Tobi had been patiently waiting at the town Church for almost two hours before he started getting annoyed.

After discovering there was no way to contact customer support inside the game, he'd been forced to ask a player to contact them on his behalf. The player didn't seem to believe that he couldn't log off but he still agreed to help.

The man returned an hour later with the message to wait at the church and a Game Moderator would come to meet him there.

The biggest problem was the time difference between reality and virtual reality. Whilst the man had taken a mere fifteen minutes to contact customer support and sort things out, Tobi had waited an hour. The same became the problem waiting for the Moderator. Whilst it had been only 30minutes in reality, Tobi had waited two gruelling hours for the person to show up.

Bored beyond reason, Tobi called out for his user menu again.

"Show User Window"

Name: Tobi

Level1Health: 15/15Mana: 15/15Energy: 100/100Satiety: 55/100

TITLESNone

[td100]STATS[/tds]Distributable Points40Health Points1Intelligence1Strength1Wisdom1Attack1Dexterity1Agility1Defence1???-???-???-???-???-???-???-???-???-???-???-???-

[td100]Additional Information[/tds]RaceHumanGenderMaleAlignmentNeutralClassNoneAffinityUndiscoveredAllegianceUndeclared

Figuring that all the question marks were stats that could be discovered, he focused on the ones that were visible.

Touching the Dexterity stat opened a second window showing him what the stat actually did.

Dexterity:

Increases the chances of success when using the system assist.

Especially useful for use of bows and daggers.

Increases success rate and quality of clothes and armour when crafted through Tailor or Blacksmith.

For additional information and to see what else Dexterity helps with, go to your advanced options.

He'd already been through all the options twice, but Dexterity interested him the most so he'd read through what it said a couple of extra times. At a guess, he figured the stat would be important for crafters but unnecessary for those that fought without using the system assist. Almost all the stats and information was about how they affected the system assist.

Agility was the weirdest and most difficult to understand so he just ignored it. He doubted he would ever put stats into agility.

The easiest to understand was Health and Health Points.

- Every time you leveled up, you gained 5 Health and 5 Distributable points.

- Every stat entered into HP gained 10 additional health.

Whilst waiting for the Game Moderator to arrive, he also considered what the NPC from character creation had said.

'Nobody has yet left their starting countries'

If that was true - how did his fathers' notes have information on other races?

He wanted to log off and find out, but as that was impossible he could only guess that much of the information came from online.

"Mr Tobi?"

Tobi looked up to see a small, middle-aged man looking down at where he sat. His clothes were a golden yellow from head to toe with a small green emblem on the chest that looked very similar to the Skea-Tech logo.

"That's me." Tobi replied as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"Hello, my name is Lorry. Sorry it took so long to get here, I was the only GM nearby and available at this time. My character was not actually in the city, so I had a little trouble getting here."

"It's fine." Tobi smiled, simply happy to have someone to finally deal with his problem and not noticing the complaint at having to return.

"So, what seems to be the problem?"

"I can't log out. No matter how much I try. Watch: Log Out."

...

"Hmm..." The Moderator looked around the area. After confirming that nobody had witnessed the scene he continued, "I've never come across this issue before. I think we should discuss this somewhere more private and call in someone from programming. Would you come with me, please?"

Tobi nodded and made to follow him.

"Where are we headed?"

"The guild hall. Moderators have their own little headquarters on the third floor."

"I see," Tobi replied. He didn't mind walking in silence but Tobi felt uncomfortable beside him and couldn't help but keep talking.

"If Moderators have their own HQ in the guild hall, why was I told to wait at the church?"

The man shrugged, "I didn't answer the call for assistance so I don't know the reason. I received the notification whilst I played so I just did as I was told."

"You can get notifications from the outside whilst you play?"

The man didn't reply as he turned down a new road. The guild hall was directly ahead.

"Moderators can. We have custom units directly linked to the mainframe."

"Oh, so you are Korean?" Tobi asked with surprise. The man didn't look Korean at all. Tobi would have guessed he was American or something if they'd met in the real world.

"I am. My character looks like this because it is the appearance most Anderons have. In Lybernia, the people look more African and in Magrathea they appear more Asian."

"Look African? Is that a nice way of saying they are black?"

The Moderator looked back at him briefly but didn't respond.

"Your English is very good though..."

The Moderator seemed to chuckle as he turned down an alley at the side of the Guild Hall, "I am not speaking English. For that matter, nor are you."

He opened a side door down the alley with a golden key that seemed to glow. Inside was a set of stairs leading directly to the third floor.

As they started their ascent, Tobi asked what language they were speaking if not English. It certainly sounded English to him.

"We are speaking human. The system has the latest translation systems installed. Or at least, that's the easiest way to describe what is really happening. She automatically translates what we say. For example; if your girlfriend were an Elf and you spoke to her in the game, she would not understand you. Nor would you understand her.

In here please."

Tobi did as he was bid and entered a spacious and luxurious room.

"Sit anywhere. I haven't eaten in a while so I am going to get Gaston to cook up something. Want anything?"

