The capsule opened to the sound of released air pressure, freeing Sebast from the white-washed container as he was forcefully logged out from Ages Online. His body was sore all over. His death had been by poison, which was not the best way to go in real life or in-game. Muscles aching, Sebast pulled himself out of the capsule and walked out of the room.

“You look like you need a cold drink,” Wong Xiang Jun said from the sofa. He had been watching anime on the television and was surprised by the sudden appearance of a ragged Sebast.

Indeed, Sebast was drenched in sweat and his heart was still pumping furiously in light of the ad-hoc torture he had received before he died. His mouth was dry and his voice croaked as he replied the owner of the house.

“Ye-yea.”

“Here.” Xiang Jun pushed a can of cola towards him, which Sebast gratefully took. With the signature sound of the can being opened, he put it to his lips and began gulping thirstily. “Better?”

Sebast nodded. The feeling of cool liquid flooding his insides was very relieving and effective in calming him down.

“Seems like a bad death huh?”

“No shit.” It was an understatement, really.

“Telling?”

“Nope.”

“Man, you are making me regret not buying the capsule-television link cable so I can hook it up to my TV and see what happened.”

Ever since the capsules have been commercialized, the company making such products had introduced many side-modules to complement the basic unit. While the basic unit was sufficient for one to play any online game offered in the country, the side-modules offered additional utility. The link cable was one of them, allowing people to display what the player in the capsule was seeing on the television screen.

Similarly, there is the video-recording module that players can use to record their gameplay so they could upload them to sites like Yuutoob. Adele Mitty, the relatively famous radio personality on 95.8 FM, and her channel adelemitty where she uploads her experiences in VRMMOs is one prime example of the module’s usage.

Now that it has become a trend to sleep in the capsules and also play while asleep, there was the comfort module aimed to give the players optimal sleeping support. Of course, Sebast never bothered with such side-modules. They usually cost a lot and are totally unnecessary.

“Well…” Sebast relented. Xiang Jun did lend him use of the capsule after all. “I met a Qq-er.”

He knew at once he spoke too much. The other male was immediately riled up by his last sentence.

“A Qqer! Honduria attacked again? I thought we still had a day or something. Shit, I need to get back.” Xiang Jun almost jumped out of his seat in an attempt to rush to his capsule.

“Hey wait up! They have not attacked yet. I…uh… went to them.”

“Holy shit, you are suicidal!” Xiang Jun was now watching him with a weird gleam in his eyes. Sebast had no idea whether it was a look of admiration or amazement. All he knew was that he had triggered something strange.

“So how did it go? How did it go?”

“I died.” Sebast simply replied to the other’s disappointed face. If he divulged any more, he would then have to tell his classmate everything that happened during the time he was in his capsule, starting from the meeting with Trigent, to Vanguard Pass and Duplent. Everything regarding the political situation would have to be revealed. Frankly speaking, Sebast was not sure if it was up to him to say them.

People who divulge state secrets are usually silenced. Even if was just a game, Sebast wanted to enjoy his game time without the constant threat of death looming over him.

“Meh.” Xiang Jun folded his arms above his head as he settled back into his sofa. “Oh well, if you don’t want to talk, I won’t continue asking. It is probably something you want to keep secret.”

Sebast felt a tinge of guilt invade his mind. Just a little.

“So… I guess you will be staying the night, yes? I will get the guest room ready then. The phone is by the door, so feel free to use it.” Xiang Jun stood up, disappearing into an adjacent room.

He had his own hand phone, so why was Xiang Jun telling him that? Was that a hint or something? Sebast eyed the sleek black phone lying innocently on a stand and he was assaulted by a flashback.

“You should at least give your mum a call. I think she should be pretty worried about you right now.”

Sebast’s eyes softened.

“I know… I will do that later.”

Oh. Right.

Picking up his own phone, Sebast dialed his house number. The familiar sound of a dial rang as the call was being patched through. Seconds ticked by without anyone answering and Sebast glanced at the clock hanging above the television. The time was 1.30 past midnight; his parents were usually asleep at this time. Maybe it was best that he waited till morning after all.

Just before he ended the call, a person on the other end picked up.

