Afterlife Dream

We all turned our heads to Cecilia at the same time. I gaped at her. Did I hear wrong or did Cecilia just claim to know where to find the Dimensional Master?

HellWitch took her hand off the doorknob and turned to face Cecilia. There was doubt in her eyes, but just like every each of us, she was eager to know.

"Do you mind telling us?" she asked icily.

As if afraid of displeasing HellWitch further, Cecilia quickly nodded.

"You guys wait here. I will bring it here."

"It"?

I furrowed my brows. Was it a tool to find the Dimensional Master? Something like a map? A compass maybe?

Cecilia walked toward the door and opened it. Before she left, she poked her head through the door and threw us all a miserable look.

"Guys, we were all once good friends. Please do eat the pastries and drink the tea, alright? I will be back soon."

HellWitch mumbled a "Hmph".

Livina tugged at her sleeve. "Come on, HellWitch. Cecilia looks so pitiful. We might not see her anymore so why don't we just make today one last, beautiful memory?"

HellWitch glared at the girl.

"What beautiful memory? She is ditching us to live this pompous life of a princess!"

"HellWitch, that is her choice to make," I emphasized. "Look, she manages to find the clue that we all fail to find. We should just say thank you and goodbye and be done with it."

Meanwhile, Theo and ZhaoYun had already gone back to the couch and were both munching on the mini pastries at the very moment.

"Wow," ZhaoYun remarked with a full mouth. "These pastries are GOOD! Guys just come here and try some!"

"The milk tea is also very nice!" Lazarus quipped. "Lara, come and take a sip!"

I laughed. Looked like Cecilia's culinary skills were as excellent as they were back in Oakstone Tavern. I went over to sample the tea and pastries.

It was delicious. The buttered layers were both crispy and delicate. They seemed to disappear as soon as I bit into them, leaving only the warm filling inside. Melted cheese, fresh strawberry jam, sweet orange marmalade.

"Taste it," I told HellWitch when she deigned to sit next to me. Seeing that she remained stubborn, I pushed her cup of milk tea toward her.

"Hmph." Her expression was still sour, but she drank the tea anyway. And ate the pastries.

"This will be the last time we eat anything that Cecilia made," Livina sighed. "I am going to miss her so."

"Not for long," HellWitch commented. "After we defeat the Dimensional Master, most likely we will all exit the Afterlife Dream realm soon. We won't remember anything anymore. We will be reborn into our next life."
That only made the whole thing even sadder, in my opinion. I knew that memory loss was part of the reincarnation plan, but I wished I could still stay with my good friends even in my next life. Would it not be great? To be surrounded by good friends as we went through one adventure after another in life together?

The door opened again and revealed Cecilia who brought a neatly folded-up newspaper. It was pressed to her chest like some sort of a treasure. She looked relieved to see us finally eating the snacks and drinking the milk tea that she prepared.

"Is that the afternoon edition?" I squinted at the newspaper that she brought.

"Yes," she confirmed.

The table was cleared from the cups and plates, then the newspaper was spread on top of it.

"We can't read the articles," HellWitch pointed out. "So what's the meaning of this?"

"You can read no articles but a single one," Cecilia said. She pored through the newspaper sheets until she found what she was looking for.

We all leaned over to take a better look at an article that was half a page long. Just like Cecilia said, for some reason, we were able to read the article. It was the only one that was not blurry.

"How come it changed?" Lazarus commented. "We have looked at this newspaper so many times. All articles used to be blurry."

"The new mission," ZhaoYun pointed out. "Let's read."

The article was about a certain Mr. Devin Wentworth who gave a groundbreaking speech about the game revolution at the MMORPG Convention of the year the same morning.

"Mr. Devin Wentworth, who this year turned seventeen years old, had opened the eyes of all stakeholders in the gaming industry. MMORPG is no longer a waste of time, a useless hobby that parents disdain and do not want their children to engage in. In the future, MMORPG will be an extension of the life that we currently know.

'Death does not have to be the end. Even if we die in this current life, we can still remain alive in the game server. Our legacy shall go on,' so Mr. Wentworth claimed."

"It sounds a lot like 'Afterlife Dream'," I remarked.

Cecilia nodded fervently.

"Not only that, don't you guys think that it is such a coincidence that exactly this one article in the newspaper becomes visible after our party is complete?"

"So what you want to say is..."

Cecilia tapped at the name "Devin Wentworth".

"This is the Dimensional Master, the guy that we are looking for."

Livina pressed both palms against her cheek.

"It says here that this Devin Wentworth guy gave a speech about the future of MMORPG in the MMORPG convention this morning."

"So we have to ambush him there."

"Where does this convention take place anyway?" ZhaoYun asked with a frown. "It's not like anyone can come and go as they want. We need to get tickets. And we can't get it because the day keeps repeating!"

"Well uh. I can get you guys tickets," Cecilia said with a small voice. "My company gets complimentary tickets to this kind of event every year so..."

"..."

There were really some unknown perks to being rich.

"So uh, Cecil, can you get us in?" I asked.


"Sure! I can even accompany you guys to meet the Dimensional Master!" Cecilia cried in excitement.

HellWitch was not as forgiving. She pinned Cecilia with a glare. "I thought you aren't coming. You don't have to force yourself to come with us. We happily take the tickets from your hand."

"Aish, HellWitch!" Livina stomped at the carpeted floor.

"Cecil, don't mind her. She is a little uh, cranky."

Cranky was an understatement. HellWitch was downright unhappy. Cecilia pulled her lips into a thin line.

"Um, the thing is, I can get the tickets but if I come with you, you guys have the chance to speak to Devin Wentworth directly."

I widened my eyes.

"So, like a backstage pass?"

I heard of such things before. Visitors with backstage passes get to meet the singers or band or whatever performers directly. I never knew that it also worked that way for someone like Devin Wentworth.

Cecilia nodded in affirmation. "Yes. I can bring you to him."

What else could we ask for? Even HellWitch had no word of objection.

"Okay then!" Cecilia beamed at us. "I will get us all tickets for the convention early tomorrow morning. What about we meet up at the train station at 8 AM?"

"9 AM is so early," I commented. "How can we make it there that early?"

I checked the location of the convention. It took place in a town named Gathersby. The town was at least two hours away from St. Louis town by train.

"You kinda have to make it," Cecilia shrugged. "Can you not sneak out of your house?"

"Early in the morning?"

I was not sure. I never did that. It sounded... dangerous.

"Let's meet up at the train station, Antares," HellWitch spoke to me. "We can go together. Let's take the 6 AM train."

Three people were definitely better than alone. I quickly agreed.

Cecilia offered to let us stay at the restaurant that night. When the next morning came, the day would repeat anyway and we would be back in our own homes.

The second floor of the restaurant was Cecilia's living quarter. Just like the living room, the guest bedrooms were magnificent. It was so huge that four people could sleep in the room with two people sleeping on the bed and two more on an additional mattress.

The boys got to sleep in one room and the girls in the other.

We said our good nights and slipped into our bedroom for the night. While I lay on the bed and closed my eyes, I heard Lazarus and ZhaoYun talking about the game convention until late into the night. Both of them were avid gamers, so they were naturally very excited to visit the convention.

"It is not easy to get a ticket there, you know," ZhaoYun told Lazarus.

"Really? Gosh. I wonder what it would be like!"

"I watched some video streams about the past conventions. It is really cool."

I yawned and soon fell asleep.