A Tempest of Stars

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 12 (Mission)

2022-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

[MISSION - LOG START]

I open my eyes after launching the app and find myself back in Anim’s body. Taking quick stock of the area I now find myself in, it appears to be a high school lab. Long horizontal tables are arranged neatly in the rows adjacent to me, and and on my left on the edges of the room are the various cabinets, sinks, and counters that would typically line a school lab. Instead of the expected instruments and glassware lining the counters, various books, papers, notepads, laptops, and whiteboards. Glancing towards the front, I see a chalk board with various notes and discussions regarding the state of Anim’s world. Just before the chalkboard, I see 4 of the long tables pushed together to make a big table with a large map covered with various items. This was most likely a 3-D representation of Anim’s world where I noted 3/4 of the map was covered in nothing and all the notable items were scrunching together towards the edge of the map.

“This… is what remains.”

The grave words echoed in my head as I thought back to our recent meeting with Estellia, when that same familiar voice made itself heard once more.

Err-hmph!

A loud cough jolts me back into the present as I quickly dedicate my attention to the owner of the voice as Estellia stands beside the chalkboard at the front of the classroom.

“I’m sorry if I’m starting to bore you, Anim, but all this information will be the difference between the success and failure of the next mission. is there something you want to know that will keep you engaged in this conversation? “

Completely taken aback and a bit flustered at being publicly lambasted by the teacher, old juvenile feels of embarrassment begin to well up as a soft but firm voice speaks up from within me.

“No… I’m sorry. I just got a bit distracted as all. Please continue, I’ll be more mindful of my manners.”

Estellia nodded in confirmation and continued on with her presentation. I wiped the mental sweat from my brow, and internally chuckled to myself at the embarrassment I was probably going to cause had my trusty partner not been there to step in.

(Thanks Anim, you really saved my bacon there.)

“No worries. I had a feeling you were coming back sometime soon, though admittedly you did take quite a while to process everything in. Though I’m shocked you missed what I think to be the most important development. “

(Missed? What could I have possible missed?)

Just I was about to mentally review what I had seen, Estellia began pointing in the spot next to me.

“So that is our assessment of the situation at Steel’s Crossing. Do you and Brigitte this is something feasible to execute?”

(Brigitte? Who is that?)

Anim turned her head silently so I had too could see this Brigitte. On my right at a different table sat a girl who looked slightly older than Anim. She had intense scarlet-colored hair curled outward as they reached the top of her shoulders, and wore a long black jacket with grey jeans and a flaxen color shirt.

(Floofy…)

I whispered to myself and Anim, thinking that Brigitte’s hair reminded me of the texture of sheep’s wool. Noticing the stare, Brigitte turned to face us, and my jaw mentally dropped a bit as well. It was hard to see as her floofy hair covered her face, but facing towards us, a number of lacerations and bruises could visibly be seen, but the aura radiating from her did not invoke a sense of pity for her condition. Instead, I felt a pulsating anger and determination, and quickly had her scorn turned toward us.

“She asked you a question, Anim. Are you going to answer her or are you going to continue to gawk over me?”

Attempting to regain my professionalism once more, I quickly had Anim do a fake-cough into her balled fist and reply, “Yeah, sorry, just have a lot of my mind today.” Brigitte clicked her tongue and turned to face the front of the classroom once more, and Esteliia took the silence as consent of the mission. Realizing what I was about to get us into once more, I piped up through Anim’s voice.

“Sorry, could you give like the 30 second summary of what we’re about to do? Just want to make sure we’re all in alignment with the mission and what not.”

Estellia visibly sighs and I could feel Brigitte rolling her eyes besides me, but Estellia concedes with the request.

