Chapter 339: Ire

The more Eli watched, the worse it got. His livestream viewer hung in his peripheral vision as he rode the bus back toward his dormitory. He had to push his way through the crowds of other students, some laughing and taunting him while others apologizing to him. Many were even sobbing.

The shouts, jeers, and whimpers ranged from ‘serves you right’ to ‘it’s the end of the game, isn’t it?’. 

Every top 10 streamer had participated in the attack on Kalmoore, broadcasting it for the world to see. He was so focused on watching for news about his companions that he hadn’t noticed their streams had been playing reruns all morning, masking their activities. 

It was the same tactic Makaroth had used to attack Kalmoore on his birthday, and he walked right into it. The imprisonment of Darkshot was a bait. The gladiator tournament was a bait. The majority of Kalmoore’s strongest PvP players were off-island, leaving it near-defenseless.

Yorgi, Kayliera, Quinn, Baffo, and Sherry stood no chance. Even with Serenity’s group fighting and Emerill, it was one-sided.

Feng’s footage showed him and a fleet of airships initiating the attack by laying siege to Ysil’mareina’s island, floating high above Kalmoore. They treated her like a standard raid boss, wiping out the island and killing the silver dragon. It wasn’t easy, but they had ridiculous numbers and an armada of airships. The clips ended with Vindicator crafters using creature harvesting to gather her scales.

A new streamer Eli didn’t recognize went after Serenity while they were in the middle of a dungeon. They used Serenity’s stream to find exactly where she was and swarmed her after she’d engaged with monsters, overwhelming her. She put up a good fight, but the opponent was a large guild of bards, led by a woman with a Korean name, dressed up and putting on her own performance, taunting Serenity’s music.

Calikgos and Lilya, the sages of destiny leaders, lead the assault on Kordas with Daehyun’s forces assisting. Quinn put up a decent fight, but Calikgos’ weapons were so ridiculously overpowered that nothing Quinn did could stop him. He cut through the Night Hunters and other defending guilds in seconds. Eli even caught glimpses of Keldan and Galanis’ groups trying to help out, but failing.

Skar’s group, whom Eli remembered fighting in the second round of the gladiator tournament many months ago, was set upon Rene. A large group of smaller VGNs assists in the attack, catching Erikson and the others off guard, though notably, many NPCs and players were missing during the assault. Erikson, Josephine, and a collection of high-level players and old white-flames members put up a fight, but were overwhelmed. The last shots of Rene showed the city burning.

Lastly, and most importantly, another new face. A wizard named Ubiysta, level 155, was going from island stone to island stone, making use of a dark blast of magic to destroy them. He faced no opposition, moving swiftly through the lands of Kalmoore using haste and warping magic.

When he reached the last island stone, hidden under the grove of yellow trees, Emerill stood up to him. Of all the defenders of Kalmoore, Emerill put up the best fight, but the wizard showed skill at a level on par with Synopse and Pyri. He defeated Emerill relatively easily and destroyed the final island stone.

Lastly, Eli switched to a non-VGN caster's broadcast. Samanthara. She stood atop the burning Skyport of Kordas, in all its reconstructed glory. A pile of the newly crafted airships lay shattered on the rooftops below, having sustained damage from the attack. Her camera panned over the horizon, showing it rising as the island sank, the black mist enroaching on the land from a distance.

Samanthara was, surprisingly, speechless. Her mouth was agape at the destruction, her eyes staring angrily at the fleet of VGN member airships sailing away. The NPCs' screams of terror could faintly be heard above the roar of the flames.

“With Kalmoore gone, all new players, or defeated players, will be forced to choose one of the VGN-controlled kingdoms to start in, or respawn in. Most will likely be thrown in jail. They’ve successfully managed to take complete control of the gameworld, and Averon’s stance has been made clear: they will not interfere in any way. This…” She paused, looking down at her feet. “Is the end of an era.” 

Eli burst forth from the bus and sprinted to his dorm room, throwing the door open. He checked to see Lina, Rakkan, and Darkshot still logged in, but caught his mom outside the simulation, and quickly tapped his wrist implant to contact her while throwing off his jacket. She answered the call in seconds.

“Mom, you guys didn’t fight off VGN, right? You’re all still alive in-game?”

“We didn’t fight,” she spoke solemnly. Eli knew something was wrong right away.

