Ch. 319 and 320 Rewrite

Today, I'm going to do something a bit different. Due to feedback and some consideration, I am not necessarily happy with my choices for the story in these last two chapters. They are setting up the 4th book in the series, but they're taking it in a drastically different direction than what the story has been about so far.

It'll result in the story being darker and more serious, with constant pressure and high stakes, which can be great for tension and drama but lower the fun and fantasy side of things.

I will rewrite Chapters 319 and 320 in this post to propose an alternate direction the story could take from here. Keep in mind, I've already thought about both versions of Book 4 that these two directions would result in. They both end in a similar place, but how they get there greatly changes. I think I can make both fun and exciting reading. But I'd love to get everyone's feedback on which version you think is more interesting or more fitting for the story you've read up until now! (Note: The old version establishes the conflict for book four right away, this new version will be establishing it 10-20 chapters into book 4, so it may seem less 'intense')

For those who don't want to reread it entirely, I've put the changed sections in quotes.

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Chapter 319: The Decision

A transparent timer hovered above the arena’s center, counting down the time until the award ceremony began. The blue dome of magical energy that once kept it separate from the rest of the players was gone. Despite this, no one from the audience was jumping from the stands to enter the tiled arena below, leaving it a vast space that echoed the sound of their chatter.

“You’re sure about this?” Synopse asked Makaroth, huddling into him with Lilya so that other members of the Sages of Destiny guild around them couldn’t overhear their conversation.

“I’m sure. I’ll be handling over guild leadership to you.” Makaroth nodded.

“That’d be pointless,” Synopse smirked and shook his head. “If you’re deleting your character and starting over, I’m going with you.” Synopse’s smile grew as the two looked each other in the eyes. Makaroth couldn’t help but smile and give him a nod of appreciation.

“Thanks for sticking with me through all of my bullshit.”

“Eh. It wasn’t easy, but I managed.” Synopse shrugged back.

“Finally!” Liyla broke up their conversation by shouting out loudly to someone down the aisle where they were sitting. Synopse and Makaroth both turned to see Calikgos approaching them. “Maybe you can talk some sense into Makaroth,” Liyla asked him as he got closer, eying an empty seat next to Synopse.

“Talk some sense into him about what?” Calikgos asked impatiently.

“Makaroth’s decided that after the award ceremony, he’s going to accept defeat in his bet with his son,” Lilya explained.

“You mean the bet where you delete your character if he surpasses you?” Calikgos confirmed, looking suddenly very serious.

“Yeah…” Makaroth sighed back at him. “I know you’re here from VGN, so I just want you to know how much I appreciate what you and the network did for me.”

“You’re on contract. Makaroth is a character that is owned by the network, even if you’re playing him. You can’t just delete.” Calikgos replied.

“I already looked into the clauses. He’ll have to pay a fine…” Synopse replied.

“I’ll pay it. Money isn’t as important to me anymore.” Makaroth replied with an apologetic look in his eyes towards Calikgos.

“I see…” Calikgos eyed him carefully, dropping all emotion from his face momentarily. “Give me one second,” Calikgos said before logging out of the game world.

“He took that surprisingly well…” Synopse commented, returning to gauge Makaroth and Lilya’s reaction to his disappearance. Neither looked calm, though and instead, they exchanged confused looks. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just…” Makaroth began, but Lilya interrupted.

“I thought he’d put up more of a fight than that. He got furious about Seraxus and Yumily, so…” Liyla sighed. 

Before another word could be exchanged, Makaroth’s vision suddenly went black. The game world around him faded away, and a few seconds later, an office simulation formed around him. A sizeable plain office with a brown wooden desk on the far wall and bookshelves lining the walls behind it. There were chairs and potted plants mixed about, and behind the desk stood two figures.

Just as Makaroth finished forming into the office simulation with his in-game avatar, he saw Lilya and Feng’s avatars forming on either side of him. Ahead, he recognized the figure standing off the side of the desk as Calikgos, glaring forward at them. Beside him, a blurry mass of shadows took on the silhouette of a human sitting in the chair, with pale green eyes glaring back at them.

