"I'll face this together with you. Please… please don't leave me alone…"
Momonga's voice trembled as he spoke to the friend standing before him. He was scared. Truly scared. Scared of Naohara's secrecy, and even more afraid that when he woke up tomorrow, Naohara would simply be gone.
When he first read the message, his reaction wasn't anger. It was fear.
Thinking back on Naohara's recent behavior, the marked calendar in his room, and the contents of that message, a horrifying thought flashed through his mind.
"Suicide."
The moment the word surfaced, Momonga was shaken to the core. It was the one possibility he never wanted to consider. He instinctively tried to deny it, but the information in front of him left him unable to refute it.
He did everything he could to keep up appearances, calmly sending Herohero away so that only Naohara and he would remain.
The moment they reached the warehouse, Momonga could no longer endure it. He exploded, roaring as he vented the fear and terror he had been suppressing.
Voices filled with tangled emotions echoed through the warehouse, violently assaulting Naohara's mind.
Naohara stared at his friend, who was shouting accusations at him, his expression complicated. For a moment, he had no idea how to respond.
He had thought he could hide everything for just two days and that it wouldn't be a problem. Who could have known it would be exposed so quickly, and at a moment like this?
With the game about to shut down, the developers, hoping to squeeze out one last big profit, had released a flood of rare items.
So after logging off yesterday, Naohara sold everything he could liquidate. He even took out loans. He kept a portion of the money and poured the rest into the game, buying up all kinds of rare items.
The portion he kept, he secretly hid under Momonga's bed. It was the savings he had accumulated over years of working. Because of how much he spent on the game, it wasn't a large sum, but it would still be enough to improve Momonga's life.
All of this was preparation for transmigration.
If he succeeded, the loans wouldn't matter. If he didn't, then the next day he would take the medication he had prepared in advance and end his life.
The money he left for Momonga was in case Momonga didn't transmigrate either. After all, Momonga was his only friend.
Everything had been planned perfectly.
Naohara just never expected things to go wrong at the very end.
"I… I'm sorry…"
He opened his mouth to say more, but in the end, only an apology came out. At a time like this, he didn't know how to explain anything.
Should he tell him directly that he was preparing to transmigrate? That would only make him worry more. After all, transmigration, put another way, was no different from dying.
Thinking it through, Naohara realized helplessly that whether he told the truth or lied, everything still circled back to death.
"I'll log off later and go to your place to stay with you. I'll take the next few days off."
After venting, Momonga's emotions seemed to settle slightly, and he spoke in a gentler tone.
"I'll help you pay off your debts. You can come work at my company. It's tiring, but we can support each other. We can play new games together, eat together, talk about all kinds of things…"
"So please… don't suddenly disappear one day, okay?"
Momonga slowly wrapped his skeletal arms around Naohara.
Afraid that Naohara might do something irreversible, he desperately tried to pull him back from the edge.
"…Thank you, Satoru. I'm really glad I met you, my friend."
Naohara raised his arms and hugged him back. The hard sensation of bone pressed against him, yet it felt incomparably warm.
"It's really a blessing to have met you in this life, Satoru. Maybe living out a lifetime like this, just like you said, wouldn't be so bad after all."
Naohara thought silently.
For the first time, he felt that perhaps transmigration wasn't that important after all. As long as his friend was by his side, what difference did it make whether he transmigrated or not?
Everyone has something in life that they cherish above all else.
And perhaps, he had already found his.
"Me too. I'm really glad I met you, Naohara."
Momonga replied. Feeling that he had finally gotten through to him, the tight knot in his chest loosened at last. He had been terrified that Naohara might still spiral back into those thoughts.
If it really came to that, he would have threatened him with his own life. No matter what, he couldn't let him die. Even if it meant sacrificing himself.
"By the way, shouldn't we go find Blackie? He's probably been waiting for us for a long time."
Naohara suddenly remembered that Herohero was still waiting and spoke up quickly.
"Oh no, I completely forgot about Herohero! It's already been over ten minutes!!"
Momonga had been lost in thought, but Naohara's words snapped him back to reality instantly.
Seeing the system clock showing 11:20, Momonga let out a despairing cry.
"I'm sorry, Herohero! I really didn't mean to! Please forgive me!"
"Ahem, we should hurry and grab the items. There isn't much time left, and Blackie might get angry."
"Oh right, right! Hurry, hurry! I think they're over here."
"Phew, good thing they weren't placed in the Mausoleum. Otherwise, we'd have to run all the way over there."
Frantically clicking through the warehouse interface and pulling out the items, Momonga finally let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, those new World-Class Items hadn't been stored in the Mausoleum. Otherwise, there was no way they could've retrieved them this quickly.
"Looks like that 'the server's shutting down, no one will steal them' mindset actually helped us out. Not putting them in the Mausoleum saved us this time."
Naohara couldn't help teasing him as he watched Momonga fumble around.
"Well, being able to justify laziness this confidently… Naohara, you really are something."
Momonga rubbed his smooth skull. Seeing that Naohara had completely recovered, he felt genuinely relieved.
'Just to be safe, I'll move in with him tomorrow and keep an eye on things for a month.'
Still unwilling to let his guard down, Momonga made a quiet decision.
"Alright, now that we've got them, let's go."
Naohara urged him on. He had already sorted things out in his mind. The worries that had weighed him down before felt like they'd vanished. Transmigration still mattered to him, but it no longer obsessed him the way it once had. Right now, he just felt light, as if a burden had finally been lifted.
Like a limp stick suddenly becoming solid without warning, he felt reborn.
"Naohara!"
"What is it?"
"Nothing. I just suddenly felt like calling your name."
"Satoru!"
"Then I'll call yours too. Can't let you have all the fun."
They looked at each other, and after a few seconds, both burst out laughing.
...
Sixth Floor Arena.
Herohero was dozing off, his head drooping.
"Naohara, Momonga, why are you two still not here…"
"I'm really about to hit my limit…"