Chapter 3: Unreal Reality [3]

We've walked quite a distance towards the dormitory building. I've noticed a strange dichotomy between the groups choice of clothing and the clothing of other people on the other side of the street.

As they are actually clothed appropriately for the weather. In stark contrast against the groups own fashion.

To be fair though, some of them do, wear proper attire but they are just the exceptions from the looks of it.

While thinking about how this group of crazies manage to remain level headed in this cold weather, I've noticed drones in the sky. All quadcopters in many types and sizes doing various tasks.

I don't know what most of them did, but I did see some drones delivering packages or occasionally small police drones patrolling the sky.

What's great to see was that the drones weren't blocking out the sky and there aren't enough of them to distract my eyes.

There were just enough to make the city or town that I am in, look more futuristic. It was also great to see new sleek looking public transports like trolleys and busses.

Though, occasionally I do see older design models being used. Which looked much more similiar and closer to what I am used too.

Then there were the cars. It was actually a mixed bag in terms of new models. Half were the latest looking cars, the other half were designs I am already familar with. The strange variety of buildings made some look quite out of place.

Like towering metal blocks at one corner and old residential buildings at the other. Further away I could see large Skyscrapers watching from the distance.

Mix of old and new buildings. It doesn't seem like technology has catched up yet to modernise everything and seems to be actually in the midst of transitioning into a fully fledged futuristic city landscape.

Though, this does make me question a lot of the current status quo.

Was this even the same world I lived in?

Or did I somehow survive and went into a coma?

Have I maybe scrambled my brain so much which in turn gave me a split personality and became a whole different person?

Could it be that my alter ego decided to change his name or maybe he didn't remember his own name due to amnesia?

Maybe only now did I miraculously regained my sense of self but forgot what I did as this Wyland Ountilov.

Though some of it doesn't make quite sense with this hypothesis. As I should be still registered as Art Keller when my Alter Ego woke up.

The doctors should've already explained everything to him.

So why would he go through the trouble to change the name into Wyland Ountilov? It doesn't quite add up.

Sadly though, I simply couldn't fathom every possible perspectives and thinking so hard already gave me a slight migraine.

So I stopped making wild theories up and just enjoyed the scenery with the group that I am accompanying with.

Not gonna lie, some of the women in this group were really beautiful and some were also right up my alley.

Though I doubt I'll ever try flirting or even have romance in my life. Too much dedication ~aaand women scares me somewhat. I watched enough videos where lots of things goes wrong for couples or married people.

Cheating, backstabbing, gaslighting, manipulations etc. etc.

I had pretty bad judgement of character as to who is genuine and who was a lying bastard. I rather not risk heartbreak and soul crushing betrayal.

Made lots of wrong friends and bad financial decisions before.

I'm really unsure if I grew out of it and became wiser but I certainly didn't want to tempt fate and add "Lovers heartbreak" in my bad experience folder.

Haaa, I guess choosing to live single had its perks . . .

In anycase, I finally arrived in front of a large modern looking building with sleek corners and tinted glass windows. I was quite surprised that my dorm room would be inside that building.

Passing into what I would describe as a big lobby room with 2 female and 2 male employees behind a circular counter in the middle of it.

There are also two elevators and a staircase in the front right area and a mirrored one at the left side too.

However what makes this ground floor so special is that it also serves as a recreational area and what I can only guess is a bar at the left side with a dedicated bartender.

Sofas, flat screen TVs, some small tables, chairs for the bar and other miscellaneous decorations like potted plants, and art inside picture frames were spread out neatly in the lobby.

Everything here gives the lobby room a nice, inviting, warm feeling.

Nearly over half the people in the group I was with, stayed on the ground floor to get a drink or two and relax a bit with each other after they checked in with the receptionist in the middle of the lobby.

Warren turns towards me inside the lobby entrance.

"Alright, all we need to do now is check in at the reception, then you'll be good to go. The dorms should be right above us. After I checked in I'll stay on the ground floor for a bit. If you want to stay on the ground floor too then we could get a drink together if you want to."

"Ah, I'm sorry, but I have some things to do first. Maybe later in the day if I have the time."

"Alright then, I'll see you later Art."

He looked quite genuine but I didn't feel like drinking at the moment . . . who am I lying to, I was just broke.

As Warren finishes talking with the receptionist and walks away towards the already occupied couches with people playing on a gaming console and controllers on a large flat screen TV, I walked forward towards the female receptionist.

The first thing she does was grimacing at me when I appeared and switched with a tall, male receptionist instead.

Even his reaction wasn't any better than the one before him, maybe even worse. As he eyed at me with intense suspicion.

