Guild Wars

"Alright, Mr. Draco. Now, mind telling me what on Earth led you to end up bloodied and bruised? In front of an illegal arena of all places? Have you come to partake in the service, only to get ambushed along the way?" Maria asked with visible confusion. 

"Something like that. Let\'s just say I have a deep enmity with a certain someone who apparently sent out assassins to kill me." Draco answered casually. 

"Oh, how brave. You fought assassins and survived, how expected for a young man like you. With such a compact and short body, where did you get the strength to fend them off till you got here?" Maria asked with bright eyes. 

Draco immediately flew into a rage. "I am not short and scrawny! I am lean and my height is average among men!" 

Seeing that she had obviously touched his soft spot, Maria made a gesture of trying to be unoffensive and smiled. "Hey there, I don\'t doubt you at all. I just spoke out of turn." 

"But still, what\'s up with your situation? You don\'t exactly look the type who would go out and seek trouble, much less the type that would come after your life. Did you hit on someone\'s girlfriend?" Maria casually joked. 

However, Draco\'s eyes became bloodshot with fury as his grievance was about to explode. "I didn\'t know that fucking bastard would go so far! After taking the only thing I cared about, he even tried to end my life!" 

Seeing his reaction, how could Maria not realize that there was a deep story here? With narrowed eyes full of malicious interest, she agreed. "I guess after taking what you cared about, he must have felt fear at the prospect of your revenge, so he wanted to eliminate you ahead of time." 

Draco\'s expression changed greatly. The current him was not well versed in the ways of the world, only having come out of 3 years of being a harveey, 3 years of being a rising star in Darkrow and 2 years as a vice guild leader. 

His combat talent and understanding of the game was thoroughly refined, but his street smarts were extremely lacking, or it could be said he had not truly comprehended human nature by this point. Not to mention everything that happened in the past 24 hours was so sudden and rapid that he did not yet have time to analyze it all. 

Not that he ever got the chance to do so. Maria\'s line of questioning  affected the conclusion he reached compared to if he did it alone. 

Thinking along the lines of what she said, it was as if thunder struck Draco\'s mind. He finally understood that Shangtian must have been jealous of his great talent and ability to grow, thus wanting to nip his growth in the bud. 

Looking at how he managed to survive and even unlock the full extent of Control, Draco almost understood Shangtian\'s actions. However, just because he almost understood it did not mean that he agreed with it. 

"You\'re right! That bastard must be scared of that, which was why he sent his cousin and all those guys!" Draco exclaimed in agreement. 

Seeing this Maria was amused. This boy before her seemed quite naive, not even able to think for himself. Then again, getting ambushed by assassins wasn\'t exactly something one would expect in this day and age. 

"Alright, tell me the issue from beginning to end and I might be able to help you analyze the truth of everything." Maria suggested with a smile. Finding him in such a peculiar matter had made her curious, so she intended to help him find out the truth of the matter. 

Draco hesitated and was not sure if he should trust this stranger. Maria noticed his hesitation and shrugged. "Fine, keep your secrets. It\'s not like I have anything to gain from this. You just look lost and in need of a second head to help you think, so I offered." 

Draco hesitated but eventually told Maria about Boundless, his identity in the game and what happened. When Maria listened to the end, she had a weird expression on her face. 

"Tsk, no wonder you look familiar. You\'re that Draco fellow who won first place in the First Inter-Player International Tournament a few months ago. You were all over the news for a while." Maria sized Draco up again, and he couldn\'t help but feel proud of his achievements gained through hard work. 

"What\'s a big shot like you doing in a den with me?" Maria joked with a laugh before slowly becoming serious. 

"Draco, I\'m going to be blunt and let me warn you beforehand that my analysis might not be perfect, since it\'s based on my point of view from my life experiences in the dark side of society. Also, I might say some things that might make you feel uncomfortable, but know that as an outsider looking in, I\'m just being honest." Maria warned seriously, and Draco felt the gravitas in her tone. 

He simply nodded softly and focused on her. Maria then sat down on the bed and crossed her legs before twirling a lock of her short hair. 

"First things first, let\'s talk about infidelity and cheating, and why at least, women do it." 

"You caught your girlfriend of over four years in the game and one year in reality in bed with your rival, right? Before that, there was no prior hint of her even having interest in the guy and it even seemed she hated him." 

"Without knowing her, it might be that she really did hate him and her feelings for him changed in time but she felt guilt at leaving you for him. Or it could be that she feared the hit her reputation would take if she switched between her vices so easily." 

"Whatever the case, the fact of the matter is that they were caught in the deed. It could also be that he threatened her life and she complied out of fear, but that doesn\'t make sense." 

"They were about to have virtual sex. If he threatened her, he would do it in real life, because according to you, she\'s even stronger than the two of you together, right?" 

