Chapter 609 - 608 – Mary.

"Welp, you know the deal." – said Phantasia after Orion failed the trial.

"Rest."

"!"

"Wait! I can do it!" – said panicking Orion.

"Just give me one more try! I promise you! I can do this!"

"Woman. I'm not saying you are no longer allowed to take on any more tries." – said Phantasia with straight face.

"I'm just telling you that you are going to rest."

"And that is an order."

"But-"

"No buts!" – said Phantasia.

"You. Rest. Now."

"Got it?"

"…"

"GOT IT?" – asked Phantasia as Orion was hesitating with her reply.

"…"

"Got it." – replied Orion as she then logged off.

"…"

*Sigh*

(That girl… She is becoming a problem.) – thought Phantasia.

(I know we didn't had a lot of time… But was picking her the best option?)

(She has potential… But things are moving way too fast for her right now.)

(She is a good addition to the team… But I think a more experience player would had been a better pick than her right now….)

(Oh well, I picked her, so I should deal with consequences.)

[Meanwhile: A real world]

"FUCK!" – shouted a woman as she threw her drink in the bottle at the wall.

*Huff* *Huff*

"Motherfucker." – said the short woman with long blond hair and green eyes as she stood beside the gaming capsule.

[Mary Miller]

[A.K.A]

[Player: Orion]

"Rest!? He is telling me to rest?! I can fucking do this for fucks sake!" – said the short woman that somewhat looked childish despise being 23 years old.

"I can just…. Fuck!"

Mary.

This person right there was Orion, one of the two new members of Phantasia's team.

Her life was… Without any trouble.

If anything, she has gotten lucky and unlucky.

Her father divorced her mother because he was cheating on her, who then also wanted to steal some of the family money in the divorce.

However, when his crimes were being revealed one by one, including him stealing the money from his own wife and having a gambling addiction.

In the end, not only he ended not getting even single dollar from his wife, but he also had to pay from his own pocket a money he ended up owning the mother the money he had stolen and lost.

Obviously, things ended up getting violent with the unstable father, which resulted in the father not only having to pay money, but also losing all custody and even ending up in prison.

This resulted in Mary's mother raising up her daughter all alone.

Things were normal for years… Until her mother ended up dying in accident, leaving alone her daughter alone.

However, she wasn't left with anything.

Her mother amassed a fortune, while also getting an inheritance from her grandmother, which then all together came down on her.

And pretty much, she was set for life.

With the amount of money she had, she could easily live entire life normally without working at all, as long as she doesn't spent money recklessly.

She is currently living in apartment… And in short.

As of right now, she is a NEET.

She really didn't felt like doing anything, since working didn't made any sense for her since she had money.

She didn't had any real friends or anything like that, nor she had any plans to get married.

She pretty much didn't seen a point at doing anything, so she was just stuck in her home, playing games.

It was the only thing she thought it was worth spending time on.

However, when Unwritten Tale came online, her life changed.

At first, she was bit hesitant to play this game, causing her to not play game at all, as she was not only bit skeptical about the whole idea of diving right into the game, but she was also worried meeting other people.

However, it all changed when the game was becoming more and more popular, to the point that some of the players inside of the game were treated as celebrities.

And THAT caught her attention.

In her eyes, her life seemed meaningless and boring.

She seen herself as a nobody.

But when she saw that somebody could become truly "SOMEBODY", then it cracked her.

"Wait… Can I be… Like them?"

Her life was pretty much without any purpose.

But now? She thought that maybe she could gain a purpose.

She could become popular.

She could become a pro player.

She could have her name have meaning.

She could have been SEEN as SOMEBODY.

Simple put, it was greed.

She wanted to stop being NEET that is just sitting in the shadows playing games.

She wanted to be somebody. She wanted to give her life finally some kind of meaning.

The reason why she wanted to play Unwritten Tale was that out of the greed that was suddenly born in her.

Without any hesitation, she instantly bough a capsule consol and dived right into the game.

"…Eh?"

And the moment she dived in, she felt it.

The difference.

Her worries about the game was gone.

Heck, some of her greed was also gone.

Instead, it was met with amazement.

In the real world, she was just nobody, a NEET.

But in here?

She didn't knew herself what she truly was.

She just started playing the game… Just for fun.

And she enjoyed it.

She was truly having a blast.

"Why the hell I never came here before?"

"THIS IS THE BEST!"

Her pure greed filled wish was no more.

And as of that moment, it was replaced with something else.

"I will climb to the top and show them all who is the best!"

Her goal was to enjoy playing the game while climbing up to the top.

A much more innocent version of her wish she had before.

A "Hero's Journey" is what she wanted.

And she did had it.

Doing quests.

Forming parties and connections.

It felt like she was really doing some kind of "Hero's Journey" that she was looking forward to.

She had FUN.

…

But it didn't took truly long for that story to start crumbling apart.

She started playing the game way too late.

The major guilds were taking over everything.

She had choice between joining one of the guilds or not.

But she didn't wanted to do that as she fought back… Again, and again… But failing each time.

Not only that, her in game friends that she made were straight up leaving her side and giving up, resulting in them joining the guilds.

The whole situation just filled her with anger.

Not only that, but also a humiliation.

She knew they were straight up stepping on her.

This just ended up fulling her rage more.

Her innocent aim that she had made herself upon arriving in this world was straight up crumbling away as she was once again made acknowledge something that she simply forgotten.

The moment she appeared in this world; she wanted to have fun.

She wanted to become somebody.

However, there was a main difference between this innocent dream and her greedy dream.

In her greedy dream, she acknowledged herself to be a nobody.

But now?

Thing that she straight up forgotten about or just didn't wanted to remembered… She was forced to know.

She was this time force to know that she was a powerless nobody.

This was different from acknowledging yourself as nobody.

With greed, she accepted it.

But with happiness? She couldn't accept it.

Her "hero" image that she wanted herself to become was shattering right in front of her eyes.

And her anger just sped up the process.

…

At that very point, she made contact with Phantasia.

She didn't obviously trusted Phantasia one bit.

She wasn't stupid to not realize that accepting Phantasia's offer would be the same thing as her joining the guild.

She wasn't planning on taking that offer.

…

However, you could say that her wounded dream was pushing her forward… But just like with Sengen, it was pushing a wrong way.

Orion was crushed over and over by the guilds, filling her anger to those that dared to step on her and laugh in her face.

But now?

She had a hand of the devil.

Taking it would be a hypocrisy.

But with it, she would be no longer stomped on and called inferior.

No.

She could be the ONE on the top and stepping on them!

She could stop being a nobody for real!

She could truly archive something!

She had a chance to be something like in her life.

And she took it.

She shook the hand with the straight up devil.

Her once innocent wish was straight up gone.

Nor her originally greedy wish was alive any longer.

No.

A new wish, a new dream was born that day.

A twisted one.

And she was already offered something that would make her into "somebody" already.

A divinity.

An opportunity to finally be noticed.

And she wasn't going to let it slip by.

…

However, her greed started slowly turning into the desperation… And that in turn caused her one thing.

Fail the trial.

Phantasia noticed that her emotions were taking over and told her to just stand down.

Was it greed that drove her to act carless and fail the trials?

No.

She wanted to "prove" herself.

But… Now the question remains.

Will she be able to truly "prove" herself?

Or maybe she will never be able to acquire the divinity.

This choice all rest on Mary alone.