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Chapter 8 - Mission

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

[MISSION - LOG START]

“This… might have been… the worst idea… in a while…”

Cough

Wheeze

I staggered home after my first run in what felt like years - “run” being a very generous term. What had actually happened was a light jog for about 2 minutes when I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion and soreness start to overwhelm me. Thankfully, it was nothing compared to the blunt force impacts and numerous lacerations that I had experienced in “The Grand Challenge”, but discomfort would always be an unpleasant feeling.

“Water… I need water…”

After stupidly not bringing anything with me to run besides my apartment key, I fumbled through the doorway, walked clumsily to the sink, and grabbed the nearest cup to start pouring tap water into.

“This must be… what being exhausted actually feels like.”

My fridge was rather barren besides a couple of microwave-ready meals and various sparkling waters I liked to keep in stock, so plain drinking water was almost never a desired necessity. But with my body craving something to quench its thirst, it might as well have become the most delicious liquid in the world.

“Damn… and I still need to get ready for work.”

After greedily drinking the tap water, I sluggishly made my way to the small living room and sprawled out onto the floor. Since I never had guests and never really had a reason to spend time in this room, it was devoid of any furniture, so I simply laid on the carpet floor and took a moment to collect myself.

“I don’t even know… if I’ll be able to shower in time.”

As the fatigue and exhaustion almost made me pass out, and with sleep generously offering itself once more, I steeled myself to get off the floor by turning onto my elbows and slowly pushing myself up.

“Maybe a shower would make me feel better… at least it would get the sweat off me.”

Ti ti ti ting!

While showering, I heard an abnormally loud notification go off on my phone.

“It couldn’t be… now of all times?”

I quickly rushed to finish up my shower and approached the phone in my bedroom to confirm my suspicions.

IT’S TIME. YOUR NEXT CHALLENGE AWAITS.

Picking up my phone and reading the notifications, I glanced at the top of my phone to check the time.

“8:47…”

I sighed in resignation as I opened my work laptop and began typing something to my manager on the corporate messaging app.

“Hey boss, something came up so I won’t be able to attend our daily team meeting today. My updates are as follows…”

I opened my eyes after launching “The Grand Challenge” and found myself back in Usika’s body. Taking quick stock of the area I now found myself in, it appeared to be some sort of lab in a school building. Long, empty horizontal tables were arranged neatly in rows behind me, and on the right edge of the room were various cabinets, sinks, and counters that would typically line a school lab. Instead of the expected instruments and glassware lining the counters, I saw various books, papers, and notepads taking their place. Glancing towards the front, I saw a chalkboard with various notes and discussions regarding the state of Usika’s world. In front of the chalkboard, I saw a lone desk covered with a makeshift map with various objects scrunching together towards the middle, most likely a 3-D representation of Usika’s world.

“This… is what remains.”

The grave words echoed in my head as I thought back to our recent meeting with Sital, just as that same familiar voice made itself heard once more.

Err-hmph!

A loud cough jolted me back into the present as I quickly shifted my attention to the owner of the voice, finally noting that Sital was standing beside the chalkboard at the front of the classroom.

“I’m sorry if I’m starting to bore you, Usika, but all this information will be the difference between the success and failure of the next mission. Is there something you want to know that will keep you engaged?”

Completely taken aback and a bit flustered at being publicly lambasted by an authority figure, old juvenile feelings of embarrassment began to well up in me instinctively.

“No… I’m sorry. I just got a bit distracted is all. Please continue, it won’t happen again.”

A soft but firm voice spoke up from my avatar as Sital nodded in confirmation and continued on with her presentation. I wiped the mental sweat from my brow and internally chuckled to myself at the embarrassment I probably would have caused had my avatar not been there to step in.

( Sorry for popping in so late. )

Usika shook her head as if to not be annoyed by my sudden reappearance and began whispering in a low voice.

“No worries, Pablo. I had a feeling you were coming back sometime soon, though admittedly you did take quite a while… you almost missed what I think could be the most important development.”

( Missed? What could I have possibly missed? )

Just as I was about to mentally review what I had seen, Sital stopped presenting and turned to face us.

“So that is our assessment of the situation at Steel’s Crossing. Do you and Ikari think this is something feasible to execute?”

( Ikari? Who is that? )

Usika turned her head so I could see who she was referring to. At a different table to my left sat a girl who looked slightly older than Usika. She had intense scarlet-colored hair curled outward as it reached the top of her shoulders and wore a long black jacket with blue ripped jeans and a grey colored shirt.

( Floofy… )

I unconsciously whispered my internal thoughts to Usika, thinking that Ikari’s hair reminded me of the texture of sheep’s wool. Ikari turned to face us, and my jaw mentally dropped a bit as well. It was hard to see it at first as her floofy hair covered her face, but after looking directly at us, a number of lacerations and bruises could visibly be seen. The aura radiating from her did not invoke a sense of pity for her condition. Instead, I felt a pulsating anger and determination, and quickly had her scorn directed at us.

“She asked you a question, Usika. Are you going to answer her or are you going to continue staring at me?”

Attempting to regain my professionalism once more, I quickly had my avatar bring a balled fist to her face, and Usika loudly coughed into it without missing a beat.

“Yeah, sorry, just have a lot on my mind today.”

Ikari clicked her tongue and turned to face the front of the classroom once more, and Sital took the silence as agreement. Realizing what was about to happen, I projected a question for Usika to ask.

“Sorry, could you give like the 30-second summary of what we’re about to do? Just want to make sure we’re all in alignment with the mission and whatnot.”

Sital visibly sighed, and I could feel Ikari rolling her eyes beside me, but Sital conceded with the request.

“Alright everyone, here is what we know so far.”

Sital had a lecturing stick in hand and pointed to the crudely drawn overhead map on the chalkboard.

“Steel’s Crossing was once a popular shopping plaza that sprawled several acres of land. Various food and equipment stores populated the property in the past, and until recently, it was one of the last homes of the Remains until it was invaded. Our forward scouts have been encircling the safer parts of the perimeter and have confirmed that various Turena have been patrolling the area.”

Patrolling? Does that mean they are not just mindlessly wandering towards human settlements? I projected my question for Usika to ask, and Sital paused to reply to us.

“Excellent question, Usika. As we are unable to enter Turena territory, we are speculating that they have some sort of condition required for advancing into our own territory. We hypothesize that some sort of process is taking root within in Steel’s Crossing, and that process is both draining the land and powering the Turena around it.”

Sital stopped to pause and look at both my avatar and Ikari.

“This is where you both come in. We believe that with Ikari’s current powers and your potential, Usika, we have what it takes to turn the tide on this battle for humanity.”

Sital then paused to look down at the table in front of her with the makeshift diorama of Usika’s world.

“If we can retake Steel’s Crossing, we will have a stronger foothold in this region and learn more about how to deal with this type of Turena. To that extent, we will now have Ikari train you in an attempt to awaken more of your powers, and once we discover your strong suits, we will commence the operation the subsequent day.”

With Sital finishing her piece, Ikari loudly slid her chair backwards to get up from the table and quickly sent a fiery glance over at us as she made her way to the exit. I slowly got up from my chair as I had Usika follow behind Ikari. I wondered what kind of powers Ikari had already awakened and hoped that her behavior towards us was simply a bad first impression.

[MISSION - LOG END]

Chapter 7 - Distant Memories

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

[DISTANT MEMORIES- LOG START]

[SOME TIME IN THE PAST]

“I’m sorry to say this, but he didn’t make it.”

Sitting outside an operating room with my mom and two younger sisters, I was 16 when I first heard the news that my dad did not survive his operation. I never really thought about why my dad was in the hospital to begin with - all I was worried about as a kid was homework and playing video games with my friends after school. The reality of why we were here in the hospital and its worst case never crossed my mind - and it still didn’t for a while. My mom started to bawl at the news while my two sisters sat in stunned silence. I wanted to reach out to comfort them, but I suddenly found myself unable to move or even think.

A short while later, I found myself in the front row pew at my church for my father’s funeral.

It was a humble event as we were first-generation immigrants, and as both my parents were the first ones to come to this country from someplace far away, we didn’t have much in the way of extended family in the area. At most, a few people from my dad’s workplace and some acquaintances from church stopped by to pay their respects. At some point, when I finally mustered the courage to walk up to the casket and see my dad up close, I saw him resting peacefully as if he was going to wake up any second.

