It has been ten years since I had been trapped in ‘Lethia’. After completing college, I was offered a well-paying job in the country's best game company. There were plenty other offers from abroad too. But I had stuck to that one because it had a good relationship with the manufacturers of ‘Lethia’. To be honest, I had wanted to join that company itself, but I didn't want to burden my parents with the cost of travelling. I had made no progress whatsoever towards uncovering the mystery of Lethia in the past three years. I also hadn't contacted any of my friends in a long time. We occasionally made plans to hang out sometimes, but they would always end up as empty vows. The daily exhaustion of work left us next to no energy to commit to ourselves. I had rented a small apartment to stay. It was not close to where I worked so by the time I came back, I used to get too drowsy to think about anything else. 

Currently, my team and I were researching a new concept of Virtual Reality. If Virtual Reality was projecting a fake world to us, we could say we were doing the opposite and projecting us to the Virtual world. Obviously, it was me who had suggested this idea. I had my ulterior motives, but it would also create a great progression to games as well as day-to-day lifestyle. But this project was far from the mystical description it sounded like. We were designing a way to use human memories as a way to access the VR. In short, we were going to make use of the best database, the brain, to remember the in-game resources. Progression towards the future was inevitable if this project succeeded… and at the same time, my progression towards Lethia. 

There was only one minor problem that we had been obstructing our success. Our company was one of the big shots in game creation. But we had very little access to equipment that could support the program that we were creating. It would be troublesome to import the gear from other companies as they would definitely pry into what we were trying to do. But we wanted to keep it as discrete as possible so we could create an impact with the release of the Reverse VR. So, I asked my boss to turn towards a company that we could trust… one with which we had very good relations… the one that had developed Lethia a decade ago.  

So far, we had cleared many milestones with the help of their top-notch tech. We were very close to achieving a breakthrough. But for that, we needed even more exceptional devices. Creating head gear specifically for our project by omitting other functions was feasible. But if we were to fail, the head gears would become useless and unusable normally. So, they had decided to hold a meeting with our company to check on our progress. With this opportunity at hand, I was leaving my country for a few days to go and have a closer look at ‘Lethia’. 

I had left my hotel well in advance so I could go and sneak around Lethia's files. Hopefully, the person guarding that place would take my bribe and let me take a few copies of the original data. It had snowed a lot that day. The city had become a beautiful stroke of white, with not many people leaving their homes. When I arrived, I saw that the guest hall was still being swept. It meant that I had plenty of time to poke my nose into every corner of the building. I showed the guards my ID and they let me go in. They had requested me to sit and wait somewhere since it was far too early. But as soon as their eyes had averted from the hall, I had disappeared.  

I made my way to the archives with the floor map that was displayed on the wall near the reception. But everything was locked up. I should have expected that considering I left so early. It would be risky for me to wait till the NPCs filled the entire building. So, I thought that I should give up for now and then find a means to get inside again later. Until now, when I was trying to sneak in, no one had seen me, but just as I was giving up on the idea, retribution struck me. 

“Stop right there. I will call the police.”, said a woman's voice from behind me. 

I raised my hands up to appeal not to call them. “Don't call. I can explain myself.”, I said as I slowly turned behind. 

When I did, I first saw her hand holding her smartphone, the numbers dialed in and a finger threatening me that it would press. And then I looked at her face. We both were left speechless, neither knowing what to do in this situation. She lowered her phone and her lips quivered. I lowered my hands over my head too.  

“Uh… how should I say this… or do I go in for a hug?”  

She nodded her head. We both were staring at each other's dumbfounded faces intensely, still not believing what our eyes saw. We were glad to see each other again. But this unexpected situation had made the mood awkward. After a brief hug, she pushed me apart and barraged me with her questions, “What are you doing here? Have you become a thief? But you used to have the best grades. What went wrong?”  

“Of course not. I'm here for a meeting today. But what about you. You work here? Why did you never call?” 

“YOU are the one who is here for it today!!?? The guard told me someone had come here and to show him where to wait. But then no one was there, and I thought that someone was trying to steal our secret information. Do you know honestly how much scared I was?” 

I chuckled nervously as she wasn't wrong at all.  

“But why are you here so early?”, I asked.  

“It was snowing and I thought the traffic would delay me but there aren't many people out there today. What ab-” 

I cut her short because I had realized that this was my chance. If I sweet-talked her, she would probably let me access the files. I didn't waste any time and told her the real reason what I was doing here.  

