In an instant, he lost consciousness.
Three hours later, the monitor beeped rhythmically in the middle of a room filled with the smell of medicine and antiseptic solution.
For a while now, only the soft and hysterical sobs of three women had filled the third-class ward.
Alex's eyelids slowly began to move when he felt drops of water fall onto his cheek.
“My child is still so young... Oh, God... how could you do this? Wasn't our family's suffering enough? Alex, my son... he was just about to start high school!”
The sobs of the two girls beside their mother were muffled and uneven.
The hospital lights' hazy white glow stabbed at Alex's vision. His head felt heavy, his throat was dry, and his body was limp, as if he'd just been dragged out of an incredibly deep abyss.
“Mmnh...” His fingers moved slightly.
“Wake up! Big Brother Alex is awake!” a girl's sobs immediately burst out beside the bed.
Alex frowned slightly before finally managing to open his eyes a few centimeters. His vision was still blurry. Slowly, however, the faces around him began to come into focus.
A thin woman with swollen eyes cradled his head, while two little girls cried and clutched his blanket tightly.
Alex's body immediately tensed. “Mom, you brought my sisters—”
The young man's words stopped abruptly. In this simulated life, some people were merely NPCs ordered into his subconscious realm.
But there were also other cases, in which people from the real world were drawn in because they wanted to experience life in a dream. Some wanted to use a false life lasting years to study, while others wanted to experience a different life.
Some were inserted for the purposes of the suspect's life.
Alex wasn't sure that his mother and two younger sisters were merely unreal NPCs.
Had Sunrise Entertainment managed to force his mother and two younger sisters to take part in this simulated life? Given his mother's strong mentality and her desire to protect him, it was no wonder they'd been deceived and made it all the way here.
“Oh, God... thank goodness... thank goodness you're awake, son.” Tears fell endlessly from the woman's face. Her wrinkled, darkened hands, roughened by hard work, gently stroked her son's face.
Alex's two younger sisters immediately began sobbing as well.
“Big Brother... we were so scared....”
“The doctor said you could be paralyzed if we don't have surgery on your leg.”
Alex froze, his chest tightening at the sight of his mother and sisters crying so bitterly. They didn't know this life wasn't real, and that his body here was merely an invention of their minds. Even if he had to lose his right leg, Alex didn't feel the slightest bit sad.
“Don't worry, son. I'll find a way to raise the money for your operation.”
“Mom.” Alex's voice was weak and soft.
He had returned to the age of seventeen. In this life, he was just about to start high school because he'd entered elementary school late back then.
The Director apparently didn't want him to continue his education and find a way out of this difficult situation, so he had simply crippled this critical point in his life by sacrificing one of Alex's legs in an accident.
“Mom, could you leave me alone for a little while?”
Alena—the woman—understood that her son needed some time alone. Covering her mouth to hold back her sobs, she pulled the curtain closed around the ward.
Meanwhile, in the real world, only ten minutes had passed as Alex's life played out like a movie. Seeing the handsome face of the seventeen-year-old in pain after just suffering an accident, the viewers' comments became biased.
The live-stream comment section exploded again.
K821: [Uh... this suspect is really handsome!]
K1187: [His mother looks so sincere. I swear, she made me cry!]
K6621: [For the first time, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable watching this live broadcast...]
K9012: [Why does this season's simulation feel so realistic? Look at the sweat and pain on Alex's face—it looks completely real. I feel like I'm watching a life of punishment. Does he feel the pain in the real world?]
K41431: [Bastard! Why doesn't he just die already?]