The realization that I might be in danger with only my fists to defend myself set off alarm bells in my head.
I took another step back, my gaze fixed on the underbrush in the direction of the growl’s origin, hoping to slip away unnoticed. I could hear a faint sound of water rushing by behind me, indicating that I was getting close to a river.
Fresh water was essential for survival, and if this was some sort of survival game, I should move toward it.
My heel rolled against something hard, and a loud crashing sound echoed through the silence. My brow scrunched in perplexity at the strange noise, wondering what would sound like shattering glass in the middle of a rainforest.
I took another step back and looked down at what I’d stepped on. My mouth dropped open as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
It was my phone.
CHAPTERFOUR
VIOLA - VIOLENTVIOLET
How was this possible?
My hand shook violently as I squatted to pick up my new cell phone—that I had just recently paid off—and couldn’t believe there was a spider web crack down the middle of its screen. I snatched the phone from the ground and quickly flipped it over to find my custom case protecting the back of it. Frowning with disbelief, I ran my thumb over the screen, tracing the cracks as I tried to piece together what was happening.
The phone case featured a group shot of my CosmoTaro team standing in front of our favorite hangout, a bubble tea café where we had met frequently before qualifying for the championship run. When my gaze passed over my teammates’ faces, I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered how excited we were about winning back then, knowing now that we were world champions.
How could the simulation know what my phone looked like?
I flipped the phone back over and pressed the power button, casting a glance in the direction of the growl. The screen lit up, transforming the cracks into a light up rainbow webbing. The top part of the screen, which was the thickest and had no cracks, was bright green and read ‘Update Complete.’
A deep sense of dread crept in as my veins filled with ice.
The large rainbow-colored fern shook, and I turned to face it just in time for it to reveal a monstrous creature from my nightmares, something I thought only existed in simulations and movies.
It was some hideous hybrid of a cat, a scorpion, and a spider, only as tall as me, and it radiated danger. Its head was shaped like a black and brown saber tooth tiger, with four large red feline eyes in the shape of a V on its head, and deadly fangs that dripped some purple substance I could only assume was venom. It had a scorpion-like black body with brown protective plates down its back. Each of its eight furry legs had three claw-like talons that were sharp enough to slice through the underbrush—like a heated knife through a stick of butter—as it approached. The scariest part was the long fur tail, which I would have mistaken for a fluffy cat’s if it hadn’t been for the scorpion-like stinger on its end.
The creature let out another monstrous roar—rivaling a tyrannosaurus rex in that classicJurassic Worldmovie series—as its glowing red eyes locked on to me.
A surprised screech escaped my lips as I scrambled to turn around and fled, not wanting to stay long enough to see what the creature had planned for me.
I ran as fast as I could, using my hands to block the foliage from smacking me in the face as I dodged between the trees, hoping to slow the creature’s pace as it chased me.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears, almost drowning out the sounds of the creature stalking close behind me. Almost. I could still hear it hissing as it tried to keep up with me, and the thudding of my feet, as I tried to avoid becoming some monster’s afternoon snack.
Almost every twig, fern, and vine left scrapes along my arms, shredding my black sweatshirt and digging into my skin as I forced my way through for dear life.
The sounds of rushing water became more audible between the creature’s roars and the noises of its rampage as it pursued me.
I needed a plan, and I needed one fast.
As time passed, my options became more limited. The only two options I had were to run along the riverbank in search of something I could use to defend myself. Or for me to try to cross the river, hoping that no underwater creature, such as an alligator or a piranha, wanted to make me its next meal.
It was critical for me to survive and figure out what was going on in order to get out of here. This had to be a simulation. That was the only explanation... But why did it feel so real?
Whatever was going on with me, I needed to make sure I wasn’t about to fly out of the frying pan and into the fire.
My feet led me to the magnificent sound of water. Each step was as agonizing as the previous one. For once, I was thankful that I wasn’t barefoot, which would have made the journey over the uneven ground that much more difficult.
My hands were becoming sore and my coordination was deteriorating as I moved between the ferns and trees on the jungle floor. As I passed through, my arms felt raw, and it became more difficult to shield my face from the brutal lashing. The branches continued to smack against my arms, and a few landed on my face, leaving painful scrapes.
Pain was present in simulations, but it was nothing like this. The creators had included fail-safes to protect the users, shielding them from what they would have encountered in real life. Everything we felt within one was muted, allowing deaths in AltU games to be more impactful. Any injury in a simulation was designed to leave a phantom sensation when we re-entered the real world.
Every step I took made me question whether or not this was all real. If I should have been more concerned about my life than I was now.
