Free Web NovelChapter 1: See you on the other side
--Chapter 1--
The Devourer of Tales had eleven million player kills to its name. A creature with six arms and three distinct faces, smeared over a voice that made headphones beg for mercy.
But Hunter X killed it in eleven seconds. Just like that. The big bad. A creature so old, the developers told it over and over again.
Wiped in eleven seconds.
The screen faded to black in the next moments as Xavier leaned back slowly.
His ears still rang from the Devourer’s final scream. Somewhere beneath that, he caught the smell of cheap coffee and overheated wiring.
This was home.
There was no celebration. No clipped highlights worth going crazy about. He just noted the time...eleven seconds, two slower than his last playthrough.
He would have to re-check his builds.
After all the dramatic displays on the HUD, the finishing credits finally rolled in.
**
[PLAYTHROUGH COMPLETE]
[Deaths: 0]
[Hidden Quests Completed: 1047/1047]
[Player Hunter X, this is your third completion of Arillion Online.]
[You are the only player to have achieved this feat.]
The screen went blank and after a bright glitch that forced Xavier to shut his eyes slightly.
[Third Completion Reward: Pending]
[A Mythic-grade gift awaits you at the Reawakening.]
[Nature of gift: One of a kind.]
Reawakening?. That word didn’t belong to any expansion or patch note he’d memorized before.
’Probably a teaser for the VR edition.’ he concluded. After all, the developers had announced the awarding of special gifts to the first one million players to log into the new VRMMO version when it launched.
"Marco... Camera." Xavier said with a cracked voice as he stood up.
"Every time, man." The voice came from somewhere behind three monitors, followed by the sound of a chair rolling across hardwood.
Marco appeared in the doorway...black curly hair, round face, with an expression of theatrical suffering.
With two cups of coffee in hand. He continued, "I do the editing, the scheduling, the thumbnails, the community management--"
"--And the camera," Xavier cut in.
"You could help a brother out."
"Can’t you see he’s busy?" Grace’s voice, laced with the same dry energy as Xavier, came from across the room.
Marco raised both hands in surrender. "Okay. Okay. Grumpies." He glared at them one final time, before stomping toward the camera setup with exaggerated dignity.
With a deadpan expression, Xavier stretched.
Xavier Hunt!
That was his legal name but to sixty million subscribers, he was Hunter X.
The greatest player to ever touch Arillion online but right now, Xavier stood beside his sister with a pink comb in hand.
Grace Hunt was twenty-three, spotting the same dark sharp eyes like her brother’s.
She sat in a specialized wheelchair that had cost two months of streaming revenue.
And wore one of the over-sized hoodies, she’d claimed from his wardrobe and obviously never returned.
A small smile played at her lips as she watched Marco’s retreat. His plight was, apparently, hilarious.
Xavier ran the comb through her hair.
This was their ritual. Before every stream, every event, every milestone in the six years since the crash. He brushed her thick black hair in slow, even strokes.
And braided the sections because she couldn’t do it herself. Her body, from the neck down, simply didn’t answer her anymore, but her eyes still rolled, her laugh still filled a room, and her voice still had the power to cut through his numbness like nothing else in the world.
"He’s going to complain about this all week," she said.
"He complains about everything all week."
"Because you make him do everything."
"I pay him to do everything."
"That’s not the same thing." She tilted her head just enough to glance up at him.
"Yes it is... And why are you defending him?"
Grace’s cheeks flushed as she laughed to cover it. Xavier smiled despite himself. Hearing her laugh always shook off the fatigue from his bones.
He finished the last braid, leaned down, and kissed her forehead. She made a small noise of protest. He ignored it.
He joined Marco at the camera setup. The angle was perfect, his chair centered, the wall of gaming accolades behind it catching the light.
"You ready?" he asked Grace.
She looked at the camera, then at the VR pods that had taken two weeks to install. "I’ve been ready. You’re the one who took forever with the braid."
"It was four minutes."
