Lohan stared at his cracked phone screen for several seconds, feeling the weight of that notification.
In his [Atlas Bank] account, where a measly $92 had once glimmered after settling the score with Oscar, the current $6,092.00 seemed to shine in an unreal way.
’This girl is hopeless... does she really think she can solve everything with a blank check?’ Lohan thought, letting out a sigh as he laughed while finishing his Grade A nutritional supplement. The taste was barely acceptable, but the energy coursing through his muscles made him feel like he could break through a concrete wall if he wanted to.
Especially after reaching Level 10, the level of integration he was experiencing in the real world had increased even further, making his anticipation for reaching Level 11 even greater.
Without a second thought, he opened the Syn app.
[Hayes: Lisa, where did this 3:1 rate come from? We agreed on 1:1! 🤨 ]
Lohan barely had time to lock the screen when his phone vibrated, showing that she was online, likely waiting for this.
[Lisa: Oh, I know you wanted the 1:1 rate, but considering I was going to pay 2:1 to the guild members, I couldn’t let the Vice President get less than them, so I did it my way. 😂 💅 ]
Lohan couldn’t even get frustrated, an involuntary smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. He could already picture Isabella’s face on the other end, mixed with the face of the fox Lisa, laughing at him while trying to keep a serious expression, but with traces of mischief appearing on her face.
Through their time together in the game, Lohan felt increasingly confident in playing the fox and understanding what she was thinking, even if she tried to show otherwise.
Looking again at the more than $6,000 in credits in his bank account and knowing how that money would likely change his life in this world for the better, he didn’t complain anymore.
[Hayes:
Reading that message, Isabella, who was lying in her bathtub relaxing in the hot water while cleaning the dirt off the nutrition capsule, froze.
Every time Halon called her Bella, he’d make some comment as if to make it clear he knew her identity.
’Should I just ignore it again and pretend I don’t know what he’s talking about? But if I do that and run into him tomorrow at college, it might be even worse... but what if I admit it and he gets mad at me? Damn it, Alice, why did you have to be such a blabbermouth?!’ She thought, groaning in frustration as she curled up even lower in the hot bathwater, unsure how to respond.
In the end, after thinking for a few minutes, she felt there was no point in dragging this out any longer and asked directly.
[Lisa: Do you know who I am? 🫣]
[Hayes: Actually, to be completely honest, I’m still stuck at 99% certainty; I think I can only bump that up to 100% with confirmation coming directly from you. Before, I was completely lost, but considering how you acted when Julian Neal used the college system to gas me, and how much you looked like my best friend the fox in her enraged form, I think I’d be a fool not to be able to guess.]
Reading that, Isabella felt a mix of emotions.
’He still isn’t 100% sure that Lisa is Isabella Vance, even though he talks to me as if he were certain... at this point, if I pretend I’m not Isabella, it wouldn’t be impossible to fool him for a little longer, but should I?’
Thinking about her relationship with Halon, the sincerity he had shown, and his lack of interest in her money or connections, Isabella decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But then a mischievous smile appeared on her face.
Instead of saying it directly, she did as he did, simply continuing the conversation to show she knew what he was talking about.
[Lisa:
Lohan read that reply and laughed.
Even though she was admitting she knew what he was talking about, and acting as if she were the Isabella who helped him in college, the words she used to confirm it managed to confirm nothing!
Even someone with absolutely no context about what happened could send a reply like that and pretend she knew what he was talking about.
The bluish glow of the cell phone illuminated the interior of his dark apartment and the smile that curved his face.
This was a classic tactic of someone with experience in public relations... a rhetorical dodge that left room for denial if things got complicated.
Lohan leaned her head against the peeling wall, but didn’t mind. Having known Lisa for almost a month, spending the whole day with her, he felt that this response was more of a provocation to him than a precaution against him.
[Hayes: Admitting without admitting? You really have a knack for politics, little fox. But okay, I’ll accept this "quasi-confirmation" for now, Lady Isabella. 🤣]
Isabella let out a sigh of relief so deep that small bubbles rose to the surface of the water. Her fear that Halon would change the tone of the conversation upon discovering who she was in the real world began to dissipate.
With his teasing, it became clear that he was still the same Slime she knew.
[Lisa: If you dare call me "Lady Isabella," I swear I’ll turn you into a blue rug for the guild hall! 😂 ]
Lohan laughed out loud. It was strange, but knowing that Isabella was Lisa made everything they’d built in the game even more precious to him.
Unlike the girl from a distant planet he’d imagined her to be, knowing that his friend lived so close—close enough that they saw each other daily—was shocking.
The Human Federation is massive, with a total population of tens of billions of people.
The odds of them meeting in Elysium were almost infinitesimal, almost as if it weren’t even a true coincidence...
After the confirmation, the two continued chatting about random things.
The confirmation of their identities, rather than driving them apart, as Isabella feared, actually brought them even closer.
Both because Isabella sensed even greater sincerity in Halon, and because Lohan also trusted the girl he "knew" personally more.
Amid their exchange of messages, it wasn’t until an hour later, already in the middle of the night, that they realized the time and said goodnight to go to sleep.
Neither of them mentioned how they would act the next day at college, trusting each other’s intelligence so that neither would behave in a strange way that might cause problems for the other.