Chapter 4: Ultimatum

Northern Forest:…

Jack Tidwell…

I found exploration in this game to be a bit lacking. So far all I've found were some mushrooms, a power boost chip, and a portable toilet. Classy. Oddly though, I hadn't run into any random encounters since the fight with Psychemon, if you could have called it a fight.

I guess I was too wrapped up in exploring the level to notice. But now that I was thinking about it, it was kind of odd. Maybe they thinned out the encounter rate for the sake of new players? Whatever the case, I should probably consider heading back.

However, as I had decided that, I suddenly heard a distant wolf howl that may or may not have made me jump. I didn't know if that was meant to be ambiance for the level or if it was an enemy I needed to actually worry about. I looked around to see if there were any signs of movement but… just found Bulucomon and an otherwise empty forest

"God… I'm jumping at background noises," I chastised myself before turning to Bulucomon. "Sorry you had to get stuck with a nervous mess like me," I said. I know talking to the video game character may seem a bit odd. But I couldn't help it, I was one of those people who got attached to characters sometimes. That and these woods were so lonely and uncomfortably quiet, who else was I going to talk to? The trees?

Bulucomon of course didn't respond, he just sort of stood there and stared at me in what I have come to accept as his idle animation. That was until I noticed his pupils suddenly turned to slits and he moved himself in front of me.

It wasn't until I turned around that I realized why. Up on the hill behind me a giant red furred wolf stood glaring down at me. His face was so unnaturally elongated that it gave him an unnerving and twisted kind of feel.

"Well well well," the wolf said. God… seeing its mouth move as it talked was weirdly unsettling. It was a similar sensation to the Uncanny Valley. "Looks like I have a visitor," it continued before hopping down the hill and stopping right in front of Bulucomon.

I kinda felt like I had stumbled upon a boss fight. To be fair, I was kind of looking for one but now that it was here I was starting to have second thoughts. "Come, let us play," the wolf said with a sinister grin.

The word "Battle" then suddenly appeared between me and the wolf. Yup, this was a boss battle, and stupid me just stumbled right into it. I brought up the Digidek and selected the "Enemy Info" button.

A bio screen appeared with a picture of the wolf creature and some biographical information.

Fangmon.

Champion Level

Data

A Demon Beast Digimon that lives deep in the heart of the forest and preys upon lost travelers that have the misfortune of attracting its attention. It is believed to be based on the "Big Bad Wolf '' from classic fairy tales. It will stalk its prey to the ends of the earth and is even known to disguise itself to trick prey.

Attacks:

Blast Coffin- Does Significant Dark Damage to target enemy.

Snipe Steal- Steals one item from target's inventory.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked that a wolf is the boss of the forest level. No status ailments this time. But considering his attacks might do heavy damage to Bulucomon I don't think I should take too much comfort in that.

Fangmon suddenly lunged and took Bulucomon to the ground with a loud thud. Bulucomon used his right hand to keep Fangmon's now chomping maw from getting him.

I selected the "Skills" option and saw two options;

Baby Hail: Does significant Ice Damage and has a 20% chance of inflicting freeze on target enemy.

Ice Smash: Does medium ice and physical damage to target enemy.

Two attacks that do ice damage but only one of them has a chance of inflicting freeze on his opponent. Considering Fangmon was a boss and more than likely a lot stronger than Bulucomon was, it was probably a smart idea to try to use freeze to slow him down so Bulucomon could chip away at his health.

I selected Baby Hail and Bulucomon suddenly opened his maw. A blast of cold air and ice shards shot out hitting Fangmon right in the face. The wolf grunted and hopped backwards, pawing at his face trying to get the ice shards out. "Why you little…" he growled.

Okay, I got Fangmon off Bulucomon. Now I needed to capitalize. Again, Fangmon was stronger than Bulucomon. So I needed to make sure Bulucomon didn't take too many hits and maybe I could chip away at Fangmon's health.

But that went out the window when Fangmon suddenly answered back with a brutal mule kick to Bulucomon's face that sent him flying right into a nearby tree. Looking at Bulucomon's health, that hit did a lot of damage! Another bad hit like that and he'd be down for the count. The level difference was obvious now, I may have just stumbled into a boss fight I wasn't ready for.

The strategy needed to stay the same, use Baby Hail and try to inflict freeze on him. Problem was it cost thirty DP to use and Bulucomon only had about one hundred left. Which means since I didn't have any MP items, or "DP" as this game called them, I could afford to use it only three or so more times.

