New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1049: "You Did What?!

Everyone went to Aapo, wishing their farewells, as he nodded and kept words to a minimum, trying to look at them as little as possible while his face burned up.

It was easy to see for all of them that we didn't like goodbyes, and most of them were comprehensive about it, keeping their words to a minimum.

But not everyone was so thoughtful.

"Thanks for coming, Aapo!" David's voice echoed from the plane's staircase.

"I hope you come with us again on the next hunts, dude!" he added, not even bothering to

leave the stairs.

Aapo waved his hand, not turning around, thinking it was enough of an answer. But David wasn't satisfied.

"What, not gonna answer?" he asked mockingly.

Aapo mumbled a reply, but even those closer to him barely heard him.

"I couldn't quite catch that, dude. Come again?" David doubled down.

He was trying to beat away the shyness from Aapo in his own twisted way. His way of being a good friend, he thought.

"Sure. I'd be glad to join again," Aapo reiterated, a little louder.

"Louder, bro! I can barely hear anything from the thunderclaps earlier!" David shouted, acting like he was half deaf.

Alex turned around to glare at him.

"Knock it off, asshole. You heard him fine. You could hear a pin drop in the bottomless pit you call a heart, you shithead," Alex admonished him.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

David laughed his ass off, waving his hand at Aapo's back.

"See ya around, bud!" he hollered before returning up the stairs to the aircraft.

Alex sighed loudly, shaking his head annoyingly.

"What are we going to do with his crappy attitude? I swear he tries on purpose to get on everyone's nerves," he groaned.

"Sound's about right," Kary commented, walking to his side and leaning her head on his shoulder.

Alex smiled as he felt the weight of her head on him.

"I'm sad he won't join us in getting Gu Fang. Regardless of how strong the members of the Zhong Kui can get, I doubt they can deflect bullets," Alex chuckled, thinking about their faces when a rifle would have been pointed at it.

Kary nodded slightly.

"Yeah, he would have been a great deterrent for them doing stupid shit," she said, thinking about the last time they confronted the group.

Bitter thoughts crossed her mind, remembering the rude little bastard that kept calling her a bitch, and she felt her body heat up.

Alex also felt it from the side, as her hair started flickering with flames.

"Hey, careful. You'll burn my shirt," he chuckled, sliding his hand over her head to extinguish the embers forming.

She took a deep breath, exhaled the nasty thoughts with her lungful of air, and apologized.

"Sorry. Just the thought of seeing that little bastard again riles me up."

Alex kissed the top of her head, grabbing her in an embrace.

"Don't worry about it. If he tries anything stupid, this time, I'll make sure he goes to an early grave. I held back last time to keep from making enemies. But it seems that the organization wants nothing more than to make an enemy out of me.

"So I'm about to give them what they want. My patience has its limits, and they are about to find out what happens when you push past them," Alex said, his tone becoming sharp with killing intent.

Kary felt a slight shiver pass through her as Alex's mana spiked slightly, but she found herself unaffected by the threats of death he was spouting. She quickly realized it was because of her hatred toward the Zhong Kui.

She felt neither pity nor empathy toward the group when he threatened to kill them. Usually, this would have scared her, as the thought of killing people was anything but natural to her. But there was nothing this time.

She had also reached her threshold of empathy toward them, just as she had toward Constantine Levesque and her assistant. As the thought of the woman crossed her mind, she remembered their last altercation.

"I was thinking about something, and I was wondering. What happened with Constantine last time? I haven't heard about her since we last saw her, and you disappeared with her."

Alex's blood froze for a second, hearing Constantine's name. He had no idea what happened to her after he left her half-dead in the tundra, and he wasn't sure telling Kary that was a good idea.

"You know, that is a good question. Last I saw her, she was still alive. I don't really know what happened after that," he said, trying to brush the subject off.

Kary pushed away from his embrace, her face turning into a mask of concern.

"What do you mean, you don't know? What did you do?" she asked, worried he had done something stupid.

Alex looked at her with a wry smile.

"Nothing much. I might have roughed her up to cool off her delusions of power and growing arrogance. But I swear I left her alive. I'm sure a passing Cessna found her after that, he he he..." he chuckled nervously.

"A passing Cessna? Where the hell did you go with her?" Kary asked, worry growing inside

her.

Alex scratched the back of his head nervously.

"I might have left her in the James Bay, to cool off on her own..."

It took Kary a moment to comprehend what he told her, and face scrunched up in anger.

"You left her for dead in an inhospitable environment? Did you want her to die?"

Alex exhaled tiredly.

"I might have at the moment. I'm sure she's okay, though. She was strong enough to invoke an armour that was at least at the legendary grade. I'm sure she woke up from the beating I

gave her and found her way back..."

"You left her unconscious?!" Kary whisper-shouted, baffled by his words.

"What if she died? Who is going to run New Eden? What if they never reconnect the game servers, and we can't go back until the demon invasion happens?" she asked angrily, pulling him away from the others.

Alex followed her without resisting. He was guilty, so there was no point.

"Like I said, I'm sure she's fine. She was a resilient little bitch. There is no point in worrying about her right now. Let's focus on the Zhong Kui, yes?" he asked, trying to worm his way out

of this argument.

Kary glared at him, cursing under her breath. But he was right.

"Fine. But once this is done, we are doing some research. She better be alive, Alex. Even if she

was a cunt, she didn't deserve to die."

Alex nodded his head reluctantly.

'You say that, but you weren't there to hear her delusions...'