Rio led us down a long hallway to a sketchy looking elevator. Rather than actual solid doors or walls it was held in place by what looked like some sort of rusted cage. The pulley system was visible too. I preferred to pretend that elevators weren't rushing me up or down at high speeds.

"Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. I too prefer stairs, but well..." Rio motioned to his wheelchair. "A drunk driver made that decision for me."

"I'm so sorry," I said, completely and honestly saddened. My cousin had also been hit by a drunk driver last year, though he hadn't lived to tell the story to the judge, and I was pretty sure the driver was already out roaming the streets again... or bars if not streets.

"Eh, it's life. It also gives me a perfectly good excuse to sit around all day on my computer." He turned and winked at us, letting us follow him into the cage-elevator. He lifted the case of a rusty control console and pressed a few buttons. The giant machine groaned and slowly began to descend.

Rio was charming, and probably twice my and Graz's age, or at least in his late-twenties. I made a mental note to ask how they knew each other and had become friends. Before I could say anything, my heart fluttered, and the wind left my lungs.

"Ugh..." I groaned, crumpling over and grasping my chest.

Graz bent over and put an arm on my shoulder. I should have been overjoyed at the fact that my celebrity crush was touching me, but I couldn't put the thought into motion. I felt so weak.

"What is happening?" I managed to force out, my hands clenched into fists.

Rio looked at Graz quizzically and Graz looked at the ceiling in thought.

"I think you need to disconnect," he finally said.

"What do you mean? I'm not online."

"No, I mean from Phoenix."

"What...?" I opened my menu and checked my status, my eyes glowing blue.

"Wait, where did all my Ability Points go!"

I saw it tick down one more number.

3/250

Graz's eyes lit up as he entered his own status screen.

"Woah. Looks like being connected drains our AP, and quickly."

"How much do you have left?" I asked, feeling as if every word drained more AP.

"Heh," Graz grunted.

Guess he's still going to keep his stats a secret.

"Well, no point in passing out." I opened my menu, seeing the new option available.

Knowing full well I was not excited to go back to my original, ordinary self, I highlighted the command and spoke anyways, "Disconnect".

Code spun around me, an array of ones and zeros, alongside other languages that I didn't recognize. I felt myself shrink a few inches, my muscles faded away and my chest returned to my original size. I fell to the ground, taking deep breaths, no longer feeling the exhausted depletion of my Ability Points, but instead, overwhelmed by the now-broken dam of emotions that being Phoenix had held back.

I slowly pushed myself to my knees and looked down, realizing that I was wearing my hoodie and leggings, not my combat gear. My hands were no longer dexterous and precise but instead were shaking.

"Shit. Shit shit shit shit."

I was either going insane and had spent WAY too much time playing CCO, or my fantasy world had somehow merged with the real one. The people of my hometown, my neighbors, family, friends, were all somehow missing. Well, I didn't know if I would call those whom I went to school with friends, but probably associates all the same. The realization all came crashing in at once. I felt tears well up in my eyes and lifted my hands to hide behind them, embarrassed.

Then I felt Graz squeeze my shoulder and speak softly.

"It's okay, try and breathe. We're going to figure this out together."

I lifted my wet and blurry eyes and saw not Graz, the Black Wolf staring back at me, but the boy from my house. The shaggy haired, T-shirt and Jeans kid who had saved my life. Somehow, just being next to another person made it all somewhat more okay.

I leapt forward and wrapped him in a bear-hug, letting the tears flow. At first Graz was too surprised to know what to do, but then came to his senses and hugged me back.

"My family... My town... What is going on Graz?"

"Umm. About that... well you can call me Ben. Graz is just my character's name."

Ben. I wondered if I was the only person in the world who knew that.

"Okay Ben, what do we do? Why are there still people in San Francisco but not back home?" I pulled my glasses from my pocket and put them on, very pleased with myself that I had held onto them the whole time. Without Phoenix's amazing vision, I was as blind as a bat, tears blurring my vision aside.

Finally, after giving us some space and observing, Rio spoke up. I had almost forgotten he was there.

"I have a theory."

Apparently while I was having my panic attack the elevator had reached the bottom floor. Rio led us out of the huge cage and down another hallway, eventually entering one of the coolest and most distracting rooms I had ever seen. It quickly lifted my spirits and helped me not focus on the crazy, unexplainable situation we were in.

Screens. That was the first word that came to my mind as I slowly walked around the room, looking everything over. There were monitors, tvs, tablets, all manner of screens on every surface possible. Some were blasting video game streams from CCO players. Some were muted with various news stations running, the subtitles large and visible from anywhere. I even saw one displaying a cooking show where rather than professional chefs competing, it was every day average people trying to win some sum of money.

There were keyboards, wires, cords, computers, laptops. It looked as if a PC Warehouse had gone out of business and dumped all of its trash here in Rio's lap.

But it wasn't trash.

"Welcome to the HQ," Rio said, arms stretched wide. "Cheap rent, but not-so-cheap internet."

