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Real Virtuality
Real Virtuality

Real Virtuality

ApurboSameen Abrar

It is snowing. And I am outside, trying to find my way back home. The precious polythene bag is still in my tight grip. The bag contained one of the first copies of the “Labyrinth of Silence”, a game which claims itself as the toughest game of the 22nd century.

“Parents away on a week-long vacation; exams too far to be worried about.” I thought, “La Dolce Vita.”

As I opened the front door, I was greeted with the warmth of the thermostat. Though as empty as a barren land, I felt an air of excitement all around the house, as if, welcoming me and urging me to start the game. But I knew I was in dire need of a warm bath. So, I went to my room, turned on my computer and put the game to install. Then I went to the bathroom and shed my clothes and put them in the laundry bin. I turned off the taps. The tub was steaming. I first sat down and then slowly laid myself in the tub. As I slowly drowned myself up to the neck, I closed my eyes. Wild thoughts suddenly racing through my mind. I was about to slip away when the phone rang. The suddenness of it almost drowned me. I got up and out. I wiped the dripping water and wrapped the towel around me, when I realized that there was need. So, I left the towel on the stand. The phone kept ringing the entire time.

“Hello?” I answered the phone.

“Hi, Chris. How are you doing my son?” told my mom on the other side.

“Hi mom. I'm ok. Is everything alright?” genuine concern in my voice.

“No, we’re fine. I called to tell that; we might be late to come home.”

“Later than a week?” I was confused and hopeful.

“Maybe. The storm is picking up. And even if we start now, we’ll be stuck in the middle of nowhere.”

“How long?”

“A week more, maybe.” I was jumping with joy.

“That will do.” told my dad, “And Chris, uh, the storm’s supposed to head towards your way. It isn’t too serious, but be careful.”

“Okay, dad.”

“Okay then. Bye.” they both said.

“Bye, love you.” I hung up.

I returned to the bath and finished the generic bathing formalities. After drying up I went to my room and checked the progress on the game. To my absolute surprise, the game was installed. So, after I put all the other things in their places, I put on the XRS body suit and clicked ‘port to VR’ in the game menu. Instantly my PC became much more audible as it revved up for the VR. I looked the four cameras planted in the four corners of my room to check if they were in the correct orientation. Then I put on the VR headset. The game was already loaded up.

“The developer was right, “I said to no one, "the game feels great in VR”

What I saw first was a pitch black. But as my eyes slowly I could see the start of the labyrinth. The very gate was horrifying. The atmosphere beggars description. Totally silent. Only sounds were of my footsteps that seemed to echo infinitely. I could hear very faint distant sounds like that of my footsteps that reminded me that this game was indeed a VRMMO.

Suddenly, a terrifying and shrill voice whispered to my left ear,” Thou amongst thee shall cross this labyrinth, thither awaits accolades and pleasure on the other side. And thou shall not will be doomed betwixt these bulwarks.”

Though that was a computerized voice, it was enough to make me break a sweat.

I slowly approached the horrifying wrought-iron gates and they opened automatically with an ear-piercing shriek.

“Give the sound designer an award.” I said.

I walked ahead, planting my feet with the bare minimum force so as to not wake any other-worldly monstrosity. I felt around, nothing but finely placed brick-walls, twists and turns. My vision was of not much use as it was quite dark. But all those years of gaming led me through these walls and helped me reach the first room that seemed to have something of interest.

The room was, of course, dark. Two glowing eyes were looking dead at me from the center of the room and it made the already dark room feel even darker. The eyes approached me as if I was a joke to the beast to which it belonged. The beast had a faint glow, which was enough for me to make out its shape, which was an abomination between a horse and a two-headed dragon.

I tried to feel for some sort of armament on my body. I was unarmed. I tried to slowly get around it but it swung its long whip-like tail at me and sent me flying across the room, slamming into the walls. It turned towards me and again started walking.

“I see what you hear.” it said. Its voice was enough to kill.

I saw my life bar for the first time. One more hit and I’m history. So, I got up and thought what to do. The beast was closing in fast. Suddenly, I remembered the sound design. I turned towards the beast that was now charging directly at me then, I screamed. LOUD. The beast came to halt, its eyes darting from side to side. My echoing scream blinded it. I grabbed the opportunity and ran up to it, grabbed its tail and tied it around its neck. The beast struggled but it only made things worse. The harder it pulled, the tighter the knot became. Before the echoes could stop, the beast had choked itself to death. No more glow. It left behind an armlet that was radiating light. I took it and slipped it onto my hand. Its light grew brighter and a blade, half the length of my hand, poked out of it.

“looks oddly similar to a weapon from an old assassin game that I had played.” I thought to myself. Thankfully, the light helped me to see more of the horrifyingly beautiful labyrinth. Blood-stained walls, decomposing corpses of players that had started before me. And eggs. Most probably of the monster. I cracked them and they dropped health and an unknown bottle. I took the unknown bottle kept it with me. And used the health.

