Chapter 224: The Number One Streamer

“This is too much. I mean…” Hae-won watched intently at the scene unfolding before her. She was pacing around her broadcasting simulation in front of a screen that displayed Aegis’ broadcast. Like before, Aegis’ viewership had shot up to an abnormally high number and put him into the 9th slot of the top 10 streamer list, with Seraxus sitting in 4th. “We all thought there was no way Aegis would win against the Avatar of Jealousy, but he did somehow come out on top. Is it possible he wins here too?” Hae-won asked Aegis’ audience, unable to read the chat zooming by.

“This is bad.” Shinji said in a voice call with Tommy, their ear implants lit up as they both sat within their own respective office simulations, frantically working.

“What’s wrong?” Tommy asked.

“This whole situation. It’s bad. Aegis picked up on it, but I think it’s too late.” Shinji replied with anxiety in his voice.

“Explain a bit?” Tommy responded.

“I worked for VGN before. I’ve been on Makaroth’s editing team, I know the tricks he pulls to make events exciting. This is a setup. We gotta get Aegis out of this situation, fast…”

“How’re we supposed to do that? We can’t just cut the feed. Seraxus is streaming the other side of this anyway,” Tommy replied.

“I know… just… shit.” Shinji shouted in frustration.

Aegis and Pyri stood side by side, glaring at Hajax and Seraxus. Both sides had their weapons at the ready, waiting for the other side to move. Aegis had his eyes locked onto the glowing back sword in Seraxus’ hand, watching for any slight changes in Seraxus’ posture to tell when and where he was planning on attacking. He’d seen him throw the longsword like a spear multiple times, and knew that was one of his most preferred methods of attack.

Meanwhile, behind him, Pyri had reformed her cinderbolts and spread them out around herself and Aegis - with Sylvia dead there was no one left to interrupt her spell control and stop her from deflecting Seraxus’ strikes as far as she knew. While Aegis was approaching the situation nervously, Pyri still appeared completely calm and focused.

With a lack of words being exchanged between the players, the sound of crackling wood under the blazing demon flames around them permeated throughout the town square, filling their nostrils with the smells of the various burning objects nearby.

“Hm.” Pyri eventually broke the silence, raising her eyebrow curiously after about 20 seconds of stand off. “They should be the aggressors, but their behavior suddenly changed…” She whispered so that only Aegis could hear her. “Are they waiting for something?” She asked Aegis curiously.

After hearing her say this, Aegis saw Seraxus’ eyes wander upwards, towards the sky. There, he seemed to have spotted something. Aegis quickly followed his eyes to see it too, a small blue flashing light, barely visible through the black smoke. The moment Aegis and Seraxus saw it, a smirk grew on Seraxus face and he suddenly dashed forward towards Aegis.

“A signal?” Aegis asked rhetorically as the gap between him and Seraxus closed almost instantaneously, and he swung his weapons out at him. Aegis lifted his shield whilst Pyri acted very quickly with her cinderbolts, to deflect Seraxus' strikes downward into the paved stone below their feet. Each blade she sent into the ground cut into the stonework and left large slashing marks, but thanks to her actions, no attacks got through to Aegis. It also allowed Aegis time to easily retaliate with his claw and shield, but Seraxus was dodging the strikes.

The engagement didn’t last long, though - as suddenly a blazing red flame flew down from the sky towards them, forcing Seraxus to jump backwards and avoid it. The flames crashed down onto the ground in front of Aegis, revealing its source. Makaroth, wielding a longsword encased in magical fire had jumped from the sky somewhere nearby and slashed his sword downward at Seraxus, breaking up the engagement. His livestream had just been turned back on, and his viewership was skyrocketing upwards, putting him quickly to the number one slot on the streamer list.

“Back off, Seraxus.” Makaroth shouted, and within a few moments, several other members of his guild landed around Aegis and Pyri, as if to defend them. Amongst the players that landed were Synopse, and Lilia, whom Pyri immediately glared at with disgust. Both she and Aegis took several steps backwards to stand together, away from the Sages of Destiny members. Aegis’ teeth immediately clenched as he glared angrily at Makaroth’s back.

“Makaroth? What the hell are you doing here?!” Seraxus asked, but the surprise in his voice came off as incredibly forced.

“This was your plan?” Aegis shouted loudly, in an attempt to interrupt the flow of their conversation. “Don’t act like you’re surprised, Seraxus. He’s the one that flew you to his island in the first place.”

