[VRMMO] Dead One

"..."

"Okay... Let me get this straight." – said Shota Ono.

"Who.... What the hell do you think did it?"

"I don’t fucking know!" – replied Yosuke with confused expression.

"I mean, logically speaking my capsule was turned on by itself 2 times in a row AND I was forcefully kicked out of the game!"

"This doesn’t seems to be something JUST anybody could do."

"There was no history whatsoever about the game ever being hacked as well... So, the chances of that being somebody from the company are extremely high."

"But still... What I felt back then wasn’t freaking normal!"

"I would had freaking just dismissed on the spot if I was just tired or freaking drunk, but twice? TWICE?! While I wasn’t drunk or tired?!"

"And not only that, I was outside the capsule back then!"

"..."

"I know... How crazy this sounds."

"Heck! I don’t fucking believe myself!"

"I’ve fucking spent two whole days just thinking about this bullshit, trying to be logical with this bullshit!"

"Hahahahahah! You fucking hear me!? Two whole fucking days!"

"I’ve tried using logic!"

"Just fucking reality."

"Facts and all stupid shit that makes FUCKING sense!"

"I didn’t fucking believed this was something supernatural."

"I’ve thought somebody was just FUCKING with me."

"..."

"But those... THINGS?"

"I wasn’t fucking imaging those... They were fucking real.... But how?"

"Does the capsule have some freaking hidden ability to somewhat replicate the in-game effects in the people in real life without them knowing?" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"How did the capsule turned on when I was specifically ’nearby’?"

"I will just said that somebody from company was spying on me, probably tracking me via my phone or some shit."

"But that feeling?"

"That presence?"

"And that fucking weird thing from back then?"

"..."

"I know I sound crazy... Hell! None of this bloody make sense! No matter how I think about this."

"But this ain’t fucking normal!"

"Do you all fucking hearing me?"

"I’m fucking talking like a madman that lost all his shit."

"..."

"So...."

"With that being said..."

"What the fuck?"

"..."

".."

"Okay... Let us.... Can we have a moment?" – asked Luis as he grabbed his head.

"To organize thoughts? Sure.... Honestly, considering what kind of bullshit I was speaking, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of you thought I went crazy or something." – said Yosuke as everybody then began discussion up hearing what the man said.

"..."

"What do you think sis?" – asked Kamil.

"Hm.... He is crazy in game... He is mad and shit.... But he isn’t completely insane or anything." – said Jarzyna with mixed look on her face.

"Yeah... I think the same thing. He was also completely sane all this time. It didn’t looked like he was lying at all either... And he himself didn’t believed himself from the way he said everything." – replied Kamil.

"But still... Can the capsule affect us outside the game?"

"Okay... That is fucking creepy." – said Shota Ito as he and the rest of Lil’s group held their meeting.

"Is somebody from the company really spying on us?"

"If that is the case, then I get why he gotten scared." – said Junko Ono.

"He was worried about us all."

"..."

"You knew him for the longest... Did he ever acted like this?" – asked Shoto Ono.

"...No... He.... Hm.... He is serious." – replied Miteki Kato.

"He is realistic person and everything."

"Honestly, when we met few times and talked about the game, he said himself that he still couldn’t really figure out how they are putting our minds in virtual world.... However, he always talked about realism."

"But for him to panic when he mentions weird thing he was talking about? This wasn’t like him."

"Honestly speaking? I’m scared myself now seeing his reaction." – said visible disturbed beautiful woman as she stared at the nervous man who was just leaning against a tree.

"Whatever happened to him was by no means fake.... But what exactly happened to him in the first place?"

"..."

"..."

(No... He ain’t mad... Nor he seems to be lying.) – thought Luis as he was by himself.

(I’ve seen a shit tons of crack heads or alcoholic bastards when I was still doing shady deals in order to survive.)

(I saw all sort of stupid and crazy people.... But he ain’t one of them.)

(Not only that, he doesn’t seems to be on influence.)

"..."

(He is double faced.)

(He can hide his freaking sadistic nature of a "ClownFrog", to the point you would never think that he is him in the game.)

(But he "here" and in the "game"?)

(Nah... Things are not adding up.)

(He ain’t crazy.)

(He was really worried about us and he did said realistic stuff as well, about somebody possible tracking him phone to know when to activate the pod.)

(He even himself doesn’t seem to believe what he just said.... But at the same point... I think he couldn’t find a logical answer behind what happened?)

