Chapter 1: The Circles and Crosses

“Ah, thwarted again,” said the old female teacher dramatically as she lost yet another round of chess with the boy sitting in front of her.

Edward ‘Ned’ Caesar slowly finished of his sandwich as he examined the layout of the board. Mrs. Francine looked admiringly at the boy in front of her and then proceeded to reset the board.

“Are you sure Edward that you don’t want to join the chess club?” she asked, it was her tenth time asking the same question, nine times prior she had been rejected.

“It’s Ned and yes I am sure.”

“Such potential,” said Mrs. Francine sighing. “Another game?”

“Of course, and I am not the only one with potential,” said Ned and he motioned with his head. “Josh, he’s new but he has an astounding game when he’s at a disadvantage, he is focused but he is focused on what he needs to do rather than how he needs to do it.”

Mrs. Francine quickly noted down the name and Ned nodded to another player a few seats away from him. “Justine, she has a good rhythmic playstyle, when she wins its exceptionally, when she loses its exceptionally as well, if the opponents don’t figure out how she plays then it’s a sure win, if they do then the loss can’t be avoided.”

Mrs. Francine noted down that name as well as Ned proceeded to reset his pieces.

“They’re good Edward but they’re not you, your eye for detail, it’s something else.”

“It’s Ned,” said Ned correcting Mrs. Francine again but she didn’t seem to be paying attention, instead looking at the two prospects that Ned had pointed out.

After he reset the board he opened his bag, took out his water bottle and took three large gulps of it. He then turned to face the board and started his thought process when it was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. Standing in the doorway was a friendly looking chubby kid with glasses and red hair.

“Yes, what can I do for you?” asked Mrs. Francine.

“We were…errr well I was wondering whether there was any workspace in there for a couple of people, just for a couple of minutes,” said the boy who Ned knew as Clinton Lockwheeler, a boy with high IQ and a circle.

Ned had categorized everybody he saw into either circles or crosses. Circles, were the leaders, they were the ones that would make something with their life, the ones who were popular now. Clinton Lockwheeler was one such boy to Ned. The rest were crosses, the people that were destined to be bottom feeders. Clinton Lockwheeler was the unofficial leader for a squad of people that was debatably the most intelligent in Trade City East Academy.

As Ned was thinking Mrs. Francine asked, “Have you tried other rooms?”

“We have,” said Clinton. “The open rooms are full.”

“There are benches at the back,” said Ned.

“Come in then,” said Mrs. Francine still with a smile.

Suddenly a group numbering in seven moved through the door led by Clinton who gave a friendly thankful smile his way, or was it towards Mrs. Francine. A lot of the other chess club members looked up at the group annoyed but they seemed appeased by Clinton’s apologetic smile. Ned moved his eyes back to the board and gave a little smile as a plan straightened out in his head. For the next five minutes the room remained quiet albeit the chatter of the new group that came in. After the five minutes had passed Mrs. Francine sighed again.

“You beat me again.”

“Yes, I did,” said Cyrus reaching over and knocking her king over.

“Well if you don’t want to join that’s fine,” said Mrs. Francine with a sigh. “You can come over for the Monday club communes.”

“Like I usually do?” asked Ned as he reached out and pulled his bag from beneath.

“Like you usually do,” agreed Mrs. Francine. “Where are you going by the way, there’s still around five minutes left.”

“There’s not enough time for another game,” said Ned. “I need to get to my next class.”

“Only you would go this early,” said Mrs. Francine with a light chuckle.

“Usually I’m the only one there on time as well,” replied Ned and slung his bag over his shoulders.

He walked out of the room and down the verandah and as he did so he opened his phone. On it amongst the notifications was a strange one that was entirely gold in color and it had the words Future World return on it. It had popped ever since he had opened a blank mail from someone who used to be a friend of his. This friend as far as he knew was in a mental health facility for treatment, his condition was delusional disorder. He had been curious and hence opened the email when he had opened the email his phone went blank and then the word ‘Future World’ appeared in neon blue and once those faded there came the function Install/Decline. He had turned off the app but it remained on his notification tab like a constant annoyance since yesterday and he couldn’t remove it, he had tried turning his phone but once it turned the screen would pop with Future World and then once those faded the Install/Decline words came on again. Annoyed he had abandoned it but the gold notification would always catch his eye. It was at his moment that he finally had the sense and presence of mind to scroll across the screen and the page scrolled down beneath which was words ‘Terms and Conditions’. Such a scam was his first thought, they put the install button on the top screen but the terms and conditions were hidden beneath. He pressed on the terms and conditions curious about it. His phone went blank and he curiously looked down waiting for the terms and conditions to pop up.