“Hah? You stupid? Why would he fly me here?” Seraxus denied it.

“You have to forgive my son, he doesn’t exactly trust me.” Makaroth replied, causing Aegis and Pyri’s eyes to go wide with anger.

“Yo, did he just say his son?” Hajax called out excitedly with a laugh. “So all them theories were true?”

“The hell are you doing?” Aegis shouted at Makaroth.

“Telling the truth.” Makaroth sighed and shrugged, briefly glancing back towards Aegis to see both his and Pyri’s seething stares. “Sorry viewers, I may have lied to protect my son's identity earlier. It’s why I haven’t been streaming the past week - I came to visit him on his birthday in private, because, well, I didn’t want anyone to know the truth. It’s a good thing I did, though. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here to put a stop to this.” Makaroth turned back towards Seraxus and spun his flaming sword around in his hand. “As many of you had guessed, Aegis is indeed my son, and the player formerly known as Winter.”

“What’re you doing?” Pyri asked in anger. “Why are you here?”

“I just told you. I came here for my son's birthday.” Makaroth replied with a straight face. “I mean, I can understand him not wanting me here, given that bet we made, but, I didn’t want to miss it regardless.” Makaroth shrugged, turning his eyes towards Aegis with a smirk sneaking its way through his otherwise straight expression.

“What bet?” Pyri asked, glancing between Makaroth and Aegis, and causing Aegis to look at her anxiously.

“Oh? You didn’t tell her? I guess that makes sense.” Makaroth shrugged. “You see, the whole reason Aegis started playing this game was because I made a bet with him that if he could surpass me, I’d delete my character. That’s why he’s been so determined to get to the top.” Makaroth explained. Pyri’s expression was that of disbelief, and she turned to stare at Aegis.

“Is that true?” Pyri asked him. Aegis didn’t immediately reply, he just stared back at Pyri, trying to think of what to say. This delay in response was all she needed, though. A second later, she disappeared from the game world, having logged out.

“You piece of shit!” Aegis turned to face Makaroth again, while all eyes turned on him from both Seraxus’ stream, his stream, and Makaroth’s stream - as well as all of the other players present. “If you’re so interested in suddenly telling the truth, why don’t you tell them all why I made that bet? Huh? Tell them a little bit about who you really are, and how you abandoned your family after being a shitty, worthless guy!” Aegis shouted.

“Hah, yo, this guy’s throwing a tantrum.” Hajax replied mockingly, taking over the flow of the conversation.

“I ain’t hear for you to air out dirty laundry. I’m here to mess up Kalmoore and collect souls.” Seraxus replied - and with that, Aegis saw Makaroth's plan in its entirety. As he yelled out angrily at Makaroth, he was being made to look like a immature child throwing a tantrum, and they were all contributing to the narrative. He angrily glanced between Makaroth, Seraxus, Hajax, and Synopse, and he saw them all staring at him, waiting for his next reaction.

Aegis did his best to stay calm, taking deep breaths - but despite his best efforts, he felt his blood boiling with rage as he completely lost control of the situation. More than anything, though, the face of Pyri was burned into his head, and he couldn’t imagine what she was now doing in the real world after having logged out.

His mind began to race, looking for a solution to the situation, the optimal way to get out of it cleanly, but his thoughts were too clouded by anger. All he wanted to do was charge at Makaroth and attack him, kill him - anything to shut his lies up and end the manipulated, staged scenario that he had set for himself. But, any fragment of a plan that formed in his head seemed to play into his hands further.

“He’s right. I owe an explanation to my viewers about all of this, but now is not the time.” Makaroth smirked at Aegis before turning back towards Seraxus. “You attacked my son, his town, and his peaceful island. The Sages of Destiny will not let that stand.” Makaroth spoke in a cold, commanding tone. All of his guildmates then drew out their weapons.

“You really think you can take me on, old man?” Seraxus replied with a smirk.

“I’m not certain, but we outnumber you, and out level you. You really want to risk your sword against us?” Makaroth asked. The way they spoke - everything from mannerisms to tone - it all screamed bad, forceful acting. Aegis could see through it, but it didn’t seem like anyone else would. “I’ve got another option for you.” Makaroth said as the flames faded from his sword and he sheathed it.

“I’m listenin.” Seraxus shrugged.

“You’ve been bored, winning the gladiator tournament every month with no real challenge, right? I will assemble a team of the Sages of Destiny’s greatest PvPers and have our guild enter the tournament for the first time ever, to challenge you and take you down from your throne. In return, until then, you leave Kalmoore alone. Because this island is now under my protection.” Makaroth said proudly.