“Alright everyone, here is what what we know and here is what we must do. Steel’s Crossing was once a popular shopping plaza that sprawled several acres of land. Various food and equipment stores littered the property in the past, and was up until recently of the last homes of the Remains up until it was invaded by surprise. Our forward scouts have been encircling the safer parts of the perimeter, and have confirmed that various Turena have been patrolling the area. We can’t see deep into the stronghold, but the Turena farther into it seem to be stronger. We hypothesize that the core of their stronghold lies somewhere where the stronger Turena wander, and we are tasking you and Brigitte to sneak into Steel’s Crossing and destroy the Turena’s energy source. We believe that Brigitte’s current powers and your potential, Anim, have what it takes to turn the tide on his battle for humanity, and if we can retake Steel’s Crossing, we will have a stronger foothold in this region and learn more about how to deal with this type of Turena. To that extent, we will now have you train with Brigitte in an attempt to awaken more of your powers, and will execute this operation in 72 hours. “

With Estellia finishing her piece, Brigitte loudly slides her chair backwards to get up from the table, and quickly sends an icy glance over at us as she makes her way to the exit of the classroom. Slowly, Anim gets up from her chair as we make our way to follow behind Brigitte as I wonder what kind of powers she has already awaken and hoping that this was simply a bad first impression upon returning to Tant.

[MISSION - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 11 (Commitment)

2022-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

[COMMITMENT - LOG START]

The weight of the headset once agains presses against my face as I grip the area around me and once again feel bedsheets. Slowly sitting up, I gingerly take the headset off my face and once again find myself alone in a dark bedroom. Turning to the window, I open the blinds and find it to be nighttime in the townhouse community I reside in. Closing the blinds, I walk across the room to flip on the light switch, and in a moment, everyone once again becomes visible in the small bedroom. Nothing of note strikes out of the ordinary in the bedroom besides the virtual reality headset on the bed and the phone next to it. Glancing quickly at the phone, I quickly grasp my body to confirm that I am indeed in reality, and a couple of pinches later, ease my tension and begin to relax once more.

What the hell is this app? Why does this experience need to be so needlessly immersive? How real can the pain become? The first time the damage was near fatal, the app simple logged me out… what if my avatar actually dies? If I die in this game, will I die in real life.

“Heh.”

I chuckle quietly to myself, making a reference to a story I read long ago, and compose myself once more. This VR app does bring about a question I never bother asking though… if it were to all end today, was this life I lived of any meaning? What would I leave behind when I’m gone? A quick chill runs down my spine as my brain trys to pry into old memories I had long ago locked away, my body remembering the reason I was so adamant about trying to forget them. What was it that I was striving for all this time? Truth be told, I had be wasting my time waiting to for something to happen, some reason to move towards tomorrow, was this app going to give me the answer? But this risks and uncertainty… were something I was not comfortable with jumping towards. Not now anyway. Turning towards the clock, I notice it’s late past midnight, and that yet another sluggish day of work was nearing. Putting away the VR headset in its docket and taking a long look at my cell phone as if waiting for another surprise notification to pop, I decided to table this decision for another day. It feels like I would have time before I would be forced to make an answer.

Another couple of days pass with nothing of note occurring. Though difficult, I am trying my best to wake up early and go for a quick jog before starting my morning routine. It’s a huge pain to wake up earlier and an even bigger pain to go to sleep earlier… but on the nights that I return from the Grand Challenge VR App, my exhaustion gets the better of me and I go to sleep with so much more mental release then I have experienced in quite a while. It got me to thinking in between my working stints, what kind of life could I live if I did something like this everyday… and then it goes back to me waking up in that empty room, and that motivation quickly dissipates away. Shaking my head when I realized the automatic resignation, I try to focus on what I can do for the next stage.

I have also spent the last couple of days casually browsing the Internet for any signs of anyone else experiencing this bizarrely realistic virtual reality application, but searching for “The Grand Challenge Virtual Reality” yields numerous articles citing the difficultly in virtual reality becoming immersive enough to become our daily driver for interfacing with our digital worlds, both user experience wise and cost-wise.

Ironic, all things considering.

Sometimes I think about posting my experience online, but I’m not sure where I could post something like this without seeming like I’m just hyping up an imaginary game or the ravings of a lunatic. I had long ago deleted social media so I’m not even sure what would be the best avenue or platform to write something like this on. Maybe I could go on that fan-fiction site I read goofy fantasy lores on years ago - it could be like a scavenger hunt for someone else who has also experience the Grand Challenge. Hiding in plain sight, per say.

