MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

A young man clenched his fist so tightly that it turned completely white. This recent problem he was facing was proving so damn troublesome! 

"B-brother, you should take a rest.." Lilly sweetly uttered, concerned for her brother's health. After all, he had more black under the eyes than a raccoon! 

He sighed once more, as he had done so many times the last week. 

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Jack reassured, his gaze wandering across his breakfast sushi. "Just look at this wonderful food. We're blessed!" 

Even without selling in-game currency at the gold exchange, the streaming revenue from Pancake's business was sufficient to pay for their regular expenses easily. 

"What good is food without sleep! Why don't you send a ticket to support? A bug is screwing you, right?" Lilly sharply asked. 

"Oh, it's no big deal. It just makes me waste a bit of time…Anyway, thanks for breakfast, little sis. I'm off to play some more, study well at school." 

"S-sure…" 

Study? Did she even need to at this point? Let's just say she had other plans in the making. Still, she'd do it if only for his peace of mind. 

She watched him return to the VR helmet with mixed feelings. Where did his drive come from? What made him push himself so much, and why was he so damn stubborn! Oh well… 

— Clang! — 

Alone in his room, Jack observed the screen before him. It was Pancake's video, one that featured a little wolf, the bullet comments flying like crazy. 

— CrazyGoose: Wow! He's still guarding even now?! Forget an alarm system. I want this wolf! 

— RespectableDrunkard: Brother wolf is so noble! So sad: still waiting for its master even now. I'll need another box of tissues... 

— DestituteHousewive: Where's the Demon King?! Why isn't he back yet?! People say he gave up his account, but that has to be a lie, right?! 

"I'm coming. Wait for me." Jack closed the video, shivering at the hurdle to come. "Log in!" 

.

.

.

~ Hehe, you're back for more? Puny human! 

Once again that being awaited him, a dark shadow with countless barbed tentacles. It reminded him of the Living Curse except this one was far stronger and testing his limits thoroughly. 

As soon as it saw him, it sent countless attacks his way shredding his body in a matter of seconds, a process that would repeat itself over and over in the coming days. 

Painful, it was so painful, and yet that wasn't the main issue here. 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━ YOU DIED! ━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[XP Loss Prevented.] 

Prevented? This was barely a consolation, for Jack had already lost three entire levels to this creature, finally reaching the penalty limit for this sub-realm. 

He quickly respawned, finding himself in a replica of the Centaur God's Temple, right next to the Boss and ready to be turned into mincemeat again. 

~ Hehe, how does it feel? Good, right?! 

The being happily cackled as it witnessed his muscles twitch uncontrollably from the unbearable pain. In the background, the system was still freaking out... 

[Error! Error! Player Location Unknown!] 

He was never supposed to enter this place. Normally the Boss would never develop such a grudge against one player since it was considered a raid. 

Jack's unbelievably high contribution to the fight had utterly broken the system! He now found himself in an unbreakable loop of constant suffering until he could defeat the Boss. 

He glanced at his opponent, sighing once more. < ?!?! > Defeat that? How?! He had initially planned to beat it in a mental battle of attrition, but it wasn't working! 

Of course, the system wouldn't stand idly as a player got tortured and had long given him another option, but he had another issue. 

[Account Corruption Detected!] 

[Leave and Repair Account? Y/N?] 

[*PS: Accepting Is Highly Suggested—] 

"SHUT UP!" Jack thundered. 

Literally anyone else would have long accepted if only to end the suffering, but he couldn't bring himself to. He knew what Repair meant. 

He'd get back the levels he had lost, and everything would be the same…or close. There was one thing that would change, and that was Moon Moon. 

If he accepted, the little wolf would be "repaired" alongside him. The skills, name, affinity, and even the tricks he had taught it would be the same…but that was it. 

He shivered as he remembered a post from his previous life, a man crying all over the forums about how his dog wasn't the same after his account was repaired. 

Jack couldn't accept this… 

Every time his flesh would get sliced, he'd remember the loyal wolf waiting for him back in the real world, decisively refusing the repair option even if it was the logical alternative. 

— Slash! Stab! Pierce! — 

~ Does it hurt! Keep hurting, haha! This is what you get from preventing my world conquest! 

"Sure…" Jack tried his best to appear as nonchalant as possible. 

This was their usual routine, he suffering, and the shadowy creature venting. But the more it kept going, the more he despaired. 

~ Still putting on a brave front? Do you think I'll give up because of that? Foolish, how foolish! 

The creature saw through him like an open book. Then again, this much wasn't that hard to figure out. Thus continued another session that led nowhere. 

When Jack finally removed his VR helmet, he found himself shaking, his entire body drenched in a cold sweat. 

"Screw that!— *Cough*" he was suddenly overwhelmed by a coughing fit, feeling a warm liquid as he covered his mouth. Wait…blood?!

Was throwing blood from anger actually a thing? But that's when he heard the front door open. Lilly was back?! He couldn't let her worry! 

