Chương 74: Lloyd's Price

Complete shock spread across Lloyd's face. — H-how did you find out? The man let out a faint, almost bitter laugh, closing his eyes, as though the question itself struck him as painfully naive, the wrinkles around his shut eyelids deepening for a moment in the dim glow of the hallway light, casting uneven, trembling shadows across the yellowed wallpaper. — Lloyd, I'm not an idiot. Your recent injuries, on top of the fact that you're planning to go off somewhere on the exact day of the Exam.

Lloyd only lowered his gaze, trying not to meet his father's eyes, feeling everything inside him tighten with a familiar, dragging shame, spreading through his chest like a cold, thick wave. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other without meaning to, as though that simple movement could somehow delay the inevitable continuation of the conversation, while somewhere behind the wall the refrigerator hummed quietly again — a strangely mundane sound in the middle of a gathering storm.

— Are you going to stop me? His father looked at Lloyd with a hollow, distant stare — the kind of look worn by people who've spent too long fighting something entirely beyond their control — and in the next instant he seemed to snap, all his exhaustion instantly transforming into a burst of pure, uncontrolled fury, breaking loose like a dam that could no longer hold back the pressure. — Stop you? Of course I'm going to stop you! How could you even do this? Do you really not care about me and Rozi at all?

Does our opinion mean so little to you that you don't even factor it in? His voice cracked into a hoarse shout, echoing off the narrow hallway walls, his fingers — hanging limp at his sides a moment ago — now clenched into fists, knuckles white with tension. At that moment, Lloyd himself — his past self — broke into shouting too, and now, watching this scene unfold from the outside, three days later, it all looked even more absurd, even more painful than he remembered.

The watching Lloyd caught himself wanting to look away, to close his eyes, to flee this memory — but the dream offered him no such luxury, holding him in place with invisible chains, forcing him to witness every second of this scene all over again. — Don't care about your opinion? What was I supposed to do? You'd just try to stop me, exactly like you're doing right now.

Spit flew from the past Lloyd's mouth along with the words, and he jabbed a finger sharply toward Rozi's room, its door still shut tight at the end of the hallway, as though the door itself were a silent witness to everything unfolding, a silent keeper of secrets neither of them had ever dared speak aloud. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. — At least we're lucky she doesn't know!

His father immediately started shouting back over him, waving his arms as though trying to physically hold his son in place with nothing but words, as though if he yelled loud enough, reality itself might bend, and his son might change his mind and stay home, safe within these cramped, familiar walls. — How don't you understand, Players aren't immortal! Do you even know how many of them die in a single day? You're walking straight toward certain death!

No amount of money in the entire universe could bring you back to me. Nothing could save you! He forced the last words out, gasping for breath, his chest heaving heavily, thick beads of sweat forming on his forehead and trailing down through the deep lines of his face, leaving damp tracks across his haggard features. — I don't want to lose you too.

Veins bulged across the past Lloyd's face, and his voice came out so sharp, so desperate, that the watching Lloyd barely recognized himself in it, as though he were looking at a complete stranger, driven by something far stronger than simple stubbornness. — That's exactly why I can't turn down this chance. Who else but me could save her?

His father's eyebrows shot up, and he took an involuntary step back, as though the words had struck him harder than any physical blow, staggering as though the ground beneath him had suddenly tilted, his shoulder slamming back into the doorframe. — You idiot. Do you even know what it takes to save her? His father gasped for air greedily, his voice trembling, breaking on the most important words, as though speaking them aloud was unbearably painful, as though each one had to be dragged out of him with pliers.

— Rank seven. You'd need to reach at least rank seven to have even the slightest chance of saving her. Are you seriously telling me — you? An ordinary person who hasn't even lived a full year in this new world — want to climb that high? A pained, bitter smile crossed his father's face, more a grimace of agony than anything resembling amusement, his eyes glinting for a moment with something suspiciously close to unshed tears. — Don't make me laugh, Lloyd.

A faint bead of sweat rolled down the watching Lloyd's face, his chest tightening with something heavy and familiar — he remembered this conversation in painstaking detail, every word, every inflection, and living through it again proved no easier than the first time, and maybe even harder — because now he could see not just his own pain, but the pain hidden beneath his father's fury too, the pain of a man who'd spent too long afraid of losing everything he had left, pain disguised as anger, because showing it openly was simply too frightening for him to bear.

"So that's how it is." Lloyd had needed to reach the heights, had needed to transform himself from a failure into something more. But how was an ordinary failure supposed to accomplish anything at all, when no one believed in him — not the neighbors, not the few acquaintances he had, not even his own family, who watched him with that same blend of pity and disappointment reserved for something hopelessly broken, something people had long since stopped trying to fix. Not even his own father.