Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

012.6 | Discrepancy

It has been one week and three days when he woke up.

Adrian opened his eyes without suspense and stared at the bleak-colored ceiling with muddled eyes. White thick curtains with a dotted pattern covered the window wholly, only exposing bits of the leaking sunlight. The air-conditioner blew cold air that slowed down the time, yet, the deflected warmth coming from the windows made the temperature lukewarm. 

He slowly moved his head towards the source of light and watched it with little interest. In his eyes, the simple light contained particles of specks that are floating ever so slowly. When he had enough, he sat up abruptly. He scanned the familiar surroundings in one swoop and ended on his right hand where two tubes are attached. 

The attending nurses that are busily monitoring the medical devices suddenly heard some movement. It wasn't loud so they thought it was just their colleague moving loudly. However, when the machine that is measuring the patient's vitals started to beep in warning, they quickly went to alert mode. 

Just before they could check the patient, Adrian is already walking in their direction languidly with one of his hand dripping with fresh blood. He didn't look bothered at all as he calmly asked the nurses if there are any food for him to eat. the shock only lasted for a while as the medical practitioners immediately restrained Adrian back to his bed. 

One nurse called for the attending doctor while the others started connecting the tubes back to his body. Adrian let them do whatever they want but he still keep on asking when he will be able to eat food. Getting ignored for a long time, he did not insist but instead opened his terminal to order food online. 

The terminal had fallen to hibernation when he went to coma. It is an automatic safety procedure coming from the microcomputer to protect the host from further damage caused by additional charges brought by the machine's operation. It only retains the basic function of detecting the body's vital signs and brain activity. 

The doctors use their patient's terminal to accurately diagnose their condition and see if there are any complications that were not seen during the testing process.  

Adrian is waiting for his terminal to completely boot up when the doctor arrived in the room. It caused the doctor to flair up. Before Adrian could explain, the doctor already halted the terminal's booting process and ordered the other nurses to help him lie back down. He just woke up from his coma and it is not advisable to strain his brain considering his condition. 

Adrian helplessly surrendered as the medical doctors tested his condition.

It's already noon when all the examination is done. Adrian whined to his nurses that he is hungry thus he needed food. The nurses are already familiar with Adrian's antics and told him that he is being fed under the tubes so the hunger that he is feeling is just psychological. Adrian did not accept it quickly as he wilted on his bed.

The results of his tests will come out in the afternoon. Adrian could not wait for a long time so he asked the doctors to at least let him use his terminal. The preliminary results were fine so they allowed him to use it. Adrian opened his Disboard account to see the stuff that he missed while he is sleeping. The information and updates are posted on the specified channel for announcements. 

He found out that since that day the game suddenly become nonoperational. Both the DTO and VR players could not enter on their accounts that would always stop to the endless loading opening page. The administrators apologized for the sudden shutdown of the game and told everyone that they are currently fixing the servers - just be patient and it'll be back in no time. 

Adrian scrolled to see more information but the same words are posted. He moved to the general chat where the players are lively discussing some random stuff. Seeing that nobody seems to be talking about the game's sudden shutdown, he moved to his guild's channel. 

The guild channel is filled with pins coming from Xavier and Aries. As of now, only two to three people are chatting. Adrian is not interested with it so he logged out to check his email. Upon opening it, a number of notification erupted. Most of them are coming from a single person. 

"I am hungry," Adrian muttered when a nurse walk pass his bed. 

The nurse wasn't softhearted and just ignored his taunting. Adrian could not do anything in his state so he just returned on reading his email. A certain newsletter of current events caught his attention. Since he had been gone for so long, it is important for him to read the news daily to catch up. 

The newsletter contained the highlighted information that caused a stir around the world. Most of them are celebrities marrying their partners or a superstar caught cheating by their wife. Adrian ignored the entertainment section and went over to browse the weather forecasts and public news. 

The weather forecast is still as chaotic as usual. The sky still have the colorful aurora blooming representing the left over toxins in the atmosphere. The weather changes are also quite interesting as one part of the Earth is having snow in an untimely season. It seems that they will be having winter in this year.

He remained in the weather section for a while to pick up interesting things before moving over to the public news. Usually, there are only boring stuff written in this section with most of them about neighbors fighting over some overgrown plant in each other lawns or who has the prettiest dog collar. Adrian expected the same information. 

Yet, he is still on the second article when a foreboding feeling rose in his heart. 

News of accidents triggered by unknown wild animals become rampant. Many people are injured while a few numbers of deaths are counted. The sudden rise of casualties caught the attention of masses making the security around the city to become more tight. Adrian scratched the back of his neck and froze. 

He ended his readings then opened his contact list. There are not a lot of people in the list so he immediately found it and initiated a video call. It only took a few rings before the other line answered the call. Two identical faces of different genders appeared before him, both of them looking at Adrian with confused expressions. 

