He then told her a bunch of numbers about the phone he was carrying in real life. Although he knew that this was a big risk, he trusted her and was sure that she would not give anyone his number.
Then he watched her leave the game. He also chose to leave the game to find himself inside the capsule again.
He took a deep breath. What happened during the game, despite the short time, was a lot and stressful. He opened the capsule and got out quickly. He knew very well that every second had its price.
While he was waiting for Oya’s call, he decided to go and have a decent meal. He then moved to the lower cabin.
He used his phone to search for the nearest restaurant. He found himself in a place at the northern west Hept. It was a stretch of desert, but he found a small town there.
He modified the orders of the automatic pilot to move the aircar towards the town. Once he reached it, he had found a place to eat already. it was a restaurant at a small hotel there.
He decided to request a fast meal from the hotel restaurant while waiting for Oya to contact him. Within minutes, the meal was in front of him in the suite.
He started eating with total satisfaction with the quality of food at this hotel. After paying the bill, he discovered that he had exceeded the deadline for meeting Roliv.
He felt anxious, especially that he had emphasized to Oya that she must contact him before entering the game again.
He looked at his phone, to find that he was off game for over two hours now. He regretted that he did not get her phone number as he could now call her.
Pessimistic ideas began sweeping his mind while he was sitting in his aircar opposite the open capsule holding his phone nervously.
His eyes only fixed the clock on his phone screen which occupied a small space in the upper section of it.
After three hours without any communication from Oya, Ibro could not control himself and immediately entered the capsule. He closed its cover to enter the game directly.
He found himself appearing in the same large square of Shonty city. He looked at the far distant spot where he and Oya disappeared from the game before.
The first thing he did was to open his contacts list. He looked at the name of Oya to find that she was offline.
He was overwhelmed with anxiety. A bad premonition began to arouse in him about what happened to Oya.
Was her relationship with him discovered? Or was she suspected that she hid information from everyone?
Was she now-imprisoned? Will they kill her? A series of dark ideas began to hit him one thought after another. He found himself moving from his place to stand in front of the palace’s grand door.
In front of his eyes, a large number of the people of Shonty city gathered there. He crossed the palace gate to find at least thousands waiting for him. He noticed that they gathered in two separate groups.
One was larger in comparison to the other group. Their clothes and equipment gave him a strong feeling that they were part of a strong regular army. He did not need to know the identity of each of the two groups.
The largest was the soldiers brought by Dozier. The smaller group was the ones responsible for exploration and searching for mines, headed by the young and elegant Ouly.
The emergence of Ibro came to attract the attention of everyone, while a group of Shonty city leaders headed towards him. Roliv took the initiative asking:
“You are too late, Ibro!”
Anger appeared on his face and of those around him, but Ibro did not care about this, as he was wandering in his mind about a much heavier issue than his delay.
“Sorry, I had to plan many arrangements in my world, so I was late.”
“By mentioning your world there is someone who has come here from your world. She is called Oya.”
His eyes shone suddenly and his dark face returned to life again, then he rushed asking:
“Where is she? is she still in the palace?”
Everyone in front of him was astonished by his sharp reaction. Ibro added:
“She is one of the closest people to me and I have been waiting for her for a long time, but I have not been able to communicate with her.”
“I understand your situation well, Ibro. But you will not be able to communicate with her in the current period.”
Roliv shook his head slowly. Ibro felt strange about his words, and he asked:
“Why won’t I be able to communicate with her?”
“This is because she left you a message. When she gave it to me, she told me that she would disappear from the game for a while. You will not be able to communicate with her. She explained everything in this scroll.”
Just as he said it, a scroll appeared from nowhere. He then gave Ibro this scroll. Ibro looked at it closely.
It was a regular roll of paper which was common in the game. He held this scroll eagerly and anxiously. He opened it to find shocking words in front of him.
“Welcome, Ibro. I would have liked to say these words face to face to you, but I will not be able to communicate with you in the game for the upcoming period. I don’t know what happened.
I’m pretty sure that you know I live in a certain unknown place by force. In this place, everyone like me has begun to undergo intense interrogations about you.
