Little Lily and the Final Boss

When I was three, my mother shoved me into an S-tier Horror Game.

The live chat went absolutely nuts:

[Kiddo, run to find the top-ranked player in this game that's your dad!]

[If you don't, you'll die by the monsters! Your mom just abandoned you!]

[Too late, the top player Quinn' just proposed to his new girl friend Lola on stream.]

I ran there bawling, threw myself at the strongest man I could find in the field and yelled, "Daddy!"

The "man," eight meters tall, froze.

[Ahhhhh kiddo run! That's the final boss!]

[He's the strongest one here, sure but he's not human.]

[Bro, Quinn never said he won't raise his own kid... wait... what are you doing to this baby???]

"Daddy, I'm your baby."

I hugged his leg and sobbed, "Are you going to leave me and mommy?"

Following the advice of the ladies in live chat, I made my crying quiet and pitiful.

They said that kind of crying always melts people's hearts.

Sure enough, the impossibly tall, strong "daddy" was moved.

"Yes you are my child."

A voice like a rough hiss answered.

A huge force grabbed my collar and tossed me up.

My body flew off.

I was flying!

Amazing!

My tears turned to laughter.

The chat exploded.

[I'm reporting this! There are laws to protect kids you can't just throw them into a Horror Game to die!]

[If he throws her that high she'll die at the moment she hit the ground.]

[Or he might just throw her into the boss's mouth anyone watching? The boss is going to eat the kid!]

I landed on Daddy's broad shoulder.

I cocked my head, puzzled, reading the nonstop stream of comments.

I was only three years old, I only knew a few simple words.

For me, "daddy" meant the strongest, the best.

The chat had told me in simple text and emojis that my daddy was the guy in black suit.

I looked down he was very dark, very strong.

Correct.

From my view, everyone else looked like tiny ants!

There was a man in black standing protectively in front of a woman in a white dress, but that didn't seem important.

I happily hugged Daddy and planted a flurry of kisses.

Great I'd helped Mom find Daddy.

Mom was right: Daddy loves her and his baby, he won't abandon us.

As for the stream's flood of crying emojis, I whispered, "Ladies, you can cry on my daddy's shoulders!"

"It's really wide like a big house. We can all live there together."

Don't be sad.

I found my dad that's such a happy thing!

[Thanks, kiddo, you're generous. But zero people want to lean on your dad's shoulders, because he's not your dad at all.]

[True The final-boss is at least eight meters tall.]

[This is hopeless. Our kiddo is illiterate, she doesn't even understand what we're saying.]

[If she'd finished kindergarten she wouldn't do this.]

My dad beat up the tiny ants without much effort.

They flashed with all kinds of lights and dropped different equipment.

Wow, Daddy's so strong.

I kissed him again.

Shy, Daddy stuck a lock of hair into my hand. "Hold on tight."

I did as I was told.

The wind whistled and in no time we'd left the crowd and gone to a shadowy back room.

It was tiny one bed and a lot of gear I didn't recognize.

Daddy hesitated and set me on the only small bed.

Then he dissolved into a pool of black shadow that filled the room.

I was surrounded by Daddy.

[Holy is this the boss's lair?]

[Probably. Scene info reads,"Abandoned laboratory, danger level unknown. Its creators have been consumed. It masters light and shadow in the cycle of birth and death. It will become God .'"]

[Oh my god, an evil-god-in-waiting. Is this the right level of boss power for an S-tier boss?]

[This boss isn't even human-shaped, how can our baby be okay?]

I felt something odd about Daddy too.

I looked at my tiny hands and feet, then at Daddy who looked like melted chocolate.

Huh? Why is Daddy melted?

I timidly asked, "Daddy, what's your name?"

Are you really my father?

Chocolate-Daddy sloshed around near me and sniffed me now and then.

It asked, too,"Who are you?"

"Tiny, soft, weak."

I was a little upset but answered politely.

"My name's Lily."

How to introduce myself?

Then I remembered I'd heard Mom talk before with a strange voice saying, "It has been judged: the Sicily Garden's final boss shirked its duty, punishments follow"

I asked Mom what "boss" meant.

She said: boss = big boss!

Mom is the big boss, so I'm the little boss~

"A little boss?" the huge Daddy crowding over me said.

"So weak and calling yourself a boss?"

It curiously nibbled me.

I wailed.

That hurt!

[He's actually eating the child, don't!]

[Kiddo run! Or just die already.]

Daddy was startled by my crying.

He couldn't believe it,"You cry already?"

He hugged me with many hands, turning me around as if trying to examine what I was.

I ignored him and continued to sob.

I worried I had found the wrong person.

Mom had promised Daddy wouldn't hurt me.

Mom was always right.

So at first I refused to believe Daddy would go propose to another woman, I believed that once we recognized each other, he'd come home with me to find Mom.

The black shadow trembled and suddenly became a long-winged kitten that rubbed my leg,"Woof!"

I sniffed,"Dogs go woof!"

"What does a kitten say?"

"Cats go meow."

"Oh meow-woof."