"..."

(For me... I don’t believe in magic and shit.)

(But whatever happened to him was by no means normal.)

"..."

"Okay... So.... I have no clue what to say." – said Mika.

"Yeah... Me as well." – said Chiyo.

"I mean... Common!" – whispered Mika in order to not be heard by Yosuke.

"Did he went freaking crazy?"

"..."

"No.... He is trying to protect us.... He never lied or made anything up... And he even wanted us to get away from him once he told us the truth." – replied Chiyo.

"He never lied when it came down to very serious stuff."

"..."

"So... You are saying what he ’felt’ was real?" – said Mika as she made visible disturbed expression.

"..."

"Did he lied to you ever?" – asked Chiyo who also seemed visible disturbed.

"Did he ever deceived you or anything like that?"

"..."

"Fuck." – said Mika as the group continued their private talk for a bit... Before then all heading back to Yosuke.

"..."

"I.... Have no fucking idea what happened." – said Yosuke.

"Before you ask, I don’t do fucking drugs."

"I’m the man of logic and not some ’power of anime and friendship’ bullshit kind of guy."

"I don’t fucking think magic is real nor I’m really religions person."

"..."

"But I tried thinking logically about the situation and you already heard what I’ve said...."

"But what about you all?"

"..."

"How many people know about this, beside us?" – Luis spoke up first before anybody else.

"Non." – replied tired looking Yosuke.

"I didn’t contacted anybody or even contacted anybody from company."

"Since I didn’t knew if anybody was involved from their side or not."

"I still don’t know.... I don’t know if I’m just going crazy and somebody was really pretending to be Sloth.... Or there is some real unnatural shit going on." – said Yosuke as Miteki Kato helped to translate what he was saying in English into Japanese word so the others would understand.

"..."

"..."

"Okay. I will be fucking voice here once again." – said Mika as she stepped up.

"Translate me please here lady." – said Mika as she turned towards Miteki.

"..."

"This guy... Never lied."

"He never deceived us and he was honest with us all time with us."

"Never lied and was always serious."

"And he was scared of our safety as he didn’t wanted us to get involved at first."

"He is smart and shit as well."

"..."

"So... With that basic info said.... Quick question."

"Who don’t believe him here? Raise your hand."

"..."

"..."

Nobody did.

Nobody raised their hands.

Everybody gathered shown their trust into the man and his story.... But at the same time, it was very clear.

Fear and confusion were very present in every single person gathered.

They didn’t knew what to say or how to act.

And what Mika said just sealed the deal.

Everybody agreed on the spot to trust the man... They knew they can trust him.... But then came a problem.

His weird story that even he didn’t understood.

The part of the story the people understood as well as his own suspicious.... But the part about "presence" was the thing that threw everything off... Just as did the man.

"..."

"Everybody trusts you." – said Luis.

"We know you ain’t bastard that would bullshit some random shit like this out of blue."

"..."

"And that is the fucking thing..."

"Please tell me this is some sort of prank?"

"Some sort of Japanese trick you do to the guest from foreign nations?"

"..."

"Yeah.... No." – replied Yosuke.

"Still, even though you all seem to trust me, do all of you even trust what the hell I’ve said?"

"I mean, I don’t!"

"Heck! I’ve tried using logic, but it ain’t working!"

"..."

"So... What do you all think?"

"..."

"Well.... Let’s maybe try to understand what the hell happened first." – said Kamil.

"The current main suspect is the company behind Avriones, which created the game and the virtual world."

"The Sky Seer."

"They are behind everything when it comes to the game."

"Yes.... They are the main suspects I can think of." – said Yosuke.

"Ability to remotely turn on the capsule and give me access to the game when the serwer was completely frozen."

"And ability to kick me out of the game."

"You need ’authority’ of some kind.... An authority which only those related to the game serwer should have."

"Like an admin or some other people who have special privileges to mess with the game."

"Yes. That is correct." – said Kamil.

"However.... Was there even an instance ever of Admin or somebody of somewhat similar rank appearing in the game?"

"No.... I don’t think there was.... If anything, if there was even a single bug in this game, considering how much hype this thing has.... A single bug could had caused wave of news to spread."

"We are going into that game."

"Bug never happened.... But what if one were to appear?"

"What people think would happened if they were to encounter bug to them while they are in the game?"

"The fact that there were no worries whatsoever happening.... Means that the bug never occurred in the first place... Like ever."

