Spiteful Healer

--[One Year Earlier]--

Eli walked into his 11th-grade classroom early in the morning, dark clouds dominating the sky outside. The room was full of desks, not sim-boxes, and the seats were filled with students unpacking their bags and waiting for the lesson to begin.

Eli sat near the front of the room, minding his business despite the loud noise coming from the desks behind him.

“Yo, I got Master ranked last night on Counterstrife.”

“Seriously? No way. How?”

“‘Cause I’m good, duh.”

“I heard that the military sends recruitment letters to Master rank players.”

“Heh? No thanks, I’ll stick to the simulation.”

“Wussy, I bet you got carried up the ranks.”

“You’re just jealous you can’t afford a sim-box.” They continued talking until the teacher entered the room. He was an older gentleman with short, scruffy brown hair, a goatee, and a set of large round spectacles resting on his nose.

The room became tense as the teacher's footsteps echoed off the tiled floor. He placed his bag on the large wooden desk at the head of the room and shuffled around papers inside his bag.

“As we discussed last Friday, we’ll start your end-of-semester assignments today. I don’t need to remind you all that this will greatly affect your final grade, perhaps more than your exams. You will each be given different topics and will be working in pairs—”

Immediately upon hearing this word, the classroom erupted in chatter.

“Winters, yo, pair with me!”

“Hey, hey, Winters! C’mon, we’re best friends, right?” The students stood up, pleading and begging, moving around his desk.

“Guys, guys…” Eli tried to calm them down as he held back laughter.

“I’ll buy you lunch for next year!”

“I’ll give you a massage!”

“You can grab one of my boobs!”

“Huh?” Eli turned to see who said this, his face red.

“I’ll sell you my grandma!”

“Why the hell would I want your grandma?” Eli laughed.

“Enough!” the teacher shouted, causing the students to calm down and step away from Eli. “Eli, come up front.” Eli reluctantly sighed as he moved to the front of the class and looked over the other students as they scrambled back into their chairs. “You’re all hoping for an easy ride. I get it. He’s had the highest scores on every test this semester. You’re a bunch of lazy bums,” the teacher shook his head. “So it seems you’ve got your pick of the litter. Choose someone so we can move on,” he spoke to Eli.

Staring back at him were many sets of puppy eyes, seductive eyes, and pleading eyes from all but one student—a young girl in the far corner of the room. Selena, with long black hair hanging off her shoulders, a larger build, and dark brown eyes, was focused on a textbook on the desk before her, ignoring the situation entirely.

“I’ll partner with her,” Eli said, pointing at Selena. There were several audible sighs, groans, and various complaints from around the class. Many eyes turned to Selena, causing her to look up, embarrassed.

“Selena, do you wish to partner up with Eli?” the teacher asked her.

“C’mon Eli, she doesn’t even want to.”

“Her name was Selena? I didn’t even know she was in the class.”

“Why her, Eli?! C’mon, if you pick me, we can have loooots of fun together,” a beautiful brunette in the front row urged him with a wink. Eli rolled his eyes.

“No thanks, I prefer quiet girls,” he remarked sarcastically. However, Selena’s face flushed red when he said this.

“U-uh, okay,” she mumbled.

“There you have it. Everyone else, find your partners and leave Eli alone,” the teacher declared. The noise picked up again. This time, the students were much more orderly and less enthusiastic as they moved around the room to pick partners for the assignment. The teacher handed a paper to Eli, and he took it to the back of the classroom, where he stood next to Selena’s desk. He put the paper down and leaned over the desk to look at it with her.

“Sorry about that. They were too noisy. Looks like the assignment is on the U.I.B.,” Eli said while reading it over. Selena had been staring at his face in shock, fixated on his chin as she could not meet his eyes, but the paper broke her out of her trance, and she leaned in to read it as well.

“The Universal Income Bill. How will it change society if it passes and gets implemented in 2095?” She timidly read the assignment aloud.

“Guess he’ll be checking our critical thinking and analysis skills. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Eli straightened his back. “I like to get stuff like this out of the way as fast as possible. Do you have time after school today to get it done?”

“Uhm… y-yeah.” She fiddled with her fingers.

“My place work for you? Need to be around for dinner tonight.”

“Okay,” Selena nodded.

“Great. Meet you out front after school.” Eli took the paper and walked back to his desk. Once he was far enough away, Selena sighed with relief.

