Private - Saving Private Sean, Part II

((Continuation from the previous thread of the same name, named Saving Private Sean. Everything would be set in the real world this time.))

Kieran found himself yet again at the bed where he was lying. It was quite a common sight in his virtual gaming life, glaring at the ceiling after a hard day's grinding for experience in the virtual world, his body sweating hard and rendered rusty after a long time being confined to the bed where he was lying. Most of the time he would try to move his joints first before standing up, but this time he had not much time to waste. Getting up to use the laptop, he then opened the BBS program to see if there were messages on the forum portion regarding the people trapped within the game. Fortunately there was such a forum, and so he typed what he knew about the incidents, and that he would rescue one person trapped within the game. Not waiting for the response, he hurriedly moved out of the bed, but it seemed that his leg muscles were not yet cooperating as he fell towards the parquet flooring. As he was there lying on the floor, he then contemplated about his relative weakness in this world. The Bradwynne Lambert that was active in every frontline of battle was never the same as the trendy but weak teenager known as Kieran Lambert, and those characters were worlds apart that they should be considered different personages. But now he would need to borrow that spirit of that fighter at the frontlines in order to save that person trapped within the game world. With great willpower that was borrowed from his virtual personage, he tried to stand up from the floor, and after quite an effort, he managed to stand, although his legs were still shaky from the shift of weight. After then jogging in place to gain control of his legs again, he then glanced at the laptop again, and as he saw another message, he then typed back. After that, he went to the bathroom to freshen himself from the great work in the virtual world, and to be prepared for the challenge in the real life. As he would think about it, how would he, a mere weakling with little experience in the real world due to his tender age, would make a difference in the real world. But then again, he remembered what he typed in the forum in the BBS.

Alternatively, we might as well think of everything as a quest anyway. Although if you die you can not respawn or reset the game. More fun if you think about it.

He just typed those lines in the forum, but he got no balls to apply it. Was he really just a keyboard warrior who can't back up what he just typed in the Internet? Eager to prove that wrong, he would push through this mission in real life. Whatever it takes.

After he had dried himself from the shower, he then checked again the BBS for new messages. Seeing yet another message, he then typed up a response to it, and then proceeded to dress himself into a set of clothes that he would customarily use to go outdoors. After that, he would read the BBS yet again, typing up a response that he would go to that place where the victim of the UI lock was living, and then, grabbing his phone to take note of the numbers of the two other players who promised to save that person, he then contacted a transport service to transport him to the place where the victim lived. He then moved outside towards the door of his house, waiting for any response from any transporter who happened to look into his request.

((Moving from Kieran's house in Girard Estate, Philadelphia, PA to where @Sean Poteitoku lived, for the reference of whoever will spice the thread.)

@Hanno Futaba @Raid

 

Hanno-... No, Brian's eyes opened as he slowly recovered his real life senses. Everything was dark until he took of his VR Adapter to place it on the nightstand and sitted on his bed.

A deep, but insecure breath. His hands closed and opened and he looked around his bedroom. He was completely alone, but nothing weird was happening. 'So I guess the consequences of dying in game don't affect real life. Yet.' Letting out a relif sigh, he stood up and walked to his bathroom to take a shower.

After taking a shower and drying himself, he grabbed his phone and his wallet and the house's keys. 'That dude is very carefree, I'm kind of worried he will just log on recklessly after we unplug him.' Brian considered as he looked at his wallet seeing that he still had plenty of spare money, so he decided to pass by a electronic shop to get a power timer before going to pennsylvania. It shouldn't take too long... Brian walked out of his house and locked the door, sending a message to his best friend saying he would be going out for some time. 'Heh, if I don't warn her, she will scold me a lot later. So done' A chill smile covered his face, he had to maintain his calm even if the situation was quite bad.

Walking for a while, he finally got to the electronic shop, where he looked for some power timers. He should buy one for himself later too, just in case something went wrong when he got to play Terrasphere. 'You never know when this will be useful. Bradwynne was sure wise to think on this way to deal with the problem.' He chuckled, grabbed a power timer and bought it. With the power timer in his bag, now it was time to go.

