HKYWA 2014 Online Anthology (Fiction 3-6) - page 639

and went to patrol himself but I rejected him. I didn’t want to miss any event.
‘(*snoring) ‘I could not help snoring.’ I had told you to go to sleep,’ NARANBAATAR said. ’I
could not go to sleep and let you patrol.’ We were patrolling, or you could say strolling. ’you don’t
need to worry, I am much stronger than you,’ he patted on my head.‘(*snoring)‘ Seeing I snored, he
laughed. ’To refresh you, let me tell you a story,’ he said. ’Story?’I looked at him. ‘Yes, a story. But
at first, I want to ask you do you know why do we need to kill olgoi-khorkhoi?’ He said.’ No and
can I ask what is olgoi-khorkhoi?’I asked. ’ olgoi-khorkhoi is a bright red worm. Once upon a time,
there was a group of people. They lived in desert from generation to generation. Life in desert was
not easy but they adapted it. Desert became their home, they had never thought of moving out
to other place. Therefore they didn’t realize the change of the world. They just found it was more
difficult to find food and water but they then realized the number of livestock was decreasing,
they knew something wrong.
They finally found that all problems were caused by a big red worm. Everyone was scared
the worm as it had killed many people before. At that time, a man stood up and told others they
should go and kill it. No one dare to do it except that man. The man tried to kill the worm but
he failed. He left his wife and child alone. His wife was depressing and blamed others. She soon
died of grief. Their son was very lonely and sometimes, he thought why he was left alone. Then he
found it was olgoi-khorkhoi’s fault, if there wasn’t olgoi-khorkhoi, his parents would not die and
then he decided to kill olgoi-khorkhoi.’ He said. ’… NARANBAATAR…is’ it your story? I could not
ask. When I tried to talk again, the ground started shaking.’ Earthquake?’ I shouted.
Something was going to come out from the sand. It was a bright red worm with a wide body.
Although I had heard it was a gigantic worm, to a field of view, I still sense scalp numb. ‘It was
the olgoi-khorkhoi! Let’s go back and tell them.’ NARANBAATAR told my hand and ran. That
gigantic worm noticed us and started to chase us.
‘NERGÜI!’The worm spew acid and it was nearly contact me.When the acid that disgusting
worm spew was almost touch me, everything stopped at the moment, just like time has stopped. A
woman appeared. She had long brown hair and wore a queer dress, but the most conspicuous was
her eyes, it was lilac in color. She looked at me and gave me a smile.
‘Who…who are you?’I was shocked by the turn up of her ‘I am an AI and the master of this
game. You can call me 01.’ 01 replied. ‘Excuse me, are you kidding?’I could not trust what she had
said. It was impossible! Our technology was unable to produce such a realistic program unless
she was made in the future. ’No, I am serious,’01 sighed,’ I had to apologize for pulling you inside
the game. This game is directly linked with your brain, that’s why you could see, smell, hear and
touch. If you get hurt in the game, you will also receive damage. A normal player would have
security system to protect him but you aren’t so if you are killed, you will die,’ 01 said. ‘Wait! You
said I am not a normal player? How can you link my mind with the game? It’s impossible!’I asked
doubtfully. She didn’t answer. It seemed that she had something to tell but hesitate to do so. I was
just looking at her. Finally, 01 determined on telling me the truth. ’I could not cheat you, I would
be deleted if I do so……I could tell you the truth but please keep it secret,’ 01 said seriously, ‘this
game and I was all made by future scientists. Everything was made to stop a person from making
a machine. In the future, a person will make a machine that will spread the desertification around
the world. We had tried many ways to stop or prevent it. However, all failed. At last, we came up
with an idea.” Why don’t we develop a game to teach and emphasis the importance of protecting
environment when he was still young?” Scientists said the childhood experience could affect a
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