“Hah, your weak ass top PvE guild thinks you can handle a PvP tournament? You gotta be kiddin’ me.” Hajax replied with a laugh, both Seraxus and Hajax turning to face each other and chuckle. Eventually, though, Seraxus nodded in Makaroth's direction.

“Aite, I’ll except that challenge. You aint gonna qualify for this month’s tourney, though - too late for that. The next one will be in 5 Weeks.” Seraxus said as he lifted his black sword and pointed out towards Makaroth. “I’ll crush the Sages of Destiny guild in a nice, fair, 5 on 5 fight in the gladiator arena. Just don’t come cryin’ to me when I show the world how weak ya’ll PvE lovers really are.” Seraxus grinned.

“And you, don’t complain when I destroy that sword of yours and end your reign of terror on the Shattered World once and for all.” Makaroth grinned back at Seraxus - their viewership numbers were shooting up rapidly as they spoke to each other issuing this challenge.

“Guess that means we’re leavin’ then. You’re lucky this time, Shattered healer.” Seraxus said mockingly to Aegis before he and Hajax both turned from the townsquare and began walking southward out of the town, disappearing into the burning streets around them.

It went quiet as the players present followed Seraxus and Hajax with their eyes, waiting for them to leave.

“Synopse, can you put these demon fires out?” Makaroth asked once they were gone.

“Yeah.” Synopse said with very little enthusiasm, looking towards Aegis with a worried expression. He let out a short sigh before pulling out his staff and waving it around in the air, creating blue streams of white ice that began to flow out from the end of his staff towards the various fires around them. As the ice connected with the fires they were quickly extinguished.

“The rest of you, fan out and help any of the villagers that you can.” Makaroth ordered his guildmades, and they all complied save for Lilia who walked towards Aegis.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of things here. You should go check on your mom, I think.” Lilia said with a look of sympathy on her face, but Aegis could see the joy hiding behind her eyes as she looked at him. His logical thinking and planning had been completely negated by his uncontrolled anger at this point - all he wanted to do was attack Makaroth’s back as he watched him walking away from the town square.

Everything in his body was telling him to just unleash his anger, save for a sliver of reasonable thought still holding on by a thread and granting him control of his actions. That sliver was enough to restrain his anger and frustration, but not enough to come up with a clear plan of action. Anything - any words he could say to break up Makaroth’s plan - he desperately tried to think of it, but nothing came into his head. The only thing he was certain of was that if he lashed out angrily now, it would only serve to make things worse.

In fear of not being able to hold himself back much longer, he opened up his interface and logged himself out of the gameworld.

When Eli climbed up out of his Simbox, he saw Jillian staring blankly up at the television screen in their living room with her arms crossed. On it, a VGN news cast was playing. The two didn’t speak a word to each other immediately, allowing the sounds from the broadcaster to take over the room.

“Unbelievable! The showdown of all showdowns! Sages of Destiny will be entering the gladiator tournament for the first time ever, to take on the Avatar of Hatred and undefeated gladiator king Seraxus!” The broadcaster shouted, hyping it up as much as possible as he played footage from both Seraxus and Makaroth’s livestreams.

“He staged all that. That was his plan from the beginning.” Eli explained to Jillian. “He used my birthday against me, because I was getting close to winning that bet. I can still come back from this though, I just need to come up with a plan to expose him for what he really is.” Eli mumbled to himself, looking down at the ground as if going deep in thought.

“Why did you make a bet like that?” Jillian turned towards Eli, looking him in the eyes. He didn’t immediately reply, instead caught off guard by her expression. It wasn’t anger he saw on her face, but sadness.

“Because I’m angry. I’m angry about what he did to us. To you!” Eli replied loudly. “Aren’t you angry at him?”

“I would be, if I wasn’t so busy being angry at you right now!” Jillian shouted, catching Eli off guard - he rarely ever heard his mother yell in anger and he quickly pulled back. “I’m such an idiot.” She shook her head to herself, looking down at her feet briefly. “All this time, I was so excited to finally share my passion with you, and experience it alongside you. I thought we were having fun together. But all this talk about reaching the top - this whole time, it was all for this? This was the reason?” She pointed towards the VGN broadcast on display. Though what was on screen was not necessarily relevant to their conversation, Eli understood what she meant.

