“There’s a problem with my SCOPElenses,” Eniola said, analyzing them in confusion. “There’s a small glitch inside of them.”

Theo moved closer to the couch until he was right next to her. He analyzed them too. “It’s a layout problem.”

Eniola peered closer. The main layout was all scrambled up. Her yeon count was at the bottom and was switched with the avatar, and her inventory and avatar menu was switched from left to right.

“How do we fix them?” Jay asked. “The battle round is tomorrow and we have to be in top shape.”

“What a change,” Iris mumbled.

“Things change, Iris. I’m a team player now,” Jay said, sinking back down onto the couch and watching the anime going off in the background.

“I think you can reboot them if you link them to a power source. Bring them here.” Eniola handed them to Iris, who gazed at them. Suddenly, she jolted backwards as someone had just taken her to the dark web. Wait, did that happen?

“Iris, are you okay?” Lucia asked, peering closer.

“This isn’t a glitch,” Iris said.

Eniola raised an eyebrow. “So if it’s not a glitch, then what is it? And why can’t it be fixed?”

“It’s something disguised as a glitch, but it isn’t one,” Iris said, then paused. Before they could ask again, she continued. “When you get past the main system of these SCOPElenses, the glitch should be gone when you refresh it. But it’s not doing that. Something else is blocking the system, and it’s disguised as a glitch.”

“Did someone hack you or something?” Jay joked, and Eniola was about to pass it off until she remembered the virtual parlour that somehow violated her memories for her to see again. A shudder ran down her spine. Why did she go in there?

“Can you decode it?” Theo asked.

“I can and I did,” Iris told them. “It’s a link to a virtual parlour.” Eniola froze again, feeling a chill of goosebumps run over her at the words.

“What?” Lucia questioned. “Why didn’t they just ask her?”

“Maybe it’s so secretive that they need to hide it behind a glitch,” Eniola speculated, with a quavering voice. “What should we do? Should we go?”

“Because that isn’t shady at all,” Jay mumbled.

“I think we should go,” Lucia said. “What do we have to lose?”

“I don’t know, maybe cybersecurity?” Jay shouted unexpectedly then went back to regular volume. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“Well, curiosity is eating me,” Lucia said. “If no one goes, I’ll take one for the team. I’m not a wuss, unlike some people.” She eyed Jay.

“I am not a wuss!” Jay defended before crossing his arms and sitting back against the chair in a pout. Eniola sighed, letting her lips quirk into a smile through her fear. It was kind of funny seeing him get all worked up. Part of Eniola wanted to be the one teasing him.

“I’m sending the link to everyone regardless of wussiness,” Iris said before they all got a ding on their phones. Lucia immediately accepted, and Eniola stared at the pending invite on her phone. What could someone want? Could it be Paradox? What did they want? She stared blankly at the invite button, feeling fear creep onto her. Before Eniola could stop herself, her finger stopped hovering over the invite and pressed ‘accept.’

Eniola popped up into the same black landscape and so did Lucia, Iris, and Theo. Eniola looked around for Jay, who soon popped up in the virtual landscape.

“Glad to see you’ve ascended to non-wussiness,” Eniola teased, and Jay simply huffed, but she could see a small smile on his face.

“If we end up in some smutty simulation, I’m leaving first,” Jay pointed out.

“Really?” Lucia said like she didn’t believe him.

The landscape began swirling before it stopped into familiar and lively city streets. Eniola only had to take one look to know it was San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, the street maglevs touched with an ancient design and the familiar smell of fresh rain. Eniola recognized this part of the city. The alleyway leading up to the SCOPE arena must’ve been close.

Suddenly, someone came running down the streets, and they all fastened their gaze on them. Something told Eniola this was the person of focus, unless some civilian enjoyed taking a jog in casual clothes on wet streets.

Eniola glimpsed at the person and recognized him immediately. It was Keone. He didn’t look old. Maybe around sixteen, which was at the time everyone all met him. He didn’t have the same assured look on his face, but a frightened and uncertain one which made Eniola want to look closer and not away.