Tobi's Satiety was now down to 48 and hunger tickled his belly. He knew he had ten bread in his pack, but why waste it when he was offered free food?

"Sure. Anything is fine."

Whilst the Moderator was gone to get food, Tobi wandered around the room. There was a large map that was far more detailed than the one he'd been shown during character creation. It was only then that he found out the town name he'd started in: Brackley.

"The map is incomplete." A voice called from the other side of the room.

Tobi turned to see a man and woman smiling at him. Both were wearing brown traveling clothes that would be unsuited for fighting.

"I expected everyone here to be wearing the same golden uniform as Lorry."

The woman smiled as the man smiled and told Tobi that they only wore those clothes when on official business. They were wearing clothes that were suited to their class. After asking what their class was, they answered with Geologist and Excavationist. The male was the Geologist.

"Is there a class for everything?" Tobi asked in surprise.

"Pretty much," the man answered as he rose from his seat and wandered to the map, "the original classes for players were actually only one of three; Mage, Warrior and Archer. The system however is run through an Artificially Intelligent program that can both influence and be influenced by what happens in the world. She never actually interferes but that much is obvious to those of us that have been here since the beginning.

Originally, I was a miner without any specific class. I was studying the Earth, mines and other sources to see if I could track down potential ore veins or new mining locations. I was not very successful in the beginning, but after I successfully mapped out several caves and discovered new locations to mine - the system gave me the class Geologist.

Mel over there became an Excavationist in a similar fashion."

Tobi nodded as he took in the information. To his mind, her class should be Excavator, not Excavationist - was excavationist even a word?

"And none of that is to ever be repeated outside of this room." came the voice of Lorry in a reprimanding tone; "Byron, this gentleman is not a GM. He is here due to ... unforeseen circumstances."

Byron looked back to Tobi in surprise before his face visibly turned white, "I didn't know." He stuttered.

Lorry waved his hand and assured him it didn't matter. Immediately afterward he escorted Tobi to a new room where they would have more privacy.

"One of our heads in the programming department will be along shortly."

"... he just happened to be in this city...this head of your programming?"

Lorry smiled in a way that could be described as either sinister or wicked. A smile that was not a happy one even if it did show some amusement.

A moment later, a large tray holding two plates of food was carried in by a man wearing something akin to a chef's uniform. Minus the hat. A maid also followed carrying a tray of drinks and cups.

After they had been placed on the large desk-like table, both people bowed and quickly departed from the room. Neither said anything or so much as looked at Lorry. Both glanced at Tobi but he couldn't guess what their expressions meant.

"Eat. We have time to discuss it when our programmer gets here."

Looking at the utensils, Tobi picked up the one that mostly resembled a fork: a spoon-like object with two slits cut out of the end. Bizarre as it was, the item was good for eating with.

Tobi had barely taken his first bite when he sat up in surprise and looked at Lorry. The food was delicious. Far tastier than anything he'd eaten in reality.

"Good, right?"

Tobi nodded, "I had imagined my mind could only formulate tastes it recognized. How am I able to taste something like this?"

Lorry shrugged as he finished eating what he'd just put in his mouth.

The pair remained silent as they ate it all. Tobi's Satiety bar had filled up long before he finished the food.

At the end of the meal, Tobi received a notification saying he'd become well fed. Satiety would not begin to decrease for at least an hour.

"So, when will the programmer get here?" Tobi asked, sitting back with a nice warm cup of...something. He looked at the drink curiously as he compared its flavour to coffee.

"Although we have been waiting for what seems like a long time, it has been little over ten minutes in reality. He is probably only just logging in now. We shouldn't have to wait much longer."

Tobi nodded and tried to recall what else he wanted to discuss with the GM whilst he had chance.

"Mr Tobi, how long have you currently been online?"

"Hmm. I spent about ten minutes creating my character and discovered I couldn't log out about ten minutes after that. I asked a player to contact customer support five minutes later. Twenty to thirty minutes after that, he returned and told me to wait at the church. Some two hours after that, you arrived. Ten minutes in the other room and about forty minutes in this one. Three-and-a-half hours?"

"Could you attempt to log out for me again, please?"

Tobi obliged for the same notification he received every other time.

Lorry sighed with a gentle nod, "I don't understand at all. I wasn't originally a game moderator. I was a part of the team that ensure the safety of the Dive Units. More specifically, I was paid very well to be the guinea pig they did tests on. I don't know of any conceivable method you could be trapped here."

Tobi immediately thought of and ruled out all obvious tests they could carry out to ensure it was safe. He also immediately thought of tests they couldn't do; like what would happen if someone died in the unit.

Lorry shook his head, "Even if you were to have a heart attack or something whilst playing, the Dive Unit would sense your bodies distress and you would be forcefully logged out. Even if your body only needed to pee so badly that you might wet yourself, the machine would force you out. The dive unit would even sign you out and force you to stay logged out if you were too hungry. Skea-Tech do not want law suits because people fail to look after their body."

Tobi tried to process the limited information and all of the implications it contained.

Wait, did he just read my mind?

Tobi narrowed his eyes at Lorry but the man seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

"What if I lost connection to the server?" Tobi asked.

