Cross My Mind

GAME OR REALITY?

Garba woke up next to Mila and Lucy in a facility full of people dressed in different clothing that range from simple Military camouflage to different costumes that look exactly the same as the ones he has seen in the inventory of the game Virtual survival online, he could not remember how much time has passed or why he is a facility full of players and there are about a hundred from what he can count.

“You’re awake, thank God. The Game is about to start” Mila said.

Garba looked at her with uncertainty at first but sooner realized that she is in fact wearing the same clothing set as when she was playing Virtual survival online, he immediately realized that the same goes for Lucy and almost immediately found himself scanning the crowd for the seven military camo dressed guys and Lucy having guessed what he was doing, tapped his shoulder and said

“right there, they also seem to be trying to recruit more people”

“wait, you mean to tell me that we are actually inside the game again” Garba asked

Lucy and Mila turned back and looked at him with visible surprise, then looked at each other awkwardly.

“Is his Neuraface malfunctioning or what?” Mila asked Lucy

“It was already weird enough that he entered the game with his virtual avatar unconscious; but now he is having short term memory loss again!” Mila responded

“we signed the extension contract for two million dollars, remember? We then went back to our rooms and we were asked to log into the game and here we are awaiting further instruction and information on who those new people are and what the rules for the game this time around is” Lucy explained.

Garba stood from where he was seated and took a deep breath to settle his mind down, he noticed the scent of the air seems a little different, a bit more fresh than the last time and almost as if all his senses are now functional on a level that is hard for him to tell if this is reality or not.

He raised his left hand and pinched his right cheek as hard as he could

“ouch, this is almost as if …….”

“as if it is real right?” Without warning, a holographic projection of Dr. Nora appeared before him and said.

Garba turned around to look at Lucy who is standing right in front of him to see her reaction but noticed she didn’t even flinched at the projected hologram or the words it uttered. Garba broke a cold sweat and his heart started beating faster.

“no need to panic Garba, you are the only one that that can see me because I am projecting this only to your Neuraface. We have altered the mechanisms of the game. I just want to tell you that for some reasons we are still trying to understand, you are having another short term memory loss so you may not remember the last few hours.” Dr. Nora said and the projection flickered out.

Back in the control room, Nora stepped out of the projection space. A small room next to Dr. Akihiro’s table that is lined with over two hundred cameras which is used to project a hologram of anyone that steps inside.

“Do you think he bought it?” Akihiro asked

“I believe so” Nora said with a nod.

Akihiro stood from his seat and walked into the projection room. “change the mode to all recipients” he said. Nora pulled out his tablet and pressed the screen a few times.

Just at this moment, a large floating window appeared on every player’s vision. On the window, Dr. Akihiro appeared.

“Hello players, welcome to Virtual Survival online reloaded. We value your bravery for choosing to embark on this journey one last time. There are a hundred and forty four players in the server right now from our seven different facilities worldwide, we merged all our servers into one hence the increase in number of participants.” Akihiro said. He let the players take a few seconds to process the information then with a wave of his hand, two other large windows appear next to the one he was being streamed on.

“we have made some significant changes to the game mechanisms and player experience. We have also recalibrated all the player senses to be only ten percent less than their real life versions so I have to warn you that if you get stabbed or hurt badly, it will hurt very much similar to if you are in real life.

We have also altered the time passing experience of players to be a hundred hours of game time being equivalent to one hour in real life. One hour in real life will allow each of you to experience gameplay of a hundred hours. The game is programmed to let you taste, smell and feel everything closely similar to how it is in real life”

Akihiro said and with another wave of his hand the three windows blinked out. A long detailed window of information and another showing a map have now replaced the three previous ones.

On the information window, Garba, Lucy, Mila and the rest of the players read that the map of the island is similar to the one they know from their previous game, only that the size is now ten times bigger. The game has been adjusted to resemble reality to the tiniest and most insignificant of details such as injuries the players sustain during fights, they also learned that when a player is killed in the game, they will be automatically logged out of the match and their virtual body will remain in he game for some time before disappearing.

The game has also included a team up system that allows players who are on the same team of not less than three people and not more than fifteen people to monitor each other’s live location on the map and a team chat system that allows sending written text and audio massages among team members. Any team member can also talk to any specific member of the same team as long as they turn on the push to talk option on.

Garba walked around the waiting hall to see the details in the characters players are using, he could not in anyway differentiate the game from reality.

He stood for a while and opened his status window, on the status window he saw his details including stamina, health and position which at the moment is reading number zero. Below the status bar is an additional window that shows the total number of players in the game which are currently a hundred and forty four players at this point.

The last thing on the status window is a number of stages from one to six. Stage one is titled battle royale survival but from stage two through to six, they have only question marks next to them.

Garba went back to Lucy and Mila who have already created a party, told him the team code and once he said the code, Lucy who created the party got a new member request prompt and she accepted him.

His map of the island quickly updated and showed two more dots indicating the location of Mila and Lucy. A few moments later, a massage icon appeared in Garba’s field of vision and when he opened it, it was a massage sent by Mila to the team chat that a majority of the teams formed so far have have up to ten members; she also requested the team’s opinion on recruiting new members to increase their advantage as well. The team selected the same area next to the ocean where a beach meets the edge of the now ten times larger forest.

