Prisoners of VR

5th July 2048!

8:30 AM!

Rahu got out of a heavily guarded villa and cycled through the road. Surrounding him was his convoy, dressed like civilians going about with their daily lives. It has been a month since he arrived at the Chennai DOVA Branch and by now, he got accustomed to the activities and responsibilities of the place.

[Grand Opening Today: Worldcraft]

[Come get your uVR Earth at subsidised costs]

Rahu stared at the wall on the side of the street. It was a brick wall, layered with wall putty and coloured grey. Nothing was on it, no posters, no graffiti, and especially no advertisements. It was just a common shop's walls. Only, this was the case for the naked eye.

When seen through Augmented Reality, a large advertisement was plastered on the wall with over-the-top animation. It advertised the VRMMORPG that was being launched today, Worldcraft. Right next to it was an advertisement regarding the discounts given to uVR Earth purchases.

Rahu stared at the bus moving before him. It was a common government bus, coloured a dull shade of red, to the naked eye. In Augmented Reality, the advertisement of Worldcraft was plastered on it.

Rahu stared at the auto to his right. On it too was an advertisement for Worldcraft. After a few minutes, he arrived at a halt before a traffic signal. Hovering above the traffic signal's lamppost was a large three-dimensional advertisement of Worldcraft.

"They aren't even being sneaky about it." He muttered, staring forth the long road to see one out of every five advertisements being related to Worldcraft. It was apparent that the entire ruling class of the world was pushing forth Worldcraft as the next best thing to grace humanity since the fire.

The launch of Worldcraft was in thirty minutes, so those with an uVR Earth were brimming with anticipation. Since it was a Sunday, most of the populace was at home.

For the past seven days, Worldcraft was the sole piece of news shown throughout the world; in social media, in news articles, and even on the jerseys of famous actors and sports personalities.

Worldcraft was free to play for anyone with an uVR Earth and only required a simple two-minute registration. The registration count had already crossed over 800 million and was still growing.

Considering how the population of people with an uVR Earth only numbered a billion, this was a staggering sum. It meant that most of those with an uVR Earth had registered to play Worldcraft.

As it was a Sunday, Rahu technically was on holiday. Of course, that never happened as cases continued to pile up in his office. So, he headed there as was routine.

[Calling: Chief of Baldies]

A notification was displayed on his Augmented Reality interface as Rahu accepted the call, "Yes?"

[How's Chennai? Have you settled there yet?]

The person on the other side was none other than the DOVA Chief from New Delhi, Neeraj Vora. At his words, Rahu rolled his eyes and spoke, "You only bothered to call now?"

[Be happy that someone is concerned about you. Anyway, my time is limited, so I'll keep it short.]

"I'm entering Worldcraft," Rahu replied like clockwork.

[Great, I'll be officially appointing you as the spokesperson from DOVA's side. All matters regarding Worldcraft in our country will be forwarded to you. So, have fun.]

"If I ever become bald before you, know that even my grandchildren will curse you for generations to come," Rahu complained in exhaustion.

[Hahaha, I look forward to that day. Consider it revenge since you're the primary cause for my baldness.]

"Sir, please look at your ancestry before you pin the blame on me. Your grandfather was fully bald by your age..."

[This fuc...I'm at a meeting now. Don't make me curse you in front of others. Anyway, all responsibilities regarding Worldcraft are yours. Our DOVA Agents will contact you whenever anything rises, so keep your ears peeled open, okay?]

"A human cannot function 24x7..."

[I need to go now.]

The call ended abruptly as, for a couple of seconds, Rahu intended to bellow expletives. In the end, considering his image, he controlled himself. He was already being worked like a dog. And now, to add to the burden, the entirety of responsibility regarding Worldcraft fell on him?

Even if he lived life only to work, he still wouldn't have enough time. "I need an assistant."

Even though he complained, Rahu understood why he was assigned this responsibility. After all, he possessed a Synchro Code, a secret closely related to Worldcraft.

Even though Neeraj Vora wasn't aware of the ultimate secret deduced by Megasphere, he was smart enough to understand that the secret was somehow involved with Worldcraft. After all, Megasphere was pushing forth the development of Worldcraft in Pomegranate Corporation all along.

And considering the primary objectives regarding Megasphere's creation, it wasn't hard to determine the link. So, if anyone in their country was best equipped to deal with any problems arising from Worldcraft, it was Rahu.

9:00 AM!

Having parked his cycle in the parking lot, Rahu carried his trusty umbrella and entered the office. Deepika followed him in silence, preparing the list of things that needed to be addressed for the day.

