Pollux

Oscar’s menu was so loaded that even Firefly’s diverse choices didn’t appear so esoteric to Yue Hua’s eyes. Or perhaps that only spoke to how well-traveled she was. Her overfilled plate was the next subject of Firefly’s curiosity. The big helping of crab and the hamburger she couldn’t easily slice in small aside, it appeared as though Yue Hua had availed herself of every item she had passed. “I’m going to eat everything,” she said confidently. She generally had the stomach to back it up. Ladling some soup from the seafood cauldron, Yue Hua tested its temperature with a cautious sip. “Oh,

“Olivia,” the girl said airily. “Head of Fermata’s field operations. You’re lucky to have me.” Yue Hua knew someone who was both a frontliner and a bigshot on a worldwide scale and she swore he didn’t have half this Fermata girl’s attitude. But she strove to maintain decency, reminding herself why she had brought her here. “Yue Hua, player name Pollux. Thank you for helping.” They hunted the last two mobs in the area separately, then they regrouped to heal each other’s wounds, and for her partner, to check their progress with [Tracking]. Olivia duplicated three m

She didn’t. She knew the moment its HP had ceased to drop. Against Morningstar, the newly summoned ghouls were like bubbles that popped at a single touch. He sent the damaged Leech Lich sprawling her way and Yue Hua’s weapon immediately lit with a flick of her hand. “Take the last hit,” she warned. Better to be redundant than to leave Morningstar to rely on a capability she currently did not have. Then, skipping the charge, she stabbed her sword downwards, impaling the struggling thing through its bony chest. Yue Hua kept it on the end of her sword as long as she could. Realistically

Of course, as soon as Yue Hua had transferred her things over to the Trackers’ table, Wulfrin appeared carrying a mountain of seafood. “...Wulfrin! Hello,” Yue Hua said, surprised. She glanced back the way he came and noticed that more people were starting to follow his example, and Warren, busy at the beverage wagon again, looked more proud for it than anything. The gigantic feast was only the appetizer. “I have never played golf but I’d like to learn sometime, if you’re willing to teach. How big is it? I’ve seen videos back in reality where the courses were so long that people had to use car

Firefly looked confused. "PvP?" Oh. “Player versus Player.” That rung a bell, but her friend still had concerns and Yue Hua was quick to answer them. Partly, she was a little defensive of her hobby. “SAO has three types of duels. First Strike, Half Loss, and Full Loss, which is a fight to the death. Typically, in the PvP scene, players compete in Half Loss duels, where the fight ends once one competitor hits half HP, but there has been the occasional tournament where the fights are Full Loss with system modifications to disallow HP from dropping to zero.” That was the Clash of Blades

Yue Hua’s smile faltered at the edges. They were at a standstill, the snapped off stems of the picked herb at Corvo’s feet. It seemed he was misunderstanding her, and worse, the sudden harshness of his tone left Yue Hua with the impression that he had taken offense. Few people became more difficult to read the more they talked — she was starting to consider Corvo one of those exceptions. “I think we’re playing a VRMMO. If that wasn’t obvious.” (A blade, she said in her head the moment she saw him. All sharp edges; the world being kept at bay lest it wishes to cut itself. She wo

Yue Hua’s brows lifted and her nacreous eyes found the nameplate now visible above the man’s head. “Oh,” she said mildly. She couldn’t tell if the coughing fit was brought on as a consequence of him choking on a laugh, but she took it in good humor, as she always did. “I see…! I’m very sorry, Warren. Are you new, or — have you not dropped by the guild headquarters yet? I live there, so I’m surprised I’ve not seen you around.” Their conversation was short-lived. The other early arrivals were also milling about in the vicinity of the wagon, so Warren excused himself to fetch everyone’s

Five dots scattered wide past the corner. Three in the large square hall, two behind closed doors. It was darker here. The lights were off, and Yue Hua had her hand on another switch, but she knew it wasn’t wise to flick it. She pictured the outcome was similar to waving a bright red flag in front of a searching bull — could she run fast and far enough to lose aggro and then come back later? She had only cleared the one area, what if there were more mobs lurking behind it? She glanced at her messenger, its brightness substantially lowered. SYL: They’ve spread far enough that you

