Chapter Text
When she first joined this strange group, she didn't expect much. Why hope for something grandiose that will attract her attention if she passes this level again as quickly as the Punklorde level. For such a lonely, but brilliant hacker like her, it was quite easy to pass these levels, and they were not difficult. Yes, sometimes being a lone hacker in this world was lonely, but she preferred it that way, instead of teaming up with useless people who would drag her to the bottom, preventing her from climbing to the top she so wanted. Many called her insensitive for this, but she didn't care. All people, regardless of their origin, sooner or later lost interest for the Silver Wolf, and she was not going to listen to the complaints of boring creatures. Therefore, when these people came to the threshold of her basement, she agreed to go with them. She was just bored, and they gave her free entertainment and new levels to complete. If you need to commit a couple of crimes and become one of the most wanted criminals in the entire universe, then so be it. After all, what kind of game can be good without certain bets.
She didn't care how they behaved or what kind of issues were in their head. It's none of her business to pry into their lives, even if she's made some inquiries about them. She's not stupid to follow someone she doesn't know anything about. Therefore, when she got to know them closer in the first week of their acquaintance, she would not be surprised by the fact that they all have extravagant personalities or lack of sanity. Whatever in principle.
The only word she can use to describe Kafka is obsessive. For some reason, she firmly believes in everything that Elio tells her, and fulfill any of these so-called "scripts". She is so obsessed with this idea of a better future and fate that she even strained the Silver Wolf a little with it. She had to listen to her speeches about the future so many times that Silver Wolf began to avoid her. It's too much for her. But she realized that it was this fanaticism with the combination of her weapons and the Whisper of the Spirit that made her just an uncontrollable killing machine. Once she even asked Kafka about her past work before meeting Elio, to which she mysteriously replied that it was somewhere where people meet only once. At this, Silver Wolf did not look deep into it, as she did not want to see any of this. And no matter how communication with Kafka was normal, we can even say that she was on friendly terms with her, but there is one thing. What really infuriated her about her was that Kafka treated her like some kind of child she had to take care of! She is quite independent, she does not need anyone to be a babysitter! She may have been a teenager, but on Punklorde you either grow up or die. As you can see, she just chose the first one. Therefore, the way Kafka is trying to play the role of some kind of guardian for her just annoys her to death. It doesn't help that Elio constantly puts them together, thereby giving Kafka more chances to tease her. Which is nice, but she would never say it to her face.
The next person she met from this bloodily strange company turned out to be a silent man nicknamed Blade. The first time she was alone with him, she almost had a heart attack. The way he looked at her terribly caused her something like primal horror. She doesn't know what it is, but this shit is fucking scary. As she later found out, Blade turned out to be an immortal who, ironically, longed for death. He also wanted to kill someone there, but it doesn't matter. Initially, he was from one of the Xianzhou ships, but something happened, and now he is a crazy zombie, in which, according to him, "a monster lives." Whatever that means. He also sucked at technology, from which the Silver Wolf had to tell everything about how the phone works by herself. Honestly, it's funny to watch him try to figure it all out. What seemed to her no more than this mini-level, for the Blade it was a whole test. What a boomer. It was thanks to such sessions that they somehow developed a friendly (as far as possible) relationship. Well, that is, he did not threaten to pierce her insides every 5 minutes. She will count it as a victory.
The mysterious Elio, who very rarely appears within her visibility, but still had a peculiar atmosphere, was strange. And although she had never seen them fight, she could understand why they was respected by the other participants. After a private conversation with them, she was able to understand some of their arguments with which they could share without violating the future, and also respect their dedication in this matter. Just to achieve such a large-scale goal with such a small and wild team, it is necessary to have tremendous willpower. As a lone hacker, she understands best what it's like. Therefore, no matter how much she wanted to know everything about the mysterious Elio, she completely left them alone. Judging by their facial expressions, they were happy about it.
