Author's Note:

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***

I gulped while looking at the textbook in front of me.

Technology that was at least decades advanced.

A company had just given it to me? Bullsh*t.

There was definitely a conspiracy buried within all this.

Then, I suddenly remembered the plot of that anime I had watched.

A group of evil people developed sentient AI and trapped them in a game, hoping to eventually use the sentient NPC’s for all sorts of stuff.

The specific details had become blurry to me because it had been a long time since I had watched that anime, but this should be the general gist of it.

I gulped once again.

Just what the f**k had I gotten myself into? All I wanted was a peaceful life.

I did not want to be the 'main character'. I wanted to be the 'side character' that lived peacefully, blissfully unaware of all the magical stuff happening in my world.

I was confident that they were monitoring me. Especially since they had given me such advanced technology.

Were they testing to see how the general public would receive this technology? Were they testing how the NPC's would react?

I gently messaged my head with my right hand.

Fear and sympathy bubbled in my heart as I remembered Adelle.

The people who made this technology... how could they be so cruel? How could they force a sentient being to live such a painful life, all just for their own ulterior motives?!

And people who were cruel enough to do something like that... would undoubtedly not hesitate to kill.

I could trigger the death of both me and my mother if I acted rashly.

What the hell do they want?

Do I express suspicion and scour the internet about it or ask James? After all, this whole thing was much too abrupt. Any sane person would express doubt and search the internet about news related to 'VR Tech', to see if VR technology really had advanced to such an extent, for something like this to be even remotely possible.

But what if that wasn't what they wanted? What if they would kill both me and my mom if I acted like I was suspicious?!

That aside, why did James tell me to keep giving him daily written updates about what I had done in the VR Headset?

Were they not able to monitor what I was doing in the VR Headset? Do they, perhaps, not have absolute control over the ‘game’?

Wait...

Was I a guinea pig? To see the effects the VR Headset had on a human?

I bit my lip.

That... was the most reasonable explanation I could come up with.

I felt like crying. But I was afraid to, in case 'they' would get suspicious.

I took a deep breath in, to flatten the wave of anxiety that was engulfing my heart.

There was nothing that would be gained my being scared. I had to calm down.

‘I have to calm down. Calm down. Calm down-’ I repeated endlessly in my head, closing the book in front of me.

I plopped onto the bed face first, my eyes closed.

‘Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down-’

After a few minutes of my repeated chants, I fell asleep, before I knew it.