I watched one of the big screens on the wall in awe, as a CCO gamer, YellowDolphin, won another 1v1 duel, their total win count reaching 12 in a row.

"Wait, people are still playing?"

"Yep! For some cities nothing has changed at all. In fact, I doubt a lot of people even realize what's going on."

"Some cities?" Ben asked, sliding into a beat-up computer chair and logging into an old computer. I recognized the Linux terminal as it appeared and watched as he pulled up several news sites, scanning through them at a pace that made my head hurt.

"Take SF, for instance. Nothing's changed. At least not yet. Once they start realizing that the reason their loved ones aren't answering their phones is because they've disappeared... Well then things will change."

"So why is everyone still here? What is this theory you have?"

Rio directed his wheelchair over next to me and held up a remote, changing the feed from the CCO player, who was now on a 14 game 1v1 win streak, into a mirror of his laptop. He then opened a list of names. It only took me a few seconds to connect the dots.

"Los Angeles"

"San Francisco"

"Dallas"

"New York"

"Chicago"

"Tokyo"

"Madrid"

"London"

I took a deep breath. The list went on for another page or so, but I didn't need to see any more to realize. These were the names of all of CCO's server locations. I, myself, was a member of the San Francisco server, or better known in-game as "Torrential Bullets-01"

"So that means..."

"I believe so. I've cross-checked with news stations in large cities that don't host a CCO server and they are all offline. I believe that the only cities remaining, as well as residents of those cities, are those where a CCO server is."

"But... Why!? I don't understand why this is happening! I just used an item in a game. How is this even possible?"

Rio and Ben looked at each other.

Ben sighed and scratched at his hair. "Remember when I told you we had prepared for this?"

I nodded, not sure where this was going.

"Well... It may be because we have backdoor access to a certain company..."

"YenNet," Rio interrupted.

"A certain company which won't be named here," Ben continued, forcefully trying to talk louder now. "And that backdoor has shown us some stuff that the word shocking doesn't do justice."

"YenNet has realized the potential of what they have here with CCO and decided that just collecting currency virtually isn't enough. We hacked into several meetings and listened anonymously, thanks to an employee by the name of Tyrell Sorenson, and his password which is his daughter's birthday, but that's beside the point. The point, young Valys, is that they have been discussing something like this for a while. Something that will allow them to take everything they have accomplished online and bring it into reality. Unfortunately, that capability had always escaped them."

"Until..."

"Until Alexander Richmond."

I was lost and they could both see it.

"You haven't heard of Alexander Richmond?" Ben asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Sorry. I haven't," I admitted.

"I thought you were like a CCO super-fan."

I was really more of a Graz Black super-fan, but I would never admit that.

"I mean on some things yeah, but I'm not really good with names."

Except Ben. I won't forget that.

"Well Alexander Richmond, or Dr. Richmond, was the original lead designer of the Modify1, the original server that hosted CCO itself. He was the one who took VR, which was at the time nothing more than a novelty for parties, and turned it into a multi-billion dollar industry. He developed the core six."

I knew the core six. They were the founding ideals in what made a VR world, more than just a visual trick. They were what made the digital worlds, actual living and breathing worlds.

1. Immersion

You had to be separated from your body in a way that you did not feel like you were still in you room. This was accomplished by the VR headsets that we wore, which connected to their cerebral network in a way that received your brain's requests, rather than your actual physical body.

2. Feeling

Some thought of this as a subset of Immersion, but it was really a different beast to develop entirely. It meant that if you were to step into a stream, you would feel the water on you. If you ate an apple, you would taste the juicy flavor. It was the complete evolution from original VR, which was simply sight, into adopting the other senses.

3. Persistence

Everything about the world had to be persistent. No channels, sessions, or different servers. A VR world had to be a World in every sense. Characters, Deaths, NPCs, Cities that were conquered... Everything would maintain its state, even if you are offline.

4. Purpose

Logging into the world had to have a purpose. Whether it was a fantastical escape or a secret sexual escapade, the digital world had to have a purpose for existing and being separate to the regular reality.

5. Affordability

The technology and server access had to be something that was accessible for all. If not, then not only would the world not be populated, but it wouldn't reach mainstream shelves and markets. For a world to exist, people from almost any circumstance had to be able to access it.

6. Safety

The VR headset had to have safety procedures and boundaries, to be able to prevent any damage to you and/or your brain, as well as to notify you when you should log out and take care of your physical body. This was done by simply messages reminding you how long you have been playing. The Server AI and configuration was also very specifically monitored and prevented from accessing specific areas of the cerebral network.

IFPPAS, the core six.

Of course, some game companies ignored one or more of them and implemented them in their own ways, but they were definitely the foundation of a new age of technology.