Getting to a long-distance bus station, he looked at the available buses and for his luck it wouldn't take too long until the next bus to philadelphia arrive. Paying his ticket, he walked to a platform and waited for the bus, humming a song to himself. 'I wonder if those two are on their way already...'

@Raid @Bradwynne

 

Zin opened his eyes just as he returned to reality. He sat up quickly ignoring the vertigo that came with doing so and began to remove the equipment. With his previous experiences with VR in several other games, Zin had become somewhat accustom to its momentary side effects. He frantically pulled out his phone and began to type down the address and numbers he had been repeating in his mind over and over. Fairly certain he had managed to get them right, Zin sighed and glanced up at the time on his phone. He clicked his tongue and sighed again, this was going to be a long day.

Zin hopped up and began to strip as he walked toward the bathroom. He would shower and then take off. Zin turned on the shower and allowed the water to soak him. As it did he opened his phone and began to thumb through his options for transportation. Finally selecting an option, Zin made the proper purchases and then set his phone aside to finish his shower.

The memories that Titanius had pulled out of him still sat in the back of his mind and as soon as he let his mind wander from his current task the flashes of his past would return. Zin shook his head and let out a shuddered sigh as he leaned his head against the wall of the shower.

"Focus. We're fine."

He breathed in and held it for a moment and then slowly exhaled. He repeated this several times and then continued his shower. There were much more pressing things to think about. Raid realized that he would almost certainly be older than Sean, to the point that it wouldn't be too hard to tell their age gap. He wondered how old the other two were. IF he had to guess, @Hanno Futaba would be closest to Sean's age, perhaps a high schooler, while @Bradwynne would be much older, perhaps Zin's age or a bit more.

Zin stepped out of the shower and dried himself with a towel and looked in the mirror. Zin was considerably tall standing at 6'2. His face, while clean shaven was clearly that of someone beyond childhood. At best he could pretend to be a person in their late teens but if Sean was much younger this would be a problem with pretending to be classmates. He grabbed his phone again and pulled up the numbers for Bradwynne and Futaba and texted:

Raid here, I may not be able to pass as a class mate of Sean's if he is too young, at best I'll pass as a mature High Schooler. Perhaps we should consider a different ruse. Immediate options I can think of are: Vague Friends, Online friends as first suggested by Bradwynne, or Club members of some sort. If you think of something let me know. I'll be heading that way now.

Raid set his phone aside and dressed himself. His first instinct was to dress somewhat mysteriously, to keep Raid's Image. But he decided against it, better he made a positive impression on Sean's parents to improve /their chances of succeeding here. So instead Zin opened his closet and looked around. After pulling out a few things he settled on a casual look. Simple pants, a blue long sleeved button up shirt, some black shoes and a kind smile. For the final touch he pulled out his glasses and put them on. He looked in the mirror as he finished, it was so far from Raid's aesthetic, but it would be okay.

With all of that taken care of, Zin then quickly gathered up his belongings and ran out the door.

 

Kieran waited for the car that he had hailed from the transport service app, but his mind was becoming very anxious about this matter of what will happen to a person who was trapped in the game if the plug was pulled from the machine. The lack of response from the BBS board that he was browsing was both worrisome and infuriating as he tapped his foot on the cemented porch of the house where he had stayed his whole life in. Was it really too serious that the people who knew it did not want to share what they knew to them? If that, damn them, there was a victim of this trap as of then, and he, who wanted to rescue the poor man, did not deem him worthy to know of that? Maybe he should see for himself what would happen. But still hoping he could extract some more information, he then entered the house yet again, to check whether the BBS had updated with the answers he wanted to have regarding the real-life condition of those trapped in the game.

The honking of the horn of the car that Kieran had hired was heard from where he was in: in the room where he was still waiting for the response of the people whi he thought might enlighten him with the situation at hand. As he heard the honking of the horn, and there was still no response from the BBS board, he felt disappointed as he moved outside of the house, locked the door, and then moved towards the car to open the door that led to the back seat. As the door opened, he quickly sat at the area right next to that door, and, as he closed it, the vehicle started to roll.

