It was 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday. Sam knew because it said so on his HUD. He was standing in his living room, facing where the Aero Gel-like cloud had been. He was in the very spot he was before he’d blacked out, or died, or whatever. His knees suddenly buckled and he fell forward as the implications and emotions that went with them crashed home.

“Fucking shit.” Sam said, as blood seemed to rush to his brain, the quick beats making his vision start to fade to black. He very intentional took deep slow breaths, closing his eyes to try to calm himself.

“Jean?!” he called out, half hysterical. He wasn’t sure what had happened to his room mate after he’d been uploaded. He also wasn’t sure if everyone was appearing at the same time or just as they finished the tutorial and accepted the new screens. In any case, he didn’t hear anything from Jean, so he was alone for the moment. After a few minutes he managed to calm himself enough that he could stand up and look around.

The apartment looked normal. Even the door was whole, no sign of the particles of sand that had been left in the wake of the nanobot swarm’s entrance. Then again, if Sam wasn’t losing his mind, then everything around him, and everything he experienced was all virtual. With that in mind, Sam glanced at his clothing, it was clothing he owned in the real world. Gym shorts and a loose T-shirt that he could wear around the house or if he ever went to the gym, but probably no where else. They were his PJ’s, except he took most of it off when he actually climbed into bed, and put most of it back on if he had a lazy morning or got up because of insomnia. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that his somewhat ragged whitey tighties had also been reproduced exactly. For that matter, if he didn’t have a HUD, it would be pretty hard to tell that nothing was real. Everything seemed to be exactly as it was. The couch was even still slid out from when he pushed it as he toppled over it. He wondered if maybe the nanobot swarms were creating virtual assets as they dusted his world. They were definitely self replicating, but no reason to think they couldn’t have done both. And they clearly had gotten at least his apartment mapped very accurately, including his phone and every message and contact, as far as he could tell.

Sam wanted to check his messages, but his HUD was displaying a blinking icon as well as some other basic information like the time and a stipend value, now displaying 500 instead of 0. But it was that blinking icon that kind of looked like three slashes “///” that was drawing Sam’s attention. Deciding that he would just check to see if anyone had posted anything in the group chat, just in case it was urgent, then he’d check his HUD. No one had posted anything, and he honestly wasn’t sure where to even begin, so he focused his attention on the slashes and a screen popped up.

Attention!

You have entered a space set in a fixed time loop. All virtual items are reset at 1PM central time every Sunday. Any changes or additions that players create will also be reset. Players will be reset to their respective starting positions, and will be given the option to reset their memories. Certain Groups, Players, and Items and Quests may affect the reset to varying degrees.

This didn’t come as a surprise to Sam, as the tutorial had mentioned it. The entire world was stuck in a week long time loop, except everyone would remember, except the people that didn’t want to. Sam wondered how much control you had over the memory loss. He definitely had weeks he’d want to forget. Closing that message with a thought, another window appeared.

Quest: Alone not Lonely(1/2)

You have chosen to face the new world without the strength of institutional support. You are welcome anywhere strangers are welcome, but haven’t yet found any allies to face this new reality with. Create three(3) relationships and develop them into allies. Alternately, gain access to a social totem.

There wasn’t a time limit on the quest, and it kind of seemed like the sort of quest he’d try half a dozen things on before he got the specifics right. He was always planning on relying on those around him, but he was a little surprised it was the first quest for a Solo player. He wasn’t sure what it would take to create allies. He knew it was a co-op ability, so he couldn’t initialize an alliance, only accept it from a group. Maybe he’d go get a library card and see if that lead to an alliance with the library. He knew books were as good as gold and guns, so it was probably a good place to be an ally with. Of course, the internet still seemed to work so he definitely had other options. All of that would have to wait tho, so he willed away that quest and another quest screen popped up.

Quest: A Path (1/10)

There are many paths in life. Some you will travel a lifetime, others a season, and others an afternoon.The walls of real have been torn away, the metrics by which you judged real and false, right and wrong, in and out, and more have all changed. You do not know the way in these woods, but you can choose a path. Your paths are not about going or becoming, your paths are about experiencing. Be as the sun, a straight and consistent path, reliable, warm, revealing. Or be as the honey bee, meandering, exploring, dancing. Warn with color, hide in hallows, swarm as needed. Choose a path to be. Meditate on your path and how you can follow the example of your chosen path. Be recognized by your chosen path.

This one honestly kind of had him stumped. He knew the paths were sort of like the Dao, or at least, they were sort of like his understanding of the Dao. Sam knew that human understanding of reality was little more than layered metaphors. He had a friend that used tarot cards, Caitlyn. but not to try to predict lottery numbers or find her soul mate, instead she used them like a psychology tools. The random card flips would help bring focus to things she might be ignoring or avoiding or overlooking. It wouldn’t tell her what kind of shirt her true love was wearing, but if she finds herself thinking about someone when the cards mention a change of relationship, she might realize she has feelings she was overlooking. Sam figured that this was pretty much how people went through life anyway. Perfectionists often chose skills or accomplishments to build their whole world and identity around. It was a bit more intentional than that. Maybe a lot more intentional.

An honor roll student, probably didn’t grade extracurricular activities or consider the merits and demerits of a grade-based educational systems. They did, however, seem to apply this grading system to the very way they thought, in some cases. That seemed like it was pretty close to the paths that the Quest was talking about. He also didn’t have any idea off the top of his head for a path. The quest made it sound like it didn’t matter what path he chose. That some paths are followed for life time but others were only followed briefly. Still, he’d hate to get metaphorical mud on his metaphorical shoe, that he might track onto a future path. Besides, he still hadn’t heard anything from anyone, and so it was time to reach out.

That was about the point that Sam remembered how many people Jean had dared to admit he’d had a crush on. He just kept saying “Fuck man, it’s the end of the world, might as well, what’s the worst that could happen?”

The worst was, as far as Sam could tell, this. He was half tempted to just mass message “I was drunk, it was the end of the world, and also a dare” to everyone on his contact list. In the end, he just decided he’d pretend like hew as dead and maybe see if erasing his memory could go back an extra day. He was sure he wasn’t the only one to make some bad decisions while the world ended. Actually, that was a good point, he could have made far worse mistakes.

“Shit, people probably died.” He said out loud in realization. For him, he “died” when the swarm cloud killed him, and woke up in the same place. So, anybody that decided to do something crazy and got themselves killed, their loved ones were probably waking up to a terrible new reality with a giant person-shaped hole and a cataclysm of a reminder every week.

//Hey guys, I guess I made it through. I chose Solo, no path yet. Hit this chat up, I need to know you all made it through//