Command

The man was experiencing some basic drilling by the other researchers. The commander was the one who had left the man as prey for these hungry researchers wanting to fill their tummy for days.

Actually, they were also going to do the same thing to Allen. In fact, they wanted to spend some days looking into what he could tell, but he got away scot-free. The commander said that Allen's rest should not be disturbed…the commander had thought 'Well, I need him to work more when he gets up after all"

The commander was not on the base right now. Other team members had gathered around the man, whose name was Hakam. They were seeing what he was explaining. The researchers continued what they were doing with no mind of them. Something quite alarmed the members of the team at what Hakam was saying. And most of them…felt weak.

One researcher asked Hakam, "Who was the one that did you not return with the others? "

The man said "I-I was the one who didn't want to return myself"

That was why the others were shocked. Why did he not want to return from the game? What happened?

The same researcher continued, "You should have told that to your leader, take care of such things next time. The in-game authority ….will not work as things are done in the military, for now. Also, May I…ask the reason for that? Others were quite worried that they forced you to stay by something after all"

The man had wanted to reassure the others who were getting second-minded about the whole thing. The researcher thought, 'If they go back with the same fears in their minds, then they are going to end up spreading it in others too. Let alone recruiting more of them, as the commander said. It would not be possible to keep the already present ones.

Hakam looked at others and did not open his mind for some time. He was thinking about what to say. He would not lie, but he wanted to put things in nice wording.

The researcher could see that Hakam was deciding words, so he waited for him to speak. After a minute or two, Hakam said," Nothing forced me, not by the system nor by any of the in-game penalties. Neither was I captured or anything like that. But…but something happened to me when I was defeated in the game "

The others thought he was maybe a little embarrassed or something, Hakam knew they thought that which he could not let slide by. He continued after taking some deep breaths. He said" But, something happened to me, that, is what I can say for sure. Weird emotion motions came in me. I can say for sure that they were not normal, now that I look at them in hindsight. But…the problem is if those same thoughts…someone aroused again those same emotions, I don't think that I could resist them. We cannot develop their immunity. I know-I know from real life that I never had such a problem.

Whatever happened, I don't know the complete picture. But…I can look at all of you, and say that if you are defeated like I was defeated, you are definitely also not going to handle those emotions that just overwhelm you. I could ignore them a little in the beginning, but they were like persistent waves, I could not come back as a penalty of having been killed. So fast, they rapidly gained enough control over me they-they could command me not to leave the game and focus on other things instead-focus on my sorrows and focus on my sadness, focus on the things that are going wrong n the life. And not do anything else."

Some people present gulped. They could see that this was no ordinary thing they could just ignore. Some of the team members looked at the researchers with an explanation.

The head wanted to speak and he could think of a dozen excuses to diffuse the situation…but the commander had asked that in the case there should not be any kind of side-steeping. The answer should be the most simple truth and nothing else. Chief head also felt that this was no ordinary rage or embarrassment, this was like an attack that could be expected from those kinds of creatures.

It was good they could find out about such things in the game, but some things made little obvious sense.

First, if one creature could make this kind of thing happen, couldn't other creatures find other ways to harm them in the game. Considering they were in the game, there was no doable way to help them. They would also be in a comatose situation and would be a burden on the resources. Neither they could find what happened to them and if they escape, they couldn't track them.

When they tried to make them leave forcefully, there was a message there will be unknown effects on the brain. They did not have food designed to treat people in this way. Especially if they were more in number.

There was another thing, there could now be all kinds of mental or other trauma that was not expected before. This may leave any of them brain dead, not to mention they were talking about the civilians. The military soldiers were more designed to deal with those kinds of actions. The civilians did not have a fortified mind. They would be easy prey for those things, just like this case showed them. Not a single out of the three could resist this.

There was a second thing that made little sense. Why were the creatures still in the game? They did not understand. If the creatures were behind this, they could understand them being targeted t but why the creatures that were associated with them too.

The head finally said, "Are you sure the one behind this was the creature?"

The man named Hakam thought about it again. He said "Actually, no. It is just the only possibility that makes sense to me …After all-after all, I have seen what power they can bring out. They can do unpredictable things. "

Hakam and the others may think that, but the researchers, after they analyzed the data they had from before, could easily tell this ain't no enemy creature. It was something else ….this was an added enemy to them.

One of them immediately went to send the report to the commander, who had gone outside now.

The head then told them what he knew about the creatures stuck in the game right now, and how that was likely not the case that the attacker was a creature.

Hakam said, "Couldn't there be a feud between them, that could be the explanation?"

The head said, "I don't think so. There is a clear hierarchy in their ranks, just like how we have the chain of command in the military. We have seen from our expeditions that all of them appear as a single army. And an army can't be an enemy to itself."

After some time, some people present left. They had to make sense of the situation and decide what they were going to do in the future.

Then the researchers tried other ways to question and get some things out, one goal being to figure out how to counter this technique of almost something like whispers….inside you. They were pretty sure that…it had no solution right now.

'Why?' they all thought. They could all understand it when one of the present researchers said to the other, "Doesn't it seem more like the feelings created when a man, not rich before, suddenly gains wealth and others around him are still poor….the arrogance and other emotions that he can't handle…it is just that it amplified the emotions in this case, due to whatever this….thing is.

People cannot destroy such a normal feeling from themselves, let alone destroy an amplified one at that"

When Hakam was finally let go, it was after hours after his arrival. He was tired, hence he slept after seeing his remaining family members. They were a great blessing that he still had.

Allen woke up in the morning after around 8 hours of sleep. He saw he had a notification on his device.

"We have selected your opponent. Come to the arena in the next 24 hours."