Halves of A Soul

Jay did not know what broke down inside of him to actually cause him to do as he did. Slowly opening his eyes, Jay hoped for the best that Hellson did not lie to him about how he needed to die in order to return to Earth.

"Huh? Where am I?"

Jay was bewildered by the situation as he opened his eyes. He saw that he was actually in a hospital ward, lying down on a hospital bed. There were a lot of stuff plugged onto him, from his face to his feet.

"I look like a freaking porcupine... just what the hell am I doing in here anyways?" Jay did not know what he should do now since he was stuck due to the tubes, needles, and whatever else was plugged on him.

Then suddenly, he heard footsteps coming towards his direction and a lot of chatter.

"Doc! One of them is awake!"

"The name of the patient is Jay Castle. 30 years old. Jobless. Known to be a compulsive virtual reality gamer."

"He's the first one who woke up from the 'DATOF' incident without any signs of psychological defects right?"

After a few seconds, two nurses wearing a pink uniform and a male doctor wearing the usual white coat approached him. The nurses slowly checked Jay's vitals and removed the things plugged on him.

"Mr. Castle, may I know how you're feeling?" The doctor spoke up as he looked at Jay.

"I don't know. I feel like shit right now." Jay said since he just wanted to sleep and forget everything. He just wanted things to return back to normal, with him enjoying the thrill of virtual reality without any 'Hellson Accidents' happening to him.

"May I know if I can help you or if you just want to rest?" The doctor asked.

"Well, now that you've mentioned it, let's forget about rest since my body is getting stiff from lying down."

A few moments later, when nothing was plugged onto Jay anymore, he slowly got of from the hospital bed and stood up.

"May I ask how long was I sleeping?" Jay asked and did some stretches.

"Two years. In fact, among the victims of the DATOF incident, you are the first one to wake up normally. Around ten percent of those who already woke up from the incident usually are undergoing psychological therapy."

"DATOF?" Jay asked and wondered what kind of jargon this is. As for the ones who already woke up, Jay guessed that they died, causing them to return here, thus, waking up.

"The Dungeons and Towers of Fate incident, DATOF in short. Around half of the world's population are affected by it."

"Is there a bathroom here? I would like to clean myself up first before anything else." Jay said and wondered when was the last time he had a bath.

"Oh, of course." The doctor sighed and gestured one of the nurses to show Jay the way to the bathroom.

...

While Jay was being led by the nurse, he was lost in his own thoughts. For some reason, his memories about everything that happened in 'Hellson's dimension' was still very clear.

"I thought Hellson said I would immediately forget everything as if nothing happened. Then why..." Just as he was lost in his own thoughts, the nurse stopped and spoke up.

"Here we are. I'm going to wait here outside just in case you need anything else." The nurse said as she took of her pink cap, revealing her brown hair.

When Jay was going to open the bathroom door, the nurse looked as if she was mustering her courage to ask him something.

"Miss? Do you want to ask me something?"

The nurse looked at him and spoke up.

"My little brother... did you see him while you were stuck in that virtual reality?"

"What's his name?" Jay asked.

"His in game name right? It's Alnazar."

"I did see him, but we never talked to each other. If he is still in some kind of coma, then it means he is still well and alive in the game." Jay said as he entered the bathroom.

...

"Woah. It feels as if I am in a bathhouse instead of a hospital's bathroom." Jay thought to himself as he looked around. There were towels and racks neatly arranged beside him, and in front of him was where he was supposed to take a dip and clean himself. There was also a soothing and relaxing ambience in the room.

Jay quickly took of the patient gown he was wearing and took of his boxers. He then went in the bath area and cleaned himself.

"Now that I've noticed it, my hair is a bit long and I have this stuffy beard. I wonder if there is something I can use to trim my hairs."

Jay closed his eyes and relaxed as he let the hot water warm his body. Then suddenly, for some reason, he found himself inside of the Mind Room.

--- Mind Room

"What the fuck?"

