《V.I.R.A.L 》Chapter 132: The Seed of Doubt
Advertisement
EOR sat on a pile of snow waiting. He was not concerned at all who would find him as he patiently waited for the end of his game. That was until he heard heavy footsteps in the snow. Tilting his head, he let out a little chuckle. "My, my. I was expecting V.I.R.A.L to find me soon enough but isn't this a treat to behold. It's sure been a while, Diego."
Diego stood idly arms folded as he looked up at EOR sighing. "I hope you weren't planning on escaping Henry."
EOR spun around, leaning forward on his kingdom of snow. "Me run away? You know I'm better than that Diego old friend. My little game is over and boy did I have fun. It's going to take a while to outdo this little show, but I'll figure something out. So, therefore, I humbly surrender myself."
Diego raised an eyebrow not convinced. "Yeah, it's going to take a lot more than that to make me fall for your little tricks."
"Oh, there's no tricks. It's not a joke. The oh so heroic streamer Crimson Dawn has thawed my plans and utterly defeated me once again. I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids and that dumb dog."
Diego began walking around the heap of snow with little care. His defence was entirely down, and he didn't even keep eye contact with the villain. "What I want to know is how did you escape? No one just escapes from Sun peak prison just like that. Did you get help?"
"I didn't break out."
"So, someone helped you escape?"
"Nay. I was let out on good faith. And now I wait for those kind folks to put me back. I've had my fun. I'm ready to go back to reform. I'm satisfied with what happened today." EOR insisted lying on his front smugly staring at Diego. "Tell me, Crimson Dawn, how does it feel to always be one step behind me?"
"Who says I'm one step behind. I could have easily taken you down before the games even begun, but I wanted to see what you did." Diego claimed, shaking his head. "Can't say I'm disappointed you confirmed something for me today."
"About the girl, yes? Alice Hawthorne. I too was curious by her and a few others. Team Rhapsody has some diamonds in the rough. Alton, Scarlett and now little miss Zinnia. So many powerful streamers what fun it was to break them."
Advertisement
"Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble Henry but your plan. Monty is done. Everyone will be fine. You lost."
EOR's eye began twitching as he laughed in a high pitch tone. "No, no, no. Eyes Over Reality doesn't lose my friend."
Diego stopped as his imagination rang wild. The EOR he was talking to a fake, and he was attacked from behind with a knife. Those events began to play out just like he dreamed up as he reacted to such events. Turning around, he stopped EOR in his tracks, breaking the knife out of his hand and jerking him to the ground pinning him down. "Do you ever learn Henry? Your illusions don't work on me."
"That future sight of yours is broken, I'll admit. You are entirely my counter. What fun."
Diego looked lost arresting EOR. "What's so funny."
Being spun around onto his front Eyes Over Reality lay back handcuffed laughing away. "You really don't get it, Diego. All of this was apart of my plan. I've won. I wasn't here to win any battles I didn't intend to kill anybody. In a fair fight, I am fragile. You see those unnatural streamers with powers to topple nations. Neither one of us can win against that. So, I did what I do best. How I win battles, I make them fight themselves. Bring up their inner demons and plan the seed of doubt. Not only are they questioning their own self morals and ambitions, but now they don't trust each other. Soon enough, they will fall apart into a scrabble and tear each other apart. I beat all of them, and I didn't even raise a finger that's how I win Diego."
EOR kept laughing over and over as Diego stood up, letting V.I.R.A.L take care of the rest as he went to confirm something deep down, he just had to see for himself.
Kurt followed past standing by EOR as he was detained and locked up in a box with just a hole for his eyes. "I take it you accomplished your mission?"
"I did."
"What have you for me then?"
EOR remained silent, leaning forward whispering in Kurt's ear. "You have bigger problems on your hand than Alton Brantley."
Kurt looked somewhat concerned as he turned around, looking on at the streamers in the background. "Could it be? No that's impossible… Unless. Oh my…"
****
"Is it me or does this feel more like a loss than our usual victory?" Emil whispered limping over. "Where did Monty go?"
Advertisement
Scarlett turned seeing where Monty was once defeated empty. He was gone. "Damn it how did we lose him? Should we go after him?"
"No," Zinnia muttered. "He won't be picking a fight with us anymore."
"How do you know?"
