I watch Leon in his bed. After the incident he appeared suddenly falling right into his bed unconscious. When I checked on him, I found he had a blistering fever. I instantly had the drone bring me water, a towel or cloth and I began wetting the cloth and putting the moist towel on his head then quickly running to my lab and grabbing some health potions and antidotes for poison, paralyzes and every kind of poison I had.

I had him drink the health one first, then a mana potion in case this was severe mana exhaust, then stamina, finally i started to give him the antidotes but nothing helped.

I didn’t want to risk my cooking so I just fed him bits of bread and slowly made him drink water. I had begun to get desperate so I simply started to do that basic washing and putting the cloth on his forehead to try and lower his fever.

It went one day, then another. I watched him with Levi and we switched sometimes. When the alarm for work signaled I logged out quickly and called his house hoping to see if he was ejected from the game or not but no one answered. I then called my boss and told him what was happening and his situation. He told me I can have the day night off to take care of him, if he doesn’t wake up by tomorrow in game we would call XCom to report this and hopefully resolve it.

With that I returned to the game to look after him but after another two days spent in the game during the night I began to feel tired and while I was sitting next to his bed watching over him, my eyes closed and my head tilted and rested on his bed.

***

My head… FUCK what is this pain damn it!

Everything is so hazy and dark. What happened? I felt rage… so much concentrated rage but then I simply blacked out? Did I die or something?

I try to open my eyes but I can't because they are too heavy. My mind feels really weighed down and my body… I can’t feel it from how weak i felt.

I was simply stuck here. Since I couldn’t talk I just called up the menu with my mind. I was conscious but stuck in my body so I simply needed to log out.

Sadly, in front of the logout button was something I didn't expect.

Due to your current state, both your avatar and your real body are in a state of shock and your mental fatigue is registered at max making it impossible for you to ‘Wake up’. The current status is categorized under ‘Coma’ and until your real body and avatar recover, your mind can’t regain control of your motor control due to risk of health issues.

So I was stuck in here. I looked at the other systems and PMing was turned off, access to phone and other things as well so i can’t call anyone which would be useful at this time.

Since I couldn’t do anything physical I thought the best plan would be to kill time mediating.

With that in mind, in this dark abyss with nothing, no sound, scent, touch, taste of sight, I began to mediate. I tried to open my mind to find something. I felt the mana in the air like normal whenever I meditated.

The density in the mana was rather high so I was probably in the hive as well but it shouldn’t be anywhere to grand, maybe the palace being watched over by Debbie and Levi.

I try to sense more and start to see something. Until now I hadn't ‘seen’ anything but slowly the small blue lights that were the mana that converged on my location began to take a blurred shape. Soon I saw the simple outline of my body laying down. This was like a mana body or something. Maybe my level in meditation reached a level that it let me see mana or something.

As I watch slowly a flat surface spread over and under the image of my body. I could see everything as if I was in a third person perspective.

The glow above was thin and barely covered my body and the one below was similar. It stopped one meter away from my body. The large block of glowing light I more or less guessed was a bed.

It stopped at that distance but at this distance it was enough to see what was happening. Entering and leaving this bubble was someone moving something over my head.

It was a blur but it was a body so I knew it was someone taking care of me.

The size suggested either Flor or the drone if she had mana.

Suddenly a loud ding reverberates throughout the darkness and a window appears in front of me.

Mana vision

Basic Level 1

After completely abandoning your other senses and focusing your mind. You can now ‘see’ the mana within a set distance to yourself. Through training the details of the mana will appear as bodies and detailed images and the range will eventually get larger.

Current range: 1.5 meter

So this was a skill huh. Well until I can start or feel my body I might as well try to focus on this to make it better. Maybe it would be interesting to train using my Glaive blind from now on. Makes me imagine those old chinese movies and martial arts movies when the main character trains blind to improve his reflexes.

Well nothing to do now so I simply wait. I focus on expanding the view and watching them.

Sometimes I see a child sized signal appear but would leave later and another would appear. Sometimes they were together but I couldn’t hear so I didn’t matter.

After some time I finally pushed the view to 2 meters and a message appeared saying that I leveled up Mana Vision.

After this I suddenly felt something. Yeah I felt, my body had begun to feel again. The feeling of my body had returned and slowly my senses were turning on.

Finally I got enough senses to open my eyes.

After a lot of forcing I finally opened my heavy eyelids and light flooded my vision making it blurry but after a moment it cleared up as my eyes started to adjust.

