Assassinate Wonderwind [Book 1 Completed!]

My old classmates had made fun of me on social media for being a millionaire who still lived in their parents’ attic.

What they didn’t understand was that living in your parents’ house was, by all objective metrics, overpowered. I didn’t need to deal with landlords or random bills I’d probably forget to pay, and I was only responsible for the care of my little corner of the house. The energy saved from not cleaning a whole apartment could instead be spent playing Wonderwind and hanging out with Veyra.

Admittedly, though, when the dark, barely cleaned attic loaded into vision, I felt a noticeable dip in my mood. Real life had taken a back seat in my priorities ever since I flew back home from Thailand last month. It turned out, I was much better at taking care of another person than I was myself.

I climbed out of the game pod, and just sat down on my bed amidst the sell of leftover plates and cup noodles I hadn’t yet cleaned out of the attic.

How can I work so hard and be so lazy at the same time?

I’d always been like this. Complaints from my parents didn’t help; as a kid, I only took proper care of myself when they threatened to take my VR headset away. Even then, I cleaned just enough that they weren’t upset, and the cycle repeated.

The only motivator that had worked so far was living with Veyra. If it was also her living space that I needed to take care of, the entire house would be spotless.

I sighed, knowing I’d need to do chores without her regardless. In preparation for that, I pulled out my phone for some healthy procrastination. Out of muscle memory, I pulled up Zenith Protocol’s livestream. Livestreams offered so much information that keeping up with them was always worth it.

The stream was titled, “Zenith Protocol Frontrun: GodWall getting one-shotted by space aliens.”

“This is honestly terrifying, guys,” GodWall was saying as he slashed at vines, cutting down foliage. He walked cautiously, like some explorer in a jungle documentary expecting to get attacked any second.

Zenith Protocol were in the same jungle on the fifth level, but they were further north. They weren’t necessarily ahead of us; they just controlled up the northern side while Veyra and I were south.

Well, controlled was a strong word. From their slow pace, Zenith Protocol clearly struggled as much as we did. They inched forward monster by monster, utilizing their full guild to carefully eradicate insects one at a time. Their attempt at visiting a mausoleum had gone very similarly to ours, with half a dozen members dying, and only recovering their gear pieces thanks to a heroic adventure back down from Creator.

I watched the livestream until GodWall came across a Shell Grub (Level 479). The creature was a shiny, overgrown larva with a black and purple carapace shell. It calmly ate flowers like a cow munching on grass. GodWall turned silent as the guild began preparing an ambush.

It was amusing to see how even the best guild in the game had to gang up with their best members just to fight a basic grub, as if it was a boss battle. In any other previous endgame areas, FireBrand would have cast a spell or two, and a similar monster would have died.

I guess Wind Virtual wouldn’t want the final area in Wonderwind to be cleared, just like that.

That was another surreal thought. Wonderwind was a game that, by design, relied a lot on a constant stream of new content. No other game company could keep up with the output of Wind Virtual. But with new content came power creep. Players kept growing in level, while more and more powerful weapons were added to the point that new players were having an increasingly difficult time to catch up. Many considered becoming pro a missed opportunity, only reserved for those that started the game early enough.

The community had joked about infinite power creep for a long time, wondering if the game would go on until the levels got into the thousands. For a while, it really seemed like there would never be an end to how far the game could evolve.

Yet, this was the limit. Wind Virtual had confirmed that Caverns Of Creation was the final expansion. The ultimate boss of Wonderwind would be somewhere here, within the fifth level. Whoever defeated it would receive a personal mystery gift from the developers and prestige that couldn’t be replicated.

Worlds 2027 would be the last time the tournament was held as well. If someone managed to defeat the final boss before then, there was a good chance their equipment would be boosted even further to win that as well.

I kept watching Zenith Protocol’s stream, but it didn’t seem like anything extraordinary was about to happen. They dealt with the Shell Grub slightly faster than Veyra and I did before moving on, just opening up the map.

Who’s actually ahead? I wondered. I wasn’t sure. To me, it looked like all of the top guilds were equally stuck, unable to clear toward the next step down: the mausoleums.

The monster level is just too much, I thought. The health pools of monsters were getting too large, and the damage from even the smallest bits of AoE were nonsensical, burning straight through tank players. I really couldn’t imagine a way for the community to progress.

For now, I was having fun playing with Veyra. That was really the most important thing in life. Money wasn’t an issue, and tickets to Worlds were secured, as every player in the top five hundred leaderboard received one.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The question was: what did we want from our lives? We weren’t having kids, obviously, but was our goal to become legends in Wonderwind as a duo for the final year, or did we want to start building something else together?

I leaned back, placing my phone down, bothered by the same thoughts. Maybe we could join a guild or start building our own? A few competent members to work with us could make all the difference.

Regardless of what we chose, I’d be spending my time with Veyra. Ideally, the rest of my life.

A smell of chicken flavoring from empty cup noodle boxes hit my nose as I stared at the trash I’d need to take out. A quiet anxiety welled in my stomach.

“I’ll be lucky if I live until forty.”

Veyra had said that five times now. Twice in Thailand, and thrice more as a joke after visiting her doctor. Her illness was easy to forget when I was with her, laughing and having fun. In more silent moments, alone, the thought kept bothering me like an annoying scent that never really went away.

