A few hours later, in the building next door, on the top floor of a comics publisher, Dmitry sat in a chair in front of a middle-aged man, massaging his temples while looking at him. "Dmitry, what am I going to do with you?"
"Let me get out of here and go home to sleep," Dmitry said, yawning.
The older man sighed as he stood up, wearing a dark blue suit with a black tie, and picked up a stack of documents with Dmitry's name on them, accusing him of using third-party software to execute the movements displayed in the Empire's competitions.
"I've said it before and proved it's a lie. You, of all people, would know that if I were cheating, I'd be banned from competitive gaming forever," Dmitry said, looking expressionlessly at the pile of papers. Seeing the old man's expression, he simply got up to leave the room.
"That's it. If you don't believe me, then this was the last tournament Dmitry Schariac, the professional Assassin-class player, voluntarily participated in before retiring from gaming," Dmitry calmly walked out of the room, tossing his credential behind him and heading towards the exit door.
"I'm sorry, Dmitry... If this continued, not only you, but the whole team would have had major problems," the old man thought.
The old man threw the stack of papers into a trash bin, then pulled out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and tossed it onto the papers, with the butt of his last cigarette falling onto them, setting them on fire. "Envy can be a monster, but whoever starts it has the power to even mess with the eSports system itself."
The next morning at Dmitry's apartment...
"Bro?!" A blonde-haired girl with messy blue streaks, wearing only a white shirt and gray shorts, was shouting with all her might, tears streaming down her face as she opened the door to his room.
"Evina? What is it?" Dmitry asked, his face sleepy.
"Brother... is it true you were expelled?" Evina asked, tears almost falling from her eyes.
"It's not like I wanted to leave on my own," Dmitry said, sitting on the bed.
"But... why? You love this job..." Evina said, her tears starting and not stopping as she sat beside him, hugging him, hands clasped together. "Who did this to you? I swear I'll make the person who did this pay for taking away my brother's only good thing."
Dmitry felt as if arrows were piercing him. "It hurts a bit to hear you say that."
Realizing what happened, Evina looked away, slowly letting go and running to the door, brushing her hand through her hair with a little laugh. "Well, come on, breakfast is ready... I did my best on it since... Hehehe, well, come on."
'You're going to pretend nothing happened, right?' Dmitry thought.
Dmitry got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. After changing, he put on a light blue shirt and black jeans.
'I have money saved up. If I don't spend it, it should last about seven years,' Dmitry thought.
Five years later, in an empty room, Dmitry entered accompanied by a group of deliverymen bringing in a huge machine that, when assembled, looked like a futuristic car. "It's time to work," Dmitry said, opening it and lying down inside. Gradually, his vision darkened, and when he saw the light again, he was on a huge mountain with a cherry tree thirty times larger than a real one. "Ah, so this is virtual reality. Let's test it."
'Who would have imagined that sending someone to college would cost so much...' Dmitry thought as he imagined his wallet shrinking.
"Items, profile, map, and settings," every time Dmitry spoke, a new window appeared containing the information he needed. "Voice command, okay."
Dmitry picked a flower from the item box, smelled it, picked up a piece of roast beef and ate it, and looked around at the landscape filled with various mountains with sakura-like trees in different colors, several cities with different buildings, and fantasy creatures.
"Environment, sensation recreation, and perfect movement," Dmitry said, picking up a sword from the item box and hitting a goblin that had jumped from the tree towards him.
"Time to test the battle system," Dmitry said, removing the sword from the goblin's head, with several other red-eyed ones appearing floating around the tree.
[First mission: kill the transparent goblins tormenting the Tree of Aphrodite]
Three months passed with Dmitry as a beta tester until one night,
The two siblings were in a room watching TV when an advertisement came on. "Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be a king? Well, this is your chance not only to be a king but to be a god. Grab the Altair Key and show that choosing to dominate a world wasn't a mistake, not just your world but all the other worlds. Welcome to Altair where you can be whatever you want."
Dmitry's sister pretended to be asleep with her head on his lap, quickly looked at Dmitry and saw his attention was drawn to the ad, smiling with ulterior motives.