As soon as they were gone, Roth finally turned off the option of not showing pain and curled up into a ball on the floor, sobbing like a baby. He had been screaming and crying in his mind for hours, but now he could finally break down. He screamed as loud as he could and thrashed on the floor. He needed to let some of the painful memories out. He had wanted to die many times over the last few hours. The pain had been too acute, too real. Worse than that, though, was that the people who had done this to him used to be his friends. These were people who he’d gone to school with. All of them knew his parents and his brothers. How could they?
But that wasn’t the only reason why he cried. He cried because he once again realized how much hurt he had caused during his life. The way they had beaten him up, the things they had said, the little random intervals to leave him wondering when the next hit was coming, and not leaving him entirely without hope were all vicious moves he had used on others many times. How many people had he mistreated before? How many had felt like he did now?
His tears also came from still having the desire to fight back. His old self wouldn’t have taken this beating so elegantly. He would have cursed and squirmed every second of the encounter. Even though he had changed, his old ugly self was still there somewhere, urging him to get back at them. So he cried.
Lastly, he cried for one last reason. At least, this was a positive one. Now he was sure that he truly had become someone else. He had been able to control his emotions, and despite all that had happened, as he searched his heart, he found no rage toward his assailants. He had meant what he said. He believed he deserved each of those blows. In a way, he was almost relieved. After four years of prison and being hurt like this, no one could say he hadn’t paid his penance. He had suffered more than enough for his sins. All debts with his former squad had been settled.
Although he still felt disoriented from the trauma he’d experienced, Roth tried to regain his bearings. He noticed that several other beginners were looking at him. After his former squad logged out, Gary’s item’s effect was dispelled, and he became visible to all other players. They had witnessed his outburst.
One of them approached Roth. He wore the same gear as Roth when he entered the game. Now, Roth was only wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.
“Hey, man. Are you OK?” There was genuine concern in his voice. Roth must have put on quite a show.
“Not really. There’s a problem with my pain settings in the game. I need help.”
“Why don’t you call a game manager? I’m sure the GM can get it fixed for you.” Roth tried to look for the option. It was still blocked.
“I can’t. My game support button is disabled.”
“Then log out and call them in the real world.” Roth tried again to look for the relevant option.
“That’s disabled too.”
“Wha… Dude. Do you think I can’t tell a scammer when I see one? Get lost, man!”
The man walked away. He rejoined his friend. Roth could hear him talking in the distance.
“Forget it, man. It’s just a scammer trying to get my bank information or something.”
Despite feeling groggy and confused, Roth tried to move. Loki had threatened his mother and his brothers. He had to get out of here. Roth tried to see if there was anyone else here. He saw a female player a few steps away and tried to talk to her.
“Excuse me, miss, do you think you can...”
“Hmph. Do you think men inside the game have never approached me? Get away from me, you pervert! Coming to a girl like that in your underwear. You should be ashamed of yourself!”
“But I...” the girl had already left.
Starting to despair, Roth tried a group of players a few meters to the side. These were more empathetic and heard him out.
“What? That’s a severe bug.”
“Do you think you could call a GM for me?”
After hesitating momentarily and realizing that a scammer wouldn’t ask a potential target to call a game manager, they agreed. “Sure. Give me a second.”
“Hey, can I get someone to help this player out? His game is seriously bugged.” Roth sat down, still recovering from the shock he’d been through.
After a few minutes, a figure clad in golden armor and a giant spear materialized in the middle of the group.
“I am Steve, the GM.” A cheesy celebratory animation erupted, with fireworks and rockets, heavily contrasting Steve’s lack of enthusiasm. “What can I do for you today?” Even though the man was clad in top-tier gear, way out of reach for players at the current level of the game, he did not seem excited with having to rescue a group of noobs again. Roth noted that, compared to this guy’s equipment, his former squad also looked like a bunch of noobs.
“Yo, Steve. This guy says something is wrong with his pain settings and log-out button. He said that he couldn’t contact GMs either. That’s why I called you. Can you check him out and see if everything’s OK?”
Steve’s eyes focused. He assumed a more pleasant facial expression and attempted to bring out the best possible customer service.
“Can you tell me the email associated with your account, sir?” he asked diplomatically.
“Uuhh. No?”
“No? You don’t know your e-mail?”
“No. I just entered the pod and created my character. No one asked me for my email.”
“Didn’t you give an email when you bought the pod? Or when you bought the game? That email address.” What kind of player didn’t know his email?
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“It wasn’t me who bought it. It was...” Roth hesitated. “It was a friend.” He had to make a great effort to spill out that last word. Steve regarded him suspiciously.
“Please, hold on for a moment,” said Steve in a dry tone. His eyes became utterly white.
*
Steve’s avatar materialized in the office building of Nexus Co. This wasn’t the real thing, of course. This was only a 3D virtual model of the company’s office building. Customer care service agents and game managers could come here anytime to file reports, talk to their supervisors, or look up extra information on players’ accounts. It had been a cheap way of letting all employees telecommute while promoting a connection to the corporate environment of Nexus. Steve’s avatar, still fully clad in his golden armor, sat before a computer. He investigated the Account ID he had looked up using his GM-privileged access and started reading the player’s information.
Avatar: Pax #10921370
Monthly Fee: Paid until 25 October 2085
“Has he died a thousand times in the game already? What is going on in...” Steve paused when he saw a supervisor making a video call. His name was Marius. It was his first time talking to this supervisor. There were just too many of them. It wasn’t easy to cater to a clientele that numbered billions.