Jay was speechless why this is still possible even though he left 'Hellson's Dimension' already. When he looked around, he saw that it was the same as usual. But just as he was going to leave, a familiar person appeared, sitting in a lotus position in the middle of the room.

"So, you're finally here Jay? Or rather, my other half?"

It was Roasted Boar. He was still wearing the same azure robes and conical hat.

"How did you-"

Before Jay could even finish asking his question, Roaster Boar completed it for him and gave his answer.

"How did I appear in this place? Simple. We are the part of the same soul. When you killed yourself, everything you had on you in this world became part of me. Interesting isn't it?"

Roasted Boar stood up and suddenly punched Jay in the face. Not satisfied with just one punch, he pushed Jay to the wall on their back, where the Fatelord Map was located.

"WHY!?? HOW SELFISH ARE YOU TO JUST LEAVE US-"

Before Roasted Boar could finish whatever he was shouting, Jay punched him in the face.

"I'm not cleaning up the mess Hellson did. I already had my share of adventures in Hellson's Dimension or whatever it's called!"

Roasted Boar punched Jay again before shouting at him.

"You killed yourself because you are tired of everything?!! Then what do you think the rest of us had been doing the past year? Do you know how many players died, how many people died, and how many sacrificed their lives just to get your ass back to the Fatelord Plane? And you killed yourself anyways! So what's the point? TELL ME!"

Jay had enough of this and punched Roasted Boar on the stomach.

"I don't give a flying fuck about the Fatelord Plane or its people anymore! Who cares if the players die when they will just wake up in the real world where we belong! If you want to clean up the mess in Hellson's Dimension, leave me out of it!" Jay shouted as he left the Mind Room.

...

"Damn. Just what the hell is happening to me..."

Jay thought to himself as he continued bathing and looked at his hands. He did not know if his behavior was affected by the recent events that just happened or if it is because of him not wanting to care about anything anymore.

"When I was a kid, my parents abandoned me and left me in a daycare. When I was in high school, I was a smart kid that everyone approached for answers. Afterwards, when I was supposed to go to college, I dropped out since I discovered the thrill of virtual reality..."

"Why would I save millions or billions of beings when I could not even save myself from stupidity..."

Jay balled his right hand into a fist and gritted his teeth. All of his painful memories slowly returned to him. Everything he experienced here in Earth, it all returned to him.

"When I was at Hellson's Dimension, I did not have a clear goal in mind and just treated it as the usual virtual reality gaming stuff. And now that I'm back, I still don't have a clear goal on what I should do... I feel so stupid."

After a few more minutes, Jay left the bath and wiped himself using one of the free towels. He also saw that there was a new set of clothes near his patient's gown.

"The nurse must have brought it." Jay thought to himself as he wore the plain white shirt and the brown pants.

...

The moment Jay left the bathroom, he was surprised that instead of a nurse, it was a man in black waiting for him.

The guy had black hair and a clean cut. He was also smoking a cigarette and was playing with a coin on his right hand.

"Can I help you?" Jay asked immediately since he was feeling weird vibes from the guy.

"Mr. Castle. Let me introduce myself. My name is Jin Xavier. I am an IronSpark agent tasked to bring you over."

"Is this about the DATOF incident?" Jay asked and started walking. Of course, Jin followed him and even started leading him somewhere.

"Yes, indeed. But besides from that, there are many things you need to learn since you've just awoken from the DATOF incident." Jin said as he took out a black card and handed it over to Jay.

"What's this?"

"Your token. Your personal information will be stored there. Besides that, you can also store money in it."

"May I ask what this is for?" Jay asked as he saw that most of his personal information like his name, age, sex, and birthday were already imprinted on the black card. When he looked at the back of the card, there was a line of zeroes imprinted on it.

"Due to the changes that happened just after the DATOF incident, Earth slowly changed."

Jin stopped walking and Jay noticed that they were already in a parking lot. The strange thing was, they only took a couple of steps from the bathroom.

"Wait... how..." Jay was about to ask but Jin just gestured him to get in the black car in front of them.

"On our way to IronSpark, you can see the changes for yourself." Jin said as he entered the car and threw another black card to the driver.