Chapter 36
Today, Elize had to return to the orphanage once again. Anji had proven to be a danger—both to himself and others. In just six months, he had committed more forbidden acts than all the other children combined. For three weeks straight since the first recorded incident, Elize had been reviewing the boy’s gameplay footage. Most of the time, he simply sat by the fire or lingered near his victims in places where no one could see him. There was one moment where Anji actually spoke to them—and it was horrifying, because all he did was smile and nod in response.
She had only just reviewed the footage from the last four weeks today, and the changes shocked her. Anji had begun deliberately, methodically seeking out victims for his rituals. There had been a lull, but yesterday, the boy had started dragging bodies. It was utterly terrifying: hundreds of victims, a massive eleven-pointed seal drawn in his own blood, and all the corpses lying with stakes driven through their limbs. By the time the ritual began, she couldn’t stop it. There was still the option of forcibly disconnecting him from the capsule, but that required the consent of his guardian—Curator Vaalsi. And so, Elize went to him.
The Curator, logging into the virtual space, began watching the live feed from Anji’s capsule. The sight of the boy standing in a massive pentagram, surrounded by piles of bodies, provoked a long, intricate stream of curses from the Curator—ones that questioned Anji’s lineage and mental faculties. Without disconnecting Vaalsi from the virtual space, Elize headed to the orphanage. From the aircar, she managed to check what was happening in the game. Anji had shifted into the astral plane—something considered impossible for a child—and had begun fighting an opponent. Then, monsters started attacking him, something that hadn’t happened since the game’s creation. By the time she arrived, the boy was still in the game, still in the astral plane.
The moment the battle ended, the forced disconnection procedure began. According to the game’s rules, rituals couldn’t be interrupted by external calls—doing so could harm the player. Anji crawled out of the capsule and looked at them with exhausted eyes. He had been in the game for 57 hours straight. Even for an adult, that was extreme. The other children gathered around, eager to see him scolded. Vaalsi spoke first:
"Anji Ganet, for repeated violations of the orphanage’s moral and ethical conduct, your access to the virtual reality system will be revoked for two months. Now, go wash up and speak with Miss Elizabeth."
The boy did as he was told—but he wasn’t really listening. He simply accepted the punishment as inevitable. He reacted the same way to Elize’s angry lecture. Since the conversation took place in the cafeteria, unplanned and in front of an audience, there were plenty of onlookers. Anji ate while being reprimanded, showing no reaction. And then, without even hearing her out, he went to sleep.