While my Mom held me I could feel my heart beating again which was much more comforting than I thought it would be. On top of that, my sense of smell shut off giving me another measure of relief.

Something was off about Kevin's avatar. Usually, the ones created by the HSC were extremely accurate. However, since the one we had was malfunctioning the top part of his body was a bit blurry.

It took an experienced eye to catch it but I criticized all digital creations. With how bad he looked, I wondered if Doctor Stevens was going blind. If my old internal scan looked half as bad as Kevin's avatar it was no wonder he thought my implant hadn't changed.

I pulled away from my mom's embrace and checked her appearance. Hers looked clear and crisp. “Mom, when was the last time you got a scan?”

“Zix?” she asked.

While waiting I thought of something. Raccoon, what are your current capabilities?

“Six months ago, why?” Mom replied.

I gestured at Kevin. “This is why there haven't been any changes in my implant.”

Mom let go of me and gave Kevin a once over. “I don't see anything.”

“See how the upper half of his body's skin tone is blurred and his hair looks kind of fuzzy?” I said.

She took a step closer to Kevin. “Yeah, weird how I didn't notice that right away.”

“Everyone's avatars are much lower resolution than what I'm used to,” Kevin said.

Euslin’s eyes dimmed, he blinked a few times before, opening his menu and swiping through a few windows.

Jason paused, then his interface went transparent. “Our textures are the highest resolution out right now.”

“They look good, it's just…” Kevin said.

Florence stopped what they were doing. “Just what?”

“No offense,” he put up his hands in a defensive position. “I've seen better is all.”

Ellen’s face scrunched up. “Where?”

“In my—”

“He's probably just talking about in movies right?” I interrupted.

Ferret, tell Kevin he shouldn't tell them about the Q.U.B.E. I said.

Kevin glanced at me, his mouth open slightly. Then he must have gotten the message from Ferret because he said, “Yeah that's what I meant.”

“Those aren't real though,” Jason said.

If the resolution of that device was better than this, I really wanted to see what it could do.

Admittedly, the avatars we had were extremely close to real life but there were flaws here and there. There was room for improvement. Isn't there always though?

One of the things that made DO so popular was its attention to detail.

Avatar creation was one of the things I hadn't worked on much. It was one of the most important parts of Narrative Design but the story trumped digital assets.

I can see everyone, hear your’s and the other Zix’s thoughts. I also have access to your past experiences, and my database, Raccoon said.

Autumn eyed me. “You talking to your Zix?”

I nodded.

Can you access the test server? I asked.

Raccoon dashed over to Kevin and tugged on his pant leg. “Can you feel that Kevin?”

Kevin nodded.

His clothes moved when Raccoon grabbed them so that made sense.

He then ran around dashing through people's legs as they nearly tripped over themselves. After a good minute of pestering people, he practically flew into the grass.

Ferret watched the direction he had gone with keen interest. After a few seconds, she darted off, disappearing in the green field.

“That Zix of yours is a little crazy,” Florence said.

I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

“Told you they can be a little eccentric when they are new,” Mom said.

Raccoon had seemed docile compared to my old Zix. That might have been because I kept creating fun animations for him though.

If he could interact with our characters here in the game it meant he could interact with the server's data, at least in a limited fashion. It was nice to see him having fun at least.

“Is there a way you can give us an access point to the Qweb from the games interface?” I asked Ellen.

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“Boss?” she asked Jason.

Jason was busy staring in the direction the two Zix had gone. “What?”

“Is there a way we can give Azerail access to the Qweb from within the game?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I want that Zix off my servers before we do anything like that,” he said. The disdain in his voice was thick.

“What about the live servers?” I asked.

He turned to me. His face was a torrent of emotion. “What about them?”

“I can't sit around and do nothing all day. Can you find a way for me to play the game while keeping my Zix in here?”

Ellen glanced at Florence. “We can try and find a way to make that happen.”

Florence nodded in agreement.

“I could make an interface that connects to the city's servers. It would allow Azerail to access the Qweb’s messaging services and InfoBases. She would have to be in the live servers to access it though.” Euslin said.

Jason's eyebrows shot up. “So long as we keep the Zix from accessing any of our other servers, I don't care.”

“What do we do about the rogue AI?” Mom asked.

“I deleted it,” I said.

Everyone shifted their gaze to me.

“How?” Jason asked.

I took in a deep breath and released it slowly. “Kumo tried to duplicate himself and it corrupted his data. He said he didn't have enough space to do it. He practically begged me to factory reset him. So I did. I think that's why I was able to make a new Zix.”

