Trapped in a Game Pt. 01

But she was beaming, and I couldn't help but smile with her.

I studied her a little, and she began to shift uncomfortably.

"What? You're staring..."

"I'm sorry, it's just- you sound like my sister, but you look nothing like her. In fact, you kind of look like the typical fantasy game dream girl."

"Eh? Really now," she replied, her tone flirtatious and playful. "Too bad I can't say the same about you though. Seriously, you overdid it with the muscles. Rogues don't need all that fluff. Besides, I kind of liked your body the way it is," she added with a dismissive wave.

Kelly's comment, while absent mindedly delivered in her typical ditzy fashion, left me staring at her in open mouthed shock, and she took a while to notice what she'd just said.

"W-wait no, I didn't mean it like that. I don't, like, check you out, or anything- I mean, just- uh, from a purely objective standpoint! Just- shut up!"

But you're the one who's talking sis, I thought, almost unable to stop myself from beaming at her as she finished her ramble.

She folded her arms angrily, when suddenly she twitched a little, which I guessed meant that she'd gotten a notification of some kind.

"Message?" I enquired, and she kind of tilted her head a little in uncertainty.

"Hold on. I think it's a phone call."

"What?"

She moved her hand about, interacting with her character profile as she spoke.

"Our phones are synced to the headgear, so we can receive phone calls. Mom?"

I perked up, my interest piqued.

"Mom- slow down, I can't make out what you're trying to- uh yeah, he's with me, mom calm down."

"What's going on," I mouthed to Kelly, but she held up a finger to cut me off.

"Mom, that's not possible. We're fine- I told you mom, I tested the game before. It's fine. Wha- what do you mean it's on the news. Huh? Yeah, we're in the game right now- oh my god, calm down mom."

Kelly gave me a puzzled look that was equal parts confusion and worry.

"Mom, relax. We'll log out and I'll call you back, okay. Just- hold on."

She made a few movements with her hands before returning her full attention to me.

"Mom said there's something on the news- some problem with the game and deaths being reported."

"What?"

"I doubt its real- she probably just saw some propaganda nonsense and panicked but let's just log out and talk to her anyway."

"Alright. Do we have to head back into town?"

"Nah, this is a safe zone. You can log out from any area like this."

She made a few movements with her hand, then frowned.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm not sure- try logging out a sec?"

I pulled up my personal journal, then switched to the menu where the logout option was highlighted.

I tapped on it, only to see 'that option is currently unavailable' pop up.

"Are you getting that message too? What does it mean?"

"I-I don't know..."

The worried look on Kelly's face was now turning into full blown panic.

"Isn't there another way?"

She shook her head.

"We can't exactly move- I, uh.. I dunno what to do... Josh."

Tears were welling up in her eyes, and I immediately noticed that despite the visual difference between my sister and her game avatar, her mannerisms remained identical.

It was both comforting and unnerving at the same time.

"Relax, it's probably just a glitch. I mean the game just launched. Let's go back to town, maybe we can contact an admin?"

Or so we thought.

By the time we got back to town the place was swarming with panicked players, with some visibly distraught while others were in tears.

It was absolute chaos.

Admins were unable to even respond due to the overload of message requests, and even the in game neutral player characters (NPCs), were being swarmed by players desperate for some answers.

We weren't able to get any kind of useful info until we came across a crowd gathered near the fountains at the town square.

"-please do not ignore the warnings. Move in groups, and avoid doing anything risky. Until we have more information, please keep from doing anything dangerous."

The speaker continued on for a bit, but I felt as if we'd missed the more important parts of the speech.

"Oh God," Kelly muttered as she stared up at the speaker.

"What?"

"That's Galvan- I can see his gamer tag because I have him added as a friend on my profile. He was an admin for the beta test."

"What was he in? Game design?"

"No- psychological evaluation. But if he's giving those warnings then this is worse than I thought."

Kelly was panicking again, so I took her hand and tried to soothe her as best as I could.

The speaker, or Galvan as Kelly mentioned, was about to start speaking again when a commotion drew proceedings to a halt.

