Chapter 13: Health

Jaxir felt his entire world go nearly black.

His screen was blurry, lines of blood pooling across it and obscuring his vision further. However, the follow up attack that should have taken his life didn’t come.

Jaxir felt his entire body ravaged by pain.

―

[Health Warning. User’s body has fallen below the threshold of safely continuing. Emergency pause has been initiated.]

―

Jaxir’s vision went completely black and when he could finally see again―if the blurry mess of green goo around him could be considered vision―he found that he was back in the outside world.

The game had forcefully ejected him.

Jaxir coughed and his heart felt like a hand was squeezing over it when he saw the liquid in front of him dyed crimson.

What happened to him?

Was it the game? No, the pain felt real, but almost in a foggy, intangible way. It was a lot realer than he was expecting, but he also felt that he could shut his mind off to the sensation whenever he wanted.

Whoever designed the neural connectivity aspects of the game was definitely a true genius. A gamer could naturally decide whether they wanted a more real and visceral experience, or just wanted the novelty of it all.

This blood wasn’t because of the game. Well, it was because of the game, but only insofar as his real body was in such poor shape that it couldn’t handle such shock―even if said shock took place in what was ultimately a glorified dream.

Jaxir released a shaky breath. His heart was beating fast, too fast. He was truly worried that it might stop any moment now.

Many thought that the way to a long life was avoiding risk and living in comfort, taking care of your body as much as you could.

Well, the latter was probably true. But there was almost nothing more dangerous to a body than being inactive. Those who pushed their bodies―within reason―often lived longer than someone who "protected" themselves by lying in bed all day.

The body adapted to challenges, and if there were no challenges to adapt to, it wouldn’t flush out its weakness.

Jaxir had essentially gone from completely sedentary to all-out active in a single sitting. If he had tried that with his actual body, his heart would have already given out.

He barely ate, and when he did eat it was nothing but junk and garbage. He hardly got out of bed, he rarely showered or even brushed his teeth. His blood was probably a black soup by now, and it was a miracle that his brain worked at all.

Luckily for him, the game had safety guardrails in place. Otherwise, he would have truly died.

And then what?

"Yeah... and then what...?"

How much thought had he put into what would happen if he actually died?

Jaxir watched his blood float into the green goo. It diluted and dissipated, a natural clean function of the pod erasing it as though it had never been there.

The pain in his chest was slowly ebbing away, but the lingering danger of it prickled at his spine.

"I could have died."

He said it out loud as though to confirm it for himself.

"I could have died."

Never in his life had he come so close.

Then what?

He would never see Jahbri again. He would never learn how his parents died. He would never put his uncle or any of those other corporate shills who had stolen his parents’ legacy right out from under his nose.

He would just die and everyone would forget about him.

He would have left no imprint on the world, and more importantly than that, he wouldn’t have accomplished anything he wanted to.

Jaxir gripped his fists as tightly as he could. He was too weak to even make a proper one, his elbows and forearms so bony it felt like if he tightened his fingers any more he would rip his ligaments from the bone.

"No."

Jaxir opened the pod and stood up. It was slow, as slow as he could manage. But he did it.

He clicked a button on his Kinext.

"Evergreen Medical Center. Greetings, Mr. Chance, what can I help you with today?"

"I would like to book a full comprehensive medical check-up, including a full-time health plan."

"Of course. Our records here say that you are about five years overdue on your check-up, and there are a few boosters that you are missing. Would you like to take them as well?"

"File those away for later. I want a baseline of health first. Then we can consider boosters."

"Understood. When would you like to have your appointment?"

"What time slots do you have available?"

Jaxir could practically hear the smile in the woman’s words when she replied.

"Evergreen is available at all hours of all days for its VIP clients, Mr. Chance."

"Then right now. In-house."

"Right away."

**

The doctor left an hour later with a shake of his head. He had simply never seen a body amongst the living in such a poor state.

Well, he had. But those people were usually diseased and on the door of death. Jaxir was somehow disease free, and yet deteriorating like he had lived his life in a coffin these last several years.

It didn’t take the same amount of time to get a comprehensive outlook on Jaxir’s health as it did in the distant past. A single prick of his fingers, a body scan, and it was all done.

The doctor was only here to provide insight on what the numbers meant. Although the AI could certainly do so, laws had long prohibited AI from giving medical advice.

Dr. Obrey agreed with Jaxir about forgoing boosters for the time being. What Jaxir needed was a full slate of nutrients to get him back up to a normal baseline, a protocol that would take at least three months to fulfill.

"Take care of yourself, Jaxir. I don’t want to see a corpse here next time I come."

Dr. Obrey had been their family doctor since Jaxir was in middle school. He never thought that the youth so full of life and potential would fall to this state.

But he didn’t push.

Since Jaxir had taken this step himself, he was at least going in a positive direction.

Jaxir only nodded and didn’t reply.

Then he immediately began to clean the moment Dr. Obrey closed the door. With the first slate of nutrients already pouring through his veins, Jaxir felt more energetic than he had in a long while.

Medical science had progressed just as much as technology had. Maybe it would take a year or more for someone in Jaxir’s current state to recover to his previous prime. But right now his timeline was three months.

Since Dr. Obrey also recommended light exercise such as walking in his ramp up period, Jaxir decided that cleaning probably fell in this category.

So that was what he did.

He could have used Vestigem Cards to do it, but Jaxir went the old fashioned route. He bent down, he used large garbage bags, he swept and dusted.

Then he went to bed on time, woke up the next day, then continued.

It was already evening by the time Jaxir had had his second dose of nutrients and had cleaned up the very last speck of dust.

His neighbors would probably be in shock that his house had finally put some garbage out after all these years.

Was it the right day of the week? Probably not. He had no idea. He also didn’t care right now.

"Next time, yard work."

Jaxir exhaled a breath and took a sip of water. For the rest of the week, he was only allowed to have nutrient injections and water.

"But right now, shower."

Jaxir left the bathroom soon after feeling refreshed.

"Alright. Time to see what state Divinity left me in."

This was the one thing Jaxir could not agree with his doctor on. He was actually barred from using Divinity until the first month was through. Obviously, his heart couldn’t take it.

But how could he waste another month after he had wasted so many years.

So, after last night, he came to a decision.

All he had to do was not come close to death again.

Simple.

Jaxir forwent his clothes again and entered his basement in his boxers. However, just when he was about to climb into the pod, his Kinext rang.

―

[Call from "Luecious Beckon"]

―

"Lue..." Jaxir thought about whether he should answer and then a flash of something different flickered through his eyes.

He answered.

"Jax! You answered, that’s great. I was worried you’d ignore me."

Jaxir chuckled. "I wouldn’t do that. What’s up?"

Actually, maybe in the past he would have. But not now.

"There’s a problem. Big problem."

Jaxir frowned. His head immediately jumped to the worst possible scenario.

Was this about his parents’ company? Or did his uncle already hear about him turning his life around and felt that he didn’t want to see that happen?