Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

Ivan shook his head. He had achieved one of the requirements needed to ascend the power ranks. Meanwhile, his teammates also checked their system info. Ivan was curious to know what stats they were amassing, but he decided against that. The team was new and had suffered a huge blow to the trust between them. Also, nosing into someone else's business was a violation of privacy.

The adventurers hadn't noticed the swellings beneath their lower eyelids. It was a sign of exhaustion, and their minds were yet to register it. The recent event had given them an adrenaline surge that put on hold the desire to rest.

Brainboss_7 returned. "It's a few minutes past 12 p.m. in the real world. You guys look utterly exhausted. I will take you to where you can rest. Congratulations on successfully clearing this gate. You can return whenever you want and clear the gate again."

After Brainboss_7 mentioned the adventurers' exhausted looks, a few of them began to stagger, struggling to stay awake. Brainboss_7 and the adventurers vanished from the Vate Prison Realm. They rematerialised at a hotel, still located in the gamers' realm. The atmosphere of this new location didn't appear hellish, a distinct variation from the previous place they had been to. It looked like a normal place with a hotel sitting alone on a vast, deserted grassy land.

In contrast to the 'real world', it was daytime here. Brainboss had handled the checking-in and other paperwork before bringing the adventurers here. The adventurers forced themselves to find their rooms and enter. They all fell fast asleep the moment their heads met the soft bed.

Brainboss_7 didn't leave the hotel. He had a room close to the adventurers. He entered his room and sat on a chair, his thoughts unreadable. He retrieved the three class cards from his inventory. He gazed thoughtfully at the Dragon Mutant Card and the Demon Card. The Archer Class Card received little recognition. He spent more than thirty minutes in this pose before he returned the cards to his inventory.

The ever-busy streets of Section 2.5 grew busier as the ticking hands on the clock passed 6:00 a.m. Roger was still asleep on his bed in his bedroom. His phone blared, the jarring ring cutting through his heavy slumber. A furrow creased his brow in irritation, but the weight of sleep bore down too hard. He ignored the call.

His ignorance didn't deter Daiyu from calling again; yet, he still ignored her call. Frustrated and infuriated, she kept calling. He was forced to answer. With a sleep-laden voice, Roger said,

"Hello, who am I speaking with?"

"Roger, it's me, Daiyu. I'm at your door. Open up."

"Not now. I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Open up your door now, or I'm going to bang on it!" Daiyu threatened, her voice sharp and angry.

Her palpable rage jolted Roger awake.

"Jeez. What's wrong?"

"Open up, and I will tell you. I'm very depressed right now."

Roger walked to his door, wondering what was wrong. He checked the surveillance video outside his door; no one was with Daiyu; it wasn't a set-up. He welcomed her into his apartment.

Daiyu's red eyes and trails of dried tears on her cheeks made Roger concerned. "Daiyu, what happened? Why do you look like this?"

Daiyu glared at Roger, her eyes burning with hate. She was convinced that he was in on Ivan's scheme. Roger took an unconscious step back, unsettled by the venomous look that crossed Daiyu's face.

"What's that look? Why are you glaring at me?" Roger spoke, clearly frightened.

"You knew that Ivan was seeing another woman."

"Huh?"

"Don't give me that rubbish. You knew that he was seeing another woman, and yet you didn't warn me. You knew he was scum, and yet you let him approach me. Why? I thought we were friends?"

"Wait, wait. Hold on. What are you saying? Is this some kind of prank?"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Daiyu yelled, her frustration surging forth. "Stop trying to act ignorant and innocent. You are closer to him than any of us three."

Roger's emotions flared. He most wanted to yell at Daiyu, to reprimand her for screaming in his apartment. He controlled his rage, and with a firm, calm tone, he said,

"Daiyu, if you don't control yourself and tell me what's happening, I will call the police on you for causing a nuisance in my apartment."

Daiyu gazed at Roger in disbelief. Are you threatening me?

Roger understood her expression. "Yes, I'm threatening to get you arrested. So I beg you to calm down and talk to me."