Again, I shake my head at the ridiculousness and apprehension I have in simply posting a question online.

I lean back in my computer chair and stare at the window outside. Usually these blinds would be shut at all times of the day, but for some reason I’ve been letting the window stay open after I open the blinds to check the weather state in the morning for my jogs. Lately it’s been pretty dry, but today was the first time in a while that has rained. Looking out the window now, the originally drooping gray sky gave way into a crimson black blanket with the rain falling heavier and heavier. A flash dances across the sky, shortly followed by a loud crack, and at the same time I receive a new notification on my phone.

(( Your next challenge awaits. ))

Staring at the phone screen once more, all the thoughts that have been tossing and turning in my mind over the past week come to the forefront of my mind all at once, and once again I become gripped with indecision. Maybe, if I just swipe away the notification and pretend this whole thing never happened, I can go back to my ordinary life.

Looking around my room once more…

Maybe if I take a chance on this ultimate unknown, my life can become something more than ordinary.

No longer deliberating on this any longer, I grab my headset from its docking station, lay on my bed, gently placing on my head, clicking the Grand Challenge application, and wondering what lay next in this mysterious world that Anim calls home.

[COMMITMENT - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 10 (Sencho)

2022-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

[SENCHO - LOG START]

Looking at my phone in disbelief, I rub my eyes quickly, assuming that I’m hallucinating, and as it turns out, this message was real. Turning around to view my VR headset once more resting in its charging port, I think to myself what is it really I want from once again jumping into that world. Nothing here for me gave me great plans to remain in reality, but nothing about the gross seriousness of what Anim’s world composed of called out to me, either. And yet, the call to challenge, the realism of the stakes, the meaning in the actions I made in her world, and especially, proof that my hastiness did not result in my avatar’s untimely demise. Before I realized it, I was already on my bed with the headset in hand, and then slipped in, returning back to that world from which the nightmares chased me.

The application finishes loaded, and my eyes awaken to find Anim’s body resting in a bed. A moment later, the soreness of her body washes over my senses and I start moving around and realizing she is covered in a series of medical bandages. Carefully piloting her body, I start to take in my surroundings when I hear Anim speak. “Vit?” (Yeah… It’s me Anim. Glad to know you’re alright.) Anim pauses for a moment before posturing up and speaking once more. “Yeah Vit, I just wanted to say… thanks for everything. Your quick thinking saved us, and it’s become of those actions that I’m still here today.” My guilt not allowing me to be forgiven immediately, I reply, (You’re not mad? Because of me, you got really hurt and I wasn’t sure you were going to pull through. I was thinking of how stupid I was to allow you to get hurt because I didn’t believe this was real enough for me to take seriously, and - ) Anim shakes her head. “There’s still a lot we both don’t understand, but if I were to be partnered with anyone, I’m glad it was with you.” There was no mirror in the room, but I could feel’s Anim’s face shape itself into a smile. I know Anim can hear whatever thoughts I choose to pass to her, but I hope in this instance that she could feel me returning her smile. “Finally awake, aren’t we?” The door into the room slow creaks open as a face peers around the corner to check on its inhabitants, a face we didn’t expect to see so soon, if ever again.

“Goddess???”, both Anim and I exclaimed.

The Goddess we previously met in her hasty introduction to this world now stands before us, but not a single air of grace surrounds her like our initial meeting. Instead of her regal attires and radiating aura, a normal personal wearing plainset clothing stands here by our bedside instead. “I know you’re probably have a lot of questions you want to have answered, namely what happened to you, how you got here, and how I appear a bit… different from our initial encounter, and I will be glad to tell you everything in short order. But before we get into that, are you alright enough to move around and come with me? I’m sorry we were not able to give you a chance to rest a bit longer, but we have some pressing matters we’d like to get you up to speed with if possible.” I flex Anim’s body a bit once more, and despite the immense soreness, no excruciating pain stabbed into any part of her body. Anim nods in response to this stress test, and as I pilot her body to step off the bed, her body crumples into a heap as soon as we try to put weight onto her other foot. The Goddess quickly bends down to help us sit upright, then walks out of the room to grab a wheelchair for us. It took a bit of doing, but Goddess helps us up onto the wheelchair, and leans over to ask once more, “do you think you’ll be ok for the next part?” Anim nods again as fierce as her sore and tired body allows. “Let’s go, there’s a lot of things I need to know.”