As my body began to wake up, I felt a pressure on my legs and forced my head up a bit to look down. I saw Debbie sleeping with half her body over my bed and part of it was over my legs.

“I wonder how long I was out?” I thought to myself.

I let my head drop and it made the bed bounce a bit making Debbie walk up from the movement.

Slowly she gets up and rubs her eyes and looks up to me moving her hand to take a moist cloth on my forehead I had failed to notice.

“L-leon… LEON!!! YOU’RE AWAKE!!!” Debbie shouted and jumped on the bed hugging me.

I suddenly felt a huge wave of pain that made my vision darken again for a moment until Debbie let me go when she noticed I wasn't responding.

As my vision cleared up and the pain began to numb again I was finally able to breathe easier.

“P-ple-ase don’t ju-mp on me!” I said desperately in a ragged voice.

“OH! Sorry! but…!” she looked like she was about to cry.

“Wh-at h-app-ened?” I asked.

“You tell me? We found you in your bed with a monstrous fever and not only that you have been unconscious inside the game for more than 4 days here.” She said with big tears in her eyes.

“Four… days.” Four days was a full day in real life. “What...ab-out my re-al bo-dy?” I asked.

“I didn’t go there because you didn’t log out. I felt it would be worse to eject you out of the game but I called in sick for you and Max said I can get the day off until you wake up.” She said.

“Wh-at now?” I asked.

“With you awake you need rest so sleep in here and log out while I logout and head to your place. I want to make sure you're okay there as well.” She says.

“O-k!” I said with a weak nod.

I let my heavy eyelids close and let my breath calm down before the message saying if i wanted to logout appeared.

Pressing yes my mind's leaves this body and flies into my real body.

At once I felt tremendous waves of pain coming from my body like I had been beaten to a pulp and nearly fainted but held on while moving my body slowly causing my joints to groan under the strain and some let out a pop. Each one was more painful than the last and I finally gave up and simply waited for Debbie.

I thankfully had the glasses on that worked with thought so I could open the text function and message her.

[Stuck in bed. My body has stiffened almost unnaturally. Can’t move without feeling extreme pain.] I text her.

[I’m calling the paramedics. I’m already on the way so I will arrive first and will help explain it.] she replied.

I simply waited and soon I heard the car in the driveway and her frantically opening the doors of my house as she headed to my room and found me.

“Are you fine?” She said, shouting.

[Too loud! I’m not deaf, just in too much pain to move or talk.] I text her.

Hearing her phone she pulls it out and looks at my message making her sigh in relief.

Moments later the sirens came and she ran out and soon came in with two medics. In their hands was a hover gurney. When they straightened it out it began to emit a blue glowing wave that kept it in the air.

“Be careful, he said he feels unbearable pain when he moves so moving him too much…” Debbie began but…

“We know! We are pros and we know how to handle injured patients already! Tch it’s always the same.” One of them said pissed off making me want to punch him but since I can’t move it was impossible.

The same guy carefully removed the VR glasses and even that slight movement brought a wave of pain making me dizzy.

They noticed how I was acting and finally showed some concern.

“Let’s move him in one go, it will cut the pain for him to a simple moment.” They said and nodded.

One grabs my legs and the other puts his arms behind my back and neck and lifts.

The pain shot so fast that I fainted just as fast.

Flor POV

I watched as they placed Leon on the gurney and noticed his eyes were empty.

“WHAT HAPPENED!?” I shouted.

The two paramedics also looked and quickly moved to check his pulse.

“Seems he fainted from the pain. His pulse shot up as well. Best not give him any medicine until we know more.” One of them said.

“Miss, please lock his house up and come with us, we need to know what happened as part of the report.” The rude one said now in a professional tone.

I nod as they tied Leon well so he didn’t fall and pulled the gurney through the door and into the ambulance.

I locked up like they said and then told the car’s AI to follow the ambulance.

After several minutes of having my car and the ambulance fly over the city to quickly reach the hospitals on the other side of the massive city we live in.

Reaching the hospital the car AI was guided into a visitors area while the ambulance went another way. I wanted to follow but the AI’s had protocol.

Still, thankfully the health care nowadays is so good, the hospitals aren’t cluttered like it used to be and it was extremely organized with the help of the AI’s to handle nearly 40% of the main documentation making the organization move quickly.

In the parking lot, I quickly got out and let the AI go park with orders to leave as close as possible to the elevator before I ran in and headed to the first floor where I can get attended.

