A.N: Part 2 will come later  today or early tomorrow.

I'm Jennifer Sterling. I'm 28 and I'm a psychiatrist. For the past ten years or so, I've been in love with the same man. Even so I didn't see him since 2 years ago, my feelings didn't disappear. When his name came up in a conversation, butterflies took flight in my stomach. He was the love of my life and I regretted never confessing.

When he called out of the blue to ask me for a favor, I did a happy dance. I was so ecstatic that he thought of me to take care of his family member that I didn't check my new patient's file before agreeing.

Akira Lu to say the least wasn't an angel. When he was 10, his godfather's daughter accused him of rape. Missing any direct evidence, the authorities chose to avoid prosecution but everyone was already convinced that he did it. 

At 13, he had been in so many fights that he was home-schooled for the next 2 years. His parents' pretty much gave up on him. He had an attitude problem and he thought that he was better than everyone else. The attitude problem was easy to deal with but the other one was a real pain in the ass.

To add to an already bad situation, he had a stalker. 

However, speeding in my car to get back to my home, I still couldn't regret it.  I had been at Stephan's relatives' place. The first session with my new patient went relatively well. He didn't talk much but that was normal as we didn't know each other.

In a first meeting, it was better to let the patient tell you what he wanted without heavy prompting. You have to let him change the subject as he pleased. Forcing a patient to talk had to be avoided  to create a feeling of trust between patient and doctor. 

Everything went well, I even secured a private talk with Stephan in the next few hours. Going back to my car, I saw a man leaning on it. Dr Gruber was a famous psychiatrist and Akira's former doctor. I politely told him to let Akira alone but he refused. He kept going on about how Akira needed him. I didn't understand why he was insisting. The core of a patient's path to recovery was the trust with his doctor. Akira didn't trust him so there was nothing he could do to help the kid. 

Even knowing that, he kept insisting. He even went so far as to insult me. I ignored his taunting when he started but I refused to be called a charlatan without saying a word. 

All my life I had heard my parents being called liars, con artists and charlatans. I worked extremely hard to prove that I wasn't like them. He might be famous and respected but that didn't mean that he had the  right to say whatever he wanted about me. I laid on him a few home truths.

If I was a charlatan, what was he? He had been arrested for stalking a woman. He harassed her at her house and at her job. And now he was pursuing a kid. He didn't need to be a psychiatrist, he needed to see one. 

He raised his hand like he wanted to hit me. Stephan went in front of me, took his arm and dragged it behind Dr Gruber's back. I smirked at my attacker. My prince had come to save me. In my mind, I squealed in delight. 

Police cars parked in front of the house. I didn't know who called but I went to welcome them. 

“Please help. This man tried to attack me. My friend intervened before he could but as you can see, he's still struggling.” I told them as soon as they got out of their car. Dr Gruber was howling in pain and trashing in Stephan's grip. 

The policemen went to take care of the situation. Now that the danger had decrease, I noticed that the number of cars that came were too high. Why did they need so many policemen for one guy that had been neutralized? 

I waited patiently for them while they took everyone's statement. I got the shock of my life when they revealed that the woman Dr Gruber stalked the year before was actually Akira's stalker, Mrs Sarah Johansen.

“Does Akira need me?” I asked Stephan when he came to see how I was doing. 

“Akira's in his room now. I gave him his StaViCon headgear. He might start to play soon.”

“What? You were supposed to wait for me to get back home first.”

“Yes, but he needs to get his mind away from Dr Gruber and what happened today.” He smirked at me.

“But I need to be there with him.” I said panicked.

“You said that the game was safe, didn't you?”   

“Yes, of course but it's therapy. I need to go home immediately. Call me later, okay?” I rushed to my car and peeled from the driveway. 

I bemoaned my fate. I didn't tell Stephan the whole truth. For the last year, I'd been working on an experimental project with other psychiatrists. The project was to see the thinking evolution of AIs when being in contact with  uncontrollable factors like a human with mental problems. 

We created a virtual world as close as we could to the real world where the NPCs data couldn't be modified by anyone not even us. We let them evolve on themselves. At irregular intervals, we let patients roam around town under the guise of training them to mingle among the population. They always caused trouble. We chose them exactly because of this.  

I didn't tell Stephan the truth when he asked me for help. I told him that the experiment was to help patient to integrate back into society and to observe the difficulty they had among people and to find appropriate solutions. 