“Good, I’m going to log in now. Where are you guys going to appear when you log in?” She paused in her response, sending a bad vibe through Eli. “Mom?”

“Let’s talk in an office simulation first,” her voice remained emotionless. Eli’s eyes widened, moving with more haste as he hopped in his sim-box, initiating an office simulation with her.

They both appeared inside the simulation of a small playground. The walls of the simulation gave a false sense of depth, as Eli knew this to be a tiny square room, a playground not far from their house that he frequently played in as a child. It was an odd choice, Eli thought, as his mom, Jillian, appeared across the simulation.

“What's going on? What’s wrong, Mom?” Eli looked at her with concern.

“I didn’t want to tell you, because I knew how you’d react. Promise me you’ll remain calm?”

Eli tensed. His mind raced. Now, of all times? What could it be? How had was this news?

He took a deep breath, clenching his fist, a look of concern washing over him. “I promise,” he swallowed.

She chuffed sharply, making eye contact with him. “We can’t help you. Me, your father, and Synopse are all banned from the game.”

“What?!” Eli blurted with anger. “They said the bans got reversed!”

Jillian shook her head. “Andrew could argue to get your ban reversed, because you bring in numbers. Not us. I rerolled and no longer play with you, and Makaroth doesn’t stream on his new character. There was no downside to keeping us banned in the eyes of the shareholders, so it held. I already talked to Tommy about it, and asked him not to tell you.”

“This whole time?” Eli shouted. “Why wouldn’t you want me to know that?”

“Because I also know you’re struggling right now. You’re stuck, unable to decide what you truly want to do. And if I told you this, you would’ve made a decision blinded by anger.” She said calmly. “Even now, you look like you’re going to make a choice based on that.”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? VGN destroyed Kalmoore. There’s nothing we can do in that gameworld anymore.” Eli tilted his head back to the simulated sky and growled in frustration.

“Oh come on, Eli,” Jillian shook her head at him disapprovingly. When he tipped his head down again, he saw her eyes of disappointment. “You’ve been waiting this entire time for something or someone else to decide for you. But deep down, I think you already know what you want to do with your future. The nano-tech, I’ve known about for a while from work. So have you.” She crossed her arms.

“That’s the problem, though. I don’t know what I should do. Lina asked me why I wanted to be a doctor, and I couldn’t even answer her. It feels like all I’ve done is a reaction to things around me, and without those reactions, I’m lost on the right choice to make. I’m either being spiteful or being a hypocrite.” 

He lowered his head while Jillian paused to let him think, but when the pause went on for too long, she walked over and put her hand on his shoulder.

“I suppose it’s hard to see from an outside perspective. You’re at an age where everyone struggles to choose their path, but I can tell you what I see. I don’t see a spiteful boy, or a hypocrite… Do you know why I think you wanted to become a doctor? It’s actually the same reason you started playing the Shattered World Online.” She smiled.

“Huh?” His eyebrows furled. 

“Sitting around the hospital while I worked, you saw it countless times. Patients, facing ailments and afflictions they couldn’t overcome on their own. When you were little, you’d smile and cheer on the doctors, encouraging them, idolizing them as they took on various patients. You thought of the sicknesses as bad guys, as bullies, and the doctors were standing up for people who couldn’t do it themselves.”

As she spoke, she tapped her eye implant and brought up a livestream display of a little Eli sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, doing homework while occasionally glancing up at the clock. Jillian was watching him from behind the nurse’s station desk. She saw a doctor and staff members zip by with a gurney carrying a patient, giving orders to keep the patient alive. 

Little Eli’s head lifted, following the gurney with a look of determination. 

Jillian hit her wrist implant a few more times and pulled up a second screen, showing Aegis staring down Seraxus in the gladiator tournament. The ages and faces were slightly different, but the look was the same on both screens.

“Sure, you’re spiteful, but towards a particular sort of person. You hate bullies. You don’t like it when people pick on those who are weaker than they are. Whether it's your father, you perceive picking on me. Or a sickness, picking on a patient in the hospital. You’re not torn up because of spite or being a hypocrite. You’re torn up because right now, you’re being forced to choose which bullies you’ll be going after. You can’t half ass it, it’s either these ones,” she motioned to the little Eli in the hospital on display, “or those,” she pointed to Aegis.

“How do I know which one to pick?” Eli asked her.

