The Earth After Rebirth

"We should absolutely do more things like that!" Nikolai commented excitedly.

He looked at the screen and sure enough, it was his mum calling. He hadn\'t talked to her in months, of course that was a time only he experienced. He walked a bit further away from the rest and answered the call.

"Mum, Hi, what\'s up? Are you guys okay?" He asked concerned.

"Yes, thanks to you, we\'re managing well. You never call Ki, but you promised." She pouted.

"I\'m busy with work, I\'m coming back from work right now! I\'ll call more I promise." He could tell the excuses fell on deaf ears.

The background was very noisy. His little sister was clearly playing with someone. thank you for using mv _l _e _mpy _r

"Loki is playing with Alora?" He asked a bit surprised.

"Ah, no that\'s Philip." His mum answered nonchalantly.

But Kiro\'s brain travelled way too far, way too fast. He was thinking about all sorts of things, where was his father in all of this, who was Philip? When he heard his father\'s voice in the background, he sighed in relief.

Sekani had been working tirelessly on his VR gear. Making improvements on the already existing one. Of course he didn\'t want Kiro to be told about this until it was successful.

He even called Philip over to help him with a few things. 2 heads were better than one after all. Philip had become part of the family, he lived there while they worked.

"Mum, I may be able to send more money but we will see." He told her.

She was looking better than their last call. She was looking better than she\'d ever seen her, her face wasn\'t boney like it usually was when she was slaving away at Blakeson Tech. Her face looked fuller and healthier.

Kiro was getting emotional thinking about the past, that\'s why he brought up money to avoid feeling all that.

"Are you sure baby? You should focus on yourself more, buy yourself new clothes, look nice and bring home a daughter-in-law."

"Mum!!!!" He shouted embarrassed, he pouted and said, "You guys are also important, if your daughter-in-law doesn\'t like me the way I am, they\'re not deserving of your son, right?"

He could see his mother\'s eyes twinkling with tears, "Sekani, you should hear how grown your son sounds!" Freya had also noticed how healthy his son looked. She could see his broad shoulders getting more pronounced.

His father popped on the screen and then a second later it was Alora hogging the phone. Demanding for Kiro to come back this instance.

"Holidays are around the corner, I\'ll see you soon Freckles." He smiled at her genuinely.

"No! Come back now Ki! Leave school, school is bad." She wasn\'t going to let him fool her again.

"Alright Freckles, I\'ll hang up the phone and hitch a ride on the night train, I\'ll be there by morning."

"Yay! Good bye." She kissed her hand and blew it to her brother.

"Goodbye everyone." Kiro hung up and took a deep sigh.

"You\'re definitely going to hell! Lying to that precious little girl like it was nothing." Nikolai chimed in.

"I\'ve already been to hell." Kiro joked.

Having told the two he had just been stuck in an underground world, they laughed at his dry humour.

They entered their cafeteria. Nikolai and Felix decided to eat here for the night. It wasn\'t really against any rules, people of any dorm could use any cafeteria as long as the people of said dorm didn\'t have a problem with it.

Isla and Saanvi had already been seated when they entered.

"You guys, where have you been?" Saanvi asked.

"Sorry, it\'s an After Dark secret." He winked at his fellow mates.

Ishaan showed up from behind startling them, "then, why did I get left behind. I\'m part of the group aren\'t I?"

"It\'s not really our fault you have different tastes. We didn\'t plan this, it just happened because we were playing cricket together." Nikolai answered him.

Kiro zoned out of the conversation. Paging his phone, he was becoming more obsessed and more used to talkalot and sure enough, the post had gotten even bigger. It was trending.

They sat around the same table and had a lot of fun eating together and talking about their in-game adventures. They didn\'t quite believe Kiro\'s Underworld stories at first, but being elaborate and detailed won them over.

They all wanted to visit Hubris\' world despite the dangers.

Not like he didn\'t trust them, but he told none of them about where to find the portal exactly. He wanted to keep one thing for himself, this was the one he chose. To ensure nobody went there willy nilly.

"Ah Isla, I have something to give you in-game. You said your subclass was seducer right? Maybe it\'ll work well with you, couldn\'t get it to play!" He said in-between bites of his well made steak.

Isla looked at him with awe, a bit of red painted her cheeks. "For how much? What is it?"

"It\'s a flute and it\'s a gift." He nonchalantly smiled as he said.

The rest looked at him strangely. As if they were waiting for their own set of news about gifts. They couldn\'t quite believe he\'d just gift only Isla, that was too obvious!

He shrugged and sighed, "sorry boys, but monsters down there don\'t drop, this flute was pure luck. They did give me levels though."

They gave up after a while of pestering him. After eating, they all walked out the cafeteria, accompanying the two that didn\'t live there.

"What do you think these Harbinger things are?" Isla asked Kiro.

"I don\'t really know, but if I had to guess. They\'re beings from other realms, maybe attempting to destroy Asgard Online and it\'s a job of guardians to stop them." Fighting them that\'s the feel they gave him.

She understood and didn\'t ask again. They came back quicker because the dorms weren\'t too far apart. Each one going into their rooms to login, it was almost an addiction at this point.

Feeling really good, Kiro laid on his bed and put on the head gear. The time was still 7pm, so he had at least 3 days of in-game time.

They were transported into their castle, but the commotion outside made them run outside to check, thinking they were getting attacked. At the gate, there were about a hundred people in line.

Kiro remembered he\'d given them his in-game address. "Oh Sh*t."