Ringing sound echoed in his mind; hand held with huge pain. Pain which could hardly be described, something new reverberating like a heartbeat going louder and louder. Each reverberation replacing a part of him, something taking deep roots inside him, surreal feeling spreading in his core
Am I dying?
Slowly his sense of touch returned. He could feel the comfort of his clinical chair, the soft fabric, the position of his head. Trying to move his head, a burning sensation spread from his right cerebrum consuming his brain, his head, his body Is this a dream?
Everything started to feel apathetic. Like there was no point in anything, no point whether he was alive or dead.
Does it even?
But then hazy memories start to flood, his own memories, the people he held dear, his work, him, Xue, Seth, Xmox, his crew, his city, his life, him. Slowly the apathetic feeling faded, his passiveness also
I’m alive, aren’t I!
***
He was leaning at the walls of his balcony, his thoughts elsewhere, busy streets filled with conscious beings, each having different conscience, wanting different, going different, thinking different. Such is world.
A voice broke his thought process.
“So, you can’t describe how you felt back then”
After a while he replied.
“I can’t remember anything other than being unconscious and having a terrible dream”
“Sir this is unlike anything I have dealt” said the medic bot, who was also leaning on the balcony wall
“What about Xue”
“Ms. Xue is still active in epi verse. We can forcefully eject her but without knowing the whole picture I would advise against it.”
“Shall I contact some expert who has some experience with this field of work”
“I know an expert myself, 7 stars” said Ayrton while looking at the readings
“That is above anything we can provide; shall I stay here for your care then”
“I’m good, you can go now” said Ayrton while stretching his arms
“I hope that everything works fine” said the bot while going for his things
“I hope for the same as well,” said Ayrton again alone with his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, he looked at his hands and moved his fingers on which his band responded. It was a record of all the readings during the time he was unconscious.
Everything completely normal, EGG, even the cortisol levels
Again, leaning at the wall and looking down at the bustling city filled with flying cars, various commercials in the screen, gigantic buildings. He liked observing down from heights, looking at the world from the top, his own room was 127th floor. Everything about the city was normal, colorful city except for the fact that he had been unconscious for more than a day, it was not five but six June, a day gone completely unnoticed, a day gone dreaming. Xue had still not woken up yet marking her dive 27 hours long
The frustration was slowly creeping him as he could not even attempt to even theorize the situation which completely passing through his thoughts like an enigma, in his helplessness he gripped the railing tightly and clenched his teeth.
Calm down, I have my friends with me
Taking a deep breath, he looked at the sky, the moon shining in the dark sky along with Sirius, the taste of night calming him. His mind still unable to process the situation
“Seth has arrived, shall I let him in” Echoed a polite voice behind him
“Let him” he said as he moved away from the balcony towards his room. His room was almost clean and spacious filled with cutting-edge tech, in the corner of his huge room were three clinical chairs, laying on one of the them was a girl wearing a full-face compact helmet. Looking at her evoked concern and warmth in his chest spreading throughout him.
As he took a seat in his bean bag chair, a blonde youth with long hair entered his view. The youth had sheepish eyes carrying a bag, his hair messed up
“So, how are you” said Seth as he retrieved a mecha silver skull from his bag and placed it on the table. The skull with red eyes smiled at Ayrton ominously
How am I feeling, how am I feeling……? maybe I’m worrying too much, it might be a minor malfunction or Xue might have some important work. But that dream was extremely uncomfortable, that burning sensation in my head, what if Xue is experiencing such pain. When we were in Hestia hmm… it can be likely she’s didn’t die …. maybe it was a system crash due to such a large-scale war rendering……but wars more magnificent than Hestia have transpired and they destroy planets every then and now.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Seth took a seat beside him and punched him in the tummy.
“For some apparent reason” he paused “after my death in Epi verse, I was unconscious more than a day. Xue has still not woken up” Ayrton said while shoving Seth’s hand away
“Here are the reports provided by the medic bot” said Ayrton as he sent him the reports
“Are you serious right now” Said Xmox concerned as Seth skimmed the reports
“It says that you were also having some unpleasant dreams” Asked Seth
After a while and explaining Seth and Xmox everything they were contacting his dad.
