Kira:

I enter the "Everlasting Love" room at the invitation of a guy I met on a matchmaking app. This is the first time I have used the app. The room is a replica of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, but completely empty. It seems like I just got scammed.

I stand on the edge and peer into the distance of non-existent city life. It is clear that this huge cliff and skyscrapers seen from here in the red light of a bright sunset is just an illusion, but for some reason I feel uncomfortable.

In vain I turned on physical access, but on the other hand, fears must be fought.
I want to jump off and experience the feeling of flying from such a great height. I will be quickly kicked out of the server, but I'm still afraid. Elysium seems to come to life before our eyes, every day more realistic, especially if you connect the physical access.

"Sorry I'm late," I hear an unfamiliar male voice behind me.

Turning around, I see that guy from the app. Swarthy, with green eyes, a tattoo above the eyebrow, dark hair with icy blue dye at the ends is braided into short dreadlocks and gathered in a ponytail.

"Hi," I say calmly.

"How long have you been waiting?" he smiles.

"How did you do this?"

"What are you talking about?" he continues to smile, only now with incomprehension in his eyes.

"I received an invitation to the location, but when I arrived, no one was here. It's impossible. You can only invite a user while you're staying directly in the room."

After my words his smile was replaced by a grim grin.

"It's time to get used to the fact that everything is possible in this world."

With these words, he rushes to me and wrings my hands behind my back. Games are games, but I wasn't ready for such a turn of events, so I unconsciously scream.

Suddenly, two more people appear in the location - dressed in all black, with masks on their faces.

"Great job, Jaseh," one of the guys says, moving closer.

"I checked her accounts, she has over a thousand physical minutes, she must be rich," Jaseh who is holding me smiles nastily again.

How did he know the number of minutes available to me?

The masked guy pats his friend on the shoulder approvingly, then looks back at me with his bright yellow eyes.

"Will you share some minutes?" his sweet voice makes me sick.

"I came here for fun, not for charity," I snap, trying to wriggle out of Jaseh's strong grasp.
The masked user laughs and then grabs my hair and lifts his head so that my face is directly in front of his. That's when I remember that I have physical access turned on, and I feel the pain just like in reality.

"Let me go!" I squeal, releasing one hand from Jaseh's grip and tugging at my own hair to ease the pain.

"No, I won't let you go. See how it works. You thought, since you got into the metaverse, then everything here is illusory? No way. Apparently, in reality, you have enough money to buy so many physical minutes. You're just a spoiled rich babygirl, but people like us are a little less fortunate, and the only way out is to live here, that's why we need a lot of minutes, plus our own locations. And you can help us with this. Do you want to do charity? No problem! Let's do it together!" his voice is hard, angry. A face with a wild smile that I can feel even behind the black mask.

He squeezes my hair even tighter and literally drags me across the pavement with his knees. The pain is unbearable. And I can't even think that I'm in the metaverse, it feels so real.
I try to turn off physical access, but all in vain - it dawns on me too late that my account has been hacked, like the whole location.

"Say the password or we'll throw you off the cliff!" he yells, kicking me to the ground.
The password is required to get off all of my physical minutes. And if they were able to hack the account pretty quickly, then they need my help to access the minutes.

Once on the ground, I quickly cover my head with my hands so that this bastard doesn't grab my hair again.

I need to exit Elysium immediately. Right now. But I can't disconnect from the choker. No one can help me, I'm lying in my room completely alone. I can neither cut down physical access nor log out of the server.

The second masked guy, the least talkative of the bunch, runs up to me and squeezes my shoulder painfully.

"Say the password or we'll kill you for real," he almost growls.

Suppressing the pain, I chuckle.

"And how are you going to 'really' kill me in the metaverse where everything is an illusion, even my own physical sensations? It's just an avatar, or did you think that I would tell you the password on pain of death without thinking that it is simply impossible?"

They look at each other, and the one who positioned himself as the head of this gang of scams again grabs my hand and drags me along the ground.

