6 Conditions and Instructions

"Ten years ago, at the age of 14, I got caught in a car accident. I had broken bones, severe wounds, and shards of glasses stuck on my head. But the doctors did everything they could to patch me up, and obviously, my parents were very concerned about this. The surgery was a success, but I was still in a coma. To the people, it was a miracle. To me, it was the price I had to pay. I was in this abyss, this vast and dark place where I was alone and afraid. At first, I panicked, next, I started to relax, but after a while, I started to freak out again because there was literally nothing I could do to keep my sanity from losing. Life in that abyss left a huge scar in my mind. When I finally woke up and realized that I've been in a coma for three weeks, I was simply emotionless. The doctors find it odd and they examined me for a while. They found out that I had an unusual mental sleeping disorder. Sleeping for too long would cause me to breakdown and go wild, my consciousness would start to fade away, possibly leading to death. So, every night, I sleep for about 4-6 hours for the rest of my life." Shawn explained calmly and continued to finish his drink.

They all felt sorry for Shawn. They finally knew why he went down in history, all of them wanted to cheer him up but they couldn't think of anything at all.

Shawn looked at them and said in a cheerful tone, "But at least I'm not dead yet! That is the only thing that matters."

"But, wouldn't that bother you? Having such a condition?" Eve asked in great concern.

"I've been used to it until now, so there's nothing to be so concerned about." Shawn responded with a kind smile. He took a moment to look around the cafeteria. It was quite huge when viewed from a far distance. The cafeteria was well designed and vibrant too.

"Oh, right! I forgot to tell you that Shawn and I went to another city in the game!" Eve said to the group excitedly, they were awestruck to hear this news then turned to Shawn; their gazes were locked onto him.

"So they're up for a round of lecture from me. Strange, they were quite hostile to me before." Shawn thought before clearing his throat and said, "The city's called Doomsday Protocol, this type of city is no ordinary city. Rumors say that it's actually a giant nuclear launch pad, capable of destroying an entire city." Shawn explained it carefully, seeing that they were seriously listening to him.

"Are there other cities aside from that?" Scarlett asked after moments of hesitation.

"Of course there are, floating islands, crawling cities, cities that can move around, teleporting cities. It's not like millions of people would just be in the same old city from time to time. The developers took notice of this when I suggested that the game gets boring if there's only one place to be in. They eventually emailed me that I've been rewarded greatly for my efforts in finding bugs and offering suggestions for a better in-game experience." Shawn replied after laughing shortly. They were marvelled by this information.

"But the gaming experienced is literally different from every other game. It was more, life-like. The gaming system didn't even have skill developments and levelling guidance; it's like an MMORPG without the basic elements of a game. Did the developers do it on purpose or not?" A girl with short blonde hair, wearing brown glasses who sat beside Scarlett, spoke as she leaned forward onto Shawn, making close eye contact with him.

Shawn laughed nervously when the girl came too close, he even leaned backwards because she might've kissed him if not being too cautious, "You're quite smart and have keen observation skills, along with your sharp and positive theorization, you could actually become a genius in the future. I'm guessing that you've been a huge fan of MMORPGs, am I correct?" He asked. But the girl didn't reply, instead, she sat back down and lowered her head to not let him notice that she was actually blushing but it was quite obvious to look at, and then Shawn added, "The game was designed to be hardcore to all players. What is only commonly found in WARFARE was the player's nametag that can only be seen if both players are friends or in the same clan. WARFARE is literally based on realism. This means that you'd have to count the bullets when firing a gun, manually reload, manually build items or weapons step by step based on blueprints from the game or by your own knowledge and experience, repair broken parts, polish weapons, manually operate vehicles, eat or drink when you have the need to, and you'd even have to search through your entire backpack just to get something out of it. Everything you do is done by hand or by your action."

All of them were amazed by how complex and real the game is. They never knew all the tricks in the game, even Shawn still needed more information about the game

"So, what do we do now?" Scarlett asked as she looked at Shawn for anything in mind.

"Knowing the fact that you guys are in the clan base, I suggest you guys to listen to the people who are higher in command. Just be cautious on who to trust with, even if they have given you something to prove that they're worthy, they can still be your enemy."

"What about us?" Eve quickly asked right after Shawn finished talking.

"I'll... figure it out, sooner or later." Shawn replied while rubbing his chin with his fingers as he looked up, he then added, "Don't you guys still have classes to attend?"

All of the girls got their head out the clouds and checked the time; it was already 1:00 PM sharp. They were all in shock and ran off in different directions. Shawn was the only person left, so he went back to the cabin to resume the plan that he had in mind. He activated the table with just a flick of a switch underneath it. The game was still loading, so he waited and took the time to look around the cabin.

"Decent carvings, smooth designs, this is quite a decent cabin yet it would be very pleasant and relaxing to live in here." Shawn thought before noticing that the game was ready. He wore his headset and went into the game.

...

Shawn arrived in the city, Doomsday Protocol. He began strolling around the city, taking narrow paths, walking through many districts and ended up in a place called, District 7, the darkest district in the city. Screams and shouts could be heard from different directions, but it was already common to the folks in this district. Shawn kept strolling around and started to notice people following him. He took a turn and went in a dusty store. A bell rang as he opened the door and walked in.

"Yes?" A manly voice coming from behind a counter spoke loudly before he showed his face. He was huge! Almost reaching 7 feet! "How may I help you?" The man asked politely while cleaning his dirty hands with a white rag.

"Umm..." Shawn looked back and saw the people who followed him scatter into the crowd. He turned around and continued, "I'm looking for blueprints, the transportation kind of blueprints, to be exact."

"What vehicle are you looking for?" The man asked.

"A hoverbike."