"So does that mean that this was the first time that the person of authority interacted with the game?"

"Well... There is also the question of IF it was the first time." – said Yosuke.

"What if all the True Sins and True Virtues are controlled by people with special in game authority?"

"..."

"Then again... There was this stuff with Sloth."

"She felt the same... Yet completely different."

"The way she acted was... Also, the same?"

"Was that really Sloth the NPC I’ve talked about? Or was it somebody pretending to be her?"

"But also that weird ’feeling’.... What was it?"

"Yeah... That thing." – said Chiyo as she grabbed her arms.

"You called it presence, right?"

"Like, a presence you feel of a person or-"

"Pretty much... It." – said Yosuke.

"When it first appeared, I’ve thought somebody was inside of my apartment back then without me knowing."

"I mean, you are all alone and then you feel somebody behind you out of nowhere?"

"..."

"Yeah.... Honestly, before we talk about their objective, I think we should find out something." – said Chiyo.

"What the hell was ’presence’?"

"Whatever happened to Yosuke back then wasn’t in game."

"Did the capsule somehow ’attacked’ him?"

"Like it made him have some sense from the game appear on him in real life?"

"In both of the cases, you felt the presence coming from the capsule, correct?"

"So does that mean the capsule has some sort of hidden function that was never officially mentioned?"

"..."

"But how would that work?" – said Shota Ito.

"Look, sorry. But I don’t buy it."

"If I understand it correctly, the machine NEEDS to be connected to us in order for us to feel anything."

"That is how it works, right?"

"Just checking, it wasn’t smell, hearing or sight? Anything of those things?"

"No.... Just.... Presence." – said Yosuke.

"..."

"Right.... And this... Part is bothering me." – said Shota Ito.

"How would the machine do it without being connected?"

"..."

"Yeah... This is creepy." – said Shota Ono.

"Are..."

"..."

"Are we sure that the capsule was the thing giving off the presence?"

"What else would give it the fuck off then?!" – said pissed off Mika.

"I mean, common!"

"We all know that the capsule is somehow behind it all!"

"Maybe it messes with our sense and shit!"

"Maybe that thing was never safe to begin with?" – said Mika as everybody got concern look on their faces.

"..."

"Look.... I honestly.... I don’t fucking clue what is going on." – said Mika.

"If anything, I’m starting to get really scared and paranoid here... Pretty much all of us are."

"Heck! Fuck you!" – said Mika right in Yosuke face.

"Why the fuck are you trust worth!?"

"WHY?!"

"If it wasn’t it, I would think that you just went crazy because of the game!"

"Just.... Why?"

"..."

"I’m sorry...." – replied Yosuke.

"Lay it off him mate." - said Junko Ono as she stepped between the two.

"You can’t blame him for telling us that.... Nobody can.... If he didn’t told us, who knows what sort of danger we could had ended up with?" – said Junko Ono.

"Still... I can’t say I’m scared myself."

"Pretty much all of us are using capsules right now."

"Does that mean that thing can somehow ’attack’ us outside the game? Attack us in real world?"

"I don’t know." – said Yosuke.

"Heck! I don’t know if whatever I felt back then was even from the game in the first place!"

"You are hearing me?"

"I’m fucking talking crazy here!"

"...Not only that.... There is also THAT thing... Which Sloth tried to save me from."

"What was it?"

"And why I thought I may just die... Like for real "REAL" if it were to caught me?"

"..."

"..."

"Maybe we should think about the whole goal thing first?" – spoke up Victoria suddenly.

"I-I mean.... The goal... The request."

"It doesn’t make sense, right?"

"But again... They may give us some form of hint... Maybe there is something going on with them that we don’t understand or doing ’wrong’, per say?"

[1 – Continue gathering items from the Forgotten World / Forgotten Time.]

[2 – Hunt down and eliminate the ’Benefactor’.]

[3 – Continue developing the power of the sin or virtue of choosing, just make them grow.]

"We are doing all of those things.... So why whoever was behind Sloth would request us to the things we are already doing?"

"Well, we are not exactly hunting ’benefactor’, since we don’t know where to look... Heck, nobody does."

"But he is our enemy."

"But again...."

"Why the hell requests were even made in the first?"

"..."

"Actually.... There is something that I need to point at." – said Yosuke.

"And this is quiet important."

"The third request."

"It maybe related to the sins and virtues hidden special effect."