Spiteful Healer

Eli blinked at the holographic display hovering in front of him, hung on the underside of his sim-box’s lid. The option for the Shattered World Online greyed itself out. It moved to the bottom of the list of available simulations, with Office Simulation 2090 taking its place at the top, autoselecting itself and waiting for his input.

He took a moment to process what’d happened. If this Mike person could spy on everything they did, including their in-game communications, he must’ve already been watching him to see the exchange with Shinji and Rakkan.

“What a paranoid little asshole.”

Eli opened the top of the sim-box and headed to a small shelf where he’d set up a food printer. His roommate's sim-box was closed and in use, but the television on the wall was still playing a livestream from the game world.

The streamer had 1,2k viewers, was level 53, and in the middle of a dungeon filled with bubbles, fighting blue frog-monsters that stood upright.

Eli pressed a few buttons on the printer while watching the show until a BLT sandwich came out, and he bit into it, the lettuce crunching in his mouth. He plopped on his bed, leaned back, and ate while watching, but his mind was elsewhere.

Now what do I do? No point studying; I’m ahead of where I need to be in all my classes. No more classes for the day. No friends living nearby…

This thought prompted him to open his contacts list and see that Derrick, Selena, his mom, and Renault were all logged out of the gameworld. He called up all of them at once and had answers within seconds.

“Yo, you guys get banned too?” Renault spoke first.

“Not just me. Your father, and Synopse as well.” Jillian said, her words directed at Eli. “What the hell’d we get banned for? I just got to Savringard, the tournament is gonna start soon!” Darkshot complained.

“My mom is already on the phone with Averon customer support, trying to figure it out. None of us cheated or anything, right?” Selena said.

Eli let loose a sigh of guilt into the call. “It’s my fault.” The others went silent, expecting an explanation. “The Averon employee was trying to get some dirt on the acting leader. Apparently, there’s some infighting now that the lead designers are in jail. He must’ve overheard my conversation with Rakkan and used it as an excuse to ban all of us.”

“Hah? That’s stupid. Why would that be grounds to ban us?” Jillian scoffed.

“The head of security’s been cheating for VGN. He hates us, and now that he’s in control, he wants to keep it that way. I guess, because you guys were my former party members, he doesn’t want to risk us playing the game and messing up his position of power, or something like that. Look, sorry, I should’ve quit while I was ahead. I’ll try to get this sorted out.”

“It doesn’t sound like it’s your fault, though,” Selena chimed in quickly.

“If I’d made a decision sooner, it wouldn’t have happened. I’ll get back to you guys in a bit,” Eli ended the call and dialed Shinji, but got Tommy instead.

He spoke before Eli had a chance to.

“We’re already on it. Andrew’s called an emergency shareholder meeting. We won’t let this stand; we’ve got lawyers at the ready, don’t worry.” Tommy blurted out, sounding angrier than Eli’d ever heard him. “Just hang tight, trust in us, we’ve got your back.”

“Right… more than me, please make sure you get my friends unbanned,” Eli said.

“Copy that,” Tommy hung up.

Eli relayed the information to the others and was left once more with just his sandwich and the frog raid. He was surprised by how entertaining it was to watch someone else play. He had it in mind to change the channel, his fingers hovering over his wrist implant, but something else happened on the stream that kept him watching a bit longer. He’d never seen monsters like this, and the livestreamer’s party was taking on a whole lot of them at once, using various tactics Eli’d never used due to the variance in group composition.

It wasn’t until long after he’d finished his sandwich, when the group took a break to recover their stamina and mana, that he finally managed to pull himself away and flick through a few broadcasts.

There was no mention of his ban anywhere—no outrage, fanfare, or anything. No one knew it’d happened, not on VGN broadcasts, or non-VGN broadcasts. From everyone fawning over everything he did two weeks ago, to his character being snuffed out in silence. Months of hard work, down the drain.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but was getting tired of being left alone with his thoughts, so he got up and walked over to his sim-box, booting up his office simulation.

Within, he had a blinking invitation from another vacant office, labeled ‘Aegis’ Fan-mail’.

“Ah, what the hell,” Eli took the invitation and entered a large office with heaps and heaps of white envelopes all around him. There was a cosy, pink recliner at the center with the headrest tilted back and the leg rest up, and a small table with piles of neatly stacked letters, already opened, labeled with holographic words floating above them.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Saved for Aegis.

Hae-won must have sorted through a bunch of letters and put these aside for me to check.

Eli set the chair upright and grabbed a letter from the top of the stack, flicking it open. Having never opened fan mail before, he was expecting a white paper with written words on it.

Instead, when the envelope opened up, a projection of a screen materialized in front of him.

He’d recognized the man at the center of the screen right away; it was Leonard, captain of the Sky Darling in Kalmoore.

“Hello there, dear, I’ve noticed you haven’t been streaming lately,” He spoke seductively, wearing nothing but a set of pink bath robes loosely tied shut. He was atop his Airship, with several players and NPCs standing about, borderline nude.

“Understandable. Everyone needs some time to wind down once in a while. I just wanted to let you know that if you ever want a lovely evening of,” Leonard winked, “relaxation. There’s always an open bed up here on the Sky Darling. Both for you and your lovely mother. Do give her my regards, will you?” He puckered his lips and blew a kiss towards the camera. “We’re forever your ‘biggest’ fans, if you know what I mean,” he said while wiggling his hips.

Eli cringed, shut the envelope, and tossed it away. “Why the hell would Hae-won save that one?”

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