He pulls a phone out from his pocket and then zooms in on a photo that’s waiting there. It was himself, and Eniola wasn’t surprised. He had a habit of admiring himself. But the photo didn’t look admirable. It looked neutral, and he was staring right into the camera.

The text over the top was bright red and in capital letters saying MISSING. Eniola looked and saw the holo-screens above which had an enlarged image of the same thing on his screen before it transitioned to another photo of someone else.

Eniola wanted to feel shocked or surprised, but all she felt was neutral. Keone had a habit of running away. He only told Eniola that it was to see if his dad actually cared. If he kept doing it, then clearly he still needed to be proven right. It was one of their closely shared secrets between each other. It surprised Eniola that her friends didn’t find out how often he ended up in the news.

Son of a business executive runs away for the fourth time this month, breaking his own record!

He eventually got to the familiar alleyway and then entered the receding door, before walking into the loud hallways of the crowd. It then panned to his shirt, which had a message. It was simply an address.

The landscape then disappeared like an illusion, bringing it back into real life.

“What was the whole point of that?” Theo was the first one to say, taking off his SCOPElenses, and then they followed.

“Why did we get a memory of Keone?” Lucia asked. “Every time I see him, I wish I hadn’t.”

“Yeah, and he was a missing kid once?” Jay asked. Not once, but multiple times. But Eniola kept that unsaid.

Eniola asked. “Iris, were you able to track that signal?”

“Los Angeles,” Iris grumbled.

“That leaves like five million people,” Lucia grumbled even louder. “That totally narrows it down. Let’s just ask 5 million if they’re shady hackers.”

“But didn’t he have an address on his shirt?” Eniola said before taking out her phone and typing what she remembered. One location came out. “Maybe we can find something here.”

Everyone’s phones dinged at once. It was from an unknown number and a message, but when Eniola read the message, her breath hitched.

If you found the address, I only want Eniola coming.

“No,” Lucia instantly said. “We’re not throwing her into the face of danger.”

Eniola smiled at how protective she was, but then the mood caught her. “What do they only want with me?”

“I don’t know,” Lucia said. “All I know is that you’re not going alone.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t even go,” Eniola said. “But we need to find out what’s going on.”

“What’s the difference between knowing about something versus needing to stop it?” Theo asked. “I think we have enough information to prove ourselves.”

“But someone is after Rogue for some reason,” Iris begins. “I have a feeling if we snitch, something bad could happen.”

“What if we make them think you’re alone, but you’re not?” Jay speculated. “We loom in the shadows.”

Eniola thought and she agreed. “That might work. But they might see you guys and wonder. We don’t know how far this whole Paradox thing goes.”

“So do you want to do it?” Lucia asked. “I’m not just going to let you go to some random address late at night. It’s too unsafe. You don’t have to do this. Maybe I should be the one to go and I could pretend.”

Eniola thought about it. “You guys have to come too. Maybe you guys can hide and get me out when something goes wrong.”

“Of course,” Jay said first.

“Then we have work to do,” Theo said. “I know how we can take down Paradox.”

🎮

Eniola never thought the all-ominous Paradox would hide out in some restaurant in a small part of town, but Eniola figured it wouldn’t hurt. There was only someone filling up a solar tank on the bike beside her and an android attendant. It looked awfully fancy and Eniola wished she had put on something rather than just casual wear, but it was too late to change back.

She couldn’t ignore the fact that was hammering in her chest super-fast or the rigid feeling of her goosebumped body. She had nothing to worry about. At least that’s what she convinced herself. Everyone had acted so protective over her and promised nothing would happen and if it did, they would get her out.

So now, all Eniola had to do was figure out what the hell was going on.

“What are you doing here?” a voice came behind her. Eniola lept back before turning to see a silhouette moving to light.

It was Keone. He was also super casual in jeans and a hoodie.

Eniola backed away from his sight, eyes darting anywhere she could run and hide. The restaurant still didn’t let her in yet. Her breathing became shallow. That last thing she wanted to be, was alone with Keone. “I could say the same thing.”

“I wanted to eat somewhere different,” he said. “So I came here. It’s such a coincidence.”

