[Sorry I lied next chapter is 90% the VRMMO! You can skip this too.]
Receiving the hug from his daughter, Mr. Walton no longer cared what he just witnessed. Right now, Juliet could have murdered someone in front of him and he would not have bat an eye. A pleasant sense of tranquility washed over him as he continued to embrace his daughter. Juliet, was his only living blood relative and a living a symbol of Mr. Walton's love between him and his deceased wife. Juliet once brought him pain, but now every time he talk with or embraced Juliet, he could reminisce.
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Mr. Walton's thoughts drifted, not to when he first became a trillionaire or even when he succeeded in taking a major share in Pencent, shocking billions. It was when Mr. Walton did not have a care in the world. Mr. Walton had found the love of his life very early on, and his parents still controlled Marmart Inc. He had planned to live off his parents money, forsaking business and indulging himself in a life of pleasure with his future wife Aeris.
Aeris was nothing like most women Mr. Walton had known. All the women he had know growing up around him had been simply been vying for one of two things from Mr. Walton: connections through him to his family or a gold generating object. They saw him not as a person but as a walking talking King Midas, ready to generate them infinite mounds of gold. Reality had taught Mr. Walton very early on, to avoid women. So the chance meeting with Aeris, a women who could care less for luxury and did not know of him or his status, was a heaven blessed encounter.
Aeris had grown up very poor, selling flowers in the street to make a living, she met Mr. Walton outside of Trump hotel. The wary Mr. Walton thought the beautiful woman was a scammer and berated Aeris before she apologized to him and wasting his time. Realizing the woman was actually trying to sell the flowers she was trying to peddle, Mr. Walton embarrassingly bought the whole stock. As an apology he also tried to buy her diner and better clothing as he was somewhat interested in her story, but she refused. However, after much persistence, Aeris finally caved in and she allowed Mr. Walton to take her out to eat, at Wcdonalds. After a small squabble, Aeris only allowed Mr. Walton to pay for half the meal even though he had promised to pay in full. The total meal only cost $9.50 for each person, but even though the meal was very cheap, Mr. Walton could tell this price was a large expense for Aeris. During the date, Mr. Walton realized how beautiful and strong willed this woman was, and he fell for her at that moment.
Mr. Walton and Aeris dated for about three years, until he finally proposed. Aeris refused to waste Mr. Walton money, having a grand ceremony, as she was just happy to exchange vows with him. Mr. Walton also hated meticulously planning back then, so he readily agreed. Aeris never asked for gifts, as the thought of gifts had always troubled her. Mr. Walton's deep pockets could be wasting who knows how many thousands of dollars, if not more, on a single item for her. She liked the thought of her husband thinking of her when he was out and thus getting her a gift, but the gifts he gave were really too expensive. It really troubled Aeris, as she could not buy her husband a gift back if she received one. Aeris thought: 'To buy a gift, she would have to spend his money to do so. Wouldn't that negate the point of giving a gift?'
The only thing Aeris could do in return was sow her husband's suits that had been torn, but what billionaire (he is currently the son of billionaires at this point and not a trillionaire yet) would wear a repaired suit, by someone who wasn't even a seamstress. Truthfully though, Mr. Walton coveted his repaired suits, as he could feel the love his wife placed into the stitches. Mr. Walton seemly started to wear out his suits much more, it seemed to Aeris that it was almost as if he was intentionally messing them up. Aeris hapily repaired them regardless. Shorty after marriage, his wife quickly became pregnant after they stopped using condoms. Those first few months of marriage were the greatest time of Mr. Walton life.
'Sensing this, the ever cruel fate must have cursed him.' Mr. Walton reminisced.
His father, a former alcoholic who had been treated by the best doctors in the world for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (a form of liver cancer), suddenly died five months after his marriage to Aeris. The cell mutations in his liver, had slowly caused irrefutable repair to his body after his father had relapsed on alcohol. His mother, stricken with grief, turned to alcohol to dull the pain. Several days later, his mother had died from asphyxiation caused from choking on her own vomit while sedated with alcohol. Mr. Walton was never really close to his parents but he still felt a loss in their passing, that something was missing within him. Something that only made him feel complete when he was with his wife.