In addition to these three, there was another member in their team who, in Silver Wolf's opinion, was the strangest one here. He went by the name of Sam, nothing more. She doesn't know what he does since he almost always works alone, receiving "scripts" directly through Elio. The Silver Wolf doesn't even fully understand what he is. The first time they met, he looked like a robot, similar to a humanoid, and the next he almost completely changed, turning into a normal person that she didn't even recognize him. Kafka explained that Sam constantly changes his appearance, never repeating himself. One minute he can be a woman, and the next he can be an old man. What is the reason for this, even Elio themself does not know, Sam is just like that by himself. Although Sam is most likely a fake name, since she couldn't find any digital trace seeing to him. Which was simply impossible. It felt like Sam was nothing more than a ghost, although who knows what the hell he is. When she asked Blade about him, he said that Sam clings to life as he clings to death, which makes her think. You can't tell by the look of it that Sam is going to die soon, so what does "clinging to life" mean for him anyway?
After watching him for a while, she realized how depressed this Sam was. He was always tired and looked somewhere in the distance. The only recurring detail in his masks were those dead eyes that had only different colors. When she found him at their base, most of the time he was just reading a book, not paying the slightest attention to anyone until he was called. Although it rarely happened at all. In general, Sam was a complete mystery to her, which she wanted to solve, until Kafka urged her not to do it. With a strange look, she said it was better for her sanity, whatever that meant.
In general, this is how she found herself in this strange company along the way, saving the universe. It sounds cool on paper, but not so much in practice. It seems to her or she did something wrong. Although who cares, as long as she has entertainment, she will be content with it.
***
Well, she admits that it's possible that she jumped to her initial conclusions. Not that she regretted her choice, it just turned out to be a lot... lonely here. When she was on Punklorde, loneliness was a constant in her life, which is why she didn't feel as bad as she does now. Perhaps because she spent part of her time in close contact with others, it gave her a sense of being surrounded by people. But here's the problem. Everyone except her is an adult here who is not interested in games like her. At least on Punklorde she could find someone to play with for a while before she gets bored. Here she is alone in this with everything, which makes her a little sad. As a result, she has to look for a companion on the web, where it is very difficult to distinguish a real professional like her. Hell, she's not even looking for a worthy hacker opponent anymore, since it's extremely difficult to do this because of her genius. Besides, she knows their names like on her fingers, so no, she's just looking for decent players with whom she could spend about a month without getting bored. It would seem an easy task, but no. All those supposedly professionals were interesting to her for no more than a week, which made it unbearably boring. What's the point of going through a level together when you know your partner sucks? It seemed to her that she would suffer forever, until she came across one user under the nickname @cold_bird. She met this dude in one of the matches in an online shooter, where their team completely wiped the floor with another. Of all her teammates, they were the only ones with the most satisfactory level. In the end, she decides to try her luck again this time, inviting them to play with her on the same team.
@Speedrun_SW
Yo.
@cold_bird
Hi.
@Speedrun_SW
You don't wanna play on the same team with me, bc of all the others, you the least sucker in this.
@cold_bird
Serious?
So you insult me first and then invite me to play with you
@Speedrun_SW
Yep.
Until you prove otherwise you a sucker
@cold_bird
I accept the terms.
I challenge you
@Speedrun_SW
what is it?
@cold_bird
We will find out who is better in terms of the number of kills in the next match
What do you say?
@Speedrun_Sw
K
Get ready to lose
@cold_bird
Haha
No way
As a result, the last match was the most intense for her in the last 3 months. It seemed that the @cold_bird really had a skill, that it didn't even lag behind her. Where he had been bad before, he progressed with great speed and caught up with her. As a result, their score ended in a draw, and their team won. Sitting in her chair, Silver Wolf couldn't help but think that this was the most exciting shit that had happened to her in the last six months. Whoever this person was, they were clearly good at being able to keep up with her. Challenging. As a result, on the adrenaline from the last match, she requested another one to decide who would be the winner. This time she strained with all her might and was able to get a Headshot at the last minute, which ensured her victory in their little competition. Although she thinks it was more luck than skill, which was confirmed by her new playmate. For the next 4 hours, they played together, trying to collect as many points as possible to win an argument with each other. Yes, looking at how he's playing now, she couldn't call him a sucker anymore, but she won't tell him about it. It's much more fun to tease him, his reactions are just gold. As a result of this dispute, their points were about the same, which made Silver Wolf's victory even sweeter. After all, a victory taken from the hands of a serious opponent is the best thing.
