Ben Ternt was a sixteen-year-old whose life was as ordinary as it could possibly be in the Seattle, Washington, bustle of humanity. He was that type of teenager who faded into the background-none loud, and also not particularly noteworthy. His days were spent in a cycle of school, home, and the occasional games of basketball on the weekends with his friends.
Ben lived with his parents Jack and Lisa Ternt in a cozy two-story house in the quiet suburbs of Seattle. Ben's father was a software engineer; he spent much time working on his computer. Lisa was a high school teacher; she was very patient and kind. Ben was an amazingly close son to his parents, respected by them and loved by them in equal measure. Yet Ben had the feeling that they just didn't grasp the mounting obsession he had for this world's mysteries.
Ben attended Roosevelt High, where students might hail from any given borough of that very city itself. His best friend was Arjun Patel, a techno guru master-hacker, hacking into and lovingly extolling everything, from windows password managers to conspiracy websites. They were inseparable, their bond forged through years of shared adventures and late-night gaming sessions. Then there was Emily Chen, the secret crush of Ben's, who was kind, bright, and had a smile that could light up the dullest Seattle day. She sat right across Ben in chemistry class and also often paired up with him for lab experiments, though Ben never had enough guts to express his feelings toward her.
It had rained all day, and Ben was sitting in class with the rhythmic beat of the rain on the windowpane calm him down into a peaceful frame of mind. While his teacher, Mr. Anderson, continued to drone on about the Pythagorean theorem, Ben's mind wandered and he started to look toward the window, staring at how the drops slid down the glass.
Idly, Ben glanced to his side to see the arm that rested on the edge of his desk. It was then that he noticed them: small thin strips of pixels flickering like a screen glitch. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and looked again. The pixels were still there-a tiny anomaly on his otherwise normal skin. He shook his head; it must just be his imagination.
But the pixels did not disappear. In the days that followed, Ben found more and more such glitches. Sometimes it was on his arm, sometimes on his desk, and even sometimes in the reflection in his mirror. It was as though seeing the world through a broken camera lens: a reminder that something was off in every one of those pixels.
This curiosity turned obsessive for Ben. He spent hours on the Internet looking for explanations. Most forums dismissed his experiences as optical illusions or hallucinations brought on by stress. Ben knew better. These glitches were real, and they were happening more and more frequently.
He began to jot down every occurrence in a notebook, and then he'd draw the shape and pattern of the pixelated strips. He even started carrying a magnifying glass so that perhaps this would allow him a closer look at these mysterious glitches. His grades began to slip, and his friends noticed him becoming increasingly distracted.
One evening, sitting in his room, suddenly he had that thought: what if the world around him wasn't really real? What if everything was just a highly advanced simulation? The idea seemed impossible, but after a while, it just started to make sense. Glitches were too well-planned, too regular not to be just coincidences.
Ben decided he had to find out. He planned on visiting places known for mystery and conspiracy theories. If the world is really a simulation, those places might have the key to unlock that world. He planned out his journey, mapping from local sites to more famous locations in search of mysteries and conspiracies.
Before he left, Ben leveled with his best friend, Arjun. To his surprise, Arjun didn't laugh. He listened to Ben in a serious expression and even offered to come along. Together, they planned their expeditions, starting with the remote Space Needle, which was rumored to have strange energy fields.
That night, lying in bed, Ben felt a thrill of fear versus excitement. His life was going to be turned upside down. As Ben prepared himself for the first step of this journey, he began to determine what he would unravel with that initial step.