It was at this moment did the reality of the situation finally hit me.

My dad was gone, and he wasn’t coming back.

So much changed in ways I didn’t expect. As a very close-knit family, there was a precarious balance of power in the household. My mom would dominate the household, and as a result of her own toxic childhood, she would say hateful things and performed ludicrous actions with the intent of her children growing up to be cookie-cutter replicas of her own upbringing. The only thing stopping this from becoming a reality was my dad stepping in and saying no - and surprisingly enough, my mom would back down.

But now with my dad out of the picture, there was a power vacuum in my household. My dad had worked hard to support a family of 5 to the point where his body couldn’t take anymore - and unfortunately passed away as a result. Though good in intention, this ended up spoiling my siblings in such a way that we did not know how to operate without him. We were supposed to just focus on school, get good grades, and go to a university and find great jobs - but now with the expenses of 4 people under one roof, someone had to step up to make ends meet, and it ended up being me.

The once cute and small home we lived in could no longer be afforded, so we had to sell as many of our extraneous things as possible and move into a one-bedroom apartment. Now my sisters, mom, and I shared a bedroom with two bunk beds to accommodate for space, and what little possessions we did bring started to overlap in our new smaller abode.

For the first time in my life, I picked up a part-time job to start bringing money into the household, something I was never allowed to do previously. I ended up working for minimum wage at a fast food place close to my new apartment, and suffered endless hours of manning the register, prepping the food, and working the drive-thru to ungrateful and rude customers. Though my mom tried to step up as well by finding work on her own, her insufferable attitude got her fired from most jobs after a couple of weeks. Her unstable and unreliable income coupled with our mounting expenses forced me to leave school entirely, now focusing on just trying to get by for my family of four.

While I was trying to adjust to my new responsibility and routine, I neglected what was going on in the lives of my sisters. Though younger than me by one year and two, they too were suffering immensely from the absence of our father. Unbeknownst to me, in between her employment stints and pretty much at all other times of the day, my mother would be lambasting my sisters on their looks, behaviors, incompetencies, and so much more to the point where neither of them could stand to suffer through it anymore.

“Hey, are you done in the bathroom yet? I need to use it, the one at work was disgusting and I couldn’t use it there.”

I had just come back from working after a long day, and was annoyed to find the single bathroom in our apartment occupied.

“Ju-just a minute! I just need a little more time in here…”

My younger sister, [[Cecilia]], replied, and I didn’t think too much of it. I tried to wait it out by laying on the floor of our small living room and staring at the ceiling fan spin to pass the time.

Click-click

I heard the noise of the bathroom door being unlocked, but my younger sister didn’t come out yet. Sometimes she would do as a habit, performing her finishing touches before actually coming out. I turned my head from the bathroom door to once again stare at the ceiling fan for what seemed like a long time.

“Cecilia?”

I turned again to the bathroom door, when suddenly I heard a loud crash, like something heavy had just fallen into the bathtub.

“Cecilia! Are you okay!?”

I got up from my spot on the floor and rushed to the bathroom door. I heavily knocked to see if she was okay, and found that it opened with little resistance as it was already unlocked.

What I saw made my heart want to scream.

I saw my younger sister laying sprawled in the bathtub with her feet dangling over, pills strewn everywhere, and finally, a neatly written note on the bathroom sink…

[ PRESENT DAY ]

I bolted upright yet again after waking up from a nightmare. Lately, I hadn’t even been able to dream - but after the last dive in “The Grand Challenge”, memories I had locked away had started to resurface.

A short while ago, I had been ejected once again from the Grand Challenge due to Usika losing consciousness after we received a primer about the state of her world. I had a feeling she would stabilize faster this time, and soon I would see another notification about my next challenge being available.

But… What if I chose to ignore the call?

I stared at the ceiling, half expecting to find the answers by letting my mind wander, when I suddenly remembered the ceiling fan I was staring at so long ago, and jolted upright to instinctively turn towards… nothing.

If I had been a little more attentive, maybe things could have been different for my youngest sister.

There was no such thing as a notification for letting you know the mental states and well-being of the people in your life, but now I had this weird life-like app pestering me to continue risking my life for something that wasn’t even real.

“…”

I couldn’t undo the mistakes I had made in the past, yet I kept letting them gnaw away at me as some form of atonement that would never end.

I looked over again to the headset and then to my phone. This time I would be getting notifications for someone in need of me, even though I had no idea what I was doing.

Would I turn away from something like this happening right in front of me?

“Sigh…”

I turned to the clock on my nightstand and saw it was late in the night. It would be a couple more hours before I woke up just before my daily online meeting with my team, when something occurred to me. I fumbled with the small digital clock to update the alarm to now be 7 AM instead of 9 AM per usual, and turned to try and go back to sleep.

DI DID DI DING! DI DI DID ING!

The jovial chirping of the digital clock lingered on for a good 10 seconds before I rolled out of bed to turn it off.

“Why… am I even doing something like this?”

Trying to take my mind off how tired I was and how much more I would rather be in bed, I looked through the piles of clothes I had littered all over the floor, and put on something that would be passable enough for running gear.

After wordlessly putting on an old t-shirt and some gym shorts, I sauntered up to the door to find two pairs of shoes - one for running, and one for casual walking. Both were hilariously in great shape as I rarely ever went out anymore, so I laced up the running shoes and took the first step outside.

“Damn, it really is bright in the morning…”

I instinctively put up my hand in front of my eyes to shield myself from the morning glow until my eye levels adjusted. After adjusting my vision, I saw an elderly man walking their giant golden lab, who had coincidentally also spotted me.

“Hey neighbor! Lovely morning, isn’t it?”

The dog walker enthusiastically waved at me, and I awkwardly waved back with the hand formerly blocking my vision. Pleased with the interaction, the elderly man and their dog continued their journey onwards.

“Huh… I guess that happened.”

Not thinking much into the details of the interaction, I locked the door behind me, and started slowly jogging off into the neighborhood.

[DISTANT MEMORIES - LOG END]

Chapter 6 - Sencho

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

[SENCHO - LOG START]

(( YOUR AVATAR HAS STABILIZED. PLEASE LOG IN TO CONTINUE THE GRAND CHALLENGE. ))

Looking at my phone in disbelief, I rubbed my eyes quickly, assuming that I was hallucinating.

“…!?”

As it turned out, the notification was real. I turned to look at my VR headset charging innocuously, not a care in the world.

“Am I really… doing this again… intentionally?”

I took a moment to think it over. I no longer had anything to tether me into the real world, should the stakes of this unusual VR game be too much. Yet the idea of jumping back into such a painful and unpredictable experience with no clear gain for me as the player also seemed like an impressively stupid idea.

“But…”

Yet the call of the unknown, the realistic nature of my avatar, and most importantly, the consequences of my actions having impactful and unretractable consequences made me embellish myself a little.

Maybe it wasn’t random chance that I had stumbled into The Grand Challenge.

Maybe… it was something that I had to do.

Without giving it a second thought, I was already on my bed with the headset in hand, and after booting up the device and starting up the application, I quickly returned to the world where I could make a difference.

After regaining consciousness, I opened my eyes and found my avatar’s body resting in a bed. Not a moment later, the soreness and pain of my avatar’s body washed over my senses.

( I guess she stabilized, but not to the point where Usika was completely healed after all. )

As I tried to acclimate to the pain covering my virtual body, I realized that Usika was also covered in a series of makeshift bandages.

( I wonder… who did this. )

As I slowly and carefully tried to pilot my virtual body, I heard my avatar speak.

“Pablo?”

Realizing that Usika was also awake, I replied curtly.

( Yeah… It’s me, Usika. I’m glad to know you’re alright. )

Usika paused for a moment before speaking once more.

“Hey Pablo, I just wanted to say… thank you for everything. Your quick thinking saved us, and it’s because of those actions that I’m still here today.”

Though my avatar’s response seemed genuine, seeing her body covered in bandages and quite literally being able to feel her pain made me feel responsible and ashamed.

( You’re not mad? Because of me, you got really hurt and I wasn’t sure you were going to pull through. I was thinking of how stupid I was to allow you to get hurt in the first place because I didn’t believe any of this was real, an- )

Usika shook her head. “There’s still a lot we both don’t understand, but if I were to be partnered with anyone, I’m glad it was with you.”