“The hell?” Feng spoke first, confused while looking around the simulation. “How’d you force me out of the game into here? This is an office simulation, right?” Feng clarified.

“Your Simboxes were provided VGN. As part of your contract, we can override your active simulation, modify your account, or remove you and block your access from the Simboxes. Using non-approved VGN Simboxes while under contract results in a fine of up to 1 million USD.” The man in the chair explained, his voice husky. 

“What?” Liyla asked in disbelief.

“You were so desperate to become famous that you overlooked a lot of the fine print. Fortunately, I was fair and kept my end of the contract without taking advantage of your naivety. I only wanted to build a powerful network that could fully take advantage of Averon’s title. I knew it would take over the globe and wanted to be on top of it. I chose you all to help me accomplish that mission.” The silhouette continued to speak, standing up from the chair. 

He began to pace behind the desk and avoid looking at them. Calikgos moved to get out of his way while Feng, Lilya, and Makaroth exchanged looks with one another.

“It was not easy to prop you up. You, along with Yumily, Seraxus, Daehyun, Skar, Jensora, and many more. When I found you all, you had determination and eagerness, but you lacked the know-how, skill, and resources to be seen among the countless other networks and streamers already existing.” He stopped and turned to face them, crossing his arms.

“To be honest, what I did with you all was a miracle. We achieved my dream of becoming the number one network, and you could all enjoy wealth and fame because of it. I thought we were all getting along. I began to trust you too much, so I let you take the reigns when you had a little feud with your son.” He pointed at Makaroth. “I let you use company resources to settle the feud. It was a compelling story at first and brought in more viewers. More sales, more publicity, it was all great.

But you just. Kept. Failing.” He shook his head while Calikgos tilted his head down disapprovingly. “Even with Calikgos watching over you, you made blunder after blunder. Completely uncharacteristic of Makaroth. I've even begun to question if you ever really wanted to beat him in the first place?" The silhouette paused for Makaroth to give a response, but Makaroth lowered his head to avoid eye contact. This got a sigh from Lilya.

"Still, I knew I had to let you see it through, so I didn’t stop it. And now, here we are.” He paused again before turning and waving his hand at the bookshelves behind his desk, causing multiple floating streams to appear of Seraxus, Serenity, and Aegis.

“You have lost me my number one performing musical streamer and the number one performing PvP streamer. You have lost me complete control of the top 10 streamers list, allowing your son to take both your and Feng's place in popularity with his pathetic, worthless streaming network…”

“I di-” Makaroth tried to reply.

“YOU’VE DESTROYED OUR IMAGE COMPLETELY!” The silhouette slammed his fists on the desk angrily, causing Makaroth, Feng, and Lilya to all jump or flinch. This was followed by a few tense moments of silence before the silhouette stood upright.

“And now, Calikgos tells me you plan to delete your character despite the fines because you lost your bet with your son. Further damaging what I’ve built over the past year due to your selfishness, correct?” He asked sternly, eying Makaroth while Feng nervously looked towards Makaroth.

“I…” Makaroth hesitated, swallowing the saliva in his mouth. “I appreciate all you’ve done, but I need to do what I can to repair my relationship with my family while I still can. If I don’t keep this deal, I don’t think my son will ever forgive me.” Makaroth replied without making eye contact.

“I see…” The silhouette replied before he began pacing again. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do that.” 

“What?” Makaroth looked up with a raised eyebrow. “No offense, but you can’t stop me.” He shook his head. “I’ll pay the fines for breaching the contract and whatever other fees you are owed. You will still have rights to my character's image and past footage…”

“What good is all of that when your image is in its current state?” The silhouette asked patiently.

“I know I’ve put you in a difficult position, but I also know that you didn’t get us all to the top streamer positions using legitimate methods. I don’t know how you did it, but I know it wasn’t something you’d like brought into the light. I’m not blind or stupid. None of us are. We all know you cheated.” Makaroth motioned to Feng and Lilya, who quickly and shamefully lowered their heads. “Owning the top 10 wa-”

“Are you trying to threaten me with something?” The silhouette asked aggressively, stepping around the desk towards Makaroth.

“What? N-no. I’m just saying, we know we didn’t earn our spots fairly in the top 10.” 

