Chương 302: Chapter 290

By the time the action died down, Sam found himself in a different room, on a different floor, the doors protected by very scary-looking people in very cliché black suits and sunglasses. One of the legal representatives of the hospital even approached him, but he simply redirected him toward Lucy, who was apoplectic with fury. As he watched the energetic discussion from a safe distance, he knew he wouldn't want to be in the lawyer's shoes.

He just leaned back in his new bed, which was just as soft and comfortable as the last one, yet at the same time, it still had the constant itchiness of hospital materials. As Lucy spent her considerable lung capacity and fury to tear the representative of the hospital a new one, he thought about the situation. On one hand, he was kinda excited. In his past life, the thought of someone sending a spy to get information out of him would have been inconceivable.

Yet here he was, having to watch out for infiltrators and spies. The childish part of him was looking forward to future attempts. On the other hand, the fact that his enemies or other interested parties have succumbed to sending infiltrators worried him. There were countless examples from the other Sam's memories where people decided to resort to violence to gain an advantage in the game or hamper others.

The easiest examples were the other Sam or even Lucy, but even without them, one has to only look on the internet for a short while before finding stories, articles, or even videos of people clashing over the game. Anything from loot to who had the 'right' to woo a particularly pretty girl. And those were just the regular players.

Without a hint of shame, Sam was pretty sure he was amongst the top one hundred players in the world, so the information that could be gained from him was exponentially more valuable than data from the general player base.

'Should I start looking into hiring security?' he wondered absentmindedly as the lawyer tried to pretend that he wasn't about to cry.

'I could ask Lara. Her family has connections. Hmm. No, too big of a chance of spying on me…' Sadly, in the end, that was the issue with all the security companies he could hire. He may have connections and money, but there were countless other people out there who had more money and better connections. Then, just as a lightning bolt, an idea flashed through his mind.

'Well, there is one entity that has even more connections…' he thought while trying to smother a grin.

'HAHA! I'm a genius….' Thankfully, he was released from the hospital within a day, though not declared one hundred percent healthy. Modern medicine was amazing (if you had the money), but the brain was still the brain. He was under strict instructions to take it easy. Lucy vowed to hold him to it with a rather serious face.

Returning to his home, they spent some time cleaning up from when the medical team entered and extracted him, as well as cleaning the few spots of blood that were missed by the cleaning team, before taking a look at the new capsule. Future Unknown had taken the old one, on account of wanting to examine it, and in exchange (and as part of recompense for the medical issues) had provided him a new one.

And as he looked it over, hooked it up to his own systems, and went through the settings with Lucy's help, he couldn't help but be a little surprised.

'Second gen doesn't come out for months…' he mused as he took in the sight of the sleek pod in the middle of his game room.

'It seems they really want to make me happy…' Lucy apparently noticed his discovery.

"Cool, huh? I made sure they would provide the best to replace the old one." Then she smirked.

"They'll also upgrade it the moment a new one comes out, for free, for the next five generations." Sam looked at Lucy and gave her a very impressed look and a thumbs up.

"I'm in awe of your mercantile skills!" She stuck her nose in the air, closing her eyes, and grinned while her hands were on her hips.

"Praise me more!" Half an hour later, they were sitting in the living room, quietly eating a late lunch – sadly, one dictated by the diet his doctors put together – and watching some inane talk show. It was some kind of quiz show slash game show about Magic Unbound, where they invited celebrities, both from the real world and the game world.

"You know, you've received like three dozen invitations from them," Lucy stated as she pointed at the screen with her fork, where one of the contestants, a rather 'enhanced' lady, was giving blatantly wrong answers while the rest of the players stared at her without eye contact. It was rather telling that she was almost always somewhere in the frame.

"If I ever volunteer for something like that, shoot me, please," he stated flatly, reaching for the remote control.

"At least they could have gotten a fact checker who actually knows what they're doing…" he grumbled. Lucy just chortled next to him.

"That's the appeal, I think. To get people angry. Classic rage bait with some gooner bait added," she explained as the previous lady did a little dance upon getting a rather basic question right.

"At least their screen stabilization is high quality…"

"You should really watch something with higher quality production…"

"Bah… I mostly watch it when I want to turn off my brain or want to see some pretty people. It's good for that…"

"Well, fair enough, but if you don't mind, I would really like to watch something more…stimulating," Sam said with a small smile. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Lucy shrugged.

"Sure. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, what about–" Before he could finish his sentence, the screen changed suddenly, with giant letters declaring 'BREAKING NEWS' to anyone watching.

"Little dramatic, aren't they?" Lucy asked after eating another bite of her supreme burrito. The traitor. Sam raised an eyebrow.

"You know what this is about?"

"Sure…" He waited for a second, then huffed good-naturedly.

"Fine, keep your secrets. Witch." As he turned his focus back on the screen, which had just changed to a woman in a newsroom going through some documents, he received a sharp elbow as a response from his friend. The woman shuffled the papers one last time, no doubt to create more suspense, then she put them down in front of her, looked up at the views, smiled, and began to talk.

"Good afternoon, dear viewers! I'm Crystal Clear, and as always, I am here to bring you the newest and most clear-cut news as possible!" She took a small breath and flashed another megawatt smile before continuing.