There was no mirror in the room, but I could feel Usika’s face form itself into a small smile. Despite everything having gone wrong and blaming myself continually for what had ultimately happened, I felt… different somehow. I wasn’t sure if Usika could also feel emotions through our mysterious connection, but I tried my best to return the feeling of a small smile to her.

“I see you are finally awake, Usika.”

The door into the room slowly creaked open as a face peered around the corner to check on its inhabitant, a face I didn’t expect to see so soon, if ever again.

“Goddess???”, I exclaimed through Usika.

The goddess we had previously met in my hasty introduction to this world now stood before us, but not a single air of grace surrounded her like our initial meeting. Instead of her regal attire and radiating aura, a normal person with purple hair and plain-set clothing stood here instead.

“I know you probably have a lot of questions you want to have answered, namely what happened to you, how you got here, and how I appear a bit… different from our initial encounter, and I will be glad to tell you everything in short order. But before we get into that, are you alright enough to move around and come with me? I’m sorry we weren’t able to give you a chance to rest a bit longer, but we have some pressing matters we’d like to get you up to speed on if possible.”

I focused my attention on flexing my virtual avatar’s body a bit once more, and despite the immense soreness, no excruciating pain stabbed into any part of her body. Usika nodded in response to this stress test, and as I attempted to step off the bed, my virtual body crumpled into a heap as soon as I tried to put weight onto my other foot. The goddess quickly bent down to help us sit upright, then walked out of the room to grab a wheelchair for us. It took a bit of doing, but the Goddess helped us up onto the wheelchair, and leaned over to ask once more, “Do you think you’ll be okay for the next part?” I waited for Usika to respond, and she nodded as fiercely as her sore and tired body would allow.

“Let’s go, there’s a lot of things I want to know.”

“My name is Sital, and I am a member of Bastion, humanity’s last hope against the erasure of mankind,” the purple-haired woman started as she pushed our wheelchair out of the room we were resting in to the hallway outside. A quick glance suggested that we were in some sort of abandoned building, and based on the long hallways with doors appearing at regular intervals, I guessed we were in some sort of hospital or school building. Taking a look outside the building, it looked as though we were high up in the air, maybe on a mountainside of some sort.

( Whoa…)

I was going to start asking questions, but what I saw from our vantage point took my breath away. Remnants of what were probably large and bustling cities in the past littered the landscape, and farther away in the distance were similar but smaller establishments. What prompted me to pause, however, was at the end of the horizon, where colors unnatural and eerie settled into view. It was like something mythical rested at the boundary just beyond humanity, and I unconsciously took a long pause to take it all in.

At the edge of this visible world lay 6 distinct colors encompassing the world between the land and the sky. A fierce red ravaged its heat waves, a strong green toppled its strong winds, a mute brown cascaded its ravaged earth, a vicious blue swirled its choppy water, a piercing yellow blinded with its rays of light, and an impenetrable purple blocked what was beyond its shadows. In a normal game experience, I would have been enthralled to witness the classic elemental archetypes and the worlds they contained, but something about this scenery struck me as unsettling. Usika too shared this sentiment as she quietly took a deep breath, continuing to look over the scenery.

“This… is what’s left,” Sital said to break the trance we were in.

“What you see before you is the edge of the world, and what you can still recognize is what is yet to be consumed.”

( What’s behind us? )

I prompted my question to Usika for her to ask Sital, and the purple-haired woman began elaborating.

“We are currently stationed in an abandoned academic structure built into the mountainside. A long time ago, the land below us was so overpopulated that its inhabitants had to construct new places of meeting in less desirable locations… ironically enough, it became the safest place after the Exodus.”

I raised my virtual body’s eyebrow unconsciously, and Sital took note as she continued.

“The world we inhabit now wasn’t always this decrepit. Long ago this world prospered, but in a very unequal and unsustainable way. Ancient texts we have been able to recover across various ruins described a world where humans simply lived to survive, but as humans were the only species capable of intentional evolution, the prosperous ones continued to better themselves at the cost of worsening the condition of others. This led to a rift in the community of humans, and soon they were separated into a powerful ruling class, the Excavators, and a poorer subservient class, the Remains.”

“Despite how ridiculous this all sounds on paper, this was the reality for the last several centuries of society, and eventually the imbalance could no longer be sustained. Not only were the Excavators draining the Remains of their limited resources, they were also draining the world we live on until it was on the verge of collapsing. Given a choice to work together and create a solution with the Remains, the Excavators instead decided to continue their trajectory of destruction and at the same time, build an escape to somewhere else. And just as the world was about to collapse…something unexpected happened.”

Usika and I remained silent, and Sital continued.

“What I say next isn’t anything official per se, but this collection of rumors has become what is known as today’s common truth. As the last bits of the world were about to be extracted, the planet itself awakened… and proceeded to fight back. There have been conflicting reports about what exactly occurred, but something otherworldly had spawned at the zones of crisis, and began to push back against the Extractors’ remaining attempts to drain the world. No one who has ever met these ‘otherworldly entities’ has come back to tell us a consistent story, so a lot of this is just conjecture from the refugees who had to flee… but the entities have been commonly named the Turena.”

( Turena? What kind of name is that? )

“The Turena not only repelled the Extractors, but began to expand across the world, almost as if the earth itself finally had enough of its abuse and wanted to wipe out the parasites living off it. With no more resources to extract and no more safe places to wait out the growing calamity, the Excavators made their final preparation… and launched off our planet into the great unknown.”

Sital took a moment to pause and look up towards the sky.

“It is unknown what happened to them, and quite frankly it matters not as we have more pressing matters now. We are what Remains, and we are running out of time.”

Sital finished and looked again over towards the horizon we initially laid our eyes on.

“Sorry, I kind of sidetracked your original question, but the context was important before I give you the actual answer. You asked what was behind us, and I mentioned earlier we were on a mountainside. This mountainside, for all intents and purposes, is the edge of our world. Our scouting reports have indicated that the Turena has surrounded all outer parts of this region, so even if we did manage to scale the mountain… there would be nowhere to flee to.

Sital stopped speaking as a quick frown formed on her face, and she recomposed herself before speaking again.

“Given all I have explained, you’re probably wondering how you got here, and why you were even rescued in the first place. I’ll cut to the chase: you are a Sencho.”

I again unconsciously raised my eyebrow at yet another term I was unfamiliar with, but something began stirring inside of Usika at the mention of the term, a mix of awe and fear radiating out of her.

“Sencho? But I thought those were just kids’ stories! Senchos are special! They are chosen by fate themselves to defend the Remains! Someone like me alone could never-“

Usika suddenly stopped as her own words began to make their way into her head.

“Me… alone…?”

Usika paused once again as if inviting me to speak, as proof that she did have someone else beside her.

( No… I guess you aren’t alone… because I’m here too. )

Usika again formed a small smile as Sital continued.

“Given all I have told you… are you willing to fulfill your destiny? As much as this world needs you in this darkest hour, I am not like my predecessors who forced Senchos to fight when they had no incentive to. They became more harm than good and some even turned on the Remains they were supposed to protect… but even if your reason to stand by us is small, please, we need someone like you now more than ever.”

There were still a lot of questions about this world I didn’t understand, but before I could process my thoughts, Usika stepped up with an answer.

“Risking my life for a world already at the end seems like a needlessly quick and wasteful way to go…. but if unlocking my ability to become a Sencho is what will help me achieve my goal, I am willing to cooperate…” Usika replied with a bit of hesitation in her voice.

“Even the tiny allotment of support from someone like you could be all the difference in finding a way to survive against the Turena. We at Bastion will do everything we can to harness your potential and help you achieve your goal as long as you lend your aid.”

For the first time in our entire conversation, Sital smiled, though hints of weariness and exhaustion permeated from her face, and Usika returned that smile.

((YOUR AVATAR IS IN CRITICAL DANGER.))

(( PLEASE RESTABILIZE YOUR AVATAR BEFORE YOU LOSE CONNECTION. ))

A searing headache suddenly shot into my virtual head, and before I could do anything to react, a familiar grim message returned to plague my vision as the environment blacked out around me.

(( YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR AVATAR ))

[SENCHO - LOG END]

Chapter 5 - Echoes

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

[ECHOES - LOG START]

My entire body attempted to rile upwards as my feet violently thrashed, and I jerked upright into a sitting position. I immediately took off the headset and tossed it aside without giving it a second thought.

”!!?”

Finally taking a moment to breathe, I took a steady glance at my surroundings, and yes, it was once again the bedroom of my apartment, left just as disheveled and disorganized as I had left it. Suddenly remembering the waves of pain that had continually washed over my body not even moments ago, I gingerly touched my skin and found - nothing out of the ordinary. No jolting pain or twisting torture from simply moving around.

“…”

Finally taking in that I was back in my own reality, I turned slowly to look for the VR headset I had tossed aside so frantically and found it precariously perched at the edge of my bed.

“Thank goodness it didn’t fal-“

I reached out to the headset to try and move it, when suddenly-

I remembered everything that had happened.

With that violent experience now at the forefront of my attention… I suddenly became wary. What would happen if I touched the headset so suddenly? Would I be whisked away into that realistic experience once more? How easy was it to get back in there?

“…”

Touching it with one finger, the headset remained still, not a care in the world. I slowly turned the eye visors away from me in case looking inside the headset would suck me back into that world, and slowly placed the headset back onto its charging dock.

“There…”

After gingerly setting down the headset to its usual resting place, another thought passed through my head - what had happened to Usika?

“No, it wasn’t real, it was just an unusually immersive experience…”

These uncertain words were what I decided on as I attempted to go to sleep, unenthusiastically anticipating the next work day that was upon me.

That night, I stayed awake for what seemed like the entire night. I hadn’t been sleeping too well prior, but tonight’s reason was a little different from normal. I spent countless time awake in bed looking at the ceiling, thinking about all the things I could have done differently in our scenario. The plan I had come up with from spur of the moment was idiotic, so there had to be something else we could have done to trigger the win condition.

If I had assessed the situation with even a modicum of seriousness, I probably would not have taken the initial blow from the monster for free. I probably would have tried to punch something hard nearby instead. True, I would have been shocked at how much pain I could experience, but with that knowledge, I would have formulated more options to escape the junkyard monster. At Usika’s full physical capacity, she probably still would not have been able to outrun the monster, but she could have hidden from sight, or maybe found another area with a pitfall, maybe there was some sort of magic core powering this thing and we could have smashed it and -

“Huh…”

It didn’t matter ultimately because in the end, I had failed Usika and her avatar had suffered a slow and painful death unworthy of anyone, real or not.

The lingering guilt of everything I had ever screwed up was something I carried with me everywhere, and this wasn’t the first instance of it happening. Most of the time, I would usually lock away any unpleasantness somewhere underneath - there wasn’t any need to dwell on those situations if they couldn’t be resolved.

“Sigh…”

I also had not been able to eat well ever since the experience. Truth be told, ever since my household had been vacated of its former residents, minus myself, my diet was at an all-time low. Normal food intake would consist of frozen food from the grocery store and sometimes app-based deliveries from local chain restaurants if I really wanted to treat myself. It was still garbage junk food, but at least it felt a bit fresher.

“Ew…”

But looking at all the cardboard packaging, the to-go containers, the once-and-done plastic bags riled up a sickness inside of me. It reminded me of the world Usika had inhabited, too close to my own reality, and the smells and senses of that encounter washed over my body once more.

“I guess… we could try something different today…”

Even I had to succumb to the bare minimum requirements of my body, and I uncharacteristically decided to change things up by walking to the grocery store instead of taking the quick car ride.

“This is… urgh…”

Walking through the eerily quiet suburbs to reach my destination, a giant truck rolled by me while spurting a factory’s worth of black fumes. For the first time in my life, I noticed how much the smell of vehicle exhaust bothered me.

“We’re here… I guess…”

Once I got to the store, I wandered over to the fresh produce and grains sections. I racked my brain for something easy I could cook to satiate my appetite and settled on raw broccoli, a carton of eggs, and a small bag of rice. This could make a simple meal, and would probably settle with my stomach a lot better, and with a lot less waste.

sizzle sizzle sizzle

shhhhhh

TING

After steaming the broccoli in a small pot, the eggs in a small pan, and the rice in a rice cooker, I apathetically put the ensemble together on one of the few plates I had on hand. Carrying it over to my computer desk (I could not get myself to eat at the dinner table anymore), I sat down and settled in to mindlessly take the first bite.

”..!”

It didn’t taste like much, but something about the texture, the smell, and the way the fresh heat unlocked an old memory I had stored away. It reminded me of a time when fresh food like this was made every day, but several magnitudes more delicious.

“…”

Without realizing it, I felt a small tear rolling itself off my face. I wiped it away without much thought and began to take the second bite when -

BRZTTTTTT

I got a notification on my phone. Pulling up the screen and unlocking it instinctually, I read the notification text and dropped the fork in my other hand.

(( YOUR AVATAR HAS STABILIZED. PLEASE LOG IN TO CONTINUE THE GRAND CHALLENGE. ))

[ECHOES - LOG END]

Chapter 4 - Ejected

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Writhing in immense pain, I knew we only had one option and were quickly squandering it by lingering around.

( Sh-shit! )

Having thrown my avatar’s body face first onto the trash pile, I attempted to roll sideways to get us off of it. Our various bruises and broken innards all flashed in pain as they came into contact with the random jagged edges of trash that made up the pile.

“Ke-ugh”

My virtual body landed sideways after a short abrupt fall, stabbing the side my ribs with more dull and thick pieces of nameless garbage and forcing me to emit another painful wheeze.

( Come on… we can do it… it can’t be far now… )

Trying to exert control over my virtual body, I managed to get Usika to steady herself on one hand and slowly raise herself up while clutching the side we just fell on with the other hand.

“GROOOARGH!!!”

Hobbling as quickly as Usika’s body would allowed, we made our way closer to the scent of the ocean while avoiding the rattling earth and bellowing monster behind us. Moments later, the spot we were momentarily resting on erupted in a BOOM, and random pieces of garbage flew in every direction.

“ZOOMPH”

“WHAMF”

“PSHTNGG”

As I frantically hobbled away from the eruption site with my virtual body, a giant refrigerator landed a few feet in front of us. I suddenly stopped and while Usika’s body jerked to a painful halt.

“What - KEUGH - are you doing? We can’t - KEUGH - afford to be wasting time!”

Despite the constant pain and overwhelming exhaustion, Usika managed to hack out a warning. Still in shock over what could have unexpectedly been our demise, I hesitated in responding.

“Please. I don’t - KEUGH - want to die here.”

The sudden steel in Usika’s voice took took me by surprise. I quickly shook my head to refocus, and once again began shuffling my virtual body towards the ocean. Trying to ignore the pain stabbing into every surface of my virtual body, I thought of something to ask Usika.

( Usika, how do you think that monster is able to find us? I’m not really sure about the rules of this world yet, but it doesn’t seem like it has an exact read on where to find us, just a general idea… )

Usika’s body began breathing even more rapidly as we were reaching the limit of her endurance, as she shook her head in resignation.

“Not… sure… but we…- KEUGH - are different… from everything else in this area - KEUGH - maybe… “

Uttering short sentences between between her gasps for air and hacking coughs, I finished what I believed to be her sentiment.

(Do you think… it’s tracking us because we were disrupting whatever environment was here before us? )

Usika nodded as her fast limp began to slow down to a walking pace. At the same time, we felt the ground rumbling from behind us, and knew that we were running out of time.

But it didn’t matter, because we got to where I had hoped we would end up. The seemingly never ending hills of garbage finally seemed to break into a murky green but uniform stretch of land. Land wasn’t quite the right word, because we were at the-

“Ocean…”, Usika quietly muttered to herself.

As we collected our view from the top of the edge of the landfill, I synced my movements to my virtual body and slid from the top of our hill to the edge of the cliff. I then peered over the edge, and a slight smile formed in my mind.

( Alright, I have a plan, but it’s all or nothing, and the key element I needed just arrived now. )

Usika stayed silent as she awaited the unraveling of my plan.

