Andrew, illuminated by the monitor’s soft blue light sighed as he hit send on what seemed like the thousandth email for that day. His usual styled back brown hair hung in disarray, and his five o’clock shadow was far beyond its time – making his cheeks itch. His blue eyes were red from exhaustion and were in dire need of some rest.

He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling which glowed a muted blue from the light casting off the monitor. Ever since his father promoted him to Chief Analyst at Body Gear his days have been full of meetings, project scrutinization, late nights, and emails… lots of emails. Even though the days were long, he would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t somewhat enjoy the productive nature of it all.

Ever since he was a kid, he wanted to prove to his father that he had what it took to take over the business… And that day was coming close. That wasn’t the only reason for him working so hard, though. Deep down, he wanted his father to enjoy his life. Seeing him leave first thing in the morning and return well into the evening made Andrew feel sorry for him. But Andrew also knew that starting and running a business into what it became today demanded his father’s every available thought.

Looking at a nearby clock, Andrew couldn’t help but groan. For a moment, he didn’t believe that the clock read 3 AM, but then he remembered that not even a week ago, he set a record by leaving the office at 4 AM. He knew that staying in the office so late would affect the next day’s productivity, but he also knew that these late hours were the only times where no one would bother him. He promised himself that he would knock off this behavior… soon. After all, if his father found out he was staying in the office so late he would have a fit.

Andrew cracked his neck and placed his fingers back on the keyboard. He was about halfway through his backlogged emails, and it would only take another thirty or so minutes to answer the rest of them. Every minute counted, especially when it came to adding to how much he would sleep.

As soon as he opened another email, a soft ping rang through the speakers on his monitor, which immediately caught his attention. The ping wasn’t the normal inbound email tone; this was a notification from his messenger system. Who on Earth would be contacting him at this time? He should…

Andrew shook his head and chuckled. No, now wasn’t the time to get distracted. He only had a handful of emails left to answer before he could get home and get his much-needed sleep. Whoever messaged him would have to wait till tomorrow for a response.

Impressed with his willpower, Andrew hummed as he typed out a string of responses to an email inquiring about project delivery times. He was about to hit send when another ping sounded through his monitor. Andrew sighed defeatedly. Fine – he would check just for a second, more curious about who it was from rather than reading what the actual message contained.

He tabbed over to his messenger application and raised his eyebrows when he saw who had sent him the message. A slight smile spread across his lips.

“Vladimir?”

He opened the message to fill up his screen to help ease the strain on his eyes. There on the screen was his best friend’s username and a string of messages.

Vladimous: Hey.

Vladimous: Heyyyyy, I know you can see this! Are you going to ignore me? :’(

Andrew sighed deeply. He was genuinely glad that his friend reached out to him, but if he didn’t answer these emails, he would start the quickly approaching morning behind. His fingers glided across the keyboard effortlessly.

Andrew R: It’s good to hear from you man, but I’m still at the office wrapping up some work. Can we chat tomorrow?

Vladimous: Ahh, that’s right! How’s that going, by the way? Heard you got promoted a few weeks ago. Your father must be very proud of you – though; I’m concerned that you’re up this late still working. If you continue like this, you’ll end up like me! And trust me, you don’t want that.

Andrew laughed as he ran a hand through his hair then started typing a response out to Vladimir.

Vladimir has been Andrew’s best friend since they were practically in diapers. They went to the same school, played on the same sports teams, and practically lived the same lives – up until high school.

Vladimir liked programming and coding, while Andrew started to learn how to run his father’s business. Once they graduated high school and went off to college, they weren’t able to talk much due to their headache-inducing schedules. The time they did have to chat, they would talk on messenger apps because Vladimir was always on his computer working on a project. So any time the two had time to chat, Andrew cherished the moment.

Andrew R: It’s going… Okay haha. I just find myself swamped with emails up to my neck every day. I thought I would be doing more hands-on stuff, but that’s not happening. Hours are a lot longer due to having a lot more responsibilities, but I’m not complaining. So all in all, it’s alright. How are things with you man?

