Chương 20: Witnesses for the Wife Call

Meno tore himself out of the rig like the headset had bitten him. The apartment snapped back around him: dim light, cheap plastic, sweat-stiff chair padding, the stream monitor still glowing with the black system message. His account had not been banned. That would have been simple. Insulting, yes, but simple. This was terrible. Bugged. His account had been customer-serviced out of existence because the AI couldn't decide what to do with the mess it had let him make.

"What kind of crappy AI are they using?" Meno shouted at the monitor.

"You run a whole world, but one idiot jumps off a ledge with a dragon tooth and suddenly your reward system needs therapy?" The stream stayed live. Viewers: 117, 904. Then 113, 870. Meno saw the number drop and felt insult added to injury, as if people leaving a stream of a man pacing in front of an error screen had betrayed the craft.

"There's no timer," he said, pointing at the screen.

"Do you see a timer? I don't see a timer. That means this is not justice. This is a hostage situation with customer support." HE'S PACING crash out PrayerBeadGod broke login call support open ticket sue the AI viewcount falling LMAO keep malding He didn't want to end stream. A hundred thousand people were still here. More than he had ever had by a disgusting margin.

His whole life had been trying to get people to stay, and now they were staying because a game had put him in a black box after he turned himself into ammunition. He had no plan for that. He checked the game status page. The site loaded slowly, then stuttered, then threw up a banner in cold white text. VEYRATH SERVICE STATUS: EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE Meno stopped breathing for a second. Chat saw it too. WAIT VEYRATH DOWN FULL MAINT?

HE PULLED THE SERVER NO WAY BRO COST EVERY GUILD MONEY BrineSaint malding PrayerBeadGod world boss Meno refreshed. Still down. He opened three fan feeds. Same thing. Clips of players getting disconnected mid-dungeon. Guild discords leaking angry screenshots. A top streamer staring at a maintenance notice in a room full of sponsor graphics and no content. Veyrath had not locked only him out. They had pulled the whole thing down. Meno's mouth went dry. Being banned was one thing. Streamer idiot gets punished. Fine.

Expected. Content. This was different. This had cost people routing windows, dungeon chains, sponsorship segments, event clears, market listings, guild pushes. Real money sat behind those schedules. Big money. The kind that came with lawyers, managers, and people who said "brand risk" without laughing.

"Okay," Meno said.

"That's probably fine." that is not fine he's sweating global downtime arc hiding from BrineSaint this is how you get lawyer PvP He checked his email because panic liked opening doors. The inbox was worse than the Morgras city. Spam. Fake extraction offers. Sketchy sponsors with misspelled domains. Three "official" Veyrath support messages from addresses ending in numbers. A scam asking for his login to "preserve Titan II reward status."

Somebody offering to buy his dragon materials with a payment plan and a prayer. Then a real payment notice sat between the garbage. Streaming Platform Affiliate Payment — Last Month: 6 Credits Meno stared at it. Six. Enough for three cheap pizza slices if he avoided toppings and shame. He didn't have subs. His stream had always been too small for a real contract. The money came from random ads the platform sprinkled into his broadcast when it remembered he existed.

Pennies from people who skipped after five seconds. Now he had views. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. He had no sponsor, no contract, no real ad deal, no merch, no manager, no business pipeline. He had gone viral in the exact window where the thing people wanted to watch had kicked everyone offline. He had never been good at the business side. Only playing. And apparently playing now broke the service. Viewers: 101, 433.

"Stay," he told the number, which was pathetic enough that he immediately regretted it. His phone rang. Unknown number. Meno looked at the cracked screen like it might be a dev. Or a lawyer. Or the game AI calling to tell him it had not appreciated the extra work. He put it on speaker.

"For witnesses," he told chat.

"If someone threatens my life, you're all evidence." SPEAKERPHONE ARC dev call dev call 100% lawyer it's BrineSaint dragon call AI collecting do not answer He answered cautiously.

"Hello?" A woman's voice snapped through the speaker, young, sharp, and furious enough to have posture.

"You idiot. Now you've done it." Meno blinked.

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"Your wife. Who else?" His soul left his body and filed a complaint. Chat detonated so hard the overlay lagged. WIFE CALL AURELIA???? SHE SAID IT CANON WIFE AGGRO IRL PrayerBeadWife Meno grabbed the phone like proximity could erase sound.

"Can you not feed chat with that meme? It's already getting old, and my mother might be watching the stream. Also, how the hell did you get this number?"

"Hello, Mom," Aurelia said sweetly. Meno closed his eyes.

"Aurelia."

"Meno Varsh, you have your number public on your WorkLink profile. Not that many people are named Meno. Somehow, your professional incompetence and your streamer incompetence have teamed up."

"Hey, I'm streaming to a hundred thousand people. Can you not dox me?"

