Chapter 9: Chapter 9: REAL AND DIGITAL
The cold emptiness from my character’s death in Second World Online slowly faded, replaced by the return of all physical sensors in my real body. My consciousness was forcibly pulled back to the real world. The pitch-black darkness of the death penalty waiting room changed into a scene that had become extremely familiar to me over the past year: the soft blinking of sky-blue neon indicator lights on the ceiling inside my medical game capsule.
I let out a long breath. The sterile air typical of the intensive care room immediately filled my thin-feeling lungs. But something felt different this time.
Usually, every time I woke up or prepared to exit a medical session, all my joints would feel stiff, heavy, and haunted by stabbing aches due to complications from the leukemia that was gnawing at my bone marrow. Today, that painful sensation somehow felt greatly reduced. My shoulders weren’t as stiff as usual, and my chest no longer felt tight when I breathed in oxygen.
Driven by curiosity, I raised my right hand. I touched the inner wall of the thick glass capsule. My fingers, which usually trembled weakly when trying to exert strength, were now able to press the emergency hydraulic release button with surprising ease and precision.
Ssssshh... Clack!
The sound of pneumatic hissing echoed softly as the glass cover of the capsule slowly rose, allowing the outside air of my medical room to enter. I remained lying calmly inside, not immediately getting up because I knew my physical body still needed time to adapt after the long brain synchronization.
My left hand reached for the small table beside the capsule and grabbed my thin tablet lying there. I turned on the screen and stared at the reflection of a pale young man with black hair who looked slightly fresher than a few days ago. Without wasting time, I immediately opened the internet browser and typed in the official Second World Online website address.
The SWO website’s homepage greeted me with a very grand and dynamic visual design. At the very top was a large announcement written directly by the game developer’s board of directors:
[Highest Gratitude and Appreciation from SWO Management]
We extend our deepest thanks to the thousand Players in this country for their extraordinary enthusiasm on the first day of the server launch. The number of active users exceeding initial predictions is proof that the Second World has become a new home for all of us...
I smiled faintly while reading the marketing-toned text. It was only natural they were grateful; the full-immersion technology they offered was indeed at a level never before achieved by human civilization. I continued scrolling down the webpage, passing various server statistic charts, until I finally found a link with a chat bubble logo leading directly to the Official Game Community Forum.
The moment I tapped the link and entered the forum, my eyes were greeted by the bustling activity of discussion threads moving up and down at an insane speed. The number of new posts per second was truly overwhelming, causing the forum’s data traffic to experience some slowdown. Fortunately, the forum admins acted tactfully by separating sub-categories and specific discussion topics so players wouldn’t get confused.
I tapped on the [General Discussion] section to see the developments around the area where my character was. However, the moment that discussion page opened, I suddenly choked on my own saliva.
Almost a third of the top threads in the general section were currently filled with titles discussing my character’s appearance at the city gate this morning.
[Thread ID: 88291] Wow! Did anyone see the white-haired Elf girl at the eastern gate of the beginner city earlier? Damn, she was so beautiful and graceful like a goddess!
[Thread ID: 88305] Confirmation please, what’s the ID of that albino Elf girl who passed through the gate earlier? Willing to pay big for her contact info!
[Thread ID: 88411] True bro, her appearance was really insane! Especially that ridiculously huge chest! Crazy, SWO’s customization system really understands men’s tastes!
I stared at the tablet screen with a face flushed red from a mix of extreme embarrassment and irritation. Damn it, my guess was completely right. The physical appearance of my Elf body which had a massive chest due to the side effects of the racial buff and yesterday’s customization failure had truly caused an uproar among the lonely male players.
However, a second later, I couldn’t hold back a small laugh when I saw the forum’s automatic moderation activity. Right below the lewd posts discussing my chest assets, a very firm system notification appeared:
[Forum System: Anonymous Account_992 has been given a 10-minute SILENT sanction for violating community ethics guidelines regarding vulgar/harassing visual content.]
"Serves you right," I muttered in amusement, feeling slightly entertained by the game admin team’s firmness in keeping their forum clean from overly wild comments.
I continued scrolling. On the next page, the forum discussion shifted to threads filled with envy and jealousy from players toward Arthur. Many beginner players lamented their fate after seeing a golden-armored Warrior being forcibly dragged and invited to hunt alone in the forest by the most beautiful Elf girl on the server.
Interestingly, in one of the most popular threads, I found Arthur’s official ID leaving a reply comment:
[Arthur_GoldenLion]: Hahaha! Just be jealous, you single guys in the beginner grassland! Hunting together with the most beautiful Elf goddess in the Eastern Forest really feels like heaven! Bwahaha!
I shook my head with a long sigh at my best friend’s arrogant reply. Arthur was truly taking advantage of this moment to boost his reputation and personal ego in the public eye of the forum. However, behind his annoying childish behavior, I felt very relieved because he had kept my real identity tightly secret. Not a single word or hint had slipped from his mouth suggesting that the beautiful Elf girl was actually a sickly young man named Rian.
After I had enough of reading threads about myself, I shifted my attention to strategic discussions. There, the forum conversation began to turn more serious. Many casual players were starting to urge hardcore player groups and large parties to move faster in opening new areas by defeating Area Bosses around StoneBrook.
