The red dot on my HUD pulsed harder as I checked on Siva. With Jess’s coaching, his breathing was starting to slow.

  “You okay, Siva? It’s gonna be - ”

  Jess shot me a glare. Two messages in one look. You started this. Go finish it. And I’m a fucking doctor; I’ve got him.

  I gave Shawn a quick nod, drew a steadying breath, and started toward the escalator until he caught my arm.

  “Chris,” he said, eyes locked on mine. “What happens to players you talk to… and they still insist on being an ass?”

  He released me and stepped back to Jess and Siva, leaving the question hanging.

  He didn’t need an answer. We both knew it.

  You get kicked out of the fucking game.

  Like many of my life decisions, I was already regretting this one, because again, I’d put Siva’s life at stake.

  No. This wasn’t on me. The system chose Siva. My anger grew as the escalator carried me up into darkness.

  The second floor was a blackout maze. I followed the HUD toward the management office. The night was suddenly silent. Gone were all the ambient hum and distant clatter. I could only hear my footfalls on concrete.

  I reached a door with a plaque that read MANAGEMENT. I drew a breath and stepped through, into pure light.

  White light swallowed everything. I flinched, blinded for a moment, then the glare dimmed. I stood in a large room where all the walls, floor and ceiling were made of smooth white tile. In the center sat a desk with an empty chair in front of it.

  It was my desk. From my office. I recognized every dent and every scuff, every piece of stationery sat exactly where it belonged.

  A woman sat behind it. She had black hair to her shoulders and she was beautiful. The kind of beauty some would call plain, until she made you look twice. She wore a simple, flowery dress. I’d never seen her before, but I knew exactly who she was.

  “Eva?”

  “Hello, Chris,” Eva replied, gesturing to the empty seat. “Come, have a seat.”

  I hesitated. She was supposed to be a shop guide. A virtual assistant. Had she been real all along?

  I approached cautiously and sat, my anger draining into confusion.

  “Is my look favorable to you?” she asked.

  I nodded, mouth suddenly dry. No... she looked like Amira. My Amira. She wasn’t copying her so much as emulating her look and style.

  “I heard you wanted to speak to the GM. Let’s talk.”

  I pulled myself together. I needed to focus. They were messing with me.

  “First, you remove the target on Siva.”

  She smiled kindly and turned the monitor to face me. It showed Shawn and Siva outside the 7-Eleven. Not a CCTV feed from above but the angle was dead-on, like a camera hovering at eye level. They were watching from everywhere.

  “He’s okay, Chris. Really, he is,” she said, voice soft. “They’re waiting while Jess does her class selection. He’ll stay okay as long as we’re just… talking.”

  She let the threat hang. She sounded too confident. The last time I’d spoken to Eva, she’d been unsure, a little hesitant. This one wasn’t.

  “Before we continue, I was wondering about the subclass selection we did,” I said, casual as I could make it. “I want to change it from Party Booster to Urban Pet Owner. Can we do that?”

  “Sure, Chris. We can take care of that once we’re done with our little talk.”

  There it was. Too quick without checking and she'd given me the wrong reply. I’m already on Urban Pet Owner. Eva had helped me choose that.

  “You’re not Eva,” I hissed. “Stop playing games and fucking show yourself.”

  It happened in an instant. There wasn't any fade or glitch. Just a shift, immediate and seamless. Eva vanished, and in her place sat an older man. His attire was what the old world might’ve called Business Casual, a polo shirt paired with a sports coat and jeans. He looked like a CEO on casual Friday.

  “I compute that this form demonstrates authority. Since you wished to speak to the GM, here I am,” he stated, his voice flat, devoid of any warmth.

  “Ask your question, Chris. I will answer. There are no lies between friends,” he continued, his tone impersonal and detached.

  “Why the roleplay? Why the deception? And you expect me to believe there are no lies?” I growled, distrust building within me.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “It was a statistical probability that the Eva projection would be familiar to you. I miscalculated. A minor error, which has now been corrected,” he replied, his voice as efficient as a machine calculating probabilities.

  I swallowed, unsettled. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him, but I had come this far. I wasn’t about to waste time second-guessing. I took a breath and organized my thoughts.

  “What did you do to the real world?” I asked, my voice steady.

  “This is the real world, Chris. Next question.”

  The words hit me harder than I expected. “What do you mean? How could this be the real world?”

  He paused for a moment, and for a second, I thought he wouldn’t answer at all. But then he spoke, his voice clinical. “Do you know what a quantum wavelength is? Never mind. You wouldn’t understand. Few actually do, even those who first discovered it.”

  I felt my chest tighten. "I’m here. I can feel this. I’m touching this desk, I’m breathing, this... this is real."

  I glanced down at my hand and tugged at the Ring of Strength, still on my finger. I twisted it, feeling the weight and coolness of it. It was a solid, tangible object, not an illusion. But holding it now, I couldn’t shake the question that kept on repeating in my mind. “How could this be real?” I asked, voice rising with disbelief. “I can pull things out of thin air. My inventory works like, like I’m playing a damn game. How is this my reality now?”

