MMORPG: Rebirth of the Shadow Mage

Leo was sitting in a comfortable chair listening to the quiet voice in his headphones. He was wearing some comfortable jeans and a sleeveless shirt revealing some of his well-defined physique.

Leo's face was covered with a mask, a plain black mask which had two holes for his eyes.

From time to time Leo would take a peek at the expensive watch he wore on his wrist. Glancing at the two empty chairs on the other side of the table he took off his headphones, before going for a small walk.

Ring... Ring...

Finally a doorbell to a studio rang and Leo took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Hello!"

"Glad to see you again..."

On the other side of the door there were two people, Jake and Styk.

Looking at them Leo noticed that their faces momentarily froze seeing his mask.

'Did they expect to see my face?'

Leo though before gesturing for both of them to enter the studio. While Jake and Styk were similar to him in height Leo's frame was definitely bigger, making him feel somewhat safe.

Both of the brothers quickly made themselves comfortable in the studio, quickly preparing the filming equipment they brought.

'3... 2... 1...'

Styk counted and soon the recording began. Jake did a quick intro while his brother took out a sheet of paper with some questions written on it.

Turns out they scavenged the internet finding various questions that people would like to ask Leo and compiled the most popular ones in a single sheet of paper.

"Is it true that you killed Dark Prince alone?"

The first question was quite surprising to Leo, he thought that it was kind of obvious, because no other system message concerning the dark prince's death apart from his ever appeared in Fragmental.

Nodding his head in affirmation he was soon asked the next question.

'What is your affiliation with Ava?'

Leo almost spilled the glass of water he held in his hand. Seeing his reaction brothers' eyes started glistering.

'Drama!'

They both thought while Leo took a few seconds to collect himself. Absentmindedly clenching his thigh with his hand he gave them a dark smile which couldn't be see through the mask.

"She can be considered my aquaintance..."

Trailing off the sentence Leo suddenly stopped. He didn't quite understand the relationship he and Ava had, same with Eli and Eric.

While Leo was contemplating about his previous teammates Styk dropped another question and slid a picture towards Leo.

"Only an aquaintance? Can you comment this picture?"

Looking at the photo given to him by Styk, Leo almost choked on water for the second time.

The photo was taken when he was giving Ava a ride on his pet.

Looking at the journalists he wanted to pierce them with eyes, but they chose to feign ignorance.

"I've had a mission to complete and Ava was within my group, hence I gave her a ride"

With a monotone tone, like a robot, Leo recited a line he seemed to have practised for a hundred times.

This character change made both brothers frown, they wanted some more spicy drama stuff to occur.

"As you've mention you'll attend university this year, are you by any chance planning to attend Preklin University?"

The question made Leo's back go cold. If he wasn't told that the interview was live beforehand he would probably cut the tape.

'I should've seen this coming...'

Now when Jake mentioned Preklin University his overall living location was out of the bag.

'Maybe Ava won't watch the interview...'

Shrugging his shoulders Leo gave brothers an affirmative answer before sighing in defeat.

'I should just be happy my face is yet to be revealed...'

Wiping away the imaginary tear Leo proceeded to answer the next few questions. They were considerably less complicated like asking his preference of food and desert.

Suddenly an Idea came to Leo's mind.

'Should I mess with her?'

Smiling to himself he opened his mouth aiming to answer the question of his favorite desert.

"I really love Mango Ice cream!"

With a joyous voice Leo even gave a thumbs up while talking about the ice cream.

Thinking about Ava's reaction if she watches this interview Leo couldn't help, but giggle.

'I'm not going to be marked as a stalker...'

Suddenly all jokes pushed to the side Leo looked at his behavior from the side and frowned. He really did seem like a stalker.

'I should apologize the next time we meet...'

Hoping that his house wouldn't be raided by police beforehand Leo continued answering questions.

Some of them were about the game, while some about his personal opinion about certain matters, like favorite song.

Leo was asked why he hasn't been seen in the game for over than half a month, but he could only shrug his shoulders and say 'I've been playing the game, I've just removed my mask'.

This got both, Jake and Styk almost jumping from their chairs. While Styk was glancing at the chatting window where the viewers could type Jake asked Leo to elaborate.

"Since nobody can recognize me without the mask, I've taken it off not to be bothered by other people"

Repeating what he said before Leo hummed feeling as if he was coming off clean, telling truth, well almost truth. He hasn't played the game for three weeks with update included.

'Maybe I should talk about me being a Mercenary?'

Suddenly a thought passed through Leo's mind as Styk was about to ask him another question.

"We've scrolled through your forum account and found some interesting posts written in it..."

Luckily Leo didn't even need to initiate the conversation about him being a mercenary one could hire for money.

The chat went smooth with Leo expressing his willingness to help whoever needed his help and had the capital to hire him.

He even went so far to say that he could even help, one raid a World Boss. Leo was confident about his claim, because he knew that World Boss location will not be found until at least the Spring.

Finally at the end of the interview Styk gave Jake a glance and then turned towards Leo.

"We've also found a person that claims to be a part of your group, her name is Eli... Is that correct?"

Leo momentarily froze and held his breath.

'What does she have to do with this?'

Warily glancing at the journalist brothers he nodded his head and smiles, not simple smiles, smiles of devils appeared on Jake's and Styk's faces.

Ring... Ring...

A sense of danger permitted into Leo's mind, he was feeling as if cornered by wolves.

He couldn't even complain, because the journalists told him beforehand that they are expecting another person to arrive and Leo agreed even though reluctantly.

'At least its not Ava...'

Recalling that they both have seen each other running for whole three weeks, Leo could bet that she would recognize his frame.

He specifically wore different clothes from what he'd wear normally, so he wouldn't be recognized.

As Jake went to let the visitor in, Styk kept smiling while talking about a subject they hadn't spoken about today.

"We've seen that you have quite a huge bounty on your head... Do you have clue who'd want you to die?"

Leo who was glancing towards the corridor leading to the room expecting Eli to emerge, heard the question and frowned.

"It's probably Angr.... Theo"

Since both brothers were playing dirty he was going to do the same. Calling out a massive figure on their podcast was a way of him paying back his favour.

Seeing Styk's eye twitch Leo grinned and kept talking about Theo, which was making journalist's face paler every second.

"Leo!"

A girl with brown hair suddenly ran into the room before offering a smile to Styk and almost literally jumping on top of Leo.

If not for his quick reactions his mask would've probably been ripped off, revealing his face to the camera, but Leo managed to stand up and catch Eli with his hands.

'Troublesome'

Looking at her face, he noticed that she was smirking.

"What muscles you have... Are you an angel?"

Leo wanted to offer her a forehead flick as gift, but since he was forgiving, he chose not to.

"Nice to meet you too..."

Annoyed he removed his hands and went to take his seat while Eli got herself a chair and kept glancing towards Leo.

'At least make it not that obvious!'

Leo wanted to cover his face with palms.

"Miss Eli, have you seen Leo's face?"

The first question didn't suprise Leo at all, he was actually expecting it.

"Yes"

But the answer was certainly out of his expectations.

"Well... only half of it"

Seeing Leo's questioning look Eli gave him a smile while the journalists wrote something in their notebooks.

"He is handsome, very handsome"

Leo wanted to disappear into the ground. He wasn't sure if Eli was bluffing, but this interview was draining too much of his energy.

'When can I go home?'