Game is life-but what if your life turns into a game?
Raiden believes he's a real person, but everyone sees him as an NPC. As such, he finds himself trapped in the popular Hyper-Virtual Reality game named "Defiant Sins Online," an expansive, artific...
He was back again, floating in those dark waters. A dream inside a dream, some meta-hypnagogic experience.
It didn't last long. He was pulled back to the second reality.
Pain erupted in his back. Raiden groaned, pulling himself into a sitting position. The pallet was slightly damped with blood.
Someone came up next to his cell. Raiden looked over, without turning.
Molsie knelt next to the bars. She was offering him a basic loaf of bread.
"Leave me alone," he said.
The healer extended the loaf into his cell, her face deep with concern.
"I said, go away!"
Raiden slapped the bread from her hand, and the loaf tumbled somewhere in his jail. Molsie drew back, grew sad, and went away.
As soon as the healer was out of sight, Raiden took the loaf and dusted it. He took a bite. He can't remember the last time he tasted food.
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On the first day of his official imprisonment, Raiden was woken up by the voice of a prison guard.
His first night in the jail was dark and uneasy, for his back throbbed with hellish phantom pain after the severe lashings. Eventually he fell asleep, huddled in that virtual prison that crept with cold and dust. The aftershock of the whipping was still fresh on his mind, distorting his meta-dreams into sporadic, formless nightmares. A dream in a dream. A nightmare in a nightmare. Several times, he woke up, staring at the bright, artificial moon past the cell window until sleep returned to him.
"Hey, bot!" The sound of knuckles against metal grated on Raiden's hearing. "Wake up!"
With a groan, he raised himself from the pallet. Molsie was nowhere to be seen. He watched as the prison warden swung the cell door open.
What was this now? Were they going to whip him again?
The prison guard yanked him up, shoving him out of the prison. "Move it, bot. It's time for dungeon duty."
"Dungeon duty?" he said.
"No more questions," the guard snapped. "You'll know when you get there. Now, move."
Frog-marched forward, Raiden shuffled across the prison blocks. With quick glances, he saw several players behind some of the bars, lying motionless.
Must be some of the banned Crusaders who broke some crucial game law. Still, they could just logout and wait until their prison time ends, unlike him. That made him pause. Was he the only NPC jailed in here?
Raiden was motioned to another archway, and then to a dark hole inside one of the empty chambers, with steps spiralling further down. Raiden watched his steps and descended slowly, however the annoying guard kept prodding him to quicken his pace.
