Chapter: 7
Act 6: Unplug
"Daniel?!" Veronica screeched. Veronica seemed to be surprised to see Daniel in the dungeon. Why was he in the dungeon, anyway? Was he following Veronica? Hell, he could have been stalking her, even.
Elton was also confused but not for the same reason that Veronica was. It confused him who this mangled person was and how Veronica knew him.
"Who's Daniel?" Elton asked Veronica.
Veronica shot an icy glare at Elton.
"What!? Why are you looking at me like if I'm an idiot?" Elton asked.
"That's because you are an idiot!" Veronica barked.
"Yo, I'm Daniel" Daniel said while waving his bloody hand.
"Oh" Elton gasped.
"Sorry about that, my friend here Elton is a little slow sometimes, tee hee" Veronica said while twirling her hair. Elton frowned and crossed his arms.
"Friend? You two are friends?" Daniel asked the both of them. He seems to be surprised too but not for the same reason as Elton and Veronica obviously.
"Yeah... Why do you look so surpris-"
Veronica cut Elton off, "No were not actually, he's just some loser I found in the dungeon tee hee."
"Hey that's not how the story g- mmph hmph" Veronica slapped her hand over Elton's mouth. Daniel looked at Veronica very confused but shrugged it off.
"Oh, okay I guess that makes sense by the way you two interact with each other, I guess." Daniel said.
"Why were you in the dungeon, Daniel?" Veronica asked Daniel as he coughed up blood.
"Same as everyone else. Looking for some loot, exp, and hoping to get my level up." Daniel responded. Veronica frowned at Daniel.
"You know, it's dangerous to enter a dungeon alone," Veronica told Daniel.
"Yeah, I know I was hoping to find some powerful people while I was in there and get them to help me out but if that didn't workout I always have the plugin." Daniel said, grinning. Elton leaned into the conversation after hearing the word plugin.
*Cough Cough
"Here, take a max hp potion," Veronica offered as she opened the Developer item tab.
"No, it's okay, I have some already." Daniel said as he pulled up his own Developer item tab.
"Hey what is that Developer Items tab? It looks very useful. So useful in fact, it almost looks like its cheating or hacked even." Elton said while looking at their tabs.
"That's because they are a cheat!" Daniel said as he shot up after drinking the Max Health Potion.
"I can hook you up with one for the price of 30,000 coin!" Daniel said eagerly hoping that Elton would buy one. Elton frowned and looked down.
"No, I won't be needing one of those. I don't need to cheat for me to become the best player." Elton said.
"Here we go again," Veronica said while rolling her eyes.
"What?" Daniel asked Veronica. She got closer to Daniel and whispered in his ear.
"Oh, I see." Daniel gasped.
"Yes, I know it might sound like a pipe dream but It's true. I want to become the number one player even though I chose the Elf class. It might take me the rest of my life or I might die in the game while doing it but... But at least even tried." Elton looked up with tears in his eyes. He was crying!
"I don't know why I am getting so emotional over this but..." Elton Sniffled while wiping the tears away.
"I will not have help from allies or even friends who cheat!" Elton yelped. He pulled out his switch dagger and with a thrust he stabbed himself in the gut.
"ELTON! What are you doing!?" Veronica shouted, "Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"
Tears fell from Elton's face from the pain and sadness.
"Like I said I will not receive any help from a cheater or hacker! That potion you gave me was a hacked potion wasn't it?"
"Y-yes bu-" Elton cut off Veronica.
"Did you beat the Stone Talus with that cheat too?"
"Yes... Yes I did..." Veronica felt ashamed. Elton's health slowly dropped from 50 to 2 hp.
Elton felt shaky and dropped to his knees as blood and tears spewed from him. As Elton fully fell to the ground Veronica caught him and asked Daniel, "Do you have any normal Health Potions?"
"Do I?... I have millions! I mean I work at a potion shop so of course I'm going to have a bunch!" Daniel yelped while opening his inventory tab and scrolling through it.
Daniel tossed the potion to Veronica, she caught it, took off the cap and made Elton drink it.
"Don't worry, Elton, this one isn't hacked," Veronica said while gently cradling him. Elton tried to give a thumbs up but was too weak. Elton's health restored to 30 hp and his stab wound healed.
"Thanks" Elton said to Veronica.
Veronica ignored his response.
"Daniel, show me your headset," Veronica said.
"What why?" Daniel was caught off guard by the question. Why would she be asking such a random question? Daniel listened to her anyway and opened up the 3d hologram of his headset.
[Headset model 1x-360]
He had an older model than Veronica.
"The 1x-360, huh? Not the nicest but definitively not the worst." Veronica said. Veronica had heard on the news that people were so desperate to play Sword And Shield Online (S.S.O) and jump into the world Anoa that they made headsets out of spare junk straight out of their junk drawer and emulated S.S.O off some underground website. So yeah, Daniel's headset was definitely not the worst.
"Now what?" Daniel asked Veronica with his hands on his hips.
"You'll see" Veronica said.
She snatched the plugins out of the headset hologram.
"Hey!" Daniel shouted.
Veronica raised her arm in the air.
"Don't you dare do it!" Daniel shouted again.
Veronica thrusted her arm downwards and threw the microchips onto the ground.
Snap! Snap!
The microchips snapped into pieces.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Daniel's voice echoed through the forest. His face turned bright red in frustration, anger, sadness, and embarrassment.
"Why would you do that?! Those are valuable!" Daniel barked at Veronica while she took her plugins out.
"No, don't do it again!" Daniel bit his nails at the sight.
Snap! Snap!
Veronica looked up from the smashed microchips and at Daniel. He fell to his knees, trying to salvage the parts.
"No more cheating," Veronica said to Daniel. He looked up at Veronica with tears in his eyes.
"If Elton is serious enough about this dream to where he stabs himself. Then this is no joke and I should help him grow and become stronger alongside him." Veronica said as she opened a tab.
Bding!
A message balloon appeared in front of Elton and Daniel.
The message read: Join Veronica Straif's Guild!
"Lets all become allies and help each other become stronger players, especially Elton." Veronica said. Daniel and Elton both looked at her, then at each other, and nodded as they accepted the invite.
"Alright," Elton said while jumping up onto his feet.
"Lets get grinding!" Elton said while pumping his fist.