Long Island

Chapter 5: On top of the hill

Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages. 

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Swamy was walking funny. Though he did not realize that. He walked usually to class, but everyone who saw him was secretly laughing. He entered the class and made his way to his seat, or to say where he regularly used to sit. He groaned! Rajan and Manish were animatedly chatting with Sneha and Himali. As Swamy approached, all their eyes moved towards him. Swamy greeted them and moved to his seat. Everyone kept looking at him however.

Swamy sat down. But quickly stood up. And then slowly relaxed on the bench. He sighed. He looked up at the four who seemed to be still looking at him, surprised, for some reason.

"Hey whats going on?" he asked.

They looked at each other and then Rajan decided to speak,

"Swamy, are you suffering from constipation or something?"

"Eh!! No I am not, what do you mean?"

"Well, just that you were walking sorta weird. And then you jumped before sitting. So we wondered whether you had an incident with your um... *back*, you know", Rajan smiled.

Saying which the girls started giggling. Even Manish couldn't keep a straight face and started laughing.

Was Swamy walking funny! He hadn't realized it. And now that he thought about it, he had jumped up while sitting down, but that was because....no, there had been no pain. Though if he was, he had a strange suspicion as to what had caused it. He shivered remembering it. Though he felt no pain in the real world, he was still affected. A couple of hours later his walk returned to normal, though he still slowly relaxed onto his seat while sitting down.

Back home Swamy tried to search for his condition. He was worried that maybe he was affected mentally which would not be good. Soon he found what he was looking for. It said this condition was "realized mental awareness". When the mind is affected by something in virtual reality, it treats the body as if it had gone through the same experience, even though the body is not actually affected. Normally the brain forgets the sensations of virtual reality as soon as you log off, working off the input received by the real body. But sometimes, extreme sensations may cause the brain to unconsciously remember the sensations of the game. In these situations, it takes a little while for the mind to readjust to listening to the real body's input. Ofcourse, because the brain believes in the sensations, it affects the body unconsciously. The article said;

"Your real body would act the same as your virtual body for a while. It happens because your brain which has been receiving information from virtual reality takes a while to realize that it is now not in the game. To simplify it consider your brain sharing two bodies. When you are playing the game, your brain acts on your virtual body. receiving information from it. But when you wake up, the brain is now getting information from your real body. Sometimes it happens that your brain takes time adjusting, so a subconscious part of the brain still believes it is within the game. For example, when you had a long car or train ride or even a cruise ride, you still feel like you are shaking or bouncing even when you are lying on your bed. In that case your brain realizes that you are still, but your body has trouble adapting. Reverse it, and your body is alright, but your brain takes time adapting. That is what is called in common terms virtual sickness or realized mental awareness.

Depending on the extent of sensations, this effect may be temporary or permanent. It is the reason why researchers insist on dulling extreme sensations like pain in the virtual reality environment. It may still affect us temporarily which can be easily solved by resting and not moving immediately."