"Segregate all divorce cases in one pile," Rahu said once he took a seat.

"There are more than forty now," Deepika said and piled up the cases in a folder. She was in her Virtual Space now, groaning as she segregated all the records.

All these cases consisted of either married partner cheating in a Virtual Space. It was hard to find any evidence unless the involved partners had a habit of recording 'explicit activities' in their Virtual Space.

Otherwise, Rahu would have to be like a stalker to determine the periods when the cheating partners meet up in their Virtual Space and then record their activities. Each such case required a few days at the very least.

So, once their forecast meetup time daily was determined, it was tabulated in a long list. Thereby, Rahu's travel route was determined. At that time, he would coincidently cycle past the area where one of the cheating partners lived and use the Induced Reality of Inverse Perception to record their actions.

Deepika placed such locations on route to other tasks and planned an itinerary accordingly. She was gradually adapting to the workload. At least, such workload was bearable, since the previous Chief too resolved such cases.

But it was the attacks regularly directed at Rahu that were gradually eating away at her patience. They were vicious, involved criminally motivated people, and oftentimes resulted in media controversies.

As Rahu's secretary, the more she had to deal with such cases, the more she was placed in media highlight. By now, there were already plenty of instances where people recognised her on the street. Such attention was bad, especially since she didn't know when that would be directed at her family.

If someone with negative intentions were to direct them to her family, Deepika didn't know what she would do. Such thoughts were eating away at her mental sanity at a gradual but consistent rate. If not for the whopping salary, she would have quit the job on day one.

Once the day's itinerary was completed, Rahu went through the city to complete the tasks. Cases, where people could be summoned to the DOVA Branch, were the easiest.

04:00 PM!

"Good work today." Rahu slumped on his chair in exhaustion and motioned for Deepika to leave, "You can return home now. Ashok will be accompanying me until morning."

"Thank you, Sir." Deepika promptly left the office, happy to leave.

Staring at her enthusiastic back, Rahu commented once Ashok entered his cabin, "Does she hate me that much?"

Ashok stood nearby in silence as he flashed an expression that could be interpreted in any way one desired to their convenience. It was an ultimate 'Yes-Man' expression that Ashok had polished to the extreme.

Deepika hates Rahu. Deepika respects Rahu but dislikes his work style. Deepika is dedicated to her job and isn't good at expressing herself properly. Ashok's face could be used to interpret any of the above answers and many more.

"Don't give me that face," Rahu massaged his forehead as he said, "You don't need to curry favour with me. So, speak your mind."

"Sir, are you confident you won't be offended by my honesty?" Ashok asked in all seriousness.

"Nothing will change even if I feel offended," Rahu rolled his eyes, "You should know by now that I won't change the way I treat everyone whether I am happy or not."

Ashok nodded as if it made sense and spoke, "Sir, if she could, she would have punched you in the face multiple times."

"That bad, huh?" Rahu nodded. He wasn't even offended, just curious as he asked, "Why do you think that is?"

"Sir, shouldn't you know by now?" Ashok smiled helplessly, "You stubbornly refuse to use any mode of transport other than a private plane or a helicopter. It is incredibly stressful to protect you when you're as defenceless as on a cycle. Our superiors from the security department constantly chew our ears daily. Madam Deepika has to deal with everything and keep all sides content."

"This is not to mention the number of people targeting you is exceptionally high. Honestly," He sighed, "We're handling at least one dangerous situation every time you leave your house. And on a bad day, there are at least five such situations. We also have to deal with the backlash from Mahesh's case from the public. Compared to our days the past month, we lived a worry-free life before."

"Ok, you don't need to be that honest." Rahu raised his hands in surrender.

"I only spoke because you told me to, Sir." Ashok made a light bow in apology.

"Alright, alright," Rahu waved his hand in a hurry and instructed Ashok, "I'll be entering Worldcraft now. Protect me if anything happens, okay?"

"Rest assured, Sir." Ashok saluted, "We're a competent team, as you have seen us."

Rahu closed his eyes and activated Virtual Reality. He arrived at his Virtual Space and entered a room where a rectangular portal hovered. When one registered with Worldcraft, this portal would appear in their Virtual Space.

They can move it anywhere they wished in their Virtual Space, but as it only allowed their body to pass through, it didn't matter even if they placed it under a lake or within the waterfall. The portal was the key to entering Worldcraft.

"It has been seven hours since its launch. Let's see how it's playing out." Saying so, Rahu entered the portal and vanished from his Virtual Space.

He had successfully entered Worldcraft.

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