I have been running for approximately 2 hours and I have finally reached the address Hannah Zhao gave me. The houses appear to be relatively well maintained, considering the scenario it was built around. I know this server was designed to be a kind of hell, but I can imagine this world is an upgrade from the prisons of their previous lives. My Port Drive leads me to a cul-de-sac consisting of three houses on the left, right, and center.

As I stand outside these houses, finally gaining a moment to breathe, I do not know what weighs on me more, the amount of data I used to escape the Rotters? The wound on my shoulder that refuses to heal? or the sight of this server tearing itself apart as corrupted Rotters and armed SOLs fight in the streets?

I have failed as an Admin, in more ways than can be calculated. Why couldn't Arturo Santana have been the one to have met Atsushi Tanaka? Or any other Admin? I’m nothing more than a student council president of a high school. I’m not built for combat and survival. And why didn't I stop Atsu—A-Crash when I had the chance? Bleep it all!

As my body starts to feel numb from the weight of everything, I clench my fist as tightly as I can. It is my duty as an Admin to protect this system at all costs. I cannot allow my mistake to consume the entire system. I can never give up! While I have failed to properly warn this server of the danger that is A-Crash, I can still jump to other servers to prepare them for the coming calamity.

Also, I still need to find Mathis-san, before he can cause any potential damage. I don’t know where he has jumped to, perhaps I will find a clue within his house. If not, hopefully, I can find some bandages for my wound, as well as safe haven for the remaining 14 hours my Port Drive has told me it needs to initiate a server shift.

With renewed resolve, I ask my Port Drive to specify which house belongs to Mathis-san, and it replies:

“Unable to identify.”

No! The condition of this server is far worse than I thought. A-CRASH's corruption is interfering with the functions of Port Drives. Can I even hold out for 14 hours? If any Rotters find me before I shift, I am as good as deleted. ..... I need to remain calm. I can only plan so far ahead at the moment.

As I begin my search for Mathis-san's house, I notice that all the mailboxes have been torn down. Upon further inspection, I can’t seem to find any sign of an address on any of the houses. No plaques or numbers on the houses to tell me which house matches the address given to me, and I don’t feel like extending the processing power to scan all three houses.

It looks like I’m going to have manually search the houses, or as other Admins would call it, 'searching the old-fashioned way'.

The first house I enter is the white one on the left. The door is unlocked, and the first thing I see is a beer bottle roll to my feet. Great start so far. I have a feeling this is not Mathis-san’s home, but it can’t hurt to make sure . . . at least I hope not anyway.

I step into the house, and my bad first impression is far too charitable. There are bottles of alcohol all over the floor, and the smell is horrible, like a mix of booze and body odor. I don’t think I can take the stench anymore. Thankfully, I don’t have to. I close my eyes and switch off smell from my sensory functions since all it would do is hinder me in my current task.

Just when I open my eyes, I hear in the distance:

“Ey! Wo tha el iz heir!” in an extremely slurred and groggy voice.

I should probably leave at this point. I have entered this person’s house uninvited, and I have a feeling they are not in the right state of mind to answer any questions. That being said, I still have a faint hope that I may be able to get some answers out of the potential drunkard.

"Whazt?! Iz my lucky dah-y!" a large balding man wearing nothing but a purple bathrobe and his .... underwear proclaims.

On second thought, I’ll visit the other two houses and hope he or she doesn’t try to find me.

I exit the booze-ridden house, close the door behind me as the man in the robe pathetically begs me to come inside, and head over to the center house. Once again, the door is unlocked; either the house is abandoned or the people who live here have the same sense of safety as their neighbor. When I open the door, smoke begins drifting out, and when I enter the house, I step on a pile of what appears to be used cigarettes lying haphazardly on the floor. I can barely see. Thank the designs, I have turned off my smell sensory options. I don’t even want to imagine what this house smells like.

Just like the last house, I hear:

“Who the hell’s there?” in a hoarse, sandpaper-like voice. Though at least I fully understood what he said, unlike his neighbor.

Now I know that Mathis-san’s home must be the next house, so I have no reason to have to talk to this person. On the other hand, maybe they can tell me a little about what Mathis-san is really like in his everyday life. I’ve only met him in . . . stressful situations, so I really don’t know what he’s like.

Just as I finish my thought, the resident yells out:

“You better answer me, or get out of my fucking house!”

I hear the sound of a gun cocking.

Never mind, I’ll just be leaving.

I am not sure if I can take a bullet in my current condition. Even if I can, I don’t want to expose my true identity. Part of our duty as Admins is to preserve the verisimilitude of the servers. To make sure that the human SOLs don’t question the reality of the world they are living in.

Though humans have a natural curiosity, so maybe our efforts will be pointless down the li—

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Before I can complete my thought, I hear a bullet whiz by. The smoke is so thick and widespread that I am not able to see the shooter, and the shooter presumably can’t see me, thank the designs. Without a second thought, I run out of the house and head straight into Mathis-san’s home.

The shooter appears to have not followed me. What a relief. When I try to open the door to the house on the right, I find that it is locked. Seriously? Why is Mathis-san the only one who thinks to lock his house? Then again, he had been out when I met him, so maybe that’s why it’s locked. Honestly, I’m scared. Given the state of the last two homes, I can only imagine what Mathis-san’s home is like . . . and I shudder.

