Chapter 122 - Virtual Reality

"What are you saying? Gem is not our enemy here! She's not even involved with what happened last week!" Fily said, defending Gem out of Petunia's suspicion.

"We're not sure of that. Gem might be dealing with her own problem back there but what if she's the one who orchestrated the whole thing in the first place?!" Petunia shot back at Fily, still unconvinced about Gem's innocence about the whole thing.

But since Fily knew all the people that were really responsible for what happened last week, she was a hundred percent sure that Gem was not involved in it in any way but still couldn't say it because of her secret connection with it also.

"What's wrong with you, Petunia?" was all she could say before walking out of the library.

"Gem is innocent, Petunia," Venedette said calmly after listening to Petunia's short argument with Fily about it.

"You should stop trusting people too easily, Venedette." Petunia only said and went out of the library to freshen up her annoyed mood.

***

"Everyone ready?" Venedette asked everybody while making them line up in front of her to the Levi-yacht's entrance that was temporarily connected to their meeting place.

Gem and the others nodded without much noise which made Venedette concern about their energies.

"Okay, before we proceed I have to ask you guys about this one last very important task to do that I forgot to tell you earlier."

"What is it?" Gem asked after seeing the tablet in Venedette's hands for the first time.

"Prophecy," Fily whispered to her from the back.

And since Gem was the first one in the line, Venedette asked her to step forward first.

'Stand there and hold this in front of us, okay?" Venedette said which Gem followed diligently despite having no clue of what it was about.

"Here?" Gem asked awkwardly after realizing everyone's attention on her and the board she was holding timidly in front of her body.

"Okay, next," Venedette said after seeing the image quickly.

"Fily," Fily said and carried the tablet the same way as Gem held it until finally, it was Petunia's turn as the last one in the line.

"I don't think this will do," Venedette said after having a hard time giving Petunia the tablet, "Let's just look at yours when you finally transformed back into your human form, okay?" Venedette said and let Petunia in the HQ, wrapping the little test quickly.

"Welcome to our new headquarters!" Venedette exclaimed after closing the entrance door behind her.

Somehow, Levi-yacht started moving the moment Venedette closed the door, and as it turned out, the auto-pilot was the cause of it all along!

"Cool!" Gem laughed after almost losing her balance because of the sudden movement.

Fily and the others took their dear time adjusting how they moved in this moving headquarters that was far more different than Yvandir in all aspects.

Not only was it smaller, the gravity was much weaker up there which caused the kids to stumble at least once every thirty minutes.

"This is fun!" Gem laughed after seeing Fily almost trip before offering a hand to help her.

"So, how do we decide which room each of us will take?" Von inquired which made a good start for Venedette to train them with leadership.

"We decide by playing rock, paper, and scissors."

"Eh?" Lei couldn't help but express his disagreement.

"Why? Is there something wrong, Lei?"

"Nothing. You can just give me the remaining room." Lei said and dropped out of the battle.

"Petunia has her own specialized potions room so it's just the four of us," Venedette said and started the battle of which room should go to which member.

"I want the room near the stairs." Von started with his desired room which Gem also expressed her liking of that room.

"Rock, paper, scissors! Paper!" Gem said simultaneously as Von's "Rock!"

"Ahh, I lost!" Von said and dropped dramatically on the wooden kitchen floor.

"Yayy!" Gem celebrated by hugging and jumping around with Fily.

"Are these video games?" Von's eyes shot towards the widescreen embedded on the wall of the living room showing several game posters that Von recognized immediately.

"Whoa, that wall is also a screen?!" Gem followed after Von and copied Von's actions by grabbing the light helmet that Von equipped himself with.

"What is this?" she asked Von after seeing a completely different world in front of her eyes. "Did I accidentally go into solitude again?"

"Nope, you're still here." Fily suddenly said from Gem's behind while touching her shoulders, but when Gem turned around to look, there was no Fily behind her.

"Huh? Where are you?" Gem said and waved her hand to touch Fily but even if she could touch Fily, the other girl was still nowhere to be found in front of her.

The virtual reality seemed so real that Gem almost forgot about the fact that she wore the helmet-like thing to see the things she was seeing right now in the first place.

"Hey, want to play this?" Von suddenly asked beside Gem which surprised her for seeing Von's avatar beside her in the virtual world.

"O-Okay?" she said and played with Von while Venedette and the others became busy organizing their things.

"You kids should still go to sleep through the night, okay?" Venedette reminded the both of them who were all caught up in the game to even care about the outside world at the moment.

"Ahh, I'm jealous. They have been playing that game for almost an hour now." Fily said while watching what Von and Gem were doing from the widescreen beside Lei who was also as bored as her.

There was nothing much to see in the dark sky except for the bright stars above cloud level which Fily already memorized the constellations and their unchanging history throughout the years.

"Uhh, guys? I think I can make a flight potion using the tools and equipment here…" Petunia said in disbelief after checking all the cabinets and equipment in the potions room that she wasn't able to see before.

"Really?!" Fily's eyes widened in astonishment while Lei's expression just turned a bit lighter although his heart was actually beating a lot faster than normal because of what Petunia said.

"Yes really!" Petunia said with confidence while thinking about how she was almost able to perfect the flying potion that she used with her gummies before gaining access to Gem's energy slimes.