I'd have to time it right and hope the RNG gods are favorable today. I looked back to the fight and Bulucomon was doing his best to keep his distance but Fangmon was incredibly fast. It was only a matter of time before he got another good shot in.

I checked my items. I had three HP disks that restored "a small bit of health" according to its description.. It was hard to tell exactly how many points Bulucomon had in his health bar since it was a heartbeat and not an actual number. But since Bulucomon was so low level, it would probably heal a lot more than usual.

I decided to use one just to make sure he could tank another hit in case Fangmon caught him again. The heart rate, which had quickened after he took that hit, was now back to normal. I don't know what designer decided on a heartbeat monitor as a health indicator for an RPG, but they probably should have been punched.

Bulucomon managed to roll under Fangmon and get behind him. Perfect chance for a Baby Hail. I quickly selected the attack and Bulucomon once again hit him with a hail of ice shards. Fangmon yelped in surprise and whipped around to face Bulucomon. Still not frozen yet, but it got his attention. I looked at Fangmon's health bar which floated above his head. He had a small chunk gone but not nearly enough for me to feel comfortable taking him head on like this.

Fangmon lunged at Bulucomon again, but this time Bulucomon was able to get out of the way in time. Bulucomon only had sixty DP left now. Which meant only two more shots. I have to admit, I haven't been this invested in an RPG fight in a while, I guess taking control of the character away from me like this really did let me focus on strategy more. I always appreciated a game of wits and it seemed I was getting my wish here.

Bulucomon threw a hard right hook to Fangmon's face. His head snapped back from the impact but he kept his feet planted firmly on the ground. That hit didn't do much damage, nor did I expect it to, and Fangmon quickly struck back with a paw swipe that knocked Bulucomon right off his feet.

Dammit, his health was down again. I didn't know if I should risk another HP Disk or not. I only had two left. But another vicious hit from Fangmon forced my hand as it sent his health into critical. Another healing item spent. Things weren't looking good. I needed one of these Baby Hails to trigger the freeze ailment if I wanted any chance of winning this.

But it was clear I was outmatched here. Fangmon's attacks did so much damage and Bulucomon could barely do any. Not to mention I only had one healing item left. I needed to go for it, another Baby Hail.

But I was too hasty, as Fangmon saw it coming and easily dodged it. He even managed to get behind Bulucomon, and chomped right down on Bulucomon's shoulder. Bulucomon screamed in agony as the wolf's teeth dug into his body. His health was going down hard and fast until Fangmon tossed Bulucomon aside like an unwanted toy.

I had one healing item left, and I spent it. No way would he have been able to tank another hit after that. But as I looked up from my UI, I noticed Fangmon was standing right in front of me.

He wasn't saying anything… but something was… off about his eyes, they were twitching a little bit. Like his brain was glitching out or something. I don't know if this was a scripted sequence or what but for whatever reason Fangmon decided he wanted to fight me now.

His jaws opened wide, ready to take a huge bite out of me. I just stood there like an idiot, not sure what I was supposed to do here. Out of instinct I braced for the impact, despite knowing full well I couldn't actually be hurt by a video game.

But I stopped when I heard the crackle of ice forming. I looked to see that Fangmon was now completely frozen. His body covered in a thick layer of ice, his maw just mere inches from my face. Fangmon's eyes darted rapidly in many directions as the rest of his body was completely frozen in place.

I looked behind him to see Bulucomon, mouth still open wide, panting heavily. It took me a moment to realize Bulucomon had used his last Baby Hail and gotten the freeze status effect. I didn't even realize the AI could use its skills independently from my input like that, but, hey, it worked!

The victory screen suddenly popped up. I won. Somehow, I managed to actually win the battle. I hated to admit my heart was still pounding from when Fangmon lunged at me. I guess that's just how immersive SyncroGear VR could be sometimes. I got some pretty decent loot out of the deal too.

Ten thousand Bits, a large HP Disk, a "Return Disk", and about ten level ups worth of experience points. Not to mention I finally got that full taste of this game's combat… and I liked it a lot. I was originally just going to play this game once and forget about it, but after this I might actually play this when I'm craving something a bit more tactical.

Sure, most of that tactical game play was due to me trying to fight a boss I was way under level for. But shush, I haven't had too many victories today, let me have this!

"ooOOOH!"

I noticed Bulucomon was holding his arm and had a little word balloon above his head with a picture of a bandaid in it. It didn't take an RPG expert to figure out that Bulucomon had a lingering status ailment. "Oh, man," I said.

