It was only an hour before Eli had received several ssages informing him that he’d been unbanned. A proper explanation ca from Tommy.
Mike had banned the group using vague clauses in the ‘suspicious activity’ section of the ToS, citing the conversation between Aegis and Rakkan involving his forr employee, Ryan. Tommy pushed back on it for its lack of substantive proof that it had anything to do with the ga or Averon directly, as VGN was not a protected entity under the ToS any more than the Fanta-See network.
Mike appealed to the shareholders on the importance of VGN in maintaining the ga's popularity and good image, but, in Tommy’s words, Andrew shit all over that argunt by bringing up Aegis’ new player acquisition rates. The shareholders agreed to unban and split leadership between Andrew and Mike for the ti being, which Andrew had told Tommy was the best outco they could hope for.
Eli had no desire to log back in, knowing his every action would be monitored. This guy was looking for a reason to ban him and his friends again, and he had no idea what would set it off.
Was it really worth risking it for my friends when I’m not even sure I should still play?
Instead, he panned his eyes over the heaps of untouched letters. Curiosity got the better of him, and he got up from the recliner, pulling a few random white envelopes from the top of the pile.
The first he’d opened was an actual letter, like an e-mail. It looked like it was written by a young kid, thanking him for being so cool. He sent a personalized reply to the ssage before folding it and setting it down.
The next opened to a video. It was a close-up of one of his figurines, partially in a woman's mouth with her tongue around it.
“Oooh, Aegis,” she moaned.
The cara zood out, panning down her body as the action figure moved. When it reached her breasts, Eli realized that office simulations had no profanity filters on by default. He could only assu where the action figure was going based on her seductively sliding it down her body, and frantically closed the envelope, tossing it as far away as possible.
“What the hell is wrong with people?” Eli gasped. He felt a wave of sympathy for Hae-won wash over him, and didn’t dare chance opening another one.
Eli logged out of the simulation and stepped out of his sim-box. The livestream on the television was playing ‘breaking news from Savringard’.
Liyla, guild leader of Sages of Destiny and current ruling mber of Savringard, ordered a seizure of the Skyport. Their guild, along with other VGN guilds and mbers, had ambushed and killed all gladiators arriving at the Skyport for the upcoming tournant, imprisoning them for ‘bullshit’ cris.
The broadcast was not of VGN, and did not hold back on obscenities towards them.
Eli hit his wrist implant to confirm that Derrick was out of the ga, then called him.
“Fuck these VGN assholes,” Derrick opened the call. “This whole ga is gone to shit because of them. Can’t do anything.”
“They got all of you guys?”
“Yeah. Caught us off guard from behind with a bunch of CC. Herilon, Miranda, Ren, and Sapphire. They’re looking to keep us locked up permanently. So other PvP teams as well, but Seraxus’ group got away. Now it’s only VGN teams participating in the tournant.”
“They’re locking up everyone who doesn’t go along with them. First Mikael, now PvPers?”
“Yeah. No one from Averon’s gonna step in either, with that dick that banned us in charge,” Derrick let out an elongated sigh.
Selena and Rakkan both rang Eli, and he added them to the call. Derrick gave them a repeated explanation of what had transpired.
“I’ve had enough. This ga ans a lot to many people. I’d like to stand up to these guys,” Renault said.
“ too,” Selena added.
Eli hesitated. “If I log in, they’ll monitor and look for a way to ban us again.”
“We know. It ain't your fight. Even Quinn was telling us to leave you out of it. You’ve got classes, right?”
“Yeah. We love the ga, we can fight as well as you can.” Selena chirped. “Maybe you could help us co up with a plan, though?”
“Yo, you better co up with a plan to get out of Prison. My character is way too badass to stay locked up.” Derrick exclaid.
Help them, without directly playing. That’d be fine, right?”
“Has anyone ever attempted a prison break raid before?” Eli asked.
“Attempted, yes. Succeeded? Nope. Especially not on a foreign island,” Selena said. She knew what she was doing. She knew exactly how to get Eli excited, and it worked like a charm. A big, dumb, devious grin grew across his face.
“It’ll have to be a small group to go unnoticed. Mike will see it coming, so keep the plan's details out of the ga world. Lina, Rakkan, Trexon, and Leonard. Think you can get them on board?”
“Should be easy enough. You think the plan can include breaking out the guys with Mikael? The Aegis coalition?”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Of course. If you’re gonna crash a party, might as well do it with a bang,” Eli rubbed his hands together.
Eli conducted a private office simulation, gathering as much information as possible on Savringard’s layout and the prison. He located an ideal direction to approach the island from, which wasn’t hard, given the improved maneuverability of Leonard’s new Airship model and his high-level pilot skill.
Trexon’s advanced Sage class allowed him to use his portals more liberally, so getting the people out would be easy; he’d only need Lina to get inside the prison with a new, portal rune marker on her, to get the portal to open wherever she was. It had limitations, but Eli took those into account when planning it.
He combed through footage of Savringard over the months, primarily of players who spent ti in the prisons, both as criminals and as visitors.
Selena sent her parents to scope the surrounding buildings, as they resided on Savringuard as level 110 players. Their information proved invaluable.
Derrick was given instructions to relay to the other prisoners inside the building, but only at specific tis of the operation. Eli knew that giving out orders or details too early might give away what they were up to, but Mikael, Herilon, and everyone else needed to know how to react to ensure everyone got out.
The ultimate goal was to get everyone out of their cells and onto Leonard’s airship, but Renault reminded Eli that a single airship would not be enough to hold all the coalition mbers.
It complicated things, but Eli set out to add a secondary component to the plan involving Renault assaulting the Skyport and hijacking rchant vessels, so that once the Coalition pilots were free, they could man them and fly them out.
