Buddy please enlighten me

{What happened? Your girl does not like you anymore?} Ayuri said with a laugh.

"I am sure that's not the case."

I could see her talking to the commander, but I could not hear anything because she had set up the same cube she had the zombie in so no one could hear what they were saying.

I stared at her curiously because first, Miko was acting strange and second, the commander was pointing at me while she was talking to Miko.

After a while, she dissolved the cube and came towards me. I expected her to talk to me normally, but instead she just said, "You two, come with me."

Normally that would be nice if her tone was like it always was, but it was cold, as if she did not know me and just saw me as a random guy.

I followed her to the camp these people had set up. Suddenly she stopped and four people gathered around us and each of them put a small red pillar in the ground around us.

After that they stood in front of us, Miko nodded her head and one of them said "Initiate teleport" and pressed a button on the controller he was holding.

The pillars began to emit a white light in the shape of a circle that went through each pillar around us. Then a transparent wall of the same light appeared above the circle of light. Inside the circle it was as if it was raining, but instead of the raindrops falling down, they rose up.

Then a blinding light appeared and we were teleported in front of a tall black building surrounded by huge concrete walls with barbed wires and a lot of soldiers. I guess this is their headquarters? The place is so well guarded to not be.

"Follow me," she said, and walked forward.

But instead of going to the tower, she went into a small building near the tower. Was I mistaken? Is not that their headquarters?

We followed her inside and after two guards checked us for anything illegal, we went into an elevator with Miko and rode down.

The whole time Miko did not look at me, not once. Something strange was going on with her.

After two minutes, the elevator stopped and we got off. We stood in front of a large corridor with many doors on each side.

We continued walking in a straight line. Miko was in front of us, I was behind her, and Ayuri was behind me. She did not seem too concerned about our current situation.

Well, I guess with her powers she should not be.

She walked into a room on the left, just before the end of the hall.

"Stay here until I inform the superiors of your existence." She said and stepped out the door.

The room was of average size. Not too big and not too small. The room was white and in the right corner in front of me were two red sofas.

But why did she leave us alone? If she did not trust us, she should have assigned someone to watch over us.

But I guess I was not paying much attention to my surroundings, because I saw someone coming at me from the other side of the room.

He looks like... Yuuki?

"Yuuki?" I said out loud.

He quickly approached me and covered my mouth with his right hand.

"Shh, no one should know you know me." He whispered.

I nodded and he let go of me.

"What's going on here? Why is NeonDown like this? And most importantly, what's going on with Miko?" I whispered.

"You have been gone for a while, buddy. Let us sit down here and I'll explain everything." He said and pointed to the sofa.

We sat down and he began to explain to me what had happened.

"Well, first of all, you have been gone for quite a while."

"What do you mean? I was only on the other side for two days."

"Nope, you were there for a year and a half."

"What? How is that possible?" I said while looking at Ayuri.

{I think what I feared happened. You see, when the Core Gateway Engine exploded, it reacted with the varnium in those mines. And as you probably already know, varnium is highly unstable. That's because each of these crystals is like a time capsule. When it explodes, it creates a time rift and no one will ever see you again. So when all these varnium crystals exploded, they opened a space-time rift after their energy merged with the gate. So when we passed through it, we traveled into the future. We were incredibly lucky that we only traveled a year and a half into the future.}

"I-I see. So Yuuki, what's going on with Miko, why is she like that? Who were those people? Why are there zombies? And most importantly, where is my family?" I said, turning my head back to Yuuki.

He sighed and continued.

"After you left, a new VR game came out about a week later. The world went crazy for it and everyone bought it, even us. But it was not a game. It was an experiment. Once you wear the headset, your brain receives some special signals that stimulate your brain and enable you to unlock more functions in your brain. We call these people Awakeners. As you saw, Miko awakened the ability of psychokinesis and Natsumi awakened the ability of pyrokinesis."

"Wait, that girl there was Natsumi? Why didn't she recognize me?"

"We never told anyone about your transformation. So no one knows about it except me and Ryu. And that's the way it should stay.

"Why?"

"I'll explain that later. Now, where was I? Oh yeah. As I was saying, I awakened the ability of invisibility." And the moment he said that, he disappeared before my eyes and then reappeared.

"Wow, that's awesome. How many girls changing clothes have you seen with this ability?"

"Um, I do not use my ability for that." He said blushing.

I smiled slightly and let him continue.

"Well, we have the Awakened, but we are not the majority. The zombies you saw were normal people... until they tried this game. For most people, their brains can not process these signals. In order not to be destroyed by these signals, their brain starts to mutate, and not only the brain, but also the rest of the body. The person loses consciousness and is just a walking corpse. These zombies have increased strength and viability, making it hard to kill even the lowest ranked one. In addition to these zombies, there are also those that can use psychic powers. These were awakeners who were bitten by one of these zombies. So I would strongly recommend that you do not let these things bite you."

"I see. Now tell me why Miko is like this and where my family is?"

"That... It's a little hard for me to say..." he said, lowering his head.

"What do you mean? Tell me what is happening." I said aloud.

"I... um... I want you to stay calm, whatever you are going to hear. Can you promise me that?"

"Yes, yes, I will. Just tell me what's going on."