“My name is Estellia, and I a member of Bastion, humanity’s last hope against the erasure of mankind”, the Goddess starts as she pushes our wheelchair out of the room we were resting in to the hallway outside. A quick glance suggests that we are in some sort of abandoned buildings, and based on the long hallways with doors appearing at regular intervals, I guessed we were in some sort of hospital or school building. Taking a look outside the building, it looked as though as we were high up in the air, maybe on a mountainside of some sort. Anim and I wanted to ask more questions, but something about the awe of the view made us pause in our quandries and take a look at the wide world just before us. From just the brief look as we crossed through the building, we saw remnants of what were probably large and bustling cities in the past with scattered lights and the remnants of living humans throughout, and farther away in the distance were similar but smaller establishments, and a lot more space out compared to the settlements closer to us. And just at the end of the horizon, colors unnatural and eerily settled into view. It was like something mythical rested at the boundary just beyond humanity, we unconsciously took a long pause to take it all in.

At the edge of our visible world lay 6 distinct colors encompassing the world between the land and the sky. A fierce red ravaged its heat waves, a strong green toppled its strong winds, a mute brown cascaded its ravaged earth, a vicious blue swirled its choppy water, a piercing yellow blinded their rays of light, and an impenetrable purple blocked what was beyond its shadows. In a normal game experience I would have been enthralled to witness the classic elemental archetype and the worlds they represent. but something about this scenery struck me as ominous. Anim too shared this sentiment as quietly took a deep breath, continued looking over the scenery.

“This… is what’s left,” Estellia said to break the reverie we will engaging in. “What you seen before you is the edge of the world, and what is slowly left to be consumed.” My curiosity spoke before my courtesy, and I piped up through Anim, “what about what’s behind us?” I turned Anim’s head as Estellia looked down at us from her position pushing the wheelchair, and she simply replied with “this is what’s behind us.” Estellia then turned to head towards the wall opposite of the scenery, and began.

“You’ve probably already guessed, but this is an abandoned academic structure built on the mountainside. A long time ago, the land below us was so populous and constructing that new places of meeting had to be built in places not so friendly to meet at… ironically enough, it became the safest place after the Exodus.”

I raised my eyebrow unconsciously, and Estellia took note as she changed the direction of her speech.

“You may or may not know, but as I aluded to, the world we inhabit now wasn’t always this desolate. Long ago this world prospered, but in a very unequal and unsustainable way. Ancient texts we have been able to uncover across various ruins described a world where humans originally simply lived to survived, but as humans were the only species capable of thoughtful evolution, they used this advancement to better themselves at the cost of the worsening the condition of others. This led to a rift in the community of humans, and soon they were separated into an prosperous ruling class, the Excavators, and a poor working class, the Remains. Despite how ridiculous this all sounds on paper, this was the reality for the last several centuries of society, and eventually the imbalance could no longer be sustained. Not only were the Excavators draining the Remains of their time and resources, they were also draining the world we live on, until it was on the verge of collapsing. Given a choice to work together and create a solution with the Remains, the Excavators instead decided to continue their trajectory of destruction and at the same time, build an escape to somewhere else. And just as the world was about collapse…something unexpected happened.”