( Alright, so here goes… We stand at the edge of the cliff and wait for the monster to arrive. It seems to attack on sight, so my plan is… we dodge out of the way at the last second with all the energy we have left, and the monster will overextend its attack and fall into the ocean. )

Stillness filled the air for what seemed like an eternity, until Usika finally processed what I said in full and replied curtly.

“…What?”

A few more moments drew by as the rumbling behind us grew louder and more fierce.

“What? Are you kidding me? This is your - KEUGH - entire plan? What if we weren’t on a cliff? What - KEUGH - what then, huh?”

To be fair, I hadn’t really had a plan from the get-go. There was too little information from the start, so I was just planning to adapt with whatever circumstances we ended up in.

( Listen… we didn’t have a lot of options to begin with, and I doubt we could’ve taken this monster head-on even if we weren’t injured. But sometimes immense strength can be the downfall of strong foes. I’m not sure if this is going to work, but you’re just going to have to trust me on this. Trust that the monster isn’t smart enough to see through this dumb plan, and trust that we are going to make it past this encounter. I have the upmost faith that you can make it through, but do you trust me? )

I surprised even myself with this bold declaration - I don’t think I have ever uttered so many claims in my whole life, much less at the same time.

Usika paused again, and in between her her flashes of pain, exhausted, and wheezes, shook her head in disbelief and resignation.

“Yeah… KEUGH - it looks like we never had had that many options anyway. Well, if this is the end, so be it…”

Usika then begin to control her virtual body to look at the sky at something distant, and said quietly under her breath,

“Sorry, Dad… it looks like I won’t be seeing you again like I promised.”

Just as Usika finished her sentiment, both our attentions quickly snapped to the top of the hill we came from as the final moment approached. The giant monster composed of junk had finally reached our location, and slowly turned its amorphous body toward us to confirm what it had been searching for.

“ROAAAAAAR”

The monster began shrieking to announce its entrance and and began raising both its giant arms into fists above its head. Without another second of delay, it began dropping its balled-up fists towards us for double ground slam, and I uttered one word to Usika.

( Now! )

With our intent synchronized, we kicked off the ground with the good foot we were favoring from the painful trek over here, and leapt with all our strength to the side. As the giant fists rapidly approached us, I began to wonder if this was really the right choice, if we had jumped too late, if we even had enough strength to get out of the way, when suddenly-

“CRASH”

The two giant fits slammed into the ground right next to us, and the monster was still standing at the top of the cliff.

(No! Damn it! )

In that same moment, something unexpected happened.

The ground next to us began to crack as the impact of the two giant fists began to dislodge the edge of the cliff.

The monster began to try and bring its fists back to its body, but it was too late. The section of the cliff that had been impacted by the glow quickly fell away, and the monster’s entire body began to tumble forward over the cliff. Usika and I watched in disbelief as the ocean devoured the monster below its surface.

The once rumbling air now sat completely still, until my virtual body began to sit upright and speak.

“We did it… we did it, Pablo. We won!”

A feeling of immense relief flowed over my body, and a small feeling of triumph began to well inside of me as well. I did it, I finally did something right in my life, I was finally able to help someone else…

“Tin-tin-tin-tin”

The afterglow of the victory only lasted for a moment, however, as some unearthly noise began to spawn above us. Looking at the hill above us where the monster originally was, what was once its lower half became to reform, and the junk monster appeared once again, albeit a quarter of its size.

“No way…”, Usika said aloud as we both look upwards in disbelief.

The monster then began create a giant balled fist, but only one as it wasn’t big enough to conjure both. Instead of sending the fist towards us, it slammed the edge of the hill it was standing on, and the piles of junk that were nearby began to dislodge and fall apart.

( Is this… really happening? )

It was a trash avalanche.

( Usika, we have to move, now! )

I tried to move my virtual body, but jumping out of the way of the first attack drained all the energy Usika had left, and a sharp pain rolled over my entire virtual body as we barely moved from the spot from landed in.

“I guess… this is far as we go, huh?”

These were the last words Usika was able to utter as the wave of trash finally slammed into us and sent us sailing over the cliff into murky green water below.

(( YOUR AVATAR IS IN CRITICAL DANGER ))

(( PLEASE STABILIZE YOUR AVATAR BEFORE LOSING CONNECTION ))

As mysterious messages flashed red across my vision, I found myself welling up with anger.

This can’t be it, this can’t be the end. We were so close to succeeding when all the odds were stacked against us.

For what felt like the first time in my life, I felt like I had been cheated by the system.

Something like this should never be allowed to happen, and something inside me began to rebel against the conclusion that awaited us.

As my frustration and defiance began to surge, something changed in my virtual body.

For just a brief second, a wave of green washed over my vision, and it felt like our descent slowed down just a tad.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep us from the inevitable, and Usika’s body crashed into the ocean’s surface as cold water as my vision sudden blackened.

(( YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR AVATAR ))

Chapter 3 - Reason

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What feels like a long time ago, there was someone I relied on. After losing almost all of my family in unexpected short order, the emotional shock caused me to recede into myself, afraid of losing anything more. I don’t remember what I was like before the incident, but for a while I became an empty husk devoid of emotion.

That was until, I met her.

After getting my first corporate job, I just went through the motions everyday, careful to stay in my own lane and not aggravate my coworkers or managers. I had no desire to climb the corporate ladder, but I also did not have the desire quit. I just felt like if I stopped doing something… anything… whatever was still holding me together would fall apart.

One day, while absently making my way to the cafeteria to grab a nondescript lunch, I heard someone calling me name.

“Pablo?”

Thinking I must have misheard, or maybe someone with the same named being called in the same vicinity, I pretended to not hear and kept walking.

“Hey! Pablo!”

This person is really persistent… I hope they find whoever they are looking for.

“Hey, you!”

I felt someone tap my left shoulder and instinctively stopped to turn to face them, but… no one was there?

Am I finally… being haunted by ghosts?

As I quickly turned to step forward and walk as far away from this unusual event as possible, I bumped into something stiff yet soft - and found myself tumbling into it as soon as it became dislodged.

“Aaa-aaahh!”

Disoriented from the sudden influx of events happening at once, I briefly saw locks of golden hair flying into the air as I myself tumbled face first into the ground.

“Ow, what the heck, Pablo! Are you pretending not to see me to be funny or something? Because it’s not!”

Ensuring that I would not be falling anymore, I slowly opened my eyes to see… nothing but the hallway and one of my arms in front of me, which probably tried to break my fall. But what about my other arm…?

“Are you going to keep your arm wrapped around me forever? You just pretended to not even know me a second ago!”

Realizing that my arm ended up accidentally hooking around someone as I fell, I quickly retracted my arm and tried to quickly stand up and brush myself off while apologizing.

“I am… so sorry about all of this! I had my mind on other things… so I didn’t really notice you there, uhh…”

As I was apologizing, I finally got a good look at who exactly I bumped into.

She was a petite woman wearing a long, black pencil skirt and white blouse with short, blonde bob-cut hair. If I remembered correctly, she was a new hire working on a sister team to my own…

“I know you don’t know my name because you’ve never asked - it’s Rebecca, or Reca, for short!”

Staring directly at this woman who was grinning for some reason, I blinked a couple of times trying to process an appropriate response. Most notably…

“Sorry again… Reca. I usually don’t talk with people outside of work reasons, so I really didn’t think you were talking to me. “

I paused, waiting for a response, but Reca continued to grin at me, albeit a bit less so.

“Do you… need help getting up? I’m sorry again for bumping into you again.”

The entire exchange apparently happened with Reca simply sitting on the floor staring directly at me. I hesitatingly reached a hand out, and Reca grabbed it in a flash.

“That’s much better, Pablo! You need to show more respect for your fellow employees, especially the new ones!”

Helping her up, she quickly composed herself and stood before me once more. Again, she was staring directly at me while grinning.

“Reca… do you need something? I’m just on my way to lunch, if it’s something about work I can try my best to help you after I eat…”

“It’s funny you mention that, I was just wondering if I could join you! You always seem to look so busy when you are working, and then you slink away randomly when no one is looking!”

Unconsciously raising my eyebrow, I get annoyed at her response.

“Yeah? And what if I am busy? And what do you get for telling someone that they slink away? That pretty rude, you know!”

Reca put both her hands up in a defensive posture as if to apologize, then replied.

