Interlude 1 [Silva Ronte]

Welcome to PAWO2!

As you already know leaking information from the testing phase is forbidden, however you were not told the whole situation. I remind you that you have agreed on the following terms and conditions.

-The tester cannot leak any information of the project.

-The tester has to participate in the entire testing phase without pause.

-The length of the testing phase depends on the testers achievements.

-PaWo corp. has the right to forcefully intervene anytime for the testers safety.

-PaWo corp. is not responsible for anything that happens to the tester that’s not caused by  malfunction or the company’s mistake.

You have got a Sacred Task!

Quest 1: Learn to use magic

After a few seconds of adjustment I see that everything works perfectly. The game is just as the rumours said, beautiful. I feel the air in my lungs and the sensation of touch.

It seems we can’t choose our character for the testing.

“Show Status” I recite.

Status: #error, function does not exist

Name:Silva Ronte

Race: Human

Level: 1

Age: 19

HP: 350/350

ST: 200/200

MP: 300/300

#error, soft stats disabled

Class: None

Titles: Tester

Well, this is strange. It’s not a normal start, my stats turned into manapoints. The bot’s usually have almost no mana unless they are mages or high leveled. But these numbers are pathetic.

I try creating a spell, but the shortcut doesn’t work.

“New level of realism, huh?” It seems hard, but maybe that’s why it’s so fun.

I play with the feeling of magic a little and somehow manage to create a small spark. The flash of success makes me excited. So this is why they removed it. Creating magic by yourself and not with a button press feels amazing, it brings back the joy when I started playing netgames.

I play around with it a little, but the sadly it’s not that easy.

All aspects loaded and working.

[Master Command: Full Immersion Mode]

Simulation ready.

[Master Command: Simulation Speed Set: 5000x]

“Wait what-” I try to say, but nausea hits me and I fall on forward hitting the floor, losing my consciousness.

When I come to I find myself inside the local church, it seems they brought me in and healed me. But who?

I get up with my hand on my face, still feeling some pain. That info I saw that means something extremely wrong. They can speed up the time here? Won’t that hurt the brain? But they probably testing that on us.

Wait.

It said 5000 times.

That’s a lot! At max two days we can spend in the game without getting dehydrated, but that’s 27 year! That wasn’t in the agreement! But they did not specify time either…

It’s my fault getting fooled isn’t it? I’m not the only one though.

I look around and see that I’m in a big room in the right wing of the building. Near me children are playing, running around. It’s… amazing. It does not seem scripted. But I expect no less than high level AI from this company. Why am I praising them after they scammed me… but they are still amazing.

I notice that a little golden card is sticking out of my pocket. I pull it out and see that there is written on it.

Sacred Task II/1:

Become a Priestess and learn about magic

Hm.. So this is how I get my quest now? But this is “sacred”. Maybe it’s the main questline? They said the testing will end according to the player’s progress. Maybe I have to complete them all before I can leave?

Seems interesting. I hope it won’t take much time.

I somehow managed to become a Priestess, they even taught me healing magic. They said I’m a genius and they would be happy to have me. They also said something about me not letting Princess Aurora know about it. Isn’t she a player? She’s also here it seems.

Okay, I admit I become a little arrogant as they praised me. I acted high and mighty… But that doesn’t mean they should kidnap me! Lucky for me the Head Priestess asked the city guards for help and they saved me before I was hurt. But I don’t remember anything else about this incident.

Strange. But that Tronos guy was cute...

Back in the real world I used to be a normal student, not caring much about others, but the High Priestess was kind enough to take me under her wings and teach me.

I’m feel a little bad that I got this quest from the goddess to take her position, but I want to go home.

Sacred Task II/1:

Become the Head Priestess and convert the church towards the [Light] faith.

A few days later I managed to use lower level healing! They say bot’s take more than ten years to do that. During this time I made a plan to complete my quest.

The princess is a player and she has complete authority over the city, even the church. She was famous back in the day, even I was jealous. I have to convince her to help me. The problem is how. All I know is that she’s picky about others personality and won’t even listen to you if you can’t show your intrepidity. And that everyone is scared of her...

I have to have confidence, but not too much. I’ll also offer her my item reward, since the last two time I got useless necklaces. She might be able to do something with it.

Oh, I heard that she wants to build orphanages now. Is she a nice person or in need of contribution points? I’m actually going to be an underdog, but completing the task is priority.

Not the best plan, but the opportunity is too great compared to the risk. Worst case I die and I have to start the quests again. 

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Interlude 2 [Đream]

I’m standing in a dark room. No, I’m floating. It’s more than enough to creep me out, but there is something worse here. A seemingly normal girl is sitting in front of a computer with a strange looking helmet on. I’ve never seen her in my life before. But they are familiar. Both the small and dark room, and the face of her’s.

She is me. She is what used to be me.

This is my dream she that woman spoke about? I don’t remember falling asleep, but that’s the only reasonable answer I can think of.

Before I die of regret, I do as I wanted even before getting back my memories. I delete them. I don’t want to live with such memories, that fill my tiny brain with emotions enough to drive me crazy over and over.