"If she was a true Control master, nothing the guy could do could really harm her. I guess it might be the case of the most basic cheating situation: a matter of curiosity." 

When Maria reached her, Draco\'s expression twisted. "Curiosity? What the hell do you mean by that?" 

Maria wasn\'t annoyed by his tone and smiled. "Cheating is an evil act, but like most evil acts, it isn\'t always necessary borne from malicious intentions. Like narcotics, alcohol and other vices, the biggest reason why people fall into them is a moment of weakness from curiosity." 

"This is the most likely conclusion I can give you based from your experience. Your relationship had reached its peak and she was preparing to meet you in reality so you could exchange your \'real\' virginities with each other. However once this was done, there was no going back." 

"Like a marriage, your commitment to each other would become full and inescapable in her mind, so, like at a bachelor\'s night party, she had one more chance to experiment while she was \'free\'." 

"It could be that she always had a passive interest despite her hatred, or it could be because her standards are high and she only accepts those close in power to her, but whatever the case, she wanted to try it out and chose him." 

"To her, it was just a taste test and you were still the one her heart belonged to, so she set rules for herself. It could only be once and in a virtual network so her real body would remain pure. That would be enough to mitigate the guilt she would feel for betraying you and she could hypnotize herself to find reasons to justify it." 

Maria smiled playfully. "Do not underestimate a woman\'s ability to find justification for her actions, and usually, it\'s almost always never her fault. This could also contribute to cheating, but that one was more towards the malicious end." 

Draco\'s expression was one to behold. The fellow looked like he had been hit by a truck and his face went pale. She betrayed him out of curiosity? What… what… 

"What bullshit! If she could be curious like that why not talk to me about it? And if she is curious, am I not curious as well? Why is it that I never made such a move?!" Draco roared in anguish. 

Maria shrugged and leaned back on the headrest. "I\'m not justifying her actions or thoughts, but this is the best-case scenario where her intentions are the least toxic for cheating. It might even be something worse for all we know. Without hearing her side, we can only speculate." 

Draco weakly settled down into his bed and began to think, he parsed all their previous interactions through his head with this new information and began to find seemingly suspicious points. He could not actually verify if they were truly things to note, but Maria had already inadvertently planted a seed. 

In truth, the fact of the matter was that Eva hated Shangtian but could not kill him in the real world, so had to bear with him. Shangtian threatened Draco\'s life and Eva\'s yandere tendencies – as well as certain higher powers – broke out, putting his life before her discomfort along with some help from external parties. 

Draco caught them right before the act and Eva was distraught, feeling Draco\'s raw hatred for her. Her yandere mind shattered and took a few days to recover. 

However, whether it was Draco or Eva after a few days to calm down, they would both come to a realization. Draco would realize a lot of things didn\'t add up and Eva would realize she had been foolish to close herself off. 

She would then approach Draco, explain everything and the two could return to their path and even discover the truth. 

Alas, everything was ruined by two things, Ao Potian\'s sudden attack and Maria\'s analysis. Ao Potian was sent there to monitor Draco and handle the various killing methods they placed on him but he got bored and saw that Draco had come out, thus he took the chance to execute him. 

After all, he too played Boundless and was long dissatisfied with this sub-human trash who dared to compete with his esteemed cousin and even seemingly surpass him! Surely killing him would please Shangtian? 

Shangtian could never know how an impulsive decision by his cousin would benefit him so much. Because now that Potian attacked, putting aside the other effects, how was Eva supposed to find Draco to explain things? His apartment and almost the entire area had been leveled to the ground by Potian. 

And even if Eva miraculously found him, Maria had already planted a seed within that could only germinate into something bad. It was still manageable if she could appear in the next few days and kill this seed in the cradle, but she couldn\'t, now could she? 

Ironically, Shangtian hadn\'t been grateful to Potian, but rather beat him half to death. What he wanted was for Draco and Eva to fight to the death and let him be the fisherman. Not to mention that he caused so much damage that they had a hard time covering things up. 

These were all minor stuff, the real issue was that after hearing that Potian had almost killed Draco and his whereabouts were unknown, Eva seemed to have gone crazy and began a killing spree among the Pangu Lineage members. 

In one week alone, they had lost almost 70% of their youth and even some elders, and the entire clan was forced to shrink within so Shangtian, the only one on par with Eva\'s power, could protect them. 

However, neither Eva nor Shangtian found out about the true effects of Potian\'s actions, so the poor fellow had to take a beating and be locked up in the Heavenly Imprisonment Tower for a few months after that to appease the clan. 

Time fast-forwarded and it was the current day, four months later after meeting Maria. Draco had already shed his naive and ignorant self after a brutal training regime led by Maria to teach him the ways of the world, and the first form of edgelord Draco was born.