“What I say next isn’t anything official per-say, but the collection of rumors that have became what is known as today’s common truth. As the last bits of the planets were about to be extracted, the planet itself awakened… and proceeded to fight back. There have been conflicting reports about what exactly occurred, but something otherworldly had spawned at the zones of crisis, and began to push back against the Extractors attempting to drain the world. No one who has ever met these ‘otherworldly entities’ has come back to tell us the true story, so a lot of this is just conjecture from the refugees who had to flee those zones, and the entities have been commonly named the ‘Turena’. The Turena not only repelled the Extractors, but began to expand across the world, almost as if the earth itself finally had enough of its abuse and wanted to wipe out the parasites living off it. With no more resources to extract and no more safe places to wait out the growing calamity, the Excavators made their final preparation… and launched off our planet into the great unknown.” Estellia took a moment to pause and look up towards the sky. “It is unknown what happened to them, and quick frankly it matters not as we have more pressing matters now. We are what Remains, and we are running out of time.” Estellia finishes and look again over towards the horizon we initially laid our eyes on. “Sorry, I kind of sidetracked your original question, but the context was important before I give you the actual answer. You asked what was behind us, and I mentioned earlier were on a mountain side. This mountainside, for all intents and purposes, is the edge of our world. Reports has dictated that the Turena has surrounded all outer parts of this region, and we simply don’t have the means to cross up beyond this mountain range. We have sent parties to try and scout it for some semblance of escape… but none of those advance parties have ever come back either.” Estellia stops speaking as a quick frown forms and leaves her face, and recomposes herself before speaking again. “Given all I have explained, you’re probably wondering how you got here, and why you were even rescued in the first. I’ll cut to the chase: you are a Sencho.”

I again unconsciously raised my eyebrow at yet another term I was unfamiliar with, but something began stirring inside of Anim at the mention of the term, a mix of awe and fear radiating our of her.

“Sencho? But those I thought those were just kids stories! Sencho’s are special! They are chosen by fate themselves to defend the Remains! Someone like me alone could never-“

Anim suddenly stops as her own words began to make their way into her head.

“Me… alone…?”

Anim pauses once again as if inviting me to speak, as proof that she did have someone else beside her.

(No… you are not alone… because I am here too.)

Despite everything that had happened, Anim unconsciously trusts me, what could be chalked up as an invasion or evil spirit inhabiting her body, and believes that through me, we can together become a Sencho, a defender of the Remains, with some sort of unique ability no other normal humans can muster. Before I could say anything additionally, Estellia injects with a question.

“Given all I have told you… are you willing to fulfill your destiny? As much as this world needs you in this darkest hour, I am not not like my predecessors who forced Senchos to fight when they had no incentive to. They became more harm than good and some even turned on the Remains they were suppose to protect… but even if your reason to stand by us is small, please, we need someone like you now more than ever.”

There was still a lot of questions about this world I didn’t understand, but before I could process my thoughts, Anim stepped up with an answer.

“When I signed up for this program, I had only one goal in mind… risking my life for world already damned seems like an needlessly quick and wasteful way to go…. but if unlocking my ability to become a Sencho is what will help me achieve that goal, I am willing to cooperate… sorry if I can’t give you a more direct answer,” Anim finishes as she frowns.

“Even the tiny allotment of support from someone like you could be all the difference in finding a way to survive against the Turena. We at Bastion will do everything we can to augment you power and help you achieve you goal as long as your lend your aid.”

For the first time in our entire conversation, Estellia smiles, though hints of weariness and exhaustion permeate from her face, and Anim returns that smile.

((YOUR AVATAR IS IN CRITICAL DANGER.)) (( PLEASE RESTABILIZE YOUR AVATAR BEFORE YOU LOSE CONNECTION. ))

A searing headache suddenly shot into Anim’s head, and before I could do anything to react, that same familiar grim message returned to plague my vision in VR.

(( YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR AVATAR ))

[SENCHO - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Interlude 1

2022-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

[INTERLUDE 1 - LOG START]

Hi there! My name is Ousikai and I’m the writer for the ongoing series, the Grand Challenge!

Since I’ve never introduced myself, I figured now would be a great time to start!

I am:

an American writer born in the early 1990s 🇺🇸
with an El Salvadoran heritage from my immigrated parents 🇸🇻
who is fascinated with Eastern Storytelling, most notably Japanese Anime 🇯🇵

Being at the intersection of three very distinct cultures, I’ve struggled most of my life identifying where I should belong, and thus have been continually walking at the fringe of all these ideals.

