Google didn’t help.
Usually, when someone asks me a question that they can easily do an Internet search for to find the answer, I tell them, “Google’s your best friend. Not me.” And then I walk away, leaving them to fester in their own ignorance.
But I tried Google. Didn’t work. When I tried searching for “why my irises just changed color,” Google just sent me memes of albino cats and anime characters.
I tried asking ChatGPT the exact same question. ChatGPT was a little more helpful and gave me a bullet list of medical conditions that accompany my symptoms and told me to see a doctor.
Thanks, ChatGPT. When in doubt, see a licensed practitioner.
I thought about not going to school today. I didn’t want to show up and have people suddenly asking me questions like, “Why are your eyes red?” Or “You look hot, can you infect me with whatever you have too?” Or “Do you think you’re Sasuke? Because you’re not Sasuke. Not even close.”
Because that’s what I did. I showed up to school with red eyes, and all of a sudden, I’m Miss Popular.
And to the last commentator: Trust me, I know Sasuke, and he and I could be twins. We both have the angry cynic vibe down.
I didn’t think it would be a big deal. Physical augmentation is all the rage these days. Sai Tanaka brought Japanese culture to the West to the point that everyone’s dying their hair blue and getting styled bangs and carrying cute plushies around as if Tamogatchi hasn’t died a couple thousands years ago. The Metaverse started off as some sort of Japanese anime trope, but now it’s reality for us. Thank you, Japan. Your visionary innovations are well appreciated.
What’s not appreciated though is this instance of biohacking. I don’t have a clue as to how World of Eden managed to hack into my genome and turn my eyes red. I learned in my biology class that albinism is a genetic trait, which is one clue as to why I look like a lab rat minus the white fur, but how can one piece of code cause a genetic mutation? The only known DNA editing technique is CRISPR, and your DNA has to be in an actual lab for it to be altered.
What’s worse? Knowing that I might be the cause of the bug. There’s a 15% chance that I, among the other hundreds of engineers working on the codebase at the same time as me, might have introduced a kink in the game.
So now?
I need to figure out how to fix this.
Running my hand through my thankfully still-dark-brown ponytail, I blink several times to make sure I’m not seeing things. Nope, still crimson red. Without the spinning wheels of the Sharingan (cue Naruto nerd since age five). Thought that would have been cool, if I suddenly was a ninja capable of generating fire from my palms.
I had to pinch myself to validate that I’m not in a dream.
Nope. Still in the real world, Buffy.
But time to get back in front of the screen. Everyone in my office has left already, and it’s dark out, but I stayed behind, pretending to be finishing up my tickets. Bruce had chuckled and said, “You’re a gunner,” after patting my shoulder. I just gave a tight-lipped smile in return and waited until he was gone before I shoot myself in the head for making a critical mistake that corrupted the game.
Status update. No gun, check. But sanity check, and it’s not looking good.
I scroll through the code base, trying to figure out the bug in my code. Shit, I can’t even recognize these lines of code, and I wrote them a couple of hours ago. I pop open another tab and look at the code history of the files.
What the hell?
Apparently, according to the version control system, I had made no changes to the codebase.
Did my code just disappear in thin air?
Before I panic, I chug another can of Celsius. That didn’t help.
It’s 9pm, and I still don’t know what I should do.
This calls for a bathroom break.
I sprint in the direction of the restrooms. They’re somewhere on this massive floor. The office is dimly lit, and the fluorescent lighting casts shadows on the retro art pieces hanging on the walls. The glass whiteboards still have lines of code written on them, characteristic of any tech company.
I rush into the bathroom, and without realizing, I knock into someone.
A guy, specifically.
“Oh shit, sorry.”
I look up and notice a men’s icon on the bathroom door.
Oops. Can’t just walk into the men’s bathroom unannounced.
“Buffy?”
I turn around and see a familiar face.
Adam Park. He and I were in the Robotics club together for the first 3 years of high school before he graduated. He was the school’s golden boy. Student council president, varsity basketball captain, winner of state-wide Mathlete competition. I used to have a huge crush on him, well, anyone with a uterus did. I think he’s at Harvard now. I haven’t seen him in ages.
