“Hey, charming,” a voice said, uncomfortably close behind me. “Come here—“

I reacted immediately, turning around and kneeing the figure in the groin. My hand darted for my phone, as the person in front of me folded in two from the pain. I flicked my screen, ready to trigger my security app, when I recognized him.

“Kyle?” Crap! What did I just do?

I looked around. The majority of the crowd had ignored the incident, hurrying on their way. A few had found it amusing enough to start making a video, hoping for a dramatic resolution to the situation that would bring them views online.

“Kyle, are you okay?” I asked, instantly aware of the stupidity of my question.

“Guess I won’t worry about our second date,” he managed to say, tears in the corners of his eyes. His humor was terrible as always, yet guilt made me consider the timing funny.

“Let me help you get up,” I offered.

“No!” he almost shouted. “Just give me a sec.”

A minute passed with me watch him cross on the street. The people who had taken out their phones quickly saw that nothing of interest would come out of this, and continued on their way. Meanwhile, I stood there, completely clueless as what to do. This wasn’t the first time I had gotten physical with someone, both here and in the virtual world, but it was the first time that I had injured to such a degree by accident. He was lucky that I hadn’t used something other than my knee. The neighborhood had enough security cameras to be considered safe, but even so, most people had a protection gadget at hand.

“This the way you treat all your dates?” Kyle stood up. He was breathing rapidly, stepping from foot to foot.

“Sometimes.” I narrowed my eyes. Even in this circumstance, he had the ability to tick me off.

“Want to go sit down somewhere?” He looked at me, like a kitten preparing to jump onto the table even if it knew it didn’t stand a chance. “I could use a sit down and a drink.” A smile covered his face.

I gave the matter two seconds thought.

“Sure.” I glanced back at the sign of my store. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do right now. “Where to?”

“I heard there was a city park somewhere nearby. What about there?”

“Umm, no.” I crossed my arms.

The park was neither near, nor was it a park anymore. The neighborhood had been transformed into an apartment complex over a decade ago. My parents used to talk about it, when I was younger. It had been a huge scandal back then, which then had conveniently been swept away. The park lot had been leased to a pharmacy complex, who had then re-leased it to a robotic assembly plant, which then had received enough political backlash to re-re-lease it to a construction company with city council interests involved. The only thing that remained of the part was a sigh and a name on the map.

“Get something to drink and we’ll go in the back alley.” With deliveries not due till evening, it was a good place as any.

“You sure?” Kyle arched a brow. “Okay. Want something to eat with your drink?”

“Just something to drink.” I went to the side of the store. Kyle shook his head with a smile, then ran across the street. I’d known him for a few days, yet the way he behaved made me think I’d known him my entire life. Sadly, most of the things I associated with him weren’t good. “Twinkle, anything from Vesperia?”

“Nothing for now, Sarah,” my AI companion replied.

“Any info on the net about work?”

“Only a few promotion ads and push notifications,” Twinkle paused. “The store is listed as open and functioning at full capacity.”

Like hell it is! There were a lot of things in the world that scared me: hackers, virtual vandals, identity sniffers... I had dealt with my fair share with online issues, just as my friends and parents have. Having my workplace closed brought things to a whole new level. This was the sort of thing that happened only on conspiracy forums. According to most statistics, large scale realty fraud happened less than three times per year, mostly in isolated areas. I didn’t want to think what had to be involved to have it done here.

Where are you? I wrote a quick message to Jeff, then kept staring at the screen. Normally, he’d respond within twenty seconds. This time, he didn’t.

“Come on! Come on!” I hissed under my breath. Of all the times that he chose not to respond did it gave to be now? “Twinkle, find Jeff.”

“Jeff is offline,” the AI replied as if this were a good thing. “He hasn’t been online for two hours and fourteen minutes.”

“Check all other employees and—“ I stopped. Kyle had emerged with two cups of soda and a packet of something. Seeing me, he waved. “Mute.” I put the phone in my pocket and waved back.

My mind rushed to figure out what to do. The line between game and reality was getting ominously thin. Suddenly, all the rumors and coincidences that float in the net didn’t seem so innocent. I knew from my trial that there had been others before me—I had seen their names on the hidden leaderboard—but where were they now? There was no real information on the net, everyone involved had either disappeared, gone dark, or—if Flicker was to be believed—gone insane. Was the same now happening to me?

“Here you go.” Kyle handed me my drink. “Cherrybeat was at a discount, so I got that. Is it fine?”

“Sure.” I took it.

“I also got some shrimp fries.” He opened the packet. “They aren’t exactly shrimp, or fries, but the flavor combination is good.” He laughed. I didn’t join in.

If someone could get to my work and my university, my home wouldn’t be safe either. The question was, was anywhere safe? After the last argument with my parents, I wouldn’t be welcome there even if I wanted to go. That went double for any relatives I had, assuming I even remembered where they lived. Normally, in a situation like this I’d turn to Jeff. As a deep web hacker, he could set me up with a temp identity until I figured out what to do. Now that he was gone, I was all out of options.

“Sarah?” I heard Kyle’s voice, as if coming from the distance. “Sarah, you okay?”

“Huh?” I blinked. I was still here, at the same crowded street I had come too every day for the past year. The flow of people had increased to rush hour levels, making the it seem as if I were in Vesperia’s marketplace. I looked down at my hand; there was a cup of soda in it. “Umm, just thinking about something.” I went back to coping mode. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s get somewhere quiet.”

