When I woke up the next morning I was laying on my stomach (To be honest, it's not that different from usual… I swear I'm not a difficult person…) and I was immediately reminded of what had happened the last afternoon. I got up, and went to the bathroom to try to inspect the damage. As soon as I got a good look I thought 'Damn. Michael really laid into me. Although, I completely deserved it for everything I've done.'

After my inspection was done (Expect to see a bit more on that later…) I walked into the living room, which was coincidentally where Michael and Shannon crashed last night. I was going to want them up, but decided against it. Instead I got a cup of coffee and started working on the homework that was starting to accumulate due to my neglect of it for Michael's sake. I worked backwards, starting with the newest in my worst topic (For anyone who knows me: you know what it is, but for those who don't: It's English… Unexpected huh?) and ending with the oldest from my best/favorite topic, Chemistry. My English homework was the least amount since I only needed to write a thematic essay, although for me that's easier said than done. After I finished it was almost time for Michael to be waking up and starting his workout. Although I decided to let him rest for as long as Shannon wanted (Don't forget, she's a big part of his training too.) since I couldn't think of a good time to get him up by. She woke up sometime while I was doing my Calculus homework, and I asked her to not tell Michael because I want him to focus on staying alive.

Since I still needed to get supplies I left Shannon in charge of Michael, and told her to wake him, and punish him if needed, whenever she felt was right. While out I managed to get enough food to last us until we get to the front lines, and got enough repair and reinforcement equipment for what would be the rest of the game. Although on the way home I noticed a shadow getting dragged into an alley. I went to investigate and found a group of guys attacking a solo player. I instantly rushed to help them, as I saw that they managed to work around the safe zone that should be encompassing the entire town. I drew my twinblades and prepared myself for a tough fight, but as soon as they saw me, they ran. I rushed to the solo player to see if they were fine. As soon as I got over they were already trying to get up. 'Good,' I thought while still running over to them. 'They're still able to move. Maybe they won't need me to help them.'

As if on cue, they fell back to the ground, and blacked out. I knew that if I were to leave them there they would die, but I also knew that if I were to move them to somewhere else that they would be startled and would probably attack me. Although I had no choice, I had to take them somewhere safe before we get attacked again. I picked them up and carried them to the only place that really had the supplies to be able to care for them: my apartment. (Nothing against the other players, but most of the people playing this game were idiots and didn't know how to properly supply themselves. Plus there aren't any real hospitals in this game, only the pack up infirmaries that the Liberation Army uses.) As I got inside I asked Shannon to give me a hand with getting them in a place that we could properly bandage them and make sure that they are safe.

As I got them down on the table I had removed their shirt to be able to start on stopping the bleeding. After I managed to stop most of the bleeding I started working on assessing the actual damage of the attack. They had many lacerations across their back and chest, and had a broken arm. It appeared to be that the worst of the attack was going to be the trauma following. Although I still had to worry about their reaction when they wake up, and had to keep watch on them to make sure that their condition doesn't get worse. Shannon was happy to help me with that task, although we still have to wake up Michael and have him train a bit, even if it's just a small amount of swordplay exercises.

Shannon woke up Michael, and told him to start some swordplay exercises while he waited for her to make him some breakfast. I took the first shift of watching over our guest while Shannon made breakfast for Michael. After a while Shannon took over for me so I could check on Michael's training. While I was up I also took the liberty of making everyone some lunch (We eat very late… I'm actually guilty of eating dinner at 11:30 at night…). Although right as we all sat down to eat, our guest woke up.

I instantly rushed to them as soon as I saw them trying to get up. I caught them as they fell to the ground, and laid them down on the couch. As soon as I let them down they started their stream of questions. It was exactly as I expected it to happen, with their questions starting with what happened, where they were, and how they got here. I waited for them to finish before I started answering their questions. To start I said "Slow down a bit. You were attacked by a group of red players. I don't know who they were, but I seem to have scared them off. As for where you are: I brought you to my apartment to get you proper care. I'm sorry, but you could have died if I had left you there-"

"So to summarize, you thought it would be a good idea to basically kidnap me, after I had been attacked, to give me medical attention." they interrupted.

"I'm really sorry, but I didn't have the correct items to give you the correct medical attention for your injuries at the time. I had no intention of doing anything weird to you, and even disliked the idea of bringing you here because of the fact that you would react like this. I hope you will forgive me."

"We'll see about that, but I'll hear you out to decide for myself. But first let's get some other things cleared up. First off, why did you help me?"

"You see Michael sitting across from you? That's the reason why I helped you. I can't sit back and let people die in this game. He's a similar case as you, but he got hurt by getting into a fight with me, and losing because of his overconfidence."

Michael then said "Hey! I was trying to help you. If you weren't so rough on me with your stupid skill I would be fine right now and we would be on the front lines."

"Michael, you shouldn't be speaking about someone else's skills like that. You're lucky I don't spank you right now."

"Fine. But it's still your fault that I had my accident… I was just trying to help you learn about your skill."

"What are you talking about? What skill do you have that you wouldn't be able to learn about from the directory?"

"Look, I'll explain everything to you in time, but first do you have any other questions that you want to ask?"

"Of course. So, my next question is a bit more like a request, but did you make some extra food? I'm understandably hungry after my near death experience."

"Of course I did. I had a feeling that you would be hungry after you woke up, but first let's make sure that your injuries haven't gotten infected or worse. I'm just being precautionary, mostly because of first hand experience in this type of situation."

"Ok, let's just get this over with. Also, before we begin this, Michael can't watch. Please, I'm a bit conscious about my body."

"Yeah sure. Let's go into the bathroom so I can clean your wounds again."