What especially intrigues me is the now prevalent digital identities that stem from our physical selves. Through the power of near-instant internet connection and pseudonymous avatars, we can now become heroes, villains, and everything in between in digital worlds that have no basis in reality, but could never feel more real to us.

Why is that?

From my personal ancedotes with the older generation, the stories they tell seem so foreign and alien to the reality many of us live in today. They came from a simpler time where you would marry the nice boy or girl next door, take on a humbling blue-collar job and still be able to afford a decent car, beautiful house, and raise several children with income to spare.

That once achievable dream seems like the stuff of legends only the lucky few can obtain as the world continues to crumble around us.

What is happening?

I’m not an economist, but stories from the streets now echo the despair my current generation is feeling. The jobs work you harder, pay you less, and it is becoming more and more difficult to just get by each day.

Thus, we turn to the digital world.

And for just a brief moment, we can envision ourselves in a life not our own.

We can pretend for just one moment that we are someone noteworthy, that the work we do is meaningful, and the future before us is something positive to look forward to.

Yet, time comes for us all.

The clock strikes twelve, the screens and monitors shut off, and all that’s left is the blurred reflection of our visage, trapped in the physical entity we inhabit. The world we we live in is more interconnected than ever, yet we could not feel more alone.

It’s awful.

My age group suffers from a lack of direction for their personal lives, a lack of certainty for the future, and a lack of unity for a place to belong.

Thus, I have dubbed the 20s and 30s aged audience, the Lost Generation.

This setting I have placed before you is where we are now, and were the Grand Challenge begins.

The Grand Challenge begins in the near future as various characters from all walks of life in the Lost Generation receive a mysterious invitation to a VR Game they have never heard of. In the near future, affordable VR Headsets overtake phones and computers as the all-in-one tool for work, social media, and recreation. Once the characters of the Grand Challenge enter the VR Experience, they find themselves in a world too realistic to be a normal VR game, and are challenged to overcome their own personal obstacles as they face who they currently are and the individuals they want to become.

Here are a look at some of the characters that you will meet…

A software engineer desparing at the isolation and insignificance of their work
A retail employee struggling to make ends meet as they painstakingly juggle their time and their degree at community college
A teacher who becomes increasingly pessimistic at the cohorts of children they receive and begins questioning their own ability as a mentor
A construction worker who is a jack-of-all-trades but cannot find a career they can commit themselves too
A young teenager neglected by their single mom and turns to the digital world for comfort and affirmation
A recent college graduate struggling to find a job in their field, and continues to work as a barista in their small-town coffee shop
An artist who dreams of their works becoming a full-time pursuit, but takes a mind-numbing government job to ensure they can get by in life
An elderly widower who just lost their children to a pandemic, and begins doubting their reason to live on.

These archetypes are all fascinating for me to write and iterate upon because average working-class adults and their supporting cast are unpopular characters to include in a story: it hits too close to home and many in my generation find themselves in eerily similar situations.

My hope in writing the Grand Challenge is discovering that the agency in controlling the direction and purpose of your own life has always been before you, and especially when you have a solid group of peers that support and challenge you to ever strive towards the better version of yourself.

Admittedly, I’ve been putting off this story as I have been trying to get obtain my own agency and direction in life, and am happy to share that change is not something that happens overnight. Change is a gradual climb over what seemed like an unseeable mountain top, but once you take the time to breathe, be okay with exploring uncertanity, and really asking yourself the hard question of who you want to become, an amazing relevation occurs. The misty road ahead begins to clear, and all you have to do is take the first step that’s always been awaiting.

The remainder of this month I will flesh a lot of the story direction, character templates, and world building elements I think will be intriguing to write the for Grand Challenge, and next month I will enter the Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022 Challenge and finish with 50,000 words for the story. I’m crossing my fingers that it will be enough to finish the first major arc of the Grand Challenge, and then I will start sharing the epic with wider groups as the story continues to evolve.

Wow, that was a lot of writing! I hope you’ve been engaged with what’s to come, and as always thank you for taking the time to read through these posts!

Now, are you ready to dive back into the story?