Juan was very forgetful, he forgot him again
After going through the reports Juan told them not to forcefully eject Xue and first contact her inside Epi Verse. Juan would send some people to retrieve her soon, Xue was not in any eminent danger and everything was fine. This put his heart at ease
hopefully this unexpected situation would resolve shortly
Right now, Ayrton was wearing his epi verse headset ready to dive in the Epi-Verse. Seth and Xmox had departed as well
<
<
Vision returned to his eyes. Hazy, slowly people coming into vision……. a lot of people. The first thing he did was to look up at the sky, bright stars came into view along with a gigantic road going into the horizon, the sky was exceptionally clear with thousands of stars, star clusters, gas clouds of different colors
What a luck
It seemed that he had spawned in the alliance which was not that far away from Hestia. Soon he would reach Xue
Suddenly people around him started jumping wildly and the ground started to shake, his sudden startled complexion returned to normal as he realized that he was in a concert. Colorful lights spreading all around, the vibrations of bass, the ear shattering sounds
But that was not all, there were star-ships and flying platforms filled with people in the sky. He could see a neon-colored humanoid figure wearing a hoodie as the stage. Bright flashes coming from all around
But right at this point his doused demeanor was broke by a voice “A nice place to spawn isn’t it” he looked at the owner of the voice and found a girl wearing revealing clothing, seemed to be drunk. Glancing at himself, he found out that he completely smelled of booze
It seems that the previous NPC owner of this body was really something
In his helplessness he tried to get away from the concert, trying to squeeze in between people.
Majority of Epi Verse was filled with NPCs (Non-Players Computers) which were like average people here. They would behave brainlessly with same set dialogues and behavior. When a player died then in their next spawn, they would be randomly assigned to one of these NPCs body anywhere. Although players would lose their old body after death, they would still retain access to their bank account, their possessions, their property and their experience
After a while he was in a hyper loop with three players staring at him, all wearing a same green Armor. He was being stared at due to him being bathed by booze maybe
“Seems like someone did a lot of fun” Said one of the them. He was bald with long beard, which he was caressing
The other three were staring at Ayrton expecting something funny, his mode already sore enough
Damn these people messing with me
“Would you believe me if I said that I just spawned like this” He paused “And that in the middle of the concert” said Ayrton
“Man you sound so serious!”
So what if I am
After a while he was near a residential area filled with unreal architecture. The buildings seemed to go in the space.
He was in the alliance, a Dyson ring in space placed strategically between all the habitable planets in the goldilocks zone here. In Epi Verse, everything worked with the laws of science meaning that everything here could be reconstructed in real life as well, provided such capital and resources were available.
Right now, Ayrton was showering in his room here. The room was similar to his real life one except that it was lacking Xue. She was his replica, someone who saw the world with the same view as his, someone who had been always at his side. In the same circumstances they both would react almost similarly; hence he could not imagine any harm to her
“Eon, call Xue” he said, water tickling down his face
After a pause a mechanical voice echoed “She is out of reach”
Sure enough, she is in Hestia
“Call Seth”
“Calling”
Exiting from the shower he went for his trademark black and white spacesuit, which both him and Xue had designed. After a while he was in Alliance’s star-port which was filled with numerous star ships, most of which even he saw for the first time. That was due the diversity of products in Epi verse
Nearing hanger where he was supposed to meat Seth and Xmox he saw huge white ship with golden patterns being marveled by not only him but many other players nearby. Archangel
Talk about show off
As Archangel’s ramp opened, he was greeted by a seven feet tall silver robot (Xmox) with undefinable expression on his face, but he knew his friend good enough to conclude that it was a smirk.
Inside the ship’s lobby area all three of them were discussing their course of events. It seemed that the ship would take a day and a half to reach Hestia, both Xmox and Seth were sleeping in the bunk bed as they had logged off, Ayrton also planning to do the same