Zinnia smiled slightly. "When it all ended, and he lost, I didn't feel rage or anger—only disappointment and regret. I think Monty finally came to his senses and realised what he did… After all this time he just wanted to be a hero and bring down his family yet we were their time and time again stopping him without any knowledge…"
"If things were different, he could have easily been one of us…" Emil muttered. "I can't help but feel sorry for the guy."
"Are we going to forget he stabbed me?" Alton whimpered.
"If our roles had swapped, could I have gone that far for the chance of being a hero?" Wondered Zinnia. "I hope we get to see him again. On the right terms… If it wasn't for you, Alice, who knows what would have happened."
"The Alice requires no thanks. She is more than happy to help after what you did for us with Paradox." Alice softly said, she walked up to the crown picking it up. Some time went by as she dropped it, shaking her head. "As calculated. Monty had already used up the wish. This was a waste of time I feel… Frustrated?"
"Careful now Hawthorne we don't want those emotions going out of wack," Diego exclaimed walking over giving a dry round of applause. "I suppose I should congratulate you for taking down Monty. Who would have expected for him to show up?"
"Diego. You made it this far too."
"Of course, I chose my fight wisely, never once nearing any of you. Although this might sound rather selfish of me that all of this is over, I have a request. Alice, I wish to fight you."
Alice looked slightly lost, pointing to herself. "You wish to fight the Alice? Might she ask why?"
"I want to confirm something. Grant me this wish, will you?"
"Very well. The Alice accepts Crimson Dawn."
The two stood off as Zinnia stared at each other. "What is going on? Why are they fighting?"
"I have no idea…" Alton whispered.
Alice was the first to attack as Diego avoided the arrows straight away, moving far away from her attack. He didn't choose to ever counter-attack merely testing what Alice was capable of. He quickly jumped back as a portal soon appeared from beneath his feet. Alice was starting to get impatient as she was scowling at the streamer her eyes fixed on him as she raised her hand creating serval portals. Diego jumped back using his hands to push himself further back. As he began landing on the ground, he had an exact copy of Alice's bow ready. Firing off the copied attacks, Alice was struck in the face as she stumbled back looking down bleeding. She didn't react or say anything as her hair covered her eyes. Lifting her hand up dozens of portals rippled into existence which only grew in number. Diego looked around in shock before holding his hands up. "I forfeit." Alice stopped her attack coming back to her senses, confused. Diego gave off a nervous laugh. "What was I thinking of taking on the number two streamer? Must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Ha, Ha."
"What was that all about?" Harmony questioned.
"I have no idea."
Diego walked up to Alice, holding his hand out. She stared blankly at him not taking it as he recalled it back looking hurt. "You don't do handshakes got it. Sorry for all of this. I just wanted something confirmed, and I was right. It is you. The most powerful Antihuman in the world."
Diego walked off without saying another word. "What did he mean by that?" Scarlett questioned, looking at Alice conflicted.
Alton glanced at Alice, who had her hand down by her face as she let the blood drip into the palm. Her stare was blank and lifeless like always, but unknowingly she had a smile plastered across her face contrasting her look. She peered up at Alton as that looked died and her eyes seemly changed colour. Her hand dropped to her side as she too walked off. Before any more could be said V.I.R.A.L had arrived as serval helicopters flew in with medical supplies and aid. As he was helped up onto the carrier, Alton stared on at the frozen wasteland. Not a single bit of ice or snow had melted from Monty's fire confirming more and more where he was. They began flying away from the husk of Sunset Peak as Alton stared on blankly. "The most power Antihuman… That's not possible."
Advertisement
- In Serial7 Chapters
All Trades Book 1: Master of None
Alex is broke, has been broke, and safely assumed he would always be broke. That bleak outlook changes when a tech genius (and alleged asshole) embeds the code generating his globally implemented cryptocurrency into his new MMORPG! Now the only way to get any more of it is to play the game and make some gold! Unfortunately for Alex, a loan shark was his only shot at getting a VR rig. Can he turn a profit in time to save his knees? Do gnomes dream of electric sheep?? Can he possibly win Employee of the Month??? Find answers to these questions and more by following the high margin adventures of Jack Alltrades.
8 194 - In Serial13 Chapters
Escaping the Box
Leylin had been inextricably shunned by his father even in his most distant memory. His father, a gifted mage and respected noble of the Varius House, should have raised him to be an heir to his position, but instead, he was ignored. Thinking that his father's apathy came as a result of his personal faults, worked from a young age to improve his mind and body.