Selena stepped out of the school’s front doors and walked across the paved pathway to reach the sidewalk, where she spotted Eli waiting, pacing around, and looking up and down the street. She hesitated momentarily, huddling her arms inward and cautiously avoiding the many other students walking by. Eli eventually spotted her and gave her a nod, leaving her no choice but to walk towards him.

“Someone’s supposed to pick me up in the Autocar… but I’ve got a feeling,” Eli groaned as he hit his ear implant, pulling up David and attempting to reach him.

“Yeah? What’s up, Eli?” David replied, the sound of battle in the background. “I’m live-streaming right now, so make it quick.”

“Mom left the Autocar with you today so you could go shopping and pick me up. It’s pickup time,” Eli replied. Selena could hear the annoyed tone in his voice. He sounded completely different from when he talked to anyone at school, which made her perk up and listen to the conversation more attentively.

“Ah, you can handle that by yourself, can’t you? Great, thanks.” The call ended. Eli leaned his head back to look up at the sky, sighing. He turned to Selena.

“I’ve got to stop by the supermarket first, then we can take the bus if that’s okay with you. Do you have a bus pass?”

“Yeah, it’s okay,” she replied, looking at her feet.

They walked into the supermarket together, Eli pushing a shopping cart while Selena nervously trailed behind. Eli used his wrist implant to bring up a shopping list message sent from his mom to him and David, as she’d already anticipated that Eli would be the one who’d have to go shopping.

“Alright, where are the tomatoes…” Eli said aloud, walking around the fresh produce section.

“Uhm, there.” Selena pointed across to another aisle. “This shop only sells the biofarm tomatoes, s-s…” Her confidence weakened as Eli turned to listen and looked her in the eyes, causing her to break eye contact. “They’re over in the biofarm section.”

“Oh, thanks.” He nodded and pulled the cart around to grab them. “Do you shop here often?”

“Yes, my house is nearby,”

“Oh, then you could probably find everything quickly, right?” Eli asked. She nodded.

“Here, let me send you the shopping list. Gotta add contact information first.” He stopped and moved his wrist over her ear to send the information. Selena got the notification in her eye implant, and her eyes widened.

“Ah, sorry, I guess if you don’t want to, that’s fine,” Eli noticed her reaction.

“No, it’s okay.” Selena hit accept, seeing now that her contacts list had its third member added, right below Mom and Dad. “Here’s mine…” She shyly held out her hand and waved it over Eli’s ear, accidentally brushing his skin, which caused her to jerk her hand away anxiously. “Sorry.”

Eli didn’t react. Instead, he messed with his interface to accept the information and send the shopping list.

“Got it?”

“Yup.” She nodded back and opened the list. Eli stepped aside from the shopping cart to allow Selena to take over.

Eli opened his front door with the grocery bags in hand, took off his shoes and backpack, then moved further into the house. Selena took a bit longer to step inside, eyeing the walls cautiously as if they might jump out at her.

“You want something to drink or eat before we start?” Eli asked from the kitchen as he began putting the groceries away.

“No, I’m okay.” She took off her shoes and walked into view of the kitchen as he unpacked. “Is anyone else here?” she asked nervously.

“Yeah, my dad’s upstairs in the sim-box, streaming.”

“He’s a live-streamer?”

“Not a good one.”

“What does he stream?”

“I dunno, something with gladiators in an arena, I think. It changes now and then.”

“Blood Challenger X?” Selena asked with enthusiasm. For a brief moment, her shyness turned to excitement.

“I guess,” Eli shrugged back.

“Do you play?”

“Nope. Even if I wanted to, we only have one sim-box, and he’s in it all day. That’s why I gotta do everything around here,” Eli sighed.

“Oh…” Selena slumped with disappointment.

“Ready to get started?” Eli asked as he finished putting away the last of the groceries. Selena returned a nod, and Eli led her to the living room. The two unpacked their bags, and Eli linked up his wrist implant with the TV so they could look up anything they needed. “Alright, let’s write up some basic ideas each. We can read over each other’s ideas and see which ones we like the best.”

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“Okay.” Selena nodded, pulling out a paper and pen. They spent a few minutes writing points on the page and then exchanged them.

“Hah.” Eli laughed when he finished reading her paper, while Selena was fascinated by Eli’s ideas.

“Mine are bad?” she asked worriedly.

“No, it’s just funny. I think I partnered with the one person in the class who didn’t need my help to pass. These are good. Let’s mix your 1 and 2 with my 1 and 4 and go based on that, okay?”

