01 10 - Catastrophe in The Oasis

"Help you?! you just killed your friend!"

She looked scared, but I stayed back with the others, Takuta and Empress were upfront protecting us from her. She kept her spear up before she suddenly moved forward attacking Lisa, but Takutakoyaki was fast to use his shield to stop the spear.

"I promise you! I'm not doing this! I can't control myself!"

She shouted as she continued to fight and attack, she was looking away yet her body kepy moving forward knowing where to fight.

"Could it be, a lag? What is happening?"

I mumbled to myself as the other 2 Riven and one of the other party's member went to help fight the girl off but try their best not to hurt her, while Eternalgreen and the low health player stayed back with us.

"Her eyes turned red!"

Lisa shouted as they fought, until she finally managed to hit the spear out of the girl's hands. The woman falling onto one knee as she grabbed her leg groaning in pain.

"it hurts, so much, help.."

She whined in pain as she looked up suddenly with red eyes. She looked as if she was glitching again, this time physically. Not little head twitch or hand twitch, but glitch black boxes were near her body as she suddenly screamed and grabbed her stomach.

Holding it tightly in silence, before suddenly, the woman logged off. The spot she was standing up on was now replaces with a blue game window saying "Logged out."

"What.. just happened?"

I looked around at the others, but they all had the same question on their faces. If it really wasn't the girl moving on her own, then what exactly was that? a glitch? One thing for sure is that it got everyone confused and somewhat scared.

Once out of the caves, the 3 remaining party members bowed as they felt guilty for what happened. That basically sold to me that they weren't planning a PK team kill and something really did happen to that girl.

"We don't know why she suddenly did that, once again we're sorry, once we get a hold of her we'll have her apologize to you."

One of the party members spoke and Lisa went ahead and added them as a friend for when that time comes, I was still in my thoughts. She was asking for help, it was concerning enough, but that girl's friend's were clearly worried as well, so I just pushed away the thought and had a mindset of letting them deal with it.

After a while, our group was heading back to the capital in silence. It was a game for sure, but it filled us with fear, It felt real and what made me uncomfortable was her cries of help, even if it was just a glitch that felt scary, and I guess it was the heat of the moment but It felt like I was going to die myself. Virtual reality mixed with the fact you can feel and smell things, of course you're going to think you'll die at that moment.

"That was eventful."

Empress Kim was the first to break the silence that was between the party and all clearly agreed.

"it was weird how she just suddenly started attacking, did you guys see her glitch too?"

Eternalgreen was next to speak her mind and everyone also agreed. Riven was fast to reply to her question.

"I saw that when we were fighting her, parts of her avatar we're like glitching off and such, it was weirdly cool."

The tension of the moment was going away and everyone seemed to lighten up a bit. I butted in with a small smile.

"well everyone did a good job! We helped them and we got the ores, I don't know where to sell them so you guys should hurry up and show me."

I laughed a little and so did they, patting my back and we were soon to reach the city gates. Once inside, we went to the adventurers guild. A large and wide building near the central statue of the city. it was a white building that looked like a bank but had a serpent logo in the middle of the building. The serpent held a sword in its mouth, and that's how you'd know a building was the adventurer's guild.

"This is you first time right?"

Takuta spoke to me as I replied with a nod.

"We send what we did here since they handle the rest, like selling the ores, but there's always times where they would let us keep it, so were hoping that happens now."

He made a small laugh as I did so, it would work out well if we were able to get more money out of a quest.

Lisa was the one to hand in the finished quest scroll to the front counter. After a while, our party had a window pop up in front of us saying coins were sent into our inventory. Once I opened my status window to see how much exactly I got, the joy and surprised mixed into my body and face.

"My 2-23 400 000 won... It's here finally! (around 21 062$)"

I shouted in joy. It was actually 1.3k gold coins, but I had converted it already from before so I already knew how much money I gained.

"Oh my god, thank you Lisa!"

I shouted and I was quick to hug the taller girl before quickly moving away in slight shock.

"Oh sorry, didn't mean too."

Lisa just seemed shocked before Takutakoyaki grabbed my shoulder with a small shake of his head.

"Don't worry about it, she's just not used to physical touch."

She suddenly took a swing and the other male was quick to move away with a playful giggle.

"Be quiet!"

Lisa shouted before taking a deep breath and pulling a thumbs up.

"Don't worry about it, hope that helps."

I nodded before the others also said that they had a nice time. Inkcorpse who was mostly quiet even asked to be added as friends and it ended up with everyone else asking for the friend request.

"Well I have to leave now, I have work tomorrow morning. Let's play again next time!"

I said my goodbye's before calling out to log out.

I slowly open my eyes as the Silver Mind machine slowly opened its doors and I slowly stood up. I just sat there for a moment still in my thoughts about the recent events. What exactly just happened?

