Summer, 21:00

  Victor woke up from sleep, feeling refreshed- as if reborn. That is if the weird, persistent thirst could be ignored.

  The thirst had pgued him the entire day, and no amount of water seemed to quench it. He opened a bottle and drank it completely, but it did nothing other than make him feel bloated.

  "Man, I feel like I've drunk a whole week's worth of water in one day…"

  “…What the hell is happening?"

  There are some obvious changes that are barely noticeable and undeniable so it proves the fact that this is not an illusion.

  My college friends seem normal too.

  "Hmm, Spider?— Let’s do some hand signs to test—”

  Nothing.

  "And nothing seems to work…”

  Well, what happened is definitely an interesting thing—let's put that aside for now, and first complete our daily meeting and game time.

  He boots up his ptop and heads to the fridge to get another bottle of water along with some snacks.

  He shared the link in the group and immediately got a response. The first one to show up is Theo and Leo, a few seconds ter.

  “Wow — It feels like you guys are waiting for it — "

  Theo turned on his mic and camera, "Well among us you are the only one who is this punctual at night".

  Theo was going to say something but after looking at both Victor and Leo, he stopped.

  Victor was about to say more, but then paused, noticing something odd. All three suddenly grew quiet, observing one another.

  Leo spoke first, "So something happened to you guys too huh—”

  "Let's take this to our private network…", Theo suddenly interjected.

  “The drone one? That thing you two made for fun?”

  “yes”

  "Will it even work?"

  "It will but there will be some connectivity and bandwidth issues."

  "Give me a few minutes… You guys prep the drones. Theo, start the server."

  Victor bolted to the basement, startling his cat on the way. He retrieved a dusty drone and an old ptop, connected the drone, and then ran to the terrace. He set it flying at a safe height—high enough not to alert the authorities—and returned to connect to Theo's server after tweaking a few settings.

  They again made a new meeting and rejoined.

  Victor, "This shit came in handy huh…I thought I was the only one after all. In college, I didn't notice anything strange too— “

  Theo nodded. "Same here. I even tried to confirm it discreetly with a few people on Decagram."

  "—You have friends? ", Victor asked, raising a brow with a weird look on his face.

  "Yes. Three. And they're all girls." Theo's smug smile nearly begged to be punched.

  Leo squinted his eyes and with a mocking smile on his face asked. "Are you sure they're girls?"

  Theo's smile instantly vanished, then his face became stiff and after 20 seconds, he got all serious and said, "We are getting out off-topic, our private network is not that good and the drones are pretty old too, let's discuss what happened —”

  “Hehe — ", Victor ughed along with Leo.

  Theo is a little bit naive in these matters, they all know.

  "Your topic-changing skills have leveled up I guess — so who will go first you or Leo?”

  "Leo, you go first you look more—hmm — What can I say, your changes look more than ours —”

  "Are you guys sure —?". Leo hesitated.

  Theo and Victor nodded.

  “Well, where should I start —hmm— It started yesterday night, well today would be the correct word but let’s not think about it."

  "It all started after, I received a call from Victor —" Leo paused for a few seconds and took a deep breath.

  "The call that you didn't even let me pick up or decline. So, I went to pick up the phone, when I felt sleepy all of a sudden and staggered towards my bed, and then felt pain all over my body—"Leo shuddered as he started speaking this part.

  “This was the worst pain one could feel and I felt in 20 years of my life, it was so painful that I can’t even describe it, I felt like I got burned, every part of my body felt like burning like I was being cooked alive — I can't describe the horrible feeling, it was a nightmare with agony, and after that I what felt like an eternity, I lost consciousness and don't remember anything"

  " And after that adding salt to the wound— I just woke up at 16:00 and well I can say my luck is pretty bad, and I got 200 missed calls from my mom and 1 from dad."

  "tzzzz" both Theo and Victor sucked a cold breadth.

  "My condolences bro —”

  “Will come at your funeral—"

  “I will make sure to delete your study materials out of our friendship — "

  "Shut up, You bastards! I've already sorted it out with them!"

  "Tsk, what a shame, no entertainment at all"

  "Tch, no full fun at all, We were hoping for some drama." Both clicked their tongues at the same time.

  Victor asked, “So tell us your improvement and changes —” successfully changing the topic.

  "Well, I can tell my weight has increased and as you guys can see, my muscles, have buffed up quite a bit, and I didn't get time to check other improvements—”

  "As for my condition, I think you can see from my skin, its redness, it has faded a lot, there were many marks when I woke up"

  "Wow, it was pretty rough with you huh—”, Victor said after a few moments of silence.

  "Yeah man, good job — " Theo said.

  Leo blinked: …

  Leo froze for a second, "Wait. You mean… that nightmare only happened to me?!"

  " Yeah, I mean, I was calling to disturb you guys when I suddenly felt something off and the next second was hit with dizziness. So, I just had to light my dizziness and check all my doors and windows, and after that, I fell asleep." Victor said as he tried to remember more details but eventually shook to indicate that it was all.

  "What the hell, that easy?", Leo excimed in shock.

  "Yeah, bro", Victor affirmed.

  Leo's mouth fell open. "That's it?!"

  "hmm"

  “Uh, mine is simir too, like I was on the terrace. When I felt that something would happen so, I just ran to my room, and closed the door, after that, I was hit with intense dizziness and fell on the floor and fell asleep, no drama…"

  “BLOODY HELL! Why just me?!" Leo howled.

