Chapter 11: Meeting in Real Life
Shop owner, Sila, and Varee all looked at Sila"s stone arm with curiosity.
"What"s happening? Mister Sila?" asked Varee since she couldn"t hear system explanation like Sila.
"It"s this d.a.m.n arm, it"s sealed again, and the skills related to it got deleted too," Sila answered with gloomy expression.
"Then, should we go to Groceries Shop? The owner of that shop can use "Unseal" skill," suggested Varee.
"No need. I can use that skill too. It"s just that the system told me I can only unseal it when 7 days have pa.s.sed."
Upon hearing Sila"s word, Varee felt a little surprise. That"s because "Unseal" skill was a skill that very few people possessed and was highly desired by various guilds. The reason was due to the "Unseal" skill of Groceries Shop"s owner was only able to unseal items up to C Grade, if someone wanted to unseal higher Grade"s item, they would have to search for player or NPC that had "Unseal" skill with higher skill level.
"Well, the system said so, but I can just try," thought Sila.
"Unseal."
At the end of his word, a system sound could be heard inside his head.
The level of Unseal skill has been risen to 16 … 17 ... 18.
Sila"s arm could be freely moved again. But its shape wasn"t the same. Now it looked like normal human arm carving with red ciphers.
He took a look at its information in his System Window, but the explanation was still the same.
Sila explained what was happened to Varee and the Weapon Shop"s owner. After discussion, they decided that he could only wait for 7 days. So, Sila and Varee excused themselves off later. (Sila also ask for the Weapon Shop"s owner name. His name was Bronze.) As for current appearance of Sila"s arm, Varee used the bandage to wrap it for the time being.
Now, they"re heading toward a hotel after wasting time in Weapon Shop.
***
A hotel in Beginning Town resembled of a Chinese tavern made of bamboo that could be seen in old movie. Its first floor, a lobby, also looked exactly like that of the restaurant.
Varee stopped at a reception and talked with employee. The employee looked at Sila briefly, and then gave Varee a key.
"This is a key to your room, sir."
Sila secretly argued in his mind: Why the h.e.l.l this tavern created from bamboo has to use a key to open the door? The designer of this game must really be a strange one.
"Follow me," Varee spoke to Sila and led him to stairs. Sila went after her without noticing the eyes filled with envy from many players around there.
Varee used a key and entered into room 303, which was as weird as Sila imagined: there is a keyhole on that bamboo door.
In the room made of bamboo, there was queen-sized bed that looked very comfortable. The room was very wide; there was mini bar, refrigerator, sofa, and separate bathroom and kitchen within. A mini Jacuzzi tub and a shower could also be found in bathroom, while there were few kitchen utensils and small gas stove in kitchen.
"Huh? Why did you get in too?" Sila asked Varee since she still didn"t leave the room.
"Why can"t I? This is a room for couple. By the way, don"t ask too much; just get into the bed now," said Varee with an expressionless face.
"G-Get into the bed?" Sila was starting to blush.
"Yes, get into the bed and log out already. Did you think I"d let you be alone? No way. I"ll be in trouble if you flee ... Oh, and I almost forgot."
System sound alarmed.
Player Varee would like to be your friend. Will you accept?
Sila frowned slightly, "you would like to be my friend?"
"Don"t think about it too much, there"s no special meaning behind it. It"s just that if we are in friend list, I will be able to see your online status, and it will be easier for us to contact each other."
Sila recognized that there"s no harm in doing so, "accept."
When Sila lay down on the bed, the system sound alarmed again.
Does Player Sila want to log out?
Sila said yes. Then, a digital number of 10 flashed in front of his eyes; and when the number reached 0, Sila"s body was gone.
***
Sila woke up in a strange gla.s.s capsule, which it later opened itself to let Sila out. Sila stepped out of the capsule and looked around. The room was dim, but he could saw the surrounding quite well since he had just woken up. He found that he"s still in the same hospital room, with this gla.s.s capsule as only new object that hadn"t been here before.
After that, the light in the room was lighting up. Sila could see Rashane lying on sofa. It seemed that he didn"t go back home for a long time. As the light flashed, Rashane woke up. He looked at Sila and smiled happily.
"Oh, Sila, you are out finally! I"m so worried that you might not know how to log out, since you said you haven"t played virtual reality game before." asked Rashane with a worried tone.
Actually, for using a brain scanner, it would force user to log out if it detected that user"s body was in a danger state. However, since Sila"s body wasn"t in normal condition, Rashane feared that the system might miscalculate physical condition of Sila"s body.
Sila felt guilty. He had always been in game and hadn"t thought about the person outside whom worrying about him.
"Well, how come you decide to stay online for full four days?" asked Rashane.
Sila told everything that he had encountered in the game to Rashane. Rashane was shocked when he knew Sila had adjusted his painfulness level to a real life degree. However, when he heard that Sila had already met Varee, he felt delighted that Varee could find Sila.
Soon, Rashane"s mobile phone rang up, which he went out of the room to answer the call.
Sila felt he had nothing to do. So, he thought he should try his best to get out of a hospital as soon as possible. He pushed himself out of the bed and felt a slight pain. It"s somehow discomforted since he hadn"t walked for so long, but if he was walking slowly then it"s not a big problem.
He tried to walk to physiotherapy room while avoiding nurses along the way.
Now was a nighttime, so there was no one in physiotherapy room. Therefore, Sila slowly used an equipment there alone.
In fact, Sila"s external wounds were completely healed. But since Sila didn"t come to rehab and always avoided meeting with physiotherapist, it"s hard for him to walk normally.