Beach party. Trackers invited. Yue Hua shuttled off to the shared coordinates at the speed of light. It was only when she arrived to a mostly empty venue, Oscar's cornucopia of food at the last stage of cooking (Yue Hua had unknowingly ran past the man himself), that she realized she should have taken the slow route with Bistro. The cloud of dust left in her trail dispersed gently under the bright sun as Yue Hua stuck to the edge of the tables, clarifying her plans through her messenger. To: Bistro Pollux: i Pollux: got excited oops Pollux: i shall save us a table! To: Scarlet

Yue Hua watched approvingly as the cat disappeared into the headquarters, slipping through one of the many pet doors installed throughout the building. Hopefully, it hadn’t just detoured to the kitchens for an impromptu snack. On their secluded hill, the air was fresh and carried the sweetness of cut grass. Yue Hua sensed Firefly’s eyes on her, and when her own meandering gaze had drawn back to the girl, she was asking about her new armor and levels. The silver sword, the mithril necklace at her front, and the bottled aquarium that she felt strangely attached to. Since the day they f

Yue Hua quickly realized that, in her effort to be polite, she had failed to emphasize the urgency of the situation. More mobs could be spawning or climbing into the outpost for every second she spent idle. So she tabbed back to her messenger after a minute of waiting and sent a string of follow-up messages consisting only of red exclamation mark emotes. Then she rang Sibyl until he manually declined. He was too busy for her, but he was sending over one of his colleagues and he could keep her on the line until they arrived. What could be more important than another mob rush on Floor

Despite having just agreed to her plan, Morningstar was charging straight for the boss. Yue Hua opened her mouth but no sound came out. She was torn between yelling after him and trusting blindly that her leader knew what he was doing, given apparent evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, her indecision won out. Morningstar’s fist crashed into the barrier… and four Stygian Warriors dropped to the ground from the shockwave of it. Evaporated. And when the Leech Lich raised its four bony arms and attacked, Morningstar was the first player in its way. Yue Hua shut her mouth and concl

—Or he was funding it out of his own pocket. Yue Hua looked from Morningstar, to the holographic board, then back to Morningstar. This sort of technology was meant to be unheard of in their setting. Her tail swished behind her as she came to a familiar conclusion. Frontliners are impressive...! Timid Firefly then chose that moment to show off Wulfrin's craft, a sword that dwarfed Yue Hua's own, and Yue Hua didn't comment on it, believing it wasn't her opinion that was being sought, but her interest was piqued. She quickly amended as she finished off her croissant and reached for anot

Yue Hua wasn’t too enthusiastic about killing these human shaped mobs. But they’d caged a few for observation once and someone pointed out to her how they were suffering. There was no cure in sight and every week they risked being overrun with them. As with any old video game, it was their lives against the enemies’. She tried her best to make the process as quick as possible. She ran through the second Shambler in her way and skidded to a kneel at the end of the corridor, clicking her sword back into its sheath. Sections of lighting had been taken out by the mobs’ flailing (another

As was quickly becoming the standard, Yue Hua woke up and Cardinal had dropped an event on top of her head. She had dozens of notifications to check off, both from the guild channels and the system itself, and past the walls of the Trackers Alliance's F29 outpost, Ilridge had experienced an abrupt change in soundtrack. Before anything else, Yue Hua rushed to the nearest window and flung it open. Popped her head out, her iridescent eyes wide, her entire being unkempt. The first culprit was a red-haired boy on a makeshift stage, yelling at the top of his lungs. "GIVE IT UP FOR STY/L!”

