She served them a hot green tea with rosemary and chamomile and a few slices of chocolate shortcakes as they sat around the table for the conference.
They talked about the things they need to prepare for the festival and the ceremony for the fallen people of Flight Loki. The budget was settled, the things they needed were acquired and the program was planned as Sandra had suggested.
"So,, is there anything you want to add?" Jayson asked the group.
"I guess that's enough. As expected from our Secretary.." Tori said with a sigh of relief.
"No need to flatter...I'm just doing my job." Sandra replied, blushing.
"Yeah, but I had to admit, she's good at it.." Alex nodded. "You did great again, Ms. Secretary.."
"Stop it. I don't want to hear it from you, idiot." Sandra muttered; rolling her eyes.
"That's mean, huh... why do you hate me so much?" Alex threw his arms in the air.
"Nothing in particular. I'm just getting annoyed when I see our face." She faced Alex and grinned at him.
"Haha,, I like it when you're annoyed," Alex replied with a playful smile.
They settled themselves and talked for a while after they decided to adjourn the meeting. When Alex was about to stand and take his leave, Jayson halted him saying,
"Wait a minute." He gestured a stopping hand.
"What now?" Alex muttered. "I thought we're already done?"
"A mail just arrived." Jayson showed them his phone. "It's from Mr. Louige.." he added.
"Mr. Louige?" Sandra whispered. She thought what would Mr. Rosenwald wants with them. Did something bad happen? She cannot settle her thoughts. A cold sweat ran from her temple.
"He said, we wait for a while. He had something to say." Jayson explained.
Alex took his seat again and sat in wait. But he exclaimed "What does the Special Assistant to the President of Orion and GSSTI wants with the Circa?" he took a big bite with his shortcake and sip his tea.
"I guess I know what he wants to say... let's just wait for him to clear things up," Jayson replied. Jayson received the memo about the Convention that will happen two weeks from now. He read it at home and made the list of participants on his own so that if they will meet with Louige, he'll just have to make him sign the list.
After waiting for a few minutes, Louige arrived and immediately changed the scene into its original LCD showing the interior of the modern high-tech room by just clicking the button on his keys. The LCD engulfed the whole wall fronting the entrance door. Jayson's mouth pouted thinking that he took time to program the scenery to his liking but Louige just changed it in a snap of a finger, pressing a button from his car keys.
"Sorry I took so long. I have to pick up something on the way." Louige said as he went straight to in front of them.
"It's alright, Mr. Louige. We have time to spare, we've just finished our meeting about the ceremony and now we are just passing our time sipping tea."
"Good for you." Louige sighed.
"So, what do we have here? Are we going to discuss the Convention?" Jayson said.
"What Convention?" Tori asked but nobody answered.
Louige hit keys on the keyboard that appeared when he swiped his hand at the edge of the table and flashed something on the LCD behind him. "I want to catch the time I've wasted so let's get this started."
He turned the whole room into a vast desert in the middle of a sand storm. The air was dry, the sun is scorching, and the only thing they had are a bottle of water and a hand knife. Their clothes changed into their avatar's clothes in ROA-RPG only without the weapons they usually have in the game.
"What's all of this in a sudden, Mr. Louige?" Jayson exclaimed. He did not expect to find himself in the middle of the old Sahara Desert with only a few things with them. He immediately thought of the dangers they can face in this arena where they can really get injured due to the specs of the Virtual reality system.
"It's a test, and you have to win over me, or else you will not have a chance to get out from here nor attend the Cypher Conference this year.." Louige replied. "All you need to do is to defeat the final boss."
Suddenly, a huge Scorpion came out from the sand showing his tail, dripping with poison. Its pincers are as big as a bus and its tail stood like a 3-story tower curving towards them.
"Oi, oi.." Andra muttered, taking a step backward.
"How can we fight that stuff?" Paul exclaimed. Sweat lumping like marbles in his forehead, while he trembled in fear.
"More importantly, how can this be possible? I mean, we haven't worn any headgear to be transported in a Virtual reality system." Sandra exclaimed though she barely managed to stop her knees from shaking.
"Indeed this is different from the ROA where you can enter the virtual reality with the used of a headgear." Louige pushed his glasses "The thing is still VR, but with the use of a prototype system where we can send a group of people inside the VR without using the headgear but by a new OS... you have to discover your own way out."
"What the hell is going on?!!" Michiyo screamed as the Scorpion, as big as a 150-passenger airplane, jump towards them, brushing their grounds off.
The Circa was scattered and were thrown in different directions helplessly.
