Fate Online: Shadow

"Whoa, that's a lot of cops, I wonder what happened? Could there have been a police chase?"

"It's possible since that does happen quite often lately"

While the bus passed by the cars that were "abandoned" by their drivers in the middle of the road to be "Marites" and slowly shortened the distance from where the center of the commotion was happening, the students finally saw the wreckage of multiple cars on the side of the road.

"Whoa! Could it be that they are filming a movie?" one student said in wonder when they saw that most of the vehicles were filled with bullet holes and broken windows.

"That's so old school, must be a low-budget film since they are not filming it inside a virtual world"

The bus slowed its pace as the bus driver was also curious, but as they slowly passed through the area, the students inside finally realized a problem.

"Holy crap, that wasn't a movie set, wasn't it?" one of the students couldn't help but exclaim in shock when the realization finally hit him.

"I need to call someone," said another student as he took out his phone and started dialing someone's number while walking toward the back of the bus.

The student wasn't the only one doing it, and some of the other students had also started contacting people to find out what happened since such a huge accident shouldn't be so simple.

On the other hand, Michael only smiled and watched the passing scenery as he already knew that such an incident wouldn't only be a one-time thing, and it would become a frequent occurrence until Mine Tech. Industries and the Six Great Families settle their dispute.

'I wonder how many people will lose their lives because of this conflict between these two behemoths?' Michael thought while leaning against the window with his fist on his cheek.

"This is insane! The place we passed by earlier was actually real and a shootout between two large gangs actually took place there!" one of the students immediately exclaimed in shock after finding out what happened, and with his yell, only then did the bus driver remember to turn on the television on the bus.

[...between two huge gangs resulting in multiple casualties, leaving 27 dead and 31 people suffering from various degrees of injuries. This incident is very alarming since the last time something huge like this happened in Central City was over 30 years ago when the Authorities and the famous cartel, Los Zetas…]

"I have a feeling that this isn't the end, I think Central City would welcome a chaotic period in the coming days" Hearing the words that Brandon muttered, Michael couldn't help but look over his shoulders and shot him an intriguing glance while raising an eyebrow.

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Out of curiosity, Michael asked him.

"O-ohh, I mean, gut feeling?"

Slightly startled, Brandon answered his question in a stutter.

"Gut feeling? Are you saying that you have a very good intuition?" Michael asked.

Scratching the back of his head, Brandon sheepishly said, "I…I might look like this, but my gut feelings rarely betray me, though I don't know why it is so"

"Ohhh~, that's…interesting," Michael said as the smile on his face slowly grew wider.

Seeing the smile on Michael's face, Brandon didn't know why, but he felt incredibly creeped out by it.

"Wha…what is it?"

Michael just smiled and didn't say anything.

Staring at him for a couple of seconds, Brandon finally opened his mouth and said, "You…you're being weird"

On the way back, the gossip about earlier still hasn't dwindled as the students kept talking about it while surfing the web, or from time to time, they would receive small bits of information from people in the know.

Michael just closed his eyes and slept through the commotion as he knew that this is only the beginning and they didn't even see the worse that can happen, and one example would be an event where the national currency would see a constant rise and fall that would send those rich and powerful people in for a rollercoaster of a time!

It would be a sight to see them pulling their hair out due to stress.

An hour later, the school bus finally arrived at the University and Mr. Santos gave them a brief talk before dismissing them.

"Hey Mike, what are you gonna do after this?"

Seeing Michael walking away, Brandon immediately ran up to him and asked.

Michael turned his head to the side and said, "Home, rest, then after that, probably get back on with playing Fate Online since it has been a few days from when I had a serious time playing it"

"But you even brought your Game Helmet though?" Brandon said as they walked towards the parking area of the school.

"Yeah, but I only did some small tasks due to limited time" Michael replied while messaging someone on his phone.

"Ohh, I see" Brandon absentmindedly replied and just looking at his face, it looks like he was kind of distracted with something on his mind.

"By the way, uhh, I know this may sound weird, but I just had to ask, are you seeing someone?" Brandon asked, and just from his face, he was clearly embarrassed by asking such a personal question, especially coming from a man since such a question might cause some misunderstanding if someone they are not familiar with happened to overhear them.

Even Michael was slightly startled when he heard it since asking such a straightforward question isn't something a man would normally do, unless…

"Are you asking me this question because you're genuinely curious or because someone had goaded you into asking it for them?" asked Michael as he was quick to realize that someone must have told Brandon to ask him about it.

"I-"

"You don't need to answer, and yes, I'm already seeing someone else"

Michael didn't even give him the chance to explain and just cut him off, then he patted Brandon's shoulder and continued, "And you should really up you're dating game, my friend"

Shocked, Brandon just stood there and watched Michael walk away with an incredulous look on his face.

"What does that suppose to mean!? That's not even one bit related to what I said!"