“My bad, my bad, I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant… I wanted to get to know my fellow coworkers, you know? This is my first job out of college, and I was really excited to have passed the interviews to work here… but after I started, no one has been trying to help me learn the ropes. I’m not really sure why, but you seemed like you would have a bit more patience with me as someone who started just a little while before me… I’m sorry if you are really busy. too. “

While stating her reasoning, Reca kept her hands up, but began to look sideways and downcast, as if she was the one causing a problem and not me for accidentally knocking her over.

“…”

I was at a loss for words, wondering how I should proceed. It’s not like I was intentionally going out of my way to avoid everyone, I just… didn’t want to deal with them more than required.

But this girl was new, and very clearly nervous about starting a new job. I remembered my first couple of months at this company, and I distinctly remember being chewed out by my manager for not being able to complete tasks because no one of my teammates wanted to help me. I unconsciously sighed, remembering how dumb and inadequate I felt, until I complained enough to my manager’s manager and was luckily able to move to another team…

“I understand… I was pretty new myself, and really would have benefited from having someone show me around when I started, too. I am, like you said, pretty busy myself, but I can do my best to make sure you know at least how to do your assigned tasks.”

Reca put her hands down and placed them behind her back, and turned to face me once more while smiling.

“Thanks, Pablo, I’d really appreciate that!”

A couple of months went by, and Reca invited me to lunch whenever both her schedule and mine aligned, due to the sheer number of work meetings we both had (how does anything get done at this company?).

I kind of resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t have friends anymore, and therefore had no reason to be friendly and welcoming. Despite this, Reca managed to get me to open up a bit about myself, and even though it was painful to sift through old memories as they would inevitably remind me about my deceased family, I started to remember things I liked. Things I would look forward to. Things I wanted to create and things I wanted to become.

“Reca, you can’t be serious. This dream is dumb - I mean, come on. Playing videogames and traveling internationally to compete in tournaments? We are adults now - we already have a real job. Why spend time working towards something I’m not even good at anymore and has no stability career wise?”

“Well… those are all good points, Pablo. But how much time do you spend watching these competitions, analyzing these tournaments and suggesting what the players could have done better. Maybe if you spend time playing seriously, you could learn enough to be a coach or mentor or something like that!”

I looked at her with doubt, but Reca continued.

“For example… you said you would just help me enough to get by at this job, but you spent so much more time going over all the little things at this company and even introduced me to a lot of people who know stuff that even you aren’t good at!”

I winced a bit at that last sentence - my relationship with everyone else at the company was acquaintance at best, but after introducing Reca to them, they immediately fell in love with her excitable and gushing personality. She would often get invited to lunch and even after-work outings with them, which led her spending less time with me.

Not that I minded, because I had no expectations about anyone anyway…

“Pablo, guess what? All that advice and tutoring you gave me worked out so much that I’m getting moved to a new project at the company! It’s super high-profile and apparently will help me get promoted faster, and it’s all thanks to you!”

Reca was sitting across from me in the cafeteria during our now rare lunching outings, and I shook my head at her statement.

“I didn’t really do much… it was all you, really. I just pointed out some things here and there… it was really up to you to use what I showed you and impress our management, and they took notice. Congratul-“

Just as I was about to congratulate Reca on her astonishing achievement, a group of coworkers came up to our table to talk to her.

“Hey Reca, that campy horror movie night last week was a blast! When are you hosting the next one?”

“Yeah! And we were thinking of doing a white-water rafting trip sometime next week, will you be free?”

Startled by the sudden appearance of friendly coworkers, Reca turned to face them and engage them in conversation - while all of them proceeded to ignore me.

I wasn’t surprised, given my cold demeanor to everyone in general, but for Reca….

It was obvious that Reca had outgrown our short acquaintanceship, so it was decided by me then and there that this would be the last time we would ever get lunch together.

“Hey Pablo, I know that you’ve been busy with your own new project, but do you think you’ll be free sometime this week for lunch?”

After Reca moved to her new project, she was forced to relocate to a different part of the office building with her newly composed team, and thus had no idea what was going on with her old team. I made up a blatant lie, saying that my own team had spun up a new project that would take all hands on deck, so I didn’t really have time to get lurch with her anymore.

“Sorry… it’s just be crazy over here. I’ll be sure to send you a message once I have some free time, is that okay?”

The corporate messaging app showed the three dots to signify someone typing, and I quickly received a reply.

“Okay =( Please let me know asap, and good luck on your project! “

“Thanks, you too.”

I closed the messaging window and returned to my empty desktop screen, because unsurprisingly so, my workload had not changed at all.

“It’s for the best…”

I mutter something under my breath, deciding for both Reca and I that it was better for her to spend her time elsewhere. There was no value in hanging out with a nobody like me anymore.

( Let’s keep moving, Usika! We can’t let this thing catch up to us! )

A memory from the past flittered into and out of my mind while trying to run away while piloting my avatar. Why now?

( Shit! )

The initial blow from the trash behemoth was a lot more severe than I thought - it felt as though Usika had several broken bones throughout her body as I tried to run through the junkyard. Every breath was a vicious hack and accompanied with sharp pain in my lungs, and every step felt like being stung by thousands of tiny glass cuts.

( We won’t be able to run far in this condition… should we try and hide, Usika? )

Usika shook her head and winced, all while she continued to trudge forward.

“We need medical attention as soon as possible… and we won’t be able to escape unless we defeat that monster. If we were to try and hide somewher- KEH”

Usika stopped to grab her chest and hack out another painful cough, which I also felt too. At the same time, a giant shadowy object appeared from over the horizon of the piles of junk, and grew larger and larger until it whistled just over our head and landed about 10 meters in front of us. We both paused, staring at what could have been our untimely demise.

“If we were to try and hide somewhere, we would either die from our wounds, starvation, or be crushed just like that… “

Looking onward for just a moment more, I shook my head to try and refocus. If Usika were in top-shape, we could try to set up a trap with the myriad of discarded items in the junkyard or maybe even try to take it out head-on… but we weren’t in such a state.

( Shit! Shit! What can we do? )

Looking around at our immediate environment, I noticed that the giant ball of trash that had almost crushed us had also dislodged a lot of the piles of junk immediately around that. Maybe If we had a higher vantage point…

( Usika, do you think we can climb on that small hill of trash in front of us? )

Usika winced, but nodded her head regardless.

“I think we can… but what do you think will happen once we get on top. Don’t you think the monster will be able to spot us faster?”

I paused for a moment to consider that possibilty, and felt the ground shake violately.

( We don’t have many options left - the next thing we see could be the very thing we need, or the last thing we ever do. )

Usika remained silent for a moment as another thundering footstep approached us from behind, and replied.

” We have to try…”

Without another word, I piloted my avatar’s body and began to shuffle towards the pile of junk and painstakingly attempted to climb onto it.

“Kuh-kuh-KUH”

Every time I reached out with my avatar’s hands to try and grab something, a sharp pain would jolt across my arm like lightning, and every breath would cause me to hack up a painful and longer cough.

( Just a little more, Usika… )

Starting to lose consciousness from the intensity of the pain, I climbed the apex of the short pile of junk, and threw my avatar’s body over the top with our remaining strength.

“I don’t know… KUH… if we can go on beyond this point, Pablo…”

Usika spoke, hacking up another cough once more, as we laid still on the pile of junk we so painfully made our way onto. Though my body was on fire, stinging, sore, and exhausted, I felt something else I didn’t expect.

( Wind? )

A gentle breeze rolled over my ragged avatar’s body, and with it came the scent of something crisp, fresh, and salty.

( Are we… by the ocean? )

Focusing my eyesight on the direction of the wind, I tried to look between the various piles of remaining junk and notice there is a lot less of them… along with the once unseeable horizon being met by a long row of something shiny and reflective.

And with that, I had an idea, albeit a dangerous and quite frankly stupid one.

( This could be our only chance… Usika, do you trust me? )

Usika, seeing the same long stretch of water before us, spoke quickly.

“I trusted you enough to spend what little energy I had to climb up this pile of trash… let’s do it.”

Chapter 2 - Reality

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“Keu-UGH”

As soon as my breath returned to my avatar’s body, I felt an uncomfortable amount of liquid welling up in my throat, and not a moment later, I started to cough out blood.

This… isn’t good….

My avatar body started to slump over into the pile of garbage we were launched into as the ground began to rumble beneath us.