Unlike before the Airship construction discovery, the Skyports of the major islands were packed tight with countless airships owned by the Kingdoms, and most were not too heavily guarded due to no one being stupid enough to go up against VGN.
Eli was going to take advantage of that with the plan.
It took an entire day, but Eli made sure every step was airtight, with margin for error and contingencies. He’d been so enthusiastic and focused that before he’d noticed it, it was morning and ti for his following classes.
The others thanked him for the plans and headed into the gaworld, while he logged out of the office simulation and prepped to head to campus.
He felt much better that morning when he arrived in class. He was sure the plan was foolproof, and once all of those players were free, they’d have a sizeable force to stand up to VGN with, and it’d all be untouchable by Mike because he wasn’t directly participating in it.
In the first class of the day, he sat in the open sim-box, with Ashley arriving beside him a few monts later, eying him up and down.
“You look a lot happier today. Did sothing happen?” She asked with a smile. He hadn’t realized it, but he’d been holding a smile himself, staring at nothing. His mind was imagining the frustrated reactions of Lilya and Feng when they’d realized what had happened, and he wasn’t sure why it filled him with so much joy.
Am I really that spiteful?
Ashley’s words knocked him out of it.
“Uh, yeah, I guess.” He turned to face her, recalling the fan mail she’d sent with her dad and friends. “I got your ssage. Thanks.”
Her face turned red, breaking eye contact. “No problem.” An awkward silence followed, broken only by the arrival of the professor and the start of class.
It zood by, and with a skip in his step, Eli headed back to his room afterwards. He knew it’d take a while for an Airship to get from Kalmoore to Savringard. The plan likely wouldn’t be underway until Friday, and it was still only Wednesday.
By the ti he’d gotten back in his room, his mind was on nothing but the plan he was not involved in, and it left him with an unscratchable itch. A whole lot of excitent and energy, and nowhere to put it. He had an overwhelming urge to punch hydras, but the ban concerned lingered.
He opened up a call with Tommy to confirm it’d be safe before logging in.
“As far as Averon Shareholders are concerned, you are untouchable. You are the golden goose. Andrew saw to it. Anything short of turning on your livestream, staring straight at the cara, and shouting ‘I hate Averon and I’m going to destroy this company’, and you’ll be fine. Even then, you might get away with it. Unlike when Nicholas ran the show, Andrew’s using the shareholders to keep Mike in line, and those guys only care about money. You print it for ‘em.”
Eli was still skeptical, but with nothing better to do with his idle hands, he logged into the ga world.
Aegis’s Avatar was where he’d left him, sitting around the moats outside the City of the White Tree.
He’d barely taken two steps before a voice called out to him.
“Ay, there he is, my favorite unbanned healer.”
Aegis spun his head to see [Erill - Level 194] sitting on the side of the walls of the city, his legs kicking back and forth, dangling over the lava moat.
“How’d you hear about that?”
Erill shrugged and hopped off, landing a few feet away. “Our networks got connections inside Averon. No cheating, just information gathering. We’re pretty locked in with what’s been going on; most dark network players are. So are even Shareholders.” He pointed at himself with his thumbs. “I participated in the vote to get you back in here.”
Aegis’s eyebrows furled for a minute, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. “What’re you doing here? I presu it’s not for the scenery.”
Erill chuckled. “Nope. We’re wondering if and when you’re going to do sothing about this growing…” He eyed the air around them, looking at no one in particular. “Problem.”
Aegis shook his head dismissively. “I’m a university student now.”
“Mhm.” Erill sighed. “So, nothing? If things stay as they are, this ga’ll be a bust. You know that, right?”
“Everyone keeps telling that, like I have so power to change it. I got the number one strear slot, sure, but I haven’t stread in months. I don’t have any pull with Averon or VGN. I’m just one guy.”
Erill nodded along. “Yeah, you’re right. It feels like an impossible task. But that's exactly why everyone’s telling it to you. You’re like the hard counter to the word impossible.”
“Why do you guys care anyway? If this ga fizzles out, you can move on to other gas, right?”
Erill paused for a mont, putting thought into his answer. “No one wants to admit it, but we all like it here. It’s the best ga we’ve played, truly imrsive, balanced, and protected against the typical pitfalls. It was, for lack of a better word, a perfect escape from reality. At least, until recent events. It sucks to see it go out like this.”
“Why don’t you guys stand up?”
“We’ve been trying. We’ve got mbers locked up, too. They know what we’re going to do before we do it, those VGN guys.” Erill tapped his dagger hilts on his belt. “Joltblade and Quiver are locked up in Savringuard along with those coalition guys. Cheryl’s in a Lanusk prison. Just and Finley left, and he’s got a huge bounty on his head.”
Aegis hadn’t realized it’d gotten that bad. Still, with what he knew about the prison break plan, Erill might be getting what he wanted already, without realizing it. He eyed Erill more closely, seeing the desperation in his eyes.
He hadn’t co with a direct request for Aegis; he ca looking for hope. It was pitiful, seeing this typically confident guy, whom he now knew to be unimaginably wealthy due to betting on the tournant match between him and Seraxus. The real issue was likely that, with his friends all locked up, he had no one to play with.
It was a hunch, but Aegis took a shot anyway.
“Wanna help kill so hydras? Great for skill experience, but I don’t do enough damage on my own to kill them, so my actual level is stuck at 155.”
Erill looked up, eyes wide with disbelief. “You want to grind mobs with ?”
Aegis shrugged.
“Hell yeah! I’m your biggest fan, after all!” Erill had sent the party invite faster than Aegis could.
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