chapter 4

Wendy quickly whips out her phone and turns it on.

"What is it?" Brandon asks as they wait for the phone to boot up.

"Well, since we can't figure out what's wrong, I thought I'd check online to see if any of the recent grinders have come across the same situation."

"That makes sense." Zeke says.

"Yeah, that way we'd know if it was an isolated event." Brandon agrees.

Wendy rejoices internally. She hardly ever makes any valuable contributions during their brainstorming and strategizing sessions.

The phone finishes booting and is immediately blasted by notifications. She normally doesn't bother with the notifications, but this time, one of them catches her attention instantly. A news article.

"What?" Brandon asks. He probably caught her reaction.

"They say Your New Reality is down for a maintenance break." She says. The boys just look at her dumbfounded. She then starts going through her phone's notification bar. All notifications are related to the break.

"Everyone's freaking out about it." She says. "Apparently DIOHA also released a statement."

The two are still quiet, but Zeke props himself up on the bed's lower bunk, then picks up his VR glasses from the top bunk. He puts them on tapping the 'on' button.

"Unbelievable." He says after a while. "Its true."

Brandon has still said nothing. Wendy understands their shock. After all, she is just as surprised. There are many mysteries behind the game. In addition to their other worldly technology that was introduced a year ago inducing senses in the virtual world, the game has never been down for maintenance. More to that, DIOHA games – the creators – rarely issue public statements, so of course the whole would would be abuzz with these developments. Their uncanny run pales in comparison.

"What did DIOHA say?" Brandon asks. That is probably what was on his mind.

Wendy opens up the article and quickly speed reads through to the section of the released statement. "it says; 'To all loyal players of Your New Reality. In accordance with our companies mission to bring you the ultimate gaming experience, we announced the incorporation of senses into the virtual world.

"Over the course of a year, we have slowly introduced this in what is now termed the invisible updates. We however wish to push this further, but we cannot achieve what we plan using our regular update methods, thus the break. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hope to see you all back at 7:00 a.m.'" she then checks her phone's notification bar to note the time.

6:55?? Has she been here for that long?

"What more could they have planned?" Zeke asks. Wendy however has no time to think about it. She would find out later. She has to get back home and get ready for work.

"No idea." She says and quickly gets on her feet. "I can find out later."

"You're leaving so soon?" Brandon ask.

Wendy maneuvers her way through the scattered clothes to the room's small window and pulls the curtain open letting the morning sunrays to stream into the room.

"Yes." She says. "Or I'll be late for work."

"Alright, we'll walk you to the street"

"you know... I'm not feeling all that good yet." Zeke says and looks away from them scratching his head. "Plus I need clean up." He whispers.

'He would really go out of his way not to be around me.' Wendy thinks. She always tries to hard to get close to Zeke, but he keeps going further away. She turns to Brandon and finds him staring at Zeke with squinted eye, no doubt churning his gears to figure out a way to get Zeke to come along.

"Don't think too much," she says and gets his attention. "It's alright, let's go."

Brandon sighs dejectedly and gets to feet. He moves over and swings the door open, holding it open for her to get through.

"I want to return to a spotless room." He say, and walks out with her.

Wendy doesn't want to leave so soon. Why did time go by so fast? She hardly sees Zeke in real life, so she wanted to stay with him a little longer. She appreciates Brandon for trying to make that happen, but every encounter with Zeke in real life further solidifies the thought that he hates her. Maybe it would be best to just keep meeting in the game. But it's getting too scary for her to keep sane playing. What should she do?

"Hey!!" Zeke's voice sounds as they start descending the second staircase. "I think you guys should see this!"

'Why the urgency?' Wendy wonders as they speed up the stairs. Brandon one again opens the door and her eyes immediately land on Zeke, again at the left side of the chaotic room. He is on his feet this time, and he is staring at bed cautiously. Wendy follows his gaze to the bed and nearly jumps back from the shock.

She sees the VR glasses Zeke wore earlier lying on lower bunk of the bed 'glitching,' along with another one close the pillow - probably Brandon's. Horizontal lines of TV static an mosaic streak randomly across the glasses, as they vibrates and 'flick' on and off. Zeke was right. This is definitely something they had to see. But what on earth is happening? She didn't think device malfunctions could be this erratic. Is this even natural?

Wendy's phone chimes and brings her out of her thoughts. She pulls it out of her pockets and sees the new notification. It is from Your New Reality.

"What's wrong?" Brandon asks

"A message from the game." She says. " It says 'Thank you for you patience.'"

It's now 7.00 a.m. meaning the maintenance is over. Is this what they meant about pushing their vision further? No, that cannot be correct. What is happening clearly isn't natural. She doesn't think they can use their doubtful science to explain this like they did to dispel the mystery of virtual senses. Is this an isolated event too, or is it happening to others?

Another notification chimes to bring Wendy out of her thoughts once again, but its not her phone this time. A translucent blue bubble has popped up in front of her eyes showing an envelop icon.

[You have a new message.]

"Are you guys seeing this?" She asks, and raises her hands to touch the bubble, but they glide through.

"This is real life right?" Zeke says.

"I'm pretty sure it is." Wendy responds. She looks from the glitching to glasses to the translucent bubble in front of her. Is this really real life?

'Open.' She gives the command in her mind and the envelope icon animates open.

[Welcome to Your New Reality.] a familiar robotic female voice reads out the message. [Scanning and configuring world assets. Please stand by.]

At that moment, the glasses stop their glitch, then dissolve into circular waves of TV static and mosaic. The mosaic waves spread across the bed and onto the floor, then keep spreading till the reach the door. Wendy jumps with a yelp as the waves reach her, letting them pass by.

They turn around to observe the wave advance and notice similar waves leaving other apartments and different buildings.

"I guess it wasn't an isolated event." Wendy mutters to herself as they watch hundreds of  TV static/mosaic waves crawl down the buildings to the ground. Doors start clicking open and people begin to emerge from the different rooms, also dazed by the spectacle. Murmurs are getting louder in the growing panic as people watch the waves expand.

"Are you guys sure this is real life?" Zeke asks from inside. Wendy has to wonder at that. Is all this really happening? is the game no longer just a game?

"Ah!" Wendy exclaims as the thought surfaces. "Brandon. What did you mean earlier when you said the game might not be a game?"

Brandon snaps out of his trans and looks down at her. "It was just... a thought, I don't know if it even..."

"Brandon. I don't care. Your thoughts are more than just thougts. What did you mean."

"I just thougth about what Ruger said. He said he's not a machine programmed to.."

"Could you skip to the important part." She looks into the distance as the waves spread and more seem to erupt from buildings in the city. "I'm kind of panicking right now."

"Right." He says. "It made me to think about our previous runs. I dont rember all as perfect as Zeke would, but I do remember an occational difference in the 'cut scenes' of some runs. The speeches or mannerisms of the NPCs differed slightly a few times.

"I always just assumed it was the devs incredible attention to detail, but after Zeke relayed ruger's speech I thought 'what if they weren't.'"

"And I started thinking the same too." Zeke says.

'That's why Zeke didn't give a quick response.' Wendy thinks. He should have noticed alot more than the 'occaional difference' with his perfect memory. She then sighs inwardly. Why do they always have to explain everthing to her?

"What do you think now." She asks Brandon. She'll just have to keep depending on them for answers, though she doubts anyone has the answer to this.

"What if the game is becoming reality?"

With the few minutes of madness Wendy has just witnessed, another of Brandon's absurd thoughts is no longer enough to smack her brain senses away. But if the game is now reality, what happens to thier lives?

Another translucent blue bubble pops up, but this time the envelope icon automatically animates open.

[Asset scan and configuration complete. Please stand by for construction.]