Thursday, November 15, 2018

The Dark Herbalist 4: Finding a Body





The Dark Herbalist IV
Finding a Body
by Michael Atamanov





Release - December 27, 2018



Second Thoughts


My game session abruptly ended with a message that my character had been suspended. The screen went black and I was unceremoniously ejected from Boundless Realm.
No real surprise though. It was an easily predictable and even inevitable consequence of breaking clear instructions from the President of the corporation and warning Taisha the NPC Thief to run away. But what would happen to me next? Lying in the darkness of the virtual reality capsule, I was counting the seconds before it would unlock and trying to anticipate the consequences of my disobedience. I had probably already been fired from the Boundless Realm Corporation and that, most likely, would not be the end of it. Nevertheless, I was deeply ambivalent to anything they might do to me. Reprimands, dressing down, firing or even a permanent ban from the game didn’t seem that bad. I had just learned I was dead!!! There was no other way to interpret the video of the funeral I'd just seen. So in comparison with my death in the real world, every other issue seemed utterly miniscule and didn't even merit attention.