The elevator was frustratingly slow and once I got down I ran to the counter.

“Excuse me, I came here following the ambulance that just entered with a friend Leon Holmes.” I said, a bit desperate.

The woman at the counter quickly called the AI and started to search the name, all of which is all done on the way to the hospital since documents are also linked to genetic code so if someone is unconscious with no one to help give the documentation they can give a sample of blood to the machines and pull up the correct documentation to let the AI register them into the system.

“Leon Holmes… he just entered, he was sent to the Emergency Room and has already begun several examinations to see what his condition is. There is a notice that a woman will come explain what happened, is that you?” the receptionist asked.

“Yes, do I speak to you or some doctor?” I asked.

“For now please just wait, it’s with the leading doctor taking care of him. Once all the examinations are done you will be called to his office.” She explained.

I frowned as I was worried but agreed. This was protocol for when someone comes in unconscious.

I go and sit in one of the sofa chairs and simply wait.

I look at the clock and see it was early morning already. I had spent a day with Leon in the game to take care of him.

Since I had told Max that he was out cold, might as well inform him so I called.

“He woke up already? That’s good, so what is his state?” Max asked.

“In the game and in real life his body could barely move. Also when he was moved from his bed onto the gurney he fainted from pain in his body. Something happened to him and I don't know what and it seems neither did he. We are currently at the hospital and he is in the emergency room and has been sent to do several exams” I tell him.

“I see, from what I can tell, he may be out of commission for a few days or more. Once my shift is over at 5 I’ll head over to hear what is going on from you personally, it’s better than over the phone.” He said.

“Alright, I’ll be waiting here, I need to explain what I remember from what happened so I have to stay here.” I explained and he agreed.

With that the call ends and I sit back breathing a deep sigh filled with my worry.

From there I began to wait. One hours, two, four… At noon I went down to the cafeteria since I was hit with hunger and there was no point in staying hungry in this situation.

After I got back I looked at the tv in the waiting area and saw the news.

It was stating stuff like sudden changes in VLO that had just happened. The news crew pulled up two windows that were released to the public and all players.

Greetings Travellers,

Due to recent events, we XCom Inc., have been forced to make several policy changes and increase strictness on how crimes are handled within the game.

The first change is that all forms of abuse such as Rape and Torture will be regarded as felonies and criminal actions. The player committing these actions will be banned and will be forced into standby mode, unable to remove the VR glasses until police arrive and arrest the person in question. Actions like theft and bandit activity will still be permitted, do to the existence of the thief and bandit system and PK system, but players cannot join in on things like Rape neither against other Players or NPC. The AI are in the process of creating a unique NPC that will find and ‘ban’ the player by hunting him down.

Another change which we are happy to have accomplished is the removal of the Holy Spell, [Divine Punishment]. This spell was recently used against several players, whose name shall remain anonymous. The danger of this spell is that it is intended to attack the soul of the target but in the case of players it bans the player but the trauma of the incident was more than real. As of right now, all the priests that know this spell are having it completely wiped from their memory and the Locked race known as the Celestials have now descended to run all the political parts of the churches.

Several smaller changes have been done and we also took this chance to introduce a patch for several bugs we encounter.

From XCom Inc.

I frowned when i saw this. It explicitly stated things related directly to me, Leon and the policemen. This was made completely as a way to avoid getting sued. They probably visited the seven men and willingly offered compensation for the incident. I haven’t heard from them since they were ejected.

After a while a young doctor that was well toned with dark brown hair and a light tan skin while wearing a white doctor's coat not too different from what I use.

“Ma’am, are you with Mr Leon Holmes?” He asked.

“Yes I am.” I replied.

“Okay, please come with me, i am Doctor Martin Booth and I am assigned to take care of your husband.” He says while he looks at a tablet that held all of Leon’s test results.

Though I wanted to reply, my mind had shut down when he said Leon was my husband.

“Is everything alright?” He asked.

“No! Leon isn’t my husband, he is my work colleague!” I nearly shouted, making him start to try and calm me down.

“I’m sorry ma’am! I didn’t know!” He said.

“Please don’t call me ma’am! I’m not married!” I said even louder while my face was glowing bright

“R-right, I’m sorry! *cough cough* Please follow me then miss…” He said.

“Debbie Grimm!” I said huffing in embarrassment and anger.

I could see some of the nurses looking while holding back their laughter as I followed the doctor to his office.

