I can feel my consciousness slowly returning to me. How a helmet is gently pressing against my head. I open my eyes and see a blurry ceiling, slowly getting clearer.

'What am I doing?'

Is the only thing going trough my head.

I try to remember, but everything is in disarray.

Ah, whatever.

I put the helmet away and try to get up, but I get weak and have to sit on my bed.

Normally after exiting the virtual realm you are a bit groggy and need a few minutes to readjust to reality, but this time, it seems a bit stronger and the effect fades slower.

I know, it was really dark and before that, I died.

I hunted something... light? But why?

…

I should just get some fresh are to clean my head, that normally helps.

And so I tumble outside like some drunkard, which isn't all that easy considering I am at the 5 th floor.

And like a so I continue my usual route to the park, while ignoring the occasional stares from people. Its a miracle I even noticed anything besides myself.

After a mere 10 minutes or so I am the entrance to the park and now only 100 meter on the walkway, then to the left on a hill with a tree. That tree is my destination

I start climbing and about 3m from the ground I come to a halt and rest on a big trunk. While the evening sun is illuminating my surroundings I close my eyes and fall asleep almost instantly, I really am tired.

Actually, did I ever mention that I really like sleep?

You just do nothing, without remembering that you did nothing. Time flies past in an instance, yet it is not that you did nothing at all, your brain works hard during sleep, just that you don't perceive that consciously. When you wake up all the fatigue is gone and... ah, whatever... zZz...

a man was alone in the desert. to others he would look gray.

the man didn't know how he looked like, but he didn't mind.

he would never be able to see himself in a mirror, but sometimes he would long for his reflection.

what he looked like, how his face was shaped, what color his eyes had.

maybe he wanted to not be alone anymore, having someone with him in this great yellow desert, but alas a reflection wouldn't be able to talk to him.

he knew very well that his reflection wouldn't add a person to his realm, but at least he would be able to see himself, that he was a person.

however this was merely a subconscious wish and not what he actually thought, for he didn't mind his loneliness.

And so without anything on his mind he continued with his task, to pick up grains of sand and move them elsewhere.

'growl'

ah? I am hungry, should go back.

Huh? Michi didn't come today? Or did I sleep all the time and just didn't notice him...

...whoa holy smokes! already this late? Its 21:35, I am 35 minutes behind, the game has already resumed...

ah, whatever, not like I have anything important to do there anyway, like meeting with party members or joining a raid.

As long as you don't have any responsibility like that there is not really any time pressure, so I might as well take my sweet time.

Kinda funny how I haven't really talked to anyone inside the game, its like I don't even exist in there... nice!

Oh, that reminds me, my head seems do be fine again, so what was going on exactly?

Ha, he... huhu... bwahahahaa!

For real? Who is that bastard that turned me into a skeleton?!

Altho I don't remember things clearly, I do know that I had a similar structure compared to my normal body, but without flesh.

The funny thing is actually that I basically have no senses left, I can't hear, smell, see, taste, feel.

The 'vision' I had was not exactly seeing, more like a combination of seeing black-white and hearing, with a 360° view angle.

For the most part everything was black, but then there were also bright structures with the form of wolfs and later on humanoid, kinda reminds me of a bad horror movie with fog and sometimes a strange creature would appear to scare you.

Was that actually a dungeon with wolfs and then there were players who hunted these wolfs, but ended up dieing by my hands?

Still I don't quite understand what: 'destroy all light' is supposed to do. Is that a basic instinct of an undead, to fight all life and destroy it?

At any rate, it was pretty funny, except for the headache I got afterward.

The problem is that I wasn't really in control of my own actions, kinda like a dream, in a dream you are pretty much a spectator and even though it feels like it is you that does things, it really isn't.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Unless you are able to actively control your dream, I think that's called lucid dreaming or something, but I never tried that.

So how about I challenge this so called instinct?

When it comes to ignoring ones urges I am fairly good at it.

With that in mind I should first eat something, I haven't eaten anything in ages. Seriously, I didn't eat anything inside the game, witch obviously doesn't change anything in RL, but it still makes one feel really hungry.

To bad all stores are closed already... stupid game addicts... like me...

At first there were still a few stores that had open when CoM was running, but there were virtually no customers, so one might as well close shop and play as well.

Actually, it is really creepy here... I mean in the city. Normally there are a lot of busy people doing whatever, oh so important things they do. But since CoM started there are 20 hours of total silence...

the age of virtual reality, huh?

Well, there are some stupid people, who say something like VR is evil and would suck your soul out of your body, but these guys are a natural phenomenon that occurs every time a new technology changes how society works. Even when over 1500 years ago they started printing book o mass did some church people call that evil, because it would distract the youth mind and bring them from there believe. There really is no helping some people...

“Virtual Reality is bad for the people, it takes your soul and reproduces you inside a different world, but that 'you' isn't even you anymore. The 'you' in VR is something created by a machine and the things 'you' think and do aren't done by the real 'you'. Who knows what immoral experiment unicorn is doing to your head and heart... Oh, hey you!”

me? … got spotted... by some strange creatures

“you aren't playing the heretic game and you don't look like you are in any hurry to do so, are you a fellow RR person, a real reality follower?”

“hello there. To be honest I just played CoM a few hours ago, but you know what. I got mind controlled, everything I did was in fact not my will, but that of some evil spirit”

“hah! I always new that this so called glorious 'new age' is a load of bull crap. How about you join our resistance, the last defense of humanity shall not fall just yet”

“huh? What are you talking about, I ain't got time for your childish game, I go back now”

“what? But what about the mind control?”

“oh, that? Heh, that was interesting!”

“...eh?”

“and if you are wondering why I am not in a hurry, live ain't a speedrun”

“hey, don't you know how dangerous that is?”

“sure, I might lose my sanity, rigth?” ...as if such a thing would happen, idiot. VR is for entertainment, not to lose your sanity, just like how hoes aren’t there to lose your virginity...wait what?

There really is no helping some people. Not that I feel like helping anyway...

so without stopping I continue around the small group of weirdos.

Back home I take a quick shower and eat a pizza and an apple, nothing is better than apple seeds. I always eat apples whole, I don't understand why people throw away half of it, I mean it's even the better half!

The reason I also eat that little stem is because I am too lazy to go trow it away...

I should go back now...

'back', does that mean VR is my real home?

Hmm... stop thinking, geez!

logging in...

00:59

the good old log in screen. Well, its only one minute so I still got plenty of time to prepare for the incoming madness.

logging in...

00:02

E#7: life of a skeleton

A/N:

apple seeds OP, seriously eat them, they taste good, kinda like almond paste.

So if you like it, then apple seeds are the way to go. Thou there is some poison in them, so you shouldn't collect the seeds from dozens of apples and eat them all at once, but the few you find in one or two apple are no problem at all.

Really short chap, so be prepared for the next two :)