Chapter 36: Chapter 36
She stared at him, her eyes filled with dread.
Questions begin to surface on her head like:
"Where did that blood stain come from?"
"Why does he have a blood stain?"
"Is he hurt?"
"Did he hurt someone?"
She shook her head. ’I’m just being paranoid. For all I know, it could be ketchup.’ She thought with a wry smile.
The thought came but she wasn’t sure if she believed it herself.
She decided to keep an eye on him. This was already getting out of hand.
She finished up the food she had in front of her frequently sneaking a glance at Daniel.
Daniel ate his food slowly. He looked around, observing the environment. He then proceeded to look at his feet. He had black leather shoes on. He continued staring at his shoes while eating.
Daniel shifted gaze to the food. It was a meal of rice with beef stew served in those types of plates with two or more areas for food.
He gobbled down the remaining of the food letting out a little burp after.
As if sensing someone’s gaze, he turned his neck to see a blonde-haired girl staring at him for a while. When their eyes meet, she looked away.
Daniel settled his empty plate down and stood up, spoon in hand. He proceeded to walk towards the blonde girl, Claire.
* * *
- - In Vorden’s mind - -
*Check Auxiliary Chapter After/Before Reading*
Note: The Chapters in bracket () are the sources so you can go confirm if you’re still confused.
Narrator’s POV
Life isn’t as it seems. There are systems beyond the physical eyes. You can’t exactly place your finger on it, but it’s there.
There’s always more than meets the eyes.
Once upon a time, there lived a man named Vorden. Vorden was a young man around 177cm with blue hair and he also had a sharp mouth.
Today though, he was on a mission: To buy a VR game of his dreams.
Sadly, today is also the day he dies.
The shop attendant that attended to him, Layla is a part of a bigger scheme. It seems that she works for the old man that gave him the VR game.
The VR Game, Uprising is anything else but normal.
After Vorden wore the VR game, he died soon after.
Recalling what Andrew said about the Big Bosses operation (In Chapter 14), a lot of death happens around the store if they could turn looting the dead people houses into a job.
Those deaths may not be accidental and probably orchestrated, but what do they gain out of it.
Yes, they will earn some money by selling the dead people stuff but does it just end there. And why risk bad karma to make some extra money.
Immediately Vorden entered the VR game, he was recognized as a User (Chapter 3). It is said that they are responsible for the NPCs technology like Crico technology. (Chapter 3 and Chapter 17).
Later on he found out that Layla, the students and all other people in the world he currently dwells in are NPCs (Chapter 22), but he already took a guess before hand (Chapter 5). They reside in a particular world in the game, referred to as NPC world. They are non-playable characters which are programmed to act in certain ways.
Some NPCs have human counterpart in the real world like Layla.
Layla also mentioned users being like players (Chapter 3).
Therefore, there are three worlds.
The normal world where Vorden lived in before the VR incident.
The NPC world where BOGO, GOGO and Layla lives in.
Lastly, the game world where quest are fulfilled and the three people from each world meets... to play.
* * *
Vorden mind began to clear up. The headache eased up as he wrote down the last bit of the memories his mind was forced to recall.
He stared at the papers he had used. It was filled with so many informations that would be had to keep in one minds for a long time.
PANG!!
As Vorden dropped his guard, a sudden spike of headache hit him intensely. It caused his entire body to quiver.
His hand moved on its own and wrote something on a sheet of paper. Before he could comprehend what he wrote or even perceive it, he lost consciousness.