It was normal, lots of bookshelves, a desk with a pc and chairs for him on the other side of the desk and some on my side. I take a seat while he goes around the other side of the desk and sits down before coughing a bit and beginning.

“Now then, can you please tell me what you may know and what exactly happened.” He asked.

“Well, I can’t be sure…” I said wryly and began to explain the events that happened. “Once Leon appeared he was extremely angry and used a teleport skill to send me to a safe location. From there I lost contact for maybe… 5 minutes, 10 at best until he was found in the bed of the ‘House’ he had teleported me to. He had a dangerously high fever and was already unconscious. I had thought he was already ejected from the game but when I checked at his house he was still in the game and so I waited until he woke up. I tried lots of potions to try and heal him in game but nothing worked so I just tried to control his fever and after about 4 in game days he woke up.” I explained.

“Hmm, this is more complicated, his condition was present in both the avatar and his real body. Still that was dangerous miss, if you had called immediately we could have contacted the company and seen if the AI’s could have identified the cause and ejected him to bring him to the hospital and get a more precise diagnostic but considering the circumstances, you probably weren’t in the right state of mind to really remember that.” He said.

I could only nod dejected since I hadn't noticed that before.

“So what is his situation at the moment?” I asked.

With some typing several screens appeared before him through a holo projectors. These were rather rare even in today's time. The research labs don't have them even but large hospitals like this one do to make the work easier.

“First off, when he got here, he was unconscious because of the pain he felt from being moved but with some scans we could determine easily that besides that, when he was unconscious within the game it was because he literally overloaded his mind causing his body to make him lose consciousness to preserve his mind.” He explained.

I was shocked, overloading his mind, I always thought something like extreme shock or trauma was the only thing that could do that. Being a herbal researcher I was obviously not versed in the human body and mind like a medical doctor but I, at least, know a few bits and pieces and this was rather surprising.

“Next is his own body condition. There is nothing wrong with his body in particular but it seems that whatever happened to him during the span of time after he teleported you and appeared in the bed you mentioned caused him to consume 90% of the ATP, the energy molecule in the body, causing him to have extreme physical fatigue.” He explained

This was just as shocking, how does someone consume so much energy in such a short time especially when our body continually produces it.

“At the moment he is technically low on energy and the result is not being able to move, feeling pain when trying to do so, easily fainting under random situations and being extremely tired. From what I have seen, his body has already taken action to remake the energy he lacks but his body isn’t exactly loaded with fat to be converted into energy. We have attached him to pouches of Glucose that are being slowly introduced into his bloodstream so that his body will have the necessary fuel to convert into energy. My estimates would be that in about 2 days he wakes up again, a week for me to be able to move his body with some safety and about two to three weeks before I even think of letting him try to walk at all. His mental fatigue is because of the same reason, he lacks energy so his brain can’t function at 100% like it should. The brain being the nerve center it uses the most electric charges in the body so the lack of it would cause him serious mental fatigue.” he said.

“So besides his lack of energy there are no other problems with his body?” I asked.

“Precisely but he will need to remain in the hospital for the duration of the treatment, maybe a month or so and because this affected his brain due to the lack of energy we won’t be allowing him into VLO at least until we are certain his brain and body can handle the strain.” He said.

“That seems fair enough, I was worried it could have been worse but if it’s only this I can relax so much now.” I said, sighing, making the man chuckle a bit.

“Yes, you should be happy he is safe. Once he wakes up again he will be moved out of the emergency rooms and into the regular area of the hospital and then he will be allowed to have visitors from then on while under observation. I would like to request names of any acquaintances that you expect would visit?” He asked. He made a small screen appear and besides adding my name, I added Jonas and the people that have worked with him and those I know he is close enough to care.

“Thank you for the help, besides your report we will be talking with XCom Inc. to see if they can aid us in figuring out what happened during that time frame you were away.” He said.

“Can you please call me if you obtain that information? I feel guilty since he saved me and ended up like this!” I said.

“Of course! We will remain in contact and I will call once he is moved to the regular room and is open for visits.” He said.

I thank him and with him leading we leave the office.

Back at the lobby I called Jonas, the time was already 4:30 pm which was almost his time to leave. I explain the situation to him.

“That’s something, I want to meet at a restaurant and talk it over. Since he isn’t open for visitors at the moment and I still want to know in detail what happened.” He said so I agreed to it and we promised to meet up at a popular restaurant downtown.

I leave the hospital feeling a bit calmer and set the AI to take me to the restaurant.