" . . . What do you want, Wyland."

There was no hint of modesty or politeness behind those words.

"I just wanted to check in."

"Checking in? Do you take me for a fool? Stop playing mind games and tell me what you want."

"Uuuh, the sky is nice today isn't it . . ?"

The receptionist looked quite puzzled and confused.

I nearly lost it, as his face was actually really funny to see it with such raw emotions but, its not particularly a good idea to laugh and provoke him further if I don't want to be folded like a crouton right here.

As I didn't hit the gym since I was 14 and never learned any fighting techniques.

Just like that, without him being able to utter another word, I tactically retreated towards the stairs as fast as I could, and while going there, my eyes caught something very interesting.

Two strangers walking right past me who stood out than the rest of the group was simply due to their hair color.

Snow-white.

Which made me pretty curious. One female and one male. They certainly didn't look old, instead they looked like as if they were in their prime.

Their face had some very defined similarities with each other and their skin is noticeably pale. With these simple deduction skills, it was quite a no brainer that they were related somehow.

The male counterpart of the twins seemed to be blind? He had those white greyed out eyes that made me uncomfortable when I see it. It felt like they were staring straight into my soul for some reason.

And somehow they took notice of me staring at their direction.

Strangely, even the blind one seemed to have noticed me and was smiling. Was he actually blind? I didn't know and I couldn't continue my line of thought as I automatically looked towards the female as I could feel a strong glare coming from her.

She darted at me with a strong demeaning glare. As if telling me I was a walking sack of garbage.

That felt like a hard jab into my liver. I obviously averted my eyes away from them and hastily distanced myself from those two by going up the stairs. After that, they were quickly out of sight.

It just occurred to me that I have no idea where I'm going, because I don't know which dorm room was mine to begin with.

I looked through my pocket to find anything else that I might've missed, but found nothing. However I suddenly remembered the wallet and looked through its contents more thoroughly.

And voila, a unusual looking card made of some kind of rough plasticky metal.

A black stripe at the back of it, a picture of a person with numbers and infos. It wasn't heavy, but it felt just a tad bit heavier than plastic cards.

Anyway, just a quick look at the numbers written on it, I quickly discerned dorm 905.

With the information I just gained, I found my dorm room very easily. There was a card reader near the door in which I could either swipe into or use the contactless scanning option.

I've decided to just press the card on the reader and went in.

To my surprise, the room was clean, orderly and smelled like vanilla. Considering the hostility I faced as Wyland Ountilov, I would have guessed that the person I'm impersonating would be very unclean and chaotic.

Apparently, my judgment on him was wrong this time.

The room had one clean bed, a bookshelf, a lamp, a computer set, a small kitchen with a refrigerator and a helmet on the ground with the words "VR" written on its forehead. There was another door inside the room, which I would've guessed it as the bathroom.

"Haaa, I'm so drained for some reason. Just a quick nap..."

I lay down on the bed and briefly closed my eyes.

I couldn't sleep.

And too lazy to stand up to do anything productive. Though the bed did become comfortable after laying there for who knows how long.

"I don't want to move anymore . . ."

•••

Having finished chatting with his aquaintances, Warren waited for someone at the entrance. Tensing up with anticipation for the person, he fumbles around with his smartwatch to help him relax a bit.

A small holographic projection of the world news popped out.

[!Global News!]

—The U.D.F just announced a culling operation against the Tedeum!

—MirageVR introduces their next brand new Virtual Reality body set!

—Tedeum Attack on a refugee camp. 23 Deaths. 17 Wounded.

—....

Skimming through the information of the third news article, his facial expression becomes gloomy.

It was about a transportation accident for Tedum research when one of the captured Tedeum somehow broke out of transport, killed the escort and ran into the midst of a highly populated refugee camp near the heavily fortified "Alpine Line" made of walls of metal and concrete. It was as tall as a skyscraper and as wide as your eyes can see.

Apparently the walls automated weaponry had a slight malfunction and couldn't take the threat out in time before it wreaked havoc in the refugee camp.

Though when it did came online, the Tedeum threat was already dealt with by the refugees themselves.

Warren closes the world news app to calm himself down and think of something else.

The tension he had is gone but he felt much worse than before. He closes his eyes and breathed in deeply.

Having lowered his guard and being focused on something else, he didn't notice a hand coming seemingly out of nowhere to slap him on the back.

Warren turned to see who it was in surprise.

"Long time no see Warren! How are you doing? Found a girlfriend yet?"

The smiling man in white uniform and white naval cap standing before him was his father in law and a Admiral of the U.D.F 9th Sea Carrier Strike Group Odyssey, Admiral Percival Asker.