Spiteful Healer-[Book 4] Chapter 325: Forward

Spiteful Healer-[Book 4] Chapter 325: Forward

A loud beeping alarm rang through Eli’s ear implant, jolting him awake from his slumber. The implant blinked red until he tapped it into silence and swung his legs over the side of his bed, momentarily dazed. No sunlight shone through his dormitory window, and glancing across the room to his roommate showed him sound asleep, snoring blissfully beneath his Shattered World Online posters—one featuring Eli’s in-game avatar, Aegis, and the text ‘Never Stop Fighting.’
Eli was confused as to why his alarm had woken him up so early, but as his grogginess cleared, he could recall. A stretch and a yawn later, he got up and walked to his state-of-the-art sim-box sitting at the base of his bed that he’d brought with him from home.
Load Simulation:
Recent:
[] The Shattered World Online(VR-MMORPG) <>
[] Office Environment
[] Surgery Simulator
[]All Programs
[]Program Shop
[]Promoted Programs
He tapped the Office environment simulation before dropping into the chair of his sleek silver machine, closing the top while nestling his head comfortably into the device. His vision went blank as his brain connected to the sim-box, and a message prompt appeared in his peripheral vision.
A meeting you have been invited to has already begun. Would you like to connect to the office simulation for this meeting?
Eli hit yes. His vision flashed white, and he slowly adjusted to the office loading around him. It was a large room with plain brown wallpaper and a beige carpet. Tables and chairs were set around the edges of the room, but no one was sitting in them. The other individuals were all standing around, talking to one another.
“Eli! There you are!” Derrick was the first to notice him, waving excitedly. His words drew the attention of the others onto him, forcing Eli to smile and wave awkwardly at everyone. “You see my match last night?”
“I saw it.” Eli yawned and nodded.
“Pretty badass, right? Got 10k viewers!”
Eli shook his head. “Herilon carried you.”
“Hah? Are you kidding me?” Derrick looked at him with wide eyes, but Eli was distracted by the others staring at him. He saw Renault, the character behind Rakkan, with his father. He gave Eli a knowing nod, which was reciprocated before Renault continued explaining details about the Shattered World Online to his father, who asked questions about everyone in the room’s classes.
Derrick’s father was also present, standing with Shinji, Hae-won, and Tommy—the three employees of the Fanta-See network who had initially found Eli and signed him, working on his behalf to grow his stream into what it had become. They discussed sponsorship opportunities for Derrick’s live stream, as he’d recently signed on with the network and begun his own streaming career.
Selena stood with her parents, speaking in depth with Jillian, Eli’s mother. Jillian did her best to tell them embarrassing things about Eli, but Selena took a moment to look away and catch Eli’s eye. As they did, both smiled ear to ear at each other.
“Did you not see my multishot that broke up their back-line?” Derrick continued.
“Wouldn’t have worked on its own. Herilon herded them.”
“Are you hearing this guy?” Derrick looked to Renault for support, but Renault only shrugged back. “Lina?”
“I thought you did amazing.” She replied cheerfully.
“Thank you.” Derrick motioned to her for Eli as if she were an evidence exhibit. Eli rolled his eyes.
Tommy clapped loudly to get everyone’s attention. “Everyone from the former team is here. Should I invite the main guests to the meeting?” Tommy asked while scanning the room for reactions.
Renault’s father raised his hand. “I’ve got a question.”
“Yes?” Tommy asked.
“Why do the heads of Averon Inc. want to meet with my son and his friends?”
“They want to meet you personally and offer thanks.” Tommy nodded.
“For what? Playing their game? Do they offer thanks to everyone?” Renault’s father answered skeptically.
“No, but I’m sure they’ll explain their reasoning themselves.” Tommy shrugged. “Any other questions?”
“Nope,” Renault replied quickly so that his father didn’t have a chance to ask any more questions, despite looking as if he wanted to.
Tommy nodded. “Let’s have you five stand together over there with Shinji.” Tommy motioned all five members of Eli’s former adventuring party together.