First, I delete my horrible memories of my damned childhood. All I have to do is to concentrate on them, and delete the data that comes into active state. Simple.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I don’t need to remember of the abuse and torture that my bastard parents made me go through. Who am I kidding? Maybe I did right before coming here. xC[^`~*ä

I delete those memories as they hit me again and again, strong enough to break my bones. I don’t want to remember the pain as the cigarette was extinguished in my eye socket, making my left go blind. I won’t need such thing anymore.

But I have to bring them forth to remove them, I have to endure it for at least now.

@m<}´^€a

I will remember how I starved for long times in that empty room. I have to use that experience to distinguish right from wrong.

I’ll bear the weight of my crimes, how I killed them with my own two hands. With my own two little hands smaller than a rock, weaker and more tender than leaves in the end of autumn. How I used my own broken bone to thrust it in their gut while they were asleep on the cold floor. How the blood was gushing out of them like a never ending stream of relief.

How I gave up on life as a little 6 year old child, dying from blood loss and internal injuries. But to my doom, someone came to save me on the brink of disappearing. They did not let me die in the lie called happiness of revenge.

Why?

But maybe forgetting the whole thing would be in vain. Will I be the same person if I do that? I already started, I should finish it, but every time I want to delete a memory I realise I have to remember them to stay true to myself. If I don’t, I won’t be me anymore, just an empty husk. That won’t be me anymore.

Have I made a terrible mistake somewhere?

What will happen if I continue this facade? What in the world should I do?

I don’t know.

This made me recall other memories too. Memories that now are not happening to me, but in front of me. Are they simulated from my memories? Or is it a forced dream?

Is the old me in front of me an AI, feeling the pain I’ve gone through every time I think of it? On this base, is every thought a cruel act towards an imaginary world we commit as gods?

I see as the other me was taken in by a far relative. This relative was a man, living alone. He was not a bad person. No, he was a just normal one.

At morning he goes to work, afternoon he comes back. He seems to be an office worker, with not much free time. The little time he has he spends playing computer games. Maybe I was influenced by him?

He is a very normal, good person. But he is still a man who is stressed out from hard work every day, who has no time to raise a child.

And certainly not such a broken child. The girl did not leave her room ever since she was released from the hospital. For a whole year. The man would make or order her fast food and provide the time she needs to heal. Maybe this kindness was the spark that gave the girl a way to escape madness.

A year after, the two slowly began to speak to each other. The man considered this a breakthrough, he was genuinely happy to see her in a better shape.

The girl at that time had some meat and fat on her, even if from the unhealthy food. She did not like it, no, she felt indebted for the first time in her life. Her words were still few, but she started to work. She tried cooking from the little the fridge contained.

This made the man even more happy, so he bought her ingredients and a books. Sadly she still couldn’t read, but the pictures was more than enough for her to start. She was an intelligent child, but still a young and naive without real experience.

For years, they lived happily together. The girl started to speak a little, even learned how to read and write from her new father. She used the computer like any other kid, using it to make the other party happy and proud.

But they made a mistake.

What could a little girl that knows nothing from the real world, and a sad and depressed man do? In the illusion of happiness they slept together, even if she was only 9 years old. ]*äĐ´~<

My mind goes almost black from these thoughts. This was me. A stupid girl who couldn’t think for herself. Just how could that make me happy? What could go in such a wrong way in my brain?

In the end it was just an accident.

The man wanted gave up himself to the police in regret. How could he not? He was a relative good natured person. But in the end of the chaos it caused, somehow they stayed together.

There was no other place for her to go, and the man had enough luck to not go into jail as it remained a secret.

The man losing his own self-respect, did not dare to ever look hen in the eyes of her again. When he did, his own mistake and stupidity reflected again and again. So he kept distance. He did not go far, and even cared for her, but they never spoke again face to face. He gave the girl everything she yearned for, I can say he pampered her.

But every time the girl tried to get close to her, again and again, he brushed her off. Her little heart knew why, but didn’t want to accept it.

He is the first person she loved, even if it was a fake. And now, even with these circumstances, I feel grateful to him.

I watch as the girl lives her life, secluded in her room. She learns many thing from the books she got and the internet, but she was too afraid to leave home. She was “happy” home.

The father had an idea to help her. Games. Online games that will let her interact and meet others. And it worked. She got friends, and they had many fun together under the years. She did not neglect to study either.

In the end she was still a normal girl. A normal girl that became me somehow. Until the day the game she played closed.

She was desperate.

She felt anger, sadness and feeling she should never have.

She harmed herself. It was only once, she even regretted it. She cried as the razor fell on the floor, and bounced off the white tile. Wasn’t she a clever genius? No, she wasn’t. But she was no way stupid, just a pile of emotions on a thin red thread.

The blood fell, and she cried. Alone. She wanted to die, but was afraid of it. She wanted her friends back. I may have to admit, the instinct of staying alive was a big part of it too.

Gathering herself she used a towel to stop the bleeding. The pink rag slowly melted into red, then darkened as the fluid stopped escaping.

Just throwing it away she did what she always did when feeling depressed. She went back to play like any other child. She put the helmet on and entered the new game, as a tester.

____________________________

I wake up dizzy with only scraps of memories I regained. No, it seems I was right not wanting to remember everything and sealed them myself. I can only hope I did not make another mistake.

Now, let’s go do and what I’m good at to relieve the stress.