Adrian remembered that he did not give his personal contact number to the twins when they are handing out their contact numbers so it is normal for the two to be wary. Of course, the twins could choose not to answer but the fact that they were contacted through their personal terminals proved that the other side must have known them. 

Contact numbers in this era is quite unique since it could only be gotten through their terminals. The case of sending a wrong message is impossible since the message has to be encrypted before it can be sent.

Adrian waved his hand as a greeting. Upon hearing his voice, the attitude of the twins changed. They looked at Adrian from head to down through the virtual call and confirmed that this is their idol, Clover! He looked a bit different from the game and in real life. He looks better in personal. 

"Older brother?" Marlene called out. 

"Yes, it is me," Adrian did not deny it. 

Energy surged up Marlene that made her jump around. Marcus is a bit calm but anyone could see the glitter of admiration coming from his eyes. He moved closer to get a clearer view of Adrian. That's when he noticed the clothes Adrian is wearing.

"You're hurt?" Marcus asked. Marlene stopped messing around and looked at Adrian together with Marcus. She saw the top parts of an hospital gown. 

"Brother? You're in a hospital?" Marlene frowned. "You were gone for many days. Did you get in an accident?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," Adrian brushed off their nonsense. "Where are you now? Were you guys in school?"

"We are at home. We just finished our classes in the morning," Marlene replied. 

"How about your parents?" They shook their head in unison telling him that both parents are not around the house. "Well, that's good. C'mon and visit this elder brother."

"Do you need us for something?" It is unusual for Clover to suddenly want them to come over so they must be doing something. 

"Yes, I will tell you once you're in my house," Adrian nodded honestly. "Anyways, I will have my butler to call your parents. My people will arrive in your house to escort you."

The twins agreed without any questions. They chatted for some more since the twins are curious about Clover's identity. Adrian introduced himself naturally and is now given with a new title as brother Ian. They only ended the chat when the said bodyguards arrived on the twins house.

Closing the call, the contact interface emerged. It showed the recent calls and missed called with the numbers indicating the amount of interaction. The top player is under the name of Aries Sagan with a call record of fifty plus missed calls and one hundred plus answered calls. 

That's right, the only player whom he had contact in real life is Aries. 

Though, they had never seen each other. Their interaction is limited to just calls and text. Aries did not mind it either and retained in this kind of relationship. Seeing the effort the other person made, Adrian had a rare touch of conscience as he dialed the number for the first time. 

It only took a second for the other line to answer. Adrian had it in video call to see the other person. It's just that the moment the video call connected, a horrible scene appeared in place of the person. 

Aries must have only pressed the answer button by reflex when his terminal rang so he did not know that it was Adrian who contacted him. He is stuck in place, watching the rolling vehicle to run over in his place. Both of his hands are cold while his legs are stiff. He wanted to move but his body refused to listen to him. 

This is the first time he felt real danger. 

If this is in game, Aries won't have this delayed reaction. He has complete confidence in his skill despite his race. He would not hesitate to face the danger, unafraid of death. But things are different in real life. In here, he could lose his life because of a wrong step. 

He could die. 

He is afraid to die. 

The vehicle is getting closer. Aries did not have much faith and just cowered down with his arms covering his head. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact. However, the expected pain did not come. Aries could not understand what is happening so he looked up to check his status. 

The ice cream truck still came as what he imagine. He could clearly see the bottom of the hover car that has been scrapped by being dragged on the ground. It is only a few inches from his nose and probably would have broken his head if not from the thin film of protection surrounding him. Aries is familiar with this small barrier. It seems like-

"What are you doing? Go out from there!" A familiar voice woke him up. 

Aries located the source of the voice which is on his terminal. He expected to see a blank screen with a telephone icon but is surprised to see a person. The shoulder length messy hair and black-orbed irises reminded him of someone. He looked up to see the name of the caller and found out that it was him.

"..."

"A-adrian? You calle-"

"What are dawdling about? Get out from there!" Adrian exclaimed. 

"Yes, I am going to-"

The film that protected his body is weak so it didn't withstand the ice cream truck's weight and collapsed. It landed to his body that flattened half of his lower torso. A blood curdling scream resounded that woke up the people on the side lines. Someone quickly called for an ambulance. 

Aries had lost consciousness. When Adrian arrived on the scene, Aries is already placed on the stretcher. Luckily, only his bones were damaged by being flattened by the truck. The paramedic that is setting up the restoration machine noticed the arrival of a new person. Seeing from his clothes, they could tell that this guy just got out from a hospital. 

Adrian sat beside Aries. He checked the other person's vitals using the terminal and found out that Aries is really fine. He then waited to the sidelines watching the people to busy around. He did not dare to leave until things got handled properly.

As he is eating food bought from the side vendor, Frass called him. The worrywart is nagging again. After the short call, he sent a picture of him and Aries, revealing their sorry state. Frass no longer answered. Adrian could imagine the wrath he will be facing later.