  “Tsk, stop whining like a baby… nowadays, they also don't cry and just gre at the doctor after just coming out”

  "What?! Really?! But still… why me?!"

  “Okay let's move on and let's see what we have in common”, Victor mercilessly changed the topic.

  Theo raised his hand. "I'll go first."

  “Go on", victor said that as he muted, Leo's mic.

  "I did some basic tests, and from what I observed I gained some strength agility, reflexes, and some enhancement of senses, nothing more — like there are no extra healing powers as you can see the cut on my hand, it is still there. But yeah my stomach problem and small illness are gone — hmm… ah… there is also a weird thirst that didn't seem to go away, and meditation works but it might take about 8 hours or something close — and it's not confirmed — that’s it I guess "Theo finished.

  “Did you just cut your wrist to check it?", Victor was baffled.

  Leo (in chat): "Yes about the thirst, you are right -— "

  Victor unmutes him and says, " Well I didn't have time but, yes some increase in height, weight, enhancement in all basic states, and enhancement in senses is all I can tell — and yes I also have the same thirst which seems never to go away."

  "BASTARD! Don't mute me again!" Leo had just started to speak but immediately his mic was muted.

  "It wasn't me this time bro”

  Leo: Theo, you bastard, just let me catch you!!

  “Why would I let you catch me? If you are a real man then come and catch me— that is if you can.”

  "Hehehe … "

  Theo's derisive ugh made Leo fre up again but Victor again just changed the topic.

  “Alright, save the duel for ter. Let's compile what we've got.," Victor said as he unmuted Leo.

  "Hmm… it seems, we all got some good buffs but cking in some other departments and what we have in common is the thirst — "

  Victor summarized. "And the thirst… that's our common trait."

  "all this shit happening to us is like some sort of conspiracy—"

  “Guys, I don't know what is happening or what this coincidence is and What will happen in the future, but what

  I can tell that we should maintain some sort of precaution— ", Theo suddenly said.

  “Hmm — what precautions?", Victor asked.

  “Hmm — We don't know if it only happened to us or others too as we don't have the situation to confirm it yet.”

  "Can we even call it a coincidence — isn't this too bizarre?", Leo asked.

  "Well unless we know what happened to us, we can only presume it's a coincidence — . and truth be told the powers we got didn't even make us any type of superhuman, it just a basic boost — These types of things are common in professions like Boxers, F1 drivers or Olympic runners and from what I check my reflexes are fast but not as much as F1 drivers or my strength is more than a Boxer so it’s not like we surpassed everyone, we just got a boost and more powerful than an ordinary person… above average, not extraordinary.", Theo said with a casual expression.

  "Well, what you said makes sense — So why don't we meet together and discuss it more clearly and see what we can even do?" Victor asked with a zy expression.

  "Yeah, we can totally do that — and what are the precautions you are talking about?". Leo asked.

  Theo's tone grew serious. "For starters, we should keep our communications secure. The local server we're using is decent for now. Also… we should avoid using our real names."

  “Hmm, valid reason — and aren't we already using our gaming names to communicate all this time?", Victor ughed a little.

  “Yeah — hmm — Then we should complete our names too, after all, Leo, Theo, and Victor can be said to be good nicknames, well Victor is a normal and complete name and yeah, we should give ourselves a surname for a complete identification maybe it will be helpful in future?” Theo said after thinking for some time.

  " Good suggestion— then I will go first, my gaming is "Victor" and it's complete so I don't think it needs to be changed, so let’s just add a surname — hmm— well let’s go with ‘walker’, Victor Walker." Victor decred.

  “Hmm—. Now that you said it like that ‘Leo’ sounds a little incomplete, let's make it 'Leon' and since I like bikes and long rides let's go with 'Ryder’, so am now Leon Ryder"

  "Well as you guys know how much I love to use a mage character so I will just change it a little ‘Theo’ to ‘Theodore' as a name and ‘Miller’ as a surname, so I am Theodore Miller"

  "Umm — Theo, you should write our names in your diary so that we don't forget.” suddenly Victor said awkwardly.

  “… Also, I gotta say— Leo even though your naming sense is garbage, you did well this time."

  "Was already on it. ", Theo chuckled.

  “It was good that we used normal names, for these recent gaming, or else we would have thought about making names from scratch” Leo ughed heartily.

  "We should thank Victor for that, I still remember, your previous name was ‘sexyboy069’” Theo grinned.

  Leo's ughter immediately went stiff.

  “Bastard — you have a good memory huh — “, Leo grumbled

  "Umm — I think that's it for today, the drones are overheating, precautions are easy to maintain as we were already using our fake names from the start and I think we should improve our communication tools too. I guess we are going to need it more often — and maybe stay safe —? ", Victor said while yawning.

  " Well, I agree and suggest you guys meditate. I don't know what to say, but I have a premonition something will happen the moment our thirst is satisfied — "Theo said gravely.

  "I also think so, this thirst is common and abnormal… let's meet too."

  "Tomorrow?”

  " Theo's apartment?"

  "OK, come anytime, I don't have any csses on Saturday, and Sundays are holidays anyway"

  “I really envy you, bastard — "

  “Bye.”

  Victor ended the call and began to anticipate tomorrow's meet-up. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.