“Hello? Sebast? Is that you?” It was his mother, her voice hoarse. She sounded as though she had just woken up. His mind surfaced an image of his mother waiting by the phone for his call ever since he left the house.

“Mum.” He felt a sense of guilt invade his conscience. Here he was, keeping his mother up when she could be resting for her work the next day.

“Sebast!” There was an interruption of loud coughing before her voice returned. “Are you … safe?”

“Yes, I am safe.”

“Good… Please give my thanks to Naomi and her father for taking you in.”

He had almost forgotten that Naomi’s father had blocked the bullet for him. That would be something he had to get his story straight with and probably find an opportunity to repay for in the future.

“Don’t trouble them too much.”

“I know. I will be back tomorrow.”

“Sleep properly okay? It’s getting late.”

“Will do. Take care of yourself mum. Good night.”

“Good night.”

The line went flat as he broke the connection. That went better than he thought it would. Sebast released a breath he had no idea he was holding. It was about that time Xiang Jun came back out into the living room.

He had a wide grin on his face. “Done?”

“Yes.” So his abscond was intentional, to give Sebast some privacy. This fellow might be cheekier than he thought he was.

“Good, and it is almost time for the bi-hourly update report on Ages Online. I’m going to sleep after that.” Xiang Jun plopped himself down on his seat, changing from the channel which was airing a rather mindless show about soul reapers fighting in some spirit realm, to the official state channel for VR games. Sebast had once raved about the show like most people his age did. The concept was great and the premise where one’s weapon is part of one’s soul allowed for unlimited potential. However, he soon grew out of it as the story took a turn for the worse.

In any case, that was a story for another day. The report was starting.

“Good night to everyone and welcome to the late night Games Updates featuring the hottest and latest news in Ages Online.” An energetic female voice came over the background of a flashing Yashita Corps logo, which then turned into the signature emblazoned letters of Ages Online. The screen instantly cut to a video clip told through the eyes of someone in the midst of a battle. Bodies and debris laid everywhere, making the effort that went into the clean-up after the first siege go down the gutter.

“Just less than two hours ago, the Hondurian army launched yet another siege attempt at the walls of Loyderidge city…” The screen switched to a bird’s eye view of the city, showing the damage that it was taking, before zooming out to show a female news reporter holding a bunch of documents behind a sleek wooden counter.

“You told me they are not attacking yet!” Xiang Jun exclaimed in dismay. “Oh no, Derrilene is going to skin me alive…”

The other boy seemed like he half wanted to jump inside his capsule that very instant, and half wanting to keep his sleepy eyes glued to the screen to find out more.

“I-I didn’t know. Really.” Sebast was as clueless as to what happened. According to Riwana, the Hondurian army was still regrouping their strength so they had little to gain and much to lose from attacking so haphazardly. Just what could have happened to cause the invaders to act in such a way?

Less than two hours ago, the fellowship was sneaking across the camp. It… might have been them who triggered the second siege because they had been discovered and thus caused a misunderstanding that Loyderidge was counterattacking.

If that was the reason why…

Oops.

“… So far they are not making much progress. The Guardian Lifey and her guild, Proctor Initialis, are defending to great effect, refusing to give grounds to the invaders. Anytime now, we are fully expecting the Qqers are going to join the fray and tip the battle in Honduria’s favor.”

The reporter seemed expectant, as though she was wishing the Qqers would show up already. Beast, on the other hand knew that it would not be happening. Their main objective was not in Loyderidge anymore, so they had no more obligations to aid the invasion. If anything, they should be on their way back to Vanguard Pass.

A sudden brainstorm hit him. Could it be that Scrublord actually managed to convince the Hondurian army to attack so that there are no chances that either side would head back to Vanguard Pass to reinforce Duplent or Beast?

If he did that, it would be one hell of a tactic. If he did not… In any case it did not matter anymore. Meanwhile, there seemed to be a disturbance in the news station. A plain-shirt employee suddenly rushed into the scene and handed the reporter a new set of documents.