Forced to take up the business mantle, after his parents sudden passing, Mr. Walton poised to slowly trade his parents Malmart company through various trades and mergers. His wife gave birth on October 14th, 2017; while he had was still busy with the aftermath of taking over. Mr. Walton had wished he could have been with her while she gave birth, but at the time Mr. Walton thought he would probably have distracted her. He had also thought that he would be able to spend plenty of time with her once he had finished his current business. However that day, just months after his parent's passing, the most unfathomable thing happened. His wife had died after giving birth.
Not believing such an incident could be even remotely possible, Mr. Walton continued to deny it until he say his wife's body, several hours later.
'His parent fate, although tragic, were a direct cause of their own actions, but what could his beloved wife have done to deserve such a fate? No one would punish such a righteous woman!'
The morality rate of giving birth had steadily increased in the United States since 1987 to the present. A country that was supposed to be at the cutting edge of medicine, had a morality rate of one point eight percent when women gave birth. Meaning one out of every hundred people would die attempting to give birth in the United States. How could such an unlikely tragedy occur for Aeris?
'I had made sure she had some of the best doctors in the state with her. It was impossible.'
Anger slowly welled up in Mr Walton's heart, the most pure and precious person in the world had died. He had to do something, anything! 'Why had he decided to attend to the business when his love needed him the most?' That day he secretly hired men to kill the to supposed "best doctors in the state." Over the course of a week he bought the hospital that failed to treat its most precious patient, moved its doctors and its patients, and he torn it down piece by piece. His anger slowly subsided but a new emptiness made its way into his heart.
'What point was there to live if there was no meaning in it?' Mr. Walton already had a seemingly endless amount of money, the thing most people chase in life, but what good would money do for him? He couldn't bring back Aeris, he couldn't bring back his family, and he couldn't bring back his past. As a child Mr. Walton had dreamed of two things.
One was to marry the love of his life and have a family, it was a pretty ordinary dream but he originally thought if it as the more improbable dream. He had wanted to raise a family because although he wasn't abused as a child, his father and mother were very distant. He wanted to have a loving partner would would shower endless love on their kids, he would be there with her and give his kids the love they deserved. Now it would be impossible. He had no wife and no kids, Mr. Walton had thought at the time. Mr. Walton finally returned home, he had spend his energy this past week insuring the destruction of the hospital and the two doctors, so he was tired.
That night Mr. Walton had tossed and turned, thinking of the best way to end himself. However that thought had changed when he awoke. The next morning his old caretaker, Will, had come to him with a surprise. Mr. Walton had been solely focused on his wife's death, that he had never truly listened to the whole story. His beloved wife had died giving birth, but she had still successfully delivered her child.
The couple had done an ultra sound a few months before the birth, so Mr. Walton knew the gender of this child but Aeris did not. Aeris had wanted it to be a surprise for herself, when she held her newborn in her arms. Regardless, the two had tried to decide on a name for both genders. Mr. Walton had wanted Finn if it was a boy and Rei if it was a girl. His wife had wanted Romeo if it was a boy and Juliet if it was a girl. In all honesty Mr. Walton knew it would be a girl, so he had thought calling a girl Juliet in 2017 was archaic. Mr. Walton had done his best to convince his wife to change the name but she did what she always did and stuck to her choice. Now that the baby was in his arms he could not see her as as anyone other than his Juliet. Abandoning his child now, she would grow up without either parent and would most likely be used by others to inherit her fortune.
Mr. Walton grit his teeth and decided the best course of action would be to live a long life, so his daughter would never feel the burdens of the world.
'He would try to outlive her, so she would never worry about running the family company or ever see him die.'
Mr. Walton set his mind on his work, to forget his losses and to live for his daughter. Thinking back to his childhood, Will would be a much better parent than he would be be with out Aeris. He had dreamed of raising a child but now that he had one, he doubted himself too much to follow through without Aeris. His parents were never there for his so he honestly didn't have much knowledge on parenting. Will had taught him a few bad habits, like swearing, but Will had also kept him in line and kept him safe from the people who had tried use him. Right know Juliet was his reason for living but she also was too much of a reminder of Aeris. Maybe in a few years he could look at her directly and embrace her.
