by Byron Kings
“Why did you send Piper into the game?” I asked.
No answer.
“You’ll pay for this…"
The shadowy figure disappeared as I terminated the connection. I hoped my bluff worked well enough to keep Piper safe long enough for me to get inside Battle Empire and make sure the last part of our plan went okay. To get inside, I had to call on someone I hadn’t spoken to in over ten years; our father, Professor Gordon.
My father, an engineer, spent countless hours inside virtual worlds to live out his own power fantasies. I hadn’t talked to him since my mother died while in VR with him. He claimed it wasn’t his fault, but I never forgave him for enabling her addiction. I wasn’t about to let Piper die connected to an addictive virtual reality game.
To save her, I needed someone I could trust while I went into Battle Empire, found my clone, and fixed my code. If they trapped me in the game, they could kill my body in the real world unless someone smart was watching with specialized equipment. My father, the last person the planet I wanted to see, might be my only hope at saving Piper.
I headed toward his lab a few miles away in a rundown warehouse district. On the way over, news about the Battle Empire hack began to spread. I read a few headlines before my eyes widened. THC had sent Lancraft Labs a list of demands. According to the media, If they weren’t met, they planned on killing everyone inside the game. That wasn’t something I had anticipated. It was all supposed to be a joke.
Millions would die because I had snuck my clone into the game with a rogue AI bent on destruction embedded in his mind. Both Piper and myself would be included in that number if I couldn’t neuter whatever THC had unleashed. I never should have let them wipe my clone’s memories and recreate them with a believable back story. During that process, they must have added something to my code.
For that and everything else, THC would pay.
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