~Fade in from darkness~
"Agh, my head feels like it is going to explode. Sis? Yo, SIS!! Where are you?"
"Behind you!" said Sarah as she leaped at Matt's chest as he turned around.
*OOF* "Hahaha, I missed you so much Sarah!"
Sarah squeezed onto Matt, threatening to never let him go as she began to tear up. She had been alone for years, but now she was finally able to touch her brother. Ever since she was in college, she hadn't seen him…
Matthew thought about pulling her off of himself, but he decided it would be better to reembrace his sister. He missed her so much more.
As the hug went on for minutes. Matthew thought about all of the pain and the torment that she must have gone through JUST to be here.
Heck, she was a disembodied brain running off of janky code that was put together by a man frequently found slamming his keyboard with all of his might.
"Hey, sis? Which mode are we going to go into?" Said Matt as he fought for breath.
"What do you mean? There is only the MMO version." Sarah finally pulled away from the hug to look at her brother's kind blue eyes.
"OH, so little missy doesn't know about the second layer, or second game. I thought you uploaded the whole system to the world…"
"I did, there is no other game mode. Are you going crazy, again?" Said Sarah as she was sweating a little from the lack of memories.
"Oh, we will see who is crazy, MUHAHAHAHA!!" Said Matthew totally not scaring his sister…at all.
"Ya know, the villain laugh doesn't really scare me much anymore." Said Sarah as she walked to the starting screen thinking, [I hate when he does that, freakin' goosebumps!
Sarah walked off. Matthew thought she was lost.
"Dang…well wait! Where are you going?"
As Matthew was hustling on over to his sister, he noticed a large creation screen.
"WHAT THE HELL, WHY IS THE GAME PUTTING IT HERE? THE START SCREEN IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ACCESSED LITERALLY????!?!?!?!?!"
"Uh, what's wrong?" Said Sarah as she stopped walking to look at the horrified expression on her brother's face.
"Sarah…what did you do when you uploaded it. Please tell me you didn't remerge the layers…"
"What? No, "I" didn't do anything. This is how the game started and it has been running for around 4,000 in game years. I figured it was fine…"
"4-4-4,000 years…that means that the game should have crashed, but the net-code should not be like this!"
Matthew was staring at a simple character creation screen. It would allow someone to import their own looks or create a new image for their adventure. In most games, this system was just fine and worked, but as the separation and encryption of game data became more popular it changed. The newer processes would have temporary moderator privileges to access VERY particular parts of the system. This is only to change physical features.
The reason the developers could not leave this older-system in place was because of the incidents…
There were cases of hackers removing the logout button and that lead to serious atrocities being committed.
One of the groups had revoked physical access to a woman's body but allowed for her senses to work and they beat, abused, and then…they raped the girl.
The system was supposed to work with multiple layers of access, and it was supposed to be perfect but there are always bugs. There are always points of layer connection.
"FUCK, sis, this is not good. I don't know what we are going to do. Can you access the world?"
"I can try…"
As Sarah began to noclip into the real world, she felt a pressure increase on her and the body began to dematerialize.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Sarah fell to the ground and was rolling in pain. It wasn't real but it FELT real…
"SARAH, are you okay? What happened, did the mana-layer reject you?"
"I-I don't know…it was like my whole body was shattering and ripping apart…it was horrible."
As Sarah began to sob, Matthew hugged her even more tightly than before.
[That doesn't make a licka' sense. The mana-layer should feel like a boundary that she can't cross. I put it in place to prevent character screen tomfuckery.
This might be bad…if she felt like that..WAIT!]
"SARAH, how much mana do you have right now? You should have the mana bar if you went into the world…"
"Um, it is empty, and it is refilling…what does that mean?"
"Uh, I think it means that the demon lord was successful…yuppers…big ol' successful boi that man was. See, the cliché ending involved fighting the demon lord whose real name is Frank. He is actually a decent guy, but he just wants to see the world burn…
Frank is supposed to fight everyone as the last boss. There is a great event planned and there will be Mtn Dew afterwards for everyone that participated. That was probably around 3,980 years ago…"
"Oh…"
"YEAHHHHHHH, this stuff might be FUCKED. If he did succeed, then the mana-layer would literally be destroyed."
"W-W-WHY? WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A GAME WHERE THE DEMON LORD BREAKS IT?!?!?!?!"
"WOAH, listen, all of these games are filled with moments that are preplanned, and most of the game is like that, BUT I encourage independent thought. The skills in the game are made by me, but that is only in the MMO version. In the RPG version, you have to build your own spells. You have to BECOME a wizard that is capable of bringing down a FUCKING METEOR. It is my favorite version of the game…and it was meant for people to play both, as Sun Su said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
"So, you made the game hard by making the players fight their greatest enemy?"
"Yes, they had to defeat themselves. Not literally. But the game would analyze their brains during play and the Psychologist would psychoanalyze them…
Like, if someone had commitment issues, then when he fought, he would be FORCED to choose a path, and then if he revoked his choice, he would be punished by increasing the boss' power. It had to be a party of 10 people, that were not perfect, but able to face their mistakes and fight against their innate desires…"
"Woah…that is a little intense don't you think…"
"It was made to be reality for these AIs, I wasn't going to send players inside to slaughter them on repeat and make it a literal HELL. Fuck that, the player should RISE to the challenge and beat them. FAIR. AND. SQUARE. If I were to be a God, I would have to be fair. I have to offer the same amount of power to both sides…I had to give each side a fighting chance. The inhabitants of the world get a massive head start and they keep it. But the players are able to undergo the most dynamic change, not just in their character but in their CHARACTER…"
"Bro…" said Sarah as she hugged Matthew as hard as she could.
"I am so sorry…I didn't know you were so…"
As Sarah began to cry and hold Matthew, he stood there with a blank look on his face. His eyes weren't wrathful, they weren't angry. They were dead.
[Ah, I suppose it is like that huh…the paradise with my sister is so short lived. I am a fucking idiot, why do I get my hopes up?!]
*Smooch* "Cheer up, we are not giving up yet. We can still make this work, there could still be an adventure!" Said Sarah after kissing Matthew on the forehead.
As Matthew wiped the saliva from his head he thought about the mana-layer and the implications that it would have for the rest of the system. How could they even access the character creation screen? It didn't make a lick of sense. This world should be half-loaded and bugged to all hell, if not crashed and nonexistent anymore.
"Hey sis, how much data is the world using?"
"It is using 71 Pebibytes of data, why?" Said Sarah as she read the message just sent to her.
As Matthew fainted, he saw the sky. It was so white and fluffy.
*Thud*
"AHHH! MATTY, WHAT HAPPENED?"
[Airway, breathing, circulation.]
[There is nothing wrong…just fainted…]
Sarah let out a big sigh and could not believe that this was happening…