Chapter 13 - You Need, But You Can't!

Tom laid on his bed for several hours. For this short period, he was allowed to think, but he wasted it on napping instead.

The burden of all the memories that returned to him was just too great. Yet this wasteful nap was exactly what Tom needed. This nap allowed all those stranded memories to return, firmly lodging itself in Tom's consciousness.

"I KNOW YOU ARE INSIDE!" A loud scream woke Tom up from his healing nap.

Thump, thump, thump.

The noise of a fist smashing at the door filled the entire room. Whoever was invading clearly wasn't going to give up.

"Open those damned doors!" The shouting continued. Tom curled himself underneath his blanket.

'Not yet, just give me a damn break,' he wished, hiding his face in the comforting darkness below his duvet.

"Open this door right fucking..." The voice stopped abruptly.

"Miss, we need to urge you to stop," Tom heard the officials coming to his rescue.

'Right, no matter how high you are in the rankings, those guys are not easy to deal with,' he thought, allowing the relief to cascade down his entire body.

"I'm sorry, but you are disturbing the safety of the hub. You will have to..." sounded the monotone voice of the official.

'Wait, miss?' Tom suddenly asked himself. The reality dawned upon him. Because there was only one female that could seek him so soon after the disaster.

Tom rushed to his feet, only bothering to wrap himself in the massive towel before rushing to the doors. He then snapped the door open.

"Excuse me, it's all okay," Tom said to the officials. They were clearly surprised by his arrival. "I actually asked her to wake me up. I didn't expect her to go to such extremes. My apologies," Tom explained hurriedly, nodding his head in apology.

"It's okay, just be careful to not disturb others next time," the official said before nodding his head and leaving.

"So you were awake..." Claudia looked up at Tom's face with clear worry.

"Did you make it out?" Tom cut her questions. His dead-tired eyes looked at the girl without any interest whatsoever.

"I..." Claudia started before turning her face away. "I-I survived." Her statement brought what little relief it could in Tom's current situation.

"I see," Tom replied without much care, already turning around and pulling the door along.

"Wait!" Claudia shouted, stepping forward and holding on to the door, preventing Tom from closing himself out again. "Listen, I don't really understand what happens, but I'm sorry!" Claudia said in a single breath as her fingers tightened on the wood of the door.

Her body shook a little.

"It's not your fault, nor something you should bother yourself with," Tom announced coldly. 'It will be easier if she won't know the truth,' Tom thought before rolling his eyes.

"How could you say something like that!" Claudia shouted, not caring for her earlier promise to behave. Tears appeared in her eyes.

"Listen, can we put that for later?" Tom asked. His body sunk in itself as if he gave up on arguing. "I'm really tired right now. I want to be alone."

"You want to be alone," Claudia started before forcefully pulling the doors open and pushing herself through, "but this is the very moment when you can't be alone!"

Thump.

Tom was far weaker than usual. His body reflected his state of mind, battered and torn apart. The momentum of Claudia's body was more than enough to push the two of them on the floor.

Tick, the door's lock sounded.

"Can you get off me?" Tom asked, too tired to spark any other reaction.

"Come on, isn't that the usual cliche for cheering someone up?" Claudia asked, proving that this tiny accident was far from being coincidental.

"I don't really care." Tom gave up, allowing his body to relax. The back of his head hit the floor while he covered his eyes with his arm.

"Hey, you really are not okay," Claudia summed up, raising at her hips. "Even something like this won't improve your mood?"

She raised both of her arms above her head. She then locked her wrists together and leaned to the back, giving Tom a perfect perspective of her curves.

"Are you done?" Tom asked, rolling his eyes yet again. 'I know where you are coming from, but still,' he thought, biting his lips.

"I'm not really prepared to go any further than that," Claudia mumbled under her nose, attempting to hide her red cheeks by turning her head around.

"Can you just let me stand up?" Tom asked in a tired voice. 'If it was only about losing the avatar, something like this would surely cheer me up,' he thought, before closing his eyes.

The loss of his main avatar wasn't as tragic as it could seem. His manual skills remained the same. His ability to adapt to the dungeon, move around in it, his knowledge of the monsters...

'If I were to start anew, it could take me like two years?' Tom asked himself, trying to calculate the possible scenario. 'With the use of preboosting, I could get there in three months at most,' he thought, taking into account the extremely expensive service of the hub.

Its rules were simple. "For a stone's worth, we will give you another avatar!" The biggest scam and most popular advertisement at the same time. It all started as a way for defeated players to get back in the game. By paying just a hundred dollars worth of the grade-one datastone, they could obtain a new, fresh avatar.

Later on, when players started to venture deeper and deeper, the offer was ramped up.

"For a grade-two stone, you can get level ten, fresh avatar!" With the success of the idea and swarms of players picking their pockets clean to gain a head start, another offer soon followed. "For every rank of the stone up, your new avatar will gain ten levels!"

Initially, people thought this offer was too good to be true. A proper player could make up the cost of his new avatar in a single raid. The situation changed when people realized the problems that started on higher levels.

For a character of measly thirtieth level, one would have to fork out a grade-four stone, already costing nearly two million dollars. And those stones… They only spawned at the fiftieth floor and below!

"Okay, okay, I'm standing up," Claudia gave up, raising at her knees. Only then, Tom finally noticed that she was actually wearing the same towel as he himself!

And now that Tom focused on this aspect, he realized that the few spots of her bare skin he could see were covered in the sticky liquid from the capsule.

"Oh?" As soon as Tom made this observation, Claudia suddenly blushed, hid her mouth with her hand, and looked at him weirdly. "It seems that you are a man, after all!"