Juliet would never be told of how her mother died, she would most likely blame herself. He would tell her she died at the hands of a killer. It was not Juliet but fate who took both his parents and Aeris away. With his mind made up Mr. Walton set his sights on two new goals. He would outlive Juliet and he would focus on his other more trivial childhood dream, VR. As a child born in 1996, a millennial who had almost endless time on his hand, he grew up in the age where content was readily made available on sites like Retflix and Bulu. Once such show had caught his attention, it was called SAO. Although the writing was not the best, the premise had really stood out to the sixteen year old him.
A Virtual reality, where you could live and fight monsters in a RPG setting. It was governed by an AI that stopped others from exploiting spawns and allowed for dynamic game play like giving the best of the best unique skills, abilities, and even allowed enemy AI to learn how you fight. What really had stood out to him was the massive multiplayer premise and people living with NPC's that could interact with the players. It was was basically a whole new world.
At the time of the show airing, experts examined the possibility of a VRMMORPG being created and estimated it would be at least a trillion if not more for the very basic setup. It would be impossible for any one person to fund such a venture. The richest people, even if they sold all their assets would barely scrape a few billion together. To make a good AI and VRMMO it would most likely cost much more, and very few would be willing to fund such a risky venture. He would have to become not only the richest person alive, he would have to be an evil who exploited the masses. Treating lives like cabbage, bribing politicians, stagnating wages, controling the media, corporate espionage to acquire more wealth, and monopolize the market would no doubt be commonplace for him.
He probably wouldn't even be able to play such a game, as it would require massive amounts of time, but as it was one of his new goals he would not shirk from such a thought. He welcomed such a laborious thought, as it would keep his mind from his wife. It would most likely take him a lifetime to accomplish if he was squeamish and maybe twenty years if he could find the right people and make the right corporate connections.
'Yes, these were the thoughts of the past! I had completely forgotten, I've really let myself go....'
*Cough* *Cough* Cough*
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'Her old man never came unannounced!'
As Juliet's thoughts raced on why her father would visit, she continued to hug her father. Her father had never said anything of her time of being a N.E.E.T. (Not in employment, education, or training) after she had finished her tutoring. The last time she had met her old man, Juliet honestly thought that her old man loved that she never left the house or went anywhere. It wasn't that she couldn't go anywhere, it was just that if she went anywhere it would be too much of a pain. She had the best food available here! If there was anything that Juliet wanted to eat she would simply ask the little fuck to have the chefs make it and she would get to eat it. Her room was probably the most comfortable place in the world, and she never had to interact with other people.
Although she could go out and meet people, she was always afraid of what people might think of her. After all, she had seen online how shitty people were and she honestly didn't know how to interact with them. Her tutors, had seen her as a very lucrative pain, and never really tried to befriend her. The tutors came and taught her at night like the little fuck wanted and did not yell at her when she did things wrong, but they most certainly did not give her much positive reinforcement. The only one who treated her well was Gramps Will, and the little shit was someone she begrudgingly depended on now that Gramps Will was retired.
Her mind couldn't come up with any reason why he would come to see her today. It was November 10th, 2035. Her old man had already seen her on her 18th birthday, last month, so she usually would not see him till after New Years. Pre-Christmas and New years was a busy time for the business world, Juliet knew coming mid October was a big burden on old man. Although the media had called her father a monster, and she never really cared. He was busy but he would always try and make the most out of his trips. She could tell he generally loved her and never forced her to do anything.
They had been hugging for about thirty seconds. Juliet gently moved away from her old man and looked at him. He was more plump than before, his golden hair was well groomed but seemed somewhat more disheveled than Juliet's bead head, and dark lines under his eyes could clearly be seen. Her old man had always promised he would outlive her, but looking at his current state it looked like he was wearing himself out too much. Her old man had a strong aura about him, but looking at him it seemed more like a gentle tiger than a raging demon that the little fuck always describes.
'What is my old man thinking?' Juliet still observing her old man, who was lost in thought. Gramps Will let out a large cough and it finally seems like my father woke up from his dream.