Initially, I did not care about all of these interrogations. But recently I discovered that they use a secret drug.
This drug compels everyone who takes it to talk about his secrets. I have no time to escape or find a solution to this drug, but all I can do is to protect you.
I need you to know that in these few days, being by my side was very important to me. I felt with you things that I had not felt in a long time.
You made me feel comfortable, safe, and confident. Do not worry about me, as I will overcome this ordeal no doubt. As for you, all I can do about you is to forget as much as possible about you and your plans and secrets.
I hope that what you told me about the Apidon world and Rioneed game rule about forgetting everything that happened at Apidon world after death was true.
For now, I have no choice but to die once to forget you and forget every memory and detail that happened with you in Apidon.”
“Perhaps they will discover my relationship with you in the game especially when you told me about the strange bodies in the capsule.
But they will not find any valuable information that will help them find you, especially your phone number which I will definitely forget after I die, or so I hope.
Promise me to remain strong and solid in the path you drew for you and me and continue in your struggles and adventures.
Be sure to succeed as your success is my success too even if I’m not with you. I want you to know that I hoped to be beside you during all this, but destiny didn’t give me a choice, I have to leave you.
At the very least I will know that you are safe and then I do not care about what will happen to me.
No matter what happens to me, you will always be a thorn in their sides. I like you and I have no other way but to forget you to protect you.
Always be well and avoid me in the game as much as possible. I do not know their reaction after discovering my relationship with you.
Just stay away from me because I am a time bomb that you can’t bear the consequences of exploding on your face, Ibro.
Finally, I will miss you, and I hope that our circumstances were different, and then maybe we would have stayed together.
Your best friend: Oya”.
Despite his silence and his poker face, those around him felt that the young man in front of them had been subjected to violent shock and a terrible catastrophe.
Ibro remained clinging to the letter written by Oya, and his eyes did not move away from her name written at the end of this message.
He felt angry, not from his enemies but from himself. Anger because he was so weak that he couldn’t even protect Oya. Even after his return from the future, armed with all the future events he knew, he was still weak.
In the end, he could neither change her fate nor his. He was angry at his impotence, angry at his helplessness. Now he felt that whatever he did, he wouldn’t be able to change anything.
A bitter and sour feeling that he had never felt before began to invade him massively. Even in the darkest circumstances, and when he found himself, like everyone, as slaves in the game, he didn’t feel like that.
He realized how unrealistic his childish dreams were. If he really wanted to protect someone, he must have the force to do it.
Here and at this moment he felt that everything he had planned before was not enough, or more precisely, it was not realistic enough. How could he fight superpower schemes on his own?
Perhaps if he had enough time, he would be much stronger than now, but he didn’t have that luxury.
He was not fighting the superpowers or their plans; rather he was fighting time and destiny.
His old plan of treading his steps cautiously did not match his struggle with time. Time was a dangerous enemy that did not stop; it did not recognize care, caution, fear, or hesitation.
Time continued to move forward without mercy. If he really wanted to win this battle, he should not move slowly, he should not hesitate. From now on, he should be more aggressive and take bigger risks with more courage.
How did he think he could win with his great care and those slow steps? If he didn’t risk everything, then how would he win? No victory without suffering and no win without risk.
This phrase extracted him from the clutches of frustration, despair, and failure. He shouldn’t accept her sacrifice and forget her as she asked, rather he must strive so hard to save her.
“Ibro are you okay?”
The sound of Roliv had awakened him from his deep thoughts. He noticed that he was still in Shonty city Governor Palace, surrounded by a huge number of people.
He looked at Roliv to discover his obvious concern for him. Ibro smiled faintly while quietly saying:
“Nothing, just unpleasant news.”
“It seems to be more than bad news.”
“Don’t worry sir. There is an emergency that I have to manage personally in my world so I will not be able to enter with you now for the world of Renalt.”
“What do you mean, Ibro?”
Ibro didn’t reply at once but was thinking about how to save Oya. After minutes of thinking he said:
“I need around two days in my world time which means ten days by Rioneed time. During which everyone can precede me in the world of Renalt. After I finish my issues, I will follow you as soon as possible.”