“Wait a minute, what is this? We have just received news that Vanguard Pass is currently in anarchy!” The screen which had been showing a close-up of Lifey’s face suddenly cut to a view of the border fortress. On the ramparts, Hondurian soldiers were fighting one another in a mass of chaotic struggle for the town. Beast idly wondered how they managed to switch the view so suddenly – it must have been a special extension module or an exclusive right to film in-game.

“What is this? What is happening? Honduria is fighting among itself! ” Confusion was in the reporter’s face as she hurriedly described everything in detail. What should have been a five minute quick update on the current situation in the game turned into a fifteen minute description of the skirmish in Vanguard Pass as the channel covered the entire town in short snippets.

The walls, the streets, the keep, everywhere were as Sebast remembered it. He had no idea how heavily infiltrated Vanguard Pass was, but it would probably take a day or two before Duplent could stabilize the situation. That would not be his concern; enough time would have already passed in game when he re-spawns.

“This has something to do with you isn’t it?” Xiang Jun asked in disbelief.

“I guess so.”

Before Xiang Jun could say anything else, there was yet another exclamation from the reporter at the news station.

“The Hondurian Army is retreating from Loyderidge! And they are not staying in the vicinity! The defenders of Loyderidge are confused. Does this mean that Caerheim had won the war? If so, what a strange turn of events it was! There are…”

Sebast had already tuned out the reporter. Duplent kept his word. That was all he needed to know - that his quest was a success. Even if he had died, it was all worth it now and the lock-out time will have reverted back to the original 24 hours.

“Seems like you do not need to go back in, Xiang Jun. We won.”

“We-we won?”

“Yea.”

Patting the confused boy on the shoulder, Sebast stood up and went to the guest room that Xiang Jun had prepared for him. In an instant, he collapsed onto the bed, letting the soft mattress carry his fatigue away.

As Sebast drifted off into sleep, the internet forums were on fire once more.

…………

The Honduria – Caerheim War Thread! (Who’s your daddy) Latest Updates! Earplugs.

Pg 254 of 254

Fanged

To alaK: It is beyond me why both belligerents would suddenly mass order earplugs from their craftsmen. I could not think of a logical reason.

Fanged

Guys… did anyone saw the news?

MiscreptMaellability

I did. Had to get my eyes checked.

JusticarVII

I did. Don’t know what the hell was happening. :/

SkepticalFool

Did Caerheim just win the war? I can’t believe this.

Lifeyislife

LIFEY-SENPAI! ALL HAIL LIFEY! She scared Honduria away!

Fanged

Vanguard Pass had a revolt or something? Could someone check?

Anon154

Checked. There was a revolution.

Brokenflight

Lies. There would not be any players in Vanguard Pass during this event. Don’t believe Anon154. No players from Honduria would be there and definitely nobody from Caerheim would be too.

Patriot

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ OTZ

Nosoul

My world is ending. Caerheim actually won the war. It… must be a conspiracy! Protestors, we march tomorrow against Yashita Corps!!1!

3.14159265

Be right back. Time to collect my money from the bookies. Thank you Caerheim, I will sacrifice a goat in your name! Muahahahaha!

AdeleMittyFanboy

I can’t believe this. Gonna wait for Adele’s vid. Maybe she will show us something good.

Weereereeree

Can we all stop behaving like a bunch of headless chickens? So far we don’t know what really happen so we have to wait for more news or an official statement. Patience is key guys.

Tearsfilledjar

Where are the Qqers among all these? Where is Scrublord-sama?!

BraveFencerMusa

I am raging so bad right now. I think I should go sleep it off.

PetBottle [BANNED]

FK! WTF IS THIS? THIS IS DUMB. ADSLDKAKDLASLK.

3nity

I bathe in Hondurian tears.

Anon18334

Did someone hack the system?

JusticarVII

Possible. The NPCs should not be behaving like that.

RiddricksonTheThird [MOD]

Don’t be ridiculous. Yashita Corps has the most secure systems ever. There is almost no chance of it being hacked. Also, first warning to PetBottle. Watch your language.

Nosoul

All the more to PROTEST! My brothers, they have pulled the wool over our eyes long enough! It is a sham!