Look, I know he's fictional. But seeing him hurting like this was more than a little heartbreaking and it was made so much worse by the fact I had no clue what I was supposed to do about it.

I tried to use the healing item I got from defeating Fangmon, but Bulucomon refused it, which I kind of expected to happen. Healing items rarely fixed status ailments like this. I'd need a specific item for that or possibly a "PokeCenter" like area to heal him up in.

While I had the item screen open, I noticed the "Return Disk" was an instant teleport back to File City, the main hub. I mean, whichever theory I had about fixing this ailment wound up being true, I could only get either at File City, so I used it.

A circle of light surrounded me and Bulucomon and before I knew it I was back in File City. It was good that I was able to skip the long walk back but I still needed to do something about Bulucomon's current condition.

Bulucomon groaned again and went into his hurt animation. Despite him being a video game character, making him walk while he was hurt like this felt weirdly cruel. I tried to push it aside since it was a stupid thing to worry about, but being fictional didn't seem to make my empathy feel any better about making him walk in his current condition. Stupid immersive VR games making me feel bad for fictional ice dragons!

So I decided to see if I could maybe pick him up. I expected my hands to just clip through Bulucomon but to my surprise I could actually carry him. "Come on buddy, let's go find a way to fix you up," I said. I felt ridiculous cradling a video game character in my arms like a newborn baby, but part of this game was monster raising, and no good parent lets their little digital baby walk with an injury. So, carry him I shall.

I kept my eyes peeled for any hospital or item shop I could go get him fixed up in. But all I found so far were a few restaurants and the occasional boost item shop. The fact I had no clue what I was even looking for certainly didn't help. Hell, I didn't even know if I'd have enough Bits for whatever it was I sought.

"Jack?"

I turned around to see none other than Koe standing behind me. For a moment I had completely forgotten about my previous encounter with him. Koe looked down at the Digimon in my arms. "There a reason you're carrying your Digimon like a baby?" he asked me.

I sheepishly looked away, feeling a little embarrassed. "I… uh… I got him hurt during a… uh b-boss fight," I explained while completely dodging his question out of embarrassment.

As if on cue, Bulucomon sounded with another groan as the word balloon showed up again.

Koe sighed and opened his DigiDek, "Here, I still owe you for blowing up on you last time we met," he said. Suddenly I received a bandage in my inventory. So it turns out it was an item I needed to cure Bulucomon. I'll have to keep a mental note to stock up on those before ever heading out again.

"Uh… th-thanks," I said before using the item on Bulucomon.

I set him down on the ground as he roared in approval and wagged his tail. "S-So, you're still here?" I asked. Remembering the reason I was playing this game in the first place was to try to connect to someone and well… Koe seemed about as good an option as any.

"Yeah, I wanted to try stocking up on items before heading out," Koe explained, making me feel like an idiot for just waltzing right into the first area without making sure I had decent supplies first. "Turns out though, that the game doesn't give you many Bits at the start," he added. "I could only afford three bandages and one HP Disk."

It was still more than I had when I started my adventure. "You a-at least get content? F-For your channel I mean," I asked. God I'm so awkward. But at least I'm managing to actually talk to someone! Which was a pretty decent step in the right direction for someone like me.

"No, I'm gonna start recording when I actually get to Northern Forest," Koe replied. "No one wants to watch me fumble around in game shops for an hour."

"Y-Yeah," I stammered.

"How was your first adventure in DWO? You win any battles?" Koe then asked me.

"Two, one of them being a boss," I replied.

"Wait… you beat a boss after only one random encounter?" He questioned. "How'd you manage that?"

"I-I mean… I just barely won, th-the boss fight I mean," I explained. "F-Froze him solid."

Koe nodded approvingly. "Not bad, newbie," he said. "Say, I was thinking, maybe we sh-" he then started before we were both suddenly cut off by a loud beeping noise.

Koe and I both opened our DigiDeks to find we both had a message from an unknown sender.

Players of Digimon World Online.

You have been summoned to the city square for an urgent message from the King.

"The king?" I repeated to myself.

"Must be some kind of event the game is doing," theorized Koe.

Then, I noticed a subtle blue glow enveloping Koe. I looked at my own hand to see it was also glowing the same blue. Before I could even think to ask what was happening I found myself instantly warped to another part of town, and from the looks of things, I was far from the only one.