As he was looking at the dizzying scenery that he was viewing from the window of the door next to him, Bradwynne wondered what will really happen to those that had their UI destroyed. What was more, what will happen when they would be forcibly torn away from it in that condition. He knew that he had tried to do it before, but that was the time that he still had his UI. He did not know what will happen if not, and the lack of response from the BBS did not help him. Really, he would know once he would be there.

Although he knew that the distance between his house and Sean's house was not that far, it was still a long day's travel, and so, to relieve his boredom, he then decided to listen to a playlist of songs that he had saved on an online playlist app. And so, getting the cat-ear headphones that he always brought with him wherever he goes, he plugged it to his phone, and started to play the playlist while looking at the window when a text message alert startled him. It was from the person who controlled @Raid, saying that he might not be able to pass as a class mate of Sean's if he is too young, and at best he would just pass as a mature high schooler. He then suggested if they could introduce themselves as vague friends, online friends, or members of some club in Sean's school. Seeing something did interest him a bit about the choices, he then texted back to Raid, and to @Hanno Futaba as well:

Come to think of it, I was thinking about that sort, and was about to tell you that before you logged out. Well I do not know if Futaba will agree, but maybe we can pass on as Sean's club members? From the looks of it I might be younger than him. If Futaba will not, then maybe we pass on as internet friends as I once suggested.

He then waited on for Futaba's response as he then continued on listening to the playlist. Not long after, the car stopped at the front of Sean's house, and Kieran went out as the car then rolled away. He had paid the car owner the fare, and so he did not worry much. He then texted the two other people that he was already there, as he then waited for the two other people, sitting on the sidewalk while the music from his phone continued to blare from the cat-ear headphones.

 

Brian kept waiting for the bus, taking his time to reflect about a few things. What could have been the trigger to the UI's destruction? Was it something that Titanus did? No... It couldn't be, the other two mentioned something about how there was other persons with their UI destroyed before the battle against Titanus even begun.

Yes, just unplugging the person and saving them from the dire destiny of rotting on their beds while not being able to log out of the game or getting in a vegetative state on a hospital bed was a wonderful idea. But as important, or peharps even more important than that, it was finding the reason for why this was happening. This way they would be able to both avoid having people's UI gettting destroyed and they would also be able to find a way to fix this problem. After all, you need to find the source of the problem to be able to find a solution.

After all this thought, the bus finally arrived and Brian got in it. He sitted and stayed there, lost in thoughts before feeling his phone vibrating. When he opened the phone, he found out it was a messages from both @Raid and @Bradwynne. After reading it, he nodded.

"I can pass by being a club member easily. I'm only 20, and I look younger than my age so I can totally pretend to be a third or second year. Judging by Sean's attitude, he's probably a first year from the high school. I've been there after all. ^-^ ... Anyway, I will be getting there soon, I'm already on the bus."

He closed his phone, and just waited for the bus to get on his final stop.

...

...

When the bus finally arrived it's destination, Brian stepped out of it already opening his phone activating the GPS. Luckily enough, Sean's house wasn't too far. Knowing this much, the young man strolled on the sidewalk toward the troubled person's house. Bradwynne was already there, so at least he wouldn't need to wait alone.

Crossing a street while looking at his GPS, he noticed he was already on his destination. He looked around trying to find someone, until he spotted a small blonde guy. Brian stared intently for a few seconds, slowly noticing how much that boy resembled Bradwynne's avatar... He was basically a smaller and more childish version of the ingame character, which was basically the opposite of Brian. The man gave a relaxed smile. 'Heh, that dude is kind of cute.' He thought before stepping closer to the boy.

With a wave, he greeted and introduced himself. "Heya! Are you Brad?" He gave a friendly grin. "I'm Futaba, Brian Futaba." 'For some reason, it would be kind of funny if this was Raid though.' Brian chuckled internally at his thought.

