[BONUS] 1/3

Thank you to Darted_Table for the supergifts

and everyone who supported the book

Ren formed a group with Evie, Leonel, Isolde, Ragnar, Sumeri, Nikolai, and Roz.

As the leader, he received a prompt that asked which server his group would go to. Without thinking twice, he chose the Mad Lab option.

It was time for the Halloween Event!

After being transported into the server's dimension, everyone looked around and instantly felt excited to the bones.

In this server, the hot sticky summer baked the coastline of Kreg's Town. Storms boiling with thunder exploded in the sky on an ever perpetual night. The bellowing howl of a new life accompanied each storm as a doctor driven mad by the desire to create intelligent life used evil powers to animate his latest creations.

In the small town of Kreg, the Mad Lab stood on an island, imposed like a castle over the horizon. Many of the mad doctor's creations had escaped, and some had reached the town.

Ren's party found themselves in the middle of a wide, unending plain of grass where they could see the ever-night sky no matter which direction they looked.

From their point of view, there were only two sceneries within their sights -- the island where the Mad Lab was located, with lightning constantly flashing on its walls and the small town of Kreg not far from where they stood.

The place was so empty that it seemed like all life on earth had been wiped out by some unknown calamity.

Taking a quick swipe of their surroundings, there were at least a hundred groups present in this server. The number wouldn't pose a problem since, by the time that they had reached the Mad Lab, more than half of them would have perished already. Ren was sure of it.

The island itself was full of monsters and creatures that the Mad Scientist had created, and among his creations, there were bound to be special monsters with the status of a Hidden Boss.

Ren wasn't worried, though. His, Evie's, Leonel's, and Ragnar's ATP were more than enough to solo this event. They were only here for the items and experience.

It could be treated as going to a haunted amusement park.

"Oh, look. There's a town over there," Leonel pointed. He wasn't scared by the setting, and he felt like this server wouldn't be able to scare him to death.

"Maybe we could buy supplies there?" Isolde added.

Sumeri chimed in, "Let's go and check it out."

"I-I hope it isn't a ghost town," Nikolai stuttered.

Sumeri sighed. "I told you, if you're scared, then you shouldn't have come."

Nikolai vehemently shook his head. "No. I will surely regret it if I don't go. And besides, I will probably just think about this event nonstop. So it's better if I go.

"I-I'm not that scared," he added, but his hold on Sumeri's clothes tightened. "And besides, facing your fears is only right for a man."

"By the way . . . Why is everyone looking in our direction?" Ragnar asked Ren. "Did you do something again?"

At Ragnar's words, the others took a look at their surroundings and found some players looking in their direction. When they were caught staring, they looked away. Some even took photos and talked amongst themselves while pointing in their direction.

"I think they're looking at Evie," muttered Nikolai.

Sumeri grinned at Evie. "Looks like it." You've become quite a celebrity."

And just as she said those words, someone called Evie's name.

"Evie!"

It was a handsome man with coarse black hair and dimples when he smiled. It was Michael from Illusion Forest, known to like Evie to the point of even visiting the girl in Fate Academy.

"So it's you all along." Michael's smile widened. "I knew it was you. I had a hunch from the first time that it was you. And funny how you're also here from all the servers available. It must be fate!"

"Yeah, it must be fate," Ren butted in with a cold expression, but his eyes blazed as he looked at Michael. If his eyes were lasers, the latter would've instantly turned into dusts.

Leonel exhaled through his nose, knowing that Ren was angry. And an angry Ren wasn't to be messed with.

All attention flickered to Ren when he approached Evie and gently took her hand into his before he proclaimed in a not-so-low voice.

"It must really be fate that you're here, so you'll see it firsthand that Evie and I are going out. You can take your feelings and your fate somewhere else."

. . .

. . .

Leonel shook his head and wryly smiled.

Isolde's big eyes even got bigger.

Nikolai covered his mouth instead of his eyes.

Sumeri chuckled and gave a thumbs up at Ren.

Ragnar only cringed.

Roz didn't care and was still silent at the side.

And Evie . . . Evie just stood frozen solid under the gazes of everyone.

Michael looked at Ren with wide eyes as if he didn't know what to say.

"W-what? What did you just say?"

Ren's face wasn't perturbed. "I said we're going out."

Michael looked confused. "Sorry . . . I must be hearing things."

"You heard me right. Evie is my girlfriend," Ren declared.

Michael looked at Ren as if he was crazy. He then turned back to Evie, and when she didn't deny it, Michael's face went white.

He then laughed with a skeptical expression. His eyes shifted between Ren and Evie. "You're kidding, right?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Ren asked. "Or do you want a more . . . intimate proof?"

Evie pulled her hands and batted her eyes at Ren behind her mask before turning to Michael.

"Ren and I are going out," she said in finality, and Ren felt something inside him melt upon hearing her confirmation.

Everyone who heard her forgot all about the event and immediately tried to access their social media, only to be horrified as they couldn't access the outside world while they were still doing the server.

"N-no way." Michael felt woozy, and the ground was dancing around and around.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)