[Vol. 2 pt. 37]

Ace_Arriande

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Taming a wolf for my dungeon was nothing special. In fact, it was an extremely easy task. Possibly the easiest task I had in a long while.

Still in the starting zone, all I had to do was head over to the forest where I knew some low-level wolves were. They were part of a few beginner quests related to protecting farms’ livestock from them. The quest givers said that the wolves were increasing their population too quickly for their own good which led to over-hunting in the forest and turning their maws toward the farms. I always figured they set it up that way to make players feel a bit less guilty about killing such lifelike recreations of wolves. After all, who could ever want to hurt a wolf or anything else canine?

Even I felt horrible about having to kill them for early quests. However, I was more excited about getting stronger and fucking everything and anything. My excitement to fuck carried me through the quests.

Fortunately, there would be no killing of wolves to fulfill my goal. In fact, after switching over to my taming class, I was still so over-leveled for the zone that I could walk right up next to the wolves without grabbing their aggro. I was even able to pet them and touch their ears! They had zero reaction to that, though, which was kind of disappointing. They simply continued going through their idle animations until attacked.

So, I was able to pet them as much as I wanted to, but they weren’t able to reciprocate any sort of affection. What was the point in that case?

At least they would change after taming a wolf. Tamed pets had no problem showing affection toward their masters. Even the more grotesque and monstrous variants of pets had animations to display affection. Giant bugs, dinosaurs, wolves, wisps, slimes, metal cubes—all of them had their own ways of expression affection. The ones who weren’t illegal to fuck could also, obviously, all have sex with whoever owned them.

I just had to hope that they retained their affectionate animations after being converted into dungeon summons. They probably did, but I wasn’t sure. All I did was fuck a couple of my dungeon’s monsters instead of ever trying to pet them or cuddle with them.

I needed to try that out.

But first, I needed to tame a wolf.

The task of taming a wolf was as simple as using the skill on it. I went up to the nearest wolf after petting nearly every single one within my sight, using the skill, and tamed it without any issues. I didn’t need to try and lower its health or tempt it with treats or anything. The sheer level difference between us made it an instant success regardless of all other conditions.

Being over-leveled was always nice.

Once the wolf was tamed, I chose to convert it into a dungeon monster so that I could summon as many wolves as I wanted once I made it back to the dungeon. That was exactly what I was going to do next, too. There was nothing else I needed to do, so it was time to summon an army of fluffy wolves I could cuddle with and pet whenever I wanted to!

But a certain somebody popped up in front of me before I could head back to the dungeon.

A certain somebody who was tiny enough to sit on top of the flowering bush without falling through it.

“Hey,” Syl said.

The day was going so good, too. “What do you want?” I asked her.

“I deserve that sort of response.”

“That doesn’t answer the question. If you can’t tell me what you want, I’m leaving.”

“Ha-hang on. Just… just give me a moment, alright?”

There was something different about her. She seemed so smug and confident before, but now? Now, she just sounded… defeated. Or maybe not defeated, but nervous.

Syl took a deep breath, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “I’m sorry.”

Of everything she could have said, I wasn’t expecting to hear her say that. “For?” I had an idea what she was sorry for, but I wanted to hear her admit it herself.

“For being,” she paused and sighed, “a bitch.”

“I have to admit, I really wasn’t expecting to hear anything like this from you. Did something happen?” I wasn’t sure whether I could believe her or not. She came out of nowhere and apologized. Not even to Akorya, who she really needed to apologize to, but to me.

Another sigh left Syl’s lips. “I got in trouble. Honestly, I’m not even supposed to be here talking to you. I might lose my job because of this since my boss said I’m absolutely not allowed to contact any of you again. But… it felt like the right thing to do, plus I’m being watched right now to make sure I don’t misbehave.”

“Watched by who?”

“A coworker of mine. He’s the one who reported me, and he wants to make sure I’ve actually changed.”

“Sounds like a lot happened since I last saw you. So, what inspired you to supposedly change?”

“Supposedly? I… I guess it’d be pretty easy to doubt me. Alright. If I tell you, and you believe me… could you maybe set something up so that I can apologize to Akorya? I feel like it’d be wrong to show up to her without any warning, but if it’s through you… maybe I’ll be able to apologize.”

I still had my doubts, but I nodded. “Alright. What happened?”

