Everlast Online

Liz eventually gave up looking for some kind of reward and continued onwards to the capital of the country.

Gloria was dismissed and sent into her 'soul-space' in order for the pair of players to travel.

Nina screamed as the undead beast she and Liz rode on raced across a field. Liz didn't care much, somehow being used to this.

"Smokey!" Nina yelled, Liz turned slightly, "Stop! Please Stop!"

Liz decided to stop, they were well on their way to arriving at the capital; with the undead beasts she was much faster than she had even expected. So, taking a small break would not be difficult. When she stopped, Nina hunched over to gather herself before she spoke.

"I need to log off for a while." She told Liz, looking at the time Liz noticed that it was around that time. She didn't eat lunch, they didn't have it in the budget, but she did have something to do today.

"Okay, I need to log off as well." Liz said, agreeing to pause the journey. She walked over to a more discreet area and prepared to return to the drudge she called reality; Nina followed behind her.

"What? We can't both log off, who will guard our bodies? Someone might attack uss..." Her words trailed off as she watched a series of skeletons and monsters appear around Smokey, a scary thought rippled through her.

Can her summons stay out when she's logged off?! Nina was shocked at the range of abilities her power covered.

Liz summoned each of her undead and her 2 golems who she told to 'pretend to be rocks', which thankfully they understood. They also provided great cover.

Finally she summoned Gloria, who kneeled before her. Liz was a little conflicted about this, but figured it was a by-product of her knightly training, not understanding the dark knight's lack of honour.

"Gloria. Nina and my bodies are going to be unconscious for a while." Liz told her, now having even better protection than before with an intelligent summon, "Protect the two of us and make sure we aren't killed. All of you follow Gloria's commands as if they were my own!"

The last part was yelled out to the surrounding undead, then Liz's body went limp. 

Gloria caught Liz before she fell and gently laid her on the floor, taking up vigilant watch over her body.

Liz woke up on the couch she and her sister slept on. She could see her sister talking to someone else through a hologram, likely Jess and Bailey; as Liz stood up Piper smiled and greeted her. Liz told her not to mind her and Piper chose to carry on with her friends.

Liz looked over the money in her bank account; the exchange rate had increased from 1.5 to 1.62 so Liz had made quite a lot in order to pay for a house.

From the 300 thousand gold she had converted, Liz gained 486 thousand credits as well as the rest she had already saved up. She would be able to buy a new house and have some left over.

Liz used her phone to look over real estate options for upper City-Z, she wanted a room not just for her and Piper, but also Jess, Bailey and her family. They had been nothing but good to her sister and they deserved to live better lives now that Liz could afford them.

She soon found something that met her needs. Not only that it was cheap, someone had died in it meaning they had to lower the price. She read deeper into the page and found that it was an elderly couple, so nothing sinister.

It had enough bedrooms for the 2 sisters, Piper's friends and Bailey's family. Of course Liz hadn't told anyone she was doing this, but that was not relevant to her, she would tell them later. Enough bedrooms for everyone, a kitchen with an independent dining room, plenty of extra room to work in, a cleaner bot, multiple bathrooms and high grade security to keep trespassers out. All this for the low price of 270 thousand credits, not even to rent but to own!

It may very well be her dream house.

Liz didn't hesitate to purchase, a house like this would be bought in an instant if she stopped to negotiate with the company for even a moment. With an instant deposit of the asking price the deed was sent to Liz along with the necessary code to unlock the door and get in. And so, thanks to modern technology the house was now hers, ready to be moved into whenever she pleased, what came next was a little more difficult.

"Hey Pip! I'm going out!" Liz called out to her sister who was still enjoying time with her friends.

"okay! Be safe!" Piper replied and Liz put on one of her old, oversized hoodies and exited the apartment.

She made her way through the slums, ignoring the police brutality and keeping out of sight from rogue traffickers. Until she found herself outside a low-end stripclub. Liz sighed and entered.

