the dedicated game port in the living room a while back. I can test if this headset is really for EAO.

  Kiriya grabbed the data cable at once, hooked it up quickly following the instructions, and sat down on the couch, fitting the headset firmly over his head.

  In an instant, a cold, synthetic system voice echoed in his mind. “Iris scan in progress. Player identity confirmed and locked! Confirm entry into the game?”

  Kiriya confirmed it on instinct. The system voice sounded again the next second. “Greetings. Your ID number is 000000002. Iris lock is complete!”

  He froze completely. How did it permanently lock just by putting it on? Isn’t this basically stealing her stuff?

  But then he thought about how she was still camped out in his bedroom, and he consoled himself. He’d find a way to make it up to her later.

  Before he could think any further, the system notification sounded again. “The game has not yet launched. Please return in 23 hours and 46 minutes to enter. We recommend creating your character in advance.”

  The next second, the world around him shifted violently. He was pulled into a cataclysmic battlefield, where the Alliance of Light clashed with the forces of darkness, magic and steel colliding in a storm of destruction.

  The overwhelming realism left Kiriya reeling for minutes on end. When he pulled the headset off, his forehead was soaked with sweat. This game was far more breathtaking than the trailers had ever let on. And the headset was now permanently bound to him, and him alone.

  A sharp, burning smell suddenly hit his nose.

  He suddenly remembered the vegetable porridge he’d left cooking on the stove. He sprinted into the kitchen and turned off the burner, only to find the porridge in the pot had burned to a black, charred sludge, completely inedible.

  Kiriya walked back to the living room with a sigh, grabbed the thin blanket off the couch, and draped it over his stomach, planning to crash on the couch for the night.

  He didn’t know how long he’d slept when a blinding flashlight beam shone directly in his face. He snapped his eyes open to see his landlord standing over him.

  “Kiriya, next month’s rent is due. What are you doing sleeping on the couch in the middle of the night?”

  Kiriya’s stomach dropped. The rent money had been stolen long ago. He had nothing to give.

  Just then, the bedroom door creaked open.

  Lina stepped out, her silvery-white hair tied up loosely, her clothes slightly askew. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep, soft and lazy, as she mumbled. “I want water.”

  The landlord stared at her for a few seconds, then snapped out of it and grinned at Kiriya. “Nice one, kid! Have you got a girlfriend this beautiful? Forget the rent, I’ll come back for it another time. Just find a job as soon as you can, or I won’t be so nice next time!”

  Lina blinked and said again. “I want water.”

  Kiriya said nothing. He stood up, went to the kitchen, and poured her a glass of warm water, handing it to her.

  Lina drank it all in one go, then looked at him and smiled suddenly. “Your name is Kiriya?”

  He nodded, feeling a little awkward.

  “Names don’t matter much anyway.” Lina smiled softly, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m hungry. Can you find me something to eat?”

  Kiriya blinked and said helplessly. “It’s so late, all the convenience stores are closed. Where am I supposed to find you food?”

  Lina’s brows furrowed slightly, her voice laced with a faint hint of hurt. “I drank so much alcohol. If I don’t eat something, it’ll hurt my stomach.”

  Kiriya didn’t respond to that, just asked. “What’s a girl like you doing drinking that much anyway?”

  “None of your business.” Lina’s voice turned sharp for a second, then she looked away, her voice dropping to a murmur. “It’s not like you’d ever understand…”

  Kiriya said nothing more. He walked into the kitchen, brought out the pot of burned porridge, and set it on the table. “This is all I’ve got. Eat it if you want, or drive yourself somewhere else if you don’t. Your car’s still downstairs.”

  Lina glanced at the porridge on the table. “You eat this stuff every day?”

  “Yeah. This is the best I can do.”

  The second the words left his mouth, Kiriya’s stomach growled loudly.

  Lina froze for a second, then smiled suddenly. “You haven’t eaten either? Is there more? If not, we can split this.”

  Kiriya paused. “No. Just this one bowl.”

  Lina said nothing. She stood up, went to the kitchen to grab a clean small bowl, split the porridge evenly between the two, and pushed one bowl across the table to him.

  Kiriya stared, stunned. A girl who drove a BMW was willing to split a bowl of burned, lumpy vegetable porridge with him?

  He sat down and picked up the bowl, drinking it down in a few gulps. He was absolutely starving.

  Lina sat across from him, picking out the bits of vegetable one by one, eating slowly. When she finished, she licked her lips and said. “It’s not bad. Just a little too salty.”

  Kiriya said nothing.

  “You look so silly just sitting there.” Lina tilted her head, looking at him. “Can I call you dummy from now on?”

  “That’s an insult. No way.”

  “Come on,” she smiled. “Things like little rascal or dummy are terms of endearment, aren’t they?”