The whole square was filled with players. Every single one was just as confused as I was. Some were irate that they had been pulled away from what they were doing previously. Others were just simply confused.

"The hell is going on?" I asked Koe, only to find that he wasn't standing next to me anymore. He must have spawned into this place somewhere else. Bulucomon was still with me though.

Suddenly a beam of light shot into the center of the town square. The players who happened to be standing there quickly scrambled away as three figures began to form within the beam of light.

When the light subsided, three very tall knights stood proudly in the center of the two. The one on the right vaguely resembled an eighteenth century soldier with a cat-like helmet on its head with long blonde hair spilling out from underneath it. A large Rapier holstered against its long red sash.

The one on the right was more like a traditional knight. With shining white and red armor accented with gold trimming and a flowing red cape. It held a large shield on one hand with an odd symbol emblazoned on it. In its other hand it held a jousting lance. Its piercing yellow eyes stared from a pair of holes in its helmet.

And in the middle was another white armored knight. Although this one's hands ended in what appeared to be two heads. One of a blue wolf, the other a golden dinosaur. Its cape was as white as its armor, although the interior of the cape was red.

People began to chatter as the middle knight began to step forward. People wondering what was going on and asking questions no one had answers for. The middle knight was clearly growing impatient with all the noise as a cannon suddenly formed from its wolf head hand, which he then rose to the air. "SILENCE!" he bellowed before firing a shot into the air with a loud bang! Everyone immediately fell silent, just as the knight had instructed.

The knight surveyed the crowd before speaking again. "Now that I have your attention, we can begin," he said before turning to the knight on his right. "Gallantmon, launch the program," he instructed the other knight, who was apparently named "Gallantmon".

Gallantmon nodded his head and joined the middle knight's side. He fished into a satchel he had tied to his waist and produced some kind of weird looking green pixelated sphere.

The middle knight stared at it for a moment with his ice blue eyes before nodding and turning back to the crowd. "Seven years… that's how long this "game" of yours has existed," he began. "Seven years since your kind has trespassed upon our world, enslaved its people, and slaughtered any that came against you."

The knight began to pace back and forth, not taking his eyes off the crowd for even a moment. "Our glorious King Drasil has decreed that you shall no longer act as if you are our world's masters, that humanity shall be put in its place… and understand who the true master of the Digital World is," he said.

"We are his royal knights, for as long as the Digital World has existed we have served as the Digital World's protectors, and enforcers of King Drasil's will," the knight continued to explain. "And today, we shall perform our sacred duty… and save the Digital World from this "game", once and for all!" he then declared.

Gallantmon then handed the knight the orb. "With this program, I, Omnimon, will put you humans in your place…" he said. The knight, Omnimon apparently, then set the orb on the ground beneath him before the dinosaur head on his arm suddenly spat out a long blade. "…And strike a blow for the Digital World, and its denizens who have long suffered under your race's tyranny!" he then declared before plunging the blade into the orb causing it to explode in a green wave of energy.

At first I wondered if it had done anything at all. But, looking around, I noticed a lot of the Digimon players had suddenly changed to smaller forms similar in size to Bulucomon.

Omnimon then stood back up, and the sword retreated back into its dinosaur shaped home. "You are all officially disconnected from the protections this "game" had given you," he then declared. "I want you all to open your "DigiDeks", and try to log out," he then ordered us.

A bit confused but seeing no reason not to, I double tapped my forearm and began the process of logging out. Except… I found that the option was no longer even there! It wasn't even grayed out or anything! It was just gone! It seemed others had come to the same conclusion as I heard shocked gasps all around me.

"That is right… you can no longer retreat back to the safety of your world," Omnimon said. "Your mental data has been fully dumped into your digital avatars, soon you will notice you can feel, smell, and touch the things around you, you're every bit as real now as the Digimon in this world," he explained. "Do not worry, your physical bodies are still alive… empty husks as they are… but alive," he told us.

"We've also taken the liberty of removing the "video game" programming from your "partner" Digimon, reverting them back to their rookie forms," Omnimon explained. "Whether they choose to stay with you or not is now their choice," he added.

I chanced a glance at Bulucomon, he seemed completely transfixed by what was happening here. Although what exactly it was that was happening here was a bit unclear. It felt like an in-game event… but the fact they disabled our ability to log out seemed kind of extreme if not outright illegal.