Eniola stayed silent, breathing and her eyes trained him. She should’ve brought something. Just in case he wanted to do something again. Worse than cornering her.

“Silent treatment, alright,” he said like this was some kind of game. Of course. To him, everything was a game, and simply he was a player of all of it. The air chilled and rushed down her spine before she walked forward.

She wanted to hide. She wanted to disappear and be invisible just so he couldn’t see her. It wasn’t the first time it had happened between them.

“Do you ever feel like sometimes you want to escape?” he said quietly, and his voice sounded eerily closer. “Get away from everything?”

Eniola wasted no time and entered the sliding doors when they opened, bringing herself. It was dark and Eniola could barely even see anything, except for the faint glow of electric candles. Someone soon followed behind her, and the hairs on her neck stood up as she sensed Keone.

“Welcome,” someone said before she felt the eerie presence of someone in front of her. She saw a faint outline of a body. So this place had human servers? Her jaw slightly opened.

“Uh hi,” Eniola began. “I’m here to eat.”

“Someone is waiting for you, Eniola,” the person said, grabbing her hand tightly, making her jump and leading her. Wait, how did they know her name? Eniola tried to jut her hand away before the person pulled it back and gripped tightly as she stood rigid with fear, the person pulled again.

“You might get lost,” he responded to her defiance. “Hold on tight.” It seemed like walls of darkness disappeared, as they entered a faintly lit room with round tables spread across the room with people talking in faint conversation. She sighed in some relief, knowing that people were here and if anything happened they could at least witness. He slipped her into a booth on the side and finally let go.

“What would you like to drink?” he said before the holo-screen popped up with different options for her.

“Who’s my guest?” Eniola asked nervously, ignoring him. Suddenly the guy froze in front of her, eyes trained on her until he glitched into multiple colours. Eniola jumped back reflexively, lips parting in terror, before sliding herself into the seat until she hit the wall. Then he turned into a figure of pixels before they spread apart in an explosion of colours before they swirled and formed into an ominous figure in green armour.

“Paradox,” Eniola whispered dryly as they sat down across from her, their helmeted faces in her direction. Eniola had the sudden urge to reach and touch them, but fear was already paralyzed in her seat.

“Eniola,” they said in their distorted voice. “Great to see you here.”

“What do you want and who are you?” Eniola yelled with a waver in her voice.

“By the time it’s obvious, it’ll be too late for you to stop me,” they said.

“Listen to me,” Eniola began feeling bold. “Whatever game you’re trying to play, it will not work. Can you just tell me what’s going on and why you’re going after our team?”

They said nothing until they raised their hands and slowly snapped their fingers. The dimly lit people quickly glitched into pixels before they all materialized away. Eniola quickly turned her head back to Paradox with heavy breathing. She suddenly lunged forward before hitting her hand against his armour.

It was like the world went in slow motion, and Eniola was suspended in time. A searing pain jolted through her arm as a green glow travelled up her arm. She screamed in pain and tried to pull it off, but it stuck onto it like it was frozen. Paradox simply sat there as she writhed in pain in the empty restaurant.

The landscape glitched into a technicolour blur before it began materializing away in pixels, and then Eniola fell back and onto the ground. A hard chromatic ground. A sudden smell wafted at her nose and so did a sudden loudness. Music in the background, and yelling.

She slowly got up, eyes wandering around and she immediately knew where she was. The SCOPE arena. Not the one in Los Angeles, but in San Francisco.

Eniola got up and slowly walked forward, weaving through the crowds, before some cut through like she was a hologram. She pushed through the centre of the crowd, before arriving at the front of the arena, gazing at the hoverboards. She looked at the names. Inferno vs Surge. It looked heated and despite the gameplay, Eniola didn’t know who would win and she peered closer. But then Eniola raised an eyebrow. Surge? Didn’t they disband like two years ago?

A small girl in long braids walked through her and Eniola jumped away, before squinting her eyes at the figure. The girl walked up to the ground in front of the playing pit, then leaped up into the air before falling and grumbling. She kept doing it, jutting and stretching her head out trying to peer across a crowd in frustration.