I laughed.

The black shadow breathed easier.

It slowly said, "Okay then, since you're the little boss, I'm the big boss. Looks like you really are my child."

I corrected it,"I was born by my mom."

"Okay, you were born by your Mom and me."

Something about that felt off, but I couldn't say what.

"But Mom said my dad's name is Quinn Ward."

When Mom left me she'd hung a little tag on my neck with a line written on it.

"Quinn Ward if you don't raise this child right, I'll kill you."

Mom said it was my dog tag, when my daddy saw it he'd understand.

I pulled out the tag and pointed at the two characters that read Quinn Ward,"This is my dad."

The shadow's face lit up.

"Oh, I'm called Quinn Ward!"

Huh?

I froze.

The shadow hugged me happily and tossed me up high.

"Baby, the moment I saw you I knew you were mine!"

"Of course!"

[Yeah, but not really.]

[Who switched this channel from horror game to family content?]

[I'm in Quinn's stream spam his chat: tell him that the kid the boss grabbed was his own kid, get his squad to rescue her.]

[I just left Quinn's stream, Quinn doesn't seem that moved. Even his new girl friend Lola asked him to at least see our babe and save her.]

[Totally. Lola's a sweetheart she'd even raise her husband's ex's kid.]

[Didn't Quinn say he was widowed? Where did this kid come from? If she didn't actually look like him I'd assume it was a scam.]

[Also nobody had seen this kid's mother.]

The chat kept spamming and I couldn't read it.

But the crying emojis had stopped maybe everything's okay now?

I rubbed my tiny belly and told the Daddy who claimed to be Quinn Ward, "Daddy, I'm hungry."

Daddy asked, "What do you usually eat?"

I thought,"In spring I eat flowers. In autumn and winter I eat grass and dirt. Summer is the best you can eat pears in summer!"

Daddy: ?

He raised his tone,"You are human your mother raised you like this?"

He tenderly shook me,"No wonder you're so small."

The chat was shocked too.

[Holy, Quinn's ex abused the kid?]

[Maybe Quinn abandoned the kid after his child was born and the ex took revenge on the child?]

[Maybe the kid was thrown into the horror game by Quinn's ex!]

[Even bosses feel sorry for kids more than human players do.]

I pouted and swatted Daddy.

"No! Mom raised me well!"

"When Mom was awake she gave me good food, she just doesn't stay awake very often, so I have to find food myself."

Mom only gives me food when she's conscious, otherwise I'll starve.

Hearing this, Daddy's face went cold.

"Forget about your mom. Come on, Daddy will take you to get food."

I got angry too.

"No, you can't ignore Mom!"

"I'm already a three-year-old big baby, not a two-year-old little kid. I can find food to feed Mom!"

Daddy finally stopped arguing with me.

He lifted me up and rushed to a place with many houses.

Night had fallen.

He knocked on the highest floor's door.

Knock knock.

"Open up."

"Who's there?"

This room was one of Greenvale High's dorms.

Greenvale High is the core location for this S-tier horror game, Quinn Ward had been here with his squad for three days.

In those three days he'd solved every monsters and bosses attacking and, kept his team at zero casualties.

That's why today he'd chosen this safe spot to propose to Lola on stream.

But nobody expected that before Quinn could even open the ring box, they'd all be pinned to the ground by an unseen horror.

At that moment, the "Seer" player in the team, Charlie Reed could see death waving hands towards him.

He felt a mixture of fear and exhilaration.

He hated when the whole stream cheered for the proposal.

He was furious.

It had been the fourth year since he joined the Blackshard Squad.

And the squad had been wiped nearly out and replaced with fresh bloods almost nobody remembered the old survivor player, Rina Moon, only a few remained.

Before they even entering this horror game, Quinn had promised to protect the rest of the old team who remembered Rina.

But in a blink, Quinn was in love with Lola and decided to propose on stream.

Charlie felt sick.

He never expected this final boss to come at this moment.

But if they were all going to die together, so be it.

But, he didn't expect a child a kid with Rina's handwriting on the tag around her neck to barge in.

She looked just like her, small and sweet, like a miniature Rina Moon.

The kid hugged the boss and shouted "Daddy!" and the boss carried her away.

Charlie was stunned.

Then the chat told everyone the child belonged to Quinn and asked Quinn to rescue her.

Lola, eyes rimmed red, tried to reason with Quinn with a look of hurt.

Quinn was distraught,"Everyone's hurt we need to rest tonight. I'll take care of my personal matters later."

Charlie punched Quinn.

This is Rina's child how can he call it personal?

After a scuffle, Charlie and three of his veteran teammates were forcibly assigned to this dorm.

According to the Horror Game rules, each dorm only holds an odd number of people and you can't leave at night.

Quinn and Lola wanted their lives to be taken by the monsters.

So that night, no one in the dorm slept, they prepared life-saving equipment and stood ready.

Night fell.

The dorm door was knocked.

The boss from earlier called,"Knock Knock."

"Do you have food a three-year-old human child can eat?"

"If not, I'll kill you."