The Introvert

Chapter 16

Y/n: Okay.

Selen: You're welcome.

Y/n: "I didn't say thank you."

Selen: Just don't tell any of the dragoons. They'd probably get jealous and some of them might try to do something to you.

Y/n: "I'm sure that either way, this isn't going to end well for me. I've been around too many people's idols. If it's not Selen's fans it could be Calli's, and if it's not Calli's it could be anybody else I talked to."

Selen: What's your rank in Apex Legends?

Y/n: Stopped playing ranked after season eight.

Selen: So you're a pub lord.

Y/n: Nope.

Selen: Tell me what rank you had before you stopped.

Y/n: Predator.

Selen: What! You were that skilled but you stopped playing rank. That's a waste of talent.

Y/n: Maybe it is. But I got tired of playing against pros. I just wanted to have fun.

Selen: If you wanted to play for fun. Why did you invest that much time into raising your rank?

Y/n: My mom said to go big or stay locked in our home. So I had to prove that I could keep up with the best.

Selen: That's not how the saying goes, at all.

Y/n: That's probably true but my parents change things to their convenience.

Selen: Well, a lot of people do that so it's not so weird. But why did you stop playing ranked if your mom was going to lock you in the house?

Y/n: Moved out of my parent's house by then.

Selen: Understandable.

Y/n: Yup.

Selen: Have anything planned for today?

Y/n: Just walking around here for a little bit before going home to play video games.

Selen: Nice. I'd do the same but I have to stay for the meet and greets. It's not so easy working for a popular company like Nijisanji.

Y/n: Sounds exhausting. "I'm glad I only work for a local radio station. It's far from being as large-scale as Nijisanji or Hololive. While I still have responsibilities they have to pale in comparison to people like Selen. "

Selen: It is. Sometimes I wish I could just relax and spend more time training Ember but I can't. Because if I do I'll fall behind everyone and I refuse to let that happen.

Y/n: "Good for her. Having a reason to keep you moving forward is important. Unless you're like me, someone who enjoys where they are and tries to not cause any major changes...not like I've been able to avoid that lately."

Selen: Guess this is bye for now. We'll probably see each other at least one more time before this convention is over.

Y/n: Yeah, see you.

The socially awkward individual walked away after uttering those simple words. While there could have been many other ways to put it. A simple one was all he could verbalize.

Y/n: "There are some nice people here. Nothing like I expect. I thought people with their level of popularity would be jerks that are full of themselves but they're surprisingly down to earth. Just like an ordinary person like me... but with better social skills. Except for Petra, she's a lot like me but at least she has friends to help her."

Y/n: "I wish I had friends...that are closer to my age or at least have similar interests. Old man David is cool don't get me wrong, he's the grandpa I never had but he probably won't understand video games and memes. Mia is interesting and she's closer to my age which means we may have similar interests but I get nervous when talking to her. Plus we haven't talked much so that could be w waste of time."

Random Man: You strange boy thinking to himself. Come over to my booth there's something I want someone to try.

Y/n: "He's going to use me like a lab rat. I could just walk away but what if he's going to show me something cool?"

Gullible. That perfectly describes Y/n in this current predicament. He follows the man to his booth where a table and a large tv screen were set up. On the table was a virtual reality headset.

Random man: Thanks. Now put on the headset.

Y/n: Why?

Random Man: To show people that science isn't obsolete to magic.

Y/n: "Do people think that?"

The random man puts the headset on Y/n's head and leads him to a chair. He sits Y/n down so he doesn't go wandering around.

Virtual reality loads in and he appeared to be in a world that is made entirely of blocks.

Y/n: "Minecraft VR. This isn't anything new, so why was the guy trying to use me to try this out? There has to be a good reason for it."

He strolls around the lush green fields. A cool wind breeze flows through the trees. For a brief moment, he could smell the flowers.

Y/n: "Since when could you smell and feel things in VR?"

An arrow flew by his face. While it went too fast for him to see he turned around and spotted it embedded in the ground.

Y/n: "Minecraft VR with mobs. Why didn't the guy turn off the mob spawning? My senses feel real, I don't want to feel an arrow getting shot into me."

He ran as fast as his legs could take him. This was not such a good idea after all. Next, time something like this happens again he should just act like he can't hear them.

The groaning of zombies, cries of spiders, whatever sounds skeletons make, and creepers. No, not the creepers that stand around the children's playground those green four-legged mobs.

Unfortunately like a hacker with aimbot, a skeleton shot an arrow in the back of his knee. He fell to the ground crying in pain.

Those mobs chasing him started to close onto his location. As much as Y/n wanted to run or even exit the game it was going to be impossible.

An arrow in his knee is going to stop him from running. And he can't exit the game for one very simple reason.

Y/n: That bastard stole my menu!

Being stuck in a game that may or may not result in his death is not a good thing. Even if he doesn't die he will still feel all of the pain that someone who would die feels.

Sure, in Minecraft you just respawn. But would you keep playing if you could feel the pain being inflicted on your avatar?

Most sane people wouldn't. However, you always have those other folks... masochists.

....

A/n: So I have some drafts that didn't make the final cut. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing them. If most of you are I'll put them under an extra section for this story.