Chapter 282: No Holding Back

“Making the world aware of how Seraxus’ sword works was a double-edged sword, and it's now backfiring in the worst way imaginable.” A VGN Newscaster spoke to his audience, seated beside his co-host in the VGN broadcasting studio.

“Yes, it was very shortsighted of Aegis, but we can’t expect much else from him as he’s repeatedly shown himself to be hot-headed. He basically just told all of Seraxus’ supporters exactly how they can support them, giving them a method to directly empower his abilities despite not being in the matches with him. No other streamer here has the ability to be empowered by their fans like Seraxus can.” The co-host replied, alternating between talking to his co-host and talking to the camera.

“All we can do is hope that Synopse or Feng will be strong enough to stand up against a fully empowered Sword of Hatred.”

“Yes, let’s hope Aegis hasn’t done permanent damage and doomed our champions of light to defeat.”

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Nicholas stood in his office simulation, watching this broadcast alongside Andrew. They both remained silent as this stream played out alongside multiple others in the ongoing tournament match.

The second match between Seraxus and Starcry had begun, this time with Seraxus’ wings completely solidified and a thick dark aura of black abyssal mist emanating from him. It was worse the second time around as he didn’t just toy with Starcry but his entire party - all the while yelling insults.

“This looks bad, but he’s carefully avoiding breaking our terms of service,” Andrew commented after Nicholas waved his fingers to bring Seraxus’ stream front and center.

“He’s been trained by his network,” Nicholas replied while crossing his arms and glaring at the display.

“I really don’t like these guys.” Andrew sighed. A moment of silence between the two passed with nothing but the sounds of the VGN shoutcaster talking about the match from the platform overlooking the arena, where Yumily stood out of view from the stream. Frustrated, Nicholas began to fidget with his office simulation interface to bring up a call with Mike.

“How’re we looking, Mike?” Nicholas asked but was met with no response. “Mike?”

“Uh, sorry, hang on,” Ryan replied, much to Nicholas’ surprise. “Mike said he went to check on things with the engineers, but everything security-wise is looking good.”

“Okay. Thanks for the update.” Nicholas replied.

“Sorry, I couldn’t stop him.” Ryan apologized in a much more quiet tone.

“You’re not at fault. Don’t worry about it. Whatever happens, happens.” Nicholas replied before ending the call.

“Hae-won’s right. They’re blaming it all on Aegis.” Tommy sighed into his voice call with both Alicia and Shinji. He, too, was watching the VGN coverage from inside his office simulation. “Do your best to ignore it, Alicia. We’ll see if Hae-won can’t sort it out.”

“Okay.” Alicia nodded, her voice carrying the pressure and anxiety she felt as she eyed the angry messages flooding into Aegis’ Livestream chat window from all of the VGN fans.

Shinji, however, remained silent, watching nothing but Aegis’ stream - the news of what everyone else was saying and doing was completely cut off from him. Intentionally, he focused on Aegis and Aegis alone, readying himself to edit the footage of his upcoming match by calmly closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.

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Hae-won stepped up onto the raised platform, briefly overwhelmed by the view. From atop the platform, it was much easier to see the thousands of players and NPCs packed into the arena, all shouting and cheering at the ongoing second match between Seraxus and Starcry. The VGN broadcaster, a level 21 player, was standing near the front with a staff enchanted with voice amplification, shout casting the match by doing his best to call out all abilities being used by the players in the arena.

He wasn’t doing a very good job of it, but Hae-won wasn’t in a position to critique him. It was one thing for her to broadcast to an audience through a chat log, but very different to stand in front of so many people.

Worse for her, was that as she panned her eyes away from the audience and towards the platform itself, she saw Yumily standing in front of her, looking on worriedly down at the match while clenching her hands into fists, lightly pacing left and right as if unsure what to do with herself.

“The wings are back, we have to do something, right?” Yumily asked while turning to her dancers who were standing behind her, looking just as concerned.

“What can we do?”

“There’s nothing to do right now.” Another VGN player replied, stepping from the back of the stage to the front. [Cybal - Level 19] was floating above his head, and he had short black hair with a black and white suit and tie. “Leave the fighting to the combatants participating in the tournament, you just focus on performing between them as per our arrangements.” He explained.

“But…” Yumily turned to him, then looked to the shoutcaster speaking loudly, then back to her dancers. “If we don’t do anything…” She finally landed her eyes on Seraxus’ solidified wings once more.

