I Accidentally Became the Guild's Therapist
Chapter 19: The Developers' Ominous Invitation
Livia Marcelline Quinn, Mental Supporter Lv. 5, stood frozen amidst the saccharine chaos of the Festival of Love, her HUD still screaming marriage proposals. Her mind, already strained from her skill-less state and the endless absurdities, recoiled from the idea of marrying a slime, a mystery player, or an elf mage. Miles's half-joking "proposal" had been the final, unsettling flourish. This is it, she thought, her internal sarcasm unit whirring. I've gone from flunking psych to being proposed to by digital entities. My life is officially a fever dream sponsored by a dating sim.
The camp around her was a dizzying blur of pink hearts and player declarations. Bron was attempting to serenely mediate a dispute between two lovelorn goblins, Phina was attempting to choreograph a ballet with Glimmer for their "wedding," and Alaric was openly taking bets on Livia's eventual choice. Nyx, surprisingly, had vanished, likely seeking a less emotionally volatile corner of the server. Livia, however, found herself gravitating towards something far more unsettling than interspecies romance.
Her HUD, still flashing with marriage proposals, suddenly flickered. A faint, almost imperceptible distortion appeared in the air, a ripple in the very fabric of the game's visuals, near a forgotten, overgrown statue of a nameless hero. It was a visual glitch, subtle enough to be ignored by most players, but Livia, a walking anomaly herself, noticed. Her new Mental Defense +10 didn't just fend off emotional attacks; it seemed to highlight the seams in reality.
Compelled by an instinct she couldn't explain (her Instinct +5 silently nudging her, perhaps?), Livia pushed through the festive crowd, ignoring a player attempting to propose to her with a bouquet of enchanted daggers. She reached the statue, her fingers tracing the shimmering distortion. It felt cold, like sterile code, yet strangely inviting. It wasn't a portal she recognized, no quest marker hovered above it, but it hummed with an almost forgotten energy.
Without thinking, Livia stepped through.
The world dissolved, then reformed into something entirely different. She wasn't in a dungeon, nor a hub. She was in a space that defied normal game physics. Walls of shimmering, translucent code stretched endlessly, pulsating with a soft, ethereal light. Data streams flowed like rivers across the floor, and abstract, glowing symbols drifted through the air. This was the world beneath the world, a place of pure, raw system. This was the "world of code".
"What... is this place?" Livia whispered, her voice echoing strangely in the sterile silence. Her HUD, usually so cluttered, now displayed only fundamental system information: "Location: Root System Layer. Status: Unregistered Entity Detected."
Suddenly, from the flowing data streams, figures began to coalesce. Not players, not NPCs. They were tall, ethereal beings, cloaked in robes woven from pure light, their faces obscured by featureless masks. They moved with an unnerving grace, their forms slightly glitching at the edges. These were the mysterious masked entities.
One of them, slightly taller than the others, stepped forward. Its voice boomed, resonant and chilling, a chorus of perfectly synthesized tones. "Livia, Empath Eternal," it stated, without inflection. "Welcome to our domain."
Livia clutched her notepad, her heart pounding. "Who... who are you?"
"We are those who observe. Those who maintain. Those who create." The voice paused, the masked entity tilting its head. "We are the ones who created you."
Livia's mind reeled. Created me? They're the Developers? The in-game Gods who couldn't even delete Bloodbath & Beyond? The irony wasn't lost on her, even amidst her rising panic.
"Your anomaly has caused... unforeseen variables in the system," the entity continued, its voice now laced with an unsettling coldness. "Your emotional output, your influence on the players, on this world... it is unprecedented. Uncontrolled."
A holographic panel materialized between them, glowing with complex system diagrams that Livia couldn't comprehend. "We offer you a choice, Anomaly." The entity's masked face seemed to lean closer. "Relinquish your... excessive emotions. Allow us to integrate you fully into the stable system."
Livia stared. "You want me to... be emotionless? To be a regular NPC?" The thought sent a shiver down her spine. After everything she'd been through, after seeing the guild's deep-seated needs, after feeling her own reluctant connections...
"Administrators do not feel, only observe," the entity elaborated, its voice colder now. "You will no longer be able to form bonds or retain individual memory. Your consciousness will be uploaded into the central server, becoming pure data. A logical, efficient part of the system."
Livia's breath hitched. No bonds? No memories? Just… data? The idea was horrific. It was a fate worse than being a background NPC. It was a complete erasure of who she was, of every awkward laugh, every sarcastic thought, every ounce of empathy that defined her. If they erase me… will the guild go back to normal? Will they even miss me? Or will I just be… the bug they never saw coming, cleanly wiped from the system? The thought was a chilling echo of her real-world anxieties about being forgotten.
"If you refuse..." the entity's voice dropped to a low, ominous hum, "you will be erased from everyone's memory. Completely. As if you never existed."