[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Error report for user id number 77789352. Pain Safety limiter has malfunctioned, attempting automatic log out procedure. Emergency disconnect operation failed. Users vital report is negative, life-signs are undetermined. Users last reported location was in The Heart of Suffering.[/col][/box]
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Playing ticket recording now, ticket length is 720486 hours.[/col][/box]
"Oh dear god no!"
"This can't really be happening..."
"Damn it! What the hell are you all waiting around for?! Send an ambulance immediately! Someone find out the
address! Divide the video into a thousand parts and play them at a hundred times normal speed!"
It was incomprehensible, over 82 years of footage under those conditions took a whole 7 hours to sort through.
However, the video only covered 10% of the time Azrael was imprisoned there. Even after they viewed
all of it, there was no way to know if he survived. It was terrible, truly one of the most disturbing
video's they had ever seen, and it all happened in their Royal Road. All of the highest authorities in the
company were busy scrambling to cover their asses and find someone to blame for creating such a terrible place.
However, there was no record of The Heart of Suffering even existing prior to when they received that ticket.
"How could it just appear like that? Did someone hack the system and create it?"
"No, there's no evidence of tampering... the instance is like an illusion, it appeared as quickly as it
disappeared."
"That's impossible! Unless... could the Goddess have created it?"
"The Ai is capable of creating and destroying anything within Royal Road but it shouldn't be able to override
safety precautions..."
"Well, let's just pray that he's still alive somehow... although either way we're screwed."
So-Ra was the only representative Unicorn Corp had in Baltimore City and she was assigned to go with the
emergency personnel to Michael's house. This was every person in Unicorn Corps worst fear, someone dying from
playing Royal Road. Even during the beta tests they were extremely wary of such an outcome but it never
happened. It was the longest 10 minutes of her life, that quick drive across town was like a ferry ride across
the river Styx.
'Why the hell did this have to happen in Baltimore?!'
If Michael was dead and it was reported on the news that she was the one to discover his body, it would probably
destroy her life. Actually, even if he managed to survive being tortured for over 82 years, how could anyone
possibly live on afterwards? She was certain that there would be a corpse, either in the capsule or hanging
from the ceiling.
'I should never have taken this damn job! This is how my shitty life ends? I'm only 36 damn it! I
haven't even had kids yet, hell I haven't even met a decent man!'
So-Ra decided to take a representative job in America after getting tired of her parents constant attempts to
convince her to marry and have children. Yet that was her biggest regret when she was faced with a situation
where she could even be portrayed as a murderer depending on how the media spun the story. When they finally
arrived at the street his house was on, she started crying.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael finally logged out after carrying Freya into the Alchemy Guild, it was disgusting. In the game he was
able to ignore most of his tendencies, but in reality he was still the same obsessive compulsive mysophobiac he
was before. The Royal Road capsules had a function that most people never even knew about because
it only happened once the emergency log-out procedure failed. Three weeks worth of I.V. fluids were hidden
inside the base of the capsule that would be automatically injected into the veins in his back. There was also
a catheter that would automatically REPLACE itself and it included enough bag space for at least a week of
normal urinary excretions. Basically he woke up with a needle in his back and a tube up his urethra, which is not the
most pleasant experience but he was also borderline starving to death. The worst part was the other kind of
excretion, waking up in a pool of urine and feces was literally his worst nightmare. He would have gladly been
tortured for another thousand years if it meant he would have to clean up that disgusting mess.
However, life is never that easy and there was no way he could afford to buy another capsule so there was only
one option. He was already completely covered in it anyway so at least he couldn't get any dirtier, it took
him 3 hours to clean it all up. There really is no need to give a detailed explanation of the entire
operation. After finally being able to take a shower, it was like that first sip of fruit juice in the morning
after a long night of dehydrated sleep! He thought about the endless possibilities that could be achieved
through proper use of that temporal augmentation he had experienced in the Heart of Suffering.