“It’s not your job to do anything about him. Don’t forget, he’s part of your network too - no matter who wins, we still all win.”

“That’s…” Yumily stopped herself from saying something as she turned to glare at Cybal briefly, then looked once more at the match. Until this point, Hae-won had gone unnoticed atop the stage as Kenji ascended the stairs and stopped behind her, standing and watching quietly.

Hae-won froze, staring blankly at Yumily, with the loud sounds of the cheers of the audience around her becoming deafening. It took her a moment to muster her courage, but with a deep inhale she stomped her foot down to psyche herself up, then marched forward across the stage.

“Oi, you can’t be up here. We have this platform reserved by the royal guard of Tarolas. Kenji?” Cybal spotted Hae-won before anyone else and began motioning her to turn around, looking to Kenji for assistance.

Kenji didn’t reply, but just stared at Cybal while Cybal’s words drew Yumily’s attention away from the match and onto Hae-won. The moment Yumily’s eyes met Hae-won’s, she froze in place like a stiff statue. Shyness, fear, and anxiety all briefly overwhelmed Hae-won but seeing the look of worry in Yumily’s eyes was enough to snap her out of it.

“Okay, come on, you’ve been in front of crowds before. You’ve been around idols before.” Hae-won mumbled to herself while tilting her head down to prevent anyone from seeing her mouth movements - her mumbling inaudible due to the loud boos of the crowds directed towards Seraxus.

“You’re not okay with things continuing like this, are you?” Hae-won asked Yumily. Yumily looked from Hae-won, to Kenji, to Cybal, then back to the match and finally landing back on Hae-won.

“No… but… I can’t do anything to help. I want to, but…” Yumily glanced at Cybal once more.

“On the contrary, you’re the only one who can do anything to help.” Hae-won replied with forced confidence.

“Get her off the stage, now.” Cybal ordered Kenji, but Kenji responded by simply crossing his arms. “You gotta be kidding me.” Cybal sighed in frustration before he began fidgeting with his in-game interface.

“I don’t understand how? I tried, but… it’s only gotten worse now.” Yumily looked to Hae-won with desperation in her eyes.

“Aegis explained it to me before we landed in Tarolas… how he thought you could manage it.” Hae-won stepped closer to her.

“Get back.” Cybal shouted in anger over his interface, but was ignored.

“Simulation boxes are not reading our minds. They don’t know how or what we are feeling or thinking, it's reading our vital signs and spikes in certain hormones that it has access to. With this data collected, really, it's just guessing how we’re feeling and applying those emotions to the gameworld. But we only have one set of vitals to read, so it can only estimate one emotion at a time. Real humans aren’t so simple, but the gameworld can’t know that. Aegis theorized that it's utilizing the most obvious, current dominant emotion it’s reading from our vitals to influence the avatars. So, therefore…” Hae-won was interrupted by Yumily’s revelation,

“We don’t need to stop people from hating Seraxus, we just need to make them feel something else more strongly so the game doesn’t interpret their feelings as hatred anymore?” Yumily replied. Hae-won snapped her fingers into a gun shape to point at Yumily while winking.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Bingo.”

“But what emotion can Yumily draw out?” Kenji asked as he joined into the conversation, stepping up beside Hae-won.

“What’s the opposite of hate?” Hae-won replied.

“Love?” One of Yumily’s dancers answered for her on her behalf.

“Two for two.” Hae-won did the snapping finger-pointing motion again, this time to the dancer.

“But… Well, how am I going to make everyone love Seraxus? That’s impossible, isn’t it?” Yumily replied while alternatingly looking at her dancers and Hae-won.

“Not Seraxus.” Hae-won shook her head. “Aegis thought, the only one who could do it was you. You make them love you.”

“Love me?” Yumily looked at her with a hint of confusion on her face. “I don’t understand… how?”

“It might require some tweaking to your usual performing style, but if anyone can do it, it’d b-”

“What’s going on here?” Calikgos spoke as he suddenly appeared on the platform, no one having seen where he’d come from due to his incredibly high movement speed. “Kenji, get this Fanta-See Network caster off of the stage. This is a VGN performance.” Calikgos ordered Kenji as Cybal proudly marched up beside him and crossed his arms.

“No, she’s helping me. She’s my guest.” Yumily quickly moved to stand between Calikgos and Hae-won, spreading her arms as if to protect Hae-won.

