Silence falls over the kitchen as Jason waits for an answer to his question. It drags on for what feels like a long time before his mother rubs the back of her neck and answers.

“Well, uh hmm. I guess to start on your question, the technology and machinery used for full immersion VR is incapable of reading your mind. Even now scientists cannot interpret the fine details of what each neuron firing in the brain would mean. In any other VR application, that is where you can stop. Just not possible. The pods only send and receive nerve signals to fool you into thinking you’re somewhere else.”

“NeoRealm is an odd duck though. There are reasons it has dominated the world. Though let me reiterate, the machinery can not read your mind and no one could pull up what you are thinking, NeoRealm or not. The System can’t even read your mind or anyone’s mind, actually. That includes the locals, by the way. Though that isn’t a rare thing. Once any program reaches sapience, the signals get too complex for others to parse. Makes it really easy to test for it, which is nice.”

“Anyway, as I said, none of our technology can read your mind. Now I can’t talk too much further on the subject except to say that a truth rarity skill really does represent a personal truth. That the System gets this information from NeoRealm and as far as researchers have been able to find they aren’t faked through extended observation by the System. You’re a smart boy, so I am sure you can fill in some of the blanks on your own. For now though, I should head out and pick up some more choc... groceries.” And she slides around Jason.

With eyebrows raised, Jason watches her leave the apartment. Once the door is closed, he shakes his head and checks the time. ‘Well that took a bit of time. Though it was interesting to find out that the locals are actual people. It does make you wonder how the company has gotten away with basically letting people go around killing others. Probably at the start it was under the general ignorance of people saying it was just a video game.’

‘Still the mind reading thing is a bit disturbing. Though honestly it sounds more like the will of heaven from my old life. Some mysterious non-entity sitting on high, which judges you. I never worried about it and I know the gods can’t read your mind either so until I get more powerful it is probably best I drop this line of thought for the moment.’

And with that, Jason files it all away. Sure, just like anyone else it doesn’t want to stay out of mind like when you tell someone to not think of a pink elephant. Through the use of some common meditation techniques, he is able to clear his mind. This however takes up the rest of the time he had out of the pod.

Jason looks down at his half drunk bottle of chocolate milk and shakes his head before chugging it down. Time waits for no one and that is even more true at NeoRealm’s five times speed. A few quick stretches later and he is back in the pod and then back in the game.

As Jason gets up off his bedroll, he can smell some meat cooking over the fire. Peter noticing he was back waves him over. “Got breakfast going! You alright with some meat to start the day? Don’t worry, it isn’t a cat. I know you travellers have a bit of a hangup on eating them. Though mind you, we don’t eat actual cats here either. What we do eat are the swarm cats but that doesn’t really count. There isn’t enough of a mind in there to even cover all of sentience, let alone a spark of sapience.”

Jason laughs at this, “I’m good for some, smells good after all. Though I think with the cat thing it has more to do with their looks and how many people have kept them as pets in our history.”

Peter shrugs, “That sounds true enough. Not that we don’t have people who keep pets. I even know some kitsune who like to keep foxes as pets. That just freaks me out though because if they live long enough the fox can turn into a kitsune. Like, really? You’re keeping them as a pet and then at some point they might just turn into someone from your own species?”

Peter shakes his head, “I just can’t get over it. Sure, not every fox can turn into a kitsune but those kept as pets are actually more likely to do so. Something about sympathetic magical connections, or some such.”

Jason grabs one of the cooked skewers of meat and takes a bite. Decent flavor, but a little under-salted for his taste. Finished with the bit he sighs, “Well with my people some have claimed a pet is like a child that never grows up. At least here the pet grows up. Though if I had to guess this probably comes from far back in the kitsune's history. Since it is more common for foxes to become a kitsune when around other kitsune tribes might have kept them to bolster their ranks. It definitely doesn’t hurt that a kitsune born from a fox will be more powerful than others.”

Peter nods his head as he takes a couple more skewers off the fire. “That actually would make sense. Though it would have to have happened a looooooong time ago for us to not know the why of it now. Most people can live quite a while already with just the lifespan gained from levels. The kitsune have a leg up on them because they have a lifespan similar to my people’s. That is actually part of why the elves and the kitsune have been able to work so well together here.”