***

He had been so focused on his phone that he did not realize he had walked through a blue figure. He suddenly froze…a blue figure? He whipped his head around and then bit his own lips to stop himself from screaming at the strange and yet horrifying sight of something floating in mid-air, man sized and blue, it had the figure of a humanoid but that was all the resemblance there was.

“Greetings user Thunderbird, my name is Alpha Eye,” said the blue figure.

“What are you?” he asked without thinking.

“Excuse me?” came a voice from beyond the blue thing and someone walked right through the blue figure like it was not even there. “What do you mean, what am I?”

There beyond him stood and olive-skinned girl with ebony hair whom he recognized partly because her brother studied in his class. Phoebe Fielding was beautiful but she was a cross to him, her brother on the other hand was a circle. He opened and then closed his mouth and yet no words came out, how unlike him he thought and then looked at the blue figure behind her, the strangest thing in the world was happening in front of him today.

“Phoebe!” called out a voice from the side, a voice that was hard not to recognize because it was one that always spoke up to volunteer for school activities and other miscellaneous school chores. He saw a tall and well-built boy with brown complexion coming up to them.

“Who are you?” asked Rookfield Jonathan the moment he saw Ned, despite the fact that they studied in the same class, it actually made more sense for Rookfield to not know Ned, who blended in so perfectly that even the background would be more noticeable.

“Ned,” answered Ned automatically.

“He just asked me what I am?” said Phoebe nodding towards Ned shook his head.

“I didn’t mean you,” said Ned defending himself from this injustice being done to him due to a strange alien blue figure.

“Who did you mean then?” retorted Phoebe angrily.

“Phoebe, please,” her brother tried to calm her down.

“I didn’t even see you,” said Ned and as soon as he said those words he realized his mistake.

Rookfield looked towards him and shook his head sadly. He saw the girl’s dangerous smile and smiled back himself weakly.

“I didn’t mean that, what I meant was that it wasn’t meant towards you because I didn’t see you when you were coming up,” said Ned hurriedly trying to explain himself and then he pointed towards the blue figure when a horrible feeling came over him.

He remembered about the boy who used to be his friend, in a mental care facility for delusional disorder and he quickly put down his pointed finger and hand.

“I thought I saw something, that was all,” said Ned backing as he watched the blue figure follow him.

Rookfield nodded at Ned’s explanation and he put a hand around Phoebe and said, “You need to get to your next class.”

Phoebe seemed in thought for a moment using which Ned escaped. Phoebe stomped angrily as she saw Ned had disappeared and looked towards her brother.

“You let him off too easily.”

“Do you know him?” asked Rookfield curiously but Phoebe shook her head.

“I’ve seen him around places I think, I don’t know why but he looks familiar,” continued Rookfield.

“He looked a little sick,” said Phoebe after some thought and Rookfield nodded his agreement but then turned and smiled towards his sister.

“Time to get to class and time for me to get to it as well.”

Rookfield turned away and walked to his class whilst his sister did the same. Ned however wasn’t having such a pleasant time. Seeing the blue figure follow him like a haunting ghost he entered the boy’s toilets and into a cubicle. He locked the door behind and turned around and nearly let out a scream again as this time the blue figure was right in front of him. He unconsciously put down the toilet seat and the blue figure and Ned stared at each other for a while.

“May I speak?” asked the blue figure suddenly shocking Ned out of his stupor.

“What are you?” asked Ned again.

“I am Alpha Eye, the artificial intelligence that runs the MMARFPS called Future World,” said the blue thing. “I have been summoned to explain Future World.”

“Well, please do explain,” said Ned. “But before that what MMARFPS?”

“Mass Multiplayer Augmented Reality First Person Shooter,” answered Alpha Eye.

“Something akin to MMOFPSs and MMORPGs then I take it,” said Ned. “I know the concept behind Augmented Reality which would then also explain your blue figure suddenly appearing.”