"Four never-ending minutes," Marco muttered from the side.
Xavier shot him a death glance. And Marco looked away immediately and became deeply interested in adjusting a camera lens that was already perfectly adjusted.
"Hahaha," Grace laughed again, then caught her brother’s eye and mouthed silently: "Thank you."
Xavier didn’t say anything, he just smiled and then moved in front of the camera.
The shift was subtle... his posture straightening, eyes sharpening, the tired older brother stepping back as Hunter X stepped forward.
"Hello, everyone." He spread his arms. "It’s your boy Hunter X. Yes, I know the game must have announced that I did it again. I wanna see your reactions in the chat and you all can look forward to the final showdown upload on my channels."
The viewer count was already exploding. A hundred thousand. Two hundred. And climbing...
"For anyone living under a rock: first, I’m Hunter X." He crossed two fingers into an X. "Second...welcome to the stream. And you are in luck tonight."
He stepped aside, revealing Grace.
"Because today is Gracie’s debut."
The chats were already going crazy...
[Platinum] V: Get her off my screen. I’m only here for you.
[Gold] CrimsonKing: WAIT. That’s your sister?! Thought you were a solo act!
[Silver] Pixel ruler: She’s adorable. Protect her at all costs.
[Gold] LilaStar: Hunter X finally proving he interacts with humans offline. I love it 😍
***
Xavier moved back into frame, a grin breaking through his usual deadpan expression.
"As you all know, Arillion Online’s VR edition launches in a few minutes. No controllers. No keyboards. Just you and the world of Arillion. If you’re excited..let me see it in the chats, y’all..."
The launch timers read ten more minutes.
He crossed over to Grace’s pod while the camera followed. He lifted her from the chair with a peculiar ease and settled her into the neural cradle.
"You know the first thing I’ll do when I get in?" Grace whispered.
Xavier adjusted the headset over her ears. "Cause chaos?"
She gently shook her head.
He paused. And pretended to think about it. Though he was fairly certain what the answer was.
Grace smiled softly.
"Run."
Xavier exhaled slowly, he couldn’t help but smile. "Then you’ll have grass. I promise you." He squeezed her hand once. She couldn’t feel it. But she smiled anyway.
Marco made the final adjustments on the leads, connecting electrodes to her temples, her wrists, the base of her skull.
Grace lay still, her eyes fixed on the canopy above her. Six years, and this machine was going to give her hands and legs back.
"See you on the other side," she whispered.
"Together," Xavier said.
The pod hummed to life. The translucent canopy descended, and Grace’s eyes fluttered closed.
Xavier didn’t move.
He stood there, arms crossed, watching the vitals monitor. Her heart rate steady. The neural sync was green. The soft glow of the immersion sequence playing across her face.
Marco appeared at his elbow. "She’s in. Feed’s live."
"Good."
"You, uh... you’re not getting in your own pod?"
"In a minute."
He quickly turned to the camera again. A broad smile on his face.
"Alright, chat. She’s in. Gracie’s officially live." He paused, letting the viewer count climb higher.
"--And because tonight is special, the first fifty people who gift her stream get a hand-picked piece of equipment from my legendary stash. Not the leftovers. The good stuff," he nodded in style.
**
[System] RiftWalker99 gifted 10 Mana Crystals to Grace_Hunt! "First!!"
[System] CrimsonKing gifted 50 Dragon Scales to Grace_Hunt! "For the newbie!"
[System] Pixel ruler67 gifted 100 Starlight Coins to Grace_Hunt! "RUN, GRACE!!"
[System] LilaStar gifted 200 Eclipse Tokens to Grace_Hunt! "See you on the inside. 😉"
[Platinum] V: She’s in. Why aren’t you?
**
Xavier’s eyes caught the platinum badge. V. As familiar as his own reflection.
Then a private message pinged in his peripheral vision.
[Platinum - V:] "Congratulations. But you have made a huge mistake."
Xavier’s eyes narrowed.
–End of Chapter–