She ignored everyone around and made her way to the bar. Thankfully, it was manned by someone she knew.

"Hey Seb." She said, sitting down on one of the stools.

"Oh my, not often we see you around here Lizzy." He smiled as he cleaned up one of the glasses, "What can I get for you."

Liz sighed, he knew exactly why she was here and still forced her through the dumb protocol.

"... I want... a Screaming Orgasm..." Liz's face went red as she said it and Seb chuckled

"Yeah, you gotta come in the back for one of them, doll." Seb loved making Liz say stupid shit all the time, whenever she came in he always made her say whatever dumb password they had come up with. Screaming Orgasm meant a visit to see the boss.

"... Asshole." Seb only chuckled as Liz muttered behind his back. 

He had watched Liz grow up, taken care of her when she and Piper were forced into the slums and so they had a pretty good relationship. Eventually, they made it to the door and Seb knocked, it was a moment before a gruff voice was heard behind it.

Seb opened the door to reveal another quite old gentleman, he was dressed in a nice suit and had his hair slicked back with a lit cigar in his mouth.

"Ah little Lizzy's come to visit." He smiled when he saw Liz following behind Seb, who left after showing Liz in, "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Despite being the leader of the most powerful gang in not only City-Z but also City-Y, Magnus Tharrun was a gentle man. He had a soft spot for kids and made sure no one mistreated them in his territory. 

As such when Piper and Liz had shown up he had taken care of them, made sure nothing bad happened to them. He was appalled at the actions of their parents, but could not do anything to bring 'justice' down upon them. But there was one thing he did:

"Hey uncle. I need your help with something." Magnus was like family to the pair of girls, he had made sure to take care of them and with how often Liz had helped Magnus in his time of need, he had come to see her as more than just another lost child he had to take care of.

Why he cared so much for children, and what he saw in Liz that was so special was beyond anyone else, but it was clear that should Liz have ever asked for help he would have granted it. It was a shame he never made this clear to Liz though; she still didn't understand when Magnus insisted she and Piper call him uncle instead of boss like the other residents of the slums who live under his protection.

"If you're askin' then I might be able to find someone to help." He said, taking a puff from his cigar, "What's it you need then?"

"I bought a better house, one in the upper city." She said, if one looked closer at Magnus they would see a slight expression of sadness, but Liz never darked look such an imposing man in the eye, "I need some help moving our stuff, don't want the undesirables acting on it. If you don't mind?"

"When do you need help with it?"

"Tonight will be good, I think. I don't want those upper class assholes to give me dirty looks as we move in" Magnus was shocked, Liz and her sister were very poor; how had she been able to get enough money to live in the upper city.

"Elizabeth, be honest with me." Magnus' tone became very serious, it would be problematic if Liz or her sister had gotten into something bad, "How did you get enough money to move?"

Liz flinched under Magnus's eyes, although she thought he was always intimidating she almost never saw him when he was angry.

"E-Everlast Online, uncle..." Liz finally found the courage to speak and gave her answer, "I got the money from playing Everlast online, I won a console and a copy in a raffle."

Magnus let out a sigh of relief, so long as she had not done anything dangerous he was fine. He had heard about this game before, 

"I've heard about E L O, or whatever..." Magnus starts, "Would it be worth putting in some effort, would it help improve our influence."

"It can make you a decent amount of money if you want it to." Liz said excitedly before reining in her emotions, remembering where she was, "Even I made some good money, I'm sure you would make millions off it."

Magnus nodded, deciding it would be worth the effort to put in an order for some consoles to play with.

"Okay, I'll give it a go." Magnus said, "And I'll send some people round to pick up your stuff at eleven. Is that fine?"

"Thanks uncle, you're the best." Liz showed a genuine smile, which the crime boss reciprocated, and Liz soon left.

"I hope she's doing okay." Magnus mutters before returning to his work.

Back home Liz looks over the items she needs to pack, there isn't much and what there is can be cleared up in just a few minutes.

