Afterlife Dream

Dinner time came and went. It was another fulfilling dinner to celebrate my first day and Mom\'s new job. This time I managed to persuade them to order some pasta for me. I was getting sick of pizza night after night.

I took another shower before bed. While I was drying my hair, I checked my user interface and there were no messages at all. At 9 PM, the party chat was getting lively again.

"So, anything?" I queried ZhaoYun.

"Nada," ZhaoYun said. "Should I try posting the modified content on the forum tomorrow?"

"Yup, that might not be a bad idea," I said. "Cecilia might just check the forum and not the newspaper."

"Roger that."

I yawned.

"Good night, everyone," I wrote inside the party chat.

"Night, Antares."

"Good night!!!"

I closed the door to my bedroom and turned off the light. Then I climbed into my bed, tucked myself in, and closed my eyes to rest. An unexpected melody ripped me out of my short sleep barely an hour later, followed by an announcement.

"Dear Adventurers, congratulations on having found each other. The new mission has begun. Please check your mission list for more details."

I opened my eyes in shock. Sleep was quickly driven out of my mind as I turned on my user interface screen and opened the party window. There were six green, glowing buttons altogether. Cecilia had been found!

"Cecilia?" I spoke into the party chat.

No answer.

"Um, Cecil?" This time it was HellWitch.

Still no answer.

I opted to send Cecilia a private message, but that one too went unanswered.

Intent on at least finding out where Cecilia was, I tracked her. She was living in another city. Did it mean that we had to travel there tomorrow morning?

"Cecil," I wrote into the private message box again. "Cecil, can you please just answer? We need to talk to you."

I was not the only one who tried to send her a message. Everyone did, and everyone received no answer. Meanwhile, the new mission already appeared on the mission list. It went like this : "Please locate the Dimensional Master and defeat him to restore the peace in the Afterlife Dream realm!"

We would love to do that. Now, if only Cecilia would respond...

The next morning, we tried contacting Cecilia again to no avail.

HellWitch, Lazarus, ZhaoYun, and I met up in the cafe and contacted Livina by phone.

"What if we just go there and intercept her at the street?" Livina suggested.

"I don\'t know. Maybe Cecilia is still trying to cope," HellWitch said with a frown. "Cecilia in the game has always been helpful. Do you guys not remember? She was the first one who agreed to travel to this world."

Of course, I remembered. I too knew Cecilia for a long time inside the game. She was always available to help her friends and guildmates. The Cecilia that I knew would not ignore us without a good reason.

"Why don\'t we just wait?" HellWitch suggested. "Look, there is no hurry. It is not like the mission has a deadline or anything. We can wait a few days, can\'t we?"

"While we wait, we can try finding the Dimensional Master," I suggested. I switched on my user interface screen and showed the mission content to my friends around the table. "Look, it says nothing about having to gather a complete party to complete the mission."

"We are not going to leave Cecilia behind in this time loop."

HellWitch crossed her arms in front of her chest. There was a deep frown between her brows.

"I do not mean to," I assured her. "I just think that we can locate the Dimensional Master without her first. By then I am sure Cecil would have come around. Then we can move on with the battle. How does that sound?"

"Alright," we all agreed. "Let\'s do that."

That was our plan, but in the end, it was not that easy to achieve.

Days passed by. We received no reply from Cecilia at all, and we were also unable to locate the Dimensional Master.

After five days had passed, we met again and our moods were infinitely worse.

"Screw it," HellWitch shouted. "I will go to Cecilia\'s tomorrow and confront her."

"Me too," I volunteered.

"I believe all of us should go," Livina said. "There must be a reason why Cecilia is unable to reply to us. Let\'s try to find out what happened."

And so early next morning, we all sneaked out and went to the train station. Livina took the train from her city. The city where Cecilia lived was conveniently located between our town and Livina\'s. That meant that we only needed three hours to reach it. By the time we arrived, it was already time for lunch.

The map showed us that Cecilia was taking lunch in a French restaurant by the name of "Le Petit Parisien".

"Let\'s go there," Livina said. "The sooner we get to Cecilia, the better."

In retrospect, that did not go according to plan because the French restaurant was a huge and crowded one. With so many people around, it was impossible to find Cecilia. We did not even know her real name or her real face. It was like trying to find a needle in a stack of hay.

Even worse, the restaurant required the guests to make reservations ahead. Reservations should also only be made by those who were eighteen years and older. When we came to the receptionist\'s desk, the haughty blonde woman looked us up and down before pursing her lips and telling us that the restaurant did not cater to children.

"And Cecilia is not a child or what?" Livina was fuming when we finally settled for a little bistro just across the street from the posh French restaurant.

It just had to be an American fast food restaurant, which was, ironically, indeed more suitable for us, age-wise.

As we munched on our burgers and fries, we kept stealing glances at the French restaurant. Cecilia had not moved one step out of the restaurant, so we were pretty sure that she was still inside.

The thing was that we were already sitting at the American restaurant for over an hour, but Cecilia still had not left the restaurant.

"Is she having a birthday party inside, or what?" HellWitch started to get impatient. "What if I demand to just go inside and take a look? I am not going to occupy one of their precious seats and order anything."

"I don\'t think that works," ZhaoYun said, clearing his throat. He checked the map again and shrieked. "HEY! Cecilia is moving!"

About time.

Other than ZhaoYun\'s who were busy following the little green dot that was Cecilia, all of our eyes were trained at the French restaurant.

Someone did come out, and it was... none other than Sheila Elliott.

Our jaws almost dropped to the ground.

"Am I dreaming or..."

"That\'s her, right?"

There was no mistaking the long auburn hair that cascaded down to her waist. Behind her, a group of adult women in high heels followed.

"I am pretty sure that Cecilia is not one of those posh-looking women."

"Yup, pretty sure."

But that really meant that Cecilia was Sheila Elliott.

Sheila flashed a toothy smile at the adult women. They were chatting amicably as Sheila gestured toward the French restaurant that they just stepped out from. It looked almost as if she was trying to promote the restaurant.

After about fifteen minutes, the women left in their luxurious cars. Sheila stood at the entrance of the restaurant, waving politely at the departing cars.

"This is our chance!" I said.

Before the others left their seats, I rose to my seat and called out to Sheila.

"SHEILA! HEY, SHEILA!"

Sheila Elliott froze visibly when she saw me. For a minute, she looked lost. Maybe she did not even remember me. And then, she cracked a smile at me.

"You are..."

"I am... we met at the \'Sweet and Salty\' cafe, in St. Louis town," I tried to trigger her memories. "Do you remember?"

I pulled Livina toward us. "You were having a chat with Alice about your delicious scones. And then Lara here," I also pulled HellWitch toward us.

"Lara spilled some of the blueberry sauce onto her blouse. You helped to get it laundered and dried."

Sheila\'s eyes dimmed when she recognized us.

"Oh. It\'s you guys."

"Yeah," I broke into a smile. "Listen, can we talk to you for a while?"

Next to me, HellWitch grew impatient with our useless small talks. "Cecil?" she called out to Sheila. "You are Cecilia, aren\'t you?"

Pain flashed across Sheila Elliott\'s eyes. She curled her fingers into fists and looked down at the meticulous stone pavement for a while before she raised her eyes to look at us.

"Why don\'t we... go inside and talk?" she said.

Just like that, we went back inside "Le Petit Parisian", despite the disapproving looks that the blonde receptionist threw us.