--[One Year Earlier]--

A younger Eli walked into his 11th grade classroom early in the morning, dark clouds dominating the sky outside. The room was full of desks, not Simboxes, and most of the seats were already filled with students unpacking their bags, waiting for the lesson to begin. Eli took his seat near the front of the room, minding his own business and following suit. The students talked amongst each other about various topics that he was uninterested in, some speaking of the latest Simbox game.

“Yo I got Master ranked last night on Counterstrife.”

“Seriously? No way. How?”

“‘Cause I’m good, duh.”

“I heard that the military sends recruitment letters to Master rank players.”

“Heh? No thanks, I’ll stick to the simulation.”

“Wussy, I bet you got carried up the ranks.”

“You’re just jealous you can’t afford a Simbox.” Two boys spoke loudly behind Eli as he unpacked his bag, but they fell silent when the teacher entered the room. An older gentleman with short scruffy brown hair and a goatee, and a set of large round spectacles resting on his nose.

Suddenly the room was filled with tension as the teacher's footsteps echoed off the tiled floor. He placed his bag on the large wooden desk at the head of the room and he shuffled around papers inside his bag.

“So, as we discussed last Friday, today we’ll be starting your end of semester assignments. I don’t need to remind you all that this will affect your grade greatly, perhaps more than your exams themselves. You know the subject but you will each be given different topics, and infront of me are the details of the assignment and how you will be graded. I’ll be having you work in pairs-” Immediately upon hearing this word the classroom erupted.

“Winters, yo pair with me!”

“Hey hey, Winters! Cmon, we’re best friends right?” the entire class stood up and started pleading and begging, moving to surround his desk.

“Guys, guys…” Eli tried to calm them down as he became overwhelmed, holding back laughter.

“I’ll buy you lunch for next year!”

“I’ll give you a massage!”

“You can grab one of my boobs!”

“Huh?” Eli turned to see who said this, his face turning red.

“I’ll sell you my grandma!”

“Why the hell would I want your grandma?” Eli laughed.

“Enough!” The teacher shouted, causing the students to calm down and step away from Eli. “Eli, come up front.” Eli reluctantly sighed as he moved to the front of the class and looked over the other students as they scrambled back into their chairs. “You’re all hoping for an easy ride. I get it, he’s had the highest scores on every test this semester. You’re a bunch of lazy bums.” The teacher smirked.

“So it seems you’ve got your pick of the litter, choose someone so we can move on.” He spoke to Eli. Staring back at him were many sets of puppy eyes, seductive eyes, and pleading eyes. All but one student, a young girl in the far corner of the room. Selena, with long black hair hanging off her shoulders, a larger build and dark brown eyes. She was focused on a textbook on the desk in front of her, ignoring the situation entirely.

“I’ll partner with her.” Eli said, pointing over the other students at Selena. There were several audible sighs and groans, various complaints from around the class. Many eyes turned to Selena, causing her to look up embarrassed across the room.

“Selena, do you wish to partner up with Eli?” The teacher asked her.

“Cmon Eli, she doesn’t even want to.”

“Her name was Selena? I didn’t even know she was in the class.”

“Why her Eli?! Cmon, if you pick me we can have loooots of fun together.” A beautiful brunette in the front row urged him with a wink. Eli rolled his eyes.

“No thanks, I prefer quiet girls.” He remarked sarcastically, however Selena’s face flushed red when he said this.

“U-uh, okay.” she mumbled.

“There you have it, everyone else find your partners and leave Eli alone.” The teacher declared. The noise picked up again, this time the students were much more orderly and less enthusiastic as they moved around the room to pick partners for the assignment. The teacher handed a paper to Eli and he took it to the back of the classroom, standing next to Selena’s desk. He put the paper down and leaned over the desk to look at it with her.

“Sorry about that, they were just too noisy. Looks like the assignment is on the U.I.B..” Eli spoke while reading it over. Selena had been staring at his face in shock, for some reason fixated on his chin as she was unable to meet his eyes, but this knocked her out of her trance and she leaned in to read it.

“T-the universal income bill. How will it change society if it passes and gets implemented in 2100.”

“Guess he’ll be checking our critical thinking and analysis skills. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Eli straightened his back. “I like to get stuff like this out of the way as fast as possible, do you have time after school today to get it done?”

“U-uhm… y-yeah.” She started fiddling with her fingers.

“My place work for you? Needa be around to make dinner tonight.”

“O-okay.” Selena nodded.

“Great. Meet you out front after school.” Eli took the paper and walked back to his desk, and once he was far enough away Selena sighed with relief.