“Hi Steve, how are you doing?” The man had curly red hair and blue eyes. He seemed to be in his fifties.
“Hello. How can I help you?” After a few moments of hesitation, he added, “Am I in trouble?” He was met with easygoing laughter on the other side.
“No, not at all. Listen, I received a notification that you accessed account number #10921370. It’s a very troublesome situation, so I set up an alarm in case anyone checked this case file so that I could explain it and avoid any trouble with the account holders.” That was highly unusual, thought Steve. It must be a special case.
“Go on.”
“This account belongs to a young man who has some mental issues. His guardians let him play the game but keep his account under several restrictions. He keeps contacting GMs with ridiculous stories of kidnapping and his account having severe issues. He has a very fruitful imagination because of his... condition. Poor soul. Just ignore him.”
“Oh wow. Poor guy. Now it makes some sense. I will gently tell him off and wrap up this call, then. Thank you for letting me know!”
“You’re welcome. Keep up the good work, Steve!” Marius hung up.
In all his time as a customer care agent for AVR gaming companies, this was the first time Steve was seeing something like this. Nexus was something else. That supervisor had been so quick to call. How thoughtful of him!
*
After Steve stood still for a few minutes, his eyes refocused.
Turning to the player that had called him, he explained the situation loud enough so that Roth could hear it: “This young man has a mental illness. His parental control settings are all fully turned on. He often asks players to do things like this for him to try to remove the restrictions on his account. I checked it all out with a supervisor.”
“No, I’m not crazy. I’m...”
“Sure. It’s OK, man. Just go out there and have fun playing. Sorry to bother you with this, Steve.”
“It’s OK. And you, young sir, try not to bother other players. Just go have some fun on your own, OK?”
“I’m not crazy! I’ve been kidnapped. Please help...”
The GM disappeared. The group he’d approached earlier also left. What was happening? He needed to try again. He saw one more player on the other side of the village’s square and headed toward her. Before he talked, though, he stopped himself. He realized that he was calling too much attention to himself. His instinct told him to find somewhere safe before his former squad returned. He picked himself up and left the square. He went into the first alley he could find. In the shadow of some crates, he hid and cried.
After many minutes, he got a hold of himself again. His situation was dire, but maybe not hopeless. He had to make sense of his circumstances. There had to be a way out of here. But if Loki was involved...
For now, he would see what his character’s status was. During the beating, he had received so many notifications saying that his stats had dropped that he was even scared to look at his character’s page. There was something about physiotherapy, but he did not know how it worked. His stats were most likely crippled. It would take him ages to recover. He had been killed too many times. He was sure anyone else would have deleted this character and started a new account.
“Check stats.”
STATS
Hp: 100
Energy: 100
Damage Reduction: 31.3%
Running Speed: 110%
Weight: [Light] - (0/36lb)
Strength: 5 (-343)
Dexterity: 5 (-412)
Intelligence: 5 (-342)
Wisdom: 5 (-367)
Endurance: 213 (-218)
That wasn’t what Roth was expecting. Why had all the debuffs from his death been canceled? He didn’t remember seeing the endurance stat before, either. How had he unlocked it?
He opened the system log and looked back through his character’s history. Mostly were messages saying that he had died, dropped a piece of equipment, or lost stats, but finally, he found something different.
Pain has tried, but it cannot stop you.
You have unlocked a new stat: [Endurance].
Reduces damage received (+0.1 damage reduction per +1 endurance);
You can run longer without tiring.
Getting beaten up so much had given him this new stat. It made sense that it had gone up. He was hit time after time by players leveled much higher than he was. Additionally, with his pain setting turned on so high, it must have made this stat spike.
That still didn’t explain everything, though. He kept scrolling down the notifications to see if anything else had happened, which could explain why his stat debuffs had been canceled. He came across other interesting messages.
Congratulations! Your endurance has reached 50.
You have gained [Bark Skin].
Bark Skin (Stat Bonus)
Bonus description: By enduring hardship and arduous training, you make your skin tougher and more durable. It's as strong as a tree's bark.
Bonus effect: Passive. Reduces damage received by 5%.
Congratulations! Your endurance has reached 100.
You have gained [Cat’s Sprint].
Cat's Sprint (Stat Bonus)
Bonus description: Your training has given its fruits. By practicing your resistance, you're muscles are more developed, and you can run like a feline.
Bonus effect: Passive. Increases running speed by 5%. Increases carry capacity by 5 Kg.
Congratulations! Your endurance has reached 150.
[Bark Skin] has been upgraded to [Stone Skin].
Stone Skin (Stat Bonus)
Bonus description: By enduring hardship and arduous training, you make your skin even harder and more resistant. It's as strong as a rock.
Bonus effect: Passive. Reduces damage received by 10%.
Congratulations! Your endurance has reached 200.
[Cat's Sprint] has been upgraded to [Horse's Gallop].
Horse's Gallop (Stat Bonus)
Bonus description: Look at how far you've come. By practicing your resistance, you're muscles are more developed, and you can run like a horse.
Bonus effect: Passive. Increases running speed by 10%. Increases carry capacity by 10 Kg.
He had played some games when he was younger in which gaining stats over a certain threshold unlocked some special bonuses. In New Earth this hadn’t existed. He liked that they had added this to this game. He also went back to his stats and checked they weren’t cumulative. Once he had unlocked [Stone Skin], he lost the bonus of its weaker version, [Bark Skin]. Still, none of this accounted for the debuff caused by all his deaths to have disappeared. He kept looking and scrolling until, at the very end of the history of his character, he saw something interesting. He opened the notification.
You have unlocked a new title: [Martyr].