Just like that.
Atheos was supposed to be just a myth. My dad used to joke about it a lot, saying that if there’s a Heaven for the saved and Hell for the sinners, then there should be an Atheos for the in-between. Not everything can be black and white, some people are shades of gray. That’s where Atheos would come in, a world full of people who are neither saved nor such abject sinners that they belong in Hell.
A type of purgatory, that’s like a continuation of the real world, except when there’s God who leads Heaven and Satan who leads Hell, there would be an oligarchy of Greek-like senators ruling over Atheos.
Atheos. Like Athens. Get it?
Jokes. My dad was fond of making out-of-the-world jokes like these. I know there’s not really an Atheos.
Or so I thought.
It’s still surprising to me that Sai Tanaka actually knew my dad. I guess they would be around the same age, if my dad were still alive. I knew Sai Tanaka went to MIT, as I am – or was – die hard fan of Sai Tanaka, but I didn’t know they were the same year.
Coincidence?
Or fate.
I think I’ll err on the side of fate.
I used to believe in coincidences. My dad used to talk about the stochastic nature of the world, how biological processes, the economy, and subway lines in New York City all were based on the stochastic laws of the universe. The probability that you’ll meet a serial killer when on the F line is one out of a couple million. Maybe even in the hundred thousand, if there’s an apocalypse and people start getting existential crises and ignoring the state of their conscience and morality because of their doubt of their immortality.
Sometimes my anxiety kicks in, and all I can do is start praying that 1) I won’t meet the love of my life while picking a wedgie on the E train and 2) that I won’t get into a freak accident and fall into the subway tracks.
Sometimes I fantasize what’ll happen if I do fall on the subway tracks. Could I just hoist myself up on the ledge again, the way I have to pull myself out of the pool during swim class? Or would I not be able to make it in time before a train starts barreling its way into my body.
Morbid. Way too morbid. The direction of my thoughts are going off-kilter. The same direction the R train goes on a regular basis.
All right, enough talk about subways.
I’m lucky I live in the Upper East Side. I don’t ride the subway to school, I just put on my skates or ride a bike over to Olympus, no sweat. Most of my classmates live in the vicinity too. Sometimes I call the Upper East Side “Party Row” because of all the parties my classmates (including Xander) hold on every weekend.
Speaking of parties, I wonder if Xander invited Rod to the Halloween party. Does he even know him? Probably, because Xander knows everyone.
Just in case, I type a short text to Xander on my phone.
“Hey Xan, by any chance, did you happen to invite Rod (Roderick) Hunter to the Halloween party on Saturday”
I put my phone on the library desk.
On second thought, maybe he doesn’t know who Rod is, since he doesn’t go to our school…
As a side note, I type “You know, Allie’s cousin.”
I put my phone back next to my textbook and absent mindedly twirl a pen in my hand. I’m on my free period at school, and I’m supposed to be doing my calculus homework. I already finished my college applications and submitted them, which is a feat considering all the shit that’s been piling on top of me for the past month and so. The virus in WOE couldn’t have come at a worse time. Incidents, applications, crushes have been hurling themselves at me with the G-force of 10,000 newtons, and no, I didn’t exaggerate that number because it came up on my physics test.
I need to rewind. And the party on Saturday will do just that.
I have my outfit picked out. I didn’t need the help of Xander and his enormous closet this time, I had the next best thing.
Amazon Prime. Within a day, Amazon delivered to me an expensive Rey costume straight off their racks. Don’t break the bank, I always silently swear to myself whenever I go on Amazon. Literally the ecommerce titan influences me to buy thing after thing every time I’m on the site.
How many times have I cancelled my subscription? Too many to count. Like the number of brown boxes piling up in my garage waiting to be taken out. My mom hasn’t yelled at me about them yet, which I’m somewhat not surprised about, she’s usually super absent minded at home and involved in preparing her math lectures.
Did you see her office? I went in one time, and nearly got lost. I couldn’t find my way out of the maze of textbooks, academic papers, and stacks of ungraded midterms.
It was THAT bad.
I tried on my costume last night, and I have to say, I look pretty awesome. Rey’s one of my favorite characters from Star Wars. Given, she’s one of the few female characters in Star Wars that actually have character development (Padma, your character development sucks).
I wonder who Rod’s favorite Star Wars character is. I bet it’s someone like Han Solo or Anakin.
