SylvanWarrior59 had been resting for what now seemed like centuries. Buried, or rather entombed, in his golden room in the deepest meanders of what used to be called Terror Fortress, a huge black stone building perched on the steep sides of the northwest mountains. There, still wearing his claret adamantium armor, he who was once known throughout Server 2498 by the nickname Scourge of Noobs, rested silently. Or perhaps he wasn’t resting, perhaps he was waiting. Waiting for the right time to be awakened.

  The bar was full even for a Friday night. Matteo and his friends had claimed, as per tradition, the table at the far left of the bar.

  “Here's to a work week that seemed not to end!” shouted Giacomo, raising his own pint of beer in the air.

  “Oi oi!” replied the friends in chorus to the toast.

  They all took a deep sip from their beers.

  “I'm going for a smoke,” Daniele said as he stood up, “Who's going to offer me a cigarette?”

  “I'll give you one, you moocher,” Alberto replied, taking his jacket.

  A smell of lightheartedness and silly intentions hovered in the pub.

  Stefano called attention with a loud burp, “What are we doing this weekend?”

  “It's raining this weekend” Roberto replied.

  “Oooooh! I've seen people die because they went outside while it was raining” Stefano mocked him.

  “It's autumn, what would we even do outside if it’s raining?!” asked Giacomo.

  “I'm not free this weekend, I'm with my girlfriend,” Matteo said.

  “Here comes the prisoner! I have a girlfriend too you know, but I don’t spend all my time with her” Giacomo taunted him, giggling.

  “It will not last long then” Matteo wryly replied to him before taking a sip of beer.

  Giacomo laughed, “You are such a bastard.”

  “Seriously though,” interrupted Stefano “I also promised Laura that we would go out for brunch outside this Sunday”

  “A nice brunch in the rain” Roberto mocked him.

  “Shut up” Stefano chastised him “I was saying, I'm with her on Sunday, but I'm free tomorrow” he looked at Matteo, “Are you telling me she won't even give you one day of the weekend off? Not even this time?”

  “Yeah, you've been busy with her every weekend for a month now” Roberto observed.

  “What can I tell you guys? She's the one who says we don't spend enough time together, that she feels neglected. And besides, I'm here with you now anyway, and not with her, so she has a point” Matteo's tone hinted at a certain impatience.

  “The melodrama! You got together with the personification of melodrama!” howled Giacomo, then slapped his friend on the back in a friendly manner “Whatever, tell us when the visiting hours are. We'll bring you cartons of cigarettes, so you can use them as bargaining chips with the other inmates.”

  Matteo laughed, “You have an enviable creativity in bullshitting, you know that?!”

  “Bullshit aside. What are we doing tomorrow?” Stefano asked again.

  “How about a little game of basketball at the playground?” proposed Giacomo.

  “It's raining,” replied Roberto.

  “Soccer?” said Stefano.

  “Yeah, because it rains only if we play basketball” Roberto observed sarcastically.

  “There are indoor fields on Europa Street” Stefano replied.

  “Yes, but if you haven't booked, there’s no fucking way you'll find one free” pointed out Matteo.

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  “Shut up you! I am not sure Marta gave you permission to speak” barked Giacomo, “Matt is right though. Without a reservation we're not going anywhere.”

  They remained silent for a moment, disturbed only by the loud talking coming from the other tables.

  “I have an idea” Roberto said with a grin on his face.

  “Shoot” Stefano replied.

  “Tribal Wars.”

  Those two words, as soon as they were uttered, made the other friends gasp.

  “No, no,” Stefano said, shaking his head, “I've wasted too many days on that game.”

  “Hours and hours that will never come back” Matteo added looking through his memories.

  “How fun was it though?!” Giacomo said, looking at his beer.

  “How many laughs did we have?!” Roberto tailed to him.

  “Yes, it was actually pretty cool,” Stefano admitted, slowly abandoning himself in the clutches of nostalgia “We were good too.”

  “We were so good!” Giacomo recoiled, his eyes a little glazed over.

  “No way guys, we can't go back in the loop,” Matteo said trying to close such memories in remote drawers of his mind “Besides, nobody is playing that game anymore. It's pretty old.”

  “I still play it.”

  Speaking those words was Luca, who during all that time had been standing on the sidelines, listening, locked up in his deep shyness.

  “Oh, hi Luca! I forgot you were there,” Giacomo greeted him wryly.

  Roberto grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him amicably, “You've been particularly quiet tonight, even less than usual, everything all right?”

  Luca smiled, embarrassed. “I was listening to you guys, you are funny when you argue.”

  The others chuckled amicably, trying to put him at ease.

  Alberto and Daniele returned from their cigarette break.