 

Zin held his bag of belongings uncomfortably as he attempted to hail a taxi, watching helplessly as they ignored him, likely already dealing with another passenger. His back ached badly from the first part of his travel and he was eager to get to Sean's home already. Zin had already been informed that @Bradwynne had made it to the destination and likely @Hanno Futaba as well. All he could do was assure them he was almost there and hope he had not made them wait too long.

Finally, a merciful Taxi driver stopped and picked Zin up. He slumped into the seat with a sigh, giving the man the address to a location near Sean's home. He wondered how Sean's parents would react to their arrival, regardless of what story they told them. Though he did not fear what they may do or say, for some reason he could not shake the anxiety that had been building up as he traveled.

Zin checked his phone's gps meticulously, counting down the minutes till he arrived. He was happy to help, but he also really wanted to be done so he could relax again. This whole thing with a kid stuck in a game felt a bit too surreal. He couldn't really recall an incident like this happening in any game before. Even with Terrasphere being an illegal game and all, surely they would pay better mind to such a terrible bug...if it was one.

As Zin got near, a slight fear that had been nagging him from the beginning crept back into his mind. An old trope from shows and movies where players get locked into their game and couldn't be removed in the real world without being killed or left brain dead. But that was ridiculous, accidents happened all the time in real life that caused people to disconnect and there were never any real problems.

Finally the taxi driver arrived and Zin paid the man for the trip and tipped him for his trouble. Then with that taken care of he stepped out and began walking toward Sean's home, not realizing he had left his bag inside the vehicle.

As he approached, Zin ran through what he would say to Sean's parents... and what he would say to Bradwynne and Futaba! He silently cursed himself for being so pathetic that he was getting nervous just about meeting people.

Pull yourself together, we can do this!

Zin straightened his clothes, composed himself and then turned the corner walking with a relaxed yet determined demeanor. He say two figures sitting near Sean's house that he could only assume was Bradwynne and Futaba. One appeared to be a blonde haired kid, while the other was a tall, lean man with dark hair. Zin approached the two and gave a kind smile before speaking.

Hello, my name is Zin, or Raid if you prefer. I do hope I haven't kept you all waiting too long.

Though he spoke with confidence and genuine kindness, inside he silently screamed hoping he had not just introduced himself to the wrong people, in spite of the incredible unlikeliness of that being the case.​

 

After the group finished their introductions, they decided to go along with their 'club members' plan that they were talking via messages. It was time to act, every second they wasted was one more second Sean was locked in that game. The group walked up to Sean's house and pressed the door bell, waiting for someone to answer.

It took a small while to finally an older man open the door, seeing the man could probably be Sean's father or uncle, Brian gave his usual chill and warm smile. "Hello Mister, we-" Before the young man could barely start is introduction, a yell interrupted Brian and startled him momentarily.

After the brief scare, the young man took a small glance inside the house. Noticing they were talking about Sean in an argument of that tone made Brian give a concerned expression. 'That isn't good.' Of course that it had a very slight chance of this being a huge coinscidence, but... 'I guess I can only hope for the best now.'

"Uhm, sorry. It seems it isn't a nice moment." The young man looked at the man. "We are Sean's friends. Club members from school, we are here to visit him since he always promise he will call us, but he never does." He gave an awkward and quiet chuckle, giving a small look at @Bradwynne and @Raid. This was a turn of events that wasn't exactly expected to the group, but they needed to keep going with the plan.

 

Zin smiled to the person that opened the door and listened as the people behind them spoke of something vaguely involving Sean. @Hanno Futaba spoke first and Zin nodded as he mentioned them being from a club. Inwardly though he was now worried. It seemed Sean's family already knew something was up with him.

"Is Sean perhaps playing one of those online games? He had mentioned he was quite taken by one as of late. He said it would be fine if he were interrupted durring the game, this is after all an important project we are working on for the club."