Just then, I get a message from Rod.
“Hey, I got off early from school. Any chance you’re free to play some WOE?”
I grin to myself. Perfect timing. I have an hour to kill before my next class ( photography) and then I’m done for the day too. Photography’s a chill class so it won’t matter if I’m late to it or skip it altogether. I’ll see what I’ll feel.
I type a short reply back.
“Yes! See you in a few.”
My school has some pods in the recreation center. The recreation center is where most people go to during their free periods, unlike me who goes to the library, and it’s huge. It spans an entire floor and it’s filled with fun stuff like a pool table, an X box, a kitchen stocked with snacks and drinks, as well as a pod center.
Pods reinvented the wheel. Sai Tanaka came up with the invention a decade ago, and pods have taken over the world by storm ever since. It’s a genius of gaming machinery, equipped with AR and VR controls as well as a brain computer interface that connects your brain to the computing device. It received a load of backlash upon its first inception, but the hubbub has died down ever since, and people have more or less gotten used to the idea. The older generations don’t use them, much.
Us tech bloomers though?
We were born for this.
I snag my cool shoes and skate to the recreation center. Jumping over a recycling bot, I hurl myself up the escalators to the third floor. It’s just a simple trick of fixing my skates to the magnetic bars of the escalator and defying gravity by skating myself up. It’s a cool trick that took me less than a day to master.
The automatic doors snap open to let me in, and I’m welcomed by robots with refreshments revolving on their containers and an array of sofas arranged in a maze like shape.
Now, let the games begin.
I skate to the gaming arena where the pods are. There’s only a few people there, some I recognize from my grade, but mostly people who I see around and don’t actually talk to. I ignore them, and get into a pod located in the corner of the room.
I look at my watch first before strapping myself into the pod. 4 minutes have passed since my last text. Hope Rod wasn’t waiting for too long.
I put the headset on, and dive in.
I sign into World of Eden on my display and check my messages. There’s one unread message in my inbox, from Rod.
Hey Eva, I’m in Dungeon 4, see you there.
Short and concise. Just like Rod.
For the short time that I’ve known him, I’ve learned that he’s really efficient and direct. I thought I was all about efficiency, but Rod takes it to a whole other level. His texts are direct and to the point, his sword fighting is clean, and he doesn’t waste movement or words. He probably doesn’t even waste the air he breathes.
I go to a portal and transport myself to Dungeon 4. It’s located in Assyria, which is known for its botanic beauty and floral sightings. It’s literally covered with flowers, fruit, and foliage. An irresistible combination. I always enjoy going there, which isn’t often because there aren’t that many monsters here and only one dungeon, which is easily beaten. A lot of the monsters here look like Venus Flytraps, which makes me squeamish. I wouldn’t want to be a bug around these carnivorous plants.
Now, where is he? I run alongside the first floor, defeating some monsters for the heck of it. I should probably shoot him a message, but I need to relieve some stress from the school day so I end up just grinding for the first couple of minutes.
Probably shouldn’t keep him waiting, though.
I click on his instant messaging icon, and type,
Hey I’m here. Where are you?
He instantly replies.
Greenhouse on the fifth floor.
I groan. There’s no way to get to the top floor by teleporting in a dungeon, so I’m going to have to grind my way up. I could have saved some time by just messaging him immediately when I got here.
No crying over spilled milk, Buffy.
I take out Ephesian and things just got a whole lot easier.
With one strike, the monsters dissipated, deconstructed by the fire of Ephesian. Ephesian’s covered with blue fire, which is Holy Fire, while Hellfire is red. Rod’s sword Elysium is the same way.
The coolest thing about Ephesian is that each time it strikes, a thin golden stream of words evaporates from it and circles around me. I catch a glimpse of the words, and it looks like a verse from 1 Corinthians.
Is it me, or did Christianity just got a ton cooler?
I clear the third floor in mere seconds and fly my way to the fourth floor. It’s full of carnivorous roses and tulips that keep trying to bite my head off. Thanks to trusty Ephesian though, I weed out all of the plants.
Finally, the fifth floor.