Piper hadn't looked over yet as she was busy with school, but Liz didn't really need her help. The only big thing to carry was Piper's holotransmitter, and that would be done by Magnus's 'goons'; she just needed to set a timer for 11 when they would show up.

Since she already had the 'keys' in the form of a pass on her phone, she could enter the game with no real consequences.

"Hey Smokey." Nina called, "You were gone a while... Everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Just in the middle of moving." Liz responded, allowing Gloria to stop guarding her. Thankfully, she was still technically an undead and so didn't feel fatigue.

"Oh, cool. Do you want to go then?" Nina asked, not prying too deeply into Liz's words.

"Yeah." Liz dismissed all of her summons besides one of the undead beasts, having both her and the queasy looking Nina climb aboard.

Along the way they managed to kill the monsters that had gotten in the way, allowing Gloria and Nina to increase their levels.

Gloria became level 19 and Nina became 42 (having become 41 after killing so many players).

It didn't take long before the group had arrived in front of the capital city of Vradora; it was quite easy to enter as Liz had a quite high reputation and so the 2 both logged off to go eat, Liz saying she would be moving during the night and so may not come back on for a bit.

Liz once again awoke to the smell of cooking and the sound of chatter. It had been around a week of grinding since last time they had come so Liz had expected this, considering how often they visited.

"Hey girls." Liz called out, standing up and making her way to the table.

They made small talk to each other, stuff about school mostly, but then the conversation changed to ELO.

"So, how have you been finding ELO?" Liz asked, after swallowing a mouthful of pasta.

"We haven't played it yet." It was Bailey who answered and Piper nodded, as did Jess even though she looked less happy about it. 

"These two wanted to wait until school finished for the summer before playing." She grumbled while she ate, "Can you believe that? They're making me wait a whole month to play!"

Liz chuckled, not realising how quickly the end of school was coming. In the past this was always a difficult time for Piper, she couldn't go out and they barely had any food for her to eat, more than that her sister was always working.

"Well, I won't spoil anything then." Liz said, enjoying the girls' antics as they bickered amongst themselves, "Oh, that reminds me. I bought a new house."

Liz said this like it was nothing, the 3 girls immediately shut up and stared at her like she was a mad woman. They knew just how poor their family was and couldn't comprehend how she had gathered enough money to, not rent, but buy a house.

Even Piper who had been getting a constant flow of money struggled to piece things together. Liz looked up from eating and saw their faces, for the first time in a while she understood why and how she was making ripples, but chose to tease them even more.

"Oh, don't worry. There are enough rooms for you two. Ah! And Bailey's family as well." While before they had simply been staring at her, now the girl's gawked with wide open mouths; this was getting out of hand.

"Si-Sister. You shouldn't make jokes like that; it's cruel." Piper gave out little half-laughs, assuming this was some kind of cruel joke; but as she stared at the screen Liz pulled out she became worried, "How could you just buy a house without telling me!?"

Her yelling caught Liz off guard, in her impulsiveness she hadn't stopped to think about Piper's reaction to spending so much money.

"Don't worry, I still have a lot of money; it barely cut into our savings." Liz consoled, but Piper didn't want to listen. She was too set in the mindset of being excessively poor.

She was beginning to panic and this led to an onset of coughs. The other girls shot up and tried to help; but when Liz began seeing blood coming from Piper's mouth she rushed into another room in order to get the oxygen tank that had been kept for emergencies.

She strapped it to Piper while Bailey and Jess laid her down. She began breathing regularly again and slept.

"I shouldn't have scared her so much..." Liz muttered, stroking Piper's hair while loathing herself.

"Don't worry about it, you just did what you thought was right." Jess said, letting out a happy sigh that Piper was not in immediate danger, "You said this place has room for all of us?"

Liz nodded and Jess smiled, Bailey was much more anxious, unwilling to accept such a large gift.