“She’s a member of Aegis’ entourage. You’ve been forbidden from contacting them for the rest of this tournament lest you risk fines and your contract being terminated.

“But I need her help to stop Seraxus. It’s helping Synopse and Feng, so it should be okay, right?”

“You don’t need to pick favorites between your fellow VGN streamers. Seraxus is just as valuable as Synopse or Feng. Don’t forget that we’re just trying to put on a good show for the fans - it’s not your job to interfere with the matches.” Calikgos replied, tilted his head down and placed his hand on the hilts of his sheathed daggers. “Remove yourself from the stage or I’ll remove you forcefully.” His voice got deep and dark, causing Kenji to grab his staff from off his back, but this didn’t seem to concern Calikgos whatsoever.

“You really expect me to just sit here and do nothing? Aegis asked me for help, he’s counting on me to help take down Seraxus!” Yumily shouted back in frustration.

“We don’t give a damn what Aegis wants, and neither should you. Your network, who has supported you from the beginning and brought you up from nothing, carrying your career from a nobody to who you are today, is demanding something of you. You best comply, as the consequences will be severe if you don’t.” Cybal spoke up, stomping forward a few steps.

All of this conversation was being drowned out by the shoutcaster announcing that Seraxus had won the second match against Starcry, in addition to Yumily’s VGN editor forcefully muting her livestream and playing a commercial break over her broadcast.

“Is that how you see me?” Yumily glared at Cybal as Calikgos sighed and shook his head disapprovingly at Cybal’s words.

“That’s who you are. You’re nothing without our network. So fall in line now, and get her off this stage immediately.” Cybal snapped back.

“No,” Yumily replied while crossing her arms. "I am terminating my contract with VGN. I quit.” She shouted at them angrily. I no longer give you permission to broadcast my Livestream.” She said as she went into her interface and began fidgeting around with the buttons.

“What?” Cybal asked in disbelief.

“Yumily…” Kenji replied worriedly but saw the determination in Yumily’s eyes.

“You… you can’t just do that…” Cybal said as Calikgos angrily slashed his daggers out at Cybal, killing him instantly and removing him from the gameworld.

“Yumily, look, sorry for that idiot… don’t act so hastily…” Calikgos tried to calm her down.

“No. I’m not asking hastily. I’ve been considering this for a while. Lately, I have not felt like I’ve been playing the game the way I want to. I love making music, but I also love this world. I appreciate what VGN has done for me, but I think I’d prefer to be free to play how I like, now.” She explained while looking at her interface, and at the end of this sentence, she held her finger out at a button floating on her interface, visible only to her in her peripheral vision. The button was to disable permission for VGN to utilize and manage her broadcasts.

“If you do this, you’ll no longer be under our protection.”

“That’s okay. I have my friends. They’ll protect me.” Yumily replied, then pressed the button with a sense of finality. “What is it like at your network? Will I be able to play freely like Aegis?” Yumily asked while turning to Hae-won, whose jaw had dropped nearly to the floor with her eyes strained wide open.

“I… uh…” Hae-won had difficulty catching her breath for a moment. “We will give you freedom, yes… but VGN is going to own all your merchandising and likeness. You can no longer be Yumily the bard.” Hae-won explained as she struggled to recompose herself.

“That’s fine. I hope my fans will still support me, even if I have to change my name.” Yumily smiled at Hae-won, where Hae-won could see the worry and fear in her eyes that she was holding back. Looking closely, Hae-won could even see Yumily’s hands trembling.

“Ahhhh…” Calikgos sighed as he took a fighting stance. “I guess I didn’t say it more clearly. Terminating that contract, you’re not just no longer under our protection, but one of our enemies. I’m not going to let you put on a performance that ruins VGN’s show.” The killing intent emanating from Calikgos was sudden, and heavy.

“Vallada!” Kenji was quick to react, creating shifting illusionary forms of Yumily and Hae-won at the last second as Kalikgos dashed forward and swung his daggers towards their throats, but his blades passed through the Kenji’s illusions that had somehow taken the places of the real ones.

“You’re serious?” Kenji asked in disbelief.

