Kai

[Five days before]

I'm frail at such a young age. I'm twenty-one, yet I cannot stand on my own. No matter how advanced medicine is right now, there was nothing that could cure me. The doctors gave up and stopped studying my condition. They are convinced that I'm just pretending I cannot stand because all their tests suggest that I still have a full connection with my legs. I kept telling them I couldn't feel anything but they won't believe me. They just concluded my condition was some kind of psychological defect.

I would need a wheelchair to get around. Well, I cannot say "wheel" because it doesn't have wheels but it floats, defying gravity. It's called, as I remember. . . Graviton Tech. It has been with me longer than any person. They come and go but this chair will always be with me.

I remember. . . fragments of my memory. Her silhouette—my mother's silhouette. I was behind her as she raged in front of a screen in the middle of a dark trashed room. I was a toddler that just learned how to talk. I cried, scared of her roar and the way she smashed the keyboard. When she stood up, she looked at me over her shoulder. I can never forget the violent glare of hers that suddenly turned into an angelic smile.

As she calmed me down while carrying me in her arms, I remembered the words she said, "Find me at the edge of the Server, Kai." I never knew what that meant but they were the last words I heard from her.

I was young and didn't have a clue as to why I suddenly woke up alone in the hospital, crying, and my legs feeling numb. For days, I cried and cried, yelling, "Mama!" over and over again but she never came.

In the shelter, I could only look at the children playing in the playground while their parents are watching them. I learned that a child always has two parents: a mother and a father. I only knew my mother but never saw my father. I don't even know their names. I just know for a fact that I'll know they're my parents when I see them. After years of searching as far as my chair-ridden body, and looking at the faces of adults I come to pass by, I never found them. I just gave up. All I discovered was I will going to be alone forever.

The government of the Shelter educates children for free. Mostly, education is based entirely on programming. The hard work done by hand is done by robots. More complex tasks are done by humans such as law and counseling. For some reason, AI can never topple humans in terms of passionate creativity. I guess that's what makes humans unique. But if we all disappear, the AI of the Shelter will still strive for millions of years if nothing catastrophic happens.

I was about to apply to become an animator but I figured out I could just wait until the government support expires. I still have five years. I'll be twenty-six when that happens. If I'm not successful in the AI-driven animation industry, I'm sure the future me will land a job.

Ours is not the only shelter in the world. Oh, I set the bar too low. Instead, I'll say, ours is not the only shelter in the galaxy. Humans living like us are all scattered in shelters on planets and asteroids across the galaxy. We connect through gaming—virtual gaming. I don't know much but my teachers said that the consciousness of humans and quantum mechanics are entirely related. Quantum computers can transmit signals throughout the galaxy in an instant. No electromagnetic wave can beat that speed. A billion lightyears away, we can send a message in an instant. Kudos to the inventors of this technology.

In gaming, I can walk all I want and talk to people without showing how hideous I look in person. I'm not like other gamers that compete. I'm just casual and always trying to make friends. But this is only a game. We naturally part ways. It's normal but it hurts me. For that's the only way to fill my loneliness. So, I stopped gaming for a while and decided to go out, and take a stroll around the Shelter.

The Shelter is a dome, protecting us from the harsh and hellish environment outside. This is a volcanic planet, after all. Right now, I'm at the park where I always used to hang around. It eases me a little bit, to see healthy children running around. Envy is way behind me. Now, I try to find things to be grateful for. Children not going through what I've gone through is something to be grateful about.

Then, "Hey," said someone from beside me on the right.

I'm surprised and could not say something when I saw her face. Who is this stranger? Do I know her? She's standing tall, her black long hair is a mess, and I reckon she's older than me. Then she has this cunning smile that I'm sure she's a troublesome person.

"I'm sorry," I say. "do I know you?"

"Nope, but it's quite refreshing to see someone who used to come here often."

This is not rare. There have been instances when someone approached and mentioned that to me. Well, how could I not stand out with this disability of mine? (Not a good type of standing out)

"You come here quite often?" I ask.

"Yeah, but not as often as I used to."

"Same."

"I'm Alice." She's asking to shake my hand with a smile.

"Kai." We shake hands.

"So, do you game?"

"Yeah, but not too much."

"What games do you play?"

"Clubhouse, Partyville, and the like."

Then she laughs hard at me. What's her deal? Asking then shaming me for my preferences?

"What are you, a girl?" she jests.

I just laughed with her to hide my embarrassment. I know that the games I like to play are a bit targeted toward a female audience. And that's the point. I'm a lonely guy. I thought I could find a girl that I could connect with to fill my loneliness. But I'm over that. I can live alone now.

"How about you?" I ask.

"Shannia," she says, smiling.

"Cool," I nodded, pretending to know the game. I guess it is a mainstream game so I figured it was safe to say that it is a cool game.

She looked at me with doubt and says, "You don't know that game, do you?"

I close my eyes. She got me. "I'm sorry," I apologized, chuckling.

"It's okay but do you wanna try?"

I have nothing to do and this is a good opportunity to make a friend, so. . . "Okay."

"Can I have your Thiscord username, then?"

She seems to be a little excited as I open my phone to show her.

"Okay, here it is." I show her my profile.

She adds me right away and before I could press the accept button, she says, "I'll DM you later. Bye!" There she goes. . .

Later that night, I was chilling in front of my computer, eating popcorn with an energy drink, and laughing at memes. Then I got a message from her on Thiscord that says, "Hellooooo!"

"Hiiii," I replied to match her energy.

"You ready?"

"Yup. Just finished installing the game." I downloaded the installer she sent me. It was a small file. Only taking up one terabyte of memory. "I'm going to create my profile now. Wait for me."

"Before you do that. Follow these instructions."

She sent me a text file. In it, there are written codes and stuff. I guess they're for the character creation phase. I don't know anything about this game so I think it's best if I do what she says.

"Important note:" she adds. "Do everything EXACTLY as I put in the file. Never EVER make any mistake. Got it?"

What is this all about? Why does she badly want me to follow her instructions? It wouldn't even matter that much.

"Am I clear?" she asks after I let her hang for a minute.

"Ok."

"Great! See ya in-game!" And she goes offline. Maybe she's going to log in now. I better log in too.