8 133 - In Serial13 Chapters
The Beta Test
Our nameless narrator participates in a beta test for an early VRMMO game Meridian 60. That's not the real name but it captures the spirit of the adventure given the chronological and contextual era of the game. His character is unique and special but purely for mundane reasons and not because of any inherent or social significance. The first chapter which is mandatory to submit a story on RR serves as a bit of a prologue with some exposition, although I limited that to a reasonble level. I plan to begin releasing additional chapters starting Thursday, to align with the 48 hour submission approval process and also because I have something to do Wednesday. I haven't written anything but the summary and first chapter, nor have I plotted anything out. This is because my plan is to release roughly 34000 words a day, 10 chapters of ~12.5 pages each, for 3 days at which point the story will be complete. I'd have liked to plan for more but handling the interface tables and so forth needed for a data heavy litrpg slows down the writing process. 100k words is a bit short, a standard pre epic fantasy 300 page spec fic novel, but this is mostly a writing exercise and I am considering a longer project if I can maintain the pace. Probably do a different concept, maybe a dungeon core, over 5 days, since a 500 page novel is more common these days. Slight subversion of VRMMO stories Stat heavy/crunchy No paying your bills by gaming No out of game conspiracies No angst, interpersonal drama, or damsels/dudes in distress Schedule is 30000 words a day excepting the first chapter, a limitation of RRs fiction submission system Fantasy, high magic, male lead, no party, guild, or harem No gore, some profanity, no sexual content, and no current plans for anything traumatic
8 92 - In Serial31 Chapters
Doctor // Kidnapped Dreamnotfound AU
Why would anyone bother going to the hospital when they have an injury when you can just kidnap your own personal doctor?Dream. A serial killer who often gets into some messy situations with rivals. Those messy situations tend to leave Dream battered, bruised, and shot. He's not the best doctor, but he knows who is. George. A doctor in training at the hospital that he's had his eye on for more time than he'd like to admit.More explanation: Dream's a serial killer & kidnapper who normally works alone. However he does occasionally work with his friends, one of those friends being Sapnap, but we'll get into all of those people later. Dream isn't good at treating bullet wounds or cuts, despite having to do so quite often. So he does something that he IS good at. Kidnapping. Only this time instead of playing mind games with his captive and killing them after, he's going to be kidnapping someone who can help him whenever he gets hurt, which unluckily for the both of them, will be pretty often. Despite George technically still being in training as a doctor, Dream wouldn't dream of passing up an opportunity to not only gain the much needed help in treating his wounds, but also a very pretty boy that would be under his control.TW's! I will explain everything about TW's in the first chapter as well as other stuff in the first chapter.Updates: Once a week. I kind of just update whenever I want though.The reason being for this is because I have actually written a book in the past and I've found that if I have much more time to write the chapters, they tend to be much higher quality and longer. Which means a better reading experience for you guys as well as a better writing experience for myself.I started writing this at like 3am and didn't account for the fact that I have like- no idea how to treat wounds (overall) but uh- too late now I guess...Cover art by wanderlustlily on tumblr
8 228 - In Serial18 Chapters
The Accidental Immortal Warrior
what happens to you to all your dreams and hopes when you find yourself being ordered out to do a mission on emergecy notice but never though this mission would be your last. neither did you think dieing would involve you playing with a slot machine. now for eveyone who wants to know who this story begins or ends do join me on my messy journey on the road to understand how to even write a paragraph correctly or should i say my correct puncuations as well.
8 160 - In Serial11 Chapters
Monarch of Alchemy
After Yi Yun died, he found himself in another world. A world where everyone who wanted to reach the peak had to drench the skies in blood. One good thing was that he found a space within his ring that had followed him into this world where he found a farm. This is called the Heavenly Garden, one of the Nine Heavenly Treasures. Here, he can grow anything, every plant will grow fast with the best quality. The beasts raised here would evolve into Divine Beasts. But most importantly, there was a beautiful woman who inhabited this garden, she claimed to be a fallen Goddess, once standing above the Nine Heavens. With such extraordinary luck at the starting point, even in this world filled with blood, he found things not as difficult as he had imagined. However, he still had to be careful not to get killed because this truly was a world full of cruelty and schemes.
8 66