Vladimous: Buckle up – the higher you go, the harder it gets. I know you can handle it, though! I’ve been busy with work like you are. Here’s the latest thing I’ve been working on. Maybe we can play it together later.

A link appeared on the message box. Andrew stared at it for a long moment. Deep down, he knew what this link was leading to… and wasn’t happy when he realized he was right.

A giant web banner with a menacing black dragon spewing orange flames out of its maw into the sky while clinging onto the summit of a mountain appeared on his monitor. A group of men and women carrying swords, staves, and various other weapons readied themselves to attack the dragon. The words “Final Conquest: Fire Skies” displayed brilliantly below the image.

Anger bubbled up inside of him, and it took all of his strength to keep it in check… Though, if his anger did take a firm hold on him, it would be justified. This was close to the thousandth time Vladimir has linked him to his game, wanting to play it with him. Vladimir knew how he felt about video games and his lack of interest in them. Though, it still made him feel guilty every time he refused to play his best friend’s game. Still, he wouldn’t make any exceptions to his rule – No. Videogames.

It wasn’t long before they started high school when Andrew noticed Vladimir’s addiction to video games. He slowly quit every after-school activity so he could go home and play video games after finishing his studies. And on the weekends, he would shut himself inside his house and play games from sunup to sundown. Andrew would try and invite him to hang out, but Vladimir’s solution was for Andrew to buy the most recent game he was playing so they could hang out in-game, rather than in the real world.

Over time Andrew saw his friend ditch his athleticism and overall healthy lifestyle into one who sits in front of a computer all day. Andrew knew that video games could be fun and even tried them himself at one point – but he just couldn’t get into them. Why would someone waste away hours of their day playing video games when they could be improving themselves in the real world? Even to this day, it doesn’t make sense to him.

But now, with the technology behind video games today… it was frightening. It was even more frightening because Final Conquest, Vladimir’s game, was the reason behind many addictions. Andrew was proud that his friend found incredible success with his passions, especially at such a young age, but he didn’t realize the impact his game and his father’s device the Splicer would have on the world.

The Splicer, invented by Andrew’s father, is a split conscious virtual reality machine. When one lies in the capsule-like machine, it transfers their consciousness into a program that they get to become fully immersed in.

When the Splicer came out, there were millions of protests and public outcries from parents, businesses, and schools because their kids, employees, and students were skipping school and work to play Final Conquest. Companies worldwide reported declining numbers because people were skipping work due to being on the Splicer. People kept saying that this was a phase and that eventually, the world will return to normal… but the only thing that remained normal was the Splicer usage.

Andrew knew how hypocritical it was working for a company that literally helped make the most popular game on the planet possible and feed into people’s addictions… Though, deep down, he knew he was lying to himself a little. The truth was, he was about to trust his friend and play it for the first time out of his own interest, but then he got awful news.

Three years ago, Andrew’s mother, who was a developer at Vladimir’s game studio Black Lotus Studios, was found dead at her desk. Doctors speculated that his mother passed from a mixture of fatigue and malnourishment due to being in the splicer for so long. He had some doubts about the cause of death because his mom was incredibly active, fit and healthy – but having such a traumatic event happen to him and his father… it was hard not to look at a Splicer and see it as what killed his mother.

Every time he thought of Final Conquest or the Splicer, he would see his mother’s smiling face, full of energy and excitement. Knowing that he would never see that face again made him sad, and angry.

Andrew R: You know I told you not to bring that up again, Vlad.

Vladimous: I know, but I still don’t understand why you don’t want to play it.

It was too late for Andrew to deal with this. Now that his mood was soured, he felt that he couldn’t answer his emails professionally either. It was time for him to go home and get some sleep.

Andrew R: You know, staying up this late is very taxing on my body. I think I’m going to call it a night.

Vladimous: Andrew… please. Our new expansion is coming out and I want you to play it.

Andrew R: Goodnight, Vlad.

