63 Does it ring a bell - 2

"A what?" asked Morpheous.

"A bloody video game story," yelled Atticus. "You guys are trying to dupe me with a video game story? God bless my student Conrad for he is keen into games and this was the very game that I had gifted him this year on his birthday."

Unable to understand a single word or the context, both Eva and Morpheous looked at each other with a puzzled expression.

Atticus was almost fuming and getting outside the jeep he started pacing as well.

His heart had sunk completely for the arrival of these two meant that his theories were correct, his calculation was correct. He thought that it was now his chance to prove the people wrong who thought of him as an insane lunatic.

But these two had conned him. He had never felt this abysmal.

Feeling deeply heartbroken he went and sat on the porch.

Morpheous watched him mumbling to himself and wondered what and how had he offended the man. Time was running out and so was his patience. So calming down his own frayed nerves which had been unsettled by his baseless accusations, he walked up to him and asked,

"Shall we discuss it like adults? Because I seriously have no idea how I have hurt you in any way. In my entire life, I have never lied. And I do not understand how and why do you think we have lied to you?"

Looking at his etched up brows and his unsettled stance, Atticus paused his solo rant for a moment. His face looked dead serious and his amber eyes looked so clean that he felt as if he was glancing at his very pure soul for a moment.

So he took out his phone again and browsed the images for the game and said,

"Can you see here... This is a game that is exactly similar to..."

"Sorry for interrupting but what does a game mean here in your realm?" asked Morpheous as the pictures were confusing him. In his world, a game meant either a friendly run or a contest of throwing heavy stones the farthest or swimming the fastest.

"You seriously don't know what a game is?" lamented Atticus but then instantly regretted his choice of words and his tone because both their faces were completely blank.

'Either they are really good at acting or you have acted on your prejudice,' thought Atticus and decided to give them a chance. So he explained,

"It's a virtual reality game. A person who designs a game creates a world and a player would enter that world, complete the tasks, and gain points. There are battles that your fight, there are worlds that you build. It is like a system. The more points you gain by completing the tasks, the stronger you will become. But it's not real. It's all the imagination of the game creator."

"And then what?" asked Morpheous.

"Then nothing, I mean if you fight against other players then you win something in a contest like money or a medal maybe. I am not sure, Conrad must be knowing more about it." Then browsing through the images Atticus said,

"See this is the Kingdom of Nubia."

"This is the prophecy that you just said."

"And this is the world-building map of the game." Atticus then zoomed the map and showed Nubia and Ambracia on it and then he swiped to one more image.

"This is the hardest world-building game in the world as of now and the last level leads to a place that you just told, Vanaheimr. So tell me, why should I trust you and how should I trust you? You are telling me the story of a video game and you think I will start believing?"

"But we don't know a thing about the video game?" retorted Morpheous.

"So you are saying that you have never played this game? You didn't write on my wall yesterday night? You didn't send me the blank diary?"

"No," said Morpheous solemnly.

But a simple NO didn't suffice. It couldn't suppress the brooding questions and lingering doubts in Atticus's head because he had been a victim of multiple loose jokes before. Some were even to the extremes of a Nobel Prize Award email and congratulatory message bombardment afterward and what followed next was utter shame and humiliation.

Seeing the mistrusting eyes of Atticus, Morpheous realized that it wasn't going to be easy to explain anything to Atticus. It was already way past noon and he didn't want to lose any time. So looking at Atticus he said,

"Can you show me the map of Riverdale one last time?"

Atticus looked at him all puzzled but then showed him the map. Morpheous imprinted it in his memory and then bowed in front of him and said,

"I do not possess any means to make you believe in me. You have your own thoughts and I shall not force you to trust me. But still, we are thankful for the kindness and hospitality that you have shown to us. Not sure how, but if you ever need any help and if I am here around, then I would be glad to help you out." and saying that Morpheous held the hand of his sister and took his leave.

Reluctantly Eva followed Morpheous and they both started walking away.

In a weird way, a pang of separation started pinching Atticus and irritated with the sudden fondness that he had developed in his heart for the two he went inside and picked up the leather diary and their old clothes and stormed back towards the porch.

"Don't leave your stuff behind!" he yelled and threw all the stuff that he was holding in his hands.

When the diary landed on the ground the electricity bill dropped out again. So he bent down and picked up the electricity bill and pursing his lips he yelled,

"This is mine. I need to know how much is this month's bill. So I am gonna take it back."

But he got the shock of his life when he saw the date on the bill.

01/09/2021

But it was the year 2020 now.

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