"If you're an admin, then you're responsible for this!" a man in a black hooded robe shouted.

*"Yeah!" came a few cries from the crowd, and Galvan was quickly rushed from the square down a street opposite where we stood at the southern edge of the square.

Hysteria was taking over for sure, but even so; the response seemed so strange.

This was a safe zone.

Even if people rioted, there wasn't anything they could do, could they?

Thankfully, most of the more agitated members of the crowd disappeared after Galvan, and the rest of the group began to simmer down considerably.

As the crowd dispersed, I decided to try and get some info out of anyone who had been there for the whole speech.

There were some who knew little, or seemed reluctant to talk, and we were about to give up hope when we came across a small group who were calm and willing enough folk.

"I'm David, this is Trevor and Dana. We're clan members from another game. You two are?"

"Josh- this is my sister, uh-"

"U-um, Auriel," Kelly introduced herself using her gamer tag, before whispering to my side, "I'm gonna try to call mom."

"Nice to meet you," David muttered, eyeing her uncertainly.

"So what's the deal?" I asked.

"Characters who die in-game have been disappearing when they should have just respawned. Word is that they're actually dying in real life."

"Huh?"

"Yeah- that was our reaction too, but a few people have gotten snippets from news in messages from friends and family. It appears to be legit."

"Did any of your-?"

"No. This is our group as we came in," he added with a sigh. "There's more though- apparently the pain inhibitors have been lifted. When you take damage in game, it hurts- like hell. That's what's accounting for these two being uncharacteristically quiet," he motioned to his comrades as he continued:

"They decided to test it with a duel and well..."

I suddenly noticed that the girl seemed to be squirming uncomfortably as her comrade tried to comfort her.

"Mom- stop freaking out, we're okay for now. No mom, just listen to the news and keep me up to date-"

"Hey, little lady. Might wanna tell your mom not to try unplugging you by force, okay? That'd be as bad as" he made a finger across the throat gesture, and Kelly shot me a worried look before slinking out of earshot.

I looked back at him.

"Any word on how this happened?" I asked.

"Nothing solid. Some cyber terrorist groups are claiming responsibility. Other reports say negligence- but that admin who was talking just then had all his privileges revoked. That seems pretty intentional to me."

I pondered the news.

"You seem to be taking this- well," David noted with interest.

Sure, this was a lot to take in, but I was more worried about Kelly than anything else.

To be honest the fear that I might die didn't even register on my radar, so I tried to just pass it off a putting on a brave face, which seemed to satisfy David.

"Here- I'll send you a friend request. If you two want to join up, let me know. Moving in bigger groups might be wiser at the moment."

I accepted the request and thanked him for everything, before returning my attention to Kelly who had just gotten off the phone with mom.

"So status?"

She was shaking, and I once again found that I had to remind myself that this beautiful vixen straight out of a fantasy novel was in fact my little sister.

"Mom knew about the thing about forcing the headgear off, so that's fine. We aren't in immediate danger from that. She's coming over tonight to stay with our- uh, bodies, and I asked her to make sure to charge our phones."

"Hm. You know, I thought I'd read that taking the headgear off while we were in game would just leave you disoriented for a bit until you adjusted to getting out. Why'd that change?" I asked.

"It didn't- but the pain inhibitors were never meant to be taken off. When the headgear comes off by force, the brain reads it as a severing of every nerve in the body. You'd die from shock."

"Oh... So- what do we do now?" I asked.

"Wait it out... I guess?"

We walked around town a bit, but it was difficult to escape the masses of distraught players everywhere around us, and I soon realized that it was really affecting Kelly.

"Hey- let's go hunting again."

"Wha-? Why?"

"It's not dangerous, right? We don't exactly have anything better to do. Besides- it might do us some good. Being away from... this," I gestured at the general atmosphere, and Kelly gave me a little smile.

"Okay. Let's do it."

So we went out, and caught quite a bit of game meat before returning back to town with our haul, hoping that by then there would be some positive developments on the situation.

But when we returned things seemed bleaker than ever.

