New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

After locking the door behind himself, Alexander unpacked the groceries he had bought. He had watched quite a few videos on the internet to learn some very basic recipes.

And tonight, he was trying a new one out. He was making himself his own spaghetti sauce.

He wasn't confident in making the past yet, so he used some store-bought ones. But he had seen a nice recipe for the sauce that looked simple enough for him, and wanted to try his hand at it.

Two hours, and many cooking dishes dirty later, he was done. He set himself up to eat, spinning a large amount of pasta on his plate, before saucing them with a large ladle.

Just as he was about to eat, he heard a knock on his door. Alexander sighed heavily, hoping it wasn't one of his annoying neighbour ladies.

He put his fork down before getting up. Since the person was at the door knocking, he couldn't look through the intercom camera to see who it was.

So he walked straight to the door, putting his eye on the peephole. Strangely, he couldn't see the other side of the door. The peephole was completely black.

"Who is this?" he asked through the door.

"It's… It's me, Frank, the janitor. Your downstairs neighbours are complaining about water in their ceiling. I think you might have a burst pipe," the man on the other side said.

Alexander recognized the old man's voice, so he started unlocking the door. As soon as he unlocked the last safety, and opened the door, it violently flew open, striking him in the face on the way.

*Paf!*

Alexander fell backwards, his nose bleeding. A big man in a suit was in a sidekick position at the entrance of his apartment.

His eyes narrowed to slits as he recognized the big man. It was one of the two goons that had beat him up in an alley, almost two months ago.

Alexander rolled backwards, getting back to his feet, and putting his arms up in defence.

"You! What do you want?!" he asked, seething with anger.

The man lowered his leg, coming into the apartment slowly, immediately followed by his friend. That's when Alex saw Frank in the corridor.

The poor old man had a gun to his head, and at the other end of that gun, the tall skinny man. Funnily enough, he looked exactly as he did in the illusion magic produced by Aberon.

He was tall and slim, black hair slicked back into a tight ponytail. He was wearing an expensive-looking branded butler suit and black gloves.

The butler was handing a stack of money to Frank, who was sweating bullets.

"Tell anyone we were here, and I will come back for you. Capisce?" he asked the janitor.

Frank nodded his head frantically, not uttering a sound, before taking off running. But not before giving an apologetic gaze to Alexander.

Alex wasn't mad at the man, though. His past self would have done the same thing, if only to preserve his life.

The two goons were now standing in front of him, a few feet away, making sure they blocked the way to the door. The butler entered the apartment and closed the door behind him.

After closing it, he locked all the locks back up, just so Alexander couldn't flee if he gave his two boys the slip. He then turned around to look at the apartment.

"What a shit hole," he said, before walking around his men.

"Should we bang him up a bit before asking him questions, boss?" one goon asked.

"I don't think it will be necessary. You'll answer my questions. Right?" the butler asked, taping the side of his gun on the dinner table.

Alex was in a tough spot right now, and he knew it. But he was strangely calm.

His arms were still raised before him, in case one goon attacked him, but there was no fear in his gaze. Like the situation was still in his control.

'I'm not letting this go like last time.' was the only thought in his mind right now.

"What do you want with me? And how did you find where I live?" Alex asked his intruders.

"Finding a rat like you wasn't that hard," the butler answered, a snide smile forming on his lips.

"As for what I want, well, that is a simple answer. I want the money you won in the tournament, Player Astaroth." the man then added.

His last words almost threw Alexander off.

'How does he know who I am?' he was wondering.

"Now, before you wander into your thoughts too much, finding that out was simple. We were already running your face through facial recognition to find you, and we got a hit from an unexpected place. New Eden." the butler started explaining.

"And since we already wanted to find you, finding out your name and address through hackers was simple once we had your gamer name."

"And seeing as you still live in this… dump, I can guess you haven't spent much of the money you won yet. Am I wrong, little rat?" he asked Alexander.

"Give me a good reason I should give that to you. I earned that money," Alex replied, keeping his calm attitude.

"Well, that's simple too. Because if you don't, I will kill you." The butler replied, pointing his gun at him.

"Killing me won't get you the money. I thought you were smart, since you found me. But it seems you have just as many brain cells as these two gorillas," Alexander spat out.

This comment visibly angered all three men, but before the butler could react, one goon lost his shit.

"Who are you calling a gorilla?! I will kill you, you little shit!" The man screamed, lunging at Alexander.

Alexander smiled internally as he shifted his position, trying to keep the goons between himself and the armed butler. The big man was slow, because of his size, but Alex knew better than to judge by appearance.

As the goon lunged at him, he threw a punch at Alexander. Alex ducked under the man's arm, sending a punch of his own into his exposed ribs.

Promptly after landing his punch, Alex jumped back, still making sure he was covered from the butler's firing line. It took a few seconds for the scuffle to reach the apartment's balcony doors.

But the goon was like an enraged bull, and all he could see was Alexander. When he lunged at him, screaming and spitting, Alex smiled.

'Now's my time to leave!' he thought.