Prisoners of VR

08:50 PM!

In the dining room of a mansion sat a boy, aged sixteen, stuffing a slice of pizza into his mouth. He was the sole person in the dining room; the house was silent. His parents were away at work, as usual. Oftentimes, they arrived late into the night or even skipped some days.

Being part of a prominent business chain necessitated enough time and effort. The boy wasn't concerned with them being late though, calmly watching a comedy skit on his Augmented Reality as he laughed from time to time.

[Ashish: Bro, it's almost time. Did you pack a condom?]

[Ramesh: Dude, we're doing it in Virtual Reality. She won't become pregnant.]

[Ashish: What if...she becomes virtually pregnant?]

[Varun: Kekeke...]

"These idiots are clearly excited." The boy muttered as he thought of a reply. His uVR Earth read the related thought signals, converted them into electronic form, and then typed out the message. This manner of messaging needed a bit of time and practice to get used to, but it wasn't that hard in the end.

An instant after he thought of the reply, the message was sent to their private group. Since it was through Augmented Reality, the group messages were end-to-end encrypted.

[Rohit: Don't act like idiots before her. We need to make her submit first before getting her to do what we want. We haven't turned her into a bitch like Suraj yet.]

[Ashish: It'll be hard to restrain myself. I'm a carnivore. And She's hella hot.]

[Ramesh: Dude, you're not going first. Rohit, let's decide the order.]

[Rohit: I'll be going first obviously. You can decide the next.]

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[Ramesh: I'll be second then.]

[Varum: I call dibs on her ass.]

The quartet screwed around for a few minutes before Rohit told them to call up Suraj. He licked his lips and pulled up the image of Suraj's older sister on his Augmented Reality screen, lecherously trailing his gaze over her image. 'I'll devour you tonight.'

[Rohit: Ok, the bastard accepted the call. Be ready to rumble!]

...

'Will this be fine?' Suraj stared at the face of Rahu, nervous. Even though he was assured by the latter, fear was a prominent emotion. If given the choice, he would never want to see the face of the four bastards that had traumatised him ever again.

He accepted the Virtual Communication and arrived at the living room of his Virtual Space. He instinctively trembled and got on all fours the moment four figures appeared before him.

"Haha, this dog is on all fours from the start!" Ashish laughed aloud.

Rohit motioned them to be silent as he stared at Suraj, "Grant permission for my tools to enter."

"Y-Yes," Suraj pulled up a screen and stared at the list of items pending to enter his Virtual Space.

As the Virtual Space was created to comply, the owner had sole discretion over everything that happened within. They would have to give permission first before the concerned individual could enter their Virtual Space.

Even after that, only the recipient could enter, depicting their current appearance and style from reality. But if there was any tool in their clothes, its entry would be rejected. As for the degree of restriction, it was in Suraj's sole discretion.

He could restrict any and all foreign objects.

Some users restrict appearances, causing the recipients to appear as blurry or shadowy humanoid forms. Some restrict tools, making the recipients appear naked instead. It all depends on the individual.

And in all cases, the recipient would also be notified of the restriction in advance.

Other than that, any specific tool created in the Virtual Reality Database could only be brought in by the recipient if permitted by the Virtual Space owner. It would appear as a list, displaying the owner of the item that wished to bring it in.

Most of the items on the list were from Rohit, the boss of the clique. They consisted of mobile phones, jammers, and a bunch of miscellaneous items.

'Why...isn't he here yet?' Suraj hesitated to accept, realising what would happen once he were to do so. He wished Rahu would appear immediately and solve his crisis.

"Why are you taking so long today?" Rohit frowned as he kicked Suraj in the face, causing his nose to bleed. He hadn't held back in the least, evident that this wasn't the first time he had broken Suraj's nose.

Of course, as this was in the Virtual Space, it only expended some of Suraj's brainpower; the bleeding nose healed automatically.

"Wait a second..." Ramesh looked around before glaring at Suraj, "Where's your sister?"

"You didn't bring her?"

As time flowed ten times faster here, Suraj had to confront them for a short duration, getting pummelled in the process. Two minutes had passed here, but in reality, it had only been a dozen seconds.