Raid gave his most sincere smile as he waited for them to mull over what they had said. He didn't know what they knew about Sean so far, perhaps just that he hadn't come out of his room all day. With some luck they would buy the idea that he could be interrupted durring the game and would unplug him themselves. This should be safe enough, he saw no reason why they would worry beyond that.

 

Brian looked at Sean's father asking him questions about anything they knew about the game, apparently the concerned father had his suspicions on the game. But the young man didn't have any time to think about that at first, because as soon as the father mentioned something about his son being cold, Brian's expression became shocked. "W-What?"

His eyes widened as the older man revealed that the boy was dead. From shock, his expressions went to a painful and sorrow one. "H-How..." 'Sean... Is dead?! How that's possible?!' Brian had a hard time to accept it at first, after all Sean was perfectly fine on Terrasphere, wasn't he? How he could be playing that game if he was dead?! That meant his consciousness is gone... Right? Unless...

That didn't matter- The boy was dead. The young man looked at Sean's father, and he couldn't help but tear up a bit. The older man was clearly suffering for his loss and was desperately seeking for any help. 'Damn it...' This was something that stinks for Brian, but it was better to keep up with the plan. They couldn't let the man know about the game, that could cause a huge panic that would be way too hard to control.

Letting out a sorrowful sigh, the young man started. "I... I'm sorry mister... Oh God, Sean..." He tried to say something, but he could barely try to put his words together, before taking a deep breath trying to calm and gulp down a horrible feeling that was stuck in his throat. "He... He didn't talk to us yesterday." Brian said, trying to calm down from the shock. "It's like what he said... Sean was very focused on an online game lately, but I don't know much more than this..." The young man was clearly sad and confused about his friend's fate.

'Something is really wrong here... Really wrong.' Brian tried to reason with what happened, but the concern and shock from what just happened was too strong to let him think too much about it... He couldn't even look at @Bradwynne, @Raid or the troubled father.

 

D-dead!? Zin's smile cracked and then fell away as his eyes widened.

"Th-that can't be..."

How long had it been since he talked to Sean? Surely not that long. This was bad. He needed to get out of their now. Getting wrapped up in a death was not something Zin had signed up for. There were too many people relying on him to risk being involved.

"I am terribly sorry... We had no idea... I wish I could tell you something to easy your mind, or give you the answers you seek. Unfortunately I am not knowledgeable on video games, especially not the one he was playing."

Zin felt a pang of guilt as he lied but there was little to be done for Sean now. Telling the man more about Terrasphere would only lead to more unanswered questions. Not to mention Zin had to avoid being drawn into this more than he already was.

"We should leave you. We are all deeply saddened by this, he was a good friend of ours that will be terribly missed. I'm... So sorry..."

Zin gave a mournful look the the man and then turned to leave. Unable to take the man's desperate gaze any longer. How had Sean died? Had it really been related to the UI lockout in Terrasphere? It all seemed to sci-fi. He now really found himself thinking about sword art online. The dated anime they had mentioned earlier. Surely it had been a mistake, a coincidence. The game couldn't kill you... Could it?

 

Brian nodded sadly, holding the tissue and walking away with @Raid and @Bradwynne.

After walking far enough, with an awkward and frightening silence, the young man stopped. He stared empty at the ground, with his lips trembling as tears slowly formed in his eyes, and he finally letting out a sob. 'How we came to this...' The man frowned vainly trying to hold back his tears.

"I would never... I can't believe this happened, man. Sean is not only stuck in that game, his body is dead." He said it quietly, almost like a whisper that could be heard by his two companions.

Brian looked around, seeing that nobody was there to hear them, letting out a sorrowful sigh. "First of all, we need to find Sean and tell him the horrible news. He was in the freaking game a few hours ago, so he is still alive inside that game. Not sure how, but he is..." He said, coughing and sniffing after finishing the sentence.

"After that... I... I will take a while to think about what I will do. I don't think we should spread the news to anyone so easily though." The man looked at the other guys. "I know that this is a hard situation, but we need to do something with this information. I won't tell anyone for now except maybe a close friend, but there are a lot of players that have important roles in that game... Like Astor for example."