Eniola walked forward and approached the girl before the girl turned back in frustration and Eniola went stiff and cold. It was young Eniola again, from three years ago and she finally got it.

“Paradox!” Eniola screamed into the air, before quickly looking back panicked, reaching for her head and soothing herself. This was another memory. How was Paradox just getting into her brain? A chill ran down her spine.

Young Eniola turned back and faced someone. “Hello?”

“Hey me,” Eniola said awkwardly, peering down, eyes peeled for her.

Another figure walked through her again, all phantom-like, Eniola slumped back again. It was a much taller boy, with brown locks travelling down his back and dark tan skin. Eniola recognized him instantly. It was Keone. The 16-year-old version of him.

He walked up to Eniola with a smile, before reaching around her shoulders and crouching down into her ears. Eniola now couldn’t hear him, but she remembered what he said that day.

“I know a great place that has a good view,” he would say in a whisper. “You want to come and see?”

She nodded and followed him, parting through the large current of crowds, before they disappeared into the alcoves, walking through the layers before setting on a place by the opening, a ledge overlooking most of the crowd that was nestled into an alcove corner by the entrance. He sat down, before staring at her longer.

“Come sit down,” he said to her before she came and sat next to him before overlooking the ledge and the arena.

“I can see a lot from here,” Young Eniola said. “It’s really nice.”

“Glad you like it. Sometimes I just come here when I want to clear my head and get away,” Keone says. “You like SCOPE?”

“I love it!” she exclaimed. “Me and my friends do. My favourite is Inferno. I’m a huge fan of Bloom and Kura.”

“I love Inferno too!” he exclaimed. “I’m Keone, by the way.”

“Eniola,” she introduced before he awkwardly put his hand out and she shook it, softly smiling. Eniola now tore her gaze away and bit down at her lip, trying not to get roped into the false persona.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, smiling. “You play?”

“No,” she scoffed. “But I want to. Me and my friends want to maybe start a team. But we don’t have a fifth member.”

“I had a team,” he said. “We disbanded a couple of weeks ago. Things didn’t work out.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Young Eniola says. “Hey. Maybe you could join us? You already have SCOPE experience. And my friends would like you.”

“I guess I would like them too if you’re like them,” he said, and it took a moment for Young Eniola to realize before she smiled at his easy words. He slid his hand across the ground before putting it on hers and squeezing it. “I want to get to know you too.”

Young Eniola exchanged a smile with him and he did too, not knowing his supposedly kind eyes had a marauding gaze on them. She thought he was so nice, and Rogue did too. Until he started pulling back the layers of his false persona. By the time they found out, it felt too late to do anything.

Eniola tore her gaze away from him before her eyes turned back and zeroed in on him again. The all-black hoodie he had been wearing wasn’t just black anymore. Instead, a message in the white font was on it. Where did that come from?

She gazed further. The following sentence is true. The sentence before is false.

That made little sense. Since when did Keone love paradoxes like—

Eniola stopped her thought, breath hitched in her throat before her mouth gaped open. If this was edited, and her mind wasn’t tricking her or trying to send her into a twisted state, then someone was trying to send her a message.

It was at that moment Eniola realized she hadn’t seen Keone ever since they entered the restaurant but it was like he vanished with the other people in pixels. The server didn’t address him like he didn’t exist. He didn’t even try to touch her.

Because this was a set-up. Keone wanted her here. He might as well have been pixels.

Because Keone was Paradox. Paradox was Keone.

It was like this simulation could hear her thoughts because slowly then fast, the spider web of cracks appeared again and Eniola’s mouth opened into a scream. The landscape then broke like glass, and soon Eniola was out of the live simulation and was sitting at the table, violently exhaling against it. Her eyes frantically darted around to see all the simulated people and Paradox were gone, and so was the throb in her arm: It was just her.

But truly she wasn’t alone.

And Paradox was still Keone. Eniola shot up from her chair as quickly as she could, before taking off running in whatever direction, adrenaline-pumping her veins, before stopping when pixels materialized into Paradox in front of her. She screamed.