He rushed to the bathroom akin to a mad demon, so quickly that it almost made their entire apartment complex shake. 

"B-brother?!" 

"Gotta drain the snake, hehe!" 

He sequestrated himself inside, glancing at his reflection in the mirror as he ran cold water on his face. Even now, he still looked relatively healthy, at least compared to back then. 

Perhaps he should buy makeup to hide the dark circles from Lilly? No, he just had to somehow clear that goddamn Bugged Boss, and things would return to normal. But how?! 

Fight? Impossible. 

Negotiate? It didn't care. 

Outlast it? This thing seemed eternal! 

Repair his account and risk Moon Moon? Even at an impasse, he didn't want to. People would probably laugh if they knew, but that wolf was currently his best friend! 

"Brother, let's hang out!" Lilly's enthusiastic voice came from the other side of the bathroom door. 

"A break? That does sound nice!" He made sure his voice wasn't shaking anymore, steadying his posture as he came out. "Now, what do you want to—"

Jack never completed his sentence. As soon as he came out, he noticed the bloody handkerchief in Lilly's hand. In his rush, he had left traces! 

"T-this is…" 

"I already know." That's all she said as she came closer, giving him a bear hug— or the equivalent with her tiny frame. 

Feeling her warmth, he realized that trying to fool her was useless. Her meaning was clear: no matter what happened, she would be by his side to shoulder everything with him. 

"Let's go for a walk, it will change your mind!" Before he could react, she was already dragging him outside. 

The soft wind and the evening light were godlike. Compared to his recent in-game suffering, this was paradise on earth, even the vagrants pleasant to the eyes! 

He let her guide the way, and they soon reached a lush park filled with a few modules, plenty of flying drones covering the area to prevent any possible kidnapping. 

The children would happily play, their parents nearby glancing at their phones more than they did their offspring. They relaxed as they breathed in the purified air from the Breathe-Fresh Fans. 

Lilly happily ran to a swing, disregarding the gallery's judging or amused looks. 

"I want you to push me, just like when we were young!" 

"Alright." Jack found himself smiling. 

The two ignored the entire world as they had fun, her crystalline laughter brightening the entire park.  "Woo! Higher!" "Faster!" "This is so much fun!"

But just as they enjoyed themselves, the sound of a quarrel made its way to them. A boy was annoying a little girl to no end and had stolen her bright red toy truck. 

"G-give it back!" 

"Pfft— Trucks are for boys!" The little asshole claimed. 

Tch— talk about annoying. For some reason, no parent was stepping in either. Were they all blind and deaf? The drones wouldn't get involved for such a trifle either. 

But before he could do anything about the disturbance, he found himself pushing an empty swing. He couldn't help but stare wide-eyed as Lilly launched herself in the air akin to a professional acrobat. 

She appeared so graceful, flying above and appearing so free. But seriously, when the hell had she gotten so proficient?! There was no way he'd be able to do that! 

Her target was evident: the bully boy! 

— CRASH! — 

She didn't just land, she crashed with a superhero landing. Her fist even made the earth under her tremble, making the little bully lose his balance for an instant. 

"You, stealing isn't nice, you know." She calmly remarked, the kid turning completely white as he gulped. Where had this scary-looking big sister come from?! 

On the side, the little girl had stars in her eyes. She was even mumbling about a Hero-Princess sent from Heaven or something. 

"Now, little boy, give the truck back.  If you're bored, you can ask her to play together. If you—" She quickly gave the troublemaker a sermon, the kids finally making peace under her lead. 

After her random good deed, she returned toward Jack as if flying out of a swing was nothing out of the ordinary, giving him a thumb up. 

"Peace has returned!" She giggled as she sat on the swing again. 

"That was quick." Jack praised. 

"Hehe, it's no big deal. That boy simply felt left out and wanted to play with the little girl. He just didn't know how to ask and—" Lilly started explaining, only to be interrupted. 

"HAHA! That's it! You're a freaking genius, Lilly! I'm the little girl! I'm totally the little girl!" Jack maniacally guffawed, the entire park giving him dark looks. 

"W-what?" She stilled. 

"I gotta log back to Infinite! I'll explain on the way!!" Jack had never seemed as crazy as at that specific moment, but even then, Lilly simply smiled in support. 

They rushed back home, Jack entering the Temple of suffering again, facing the deadly unknown Boss monster once again. It aimed its appendage his way, ready for the torture to begin. 

~ Puny human, are you ready to suffer and— YOU?! What the hell are you doing?!~ The creature yelped in shock as it felt the human's touch. 

"It's called a hug. Shh— just let it happen." 

~ … ?!?

This human was definitely crazy! By now he was even whispering about how he understood its loneliness. 

[Player Jack'O Used…Hug?!!] 

[It's not very effective…]

[….] 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━ YOU DIED! ━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

In the sub-realm, mad laughter echoed: "Hahaha, I'm just getting started!" He would brute-hug this challenge!... Or try anyway...