“You didn’t earn your spots at all. I DID. Do you understand? You are all NOTHING WITHOUT ME!” The silhouette roared furiously at him, stomping to face off directly with Makaroth, who refused to back down and glared at him.

“I told you. I appreciate what you did, but it’s in my best interest for my future to step down now.”

“No. I’ll tell you what’s in your best interest. You’ll stay and fix the mess you made. Repair your image, destroy your son, and reclaim the number one spots. I can replace Yumily and Seraxus, but I need you to repair your image yourself.”
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{CHANGES START HERE}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

“Don't you get it? I am fixing my mess and repairing my image!” Makaroth shouted back at him with his fists clenched. "The only reason he started playing this game in the first place," Makaroth motioned to Aegis' live stream, "is because he wanted to beat me. What do you think he's going to do if I stay? He's going to keep coming after us, and the public is completely on his side after that show he just put on out there," Makaroth switched to pointing at Seraxus' stream, the others following his finger to watch what the players were currently doing.

"You're saying that if you quit, he'll quit too?" Calikgos asked to clarify.

"I doubt he'll completely quit outright, but... He wants to study to be a doctor. He doesn't want to play this game forever, this was all just him getting back at me for leaving his mother. He thinks I remarried and just abandoned him." Makaroth sighed with a defeated tone.

Hearing this explanation, the silhouette began pacing behind the desk, deep in thought.

"If I may," Feng spoke up by clearing his throat. "This father-son conflict was interesting at first, but I believe if we force it to keep going, it will only continue to paint myself, VGN, and the other streamers in a bad light. I think it's best if we just let Makaroth leave." Feng said in Makaroth's defense, surprising Makaroth. Makaroth turned to look at him, and Feng gave him a nod of respect, which Makaroth returned quickly.

"Hang on..." Liyla realized, "Your family doesn't know our marriage is just for the contract? They think it's real?"

"No, well..." Makaroth mumbled back nervously.

"No WONDER they're so pissed off at us!" Liyla rolled her eyes at him in frustration. "They think I'm some homewrecker, don't they? Damnit, Makaroth, how stupid can you be?"

"I thought it'd be easier to leave them behind that way. That they'd hate me enough and just forget about me."

"Well, you got the hate part right." Liyla scoffed at him.

"Alright." The silhouette spoke loudly to silence their discussion and draw all eyes back onto himself. "I'll allow you to resign without any issues if you can guarantee your son will not cause any more problems for us."

"I can't guarantee it, but I can't imagine why he would. As long as you guys don't do anything to piss him off." Makaroth smirked.

"You'll still be paying the fines for breaking the contract." The silhouette spoke.

"I'm okay with that." Makaroth nodded.

"And what about you?" He turned to Lilya. "Will you be resigning as well?"

"And get more involved with this hot mess? No thanks." Lilya raised an eyebrow at him while motioning to Makaroth, which caused Makaroth to chuckle.

"You'll resume leadership of the Sages of Destiny, and you, Feng," the Silhouette turned to him, "Will become the new face of VGN."

"Haven't I already been the face?" Feng grinned proudly. The silhouette sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk while pondering momentarily. "Calikgos, keep them in line this time. And Makaroth," he paused to point at him aggressively. "If anyone from your family gets in our way again, including you, we will not be holding back. VGN will be number one." The moment he finished speaking, Makaroth's vision went blank as light swirled around him, and he was transported back into the Shattered World simulation.

The sound of the audience cheers filled his ears quickly, and he felt the stone vibrating through his feet as the world around him came into focus.

“Whoa, there you are. Where did you guys go?” Synopse asked them curiously but picked up on Lilya's angry look, which contrasted heavily with Makaroth's slight grin.

“Just sorting out some last-minute details.” He looked to Calikgos, who was glaring at him sternly.

The award ceremony will now begin!

The arena announcer's voice carried through the stadium as the timer at its center reached zero, and everyone in the stands cheered loudly. 

—

“It’s finally stabilizing.” Nicholas let out a sigh of relief from his office simulation. On top of a display of Aegis’ livestream floating in front of him, he had thousands of graphs and charts monitoring various in-game analytics. Samantha was present, doing calculations and presenting him with information as he requested.

