Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

014.1 | The Conference

The affected people are directly sent to the hospital. The broadcast of the game ended with the scene of ambulances rushing to the hospital. Without any further notice, all the channels quickly transitioned from a black screen to whatever they are showing. The way it shifted almost made people think what they saw is just a hallucination.

But it is true.

It really happened.

The first thing people carry out after watching such program is to check their social media accounts or changed the channel to current events to hear the news. The news media that only appears in the schedule suddenly popped up showing the efficiency of the broadcasting channels. The content of the news worldwide is about the bizarre game event that happened in an art school.

All private information of the students were redacted. Only the adults and the name of the school appeared. One of the professors that managed to get out from his psychological shock explained the details of the events. He is however weak, terribly pale, and lying to the bed with tubes of different purposes attached to his body.

It is relatively an unusual sight. In some people, it is their first time seeing a person so sickly.

Even though everyone saw the game play from the start to the end, it has a different effect if described from the perspective of the person in distress. The professor is already on his four hundred and had been teaching in the school for more than two hundred years. His ability to adapt rapidly to the situation highlighted his calm disposition.

The initial part of the interview is just per functionary. The professor wasn't able to see everything, so most of his words are his thoughts during the game and opinion to the students that wisely defeated the game. The second part of the interview is all about his feeling when he got his eyes stolen.

"It was extremely painful," the professor confessed. He started crying, wiping the tears that are tempting to flow down. "I thought I was going to die. Or if I did, I will become blind."

There is a way to restore people's sight as long as the eyeballs are still present. In the professor's state, even if they could save his life, they could not guarantee they could return his sight. The tissues in the eyes are quite complex as compared to the other muscles in the body.

The regeneration technology will not work since there is nothing to restore once the essential organ is gone.

Nobody mocked the professor for crying. They thought the professor was actually handling the situation better. The other professor is on a more unfortunate state. The doctors said they had woken up but has to proceed to a psychological ward for a follow up treatment.

The adults are acting like this - how about the students?

They are not allowed to disturb the students since they are still under the protection of the federation so they went ahead looking for the doctors. However, to their surprise, the students are in fact doing greater than the adults. The doctors even emphasized that they only needed a few energy bars to restore their health and they are good to go.

The reporters became more intrigued.

But they could no longer ask for more private information so they shifted their attention to some known medical specialists to ask about their opinion. One psychologist who had lived for eight hundred years stated the stimulus of seeing something terrible was quite high, however, will only affect greatly on seeing it the first time.

It means there is a diminishing value. This not only works on terrible objects but also to the pleasant places. Someone living in the seaside will never have the same feeling of excitement of witnessing the sunset for the first time.

The professors have the typical reaction in response to fear. The one with the strange reactions are the students. The specialist assumed the students must have seen the creature many times before since their reaction towards the terrible monster is faint. There is even more fear in seeing spiders.

So, where did the students see the creature?

Where is the creature from?

This question leads the whole world to the gaming section of the Star Network. The noisiest channel would be the one owned by the Foster Gaming Company. The general chat is filled with questions and inquiries from players while tagging the administrators and the guild leaders.

Some expressed their worries while the others are discussing about the game event. Non-members could only spectate but it is enough for them to understand the situation.

It seems that an event character from the game came out in the real world. As to why and how it happened, nobody knows. They only speculated it is related to the sudden shut down of the game a week ago. A number of people thought it was reasonable while some would disagree. A rather enthusiastic member opened a conspiracy thread to the channel.

While everyone are busy searching for answers, the people that know the answer is currently having a meeting. The leading player of the game, under the guise of his ever so wonderful hospital gown and slippers, unceremoniously contacted the one hundred participants of the beta test. He opened a virtual conference immediately after the game had ended.

The conference hall is set-up similar to a court room. Adrian is seated on the highest seat since he is the admin of the conference. The other chairs beside him are reserved for the holders of the nerve gears. While the other ninety players are to be seated on the audience chairs.

It is the first time for Clover to request a meeting, so everyone who are free immediately entered the room. All of them are students anyway, so most of them are on their homes. The others that could instantly enter the meeting are either in transit or performing some significant job like Rios and Jung.

It merely took five minutes to get half of the population. Adrian set the room to have free assign chairs so everyone could sit with their respective guild. There is not much noise, just a few chatter and voices slipping. They have to wait for others to arrive, so they squandered their free time to gossip.

Most of the gossip is all about Alexander's (Allen) and Damian's (Melon) game. They discussed their tactics and commented how they are limited without their game character. However, they did not challenge their credibility. If they were in their guild leader's position facing the scary creature, surely, they had panicked and got their eyes stolen in an instant.

The other side of the gossip line is about the person sitting under the name of Clover.

