Chapter 122 - Limited Life (1/2)

Gray ran out of the Winchester estate as fast as he could, but strangely enough, nobody seemed to be chasing him. Gray actually turned around and headed back towards it, but he suddenly realized he was acting like one of those teenagers in scary movies and just begging to get killed.

Instead of heading back to his old apartment though, Gray decided to the city block where the old GameGo was that Spoon and Carly used to work at.

”Why does it feel like there are less people here now than ever before?” Gray thought to himself after he noticed that their seemed to be a lot less people out and about than before the game launched.

A sudden realization hit Gray, ”Will this world be abandoned after the war is over?” he thought to himself.

Losing himself in thought once again, Gray looked up and realized he was now standing in front of the GameGo. It was still in the same abandoned state as before, except that the floor was oddly clean and didn't have any of the usual debris lying around when shops close for good. The large black and red GameGo sign was still up strangely enough and it didn't even have a For Lease, Sale, or Rest sign on the window like strip malls used to have when they lost a shop.

Gray had a silly thought, walked up to the door, and then gave it a pull. The door opened!

”What the heck?” Gray almost said out loud. He looked around him and didn't see anyone paying attention to him so he walked in like it was intentional.

The clean floor and bare walls were a little depressing for Gray to look at since he remembered them being chock full of video games, accessories, and all sorts of different toys, gadgets and figurines related to gaming. Gray remembers Carly walking out from the back room and wanted to take a peek just to see what it looked like.

The back wall looked amazingly well sealed and Gray was trying to remember where the place was that you pushed on it to open it. Gray walked up to the wall, put his hand on it, and then gave it a slight push. Nothing happened.

”Must not be the spot…” Gray thought to himself. He started searching around and was pushing the wall all over from different positions, but he still couldn't locate the hidden door.

”The heck? Why hide a door so well for a game shop?” Gray said out loud.

A female voice suddenly came from behind Gray ”It is locked you fool.”

Gray jumped out of his skin and came very close to peeing himself, then landed in a generic karate pose facing behind him that looked ridiculous. ”WHO'S THERE?!” Gray shouted.

”Was that really necessary?” the same female voice said from somewhere in front of Gray.

”Well yeah! Normally you'd try to greet someone or get their attention before talking to them out of the blue, that's just rude and I almost peed myself!”

”I can understand this. Very well, in the future I shall try and alert others to my presence when I require their attention.” After she finished speaking, a familiar looking avatar materialized in front of Gray.

”Ah! It's you!” Gray she had been the one to help him tune his VR bed originally. ”Nadia, was it?”

”Yes, I was asked by Dr. Sara Watts to monitor you until you are alone then inquire if it would be a good time to meet her.”

”Makes sense… wait… what if I was in the bathroom or otherwise 'indisposed'?” Gray asked.

”Don't worry, you're not my type and I wouldn't be offended by walking in on someone anyways.” Nadia said without hesitation.

”That's not… nevermind…” Gray remembered that while Nadia had a fairly attractive face, her AI personality was very conceited. ”So I'm free now I guess.”

”Come with me then, let's go in to the back room where nobody can look in.” Nadia walked towards the back of the room and through the back wall as if it wasn't even there.

”You do know I can't walk through walls like you, right?”

Nadia's head poked back through the wall. She looked like she was deep in thought for a second then said, ”Of course, I just removed this wall temporarily so you can ignore it too.”

”So I can walk through it too?”

”Yes, now hurry up, I am only allowed to do this for 10 more seconds.”

Gray quickly stepped towards the wall at a slow jog pace. He was only 3 meters from the wall so 10 seconds was easily enough time to go through it. Unfortunately, Gray never saw the wry smile Nadia had on her face while she was waiting for something on the opposite side of the wall.

”WHAM!”

Gray slammed into the wall hard and bounced back a bit off it, rubbing his head after he collided with the wall face first. ”Owww! SON OF A… I thought you couldn't lie?”

”Who said I lied? You just took too long.”