They tried to stand and fight back but the enemy was so big that they cannot even find an opening to strike. Alex, who was good in hand-to-hand combat which they practice in the Judo team, was unable to even land a hit on the opponent with the small knife he had as a weapon. Sandra, who had experience hands-on fighting from a year ago, was trampled only by one of the Scorpion's feet. The other did the same, they were lying on the dry sand, helplessly defeated by the big enemy.
"When you will lose your lifeline in this game.." Louige said in a remote mechanical voice "It will have an effect on your brain when you will go to the real world and your stats in ROA will also be affected." He added. "So try your best to defeat me..."
Alex snapped and charged on the enemy. The thought of being defeated by a program with his life on the line pissed him big time. He went after the pincers to tie it down and weaken the enemy by making it immobile. But unfortunately, his plan didn't work. He was thrown on a rock and his life meter went to reds.
Sandra managed to cut the tendon that locked her and get out under the scorpion's feet, though bathed in poison, she distanced herself to catch her breath leaving her teammates under the enemy.
Jayson, on the other hand, stood on top of a rock overlooking the fight happening under his feet.
"Alex, that's no good.." he shouted "...you should use better than that.." he exclaimed "Ne, Mr. Louige, can we use other methods here, like in the ROA?" he added.
"Suit yourself..."Louige replied.
"If that's the case..." Jayson swiped his hand on his side and a tab opened "Just as I thought.." he hit a few keys and summon a new weapon. "Guys! We can use our weapons stored in the VR from ROA's System, try having yourselves equipped." He shouted.
They scattered and got distant from the enemy. All of them opened their inventories and changed their specs. After equipping themselves, the Circa charged towards the enemy and slaughtered it in no time.
"YAAAH" they shouted in glee. They saw the big scorpion lying on the dry sand, detached from its body parts. It slowly turned into dust and was blown by the hard wind brought by the sand storm.
"Hey, Mr. Louige..." Alex called from afar. "We did it.. We defeated your avatar!" he exclaimed.
A deafening silence engulfed their midst and suddenly, "I wonder..." an evil voice said.
A few seconds later, a bed of scorpions came out from the sand, marching fast towards their circle.
"Seriously?" Andra muttered, clothed in despair, fatigue, and exhaustion.
"I'm thirsty.." Andi whispered in a coarse voice.
"Let's worry about it later,, we have more enemies now.." Jayson stood and pointed his weapon to the enemies to defend himself.
"This can't be happening," Sandra exclaimed. She closed her eyes wishing for someone to save her from this situation. She actually thought of the friend who always got her back when troubles come when they were still young, playing in their secret base. The thought of that friend flooded her memory and unconsciously tried to scream, "Sav---"
That's when a shadow passed over their heads. Sandra thought of a bird crossing the sky, trying to mock their appearance of defeat in front of the hoard of scorpions. But, she didn't hear a bird's cry, instead, she felt the wind gush through her face bringing a familiar scent that made her nostalgic. She opened her eyes and saw a familiar shadow standing in front of her. She stretched her arm and tried to reach the back she chases since she got her consciousness.
She tried to speak "Mark—" but she was stopped by that man's cry.
"RAHHHHHH!" the silhouette shouted as he charged to the raging scorpions bringing only his spear, circling it in the air. Every scorpion that came his way was got slashed, scattered, butchered, and turned into dust. The Circa stood in awe watching the man who acted as their savior.
Sandra fell on her knees. It seemed that all her hard work in fighting the first scorpion rained and weighed her down. Her tears unconsciously fell from her eyes, but she can't understand the reason behind her tears. She actually thought of being happy but a sudden thought made her sad.
They watched him ran through the enemies until he got encircled by them. He stood in the center waiting for his prey to attack him. His dark cloak shimmer in the noon light, his spear shined though tinned in blood, his dark brown wavy hair dances in the nearing sandstorm wind, and his eyes clothed in rage.
He jumped on the head of the first scorpion who attacked him and jumped to the sky. He swiped his hand on his side and hit keys as he flew in the midair.
"Where do you think he's going?!" Paul exclaimed. He tried to stand, though his ankle got sprained from the fight.
"I dunno.." Andra replied. "Had he lost his mind after bathing himself in blood?"
"He's gone mad.." Alex muttered.
He jumped in the midair as if reaching the sky, drawing it close to him.
He felt it in his hand then he exclaimed, "GOTCHA!"
"I lost..." Louige said, adjusting his glasses to his eyes.
They heard what Louige said and they realized their back to the same old room where they have had their meeting.