The team also concluded after a few exchanges that they would each recruit a single person to make their team member count go up to six.

A voice massage was broadcasted to each player that they need to finish recruitment in the next ten minutes and board their individual vehicles to be taken to their selected destination, after which a period of one hour will be observed before the game officially starts.

Garba, Mila and Lucy both returned with a single recruit, because of the recorded video clip of their last performance in the earlier game played, they had no trouble convincing players that they want to join their team.

Garba has recruited a bulky looking white man who according to the people he played his last game with, he is strong enough to carry three times his weight and fought five people with his bare hands.

“this is Fred, he is our new team muscle” Garba said.

Mila introduced her recruit named Sarah who is a former girl scout leader and can take care of herself.

Lucy turned to introduced the person she has recruited but he was nowhere to be found.

On the other side of the same waiting hall, a man dressed in military camouflage with a tattoo on his cheek just arrived in front of Marcus Carson who is dressed in full military camouflage boasting about his glory in the last version of the game. The guy with the tattoo stood next to Carson’s bulky body terrified.

“there are five of them, they have a guy as big as you on their team but I don’t think they will give us much trouble” the man with the tattoo on his face said.

On the other side, the two new members of Garba’s team Sarah and Fred were added to the group just in time for a voice notification to announce that the team making time has been exhausted.

“if you check your status bar, you will see that there are a total of fifteen teams. Each team has been assigned a number so please be ready to board the right vehicle tallying with the number your team has been assigned with”. A computerized voice declared.

A new window appeared again showing Akihiro.

“this is the first stage of the seven games you will be participating in and the rules remain the same as the preliminary game you have all played. Only the top seventy survivors will proceed to the next stage which will be revealed at the end of this stage. The walls of the hall are about to be lowered, once they are, board your vehicles according to team numbers at once and a quick reminder that once you are all in your vehicle, we will disable your sight, putting you in a virtual blindfold until you are dropped at your selected area on the map”. He said and the window disappeared right after.

The walls of the giant waiting hall begin to descend down the earth and revealed twenty military trucks with large numbers from one to twenty painted on them. Garba’s team quickly checked for their vehicle and once Garba stepped n the truck, his field of vision darkened and so does that of each of the one hundred and forty four players.

Back in the control room, Akihiro’s Radio phone beeped and he quickly picked it up knowing only Mr. Lockwood or senator Baker have access to the line.

“Akihiro, have you finished your arrangements, Lockwood and I are about to land on the runway ?” Senator Baker said on the phone.

“yes senator, you are just on time. The main event is just about to begin in an hour; I have also taken the initiative to make the experiment more enjoyable for you, our special guests. You will witness the true potential of my genius” Akihiro said.

About twenty minutes later, Mr. Jefferson Lockwood’s private jet landed in the runway on the isolated side of the island that contains the research facilities and his personal private mansion.

Mr. Lockwood, Senator Baker and the two marine admirals got off of the private jet.

“welcome to my island gentlemen, as Baker may have told you already, I own all of this, everything here legally belongs to me” Lockwood said

Baker burst into a hysterical laughter and stopped midway in his laugh

“it is an impressive island I can see, just don’t forget which Government made owning all of it possible” the senator said and continue laughing at Lockwood’s earlier statement.

Right at the moment a limousine just arrived at the scene and the four men entered the car and it drove them to their specially prepared accommodations.

At first look, the mansion looks like every other ordinary mansion but as soon as the guests were taken to their accommodation, they realize how special each room is. In each room, a large wall sized screen has been installed, and next to each double sized bed is a smart table installed to work in synergy with the screen and each room has a customized tablet computer to decide how, where or who among the participants they want to monitor.

Each tablet can open a direct secure channel into the other rooms and directly to Dr. Akihiro who is overseeing the event from the control room.

“you are welcome gentlemen, I am Akihiro Amida, the one overseeing this experiment and hope you are enjoying my little tweak to your accommodation. If you can now look at the giant screens in your room, we are going live immediately so be sure to check the list of candidates in the tablets next to your beds; you will be able to see their strengths, weaknesses and special talents”.

The giant screens on the walls turned on with a list of the hundred and forty four players all on their various vehicles being transported to their position of choice on the island to start the game.

Back on truck number five, Garba, Mila, Lucy, Fred and Sarah can hear each other but cant see anything at all.

“try the team chat, it is still working even though they have blocked our vision” Garba sent as a massage to the team chat and Mila responded by saying

“I think we should particularly avoid that Carson Guy and his team of Military camouflage dressed lunatics, if we ever cross paths with them, it will not be good for us considering that he is now in a team of fourteen players”

“agreed” Lucy said.

The car pulled to a stop and Garba’s team dropped from their van. A few seconds after their vehicle drove off, their vision becomes restored and they could not believe what they are seeing just a few meters away from where they were dropped.

While not all of them have dropped from their van and their vision has not been restored yet, Garba, Mila and Lucy are certain that the person they are seeing stepping out of the van parked across the beach is Carson Marcus and his squad.