MMORPG: Rebirth of the Shadow Mage

With Eli nearby Leo had to choose his words more wisely. Whatever small slip of tongue he had would benefit Eli and the journalist brothers.

Luckily Eli knew the line, unlike some other people in the studio and didn't pry too deep into Leo's personal stuff.

As the interview ended Leo sent Eli, Styk and Jake out of the building, before giving them a menacing look.

Since Leo knew that at least one of them would wait for him to leave, smirking he went into a changing room swapping the clothes with beforehand prepared ones.

Removing his mask he exited the building through the backdoor, and went to retrieve his car.

Driving through the main street Leo noticed Eli on the other side of the road wearing some kind of fedora and glasses, eyeing the building where they just had an interview.

...

...

Looking towards her Leo took a picture and sent it to Eli with an emoji of a confused cat.

Soon the girl felt her phone vibrate and took it out only to see the message sent by Leo and went beet red.

Leo could see her murmuring under her breath, but he was too far to hear anything. Sighing he quickly recalled everything that was talked about in the interview.

'Being productive...'

Nudging himself to move Leo drove his car out of Eli's sight and disappeared into the crowd of vehicles.

***

By the time Leo got home it was already midday, parking his car in the driveway he quickly ran into the house only to be greeted by a happy dog trying to climb up his leg.

"Ricky!"

Patting the dog happily wagging his tail Leo smiled, feeling a sense of comfort with his hand ruffling the fur of the small creature.

"Welcome home"

He heard his mom shouting from the kitchen. Taking a peek inside Leo noticed his mother and father cooperating, trying to create some kind of dish.

Leaving them up to their experiments Leo went into the bathroom and immersed himself into a bathtub full of hot water.

Scrolling through his phone Leo smirked seeing how much money he made off the video of him defeating the Grim Reaper.

Suddenly a new post started gaining traction through the internet. Within minutes the Video exploded, it was an interview Leo had filmed just now.

Even though it was broadcasted live, it was only to a limited amount of people and now the whole world could see the footage.

'Let' see...'

Leo tried scrolling through the comments, but soon lost the desire to.

The comments were full of people simultaneously arguing, commenting or even threatening each other. The discussion got so heated that Leo even saw some users get deleted for inappropriate language.

'What is wrong with people?'

Looking at the edited interview Leo noticed that some parts like him talking about Theo were cut. Some of his slip ups were also removed.

All in all the interview seemed professional. As the video was ending Leo was already clicking off the footage, but the part where Eli barged in suddenly appeared.

Even the clip where she literally threw herself in his hands was left uncut making it into the internet.

'Troublesome...'

During the duration of the past few weeks Leo has told his parents about his identity in game and they both were now aware of his game persona.

'At least don't let my mother see this...'

Putting his hands in a praying position Leo spent a minute in silence before deciding to finish writing all the information he knew about Fragmental.

Opening the text document from his phone, Leo started clicking the keyboard letters at the speed barely visible to eye and after an hour or so of typing he put the device on the table.

"Done!"

Sighing from relief Leo smirked thinking how valuable information stored within the document was. His phone would probably be worth more than the richest man himself.

Glancing around his room Leo took a deep breath and changed his outfit.

Ring... Ring...

Soon someone was standing before his front door. Coming downstairs he made sure that his parents had already prepared the meal before opening the door.

"Hi, boss"

Waving his hand a man with a lean build was standing on the other side of the door.

With a slight frown Leo gestured him to enter the house. before whispering the young man a few words.

"Call me Leo in front of my parents~"

The man invited to his house was David, he had no clue that Leo was the unknown player. Tia and his parents were already informed about this and would not disclose anything concerning his other persona.

Leo couldn't fully trust David, because he still needed time to understand his character. Leo was lucky that David also had rich parents and lived close by allowing Leo to invite him for lunch and also inspect his behavior.

Introducing David to his parents he called him a companion, when clearly they had yet to reach such a level of trust.

Luckily Leo's parents were oblivious and the lunch went through smoothly. Leo noticed that David wasn't very sociable, but also wasn't a shy person either. He had a good understanding of other people and could change the pace of conversation masterfully. It seemed as if he attended courses allowing him to easily read the flow of the conversation.

Leo wasn't disappointed, if anything he appreciated that at least a person that could socialice and wasn't strangely attracted to horns and other things joined his group.

'Maybe I and Tia could use a translator...'

Scratching his chin with a smile Leo snorted imagining paying extra money to fix his social awkwardness.

'Over my dead body...'

Leading David out of the house they both decided to take a walk, since David lived not too far away from Leo.

While walking Leo suddenly noticed Ava jogging towards them.

With her hair tied into a ponytail and clothes that revealed her perfect body curves she looked stunning. Even Leo had to bite his tongue not to gape at her.

'Endure...'

Keeping his eyes straight Leo tried blinking, but felt that his eyes would be attracted towards Ava.

'Why would she wear something so revealing?'

He was kind of flabbergasted. As far as Leo knew Ava was kind of a shy person, usually wearing clothes that covered up most of her skin.

Today was the direct opposite of that, Leo could even see people openly eyeing her, but Ava didn't seem to care.

'Another change...'

Lost in his thoughts Leo didn't even see David almost drooling, seeing Ava's beautiful figure.

"I think I'm in love..."

Leo heard, but was a second too late to stop David from his demise, the guy bolted towards the female with white hair as if he was charmed by a witch.

'Another fallen one...'

Looking towards David nearing Ava Leo slowed down his pace and sighed in defeat.

David was trying to strike a conversation with Ava, but was met with silence, he tried to talk into her saying her name, but was, once again, met with silence. The poor guy couldn't keep up with girl as she hastened up her steps leaving David in the dust.

Looking towards Ava Leo's and her eyes met, but Leo broke the contact and went to console David.

"You are not the first one, it's alright..."

From his last life Leo has heard about guys being emotionally crushed by the white witch, but never has seen it in person.

Looking into David's eyes he could see his happiness and sanity withering away and jolted backwards.

'I'm afraid he's too far gone...'

Knowing that David would not do anything stupid, Leo patted his shoulder before calling a taxi and walking back home.

'Beauty sure is a weapon...'

Recalling the alluring figure of Ava Leo felt goosebumps pass through his back as he shook his head trying to forget her hourglass figure.

Slap...

Humbling himself with a few slaps to his cheeks Leo took a deep breath trying to control his manly side.

'Focus, you have more important stuff to worry about!'

And Leo truly did have some stuff he had to be concerned about, the most important one probably being his University that'll begin in a few days.

Digging through his memory Leo recalled seeing a picture of Ava's classroom, the girl was sitting at the fourth row, near the window.

'I should sit at the opposite side of the classroom'

Leo felt that his identity was already being suspected and didn't want to risk being found out. He was planning to play it safe from now on, trying to minimize whatever interaction they both had during the classes.

Leo also made sure to pick clothes for tomorrow beforehand, so they wouldn't be similar to the ones he used in an interview.

The University will probably become a huge battlefield with everybody trying to find out who's the Unknown Player.

'This is so stupid'

Thinking about all the hardships waiting for him Leo could only cry.

'What to do...'