“Wait. Why Shinji? What about me?” Hae-won protested. “They know who I am. They don’t know Shinji. They haven’t even seen him before.” She glared at Tommy.
“Okay, fine. Hae-won can go to.”
“Damn right, I can.” She huffed while stomping over to the huddle.
Renault, Selena, Derrick, Shinji, and Jillian made their way toward Eli, with Hae-won trailing. Selena was the first to reach his side and pressed her arms against his.
“Excited for your first day?” Jillian asked as she arrived.
“Yup. How’s re-leveling going?” Eli replied.
“Not bad. 60 already,” She smirked.
“Dang, isn’t that faster than how we leveled?” Derrick asked.
“A little bit slower,” Renault answered.
“Probably stealing all of our old grinding spots.” Eli teased.
Jillian pouted. “Have a little faith in my skills, would you?” She threw him a look but broke into a chuckle a moment later.
“As long as you are having fun.”
“I am.”
Eli turned to Renault. “How’s your rune hunting going?”
“It’s going awesome, Trexon and me fo-” Renault’s eyes lit up.
“Bah, forget about runes.” Hae-won interrupted him. “C’mon, when will you stop fiddling around in Rene and start streaming again?” She asked but was immediately nudged by Shinji.
“He’s earned a break,” Shinji replied on his behalf.
“Right,” Tommy spoke loudly to get everyone's attention. The parents of Selena, Derrick, and Renault had gathered behind him. Everyone be on your best behavior,” Tommy said before pressing a few buttons on his interface in front of himself, visible only to him. His words prompted Eli and the others to straighten their backs and look forward attentively.
Across the office simulation, three bodies materialized out of thin air. Eli didn’t recognize any of them, but they were all older gentlemen wearing suits and ties. The man in the center was the first to speak, stepping forward with an excited look on his face. He extended his hand towards Eli well before he was close enough to shake.
“Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Nicholas. I’m the lead game designer for Shattered World and the developer behind the Samantha AI system.” Nicholas explained as Eli walked to meet him and shook his hand, bowing his head politely.
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“I’m Andrew, head of marketing,” the youngest of the three said as he moved to shake Eli’s hand as well.
“And I’m Mike, Head of Engineering and Cybersecurity,” he said, the largest of the three with a round face but a big smile. After shaking all three hands, they did the same with Eli’s party members. They announced their character names one by one, ending with Hae-won and Shinji, explaining their roles as Eli’s editing team.
“Impressive editing work. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it,” Nicholas praised Shinji.
“Oh, thank you, I try my best. I’m lucky to have such good footage to work with,” Shinji replied with a polite bow.
“I’ve heard you previously worked for VGN, is that right?” Mike inquired.
“That’s correct,” Shinji nodded. Mike held an interested expression while Nicholas took over the conversation once more.
“I apologize for this meeting being so delayed. It’s long overdue, seeing as how the events of Stormtop occurred 2 real-world months ago, or 8 in-game months,” Nicholas stepped back to get a better view of everyone. “I wanted to offer my sincerest thanks to all of you for what you did with the Sword of Hatred. I can’t ever fully explain what you did for me, Samantha, and everyone at Averon, but know that you have our fullest gratitude.”
“That sword was causing that much trouble, eh?” Derrick commented.
“I was wondering. It was getting way out of hand. Why not nerf it? Other games have nerfed or even deleted weapons for being imbalanced that were way less impactful than that sword was being,” Jillian asked curiously.
“Heh,” Nicholas tilted his head to the side. “Don’t tempt me to start explaining the intricacies of how the gameworld was made. I wouldn’t be able to stop.”
“And he’s also not allowed to disclose it,” Mike grumbled at him.
“Right. That too.” Nicholas laughed awkwardly.
“So you arranged this meeting to thank us, but you can’t tell us why?” Renault raised an eyebrow at them, causing Hae-won to throw him a look, which he shrugged off.
“No, no, of course not. Just as we are busy, we know you all must be busy as well, what with you having your first day of university classes today,” Nicholas motioned to Eli, who was slightly taken aback by Nicholas's knowledge. “It was Andrew who insisted on taking up this meeting. Andrew?”