“Yes. It appears player behaviour is reacting correctively to the victory of the player Aegis. His ideologies and the ideologies of the in-game deity Eirene are having a positive impact.” Samantha explained. 

“Good.” Nicholas fell back into his chair and let out a huge sigh of relief, which was short lived. A loud, cheering Andrew appeared in his simulation, jumping up and down before his voice has properly loaded in.

“HELL YEAH!” Andrew shouted at him, unable to contain himself. “It worked, a player actually saved our ass. I should’ve never doubted you. Nerf? Pah, who needs a Nerf to the sword when we’ve got kids like that, huh?!” Andrew hopped around while hijacking the hovering display screens in Nicholas’ office to pull up Aegis’ moment of victory for them to rewatch. 

Seeing Andrew’s childlike joy was contagious, and Nicholas' big smile grew as he watched the footage.

‘You’re not getting past my shield.” Aegis said in the clip before casting his final shield projection to stop Seraxus’ charge strike into Pyri.

“SO DAMN BADASS!” Andrew squealed like a schoolgirl.

“It was a pretty cool moment.” Nicholas agreed. “He really took advantage of a lot of game mechanics to pull that off, but in the end, proved that Samantha’s design was working fine all along,” Nicholas said proudly.

“Oh, come on, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Samantha’s lucky. This kid saved her ass big time.” Andrew waved this off.

“No way. You don’t think Samantha had this planned the whole time?” 

“You’re going to tell me Samantha knew that kid could beat Seraxus like that?” Andrew raised an eyebrow at Nicholas, to which Nicholas could no longer hold a straight face, and broke into laughing.

“Okay, okay, I admit it, that kid saved our ass. But that’s what this game was always meant to be about. That’s how I want all players to be like.” 

“Spiteful towards their fathers?” Andrew raised a brow.

“Well, not exactly like that.” Nicholas rolled his eyes while Andrew chuckled playfully. As he did, Mike’s body appeared inside the simulation near them, looking somewhat serious at first, but when he saw the expressions on their faces, he quickly adjusted.

“Where’ve you been? How are the servers running?” Nicholas asked him.

“They’re running fine.”

“I checked in with maintenance and IT to find you and tell you the news, but they said they hadn’t seen you,” Andrew added.

“Yeah.” Mike nodded as he looked up at the clip of Aegis defeating Seraxus on display. “Yeah, I had some personal things to take care of.”

“Oh. I hope everything’s okay.” Nicholas asked him with concern.

“Yup. No problem. Everything’s going to be fine now.” Mike nodded back.

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Chapter 320: Dignity

A warm light swirled around Aegis and his party as they watched the timer reach 0. His body felt light, and the swirling magic surrounding him eventually enveloped him entirely with a blinding bright flash of white. When the flash subsided, he was no longer in the waiting room but back in the center of the arena.

Beneath his feet was a raised stone platform made of the same stonework that the tiles and pillars were. To his left and right, he saw four other platforms, one of which was empty. The other had Pyri, Darkshot, and Lina standing atop them.

Before Aegis’ eyes had even adjusted from the bright flash of light, his ears could hear the audience erupt in a roar of unintelligible cheers. Colorful flashing lights formed around them, shooting up into the skies like fireworks. It wasn’t long before the repeating chant from earlier kicked in.

“Aegis! Aegis! Aegis! Aegis!” The crowds repeated. To his side, Aegis saw Darkshot striking a pose with Darkwing joining in from his right shoulder. Pyri was smiling and waving politely, while Lina was shyly fidgeting her fingers and looking down at her feet. Aegis took another look at the empty pedestal, sighing at the sight of no Rakkan.

“Congratulations to the winner of the gladiator tournament. The protector of Stormtop and the savior of the shattered world! defender of Arallians, guardian of Kalmoore, and destroyer of hatred!” Hae-won cheered into her voice-amplified staff. Her words caused another eruption of cheers that shook the platform beneath Aegis’ feet.

Aegis looked up in Hae-won’s direction, but before he could meet her gaze, a notification appeared in front of him through his interface.

