It was a server farm. Row after row of familiar grey boxes stacked on top of each other, each one connected to a central network. The entire room made a familiar low hum. I giggled maniacally.
Jason came inside. "Hey Ace, you okay?"
"Look!" I cried, gesturing frantically to the room.
"Yeah, so what? A bunch of grey boxes."
"Not just grey boxes! Computers! Machines of untold computational power, lifted straight from my world!"
I pointed at the cover of the nearest server. It sported an IBM logo, though it wasn't drawn in any style I was familiar with.
Jason frowned. "So there's a connection between your world and this one?"
"No! I mean, well, yes, but that's not the point! The word 'virtual' means 'not real', or 'technically real but not really', or something like that. But it's *also* used in connection with computers. Virtual Reality, for example, is an immersive computer-generated reality. A Virtual Realm would be one generated *by a computer*!"
Jason frowned. "Okay, so?"
"So," I said with a grin, "I need to find a terminal."
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> status
Connected to Server 2225F:43002:EDD345, hostname: "Primary Virtual Realm" on port Z339. Awaiting transfer command.
Installed mods:
* Scripting engine - disabled.
Server list last updated 4/12/2344
> update server list
Polling primary system...
Primary system not found, switching to secondary system.
Polling secondary system...done.
Polling local host...done.
Server list updated.
> server list
"Primary Virtual Realm" - passcard protected
"Sandbox" - open server
> connect to Sandbox
Disconnecting from Primary Virtual Realm
Connecting to Sandbox on local host
Connection established.
> enable scripting engine
Scripting engine enabled.
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I grinned. This was going to be awesome. It had taken me a while to figure out the ins and the outs of the computer system, but I finally got everything working the way I wanted it to. The system was similar to what I worked with at home, but it was far more user-friendly.
"Probably not open-source, then," I mused to myself.
I walked back to the transfer platform. Jason was lying down on the stone ground, using his jacket as a make-shift pillow.
"Hey! Wake up, sleepy-head. We're ready."
"Finally," Jason grumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "You took forever in there."
"No way!" I protested. "I can't have been there longer than-"
Jason pointed to the outside window. It was night-time and the stars were out. It had been daytime when we entered.
"Oops," I said sheepishly.
"Yeah, yeah," Jason said. "Now if you're quite done mucking about, let's get going so I can show you how this works. Just try not to freak out," he said.
"I'll do my best," I said, as innocently as I could manage.
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Jason freaked out.
"What?! Where are we? What is this? What's going on?!"
"What do you mean?" I asked innocently.
"You!" he yelled, rounding on me. "You did this! You were messing with those boxes, and somehow you *broke the world!*"
It was a fair accusation. We stood on an ocean that somehow supported our weight. In the distance a waterfall flowed in reverse, gushing up and over a cliff. There was no horizon; the land in the distance curved upwards, merging with the sky and becoming a tapestry of brilliantly-colored 3d geometric shapes that were constantly twisting and changing into new shapes.
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"Calm down, calm down," I said. "Nothing's broken. I just changed where we ended up, that's all."
"You changed where we ended up?! No! I have been all over the virtual realm, and there is *nothing* that looks even *remotely* like this!"
A brightly-colored fish swam through the air beside us. A large bird jumped out of the water and caught the fish in its beak before gravity pulled them both back under the water with a soft "plop!"
I grinned. "The reason you've never seen anything like this in the virtual realm is because we aren't *in* the virtual realm any more. This is something called a sandbox. It's where programmers can test out their creations before implementing them in a production environment."
I looked around. "Judging from the looks of things, this place hasn't been cleaned up in a while."
Jason stared at me in incomprehension. I could see his brain freeze up as he tried, and failed, to process what I'd just said.
My grin slipped a little bit. "Jason? You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said faintly. "I'm just going to need a minute."
"Take your time," I said airily. "I'm not going anywhere."
He glared at me. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"A little," I said with a smirk. "And I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet."
"The good stuff?" he asked, eyes wide in terror.
"Oh, yeah. You might want to sit down for this."
Jason opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then closed it again. He did this three times before finally just admitting defeat and sitting cross-legged on the solid water beneath us.
"Right, now for the good part," I said. "Activate scripting environment."
A soft chime played as a computer window opened in front of me. I navigated to the section I wanted, then hovered my finger just above the button.
"Hey Jason, are you comfortable?"
Jason had the look of a man expecting a trap at any second, but uncertain where it was or what it would look like. "Y-yeah," he responded. "Why?"
"I don't think you are. That solid water can't be comfortable to sit on. Why don't you sit on this chair?"
Jason glanced around. "What chair?"
I tapped the button. A leather-upholstered armchair materialized out of nowhere.
"That chair," I said with a smirk.
Jason fainted.
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Jason woke up in bed. He looked around; he was in his own dorm room, but everything seemed odd. Like the proportions of the room weren't quite right. It wasn't exactly anything he could put his finger on, though. Alex was there, too.
"What happened?" Jason muttered to himself.
"You okay?" Alex asked. "You fainted on me, so I had to bring you back to your dorm room."
"I didn't faint," Jason protested. "I collapsed in a manly fashion, crushing my enemies underneath me."
Alex chuckled. "Fine, you manlily attacked the ground with your whole body. Now come on, we're gonna be late for class."
Alex stepped out of the room, followed by Jason. Jason froze at the threshold. In front of him, just outside the room, Alex stood on a rock-solid ocean while the sky writhed and undulated above them.
"ALEX!" Jason yelled.
Alex laughed uproariously.
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Author's note: NopiSoul guessed the closest to what was actually in the room, so he gets to name an upcoming character. Also, since I'm feeling generous, he may also describe the character if he wants. What school they're from, how they interact with others, any special abilities they have in either realm (IRL or VR), that sort of thing.