"I hope nothing bad happened to you in this time frame." Muttering as such, Rahu finished preparing his ability as he interacted with the four electromagnetic streams incident on Suraj's right horn-uVR Earth.

Induced Reality-Dark Room!

His uVR Earth emitted electromagnetic rays that interacted with the four streams and resonated, allowing him to pick up the source of the respective signals.

In an instant, the locations of the four students were clearly mapped out in his Augmented Reality. Rahu then took in a deep breath, "I haven't done this in a while."

His mind trembled as his focus shifted from him to Suraj's uVR Earth. Following that, the brainwaves he emanated attracted the four electromagnetic streams, causing them to shift to his uVR Earth.

And after a pause, he unleashed the brunt of his ability, causing electromagnetic rays to beam toward the four people and influence their brains. Two seconds later, they were under the effects of Induced Reality.

A thin stream of blood leaked out of his nose as Rahu closed his eyes and focused, retracting his senses from most of his body.

Thump! Thump!

Rohit was stunned to find himself in a dark room. There was no light, terrifying him. But when he tried to move, he realised to his dismay that his body failed to move. He seemed to have been paralysed.

Surprisingly, his current body posture was in a seated state, the exact same as the posture he maintained in the dining room of his home. An intense sense of vertigo enveloped him, making him unable to tell top from bottom.

He seemed to be suspended in the void, there was no light, he couldn't move, his voice failed to leak, the air seemed thin, and most of all, there was absolute silence.

Thump! Thump! Gargle!

Slowly, the sounds of his heartbeats resounded in his ear, clear, aloud. Following it were the various sounds generated by his stomach during the digestion process. They were horrifying. At times, it was loud, at times, it was dead silent.

'W-What is this place? What's happening? Wasn't I in Suraj's Virtual Space just now? How am I here? Did that bitch do something? No! I need to leave! B-But how? HOW?' Rohit's thoughts turned incoherent as paranoia, fear, and intrusive thoughts took root in him.

Time seemed to pass slowly...or not. He didn't know. But one thing was for sure. He was going mad, unable to handle the absolute loneliness, as if cast away into the depths of space, away from all life.

With every second that spanned past, the loneliness grew worse. Humans were social creatures. They needed the company of someone or something to maintain their sanity. It might be a fellow human or a pet animal or a plant or even an object.

They all needed something to anchor their sanity towards. But in the void, no such anchor existed. It drove Rohit mad in a matter of minutes.

The other three were no different, losing their minds quickly. Dark Room was a killer move capable of killing the minds of the target. Their bodies remained alive though.

Even the DOVA Agent that targeted Rahu recently, Rakshat Gupta had fallen victim to Dark Room with zero signs of recovery. Normal school-going brats had zero chances of recovering ever again.

While this was happening, the Liger appeared within Rohit's Virtual Space, easily able to mimic his brain's signature once his mind had shattered.

His Virtual Space had been considerably developed. Instead of the default environment, Rohit's Virtual Space resembled an amusement park filled with all sorts of thrilling rides. But situated in the centre was a conspicuous tower, historic in nature, built out of stone.

The Liger entered it and observed a variety of tech placed on the shelves there, neatly arranged. A group of androids went around, maintaining the place.

At first, they were stunned by the presence of the Liger. But an electromagnetic flicker later, they stopped moving. The Liger roamed the place, recording everything its senses felt.

Soon, it entered a room resembling a theatre. There was a row of seats in it, with a keyboard and mouse placed before the centre-most seat. The Liger calmly typed on the keyboard. A flash of electromagnetic pulse later, access into the system was granted, allowing it to browse through the contents.

It was weird to see a Liger type on a keyboard like a human and hard to do so, but as it was the only creature capable of infiltrating another's Virtual Space like this, Rahu didn't have an option.

Once the contents in the system were displayed on the theatre screen, the Liger stopped in horror. Rahu fumed, observing the messed-up life Rohit had lived, having committed crimes at such a young age that were more than what one could commit in a lifetime.

Worst of all, he had a sick hobby of recording them all. Of course, that wasn't an issue since uVR Earth allowed one to record everything captured by their eyes. And Rohit had data regarding everything he had been up to.

Based on the setup, it was apparent that he and his friends revisited the past bullying videos and basked in their nostalgia for inflicting trauma.