Meet the serial killer of the cyber world

“You are a totally useless guy” calls one of my neighbors, after seeing me get into a virtual world yet another time. When the clock strikes midnight, I’ve always moved out of the real world, far into the amazing, exciting and gripping virtual world. It happens as clockwork, almost daily, and chances of a miss are bare minimum. I might have missed numerous assignments, classes and meetings, but when the mail comes calling us into the virtual world, I never fail to get in. As soon as he hears the sound, my neighbor barges into the room and gives the same comment every time. This again happens as clockwork.

I’m actually bored of one of the classic arguments in the campus. People continuously ask “is there anything wrong with people who play computer games, especially the violent ones? Or is it just a cool way to past time?” Actually, I don’t think I’m even interested in knowing what the guys think about it. Beyond a point, you get insulated to such stuff, and the ‘listen in one ear and leave it in the other’ phenomenon proves very useful.

As though everything in the world is programmed, my neighbors get additional support in the form of newspapers that call people like me “serial killers of the cyber world”. I hate to hear that someone out there associates innocent souls like me with some other creepy souls out there, but who cares as long as the fun flows and time passes. When the real world doesn’t provide as much entertainment as the virtual world – ones simulated by computer games – I don’t have any reason to complain. Ofcourse, the ideal thing to do would be to play out in the sun, in the field, in the open. But the sun never comes many a time, and the fields are muddy, while the virtual world is always the same, always as entertaining and exciting as the first time. Come rain or cold, it gives a chance to prove to yourself that you are a hero, and that there is some talent hidden in some crevices. Whether is someday going to be useful or not is not under the microscope. Some would call it a subconscious way to satiate the violent thoughts hidden deep under, but I haven’t yet seen those thoughts and hence I’m not even bothered to know what that stuff means. For the moment, we'd call that Greek.

The fun that I get out of out-thinking and out-maneuvering an equally intelligent friend of mine is simply unattainable in the real world. Add to that the talent doesn’t need physical strength. I login and open the game screen, which is the window to the exciting world. All I have to do is to get the mouse movements right, and get the strategy right, and one of my intelligent friends succumbs to my move. Spectacular. Almost surreal. Everytime I get in, I get the same satisfaction, the same pleasure. It’s an unparalleled way to pass time. People are probably different, and that explains why some of them find all this artificial or boring, but for us, it’s a lot of fun. A LOT of fun. You probably know what that means.

It is three hours since twenty of us stepped into this virtual world full of exciting passes, dark corners and morphed humans, and it’s just two hours to dawn. Tomorrow is going to be boring in the same old way - classes, assignments, some boring souls, and some boring news. But there is going to be one break, late in the night; a chance to get out of the boredom. No one’s going to stop; called serial killers or not.