I was panicked. My gaze flicked between the door and the broken window. I expected someone to try and get in. I didn't know what to do, I had nowhere to hide. The room only had a bed, a nightstand and a dresser. I crouched next to the bed. I shivered as the cold air of the night blew through the flimsy curtain.

A car horn blew. My eyes widened. The voices were forgotten as I rushed to the door. Headlights shone in the middle of the night illuminating the room. Seconds before I grabbed the doorknob, a loud crash happened behind me.

The wall where the broken window had been blew in pieces. It flew everywhere. The furniture was destroyed. My back glued to the wall, I closed my eyes waiting for my death. After a minute passed, nothing happened. I opened an eye. The front of a car was an inch away from me. I shivered as I thought of what could have happened if the car hadn't stopped. 

I thought before that I knew what fear was but it didn't compare with having a car smashing into your room and coming an inch from running you over. I shook in fright.

A woman came out of the car wearing a worried expression. 

“Akira !” Jennifer's voice was small in the chaos she created. I stayed silent, still petrified at what happened.  

It's a game.  I repeated ceaselessly in my mind. I shouldn't be scared. It's a game, it's not real. It was one thing to face a dangerous situation in a fantasy game but in a world so close to real life, it was an entirely different matter. Even though I knew that it wasn't real, my fear was uncontrolable.   

“Akira !” She rushed at me. She tried to take me in her arms but I flinched away. She almost ran me over. “Akira, we can't stay here.” Her words didn't register to me. 

Frustrated, she pulled me with her. We went through the hole she made when she crashed inside the room. Outside, chaos dominated. Grandpa Terry's picket fence and shabby garden were destroyed. 

Two men were helping three men who were laid on the ground, injured. I didn't have the time to look at them closely but I remembered  meeting them before. 

Jennifer dragged me away from the house. Even though I was reluctant, I followed her. She was my only link to reality. We didn't go far before the siren of a police car sounded behind us. I wanted to stop but Jennifer screamed at me.

“Don't stop, we have to hide.”

She pulled me behind trashcans. She pushed me  to the ground while she drapped  herself around me. A foul smell made me cough. 

“Shhh...” She put her hands on my mouh to stop the noise I made. It wasn't her best idea.

My coughing fit worsened, I couldn't breath. Black spots appeared in front of my eyes. I pulled at her hand. At first, she didn't move. She was far stronger than she looked.  After a long agonizing minute where a police car passed by us, she finally let go of me. I took deep breaths. I gagged. I remembered the foul odor that triggered my coughing fit. I turned on the side where I promptly vomited. I wiped my mouth with my sleave. 

“What the hell is going on ?”

“Not now. We need to find a better hiding place.”

“Hell no ! I want answers.” I yelled as I didn't like being placated.

A shout at the end of the street  made me realize that I didn't have a choice. Either I went with the devil i knew or the one that was still a mystery. I went with Jennifer. She dragged me all over town. As said before the town only had two streets that meant that we couldn't ditch our pursuers without hiding. Even that became useless as more and more people came to search for us. We went inside an abandoned building. It was one of the shop I saw when I first came into the town. It was more dilapidated on the inside than it was on the outside. In the shop window, the dummies wore outdated dresses on good conditions but in the rest of the shop, broken dummies laid on the ground while others stood with pieces of clothes on them.

The place in itself had a weird feeling, like someone had took the time to clean the shop window when he went on a destruction fit on the rest of the shop. Jennifer and I hid behind the counter. I couldn't bear it anymore.

“What the hell is going on ?” I asked in a whisper.

“I don't know. The NPCs  are out of control. They suddenly attacked me.” 

“Is that the only thing you have to say ? I want answers, now ! What's this game? Why can't I log out ? Why are  they attacking us ?”

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She was silent for a moment like she was debating what she could say. I waited patiently until she made her decision.

“The game is an integral part of your therapy. It replaces the more common one on one session in my office.”

“Is it normal that people want to kill us ?”

“No ! The game was supposed to mimick a small town. It was supposed to be safe. You just had  to live here, talk to people, work. Normal things. They aren't supposed to attack us.”

“Why can't I log out ?”

“As I said it replaces a session so... for the duration of a session no one can leave.”

“A session lasts 12 freaking hours ?” I asked in disbelief.

“2 hours real time so yes, 12 hours in game.” She  had a sorry expression on her face but it didn't change the fact that we were stuck in an out-of-control game.

“Isn't there an emergency setting so that we could get out ?”

“No, we can't contact anyone either until the session is finished.”

“It's a joke, right ?” I stared at her in disbelief. “Maybe we can talk to them.” I tried to find a solution. “At worst we'll die and then we could log out.” 

Jennifer flinched at my last words.

“What aren't you telling me ?”

“If we die, we'll respawn in the bus that led to the city until the session is finished.” I was ready to tear into her until i heard her next words. “The pain settings are set on normal. We can feel the same level of pain as in real life. What we have to fear here isn't death.”

I understood what she meant. Torture was something I hadn't thought about before. Even though it was strictly forbidden to torture players, from personal experience I knew that there were ways to go around it.

“They wouldn't do that, would they ? We didn't do anything to them. Why are they even attacking us ? It makes no sense.”

“Nothing makes sense. They shouldn't behave like that. The game is designed so that it'll be easy for patients. The NPCs are kind, peaceful and understanding. I don't know what's going on.” The more she talked, the more fear bled in her voice. “When I went to the house we were supposed to stay at, a group of people waited for me. They attacked me but I was able to run away.”

This whole story sounded unbelievable. Since Virtual reality was introduced to  the general public, safety had been the most important measures implemented. The StaViCon laws were the framework at the base of these measures.  For example, torturing players was forbidden as what happened with my 3 classmates in Forgotten Soul showed. 

Another example more appropriate for the situation  was that it was  compulsory in every game to have a log out option. In certain cases, this obligation could be waived but there had to be the possibily of an emergency log out. Having a whole town turned psycho on us was definitely an emergency in my book.

I stared at Jennifer waiting for an explanation. She refused to meet my eyes. There was still something she wasn't telling me. The seed of doubts took root in my mind.

“Is it all part of the therapy.”

“What ?” 

“Is the town turning against us part of my therapy ?”

“Of course not-”

“So what aren't you telling me ?” I cut in before she could give me any more platitudes.

“Nothing. I'm not hiding anything.” She answered way too fast.

I fixed her for long minutes before she broke and told me everything. 

“The NPCs were independent Ais. Simply put, they were programmed once when the game was launched and then, they're left to grow by themselves. They aren't monitored.”

“I don't understand wy it's bad ?”

“If the NPC aren't monitored, it meant that the game isn't monitored.” She was trying to make a point but I didn't get it. “The StaViCon laws can be broken over and over and no one will notice.”

Oh crap ! I guess hiding was the only option I had. 

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A.N: Hi! Thanks for reading.  It's the only chapter for today as I didn't have much time to write this week.