"Eventually... No matter who we talk about it, we will need to tell them this frightening truth. They will probably have the power and resources to deal with telling this to everyone than us. We won't be able to deal with the whole panic this will cause just by ourselves... This could cause this game to die, and we can't afford to let this game die along with the people that are stuck inside it" Brian took a deep breath, trying to be rational in that harsh situation was completely insane to him.

"I just know that... Now I understand one thing. Terrasphere may be a game to most of people, but now I know that this 'game' is slowly becoming the 'real life' of people that are losing their UIs. He clenched his fist. "I will do my best to keep people away from this horrible fate, and I will do my best to make Terrasphere a better place to everyone that is stuck in there live."

'This thing isn't just a game anymore. We need to protect whoever that is inside and out of there.'

"What you guys are going to do?" Brian had a grim, yet determined expression in his eyes. No matter what answer the other two will give, he will be doing what he feels it's right and he will respect their choices. But deep down he believed that his two companions would at least go with him to tell Sean's the bad news, and he had the small hope that at least they would help him to spread the truth without causing a major panic.

 

Zin's mind could hardly wrap itself around what had happened. This had seemed exciting, worrisome, but not too dangerous. At worst Zin thought they may have to break in and unplug him. But to find he was dead...

Zin's hands shook as he walked away, he didn't know Sean, but the loss of human life, the loss of a child, was just too cruel. Zin clasped his arms behind his back to hide his shaking.

They had definitely been talking to Sean not too long ago. Or what they thought was Sean. Dread filled Zin with realization. This was not an accident, someone must have either been acting as Sean or made an NPC to pretend to be Sean. The idea that they had actually made a copy of his mind before he died seemed way to science fiction. Sure there was talk of that one day being a thing, but no real break through had occurred to his knowledge. No matter which one it was, someone that worked for Terrasphere had planned for Sean to die.

"This is wrong. The programmers must have planned this, they must have either set someone up to act like him, or made a convincing AI to pretend to be him. Even if that thing acts like him, it is a copy that someone made intentionally. Someone at Terrasphere either planned his death, or knew he was going to just happen to die."

Zin's smooth demeanor had deteriorated completely. He switch between feet every few seconds and looked around as he spoke. His heart raced and a lump in his throat wouldn't go away.

"I knew the people running Terrasphere took things too far, but I never would have imagined something like this."

Zin listened to Futaba, the man named Brian talk, he worried that if they cause a panic the game could die with the people "trapped" in it. He seemed to be filled with a determination to help the "people" stuck in it. Zin felt frustration and anger build up inside him. He shook his head and looked at Brian tears threatening to fall from his eyes now.

"You don't get it, they are dead. Sean is dead! That thing is at best a person impersonating him and at worst an AI pretending to be him using data that was collected on him! This is sick, whoever planned this is sick. Do you even hear what you are suggesting? That these people are somehow still alive inside the game? That's crazy! This isn't some Sci-fi TV show!"

Zin's voice cracked at the end of his sentence. He realized now that he had started to yell. His eye sight was now obscured by his tears, he looked away from Brian. Waiting a long moment before talking again Zin spoke softly.

"Sorry... This is all a lot to take in. All I know is this is dangerous stuff... Sean's father gave you his information right? Let me see it."

Zin copied the information with his phone.

"Let's leave for now, I have a friend that died durring the Titanius battle I need to check in on. Go find "Sean" if you want in the game. It'll be a while before I come around again, if at all. Also, if you decide to make any of this public, or talk about it to others, leave the rest of us out of it. Like I said this is dangerous and if you want to do something risky don't drag everyone else into it without asking, okay?"

With that said Zin walked away from them. This had gone so wrong. Still Zin knew that his day still wasn't over he pulled out his phone and... Face palmed. Now realizing he had left his bag in the taxi.

So he called up the Taxi place. After explaining the situation and confirming his bag was there, Zin eventually arranged to be picked up and after a bit of convincing was able to get them to also bring his bag along with them. At least that had a relatively simple fix... Zin then began to plot what he would do next...