“Lethia? Is that the same game you went around town asking for?”, the joy on her face toned down into a disappointed one. “I have the pass, but I won't give it to you. I am a responsible person and will not leak my company's private information even with what he had between us.” 

“What?” Then I realized that if she still liked me, she wouldn't want me to become a criminal, a thief. “It's fine really. This will be the first and last time I steal data or anything actually. I am not planning on stealing the data and earn from it. This game-” I hadn't said a word about it to anyone since high school started. Was I really going to tell her the truth? I didn't want to. But right now, I needed something… anything to convince her. So I decided to spill the beans. 

“Actually… this game… It has something to do-” 

“I know” 

I was surprised by what she said. What did she know? And if she did know, why hadn't she told me before. I hadn't spoken about it to her but I had become famous in my town as the boy who asked around for information on Lethia. Had she just regained her memories? Had something recently happened that gave her her memories back? 

Her eyes tensed. Her expression said that whatever she was going to say next had been held in for a long time now. It was something she considered what shouldn't be spoken about. Something that could hurt the listener. Something that would hurt me. 

“I know that your depression was somehow linked to the explosion that happened while playing the game. But you have to let it go now. Whatever happened, whoever you lost isn't real. I was so happy when you started to stabilize again! Why do you have to go back to your delusion again?” Tears formed on her eyes. I felt disheartened watching her cry. My heart started thumping loudly. Was I in the wrong here? I may have been doing what I knew was right but to the spectators, it must be like I am driving myself insane. To the outside world, to the NPCs, what I did was unreasonable. But this was the first time I acknowledged how they felt. I held her in my hug, resting her head on my shoulder. For the first time, I realized that even an NPC has a destiny. To push the Main character past their limits, to stop them from danger, to make them keep going on even in a shit game. What they say is true. A womans tears are really a strong weapon. So strong that I had nearly given up. 

Stroking her silky hair with my palm, I spoke to her, “I will stop. I promise that this will be the last time. If I don't find anything here today, I will stop. I won't search for any more clues. I know you care for me. So, just give me this one last chance.” 

She pulled herself back and looked up at my face, straight into my eyes. “Last chance… no more thinking about Lethia after this?”, she asked as her crying face started to turn into a faint smile. 

“I promise.” I had been wrong before. A woman's tears were a strong weapon but not as strong as her smile. Or maybe it was the same for men and women when in love. Our eyes had locked and couldn't move. My heart was beating even faster than before. I thought if I should go for it. We looked at each other's eyes and lips and back to eyes and back to the lips for a long moment. I was sure that she would have returned it too. I leaned in for it… but then the sound of footsteps started flooding the silence. We pulled ourselves back. 

“Ahem. I'll open it for you. Don't take too much time or we will be found out.”, she instructed.  

She opened the door for me and we scurried our way towards a shelf full of lockers. 

“Wait. I'll find it. It will be easier. All digital records were destroyed but they kept the printed ones.” 

Maya started going through the documents on the large shelf in the room. I looked around to see what I could find. In a room connected by an unlocked door, I saw something that caught my eye. It was the new type of headset they were developing for us. Next to it, there were two convertible sleeper chairs and a pair of computers on a table. I myself knew that the program hadn't been completed yet. And all it could do right now was read memories from the brain and project them on a screen. That is, if this model finally had the capacity to live through it. But for a second, I thought about testing it out. I started the computers and connected the wires to a headset. I slowly lay down on a seat and slid the headgear over. I didn't know much about how the rest of the world would see it, but it was a bit different than seeing something through your memories.  

I imagined the first day the three of us had been trapped there. Slowly, one after the other, the headgear dug through my memories and kept proceeding the story image by image, dot by dot, without a single change. It was working. The headset they had developed was most likely compatible with our design. 

I had heard Maya calling to me. It was as though she was calling from another world. I heard the footsteps close in and stop beside me. But this Reverse Virtual Projection was far too ethereal to stop. Maya was probably seeing this world through the monitor too. She was witnessing every single thing that had happened in the game ten years ago. From the start, the arrival, the villages the enormous kingdoms, the monsters that ambushed us, the NPCs that indulged with us and talked about our home world, the demons that threatened us, our mounts swiftly came to aid when called, the magic we used to enchant our weapons, the captivating scenery… everything was laid out for her to watch on a screen. And also, along with it, the death of my friends.  

I heard sobbing voices from outside, so I finally took off my headgear. Maya was crying. She fell down to the seat behind her. She had seen everything. She had realized why I went above and beyond to go back to Lethia. She had finally understood the truth that had been erased from this world.