Interlude 4 - Over (Patreon)

Four years ago.

“Seven, I swear to god, why are you not at the tournament!?” Annath asked when the damned girl finally picked up the phone.

“I don’t know!” Seven cried through the call. “I…”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

Annath was shouting, she realized. Yelling at the best fire mage in her guild. She forced her tone to stay calm. “Your match is starting now. You can still make it.”

“I don’t know what happened… I really don’t!”

“What are you talking about?” Annath asked. “You need to prove your legitimacy right now, Seven. You can still make it to the last match. It doesn’t matter if you lose. You just need to walk into the pod, quick-cast spells, and you can head out. You’re allowed to wear a face mask, for god’s sake!”

Seven said nothing.

“Did Vasili not pick you up?” Annath asked. “Where is he? I’ll call him.”

“No,” Seven said weakly.

“What do you mean, no?!”

She sniffled. “Please don’t call him.”

“Seven, I need you to talk to me. Why can you not go to the tournament?”

Seven’s sniffles grew to whimpers over the phone. She said nothing and continued crying. What on earth was happening over there, in Thailand? Annath just couldn’t understand. Why was Seven bawling her eyes out?

This damned child, are you actually cheating, Seven?

Anyone who wasn’t cheating would be running to the event just about now to prove they were legit. All Seven had to do was to walk in and cast a few spells on official, untampered game-pods. No matter how sick her condition made her, that should have been possible. Seven had agreed months ago that she’d make her first offline appearance today.

On the livestream shown by Annath’s television in the living room of her mansion, Vasili finally made his entrance to the arena. He had the deepest frown on his face as he approached the two versus two alone, with Seven nowhere in sight.

Seven kept crying over the phone. “What happened?” Annath asked quietly. “I’m sorry for yelling. Seven, please talk to me. Please… I just need to know what’s happening.”

“I’m sorry…” Seven said before her words got too indecipherable.

“I don’t need an apology…” Annath said softly. “I just need you to show me you aren’t cheating…”

Seven continued crying. This call was going nowhere. “I’ll call you later, okay?” Annath said.

“Mm,” Seven said through her tears.

Annath placed her phone down, biting her lip. This whole thing was a disaster. Her guild’s reputation was already shred to pieces. Many members had left from internal conflict, including Nightrin and Toonten.

Objectively, trading Rin and Toon was a good deal, if it meant keeping Seven in the guild. Losing some staple members didn’t matter. Seven was just that good.

But the forums were as rampant as always, and The Celestial Order was quickly growing a reputation as a guild carried by a cheater. Annath hadn’t doubted Seven so far, but this was getting ridiculous. Convincing Seven to prove her legitimacy had turned into a full time job. Annath had gotten Wind Virtual themselves involved, and this still moved nowhere.

Annath’s posture collapsed forward, elbows on the sofa table with her face buried in her hands. How much have I sacrificed for this underage girl now?

She didn’t want to believe it. Somehow, she still had hope. Seven had finally fixed her log-out issue. It seemed like her health was getting better. Despite all these hurdles, the Celestial Order was frontrunning the Path Of Apotheosis expansion alongside Syntrix.

Annath kept watching the livestream blankly. Vasili ended up quickly forfeiting, even though his local Thai opponents weren’t in the top five hundred. Individually, Vasili was much better than most of the players in the tournament. But he was a support mage now, and he didn’t seem very interested in competing alone. The livestream showed him exiting the arena, clearly upset. Maybe sad.

Annath’s eyes were out of focus as she looked somewhere in her television’s direction. She waited for a short while before calling him. He picked up.

“Sorry, boss,” he said.

“What happened?” Annath asked lifelessly, too tired to shout. “Weren’t you supposed to pick her up?”

Ambient discussion came from his phone. He took a deep breath. “Did you not see the news?”

“News?”

“Seven just got banned.”

Annath paused. “What?”

More ambient noise while Vasili thought of his answer. “On my way to her apartment, Wind Virtual banned her for manipulating her game pod. Literally one hour ago.”

No way. This wasn’t possible. Seven got banned?

“Did you see her in person?” Annath asked.

“Yeah…” Vasili said. “I saw her. But I guess it’s over.”

A chilling wave of nausea rose to her head, as if she was about to pass out. “What happened?”

No answer came, so she added, “Vasili, I can’t be left in the dark here. I need information. Please, if you care about the fate of this guild, just tell me what happened in there.”

More ambient noise while Vasili thought of his answer. “Well, she’s not lying about her health issues.”

Annath waited for him to continue.

He sighed. “Seven is pretty much terminal, I guess. I went to say hi and to fetch her an hour early. She spent the whole time puking. She’s also paralyzed to the point her mom had to hold the puke bucket.”

“So she didn’t skip the competition to avoid showing up?” Annath asked.

“Boss, she got banned,” Vasili said. “It’s over.”

Annath’s hands were shaking. This couldn’t be fucking real.

She opened the forums on her phone with Vasili still connected. Sure enough, on the front page was a post about SevenStrife getting banned. The post included a link to Wind Virtual’s official statement. The guild chat was also blowing up with multiple members trying to reach Annath.

“Her mom tried to sell me on some shit that she didn’t hack her pod to cheat,” Vasili said. His voice began wavering. “But she confirmed that her game pod was indeed manipulated. She had a panic attack after realizing she was banned. Either way, I need some time off. I’m sorry boss. I hope you understand. See you.”

He ended the call without warning, leaving Annath alone with the livestream. She felt sick to her stomach. Her whole body was about to blow up.

All the raids her guild had completed, all the items they’d provided to Seven, all the roster changes they’d made to better accommodate her quick-casting, and all the laughs they’d shared when Seven as she got more comfortable being involved in high-level raids—were they all just a sack of lies?

During the last two years, Seven refused to enter competitions, or make any local appearance to prove herself. She always had an excuse, be it her health or a fear of publicity. She hadn’t put one ounce of effort into proving herself.

And now she was banned. Wind Virtual finally caught her for manipulating her game pod.

Annath’s phone kept blowing up with messages. She couldn’t bring herself to read any of them. She lay down on her sofa, endless regrets flowing through her head. She felt like a complete fool for defending Seven all this time.

Of course Seven was cheating. The signs were so obvious.

By the time Annath raised her head from the couch, the sun had set. She hadn’t felt this foolish in decades. She opened the guild chat and finally wrote a message.

Annath: “The guild will step down from frontlining the event. I’m taking a break. To those who are upset with the direction the guild has taken, I won’t blame you for leaving. To those who wish to stay, I will return to rebuild the guild in two weeks.”

She collapsed back onto her couch, and for the first time in over five years, Annath took a break from the game that had replaced her entire life.