Two knocks resounded out loud.
Under the many auroras of the night sky in the floating islands, on the opposite end of the ALEN faction's Island, I had reached the house of Albert.
Unlike me, this guy had sent his aide to the next house over and modded his own from the inside to include both floors. It wasn't something I had enough time to bother dealing with a demon cat and all.
After a few seconds, the door opened. Standing on the other side in an open white shirt and messy hair was Albert.
"Jinyu."
"I think you looked better in the old world."
"That means a lot coming from you, truly."
I raised my hand and showed him the crate of beer I had brought along. It wasn't a hard find in this world, but was something that didn't suit the tastes of nobility. For hunters like us, though, a cold beer after a long day was the staple.
Since hunters were deemed adults earlier than normal people, who barely remained anymore, I had had the opportunity to drink quite a bit. Though that may have just been my parents' obsession with wanting to drink with their son.
"You gonna invite me in?"
"I'll take the beer actually."
"You know what? I am gonna invite you in. When I come to your house, you're the guest."
Albert shrugged and moved away from the door.
I took a step in and looked around. The modding was done pretty well as he had created an inside atrium, almost like a duplex apartment. The top floors' rooms could be seen from the living room of the one below while he had added a fireplace down here as well.
Instead of the kitchen, the lower floor had a bar counter and blue lights were lit up around the space.
"This…"
"Shut up."
"HAHA!" I, of course, didn't shut up. This bastard, he had practiced the layout for the outhouse here! In his own home!
Albert simply slammed the door shut and pushed me inside. He was almost the same height, but I had grown a bit taller.
I took a seat on his couch and placed my feet on his table. Since I was the host, I also took the liberty of setting the fireplace up.
"You wanna see something cooler?" Albert asked as he hopped up the stairs. I turned my gaze up to the roof.
"Sure," I said.
In the next moment, Albert grinned out loud and pressed a button. Magical energy ran through the entirety of the building and before I could finish blinking, the ceiling of the second floor started quaking.
It split in half.
And opened upward.
"Haha…"
"Cool, right? Hahaha!"
My hands stretched on the couch, I looked at the now open skies. The auroras stretching out from the Elysium Tower filled my gaze, the blue lights of the rooms were turned off and only the warmth of the fireplace and the illumination of the skies were here to share in our drinks.
Albert brought a box filled with ice and a bunch of snacks from his kitchen as he rushed back down.
He took a seat. Then stood up again.
"You smoke?"
"Not really."
"Smoke today."
I shrugged. It's not like I was going to come to his room to share some beer many times. It was a rare event.
Just like Noa had popped up in an attempt to help me, I had come here to give a hand or a shoulder to Albert.
I could do that much for my friends.
Albert then placed down a box of cigars and an ashtray on the table. We decided to go light on it for now and start with just the drinks.
After emptying the crate into the ice, we both picked a pint and clunked them together.
A hiss rang as I opened the beer and gulped some of it down. The liquid gushed down my throat in a strange blend of cold and hot.
Hit the spot.
Albert too huffed as he downed the beer and slammed it on the table.
"Hit the spot," he said. "I can't believe I barely touched it back then."
"For reals? What were you doing?"
Albert shrugged.
"I abstained from drinking."
"Why the fuck would you do that? It's not like you were a normal human that got affected by it."
"I thought you knew?"
I shrugged this time. "I wasn't really looking at others back then."
Grinning, Albert leaned back on the couch and turned toward the sky.
"Yeah, right. You've changed huh?"
"Loses the effect if you keep calling me out for it."
We both laughed again.
Though I was here to lend him an ear, I didn't think there was much of a need to address anything about this world not being one from an Eroge.
I was certain that he would be over it too.
"To know that not just any game can be a random world eases that bit of existential crisis, yeah?"
"Sure does. If I knew I was just a being from a game I would riot."
"You riot anyway."
Not wrong.
I grabbed a bunch of peanuts, and ate them.
"You've changed a lot too, though. You've turned from an insufferable being to a human."
"We talk like we're old."
Did we?
Old people always did talk about the past.
What had gone by.
How things were before…
"Not a good look on us, huh?"
"Not when we're still young, no."
Strictly mentally speaking, we were both older.
I for one was well into my sixties now if I had to count the time I had spent in the lab, but was a being without any thoughts or exposure even alive?
I remembered. But that's as far as it went.
"Where is miss fairy though?"
"She returned home. She wanted to meet her twin."
Albert prayed for the Fairy Queen before picking up one of the cigars. He turned my way and I waved my hands.
Not yet. I didn't feel like getting it all hazy already. The sky was too pretty for that.
"Say Eugene, are you thinking the same thing as me?"
"Of course."
We now knew that the world wasn't a game.
But most obviously.
""That game was based on this world, wasn't it?""
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