Take Down Chapter 46: Planning Ahead

“You’re such a goof ball,” you chuckled, wrapping your arms around his neck and hugging him tight while he wrapped his thick arms around your back and held you close.

“I’ll do anything to make you smile,” he whispered, squeezing your body against his a little to convey his tender lovingness.

You pulled back a little and your lips met his, a gentle yet passionate kiss ensuing, and although a lot of touching happened, you both kept a level head and didn’t let it go too far.

“What time are we meeting tomorrow to dive it?” Mirio asked as you both settled from your make out session.

“I’m not sure? I’m yet to ring Hansu. Can I text you when I find out?”

“Yes,” he replied with his genuine big grin, “I always love to hear from youveven if it’s ‘work’ related,” he replied,crubbing his nose to yours.

You giggled and hopped off his lap.

“Ok, I’ll let you know. I should probably ring him now and then do a few things around the house. I’ve been in game so much I’ve hardly done any housework!” you said with a grimace.

“If you need any help just let me know,” he replied, standing up, “apart from that, I need to go home and do some study. Got more exams coming up.”

“Good luck,” you said with a smile, walking him to the door. I’ll text you soon.”

“Ok,” he replied, taking your hand and kissing the back of it before giving you a salute and stepping off down the path.

You smiled and watched him go before closing the door and walking back to the laptop.

“I could have sworn that Free would have shown some sign of anything. I hope Hansu has some answers… “

Shaking your head with disappointment, you reached for your phone on the coffee table and rang Hansu, hoping he would have news for you.

“All hail, Queen Y/N,” he greeted dryly.

“All bow for my smartass assistant,” you retorted playfully.

“A compliment! I’m flattered,” Hansu replied in the most monotone voice you had ever hear him use, “now. Are you sitting down? Because I have news.”

“Yes? What is it? Yes. I’m sitting.” you said expectantly, promptly sitting down.

“Your Free person is not Goha,” he said.

A huge wave of disappointment washed over you and you frowned.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Well. close to positive. They, the player behind Free, have an IP address and a character date,” Hansu replied.

“What’s the character date?” you asked him.

He told you and you jumped up to grab your diary from the study.

“Wait..” you muttered, flicking furiously back to the date the character had been made then flicking a few days prior, “Hansu, that’s about 4 days after Goha escaped.”

“That doesn’t mean it is Goha,” Hansu replied.

“I know, but if the character date had been before Goha had gotten out then I would have agreed with your statement about Free not being Goha but it just lines up too perfectly.”

“Do you still think it could be them?”

“I have this feeling in my gut that there is a connection,” you said emphatically, “there’s just something off…”

“The feeling in your gut…Do you just need to fart?”

“Hansu.”

“Ok, ok, I’ll look into the IP address as well. If we can find the physical address and it’s a legitimate place then I’ll go and check it out,” Hansu said.

“No. Don’t go on your own. Take the police with you. I’d offer to come with you myself but, I’ll be honest. I’m scared.”

“I don’t blame you at all. In fact, if you insisted on coming I’d have tied you up so you couldn’t follow,” he replied earnestly.

“That’s a bit forceful, isn’t it?”

“Not when it comes to your safety,” he replied, his honesty making you smile with gratitude.

“Thanks,” you said genuinely.

“Don’t thank me yet we still have a long way to go,” he replied.

“Ok, well in the meantime the team and I have another mission to attend to and Free is trying to tag along but we don’t want her to- one, because we all don’t trust her. And two- because if she gets caught in the fray it could be detrimental to everyone involved.”

Hansu frowned with annoyance but didn’t say anything about how he was feeling about the mission (that to him, wasn’t important) and just wrapped up the conversation, saying he would see you later.

“What time later?” you asked quickly.

“4:30… usual,” he replied.

“Ok, thanks,” you said, hanging up and sitting back, thinking about everything for a moment.

“You know what? I’m so far behind the rest of the team that Mirio is having to literally carry me every step of the way. It’s about time I carried myself. I need to have a little practice of my own to level up… “

…………………………………………..

“What if we left tomorrow?” O/N asked. It was now shortly after 4:30pm and you were all in game together in O/N and Butterfli3’s house, coming up with the plan and details of the rescue mission that had been dubbed ‘incy wincy spider’.

“That sounds good! Oh WAIT…” Migata said, leaning back on his chair with hands resting interlaced on his head, “exams.”

“When are they?” you asked him.

“Next week,” he replied.

“Oh… ok, so it will be another 2 weeks before we can get to rescuing?” O/N confirmed.

“Isn’t that leaving it too long?” you asked.

“We don’t really have choice do we?” O/N replied.

“How long will the trip take to get there?” you asked, your eyes finding Butterfli3 as you rested your elbows down on the table and leaned forward with interest.

“Two or three days I think?” Butterfli3 replied, “to get to the cave we need to go through the level to get there. We can’t just teleport straight to the cave in question.”

“I see,” you replied, “that should be ok. Is there a town on that level that has places to stay?”

“Yes,” Butterfli3 nodded, “it’s a popular level. A lot of people come through daily.”

“That’s good,” you replied, “what about reconnaissance? Are we going to check it out frst before figuring out what to do?”

“We should do that when we all get there. We can sus it out once we get to the cave,” Migata said, taking his hands from his head and sliding one hand down under the table to your leg, “with our collective brains we can come up with something perfect.”

You smiled at him and reached under the table to pat his hand in return.

<<< Take Down Chapter 45: Cuties: Hansu, Mirio, and Y/N

Take Down Chapter 47: Solo >>>