Open - Reflections of Days Past | Page 2

Sean seemed assertive at the idea of the tour, so Gwain gingerly followed along his lead. As they arrived to the first building, he changed mental schemes to the new part of the story. To think of arms and legs, and torso and chest, having a massive body-ache altogether... Huff! He didn't know if traumatic. But painful? A hell lot.

Now he could pity Sean just a little.

When they arrived to the first massive building, a couple of kids playing tag made Gwain step to aside. Geez, darned brats. Real or fake, always messing into others' ways.

"Ow. The social hub?"

If he didn't say much else, it was because the lenghty hours he had spend there in previous experiencies.

 

At the sight of the kids, Sean's face turned a bit fearful and he stepped back. "I forgot to tell you how it related to me being scared..." He shook his head. "If you die, there are consequences. For example, you could get arachnophobia if you die to a spider. What happened to me was that I got an irrational fear of small creatures... Which happens to include children." He sighed. "I heard you could pay it off, but I haven't been able to get the money for it. Okay, any questions about the inn?"

 

Sean didn't immediately reply to his idle question, but he did sheep back as the kids continued their way to the door. When the little brats were seen no more, Sean himself seemed to find the situation so foolish he explained to Gwain the whole of the issue.

The elf now made sense of the whole pieces of the puzzle and his body compassionated in an startling internal cringe.

"No." And as he proceeded to go accompany him to the next place, he added." But hey, wait. I heard those kind of mechanics were forbidden in VR a while ago. Doesn't it mean this mean this whole game is illegal?"

 

Sean sprouted a dumbfounded look. "What do you mean? You get money by doing quests and use it to pay off the consequences. What's illegal about that? Also, I just noticed you asked a question, and I'm honestly not sure." He sighed. "Okay, next is the... Wait, I actually don't know much about this town, all I did here was go here."

 

As Gwain had followed Sean a few steps away from the main inn entrance, he halted as the other did and blew a raspberry.

"Jesus, then don't say you're gonna be a tour guide."

But then it was clear he didn't care about those matters anymore. Gwain soon relaxed, maybe partly so as to not get the Sean anxious, and tried to change the engines towards the prior theme.

"But no, dude, I say in real life. Like, think a minute outside the world of Terrasphere." said Gwainedhel. "If it's true this game's got a mechanic that makes players get severe mental trauma after death, that's going against the VR regulations of current games in our world. Then how come this game is still running? Doesn't it mean we're playing a game developed by, let's say, cybernetic criminals?"

 

Sean became even more confused. "Did I ever say I got traumatized? The mechanics don't affect real life, my neighbor has a cat." He shrugged, a smug look on his face. "So... Where do you want to go?" He looked around. "This place is just as confusing to me."

 

Well, so the fear didn't transfer to real life, hm? That was a relief, thought Gwain. But even so, to hear of a videogame that brought immersion to such limits...

"No. Not exactly those words. But from developing a phobia to a trauma there's not much of a difference." He said as he slided a finger on the air, summoning the prompts of a menu. "Uhuh? Let's see. Next thing I wanted to do is to get ammo for my weapon."

As he spotted the light corner where the real world clock exhibited, his heart shrank.

"Oh my God! It's super late in my country!" He yelled. Just as if he was late in the game too, he moved his hands frantically andd fastened the carcaj's by his shoulder. "This is awful. I got to be in school in four hours and wake one before to get in line. I'd better get my head outta here before my mother wakes up." Fumbling chaotically between Settings, Languages and whatnot, he waved with one hand and the other repeatedly smashed the "Log out" button. "Thanks for showing me the way now. See ya!"

Just in the spot that occupied, a message was left: <<Gwainedhel>> has gone offline.

 

As Sean was about to bring his new friend to the ammo store, they started panicking. "Wait, why are you...?" He shrugged. "Won't question it. See ya sometime." He leaned against the wall of the building and stared out into nothingness. So, what now? He sort of just waited for something interesting to happen.