It was a lukewarm evening. Shrouded in bright orange rays of the descending sun, the park appeared to be capable of awakening a sense of melancholy to any observer.
[17:47]
Sitting in one of the silver benches, Alex checked the time then closed his eyes.
'I even came late by seventeen minutes…'
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he opened his golden eyes.
In front of him, a foundation with a solid quartz rim and a cherub for the pedestal could be seen. The trumpet of the cherub served as a nozzle through which the yellow-rayed water of the fountain sprouted out.
It was a basic architecture design he picked up somewhere yet, as he stared mindlessly at it, Alex came to appreciate the detail he put into the fountain.
Caw Caw Caw
"Are you fucking…"
The crows cawed as they appeared to fly towards the orange sun that had practically finished its descent.
[18:01]
'Is he serious?'
Just as he was thinking of getting up and leaving, a playful voice chimed from behind,
"Man, you look lonely."
Alex glanced behind, only to be greeted by Luke's unsightly goofy face.
"How are you late by thirty minutes when you're the one who called me?"
Alex immediately interrogated.
"I offer my deepest apologies," He sat beside Alex then continued, "I was just a bit busy with something."
"That so? Then, what is the super important thing you wanted to tell me?"
A white ice-cream inside a wooden cup along with a wooden spoon materialised in Luke's hand.
He gave it to Alex before another one materialised in his hand.
"This afternoon, I went to The Guardian's Hill along with a guild called the Freedom guild as a scout of sorts. I coincidentally saw them heading towards there so I offered them my help and in return, I earned a few Cheng."
Putting a spoonful of the ice-cream into his mouth, Luke continued,
"Everythin was going well and all but when we went past the foggy route at the end of the hill, we couldn't see any sign of Yuki."
"What?"
Dumbfounded, Alex blurted out.
For a second, Alex considered that maybe Luke was messing with him but when he saw his stern expression and how serious he sounded, Alex decided to take Luke's words seriously.
For the time being, at least.
"Initally we thought it was a bug or something and honestly, we haven't made much further progress in our hypothesis of the situation."
Thinking for a few seconds, Alex asked,
"What about the bridge? Was it visible or not?"
The only way for the bridge to be invisible or to stay invisible was through Yuki's ability called Genwaku.
If it weren't for her then the bridge would be visible to the naked eyes of the players.
So depending on Luke's answer, Alex might be able to come up with a hypothesis of his own.
"That's the strange part, it was still invisible. I and Veronica— she's the President of the Freedom guild— thought it was broken and tried walking through it and it wasn't. We could walk through it with no problem."
'I see, so that's why he came to me. If that's the case, then his line of reasoning is pretty simple and logical.'
If there's an unexpected variable, then it was either a bug or something related to the stuff added to this version of Holyug Online.
And between the two likely additions that caused it— one which only Alex knew— the chances of Yuki's disappearance being caused by a Main cast was pretty high.
'Whether it's a bug or not, I'll have to ask Claire about it… no, let's investigate first—the surface level stuff at least.'
If it was caused by an unexpected variable that wasn't too out of hand, then Alex would love it very much and wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for himself.
Asking Claire would provide the answer but it'd be detrimental for that desire of his.
"The other guys checked out the area and all but couldn't find anything and since they had other stuff to do, we ended up coming back after like, twenty minutes."
Having finished his ice-cream, Luke threw it behind them. The moment the cup and spoon landed, on the ground, they slowly began to dematerialise in light blue pixels.
"So that brings me to you, my dear Alex. Mind helping a friend out?"
"I have a hunch."
Alex muttered, just loud enough for it to be audible to Luke.
"Wait, that was so quick, do you even know what I was about to ask you?"
Alex sighed softly, then pressed the closed eyelid of his left eye with his thumb,
"You want to know if there's a Title that could do that right? I memorized all the Titles and what they can do so I have a hunch."
"Oh? Pray tell, human. Your existence is pretty convenient at times."
"The Omnipresent, it's a Title that allows the cast to teleport any object with the other. Of course, I don't know what criterias are to be met, but that is the only way for a location-bound NPC like Yuki to disappear from her location. However, the bridge being invisible is where it gets tricky."
Luke nodded while listening attentively.
"In the scenario that the cast possessing The Omnipresent is responsible, then there's a high chance they're working with another Main cast to continue making the bridge invisible."
'There were maybe two Titles that could do that indirectly, or it was done by someone who possessed a custom-created Title made by Claire.
If so, then this was an interesting unexpected variable Alex would accept.
"Why are you suddenly smiling like that?...You're a bit creepy."
"...Anyways, give me more time to think properly and I'll tell you my conclusion when the time comes."
Alex got up from the bench, the streetlight a few meters away lighting up the area in a yellow hue.
Just like this one, multiple streetlights within the park were lit up, indicating the full descent of the sun.
'The woman from today…I think I'll put her in my list of suspects. Regardless, I'm quite curious why someone would 'kidnap' Yuki.'
"Ah, that's not all."
Luke hopped up from his seat then did some few stretches.
"Meaning? Did you leave out any information?"
Luke grinned smugly before saying,
"Let's go investigate it ourselves! It'll be really fun and enjoyable. I mean a night investigation will definitely be different than day-time."
"...The time of the day doesn't really matter but what's with the sudden decision?"
"You'll see. Just come to my inn at eight. Don't be late."
Immediately, Luke's body soared up into the sky as he leaped away from Alex.
It was clear that was the Skill Leap meaning that Luke had killed himself a Duskerville hound already.
"I guess…it wouldn't hurt."