He looked like he liked me… Veyra thought.

  It was a sad thought. The assassin player had been pretty good in terms of controlling his character. He’d clearly practiced combat for many many hours, just like her. He was moderately funny, and he had a nice face, at least in game. Black hair fit him well. He could have been a good ally. Maybe a friend.

  And now he was just another enemy, after she betrayed him for money.

  Everyone is different online, Veyra reminded herself. I’m just a bit more different than others. If we met for real, he’d be just another jackass.

  The mountainscape opened ahead as she crested a hill. Ahead and below, a dark shroud enveloped a cute little mushroom town. The caps on the houses shone in the dark like glowsticks in the night. Warm light shone through the windows. Smaller mushrooms blinked like fireflies.

  Warm colors usually indicated it was a friendly town, as opposed to a monster camp. Monster camps were similar to dungeons, often with loot to steal and bosses to kill. Friendly towns, however, offered quests, which Veyra could complete solo. She smiled at the sight.

  More good news came in the form of a system pop-up.

  [Dark Enlightenment (Epic Unique Robe) has been sold in the auction house for 4500 gold!]

  Veyra grinned, satisfied. That was a good price. 4500 gold was the equivalent of around 3600 American dollars, and just over a hundred thousand Thai baht—enough to keep the greedy hospital system satisfied for another few months, while Veyra gathered enough money for the surgery to proceed. The rest of the gear pieces from today’s guild battle should bring her another two hundred thousand baht.

  Just eight and a half million more to earn…

  If only she could have sold the Dragon’s Egg as well. One of the top guilds would have probably offered a large sum for it, considering it was the key item in an S+ ranked quest. But the item was soulbound, meaning Veyra couldn’t trade and sell it for money in the auction house. She could trade it by hand, but that was always shady. And besides, the quest she had was much more insane.

  Quest: Holder Of The Ray Dragon’s Egg (S+ Tier Event Quest) (Recommended Level: 270+)

  The details were utterly insane. This wasn’t a quest that any solo player was supposed to have obtained. But if Veyra could complete it, she’d easily enter the top five hundred leaderboard.

  She was about to check the deeper details to make sure nothing had changed, when another system pop-up came.

  [Health Risk!]

  [You are malnourished. You have been playing without pause for 4:34 hours. It is currently 02:23 AM.]

  [The virtual pod had detected a risk of vomiting.]

  [Continuing to play is a severe health risk. You will be forcibly logged out.]

  [Time until forced log-out: 0:59 minutes]

  Veyra winced. Already? But she had only been in the pod for four hours. Had she forgotten to take her meds? No, she specifically remembered gulping each and every pill exactly as prescribed.

  If only the useless meds did something other than numb her head.

  Four hours was nothing, not nearly enough of a break from her life. She still had work to do. A lot of work to do.

  But as far as she knew, the health risk log-out couldn’t be avoided. Even though it wasn’t like her existence in real life would be any less of a health risk even if she was awake.

  She sighed and sat down to watch the landscape. Hopefully nobody would explore the mushroom town before she could.

  [You will be forcibly logged out.]

  [Logging out…]

  The connection was cut, and the door of her game pod opened, waking her up in her small studio apartment.

  The operational body of her in-game character was taken from her, and she found herself in control of a frail cripple.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Her legs would not move. Not even a little. Her thighs could vaguely feel that they were supporting a part of her weight, but beyond that, her thin legs were miserably useless. The same went for her left hand, which drooped limply beside her, paralyzed.

  For a while, she just lay in the pod at the forty-five-degree angle, feeling out the mood her organs were in today. She had a mild urge to puke, as always. Nausea and dizziness were just a part of her body. Beyond that, she mostly just felt weak, as if her muscles had come to an agreement that moving was too much of a hassle.

  Her studio apartment was dimly lit with a floor lamp in the corner. She had a kitchen, which she could not use, and an “accessible” bathroom that was still borderline impossible to climb to without assistance, unless she climbed to her wheelchair, which was also difficult. Her bed and some old furniture gave the room some personality. Veyra’s meds and her food were all on a nightstand next to her game pod. Her TV was also on, and it was logged into her Wonderwind account, displaying messages and alerts.

