New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

He curled over the dais, throwing up for fifteen minutes straight, his body expelling the black gunk by the bucket. But once he was done, he felt lighter.

Like his body was a feather, carrying itself through the wind.

Astaroth looked at his status screen and grinned.

"I knew doing this here was for the best. Now I'm ready," he mumbled to himself.

After setting the black gunk aflame, Astaroth rose to his feet and left the underground room, heading to his room on the second floor. He was ready to log out, and Phoenix had already messaged him, a few minutes ago, that she was heading out.

Once he entered his room, he undressed completely, his clothes reeking of sweat and impurities, and shoved them into a laundry basket. He quickly jotted down a note to Coral, who he knew would be furious at the state he left the clothes in.

'I'm sorry. I was doing mana lobe cultivation, and body cleansing and ruined the clothes.There are not enough words in the dictionary to explain how terribly sorry I am!'

He left the note of the basket before switching into his usual armour attire and logging out.

Opening his eyes inside his gaming pod, he could hear the shower running from outside of it and smiled.

He rose from the pod, pushing the lid open with one hand and pulling himself up with the other, and jumped out of it.

He and Kary had been in their pods longer than usual, and yet, he felt no numbness or soreness, as he usually did. But he was smelly and sticky.

'Again, the effects of the body cleansing showed through the pod. I wonder how much of it transpired through?'

But it was something he would find out quickly enough. For now, he needed to clean up. The smell emanating from his clothes and body was horrendous.

He directly threw the clothes into the trash bin, almost certain he could never get the smell out, and walked into the shower.

Kary smelled him before she saw him, and her nose scrunched up.

"Urgh… What the hell happened to you? Did you go swimming in a swamp or something?"

Alex laughed it off and faked trying to grapple her. She shrieked in disgust and stepped back.

"Stop! I just finished cleaning myself."

"Hehe. Don't worry, I'm only kidding. I'll be in here a while to scrub this smell off. Can you make us coffee and something to eat in the meantime?"

 Kary pulled out of the shower, her body still dripping with water, and gave him a quick peck on the lips, nodding her head.

"Sure. Scrub thoroughly. Seriously," she half-joked as she ran out of the bathroom.

It took him half an hour of scrubbing and soaping to get rid of the horrendous smell. He was glad it disappeared, but a bit pissed it took so long.

'It wasn't this bad last time… Mind you, I hadn't improved this much either, last time. I'll just have to take it one step at a time next time.'

Walking out of the shower, Alexander dried himself up before putting on some clean clothes. He put something comfortable, but sporty.

He needed to go to the gym today. He had been skipping it so much lately, he wouldn't be surprised if Clark ripped his head off and shoved it into his asshole.

Sliding his way down the stairs, the smell of fresh coffee hit his nostrils and made him smile.

It was then followed by the smell of bacon, french toast, and maple syrup.

"Mmm. Smells freaking good down here. If this were the sixties, I'd make a housewife out of you," Alex said jokingly.

Kary smirked.

"You couldn't hold down a treasure like me in a home if you tried, handsome. I'd be making the dough, and you'd be my housewife."

They laughed together, Alex leaning into her back and kissing her neck from behind.

"Stop teasing, you horn-dog. It's almost ready. Set the table."

"Aye aye, boss-lady!" Alex mocked, giving her a sloppy salute.

He then pivoted around like a cheap toy soldier and started setting the table with squarish movements, making Kary laugh as she plated the food.

As they sat down to eat, Alex groaned in pleasure at the taste of the food. He had hardly eaten anything that wasn't hospital food in the last week, and this was like taking a bite of heaven to him.

He devoured his plate, Kary laughing at him from the side.

"Slow down, you'll choke, dummy. I don't know if I should be flattered or frightened, hi hi."

Alex finished his food in record time, taking a long sip of coffee to wash down the last bite, and sighed contently.

"That was good. Hospital food sucks, even when it's a first-class hospital. This was like eating actual food for the first time in ages."

Kary giggled.

"Then maybe you should make sure you don't end up in the hospital so often, you reckless baboon," she chided with a smile.

Alex scratched the back of his head with a guilty smile.

"I'm trying, I swear. It's not my fault danger follows me everywhere. It's like my bad luck keeps increasing. I blame David. It wasn't so bad before I met him."

Alex joked about this, but it wasn't all a lie. Ever since he had met with David, both in and out of the game, his life had taken a turn, both good and bad, and he always seemed to end up in harm's way.

But he chalked it up to bad luck. There was no way David had affected this.

Unless he secretly cursed him, or some shit, it could hardly be his fault.

He just needed to be more careful from now on, that's all.