Dungeon 4 has only 5 floors, while some have hundreds. But what Dungeon 4 lacks in scale, it definitely makes up for it in beauty. There’s a greenhouse located in the center of the floor, that towers over me and looks like a castle from the days of Camelot. There aren’t any monsters on this floor, but I do see some unicorns grazing on the grass as well as a few fairies twinkling around stardrop flowers and misty berries.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Well, a good feeling, but I’m a pessimist and this isn’t going to turn out well despite my growing expectations.
I push open the glass door of the greenhouse, and I see Rod. He’s standing in front of a fountain that’s streaming golden water. He’s looking at the scabbard of his sword Elysium.
No way. Is he going to propose?
Just kidding. There’s no way. But this whole thing is going into a direction that’s firing my imagination into weird unknown places.
I consider surprising him, but he turns around before I can make a move.
“Hey Eva. You finally show up.”
Do I sense discontent?
Actually, I think he’s just being ironic.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m still in school.”
His eyebrows shoot up. Which is getting to be a common occurrence with him.
“Shit, sorry. I thought you had a day off, Allie’s off.”
“Yeah I think she’s on a trip with the Robos. They’re coming back Friday.”
I change the topic before he could answer.
“Are you going to the Halloween party at Xander’s on Saturday?”
“Yeah Allie invited me.”
“What are you showing up as?”
He fiddled with his scabbard, dropping it in the air and then catching it and then dropping it again.
“Luke Skywalker.”
I stared at him.
“No way. I’m going as Rey.”
He grinned at me, his white locks catching the sunlight, coloring his features gold for a moment. His eyes shone like blue sky as he looked at me.
“Guess we could couple up.”
I laugh. I really want to hug him suddenly, but I don’t think you can technically hug someone in VR. Guess I’ll wait until Saturday.
We stroll around the fountain, making small talk. He’s usually more verbose when he’s doing something with his hands, a trait that I think is kind of endearing. We start about talking about the school he’s going to.
“So what do you do in military school?”
“Train. And learn politics. Strategy.”
“Like in Ender’s game.”
“I wish. Big fan?”
“The biggest.”
We start talking about Ender.
“The thing about Ender is this. Everyone thinks he’s this logical, strategic guy who doesn’t have a heart, but I still think he’s actually a big old softie inside.” He says while snapping leaves from a tree.
“Kind of like you?” I toss at him.
He threw a bunch of leaves in my face.
“You asked for it.”
Laughing, I run around the tree and jump up, hugging the trunk with my arms. Climbing up, I settle on a sturdy branch and whistle.
Rod jumps and lands right next to me.
“You know I was thinking.”
The tone of the conversation is getting serious.
“The virus that you talked to me about. How it’s affecting a bunch of players at EE. I have a theory.”
I look at him for a moment and then we say at the same time.
“Super user.”
“The virus must be affecting software engineers at EE because of their permissions. That creates a link with them to the database that you rewrote and that’s the reason that only they are getting affected.”
“Raj still hasn’t gotten out of the hospital. “I say resigned.
“No way. What happened to him?”
“They said it’s head trauma. He’s in a coma and his vitals are stable for now but he can’t wake up because of his brain injury. I don’t know how he could have had brain injury though, he was in the pod the whole entire time, without moving.”
“Maybe it’s the BCI affecting him. There’s been cases where brain computer interfaces causes people to fall comatose. I’ll pray for him.”
Now it’s my turn for my eyebrows to shoot up.
“You’re Christian?”
“Yeah. I’m Catholic.”
He reaches into his vest and holds up a silver cross. Not unlike the one I got from Michaelis.
I do the same thing.
“Cool, we’re matching.”
“Did you get that from Michaelis?”
“No I had it since the beginning. The VR software just encoded my appearance with it, probably because I wear it all the time and never take it off.”
“That’s cool. I got mine from Michaelis, it’s given me major boosts in stats.”
“It’s a requirement that Fallen Angels are Catholic. I’m surprised you’re not.”
I would have been offended by his remark, if I wasn’t busy processing what he just said.
“Wait, if you have to be Catholic to be a Fallen Angel, why did Michaelis choose me?”
Rod shrugged and put his cross back under his vest.
“Maybe he saw something in you. Maybe he wanted to convert you. Or maybe you always were one.”
I shake my head vehemently.
“No way, no way. There’s no way I’m Catholic. I used to be Christian because my parents were and we grew up going to church but it’s non denominational, Protestant. I mean, my mom’s catholic, but my dad used to be an atheist before he met her. And I’m just like him, I’m not Catholic, but – “
I stop for a moment.
