New Ideas

The teacher of his was too exceptional, was what the commander was basically saying. Allen didn't know how he ended up surmising that from what he told him...

Sam saw Allen was not really taking him seriously. He smiled a little and thought 'This is the military little brother'

He shook his head and said to Allen, "You said that the system recommended you, 2 teachers, to guide you through the process. And you ended up with one of them"

"Yes, that happened"

"After you accepted him as a teacher, he constantly just fought with you and didn't talk with you at all"

"That happened too," Allen said. Allen could not explain the point his neighbor was trying to drive into him. He already told him all that ten minutes ago…

"Don't you think… that your opponents… the 3 people that you say are present in the game may also behave like that with you."

Allen kind of… didn't understand. All of them were his team buddy; they became crazy or what. They would surely listen to their great battalion leader….

Allen said to him, "That indeed may be the case. But I can only verify it in the game so… I will see you later?"

"You are not going anywhere soon now," His superior ordered.

'… But they are part of my team now'

"And you are part of my team. The situation already beat you down. There is another thing bothering me, that I am not sure about… but you should know, Mr. Impatient. I find it strange that the moment your friends saw you getting online, them getting a prompt as per you say, they did not contact you by message nor tried other means of communication at all"

Allen thought that was a little weird too… He also tried to message from his end, but they did not reply at all for several hours that he was in the game. He was in the game waiting for their message… who enjoys getting beaten black and blue for several hours on end. He didn't!

"So… what do you think?"

"Since the chat feature was available at all times to them, and they never contacted you, by choice. That means that maybe they have had their mind-washed"

Allen looked a little down, hearing they didn't contact him by choice, but was more surprised at the possibility of them being mind-washed…

"But… it hasn't even been over 12 hours"

"The game works are strange to me. Not to mention what attacked you was an unknown creature. We have never overestimated their powers, only underestimated them. They have too many tricks available. This may be one of them. Although, I haven't encountered that when fighting myself…" The commander started thinking back on their fights and really couldn't remember anything like that.

Allen said to Sam. "Okay, I will keep that in mind. I will try to further see the situation now that this has happened. Don't let anyone else login into the game,"

Sam gripped him and said, "Wait, wait. You are not getting that idea in your mind that I am letting you enter, right?"

Allen tried to loosen the hold, but to no effect. He said, "There can be many more… unknown side effects if we take any more time. It's not like you can play games, either. Let me go"

Sam told him to look at the sky outside. Allen looked, and he saw it was night all around. He looked at some watch and it read 2 AM….

Allen said, "playing for multiple consecutive days is a piece of cake for me. That is not a problem, I assure you"

Sam remembered some things and said," I also admit that is not the problem for you. But it increases the chances of something weird happening to you in the game, especially if what we are thinking is correct, and they were hypnotized or something. If they were like that when they were rejuvenated, you are going to deal worse with things when the same happens to you… then I will have to worry about 4, not 3 people"

Allen didn't want to step back, well maybe if that could help loosen this guy's hold, sure. He said "I…"

Sam interrupted him and said," Look. I think you are letting your being a team leader get your head. I am the superior that selected those people, took them from their families, guaranteed safety for them. The one responsible for things going wrong is not you, it is me. That is how military works here, get used to it."

He said the truth in that he thought he was responsible too. With that sorted, Allen could find no energy to argue any further… he thought, 'Looks like I will have to login privately again'

Sam said on seeing him calmed down, "Just for your information, I had the personal pod that you used to play the game confiscated, as well as any other that your team members may have had. Good luck trying to enter the game."

Allen said"… What was the point of trying to make me understand then, you already OPed me before we began talking"

Sam said "OPed? Whatever that means, I just want you to calm down, sleep and wait for further instructions. There is nothing I need you for right now"

Allen went away kind of disappointed. He thought Sam may give some olive branch to him, but nothing. All the militaries were like that. They were only going to use you for their purposes…. all right, he was just a little sour.

Allen did not know how to talk to the other members. He was already pretty overwhelmed with the possibility that they could go into comatose just by playing the game, let alone others. He just hid it.

When he returned to his room, he fell on his body with a weak mind and an exhausted body. He was exhausted. This was too great of a toll on him. Whatever happened before, at least there was a clear enemy to blame, but now…

Allen could not sleep easily, but because of exhaustion and through some baths he took, sleep eventually overcame him.

Meanwhile, Sam saw to it that things go smoothly for the other members and that some kind of reply is given to the families whose children had not returned for almost a day now.

Things became quite heated when he talked about those things to the three families alone. They did not even consider they were talking to a military official, in a military compound….

Sam thought 'What would it be like if they got to see their kids right now. Won't they go crazy and end up doing something wrong?'

The families demanded that their kids be shown to them, but he refused every single time. They fixated on that issue, so as a last resort, he had the video footage of them laying calmly and peacefully played in front of all the parents. They could be seen breathing properly, so not harmed or anything worse.

Sam said after seeing them calm down after that, "Even I would be skeptical if someone told me that some kind of mishap in the game. But it happened. I am already planning what to do now. You have not placed your trust in the wrong place. I gave a guarantee for their safety before within my means. I will abide by it and go to great lengths to deal with this situation. Within 48 hours, this matter will be resolved. Until then… we will give them their food, either through injections and other force-fed means. "

Sam really couldn't do much more for them. He had to hear quite a lot of things from all the three families one by one… but well; he was in the military, just another stressful day for him.

After settling Allen's team and the families, he went to the researchers, and he was going to take this out all on the two teams that he had assigned this mission to. When he got there, the two heads were talking with each other.

Sam said," Good that both of you are together. Now, I don't have to call you individually"

The both of them gulped and looked at each other. This would not be good. But they were prepared.

One of them said "Actually, we think we found out what the problem was"

Sam said, " So, what the problem was. Not how to resolve it. What in the world are you doing right now."

The both of them looked shaken. But still one of them said " Actually, we think that those creatures probably invaded the game"

Sam said, " What is so strange about that? Don't they already do lots of other kinds of interference?"

"The thing is, we tried to do what we could to track those creatures… and it seemed like some new monsters have appeared around the base that look exactly like those creatures, and what is peculiar is that their number adds up to be almost the same as the number… that Allen and others defeated in the game. So this unable to log out feature is probably the… same for both sides"

Sam quickly calculated what that meant. Some dangerous thoughts came to his mind, but he suppressed them. That had a lot of implications, even though small news it was.

Sam thought, 'Great. All plans destroyed'