PetBottle [BANNED]

PetBottle [BANNED]

Fanged

I just received some insider news that a while ago, there was a disturbance from the Hondurian vanguard camp. Word is that someone or something had tried to sneak past the siege line. For what reason, I have no idea but it might be the reason for this epic saga going down.

Assumptionist

Deserters, maybe? Whatever they are, they are probably dead.

CokeFactory

Anyone saw what they were doing on tv? Whatever those soldiers were smoking I want some of that shyt.

Rook9ght

We need clarity now!

Clarity

You called?

Rekt

Honduria lost? Hmm I need to go check for myself.

JusticarVII

It is Rekt! Rekt, why did Honduria lose? What happened?

Nosoul

Join me everyone! We demand an answer. #WarGate

adelemitty

Hi guys. So glad to see that Caerheim won the war! ^^ I am alive and well. Stay tune to my channel for insider info on what exactly happened!

AdeleMittyFanboy

OMG ADELE!

Post Reply

…………

“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” Daika Yamamoto thundered as he barged into the relatively silent moderator headquarters. The two GMs on duty jumped wide awake at the sudden intrusion of their superior, snapping into a respectful and embarrassed bow all at once.

“Can someone,” the head GM said through panting breaths, “Tell me why the Honduria NPCs are behaving like that? Some people are even saying that our servers are hacked!”

With a slight push of a button, the wide screen in the center akin to that of a command center flashed an overview of Vanguard Pass. Like the scene from the TV report, the NPCs were in complete disorder and fighting against each other. It was at this time the returning remnants of the Hondurian Vanguard came back and joined in the battle, making the situation even more chaotic than before.

Seeing that nobody spoke up, Daika narrowed his eyes at the two people in front of him.

“Were the both of you sleeping?”

Two slight nods answered him. Daika groaned. As he had thought, he could only rely on himself after all. Things just had to happen when he was off-duty. Heck, if he had not been reading the message boards before retiring for the night, he would not even have known that something this big occurred.

It was not like he could not empathize with his fellow colleagues for falling asleep at this ungodly hour. Watching landscape and data flow could be extremely boring after all, but without a physical observer at that specific point of time, they would not be able to determine exactly what happened. Damn those laws dictating that VR video feed were to be wiped at most two hours after recording to protect players’ privacy.

“You, run a trace and determine if our systems had been compromised.” Daika pointed at one of the GMs on duty.

“You,” He pointed to the other one. “Analyse the output data from more than 3 hours ago from the Caerheim region and tell me if anything extraordinary happened. This will be your punishments for sleeping on the job.”

“Y-yes sir!”

“Yes sir!”

Hours passed with the tacking sound of keyboards filling the room. Even though it was late into the night, Daika Yamamoto showed no signs of being tired, instead sustaining himself with a cup of coffee from the vending machine outside the command center. It was not like he could just call it a day anyway; by the next morning, Old Man Yashita will have already caught wind of this and be demanding an answer from his moderator team.

It was about 4 am in the morning before he got his answers.

“Daika sama! The trace shows an all clear. The system is not tampered with in any possible way.”

“Noted. What about you?”

“I am detecting a 95% all clear, except for skills being used and NPCs being killed approximately around 11pm at the Hondurian Vanguard Camp. It would appear that 4 players and 3 NPCs broke out of the siege towards Vanguard Pass!”

“Who are they?” This was important news. If anything, the revolt at the border town should be linked to the actions of that group.

“Data signatures of the NPCs belong to retainers of Trigent Ashwald’s court.”

Trigent Ashwald is the sovereign for Caerheim. For him to send his retainers anywhere else in the time they were supposed to be protecting him was strange. This was getting more interesting.

“And the players?”

“Unknown. The data was deleted in accordance to the Consumer Privacy Act.”

Damn that stupid player privacy law once again. This was why they had always advocated a policy of maximum two hours response time. Daika slammed his fist into the table in frustration. “Do you know what skills they used?”

“Yes. They had used heal spells, arrows, a song and an attack enhancement spell called Chi.”

So that made it a cleric, a bard, an archer and someone else with a possible martial arts background. Chi -the weird energy flow thing that martial artists claimed to exist in one’s body though Daika never believed in that kind of stuff.

