Chapter 02 – Mental Prison
Good news!
I managed to make it back to Three Records City!
Bad news.
I’m stuck in a jail cell!
What the hell? Why? What did I even do to deserve this? I’m so tired… I just wanna go home… How did I get here anyway?
I was actually kinda happy when I got the VISS Driver and when it gave me a skill, but I really shouldn’t have been. I knew something was gonna go wrong. Why even try? I should have just let myself get captured. All of this only happened because I wanted to be friends with Miyuki… I should have just gone home.
I’m being too negative now. I really need to sort out my thoughts. Where did this all start? Let me go over everything since the moment I returned to the real world.
…
“Ouch!”
Seems like I made it back! I’m back at the parking lot. I’m glad I decided to sneak into that facility. I don’t think I would have made it without the VISS Driver. I think I actually got out of this with more than what I began with.
“Who are you?”
“Eeh?” A scared voice escaped my mouth when I suddenly noticed a long blade pressed against my neck.
“Are you human?”
This is a longsword, right? The blade is curved, but it has a long guard. What exactly is it? And most importantly, why is it up against my neck? Am I being mugged?
I looked up towards the source of the voice and saw a beautiful girl. Her hair was pink, and it had a beautiful glow. It was long, but also a bit spiky. It looked kinda like a sweet cloud-
“Answer me!”
I got distracted by her appearance, and her voice snapped me out of it. I was nervous for multiple different reasons, so I couldn’t speak. I nodded my head instead to answer her question.
“I don’t think you’re lying. We can never be too sure.”
The girl retracted her sword and turned around. I heard a metallic object near her waist make a small sound. I caught a glimpse of a couple rings hanging down from the same spot, must be some kind of accessory. Wow… Her body looks really fit… makes me want to poke her a couple times to feel her muscles. She’s not ripped, but she’s lean while having curves in all of the right places. So nice.
“Narumi, call Shinji and tell him there’s a civilian on the site. I’m gonna see if I can get more information.”
The girl with the sword spoke to her friend who was a little behind her. This girl was already on her phone before she was even asked to make the call. Her hair was orange and shorter than the other girl’s. She wasn’t nearly as slim, especially in the chest area, and I love that for her.
“Alright! You got it!” A cheerful, carefree voice answered the request.
The pink-haired girl extended her hand towards me. “Are you alright?”
Is that fine? Can I really hold her hand? I nervously reached out and grabbed her hand. She gripped my hand back tightly and got me up on my feet without breaking a sweat. I knew it! She really is strong!
“Uhm. I- I’m fine.” I wanted to keep holding her hand, but I just pulled mine back in a rush.
“You don’t look like you’re hurt. My name is Katja. Sorry for scaring you just now.”
“It’s alright!” Why did she put her sword against my neck? It must somehow be related to the game world. She referred to me as a civilian. Are they from some kind of organization? This is how it usually goes in anime in situations like this. Whatever the case, I can’t tell her about the game world.
“Sorry, but I need to ask you a couple questions. I know you might be a little shaken, but I’m gonna need you to put that aside for a while.”
What exactly does she want to know? She asked me if I was human too. Is she looking for people from the other world? I don’t get it, can they actually pass through the portal?
“For starters, can you tell me what you were doing here?” Katja is looking straight at me. I’m too nervous! I can’t answer you like this!
“I don’t know… I was just… I don’t know how to explain…”
“Let me rephrase the question. Why did you come here?” Her face became more intimidating. I don’t think she liked my answer.
“I- I- I stopped here with a… friend… t- to eat some ice cream!”
“Really?” I think she bought it. “Why were you sitting on the floor when we arrived? Did you get attacked?”
“Uhm… no.” Why is she looking at me so closely? I can’t even think properly.
“Why were you on the floor? What happened to your friend?” The girl’s attitude became friendly at some point, but she started pressing me harder for answers.
Huh? What did I tell her? I can’t remember.
“You don’t know? Do you mean you don’t know or you can’t remember? Maybe something happened to your memory.”