I walked another 1 or 2 hours before reaching the next boss room. Just before I headed in, another group of almost 4-5 people came out, all of whom had little to no health left. I stopped one and inquired about what was inside. “A battalion of 10 united teams had attacked the boss. What you are seeing is all that remains of that battalion.” I was shocked. “Whatever is in there, it is beyond crazy. We couldn’t land a single blow.” he excused himself and joined his team. I swallowed. I had no team and absolutely no chance of winning. “Even if I die, I have nothing to lose.” and so, decided to see this ‘crazy’ boss myself. But just as I entered, my wish to see the boss was washed away. I saw only a pair of eyes. Nothing else. Not even a glow like the previous boss. Before I could even decide to do anything, I was swept off my feet. It hit me and sent me flying through the room as if I was dust. The eyes jumped to me and started landing blow after blow. Left and right. No rest. Zero chill. I felt a clawed kick to my stomach, sending me tumbling across the floor. And there was no sound. Only the sound of me getting hit. My life was reduced to such a negligible value that it didn’t even show anything in the meter.

But right at that moment, I saw a flame roar up. A sword imbued with fire, but not alone. The swordsman or in fact ‘swordswoman’ was fully clad in golden armor. With the fac of an angel, she fought with the ferocity if a demon, landing blow after blow to the invisible beast. The fierce swings of her sword made deafening sounds. Out of nowhere she called out to me, “Hey you, pass that bottle!” pointing to the bottle hanging from my belt. I threw it to her. She took it and threw it towards the beast and it blew up, engulfing the beast in a blue flame. The beast burned and then vanished with a loud shriek.

I quickly ran up to her. Her face looked even more beautiful up-close. “Hi!” I started, “I’m Chris.”

“Leana.” she said, “Nice to meet you.” Her voice didn’t seem excited, though I forced myself to feel it welcoming. Her armaments were unlike anything I had seen on other players. “How come you have these armaments?” She didn’t reply. Instead, she sent me a team request. “Are you sure?” “Yes. I have been watching all of your battles from the start. You were the only brave fool to come in here alone.” “Was that a compliment on an insult?” I tried for sarcasm. She laughed. I felt a bit relaxed when she replied, “Both.” I accepted the request. Our health points united, I saw, into 3100 HP. I was shocked. “Your HP is 3000! What level are you?”, I asked in complete awe. “level 48” she replied, as if it was no big deal. “I’m a beta-tester.” I was again shocked. She had already started to walk towards the exit door. I called out to her, “But there was only one................” then it hit me. Leane was an anagram for Alena. “You’re Alena Ashens.” I saw her head drop, then lift back up to face me with a beaten smile. “You know too much, and I talk too much.” “Oh my God! I can’t believe I met you! Your father, Sam Ashens made this game!” I was over the top. “Stop gushing. I am going to the next boss room. Follow me if you want.” she said with a light tone. I started following her. But then I remembered something. I wanted to ask her, but I wasn’t sure how to. “You are dead, aren’t you?” I came out blunter than I had wished. “So you know about that too?” she didn’t face me. “I suddenly remembered it. How are you here then?” I was getting scared.

“I was electrocuted while I was playing the game.” she was absent-minded. “My father was tinkering with the game code right at that moment. When it happened, something clicked inside him and he uploaded my conscience into my binary character. He told about this to me in the game.” A long gap followed. I could not understand what to feel. “Basically, I am alive and dead at the same time.” I was dumb-founded. “let’s go defeat the boss, shall we?” she said with newfound enthusiasm. And all I could get out of my mouth was a mere ‘ok’.

We reached the gate and went in. The boss was a flying monstrosity that was too powerful for my low-grade weapons. So Alena did most of the heavy-lifting. I could barely keep my head in the fight. And that was my biggest mistake. Alena called me. I didn’t notice. The beast was charging towards me. I didn’t notice. But when I did, it was too late to evade. I closed my eyes. Then a loud blast. So loud that it shook the walls of the labyrinth. I opened my eyes slowly. I saw her, standing like a shield in front of me. I could see over her shoulder that her sword was inside the head of the beast. My head filled with joy. I went front to face her. To her joy in defeating the final boss. But joy was not what I saw. I saw pain and agony washed over her face. The claw of the beast had pierced through her abdomen. Her face was pale.

The beast vanished in the air and she fell down into my arms. I slowly laid her down on the floor. I was scared. Because she was her actual conscience. “Hey...hey...” I said with a quivering voice, “stay with me Alena.” She looked at me and gave a faint smile. “Tell me, where you will revive. I’ll wait for you there.” She slowly said, “I am not going to revive. This the end.” “Then why did you do it? I would have revived.” My eyes were tearing up. “Look beside the health bar.” I did so. It said ‘server disconnected’. “Server is not responding, so what?” my voice was broken. She replied, “If you die while the server is down, you will get stuck in the game.” Her breathing was laboured. “There has to be some way around this!” I had started crying. She had saved me. “It’s game over, Chris. Game over.” she said with a fading voice.

Suddenly, I was back at my room. My VR headset was off. So was the electricity. The storm had begun. As I removed the headset, I could feel the cold tears on my cheek. The house was freezing. But I had no wish to light the furnace. So I slipped under the blankets to suppress the pain with sleep.

The next morning, when the electricity was back, I tried to log into the game but it would repeatedly show log failed. So, with the frustration of many failed logins, I took to social media to see what was happening. And to my surprise, all the player were also forcefully logged out of the game minutes after the server went offline. The website of the game says that it is for sale. News articles suggest that the company may have gone bankrupt, but no official news regarding it was not to be found anywhere.

The storm had passed. The had cleared and the sun was pouring in through the parted curtains in my room, giving it a warm hue. Did she really die? Was I at fault? Did she die because of me?

Her thoughts haunted me.

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About The Author
Apurbo
Sameen Abrar
About This Story
Audience
All
Posted
27 Mar, 2020
Words
2,365
Read Time
11 mins
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1,377

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