However, representatives from the top hardcore player groups were not silent either. They gave quite reasonable counterarguments in the forum:
[Vanguard_Elite]: You guys who can only complain on the forum don’t know how terrifying the stats of Area Bosses in this game are! Forget the Goblin King in the north even the Stone Golem at the western gate has extremely thick Defense. Right now, there isn’t a single crafter capable of making good high-tier weapons that can penetrate their defenses. We need time to gather materials and improve the quality of our war equipment first!
I nodded in agreement in my heart after reading the frontline players’ analysis. My memory returned to Arthur’s explanation about the StoneBrook region map. To unlock the seal on the mine area rich in pure iron ore and gemstones on the western side, players were indeed required to defeat the local Area Boss first. This challenge was like a vicious circle: players needed good weapons to defeat the boss, but the materials to make those good weapons were locked behind the area guarded by the boss itself.
"Maybe... "My Wind-infused Power Shot technique could be the key to breaking through those bosses’ thick defenses in the future," I muttered softly, remembering how my created arrow had produced massive damage by piercing through the wild boar’s skull earlier.
Feeling my eyes were tired enough after reading the dense forum information, I turned off the tablet screen and placed it back on the table. With the remnants of my physical strength feeling much better than usual, I shifted my body out of the medical game capsule and sat on its edge.
Click...
The sound of the medical room door opening slowly made me turn my head toward the entrance. A young black-haired girl in a neat modern maid uniform stepped into the room. She was carrying a tray with a glass of warm milk and my regular medicines. The girl was Mira.
The moment her beautiful eyes saw that I was already awake and sitting on the edge of the capsule with a much fresher expression, a very sincere and warm sweet smile bloomed on her lovely face.
"Ah, Young Master has finished playing the game?" Mira greeted me with an extremely gentle and soothing voice as she walked closer with steady steps.
Seeing her sweet smile that always welcomed me every day without ever showing fatigue or complaint, a warm yet deeply sad feeling suddenly surged in my chest. My heart ached with a cruel reality.
If only... if only this physical body of mine was healthy like a normal person. If only I hadn’t been diagnosed with leukemia that made my life feel like a ticking time bomb. I would definitely gather all my courage to hold her soft fingers, confess my true feelings, and make her my lover.
After all, social status background would never be an obstacle in our family. My parents and the rest of my family had known Mira since we were both children. They all knew how loyal and sincere this girl’s heart was in taking care of me during the hardest times of my life. In my family’s eyes, Mira was already considered one of their own. But all those beautiful dreams had to be buried deep in the darkest corner of my heart. I didn’t want to be a selfish man who tied the heart of a beautiful girl and let her cry over my death that could come at any time in the future.
"Young Master? Your face looks a bit pale. Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?" Mira asked, her voice suddenly turning worried. She placed the tray on the table and leaned closer to check my forehead temperature with the back of her hand.
I smiled faintly and slowly shook my head to chase away all the melancholic thoughts from my mind.
"It’s nothing, Mira. I just feel a little tired and sleepy after that long hunting session in the game earlier."
"In that case, let me help Young Master lie down on the bed so you can rest more comfortably," Mira said with a very efficient yet gentle demeanor.
With support from Mira’s warm, slender arm, I shifted my body and lay my back on the soft medical bed. Mira pulled the thick fluffy blanket up to my chest, neatly covering my shoulders and making sure my body temperature stayed well-regulated under the cool room air conditioning.
The extreme fatigue from the high mental activity during my time in the Eastern Forest suddenly hit my consciousness like a tidal wave. My eyelids felt extremely heavy. Within minutes on that peaceful afternoon, I began to drift into the subconscious, falling into a deep and calm sleep.
The atmosphere in the medical room became very quiet, leaving only the constant beeping of the heart monitor in the corner and the soft hum of the air conditioning system. The reddish-orange afternoon sunlight slipped through the slightly open window curtains, creating beautiful lines of light on my bed blanket.
Mira did not immediately leave after finishing her task. The girl remained standing silently beside the bed, gazing at the sleeping face of the young man she cared for with very deep eyes, full of longing and overflowing emotion.
Seeing that the young man’s breathing had become steady and his chest was rising and falling consistently, indicating he had fallen into a deep sleep, the self-defense that Mira had always tightly maintained as a maid slowly crumbled.
She took one step closer, leaning her slender body over Rian’s sleeping face. Her heart beat wildly, pumping blood until both her cheeks flushed red under the afternoon light.
With extremely slow movements, as if afraid of waking the young master from his precious rest, Mira brought her face closer. She closed her beautiful eyes, then planted an incredibly gentle, warm, and emotional kiss right on the pale lips of the deeply sleeping young man.
Their lips touched for several seconds in sacred silence. A secret kiss that carried the entire burden of feelings she had kept hidden for many years.
Mira slowly pulled her face back, straightening her body while placing one slender hand over her heavily rising and falling chest. She looked at Rian’s face once more, then whispered a sentence in a very soft voice, almost like the whisper of the passing afternoon wind:
"Young Master... Mira loves you so much..."
A confession of love that was incredibly sincere, sweet, yet bitter echoed in the quiet room. Unfortunately, no human ear in the real world heard that sacred sentence escape her sweet lips. The subject of that sentence, Rian, had already sunk too deeply into his sound sleep, completely unaware that in this cruel real world, there was a girl ready to give her entire life and love for his fragile self.
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