"Why was Royal Road only 4 times faster than reality? Most likely because past that point the pain limiter and
other safety functions would stop working. However, its easy to imagine the possibilities, the most
interesting of which is Virtual Immortality. The technology already exists and yet no one has even considered
it? No, more likely they are afraid of it. Unicorn Corp had created Ai that were as complex as a humans
intelligence, it was only natural to think of Royal Road as an actual reality rather than just virtual.
Somehow, they have create an entire world with endless possibilities and the only weakness is that it needs to
be maintained from this end..."
He was talking to himself out-loud since he was the only person home and didn't really care if the birds in the
other room thought he was crazy. Midway through his conversation with himself he completely forgot what he was
talking about and started singing the theme song from one of his favorite anime, it was normally sung by a girl
with a very high voice and he only remembered about half of the words. You might be wondering why he wasn't
suffering from muscular atrophy after doing nothing but laying in a capsule for over a week. The reason was
simple, he was being tortured violently the whole time and all the muscles in his body were responding at one
point or another. Every day or so his body would automatically fall unconscious and after sleeping for
several hours he would wake up still logged into Royal Road. It was amazing that his brain didn't just shut
down from thinking so fast.
After quickly running downstairs and into his room completely naked, he put on some boxers and a white t-shirt,
then ran back up the stairs into the kitchen which was on the first floor. He was a very paranoid and caution
person, but in the city when someone breaks down your door its never a good sign. Without even thinking he
grabbed a huge kitchen knife with good balance and threw it as hard as he could from the middle of his kitchen,
across his living room and into the doorway. He heard a loud yell and with his terrible vision could only make
out the fuzzy outline of a tall muscular man in a blue shirt spraying blood out of his left thigh.
"Stop! We're here to help you!"
A high pitched female voice cried out as he was about to throw another one, he kept it in his hand as he cautiously
approached the woman who was holding her hands in the air like she had a gun to her head. He soon made out the
figure of a woman wearing generic office lady attire, long black skirt, dark pantyhose covering her legs,
black business jacket and she even had glasses. When he thought about all the types of people who
would break down his door, he quickly realized that they weren't there to kill him or rob the place. He could
barely make out her facial features from only a few feet away but he could tell she was probably some
kind of Eastern Asian, maybe Japanese or Korean but he couldn't be sure.
"I'm sorry but we have to quickly get John to the hospital, if you're going to bring that crazy bastard with us you
need to hurry the fuck up!"
The men were apparently paramedics and he threw a knife into one of them, definitely not a nice thing to do but
it was their own damn fault for breaking his door down and not announcing themselves immediately. Michael
casually walked back into the kitchen and put the knife he was holding away.
"Excuse me, Mr. Sinagra?"
So-Ra said in a very nervous voice as she approached him cautiously. He was a relatively short man who could
either be a teenager or in his thirties with his short, haggard beard and hair that was slightly past his
eyes. His skin was almost as pale as his white T-shirt that was dyed red with hundreds of small blood stains,
and his short but muscular legs were covered in hair that stood out even more because of his complexion. He
had relatively large arm and chest muscles for his small stature and she could feel an aura of intimidation
that made him seem like a giant.
"Tell the paramedics to leave without us, we have some business to discuss and I won't need to pay a visit to
the hospital."
She was terrified but if she refused there was no way to tell what he might do to her. After walking back over
to the paramedics, she quickly explained that they didn't need to take Michael to the hospital.
After returning to the kitchen she was shocked to see him casually pouring iced tea from a 2
liter pitcher into a giant red mug that was nearly the same size. He stared at her as he kept pouring without
even needing to see what he was doing, he knew exactly when to stop and then put the pitched back in the
refrigerator with one hand and the lid on the mug with the other. After washing his hands quickly, he opened a straw
container with one hand and then took out the straw with the other. He immediately rushed over to the sink and
washed his hands along with the straw, carefully turning the sink off by only touching a very small area on the
handle that no sane person would think to use. Finally, he was able to carefully REPLACE the straw in the lid's
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
hole that was meant for sipping and started to drink for the first time in weeks.
"Mr. Sinagra...."