My mom’s a vehement Catholic. She goes to mass every Sunday, takes eucharist, repents, prays, reads the Bible every night before she goes to sleep. She used to try to get me to go to church with her, but Peter and I both stopped going to church when my dad died. She’s given up on trying to get me to come back to church, but she’s never given up on her faith.
My dad on the other hand used to be atheist before he met my mom. Then she claimed he became saved because of her.
I haven’t gotten the balls to go to church again. Not only do I not know of any good churches where I live, but also I don’t have the guts to ask my mom if I could go to church with her. There’s too big of a divide and it’ll take too much energy to cross it.
Rod, on the other hand, might be a way in.
“So you go to church?”
I ask Rod point blank.
He nods.
“Yeah, it’s near Columbia.”
Near Columbia? Then maybe my mom goes to. Maybe not then.
“I go to two actually. One’s Catholic and the other non-denominational. There’s a lot more young people and Allie goes there too.”
I perk up at that. If Allie goes, that means I’ll know more people at this church Rod is talking about, and I’ll be able to feel less of an imposter at church.
Hope they don’t serve tuna salad sandwiches post service. I’ve had a bad experience with tuna salad at church reception. My old church that I used to go to when I was young thought it would be a good idea to serve finger sandwiches. The whole lobby smelled like tuna salad, making me almost vomit.
“Catholic church would be too intense for me. But the non-denominational church I’ll like to try out.”
Rod let me know the details of the church through a message.
It’s kind of hilarious that Rod and I communicate like this – through pseudo-reality. We haven’t seen each other in person since the party at James’ place, and we’ve just been hanging out in World of Eden. Less pressure to make a good impression on him, and less awkwardness since we don’t have to deal with the physical attraction.
Rod and I check out the rest of the greenhouse. There aren’t anymore monsters here, but there are some pretty cool koi fish that are swimming under the Japanese-style bridge over a pond. We throw some pebbles into the pod, startling the fish.
A couple more silences like these, and then Rod says,
“Any idea how to defeat the virus?”
I sigh internally. This virus has been a source of stress for me, with the flack that Luke is giving me, and the fact that I’m the one who caused it. Sai Tanaka doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal, but Luke’s been pretty much yelling his head off at me at work. I told Rod about it, and I think he knows that it’s been heavy on my plate.
I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts before I answer.
“I was thinking, something that inspired me at the conference I went to earlier this week.”
Rod looks up, fiddling with his gloves.
“What if I programmed an AI into the program. One that uses a neural network to convert everyone back to normal and stop the virus from spreading. I corrected the database entry, which is the root cause, but the virus is still spreading and it’s corrupting the players’ data. I need to write a program to clean the data up and all I can really think of is using AI.”
Rod pauses before speaking.
“That’s a good idea. Sounds difficult but doable.”
“I haven’t told Luke about it yet, and I’m trying to get the parameters and do some research into it, but I think it’s doable too. I did something similar for my game Age of Atheos. I think that the players in Eden Enterprises have a sin rating that is above threshold and that’s what’s triggering the changes.”
“I have a sin rating too.”
My jaw drops.
“No way. You didn’t tell me this earlier.”
“Thought it was just a patch update. My sin rating’s pretty low and my virtue’s pretty high. Guess it’s because I don’t target the NPCs.”
I laugh a little at his joke. If he targeted the NPCs and slaughtered them, the game would virtually end for him and he would be sentenced to Hell.
“What if we create a training program, that lets users to update their sin rating and increase their virtue rating. Introduce more opportunities for them to help others in the game, for example.”
“Yeah, we could hold more parties in World of Eden. That would help.”
“Or a rave.”
“Whatever works.”
We banter a bit more as my mind whirls away a mile a second.
If all the players have now a sin rating and a virtue rating, which was caused by my bug, that means that people are now officially like herds. Maybe if we could hold camps for people with sin rating above threshold, they would be able to purify themselves and get back their virtue.
There’s two divisions. The sinners and the saints. My bug has helped distinguish between the two, and I think that the changes are reversible. Any sinner can be a saint, and vice versa.
All I have to do is engineer an AI that will purify the sinners and get rid of sin altogether in the game. That way, we all win.
