Chapter 12: End Goal
He drew everyone's attention.
"Has anyone else felt anything off here?" Arthur began.
Jasper perked up, asking what he meant by "off."
"The pain threshold seems... a tad high, don't you think? Like someone cranked the difficulty setting to extra hard mode."
A murmur of agreement spread. Jada answered, "Yeah, it is a little weird. When I slammed my thumb in the door earlier, it definitely hurt, more than it should have for a virtual world's standards."
Alice chimed in, "So everything feels real. What of it?"
Arthur shook his head, saying, "It's more like a hyper-realistic simulation. And the problem is, I haven't been able to log out."
Margaret then burst into laughter and said, "Log out? Arthur, this isn't some cheap VR game. This is Elysium! It's all part of the experiment."
"Experiment?" Arthur repeated. "We weren't told anything about pain being set on high."
Margaret waved him dismissively and said, "Come on, think about it! The whole thing about getting to choose your clan and jutsu—it's all about immersion. They want us to feel like we're actually living in the world of Naruto. And guess what? We can't leave until the game is over."
Her explanation didn't quite hold true. There had been no explicit rules stated to everyone and no feasible way to exit this bizarre trap.