Congratulations! You’ve placed first in the Gladiator tournament. Please select the reward you would like to receive:

A list of rare magical items, practical and decorative, appeared before Aegis in his interface. He had already decided which reward he wanted, though, and didn’t bother with browsing through the others.

Acquired: Soul Dust [Quality: 90%]

As the Reigning Champion of the Gladiator Arena, you are now eligible to bypass the preliminary matches for the next Gladiator Tournament. You are eligible to select the island on which this tournament will be held. These options are configurable in your settings menu, under the [Player Versus Player] section.

Aegis waved the notifications away once he’d finished reading them. The moment the transparent interface screen in his peripheral vision was gone, he saw Hae-won’s look of concern. She was eying him intently, making sure he saw the look on her face, to which Aegis curiously glanced around the stands to try and grasp where her expression was coming from.

He spotted Makaroth, surrounded by his cheering guildmates, but he was not cheering. He was looking apologetic to Lilya and speaking with her but was getting ignored. He panned his eyes over to the Vindicators and saw a similar expression on Feng’s face despite the enthusiastic cheers coming from the other Vindicator guild members. Finally, Aegis turned back to Hae-won, to see her shaking her head no. She knew Aegis had seen her do it, but Aegis ignored this and waved her toward him with a hand motion.

She shook her head again, but Aegis just repeated the hand motion more expressly. Hae-won gave one final anxious glance towards the VGN broadcasters huddled nearby, before sighing anxiously to herself and hopping off the raised platform. She walked down to the bottom of the stands, then hopped into the arena several meters below, beyond where the blue barrier had been that was keeping everyone out of the arena for the tournament.

Hae-won calmly walked across the large arena towards Aegis and the others as they stood on their platforms, but she didn’t say anything. The closer she got to Aegis, the quieter the cheering became until it nearly became silent.

She stopped at the base of his platform and looked up at him, holding her voice-amplification staff off to the side to not accidentally speak into it.

“I know what you’re going to do. I really don’t think you should.” Hae-won whispered up at him.

“It’s the whole reason I started playing,” Aegis replied. He looked into Hae-won’s eyes for a tense few moments as the two tried to look deep into each other's thoughts. Eventually, though, Hae-won relented by shaking her head and holding her voice amplification staff up towards him.

Aegis took the staff out of her hands and equipped it to benefit from the enchantment. As he did, the audience got quiet further still, awaiting his words. The flashing lights from the arena that were celebrating the victory died down, and Aegis took a deep breath.

“I don’t know why you’re all cheering,” Aegis spoke coldly, glaring up at the stands. “Everything Seraxus said was true. All of you did everything you could to stop me from participating in this tournament,” He made a wide pointing motion across the stands, going over the Sages of Destiny, Vindicator, and Daehyun’s guild members. “The only reason Seraxus even got here in the first place was because of you.” Aegis ended his finger on Makaroth. “I had to clean up your mess, and you and all of your VGN buddies did everything in your power to stop me. I cleaned it up, but not for you. I did it in spite of you all. We’re not friends.” Aegis declared.

“Oooh man, that’s so much worse than what I thought you’d say,” Hae-won mumbled quietly to herself in disbelief, shaking her head at her own feet. Lina, Pyri, and Darkshot all got serious, looking nervously at Aegis as they saw he wasn’t done yet. 

“I even gave you the secrets of Mithral to your top VGN crafter so that you could put up a fight. You still messed up.” Aegis eyed Feng, who glared back at him. “In the end, I had to do it myself. And look who is standing in the number one spot.” Aegis turned to Makaroth and locked eyes with him.

“You remember the deal, don’t you?” Aegis asked him, so that everyone in the stadium turned their attention to Makaroth.

“Man, he’s laying it on thick.” Synopse chuckled awkwardly while nudging him. Makaroth responded to the nudge by huffing and shaking his head while looking down at his feet.

“So how about it?” Aegis’ voice carried thanks to the voice-amplification. “It’s time to delete.” 

Makaroth took a deep breath as he eyed his character's enchanted greaves. As the entire world turned its eyes onto him, he stretched out his hands, drawing out his weapon and swinging it aimlessly in the air for a moment.