“I’ve had a thought. What if the sinners want to stay sinners? Wouldn’t that be a roadblock in eradicating sin in the game?”
“Yeah that would defeat the purpose. But maybe we could just delete their user data from the system if that happens.”
“Brute force? That’ll tank World of Eden’s popularity.”
I sighed. I’ll have to talk this over with Luke. A conversation that I’m dreading, but it’s inevitable.
In the meantime, I can work on my AI program.
“All right, I need to head out. I’ll see you at the Halloween party.”
“Yeah, same. Cheers.”
We log out at the same time, and I’m back in my pod at the school recreation center.
Crap. I missed my class. But that was an enlightening conversation, so it was well worth it.
So much stuff to do. Party on Saturday, new church on Sunday, not to mention working on my AI program.
I hoist my backpack on my shoulders.
I’m going to cut school. No time to be learning how to take pictures, there’s work that needs to get done.
Praying that things turn out ok.
-
Now this is not going as planned.
I think my trousers shrank in the dryer.
My top looks fine, and I have my hair done the way Rey has it done, but my trousers are 5 times smaller than they should be.
Screw it. I’ll wear the pants I wore to James’ party. The skin tight black cigarette pants look good with this ensemble.
I put on my boots, and layer on my belt with the light saber. No more trusty skates this time.
Can’t forget BB.
“Oi! BB!”
BB flies towards me and bobs over my head.
“The party starts in approximately 32 minutes. By skateboard, you can get to Xander’s house in 14 minutes. You’ll be early, woo!”
I shrug. Skateboard it is.
I hope I don’t look weird coasting the concrete jungle in a Star Wars outfit and a light saber. But I’m not going to bother taking the subway this late at night, and Xander’s place is close enough.
I get there in 8 minutes.
Already there’s people there. People are usually fashionably late, but I think this group of people are Xander’s friends from his fashion gig. They’re all dressed like cool retro sci-fi characters. I fit right in.
Xander swoops in and air kisses me.
“Buffy, you look great! I see you’re wearing the pants I gave you.”
“My costume shrank in the wash. Had to make do.”
Xander laughs and puts a drink in my hand. I smell it surreptitiously.
“Relax, it’s non-alcoholic. Just some grape fruit and seltzer and liquid sugar.”
I take a sip. Like ambrosia for the gods.
“See anyone you know?”
“You mean, besides you?’
“I mean, see anyone you’ve been making out recently.”
I choke on my drink.
I shouldn’t have told Xander, but he got it out of me. I told him about the night with Rod, and he freaked. I don’t have any girl friends to spill this dirty secret to.
Too bad he has the memory of a high functioning NVIDIA supercomputer.
“He’s not here yet. Don’t worry.”
Xander flies off to tend to some of his other guests while I mull over the food selection. There’s some guac and chips, some pie and other desserts, and some pasta, of all things.
I haven’t had dinner, and the pasta alla carbonara looks pretty good, so I take a plate and help myself to some.
“Well look who it is?”
I can recognize that sleazy voice from anywhere.
I turn around and narrow my eyes. James Ruben, my nemesis, is standing before me in an Avengers outfit. He thinks he’s Iron man, in real life, so he felt the need to manifest his narcissistic tendencies in a real life Iron Man outfit.
He’s not wearing his outfit. Wish he was though, wouldn’t have to see his ugly mug.
“Nice costume.”
“I wish I could say the same to you, only your outfit looks like it’s designed for a ten year old.”
I glare at him.
“I think I forgot to mention this, but your Dr. AI sucks. Not only does it look like a pokemon, but it’s clunky and the technology is diminutive.”
He narrows his eyes at me, his cold blue gaze covered with ice.
“Dr. AI is patented, unlike your silly game. My father’s company has dealings with Eden Enterprises, and we’re working on a contract to manufacture it using Eden’s generative AI program.”
I raise an eyebrow. Now that’s a new one.
“Soon, your silly Age of Atheos technology will be defunct. Your machine learning is years too old for this age, sweetheart.”
He pats me on the back, his heavy hand digging into my shoulder.
He leans forward and whispers in my ear,
“Watch out for Sai Tanaka, Buffy. He and I are tight as thieves.”
He walks away.
I’m left simmering in jealousy and apprehension.
The Ruben Corp and Sai Tanaka, a team?
Takes sin to a whole new level.