As a result, all the following months she played with @cold_bird in all possible games: shooters, puzzles, strategy, board games, etc. throwing them as many challenges as possible. In some games she won by a small margin, in others he won. And it was cool. Such a cool opponent like this made the usual game 100 times better. Without knowing it, she played with the same person for 4 months, which is a record for her. She didn't even notice how it happened, it seemed that her opponent could attract her attention in every possible way to fight with him. It felt like a battle with a Screwllum, only this time it was in the game, not online.
After a huge number of games and memes on the sparrow theme, they learned a little more about each other. She understood from his numerous complaints that he is the son of some chief, which is why there is a lot of pressure and expectations on him. A standard family case. He quite often pushes himself into an inflated framework, probably a product of his environment and, surprisingly, he has a rather fragile self-esteem. She had to apologize several times as her jokes became too rude. In general, a dude who just copes with stress through games. Which is probably the most curious thing, their age is probably almost the same, she doesn't think there is a big difference between them.
He also found out that she is from the planet Punklorde and is a hacker. This fact actually seemed to him more curious than wary, which is both stupid and cute in the opinion of the Silver Wolf. In general, now she has a permanent online friend that she would like to keep for at least a year. If you're lucky, maybe two. Because she didn't go so far with anyone within the framework of friendship. Hell, he even offered to go with him to the slot machine hall to play on the planet Socor, where he stopped for a while. At the moment when he wrote to her about it, she was seized by a momentary uncertainty. She has never done this before, because no one knows you on the Internet and you can do and say anything, but in real life you need to keep an eye on it. What if she can't? She has been on the Internet for so long that if in reality her digital friend thinks something different about her. She's actually kind of attached to him, and she doesn't really want him to leave her. In her thoughts, she did not notice how someone approached her from behind.
- What's wrong with you? You've been staring at the table for five minutes, it's not like you.
Jumping up in her chair in surprise, she turned sharply to see Sam's new face. This time he was in the form of a man with purple hair with gray at the ends and green eyes. He was looking at her with an impenetrable gaze that she couldn't make out. It was very rare when Sam turned first, did she look so bad?
- Don't scare me like that! What if I played!
Sam rolled his eyes at this and crossed his arms over his chest
- You didn't play, but looked at one point for a long time. What's going on, Silver Wolf?
At that moment, she seriously thought about throwing something at Sam. Lately he's become too talkative, which gets on her nerves. But of all the three with whom she communicates most in the group, he is the most reliable. It is unlikely that he talks to Kafka often, and even more so with the Blade. Yeah, well, he can't be killed yet.
- I have a dilemma.
At that moment, Sam sat down on the chair next to her, because he did not want to stand.
- Dilemma?
He asked her like a parrot
- Yes! I was invited by my online friend to hang out together, but Idonotknowwhat to do!
Suddenly the whole sentence poured out of her mouth as fast as it could. After that, her ears turned a little red, which indicated her embarrassment in this matter. Apparently Sam could easily translate various languages, as he quickly understood everything.
- And you're close to him, right?
Silver Wolf could only nod at this, not trusting her voice
- Then I don't see any problem with that. However, consider one detail, the deeper the love, the stronger the hate. The more you get attached, the more you need to be ready to feel hatred for the person you love the most, because in the end everyone can give up.
After these words, he looked at the wall behind her, remembering something. Maybe this is what happened to him, from which he does not get attached to any mask that he puts on, she does not know. But he was kind enough to help her, for which she feels grateful. Suddenly he abruptly comes back and looks at the Silver Wolf
- Let's do this, tomorrow I will take you to where you need to go, so write that you will come.
She wanted to open her mouth to protest that she not needed a babysitter, but Sam beat her to it
- And I'm not doing this because I don't trust you, but in order to look at your friend and make sure that you don't spend all your money there. Apparently the only person here who knows how to save is me.
And she couldn't argue with that. Usually she spent everything she was given on new video games, Kafka on a new coat, and Blade ... and the Blade is unclear where. A riddle, with no way to find the answer. So surprisingly Sam is the only one who knows how to manage financial resources here. Displeased, she moaned loudly
- Good! Have it your way!
After that, he just nodded and got up to leave wherever he was sleeping. She looked at the monitor again and hesitantly began typing the answer. Let's hope everything goes well.