She looked away. She struggled within herself with the choice to quietly leave her friend's apartment or stay here and open up about the 'revelation' she had learnt of. After the internal struggle, she resolved to stay and talk to her friend, hoping that the 'revelation' from yesterday was wrong.

Daiyu sighed deeply. She revealed the necessary details—that she and Ivan had kicked off a relationship about three days ago. She included Ivan's sudden announcement of a confidential work assignment. She claimed that she didn't guess that he was going to meet his other mistress. Then she ended with the part where she spoke with Ivan's 'mistress'.

Daiyu cried quietly after narrating the story.

"The fact he hasn't called back suggests that he doesn't know how to approach you about it," Roger voiced his thoughts, half audibly. But Daiyu heard him.

"If there was nothing going on, he should have called me, but he hasn't. That lady is his mistress."

Roger didn't mean for his thoughts to be heard; it was a slip. He still held out hope that Ivan wasn't a cheat.

"It could be a misunderstanding. What if someone stole his phone?" Roger raised a reasonable question.

"If his phone was stolen, he would have looked for another means to contact us. He is a dirty, lying, shameless man who just pretends to be good in order to use and dump his friends," Daiyu expressed her deepest thoughts.

Roger threw his arms up in defeat. He didn't want to argue with her words. He picked up his phone and called Ivan's line. He called thrice, but Ivan didn't pick up. He cursed in his mind, disappointed that Ivan didn't answer the call.

Daiyu laughed in mockery at Roger. "I told you, if his hands were clean, he would have called us."

Ivan and his colleagues were in Section 2.5, specifically the Bangyu Restaurant. They retrieved their phones and wallets, which had been stripped away from them without their consent or knowledge before they were transported to the Gamer's Realm.

Ivan still felt extremely tired. His steps were not smooth, staggering infrequently at intervals as he moved. He left the pocket reality, stepping out of Bangyu Restaurant.

'I will head over to Roger's place. It's closer to me from here.'

He struggled to hail a taxi on his ride-hailing app. He successfully hailed a ride. The ride arrived within a minute, and he boarded it.

Roger and Daiyu sat in silence, dwelling in their thoughts. Roger noticed his friend's attire; she wore a gingham crop top that exposed her cleavage, matched with high-waisted, wide-leg blue trousers. The sight of her cleavage set off a suppressed desire within him.

Roger was a member of the Church of Serenity, a major religion that followed the Goddess of Serenity. The religion preached chastity. Roger was a devout believer of this religion, and he upheld chastity. However, he was a slave to mental lust. For years, he had won battles against lust, but the tendency to break chastity was building. Now, the desire to fornicate had reached its peak, and he could no longer hold back. He wanted to sleep with Daiyu.

He approached Daiyu and sat beside her. He allowed her to rest her head on his chest. She soon noticed that Roger's heart pounded rapidly. She smiled, thinking that he was feeling uncomfortable because a lady was touching him.

She sat upright to look at him. Roger didn't meet her eyes; his eyes were locked onto her bosom. A protrusion was visible in the crotch region of his pyjamas.

"Roger?" Daiyu called, bewildered.

Roger recovered. He tried to hide the protrusion, lapping his right leg over the left.

Daiyu pounced on him. She hadn't had intimacy for a while. She wanted to do it with Ivan, but he 'cheated' on her. She had concluded in her thoughts that it was over between her and Ivan. So, she owed him no loyalty. She latched onto Roger's stiff lollipop, taking it for a ride in her oral cavity. The influencer was over the moon, overwhelmed with pleasurable stimulations.

Roger hadn't locked the door after he welcomed Daiyu into his apartment. Ivan staggered into the apartment at this moment. His eyes didn't immediately catch what was happening before him. The couple mingling on the couch didn't notice someone enter the living room.

"Hey Roger, can I crash here in the meantime? I just went through literal shit," Ivan said as he staggered towards an empty seat.

In his peripheral vision, he could see a figure that he assumed to be Roger lying down on the couch. A soft moan prompted him to look over. Looking at the duo mingling, his mind was blown.