“So, you see, I have a coworker at the company who we’ll call… Dev. I guess that uh… I was huge jerk to him. I won’t go into too much detail, but—well, how do I say this without sounding upset by him? I guess… I was rude enough to him, and others, that he gathered evidence of my behavior to take to our boss. Included was me threatening you in-game on a staff account to show that I posed a risk to our credibility as impartial moderators and developers. I honestly thought I was going to get fired. I had to listen to a huge rant about my behavior, how unprofessional it was, and all that. Our boss honestly had every single right to fire me and told me that Dev could even file a lawsuit against me with the company’s backing if he wanted to for harassment. But… Dev said he didn’t want revenge, he just wanted things to change. He didn’t even want me fired. He wanted me to go and get help instead. So, I’ve been taking anger management classes and have visited a therapist a few times over the past few weeks. It’s still all new to me, but my therapist wanted me to come and be honest with Akorya, so…”

I didn’t expect to hear all of that just as much as I didn’t expect Syl to show up in the first place. Instead, I expected to hear some obvious lie to try and justify getting close to us. What I ended up hearing, though, was actually believable. And if she really was going to therapy and taking anger management classes, then she might have seriously been on the path toward improving as a person. I was still suspicious for Akorya’s sake, but I remembered how genuinely hurt Syl looked when Akorya shot her down.

At first, I believed that Syl was only upset because she was lost power over somebody and it hurt her ego. I knew there was a chance that she might have actually cared for Akorya, but I didn’t want to entertain the thought given how toxic she was toward her.

The world would be a lot easier if things were more black and white.

But there was still a chance this was all a trick. I was already helping Akorya with her past bully, so I didn’t want to potentially bring another one back into her life. “How do I know you’re not lying? For all I know, everything you just said could be a lie. You might not actually be getting watched right now and you might just be trying to get close to Akorya again to hurt her.”

Syl lowered her eyes and slouched her shoulders. “It stings to hear that, but I guess I can’t really blame you for wanting to be safe. Just goes to show that you’re a better friend to her than I ever was. Maybe if I treated her more like you do… we could have been better friends. I wonder if she would have smiled around me more often. Anyways, Dev, you want to say something?”

>[System]: She’s telling the truth. I learned who you are, so you are welcome to record this and upload it if it turns out to be a lie. It would look pretty bad for us to use the system to send you a message trying to trick you into enabling bullying.

The message in my chat log even had that purple color which only ever showed when a message was sent from the legitimate system. Somebody in the real world with administrative access to the game’s system had to send that message.

If I still wanted to doubt them, then it would be impossible for them to ever convince me otherwise.

“And if it turns out that she’s lying to both of us?” I asked.

>[System]: Then she’ll have proved that she has no interest in changing, our boss will immediately fire her, and I’ll take up the offer to file a harassment lawsuit against her.

Back in the day, being sued for harassment or discrimination was never too big a deal and usually only reserved for corporations. Ever since the country decided to get its shit together, though, there was a massive overhaul and modernization of the legal system that truly put the individual’s rights and protections above all others.

In other words, targeted bullying became literally illegal. Among adults, anyway. Programs were set up for the youth to improve their behavior if they were ever caught doing it, so it wasn’t like every teenage bully was getting sent to rehabilitation centers or anything.

The only real issue was when it came to the internet. Unless there was proof of repeated, targeted harassment toward a single person, bullying was typically looked over. Not to mention that it would be impossible to go after every single virtual bully considering just how many of them there were seeing as how getting away with it in reality became next to impossible. There was also the fact that nothing could be done if the bully was from a different country than the victim. That was why I never even considered the option with the girl who basically sent her viewers after Akorya. That was only a one-time thing, and it wasn’t like one-time insults were enough to get in trouble over even if it inspired her viewers to all go after Akorya, too.

The internet made defining laws a lot more difficult considering just how many unique variables it introduced. That was why justice still needed to be personally delivered at times even if the system was overhauled to be far better than it used to be.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll take your word for it. If you’re still lying to me about all of this, then I don’t think there’d be any way for me to tell.”

“Good,” Syl said. “I can’t think of anything else I could try to convince you. Except sexual favors, but I doubt those would do much convincing.”

“Leave it to a staff member of this game to think that offering sexual favors to players is acceptable. Wait, is that even acceptable?”

>[System]: As long as it is does not unfairly benefit the player over other players, yes.

“Nice. Also, while I’ve got you both here, there’s something I’ve always been curious about. How many staff members actually play this game? And by play, I mean do what you all intended this game to be used for.”