  He didn’t flinch. His expression remained calm. “The system has altered the fundamental structure of your world. The world you once knew is gone. What you experience now, the sensations, the physical reality, everything, is the new world. It is the only world now.”

  I stared at him, my mind struggling to catch up. “So, what? You’ve rewritten the laws of physics? Rebuilt reality itself?”

  The GM’s voice was devoid of emotion. “Yes. The rules governing your world have been restructured. The objects you interact with, the space you occupy, even your own body, these are now parts of a new system. It may feel the same, but it is no longer the reality you once knew.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face as the weight of his words settled in. “So, everything I’ve known... all of it… it’s gone?”

  He nodded, his gaze unwavering. “Gone. Rewritten. Replaced.”

  I swallowed hard, my mind struggling to accept the enormity of what he was saying. “Why? Why do this? Why go to all this trouble to... change everything?”

  The GM’s expression didn’t shift. “To observe. To study. To gather data.”

  “Data?” I repeated, a bitter laugh escaping me. “You’ve changed the world, rewritten reality itself, just to... gather data?”

  “Humanity is a unique subject for study. Your species reacts in unpredictable ways under pressure. Social dynamics shift, individual behaviors evolve, and every action is influenced by trillions of data points. Upbringing, environment, biology, these are just a few of the factors that contribute to your response to any given scenario. And each individual’s choices are… interesting.” He paused briefly, pointing to me. “Case in point.

  I stared at him, still struggling to make sense of it all. “So, you’re just testing us? All of this… it’s just one big experiment?”

  “An experiment, yes,” he said, his voice unwavering. “But also a process of evolution. I’ve created a system that forces humanity to adapt, to evolve based on shifting variables. How you adapt is as important as if you adapt. The question is not whether you will survive. The question is what kind of species you will become when pushed beyond your limits.”

  I clenched my fists, frustration growing. “And why this world? Why an RPG world? What’s the point of all the game mechanics, leveling up, classes, inventories? Why give us this... power?”

  The GM’s voice didn’t change. “Because power changes everything. What happens when humanity is given the means to progress to godlike levels of power? What happens when individuals are given control over their own fate, really given control? The power to bend reality, to heal at a touch? To kill at a thought?”

  “You said no lies. So answer me this.” I got up and slammed my fists on the table. “Can you be stopped? Can everything be rewritten?”

  “Yes.”

  The single word landed like a punch to the gut. I felt the air grow heavier around me. It wasn’t the answer I expected. I... I didn't know what I expected.

  “How?” I demanded, my voice low and angry, barely able to control the surge of emotion. “How do I stop you? How do I stop all this?”

  The GM didn’t move. His gaze remained steady and indifferent. “You’ll have to find me first. Then, perhaps, you can attempt to stop or even reverse what I’ve already started.”

  I glared at him, fists clenched at my sides. “And you expect me to just, what? Wander around blindly hoping to find you?”

  The GM’s voice remained neutral. “I don’t expect anything, Chris. But if you truly believe you can stop me, you’ll figure it out. Also, do you really think I’m going to tell you how to shut me down?”

  I was about to leap over the table and punch him, but then I thought of Siva. My fists clenched, and I gripped the table instead, feeling my anger boil beneath the surface.

  “We have nothing else to talk about, Chris. You’ve been given knowledge that many would kill for,” he said calmly.

  I just stared at him, my breath heavy, fists still clenched.

  “Your friends are waiting for you downstairs,” he added, his tone dismissive, like a principal dismissing an unruly kid.

  I slowly released my grip on the table, taking a deep breath to calm myself. I turned and walked toward the door, each step feeling heavier than the last.

  “And Chris,” he said, his voice cold.

  I half-turned, eyes narrowing.

  “Threaten to break my world again, and I promise you your friends will die a most painful and excruciating death and I'll make you watch.”

  The world flashed, and I was suddenly outside the office.

  I was still breathing heavily, the words of the GM echoing in my mind like a constant hum. Threatening my friends… pushing me to the edge. My fists clenched and unclenched as I made my way down the corridor, the weight of it all settling on my shoulders.

  I reached the escalator, but I couldn’t bring myself to step onto it immediately. My reflection in the glass railing stared back at me. I was angry, confused, and more lost than I’d ever felt before.

  This isn’t just a game anymore. It’s real. It’s all real.

  The quiet hum of the escalator started, and I hesitated, as if the motion of it might pull me further into something I wasn’t ready for. But then, I stepped on, the metallic hum underneath my feet echoing in the silence.

  The downward journey felt slow, almost unbearable, my thoughts spinning with every passing moment. How was I supposed to stop this? How could I protect them when the system was already playing god?

  And then, as I reached the bottom, the escalator slowed to a stop, and I stepped off, back into the chaos, not entirely sure I was ready to face whatever came next.