“You worked endlessly, day in and day out, just to let that bum leech off of you for his failed career. And when he finally made it, he betrayed you and left us with nothing!”

“What, so you thought you would ‘defend my honor’ by getting revenge for me, and destroying his career on my behalf?” Jillian snapped back at Eli.

“Yeah. The whole world is calling out his praise. I wanted them to understand what a worthless guy he really was!” Eli replied with frustration.

“To what end? You put aside your own dreams and ambitions to become a doctor, just to get revenge?” Jillian shook her head. “Did you really think that doing something like that would make me happy? Make you happy?!” Jillian added. “I can’t believe this.” She turned and began walking away from Eli, while simultaneously tapping her wrist implant and making a phone call.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Eli asked, trying to stop her. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going back to work. I need to act like an adult, because no one else in this family ever will.” Jillian replied coldly.

“But, you don’t need to, we have millions now!” Eli replied.

“That’s your money.” She turned to face him. “And I’ll say the same thing to you that I said to your father when he offered me his money before he left us. I don’t want it. I don’t want anything to do with any of it.” She snapped at him, and Aegis’ face went blank with disbelief upon hearing this. “I don’t need you to take care of me. I don’t need him to take care of me. I’m not some pity case who cannot handle herself. I worked all these years, day in and day out, to raise this family and keep a roof above our heads, BY MYSELF. So don’t come around here, throwing money at me out of pity like you’re going to save me, or get revenge for me. Because I never cared about the money. I just wanted…” Jillian stopped herself from finishing her sentence as tears began to build up in her eyes, and seeing them, Eli felt his heart break. She didn’t need to finish her words, he felt what she was going to say.

A moment later, her call picked up and she turned from Eli, beginning a conversation with her boss, whilst simultaneously she began getting dressed and prepared for work. Eli remained frozen, unsure of what to say as his emotions raced within him. Anger, mixed with guilt, and shame - it all prevented him from taking action as he was unable to form a clear thought. Before he knew it, Jillian was dressed and heading out the door.

“They’re shorthanded for the night shift, so he needs me back right away. Have fun with your friends.” Jillain replied coldly as she stepped out of the door and shut it behind her.

“Wait!” Eli tried to call out and stop her, but got ignored, leaving him standing alone in the living room with nothing but the VGN broadcaster’s voice to fill in the silence and draw Eli’s attention.

“So, Makaroth, quite an exciting turn of events there. What an interesting way to return from a 7 day vacation, huh?” The broadcaster spoke, suddenly interviewing Makaroth on the VGN broadcast. The broadcaster was sitting in his chair, with Makaroth’s livestream display floating on a screen above a desk beside him.

“Yes, I’m sure many people have a lot of questions, but first let me apologize by lying about my relationship with Aegis. I wanted to give him a chance to play privately, but I guess secrets like that can’t last long in this world.” Makaroth shrugged. The broadcast continued, with Makaroth taking complete control of the narrative and playing it out in his favor.

“This is bullshit.” Hae-won shouted out angrily as she stomped through the Fanta-see Network, pacing behind Tommy and Shinji as they both stared up at multiple broadcasts on display. Among them were Feng, Seraxus, and Makaroth’s streams.

“He’s got the whole of VGN broadcasting in his favor, spinning this narrative.” Tommy shook his head. “Is this what you were worried about?”

“Yeah…” Shinji sighed in frustration.

“We don’t have the streamers to launch a counter-offensive. The only streamer we have that gets any views is Aegis.” Hae-won grumbled.

“Yep. It’s our loss. A big loss. He’s having a field day with this, painting Aegis out to be a vengeful, angsty teenager throwing a tantrum at his dad.” Tommy pointed at several of the interviews currently ongoing. “You need to call Aegis and tell him to log back on now, and start defending himself fast. If he doesn’t, it’s only going to keep getting worse.”

Shinji looked at his wrist implant and was about to press it, but stopped himself.

“No. That won’t do anything.” Shinji shook his head to himself. “Makaroth’s number one for a reason, his image always comes out on top, and he doesn’t care who he tears down in order to do it.”

“So what, we just sit here and let this happen?” Hae-won asked.

“No. I need to clean up this mess. This is my fault. I’m the reason Eli started streaming in the first place, and got put into this situation.” Shinji replied as he began walking out of the Fanta-see network studio, grabbing his jacket on the way out as both Tommy and Hae-won watched him leave. Once he was gone, the two exchanged unknowning shrugs.