He exited the messaging app and booted down the computer, leaving him sitting in the dark void that was his office. He hated leaving Vladimir on those terms, but he was tired of being asked to play his game. Andrew got up from his chair and let out a long sigh. He knew he had to apologize to Vladimir tomorrow morning. But first, some sleep.

_______

A loud vibration akin to someone throwing a spoon into a blender caused Andrew to sit up in bed, disrupting his deep sleep. He identified the noise as his phone, which was resting next to him on a nightstand. He picked it up and brought it closer to his eyes which he quickly regretted as the phone’s face detection activated causing a piercing white light to shoot out of his phone’s screen directly into his eyes.

Blinking away the multi-colored dots clouding his vision, Andrew looked at the time which read 6:17 AM, and fought the urge to throw the phone across the room. Getting a call this early in the morning could only mean that it was someone from the office. He was not in the mood nor awake enough to hold a conversation. He glanced at the caller ID but didn’t recognize it. Good, now he didn’t have to feel guilty about letting the phone ring to his voicemail.

He set the phone down on the nightstand and waited for it to stop vibrating so he could go back to sleep. But after close to a minute - well past the time it takes to be sent to voice mail, it continued to ring. Was this a priority emergency call?

Andrew picked up the phone and answered it.

“Hello?”

A woman’s anxious and breathy voice filled Andrew’s ears.

“Oh, thank god. I was about to hang up! Is this Andrew?”

“Yes, this is Andrew – Can I help you?”

“Andrew, I’m so sorry that it’s me telling you this, but Vladimir… He’s dead.”

As if poked by an electric cattle prod, Andrew launched himself out of bed and onto his feet – his blanket flying off of him. A thick and suffocating pressure started to engulf him, making it hard to think straight. He wanted to speak, but he couldn't muster any words to form.

“Andrew?” The woman’s voice pierced through his mind, clearing dozens of thoughts with it. As if a path was laid by her voice, a question found its way past Andrew’s lips.

“What do you mean he’s dead? How?”

Not even three hours ago, he was in his office chatting with him. Even though they were typed messages, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with Vladimir. Andrew felt a sharp pain in his heart as he remembered his last conversation with him and how awfully he treated him.

“We… have no idea. We found him collapsed at his desk this morning, unresponsive. Paramedics arrived, but it was too late.”

“Collapsed at his desk?” Andrew’s words trailed off. Why, why was this happening? His mother dying at her desk… and now Vladimir? What was going on? He felt anger bubbling through the guilt in the pits of his stomach.

“Yes, we’re still looking into what happened. We have a team looking through the security footage right now.”

Was it possible that Vladimir was… Murdered? No, that’s highly unlikely. Security at their office was top of the line, and even if someone were to attack Vladimir, he could take care of himself. He wasn’t weak. Nowhere near as strong as he was in his youth, but he could still handle himself if someone were to attack him.

Andrew shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. It wasn’t the right time to be thinking of this – they were going through security footage and if someone were to have attacked him, they would soon find out.

“I’m sorry you had to find out like this. We tried to call his parents, but they weren’t answering. You were next on his emergency call list.”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you for calling. I’ll try and get in touch with his parents. What do I need to do from here?”

He tried his best to listen to what the woman on the phone was saying, but he found himself zoning in and out of the conversation. Recognizing his inability to remain focused, Andrew turned on the transcribe function on his phone to document what she was saying. He knew that what she was saying was very important, but his heart and mind couldn’t bear it.

“You got all that?” Andrew could tell she was hurting as well, but she was doing an incredible job of covering it up.

“Yes.”

There was a moment of silence before the woman spoke again.

“Vladimir was a great man. The world will miss him.”

Andrew felt tears rimming his eyes. He wiped them away with the back of his hand.

“Thank you…”

Andrew hung up the phone and let it slip out of his grip. The phone bounced off the carpeted floor and shot underneath his bed. The floodgates holding back Andrew’s emotions started to crack. Grief, guilt, anger, confusion… all of them crashed against the gates at full force again and again. Finally, after one last crash… the gates opened. Andrew, knowing that he would never see his best friend again… wept.