----------------------------------------------------------

Selena stepped out of the school’s front doors and walked across the paved pathway to reach the sidewalk where she’d spotted Eli waiting, pacing around looking up and down the street. She hesitated approaching for a moment, huddling her arms inward and cautiously avoiding the many other students walking by. Eli eventually spotted her and gave her a nod, so she had no choice but to walk forward.

“Dad’s supposed to pick me up in the Autocar… but I’ve got a feeling.” Eli groaned as he hit his ear implant, pulling up David and attempting to reach him.

“Yeah? What’s up Eli?” David replied, the sound of battle could be heard in the background. “I’m livestreaming right now so make it quick.”

“Mom left the autocar with you today so you could go shopping and then pick me up. It’s pickup time.” Eli replied, Selena could hear the annoyed tone in his voice. He sounded completely different than he did when he talked to anyone at school, which made her perk up her ears and listen in on the conversation more attentively.

“Ah, you can handle that by yourself can’t you? Great, thanks.” The call ended. Eli leaned his head back to look up at the sky while sighing. He turned to Selena. “I’ve got to stop by the supermarket first, then we can take the bus, if that’s okay with you. Do you have a bus pass?”

“Y-yeah, it’s okay.” She replied while looking at her feet.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two of them walked into the Supermarket together, Eli pushing along a shopping cart and Selena nervously trailing behind. Eli used his wrist implant to bring up a shopping list message sent from his mom to both him and David, as if she’d already anticipated that Eli would be the one who’d have to go shopping.

“Alright, where are tomatoes…” Eli said aloud, walking around the fresh produce section.

“Uhm, there.” Selena pointed across to another aisle. “This shop only sells the biofarm tomatoes, s-s” Her confidence weakened as Eli turned to listen and looked her in the eyes, she quickly broke eye contact. “They’re over in the biofarm section."

“Oh, thanks.” He nodded and pulled the cart around to grab them. “Do you shop here often?”

“Y-yes, my house is nearby.” She replied while trailing behind him.

“Oh, then you could probably find everything quick, right?” Eli asked, she nodded.

“Here, let me send you the shopping list. Gotta add contact information first.” He stopped and moved his wrist over her ear to send the information. Selena got the notification in her eye implant and her eyes went wide.

“Ah, sorry, I guess if you don’t want to that's fine.” Eli noticed her reaction.

“N-no, it’s okay.” Selena hit accept, seeing now that her contacts list had its 3rd ever member added to it, right below Mom and Dad. “Here’s mine…” She shyly held out her hand and waved it over Eli’s ear, accidentally brushing his skin, which caused her to jerk her hand away anxiously. “S-sorry.”

Eli didn’t react, instead was messing with his interface to accept the information and send the shopping list.

“Got it?”

“Yup.” She nodded back and opened the list. Eli stepped aside from the shopping cart to allow Selena to take over.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eli opened his front door with the grocery bags, taking off his shoes and pack and then moving further into the house. Selena took a bit longer to step inside, eying the walls cautiously as if they might jump out at her.

“You want something to drink or eat before we start?” Eli asked from the kitchen, he began putting the groceries away.

“N-no, I’m okay.” She took off her shoes and walked in view of the kitchen as he unpacked. “Is anyone else here?” She asked nervously.

“Yeah, my dad’s upstairs in the Simbox, streaming.”

“H-he’s a livestreamer?”

“Not a really good one.”

“What does he stream?”

“I dunno, something with gladiators in an arena I think. It changes every now and then.”

“Blood Challenger X?” Selena asked with enthusiasm. For a brief second her shyness transformed into excitement.

“I guess.” Eli shrugged back.

“D-do you play?”

“Nope. Even if I wanted to, only got one Simbox and he’s in it all day, that’s why I gotta do everything around here.” Eli sighed.

“Oh…” Selena slowly transitioned back into being shy.

“Ready to get started?” Eli asked as he finished putting away the last of the groceries. Selena returned a nod and Eli led her to the living room. The two unpacked their bags and Eli linked up his wrist implant with the TV so that he could easily look up anything they needed. “Alright, let’s just write up some basic ideas each, and then we can read over each other’s ideas and see which ones we like the best.”

“O-okay.” Selena nodded, pulling out a paper and pen. Both of them spent a few minutes writing points on the page, then quietly exchanged them.

“Hah.” Eli laughed when he got done reading her paper, while Selena was fascinated by the ideas on Eli’s.

“Mine are bad?” She asked worriedly.