"There's one more thing I should mention," Omnimon said. "Because your mental data is now completely in your in-game avatars," he began. I don't think I like where this is going…

"If you are slain… so too is your mental data," Omnimon said, confirming my grim theory. "Your body will be left as a lifeless vegetable, forever."

The way he said it.. it sent a chill down my spine. What he was describing was complete brain death. Our bodies left as nothing more than rotting husks of flesh without a soul. It was… very chilling to say the least.

"Our demands are simple," Omnimon began. "Humanity is to sever all ties to the Digital World, and to swear never to connect with it again," he explained. "If our demands are met, you will all be returned to your physical bodies, unharmed," he then told us. "The longer your people resist… the longer you will remain here."

I was begging to feel like this wasn't an in game event. Call it a hunch, call it intuition, call it whatever you want. But something about this whole thing felt way too real.

"Bullsh**!"

But it seemed I was one of the only ones. Everyone turned to see a young man with blue hair confront Omnimon. "You can't keep us in your stupid video game!" he objected. "And you can't scare us with your "you die in the game you die for real" nonsense, either!"

I then noticed the third knight place his hand on the handle of his rapier. It was hard to tell under his helmet, but he seemed pretty annoyed by this guy's interruption. "I don't know if this is some stupid event the devs came up with, but my dad's a lawyer and when he finds out what you're doing your little company is gonna be toast!" the blue haired boy threatened the knights.

The cat-like knight then clearly had enough of this. As he began to approach the mouthy blue haired man. "Tell me human…" the knight began in a condescending tone. "Do you truly think Omnimon is lying about what will happen to you if your avatar dies here?" he asked.

"Our avatars can't even die in this game, period!" the man scoffed. "You and your knights are full of it!"

The knight just chuckled. "Well then, perhaps you require… a demonstration," he then said.

It happened so quickly I just barely caught the knight unsheathing his rapier. But in one quick blur of motion the mouthy man soon found the knight's weapon lodged right in the center of his chest. Shocked gasps sounded from the crowd as the man's body fell limply against the weapon now lodged in his chest. The knight then placed his foot on the impaled man's chest before pulling his rapier free causing the man's body to fall lifelessly to the ground. His Digimon, some kind of weird red beetle, panicked and rushed to his partner's aid.

Omnimon's eyes grew wide as he watched the scene unfold. "Leopardmon!" he objected, revealing the name of the third and final knight. "My orders were clear! None of humans were to be killed by our hands!" he scolded the knight.

Leopardmon didn't seem to be too bothered by getting chewed out by who I assumed was his superior officer as he casually sheathed his rapier. "I am aware of your orders, Omnimon," he said. "But humans are very slow creatures, they require… visual aids," he explained.

I looked at the blue haired boy again. His Digimon was now desperately trying to shake him awake. But it was all in vain, everyone there knew that guy was dead. His body began breaking up into tiny data fragments that fluttered freely through the air like ashes in the wind.

It only dawned on me then… I just watched someone die. Everyone here just watched someone die… and while I can't prove definitively that his body was now a drooling vegetable like Omnimon had said it would be, the fact Leopardmon just stabbed a player and killed him at all was proof something was very wrong here.

Omnimon shook his head, "Damn you, Leopardmon," he muttered under his breath before turning his attention back to the crowd. "You all may spend whatever time you have remaining however you see fit," he told us. "But know this… you have very few friends here in the Digital World, so tread carefully," he warned us.

The three knights then vanished under the same blue light they had arrived in. There was a moment of stunned silence after that. No one really knew what to do or how to process what had just happened.

But me? Well… I felt that ice ball in my chest again. Only now it was a million times worse than before. It hadn't really set in until after they left how messed up a situation this was.

I couldn't log out. Everything else Omnimon had said was impossible to prove for certain. But the fact I couldn't log out anymore? That was proven. I was trapped here, possibly for the rest of my life. That alone was enough to send me into a panic.

My thoughts began to devolve into a panicked mush. I was spiraling out of control and all I could do was curl up into a ball and cry. Why did I let mom talk me into playing this stupid game? Why couldn't I have just mustered up the courage to actually talk to someone in real life? That shouldn't be so difficult! It was basic human interaction!

Everything around me just blurred. I could faintly hear the sounds of panic around me as the same realization I was having had begun to dawn on everyone else. All I could think about was my mom finding my lifeless body, completely unaware of what had become of her only child.

What would happen if she tried to remove my headset? Would it free me? Or would I die like in Sword Art Online? Or worse, permanently sever me from my physical body, trapping me in here for the rest of eternity? It seemed like such a harsh punishment for simply playing a video game!

