Chapter 14: I'm Not A Real Person

"Elise…hello." Why am I panicking? Scratch that. Why shouldn't my heart pound? If she has really realised that she is not real and this world is virtual, how do I appease her? How do I make her come to terms with that? "Real…world?"

"You don't have to lie to me. It's fine. I've learnt a lot the past few days while listening to the Admin. She's not a real person either, is she?"

"…No." I really didn't think this would happen (her finding out). At least not this fast. "But the fact that you're not real doesn't mean you're insignificant to me."

"…" She doesn't respond. I can't tell what the meaning of the expression on her face is, but I thinks she's pouting? I don't know. I might be wrong.

I walk over to her and look hr in the eye.

"You don't believe me?"

"…"

"Come on. Please answer. You're making me nervous."

She doesn't answer but kisses me on the cheek before turning around and by the time I snap out of the trance I entered after the kiss; she has already locked her room's door.

"Sigh." I turn open my status bar and select to the harvesting function for the spoon.

[Using The Harvesting Function Will Automatically Log You Out Of The Game. Proceed?]

[Yes] Or [No]

I choose yes.

[Initializing]

[Docking]

[Converting]

[Logging Out]

*** *** ***

It is the middle of the night once I return back to reality but the lights in the VR room are on.

"Ugh." I groan as I feel dizzy and slump on the chair. "That was intense."

After I have rested enough, I look through my smartwatch and see that I have several missed calls from mom and dad.

"It's already past midnight. I should go to bed and call them inn the morning. I need to rest."

M body is actually aching me and my head is still a bit fuzzy,

Clink.

That was the sound of metal. I look down at my feet to see a spoon. A spoon…in the VR room.

Hmm…

"it can't be…No way. Someone is playing a prank on me, right?"

Did the spoon actually leave the game and come to reality? Damn. I have to try again.

I turn around and try heading over to my gear, but the pain is a little much to bear. I nearly fell but I persevered. Just a minute more of fatigue won't kill my physical body. Besides, in-game that 1 minute will be multiplied greatly. More than enough time to try the Harvesting Function once more.

[Body Status Inadequate For Use] The system declines my request.

"Turn Vital Monitor Function and Override Command." I instruct.

{Are You Sure?] My console tries to confirm.

"Yes."

[Turning off Vital Monitor For Allister Newman]

[Overriding…]

That's the last thing I hear as my vision goes dark.

*** *** ***

Thursday 13th February, 3817

*Ugh* I groan as I start to gain consciousness. "I must have…fainted?"

I groan more and as I struggle to sit up; I can hear multiple joints cracking. Looking over at my alarm clock, I see that I overslept. Figures. I was really exhausted after all.

"I already missed first period. That means extra time today. I can't start pilling up missed schoolwork for a game."

Game. Can I still call it a game? I look at the spoon lying beside my digital clock (alarm). I hold it and begin to feel it up. Anyone looking at me studying a spoon the way I am right now will definitely have some questions.

I sigh and keep the spoon in a drawer before heading over to my computer. I'll finish schoolwork first.

Once school is over (2PM), I stay back to watch the video and read the materials I missed. My stomach was grumbling since I haven't eaten anything since yesterday afternoon. I may have spent more than 8 days in-game but all the food there was virtual. My avatar ate it, not my real body. My brain is going numb just thinking about it. I actually felt like I was eating real food while in-game. Reality and virtual were already such a knot with how real the game felt and now the harvesting function is just going to blur everything even more.

*Moan*. Lunch was great. I ended up stuffing myself almost three times more than usual. I look at the clock after disposing the packaging of the pizzas before looking at the kitchen's digital clock to see 15:49. I have to go to bed by 10 today since I still have school tomorrow and I don't think my body can stand repeated fatigue.

I head to the VR room and login to the game.

"Ah. Wait. Turn on Vital Monitor." Wouldn't want to be in there for so long my body collapses without warning. That would be dangerous.

[Are you sure?]

"Yes!" I hate the confirmatory question every time. I wish it could be switched to automatic or something.

[Beep! Beep! Beep!]

I look at my smart watch to see I'm getting a call from mom.

"Dang. I forgot to call them back."

I accept the call and mom appears in front of me (VR).

"Mom. Sorry I missed your calls. I was…"

"It's ok. It's ok. Have you been playing Utopia?"

"Yes. It's really great and the realism and stimuli are better than the last IMEX game. I was just about to…" I pause noticing the serious air around mom. "Mom?"

"Have you noticed anything odd about the game?"

"Odd? Hmmm." I think about Elise but I'm not bringing that up since I'm not sure if they're going to delete her or extract her data. "Nope. The Harvesting function is good though. I feel like…" I pause noticing mom's face go from worried to grim.

"Are you sure you got the Harvesting Function?"

"Yes? Didn't everyone else? I think it's great. Well, I've only used it once. I was about to try it again. Is something wrong?"

"…" She doesn't answer.

"Mom. Tell me. Is something wrong?" I ask getting a bit worried.

"Be careful sweetie. Better yet, avoid using that function at all."

"?"

"It wasn't designed by us. We don't know where that function came from, and we suspect that the situation isn't as simple as it presents itself to be."

"What?!" I exclaim. "So, no one knows where it came from. We are still investigating but we won't announce anything officially until we are sure what is going on. I just had to check in. Remember to avoid the harvest function. Some players have gotten stuck in the game after trying out the function. Their physical bodies are empty, and their minds have been uploaded into their avatars. At least, that's what we think is happening."

She went on to mention that there are slightly over 110 cases thus far and up to 12 of them have had their physical bodies die. Some of them may even forget that they were once human and believe they are NPCs.

On hearing this, my mind went to Elise. Was she once a human?!