Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

2.40 SBAT - Wrap Up

Flora slept nine hours straight. When she woke up, she still felt tired. Staring at the canopy, she let her mind wander.

-- Victorious –- (Kaytsak)

*Beeeeeeeeeep!!!*

"He earned it, Aito." Aidan protested.

-- Excited, panting –- (Bliz)

Her mind exploded with the feelings and comments of her companions.

"What is going on?" Flora rubbed her head.

"Kaytsak has finished the 500 laps. Aito arrived one second behind him. The Golem and I are on our last lap. Bliz needs a few more."

Flora logged out and gaped at her companions because of their horrible condition. Aito was charred and lost two of her tentacles. The golem had multiple dents. Although Flora couldn't spot visible marks on the elementals, their HP bars were nearly empty. Only Aidan was fighting condition, but even his Octopussy missed parts like the vibro knife.

"Did I sleep during a war? Did the Test use the bombs on you?"

All companions turned to Aito, who flattened herself on the floor with her remaining tentacles over her head. When she changed the skin of the Octopussy to display white doves, Flora knew who the culprit was.

"Aidan, explain."

"Aito started with a tiny lead, and when the golem passed her, she tripped him. As Kaytsak reached her, he was prepared and retaliated her interference. From this point, the race escalated. Around lap twenty, we agreed on a cease-fire because your mana got tight due to the healing I had to do. In lap fifty-one, Bliz broke the truce on accident, probably. Her shot missed the target and-"

"Enough! I'm very disappointed−err... −Okay, I'm very proud of you that you all have survived. I don't know what to say. Good, that you respected that leveling my skill in this special environment is more important than your feud. I wish for us to be one team. Therefore we have to know each other well, and we have to be sure that we can rely on each other. I don't know whether your behavior helped or damaged the goal. What do you think?"

-- Approval – (Kaytsak)

-- Excitement – (Bliz)

*Beep!* Aito stood up and displayed crossed swords on her skin.

"I didn't like it, Mylady. It felt wrong to me to spend your mana on healing these rascals."

The golem still felt like a potato-sack, so Flora didn't expect an answer.

"I take all of your opinions into consideration. For now, Kaytsak is the winner. Do you have any wishes for your reward?"

Flora received a vague picture of a sparkly gem, but couldn't identify it until Aito sent her a link. "A lightning core? Aidan, buy it. Kaytsak, I will summon you as soon as I have it."

When Flora left the dome, she still felt wary and tired because of the workload of the last few days, but the thought of the next test, Crafting Talent, invigorated her.

Dherya Kumar had worked for CentralTank for over a year as a Gamemaster, or GM. The conditions were pretty good: he received a steady salary and some in-game goodies for his private account. Additionally, he could use his state of the art VR-Pod for his personal gameplay as well.

Before CentralTank employed him, he had worked for another VR-gaming company as GM and was used to irritable customers. However, the number of non-players and DAUs(1) who had joined the Cetviwos was unprecedented.

The Administrator dealt with the true bugs, while the GMs dealt with customers who didn't want to deal with AIs or frankly just wanted attention. In rare cases, the Administrator assigned GMs to customers who didn't do anything illegal or had issues to solve but to shepherd them to use fewer resources.