“They infiltrated Vanguard Pass and met with Duplent Ashwald. There was a transfer of an item called Seal of the Lord. That was when the Hondurian Soldiers started behaving erratically.”

Duplent Ashwald? Seal of the Lord? Daika’s best guess was that the players who infiltrated Vanguard Pass had triggered a secret alternate route involving this seal from the current Joint Operations. That subsequently caused such a reaction from all the NPCs in the town and the sudden ending of the Honduria-Caerheim war. It was definitely possible, however improbable.

In any case, those were only his speculations. Without real-time data, there was nothing he could do. He could not even pin-point the exact players that caused this commotion.

“One of the players in the group eventually died to another player.”

“Team-kill?”

It would be an interesting but strange turn of events. A traitor, perhaps?

“No idea sir, the data is very messy at this point of time. It is very difficult to make it out as it is.”

Curses.

Sometimes, he wished he could actually play the game himself so that he could be more familiar with how intricately the Joint Operation system worked as well as the player-to-player dynamics in-game. There were many secrets that the world of Agaia withheld and yet here he was, stuck behind a screen watching everything from the sidelines because of his status as a moderator.

And he did not even have everything to work with in the first place.

Daika sighed. He will have to think of something to let Kanonji feed the public with. For now, he would just have to let this slide.

“Keep me updated for any new information. I will be in my office.”

Eyeing the two GMs who had screwed up, he beckoned them to go back to work while he himself headed to his office to draft a script for Kanonji. It was too late to go back home anyway, so he might as well remain in the office.

When morning came, the Adele Mitty video arrived on Yuutoob.

……….

“SEBAST! SEBAST!” Xiang Jun burst into the room with a loud din, stirring the subject from his sleep.

“… huh? What… is it? Is it afternoon already?” Sebast groggily fished out his hand phone to check the time, and was greeted by bold lines depicting 07:45 on the screen. With a groan, he closed his eyes and snuggled back under the blanket in an attempt to go back to the most satisfactory sleep he had in days.

Their lessons are in the afternoon that day and the earliest he could log back into Ages Online was at night. So Xiang Jun should stop bothering him and leave him be.

However, the other male had a different idea.

With a single flip sweep, Xiang Jun stripped the blankets off Sebast and pulled him up from the bed with strength he never thought the former had.

“What the hell?!”

“You need to see this.” It was all Xiang Jun said.

Practically dragging Sebast across the apartment, Xiang Jun hoisted him into the capsule room where a laptop was placed on a study table. In the screen, the fancy web design of Yuutoob was prominently displayed, with a video at its focus. That video in question was rapidly gathering viewers with its view counts jumping up by the thousands every five seconds.

It was a video posted on the Yuutoob channel of adelemitty, the radio personality. At first Sebast was disinterested. Why would he care about the video of someone famous who is not even related to him in any way possible? He is not like those mindless fanboys or fangirls who flocked to popularity and coerced others to do the same. In fact he despised these types of people the most.

To think that Xiang Jun was one of them.

He was about to tell Xiang Jun off for disappointing his judge of character when the latter set the video in motion. What he saw set him into shock, because right on the screen displaying frame by frame was the whole process of his Joint Operation out of Loyderidge and into Vanguard Pass. The exodus out of the North gate and through the siege barrier, the infiltration of Vanguard Pass and the keep, the negotiations with Duplent Ashwald and the chaos that ensued, even the battle with Alpyrius the merchant and the fight to send Duplent to safety was showcased in great detail.

The entire video was almost two hours long, but Sebast found himself glued to it in a mixture of fascination, horror and bewilderment. Blue fists and especially blue fists, were filmed in great focus as though the recorder was right there in the midst of the actions.

The only saving grace that is between the party members and worldwide fame is the poorly made block censors that covered their eyes throughout the clip and the muted silence that happened whenever their names were uttered.

“Bro, that is you isn’t it?” Xiang Jun easily connected two and two together and made the inference that the person with the blue fist on the screen was Sebast. Besides, he had seen his equipment make up; who else in their right mind would fight unarmored?

Sebast dumbly nodded as his mind wandered to the one person that could have done all of these.

Aveye.