I got out of the machine and went out to take a shower. I stood there thinking, it could possibly be a virus. Though L.O. Is one of the most advanced game with the most advanced technology, but my small brain can't think right now, I'm tired and confused.

"I still have work too.. it's not my problem anyways I gotta stop thinking about it."

I mumbled to myself. I got out the shower and laid down in bed, staring at the empty ceiling, and before I knew it, I was falling asleep.

The next day soon came, I was heading to work as I heard some people whispering about Oasis beside me on the bus. I just stayed quiet and listened.

"Did you hear about the death?"

One of the male high school kid spoke to his classmate, the other then replying,

"Yeah, it didn't scare me but now my mom won't let me play in the Silver Mind."

Death? After what happened in the caves I thought maybe it would be that girl, but it couldn't be.. right? Almost everyone in the world plays L.O. There's a big chance it wasn't that girl.

I kept telling myself this on repeat to not make myself panic, because if it really was true, it'll take a toll on my mind. The bus then reached my stop and I started walking to my work.

I quickly got changed and traded spots with the other co-worker that worked in mornings. She said her goodbye's and a stood up front quietly. There weren't many people so I just walked around the store restocking, until my eyes looked up at the small TV, I couldn't see it earlier since I was in front of it. It was the news, the headlines being 'L.O. robotic's kill?' I grabbed the remote for the TV and turned the volume up listening to what to what the newscaster is saying.

"A woman in her early 20's was found dead in a gaming equipment that's called Silver Mind. Estimated death was in yesterday around 8pm, Thursday. She was found because of concerned friends from the game The Land of Oasis calling the police to check on her."

I listened carefully, before getting distracted by a costumer coming in. I bowed quickly as I watched them look around before I continued to watch. Good thing is that this person was a man, not the woman, but learning about a death that happened by the machine was still very eerie.

"The woman played as a female character in the game named SweetEater. She was last seen in a cave with her team and another team that was told to be.."

At first I couldn't believe it, the girl I met last night couldn't be this woman. The TV then showed her face, right after was her in game face. I could feel the colors from my face drain from my face, knowing that the person I played with was someone who died right in front of my eyes, I was in so much shock that everything else coming from the TV just drained out my ears. I stood there for a moment before the customer clapped her hands and I looked over to see it was the girl I met at the flower shop.

"Oh sorry, the news distracted me."

She smiled and placed the things she was buying before finally replying.

"Don't worry about it, that news was pretty shocking, most just thinks it was her playing to much and don't seem to mind much."

She spoke, if I remembered correctly her name was,

"Jueng-ah right? I mean that's understandable but someone was still killed."

She looked at me and nodded, she felt some pity like me too. Hearing how others didn't care that they were still a human just messed with my head even more, people are just messed up.

"Anyways, I didn't know you worked here."

I looked up as I scanned the things she was planning to buy.

"Oh yeah, it's my part time, I can't fully move to earning money on L.O"

She nodded, then there was a bit of silence, I wasn't sure how to keep the conversation going but she was fast to keep it going first.

"Oh right have you left the starting town?"

She asked and I gave a nod as a reply.

"But I was pulled along by my friend to a quest right away before I could even look around and buy better equipment."

I started to put her stuff in a bag and handed it to her.

"Good, tomorrow if you have time we should go around town in game. We added each other yet haven't met yet, I*'ll help you find cheap and good items."

She had that same excited smile, the girl really wanted to have friends in that game so I agreed.

"I have time in the morning so that works for me."

We both agreed to meet up at the town square at the statue around 10am, I waved goodbye as she headed home and I was back to being alone.

That moment had me forgetting what just happened, and once I was alone, my thoughts went back to the fact that the girl died while I was with her. A sickening feeling in my stomach came up, It felt horrible, once again I was useless. I shook my head to forget about it but one thing came up, It was just weird how she suddenly died, especially when she looked like she was lagging a while before that moment. I took a deep breath and decided it's best to just focus on work now, the police will handle it.

After a while, It was in the afternoon and soon Han Kyun came in to switch with me. We also talked a little bit about what was on the new, it was all over his school he said. I was too tired to think about it anymore too, It felt heavy to me.

I said my goodbye's to the kid, and headed home.

"Oh right, the money from the game."

While on the bus to go home, I went to the L.O. official website and logged into my account. There it showed the amount of coins I could turn for money. I decided to save some for investment in game, so there were only 1k gold coins. With the money converter fee, I only had 800 gold coins, which was around 17 341 920 won (16 000 dollars) which was enough to pay most of my mother's hospital bills.

"Finally.. I fell a bit more useful to you mom, I'll give you a good life."

He whispered to himself as the bus continued to drive back home.

To be continued...