"You're trying to teach her the -- what was it..." Yue Hua needed to brush up on her familiar knowledge. "The scouting skill?" Myst hopped out of Firefly's arms, as if suddenly resistant to cuddles now that it remembered it was about to be put to work. It stuck close, however, rubbing against Firefly's leg when its owner's mood dimmed. Yue Hua watched the exchange, unable to suppress a smile. "If only Aincrad accepted therapy cats, she would have passed in an instant." This development comforted her. Ultimately, Yue Hua was not one to govern how her acquaintances ought to navigate t

Oh, it wasn't something, it was the cat itself. Yue Hua struggled to hold back a laugh at the poor thing's expense as Firefly sped off to try her suggestion. Now left alone with Myst, she stared up the tree and tried to make herself look as stern and unapproachable as possible without permanently traumatizing the cat and ruining any chance at friendship with it. She wiggled her tail. "I am a monster that eats bad cats and I shall gobble you up if you jump," she told Myst. The cat mewed. Yue Hua tried to translate its response without Firefly's help but was unsuccessful. At the very l

"We skip numbering fourth floors, too. Otherwise, no one would want to be in them. I agree that it's only in the nominal sense though. I think to completely eliminate the problem we should stop building floors above three entirely." 'Luck' wasn't what she would call it. Ghosts stuck around because they had regrets. In the hospitals she had stayed in back in reality, the hallway outside her room was bright 24/7 and there was always a nurse just around the corner when she called. She'd thought that was enough to deter them from appearing, but she would still occasionally find a strange shap

Down the hill of the Trackers Alliance's HQ, the door to Yue Hua's workshop swung open. The alchemist strolled out, freshly awoken from her late morning nap, all of her vanities in place. She basked in the sun for a few moments, stretching and brushing out her tail feathers, then she started up the hill. Mornings were for crafting. The rest of the day... Yue Hua had some vague goals to follow, not written down, but stored somewhere in the back of her mind, where one or two or the entire set of them would inevitably drop off into the realm of forgetfulness. Was she supposed to check all h

Yue Hua skipped out of the portal, her tail reappearing behind her. She glanced around, unused to and a little unnerved by the silence, and hurried along after Morningstar as he made straight for the edge of town. Yomi's spirits continued on their lonely course. The two trackers steered clear of them, but Yue Hua couldn't resist squinting at one from a distance. Its head drooped, incognizant of its surroundings. She stuck an arm out and waved; it need only look up at the clearly moving figure, but she didn't get a response -- only a foreign sadness gathering like a rain cloud at the edge

When the light had melted away and her ears had stopped ringing, Yue Hua took a moment to pick her jaw off the floor. And realize that the bear had -- somehow -- survived all of that and was clinging to the last of its health. At that point, killing Kumatetsu was a mercy. Yue Hua rushed in and smacked it before Morningstar could have another go. The bear’s collapsed form fragmented and an update from their quest trackers informed the two of the conclusion of their first hunt. “One down!” Yue Hua cheered, returning her sword to its sheath. She fixed her ruffled hair and clothes then

Yue Hua's tail vanished. The two crept as close to the edge of the brush as they could, and Yue Hua felt her compassion evaporate, seeing the piled remains of the bear's hunts. There was nothing inherently evil to an animal that could only follow its natural instincts. But it was not pleasurable to witness... or imagine. Her expression remained undisturbed. She slid her sword partly out of its sheath and gently knocked the back of her other hand against Morningstar's shoulder. "...Ready." Kumatetsu pulled off from the tree when it noticed the white and red figures approaching. It fac

厌倦你浪潮般涨落地爱我 当作莫名靠岸惶惑地来过 再说了从未幻想过你爱我 天马行空都埋没 At lunch with Morningstar, five more levels dropped into Yue Hua's lap. She gobbled them up indiscriminately. Stomach full and the eldritch speed of her leveling politely unaddressed by her dining partner, Yue Hua thought of messaging her benefactor a string of question marks but remembered they would prefer not to be contacted where Morningstar can easily see their name on her mail window. Guild leader and tracker were soon back on track, traipsing through the woods of Floor 8 to

Telrenya spun around to greet her, her voice bright and untouched by the bitterness of defeat, and the sun was a degree too warm once again. Yue Hua was about to slap herself -- nevermind her earlier musings on post-battle highs. She was, in this moment, certain that she was smiling too wide in a manner that wasn't becoming nor socially appropriate, but when she went to reign in her expression, she felt that it was no different from the characteristic politeness she usually wore. Merely a noticeable upward curve to her lips -- nothing to be losing her head about. Why was she fussing? "Yue

"Therefore, you need this more than me. Loosen up sometimes, you won't." (Sending back the above consumables to Arabelle.)