A Bad Premonition

- A While Ago, 3 AM, Earthen Reality Plane -

(Qin Yao's Perspective)

… Damn it. Damn it!

I finally managed to log out of the stupid game, Ascension: Online, after a long struggle. I ended up complaining to the guards, saying that I needed to piss. They reluctantly agreed. My original plan was to trick them into releasing my locks, then beating them up so I could escape, but after seeing how many of them there were around, I decided against that idea and just logged out the moment they released my locks.

… I was put to shame - by that one boy. His name was Igarashi Kaze. His face was burned into my head by the flames of hatred I hold within my heart. For as long as I live, I will never forget his identity.

With the introduction of AR technology, humans could technically live forever. When you entered AR, alternate reality, your body in the physical world was essentially 'frozen' in time. It didn't age, it did not require food, water, and didn't need to urinate either. So - it was possible for someone to just live forever by staying within AR.

But there were limits.

Finance, for example. If you could not afford electricity, you would be forcibly kicked out of the game. I, Qin Yao, as the son of a rich CEO, didn't have to worry about such matters, but other people did.

Another reason why certain people could not stay inside AR forever was because of their attachments to the current world. Unless everyone you cared about here in this world all joined AR with you forever, this would be a problem.

And the third reason was my current situation. I was trapped. My last spawnpoint was still in Tianyin City. The moment I showed my face there, I would be arrested once more on sight - and this time, they wouldn't just let my hands free so easily.

For these three reasons, while living forever was technically achievable, it was not really realistic for most people.

I gritted my teeth, went downstairs, and opened up the TV. It was 3 AM in the morning, but I didn't care. I wasn't sleepy, and I was home alone anyway as my father never came back home and my mother was dead. I was bored and pissed off. I wanted to watch something that could ease my thoughts. Maybe a comedy show? No… none of those would be playing at 3 in the morning.

I browsed the various channels. The ones up were all news channels, and they all happened to be discussing AR technology. That was all they talked about nowadays. Politics, businesses, pandemics, these were all secondary to the scientific revolution known as Alternate Reality.

I groaned. This was the one thing I didn't want to watch.

But then, as I moved to switch channels, I heard the word 'trapped'.

I immediately switched back. The headline read:

'2 Teens Trapped Inside ARMMORPG'

An ad break followed, so I wasn't able to get much information. I bit my nails and grabbed my laptop off the glass table in front of me and booted it up. I quickly fired up a search engine and hastily typed away at the keyboard to research the news I just found.

It seemed that this news was pretty recent. Only a few news sites had an article about it. I clicked into the first one.

'On September 10th (today), two teenage siblings were reported to have been trapped within a popular ARMMORPG (Alternate Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) by the name of Ascension: Online.

The younger brother, who started playing first, "had his physical body in the real world disappear", his guardians say.

Their guardians worry that the older sister, who went into the game in search of her brother, will also end up trapped.

Investigations are still being conducted and Ascentech, who developed both AR technology and Ascension: Online, are currently being questioned. However, the company refuses to be interviewed in-person no matter what. According to reports from the voice call that had been conducted:

"This is the first time such a thing has happened," a man who declared himself as the CEO of the company said. "Our technological team are currently looking into it, but we strongly question the integrity of this complaint."

"How is it possible for someone to get trapped inside a virtual video game?" the man said.

So far, the CEO has not revealed anything about himself nor the company except his name, Arika Xaku.'

I sat, stumped at this article. Trapped inside the game? Who could it be…? And according to this article, they only started playing recently…

No images were shown in the article, probably do protect their privacy.

Still, pretty soon, this piece of news would spread like wildfire across all media and the internet.

*****

- Present Time, 4 PM, Ascension Reality Plane -

(Kaze's Perspective)

As we walked through the forest, the quietness began to sink in, even for Ichigo, Horiya, and Jim, who were usually talkative.

"Oi… this forest, it feels weird," he muttered.

"Yeah, no kidding… I'm getting shivers despite wearing a full armor set…" Horiya muttered, glancing down at the outfit he had bought at a store in Tianyin with some of the reward money he received.

"Usually, creepy forests n' shivers mean somethin' bad's about ta happen," Jim chuckled softly.

"Don't jinx it…" I sighed.

Suddenly, just as I said this, a loud roar came from the deeper within the forest. We all stopped walking and looked around.

Ichigo frowned. "What the hell was that…?"

"It sounded pretty distant given the echoes, but it was still pretty loud," I mumbled.

"What kind of beast could possibly make that kind of noise?!" Horiya complained.

"One helluva big one, that's fo shore," Jim scoffed. "Looks like we're in for one bloody difficult fight."

"Ahahaha… I'm not looking forward to dying again…"

"Man up, kiddo. You'll never bloody grow like that."

"R-Right…"

"Let's keep walking on this path," I suggested. "There's no point in seeking the beast out."

"But then there's the chance of us getting attacked by surprise…" Furuwa muttered in frustration.

"We're kind of out of options. If we go and search for the beast, we'll undoubtedly get lost," Hina-nee argued. "Kaze-kun's proposal is best here."

With that decided, we resumed walking, keeping our footsteps light and conversation to a minimum.