We then got up and went into the bathroom. I told them to strip to their underwear. At first they were a bit reluctant, but I told them that if they didn't, I wouldn't be able to properly examine the damage. They then slowly took off their shirt and pants. As soon as they did I saw the full extent of the damage from the attack. I then said "Wow. I thought that you were tough before, but I can't imagine how tough you have to be to stay conscious with these injuries. This is much worse than I saw when I was stopping the bleeding from the majority of your injuries on your torso."

"Thanks for the compliment. Although the pain is pretty bad, even with the pain absorbers from the game working. Plus this is kind of embarrassing, so if you could please hurry this up, that would be great."

"I'll go as fast as I can. Just hold still for me, this might sting a bit at first."

I then took off their dirty bandages and started cleaning out the wounds. To help them keep their mind off the stinging pain I tried to make some small conversation with them. I started with "I notice that you are pretty young for the usual players that I find in this game. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

They responded with "I'm 15. How about you? You can't be that much older than me."

"You're perceptive… I'm 17, and so is Michael. Although, I can't exactly pin a gender on you… I'm not going to ask you to take off your underwear either, so I'd rather have you tell me so I can properly introduce you to Michael."

"I'm a guy. I guess it's hard to tell since this game doesn't show any genders as it was trying to sell towards younger audiences at first. Although, I can easily tell that you are a guy, just from your attempt at growing a mustache."

"Yeah, it's not going too well… Although let's get back to something important. Your recovery will take a while, but I have to report back to the frontlines with Michael in less than a week. I can try to get some extra time to help you, but it won't be too much."

"Then take me with you to the front lines. I'll stay on the sidelines and watch you fight. I'm not entirely defenseless too."

"It's not something that you would be able to survive with your injuries. I can't bring you to someplace that dangerous when you are injured like this."

"But I'm able to do it. I just need you to trust me. I won't get in any trouble."

"Well, I would be more inclined to believe you if I knew that you could handle yourself, and if I knew that you wouldn't go rushing in when I'm in a fight that it appears that I will lose. I'm not taking you for your own safety."

"Fine, but how are you going to make sure I recover fully before I make my way towards the frontlines?"

"I don't know. I'll work something out."

After I finished cleaning his wounds I used a mixture of herbs that I found to dull the pain, keep the wounds from getting infected, and help keep the bandages in place. I then wrapped his torso and arms in bandages and then told him that he could put his shirt back on. (Ok I'll admit that I only added the gender dialogue because I didn't know what I wanted them to be and didn't want to rewrite everything when I finally decided… So sorry if it seems a bit out of place.) When he had put his shirt back on I stopped him before he could put his pants back on, because he still had to be punished for attacking me after I had saved him. I told him that I would be lenient on him because of the given circumstances, but it was still a problem that I didn't want to escalate from neglect. I then ordered him to lay over my lap, and to his credit, he did as he was told quickly (Michael could learn from him... ;) ). I then let him know that I wasn't going to hurt him, or at least not too much, and that he should know better than to attack people who are trying to help him. I then raised my hand and brought it down on his boxer clad bottom.

"Ow!" he yelped as the first smack came down.

"I'm sorry, but I just want to make sure that you learn to not attack people who are trying to help you. I know that the circumstances for this aren't normal, so I'm being lenient with this."

"It still hurt."

"It was supposed to. Now quit stalling, and take your punishment like a man."

I then picked up the pace on the spanking. Since I only wanted to get my message across I kept it short, but made sure that he would feel it for a while. After I finished he pulled up his pants and got up off my lap, with visible discomfort though. We then went into the kitchen to finally eat dinner/lunch (Yet again guilty of eating very late…). After we finished I took the time to introduce our new guest to everyone. I said "I'd like to properly introduce our new guest now. This is -"

"Jason."

"Thank you. This is Jason. He's going to be with us for a while, as he is recovering from an attack. I just patched him up, and I can say that it's really bad."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you might be out of commission for a while. Those lacerations across your entire body are probably going to take a long time to heal enough for you to move around normally, and much longer to be able to fight again. I'm sorry, but you might not be able to help us clear this game from these injuries."

"I'll be fine. This is nothing, and when I recover I'll be going back to the frontlines as usual."

"I like your faith. We need more people like you."

I then walked around him and gave him a light smack on the ass. I smiled when I saw his face blush and told him to make himself comfortable. He stood there for a minute, flustered, before he made his way towards the couch and lied back down. After he got settled a bit, I started to get a conversation started to pass the time, while I worked on some projects that I needed finished by the end of the week for the players who were having trouble with getting information when in the middle of a dungeon. I started the conversation by asking small questions for him to answer. "So, Jason, are you a solo player?"

"Yes, I'm a solo player."

"Why not join a guild like many other players? I mean I realize that it's easier to level when solo, but at the same time it is so much more dangerous."

"I used to be in a guild, until they got attacked by Laughing Coffin…"

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"It's fine. I just want to see Laughing Coffin be brought to justice."

"Same here, but I did hear some talk about some player finding their base. I'll let you know when we are getting a team together to raid them."

"You will? Thank you. I would love to join you when the time comes."

"Same here. I can't possibly explain how much I hate that guild, and their twisted motives."

"I can't imagine why you would hate anything that much."

"They killed my first guild in front of me, and have come after me multiple times. Each time sending tougher and tougher opponents, and even resorting to sending a raid group after me. They won't give up, and I'm tired of getting attacked by them."

"Wow. I didn't realize that you had such a bad experience with them."

"It's fine. No one expects me to have any bad experiences with this game, given how much promise I've shown in the leaderboards and the frontlines."

After a while of talking, I left Jason to himself and got to work on a few prototypes that I was planning on eventually releasing to the public.