Who knows what his vices are? And I don’t imagine him being the cleanest person in the system given his grungy appearance, even if that is par for the course in this server.

I can imagine it now. The piles of open bean cans rolling on the floor, magazines all over the place. The smell of rotting pork and the sight of broken furniture . . .

Just stop thinking about it! I just need to enter the house, so . . . how do I do that?

I wasn’t programmed with the skills to pick a lock since, in my position on my server, it would not serve any purpose. I’m going to have to phase through the door, but do I really need to expend the processing power?

Maybe there is a door in the backyard that is unlocked.

Looking for another way in, I walk over to the left side of the house and see a door on the side of the garage. I go to open it, and . . . it’s locked, of course. As I try to maintain my composure, I find a gate covered in barbed wire to the right of the side door. I can assume that this is the entrance to the backyard, yet I can’t get in without expending processing power. Not sure if I should blame Mathis-san or the designers in this instance. Given that the only other entry to the backyard is a high wall on the right made from concrete cinderblocks, the front door seems like the only option.

Once I make my way back to the front door, I take a deep breath and close my eyes, bracing myself for the pain of having to expend processing power, as well as prepare myself for the hellish mess I am about to witness. I open my eyes and walk through the door. Even the smallest usage of processing power is causing my shoulder excruciating, stinging pain. Which causes me to fall to my knees as soon as I enter the house. As I struggle with the pain in my shoulder, I see around me one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in my existence.

The house is clean! Spotless even. The floor is not covered in garbage, and the tile floor is shining. Does Mathis-san clean the floor? If so, how? Given the clean appearance of the house, I decide to turn my smell back on and find that the air doesn’t stink.

Granted, it does not smell like roses or anything, but given the horrible smell of the first house . ... Just thinking about it makes me throw up a bit in my mouth. Wanting to move on from that terrible thought, I stand up and begin searching the house.

After walking through the long entranceway, passing by a door in the middle of the hall, I enter a living room with a light-brown couch and a large flat-screen television, with a striped-pattern, olive-green-and-red carpet on the floor in between. Rows of wooden shelves line the walls, even covering the sliding door leading to the backyard, with books and DVDs neatly placed on them. Honestly, this amount of organization and cleanliness is shocking in this server; nothing is broken or knocked on the floor.

I move over to the kitchen on the right to look for bandages. Just like the living room, the kitchen is spotless, no dishes broken or placed haphazardly in the sink. This man is well organized, I can appreciate that.

To think Atsushi used to call me a neat freak! What’s wrong with wanting everything around you to be perfectly in order?

Anyway, I move to the pantry to find bandages, and when I open the door, I find it filled to the brim with DVDs, stacked high like towers of useless junk. Why is Mathis so obsessed with these stories? I’ve heard that he had been taken captive by Arturo’s men just for raiding a video store on their territory.

Are these things really worth devoting your life to? Or throwing it away? Shouldn’t Artl be a second chance for these people? No. It is not my place to question the system, only to maintain its existence.

Despite spending five minutes searching for them, I cannot seem to find bandages. Maybe I should take back what I’ve said about Mathis being well-organized. Who keeps DVDs in their pantry?

The only other rooms in the house I see are the two doors in the middle of the entry hall. I imagine the one on the right leads to the garage and the one on the left leads to Mathis-san’s bedroom. Not sure if either room would have bandages, but if I have to guess, they would most likely be in Mathis-san’s room. Given the scarcity of resources for the human SOL's in this server, it is best to keep them as close to you as possible. But I still have thirteen hours left on my Port Drive until I can activate a server shift, which leaves me time to check both rooms.

On the other hand, I need to treat my shoulder wound as soon as possible. It’s been roughly an hour since I’ve been bitten by that Rotter. I can’t hold off treating the wound much longer. But why does the most likely place have to be in Mathis-san’s room? I can feel my face heat up in a nervous panic at the thought of entering a boy’s room. I am not even sure if the fact that he is a stranger makes it better or worse.

That’s it, I’m checking the garage first!

I move back to the entryway and open the door on the right. As I suspected, the door leads to the garage, and surprisingly, it’s both very unorganized and barren.

All I can see is a red opened-up toolbox with wrenches on the ground nearby and two medium-sized, square oil containers leaning on the left side of the door leading outside. That is all, I assume to make room for his vehicle, which I am told is a motorcycle.

Server-shifting the way I’ve done is not recommended, and given that I barely remember my first encounter with Mathis, I understand why. I’ve never used my Port Drive before because I’ve never had to; I can imagine most Admins are also unfamiliar with them as well. I say most because while server-shifting is only reserved for emergencies, there are rumors of a small group of Admins that bypass the system’s rules of nonintervention.

Anyway, Seeing as there are no bandages or any other shelves and cabinets to look through, I simply close the door and turn to the left to face yet another challenge.

Why must I enter a boy’s room alone? Why, as the server is going to hell outside, is my biggest fear entering a boy’s bedroom? Sure, I don’t know him, and this is for the sake of my health, but what if his collection extends beyond just normal books? In a world this brutal, I can just imagine how depraved and dirty his collection . . . Priorities, Maria! Priorities!

I slowly put my hand on the doorknob and take a deep breath while slowly turning it. I’m only looking for bandages for my injured shoulder, but who knows if I’ll learn anything new about Mathis Michaels along the way. Even things that I know I shouldn’t.