When Victoria was waiting for Zach to arrive, she was thinking of many things she wanted to do with him.
"First, I will hug him tightly and squeeze his body. The…" Victoria placed her hand on her lips and muttered with a flushed face: "Maybe… a kiss too?"
'The last time I kissed him was when we cleared the 100th floor. It has been a week since then and many things have happened.'
SIGH!
'The incident with Aurora broke Zach's soul. But it's honestly amazing that she is okay now. I can't imagine what would have happened if something serious had happened to her.'
"Victoria!" someone called out to her.
Victoria threw all the thoughts aside and turned around with a smile on his face to see Zach running towards her. But her face twitched when she saw Aria behind him.
'Why is she here?!' Victoria yelled inwardly after seeing Aria.
Zach stopped in front of Victoria and said, "I have come to pick you up."
Victoria looked past Zach's shoulders and glared at Aria without saying anything. And as expected, Aria glared back at her.
Zach glanced back and forth at Aria and Victoria and said, "Can you two stop glaring at each other and save it for another time?"
Victoria hugged Zach's arm and said, "I am hungry. Let's go to a restaurant."
Aria hugged Zach's other arm and said, "I am hungry too."
Zach took Aria and Victoria to a nearby restaurant that also happened to be his favorite restaurant in the entire first realm.
Upon entering the restaurant, he was greeted by the NPCs. However, as soon as they noticed it was Zach— their God, they immediate;y stopped what they were doing and focused all the hospitality on Zach.
They even stopped serving the other players, and the NPCs Zach met on his way to the restaurant also followed him to the restaurant.
"What's happening?" Victoria asked with a confused look on her face. "Why is everyone following us?"
"It's a long story."
Zach walked into the store and noticed his favorite table was already occupied. So he decided to sit at the other table. However, the owner of the restaurant asked the players sitting at the table to move to a different table. Then, they wiped the table clean with a cloth and waited for Zach to sit there.
"…"
Even Zach was surprised to see that they cared more for him than their business. But he felt flattered to be treated that way.
'They are boosting his ego. Great.' Aria thought inwardly.
Zach sat at the table, but then the real challenge began.
The seats on the table were only suitable for two people to sit. So both Aria and Victoria knew that either of them had to comprise and sit in front of Zach rather than sitting beside him.
However, neither of them wanted to make that compromise.
Zach knew that they would eventually turn to him and asked him to choose either of them. And he didn't want to do that.
All this time, Zach has been swearing that he would treat all the girls equally in his harem, and if he ever picked one of them for something, the rest would feel betrayed.
Of course, it was something inevitable and there were many things and occasions where Zach would have to make certain choices, and the girls realized that too. But they wanted to be the one getting selected.
And as he had expected, After glaring at each other for a few seconds, Aria and Victoria turned to him and asked in unison, "Zach. Who do you want to sit next to you?"
"…."
Even though Zach had already expected that he hadn't gotten ready for the answer.
How could he select between either of them? He loved both of them equally, and he didn't want to upset another by choosing one of them. However, if Aurora was between the choices, he would have chosen her without any second thoughts.
After pondering for a while, Zach came up with an idea to avoid any drama.
"How about you two play rock paper scissors?" Zach suggested. "The winner gets to sit next to me."
"Wait, that game is the one where you do hand signs, right?" Aria asked with a confused yet curious look on her face.
"Yes. We played it yesterday," Zach nodded in response.
"Heh!" Aria smirked and said with a proud face: "I have mastered that game. No one can win against me."
"Ready then?" Victoria asked.
"Ready."
Aria and Victoria shook their closed fists and said, "Rock, paper, scissors!"
"…"
The results were surprising.
Victoria had chosen paper, and Aria had chosen rock.
"Impossible!" Aria exclaimed. "There is no way I would lose in such an easy game!"
"Hah!" Victoria scoffed out loud and said, "Guess even the goddess can't win against me."
"Wait! It was best of three," Aria stated with a straight face.
"No, it wasn't." Victoria glanced at Zach and asked, "Was it?"
"I… don't remember mentioning it."
"…" – Aria.
"But you know, what? Okay! Let's do best of three," Victoria uttered with a confident look on her face. "Because I know I will win."
'I have already won once, so now I only need to win one more time and I will get to sit beside Zach!' Victoria declared inwardly.
In the second round, Victoria chose scissors, and Aria chose rock.
"Yes!" Aria rejoiced after winning.
"…"
'Calm down, Victoria. There is no need to freak out. You can still win.' Victoria had already started regretting agreeing to play best of three.
In the third round, Victoria chose paper, and Aria chose rock.
"….!"
"No!"- Aria bellowed.
SIGH!
Victoria sighed in relief and smirked at Aria, who was glaring at her with teary eyes.
"You used a newbie trick— that was to choose rock every time," Victoria asserted.
"It was the best of five!"
"No, it wasn't, you loser! Accept your loss, and let me sit with Zach."
Victoria turned to Zach with a cheerful smile on her face, but her smile vanished when she saw someone else sitting beside Zach.
***
Total players in the game- 1,482,221
0 new players logged in.
14 players died.
===
Author's Note- I missed the deadline, and now we are out of a win-win. I have been dealing with lots of personal and family issues, and I have been stressed out lately. And the pressure of updating 4-5 chapters daily for two books was too much.
However, I will still upload daily.