“Ahem.” Andrew stepped forward. “First of all, meeting such remarkable players is a pleasure. Eli, as you know, you began your journey in the Shattered World online 6 months after its launch. VR-MMORPGs notoriously have a drop-off in new player acquisition after the first month due to the fear of players being ‘too far behind’ to start late. Well,” Andrew hit his wrist to activate his office simulation interface, tapped it a few times, and waved his hand around.
Multiple holographic screens appeared floating in the air in front of the group so that everyone could see them. Simplified graphics showed several spikes in new player acquisition rates.
“Your popularity and the feats you accomplished in the gameworld without any major network backing you, no offense,” Andrew motioned to Tommy behind him,
“None taken,” Tommy replied,
“Inspired hundreds of thousands of players to start the game after learning that you had not only caught up to but overtaken those who’d started months before you. You can see that each spike coincides with every major event during your streaming career,” Andrew snapped his fingers to cause a stick to appear in his hands, using it to tap at points on a graph.
“This, the day you saved the Princess of Arallia and its people, kiting an entire abyssal invasion by yourself for a solid 10 minutes and making a grand escape aboard an Airship despite being attacked by a very deadly end-game boss,” Andrew explained, but was nudged by Nicholas.
“No spoilers,” Nicholas grumbled.
“Right, sorry.” Andrew looked around awkwardly before pointing to the next spike on the graph. “Your discovery of voidsilk and the defeat of the Mosmir,” he moved the stick again. The defense of Kalmoore, where you became the first player to defeat one of the 12 Avatars of Darkness successfully,” Andrew continued, but he got nudged again, and Renault’s eyes went wide.
“So there’s 12 more?” Renault whispered to Selena, who nodded back excitedly.
“Might be. Maybe. Andrew’s on the marketing team, so he doesn’t know much about the game world.” Nicholas chimed in.
“Right. Yes, I misspoke,” Andrew nodded awkwardly. “Anyway, you get the point. The biggest spike was your defeat of Seraxus, the previous gladiator champion and wielder of the Sword of Hatred.” Andrew tapped the last point on the graph, showing a spike of 13 million new users over the month following the match, tapering off over time back to the normal new player acquisition rates.
Hae-won’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “Wow.”
“Wow, indeed.” Nicholas nodded. “Thus, Andrew insisted on this meeting because he believes you may reconsider your streaming retirement with this information,” Nicholas explained with no enthusiasm.
“Right, of course. You expressed your love for the game previously, so I thought you might consider continuing to stream and show the world what new players could accomplish. Or possibly, if Jillian were to stream as a recent reroll, her adventures would likely yield similar results,” Andrew motioned to Jillian, catching her off guard. Eli caught his mom’s expression and stepped forward.
“Streaming’s done enough for our family already.”
“You haven’t heard our offer yet. You’re leaving a lot of money on the ta-” Andrew started, but Mike stepped in.
“I don’t think they’re interested. We should be thankful for what his gameplay has already done for us.” Mike smiled at Eli, who gave him an appreciative nod. Andrew eyed Eli and Jillian’s expressions and saw them very displeased and uncomfortable with the situation. He sighed, stepping back behind Nicholas and Mike.
“Alright.” He relented with a shrug. “Was worth a shot.”
“So,” Nicholas cleared his throat. “If you ever need anything, don’t be shy to ask. You’ve got a line straight to my ear implant,” Nicholas motioned to Tommy, who nodded back. “I appreciate you taking this meeting, and wish you all the best. I’ll enjoy watching you fight through the gladiator tournaments, Darkshot,” Nicholas winked at Derrick. The three gave polite goodbyes to everyone before leaving the office simulation.
“Did you hear that? The lead guy said he’s watching my tournaments!” Derrick turned to the others and cheered excitedly, hopping around in place, causing the others to smile at him.
“That’s all?” Renault’s father stepped forward with the other parents. “This hardly warranted our presence,” He looked curiously between Tommy and Shinji.
“Oh, that’s my fault,” Eli spoke up. “I heard Tommy’d be calling the old group together for a meeting and asked him to do something for me. He said parents would need to be involved, so...” Eli shrugged while motioning to everyone in the room.
