RAIDS ONLINE: RAGNAROK BEAST

A day has passed since Luel's utter defeat against the Rank A Ragnarok Beast Cerberus.

Luel didn't log back into RAIDS ONLINE for the next 24 hours, thinking that he might suffer another humiliation that might trigger his anxiety and panic attacks.

It would be fine if Luel was the only one being bothered by his condition. After all, he has gotten used to its symptoms for the past months. Yet troubling his relatives, especially his cousin, Rammie, every time his health monitoring device sends an SOS signal is something Luel doesn't want to keep happening.

Of course, removing his health monitoring device is out of the question. Since it would send an emergency warning not only to his cousin but to his family as well as to the hospital, and that would probably freak out everyone.

Luel just doesn't want to feel like he's a burden. But right now, Luel is facing a dire situation and is almost on the verge of wanting to call for help and rely on his cousin.

"Ahh!... I don't have any ketchup or soy sauce..."

It's almost near lunchtime, and Luel has already prepared his Pork Tonkatsu Rice Bowl only to realize that he doesn't have any sauce, not even ketchup or soy sauce, to put on it.

There's a convenience store just a few streets from Luel's house. But at that same series of streets are people who know Luel, both neighbors, distant relatives, and other of Luel's acquaintances.

Greeting all of them a few days ago was fine since Luel was with his brother but now that he's alone, his insecurity and distrust of people overwhelmed him, thinking that they are laughing behind him about how someone like him who's so proud of himself went into the capital with big goals and dreams only to return defeated and a failure.

However, the desire to have proper condiments for his lunch won over his insecurity. That's why, for the first time since coming back home to the countryside, Luel went outside on his own, with the thought that everyone was probably eating lunch so there wouldn't be that many people who would see him.

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Luel arrived at the only convenience store in their area. It's quite shabby compared to the convenience stores around the capital, but as far as Luel remembers, it has everything that a convenience store should have and probably more.

Luckily, Luel only encounters people that he barely recognizes, so his insecurity doesn't bother him that much. Although, upon entering the convenience store, Luel was greeted by someone he's quite familiar with.

"Ohh... If isn't mister honor student."

An old man in his seventies immediately recognizes Luel. He's the owner of the convenience store and someone who knows Luel. After all, the fact that it's the only convenience store in the area, Luel was also a regular customer back in his high school days.

"So you're still doing well, old man Trov?"

"Of course, I am, brat!"

Luel doesn't have any problem meeting the old man, but Trov's next remarks make Luel feel uncomfortable.

"Why is it that you're back?... Are you taking a vacation from work?"

Luel just stands there silently, unable to give any answer, even lie that he quit his job or tell the truth that he is recovering due to his poor health.

But somehow, the old man Trov understood Luel's silence and didn't ask any more questions about Luel's life in the capital. He just speaks to Luel with his familiar catchphrase that Luel finds nostalgic.

"Just pick what you like. If your bill reaches a thousand, I'm giving you a 1 percent discount."

"Still the cheap old man, are you?"

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Luel started browsing the convenience store and found the ketchup and soy sauce that he was looking for, along with the proper Katsudon sauce that he decided to buy too.

Those are the only things that Luel is planning to buy, but when he arrives at the corner, which has a display of different VRMMORPG, he notices a poster of RAIDS ONLINE which has Selene's picture.

It's a poster of Selene along with the person that is cosplaying Selene. The ex-Idol, Amy, a once famous high school girl Idol. She retired from the Idol industry more than two years ago to become a professional gamer of RAIDS ONLINE.

The fact that Luel immediately recognizes the ex-Idol together with Selene means that he was once a fan of Amy before the famous Idol retired.

Luel would always watch Amy's shows and concerts back in his late college student days and when he still had his job. But the year of Luel's accident is also the year when the Idol Amy retired.

"Pfft..."

Luel gives a little laugh while looking at Amy's poster, thinking how funny it is that during his days of medical treatment, the thought of seeing his favorite Idol once again on stage probably gives him some strength to recover.

Amy's beautiful long black hair complements Selene's short silver light hair, like a moon shining in the darkness of the night sky. With that thought, Luel unconsciously grabbed three copies of the poster. One for display, another one for reserve, and the last one for safekeeping.

"Gonna do it with that poster, brat?"

"Shut it, old man!"

"Hahaha!..."

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Back at his house, Luel reheat his Pork Tonkatsu Rice Bowl in the microwave.

While eating his lunch at his usual spot, the balcony, Luel took his time to look at his RAIDS ONLINE channel and almost died chocking from the Pork Tonkatsu that he swallowed and got stuck in his throat due to his surprise from what he saw in his channel.

[RAIDS ONLINE: LUCENT @ RAIDS - Channel]

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