“No, it’s just funny, I think I partnered with the one person in the class that definitely didn’t need my help to pass. These are good. Let’s mix your 1 and 2 with my 1 and 4 and go based on that, okay?”

“Okay.” She smiled as her face brightened. The two began working together quickly, writing out paragraphs and paragraphs on their assignment, the longer they spent the more relaxed Selena became, and she was able to be vocal with ideas to Eli which surprised even herself. They lost track of time and finished quickly, but kept talking about the idea of U.B.I. and debating it - at one point Selena got so into the discussion, waving hand gestures around to prove a point that she nearly hit her hand into a potted cactus on a small table beside the couch they were both sitting on, but Eli saw it coming and caught her hand.

"Careful. Mom likes to keep cacti because they're low maintenance." Eli said as he lowered her hand for her, and all of her shyness rushed back, her face going bright red.

"T-thanks."

"No problem." Eli shrugged. "I guess that's about all we needed to do. Thanks for actually putting in effort, if it was anyone else in the class they'd be gone already.

"N-no problem. Thanks for picking me..." Her voice trailed off.

"This was fun. You should talk more, you're really smart, yknow." Eli began cleaning up their books and papers sitting on the coffee table.

“Oi, Eli, you’re not finished dinner yet? I’ve only got a 10 minute break! C’mon, you know I’ll lose viewers if I take too long.” David shouted through the house, causing Eli to stand up and rush to the kitchen.

“Shit, sorry, lost track of time. I’ll throw something together.” Eli shouted back.

“You’d better, your mom’s gonna be home soon too and she’ll be hungry.” David retorted angrily, to which Eli sighed.

“It was my fault, I think…” Selena spoke up, stepping into the hallway in view of David. Seeing him caught her by surprise though, he was standing in his boxer shorts with a sweat-stained t-shirt on. An unkempt beard with messy hair that looked as though it hadn’t been washed for weeks. David looked equally as surprised as Selena.

“Ah, sorry. Eli, you didn’t tell me you brought your girlfriend over. Damnit, now I’m a pedophile or something.” David shouted embarrassed, rushing back upstairs. “Sorry miss, I’ll get some shorts on.” his voice trailed off. Selena’s face was that of shock.

“That’s my graceful dad. You want to stay for dinner?” Eli called to her from the kitchen over the sounds of pots and pans.

“N-no, I don’t want to intrude. Thanks. I will see you at school tomorrow.” Selena quickly packed up her things into her bag.

“Cya.” Eli shouted back. Selena put her shoes on and stepped out the front door only to be stopped just outside the house by Eli’s mother walking towards her wearing a jacket over nurse’s clothes.

“Oh, are you a friend of Eli’s?” She asked politely, stopping Selena in her tracks.

“Y-yes, maybe…” She nervously replied.

“Nice to meet you, I’m his mother Jillian.” She reached out her hand to shake it.

“I’m Selena.” She obliged.

“You’re the first girl he’s brought home, I’m sad I missed it.”

“We were just working on school work together… I should get going.” Selena rushed away anxiously. Jillian shrugged and headed into the house, and once the door closed Selena let out a loud sigh of relief, as if she had just survived a deadly encounter.

--[5 Months Earlier]--

“Are you ready to see it?” Selena’s father asked her. He, Selena and her mother all stood at the top of their basement staircase, a large red ribbon and bow tie was strung across the threshold leading down. Her father was middle aged with short black hair, her mother also on the heavy side like Selena, with big rosey cheeks and long black hair tied in a ponytail.

“I better have my socks blown off from how much money you spent on it!” Selena’s mother replied.

“Oh, not just your socks. C’mon, you do the honors Selena.”

“Okay.” She excitedly ripped through the ribbon and rushed downstairs into the basement. When she reached the bottom she found herself standing in what she considered a dream come true.

Three of the latest Simbox models all laid out side by side on one end of the room, the opposite end had a table and a Quickcook Microwave which made her eyes widen with excitement. The floor and walls were all designed to look like a castle dungeon with fake lanterns for lighting.

“Wow.” Selena’s mother's jaw dropped.

“Behold. We no longer need to compete for Simbox time, we’ve all got our own. And an easy food break station!” Her father spoke proudly.

“So we can all play at the same time?” Selena smiled ear to ear. “Do they have Shattered World installed too?”

“Yup.” He grinned.

“FINALLY!” Selena squealed with joy. “I call dibs on the one closest to the Quickcook.” Selena rushed towards one of the Simboxs.

“My socks are officially blown off. What island are we starting on?” Selena’s mother said as she rushed to the middle Simbox.