I can’t remember what I said to her. Her face was so close, I couldn’t think properly. Damn, I wanted to figure out how I got here, but my memory is too hazy.
“I think I understand what’s going on. Sorry, but we’re gonna have to take you into custody.”
“Okay…”
What? Okay? Did I really just say okay? Is that why I’m here now? What were you thinking, me? At least fight back a little! I should have at least tried to ask who she was and who she was affiliated with.
That’s it, that’s where my memory ends. Next thing I knew, I was here already.
I can’t believe how nervous I was. She was pretty and looked really cool, but seriously? I froze just from that? I guess there’s more to it than that. My heart was still racing from being chased, and I was mentally exhausted. I still am.
I got the basic idea, at least. Those two girls must have been there because of the portal, and they found me instead. They arrested me because… I was suspicious? I don’t know…
I just wanna go home, though. I’m so tired… What’s up with this day? Does this shit never end?
I walked up to the door and tried to shake it. It’s locked. No surprise there, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
I really don’t wanna stay here. Is there a skill I can get to get me out of here? Maybe a teleport or something to phase through walls? I think I wasted all my skill points, so I can’t afford anything, but maybe I leveled up and got more points.
What? Why are there no pop-ups? I can’t use the VISS Driver! Why? Does it only work in the other world? This sucks! Why did I go through all the trouble of grabbing it for if doesn’t even work now?
That reminds me. I think the VISS Driver called it EX, VISS Driver EX. I don’t think the one from the game had the EX. Maybe I just don’t remember it, or maybe that is why I can’t use it here. No, that’s stupid. Why would a different name make it unusable in the real world?
Well, what do I do now? I can’t use any of my skills, and I can’t get any new ones. Even if I could use my skill, I don’t think I’d be able to make it through these metal bars.
What’s going to happen to me? What are they gonna do to me? Did they find out I went into the other world? Given the pathetic state I was in, I probably blurted it all out. I hope not.
Why did they bring me here? They wouldn’t arrest me if they didn’t think I had done anything wrong. Are they gonna kill me? Do they wanna silence me? No… In these kinds of situations, they usually want to sell people to some kind of research lab. The girl talking to me seemed so kind. Was that just a trick?
“Ow!” I was pacing around the room, panicking, when I bumped into a table.
Woah, I didn’t notice this thing. On top of the table were a couple containers with food inside. My stomach started growling. It has been a while since I last ate. Did they leave this for me? Maybe they’re not so bad after all.
This itself cell didn’t look too bad, actually. I’d say the bars were actually the worst part. The bed looked comfortable, and the toilet was very private. I always thought cells would be way scarier and crueler.
I sat down on the bed and ate the stewed meat with rice. It looked like a simple meal, but was very well seasoned. It was better than the food I eat on a daily basis.
I was a little relieved now that I wasn’t hungry and that I noticed how humane my conditions were. Locking me up was one of the worst things they could do to me, but at least I found some peace in knowing that it could have been so much worse.
Having said that, I still can’t calm down. What’s going to happen to me? I really wanna get out of here. This is so boring! I wanna see my waifus! I wanna go home!
I tried banging on the bars, but quickly stopped since I was only hurting myself.
I gotta calm down. But how? Think happy things! I need to think about happy things.
But that didn’t work. Any time I tried to think about something good, the intrusive thoughts would attack, and all my worries would just come back.
I need to meditate. I never tried it before, but now is the time to learn. I closed my eyes and tried to enter Zen state. Go Zen. Enter Zen. Become Zen. I don’t think I know what Zen means.
Being in a cell is harder than it seems. I can’t believe this is a thing that exists. How doesn’t everyone just go crazy? Do their minds just break, and that’s how they stay calm? If only I had any of my waifus here with me. I wonder how they’d fare in my position. Depends on the girl, I guess… ahahaha… she wouldn’t even be fazed…
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but eventually I ended up falling asleep. I was really tired, so that’s no surprise. I really needed to fall asleep. Not just because I needed to rest, but also so I wouldn’t go insane. My situation filled me with worry, but for now I can rest easy.
I hope nothing bad happens to me tomorrow.