Eniola threw her hand out before it touched against Paradox’s armour, but instead, it went through and Eniola stumbled forward, but not before catching herself on balance. Paradox reappeared in pixels on the other side of the room, standing still ominously. Eniola simply stared at him, breaths heavy and her chest heaving.

Eniola quickly ran away again, in the offset direction she was going through before Paradox materialized in front of her, stopping. Instead of vanishing again, he reached and hit her arm. The touch didn’t feel human. It felt like a jolt of electricity someone poked at her arm. A violent scream tore from her throat, feeling the fiery and crackling electricity sear through her arm at ungodly levels. It felt like her arm was going to burn off.

Paradox vanished, but Eniola couldn’t see where he went with the light filling her eyes and blocking her vision. Suddenly a hold gripped her arm, and Eniola screamed, readying herself for any crackle of electricity But nothing happened. They pulled her away before Eniola was at level with a chest. She looked up to see the old blond guy filling up his bike at the solar station. Then a ripple of pixels ran over them before the true form was revealed.

It was Jay.

She could tell from his deep brown eyes and the fringe of black shaggy hair tickling his forehead. He was wearing all black too. He pulled down the black mask covering his face, revealing his entire face which was taken over by an expression of concern.

She was about to say something until he pressed a finger to his lips. “We’re going to get you out,” he whispered. “Just trust me. Okay?” Eniola nodded fastly.

He then grabbed her hand and pulled her down a hallway nestled in the corner as they ran. Eniola’s gaze was every, trying to find where the hell Paradox was, and trying to catch him because he could vanish and appear again.

“It’s a fake,” she said, quivering. “Everything is fake. This restaurant is probably a simulation. There are no people here. It’s just a lure.”

“That’s why I don’t want you to get hurt again, ‘' Jay said, quickly looking around the tiled ceilings. “Hold on.” He held her to a stop because if he didn’t Eniola would take off running. Her gaze was all over the place. Suddenly a panel on the ceiling popped out and came clattering to the ground.

Someone’s head popped out. Eniola sighed in relief when Lucia, who was also in all black, pulled down her black mask, eyes alight with concern. It was part of the plan, but anything could’ve happened.

“Come with me,” she said, before dropping a rope ladder. Eniola runs to it, climbing it easily and instantly getting up into the vents before Lucia pulls her up and into a hug.

“Shit, I was so worried,” Lucia said, cradling her into a tight hug and Eniola sighed in relief. Jay came in then.

“I’m fine,” Eniola replied, slightly moving away. “I’ll explain everything later.”

“If something happened, I’d hunt for Paradox and fist-fight his ass,” she said, pulling her into a hug and Eniola slightly chuckled. “Let’s go, Theo and Iris are waiting for all of us.”

They crawled through on all fours, taking turns as instructed by Lucia and Jay through these vents. Eniola still felt the jolts in her skin, from the electric burn but it had mostly faded away. Eniola was truly convinced her ribs would be broken after this because no way they would stay intact with the way her heart was palpitating.

Keone was Paradox and Paradox was Keone. It still felt unreal like it was a twisted concept. He didn’t give off those vibes. He was an overall shitty person, but going that far to become some masked figure trying to change physics? It made Eniola play mental gymnastics. The only thing that made sense was the weird fixation on Rogue.

How did he get roped into this whole thing? How did Keone even become Paradox? Eniola had so many questions filling up her head as she crawled away as Lucia stopped.

“We’re here,” Lucia said, shushing and crawling slowly. She then pulled something out of her pocket. It was metallic with a thick handle and a skinny body. It was an auto-screwdriver. She pressed it down onto each screw before they popped off and the panel dropped and clattered to the ground.

Lucia immediately hopped out in one fluid motion easily before Eniola looked down at the ground. She huffed, before slowly crawling to the opening and grabbing on before hanging down and then jumping. Jay came out behind her and walked protectively next to her.