I felt bad for lying but I needed to keep my job.

I pleaded with my boss and got Akira accepted under the assumption that he wouldn't have the same treatment as the other patients. We would work wholeheartedly on his recovery. 

My luck was astounding because if my boss had disagreed, I wouldn't have been able to work on his therapy. 

I worked on the experiment 16 hours a day. If he didn't get in,I wouldn't be able to take his case. 

I parked in front of my house and rushed inside. I headed for my bedroom and logged in TownCity.

Akira was already there and had already made contact with one of the residents. Grandpa Terry was one of the more virulent against the newcomers but with Akira, he was all nice and concerned. I was a little worried about his behavior.

“Akira!” I called him. “Akira! You should have waited for me before coming here.”

“Why?” He had a puzzled look on his face.

“I'm your doctor, I have to help you adapt here.” As his doctor, I had to guide him here. For the experiment, we couldn't let the patients free-fall in this game. We had to provide some counter elements that would push them in different directions. 

For Akira, I planned a more wholesome path compared to the others. I wanted him to get better not worse. So, I wanted him to become friends with the townspeople. As opposed to the other patients who were left to live their darkest dreams.

“Adapt? What do I need to adapt to? There's nothing here.” He said with disdain dripping through his voice. He didn't seem to see the look of fury in Grandpa Terry's eyes. Before being put in motion, my plan was having a slow agonizing death. 

“TownCity is a place where we can assess and improve your interactions to the general population.” It was the same thing that I told Stephan. It wasn't the complete truth but I couldn't tell him that. 

“I never had trouble with anyone in the 'general population' as you put it.” Affronted, his tone was harsh. Next to him, Grandpa Terry's face crunched in disgust.

“Akira.” I called his name in impatience. 

He acted like I didn't know his file. It was true that I didn't read it before accepting him as a patient but it didn't mean that I didn't do it afterwards. I actually read it several times, memorizing any information about him. I knew his life even better than he did. There was only one conclusion that I reached: the kid was a brat. When he didn't get what he wanted he got erratic and behaved without thinking. It was a simplistic prognosis unworthy of a psychiatrist but it was true. And his behavior was proving it once again.

“No. I have a place to stay and I'm going to apply for a job at the diner. So, see ya.” I didn't pursue them as they left. I knew that it would be useless. Stephan had warned me about Akira's temper and I didn't want to trigger him. The more cornered he was, the more unstable he behaved. 

I went to the house the team I work with lived in. There was 3 guys present who sat in front of a wall filled with screens. 

“You let your patient came here on his own.” Igor, the leader of  the group said without turning to me.

“I'm sorry but that wouldn't have happened with sufficient control at the start of the game.” I took my seat next to them.

“You know that we used most of the funds on the NPCs. We didn't develop an overseeing AI.” 

The system in TownCity had been dumb down to the extreme. The only AIs were the NPCs everything else was either automatic like the weather and the entrance to the town or manual like the option interface and the log out. 

Truth be told the status window and the skill list were just decoy.  We didn't have enough money to implement it. The options as we called them only concerned the pain sensors, the log out, the use of the StaVicon avatar and the map. Otherwise there weren't any settings that could be modified. 

We took some liberties with the StaViCon laws. 

They stated that the log out option must be present and available at any and every time for the users. The log out button was in a public place that was easy of access so technically we were in accordance with the law. But in reality, patients didn't know that it was there and they thought that their status window was real. 

The log out button was on a tile outside the diner. When a patient wanted to leave, one of us that worked there would press the log out button and select the name of the patient. 

As for the other options, they were on a tree in the middle of the forest. I had been there once but for the life of me, I wouldn't be able to find my way back to it. 

“I hope that kid is worth it.” The team leader's words pulled me out of my thoughts.   

“Yes, you saw his file. He's perfect and we have his guardian's permission.”

“I just hope nothing bad happen. He's a minor and we didn't disclose the whole truth to his guardians.” It was too late to think about that now and technically, we didn't have to tell them about the exact nature of the experiment. 

“You're just a worrywart. Everything's gonna be okay.” I reassured him but the words were also to reassure myself. “No one will know the truth. We'll heal Akira and everyone will be happy. So how is he doing?”

