What am I doing to myself? He thought despondently, I’m too old to be drinking this much. I thought I’d lost the taste for this years ago. Inside, he knew why. His life had been turned upside down and this was how he had decided to cope.
Benjamin sighed, twitching his limbs to try and force them to wake up. Then, with what felt like a gargantuan effort, he stood. His stomach convulsed.
“Oh shit.” He muttered out loud and suddenly sprinted into his bathroom, just about managing to reach the toilet before spewing the mostly liquid contents of his gut into it.
What the fuck am I doing to myself? He thought again. Sure, you fucked up. You thought it would be a good idea to… To upload my dying niece into the game. What could go wrong? Now she’s… dead… Benjamin fought back a sob that turned into another retch. Dead… Yeah, poor little Ash is gone now. and the copy you made of her is in danger, maybe dead too for all you know. What are you going to do about that?
There’s not a lot I can do now. Not after that fiasco at the funeral. He sighed, slumping back against the wall of the bathroom, feeling his head spin from remnants of drunkenness and dehydration.
Benjamin’s problem was that he had run his mouth. He had told Ash’s parents what he had done, thinking they would be touched, or happy, or want to see Ash in-game or something. Instead, they had not taken the news well.
His sister, Sandra, was already upset with him for messing with her daughter on her deathbed. The fact that Ash had died within a day after him placing the headset on her likely didn’t help, though speaking to the doctors that morning, it didn’t seem like what he had done had hastened anything. It had been inevitable, but his grieving sister couldn’t see that.
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That being said, Ash barely waking and speaking little after the headset incident was another factor. Even though he doubted that was caused by the upload, Benjamin couldn’t be sure. Any kind of stress, especially from when Sandra had ripped it off of her… Well, he didn’t know. Perhaps he was responsible for robbing his sister of her last true words with her daughter.
That is why he had told her so soon. Too soon. For some stupid reason he had even decided to tell her at the funeral. Another idiotic decision! Benjamin cursed himself for the nth time. But, in the end, he had been so excited about making contact with in-game Ash that he couldn’t help but blurt it out.
It was enough to say that Sandra was not, in fact, pleased.
“A disgrace to her memory!” He remembered the words. Harsh, biting and fuelled with grief. That had also made a massive spectacle for everyone at the funeral.
And then of course it had gotten back to the company. That’s when things got extra real for him. He had been promptly pulled into a meeting. An extremely uncomfortable meeting where he had been thoroughly reprimanded and placed on indefinite suspension, effective immediately. Gross misuse of company trust and resources. Ethical concerns beyond his comprehension. He was surprised they didn’t just fire him on the spot.
He had lost his dev access, lost his over-levelled dev character. Lost any access to the game. Lost any chance of getting back to Novus 2 and finding Ash.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He did have the same access everyone else had to the game, or well, the slightly advanced access. He had snuck a few beta keys out, intending to share them with a friend or two. Another misuse of company trust right there! He thought wryly. Not that it matters much at this point... It would be like… like picking flowers from a man’s garden after you’d been caught sleeping with his wife! He chuckled at his weird analogy, then regretted it as his stomach convulsed once more.
After another bout of dry retching, he checked the date on his phone.
The 26th… so that means the beta should be live… Wait, no. it was scheduled for noon of the 25th wasn’t it? That means it has already been live for over 12 hours!
He stood unsteadily and ducked his head under the tap, guzzling down several gulps of fresh, cool, clean water, fighting to keep it settled in his abused stomach.
If he couldn’t locate Ash with help of his dev tools, then he would simply have to look for her the hard way.
After a few moments to make sure he wasn’t going to throw up again, he hurried out to his office ad pulled on his headset.
It was time to make a new character.
OP Regression ? LitRPG ? Urban Fantasy
Of course, I chose regression.
But I won’t be.
What to Expect:
- ?? Overpowered main character with a human heart
- ? Full regression with future knowledge
- ?? A hostile System and an unforgiving world
- ?? Dark progression fantasy with ruthless growth
- ?? Epic battles, betrayal, and real consequences