“Okay.” She smiled as her face brightened. The two worked well together, writing out paragraphs and paragraphs on their assignment. The longer they spent, the more relaxed Selena became, and she could be vocal with ideas to Eli, which surprised even herself.

They finished quickly but kept talking about and debating the idea of U.I.B. At one point, Selena got so into the discussion, waving hand gestures around to prove a point, that she nearly hit her hand into a potted cactus on a small table beside the couch they were both sitting on, but Eli saw it coming, and caught her hand.

“Careful. Mom likes to keep cacti because they’re low maintenance,” Eli said as he lowered her hand for her, and all of her shyness rushed back, her face bright red.

“T-thanks.”

“No problem.” Eli shrugged. “I guess that’s about all we needed to do. Thanks for putting in an effort. If it were anyone else in the class, they’d be gone already.”

“No problem. Thanks for picking me...” Her voice trailed off.

“This was fun. You should talk more. You’re brilliant, y’know.” Eli began cleaning up their books and papers sitting on the coffee table.

“Oi, Eli, you’re not finished with dinner yet? I’ve only got a 10-minute break! C’mon, you know I’ll lose viewers if I take too long.” David shouted through the house, causing Eli to stand up and rush to the kitchen.

“Ah, sorry, I lost track of time. I’ll throw something together,” Eli shouted back.

“You’d better. Your mom’s gonna be home soon, too, and she’ll be hungry,” David retorted, to which Eli huffed.

“It was my fault, I think…” Selena spoke up, stepping into the hallway in view of David at the top of the stairs. Seeing him caught her by surprise; he was standing in his boxer shorts with a sweat-stained t-shirt, an unkempt beard, and messy hair that looked like it hadn’t been washed for weeks. David was equally surprised to see Selena.

“Ah, sorry. Eli, you didn’t tell me you brought your girlfriend over. Damnit, now I’m a pedophile or something,” David shouted, embarrassed, rushing back into his room. “Sorry, miss, I’ll get some shorts on,” his voice trailed off. Selena’s face was one of shock.

“That’s my graceful dad. You want to stay for dinner?” Eli asked her from the kitchen over the sounds of pots and pans.

“No, I don’t want to intrude. Thanks. I will see you at school tomorrow.” Selena quickly packed up her things and put them into her bag.

“Alright. See ya,” Eli said while hastily cooking. Selena put on her shoes and stepped out the front door, where she encountered Eli’s mother walking towards her, wearing a jacket over her nurse’s uniform.

“Oh, are you a friend of Eli’s?” she asked politely, stopping Selena in her tracks.

“Yes. Well, maybe…” she nervously replied.

“Nice to meet you, I’m his mother, Jillian.” She reached out her hand to shake it.

“I’m Selena,” she obliged.

“You’re the first girl he’s brought home. I’m sad I missed it.”

“We were working on schoolwork together… I should get going.” Selena rushed away anxiously. Jillian shrugged and headed into the house, and once the door closed, Selena gasped for air as if she had survived a deadly encounter.

5 Months Earlier

“Are you ready to see it?” Selena’s father asked her. He, Selena, and her mother stood at the top of their basement staircase, a large red ribbon and bow strung across the threshold leading down.

“I'd better have my socks blown off from how much you spent on it!” Selena’s mother replied.

“Oh, not just your socks. C’mon, you do the honors, Selena.” Her father replied.

“Okay.” She excitedly ripped through the ribbon and rushed downstairs into the basement. When she reached the bottom, she stood in what she considered a dream come true.

Three of the latest sim-box models were laid out side by side on one end of the room. The opposite end had a table and a Quick-print Oven, which made her eyes widen with excitement. The floor and walls were designed to look like a castle dungeon with fake lanterns for lighting.

“Wow.” Selena’s mother's jaw dropped.

“Behold. We no longer need to compete for sim-box time. We’ve all got our own. And an easy food break station!” Her father spoke proudly.

“So we can all play at the same time?” Selena smiled from ear to ear. “Do they have Shattered World installed too?”

“Yup.” He grinned.

“FINALLY!” Selena squealed with joy. “I call dibs on the one closest to the Quick-print.” Selena rushed towards one of the sim-boxes.

“My socks are officially blown off. What island are we starting on?” Selena’s mother said as she rushed to the middle sim-box.

“Savringard, of course. That’s where that Makaroth guy started. If the current number one player started there, it’s gotta be good.” Her father impatiently climbed into the last one.

