An hour later and 3 potions less, Chi seemed to be very content after beating the man. “I guess we can either kill him now or let him go…”

“Hmm?” Yuki climbed out of a huge pit she had just dug over the past hour. Chi turned and saw the pit and was very confused as to what was going on.

“This is for?” Chi asked.

“Well… Death would be too easy for this guy, so I dug a hole for him. Since he is bound and can’t move, I will heal him once more so he won’t die and then stick him in the hole with a tube for breathing. Basically, he will be stuck there until someone rescues him, which the likelihood of anyone noticing him would be zero, or he can log out, delete his character, and start all over again.” Yuki explained as she walked over to the man and shoved another potion into his mouth.

The man who was almost at death’s door frowned when he saw Yuki’s handsome face. He really wished he could rip that smile right off it. “Are you not done yet!?”

“Haha! Don’t worry, my friend has already finished venting her anger. But you see, I have not vented mine yet, so to do this, you will need to spend some time in that hole over there. How long is up to you. Now open wide for me.” Yuki grabbed the man’s chin and shoved a long skinny bamboo into his mouth so that it partially went down his throat. “Now then! In you go!”

Yuki dragged the man over to the hole in the ground and dropped him in on his back. The bamboo shoved in his mouth extended beyond the edge of the hole. Yuki waved at the man before pushing dirt into the pit, causing the man’s eyes to open wide in horror. Never in his life did he expect to be buried alive like this. What was worse was he was not even allowed to die! It would be fine if he was crushed to death or suffocated from being buried, but with the bamboo shoved down his throat and the way Yuki was piling dirt on him so that it was light and formed around his body, no matter what he tried, he would not die! This was basically making his character useless!

After twenty minutes of piling dirt on top until the hole was filled, Yuki added a few premade bent bamboo that was slightly bigger than the one sticking out of the ground on top so that rain could not get into it and cause the man to drown. Once Yuki was done, she dusted her hands off and nodded in satisfaction.

“Ryu, remind me not to piss you off.” Even Chi felt sorry for the man at this point.

“Haha! What did I scare you with this?” Yuki asked as she chuckled.

“No, I just do not want to get on your bad side. So where are we headed?” Chi answered and quickly changed the subject.

“We will be entering the Great Fordon Plains soon. When we get there, we will roam around a bit and kill monsters. This should help the both of us level up some. I might need to level up a few more levels before I can even take on Droggers. I have no idea what level they are… But if what that guy… Now that I think about it, what was that guy’s name?” Yuki just now realized she had beaten, killed, and buried alive a man she did not know the name of. Yuki looked over at Chi, who was covering her mouth with red cheeks as she laughed, causing Yuki to rub her nose in embarrassment. “It’s not that funny, is it?”

“No, but the look on your face just now was priceless.” Chi said honestly. It was also because she found the expression Yuki made to be very cute as well, but she kept that part to herself.

“Ah well… It doesn’t matter. Anyway, that guy said this place was a level 5 to 10 area, right? So that means the further north we go, the higher the level. We will need to be careful as we venture on. How is your combat ability? I see you have a wooden sword.” Yuki asked.

“I am not too good… But you seem to be very proficient in combat. The way you moved when you first showed up was like a pro fighter.” Chi really thought that Yuki’s movements were very well refined. Not something a beginner like herself could do.

“Ahh, well, it’s kind of a martial art that I made myself. I have been refining it since I was little. It is only good for those with really flexible bodies. As for the sword movements, I have been practicing mixing it with my martial arts and just kinda going with what feels right.” Yuki did not know how else to explain it. When she moves when fighting, using her own footwork, the flow of the sword seems to mesh with her movements. It felt very natural now that she thought about it.

“I see… My body is pretty flexible. Do you think I can learn your martial arts?” Chi asked.

Yuki scratched her head as she thought for a moment. She was not too sure if she would be any good at teaching someone. But seeing Chi’s hopeful eyes, Yuki found it hard to say no. “Alright, we can start off with the basics and work from there.”

“Really!? Thank you, Ryu!’ Chi jumped for joy. But stopped as she hopped over to stand in front of Yuki. She bent over with her hands behind her back, her tail wagging back and forth, and looked up at Yuki. “Hey, since you were calling me your friend earlier, that means we are friends now, right?”

“Mm… I mean, we get along pretty well, so why not, right?” Yuki answered.

“Then how come you haven’t sent me a friends request!? Ryu, you are slacking!” Chi seemed to be in a good mood as she giggled and tapped the menus in front of her.

*Ding!*

[Player Chi has sent you a friends request. Do you accept?]

Yuki had forgotten this function. She hit yes and called up her social menu, where she found her friends list. One of which was the perverted NPC Mi. Ignoring that, she now had Chi’s name in her friends list. As she looked at the name in her list, Yuki thought back about Mary and smiled faintly. “Since we are friends, I will need to protect her as best as I can.”

“Did you say something?” Chi asked. She couldn’t make out what Yuki was mumbling.

“It’s nothing, just speaking some of my thoughts out loud. Let’s get out of this forest first and find the closest town. We need to get you some better gear and stock up on some items.” Yuki felt it was not bad to have someone to talk to while playing this game. It was much different than her normal loner life. Whether things like this will change in her real life, she did not know. For now, she was protected behind the wall of the internet. The real world was much different and much more ugly. She didn’t know if she had it in her to take that first step to try and make friends with someone.