“Fine. He went to the diner and  met most of the town's inhabitants. He's nice and polite. If I didn't read his file, I would never guess that he was trouble.” One of the guys in front of the monitor told me. 

“Yeah, his facade is good.” 

I watched on the monitor as Akira went back to Grandpa Terry's house. The town was tiny so under half an hour, he was able to eat, meet most of the town and go back to the house.

“Oh! He's going back out.”

“What is he doing?”

“Don't know but look, he just got arrested by the police. Ah! They're bringing him back to Grandpa Terry's house. Oh oh! Grandpa Terry's out of his house, let's hear what he says.” I gave him the stinky eye as he sounded way too happy about the sudden development.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Arthur, what are you doing in front of my house?” Grandpa Terry asked while coming at the window of the police car. He wore an ugly yellow pajamas.   

“I just brought back the kid here. He was loitering in town. Don't know what he's planning, but keep a better eye on him.” The policeman's tone was dark and threatening.

Terry heaved a deep sigh. “He 's no different from the rest. They always tried to cause trouble when no one is looking.”

“So what do we do?”

“We follow the plan we made for this kind of situation.”

They nodded at each other and left.

“What plan? Did I miss anything?” I asked the guys.

“They want to capture one of the patients.”

“What aren't you telling me? You wouldn't have this expression if it was just capture.”

“They also want revenge.” Most of the patients we allowed here weren't angels. They were the scums of society: murderers, psychopaths, rapists, sociopaths.  We had a large range of criminals at our disposal for this experiment. So it wasn't hard to guess what they did when they came here.

In a normal case, Akira wouldn't have been allowed in the game as he wasn't evil enough but after much pleading and some fast talking, I was able to convince the people in charge to let him in. 

I didn't do all of that for the pleasure to save him but to see Stephan again. Letting Akira bear the brunt of the townspeople's revenge would piss him off and kill any chance I ever had to go out with him. And I wasn't even talking about my conscience that was killing me because I betrayed my patient's trust.

“We have to save him. His family will be pissed if something happens.”

“Don't worry about it. We can pass it as therapy.” Franz, one of my other colleagues said.

“But-”

“Do your job and stop arguing. We didn't plan it but we have a great opportunity developing right in front of us, we can't let it pass because of your second-guessing.” 

I didn't voice any more of my doubts.  To begin with, it was my fault for getting him in this program. I wasn't the one who could decide what happened to him here. I was just part of the team not the leader. 

I had thought that we still had time before the townspeople blew up in anger and everyone had agreed before to let Akira rehabilitate himself and befriend the NPCs. It wasn't an excuse though, I should have known that there was still a chance he could get caught in the crossfire. But I wanted to keep my job and to please Stephan. I made a mistake and Akira would pay for it.

“Jennifer! Go to him, the townspeople are going to attack.” I watched on the screen as men surrounding the little house Akira was in. “Make sure he escapes.  I want to see how the AIs will react.”

“Okay.” I sighed. “How am I suppose to go through the Npcs surrounding the house?” In this VR, we could use the StaViCon avatar but we chose to keep it for the truly desperate situation.

“Take the car.”

I obeyed. The drive was short. In less than a minute, I came in sight of the house. I thought a little about what I should do. I was still a little regretful about taking Akira in this mess. But as I thought before, it was already too late. Stephan would hate me because I lied. I didn't need to become jobless too. 

I pressed my foot on the accelerator and turned the wheel toward Grandpa Terry's house and crashed in it. I blew the horn so as to not run over the men surrounding the house.

The seat belt dug into my chest at the impact. When the cacophony of sound and destruction slowed down, Akira was standing in front of the car. For a minute I didn't move. I nearly ran over Stephan's cousin. The townspeople didn't need to harm him, I nearly did it myself.  

I got out of the car. 

“Akira!” He didn't respond as he shook in fright. “Akira!” I tried to take him in my arms but he flinched away. “Akira, we can't stay here.” 

He still didn't react to my words. 

“Jen, get out! The townspeople are coming.” One of my coworkers' voice sounded in my ear. Each one of us had an earpiece that let us communicate with each other.

I dragged Akira out of the house. He was still shell-shocked. On the street, a police car patrolled the neighborhood in search for us. We hid as good as we could but that wouldn't last as more and more people came onto the streets.

“Go to the abandoned shop and hide there.” I silently nodded to my coworkers' order and pulled Akira with me into the shop.