It is their first time seeing Clover's real life form and they are considerably surprised. His appearance in the game is vaguely similar, however, some details are more prominent in real life. It is substantially accurate on his naturally outlined eyes and thick eyebrows. They are more surprised that Clover owned black hair and dark irises.

Clover's in game character somewhat looks childish with their height and smoothened features. His appearance in real life has the same height measurement, but he never looked childlike. Alternatively, there is the feeling of being scholarly yet rebellious. He possesses a contradicting disposition.

Courageous players went forward to ask about Clover's information. They had been fascinated by his appearance and thought that it is a chance to foster a connection with him. Clover wasn't stingy and accommodated them very well. He bears a ghastly appearance due to his clothing and state but there is warmth coming from his gentle voice.

He feels kind, gentle, and approachable.

Of course, it is the persona that people will invariably assume on people issuing them kindness for the first time. If ever Aries will know their thoughts, he would surely lecture them about the real level of Clover's attitude. Alexander is harsh but Clover could be harsher.

Speaking of Aries, he has mostly recovered his body. His legs and feet are back, but he still has to rest for a few days before he is allowed to walk. Fortunately, the characters in the conference can be manipulated in many ways therefore enabling him to walk around the conference hall with no worries.

He arrived just in time to see people flocking around Adrian. He looked around to search for people and did not find the people that are always hanging out with Adrian.

The Sora party is not present yet.

He contacted them and instantly obtained their status. Xavier is still out, and Frass have to assist the brother-in-law with the procedures. Leon and Shin are in transit and would apparently enter after ten minutes. The twins seem to be still eating lunch and would only come after the meal. Lexa said she will be coming later.

It seems that Adrian's natural shield of people is not here to protect him.

Since they are out of commission, it is Aries' responsibility to oversee him - or so he thought. There is absolutely no need for Adrian to have anyone's protection. It's just that Aries is paranoid that people will get Adrian away from him. As a result, he stepped up and greeted the people with his most refreshing smile.

Like Adrian, Aries also demonstrate the talent in deceiving people.

The most attractive character in the game arrived under their eyes. They were now able to see Aries' real appearance that is way more better than his game character. The dimples and beauty mark under his eyes immediately caused the other players to be mesmerized.

"Hello, everyone," Aries greeted. "What is the occasion here?"

His fangirls and fanboys squealed in excitement. Aries is very approachable, so they weren't timid to respond to his question. They all admitted they were here to meet with Clover. They wanted to know his name become friends. Aries hummed gently then walked to the side of Adrian's chair.

"Our guild leader is really as famous as ever. Are you having fun?" Aries asked"

Adrian expressed his usual indifference that induced Aries to act like crying. The other players that are secretly shipping the two characters contained their excitement to consume the dog food. There is no clear relationship between the two people and only the guild leaders and a few closer friends knows about Aries' feelings towards the guild leader.

Of course, many players are suspicious and even regarded Aries as a henpecked husband. He remained the most attractive character in the game, but nobody dared to pursue him due to his entanglement with Clover.

Roderick (Rios-72) and Jung (Jung-55) arrived one after the other. They summoned their respective members to have a brief meeting. The people surrounding his Adrian dispersed that only left them standing. The twins arrived in this moment.

A genuine smile escaped from Adrian's lips as he saw the twins coming. He asked them if they already finished eating lunch. Aries found out that the twin has been staying in Adrian's house since three days ago while Adrian is still in the hospital. He relapsed two days ago and had to be sent to the ER for monitoring. He just woke up today.

"What are you planning to do?" Aries asked.

He leaned unto the podium with crossed arms and facing Adrian. The twins excused themselves to talk with their other friends that left the two alone. Adrian massaged his temples with a frown.

"Something is happening," he tiredly said. "I'm afraid we've triggered something bad."

Aries nodded in understanding. "What should we do?"

"I am not sure yet, but I am planning to visit the company. I have been trying communicating with the people there, but nobody is answering."

"Do you think something happened to them?"

"It is possible," Adrian slouched unto the chair. He placed his hands neatly on his abdomen. He is lying in the hospital bed in the real life looking at the ceiling listlessly. Aries could see the daze forming in his eyes.

"Don't worry, we will fix this," Aries walked closer to Adrian. He rested each of his hands to the armchairs locking Adrian in a close space. "I am here to help you fix it."

"Of course," Adrian snorted. "I would have thrown you away if you are useless."

They concluded the conversation in silence.

It took about thirty minutes for the one hundred players to arrive. Frass had seized the people in the hospital under his custody. Adrian had prompted him on what to do since they have to commence this meeting for their safety. He is not sure when he will have his relapse so they have to asses the situation now.

With a final verdict, Adrian opens the meeting after a concise introduction.