While someone found themselves half dead from fate rebound, there was yet another person who was panicking over their system notifications.
"This can't be happening!" Histerically screamed the man in a single, luxurious and well furnished new york apartment, the dampening from the room he used to dive stopping his screams.
{....
You have forfeited your rights as a player. Elimination pending due to slave contract with player Aki. Temporary access to previous acount granted.
Due to this being one of few instances inside the system, alterations may be made along the way.}
"Calm down! Breath! Forget what you saw! It's already fading anyway!" He shout-wispered to himself. Opening one of his emergency cabinets on the way, he took the needle and injected himself with high grade tranquilizer.
Ferris was a coward, the kind that would crawl on shit and kiss the boots of whoever could down him. That attitude was exactly what allowed him to survive till now actually, to the point he had to drug himself so he would not break the building he lived at in a panic attack.
He was a ranker, no matter how weak his body was, he'd still be far from what a normal mortal could imagine possible.
Powering through his now addled mind, the older man looked through his notifications, instinctively trying to go and talk to the magistrate. When he tried to write the reply message however, extreme dread surrounded his body, cold sweat starting to drip to the ground as he just stood there for a minute straight. He could not betray his new owner or something even worse than breaching a contract would have him wishing for death, or so he gathered.
He had no contract however. He could lie to the magistrate all he wanted because the system had voided his previous existence in most of it's entirety. That ment that if his boss threw him out or died....
Ferris always had a way with words, getting into people's skin was one of the things he was best at, but his bootlicking was also just as famous, so there was nothing strange with his message when he requested extra security against the man that could somehow shut down a whole sector and almost murder someone before the system activated it's contingencies. A shame he could not remenber what'd caused the whole incident as he was too woried with the crazy guy pouncing on him really. He just knew it was terrifying.
At the same time though, he started to make a bucket list and trying to contact his boss.
*****
Going back home after he cleaned himself, with powerfull steam and dispersing the humidity through brute force so he'd leave no tracks containing so much of his blood and fluids, Aki ignored the two messages he received, imediatly saying they'd be talking later.
After this couple of weeks, despite his bet efforts to restrain himself and his family, the young man had learned all about the brands available on the nearby convinience stores, so he decided to buy a banquet to celebrate life.
Several tipes of sweet bread, stuffed buns, a few sandwiches, an armed robber hipnotized into giving up before he even took his gun out, some fish cuts, salad, a whole new mayonese container for his father...
Yeah, there was a lot of things he'd be doing for relaxation, but then he'd try to video call his mom before sleep and take a cat nap of 10 to 12 hours, maybe have his little siblings send kisses if he bribed them just right.
*****
Titania looked at the nonchalant reply and surmised that the attack had failed for one reason or another. More importantly however, she needed to find out what had caused the whole debacle closing down half a sector.
Aki had been rather unstable the last time she'd contacted him, and his companion had clearly gone on a rampage despite several reports of players downing her more than twice, but the fact that he was not dead was enough indication to show that he had no direct relation to the incident. The system might not care how much players killed each other, quickly filling the numbers again, but there were obvious rules to be followed, rules that could only be broken by people that were generally smart enough to figure out it's for the best to gang up on anyone stupid enough to try and break their current form of existing.
Maybe some crazy cultists desperate for power would play with void, some masters even dominating it with a hidden tecnique or the other, but Caos was not some that could be tolerated. Sure, you could imediatly reach the heights of a true god with it, but you'd literally be destroying everything on the reality around you by existing.
It'd been over a decade that someone had been bold enough to throw a bomber in the city, she'd only been a newbie back then, but she could still remenber the furious fights that came after. The deaths, the madness, the betrayal.
She'd grown strong from the two years of war, many had, it'd sprouted a whole new generation of powerhouses and refined those that did survive. Yet almost no one wanted to go back to those times.
Whoever had caused the whole thing would need to worry about more than the overseer's search.
The Fairy Queen stepped forward and entered the meeting room. Inside were many figures, all players. Some were famous figures that led whole guilds, others were recluses that could not be found unless one used divine level scrying. All blurry faces or masked. Those who had the 'face' to show their appearence like her were rare even though people of their level avoided combat while on earth.
No one spoke a word as she entered, though many eyes gathered on her figure. Ignoring any kind of pressure from the high rankers was rather easy at this point though, she'd been a junior builder for a while now, so whenever people needed more than the standard system security or wanted to avoid it, they'd call someone like her.
The system was already an existence far above her, so of course she could not simply create something of higher quality then it, at least until she reached rank X or the like, but ussing shards of divinity as components for a silencing formation, a fate weave that blocked any scrying not using the proper key and reinforcing the structure of the constructs allowing for the lobby's abilities with something were not so used to breaking was still within her abilities.
Half an hour of silence filled the room as she spent a fortune the normal players would not even dare dream about existing, nevermind using as consumables to have a quick reunion.
To be fair, she also thought it a waste, but money was something that her employer had in such an amount that he was unable to use effectively, sans beeing able to gather such items and throw them around like it was nothing.
She could only dread the fates of those that stood in his way in the days of old. Not even the two lords present spoke before she was done however.
"Finally. Builders these days just aren't the same as before." Muterred the Dark Lord, though all present could have heard him even if his voice wasn't so potent.
"Today is the present old friend, we need to deal with it. Now, i believe all know why they have been called here. A war will begin soon. Even i don't know the identity of our enemy, and it's been hard to tell wether this was simply an idiot that killed himself or the beggining of a series of attacks from another server. I think i speak for everyone when i say that we need to clean house one way or the other." Gracefully put the Golden Lord, his calm words showing a mountainous amount of kiling intent after reaching his last sentence.
*****
As Aki laid awake, pretending to be asleep despite the late hour, he forced his mind to turn towards the punishment dungeon. He knew exactly what it'd be. There were only so many ways to take his magic from him, and until now, he had more than enough knowledge to be sure that the system wouldn't simply be chaining him from any magic.
That would have no meaning to such when it could just put him somewhere with a great oportunity that held a similarly great danger.
Gazing into his soul, he noted the tired and unconcious face of a certain shade. There was no way He'd be allowed to summon her there, but he would still not be alone.