"I can't!" "I can't!" "I can't!" "I can't!"

She kept repeating over and over, until Liz found a loophole within Bailey's mentality.

"You just need to work hard to pay me back is all. Besides this is what your family deserves." With that she began contemplating Liz's offer; Liz knew it would be a similar uphill battle to convince Bailey's mother who was just as kind as her daughter was. It was unlikely she would just accept a gift like this; she would be reluctant to 'take advantage of Liz's generosity'.

Liz had already received a call about buying Bailey a headset, desperate to return the money as she did not believe they deserved that money. It took around an hour to convince them to accept it.

"Me and Piper are leaving at eleven." Liz told them, "You're welcome to join us."

"Yes, of course! I was like a week away from getting enough money to rent my own place, but if you're offering." Jess, brash as always, was willing to come with them at the drop of a hat, though she was not without her good points, "Oh, but I'll obviously help with utility bills and stuff."

Liz thanked her and turned to Bailey, she said she needed to check with her family first.

Not long later the 2 girls went home and Piper woke up after that.

"Are you okay?" Liz said, incredibly worried about her.

"How... Could... You... Do... That." Each word was said between deep gasps of breath which made Liz's heart ache.

"I made enough money, it's for you." Liz said, pulling her sister into a gentle hug, "Your condition is getting worse and living in the upper city will slow the amount of contaminants getting into your lungs."

Piper pouted like a child. Again her sister was giving up her money for her sake; she purchased an expensive house with enough room for her friends because that is what Piper wanted. 

"I'm... Sorry." Tears came from Piper's eyes as she leaned deeper into the hug.

"What for?" Liz chuckled slightly, the gasp was smaller this time and Liz was happy Piper's episode was ending.

"You always have... To give up everything... For me." Piper sobbed as she wept wholeheartedly into her sister's arms, "Even mum and dad wouldn't have left you if I wasn't there. I should never have been born."

"Don't say that!" Liz yelled, pulling Piper away to give her a serious look into her teary eyes, "I love you more than anything; I wouldn't trade you for a life with those scumbags for anything. There is nothing in existence that I care about, more than you. Don't forget that"

"I love you Pip."

"... I love you too."

Piper just cried and cried for quite a while. She truly loathed herself for what she had 'done' to her sister; but Liz never for a moment considered this. She would sacrifice herself entirely for Piper and nothing would change that.

Even after Piper stopped crying she refused to release her embrace with Liz; it wasn't until there was a knock at the door that they had to separate. Liz answered to find Magnus and a few other large men waiting for them.

"Uncle!" Piper shouted, making her way over to Magnus, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you two move." He said with a smile as he bent down to pat Piper's head, then he turned back to his men, and in a much less gentle tone, said: "OI! Get moving you lazy sacks of shit."

The men who had come quickly got to work grabbing things, there wasn't much really. Liz and Piper had very little of value, besides Liz's VR headset, which could be moved by her alone, and Piper's holotransmitter for school.

In the end all the men needed to move were just the couch they slept on and Piper's holotransmitter; and they didn't even need to bring the couch since the place was already furnished. Yeah a person had died there, but it was a bargain.

Magnus' men quickly loaded up the only item of value and they set off. There was no need to inform a landlord they were moving out as Magnus had sent Seb to do this for them.

They drove the van, while not luxury, it was certainly a high end vehicle, to the location Liz had indicated.

Eventually, they found themselves outside of a house that bordered on a mansion, it was magnificent and Liz marvelled at her new home. Piper likewise showed excitement after seeing it.

The 'moving' was not a major issue, there was literally 1 item that they had to move, so once Magnus had said his goodbyes to the girl Liz and Piper were free to explore.

It was the first time they had lived in such a luxurious house and Piper ran to embrace her sister.

"Thank you so much." She whispered in her arms.

"This is just the beginning." Liz responded; but her goals were loftier than just a big house.

Soon, I'll pluck the stars themselves from the heavens above and gift them to you.