VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 92: B-017

Whilst Valerie had retreated to her bedroom to eat, and also study the forums for more information on her surrounding area and the basics of the city, the hallway outside of her apartment was silent and still.

It was a silence that remained completely undisturbed, even with the presence of a hooded figure slowly stalking down its length. His footsteps made no sound and a dark aura clung to his body, as if he had peeled the shadows from the wall and stitched them onto his clothes.

This figure approached Valerie’s door, glancing over his shoulder a few times, before pressing his hand gently against the doors surface and bowing his head for a moment. He remained like that, seemingly doing nothing as he just leaned against the door, before he suddenly flinched away as if something had bit him.

Stranger still, when the hooded figure glanced down at his hand, a few crimson dots appeared atop his deathly pale skin, forming the outline of small needle teeth between his thumb and index finger.

"What the hell is this girl? None of this is right... None of it." The shadowy figure muttered to himself, glancing down at his hand as the small bite marks rapidly healed and disappeared entirely.

It was a bite wound that barely hurt him, and was far from fatal, but it served as a clear warning that he understood perfectly. Even if he did not want to believe it possible.

After a few seconds of staring at Valerie’s door, the hooded figure turned on his heels and disappeared down the corridor, quite literally. As soon as he reached a darker portion of the hallway, the mans entire presence simply ceased to be, as if he was never there in the first place and was nothing more than a trick of the light.

The only proof of his existence, was the few tiny droplets of blood on the floor.

This illusionary, hooded ghost was not the only one experiencing strangeness. Outside of the apartment building, parked a safe distance away in an inconspicuous van, a pair of men in suits sat idly.

They sipped coffees, which were days old and long turned cold, as they stared at computer screens in front of them. Each screen displayed a different room of an apartment, with one of the rooms being occupied by a wheelchair bound woman eating a beef stir fry as she muttered to herself about game details.

Despite the fact that one of these screens also showed the exterior of this apartment, neither of the men in the van nor the camera’s themselves even noticed the man approaching the door, as if he really was nothing but a spectre.

They had sat in silence for hours on end, barely moving, until one of them finally spoke. His voice hoarse and slightly strained, as he muttered.

"Time, 1800 hours. No abnormal signs. Continuing observation."

His partner in the van typed his words exactly into a laptop, a device that was completely out-dated and utterly ancient, considering it still functioned off of physical buttons and keys.

In fact all of the technology in the van was ancient and ’low tech’ by their standards. Which is why, when the first man placed his coffee down in a spot that just so happened to cause the cup to break in such a way that the contents coincidentally poured all over these ancient machines, that it resulted in them sparking wickedly before cutting out.

The two men cursed loudly, trying to smother the sparks and vent the thick smoke that was pouring from the ancient machines, whilst their screens had turned completely black. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Shit... Fucking shit... They’re going to kill us..." The first man muttered with a heavy sigh, before turning to his partner.

"Report to HQ, equipment damaged. Will have to suspend surveillance of subject B-017 for the time being."

***

Valerie placed her plate down, letting out a small burp as a way to thank the wonderful chef, which was herself. It wasn’t arrogant if it was true, and her body could never lie about such things.

Regardless, she was about to hop back into the game, when her phone pinged softly, however it was not from Percy. Instead it was one of her co-workers asking her if she was still okay to cover their shift today.

She had promised to do so before the whole thing with the Beta test thing was dropped in her lap, and with everything going on she had completely forgotten about it. Part of her wanted to blow it off, but she still wasn’t sure if the second check would be any good.

Her ’game guide’ wasn’t exactly the most helpful. Besides, a promise was a promise...

With a regretful sigh, she texted her co-worker back, sent a forlorn glance towards the Neural Crown before sitting back in her chair and picking up her work equipment. These were the more traditional VR visor and fully haptic gloves.

Logging into her co-workers bot with the sent details, the display on the visor changed, filling her vision with a lavish apartment that overflowed with an aura of luxury and wealth. She could tell immediately from the tacky furniture, and how many chairs they had that looked fancy but were completely unfunctional as chairs, that this was someone with a serious amount of cash.

More than they knew what to do with, otherwise they wouldn’t be wasting it on decorative not-chairs that looked like hands.

However Valerie was a professional, and therefore did not spend time gawking at her lavish environment. With a few inputs on the haptic gloves, she moved the service bot from its charging dock, which was helpfully situated in a corner and away from the rich people’s natural line of sight.

She quickly began to clean. There was no need for tools, as the bot had all of it inside of itself. All she had to do was switch its hands and she could dust away. Her cleaning sent her all throughout the house, which was a penthouse apartment that was easily more than 10 times bigger than her dinky abode, until finally she entered a room that belonged to a young man.

She didn’t need to excuse herself, as he was currently laying in an incredibly comfortable gel padded chair, with a Neural Crown resting on his head.

Valerie tilted her head, looking at the young man through the visor. She didn’t even realise she was smiling slightly as she did so, but how could she be blamed for doing so? Percy looked strangely cute when he was asleep.

Suddenly, she wasn’t so confused by Lilith’s urge to have Saige sleep on her lap.