Wyn’s portal opens at a manageable height. He lands hard on his feet but quickly collapses as he loses balance. His face has already taken enough punishment by now, so this fall doesn’t faze him. Yu lands in a similar fashion, only to twist his ankle.
“It’s not too bad,” Yu reassures Wyn.
The lines ahead are still long, though a little shorter than last time. Wyn notices Yu is in more pain than he’s letting on. Concerned, he decides to stick with this zone for now – he can’t have Yu risking another portal. Slowly but surely, they make their way to the lines, with Wyn helping Yu the entire time. The lines are noticeably longer than before as more souls join in.
“Lines so long, you’ll heal before we get in.”
True to the quip, Yu heals long before they reach the front. Eventually, their wait is over, and they’re pushed forward to the gate. Wyn counts at least twenty demons, each dressed in gaming-themed costumes. The demon in front of Yu wears a soldier’s uniform, while the one behind sports a spacesuit. Their gear matches their outfits.
The soldier demon gestures for Yu’s hand, pressing a credit-card-sized device against the back of it. With a swift, clawed press on either side, the device sinks into Yu’s skin and vanishes. The demon in the spacesuit then signals for Yu to move along. Wyn follows suit, too curious to question what just happened as the demons, clearly uninterested, continue their task.
The area beyond the gate is packed. Souls everywhere are fumbling with the devices implanted in their hands. Wyn’s anxiety spikes as he remembers their balance is constantly draining. Yu tugs at his arm, trying to move them further into the zone, away from the crowd. But the crush of bodies makes it impossible to get far. The entire room is midnight blue, illuminated by RGB lights that cover everything – even the walls. The lights shift through colors and patterns, reflecting off the walls. Overhead, stationary drones project signs with blinking neon borders. One nearby sign reads "Area 0," with a pink neon arrow pointing straight ahead.
As they push through the crowd, Wyn spots a few souls figuring out how to use their devices. By tapping the palm with their opposite hand, the current balance flashes on the back of their hands. A single tap shows the balance for a moment, while tapping and holding displays it continuously. Wyn pauses to show Yu what he’s learned, and they check their balances for the first time. Almost two thousand credits are already gone.
His heart sinks. They won’t last long at this rate.
Wyn takes a breath, steadying himself. In the background noise, he picks up a faint sound, almost drowned out by the chaos. Looking up, he sees two unsettling drones – shaped like cats – carrying souls through the air. The drones remind him of an odd “uWuTube” video he once saw: a dead bobtail cat turned into a drone, with rotor blades instead of paws.
Suddenly, he realizes these drones might be their way out. Quietly, Wyn suggests to Yu that they wave their arms and flash their balances in the air, hoping for attention. It works. Two drones descend toward them. The souls nearby move to make way, while others desperately ask how they called the drones down. A few even try to steal them, only to be paralyzed by electric shocks the moment they make contact.
Without wasting a second, Wyn and Yu climb aboard the cat drones, ignoring the chaos around them.
“Yuck,” Yu mutters.
A projection appears above the drone's head. There are fifty-two areas in total, each labeled by a number starting from zero up to forty-eight. Additionally, there are three more areas labeled “Gambling Zone,” “Combat Zone,” and “Admission Gate.” The fares range from two hundred credits to a steep five thousand two hundred credits. Wyn feels overwhelmed by the number of areas and the high fare prices. Confused and anxious, he quickly tells Yu to pick number four. He expects the first few areas to be overcrowded but doesn’t want to risk paying too much, fearing it might jeopardize their survival.
As the drones fly, Wyn notices the only difference between areas is the signage – nothing else seems to distinguish them. The quick flight costs them each a thousand credits. Wyn’s balance now sits below seven thousand one hundred, and Yu’s is just twenty credits short of that.
The area, like every other in the gaming zone, is packed with computers. Each desk is outlined with RGB light strips around the edges and legs, and the gaming chairs emit glowing light effects along their rims. Black tempered glass partitions separate the desks, and the desks themselves are made of the same material. The computers are arranged in rows, all facing toward a massive dome. Each desk is equipped with sleek black, wide OLED screens, matching black headsets, and a TKL gaming keyboard. Yet, Wyn notices there’s no visible CPU at the station.
Stolen story; please report.