"Future Unknown, has just released a statement concerning some medical upgrades related to both the gaming pods and helmets used for the famous game, Magic Unbound. And why, dear viewers, is that breaking news? Glad you asked!" The screen that held the woman shrank to one of the corners, and the screen was taken over by video of the press conference held by Future Unknown, while the woman continued to talk.

"As many of our viewers know, recently, there has been an epidemic of news of people having medical emergencies due to overuse of the gaming equipment. Future Unknown has never verified any of those claims, but with this new statement and the accompanying software patch, many of those claims were probably real.

According to the patch notes shared at the same time the press conference went live, both the gaming pods and the helmets would decrease the burden on the players' brains while also adding a suite of new safety limitations and checks to keep track of the player's health." The press conference vanished, and the woman returned to the full screen with a small picture of the gaming pod in the top right corner next to her.

"Future Unknown also floated the idea of creating an emergency line connecting the gaming pods to the local emergency services in case it proves necessary," she reported with a smile, then that smile turned into a thin line. Very dramatic.

"However, many advocacy groups had decried this decision as they feel that all those safety checks and scans infringe on the rights of people, while the line to the emergency services would jeopardize the privacy of the people, not to mention, increase the already substantial cost of the service." The view changed, zooming out, showing that somebody else was sitting at the other end of the desk she was using.

It was a man, dressed in a simple polo shirt with the Magic Unbound logo on it, and wearing very stereotypical 'nerd' glasses.

"Mark Mivoodz is here with us in the studio to give us some much-needed clarity about the situation." She turned to the man, flashing another expensive smile, and the camera focused a little more on the man.

"Hi, Mark! What can you tell us about the situation?" The man reached up and adjusted his glasses before he began to talk.

"Thanks for having me, Crystal!" he greeted her, as if they weren't colleagues who worked for the same studio.

"Well, on first look, I can tell you that the patch notes that Future Unknown has published are rather exhaustive, yet a little bit obfuscating too."

"Oh, how so?"

"Well, Crystal, the patch notes, as they are now, make references to several subsystems both in the hardware of the gaming pods and helmets and the software controlling them. Yet, Future Unknown had so far refused to share the details of those subsystems. Personally, I find that rather strange." The woman started to nod as if the man shared some earth-shattering wisdom, while Sam exchanged an exasperated look with Lucy as if saying 'Really?'. The newscaster continued.

"Do you think they're hiding something, Mark?" Another glass adjustment.

"Naturally, Crystal. We have been seeing reports of injuries, both physical and mental, due to the game, and the company decided to address the issue just now? Out of nowhere? Something definitely happened!"

"What's your hypothesis, Mark?"

"Well, my team and I have combed through the reports and noticed a trend of escalation in the victims. Bigger crashouts, strange episodes of hallucinations. Thus, one possible conclusion we came to is that the game finally claimed a life!" The female newscaster let out a rather theatrical gasp.

"No!" The man just nodded." Yes, Crystal. Otherwise, I don't think Future Unknown would have held an entire press conference just to announce a 'small' update. We are still trying to find evide–" CLICK Sam turned off the television and turned to Lucy.

"Must you do this to me?"

"Hehe… the look on your face!" she giggled.

"We should have continued to watch. Somehow, they always link anything that happened to a conspiracy to increase the fertility of people."

"What?"

"Yeah, I don't get it either…" They were finished with their meal, ready to dive into the snacks they had procured, when his bell rang. Sighing slightly, he stood up and checked who it was. Not that it could have been a lot of people, as anyone who could ring his bell was on the whitelist that the reception would allow to enter the building. Opening the door, he was swept up into a hug before almost being hurled away as Katie, excitedly chattering to Isabella, who smiled at him, charged into his home.

The two women were followed by Lara, who also hugged him before saying hi, accompanied by Dan, who gave him a hearty handshake and slapped his back strong enough to send him staggering. Sam just blinked at the sudden influx of guests. After Dan came Tim, with Claire walking rather close to him, Liz saying a quiet greeting before entering, and then Adam, his hulking figure awkwardly standing there.

Soon, his living room was full of people, sitting everywhere, eating snacks they had brought, while leisurely celebrating his release from the hospital. Sam smiled happily, plopping down on the sofa next to Lucy, who was talking to Lara about something to do with their city, then turned to Adam.

"How is it hanging?" The large man smiled, although Sam could see he was rather tired from the circles under his eyes.

"Good, good. The guild is doing good, and we're still in the black."

"Nice to hear. And you? Are you enjoying the game?" Sam asked. Curiously, Adam let out a despondent sigh.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. It's just my grandmother decided to start playing the game…"

"Oh? She became a cook and is trying to feed you to death?" Sam asked with a laugh.

"Worse. Apparently, she is a pyromaniac. I had to hire a group of water mages to follow her around…" Sam stared at the man for a second before letting out a laugh. Soon, the others got curious and asked the embarrassed Adam what was so funny, and then the entire group was commiserating with him amidst laughter and good-natured jeers. He leaned back, looked around happily, and let out a sigh.

'Damn, it's good to have friends...'