"I hasten to disappoint you, but have you ever wondered how the choker works? It completely subjugates your brain, and if your choker is broken, then all the pain available to you, thanks to precious minutes of 'happiness', is more real than ever. Your physical body is currently feeling the same as your avatar. The choker itself sends signals of physical pain to the brain, and if we want to kill you for real, it will be as easy as shelling pears. Your brain will leak out of your ears!" he burst out laughing again and throws me to the pavement.

"Say the password!" Jaseh is standing next to me again, holding the knife to my face and twisting my long hair around his fist. Tears flow from my eyes, it is difficult to control feelings.

"One, six, four, two, five, zero," I say quietly, hoping that they will let me go right away. A transparent screen appears above my avatar, showing the deduction of minutes.

The guys look at each other contentedly, but one of them continues to hold me.

"That's it, now leave me," I say in an almost pleading tone.

"No, shorty, we don't need witnesses, but another user killed under mysterious circumstances is just right. Have you read the news?" the most talkative guy in the mask again smilingly looks in my direction.

"So it's not a bug in the metaverse? Are you killing other users for minutes?" I ask in shock, trying to suppress the fear evident in my voice.

"Congratulations, and that's the correct answer!" he starts clapping his hands and laughing annoyingly. His idiotic way of talking infuriates much more than physical assault.

"We'll have to kill you too. I'm sorry our date didn't work out," Jaseh tugs at my hair again and just shrugs.

I don't have time to blink, when all three of them are suddenly thrown away from me at a decent distance, and a roar is heard in the location, similar to an explosion. The guys quickly rise to their feet and huddle together, looking around.

"I see that we have violators right here," I hear husky male voice with a bit of sarcasm.
Another guy appears in front of me, and, apparently, he has nothing to do with these killers. At least for now.

I knew in advance about his appearance in Elysium. This is our first virtual meeting. After the last five years...

Tall, skinny, with messy gray hair and shiny chains on thin, long wrists. Lavender fox eyes stare intently, and a white snake coils around his neck. Massive sneakers on his feet, he is wearing long kosode with a holographic print. For an Elysium user, he looks ordinary, but his behavior is different from others. He acts as if he claims the location no less than the killers.

"Who else are you?" the masked guy yells, heading towards me again.

However, he fails to reach us. In a second he is thrown back to the others. At the same time, the guy with the snake does literally nothing. Standing straight and just watching them.

"You can call me a system administrator for a number of locations, although such a definition doesn't quite suit me. However, it doesn't matter. Say goodbye to your friends," the stranger smiles, revealing small fangs with which he apparently attracts attention. Due to the limitless range of elements of self-expression, users sometimes look as strange as possible, but diverse, and everyone tries to stand out as best they can: tattoos on the eyes, horns, piercings, long nails, a radiant aura, branded items, and so on. Nothing surprises me anymore.

"System administrator?"

Gang of scams doesn't have time to finish the deal and just disappears. It can be assumed that the bastards were thrown out of the server, but as for me, this is too harmless compared to their plans for me.

Now the system administrator is looking at me. No sympathy or empathy on his face.

"Where did they go?" I ask, rising to my feet.

"I blocked them," he replies coldly.

A notification lights up above me - the minutes are credited back.

"Did you do that?"

He just nods.

"Yeah, after this crazy experience, no physical minutes are needed," I sigh.

"Did it hurt that much?"

The administrator tilts his head, looking at me.
"Words can not convey how painful it was."

"It could be worse. Lucky you," he shrugs.

"Thank you for helping me."

"It's just one of my responsibilities. To block offenders," he replies dryly.

I'm a little embarrassed by the oppressive atmosphere of our communication.

"So you're actually a system administrator?"

"Kind of..."

"Interesting. For the first time I meet someone from the support of Elysium. Was it difficult to get such a position?"

"Yes."

He's not very talkative, that's obvious. But I'm still interested.

"My name is Kira," I extend my hand to him. In response, he only looks at me contemptuously.

"I'm Ren," he replies, and mechanically, like a robot, he holds out his hand in response.