Suddenly a figure appeared behind him and Eniola screamed and reached her hand out but it was already too late. Paradox pressed a hand onto Jay’s shoulder before he glowed green and fell forward. Jay turned back instantly and tried to swing his arm back before Paradox vanished. Jay fell to the ground, moaning in pain.

“Let’s go!” a voice came, and Theo and Iris emerged from the ground, also in black and in black masks. Lucia was at Jay’s side before helping him back onto his own two feet, his shoulder still glowing green with throbbing pain.

Eniola ran to Theo and Iris, with Jay and Lucia following behind them until Paradox showed up between them. He jutted his fingers before a crack of electricity came out from between them. They all parted like a sea, falling back onto the ground, letting out shouts.

Theo reached from behind him, but Paradox simply vanished. It was silent for a while except for their heavy breathing filling the air. Suddenly everyone’s eyes were trained on Eniola like she was carrying a lethal disease.

Eniola looked behind her before her eyes widened. Paradox was sauntering over to her. Eniola got up and prepared to run slowly, backing away. Why wasn’t he doing anything?

Iris ran for her, almost bumping Eniola back onto the ground before colliding a hand onto Paradox’s surface. Even though they all screamed, Iris continued letting the glow pass through her cybernetic arms.

Then it stopped like someone had pressed the pause button on it. Iris took her hand too easily. Eniola looked around the place, heavily breathing, trying to see where Paradox had regenerated.

“Are you both okay?” Theo came out and asked.

“I’m fine,” Eniola told them. “Just shaken up, but fine.”

“I’m good,” Iris told them. “I think I could download data on Paradox. I think we can finally figure out their identity.”

“We don’t need that,” Eniola spoke out.

“What do you mean?” Lucia asked.

“I know who Paradox is,” she said. “It’s Keone.”

🎮

Eniola sunk further into the beanbag, wrapping the thick blankets against her small body, trying to feel calm. Theo once again walked over to the door and checked the locks again before walking back. He checked with his shoulder before sitting down.

Everyone looked like they were a fatigued pseudo-espionage. Everyone was sprawled out onto the couch, a wave of tiredness going over the room. They met him back with no responses. Lucia was draped over a beanbag, Iris spread herself out on the floor, and Eniola was anxiously leaning into Jay’s knee who was on the couch lying sprawled.

“Guys,” Theo said. “We have to think of something. We have five of us, and they have a team.” Theo explained before he took out his phone and extended the screen until it was one huge note-screen. “What do we do?”

“We don’t know of their plans,” Lucia said. “All we know is that they have a device that can make the game come alive and be real without SCOPELenses.”

“What else?” Theo asked. “We’ve gone over that, Lulu. What about you, Iris?”

“The information of Keone, or Paradox, is still hard to decode,” Iris began. No one believed Eniola at first when she told them the truth. Keone wasn’t intelligent enough to make something like this or do it.

“So we have a synthetic atom device, Paradox’s data, a weird symbol Paradox wears, and ALTSCOPE?” Theo repeated. “These things are connected, but I don’t know how.”

“And where is he going to reveal the synthetic atoms?” Jay said. “And how will he do that?”

“It’s the merging of a virtual reality with the real one,” Eniola analyzed. “The fabric of this new reality comes from SCOPE.”

“So he’s going to do this during a SCOPE game,” Theo said, writing it down on the board like this was school. “The next SCOPE match is the battle round.”

“But it could easily be any other round, even outside the championships,” Eniola huffed. “And we still don’t know what he’s planning to do with this.”

“I came here for a competition, not to save the world,” Eniola heard Jay grumble.

“We’re in this anyway,” Lucia said. “We might not be the only hope, but we know things other people don’t. One way or another, we were going to get involved.”

Jay sighed. “We’ve been at this for almost two hours and we still know nothing.”

“Which is why we need to make more progress,” Theo said. “Do we have anything?”

“He mentioned something about the last round,” Eniola added, suddenly remembering. “I don’t know if that does anything.”

Theo stepped back and looked to think. “It might. Maybe that’s the time he reveals this thing all in some villainy way. What’s the last stage?”

“Planet Udon,” Lucia replied. Planet Udon. The place was infamous for being the hardest stage. There were always some problems added, like how there were always glitches and bugs in the Mount Fire.

