Soon after sitting down face-to-face with Mai Mingle for the first time, Chaisi had realized something. That vague, uncanny "otherness" about her was like a feather sticking up from the back of a collar—not a big deal, not overly conspicuous, yet impossible to ignore.
He had played a few games in his youth, especially back when World of Warcraft was popular.
Mai Mingle's demeanor always reminded him of a video game character: a soul piloting the avatar of a "younger Mai Mingle," roaming the world with tireless enthusiasm.
"You've returned to your peak, and you're not even… thirty? You have decades of life ahead of you now," he had asked back then. "Why get mixed up with the Nest? You could do anything you want."
Mai Mingle looked like she was about to speak, but she swallowed her words.
Two seconds later, she suddenly smiled. "You might not believe it, but this is the very thing I want to do."
Chaisi raised an eyebrow.
