‘Wait, wait, wait, what…?’
If I was sleepy before, that was no longer the case now. Staring at the notification that flashed on my phone, I felt my expression change.
I proceeded to read the message again before hastily moving towards the Dock app and logging in.
———
[Error!]
Your account has been suspended on suspicion of botting.We will reach out to you later. Please have some patience.
———
Patience?
Patience my fucking ass!
I almost wanted to throw my phone out of the window of the car. My inner coward prevented me from doing so.
The phone was expensive, and I was in the car of a police officer, so…
‘No, that aside… This is really bad.’
I had a time limit for my mission. It was about one week.
Failing resulted in the shop’s closure. I couldn’t afford to have that happen. The shop was extremely vital for my survival.
It was the only place where I could buy the pills for my disease.
If that closed, then I was as good as dead.
“Ukh.”
I ruffled my hair as I stared at the app in front of me. I quickly sent a message telling them that this wasn’t some weird botting incident and that I was innocent.. After I was done, I sent another one. And then another one.
I just had to make sure they got my point across.
I only stopped when I felt anymore would piss them off. The only thing I could do after that was hope that they’d unban me before it was too late.
Otherwise, I really was done for…
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even notice the scenery around me change, and before I knew it, the car came to a sudden stop.
“We’re here.”
“Hm?”
I looked up to see the Senior Officer looking at me from the front car seat. He had a worried expression on his face.
“Is everything alright?”
“…Yes, everything is alright.”
Drawing a deep breath, I forced a smile before taking my stuff and getting out of the car. I had done all I could. All I had to do now was wait for the result.
Coming out of the car and feeling the cool breeze, I stared at the tall structure in the distance. It stood out quite a bit amidst the other tall buildings around.
The Senior Officer was also looking the same way.
“I was originally worried about your safety, but knowing that you’re with them, I don’t have to worry too much.”
As the Senior Officer spoke, he rolled the window back up.
“I’ll contact you if anything comes up in the investigation. Have some rest for now. You’ve earned it.”
“Thank you…”
The Senior Officer drove off shortly after that.
Standing dumbly in the middle of the sidewalk, I eventually closed my eyes and walked back towards the Guild.
This was a decision I came to regret shortly after.
***
A few moments prior, Starlight Guild.
Clank—!
A white door creaked open, and a group stepped out into the hallway. At the front were Kyle and Zoey, their faces slick with sweat, like they’d just wrapped up an intense workout.
But they weren’t the ones to worry about.
Behind them, the others emerged, pale, trembling, their lips quivering as if the air itself was too much to bear.
They looked shell-shocked.
Only Myles seemed to be holding it together better than the rest, but even he had that distant, unfocused look in his eyes.
Kyle and Zoey eventually stopped, looking back to see how the new recruits were doing. A look of pity flashed across Zoey’s face when she saw the state they were in.
“Well, I can’t say that you guys did badly. In fact, it was quite good. You only died about five times. That’s above average, I would say?”
She looked at Kyle, who shrugged while mumbling, ‘I didn’t die when I did it so…’
Zoey bit her lip.
‘Shit me too…’
“Keum.”
She covered her mouth and coughed.
“Whatever the case is, you guys have a promising future!”
“Uekh!”
“…Ku!”
Being reminded of the trauma that they had just experienced, several of the members moved towards the nearby wall and started to lurch as they held onto their stomachs.
This was more or less the reaction Zoey expected to see.
The gate they had just entered was an infamous rank anomalous looping gate. Death was common in such a gate, and it was common to have the new hires to have their first gate experience in such a gate.
This was so that they could get used to the thought of dying.
It was only when an agent could think clearly and assess situations while under extreme danger and fear that they were considered ready for higher-ranking gates. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an easy skill to master, with only a rare few truly capable of it.
Zoey and Kyle were prime examples.
…But even they weren’t perfect.
“Have some rest. Get everything out of your system. Once you’re done, you can go back home and do whatever you want. You don’t have to come to work tomorrow or the day after. Take a day off or two to relax your minds.”
In order to reduce the risk of PTSD, giving the new hires a few days off to process the events was necessary.
Once she was done checking up on the new recruits, Zoey led them all back to the field agent area, where she saw the other groups slowly entering, their situation somewhat similar.
This was a common sight during recruitment season.
‘Oh, right…’
She was about to head back to her dorm when all of a sudden, she recalled something and pulled out her phone.
‘…I wonder how that went. I bet he’s pissed his pants.’
Zoey suddenly snickered while thinking about seeing that guy jump up in fear. Jamie was quite reliable when it came to scaring people.
“What are you doing? Are you going to check the stream?”
As if seeing right through her actions, Kyle sighed while walking next to her, leaning his head to check the stream.
Myles also moved closer.
They were all somewhat curious to see the continuation of the stream from before.
She was expecting something hilarious.
Instead… her smile vanished.
Her eyes widened.
So did Kyle’s.
Myles took a sharp breath.
And then—
“What the fuck?”
Zoey cursed, closing the stream and opening it again. She probably clicked on the wrong stream. It had to be.
It…
“It really is the same stream!”
Her eyes widened in shock as she pulled up the stream to see the endless number of comments.
—This is not real.
—This has to be fake! I refuse to believe this!
—….Does anyone have a short clip of what happened? I really want to see the stream, but I don’t have time.
But that wasn’t the only thing that left her shocked.
No, it was the number of viewers who were currently watching. It was over thirty thousand! And that was in spite of the stream having already finished.
“What in the world happened?”
Zoey wasn’t the only one confused.
Kyle was also confused as he leaned closer to stare at the phone.
“Hey, move your head back a little.”
But he was quickly pushed away by Zoey, who scrolled through the phone before finally finding something.
“Here, I’ve got it!”
It was a short highlight video of what had happened.
She pressed it, and the video began to play.
But a minute into the video, the faces of each and every one present changed as they looked at each other before settling their gaze back over to the video.
What sort of psychopath…