The Memoir of Aderyn Clark

Kill or Be Killed.

The mission was longer that 2 hours. I long to turn my microphone back on and screaming to them, they're playing stupidly. Wyran almost got shot because Falk didn't watch his six, then he almost shot Torreón because the enemy was close to his line of fire, they joke around too often the enemy almost blown us up with a grenade before we're even halfway to where we're supposed to go. Then things started to take a serious turn, and they're in serious game mode I'm so glad my microphone is off.

At the end, we won the mission. Falk And Wyran died, shot and blown up respectively, good thing for autosave so they could continue where they left off, but lost all of their loot. There's a lot of swearing, so this livestream really wasn't suitable for children. When the mission concluded, they said their thanks to their last minute patron, then their goodbyes before shutting off the livestream.

Now I understand what Torreón means when he said they got paid for playing games, because people actually giveaway their money to support these four guys. When we're in the cutscenes, four of them alternately saying thanks to a bunch of usernames, then did the same every once in a while.

Messages started to pour in to Respiro's inbox, a bunch of them are asking where they can donate money to honor him. How am I supposed to know? I only play the game, I didn't know or have access to his gaming donation account. Do he even have one? Maybe I could find something on his profile, like a donation option or something similar

"Guys, help." I wrote on Huxley's chatroom when I found nothing

"You said I could talk about Respiro after the session," Wyran wrote back

"What do you need help with, birdy?" Asked Torreón

Now we switched to voice chat. I need to find out how to do this type of chat

"People are asking where they could donate money to honor him," I asked, no need to explain who the "him" I'm talking about

"Every player have a donation account, I don't know if he has activate his account yet, but you could check in the account setting and set it so people could access it when they open Respiro's profile," explain Hord simply

"Okay, let me try," I replied and do as I told, "oh, it's activated, and I click check the 'show button on my profile' thing,"

"There you have it," said Hord again, "now all you need to do is write on his timeline where their generous donation could go, and don't forget to thank them,"

"Now can I tell the story?" Asked Wyran impatiently

"Yes, Wyran, go knock yourself out." Said Falk laughing

"Finally," Wyran sounded relieved

"Prepare your ear for this, birdy," said Hord nonchalantly, "Wyran sometimes lost it when we brush it off"

"Whatever," Wyran said sarcastically, "so, yes, I really have no idea why Respiro loves his desk job so much, even though sometimes he said he won't play for long because he's tired, long day at the office type of thing, and wish he could just stay home. When I told him to just quit and play with us, he said 'I got responsibility' or 'it's not that easy'" Wyran said full of excitement, "so I told him, when we're playing, we also receive money too, so he doesn't have to worry about not having money, professional gaming is the best job ever, since you are doing something that you love and still get paid for it,"

"Wait, do you actually get paid, like somebody actually paying you regularly, or just from all the patrons?" I asked cutting off Wyran's speech

"Right now, we, as a group, got a 5-year contract with Kane Software to be their official gaming group, Huxley. This is our third year," explained Torreón, "so, as long as we play live what they told us to play for at least 2 hours for maximum 3 times a week, we got a regular paycheck in our mail each month like every other people, the donation from the patrons are bonus," Torreón adds

"We're not allowed to say the amount though, all of us signed an NDA right before we started," said Falk casually

"We also go to championship and tournaments," Hord said

"Why do they need a gaming group?"  Curiously asked

"Branding," Wyran said curtly, "anyways, I told Respiro, not only we could chill at home and get paid, we also got a free vacation once a year," he continues his narrative, "well maybe not vacation, vacation, but they do fly us somewhere to have an annual review and let us enjoy wherever we are for the rest of the week before flying us back to our homes, all for free."

"Well, we still need to pay our own food and stuff, they only paid for the flight and accommodations only," said Falk casually

"Yeah," Wyran agreed, "and after I told him all the greatness of being our much needed 5th member, he fucking declined the offer! He still prefer his boring behind a desk job!" Now I see why he pissed, KI basically gave them a very good deal, or maybe I should say, King, gave them a very good deal

I think sneaking on people are his thing, he hides his identity and be someone else. He did that with me for years and I didn't even know it was him, and I see him every fucking day. With this people, they don't know who he is in real life, they just know his gaming personality. So I guess it's easier to do it with them

"How much do an office staff made a year, huh?" Wyran starts again, "4 figure a year?"

"5 figure," I corrected him

"What?" Wyran sounds unbelieving

"Google it," I told him with a laugh

"Yeah well, maybe he earn as much as we do," no, he definitely did not, "but we actually got big bonus!" He adds "but most importantly..." he took a breath, "we don't need to wake up early every day just to sit behind a desk doing a very boring job and treated like shit by our boss just because they got paid more than us and be home just to be tired and do it all over again," he said all that in one breath, cool

"Personal vendetta?" I jokingly asked

"Yes!" All the other 3 said at the same time

"Shut up!" Wyran spat

"Well, maybe Respiro got it good, no shitty boss, a nice paycheck, enough vacation days, flexible office duty, great coworkers," I listed all the things I love about my job

"See, there is an explanation, Wyran," said Hord nonchalantly, "he wasn't brainwashed, not everybody got a shitty boss like you did,"

"How exactly do you get chosen for the team?" I've been wanting to asked that ever since Torreón's explanation earlier

"You interested in joining us?" Wyran sounds exciting and hopeful

"Ugh.. not really," I told him regretfully

"You just like Respiro, loving a job behind desk," he annoyedly said, "you belong with him,"

"Wyran!" Torreón warns

"I'm sorry, I forgot," now he's the one that sounded regretful

"It's fine," I said, and it was the truth, most of it, "so, my question?"

"The company made an ad, hundreds of people signed up by playing the game, getting the best loot, and kill as many enemies as possible, and the four of us got the highest points," said Hord lazily

"We got 1 tutorial, and 2 lives," Falk added

"What game?" I asked interestedly

"Some old game, Phoenix Strikes," huh, really King? You're having an audition for a gaming team with that game? That's like comparing Duck Hunt to Time Crisis! Maybe the actual game is more complicated than that, but what I'm saying was, it's on a different level. "Guess the big boss loves that shitty game," Torreón said

"Hey, I love that game!" I defend my game

"Then you are L-A-M-E, birdy," Torreón mocked

"No you," I said back

I heard everybody hooted on the headphone