"Jack? Jack!"

I heard a voice call to me. It sounded kind of funny and very unfamiliar… kind of childlike almost. I felt something very cold grab my arms. Confirming that what Omnimon had said about us being able to feel things here to be true. "Come on, buddy, snap out of it!" the voice pleaded.

But it was too late. I was trapped in a vortex of barely coherent thoughts. Everything about this situation was so messed up. I kept hoping that I might wake up and find this all to be just a very elaborate dream. That'd I'd be safe in my bed, faced with another normal da-

SMACK!

I was immediately ripped from my thoughts by someone slapping me right across the face with an almost inhuman amount of force. It felt like getting whacked with a block of ice. This stinging, cold kind of pain that forced me back into reality.

Now that my vision was clear I found out who had grabbed my arms earlier.

It was Bulucomon. He currently had one of my arms in his icy claws. The other? It was free, his arm bent around revealing he was also what had just slapped me across the face. "Sorry about that," he then suddenly apologized, revealing that odd voice belonged to him. "But you were completely zoned out and you were starting to scare me," he explained.

The little ice dragon then looked around. "This crowd is going crazy, we've gotta get outta here before we get flattened!" he told me. Bulucomon then placed his head under my arm and began to try to force me back to my feet. "Come on, buddy, on your feet," he ordered me.

I may have been returned to reality. But I was still emotionally checked out. I could barely muster the will to get to my feet like the obviously now sentient Bulucomon wanted.

What the hell was I going to do now? Can I really survive in a place like this? Waiting for rescue that might never come?

Meanwhile…

Carly Smith…

I just watched the crowd roll by me. Every fiber of my being wanted to tell me this was just some weird event the game was doing to engage the new free to play audience. But that kid just died. Stuff like that never happened in this game! Kids played this game! Everything was always so upbeat and light hearted… you'd never see someone get impaled through the chest like that!

I had tried to log out just like everyone else had tried, and met with similar results as they had. I was stuck here… for the rest of my life.

I wanted to escape my parents, control my own life, but… not like this. I found myself falling to my knees. All I could think of was mom and dad sitting in his office, completely unaware that their eldest daughter was now trapped in a virtual prison, and how my last words to them were so full of hatred and anger.

"Carly?"

A small voice sounded from behind me. Another player probably. I tuned it out as I just stared at the ground trying to figure out what I was going to do from here. If what the knight said was true… I could really die here. My life… my dreams… everything I ever could have been… just… gone. In an instant.

I collapsed to my hands and knees, cursing as loud as I could. I should have logged out when we found Fangmon! Why the hell didn't that tip me off?! It was so weird and out of place, it was a sign something was wrong and I wrote it off as a goddamn update! I'm so stupid!

I pounded my fist against the cobblestone floor, cursing every single time my fist hit the stone. Every pang of pain I felt in my fist reminded me just how real that knight's threat really was. The cursing soon gave way to primal screaming. Everything I had worked for, all those days spent on the slopes trying to perfect my technique… those dreams of X Games and Olympic glory… even that simple life as owner of that stupid diner that my parents wanted for me… all taken away from me in an instant.

"CARLY STOP!"

Something grabbed my hand before I could slam it again. I broke away from my self pity to see the face of a small bear staring down at me with tears welling up in his baby blue eyes. His little paws holding my arm in place. I knew who this was. It was Grizzlymon… well, his Rookie form at least. Bearmon, I think?

Bearmon then wrapped his arms around me in a comforting hug. "It'll be okay… I promise," he said. I was so mentally exhausted I didn't even question why he was able to talk now. There wasn't even fear of anger anymore… just empty hopelessness. If it was true we could die here like that blue haired guy did… How long could I hope to survive here? I mean, I was good at this game… but even I lost sometimes.

I wanted control of my own life… to make my own decisions… but now? Who knows what the future holds…

If I even had one anymore.

A/N: Well, I think it's safe to say everyone here isn't exactly having a great time to put it lightly.

Well, you try getting trapped in a video game with the real possibility of your brain dying and see how happy YOU are!

On a lighter note, I figured this was a good spot to stop for now and actually post this thing. It's been, waaay too long since I've done a story here and I always want to make plenty of chapters to make sure I'm into the story enough to actually write it to its conclusion.

It doesn't always work… a simple browsing of my account will tell you that. But I think this idea has a lot of potential and (hopefully) I'll be able to finish it.