“Savringard of course, that’s where that Makaroth guy started. If the current number one player started there, it’s gotta be good.” Her father impatiently climbed in the last one.

Once calibration completed Selena was able to enter the game for the first time and began making her character, after connecting her father and mother in a call.

“Selena you read all about this right, which race should I pick?” Her mother asked, Selena could hear the excitement in her voice still.

“Uh, it doesn’t matter that much, whichever you like. I’m going to go with human.” Selena replied as she stared at her default human avatar with disappointment. She quickly edited the body size to slim herself down until she looked fit and thin, then edited away her bracers. Finally she moved on to naming her character. “What name should I pick? I’m really bad at names.”

“Why not just Selena? It’s a pretty name, picked it myself.” Her father replied.

“I can’t use my real name.” She grumbled back, though despite this, she entered Selena in anyway and stared at it for a second. Pondering on a name, nothing came to mind, so instead she opted to just start moving the letters around. It ended up as Neslea. She shrugged and hit accept.

It wasn’t long until all three of them entered the game world. Neslea, Nejina, and Romeo.

“Really? Romeo?” Nejina hit him on the shoulder looking disappointed. Neslea noticed that her mom, Nejina, also looked identical to her real self save for the body shape, but none of them commented on each other’s character appearance.

“Alright, it’s time for adventure!” Romeo shouted excitedly. They were standing in the middle of a busy medieval city in front of a large stone fountain, cobbled streets leading in all directions. They got a few chuckles from passersby as he said this.

“Good. Well sweetie, you probably don’t want to follow your parents around all day, so I won’t make you hang out with us. You go and find your friends and have fun, okay?” Nejina smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“And if you find any sweet longswords, send ‘em to me! I’m going to be a great warrior soon!” Romeo cheered.

“O-okay, you guys have fun.” Neslea smiled and waved, walking away in the opposite direction of them. “Friends…” she sighed to herself. She opened up her out of game contacts list, seeing it still containing only her parents, and Eli.

---------------------------------------------------------

Selena walked into her 4th period class, the only one she shared with Eli this semester. She moved with determination, but it all but immediately faded the moment she saw him and she quickly 180’d towards her Simbox instead. She thought about calling him using his contact information but decided against it. She closed her eyes and started trying to pump herself up. It was a slow process, but she had moments until the bell signalling class start went off. Just as she stood up she saw another student approach his open Simbox.

“Yo Eli, could you help me out with the homework?” Another boy from their class asked, holding a paper out to him.

“Figure it out yourself.” Eli replied coldly. It was then that Selena saw how troubled he looked and quickly settled back into her Simbox.

“C’mon man, it’ll just take a second.”

“Piss off.” Eli angrily hit the paper away.

“Alright jeez, what’s his problem?” The boy asked some others in the class and they all shrugged. Just then the door to the room swung open violently and an out of breath boy rushed in.

“Yo guys, Makaroth just streamed his face reveal, he’s doing a tour of his new mansion! it's dope as hell!” Everyone’s ears perked up.

“So? What’s he look like, some mega nerd?” A girl asked.

“Forget what he looks like, get this, his real name is David Winters. Isn’t that your Dad’s name, Eli?” The boy shouted. Eli didn’t reply, he kept his head down in his Simbox looking over his notebook pretending to not hear, but all the students turned to look at him. With no response, another student approached curiously.

“You live in a mansion now? How crazy is that?”

“Are you in Makaroth’s guild? What level are you? What’s your character name?”

“I’m his biggest fan, I bet if you tell me one clue about your character, I’ll know which guild member you are. Are you Sinopse? I bet he’s Sinopse!”

“The most famous player in the Shattered World is related to the smartest kid in our school. So much in common.” This comment finally irked Eli enough to respond.

“We’ve got nothing in common. I don’t play that game. I’m not in his guild, and I don’t live in a mansion.” Eli shouted to the silence the class, which remained silent a few seconds after.

“What so he’s not your father? Wrong guy?” someone asked. Selena listened and watched in silence, but she could see Eli looking angrier and more frustrated by the second - she’d never seen him like this before. Suddenly the door to the room swung open and in stepped Derrick.

“Yo Eli I - “ Derrick picked up on the mood pretty quick as all eyes fell on him. “Too late eh?” Derrick sighed. “Ya’ll better not be harassing him about Makaroth.”

“So Makaroth is Eli’s father?” A girl asked excitedly.

“Calling that guy a father, hah, that’s rich. Anyone bring up that name around Eli again, I’ll hit you over the head.” Derrick shouted angrily to the class. It remained awkwardly quiet for a moment, Selena watched Eli and Derrick nod to each other. “I gotta get back to class. But I’m listening, got big ears, so leave Eli alone.” Derrick threatened before leaving the room.

