The Virtual Realm (Imitai Book 4)

Chapter Ten

One day later, we found ourselves entering urban territory. It took hours as the teeny little sticks turned into a humongous skyline.

On another note, we were walking on this highway. Empress Pedonia suggested we have all the troops follow one another by division in a skinny line which only allowed them to walk on both sides.

We did not get there as quickly as I thought we would however. Walking at a regular pace from the first sight of the little sticks to where they were visible enough as a large skyline took nearly fifteen hours. After that, we came across the outskirts and a series of small businesses before we could say we were in town. For the final hours, we made our way up to the urban area to larger buildings.

By the time we reached this form of civilization, the temperature dropped by several degrees.

We had the temperature on our superhero masks. One of the built-in items Vesta taught us about following the raid at Fort Sunder. Kind to think of it, there were so many built-in items like the barometric pressure and altitude measurements. Something an aircraft would use.

People were out and about, but for obvious reasons there were no moving cars. Only an overhead subway and the common public transit vehicles except for buses. Some sat there as decorations but did not move. The only moving things aside from the public transits were the local people. All of them looked in my direction as Empress Pedonia and I led the troops.

To me, walking down the streets before the eyes of all these people was like a dream. Then again I had lived the parade-like attention before. My first arrival in Ashan City consisted of tons of attention. The only difference was that there were no press nor big announcements on the big screens. Instead, they were mere commercials dating back to ten years ago.

On another note, my grandfather was no longer around. General Mulox murdered him, but he was another case. From what I could figure Hades had nothing to do with him either. Angela said nothing about the former Ashanian Space Force general, so I knew this was an isolated case. However, I still had my questions.

Will Hades start going after celebrities from other planets? Then will we ever make it out of The Underworld? From all the movies and shows I watched as a kid, there were all these stories of people being virtualized and holding the risk of being trapped virtually forever. Some of these people were probably from the real world and still alive but taken hostage in this place.

Problem is, I have no idea who's alive or dead.

This felt like walking through the downtown streets of New York on Thanksgiving Day or Chicago at Christmas. Only difference was we were in this strange city with one of the towers looking straight out like an old American cartoon from nearly a century ago. Something about towers with disks near the top being homes and businesses or something like that. I always wondered what was at the bottom of those things.

Thankfully I didn't have to put up with the current drama among the True Knights. Ashley Asha was old enough to do whatever the hell she wanted, but I still plan on taking some time off producing for once. Sooner or later, Asami would have to leave Earth and start her new life in Ashan. After seeing her go through the change of homes, at least living at the palace with our mother would be her last big move. Afterwards, it would be Lisa and I again.

Speaking of which, my poor best friend from middle school was now a sister isolated in her new home next to being sandwiched between two celebrities. People had no idea what happened to her, and everyone assumed we were all tortured. Lisa was assumed to be with us, which I played along and concurred. According to the doctors who examined her, she showed signs of being in a stressful situation, but they didn't bother to hospitalize her due to the lack of trauma.