"Dr. Richmond," Rio continued. "was fired from YenNet six weeks before CCO was released to the public. Nobody knows why, especially with the hoops YenNet had to jump through just to get him on board. He was and still is an icon in the VR industry. The fact that they were able to get him to work on a video game when he was, at the time, developing spa and resort realities for terminally ill patients, was a very controversial, but impressive acquisition."

"Except we found out why he was fired," Ben said proudly, his chair now facing us instead of his computer. "He had removed one of the core six that he had developed himself."

"Which one?" I asked.

"The only one which prevented him from going further than he had ever gone before. The only one that truly separated what could be, from reality."

They paused for dramatic effect and I let them have it. I would admit, I was enthralled.

"He removed Safety."

"But... That's illegal! Safety is the only one of the core six which is regulated and required by governments and international law."

"Hence why everyone kept it secret. They knew that once this all blew over then they could get him to apologize, lower his access credentials and bring him back on board. Except..."

"He went missing." Ben said. "But I found him."

Ben was beaming with pride and I couldn't help but smile, his attitude contagious. Despite all that was happening, I was glad I was where I was and with who I was with.

Rio coughed one of those, "Ahemmmmm" coughs, to get Ben's attention.

"And I couldn't have done it without my favorite hacke---I mean upstanding citizen here."

"Fair enough. But anyways," Rio ran his fingers through his thick beard. "He was hiding online."

"In CCO?"

"In CCO," Ben confirmed. "Luckily I was the only player whos level was high enough to access the area he was staying in. He was working on something to transcend anything we had seen so far. No more separation between the VR digital world and our real world. And the time compression difference that CCO allowed gave him more time to accomplish it without anyone stopping him."

"But why would he do that? Without the Safety protocols... even our memories are at risk."

"It didn't matter to him. I tried to make him see reason, but either I'm not that good of a salesperson or he simply is too far gone. I checked, Valys... at that point he had been online for 840 straight hours."

840 hours!? The most time I had spent online straight was 24 and that was for a special occasion with my best friend. I had felt sick afterwards and passed out into a deep 12-hour sleep.

My best friend... I hoped that Aya was still alive...

"Eventually the Game Masters caught up with him and kicked his user off of the server, but not before his creation was complete."

"The orb?" I asked.

They both nodded, looking at each other.

"They finally tracked him down the Rent-An-Escape that he had been paying for, in cash, for 6 weeks and arrested him. Everyone thought it was over and done with until they realized that he had added lines of code to CCO through some sort of internal terminal that only he had access to. A backdoor of his own."

"Guys..." Rio shuffled in his seat, adjusting his laptop. He switched the display on the large TV to show a video. They all turned to watch what was happening.

It was him. It was Dr. Richmond. His hair was disheveled, and he was extremely thin. His eyes, however, were wild and alive with excitement. He sat in a small square cubicle; a Rent-An-Escape, with a VR bed behind him.

"If you're seeing this, then congratulations," Richmond began. "You have won the lottery so-to-speak."

"Wait, is this live?!"

Rio nodded; eyes glued to the screen.

The rest of the screens in the room, all tuned to various major news networks, were one by one switching from their regular programming to cover this. His long face was now everywhere I looked.

"You may notice that the world is a bit different now than you're used to, or if you haven't," Dr. Richmond chuckled, "you will."

"This must have been recorded right before they got to him. He looks horrible," Ben said, leaning forward in his chair.

Rio shushed him and turned up the volume a few levels.

"My name is Alexander Richmond and I have just achieved the impossible. For those of you watching this, you are in one of two categories. You are either living in a current Modify-X server location for CCO or are a member of one of the top 25 clans."

"For those who are in the former, consider yourselves spectators to the greatest event in the history of the world! For the latter, well..." Richmond looked off camera for a second and smiled to himself before returning his focus. "Clan leaders and four other clan members of your choosing are cordially invited to participate in said event."

"More specific details will be sent to each of your clan leaders email addresses as stored in the YenNet databases. Not only will the winning clan of the event receive eternal glory, 100 million U.S. dollars, and, of course, the first ever trophy, but they will be receiving a special prize, worth far more than anything you could ever imagine."

"Failure to arrive at the scheduled time with a team of 5 clan members will result in disqualification, which will then result in each of the offending clan members' accounts being deleted from the server entirely. This, is equivalent to death now that the worlds are one and no longer separate."

Dr. Richmond beamed with pride at the camera.

"So, get some rest, take some vitamins and be prepared for the greatest battle the world has ever known."

Richmond leaned forward, closer to the camera.

"Good luck."

He reached forward to press the camera switch but stopped suddenly.

"Ah yes, one more thing that I forgot to mention. The winning clan will have all of their family members down to the third cousin restored to the server."

He grinned mischievously. His teeth looked like they hadn't been brushed in months, which was actually probably accurate.

"Bye!"

The camera shut off, leaving a pair of stunned newscasters looking at each other, unsure of what to say or do.

"Our... families can be saved?" I asked, my throat caught.

Ben turned to me, a serious and determined look on his face.

"Better get in touch with Revolver-X then, Phoenix."