“So that big file was Kumo?” Ellen asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

Jason’s menu solidified. “Did your scans corroborate this, Ellen?”

“The copy of the Zix in the bases looks the same except for the extra data he said came from their cloud server,” she replied.

“I’d like to have another look at Azerail's interface,” Jason said.

I shook my head. “I'll do whatever you want so long as I'm not stuck in this test server.”

Jason brought out Snake and gazed through its eyes again.

Everyone else joined in on the show.

We spent a good amount of time going through every currently available option I had in it. The main menu was still uninteractable except for the access to the game's separate interface.

He had me try tapping the greyed-out words but it amounted to nothing.

Ferret and Raccoon reappeared. Ferret appeared to be chasing Raccoon around the area. They dashed around us acting silly.

Snake eyed the two of them and avoided them like the plague.

A notification chime went off on my mom's menu. “Kevin, your mom wants you to head home.”

“Aww!” Ferret said.

Kevin's and my eyes met.

It felt as if my protector was leaving. “Tell your mom you need a new scan to make sure your implant is okay.”

Raccoon hugged Ferret. “Can Kevins Zix stay?”

“I think Zix have to stick with their person,” I said.

Raccoon shook his head. “Not true! She can go anywhere she wants!”

“I'm sure Kevin wants to introduce her to his mom though,” Mom said.

His little ears folded back as his body slumped to the ground.

Ferret waddled a few steps toward Raccoon and laid on him.

I kneeled next to them. “Maybe when Kevin goes to bed you can play then?”

Jason shook his head.

They don’t need to know if you’re here or not, I won’t tell, I told Ferret.

Snake hissed and coiled up.

Go ahead Snake, tell Jason, I said.

It ducked its little head into its bodies slithering folds, hiding.

What Kumo said was right. The Zix really couldn’t interfere with human-related activities.

“I guess I gotta go,” Kevin said.

I stood and faced him. My heart was beating wildly. “Can you come back tomorrow?”

“As long as he keeps the test program he should be able to return,” Ellen said.

I nodded at Ellen then told Kevin, “Make sure to download the game too. That way when they find a way for me to get on the live servers we can play together.”

“You okay alone here for a little bit while I show him out?” Mom asked.

“I guess,” I said.

She then gave me a quick hug. “I'll be right back.” Then she backed up and her avatar sunk into the ground.

It was the shambler exit animation which meant she was still a shambler underneath.

As soon as she was gone I dashed over to Kevin and gave him a short hug. “Thank you, for dealing with my crap all day.”

When I pulled away he smiled at me. “No problem, I—”

His shoulder glowed a golden color that radiated outward across his chest.

“What was that?” he asked.

I had no clue. “Uhm.”

“Did you feel anything,” Ellen asked.

He touched his arm. “It felt like someone was tapping my shoulder.”

“Oh, that’s the system telling you that your body has been touched,” Ellen said.

That didn’t happen to me when they moved my body. Did my Zix disable even those protections? Another feeling of disassociation spilled over me causing me to shudder and cross my arms.

“Do I just click the logout button?” Kevin asked.

Florence nodded. “That or ask your Zix to do it for you.”

Kevin and I shared a look and he tapped logout. His body fell to the ground and body parts disconnected rolling around on the ground before disappearing.

There wasn’t any gore. It was as if his body parts were acting as if they were bones scattering across the ground.

“Yeah, I’ll have to change that,” Ellen said.

“Ellen,” I said. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I don’t know how Kumo got into my implant.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think it’s your fault. I saw what he did to your leg.”

Ferret hadn’t left yet. She clung to Raccoon.

I wondered why they were so clingy. Had Raccoon confessed his fears to her or something along those lines? Was the connection he was supposed to have with the other Zix really that strong?

“And, there!” Ellen said as she tapped a button on her interface.

A small cottage appeared in the grass field around six meters away.

Its build was simplistic, something you might see on a country road. It couldn’t have more than a single room.

I laughed at a funny thought. “What? No trash can for my Zix to rummage around in?”

“A trash can for your trash panda?” Ellen said as she giggled.

“Not funny,” Raccoon said.

I kneeled. “I’m just messing around. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to it,” Jason said.

He didn’t know they were sentient so I didn’t hold his anger against him. “It’s always polite to be polite.” It was something Jennifer always said. I ignored it most of the time but it seemed like something I should say.

Jason ignored me.

“Wanna have a look inside?” Ellen asked.

“Sure,” I said.

***