The living spaces in the town were filled beyond capacity, and players were now setting up camps on the outskirts of the town, in pretty much whatever space they could.

"Jeez- it almost looks like a refugee camp," I noted, as Kelly and I surveyed the scene.

"We should probably find somewhere to set up too," Kelly muttered, so we set about doing just that.

Everyone appeared to be eating rations or other dry foods, so Kelly and I decided against cooking dinner, and opted for a similarly standard meal.

"Do we sleep? Can we even?"

"Yeah- we can. There is a sleep function. Our bodies don't tire in here the way real ones do, but our brains still need to rest."

"Kel- why did they even make a sleep function."

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"When I was doing the testing, they had us stay in the game for twenty-four hours once, as a stress test... or at least that's what they said. We used the sleep function then."

"What was it like?"

"Felt the same way like sleeping normally. Dreams and everything... Josh- do you think they were planning this all along?"

"There's no way to know- Kel, but if you start blaming yourself for getting me into this, I'm gonna smack you across the face."

"But it is my-"

"Stop it. You couldn't have known this was going to happen, so just leave that thought right there, okay? I'm gonna set up my tent over-"

"No!"

"What?"

"Let's just- share."

I studied her a bit, and she shifted uncomfortably before continuing:

"Tents have limited uses and I think we shouldn't waste them. You know- just to be on the safe side."

"Okay."

She walked over to me, and wrapped her arms around me.

"Besides... I don't wanna sleep alone in this place Josh," she added timidly.

"It's okay," I replied, as I put my arms around her, running my hands through her hair and giving her scalp a little affectionate rub.

She felt so different physically.

Though my sister's hair was soft and I could always smell the subtle scent of her shampoo when I held her close like this, it never felt airy and wispy in this way, and her scent was something altogether different; like a strange flower that I couldn't quite place.

I was thinking this as I planted a gentle little kiss on her forehead, when suddenly Kelly yelped and recoiled, after feeling a little jolt of my own.

*!

That couldn't be- was it?

I felt the strange sensation that I could only associate with arousal, go off somewhere in my brain.

"What was that?" I asked absently, as Kelly blushed, obviously feeling the same thing I did.

"I dunno- I think the game interpreted our action as- uh, something else and sent a weird response to our brains."

"Probably a glitch?" I offered uncertainly.

"Y-yeah, I guess," she muttered timidly.

"Aren't responses like that supposed to be filtered out though?"

"Yeah- but I guess my reaction didn't read as resistant, so it didn't automatically filter."

I did remember reading that inter-player stimuli were filtered based on our automatic reactions to the other player's actions.

Even outside of designated safe zones where you could swing a sword or throw a fireball at someone, you still couldn't get away with so much as a hug unless the player was accepting to it.

With a game that depended so much on your own senses for inputs, it was natural for the creators to find some way to protect a player's personal sense of space.

Setting up the camp was quick, since most of the process was automated, but I was thankful to find that the tent was pretty spacious and comfortable.

As we settled into our tent, I remembered something that I'd read about the interaction filters:

"Hey, open up your character journal for a sec."

Kelly nodded, raising her hand to open up the interface as I did the same.

"There should be an interaction filter in the privacy settings."

"Yeah. I see it."

"Add my name to the restricted list- it should prevent any weird glitches like just now."

She nodded, then closed off her interface before scooting over to where I sat.

I put my arms around her and held her tight, and she wriggled a bit as she tried to nestle herself into a more comfortable position against my chest.

She wriggled around a bit more, before screwing up her face in annoyance.

"Uh-uh, no. No fucking way!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned and confused.

She pulled herself out of my arms and quickly opened up her character interface with stern resolve.

"I couldn't feel- anything! That stupid filter is coming off."

"What about the-?"

"Fuck it- I rather deal with those glitches than feel nothing when you're holding me, Josh."

She closed off the menu, then climbed back into my arms, this time with a contented sigh.

"That was- scary."

She clutched at my chest, then relaxed as I caressed her back reassuringly.