  At this point, Wonderwind was pretty much all she had.

  It was two AM right now. Her morning personal assistant would come in six hours to see if she was alive or not. She had hoped to spend the whole night in the pod, but the pod thought she was too malnourished. She had to eat something.

  That meant she had to exit the pod.

  On her own.

  She took a deep breath, sent out her prayers, and lifted her right hand to grab onto the rail before the pod’s door. Her right hand was stronger than average even for healthy people—it had to be, considering it was the only limb in her body that wasn’t paralyzed. Some of the muscles in her back and chest also worked, but only on her right side.

  Veyra readied herself, then pulled hard, flinging her body up from the pod. Her balance tipped over, and she fell out of the pod face first onto the stack of cushions on the floor.

  First step completed, Veyra thought, now laying on her face in the cushions.

  She pushed herself sideways, then reached her hand atop the nightstand. She searched around with her hand, until she found her smoothie tumbler. Every step was a pain, requiring serious effort. She placed the tumbler to the ground, then awkwardly pushed herself to sit with her back against her game pod.

  The smoothie was essentially just baby food with a little bit of protein. It included everything that was required to keep her alive, while being light in calories, because her body simply couldn’t process anything more demanding. Even this poor smoothie would probably make her nauseous.

  Doctors suspected that she had cyclic vomiting syndrome and paraplegia, but neither exactly described her disorder. She had been born with some sort of very rare and bullshit neuromuscular disorder that affected her nerves and her digestive system. The paralysis was incurable, and her constant nausea could only be alleviated with meds. She would be lucky to see her forties, or even her mid-thirties, doctors had said.

  Virtual reality was the only cure. In Wonderwind, Veyra could stand. She could walk. She could even run, and cast a little bit of magic while she was at it. VR was truly incredible.

  Now she just needed to get back to her pod.

  She grabbed onto the railing and pulled with every bit of strength she had. The exertion of energy only made the nausea worse, and her muscles were already losing strength.

  Pulling her bodyweight up with only one hand was never easy, but she weighed practically nothing. She managed to place her body on the bottom of the pod, where she could reach for the next railing. She pulled.

  She gritted her teeth as she slowly rose. Her lungs already burned, and the muscles in her hand threatened to give up. This would be the last time she could pull herself up today. She growled.

  And she made it.

  Her heart pounded a million times a second, as if she’d ran a marathon. Her vision spun. Her stomach threatened to empty itself. Veyra closed her eyes and took calm breaths to calm her body. It took multiple minutes, but eventually, the urge to puke subsided.

  Good. She could probably log in. She angled her legs into the correct slots by moving them with her hand, and pressed the back of her head against the pod’s neural transmitters. Lastly, she pulled on a string, which shut the pod’s door with a thump.

  She closed her eyes, and felt a new presence in her head, as if a sixth sense had been activated. There, she could navigate the mental menu of virtual reality. She pressed Wonderwind: Log in.

  [Your bladder capacity is nearly at its limit. Visiting a bathroom before entering virtual reality is advised.]

  Whatever, I can hold it, Veyra thought, and chose the option to ignore the warning. And even if she couldn’t hold it, dragging herself across the house to the bathroom wasn’t worth it. Letting it go was so much easier, even if she hated herself a little more every time her assistants had to clean up after her.

  [Logging in…]

  [Error: Health Risk]

  [The virtual pod has detected a risk of vomiting.]

  [The virtual pod has detected a risk of hyperventilation.]

  [The virtual pod has detected unknown illness.]

  [Log-in denied. Entering virtual reality is a serious health risk. Please visit a medical professional immediately.]

  But I don’t even feel bad! Veyra thought.

  That thought was immediately followed by a burp as the smoothie she’d just drank threatened to make its way up her throat. The dizziness grew, and she felt like she was falling through the floor.

  Don’t puke… she thought, and focused on deep breaths. She had to keep the food inside. She’d never make it out of this world otherwise. Don’t puke!

  It worked. Veyra had practice fighting against her body’s urge to empty itself. She kind of had to if she wanted any nutrients to make it inside her.

  The sensations eventually calmed, but Wonderwind still didn’t let her log in, deeming her health too dangerous. Veyra found herself crying as she lay in her coffin until morning.

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