“A-adam? What are you doing here?”
I had to crane my neck to look up at his face, which had a huge grin splashed on it.
“Same for you! Did you cut school?
“No, I’m interning here. Today’s my first day.”
His jaw drops open.
“No way!”
Did I mention that Adam can be annoyingly emotive and overly expressive at times? It kind of gets on my nerves, but I just ignore him most of the time and stare at his face, which is, also, annoyingly handsome. He’s all chiseled cheekbones and smiley eyes and perfect hair. Ugh.
I guess I still have a crush on him. Bummer.
He’s not as talkative as Luke (who is? No one) but when I’m with him, I just feel so…
Seen?
Barf.
There’s no way Adam would ever like me though. He’s popular and well-liked and has massive people skills. Unlike me. I’m just good for a presentation and debugger on standby. People don’t like me, while they worship Adam. It’s not a good combination, it never was a good combination, and in no way in Hell am I going to unbury my feelings for this perfect boy – man.
Debug this, Adam. As much as I like you or used to like you, I don’t want to see you anymore, I silently assert in my head. I’ve been over you and our 13-year long friendship since junior prom.
I narrow my eyes at him with laser focus, hoping he can read minds so I can exit out of this conversation without hurting his feelings.
“Yeah. It’s a pretty good gig,” I toss out flippantly. I turn around and looking over my shoulder, I wave and say
“See you later, I got some stuff to do before I head home. Say hi to your parents for me.”
Adam grabs my shoulder and I flinch.
“Wait! I haven’t seen you in months, do you want to grab coffee and catch up?”
I inwardly roll my eyes. Catch this, Adam. I’m not Eve-ning with you.
“Sorry I got some work to do.”
I speed walk out of the hallway before Adam can catch up with me. Arriving at my desk, I grab my laptop and headphones, shove them in my bag. I need to go somewhere to cool my head and figure out what I should do with the codebase. I’ve screwed up majorly and this could be detrimental to my internship at the company.
Fuck. I need Luke.
I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts. Luke and I managed to exchange numbers at the end of the convention. He sent me a text earlier today, wishing me luck, which I haven’t bothered to reply to.
I debate whether I should send him a text or directly call him on his phone. Whatever, I bite.
The phone starts ringing, and Luke picks up on the third ring.
“Hey Buffy! You still here?”
I nod but then realize he can’t see me.
“Yeah. I need help with something, do you have a minute?”
“Sure, just wrapping things up with my team. Wanna stop by or should I come to you?”
“Where’s your office?”
Luke tells me his office location and I run to the elevators. They’re on the top floor. I try not to panic as I wait for the elevators. Hurry up.
“Going home?”
Fuck. I forgot about Adam. Why is he still here?”
I look up from my phone and see Adam in his jacket and backpack. He’s cracking his knuckles, which he does whenever he’s nervous or feeling unsure.
“Hey, yeah. Sorry for back there, I have this major bug I need to take care of.”
He doesn’t reply and I resist the urge to chew my fingernails.
Silence.
I look away and then focus my eyes somewhere on his forehead.
“What about you? Why are you here?”
He smiles hesitantly and shrugs.
“My girlfriend works here, she just started her job last month. We have plans later so I decided to pick her up.”
Ok. He has a girlfriend. Not a surprise. Really not, as I saw his pictures with her on social media. Pretty. Blonde. Thanks for the reminder, asshole.
I’m not big on crying, but today’s going to shit and I really feel the tears coming in. I look away and start punching the elevator going up.
I punch the elevator button going up again and silently thank God that we’re going in different directions.
My elevator comes first, and I pounce on it. Stabbing the buttons, I give a short wave to Adam. The elevator doors close and I can’t help but notice that he still has the keychain I gave him on his backpack.
We used to be best friends. His dad and my dad were college roommates and they both worked as programmers for the government. Until my dad disappeared, and everything broke into pieces.
I thought today would be the best day of my life. But it’s quickly turning into my worst nightmare.
I close my eyes for a second, willing the tears to fade away.
My dad used to say that whenever times are hard, and I think I’ve hit rock bottom, to cling onto my faith. But where is my God in this Godless world? I have no one to catch me when I fall, so shredded my faith is in this world.