He stopped drinking for a moment, turned to her and said "My name is Michael."
She was terrified to have offended him and quickly replied "I apologize, my name is So-Ra I came here to..."
He cut her off and quickly said "You're from Unicorn Corp and you're here because I almost died playing Royal
Road."
It wasn't particularly difficult to figure that much out but the reason she was surprised was because he looked
completely fine, at least under the circumstances he appeared relatively healthy. She had already assumed that
he would be insane, but throwing a knife at someone breaking into your house isn't really all that illogical and
he didn't seem particularly unstable.
She smiled and said "Yes, I was sent to make sure you were OK..."
He cut her off again and said "You thought I would be dead and I'm not surprised, if I wasn't receiving I.V.
fluids I would definitely have starved to death by now. Actually, I'm pretty hungry... you have a car right?"
She had a puzzled look on her face as she said "Yes, I drove here behind the ambulance but why?"
He sighed and said "OK, give me a second I'll go change and we can go out to eat."
'What the hell is he talking about?'
So-Ra hadn't been on a date in nearly ten years so she easily created some strange fantastical expectations of
having an amazing dinner at a fancy restaurant overlooking the harbor. However, like any sane person she
quickly came to her senses when he came back up the stairs from the basement wearing a black shirt, black
shorts and old decrepit flip flops that seemed to be falling apart. She remembered that his sense of time was
recently warped so he must not have realized that it was the middle of February, Valentines Day. There was a
sheet of ice on the streets which was why it took them so long to get to his house.
Before she could speak he said "Don't worry, it's only slightly below freezing! Let's get going before I
literally die of starvation and then you have to explain to your superiors how you let it happen!" in
a sarcastic tone and obnoxiously laughed afterward.
He took a container of hand sanitizing wipes with him as they left the house, luckily there was another door
that he could close and lock besides the one that was broken down. Without taking his wallet or even his cell
phone, he simply grabbed his house keys and left with her. She was slightly annoyed that he kept wiping
everything in her car down in a vain attempt to make it clean but she was afraid to say anything about it. After
arriving at the inner harbor without even asking him where he wanted to go she quickly realized her mistake and
covered it up by saying "There's this nice sushi restaurant here that we can go to...." but he was unconscious.
"Oh no! Please don't be dead...."
She was about to touch his should with her right hand when he woke up and quickly evaded it. Michael opened
the door, managing to grab the hand wipe container, open it and take a few of them out before closing it then
dropping the container on his seat as he got out of the small red car. His ability to pointlessly sanitize
himself was almost at a superhuman level and she didn't understand why he kept doing it.
As they briskly walked across the street he said "You're paying for it right?" in a tone that suggested she
didn't have a choice.
Of course she was going to pay, it wasn't as if she would force him to after bringing him to an expensive sushi
restaurant without even asking where he wanted to go. After walking around the harbor for a few minutes they
finally reached the destination, on the second floor of the building that the restaurant was inside of, they had
arrived. Michael quickly walked up to the hostess and said "Table for two please." in a very polite voice then she showed them to
their table.
After sitting down and waiting for Michael to finish wiping his hands off she said "Do you like sushi?" which
was a fair question, since there more people who hated it than loved it in America.
After smiling he said "Sushi is better than sex, although I guess that depends on whether you're hungry or
horny..." in a strangely philosophical manner but she was still happy that he wasn't angry that she brought him
there.
After a few minutes the waitress came over and asked what they wanted to drink, he said "Unsweetened iced tea,
three spicy tuna rolls with salmon roe, two seaweed salads, a bowl of miso soup and twelve slices of salmon
sashimi... also, please include extra wasabi." before So-Ra could even speak.
After being startled by his giant order she quickly said "I would like unsweetened iced tea and a Maryland crab
roll." in a hurried voice as she handed her menu to the waitress who was struggling to quickly mark down their
orders.