Jillian shook her head, using her wrist implant to turn off both displays. “There’s always going to be bullies, all across the world. People with power are hurting those who can’t protect themselves. They don’t know how, and with your skills, you could probably figure out a way to help them. But you also aren’t the only person in the world who can do it, and it’s not the most important thing at the end of the day. Take away all of those bullies, all of that spite, all of those concerns of being a hypocrite, and ask yourself, where do you want to be?”

Eli broke eye contact with her and looked down at his hands, taking a step back, going deep in thought. 

“Don’t let me be banned, nanotech, the destruction of Kalmoore, or your father, decide any of it. If you focus on that, you’ll never come to a real answer. The true answer is in here,” she poked his chest with her finger.

“My heart?” He scrunched his eyebrows, giving her a look. 

He chortled. “Yeah, yeah, a bit too corny, huh? You get the picture, though, right?” A long pause followed, Eli’s mind racing. His mom knew him better than anyone. With her explanation, he felt he could finally grapple with his feelings and understand everything that’d been flooding his mind for the last weeks. 

Eventually, he looked back at her with a determined expression.

“Easy, right? You knew where you wanted to be the whole time.” Jillian’s lips upturned slowly. 

Eli nodded. “With you guys. With Selena, Derrick, Renault, Quinn, and everyone else.” He had a sad look on his face.

Jillian gave him a sympathetic nod. “There are other VR-MMORPGs, you know. It might be over for Shattered World Online, but I’m sure we can find another place to play together.”

He shook his head. “Nah. It’s gotta be the Shattered World. I don’t know much about other games, but from how everyone talks about it, it’s something special.”

Jillian pulled her lips in. “The creative director has been usurped by an insider giving favoritism to VGN. VGN now owns all starting location kingdoms and respawn locations. The majority of streamers and players have been forced to join them, and those who haven’t were hunted and put in prison indefinitely. I know you love a good challenge, Eli, but, come on…”

“Ryan said that the Samantha AI can’t be altered. The game world and its rules can’t be changed. If they are, it’ll be using some code that’ll out Mike and end in VGN’s shut down…” Eli mumbled to himself.

“Eli,” her eyes went wide, giving him a look of haughty derision. “All your teammates are either too far away, banned, or dead. Rene’s on fire, Kalmoore is plummeting to the ground, and every action you take is being monitored by GMs and reported to all of VGN. Everyone in that game world is out to get you…” She stopped. She had more to say to discourage him; sure, he was setting himself up to be humiliated in front of the world, or disappointed with the outcome.

She saw a glint in his eye and held back her words.

A timid look of uncertainty fell upon him. It lacked the confidence he usually had in these situations, but he wasn’t going to accept defeat. “Not everyone is out to get me. Just the players.”

He reached his hand to his wrist, preparing to swap simulations, but Jillian grabbed his hand to stop him.

“At least do me a favor and start streaming again. I need something to watch while I’m stuck out here.” She grinned. Eli nodded and logged out of the office simulation.

He reappeared inside the Shattered World Online as Aegis, standing on the walls of the City of the White Tree. The tree was no longer glowing brightly, its light fading to a dull grey. 

The dark elves all around him screamed in terror as black mist crept across the wastelands ahead of him, reapers swarming through the cavern above. The sounds of distant hydras holding back swarms of abysslings on the ground resounded through the darkness, and behind him, the dark elf guards fired arrows.

He didn’t move; he looked down at his feet, ignoring the ambience. His mind raced for a solution. An exam, possibly the most difficult one he’d faced in his life. Thousands of variables, some irrelevant, some impossibly important.

Emerill’s words rang in his ears from the days earlier. 

“Yeah, you’re right. It feels like an impossible task. But that’s exactly why everyone’s telling it to you. You’re like the hard counter to the word impossible.” 

He lifted his head, hit his interface, and turned on his livestream. Within seconds, he’d skyrocketed to the number one spot, pushing all VGN streamers down one place. He looked directly ahead, staring in silence for a few moments. He wanted to give time to make sure that Mike and all of VGN were paying attention.

“I was going to leave you guys alone. I was ready to move on with my life. But you banned my parents, imprisoned my friends, killed a silver dragon, and destroyed my island, timing your attack while you knew I was in class,” he shook his head, a demonic smirk growing over his face while he made a tsk tsk tsk sound with his tongue. “Congratulations. You’ve drawn the ire of a spiteful healer.”