I was about to ask Kelly if she wanted to sleep a bit when a little ping went off in my head, and from Kelly's reaction she had gotten one as well.

"What is that? A server message?"

"It- looks like an item," she muttered.

"Makeover kit?" I asked, as I examined the gift through my interface, then Kelly's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Oh my god, Josh, can I do yours? Please, please, please?"

This item was apparently a free chance to edit your character's appearance, and from what I could tell, this was not something that you could normally do otherwise.

"Seriously, what's wrong with how I look?"

"I want my brother, not someone who sounds like him but looks like Conan the barbarian."

I sighed.

"Pleeeease?"

She whined, and I knew I had to give in.

"You know, you don't look like my kid sister either."

"Yeah- but I look good, don't I?"

"Are you implying that-?"

"Not implying, I'm saying it. You look terrible. Please?"

I folded my arms angrily, even though I'd more or less decided to let her do it.

There was no saying no to Kelly.

Or at least, it wasn't the kind of willpower I was born with, so I opened up the kit and she immediately got to work, and after an hour or so of poking, prodding, and protests, she managed to make my character look a lot more like my real body did, while still allowing me to retain some subtle aspects of what I wanted my character to be.

I would never admit it out loud, but she did an amazing job.

I kinda looked like a much better looking, sexy version of myself.

Although it kinda made me wonder about Kelly a bit; I mean sure, little sisters could look up to their older brothers a lot, but damn did she have a clear vision of exactly what she wanted me to be.

Kelly couldn't hide how pleased she was with herself, but her exhaustion was beginning to show through, so we decided to call it a night.

She turned on her sleep function, before snuggling up against me, and before long she was fast asleep.

From what she'd said, it basically simulated sleep by putting your character's body into a state of suspended animation, which triggered the brain's sleep mode causing you to actually sleep.

Of course the brain would wake itself up eventually, but without external triggers to wake you up oversleeping every time was pretty much a given, so there was an internal alarm in place to wake you up whenever you wanted.

As Kelly slept though, I went to work.

Being able to read without moving about definitely had its advantages, I thought, as I brought up the in-game help files from my character journal, and set about reading.

Sure, we could wake up in the morning and be out of this game making all of the reading I was about to do a complete waste.

But I wasn't prepared to take that chance, not with Kelly's life at least.

I knew I'd be able to function well enough on three or four hours sleep, so that gave me at least five hours to do my research before I'd have to sleep, in order to wake up just after Kelly did in the morning.

I quickly looked up the class features section of the help files, then started on my research.

* * *

When I woke up, Kelly was already up as I expected, but she was lying on her side staring at me, and I suddenly recalled that this was the second time I'd woken up next to her.

It was pretty comforting, and I felt a curious warm sensation flutter through me.

"Good morning," she said with a warm smile, and I smiled back at her.

"What'd I miss?" I muttered sleepily, fighting back a yawn, and her expression darkened a bit.

"We finally got a system message, about an hour ago. You might want to give it a read."

I pulled up my character interface, and sure enough two messages awaited me.

Greetings player, or should I say, resident of Fey.

You have been chosen to go on a sacred quest unlike anything that anyone has experienced in the last few hundred years! To experience the kind of life that others could only dream of! From now on, treat your character not like a character, but as an extension of your 'self' as you go forth through the lands that have been painstakingly created for your exploration, conquest, and fancy. But beware! Great adventure can only come at a great price, so be ready to lay your very life down before you if you dare to venture through these mystical lands. Surely many amongst you will cower in fear, and never set foot from the safety of your door, but I am sure many still will take up this challenge and show me the true might of the indomitable human spirit! If you are amongst those truly worthy of greatness, then go forth, because before you lies the unique opportunity of countless lifetimes to experience life, like never before!

See your village message board for more details!

~Prometheus.

"The fuck is this bullshit," I muttered.

"He's a psychopath."

"Yeah, but who is he?"

"No one knows for sure, but he has absolute control over the game and can send system messages at will apparently."

I sighed.

"What has the reaction been like?"

"Sounds like hell- but I haven't been outside yet to check."