Well, soon, he began to get used to his condition and could be able to walk faster.
"… You"re here," a woman"s voice rang out.
Sila turned his head to look. But since he moved his neck too fast, the pain instantly came to him. He lifted his hand to touch his painful neck, but that just made the situation worsen. Without his hand to support his weak body, he then collapsed.
Luckily, the woman quickly rushed forward and supported him in time.
"Thank you," Sila said to her, and when he took a good look at her face, he felt that this person looked familiar, "Varee?"
"Yeah, it"s me," replied Varee.
"Why are you here?" Sila asked and tried to grab a rail to support his own body again. Varee saw that and backed off a step.
"I was talking with my dad on the phone, asking whether you have logged out or not. But when he returned to your room, you have disappeared. Sheesh, he was making a big ruckus, so I came to help him searching for you since I was nearby."
"I just come to rehab, so that I won"t bother your father for medical bills more than this."
Varee slightly surprised. She hadn"t been serious when she"d told him about her dad being responsible for Sila"s medical bills, but now Sila was very serious about it and tried his best to get out of hospital as soon as he could. This made Varee knew Sila"s personality more, while feeling a bit guilty at the same time.
"But if you overwork your body and injure yourself again, the one who will worry the most will be my dad, you know?" Varee scolded him.
Sila didn"t mind Varee much and began to walk slowly between railing again. Varee saw that and didn"t say anything. She kept watching until Sila wanted to go back to his room.
Sila tried to walk by himself, but seeing him staggering, Varee came to support him.
Sila looked at Varee, and she said, "it"s to help you go back to your room faster. I want to go home already." So, Sila let her help.
When Sila arrived at the room, he could see Doctor Panhathai talking with Rashane with worrying looks on their faces. Then, both of them noticed Sila and hurriedly helped reinvigorate him. So Varee stepped back and let them supported Sila to the bed.
Afterward, Sila had to listen to doctor"s complaints about him being disappeared without telling anyone for a long time.
Then, the doctor left the room, which Rashane followed her since he had something he wanted to discuss with her. So, now, there"re only Sila and Varee inside the room.
Varee opened the food box that she had brought with, and placed it in front of Sila.
"Eat it. My dad told me to buy it for you."
Then, Varee started to feed Sila, making Sila shocked.
"Hey. I"m not a disable person, you know? I can eat it myself," Sila told Varee.
"Tell me that word again after you can lift your hand up," said Varee.
Sila tried to lift his hand up. But surprisingly, he really couldn"t. His strength was all gone.
Varee pointed at a gla.s.s capsule and began to explain.
"This is a life-supporting capsule. Since you didn"t take nutrient pills and stayed very long inside the game, my dad bought this machine and set it up for you. It causes person inside the virtual reality world to go into a semi-hibernation state. However, even with that, you"re still considered in danger since you lack food and drinks for many days. Usually, people need to take a quick rest after they get out of this machine, however, you instead went to rehab alone, so your body used up all your remaining energy … Now you can understand why doctor and everyone were so worried about you when you"re missing, right?"
Hearing this, Sila now could understand why people had been making a big ruckus even though he"d been missing only for a short while.
"Now, open your mouth," said Varee.
With that, Sila had to open his mouth unwillingly and was forced to eat. Varee was feeding him extremely fast. It"s so fast that sometimes Sila couldn"t even swallow his food in time.
When Rashane had finished talking with the doctor, he opened the door of Sila"s room slightly, but immediately paused after seeing Varee feeding Sila.
He thought, "are they this close already?"
The doctor wondered why Rashane opened the door but didn"t step inside, so she took a peek and witnessed the scene. Seeing what"s happening, Panhathai pulled Rashane out, closed the door lightly, and then said with a smile on her face, "we should leave the youngsters alone."
"Good idea, I didn"t want to interrupt them too," said Rashane.
The doctor blushed slightly, "well, we should find something to eat too. I know one restaurant that ro-"
"Oh, I"m fine. I"ve eaten already. Now I think I should go back to finish my acc.u.mulated tasks. They must be pilling a lot since I left for many days. Well, goodbye."
Rashane said this without a slight understanding of a woman"s heart.
"-mantic ... huh? Oh, I see. Then, Good luck, sir."
Unfortunately, she hadn"t even finished her sentence yet, Rashane had already gone.
The female doctor sighed with regret.
***
Then, Varee left after finished feeding Sila. Good grief, many people would see that her action was a sweet and romantic one. But for Sila, he instead thought that, today, he finally knew the goose"s torment of being cruelly force-fed to later turn into a delicious Foie Gras. He defined Varee"s action as cramming, not feeding.
Varee surprised a little when she heard from doctor that her father had already gone back, so she quickly but politely said goodbye to doctor before she left.
Well, she didn"t forget to give Sila a bottle full of weird candies. She said that these were nutrient pills that her father had told her to give to him. She then explained to Sila that he should take one tablet per 12 hours that he planned to be in game, but not over 14 pills, aka 7 days in real life, since that would be too long.
Now Sila was alone in the room. He watched a clock and found that now was almost 10 p.m.
Since sleeping and playing the virtual reality game were not much different, Sila decided to log in again.
He ate one pill and found that it had a strawberry flavor. It didn"t dissolve in his mouth so he decided to swallow it.
"This should be okay now, right?"
Afterward, Sila equipped brain scanner before lying down on the bed. He also pressed a b.u.t.ton within gla.s.s capsule to make it closed, and finally returned to the world of Monster Soul.