“Here…” One of the VGN broadcasters ran over to him from the raised platform, handing them their voice-amplification staff. Makaroth took it awkwardly, staring at it intently for a moment before taking it from him and equipping it.

"I put a lot of work into this character. You've all followed me on my journey from the start. I feel like we've earned this equipment together. This sword, this armor, my skills, all of it. We've liberated an entire island together, defeated countless bosses, and grinded endlessly together to get this far. But," Makaroth paused to look up at the stadium of his guildmates and fans, and finally, his eyes landed on Aegis down in the arena below. "I can't ignore the fact that I've also made many mistakes. Seraxus and Aegis are both right. I put a lot of players at risk through my selfish actions, and ultimately, I still lost our bet." Makaroth smiled at Aegis, catching him completely off-guard.

"If I'd just played the game with you and Pyri from the beginning, I would've been by your side when you saved Arallia, Kalmoore, and Stormtop, instead of standing against you. And I'll always regret that." He spoke with sincerity. "I will be retiring my character Makaroth and dropping my contract with VGN. I'll be starting over from level one alongside my friend Synopse, and I don't currently have any plans to livestream it." Makaroth's sentence hadn't even finished before the booing and angry jeers started. Some were directed at Makaroth, but most were directed at Aegis.

Countless, loud, vocal shouts from the Sages of Destiny members conveyed the sentiment that a son shouldn't make his father do something like this, but Aegis ignored them. Aegis continued to stare silently up at Makaroth with his arms crossed, waiting for confirmation and still looking angry. Makaroth saw this and sighed. The only sense of relief he got was when he turned to Pyri standing beside him and saw her smiling at him with a look of approval and sympathy.

"Goodbye, everyone. I'll never forget what you all have done for me. Please continue to enjoy the Shattered World online, just as I will be doing from the shadows." Makaroth gave one final smile and wave to the crowd before logging out for the last time, and Synopse quickly followed.

The crowd's booing, shouting, and jeering quickly got louder and more aggressive.

"You did it." Lina cheered at Aegis, and he looked to see her smiling at him. A slight grin of satisfaction grew on Aegis' face as the realization of his victory was slowly seaping in, but he couldn't absorb it too much just yet.

“The rest of these VGN guys don't seem too happy with us, though...” Darkshot anxiously mumbled. At that moment, Aegis saw a flash of light appear on the empty platform. Rakkan’s body took shape as he finished logging in.

“You’re back?” Lina smiled at him awkwardly.

“Yeah.” Rakkan nodded.

“You’re alright?” Aegis asked him after lowering the staff.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Rakkan replied.

“You sure?” Aegis asked.

“Yeah. You looked like you’re gonna need my help.” 

“Probably,” Darkshot responded with an awkward chuckle. As they spoke, Aegis turned to Pyri to see how she was reacting to the situation. He was expecting to be scolded by her, but instead, she looked back at him with a calm smile.

“We should go while we still can.” Hae-won anxiously turned and glanced around the stands at the angry mob.

“She’s right.” Pyri nodded. She took the lead by turning to face the enormous main doors used to exit the arena, directly opposite the raised platform that the Sages of Destiny and Vindicator guilds flanked.

Aegis, Hae-won, Darkshot, Lina, and Rakkan all turned to follow her. The group of six walked out of the arena, shoulder to shoulder. With each step they took towards the exit, the noise from the audience got louder. It started as whispers and murmurs and slowly grew into angry shouts and taunts. By the time they’d arrived at the exit doors, Hae-won turned back to shut them hastily to cut off the full-blown yelling. In the time it took her to shut the large wooden doors, the others continued to walk ahead calmly without saying a word. 

Hae-won frustratedly rushed after them with a grumbling sigh.

“You realize I’m just level 10, right?” Hae-won asked them but got no response. “You just pissed off every single member of VGN. You better not be planning to leave me behind on this island.” She got further annoyed.

“Just stay close.”

“Right…” Hae-won rolled her eyes to herself as none of them saw her do it. The group walked through the damaged hallways of the stadium’s interior, the sounds of the audience no longer reaching their ears. Instead, they could hear their feet clacking off the paved stone floor and echoing off the chipped stone walls around them. 