Why… is this happening…

Now that I REALLY think about it, I was so immersed in this VR world that I never stopped to think what was happening with my physical body. Am I trapped in here? What happens when I die in this game?

…

Will I die in real life, too?

I lived alone as almost all of my immediate family passed away around the same time for various reasons, and the traumatic aftermath led me to cut off all contact with people who I used to consider friends. If my mind gets lost here, how long will it take for someone to realize? Will I stay in bed and fester into some horrific mummified corpse?

“Hnn… hnn…”

As these horrifying thoughts began to spin in my mind, I heard a whimper and quiet sobbing racked with pain and despair.

But… from where?

“No… this isn’t what I was promised. I just wanted to find him, I wanted to see him one last time and ask why… but I won’t be able to anymore… I’m sorry, Dad.”

My avatar uttered these words lamentfully under her breath, as if she was ashamed of even admitting it. The amount of raw sadness panged at my heart, and momentarily made me step out of my personal flurry of panic.

This… is real, isn’t it?

If my avatar dies… what happens to her?

A chill ran down my spine as I suddenly remembered the family I used to have, and the feelings of shame, anger, and despair as I blamed myself every day for what happened to them. But now…

Am I being given a chance… to redeem myself?

Whatever was happening, this experience was something I could no longer walk away from. Even if I did, this avatar, whether real or just insanely lifelike, was lamenting its weakness, languishing in its physical and emotional pain, and despairing over the possibility that its tomorrow was no longer promised.

Closing my eyes, I tried to steady my avatar’s breath so I could focus on what needed to be done next.

“Sssssssssss.”

After taking a deep breath and calming myself down, I began blinking rapidly to try and focus my vision. In the corner of my eye, I spotted something glimmering.

Perfect.

Carefully turning my avatar’s head to look directly into the shimmering object, I suddenly found myself looking at my avatar. In terrible shape no less. Searching for what I could say, I closed my eyes and began to try and speak directly to my avatar.

( Hey, you. It’s going to be okay. )

Though I unconsciously did this the first time, I realized that since I had no physical body, I could not speak out with my avatar’s voice. Instead I tried to speak as I normally would… and somehow my avatar heard me.

“…?”

The avatar looked at herself in the mirror, realizing that she could hear me, and shook her head.

“It’s over. I’m not strong, and even with your voice in my head, I don’t think we stand a chance against that monster.”

My avatar sniffed and looked like it was going to begin crying again, but before she could continue, I spoke once more.

( Listen… I’m not really sure why any of this is happening, but… this is reality for both you and me right now. I think… I was brought here, in this moment, to help you. )

My avatar stared straight into the mirror without saying anything.

After a short while, I decided to speak again.

( What’s your name? Mine is Pablo. )

My avatar hesitated in answering, but eventually uttered something.

“My name… is Usika.”

( Usika, huh? That’s a really cool name, glad to finally meet you! )

Usika stared at the mirror quietly, then nodded solemnly in return.

( Now let’s get out of here. )

After emitting those last words, the ground beneath us began to rumble once more, and the trash behemoth made itself known to us once more.

Chapter 1 - The Call

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“Hey Pablo, thanks again for jumping on last night to take care of that incident for our live services. I know it must be a bother for you to get on last minute, but it really is appreciated by me and the company. Your hard work will NOT go unnoticed!”

Though we are on off-camera and working from home, I could could imagine the cheesy, corporate smile plastered across the face of my boss.

“No problem, sir, it’s what I do…”

I groan in resignation after I put myself on mute.

“Splendid! I hope the rest of you take example after Pablo here - he is willing to do anything and everything in his power to make sure the customer always comes first!”

As usual, no one else on the call responds to yet-another one of my manager’s pro corporate rants - no one here REALLY cares about the stuff we are doing, especially not me.

“Well, that just about wraps up our daily meeting. You all have your assigned tickets - be sure to work on them and give me great updates for tomorrow’s meeting!”

Wordlessly, all of my faceless teammates drop the call one by one until it’s only myself and my manager left

“Hey Pablo, I noticed you haven’t dropped yet - is there anything I can help you with?”

I snap back into reality, realizing that I had yet again drifted off into thought without intending to, especially at the end of a meeting.

“No sir… just stepped away to use the restroom and forgot to drop the call. Leaving now.”

“Good to hear that you are taking care of yourself! I’m expecting great things from you Pablo - looking forward to hearing your updates tomorrow!”

“Yes sir…”

I nodded apathetically to no one in particular and dropped the call.

Now I was all alone again, like I always was.

“Ding-ding!”

I suddenly jerked upright as I realized I had dozed off yet again.

Thankfully, it had only been about half an hour, because nothing would irk me more than waking up to several unread emails and direct messages clamoring for my attention.

I took a look at my work computer and noticed nothing out of the ordinary - a clean inbox and no new messages.

“Does that mean, that…”

I glance over to where I expect to find my smartphone among the clutter piling up on my desk, and pick it up.

“A new email message… but I thought I had unsubscribed from all those annoying marketing newsletters…”

I unlocked my phone and opened up the email app, and read the latest unread message.

“IT IS TIME - THE GRAND CHALLENGE”

The invitation came for a new virtual game I have never heard of.

“The Grand Challenge?”

Though this clearly seemed like spam, I scrolled down to read the rest of the email.

“The future needs you. We need you. Please hurry.”

Nothing else was included in the email besides a big blue button that said “Open on Retina Journey.”

“I don’t see why not… it’s not like anything important is happening at work, anyway…”

I clicked on the button, and I hear the sound of a new app downloading onto my virtual reality headset.

But that sound usually plays when an app is done downloading, and I just started downloading it not even a second ago…

“That’s weird… maybe it’s a small app?”

Not thinking too much about the details, I put on the headset and opened the app.

“Ta-ta-ta!!!”

A fanfare of trumpets started playing as a ruined post-apocalyptic world began to form around me. A moment later, a giant banner with “THE GRAND CHALLENGE” unfurled before my eyes while a button underneath labeled “The Grand Challenge” appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

I clicked the button, and started losing consciousness as my mind found itself whisked away to someplace not here.

When I regained consciousness, I realized I was in a dark space with nothing but a spotlight surrounding me.

I glanced around at everything, I started to take notice of my virtual avatar.

In most VR games, I would normally just be a floating set of hands, but this time I was attached to a body, and a very detailed one at that.

VR also had a common problem of where it could not really ever figure out how tall you were, so when you looked down, your character would be crouching or have weird leg spasms, but this avatar was ultra-realistic in that regard too.

“How interesting… and with that fast of a download. Maybe it’s a cloud game? I do have fast internet speeds…”

I shook my head to no longer muse on how this game was rendered, and tried my next typical protocol - waving my body around wildly to see what kind of unusual and weird things would happen my avatar.

This time, however, I flailed around and smacked myself hard on the head, hearing a small yelp out of my avatar.

“Ow, what the heck, who just did that—”

I paused mid-sentence, as I realized what had just happened.

Did I just… feel pain? In a VR game?

“What… is this…”

I slowly got up and realized… that I got up from the floor. With my entire virtual body.

“It can’t be…”

In reality, there had been lots of fantasy fiction regarding the idea of being transported to another world through a myriad of seemingly ordinary summonings, and sometimes the activation was putting on a headset and starting a mysterious app.

But in those virtual reality tales, you wouldn’t log out until some sort of condition was met, such as beating the game.

“Peh, they almost got me. What a crazy idea.”

I shaped my thumbs to try and hold the controller and motioned my thumb to click the menu button, but all I was met with was empty air.

“That’s… really weird. Maybe I should try the hand tracking menu?”

In more modern virtual reality games which opted to remove controllers in favor of hand tracking, you would have to either pinch or swipe to bring up the menu.

I pinched several times, with each finger, on both hands, to no avail.

I also swiped with a huge variety of finger combinations and directions, but nothing seemed to take hold.

“This isn’t good… they might start calling me at work if I don’t stop screwing around.”

My last ditch effort was to try and lift the headset directly off my face. If this didn’t work, I was in a royal mess.

I lived alone, and the only people who knew of my existence was my workplace, and they would at most try to contact me in real life after a day of missing messages.