She’s probably exaggerating, I thought. Veyra said her doctors are incompetent. If they couldn’t even explain or understand her illness, how could they say she’d die by forty?

I stood up to grab another trash bag to throw all the overflow into. I ate leftovers in the middle of the night, brushed my teeth, and tried my best to fall asleep.

***

Veyra woke up before her alarm.

Dim light from street lamps poked through the curtains. The apartment was dead silent with no loud phone calls coming from the lady living next door, and also no snoring right beside her.

She reached for her phone, having to slide to the corner of her bed to just barely grab it. The light made her squint. The clock was 5:29.

Goddammit. Not again…

For six nights now, she’d woken up early, struggling to fall back asleep. Her eyes felt exhausted, sensitive to the tiniest amount of light. Raising her head would probably make her dizzy. She felt like crap, yet the general feeling of tiredness wasn’t there, and she struggled to sleep. Closing her eyes didn’t help. Each time it happened, she’d lay in bed until her morning assistant’s arrival made her give the hope of sleeping a proper night, signaling the start of another day.

Paralysis and a vomiting disorder apparently weren't enough. Why not add insomnia to the mix?

She checked her phone’s notifications. They were empty. Aiden hadn’t sent anything tonight. No memes. Not even the dumb ones.

Well, he was tired. We did play for longer than usual…

He hadn’t asked to come back to Thailand either. He used to always pressure her to do stuff. Now, he gave her space.

He had to just be respecting her space, right? Surely, he didn’t suddenly stop liking her?

Then again, it would be normal for the honeymoon phase to be running out. No matter how head over heels he had been, those feelings wouldn’t last forever.

Still… He wouldn’t just randomly start distancing, right?

Veyra pushed herself around, pressing her face in her pillow and moaning at it in annoyance. I’m definitely not the mature one in this relationship, am I?

Sleeping had been so easy when he was with her. The few times she woke up in the middle of the night, she’d shaken him awake from his snoring and asked for water. Aiden delivered before snuggling closer in her bed that was way too small for two.

Goddammit, she was thirsty right now. She checked her water bottle, only to realize she forgot to fill it up again. Crawling to grab more would be too much of a pain…

She did have Aiden’s cat hoodie, though. One that he’d forgotten to pack with him. She buried her face in it, rolled around a little, then checked her texts again, finding that no messages had miraculously appeared.

Screw it, I’ll message him first.

She probably should have messaged him more often anyway. It was just hard to find a chance when he was always the one bombarding her with whatever his head found funny at that particular moment.

She scrolled through her saved memes, but none of them were fitting. That led her to the forums, where she scrolled in search of the perfect opener. Nothing worked. The Wonderwind community had really lost its creativity lately.

Until her eyes locked onto the picture of a little cat in a panda outfit, blushing, with the Witch Hat Of Annelith photoshopped on. Veyra’s old headpiece.

The caption read, “Dating in Wonderwind be like: [You have been timed out for 2:00 hours.] [Reason: Sexual Content].

Her stomach spun with butterflies as she downloaded it and sent it to Aiden.

With her chin on his hoodie, she stared at the message box, as if expecting him to miraculously spawn in. Nothing happened, and the hopeful emotions began to quiet down. He’d gone to sleep. Of course he wouldn’t just—

His icon became green, and he read the message.

Veyra flinched and tried to sit, forgetting her legs couldn’t move for a second. The text Assassin is typing… came.

He didn’t end up sending a text, but another meme. It had the picture of a cute bunny huddled up behind a shield and a sword with the caption: “This text has no hidden message, but look at this wholesome bunny with a sword.”

Veyra: “Omg you’re awake?”

Only then did she spot the secret message from the bold letters. She grinned, shaking her head. You're stupid, Aiden...

Assassin: “Yeah, it was kinda easier to sleep with you haha”

Assassin: “Did you make that meme btw? That’s your old hat :o”

Veyra: “No, it’s from the forums >.>”

That wasn’t the message she’d wanted to respond to, but her lone right hand was too slow send a message in between the two. He waited while she was typing, though, which let her spend time forming a message.

She wrote, “I’m cuddling with your hoodie right now,”but blushed and deleted it. Instead, she wrote,

Veyra: “You were right about offline dating being better D;”

Assassin: “I’m down to fly back there yeah.”

Yeah, do it right now, she thought, but hesitated. That wouldn’t be fair. She was just taking advantage of him as her assistant at this point.

Veyra: “What if I come to America?”

Assassin: “Oh hell yeah, you can come any time. I’m thinking of moving out. We could furnish a new apartment together if you want.”

Veyra: “:o”

Veyra: “So any date is fine?”

Assassin: “Ye, give me a few days though.”

She plumped her smiling face against his hoodie. When was the earliest she could get there? It would depend on whenever she’d have an assistant ready to fly with her. Preferably Aree, but anyone would work. The agency definitely wanted notice for these kinds of things, but maybe they’d be fine with it if Veyra paid extra.

She told him she’d get it sorted today, and that she’d try to get there this week. Then she giggled like an idiot and fell asleep with his hoodie as a blanket.

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