Back inside the arena, Calikgos motioned Feng towards him as he stood next to Liyla in the stands, and thanks to his speed of movement, Feng complied by rushing over in an instant.

"What is it?" Feng asked Calikgos.

"Crush them. Don't let them off this island." Calikgos instructed them both.

"But Makaroth said we shouldn't piss him off..."

"I don't care what Makaroth said. He's not here anymore. That kid just insulted all of us, and our viewers want retribution for the loss of their beloved Makaroth. In their eyes, he's the bad guy. So, crush him." Calikgos ordered. Feng and Lilya briefly exchanged looks before Feng had a devious grin growing on his face.

"If you say so," Feng shrugged, opening the interface to his guild chat and beginning to send a message.

---

Despite the situation, Aegis and his companions remained calm and collected, save for Hae-won. They continued to walk in silence through the hallway towards the stadium's exit, and the silence continued to get on Hae-won's nerves, leading her to clear her throat awkwardly.

“I figured you’d do something like this, so I had Serenity go ahead of us to her Airship. If we can make it to the docks, we should be able to get off this island safely. We should be able to make it to the Skyport docks, right?” Hae-won asked them.

“Get on her Airship as soon as possible and log out,” Aegis replied.

“Right. Good idea.” She nodded back hastily as the sunlight from the exit to the stadium came into view and shone into the structure. The frame of the exit and the door had been completely destroyed and trampled into smithereens due to the abyssal invasion. This allowed Aegis and the others to see what awaited them outside the stadium.

It was a sea of red. Aegis couldn’t count how many there were, but it was enough that he couldn’t see past them. High-level Vindicator players, all donning the red tabard of the vindicators. They were above level 100, and some were sitting at level 150 and higher.

They hadn’t drawn their weapons yet, but they glared down the tunnel at Aegis and his companions as they approached. No murmurs, no whispers, just the continued sound of Aegis’ party’s footsteps.

When they reached the exit, the threshold was blocked by the Lanuskians, but a few of them moved to the side just enough to allow Aegis and the others to continue walking forward.

With Aegis in the lead, he kept a stoic expression. He was well aware of how dangerous it was to just confidently walk into this mass of opposing players, but the anger for Makaroth fueled him forward. He didn’t so much as hesitate for a second. Rakkan and Pyri had no trouble following Aegis’ lead, but Lina, Darkshot, and Hae-won were letting their emotions show. Lina looked cautious, Darkshot looked nervous, and Hae-won had a look of fear on her face.

The Vindicators continued to part and allowed them to pass a good few dozen meters out of the stadium until a familiar face held his ground in front of Aegis. [Xiao Bai Mao - Level 161], the leader of the Vindicator party that Pyri had defeated during the last round of the preliminaries, was staring at them with a big smile.

“You have got some massive balls talking like that about Feng in the middle of a VGN island.” Xiao Bai Mao said while crossing his arms. “But you overplayed your hand. You may be good, but you are still just a small group of players. Kalmoore is a small island. Winning in structured, 5v5 matches is one thing. But out here, we, the Vindicators, rule.” He finished his sentence by motioning to his guildmates, who were surrounding Aegis and the others on all sides.

“Would you mind moving? You’re blocking our way.” Aegis replied.

“Heh.” Xiao Bai Mao shook his head and sucked his teeth.

“Hooo boy,” Hae-won whispered anxiously under her breath.

“What was it you said to Seraxus?” Xiao turned to Pyri. “It seems your parents will not discipline you for your rude, disrespectful behavior. So we will take it upon ourselves to do it for them.” Xiao grinned at her in a taunting manner, then drew his weapon. As he did, the sound of hundreds of weapons being unsheathed could be heard from all of the players surrounding them on all sides. Enchantments were being cast, and auras were being activated.

“Hey, Mom, you’re not holding anything back anymore, right?” Aegis turned to look at her standing beside him. She slightly tilted her head towards him and gave him a knowing look. She drew out her staff, Rakkan formed his echoes, Lina unsheathed her daggers, and Darkshot knocked an arrow.

“Then,” Aegis turned to grin back at Xiao on Pyri’s behalf. “Let’s see who disciplines who.”