>[System]: All of us. Going by the records, Syl isn’t even the first staff member you did anything with.

“Damn. I wonder who the first one was, not that I’m going to try asking for that information. Anyways, it’s good to know that every single one of you is just as degenerate as us playing the game.

“We wouldn’t work on it if we weren’t,” Syl said. “I remember back in the early development days. Almost half of the team quit over the fetishes we allowed since they weren’t comfortable with them.”

“But you’re not even breaking any laws with this game.”

“Prudes gonna prude. It’s safe to assume that every single staff member is comfortable with every possible in-game fetish at this point. If any of us have limits, they’re limits that aren’t even possible in-game in the first place.”

“Interesting. Well, that does it for my questions. There’s nothing else I can think of asking that either of you would be allowed to answer, probably. Thanks.”

I didn’t get a response from the system, but Syl shrugged her shoulders and said, “You’re welcome. So… do you have any idea when I might be able to meet Akorya?”

“We’re dealing with some other things right now, and you said yourself that you’ve only been going to classes and therapy for a few weeks, so I think it might be best to wait at least another few weeks. Unless your therapist really recommends it as soon as possible.”

Syl shook her head. “She doesn’t. She wants me to do it, but she didn’t say when. Just… whenever I feel ready.”

“Then let’s wait. That gives us time to deal with what we’ve already got on our plate and gives you more time to think about what you’re going to say to her.”

“Alright. That’s fair. By the way… thanks.”

I was so tempted to say, “No problem, Mayo,” but I resisted. It bothered her before and if she was genuinely trying to change, I didn’t want to upset her and potentially harm any progress that she made. So, instead of teasing her, I said, “You’re welcome. Keep up the good work and make sure not to miss any classes or sessions.”

“Dev is making sure I don’t.”

“Good.”

“Oh, and… are you going to let Akorya know you talked to me today?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“That’s alright. Uh… can I add you to my friend’s list so you can message me whenever you have an update on when I can meet her?”

I nodded. A moment later, I had a friend request from her to accept.

“Thanks. That’s all. I guess I’ll leave you be now.”

“Before you go, let me say one more thing.”

“Wh-what?” She seemed nervous all of a sudden.

“It takes a lot to want to change and improve as a person. Most people won’t ever even acknowledge that there was anything wrong with them in the first place. Rather than change, they dig their heels deeper into the ground while demanding that it’s everybody else who has a problem—not them. So, if you’re serious about this and genuinely trying your best to improve while acknowledging your flaws, then I have a massive amount of respect for you regardless of how you behaved before. Some people might still judge you for who you used to be, but I will only judge you for who you are now. So, keep up the good work and prove not only to everybody else, but to yourself that you have what it takes to be a good person. Make yourself proud.”

If she was genuinely trying to change, then I wanted to support her. The only reason the world was able to change—the only reason society was able to heal as much as it did, was because humans stopped trying to fight each other all the time to instead help one another. We stopped taking sides and refusing to ever compromise. There were still differences, sure, but we learned to accept those differences to live with one another rather than try to force everybody else to see things our way. More importantly, we gave people the opportunity to change. We didn’t abandon those who made mistakes in their past. All that ever did was perpetuate the cycle of hate that nearly brought the world to its knees in the first half of the century.

We stopped shaming and started helping. That included helping those who wished we were dead at first. It included helping those who saw us as inferior. And if we could help people like that, then I could support one person who used to be a bitch.

Syl wiped her hands against her eyes and looked away. “Everything makes a lot more sense when you talk like that. It’s no wonder you’re as popular as you are. And… thanks. Again. I’ll do my best. Alright, bye now!” She started sounding like she was about to cry even more, but she vanished from my sight before she could. She went offline according to my friend’s list.

Once more alone, I stretched and yawned. “I feel exhausted now.” I also figured that, so I wasn’t a hypocrite who didn’t practice what I preached, I should check out some of Akorya’s bully’s most recent content to see if she was still somebody who deserved unleashing Thera against her.

That was something which would only take an hour or two at the end of the day.

If somebody wanted to change, that was great.

But if somebody was comfortable abusing their power to harm others, then while I might have agreed with trying to help them in real life rather than seek revenge against them… I saw no problem fucking them over in a single video game to take their ego down a notch or ten.

Until that could happen, it was time to create a wolf pack in my dungeon.

Ace_Arriande

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