I wish I could believe again. In the things unseen.
But how can I? When everyone I’ve loved are no longer in my life.
All I can do is focus on my work.
And work it is.
I open my eyes just as the elevator doors open at the top floor. I take a deep breath and clench and unclench my fists.
I just need to find Luke and get this mess sorted out. Then I can go home and muse on all the things gone wrong today.
I step out of the elevator and immediately I gasp.
The roof is transparent, a skylight that shows me the night sky. There’s no such thing as stars in New York City, but it looks like Eden Enterprises manufactured artificial lights embedded in the roof. Dancing, the lights glitter at me.
I feel better already. I walk down the hallway that is lit by hundreds of incandescent beads of light as if I were in an infinity pool. There are deserted conference rooms at either end of the hall but I don’t see Luke’s office.
Reaching the end of the hallway, I make a turn and see a sign directing me to “The Cave.” Written in bold embossed gold letters, it points me to a set of double doors. Pushing the doors open, I find a huge room filled with the latest tech.
Like a laboratory only instead of beakers and centrifuges, the lab is filled with computers, gadgets, and projector screens. I see augmented reality screens projected in 2d. Dodging one screen, I walk into the center of the lab where I see a group of people huddled over a computer.
Luke’s looking over this guy’s shoulder, pointing with his pinky to a line of code on the laptop screen. I stop behind him. I don’t knew whether I should say hi or just stand awkwardly behind him. Before I can decide, Luke turns around almost automatically and raises an eyebrow at me.
“Oh hey Buffy. Wasn’t expecting to see you this late.”
I shift weight onto my other foot and stare at everything except him.
“Yeah, about that, I think I’ve screwed up bigtime.”
The programmer sitting in front of Luke looks up. He’s wearing a pair of gigantic black headphones and a clunky pair of frames. He says,
“Hey I’m Mahmed. Luke’s told me about you.”
I hold a hand up and say, “Hey.”
He pushes his laptop further out on the table.
“Want to show up your code? What’s the issue?”
I look around and pull up another chair and sit next to Mahmed. Taking my laptop out, I open it and go into Eden’s codebase. Clicking through my tickets, I pull up my latest repo and click on the revisions.
“Here.”
I point to a bunch of code.
“This wasn’t here before, and I didn’t write it but it’s in my revisions. And here as well.”
I take a deep breath.
“And the worst thing is…”
I pull off my glasses and fixate my eyes on Luke.
He peers at my irises.
“Are you wearing contacts?”
Dumb question, Luke. Who wears contacts and glasses at the same time? No need to be redundant in real life.
“No. I played WOE after pushing my code to production, and when I exited, I noticed my eyes turned red.”
“Maybe malnutrition?” Luke jokes.
Mahmed raises his eyebrow. “I’ve never heard of any biological changes due to playing WOE, besides the usual symptoms of addiction.”
I shake my head again.
“Been there, done that. My eyes literally turned red, and I think it’s because of the codebase. I have no idea what I did, but my code is changing areas of the codebase and I didn’t even do anything besides make a one-line fix.”
Mahmed looks closer at my code. “Yeah, you created a variable ‘$s2x’. Dude, you should haven’t pushed to production before getting your team’s approval.”
I turn defiant. “They approved it. I pushed to prod and then these changes occurred.”
Luke put a hand on my shoulder. “Then it’s not your fault, Buffy. Let the QA team handle this.”
I furrow my brow and crack my knuckles. An annoying tick that I can’t resist when I’m stressed out and feeling indecisive. I came to Luke for answers, not for reassurance. I need to get this bug solved, and I don’t want to wait for the “QA team”.
I check my watch. It’s 7:53 pm, on a Thursday night. My mom doesn’t get home until 10 or so on Thursdays, she holds her office hours pretty late in the evening on Thursdays. That means I have less than 2 hours to make this count.
I look up at Luke.
“I was hoping that we could get into the game and figure out if other players are experiencing the same thing. Like any changes to their physical appearance and what not. When was the last time you logged into WOE?”
Luke checks his watch. “Around 4 pm?”