We hid behind the counter when Akira asked in a whisper.

“What the hell is going on ?” 

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

“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 ?”

“Jen, make something up. Don't tell him the truth.” I spaced out a little with the voice in my earpiece.   

“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.” Well, that was the plan I had for Akira when he logged in. I couldn't have thought at the time that things would go so wrong so fast.

“Why can't I log out ?” he asked impatient.

Of course, he couldn't log out. The experiment would never advance if the test subjects left whenever something didn't go their way but I didn't tell him that.

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

“A session lasts 12 freaking hours ?” His disbelief was evident but I didn't let it change my course of action. 

"2 hours real time so yes, 12 hours in game.” I arranged my face in a sorry expression but deep down, I started to feel exhasperated. I already felt like shit for getting him in this mess. He didn't need to rub my nose in it even though it wasn't his fault that he didn't know anything.

“Isn't there an emergency setting so that we could get out ?” Like I was going to tell him.

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

“It's a joke, right ?  Maybe we can talk to them. At worst we'll die and then we could log out.” 

“Don't let him talk to them, yet !” I flinched as the leader of the team screamed in my ear.  Akira, though, took my flinch as meaning something else as he couldn't hear what my colleagues said.

“What aren't you telling me ?”

I thought for barely a  second before deciding to tell him a few truths mingled with a threat that would prevent him from seeking them out.

“If we die, we'll respawn in the bus that led to the city until the session is finished. 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.”

“They wouldn't do that, would they ? We didn't do anything to them. Why are they even attacking us ? It makes no sense.” I felt a pang in my heart at the scared look on his face. I shook my head to dispel that bout of conscience that threatened to destroy my work life.

“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.” I lied through my teeth letting fear bled through my 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.”

“You went too far.” I knew, the leader of the team didn't need to say it. I refused to meet Akira's eyes.

“Is it all part of the therapy ?”

“What ?” I raised my eyes to look at him.

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

“Of course not-” Inside my head, I panicked. The worse possible scenario was started to play out. Akira doubted me.

“So what aren't you telling me ?” 

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

“Jen !” I feared my ears would bleed out with how much screaming my colleagues were doing.

“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 lied again hoping that it looked true.

“I don't understand why it's bad ?”

“If the NPC aren't monitored, it meant that the game isn't monitored. The StaViCon laws can be broken over and over and no one will notice.”  I winced at my stupidity. It was an even bigger lie than before. 

We took a lot of liberties with theinterpretation of the law but we didn't really broke any. If one of them was broken here, the authorities would know. It was a compulsory built-in features of the headgear. The sole problem with TownCity was that with no overseeing AI, the reaction time of the authorities was delayed. Indeed, every 4 hours the security built in the headgear checked your gameplay and if there was anything against the StaViCon laws, a rapport would be sent to the authorities. This security feature was really useful most of the time as each overseeing AI of each game reported immediately to the authorities in case of a breach.  

Flashlights illuminated the shop, stopping Akira's questioning in its tracks. I peeked over the counter to see who it was. Two men peered into the shop. When they opened the door, I went back to hide. 

My coworkers went on arguing in my ear.

“Don't let them get Akira.” One said.

“It's too late. They're already in the shop. They can't flee.” Another one added.

“You should try nonetheless.” The last one joined in.

“No, no. It's too soon. We could gather much more data if we wait.”

“They can't wait. They've already been discovered.”

“Not yet. They still have a chance to get out of here.”

The tone of their voice rose as I lost track of who was talking. Akira shook me.

“Wha-” He put his hand over my mouth muffling my surprise shout.   

With an exaperated scowl, he made a sign for me to follow him through the door that led to the back of the shop. The men notice our move and went after us. 

They broke down the door that we closed. Two angry men who looked like they wanted to kill us came through the door. Akira cowered behind me. 

“I don't know what you want with us but we don't have anything. Leave.” I pretended that I didn't know why they were after us. 

The two men gave us a brilliant smile before they lunged. I already felt bad for Akira but getting him beaten up was going too far. I stood my ground and fought the two men for all I was worth. I bit, I scratched, I punched, I kicked. 

I prevented them from reaching Akira for as long as I could. I hoped that the kid would take the chance and flee but a kick to my head brought me to unconsciousness and I lost track of what happened.

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