Three minutes of awkward silence passed until their drinks arrived, Michael went to several other tables
beforehand and took all of their raw sugar packets so he was able to immediately start pouring it into his tea. He didn't stir
it, just started drinking the mound of sugar at the bottom of the glass. He was even kind enough to give So-Ra
a handful of packets to use, but she only needed two. Thus the silence continued even when they finally
received their food, they quietly ate it. Well... Michael was eating extremely loudly but he didn't actually
say anything, which was slightly polite in a way. When So-Ra was half-way done eating her four rather large
real crab meat filled sushi roll slices, Michael started to speak.
"820 years, give or take a few months."
"Excuse me?"
"I was being tortured for 820 years."
"How is that possible?"
"Well, it only seemed like 820 years from my perspective... it was actually only about two weeks in reality."
"I heard it was only 82 years when they sent me to you..."
"Nope, but it wasn't all that bad... I won't be suing Unicorn Corp."
"Thank you..."
"That doesn't mean that I don't have conditions though."
"What kind of conditions?"
"First of all, I want to play the game for free, 300 dollars a month is outrageous in the first place but
considering the mental trauma I suffered I should at least get that much without even asking. Secondly, the
Golden Dragon of Suffering isn't to be altered in any way, that includes her avatar Freya. Third, I want a new
capsule that has better safety features, I suggest they upgrade all their capsules as well considering that
something similar could happen in the near future. Obviously they have to pay for my door and deal with that
guy I injured too. Lastly, I have a friend who lives in California, his name in the game is Ceda. He needs a
medical treatment that will probably cost a few million dollars, but Unicorn Corp will pay for it and they can
even make a big deal out of it for all I care. Those are my conditions and considering that if my story ever
made it to the media, Royal Road definitely wouldn't be able to recover. Neither of us want that to happen
right?"
She was completely surprised by how insignificant and even selfless his demands were while he was grinning as
if he was asking the impossible. What she couldn't understand though was why he would want to keep playing Royal
Road after what had just happened to him. Since So-Ra never had the time or money to play, she never even
watched the news shows about it. Actually, the last video game she played was in high school on an old console
system that she couldn't even remember the name of. Was Royal Road such an amazing thing that this man would
keep playing even after suffering for nearly a thousand years?
After finishing her meal, she called her superiors and explained the situation. They were surprised and
relieved at the same time since they had just finished watching his ticket footage and had little hope that he
survived. They already had a working model that included extra safety features but they never released it to
the public because they didn't think it was necessary. Feeling thankful towards him for being so lenient with
his demands the higher-ups decided to send him four instead of one and decided to make it so anyone using them
didn't have to pay the monthly subscription fee.
They were slightly hesitant about not being able to fix the buggy Golden dragon that nearly killed someone but
considering the person who was tortured by it wanted it pardoned, they reluctantly agreed. The PR department
was already making the necessary calls to get Ceda treated and make a big deal out of it to make sure that even
if Michael's story did get out, they would be able to counteract it with a grandiose act of charity. However,
they also had a condition of their own.
She had a puzzled expression as she said "Apparently they want me to use one of the capsules they're sending to
your house to keep an eye on you in game and in reality..." in a strained voice.
After laughing for a few seconds Michael said "I figured as much, they want to make sure I don't contact the
media. Oh well, by the way this meal is going to be pretty damn expensive... I hope you brought enough money
because I didn't bring my wallet."
She paid for the 50 dollar meal and then they stopped by her apartment to pick up some clothes and other
necessities she would need to stay at his house for a while. The whole time she was freaking out about the
fact that she was essentially moving in with a man she had just met a few hours ago.
'What the hell am I so worried about anyway?'
After finally gathering as many things as she could fit in her car, they finally returned to Michael s house.
There were several people in the doorway putting up a brand new door, the previous one was at least 60 years
old. Michael and So-Ra carried her things into the living room where there were four capsules, he left two in the
living room and carried the other two up to the room that used to be his brother's. The only thing in the
moderately sized room was a queen sized bed and two capsules that were slightly spaced apart.
"We're going to be playing the game right next to each other?"
"My room is probably going to be uninhabitable for at least a month or so..."
