"Don’t forget this part." Lucian pointed at a section of Primo’s worksheet, then paused as his brows lifted slightly.

He raised his head, catching Ashley at the kitchen counter.

She was leaning against it, arms resting on the surface, hands loosely tangled together. Her eyes were fixed on them, but her focus was clearly somewhere else entirely.

Primo, having filled in the part Lucian had pointed to, looked up at him. Seeing his father looking toward the kitchen, he turned too, and caught Ashley zoning out.

It took a moment before she realized they were both watching her.

"Ah." She blinked, refocusing on them, and pushed herself away from the counter. "Right. I forgot I need to take care of something."

She was already moving as she said it. "I’ll be back in a bit."

With that, she jogged toward the stairs.

Primo tilted his head slightly and looked up at his father. Lucian glanced down at him and shrugged.

"Don’t mind her," Lucian said, ruffling the boy’s head with a casualness that would have been unimaginable not so long ago. "Domination arrived today, so she probably needs to get ready to hand off some of her work."

He hadn’t used Betty’s name directly, but Primo nodded in understanding. He had taken to calling Betty by the same nickname himself — all because of the casual lie Ashley had told them once that had nearly made Betty faint.

*****

Meanwhile, Ashley slipped into their bedroom and went straight to the study desk. She sat down, opened her laptop, and navigated directly to the black market to check on things.

But as soon as she did, she spotted a message from Omen.

[Omen: Where are my items? Come on. There’s a guild war coming up, and there’s prize money on the line!]

Ashley clicked her tongue. She knew he wouldn’t stop pestering her. Worse, he’d stop being useful the moment she stopped paying her dues. She pulled up the game she used to play with Omen and found him online immediately.

[Mr.Handsome123: Ahhh!! What the hell are YOU doing here?!]

Ashley scrunched up her nose. Her character had just spawned in the main town, and since it wasn’t a private channel, Omen’s chat bubble was visible above his character, Mr.Handsome123.

[Moneymaker: Wow! Wow! The big dog is here!] Another character in the main town chimed in, their little figure scurrying toward Ashley’s.

[Let’s party up, please!] Another player rushed over, spamming personalized kissing emotes at her character.

As players flooded toward the most popular and strongest on the server, someone made a public announcement.

[St.MiguelAndTonic: Guys! Welcome back — BBGoddess is here!]

Like a summoning, the main town began filling up one after another. It was just a game, but they were already suffocating her. With so many characters crowding around hers and the chat moving faster than she could follow, she couldn’t even tap on Omen’s character to send him his items.

"Damn it," she muttered. "I don’t have time for this."

She frowned, watching party requests and guild invitations stack up and pop across her screen faster than she could close them.

The public chat was moving so quickly that any message she sent would be buried instantly.

"This place is just as lively as I remember," she whispered, already thinking of a way around it.

She pulled up her inventory and used a teleport item, vanishing from the main town. The moment she disappeared, the public chat erupted.

[Did she go offline?]

[It’s because you guys were spamming her with invites!]

[Wait — BBGoddess is over here!]

Ashley leaned back and watched as someone broadcast her new coordinates. She didn’t move, even as people started teleporting to her location. She waited until the crowd was large enough, then cast a single burst skill and took them all down at once.

The public chat went dead for a moment. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The main town was a safe zone. She couldn’t attack players there. But in certain areas on the map, player kills were fair game.

[BBGoddess: Mr. Handsome, come here.]

[Moneymaker: Uh oh. Mr. Han, what did you do to offend the goddess? Look what happened to everyone! Any priests available?! Need buffs.]

[Mr.Handsome123: I don’t want to!! I don’t have enough Revive Pills today!]

[BBGoddess: Then don’t.]

[Mr.Handsome123: Wait! Wait! Wait!]

Ashley’s brows rose when a trade request popped up on her screen. She confirmed it was from Omen’s username, messaged him to be sure, and he confirmed.

"Wow, so even this game has changed," she muttered. "Trades didn’t use to work like this."

She completed the trade, sending over the items she had promised him.

The moment it went through, Omen lost his mind.

[Mr.Handsome123: Wahaha! I’m the strongest now!]

He broadcast it publicly, letting the entire server know that BBGoddess’s reign was over, because he was now the strongest on the map.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere in the world, a guy chuckled as he stared at the character standing before him on the screen.

"And as the strongest now... you’re done for, Ghost."

Omen, playing as Mr.Handsome123, wound up and cast his most powerful skill, aimed directly at Ashley’s character. If he could take her down today, it would be settled once and for all.

But when the skill landed, it barely dented her health bar.

"Huh?" He froze, jaw slack. "What the hell?"

He double-checked his gear. Everything was equipped. With his new items, she should have evaporated just like all those other players had!

But no.

BBGoddess still had health remaining and was passively regenerating.

The public chat exploded.

[WTF?!]

[LOL! Mr. Handsome, what was THAT?]

[HAHAHA!]

[Mr. Strongest! HAHAHA!]

Omen’s face burned as BBGoddess’s character simply disappeared when Ashley had gone offline.

****

Back to Ashley, she closed the game without a second thought. She already knew Omen was going to pull something like that — whatever sick satisfaction he got from trying. During her peak, he had competed with her constantly. He never learned, and he never won.

"Did he think those were the only items I had?" she muttered. "I have tank gear too."

She didn’t dwell on it and moved on to what she had originally come up here to do. Sure enough, Omen came running to her on the black market almost immediately.

[Omen: Hey! What the hell was that?! How did you tank my skill?!]

[Ghost: Tank items.]

[Omen: S-tier items? I mean, how could you have tank gears when you’re not even a tank role!?]

[Ghost: SSS.]

[...]

[Ghost: Want them?]

[Omen: ...]

[Ghost: Then help me with something.]

Ashley smirked as she kept typing, laying out a short set of instructions.

[Dig up everything you can find on everyone in the underground.]

[Omen: Everyone?]

[Ghost: Everyone.]

[Omen: Fuck!!!]