Prisoners of VR

"Did this bitch lose his braincells all of a sudden?" Ashish slapped Suraj nonstop for a couple dozen seconds before choking the latter, "Bring your sister here right now! Otherwise, I'll kill you."

"You know you'll revive here even if I were to kill you, right?" He let out a devilish grin, "But you'll still feel the pain."

"Stop, Ashish." Rohit raised his hand and patted Ashish's shoulder. He calmly observed Suraj and spoke, "This fucker has already limited the sense of pain. No wonder I wasn't enjoying it much these days. He's only been acting like he's in pain."

"Wait a second..." Ashish pinched himself and muttered in surprise, "No wonder. I hardly feel anything."

He grabbed Suraj and began to pummel the latter's face, "Switch it back. It's not fun if the senses aren't as clear as in reality. If you don't, I'll leak your pictures in class tomorrow."

"There's a better way," Ramesh interjected as he stared at Suraj and smiled, "You see, I have been stalking your sister a bit recently. I observed that she likes to jog early in the morning. I can directly confront her with your pictures..."

"You bastard!" Suraj shouted in anger when he was punched in the face. For the next few seconds, he was beaten up by the four dudes. But suddenly, their figures vanished.

"What...happened?" Suraj looked around in surprise, staring at the clothes of the four strewn on the floor. Only their figures had vanished. Hope surfaced in his mind as Suraj stared in relief, "Did big brother do it?"

He waited there for a couple more minutes before returning to reality, waking up exhausted as he stared at the seated figure of Rahu, seemingly asleep. He focused on Rahu's uVR Earth, observing its jade light, "What a pretty colour."

"So that's a DOVA Agent's uVR Earth."

"How are you feeling?" Rahu opened his eyes and asked softly.

"You're awake?" Suraj asked in a hurry, "Those bastards vanished all of a sudden. What happened to them?"

"You needn't know," Saying so, Rahu got up and patted him with a smile, "Just know that you're free. I took care of all the materials they used to blackmail you and others. So, you needn't worry."

"They will never bother you ever again."

"Hic!" Suraj wept in relief, shedding tears profusely as he hugged Rahu, "Thank you! Thank you very much!"

"Haha," Rahu smiled awkwardly as he patted Suraj and broke free of the hug. He motioned him to get some rest and exited the room.

Staring at Suraj's father, he said in all seriousness, "I took care of things here. Please act oblivious to everything and proceed with your lives as usual."

"I'm grateful for your help," Suraj's father bowed, "If not for you, my son would have continued to suffer."

"It's alright. I'm just doing my job." Rahu took his leave, motioning for Deepika to follow him as he reached the exit.

"Dad, what's happening? Who's this?" Right at this time, Suraj's sister arrived home, staring at the two visitors in suspicion.

After all, Deepika's uVR Earth shone black, signalling she was from the military while Rahu's seemed green-the uVR Earth of the entertainment field-at a cursory glance, but a closer look would display the difference. It was jade, meaning he was a DOVA Agent.

Common people like her would never encounter a DOVA Agent, so she couldn't determine his identity immediately. But even she was aware of what a DOVA Agent was and did, staring at her father in a fluster, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened," Rahu flashed her a professional smile, "We just came here to ask a couple of questions."

He then made a mild bow towards Suraj's father, "Then, we'll be on our way, sir."

"Take care," Suraj's father bade them farewell.

Once the duo left, Suraj's sister stared at the shut door in puzzlement, "Just...what happened?"

She looked at her dad, "Is he a DOVA Agent? Who was he? And why did he come here?"

"I think his title was the Liger?" Suraj's father thought as he said, "I believe that's him."

"The Liger?" Suraj's sister was stunned, "What's the most controversial DOVA Agent doing at our house?"

"Just forget it."

"Dad!"

"I said, forget it, alright? I'm hungry, let's have dinner first!"

"They seem pretty normal," Deepika commented once she entered their car. She placed a hand on her earpiece and used it to hear the sounds of discussion within the house, concluding based on the argument between the father and daughter pair, "But will they truly forget this?"

"One of their family members had been tortured for so long."

"You seemed pretty against it at the start. Why the change in mind now?" Rahu asked.

"That is..." Deepika sighed helplessly, "I can't counter your logic."

She then stared at him firmly, "But I'll think of a better way to do this in the future. I promise."

"You've finally spoken like a DOVA Agent's secretary." Rahu said and sighed, "Honestly, I can't say whether or not my decision is correct. The world is changing with the appearance of uVR Earth. We're discovering new stuff as a result almost daily. It would take a few decades before humanity could catch up to our technological advancements."

"Until then, this foul taste in my tongue will never disappear," Rahu commented curtly as he motioned for her to drive, "Head to the location I sent you."

