MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 210

Chapter 210: No One Can Replace You
After they received their medals, Alice left to have a quick chat with her two friends.

Adam, left alone, walked along the grass patch while the participating students cheered and celebrated their victories around him.

There was youthfulness in the air.

‘It takes me back to my school days.’ Adam thought wistfully, reminiscing about the carefree days of his youth.

“Hey~”

At that moment, he was suddenly surrounded by a group of schoolgirls, their eyes full of innocence and curiosity.

“Yes, what is it?” Adam had to look way down as he towered over the schoolgirls by a big margin.

Their chirpy, melodious laughter filled the air as they bombarded him with questions.

Since they hadn’t seen someone like him in the school corridor’s before, they immediately knew that he must be a brother or relative of one of their classmates.

In their innocent eyes, he looked mature compared to the boys of their class, and it was attractive to them.

The boys of their class just looked with jealousy in their eyes.

However, before Adam could answer any of the questions, he felt a tug on his hand and turned to see Alice angrily pulling him away from the schoolgirls, puffing and red in the face.

“I left you alone for a moment!” Alice huffed in anger.

Adam scratched the back of his head and asked. “They came to me. I didn’t do anything.”

“Right, right.” Alice looked at him with a pout. “You must’ve been happy, though. Being popular!”

With a shoulder shrug, Adam asnwered. “They’re just kids in my eyes.”

“Am I too?” Alice asked, her face turning redder by the moment.

“Yes…?” Adam tilted his head.

Alice kicked him in the shin and stormed away back to her friends with tears in her eyes.

“Ouch…” Adam looked at his leg and then at Alice, who was walking away. “That hurt…”

While Alice was of adult age, and their age gap was just a couple of years, he always saw her as that little kid who liked to play with dolls.

However, he couldn’t help but remember Alice’s future—her death and the pain that came from losing her.

‘I acted blindly towards her feelings, but the way Serah spoke to me after her funeral, it seems like she never forgot me while I forgot her because my life circled around Mortal Online.’

He felt like it was heading again in the same direction as in the past.

He didn’t want that to happen.

‘I don’t want to lose her again…’

He put his hands in his pockets and kicked a small rock that was lying on the ground. The rock rolled a few meters away before coming to a stop.

With steady and strong steps, he walked over to the grassy hills where the three young women were sitting—Laura and Reina were wondering what was going on with Alice, who stayed quiet and sad-faced.

“Alice.” Adam walked over to her, but she ignored him and looked down at her hands in her lap.

Laura and Reina stayed tight-lipped, realizing that something must’ve happened between them.

Adam crouched in front of her and softened his voice while talking to her.

“Alice, the next event is about to start.”

“I don’t care.” Alice said. “I am going home…”

“We’re not alone in this relay. We’re participating with two others.”

“You can find someone to replace me.” Alice said. “Laura or Reina can replace me…”

Laura and Reina exchanged looks—they had never seen Alice like this before, who was usually chirpy and cheerful.

Adam looked at her in sadness and whispered. “Nobody can replace you…”

Hearing that, Alice’s ears perked up as she felt like those words held pain and loneliness that seemed to have come from decades of buried emotions.

Adam offered his hand to her and said, “I only want to do this with you.”

Alice looked at the hand and softly grabbed it. “Fine, but in one condition.”

“What is it?”

“If we win, you’ll do whatever I say.” Alice looked at him with a pink blush spread across her cheeks. “Deal?”

“Deal.” Adam smiled and helped her to her feet.

A school’s bell rang across the sports fields, and then the announcer’s voice came—it was telling that the next event was about to start.

It was a relay race—4×100 meters, but each team had two females and two males.

“Good luck!” Reina and Laura cheered them on.

Adam and Alice headed to the starting line and joined up with two other members of their team, who also managed to get a bronze medal from another running event, so the team wasn’t that bad.

After sharing a few words, they went in their own ways and walked to their starting positions, stretching and warming up for the race.

Risa—a young woman from Alice’s class was their starter. She had some sports experience and managed to get a bronze medal in the women’s 100-meter dash.

The second runner was her partner in other team-based events—Quill—and he won bronze in the men’s 200-meter dash.

While he was more of an endurance runner, he was still pretty quick on his feet.

Then, as their third runner, Alice, who was athletic in her own right. She didn’t participate in other running events and only took part in the three-legged race so far, where she got bronze with Adam.

And, as the anchor, Adam shook his legs loose and did some final stretches.

He wasn’t much of a sportsman, but he had trained tirelessly for the past year, whether it was running, push-ups, or lifting weights. He was pretty confident in his own speed.

On the line beside his own, Markus looked deadly cold as he did some stretches.

After the embarrassing three-legged race, he wanted to win this one—he wanted to crush the person that was standing on the left line.

His team was most likely the best one—his partner from the three-legged race won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter dash, and the two other people in their team were silver medalists in other running events.

“I will win.” Markus turned to Adam and shouted this time around. “I’ll crush you!”

“Whoo.” Ignoring the taunts coming from near him, Adam slapped his hands at his thighs. ‘My body, you better not fail me.’

“Runners get ready!” The announcer’s voice sounded.

At the starting line, Risa twirled the baton in her hand, slightly nervous as she always was before the start.

Because she was the starter, she had to run the curve, and she wasn’t very experienced in that position, but when she looked next to her, she didn’t really recognize any of them that might be faster than her.

Except one, ponytail girl who had beaten her in the 100-meter dash and got a silver medal. She was part of the same team as Markus.

Risa knew that beating that team was impossible, and that team was pretty unfair. Every other team had someone that wasn’t a student, like a father, brother, or some relative.

Most of them were in the race for fun and hadn’t properly done any sports in years.

‘I’ll need to make a big gap immediately to others. As long as I am second when it’s Quill’s turn, I’ll be fine with that.

‘I don’t know how quick Alice is, but she will most likely lose positions, and our anchor is Adam… He looks nice… I believe he can hold his own weight in this race and get us a medal, at least.’

“Alright, the race starts!”

The announcer’s voice sounded.

Risa, and every starter running went into their running positions—they just waited for the pistol to signal the start.

It didn’t take long.

BANG!

And just like that, the race started.