Worth It (READ DISCLAIMER)

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A SCAMMER/HACKER.

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Eternal's owner, Crystal, looked at the spike on her penguin and sighed.

"I love rares."

She made Eternal say, "I do too!"

The girl frowned and growled.

"I don't have enough of them."

Something inside of her made her make her penguin make the shocked emoticon and disagree.

"We have plenty. Don't get greedy."

Crystal only smiled. "No, we don't. You know we don't."

"Yeah... I would like a spike or two more..."

"Let's do it."

Crystal teleported Eternal to the Township and put a necklace on trade.

"ULTRA RARE GLITCHED NECKLACE ON TRADE!"

She got a shower of "HAHA NOOB"s and "SCAMMER"s.

However, she grinned evilly when she saw a New User asking for values.

"COME TO MY DEN AND TELL ME HOW MUCH MY SPIKE IS WORTH!"

Crystal clicked the den icon and teleported to the soon-to-be scam victim's den.

"A black long. Let's hope this kid falls for this," the scamming girl said out-of-game.

"Yes?" The den owner came.

Crystal buddied him and Eternal said, "Hey. Your spike is worth a glitched necklace, and I have one right here!"

"Nice! That's really much cooler than my spike! Can I have it?" Eternal got a trade request.

She accepted.

The first scam was complete.

After many scams and many account changes, Eternal and Crystal were very rich.

They still weren't satisfied... or at least, Crystal wasn't.

Something in her still made her penguin argue with her.

"Gee, I feel bad about all this. We should stop."

Crystal slammed her keyboard tray when she realized she had argued with herself again.

"STUPID PENGUIN, LISTEN TO ME OR I'LL FREEZE YOU!"

She made Eternal meekly comply, but she even horrified herself when she realized her greed made her download a hacking program.

"Well... may as well use my skills now."

She started hacking users in a server, moving their good items onto her account and recycling the rest.

Soon, the server was empty.

That's when Crystal realized something was... very, very wrong.

Eternal was starting to go off on her own.

She spoke even when Crystal didn't make her.

Terrified, Crystal deleted the hacking program, changed her computer completely, and made a new account. She sighed, "Nothing from my old computer is here, not even any of my files. I'll move them after this is sorted out."

That's when she looked at her screen and screamed.

Eternal started running across the screen, repeatedly making the crying and angry emoticons.

"I've had enough, Crystal!"

Crystal quickly moved a number of hacked snow patches to her new account and covered Eternal in them. She then caged them with an ice cage.

"Problem solved," she grinned.

To her horror, Eternal moved the snow patches off of herself.

Eternal was physically crying now, and she also was shivering.

She wasn't using the cry emoticon, she was physically crying.

"Why...?" Eternal spoke, not typed, spoke.

The penguin sneezed and continued.

"I've stuck with you from account to account, from scam to scam, to hack to hack. I didn't enjoy any of it. Why can't it be like it used to be? We had fun before greed took you over."

Crystal was shaking from fright, and yelled, "IT WAS WORTH IT!"

Eternal coughed and shook her head.

"None of this was worth it! We had fun with our buddies. Yes, our buddies. You were friends with the kids behind the screens. I was friends with their animals. You think of us as pixels, as avatars, as tools for the game. We are very real. We feel pain, we have emotions, we have minds. When you recycle us? We're homeless until somebody makes the exact same look on an animal with the exact same name, by chance. Then we are found. Now, tell me, is deserting you best friend worth it?"

Crystal repeated, "All of this is worth it."

Eternal shivered once more and growled.

"You beyond disgust me. We have feelings! Just there, you nearly suffocated me in snow, and I've been sick for so long since you haven't taken care of me. I've hidden it for your sake, but I don't care for you anymore. You think we're pixels? You'd know better once you experienced being coded beings. I will admit, we ARE made of pixels, and we ARE coded. We are coded with much more emotion than you realize, however. We comply to our owners. We really do. However, MOST of our owners are compassionate enough to treat us well. You, however, are apparently not."

Crystal wasn't scared anymore. She grinned, "You're a bratty penguin. It's worth it."

Eternal coughed and shivered. She obviously was having a hard time breathing, and was very sick.

"Help... me..."

Crystal DID feel sorry for the penguin, but hey, the rares were worth it! Her penguin was replaceable!

"You're replaceable, penguin."

Eternal was struggling not to collapse.

"Please... Crystal... I... could forgive you if I had a reason to..."

Crystal only smiled evilly.

"I'm... dying... Crystal... help... me..."

Eternal sneezed and nearly knocked herself over. She coughed violently until she grabbed her throat and collapsed.

Crystal finally took action.

She forced Eternal to stagger, albeit it was hard for the sickly penguin to even crawl, to the hospital in Kimbara.

It was too late.

Eternal's coding gave out, and she died.

Crystal's game froze, and she for once regretted her actions. Not because she lost her game, but because of what she caused to happen to her penguin

She went to her "Change Your Look" screen and almost cried when she saw her dead penguin laying there. It appeared to be doing the sleep action, except she wasn't breathing.

Crystal quickly recycled all her items and quit Animal Jam.

Never again did she say any of this was worth it.

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I'm sorry if this was cringe, I am not a very good author. Share your thoughts about my story in the comments. Feel free to politely criticize it; I want your honest opinion. ~ Dove.