Once calibration was completed, Selena could enter the game for the first time and work on her character after connecting with her father and mother on a call.

“Selena, you read all about this, right? Which race should I pick?” Her mother asked. Selena could still hear the excitement in her voice.

“Uh, it doesn’t matter that much, whichever you like. I’m going to go with human.” Selena replied as she stared at her default human avatar with disappointment. She edited her body size to slim herself down until she looked fit and thin and edited away her braces. Finally, she moved on to naming her character. “What name should I pick? I’m terrible at names.”

“Why not Selena? It’s a pretty name. I picked it myself,” her father replied.

“I can’t use my real name,” she grumbled back. Despite saying this, she entered ‘Selena’ anyway and stared at it for a second. Pondering on a name, nothing came to mind, so instead, she moved the letters around. It ended up as Neslea. She shrugged and hit the accept button.

It wasn’t long until all three of them entered the game world. Neslea, Nejina, and Romeo.

“Really? Romeo?” Nejina hit him on the shoulder, looking disappointed. Neslea noticed that her mom, Nejina, also looked identical to her real self, except for her body shape, but no one commented on each other’s character appearance.

“Alright, it’s time for adventure!” Romeo shouted excitedly. They were standing in the middle of a busy medieval city in front of a large stone fountain, with cobbled streets leading in all directions. They got a few chuckles from passersby as he said this.

“Good. Well, sweetie, you probably don’t want to follow your parents around all day, so I won’t make you hang out with us. You go and find your friends and have fun, okay?” Nejina smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

“And if you find any sweet longswords, send ‘em to me! I’m going to be a great warrior soon!” Romeo cheered.

“Okay, you guys have fun.” Neslea smiled and waved, walking away in the opposite direction of them. “Friends…” she sighed to herself. She opened her out-of-game contacts list, only to see it contained her parents and Eli.

Selena walked into her 4th-period class, the only one she shared with Eli this semester. She moved with determination, but it immediately faded the moment she saw him, and she turned away awkwardly toward her desk.

She thought about calling him using his contact information, but decided against it. She closed her eyes and tried to pump herself up. It was a slow process, but she had moments until the bell rang to start class. Just as she stood up, she saw another student approach Eli’s desk.

“Yo Eli, could you help me with the homework?” another boy from their class asked, holding a paper out to him.

“Figure it out yourself,” Eli replied coldly. Selena spotted the irritated look on his face and settled back into her desk.

“C’mon, man, it’ll only take a second.”

“Piss off,” Eli angrily hit the paper away.

“Alright, jeez, what’s his problem?” the boy asked others in the class, and they all shrugged.

The door to the room swung open violently, and an out-of-breath boy rushed in.

“You guys, Makaroth streamed his face reveal! He’s doing a tour of his new mansion! It's dope as hell!” Everyone’s ears perked up.

“So? What’s he look like, some mega nerd?” a girl asked.

“Forget what he looks like, get this: his real name is David Winters. Isn’t that your dad’s name, Eli?” the boy shouted. Eli didn’t reply, keeping his head down, looking over his notebook, and pretending not to hear. All the students turned to look at him. With no response, another student approached curiously.

“You live in a mansion now? How crazy is that?”

“Are you in Makaroth’s guild? What level are you? What’s your character name?”

“I’m his biggest fan. If you tell me one clue about your character, I’ll know which guild member you are. Are you Synopse? I bet he’s Synopse!”

“The most famous player in the Shattered World is related to the smartest kid in our school. So much in common.” This comment finally irked Eli enough to respond.

“We’ve got nothing in common. I don’t play that game. I’m not in his guild, and I don’t live in a mansion,” Eli shouted, silencing the class, which remained quiet for a few seconds.

“What, so he’s not your father? Wrong guy?” someone asked. Selena listened and watched. She could see Eli looking angrier and more frustrated by the second—she’d never seen him like this before. The door to the room swung open again, and in stepped Derrick.

“Yo Eli I—” Derrick quickly picked up on the mood as all eyes fell on him. “Too late, eh?” Derrick sighed. “Y’all better not be harassing him about Makaroth.”

“So Makaroth is Eli’s father?” a girl asked excitedly.

“Calling that guy a father, hah! That’s rich. Anyone bring up that name around Eli again, and I’ll hit you over the head,” Derrick shouted to the class. It remained awkwardly quiet for a moment. Selena watched Eli and Derrick nod to each other. “I gotta get back to class. But I’m listening. I've got big ears, so leave Eli alone,” Derrick threatened before leaving the room.

