When the last body of the monster finally fell flat on the ground, the hero party which consists the hero; Greyson Padilla, the mage, Mystic Irvine and the sniper; Han Yu Shin fell on their butt to the bloodied earth in front of the Demon King's castle. Leaning against each other, Greyson took this chance to glance his surrounding, checking for the possibility of any awakened monster. Luckily, no monster was detected in the perimeter.

He then heaved a sigh and dropped his head to clash with the two others.

"Has it finally ended?" Yu Shin asked, although they've been together for the past 6 to 7 years inside this crappy game, his eastern slang is still strongly attached to his speech.

"I guess?" Mystic answered in her slightly Latin slang.

The three of them are by no means a stranger. However, because of some accident while playing a VR game of some Fantasy game that's almost shut down, the three of them now stuck together in the game and have to find their way out together. Three years were spent just with them trying to find the residents of Earth, which unluckily just the three of them. Yet they somehow managed to defeat the Demon Lord as their final quest in the game world. They're finally released.

A window appeared in front of each of them, displaying the option of:

DO YOU WANT TO EXIT? YES

Y

NO

N

They glanced at the button before then looking towards each other.

"Now it really felt like the end, huh?" Greyson said in his American accent, his seating position was shuffled to face them before he sat and crossed his legs Indian style.

"You don't say." Yu Shin giggled and also changed his seating position to face them.

Mystic stared at the window long before she faced the two of them.

"Guys, somehow I felt like it's a waste for us to separate now that we've been together all this time." She joked, although sadness was hinted in her tone.

Greyson nodded in agreement. It's true that at first, they're so into wanting to get out of this game world as soon as possible. But after staying for many years and experiencing many wonderful things about this game world, leaving them felt kind of heavy.

The three of them fell silent as they sank in their thoughts.

"I know!" Greyson suddenly remarked, breaking the quietness.

"How about we look for each other after we returned back to Earth?" He suggested.

Mystic's and Yu Shin's face brightened up as they exchanged glances with each other.

"That sounded like a fantastic idea!" Yu Shin replied.

"So it's a promise that the three of us will seek for each other, okay?" Mystic reaffirmed.

The three of them nodded in unison before breaking into laughter.

Then the laughter slowly died. "I'll miss you guys. Really." Greyson said and shot his two comrades a sad look.

"Aw..." Mystic tried to keep herself from crying by scrunching her face. That gained a roaring laughter from both Greyson and Yu Shin. Realizing that her scrunching face was funny, Mystic also joined in on laughing, although streams of tears have already fell down on her cheeks.

The laughter died down again.

This time, Yu Shin paced his gaze between the two most precious friend in front of him. Then, he puckered his lips in protest, "Don't forget to find me, okay?"

Greyson and Mystic giggled again.

Suddenly Greyson held out his fist. "This is the promise that we will find each other when we returned." Mystic and Yu Shin dithered before they also brought their fist to collide with Greyson's, a smile etched on their faces.

"Promise." Mystic and Yu Shin said almost simultaneously.

Their fists collided for a long time, so long that the three of them flinched when their fist moved. Then they broke into another laughter.

"Okay, phew..." Greyson blew a sigh. "See you guys on Earth."

Greyson tried to smile, although his smile looked like forced. He's trying to hide the grief inside his heart.

Then it all happened, the three of them pushing the YES button and their body slowly dispersed into the air. They waved at each other, unknowingly shedding tears from each of them. Even though they promised to look for each other, separation is really a painful thing.

***

Greyson Padilla

The first thing that stimulates my senses were the sweet smell of something baked. It must still be my dream, or did Mystic perhaps baked one of her delicious pastries for our adventure next?

I opened my eyes and was about to comment her delicious cooking when all that's greeted my eyes are the blue interior of the VR headset I'm wearing. I immediately sat up and peeled off the headset from my head. Upon parting the headset off from my eyes, I squinted my eyes a bit when I noticed the blazing sun entering my room from the window.

Still in a daze, I slowly got up from the bed and went to the window to close the curtain. A few moments after that, I darted my eyes on my surrounding. This familiar atmosphere, this familiar looking furniture, this is my room, isn't it?

"Greyson!" A shrill voice shouted somewhere outside my room.

This voice...

I darted outside my room, stopping in the middle of the hallway because I need some time to remember the direction to the kitchen, before climbing down the stairs to the living room.

"Greyson, there you are. I told you not to play games until evening, didn't I? Now come and help me serve the food." The figure of my mother--who stood behind the kitchen counter as she waved her spatula in front of me--said in a scornful tone as she glared at me. That gesture was supposed to settle fear inside me, yet the next moment I knew, I was bawling my eyes out as I trotted to her, as if a toddler who just found his mother after getting lost in the mall.

My mother froze when I wrapped my arms around her neck as I hugged her, tears flew down my cheeks like river.

While I was wailing and all, my mother patted me on the bed. "What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare or something?" Her tone sounded more gentle now.

Hearing her voice in my ear and feeling her presence really kicks in the reality inside me; that is I've returned home, to Earth.