"Yeah. I was the only person to willingly do that test in the beginning. The others claimed it was too dangerous. After I did it however, the rest did too. All machines are tested prior to being sold to ensure we do not have a faulty one. If anyone messes with you or the machine whilst you are connected, it automatically disconnects you.

If the machine loses connection from some other source or for some other reason, you are still ejected from the game. The Dive Unit is the medium for your mind and the game. Much like a PC but without the ping rate. The Ping rate from the Dive Unit to the game is so good that it is equal to that of your finger moving after your brain sends the signal.

Or very close to the same speed. We can't be sure, yet, whether or not it is as good for people on all corners of the world. We have yet to have a single complaint about ping speed but we are not so foolish as the think it will never happen."

Tobi took another sip of his drink. He was beginning to see why the man was confused about his current 'predicament' within the game.

As the door to the room opened, Tobi turned to see a tall and smart looking gentleman enter.

"Master Tobi, I presume?"

Tobi nodded. He didn't know why the man said 'Master' instead of 'Mister', but Tobi felt like he'd been addressed in the proper formal manner. Not Master like the master of a slave, but a young person that is lower in rank than a gentleman. A person too young to enter society as a 'Mister' ... He didn't know if people still used the term in this day and age, but the man did so in such a way that Tobi understood his meaning easily.

Either way, Tobi was 19 and would normally be considered a man grown. Though as he was still in education, it could be argued he had yet to enter proper society.

Tobi was still directing his thoughts at the word 'Master' when the man continued.

"I am sure Lorry would have told you by now...but we are actually limited in how much access we have in the game. So much so, that the game you are now playing is vastly superior to the one we initially designed and released. A long story short; we have no idea what has happened to you or why. Nor do we know how to resolve the problem or even if we can."

As the man explained, Tobi wondered if it was exactly the news he expected. Somehow, he felt that he already knew as much.

"So where do I go from here?" Tobi asked.

"I cannot help you with that either. What you do in the game is still up to you. In the real world, we have already launched an investigation. Our best teams have put aside everything to address what is going on with you. That is why I am here. I need personal information that we do not have access to."

"Like what?"

The man briefly looked at Lorry before answering, "Name. Address. Who you live with... if anyone. Age. Occupation. Anything that may be relevant to the case and tracking you down. Our biggest priority right now is checking the condition of your real body."

Taken aback a little by the blunt nature of the man and caught off guard, Tobi immediately gave him all the details he asked for. If it turned out they were some bad players hooking him for a scam, he'd have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

"Thank you, Mr Donlan. I currently have a feed going directly to a screen being watched by my juniors. They will be watching a buffer version that accounts for the time speed difference but they will be trying to contact your family any moment now. They will also have an ambulance sent to your location to ensure you are OK with strict instructions to prevent the situation becoming worse."

"What kind of instructions?" Tobi replied as he struggled to keep up with the conversation.

"Like not pulling you out of the machine if at all possible. One of the few tests we couldn't try is what happens if you are pulled from the Dive Unit whilst your mind is connected..."

"...but there is a lid," Tobi interrupted, "the machine would disconnect me as soon as they opened the lid. That would be impossible."

The man nodded and gave another glance to Lorry. Turning to look, Tobi spotted that the man had responded with a small nod.

"Am I missing something here?" Tobi asked, a little annoyed.

Both men remained silent for a while.

"We are not just worried about your real body." Lorry finally answered.

"Do you know what normally happens if you die inside the game, Master Tobi?"

Noticing the man had returned back to calling him Master instead of Mister, Tobi hesitated in answering.

Normally you would disconnect after death. A twenty-four hour ban would follow. A punishment for death before reincarnation. The NPC's were deeply fascinated by 'Travelers' for that very reason.

"Wait, doesn't that mean I can return to my body by killing myself?"

Both faces of the Skea-Tech employees turned white. At the same time, Tobi realized how stupid his answer had just been. If he couldn't log out then obviously there was something happening.

"Wait...if I die..."

"...you might really die." The programmer answered.

Tobi suddenly felt sick.

"Drink your drink," Lorry advised, "It is actually a potion that calms you down and relieves sickness symptoms."

Tobi looked at the warm brown liquid and almost felt like smiling. Almost - but not quite.

Rather than taking another swig of the concoction, Tobi put the drink down and willed himself to relax.

His thoughts strayed to his sister and his family; He really wanted to see them.

His thoughts then strayed to Niamh...he wanted to see her too.

Back to Main Page

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Authors Note:

Originally this chapter was much longer. I have edited it and cut it before proceeding for user participation. Normally I wouldn't do this but I am concerned a little with how the readers may react to what I had originally wrote.

I will be posting a thread where the readers can have a say in what has actually happened to Tobi in the real world. I may or may not include the information of what I wrote originally. More information regarding this will be in the actual thread. SEE HERE

Additionally - this chapter had a lot of typing errors and for some reason my copy/paste transfer to here messed up causing the sentences to break at weird places. I think I have corrected everything, but if you spot anything please let me know and I will attempt to resolve all issues.

Thank you in advance.

~Aspirer