The Number You Are Trying To Reach Is Invalid.
1291 Words
Sunday, 19th February 2017
“Just what the hell happened here? Why am I in this body all of a sudden and how come I am in this kind of state?” I was questioning myself since I am not sure where to begin since I knew I was in some kind of dream-like state earlier, but now I am occupying this body that looked and felt like the old me when I was still 16 years old!
“This is the year 2017, and I had just completed my GCE ‘O’ Levels, man! Damn, is this for real or what?” I was looking at my reflection in the glass window when I chanced a wall calendar, and it was showing 2017 instead of 2019 that I had just completed my gig in Hyde Park in front of 65,000 hardcore fans and supporters!
“I don’t have my mobile phone, I don’t have a single penny, and I am wearing this weird pair of clothes that seemed to be some sort of fashion right now since nearly every youngster are wearing them!” I was observing my surroundings and I discovered that I was wearing a blue round neck t-shirt with a big yellow smiley in front of it, a pair of blue jeans and blue sneakers.
Is this what I called fashion, earlier on? Let me take back my words! This is not fashion, you jerk! This is called a gang-related kind of wear to distinguish which street gang they represent and right now I belonged to a street gang with a big yellow smiley in front of my t-shirt!
Street gang? Smiley face t-shirt? And everyone is wearing the same kind of clothes as I am. Is this some kind of code of decadence to show which caste someone belongs to and had to wear the same kind of clothes to denote that they are an outcast or something?
“GOD!!! I need some answers now!” I screamed in my head as I thought of the next few days in this weird world and I hoped to wake up as soon as possible and get back to where I should be at this moment!
“System activated. Host: Matthew Watkins has just summoned GOD. There is no GOD here in MMORPG – Popstars! There are only players and NPC here. What can I do for you, Matthew?”
The female robotic voice sounded again in my head, and I really can’t find the connection between that voice and my head as well as my body right now. Everything seemed surreal, and I cannot distinguish which is real and which is not.
“How do I talk to you? Do I speak out the words like a normal conversation would or think about the questions, and you would be answering me telepathically?”
I felt like a stupid fool as I talked to the female robotic voice while facing the lamppost in the middle of nowhere!
“You can call me Sue. I am the system that would help you gain your fame and wealth in this MMORPG – Popstars! You need not talk openly, but you could talk to me discreetly in a telepathic manner. Besides, you are the only one here that has this system that can converse with you right now. The rest of the players here are the standard run of the mill characters.”
“Alright, Sue. Maybe you can answer me this. What the hell I am doing out here in the first place?”
“Please refrain from using profanity, or else the system would shut down for 2 hours before you could utilise me again. So try once more to ask what you wanted to know.”
“Where is this place, and what am I doing here?”
“This is MMORPG – Popstars! And you are part of this game, you live in it, you breathe in it. This game is the exact re-enactment of your real life.”
“If I am not mistaken, this is where you started, and this is where you need to start on how to rebuild our career from Day One right until the time you had been transported here. How you come to this place, I myself do not have the answer since I was created, the same manner as you.”
“Even though this is a game, but you could get sick or even die from it that would end your life and career, just like in real life.”
“Holy f*****g s**t! This is a game, and I am living in one? Who is controlling this character? Damn it! If I die, then I would die for real also! Right now, I am penniless, how the hell am I going to survive in this world? Get me out of this place, ASAP!”
I screamed in my head as I exasperatedly was looking for the answers that I needed most. Right now I am not sure which is real and which is not but the game mechanics did mention that if I could get sick and could die and that means I need to find a place to stay, food to eat and work to earn those badly needed quids. But in the meantime, it would better for me to head home. That’s where I could find my parents, and they might be able to provide me with answers that I needed!
“This system will shut down after the host had repeatedly used profanity and would reactivate once again after 2 hours. This served as a warning to the host and the shut down would be double the next time host had violated once more.”
“Oh s**t! No, don’t shut down yet. I have some other questions that I need to ask. Wait, don’t go yet. Wait! Oh, f**k!” I desperately wanted the system not to go offline right after providing me with some answers and yet I need to discover more from the system. Right now, I feel like a rat that had been trapped in the corner and had nowhere else to go!
The system did go offline after I had called its name again and decided that it would have to wait 2 more hours before it comes online again.
I saw someone walking down, and I asked, “Excuse me, sir, could I use your mobile phone for a minute because I simply cannot find mine. I need to call someone up urgently.”
The stranger looked at me and decided not to pass the mobile phone to me but instead offered to dial in the number that I wished to call.
“Here is the number, it is my mobile phone, and I dropped it somewhere. The number is +44 7911 xxxxxx” I said as the stranger helped me to key in the number and pressed the call button.
“The number you are trying to reach is invalid. Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep.” That was the mobile number that I was trying to get hold to.
“Please sir, could you try another number? It is my parents’.” The stranger obliged to render his assistance, and once again he opens the dialer as I said, “The number is +44 2925 xxxxxx”
The stranger switched his mobile phone to loudspeaker mode so I could hear the phone connect once again. “The number you are trying to reach is invalid. Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep.”
“What in the world’s damnation is happening?!?!”
- Writer