“That was before I pushed to prod. Can you go in and see if it affected your code too?”
Mahmed stands up before Luke can answer and pats him on the back.
“Yeah let’s do it bro. It’ll be cool to have red eyes, makes cosplaying as Sasuke easier. Won’t have to pretend to be him, I will be him.”
I resist groaning. I seriously hope this issue goes away before tomorrow so I won’t have to go to school and endure all the Sasuke jokes.
Luke grins. “And maybe I’ll have no irises like the Hyugas, and people think I’m a mutant.”
They’re not taking this seriously. How am I not surprised?
The three of us walk over to the gaming pods. Unlike in my office, the Exodus organizes their office a bit differently. The desks are situated in a maze-like formation, with the gaming pods in the very center of the maze. Walking through their office was a bit like tracing fractals with my footsteps. Confusing, but intentional.
The pods were on top of a platform, kind of like in a gaming arena. I never gamed professionally, but I did at one time harbor dreams of appearing on stage on national television doing something I loved as much as gaming. My mom wouldn’t allow it in a million years, so this time might be my only chance to live out my dream.
I grin and hop onto the nearest pod. Putting the helmet on, I slide the visor over my eyes and grip the controller with my right hand and hover my left hand over the keypad. Luke and Mahmed get in besides me and Luke presses the remote to turn on the game.
I close my eyes, and I’m sucked into a vortex of oblivion.
My sensors tingle, and I open my eyes. Immediately I notice something different about my environment. There are wisps of black shadows dancing around the landscape. I try to catch the black energy with my hand, but the shadow disappears as if it never existed to begin with.
I pick up my sword, and my legs buckle. The sword’s too heavy for me to lift, and I tap the screen to remove it from my arsenal. Swiping through my weapons, I notice a new piece of equipment that I don’t remember having acquired. I choose it.
It’s a gun. A sleek silver metallic handgun that looks like something I could get off of the black market. I notice the symbol X engraved on the trigger.
Interesting. I should be able to wield this.
Luke appears next to me as well as Mahmed. They’re dressed in black gear and I notice the words “Demon Knights” over their heads. Must be the name of their guild.
I gesture at them, and Mahmed puts his hands over his head.
“Don’t shoot!”
I laugh and put the pistol in my belt.
“Wasn’t going to!”
Before I can ask them if they could see the shadows, Luke says, “Let’s go check out the dungeons to see if anything’s changed.”
The two of them sprint off and I follow them, shadows swirling around me.
We enter a portal and are transported to another site. As we go through the gates of the mountain, I check my watch and see that we’re in Thessa. Only Angels can enter Thessa, so I’ve never been here before. I’m not sure why we’re allowed to be here, but this was another anomaly that I mentally check off.
There are statues of dragons and gryphons around me, made of gold and silver. I see a statue of a unicorn in the center of the town square. Walking up to it, I see a verse:
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
A quote from Harry Potter?
A dim memory rises up but I swallow it down. It’s not the time to be remembering Dad, not in the middle of playing WOE. I go to the other statues surrounding the oval town square, and see similar verses etched on their plaques. I read them aloud.
“The light shines in the darkness but the darkness overcomes it.”
“We love because He loved us first.”
“I am the way and the truth and the life.”
Mahmed speaks out behind me.
“The last enemy to be defeated is death.”
I turn around, surprised. Mahmed’s eyes are wide open and his irises are red. Gripping his pistol, he’s pointing it directly at me.
I laugh nervously and raise my hands up.
“Don’t shoot?”
He grins. He starts to lower the gun, but then he whips around and shoots at Luke.
He misses and hits the dragon statue behind him.
“What the fcuk man?”
Luke takes out his shield and crouches as he runs from Mahmed. Laughing maniacally, Mahmed chases him and begins shooting a rapid succession of gunshots bombarding the air.
I grab my pistol and run after them.
“Stop shooting! We’re on the same team!”
Mahmed turns around and shoots at me. He misses. He takes a bomb out of his arsenal and throws it at me.
I shoot at Mahmed and the bullet pierces through his chest.
He falls, and the bomb explodes.
Everything goes black.
