World Online

One Month Later,

Star Three District,

"JAKE!"

A shrill scream pierced the house. Probably half the neighborhood heard this scream. And almost certainly, the person this was directed to heard it.

Jake\'s ears perked up, as he turned around.

He was sitting by his computer at the moment, but hearing this scream, he knew exactly what was wrong.

This was a scream that his mother reserved for when the worst of the worst happened.

"Don\'t tell me, did he snitch? No, it can\'t have been Michael. He clearly liked what happened over at Horace. It must have been that teacher." Jake muttered.

All of his past life wasn\'t enough to prepare him for what was to come. He stood up, ready to face a hurricane of wrath.

"Get your a$$ here right now, Jake!" Lydia shouted again.

Jake moved. It was automatic. He wasn\'t thinking.

He was the guild master of Bright Horizon in the game, but outside it, he was just a normal somebody. And this normal somebody didn\'t dare disobey his mother.

Jake went down the stairs to find a full house.

Very rarely did the entire family come together to talk about something. But now, everyone was in the kitchen.

His father, Michael, and his mom were all waiting for him.

Lydia had her arms crossed, staring at Jake as he came down the stairs.

"This is not a good sign. It never is." Jake cursed as he took a deep breath, trying to prepare for what was to come.

"Now then, care to tell me what exactly you are upto in the game?" She said, as harsh as her voice could get.

Jake glanced at Michael, trying to understand the situation. But even he was in a daze.

"Alright. Let me be positive. It can\'t be about Michael\'s case. If it was, then he would be in a corner, crying." Jake thought to himself.

"Then what else could it be about?" He thought to himself.

"Explain this. Tell me why my son suddenly became a guild master of one of the biggest guilds in the game!" She said as she threw a stack of paper on the table.

Jake\'s eyes popped as he looked at what was on the table. It was a newspaper of all things.

The New World\'s Herald.

The name felt fancy, but it was just a newspaper for the gossipers of the world. And yet, on the cover of the newspaper was none other than his face, plastered with giant letters.

Well, his face wasn\'t that clear, and it could very well be anyone else, but who was Jake kidding? For those who saw him every single day, they would know with a single glance that this was Jake.

"WHO IS THE MAN BEHIND BRIGHT HORIZON? A deep dive with experts."

"You have got to be kidding me. Of all the places that she finds out, she finds out from a goddamn newspaper?" Jake shook his head, almost laughing.

"Care to explain this now?" She said, slamming her hand on the wooden table, which creaked with pain.

"Explain what, mom? What can I say? I happened to create a guild, and it happened to blow up. What do you want me to do about it?" Jake shouted back.

He didn\'t think that this was such a big deal. It was something to be proud of. Why be angry about it?

"How is it that we are the last people to know that our son is a guild master." She said, shaking her head.

"They found out my name?" Jake\'s ears perked up as he reached to grab the newspaper.

A quick scan told him that the name was anonymous though.

"You are the only ones who saw me every day for so long. No one else will ever recognize me. They will just brush it off as a coincidence. Trust me. This is not an issue. We are safe." Jake sighed and said.

"Do you really think that of all the things that I care about, that is on the top of my priorities?" Her nostrils flared.

"You are a guild master? Is that how you came up with the money? What are you into? Some illegal stuff that can bring us all trouble? Spill it. If you don\'t, then we can all get into trouble that we don\'t even know about." She said, raising her voice again.

"Jake. Understand. It is not like we don\'t trust you, but after a curve ball like this, there must be other things that you are hiding from us." Peter said with a much gentler voice.

Jake glanced at Michael once again. He was quiet, and that eased Jake\'s mind.

"There is nothing else to say about this. I am the guild master. That is all. What kind of illegal things do you think that I can possibly get into, mom? It\'s a virtual game. I can\'t exactly kill for money." Jake chuckled.

"Shut up! This is not the time for jokes!" She snapped.

"And Peter. You are supposed to be on my side. Why are you so calm about this? He was hiding such a huge thing from us!" She shouted.

"Because I didn\'t want you guys to know. I didn\'t want to involve you in this. For the next few months, Bright Horizon is going to be in turmoil, and I didn\'t want any of you to worry about it too much." Jake shouted back.

"Do you really think that this is an excuse to this though? A simple answer to what are you doing in the game, would be that you were trying to make your own guild. You could have told us this." Lydia said.

"This is just-" Jake threw his hands in the air in defeat. There was no way that he could beat the worry of his mother.

"What do you want me to do now? Say sorry for hiding this from you?"

"Yes. That is exactly what I expect from you."

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