  Kiriya couldn’t be bothered to argue.

  Lina’s gaze swept across the living room and landed on the unpacked MindGear at once. She picked up the headset and saw that the chip had changed color from the iris lock. Her face fell instantly, and she looked at him sharply. “Did you do this?”

  Kiriya shifted awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I had no idea it would lock permanently just by putting it on.”

  “You idiot!” Lina bit her lip, her eyes glistening faintly red. “Do you have any idea how hard I worked to get this headset? Now it’s locked to you forever, and EAO launches tomorrow. I don’t want to stand in line for hours to buy a new one!”

  Kiriya hung his head, his voice thick with guilt. “I… I’ll definitely pay you back for it. I just don’t have any money right now. I can’t pay you back yet.”

  He braced himself for a torrent of abuse, but Lina stared at him for a long few seconds, then suddenly pushed the headset back into his arms.

  “It’s yours now.” She looked away, her voice soft. “The only person who can use it now is you. It’s useless to me.”

  The second the words left her mouth, she frowned, as if something had just occurred to her. “Wait, do you have a shower here? I reek of alcohol and sweat. I want to take a bath.”

  Kiriya waved his hands quickly. “You should drive to a hotel and get a room to shower. It’s not convenient here, and I don’t have any clean clothes for a girl to change into.”

  But Lina raised an eyebrow, a mischievous glint in her voice. “You’re gonna send a girl out alone this late? You’re not scared I’ll run into more creeps?”

  Kiriya raised an eyebrow right back. “Aren’t you scared I’m the creep?”

  Lina looked him up and down, then smiled suddenly, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “You look way too much of a dummy to make a move, even if the opportunity was handed to you on a silver platter. I’m perfectly safe with you.”

  Kiriya rolled his eyes inwardly, thinking that sounded more like an insult than a compliment. Before he could retort, Lina had already walked into his bedroom on her own and pulled open his closet.

  There wasn’t much in the way of decent clothes in the closet. Lina rummaged through it for ages, only finding an oversized white dress shirt. Further down were just a few pairs of baggy summer shorts. Her cheeks flushed faintly pink, and she didn’t look for anything else, grabbing the shirt and turning to walk into the bathroom.

  Soon, the sound of running water echoed from the bathroom. Kiriya sat on the living room couch, his heart fluttering as he listened to the sound, his mind wandering to places it shouldn’t. Those fifteen minutes of waiting felt like an eternity to him.

  Finally, the bathroom door opened. Lina stepped out, wrapped in that oversized white dress shirt. The shirt only just covered her thighs, with only her underwear underneath, revealing two long, slender, snow-white legs. Her wet, silvery-white hair clung to her neck and shoulders, radiating a soft, intoxicating allure. Kiriya looked away instinctively, the tips of his ears burning hot.

  Before he could recover his wits, Lina had walked straight into the bedroom, pulled back the covers, and climbed in. She poked her head out and waved at him, tossing a thin blanket his way. “You can sleep out here. Take this.”

  Kiriya caught the blanket quickly, a bitter smile on his face. It looked like he was doomed to spend the night on the couch after all.

  He sat on the couch, wrapped in the blanket, the MindGear headset held tight to his chest. The guilt he’d felt slowly gave way to a faint spark of excitement, and he couldn’t stop the small smile from tugging at the corner of his mouth.

  With this headset, he could finally enter Eternal Art Online. He’d heard for ages that the top players in the game could make a fortune selling gear and in-game gold. Maybe this game was his ticket out of the mess he was in.

  That night, Kiriya had the sweetest dream. In it, he was an unrivaled master in EAO, cutting down a thousand enemies with a single strike, roaming free across the game world, living the life he’d always dreamed of.

  The next morning, the sharp ring of the doorbell jolted Kiriya awake from his dream. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stood up, noticing the bedroom door was slightly ajar. He pushed it open, only to find Lina was long gone.

  The covers on the bed were folded neatly, her phone and car keys were gone, and on the nightstand sat a thick stack of cash, with a handwritten note tucked underneath it.

  Kiriya picked up the note. It was written in elegant, neat handwriting, with a cute little smiley face drawn at the end.

  Kiriya, if you’re looking for a job, report to the Game Exploration Department at Blue Star Commercial Plaza. This two thousand is your overnight fee:)

  The smiley face had crescent moon eyes, with delicate little eyelashes drawn on, looking exactly like Lina when she smiled.

  “Overnight fee?” Kiriya’s mouth twitched. He realized in an instant that she’d heard every word of his conversation with the landlord the night before.

  “Whatever.” Kiriya checked the time. He couldn’t figure out who Lina really was, but one thing was for sure. EAO launched at six that night, and he was going to be there when it did.