Selena lost all will to ask him to play, piecing together what had happened based on her encounter with his father in the past.

--[1 Week Earlier]--

Selena sat at the table outside of the three Simboxes in her dungeon-like basement. Her mother and father sat across from her, a screen set up on the wall showing a livestream of recent major events in The Shattered World Online. It was playing in the format of a typical news show but within the gameworld itself. The three of them were eating in silence watching it.

“We’ve just got breaking news! A rookie streamer apparently caught wind of a big scoop! Makaroth, one of the current highest level players in The Shattered World, has a new player to watch over. And this time it isn't one of his guildmates, no, it’s his own flesh and blood, his son! He’s recently created a character and started on the Kalmoore island, in the small village of Orm. Expert analysts are already speculating why he might have chosen such a remote starting location, but let’s roll the footage.” The reporter spoke quickly before it swapped over to the footage of Keldan’s livestream as Keldan began to monologue.

“Makaroth’s son? Eli, right? Have you talked to him lately?” Her mother asked.

“N-no.” Selena’s eyes were wide open with shock, she’d stopped eating.

“Isn’t that the boy you couldn’t stop talking about, how nice and friendly he was and whatever?” Her father asked, to which her mother elbowed him into shutting his mouth. The three watched as Keldan killed Eli’s character in a single blow, and it switched back to the reporter.

“What are those idiots doing!” Selena shouted out angrily, slamming her fist on the table, causing her mother and father to full back.

“Trying to get famous I bet.” Her father replied.

“He finally gets a chance to play and they want to ruin his fun, after all he has been through.” Selena stood up. “I’m going to go there and help him."

“Whoa whoa easy there, he’s in Orm, that’s a week long airship ride and a buttload of gold to get to from Savringard.”

“H-how much gold?” She hesitated.

“I think the last tickets auctioned for 100 thousand.” Selena went quiet for a moment, then slowly turned to face them.

“Can you len-”

“I don’t even have five thousand to my name.” Her father replied dismissively. Selena looked to her mom and she shrugged.

“Sorry hun.” She replied. Selena let out a long sigh. “The only way you’re getting to Orm anytime soon is if you delete your character and start over there.” She gave her a look of sympathy before going back to eating. Her father did as well shortly after, thinking the ordeal was sorted out, but Selena marched towards the Simbox.

“Good idea, thanks Mom!” Selena replied, causing her father to shoot right up out of his chair.

“N-now now, hang on Selena. That’s 5 months of work you put into Neslea. You’re going to throw it away to try and help him? You said you haven’t even talked to him lately.”

“Remember when you told me I should play with my friends?” She asked rhetorically. “He’s the only one I have, The only one who ever talked nicely to me!” She spoke with desperation and a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Now c’mon, that’s not true, you’ve got that whole guild you joined, don’t you? Those guys, the- uh, Citadel. Right?”

“Dad, they’re not my friends, they just use me because I deal high damage. And I use them because I have no one else to play with.” Selena rolled her eyes.

“Bu-” Her father started, but was interrupted when her mother pulled him down into his chair by his shoulder. The two looked at each other, speaking with their eyes rather than words. “Ugh…” her father relented. “Fine, throw it all away for a boy you barely even know. Don’t listen to your dad, what does he know? Damn teenagers…” His mumbling got quieter and quieter.

“You sure you want to do this sweetie?”

“Y-yeah.” She smiled back at her mom.

“Go get em then.” Her mom gave her a thumbs up. Selena climbed into the Simbox and logged into the game. She opened up her guild chat log and quickly wrote a message.

“Hey guys I’m rerolling thanks for everything bye.”

She then opened up her main menu and went to account settings and found the options to delete her character and start over. She had to press a lot of warning notifications before the request went through, and after a bright flash of light she found herself back at the character creation window.

After only changing her starting location she hit complete character, but got an error.

[Unable to take the name of previously deleted characters on this account]

(For more information please refer to our Terms of Service.)

“Ugh… I’m so bad with names…” Selena groaned to herself impatiently.

--[Present Day]--

Silentwire logged into the game around midafternoon to see that Winter was already back online. She could tell by his stamina movement that he was already mining ore again.

“S-should I say good morning? Or should I say hello? I bet he doesn’t even know I’m online yet. Maybe I wait until he says something…” She continued mumbling to herself along this train of thought as she followed the road towards Kordas - in the end, she didn’t say anything to him.