Wait? Glitches?

“There are some extra bugs in the Mount Fire,” Eniola said. “They’re minor, but still haven’t been fixed. Maybe Paradox might slip something into the coding which might activate the atoms.”

Theo’s jaw hung down. “That actually seems plausible,” he said, scribbling it onto the board.

“That was very smart,” Jay leaned down to whisper, and Eniola blinked long and hard in confusion before her heart started beating again.

Get it together! she screamed in her brain.

“Iris,” Theo called. “Do the thing!”

She closed her eyes like she was meditating, and although they couldn’t see it, she was currently scanning the entire internet for something.

“Search everywhere,” Theo reminded her. “Including the dark web. It’s crazy over there, but we might as well try it.” Iris began grimacing, and they knew she’d stumbled upon the dark web.

“I think I found something,” Iris said, and her eyes snapped open like she was just waking up from a dream.

“What?” Theo prodded, coming closer to her.

“When Howie was making SCOPE in college, she rushed Planet Udon because she wanted to get it out into the world,” Iris explained.

“So you’re saying?” Lucia prodded.

“She left little pockets of code open, like on Mount Fire, but not significant enough for a hack to come through,” Iris explained. “Except for one.”

“The blind second is a significant patch of code on Planet Udon. If hacked through, it could dismantle the entire SCOPEverse,” Iris warned. “But it only lasts for a second.”

“When is this?” Jay said excitedly.

“9:47:52pm,” Iris said. “During the last round.”

“So if they dismantle the SCOPEverse, they could use it to translate into the synthetic atoms,” Eniola analyzed. “The next second we need to stop them.”

“But how?” Lucia asked. “It’s not like we can take control.”

A brief memory of ALTSCOPE flashed through Eniola’s mind. Before she could think, she spoke out. “There’s one way I think we can.”

“How?” Jay asked curiously.

“Remember the illegal Scope market with power-ups,” Eniola reminded. “I saw one there. It was called ‘Play God.’ It said it can take control of the entire SCOPEverse for one minute. But it’s one billion yeons.”

Everyone’s jaws dropped. “Even if we combine all of our yeons, we have nothing to make a dent,” Theo reminded her. “One billion yeons for a power-up for one minute. There has to be another way.”

“I think there’s another way we can do it,” Eniola said.

“What?” Jay asked.

“We take the power-up except we just don’t buy it,” Eniola explained.

“So you choose death?” Jay said sarcastically. “These ATLSCOPE players are dangerous. Who knows what they’ll do if they find out we stole a one billion yeon power-up? We might just die!”

“I know. I’m certain about this. I’m going to need Iris for this,” Eniola planned. “We’re going back to the ATLSCOPE games and we’re taking that power-up. Iris can download things into her brain, and it can decode things.”

“You want to use my decoding to get the power-up?” Iris asked.

“Yes,” Eniola said. “It’s perfect!” But Iris looked conflicted, and Eniola wondered if this was actually a good idea.

“This seems like a crazy idea,” Iris cautioned. “One that could go so wrong.”

“So you won’t do it?”

“No, I will,” Iris confirmed. They all sighed in relief.

“I’m coming with you,” Jay immediately volunteered. He peered at Eniola, “Just for backup.”

“Just for backup,” Lucia teased. “Okay. What do we do?”

“We need to win,” Eniola said. “This plan can’t go into action if we don’t make it to the Top 3.”

“So let’s do it,” Lucia exclaimed before her phone rang in notification and she furrowed her eyebrows.

“If that’s another virtual parlour, ignore that shit,” Jay cautioned.

“Looks like they took away all the gimmicks,” Lucia said reading. “It’s simply a message. It’s from someone unknown, of course.”

“Read it out,” Theo told her, peering forward.

“I know something about Paradox,” Lucia read. “I have the information you want. Meet me at the arena tonight in the market.”

“Well,” Eniola asked, her heart already beating with nervousness. “What should we do?”

“Let’s get ready,” Theo told them. “Let’s all take him down.”