"You put it online. Everyone knows already." His phone buzzed twice during the sentence. Then five more times. Meno looked down. Unknown numbers.

"Oh my god."

"Stop wasting my time," Aurelia said.

"I am not calling because I am fond of talking to you."

"Yet somehow you keep talking to me one way or another, and now even in real life. Are you a stalker? Look, I know I'm handsome in that rough, unrefined way, but I don't have time to go on dates. Please stop bothering me." There was half a second of silence.

"You have lost your mind," Aurelia said.

"You are famous for a few hours and already delusional." That one got through. Meno's face heated, quick and ugly.

"I bet you're way uglier than your character in real life. I'm at least honest." Chat changed tone immediately, the way crowds did when the joke cut too close. Aurelia's voice sharpened.

"Can you shut up and let me speak? Wait. Why are you streaming this call? This is going to go viral."

"For witnesses," Meno said, defensive now.

"Did you call to threaten my life?"

"What? No. Don't be an idiot."

"I knew it. You love me."

"JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN." He shut up because the volume had become weaponized. Viewers: 108, 902.

"Crownfall, Highbanner, Silverwake, Stormhold, and HypeForge all want a meeting with you," Aurelia said.

"They contacted me to set it up because you kept ignoring their messages. Yet for some reason, you responded to me properly before muting whispers." Meno stared at the phone.

"I responded to you for content. That's all."

"Right. Sure. Very convincing from the man currently streaming a phone call because he thinks I'm going to assassinate him."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I just got on a private jet. I'll be in Vernova City in about two hours. Veyrath is down anyway. Turn off your stream. I'll text you the location to meet me and the guild representatives." Meno's stomach tightened.

"A private jet?"

"Yes, Meno. It's like a mount, except it doesn't smell like debt." Meno had three replies ready, and all of them somehow made him sound poorer.

"Why would I agree to this?"

"I'll text you the number they're offering just for you to show up. I'm sure you won't be able to say no." She was probably right, and he hated that immediately. He hated it more because she was the one saying it.

"How much?"

"You'll see."

"Yes, but why do you have to be there?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. I think I'm allergic to you."

"You are impossible." Aurelia exhaled hard enough that the phone crackled.

"Ask yourself whether you can afford not to show. You said your mom was watching." Meno's thumb moved.

"Do not bring my mom into this!" He hung up. The room went quiet for one beautiful fraction of a second. Then chat swallowed the universe. HE HUNG UP ON WIFE PRIVATE JET WIFE GUILDS MEETING IRL love you mom she has his number WorkLink dox arc His phone started vibrating nonstop. Texts. Unknown numbers. Memes. Pictures of rings. Someone sent, tell your wife I say hi. Someone else sent, portable phone number invalid interaction.

Meno muted the phone and it kept vibrating anyway, a tiny cracked rectangle full of consequences.

"I need a new phone," he said. Then the phone rang again. This time the name made his throat close. Mom. Chat saw his face before they saw the contact. MOM CALL TAKE IT DO NOT TAKE IT TAKE IT ON SPEAKER MOTHERBEADGOD Meno answered.

"Mom?" Her voice came through softer than Aurelia's and somehow more dangerous.

"Sounds like a lovely girl," his mother said.

"You should go." Meno sat down hard.

"It's not about the girl. The guilds want to pay me to show up."

"It is always about the girl."

"Mom."

"She said she was your wife. I heard it."

"She was joking because chat is stupid."

"She obviously likes you. Women do not joke about these things as easily as men." Meno pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Mom, I am streaming. You can't say stuff like that."

"I want grandchildren."

"Mom!" The chat overlay became unreadable. GRANDMA META SHE WANTS HEIRS WIFE CANON BY MOM DECREE MENO DYING IRL clip clip clip aurelia grandmother approved His mother sighed, and under the humor there was the tired edge that made him feel twelve and twenty-seven at the same time.

"Meno. Listen to me once in your life and just go. Do not overthink it until you ruin it. If they are paying you to show up, show up. Be polite. Wear something clean. And stop shouting at women on the phone like you were raised in a parking lot."

"I'm going," he said, because arguing would make the stream worse and because she was right in the specific way that hurt most.

"Only for the money. That's all."

"Sure." The little word carried too much.

"Mom."

"Go clean yourself up." She hung up. Meno sat in front of the monitor with his head in his palms. The stream stayed live. Viewers: 122, 844. He did not look at chat for several seconds. Then he lifted his head.

"Chat," he said quietly, "don't clip that." A link appeared before he finished breathing. AURELIA CALL — 142K VIEWS Another appeared under it. MENO'S MOM APPROVES HIS WIFE LIVE Meno stared at the numbers. Then at the black Veyrath maintenance screen. Then at the cracked phone buzzing itself toward death. Two hours until Aurelia reached Vernova. A guild meeting with money attached. Meno stood up.

"Fine," he said.

"I'm wearing the shirt without the stain."