Icewolf: Again, congratulations on the completion of the Tutorial, I’m impressed. Remember, if you want answers get to Mars, and go to a nightclub called Red Dust. Ask for me.

Don’t reply to this message or send any further messages. I’m not sure if such things can be used to track your location, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they could.

Two new messages appeared:

Alan blinked after reading the second message.

Huh, I guess that makes sense, the whole, “closer than you think” clue and all. He’s literally right next to me.

Yes, I put together the pieces after examining his message and decrypting the secret message.

Wait, secret message?

Yes, it was encoded in his message and is as follows: danger. dont leave omnitech building irl. get stronger.

Wait, what?

I assume it means do not leave the Omnitech building in real life, and that you are possibly in danger. There is a 0.0004% chance that it also means—

No, I know that just… why, from what?

I am… unsure. I advise you simply follow his advice, and strive to become stronger.

Alright.

Alan proceeded to fall into a fitful sleep, both nervous about new developments but also excited to finally set foot on Khersath, the capital of the humanoid universe. Tomorrow was a new day.

Chapter 13

Alan awoke in darkness, breathing rapidly, jolted awake. His mind felt like it had been jump started, as the events of the previous few days raced through his head in rapid succession.

The Game. The battles. The tests. The warning. The debt. Alan blinked, shaking his head. That was… quite the way to wake up. Feeling fully alert, Alan glanced at the clock on his display. There were still a few hours left until the Titan approached the planet, so after performing a series of morning exercises Eve had planned out to strengthen his body, Alan decided to continue studying.

It was funny, in a way, that he was so excited to learn more about the Game. If Alan had spent half the time, half the effort he was putting into trying to become better at this game, he probably could have become a straight-A student or star athlete. Except, he’d never really felt… the need, the motivation, the desire to do anything much in real life. It all seemed rather pointless. Yet, here he was in a virtual universe, more motivated than ever before. Of course, this virtual space affected the real world a great deal, but there was still this nagging doubt in the back of his mind...

All of this wasn’t real, after all. It might all simply be an elaborate hoax; maybe he went into the capsule and had never actually emerged, his mind simply creating this entire Game. Maybe it was all a lie, something to placate human-kind. Maybe— No, this never ending question of what ifs would get him nowhere. This world, this universe, was very much real, even if it was only a series of 1s and 0s stored somewhere somehow. Alan stood up, turning on the lights in the room, intent on absorbing as much knowledge as he could.