A wave of chills washed over the young king’s flesh, and he drew in a deep breath. It finally hit him how blessed he truly was. He was being chosen by the holy spirit to lead his people into a new age of enlightenment. He was being addressed by God itself, and he had only acted like a faithless coward. He knew there must be a reason he was brought to this place. Why the form God took was his own. There must be a greater purpose to the plan, as there has always been.
“I will do as you command,” King Hum said to his doppelganger, “but first I must ensure the safety of my people. Do not take this as doubt against you, my Lord, but as concern for them. I am a leader, and as such, I must put my people before even the will of God.”
The holy spirit nodded, the smile never disappearing from his face. “That is why you have been chosen, King Hum,” he said. “With the powers you’d be granting them, no one in your kingdom would suffer. All will be included in the golden age that will befall your people. I am counting on you to lead your flock through this door, but first, you must step through yourself.”
King Hum looked at his feet for a moment, his face distorted with deep thought. He seemed to arrive at a decision after not long. He nodded and gazed back at the darkness beyond the door. He took one last moment to admire the beauty of the valley around them before sprinting headfirst at the opening. The void swallowed him up as he passed through the threshold.
Layers
“I — I don’t understand,” Ethan said. His voice was weak.
“Yeah, it looks like it,” Sharpe replied, scanning his friend’s face. “I guess that answers my question about the immersion. You didn’t even know you were in it again, did you?”
“What are you talking about?” Ethan asked. He was starting to feel sick in his stomach. “Where’s Gauge?”
“You were with Gauge again?” Taylor asked, moving closer. She took a seat at the couch with Sharpe. “What were you doing?”
“We were just trying to leave the simulation,” Ethan replied, gesticulating with his hands as he spoke. He couldn’t look at his friends’ excited faces. “We were flying straight up — trying to break out of the ceiling, so to speak.”
“But you didn’t get out?” Taylor asked.
Ethan shook his head. His forehead was starting to ache a little from furrowing his brow. He kept looking around the basement, waiting for Gauge to burst in again at any moment. For Sharpe and Taylor’s dumbstruck faces to glitch out again. For everything to be a lie — like it always was.
“Aww, so you were just in the beginning part?” Taylor said. “Lame. Why’d it end so soon?”
“We didn’t make it,” Ethan replied. His voice was distant, like he wasn’t really speaking, instead on autopilot.
“You weren’t back at that battle royale map again?” Sharpe asked.
“No. We were here.”
Sharpe frowned in thought, nodding. “Damn,” he said. “I gotta say, I’m impressed at how drastically your play-through changed on your second run. It’s like it factored in how your first experience went and built another layer on top of it. Truly meta.”
“I wonder if I’ll still be in trouble with the Shell City police, then,” Taylor commented, grinning. “Oh man, I’ve got to play again soon.”
Ethan buried his face into his hands. He felt like he needed a moment to recuperate — to process. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still inside the adventure. He couldn’t look at Sharpe or Taylor like he did before because he couldn’t be sure they were real. Any moment now, they could start seizing up, flickering like Gauge or the fake Sharpe had done. The others ignored him as they started daydreaming about their next play-through of The Rebels of Shell City.
“That Gauge guy is really the ultimate tutorial piece,” Sharpe said. “I don’t think I’ve played a game with a better introductory character. He really brings you into the world of Shell City without making you feel like he’s a fake person.”
“I agree!” Taylor said, putting her hand on Sharpe’s shoulder. “More adventures should use him — or someone like him.”
“I wonder if we’ll be able to play Rebels when we graduate,” Sharpe thought aloud. “It would be pretty dumb of Replication to not make adventures for people out in the real world.”
“I’m sure whatever they have out there puts our adventures to shame,” Taylor said. “Remember — we’re getting all the kiddie content.”
“True,” Sharpe said.
Ethan tuned his friends out while they spoke. He couldn’t do much else than stare forward at the coffee table and cradle his own head. Part of his scalp felt like the circulation had been cut off to it. He almost felt dizzy; he wanted to get some fresh air.
What was real? Was the couch he sat on just another part of the Rebels adventure? Were Sharpe and Taylor real this time? Were they ever real? Has he just been playing this never-ending, always-repeating adventure since the dawn of time? He couldn’t tell anymore. It felt like his brain might turn to mush and leak out of his ears if he thought about it anymore.
Was Tera just a character? he thought. A sharp pang struck his heart as he thought of her. She had seemed so real — and he was starting to feel for her when their autocar went down outside of Opes.
None of that happened, though. It was just a game.
Or, he thought, someone is trying to mess with my head. But why? And who?
Gauge had glitched out when they were trying to fly out of the simulation — Ethan was certain of that. Whether or not it was because he was just a computer