“Great!” The corner of Kyle’s mouth curved in a smile. “I’d usually make a joke about now, but after what happened earlier...”

“Yeah...” I lead the way. “Better not.”

The drink tasted nasty—far too sweet, with a sugary aftertaste. After a few sips, I wanted to throw it away, and I would have if there were any trash cans on the way. My thoughts still dwelled on the quest. Every few steps, I’d look over my shoulder, pretending to check if Kyle was keeping up. From what I could, tell there wasn’t anyone following me, though that didn’t make me feel much better.

After a while, we turned along a narrow street and went to the service alley behind the shops. We passed a couple of kids along the way. By their reaction, I could tell they were doing something not entirely legal—probably using modded chips to connect somewhere they weren’t supposed to.

“Keeping up?” I asked as the kids rushed off down the alley.

“No problem,” I heard Kyle’s voice behind me.

“Let’s stop here,” I said, leaning against the wall. There was lots of space further in, even a few places we could sit. However, I didn’t want to be too far away from the main road. More cameras meant more security, but it also meant more people would pay attention if I decided to scream. “How long do you have?”

“Well...” Kyle pursed his lips. “Technically, it’s my day off, but some of the guys caught some bug and...” He took a gulp of his drink, then put it on the ground. “About half an hour. Maybe less.”

“Works.” I put my drink next to his. “Any idea what happened to my place?” I tried to be casual about it. My hope was the Kyle was too new to recognize this wasn’t a common occurrence. “It was supposed to be open by now.”

“With the amount of tech they brought out, that would be impressive.” He laughed, then poured some fries from the bad into his mouth. “Jeff explained part of it, but he was in a rush, and I wasn’t exactly paying attention.”

“Jeff was here?” My heart stopped. This was exactly what I didn’t want to have happened.

“Some family stuff, I think. Seemed quite pissed. He wasn’t the only one, mind. The rest of your crew were pretty much the same. I think you lost a shift’s pay. Maybe more, by the looks of things.”

“Hold on. You’re saying the boss did this?” Things we’re making less and less sense.

“I guess?” Kyle shrugged. “Jeff gave the orders, I think, but I don’t think he came up with them. But hey, I might be wrong.”

The phone in my pocket buzzed. Before I knew it, I had taken it out and was staring at the screen as if I’d won a legendary loot box. A semi transparent miniature image of Twinkle appeared, running along my messages, leaving a trail of miniscule paw prints behind him. When I was a child, I'd thought the feature was cute. Now, I just flicked the screen, sweeping him away with a single gesture.

Jeff! The top message instantly caught my attention.

Quote:

Hey,

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. Sis had an allergic attack and I have to deal with it again :/.

Your shift’ll be an hour later. The boss decided to do the upgrade, so we’re pretending to be working while the tech guys install the new cleaners. I got you a spot on that as I promised, so better start learning how to use it when you get to work. I’ll try to be there too, but the way things are there I can’t guarantee it.

Catch you later, S!

I felt the weight of the world fall off my shoulders. An upgrade? I wanted to laugh. Leave it to the owners to upgrade the equipment off the books. I wouldn’t be surprised if the store was technically open but with “restricted admission”.

I’m such an idiot. Looking back, it all seemed ridiculous, just like the last-century alternate reality games my grandfather used to talk about. To this day, I wasn’t sure he had even played them, but his stories were full of people entering a state of paranoia for months after the game had become “too real”.

“Good news?” Kyle moved closer, trying to look at my phone.

“Yep.” I pressed the screen of the phone against my shirt. He was never going to learn, but right now I was too drunk on joy to give a damn. “I just learned my shift was delayed.”

“I so envy you right now.” Kyle sighed. “The way things are going, I’ll probably end up staying till four.” He finished his drink, then crumpled the paper cup in his hands. “At least I get twenty percent overtime bonus. A few more weeks like this, and I’ll be able to afford a place closer to here.”

“Good luck.” Everything for rent in the area had the issue of being both crappy and overpriced. “Be careful when you check reviews. Most use false references.”

“Ah. Thanks.” At times it amused me how naive he was. “I’ll try to remember that.” Kyle’s phone bopped. “And that would be my boss pinging me for work.”

“I feel you.”

“Catch you after work?”

“Sure,” I lied. I had one day left to figure out the hundred level quest, and even if I didn’t, Kyle wouldn’t be my first choice. “I’ll call you.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Kyle winked and ran off, crashing through the crowd like a hamster in a ping pong factory. Apparently there was no cure for some things. The sad part was that Kyle was one of my more normal acquaintances. That, and he clearly wasn’t a gamer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he used his real name online.

“Twinkle,” I said to my phone, “any news on Flicker?”

“FlickerFlacker hadn’t connected since you last asked,” the cat meowed.

“Do a deep search.” My heart started aching as I said that. I didn’t even want to think how much It was going to cost me. “Don’t spend over two hundred. I want you to find what sites he’s been visiting from Vesperia.”

“Okay, Sarah!” Twinkle “leapt onto” my phone screen. “Do you want me to do it incognito?”

That wasn’t a bad idea. “Yes.” I nodded. “As much anonymity as you can for free.”

“Yay!” He bounced, beaming with joy. “Do you want me to keep monitoring your accounts?”

“That’s fine. Just get me the info.”

Let’s see what you have been hiding, rich kid.