Wyn hurriedly searches for two desks side by side for him and Yu, while Yu remains entranced by the flashing lights. As Wyn sits down, the mouse catches his attention – it adjusts in size to match his palm perfectly. The moment his hand touches the mouse, the monitor comes to life, and the balance on his backhand begins glowing constantly. An overwhelming array of games floods the screen in front of him, leaving Wyn momentarily stunned.
Nearby, Yu calls out to a short, stubby munchkin cat dressed in a vampire costume for help. They quickly learn from the cat that as long as their hands stay on the mouse, the credit deduction stops. All games in this zone operate on a pay-per-round system, similar to an arcade. Instead of earning tickets, players win credits. Multiplayer games, however, come with a twist – they feature a wager system, where the winning team takes all.
Wyn seizes the opportunity to ask the cat for more details about transportation and how the fare system works. Area zero is everything before the first numbered area, all the way back to the gate. To the left of area zero are the odd-numbered areas, and to the right, the even-numbered ones. The fare starts at two hundred credits and goes up by two hundred increments.
“One more question. Might as well. When a black band leaves and re-enters the zone, what happens to the credits?” Wyn asks.
“The movement stops, then resumes when they come back,” the cat replies.
“Shit,” Wyn mutters to himself.
Realizing his previous strategy won’t work here, Wyn starts to panic. He stares blankly at the screen, his mind can’t help but imagine the slow, painful decapitation that awaits should they fail. Yu, who’s not much into gaming, looks to Wyn for direction.
“What now, chief?” Yu asks.
“Huh? Oh, right. Let’s start with something easy.”
Wyn clicks on the search button, which brings up a search bar along with genre buttons below. He types in the name of a game he’s familiar with, but the result shows a game with a similar name instead. After trying numerous times, it becomes clear that all the games have their names altered – “Call of Injuries,” “League of the Ordinaries,” “Pwned-world,” “Digimonger,” “Super Normal Pets,” “Dead Cellulites,” “Alien Wake,” “2/3 Life,” and “Penultimate Fantasy,” to name a few.
“Like this place isn’t overwhelming enough already! Now we have to choose a knockoff to play?” Wyn complains. “A noob like you should just play a match-three game.”
“Hey now! How about we duke it out in ‘Street Sweeper Fighters’?”
“But that means I get your money. That’s not gonna get us anywhere!”
“We’ll wager only one credit each. I need to show you I’m not a noob.”
After setting up a private lobby, the men find themselves in the character selection menu. The game is a two-player fighting game known and loved throughout generations, though this version features characters re-skinned as random people wielding brooms and dustbins. The mechanics are similar to the original. Wyn and Yu battle it out, with Yu losing a total of twenty credits.
“You can play whatever game you want now. I’ll stick to match-threes, thanks,” Yu says.
The two focus on earning credits. Wyn chooses his favorite roguelike genre, where he expects to lose a few runs at the start. Yu, on the other hand, is earning credits more slowly, though he’s still making progress. They don’t let go of the mouse even once during the days-long session. Neither feels fatigue or discomfort.
“You want to see other parts of the level?” Yu asks.
“Bored already? Do we have enough credits to leave?”
“‘Earn slow’ might as well be the motto of this zone.”
“That’s because you’re playing kiddie games.”
Checking their balances, Wyn has ten thousand five hundred credits left – approximately two thousand more than Yu.
“You know, getting there costs at least four thousand, right? That’s almost half of what you’ve got,” Wyn points out.
With this in mind, they spend even more time grinding. It takes longer this time due to Yu’s struggle with the harder stages of the match-three games without Wyn’s help. Their current balances are respectable, though. Wyn’s is now above twenty thousand, and Yu’s hovers around thirteen thousand.
“Let’s check out the gambling zone first. We don’t need skills there, and it’s closer,” Yu suggests.
Wyn sighs, knowing he isn’t the type to rely on luck. However, he’s willing to give it a shot since it’s cheaper to get there. He also hopes his luck might improve. Keeping their palms on the mice, they call down the cat drones. The fare to the gambling zone from the fourth area is forty-two thousand credits. Yu gulps and reluctantly selects the destination.
In the gambling zone, there are no computers – just a large, open space packed with souls trying to cross between the zones. Unlike the first level, there is no wall separating the zones, which speeds up the crossing. From a distance, the two men can’t see much due to the bright, dazzling setting of the gambling zone.
“This is like a different world!” Yu exclaims.