“Mr Corden, Doctor Jennings is ready to see you now” A mechanical female voice echoes in the waiting room

Standing up with a small back stretch, Ray makes his way over to his apparent doctor.

He had been blocked from LEO due to capsule nutrients being low, when he had been teleported back to the ‘main’ world.

He had also received an automated appointment with a doctor for a physical checkup as well as a psychiatric one, from ZOONIUS, the company which created LEO.

With little better to do then order a refill for his Capsule, he had gone to his physical checkup.

Tussling his long unkempt hair, he traverses the endless white corridor breathing in the sterilized air.

After a short while, he reaches the door saying: Doctor Jennings.

Knocking on the door he hears a female voice saying “enter: from the inside.

He is immediately greeted by an aging woman who quickly glances his way before pointing to the chair in the center of the room.

Swiveling her desk of tools towards him, she begins with reflexive reactions.

A few minutes of that, and she confirms that his reactions are still in check.

She moves onto heart-rate, blood pressure and all kinds of bodily fluid levels.

All seems to check out normal according to her.

Claiming she forgot that she required another tool, she leaves the room temporarily.

Alone, Ray decides to conduct a small experiment himself.

After being this so called Blood Drinker for two months, he felt slightly worried as to whether it would have any bodily effect on him.

Taking an incisor from the desk he pokes his finger with it. The prick is dull to him, but blood still wells on it.

Taking it further, he slices it down his hand. The pain is akin to someone tickling him lightly, even if blood is pouring out of his hand freely.

Gulping fearfully at the newfound information, he misses his doctor re-entering, gasping at him and moving quickly towards him.

Reacting to her touch, he slices the incisor towards her, stopping himself when he realizes what he’s doing. But he’s already cut a thin gash on her hand and her blood sprays all over his mixing with it.

Dropping the incisor he stumbles away while she shrieks in pain, dropping her own knife.

Sprinting down the corridor, his nostrils fill with the metallic smell of blood, which sends indistinguishable drool down the corners of his mouth.

Bursting into a bathroom, he resists the growing temptation, the hunger that eats away at his insides and drowns his bloody hand in ice cold water.

Soon all the blood is washed away in a crimson river and after wrapping many towels around his fresh wound, the blood subsides somewhat.

Quickly making his way out of the clinic, he drives shakily back home and locks himself inside.

Sighing loudly in relief, he slides down to sit, back to the door.

He doesn’t understand it, doesn’t understand why he had that kind of reaction, or why his doctor was holding a knife.

Too much terrorized his mind, food would do him better.

Dragging himself to the kitchen, he took out two different things; a raw steak and a ready meal.

He put the ready meal in the microwave and waited.

When it finally pinged, he poured it into a bowl and began eating.

A pungent flavor and rotting texture assaulted his mouth, forcing him to regurgitate it immediately.

Gulping down what vomit remained in his mouth, he moves on to the steak; he holds it over his mouth, squeezing the blood out .

Certainly, the blood tastes metallic but still good, intoxicating even.

Whatever hunger he may have had disappears and he drops the steak into the bin terrified.

He doesn’t know how, but he’s becoming ‘It’.

Cleaning up the mess, he throws it down the trash chute, before escaping to his room, hiding there in fear.

…

“Hmm, raw streak which seems to be squeezed dry, a ready meal and a large amount of vomit. Interesting” A woman with sleek black hair, wearing a tan cap, blue shirt and blue trousers rummages through the recent trash.

Taking out a notepad, she scribbles down a few notes before leaving the trash and heading towards the entrance of the apartment complex.

Taking a large cardboard box with her, she takes the elevator to the fourteenth floor.

On the way, she pricks her finger and covers it in some medical tape, letting it get damp with blood.

Arriving, she knocks on the eighth door, which soon opens revealing a haggard looking man.

This man, whose black hair is unkempt, beard unshaven and eyes look swollen from crying, looks up at her and immediately gains both life and fear in his eyes.

“Come in” He manages to wheeze before quickly retreating into the kitchen.

Smiling inwardly, she walks inside and towards the capsule.

“The refilling process won’t take too long will it?” He asks from the kitchen, over the sound of running water.

“No, it will only take a few minutes” She replies while unboxing a large pulsating red cell.

Opening up the capsule maintenance door, she replaces the dying blue one with the new red one.

Closing it back up, she opens the main door and looks at the once blue gelatin turn a deep red.

Taking the small pen knife from her pocket, she takes off the glove and cuts her hand deeply, before putting the glove back on.

“It’s done, you should be able to re-enter now” She calls to him

He appears from the kitchen, chugging a bottle of water with furious need.

Dousing himself with some, he looks at the blood red gelatin.

“Why is the color different?” He quickly asks before he begins drinking a second bottle

“We found a more efficient combination of nutrients and chemicals to sustain you for a year rather than just three months. No point wasting resources to sell something worse right?”

He nods while drinking the water. It was common knowledge for those who owned a capsule that the gelatin would provide nutrients to the body as well as the chemicals within there would maintain the gelatin, destroying impurities such as excrement from the user.

She raises her non-gloved hand for a handshake, which he takes.

Closing the door behind her, she lets a dark smile creep across her face.

So the psychological changes are beginning to take effect, let’s see how my new solution would help with the physical

Chuckles bounce around the elevator as it takes her down and away from her unknowing and unwilling

experiment.

…

He had waited most of the day and late into the night, but no police were at his door. Nobody was coming to take him away or reprimand him for his actions at the clinic.

It was…odd. Strange that nothing had happened but that delivery lady refilling his capsule.

Sighing to relieve his nervousness, he slouches onto the couch and turns on his small TV.

Flicking through the many channels, he stops momentarily at his local news channel as the clinic he had gone to this morning was on screen.

[“-ctor Jennings was arrested and quickly transferred to the Midland's Asylum. According to eye-witness reports, she had a mental breakdown causing her to lash out at both herself and her patients. Due to this incident, the Goodman's clinic is to be temporarily cl-”]

Pressing the mute button, he did nothing but stare blankly at the silent reporter on the screen.

He shivered in fear, not because he was on the verge of being killed by Jennings, but because somewhere deep within him he knew, he knew this was not the truth.

But he did not allow himself to believe that; to believe that he was the cause of all this. For he did know she came back holding a knife. he let himself believe it was because something went wrong in her mind.

Fearfully, he retreats to his capsule and plunges into the red gelatin, for he knows that in LEO at least it’s just a game.

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Author's Corner:

Heyyy! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I don't really have much else to say ubt the next part will be the last for this mini real life arc (for now)!

Also apparently someone gave me a bad review T_T:

[too many characters, the mc name is only ever brought up in the intro chapter. no time outside of the game. when the blood drinker went to get his curse removed the priest should have asked more questions as to how he got it, and should have known what is wrong with him way sooner before all the killing started.

the only progress the mc makes is that he heals faster. no character growth or anything like that]

So questions you can hopefully answer me:

1. do you think i have too many characters??

2. do you not like my characters, and how can i improve on them if you don't?

3. do you think my 'MC' has not had any character growth (ok fair point he really hasn't shown much in the last arc for him not really being there).

4. would you like to see more time outside the game?

Apart from that, please tell me anything else you like for it'll help me write a better fiction for you!

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD