I didn't sleep that nite. Not real sleep, not game sleep, just lying on my actual couch, headset off, staring at my actual ceiling, playing Mira's voice on a loop.
*He went in, the game registered it as complete, and he never came out.
Nothing had been settled by morning except that I couldn't sit on it by myself. I logged back in, and messaged Dario first, not the whole party, Dario because of the four of them he was the one who'd trust a weird story without having it wrapped in proof first.
We met at the same fountain. Same jittery energy, different time of day."You look like you've seen a ghost," he said, uncomfortably close to the truth, considering what I was about to tell him.
I told him all. "Look. Her brother. The coma with no medical cause. The whole class database was wiped clean. He didn't interrupt once, which was alarming in itself for Dario – normally he had a joke ready for every pause.When I was done, he said, "Okay. "Initial reaction, and I need you to not take this the wrong way — how do you know she's telling the truth?"I don't. Not for sure." "Right. So step one is, don't panic. Checking, first step."How to check? The company is not going to release medical records."
Dario pulled up something I didn't recognize, a browser overlay, apparently something the headset allowed if you dug in settings, which I clearly hadn't. "My cousin works in some sort of IT position for a company that works with the publisher. Not deep access, but enough to know rumors. For months now there have been forum discussions on 'phantom account deletions'. No official ever responds to them. "They're just quietly taken out.You knew about this already?" "I knew there were *rumours*. Didn't know they had a face and a name and a coma attached to it" He rubbed his temple, a gesture so purely him it made me feel steadier even in the midst of crisis. 'This changes things, Ken.'"I know."I mean it alters the Trial. "You're going to walk into the very stage that put her brother in the hospital.""I know that too."And you're going to do it anyway.
It wasn't a question and I didn't act like it was one. "I don't think Vanguard was by chance. Whatever's happening, I think I'm already in it, whether I notice or not. backing out doesn't un-flicker the thing that's been sitting in my HUD for a month now. If there is an answer, it is beyond that stage, not on this side of it."
Dario was silent for a long moment, long enough for the ambient sound effects of the fountain to fill the space where a response should have been."Then we tell the others," he said finally. "All. Today. "Because if you walk into this, whatever it is, you're not walking in with three people who think this is just a fifty-thousand-dollar tournament and one person who knows the truth and is too polite to ruin the vibe."You think they'll want to get out." "I think they deserve the choice you just made for yourself. "That's not the same.
He was right. I hated that he was right, mostly because it meant that the easy version of today, the version where I carried this by myself and let everyone else continue to have fun, was already out of the question.
**"Ding! Party Message: Dario would like to convene a group meeting. Location: The Fountain."
I had seen the notification go out, had seen three more presence icons begin converging toward us on the map, and felt something tighten in my chest that had nothing to do with any stat sheet.
Whatever this game's summit was, I was beginning to suspect it wasn't a leaderboard position at all.
*To be continued…*