  “You know Dani, if it weren't for the fact that we are homozygotic twins I would have said they made you from the scraps of mom and dad's genes” Alberto said.

  Daniele laughed hard, “You're only saying that because you’re still bitter that you came out second.”

  “You came out first because I kicked your ass out” retorted Alberto chuckling.

  “So? What's cracking?” Daniel asked as he sat down.

  “Tribal Wars” replied Giacomo.

  The twins stopped for a moment.

  “I can’t deal with this sober.” said Alberto in a melodramatic tone “I'm going to get a gin tonic.”

  “Will you get me one too?” Daniele asked to his twin brother.

  “Buy it with your own money, moocher!” replied Alberto, heading toward the counter.

  “Tell me Luca,” Roberto resumed, “Do people still play Tribal Wars?”

  “Yes, quite a bit,” he replied briefly.

  “Did you stay in our server, or did you start over in a new one?” asked Stefano.

  “I stayed in ours,” Luca said with a smile, “In Terror Fortress.”

  Matteo sobbed, “I can't do it, too many memories.”

  They all laughed together, except Alberto, who was still trying in vain to get the bartender's attention to get his damn gin tonic.

  “Are there many players in our server?” Roberto asked, getting more curious by the minute.

  “Yes, quite a few.”

  “Strong ones?” Giacomo asked, hypnotized by the subject.

  Luke pondered for a moment before answering, “There is a strong tribe, not like we were, but still, they manage.”

  “Did they dare attack our buildings around the map?” Daniele asked.

  Luca smiled, “No, we are still quite feared. Although we are not really there anymore. Not you guys at least.”

  There was a moment of silence.

  “What are you doing there alone?” asked Matteo.

  “Building, setting up our base,” replied Luke shrugging, “Actually it's more of a way for me to relax.”

  “I usually jerk off to relax” Daniel commented wryly.

  “Yeah, you look pretty relaxed to me” Stefano observed.

  “Thanks, it also makes me sleep better” Daniele replied laughing.

  “Guys!” Roberto called his friend’s attention, a veil of apparent seriousness descended on his face, “It's going to rain tomorrow, and also the day after”

  “I'm afraid to hear what he's going to say next” Matteo interrupted him, promptly shushed by his friend with a wave of his hand.

  “For me a couple of hours on Tribal Wars could be done.” Roberto finally proffered.

  The table exploded in a flurry of responses: Stefano fleeing the idea of getting back in the game, aware of his own problem with addiction, Matteo using the girlfriend excuse and being promptly laughed at for it, Giacomo, frothing at the mouth, arguing that they should go back to butchering and massacring other players in the server, Daniele arguing that the hardship he might face in trying to smoke less was not even comparable to the hardship he would face in playing just a couple of hours and not until three in the morning. Luca watched them, silently amused. When they finished arguing, without coming to an agreement anyway, and decided to leave the bar Alberto made his reappearance with a drink in his hand.

  “An hour for a fucking gin tonic,” he said angrily as he sat down, “What did I miss?”

  “We're going home,” Stefano replied.

  “Why?! I haven't even started drinking it,” he protested.

  “If you want, I'll help you finish it,” Daniele said.

  “Piss off, moocher.”

  Roberto gave Matteo and Giacomo a lift home. The car proceeded quietly through the silent streets.

  “Anyway, if it rains tomorrow,” Roberto said as he entered a traffic circle, “I'll call Luca tomorrow and we'll play Tribal Wars.”

  “What was the name of your character?” asked Giacomo.

  “BigMac99” replied Roberto with a proud smile.

  The other two burst out laughing.

  “Why not? I could come and join you,” said Giacomo.

  Matteo shook his head chuckling, “You guys are crazy, that game is worse than drugs.”

  “And you were the most addicted of all,” Roberto retorted.

  “That's exactly why I'm not going to play it again,” Matteo replied.

  “Come on! Just a couple of hours” Giacomo tried to convince him, “Just a quick dungeon.”

  “Always start with a quick dungeon and ends up skipping dinner.”

  The car came to a halt.

  “Arrived” said Roberto.

  Matteo put on his jacket and greeted his friends with a handshake.

  “Thank you for the lift. Goodnight mates,” he said as he got out of the car.

  The two friends saw him enter the front door of the building.

  “There goes SylvanWarrior59, running from his past,” said Giacomo.

  Roberto smiled, “You’re right, that was the name of his character.”

  “He was pretty strong too.”

  Roberto started the car again, “And what was your character's name?”

  “DemonSlayer36” Giacomo replied proudly.

  “You are such a basic bitch” Roberto mocked him.

  The two laughed as the car disappeared into the night again.