And by then, if this game is going to be like that one virtual reality tale where you dying in the game kills you in real life…

“Here goes…”

I focused my hands around the top of my head in a cupping motion as if to remove my headset, closed in on my head, lifted up…

And nothing.

“I should have figured…”

As I sat down to try and assess my next steps, a voice started to radiate out towards me.

“I see you have arrived, hero… or should I say, heroine?”

Heroine? What is this voice talking about? Who is talking to me?

In just a split second, the scenery shifted around, and I found myself sitting down in the sky, high above the earth.

“Wha-what???”

My vertigo kicked in as I started to flail in anticipation of falling to my grim demise…

But I didn’t move at all.

“Do not worry, heroine, this is simply the introduction chamber. Unfortunately, I could do nothing about the location…”

The voice from before now appeared before me, a beautiful goddess draped with simple flowing robes and an apologetic look on her face.

“No worries… I was just surprised, that’s all,” a young female voice said, squeaked out by my avatar.

Wait, a young female voice? And this person before me calling me a heroine?

…

Am I a female avatar?

Getting up shakily from the floor, which seemed to be an invisible barrier underneath me, I took a harder look at my avatar’s body—and could figure out nothing obvious.

I just wore a simple flowing garb shirt and some shorts, but after I took a look at my hands, I guess they were more on the slender side.

“Unfortunately… I don’t have a lot of time to explain, so I will try to make this brief.”

The goddess before me frowned from her originally apologetic face, further making me lose confidence in this introduction.

“You will be momentarily sent to another location, and be tasked with defeating the entity controlling the area.

I can’t send you with any weapons or powers — all I was able to do was give you this warning.

Take all of this seriously, and be careful. You won’t get another chance if you di-“

A noise like a window cracking interrupted the goddess before she could finish, and visible cracks started to appear in the environment around me.

At the same time, the goddess lost balance and began to stumble forward, grabbing onto her forehead with one hand while catching her fall with her free hand.

“I’m sorry… this was all I could do. Do your best to survive, and good luck.”

The goddess managed to hoist herself upright with her free hand to look at me with a sad smile, and used her other hand to start a spinning motion.

“Wait—what is going on? Where are you sending me?”

I shouted at the goddess to no avail, as I felt the air around me begun to spin and enclose me, and as my questions screeched to no one, I was once again wrapped in darkness.

The walls around me began to spin outward as if unraveling me, and once they all dissipated, all that remained was a large and sprawling area that can only be described as an abandoned junkyard.

Garbage and other forgotten items stacked as high as the eye could see, with several man-made hills littering the landscape.

“You must be joking… even the smell…BLECH”

My body started to retch as the disgusting stench of the junkyard entered my nostrils.

“This is insane… why?”

Trying to ignore the hyper-realistic smell, I pressed my foot into the ground to test its stability.

Years of neglect made some of the ground loose and difficult to traverse on, but a good chunk of the junk had caked into solid material.

Some of the garbage looked recently dislocated, with giant footprints nearby to imply that something huge had just passed by recently Is this the entity the goddess was talking about?

“…?”

Another wave of anxiety flowed through my body, but it wasn’t my anxiety.

It was… my avatar’s anxiety?

What was going on here?

Realizing it now, I did not actually know WHAT I looked like.

Glancing around the junkyard, I focused my vision to look for something shiny and reflective-

“Aha.”

I strolled over to a smaller pile of junk nearby and managed to retrieve a hand mirror that was still intact.

I carefully pulled it out from its lodging as to not have the pile of junk tumble onto of me and began to observe myself.

Despite its trashed status, the hand mirror itself was quite beautiful despite its simplicity, and just a single crack split its surface.

But what caught my attention was not the surprising condition of the hand mirror, but what I saw in its reflection.

Me.

Me?

A young girl barely in her late teens met my gaze.

What I expected to see was a happy-go-lucky avatar with a generic face, but the detail in this person was immaculate.

The way the eyes looked uncertain, how the mouth was biting into its lip in the corner, and just a general aura of uneasiness was reflected onto my visage.

“Who… are you?”

My avatar spoke to me as I continued gazing into the mirror, and I froze.

Me? I am the player. In terms of being someone, I am just like any other player for this game.

“…Game? … Player? What are these words you are saying? This isn’t anything like [[Sital]] said it would be…”

My frustration grew a bit as my avatar questioned my involuntary participation in this experience.

Sital? Who is Sital? I kind of understand you not knowing words like game and player if it’s not in your world’s vocabulary….

I trailed off, realizing now I was conversing with my avatar, yet neither of us seemed to grasp what was going on.

“Sital… is the woman we were speaking with. She promised that if I underwent this trial, I could possibly be granted powers to help save this world, but instead….“

My avatar began to speak, and then stopped as she tried to find the words to describe what I could only imagine to be her disappointment.

Me.

A disappointment yet again.

Listen, I-

As I began speaking to try and learn more about the situation, the ground beneath me (us?) began to rumble.

I turned around towards tho source of the vibrations, and on the horizon of our vision was a moving pile of… junk?

Could that be…?

Focusing my vision, the piles of trash that were lazily heaped in the landfill began to tumble and dissipate in the wake of this walking monstrosity, and a chill ran down my spine.

Wait, so if this is a game, albeit a hyper-realistic one…. this boss fight should be a normal one, right?

The fear of the unknown washed over me quickly as another familiar feeling began to crest into my heart - excitement.

With absolute conviction in my course of action, I started sprinting towards the monstrosity.

“What… are you doing? Do you have a plan, Player?”

This was standard scenario in role-playing games - a lone monster lumbering around its stomping grounds meant as a tutorial for new players to overcome.

In terms of fighting a behemoth several multiples of the player’s size, the typical trope is to get beat up a little bit until a cutscene activates.

This cutscene would grant you a weapon or power so that you can fight back and defeat the monster.

“Hey ugly, look over here!”, I shouted through my avatar.

I finally arrived at the site of the rumbling, and shouted at the giant humanoid pile of trash before me.

Its body was a patchwork of broken appliances, twisted metal, tattered clothing, and mounds of decomposing organic matter.

“Why are you agitating it? Are you trying to get us killed?”

As the monster turned to face me, it roared a loud and bloodcurdling howl, and began to wind up one of its fists to try and hit me.

Do not worry - this is all part of the sequence to trigger the cutscene and awaken your power.

“You are insane! Please get out of the way!”

A large fist barreled at me as I made no attempt to move out of the way, and my avatar found itself sailing across the junkyard.

I can’t believe… I forget….

As the sensation of being pulverized rippled intense pressure and pain over my body, I remembered when I accidentally slapped myself in the introduction room of this experience, and it hurt.

This… hurt so much more.

Why… is this happening… is this… blood?…

Just as I was starting to realize that this was more than just a game, I stopped sailing across the sky as I was forcefully imprinted into a pile of junk.

The Story So Far

Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As much as I loveeee writing, I want to improve my oral storytelling.

I felt like like I have always been a great listener, but terrible at explaining myself in compelling and memorable ways.

So… with that being said, I decided to try my hand at telling various recent and ancient stories from my life via a video blog!

But there is a twist… since I love virtual reality so much, why not try to record my vlogs in the metaverse?

Here is my first attempt at doing so :^)

(The audio is choppy and the stories are all over the place, but that’s good! It gives me obvious places to improve for next time~)

Updates

I finished my story outline! Here it is as proof:

Next week, I plan to create the environments for Chapter 1 so I can start building out the next interactive experience!

New Game Plus

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I fell out of rhythm with posting my project progress because:

I didn’t have Structure in my life
I didn’t have specific goals I was trying to timebox
I let myself get too swept up in the moment, especially when dealing with others

But most importantly, I had lost the confidence in executing on my projects because I did not feel like I had all the information required to progress.

Turns out, I never will.

Nobody really knows what we are doing, but the best executors know where they are going and how to achieve the next smallest steps.

Drawing from my past experiences, but especially looking for help ASAP will definitely be the keys to success for this year.

Updates

This is a new section I am baking in per week to keep myself accountable!

Next week, I plan to have the rough story draft of the The Grand Challenge done so I can start baking the characters around them.

Trivia

This blog post’s screencap is from the opening sequence of Sword Art Online’s Opening 2

I love the recurring theme of the series which explores the relationship between our physical and digital selves, and the first 20 seconds beautifully encapsulate that.