“What’d you want us here for?” Derrick's father asked.
Eli began pacing away from the others as all eyes fell on him. “When Makaroth got rich, he took his money for himself. I think he shared some with Synopse, but that was it. In my case, I set out to do some crazy stuff in the game world. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Selena, Derrick, Renault, or you, Mom,” Eli looked to them as he spoke. “So when Tommy told me just how much money the streams and merchandising had made, I thought it would only be fair if we all split it…” Eli explained, while several eyes went wide.
“Seriously?” Derrick tilted his head.
“But it’s your money, sweetie…” Jillian looked hesitant.
Eli shook his head at her. “Mom, trust me, it’s such a ridiculously high amount that I wouldn’t be able to spend it all in 10 lifetimes.”
“I believe it. Everyone at my office has an Aegis action figure on their desk.” Selena’s dad said.
“It also couldn’t have been easy for your parents, having me steal your kids away for such long hours, and given the amount, I thought you ought to be a part of it,” Eli said.
“Per Eli’s contract to the Fanta-See network, his revenue split is 60% of all profits. He’s agreed to reassign 10% of that to each of you from the last few months, keeping the remaining 20% for himself.” Tommy explained, waving his hands to cause a holographic screen to appear in front of everyone. “That results in each of you reci-” Tommy couldn’t finish speaking. The moment the numbers became visible on the screen, several gasps of shock and squeals were heard throughout the room from everyone present.
“13 million? Does that say 13 million?!” Derrick’s father interrupted Tommy.
“He was the number one streamer for the biggest event ever seen in the Shattered World online,” Tommy shrugged.
“He’s a household name now.” Hae-won smiled at all of the glowing faces. Several of them started hopping around with joy.
“As I said, I don’t know what to do with that m-” Eli was interrupted by a beeping noise in his ears. “Ah, I gotta go, another meeting before classes start. I can’t be late. Tommy will give you guys all the details!” Eli cheered at them.
“Wai- Uhh.” Jillian shook her head at Eli as his body de-materialized from the office simulation.
“Me too. I’ll see you all around!” Selena called out but was barely heard over the cheers of excitement coming from the others. Derrick and his father were hopping up and down. Renault’s dad grabbed Renault’s shoulders and looked at him, completely stunned. Selena’s parents were discussing retirement plans. Selena de-materialized from the office simulation with only Jillian noticing. She squinted at the disappearance of the two and tapped her ear implant, pulling up her simulation contact list that showed both were currently playing the Shattered World Online.
“Meeting my ass,” Jillian grumbled.
Eli, as Aegis, logged into the Shattered World Online directly from the office simulation. He appeared inside a large room with a king-sized canopy bed at its center. The room was circular and well-furnished, with drapes over the windows opened just enough to let in the morning sunlight.
Aegis wasn’t wearing his typical salamander-scaled armor, nor was he equipped with his 10-pointed star-shaped shield. He wore basic cotton clothing suitable for walking about town and not for adventuring.
He took a moment to adjust to his surroundings before walking over to the nearest window. He looked out to see the tall mountain of Jia’nir beyond, with the Monastery of the Stars built near its summit. The skies were clear, and the sounds of the city of Rene bustling below could be heard.
From the highest tower of his castle, Aegis could overlook everything happening across Rene's land. It was peaceful, and the light breeze that blew into the window against his face felt calming.
He didn’t have to wait long before Lina, the in-game avatar of Selena, materialized behind him.
“How much time do you have?” Lina asked. She, too, had no weapon or armor equipped. Instead, a simple white and purple gown accented her long purple hair, which flowed down her back.
“Enough,” Aegis smiled before rushing across the room towards her. The two embraced one another and kissed passionately, but Lina pulled away.
“You promise you won’t fall for any girls in your university, right?” Lina asked him with a look of concern.
“Why would I fall for anyone else when I have you?” Aegis replied. She smiled and leaned in to kiss him again, but Aegis swept her off her feet and carried her over to the bed instead.

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[Book 4] Chapter 325: Forward