Selena lost her will to ask him to play, piecing together what had happened based on her past encounters with his father.

One Week Earlier

Selena sat at the table outside the three sim-boxes in her dungeon-like basement. Her mother and father sat across from her. A holographic screen mounted on the wall showed a news broadcast from a company called VGN. The broadcast discussed recent major events in The Shattered World Online. It was playing in the format of a typical news show but within the game world. The three of them were eating in silence, watching it.

“We’ve got breaking news! A rookie streamer caught wind of a big scoop! Makaroth, one of the highest-level players in The Shattered World, has a new player to watch over. And this time, it isn't one of his guildmates. No, it’s his flesh and blood, his son! He’s recently created a character and started on Kalmoore island, in the small village of Orm. Expert analysts are already speculating why he might have chosen such a remote starting location, but let’s roll the footage.” The reporter sputtered before it swapped over to the footage of Keldan’s livestream as Keldan began to monologue.

“Makaroth’s son? Eli, right? Have you talked to him lately?” her mother asked.

“No.” Selena stopped eating and watched with widened eyes.

“Isn’t that the boy you couldn’t stop talking about? How nice and friendly he was and whatever?” her father asked, to which her mother elbowed him into shutting his mouth. The three watched as Keldan killed Eli’s character in a single blow, and it switched back to the reporter.

“What are those idiots doing?” Selena shouted angrily, slamming her fist on the table, causing her mother and father to pull back.

“Trying to get famous, I bet,” her father replied.

“He finally gets a chance to play, and they want to ruin his fun after all he has been through.” Selena stood up. “I’m going to go there and help him."

“Whoa, whoa, easy there. He’s in Orm; that’s a week-long airship ride and a buttload of gold to get to from Savringard.” Her father replied.

“How much gold?” she hesitated.

“I think the last tickets to Kalmoore were at about 100 thousand.” Her mother answered. Selena went quiet for a moment. She slowly turned to face them.

“Can you len-”

“I don’t even have five thousand gold to my name,” her father replied dismissively. Selena looked at her mom, and she shrugged.

“Sorry, hun,” she replied. Selena let out a long sigh. “The only way you’re getting to Orm anytime soon is if you delete your character and start over there.” She gave her a sympathetic look before returning to eating. Shortly after, her father did as well, thinking the matter was over, but Selena marched towards the sim-box.

“Good idea, thanks, Mom!” Selena replied, causing her father to shoot right up from his chair.

“Now, hang on, Selena. That’s five months of work you put into Neslea. You’re going to throw it away to try and help him? You said you haven’t even talked to him lately.”

“Remember when you told me I should play with my friends?” she asked rhetorically. “He’s the only one I have, the only one who ever talked nicely to me!” She spoke with desperation and a hint of sadness in her voice.

“C’mon, that’s not true. You’ve got that whole guild you joined, don’t you? Those guys, the uh, Citadel. Right?”

“Dad, they’re not my friends. They use me because I have high DPS. And I use them because I have no one else to play with.” Selena rolled her eyes.

“Bu-” her father was interrupted when her mother pulled him into his chair by his shoulder. The two looked at each other, speaking with their eyes rather than words. “Ugh…” her father relented. “Fine, throw it away for a boy you barely know. Don’t listen to your dad. What does he know? Damn teenagers…” His mumbling got quieter and quieter.

“You sure you want to do this, sweetie?” Her mom asked. Read complete versıon only at novel(ꜰ)ire.net

“Yeah.” Selena smiled back.

“Go get ’em.” Her mom gave her a thumbs-up. Selena climbed into the sim-box and logged into the game. She opened up her guild chat log and quickly wrote a message:

“I’m rerolling. Thanks for everything, bye.”

She opened up her main menu, navigated to account settings, and found the options to delete her character and start over. After a bright flash of light, she returned to the character creation menu.

After only changing her starting location, she hit ‘Complete Character’ but received an error message.

[Unable to take the name of previously deleted characters on this account]

(For more information, please refer to our Terms of Service.)

“Ugh… I’m so bad with names…” Selena groaned to herself.

--[Present Day]--

Silentwire logged into the game around midafternoon to see that Winter was online again. She could tell by his stamina movement that he was already mining ore.

“Should I say good morning? Or should I say hello? I bet he doesn’t even know I’m online yet. Maybe I'll wait until he says something…” She continued mumbling along this train of thought as she followed the road towards the city of Kordas. In the end, she didn’t say anything to him.