After that Ned frowned, “Wait, but I don’t have a medium that can augment reality, I am seeing this with my eyes.”

“Yes, I am real to you and others but seen only by the user that summoned me,” said Alpha Eye. “Thunderbird, allow me to explain Future World. Future World as I explained is an MMARFPS that is fully immersive in overlaying the current reality, it is like playing a game in reality, one that is akin to as you said MMORPGs and MMOFPSs.”

“You talk like a human,” said Ned raising his doubt. “Are you sure you are an AI?”

“Of that you can be sure,” answered Alpha Eye. “I am however much more advance then anything you will have for the next century or so, maybe even several centuries, I am in thought as human as a human.”

“Sounds interesting,” said Ned. “I am however having doubts that I am having a hallucination.”

“A reasonable doubt but very few have raised it as calmly as you have, but connecting the incidents of you clicking the terms and agreements on your phone and putting it all forth, the evidence isn’t conclusive, neither is it strong but such a coincidence is highly unlikely is it not.”

“Yes, it is,” said Ned nodding reasonably. “I believe some of what you have said, so please explain what you have appeared to explain.”

“Well should you choose to install the game as all those who have previously received it have then you will fully enter Future World after the tutorial,” said Alpha Eye. “I also sense the progenitor code in your version of the yet to be installed game, this will activated along with your profile, in this game you cannot die, death in-game simply means that your memories are erased to the time prior to which obtained the game and thus you must know the need for secrecy, if the secret of this game is openly revealed, the game management will not do anything to you but you must know that there is more than just one player to the game, if they track you down and kill you, you will lose the game and your memories. The lost memories will be replaced with a seamless copy that has sensible explanation for the events that happened during this time, there might be some aftereffects to it in rare cases, but nothing too serious to worry.”

“Say I do choose to install this game, what happens then?” asked Ned. “To me, I mean any repercussions.”

“Your physically too will augment to accommodate the new reality you live in. An AR Matrix will assembled and attached to your spine which will augment your body, connect you to the interface and host another wide variety of things which you may ask individually about once you learn of them.

“That sounds like a dangerous process, tampering with my spine,” said Ned.

“It is a hundred percent risk free process,” answered Alpha Eye calmly.

“Say something happens to the AR Matrix, what happens to me then?” asked Ned.

“AR Matrix is really hard to damage, not even a high velocity piercing round can penetrate it, so you do not need to worry.”

“You said you were simple an AI for assistance to players in Future World, right?” asked Ned as he pulled up his legs and put them onto the toilet seat sitting cross legged.

“Yes, that is my role.”

“Funny,” said Ned chuckling. “You seem more like a circle to me.”

“A circle?” questioned Alpha Eye. “How do I seem like round two-dimensional figure?”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Ned waving his hands. “I said something random.”

“Very well, I hope I have answered your questions,” said Alpha Eye. “If you do choose to install it please ready yourself for the tutorial mission.”

Ned nodded and opened the door, he turned around to look at Alpha Eye when he found himself quite alone in the toilets. He looked at the time on his watch, the class had already started. He sighed as he looked at his phone notification. He opened it and once again the family Future World logo popped up and then it moved onto the Install/Decline words. His thumb wavered over decline as he thought about the shadiness of such a game but it was however curiosity that won him over as he pressed Install. The screen turned blank and a progress bar appeared on it after a second or two. Beneath it were the words ‘Constructing AR Matrix’. He gasped and dropped his phone as a strange sensation was felt on his skin, like thousands of bugs crawling inside him. He looked down at his hands and saw his skin rising and falling at points like things were crawling beneath it. This time he could not hold back and he let out a scream as he collapsed onto his knees. Every inch of his body looked to be bubbling and he felt it all in the form of bugs crawling beneath his skin. He felt some dullness atop his spine as the skin there began expanding, whatever was crawling beneath his skin was converging on that point. The skin around his neck tightened and he clutched his throat as he let out a gasp.

“Hurts…” he whimpered as he could not voice out any words, his neck was being choked somehow by his own skin.

The skin on his nape expanded as more bugs gathered at that point and suddenly he felt as if it had exploded, blinding whiteness formed across his eyes as they closed.