A link appeared on her Augmented Reality, pulling up a map. A route trailed over to the displayed location. Once Deepika accepted it, an arrow appeared before her car, pointing her in the direction she had to drive through.

All sorts of road traffic data were displayed to her in a three-dimensional form, layering reality, allowing her to drive with ease of comfort and take routes with the least traffic.

"Did something happen?" She asked upon seeing Rahu's foul mood, "Did you fail to solve Suraj's case?"

"I didn't," Rahu spoke, "I...took care of it without issues. But, something else happened."

He frowned as his eyes turned cold, in anger, in disbelief, recalling what he had witnessed.

Within Rohit's Virtual Space, the Liger went through all the recorded data. It created a 3D Model of a memory card and transferred all the stored data to it. While that was happening, the Liger's attention fell on a certain video.

In a park, Rohit and his three friends were loitering beside a bench, conversing about their deepfake strategies. They intended to select their next target.

"I know just the person for that." Ashish said in excitement, "Remember that bookworm that's always in the library? I heard she's very innocent. If I were to make an explicit video of her, wouldn't she listen to us just to protect her honour?"

"Man, you have a selective taste." Ramesh commented with a snicker, "She's pretty average in appearance and physique though."

"A real man doesn't care about the exterior," Ashish proclaimed, "It's her inner self that matters."

"This retard," Rohit shook his head and turned silent.

A man was jogging on the track in the park. Since he had arrived within earshot of their conversation, Rohit turned silent and motioned for the others to do the same too.

The jogging man wore baggy sweatpants and a loose shirt that was drenched with sweat. His eyes seemed warm, brimming with a sense of intelligence. A single glance at him revealed that he was an intellectual.

Some people carried that presence with them, and he seemed to be one of them. The man casually jogged past the quartet and went his way. That was the only time they had seen him.

Rohit and his group weren't even focused on the man. So, they proceeded to discuss their next target soon after. But had they revisited this video and paid attention to him, they would have noticed a problematic detail.

When the man jogged closer to Rohit, for an entire two seconds, his shadow vanished. It returned after that. The man's eyes trailed over to the quarter, calmly observing if anyone of them had paid attention to his lack of shadow.

Upon seeing that they hadn't noticed it, his eyes expressed momentary disappointment. With a slightly colder expression, he brushed past their figures.

All objects with mass would cast a shadow in the presence of a source of light. There were no exceptions. The fact that the man's shadow disappeared for two seconds implied one result: He wasn't real.

The Liger looked through the entire video and focused on the people in the park. The uVR Earth of the people there only blinked blue, signalling that they were for civilian use. If any of them had unleashed Induced Reality, their uVR Earth would blink jade. No one in their vicinity seemed to possess a jade uVR Earth. Moreover, the used 3D Model was a human.

Normally, even if there was a 3D Model of a human, such as the masked man originally used by the Kazakhstan DOVA Agent, Talgat Musabayev, such models were based upon a normal human.

To date, none had succeeded in creating the 3D Model of a human equipped with an uVR Earth and made it functional enough to be used through Induced Reality.

Moreover, the uVR Earth on the man wasn't a regular civilian version but a DOVA Agent's. That, and his identity itself were what caused Rahu to be in a state of disbelief.

"It's here!" Rahu said as they arrived at a location. Before the car could halt, he jumped out and rushed through the apartment's flight of stairs, carrying his umbrella, ready to attack with it.

His uVR Earth blinked black as he connected to all the electronic gadgets in the vicinity and scouted the place. Following that, he focused on the camera of a laptop, observing a certain individual in a house on the 14th floor. Through radar, he remained vigilant as he arrived at a halt before the respective house, sensing the position of the individual inside.

"Huff..." He took in deep breaths and calmed his panting self. Slowly, he raised his hand, hesitated for a moment and knocked on the door, sensing the individual within approach the door and slowly open it, revealing a youth around 21 years of age.

A graduate that had just arrived in the city recently and had yet to settle in fully. His rental home lacked any furniture, for he hadn't saved enough to buy them yet.

The youth stared at Rahu, startled by the latter's glare, "W-Who are you?"

"Come out," Rahu glared at the youth as he stabbed forth with his umbrella; his pupils dilated, observing a knife-wielding hand phase through the umbrella and reach for his face.

The Liger jumped out and met the knife when followed by a twist of the wrist, the knife curved around its jaw and stabbed into its neck, lodging in deep. The Liger collapsed to the ground, revealing the face of the man that had appeared before the youth.

His hand holding the umbrella trembled as Rahu stared at the man in closeup, asking in a fluster, "Is...is that really you..."

"Brother?"