Pride Online

Because the two cities were completely different!

The capital of Pride was full of many skyscrapers with bizarre designs that he had never imagined before. Some were decorated with glass on the whole buildings, some looked basic with a cross swords sign at the top, and some were even an ancient castle!

The street was separated between the walkway and the vehicle lanes. Many people walking here were all dressed in bright-colored fantasy clothes. Many airships and hot air balloons were floating in the sky.

On the side of the street, there were no jumbling stalls like there were in typical towns. Because the street was already crowded enough by the travelers. He saw the dinosaur quest couriers stopped for the red light at the intersections orderly, looking way so different from those dino-motorpunks he met at the previous towns like day and night.

“What a brilliant city.” He gasped as he excitedly looked around. He was even more amazed when he glanced up at the sky and saw a huge red dragon flying by with a small group of people on its back.

“Whoa, there’re dragon riders. Too.”

“Excuse me, can I pass through a bit?” An unfamiliar voice came, bringing him out of his own space again. Wisana turned to look at the voice then he was shocked to see a buff guy with muscles pulling along a baboon-like monster two or three times bigger than him.

“Sorry.” He said as he moved out of the guy’s way.

“It’s alright. I’m the one who had to say sorry. My hired dinosaur quest courier got killed in the Hardsitole dungeon, that’s why I have to deliver this monkey myself.”

The other guy let out a very long complaint, but the look on his face was very exhausted, making it very understandable why he had to whine out.

“No. It\'s fine. Please go ahead,” Wisana said with a panicked voice, bringing up a smile from the bigger guy. Then he left, quietly dragging the remains of the monster and disappearing into the crowd.

Normally, people would be this excited over this, but Wisana was still staring at the man dragging a baboon, thinking that this place was even beyond fantasy than Albasta!

BOONG!!

The sound of a large metal bell echoed through the wind, drawing the pair of golden-brown eyes to look at the white belfry that seemed to be the highest building in the city. A wry smile appeared on his clear, smooth face before he reminded himself quietly.

Don’t get too fascinated, Wisana! Stop acting like a bumpkin who had never seen something so civilized before!

After that, Wisana brought out an information tap to check the time and realized that it was only ten minutes past. So, he still had plenty of time before he could meet up with May. Then he decided to walk the city to kill some time. The man grinned as he was using the begging tone with the AI again.

“Jinnie babe.”

“Yes, master?”

“Is there a market in the city?”

“Please wait while I am downloading the city map.”

Jinnie went silent for a while, so Wisana started looking around to kill time again. If it took this long to be downloaded, Tristan city was probably very large, compared to Albasta, whose map took like five seconds to download. He shrugged at the thought before he leaned on the wall of a building around the entrance gate.

That was when Wisana started noticing the other players glanced at him directly. His pair of amber eyes peeked at them carefully. There were some of them that looked at him challengingly before they ran off. And some of them were just looking at him then turned to whisper with their friends.

What the hell was that? Did he look like their ancestors or what?

The man was getting annoyed by this awkward atmosphere from them so much. It kind of brought down his self-esteem, too, when they looked at him and whispered to each other like they were talking crap about him like that.

Or, crap, did he forget to zip up his pants and let his junk out?!

He thought as he was pretending to be scratching his stomach, then slipped his hand down to check his zip.

Well, the zip was up, then what the heck were they looking at him for?

“Bro!”

Before he went any further with his nonsensical thoughts, a shout came, drawing everyone’s attention, including Wisana\'s, to the voice. There was a short-haired man rushing toward him. The man looked two or three years younger than him with a tall, slender figure and a long face under the glasses that made him look smart.

Wisana looked around and did not see anyone, so he pointed at himself, not being so sure if the other man was talking to him.

“Yes. You.” The other voice confirmed.

“Do I know you?” Wisana asked, still confused.

“You already forgot me? It\'s me. I’m the one that gave you...” Suddenly, the man with glasses paused as he was realizing that the one in front of him was drawing too much attention.

And this idiot had no idea why people were staring at him.

“What are you doing here? Come with me. I\'m ‘Manoch.’ Why do you have such a short memory?! And what’s this? You’re cosplaying that man?” The glasses man spoke loudly on purpose as he was patting on Wisana’s shoulder like they were close to each other.

“What cosplay?” The one who got patted raised his eyebrows.

“Aw, stop acting dumb, bro,” Manoch shouted again before he whispered to Wisana.

“Don’t mess this up, just go along with me.”

“What’s this about?” Wisana whispered back.

“Don’t ask too much. May sent me to get you. Now just act normal and follow me.”

Hearing the guy was May’s friend, Wisana paused.

And what was the thing that he had to get along with? He really did not understand this glasses guy.

“So, what’s up? How long did you get here?”

The glasses man asked aloud, blinking at him as a signal to do what he said.

“...Not so long, I just got here, too!” Wisana said that, while in his mind was like, ‘who the hell are you?’

“And this, the man is so cool that you have to cosplay him, right?”

Sure, but that the hell was a cosplay?!

Even though he felt annoyed, Wisana went along with him anyway.

“Yeah, of course, it’s my hobby, you know. Sometimes I cosplay right after I get out of bed. But not just me, even my mom, my big sister, and my little sister do cosplay, too!” Wisana did go along with it as he was told, making the one telling him to look sour in his face.

“I...is that so? Your family has such an abnormal hobby. So, everyone is an otaku, huh.”

Hey!

He was not even clear about the cosplay thing yet, and now he had the otaku thing, too?

“I think we should get going now, so we don’t waste time that should be spent on the quest.”

"Okay bro," he said then the two of them started walking away with arms around each other’s neck delightfully, leaving the crowd there shaking their heads. And if Wisana did not mishear something, there was a curse, sounding like the word ‘weirdos’.

A few moments after that, the stranger got his arm off Wisana and started dragging him away quickly. They ended up in a small coffee shop that was not so crowded in the middle of the city. The glasses man was the first to take a seat then he beckoned the other one to join him at the table, too.

“Let’s sit down, Wisana!”

Wisana raised his eyebrows, surprised that the stranger knew his name, too.

“Do I know you?” He repeated as he sat down on the opposite side of the table.

“Don’t ask now. You need to hurry up and take off all your equipment now.” The command made Wisana frown, not understanding what was going on. He looked down at his arm guard and the red scarf before he scratched his head.

“Do I have to take off my underwear, too?” Wisana asked sarcastically.

“No. Just the arm guard and the scarf. I don’t wanna see your junk.” That got Wisana clicking his tongue, displeased that he got dragged along and forced to do this and that, by a stranger.

If the glasses guy was not Maysa’s friend, he would never have allowed him to be bossy around like this. Wisana let out a long sigh before he said ‘take off’ softly. Then the vambrace and the scarf started to glow as they disappeared into his inventory.

“They’re off. Now can you tell me what is going on?” He asked with a serious tone and knitted eyebrows, making the other let out a dry laugh.

“Well, the thing is...”