Squeam headquarters, Jack’s room, 3 years later.

Haha!

Another day of happiness!

Yeah.

Not a problem if both my mother and wife won’t let me go home! Not even to see my newborn daughter and play with her!

Hahah!

Let’s login and start working this dragon avatar of mine!

Yeah. It’s not like I want to be around Elicia in the game or anything, hehehe!

Another World had successfully been launched a year after the first employee-failure-experience. That first experience had given Squeam a big headache, but also a lot of data on what could happen to people who were exposed to Another World without preparation beforehand.

This time, most high MOBs and inhuman existences had been erased from the game entirely, and extensive tests and research had been done with volunteers for working with them on future game patches - which would include them.

The truth is, the game remained quite addictive, but much less than before - so it was restricted for those above legal age, just like wine, cigarettes and liquor would.

It was no thing for children, so the game Devs became even more devilish on their work and added a lot of 18+ things in the game.

Things like the Red Light District were a reality now - and quite a few husbands and wives had seen their relationships destroyed by beautiful elven and beastmen sex workers, be tem A.I. or… well, anyone can do what they want with their avatars, right?

And for those former high-level and bottom-level employees?

Well, some kept on it because they still craved the stuff, while others are in the midst of treatment.

The thing is, those who finished treatment but still decided to keep working have been paid up accordingly.

Jack stretched his back, feeling the joy of having a much better PC and gamestation in front of him. He even had the latest generation pc add-on and game… Another World, of course.

Since he had been on the “Severe Symptoms” list, he was already kind of a millionaire, and since his main avatar, the Dragon King, didn’t have anything to do, he would be exempted of almost all of his 20-hours-slavery-contract with Squeam - he had to logon around 2 or 3 hours a day, laze around his Den, accumulate some more treasure and then he would login on his regular avatar.

Well, time to work…

[- Bye babe!]

- Don’t come back until later, and check in for your daily inspecton, okay?

Elicia was now also an employee for Squeam, as the boss still wanted Another Worlds’ NPCs to be controlled by people - but she was one of the few which had been given permission to be a dungeon master dragoness.

Most people couldn’t be exposed to high-class jobs and races due to the danger of addiction, so all players had a level cap determined by the Squeam psychology team.

That meant some people would remain as lvl1 humans forever, while a few others could even become dragons or goblins without much problem. Of course, with continuous use, people would become resistant to the effects of the game and levels could be gained normally to a certain degree.

That was kind of a bummer to some players with low levels of addiction tolerance, which would be restricted to boring classes or to remain at a low level indefinitely, but at least no one had become too severely addicted to the game anymore.

Even if some people expended all of their earnings and possessions in the game, to the point of end up living on a single-room with a shared toilet, that wasn’t too different from being an alcoholic, so it was all fine and all.

Anyhow, Squeam sought after high-addiction resistant people as a hungry wolf soughs delicious prey. If they accepted to work as NPCs’, then they would be given amazing salaries, as well as an amazingly reduced worktime.

They would pretty much become special-events NPCs, which needed to be online only 4 or 6 hours a day.

It was the perfect job for someone like Elicia, who was an ~almost single~ mother of one.

As for Jack…

[- Ah, common babe, don’t do that to me…]

Ever since Elicia became a game boss, she had put on a check-in schedule for him. As soon as she logged in the game, he was supposed to go on and meet her in her dungeon to prove that he was indeed working.

- Come to the regular place or you will be banned from home for the next two weeks as well.

Her smile was a bit terrifying.

*sigh*

[ - Ok…]