“Dead serious,” Calikgos replied coldly as he prepared to lunge out at Kenji, but stopped at the last second as a loud voice echoed out from the stage beside him.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CAN I PLEASE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?” Hae-won shouted into her voice amplification staff, drawing all eyes towards the stage where Calikgos and Kenji were preparing to fight, as was Yumily drawing out her bardic instruments in an offensive stance. “You’ll never believe what the Sages of Destiny are planning to do, because they’re soooooo interested in saving Tarolas!” Hae-won said while doing a waving hand motion, directing the eyes of all the audience members towards Calikgos in his fighting stance. He had no choice but to quickly let up and sheath his daggers.

“Ahem.” Hae-won cleared her throat while throwing him a devious grin. “They’ve decided that, even though Yumily is departing from VGN, that they will support her in her battle against the sword of hatred. She will be putting on a performance shortly, one that will surely blow you all away! A new side of Yumily you’ve never seen before! So please look forward to it, and thank you for the Sages of Destiny for continuing to support her. Together, we can stop the sword of Hatred!” Hae-won cheered while locking eyes with Calikgos, and getting a death stare in return.

Cheers erupted from the audience, from NPCs and players alike. The side of the arena filled with Sages of Destiny and Vindicators was noticeably quieter than the others, but it was still deafeningly loud despite this. Hae-won then moved her voice amplification staff away from her face and took a step toward Calikgos.

“You guys aren’t the only ones that can manipulate the truth.” Hae-won snarled. “Attack us, and you’ll be drowning in the breath of a silver dragon.” She added while motioning up towards the cloudy skies above the arena, where the Silhouette of Yasil’mareina was visible, flapping her silver-scaled majestic wings through the sky. “Come on, let’s go.” Hae-won then marched off the platform, motioning Yumily to follow.

“What? But we need to stop Seraxus, don’t we?”

“Yep. Gotta sort some stuff out first, so you don’t get sued for performing as Yumily, which is exactly what VGN will do.” Hae-won replied without turning back to Yumily, and rushed down the steps off the platform.

“Okay… Okay…” Yumily nodded anxiously while turning to her band-members, motioning them to follow. “Come on guys, let's get off of this platform, we don’t have permission to be here anymore.”

“Got it.” The drummer replied as he and the dangers began quickly packing up items into their inventories, then hurrying off the stage behind her. Kenji was the last to follow, disabling the various Hae-won and Yumily illusions that he’d scattered around the platform to disorient Calikgos.

“This isn't over,” Calikgos said threateningly to Kenji. Kenji didn’t reply, but shrugged before turning to follow off the platform behind the others.

“You sure it’s okay? I’m not causing too much trouble with this, right? VGN is very litigious, I don’t want to get you into any trouble…” Yumily said apologetically as she followed after Hae-won, who was leading her out of the audience, stood in a long, wide stone hallway, the sounds of the crowds cheering fading out behind them.

“No problem, we’ve dealt with them before. More importantly…” Hae-won stopped to turn and face Yumily. “Are you sure about this? I mean, those fines are going to be hefty…”

“I’m sure. I have not been having fun for a long time. I don’t need money, I have plenty of it saved up to pay for breaking their contract. I want to help you guys win. I want to play the game.” Yumily replied firmly with a nervous nod of her head. Despite her actions, Hae-won could still tell she looked incredibly worried, and her hands were still trembling.

“I think you made the right choice. Those VGN guys were starting to drive me crazy.” Kenji tried reassuring her.

“Me too.” One of her dancers chimed in.

“Our network will be happy to have you.” Hae-won gave her a warm smile. “I’ll have Tommy organize all the paperwork for you, but we can worry about that stuff later. First priority is replacing the hatred everyone is feeling with love instead. I have an idea how to do it, but we’ll need you to change your in-game name and avatar before we can think of doing any more performances. VGN will still be able to sell all of your old music and merchandise, as they own Yumily. They don’t own you, though.”

“So, I just need to do a bit of rebranding?” Yumily asked as a slightly devious smile began to creep over her face, which Hae-won matched.

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“What the hell was that about?” Makaroth asked as Calikgos had re-appeared in the seats beside him and settled into a section of the arena stands surrounded by other Sages of Destiny guild members, including Lilya.

“Your son just convinced Yumily to quit VGN and join his network, costing VGN millions,” Calikgos replied coldly while settling into the stone seat.

“I warned you that it would be chaos if he made it here. He’s just like his mother.” Makaroth replied.

“This is on you, just as much as it’s on him. You better hope that he isn’t the one to win this tournament, or there’ll be hell to pay.” Calikgos growled back at Makaroth.