[INTERLUDE 1 - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 9 (Remember)

2022-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

[REMEMBER - LOG START]

My entire body attempts to rile upwards as my feet violently thrash and I jerk upright into the sitting position. I immediately take the headset off and toss it aside without giving it a second thought. I take a steady glance at my surroundings, and yes, it is once again the bedroom of my apartment, left just as disheveled and disorganized as I had left it. Suddenly remembering the waves of pain that continually washed over my body not even moments ago, I gingerly touch my skin and find - nothing out of the ordinary. No jolting pain or twisting torture from simply moving around. Finally taking in that I was back in my own reality, I turn slowly to look for the VR headset I tossed aside so frantically, and find it precariously perched at the edge of my bed. ‘Thank goodness it didn’t fall onto the floor’, I thought to myself as I was casually reaching over to the headset and suddenly remembering -

[ All that happened to me in the blink of an eye.]

which quickly stopped my hands from moving any closer to the headset. I’m… not sure what will happen if I pick it up so suddenly. Will I be whisked away into that realistic experience once? How easy it is to get back in there? Touching it with one finger, the headset remains still, not a care in the world. I slowly turn the eye visors away from me in case looking into it sucks me back into that world, and slow place the headset back onto its charging dock. After gingerly setting it down to its usual resting place, another thought passes through my head - what happened to Anim? No, it wasn’t real, it was just an unusually immersive experience. These false words of uncertain confidence is what I decided would settle my thoughts with as I turned over in bed and attempted to go to sleep in, unenthusiastically anticipating the next work day that was upon me.

That night, I stayed awake for what seemed like the entire night. I hadn’t been sleeping too well prior, but tonight’s reason was a little different from normal. I spent time awake in bed looking at the ceiling, thinking about all the things I could have done differently in that scenario. The plan I came up with was stupid and spur of the moment, there had to be something else that could have been done to trigger the win condition. If I had assessed the situation with even a modem of seriousness, I probably would not have taken the initial hit from the monster to quickly assess what the physics were like in that experience. True, I would have been shocked at how much pain I could cause myself as quick proof (punching a nearby washing machine would have presumably been my plan), and maybe I could have formulated more options to escape the junkyard monster. At Anim’s full physical capacity, she probably still would not have not been able to outrun the monster, but at she could have hidden from sight, or maybe find another area with a drop trap, or maybe there was some sort of magic core powering this thing and we could have smashed it and -

It doesn’t matter ultimately in the end, because I failed Anim and her avatar suffered a sudden and painful death unworthy of anyone, real or not.

But the lingering guilt of everything I screw up was something I carried with me everywhere, and this wasn’t the first instance of it happening. Most of the time, I usually lock away any unpleasantries somewhere underneath - there isn’t any need to dwell on them in my life if they can’t be resolved. And a majority of the time, things go by rather uneventfully, but this instance was different. I usually do a slightly above average job at work to make sure I don’t end up at the bottom barrel of the employee performance axe, but today and the following days have showed me putting in more a more lackluster performance than usual. I hope my boss doesn’t call me out on it.

I also haven’t been able to eat ever since that day. I originally moved out on my own to develop a sense of freedom and adulthood, but that vision of myself quickly dissolved as I became lackluster with the quality and taste of the food I created. It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t going to get better. My diet pretty much resolved to frozen food at the grocery store and sometimes app-based deliveries from local chain restaurants if I really wanted to treat myself. It was still garbage comfort food, but at least it felt a bit fresher.

But looking at all the packaging, the to-go containers, the once-and-done plastic bags riled up a sickness inside of me. It reminded me of the world Anim inhabited, too close to my own reality, and the smells and senses of that encounter welled over my body once more.

Still, eventually even I had to succumb to the bare minimum requirements of my body, and I mindless decided to change things up and walk to the grocery store instead of the quick car ride per normal. For the first time, I noticed how much the smell of gas exhaust bothered me. Once I got to the store, I wandered over to the fresh produce and grains sections. I racked my brain for something easy I could cook to satiate my appetite, and settled on raw broccoli, a carton of eggs, and a small bag of rice. This could make a simple meal, and would probably settle with my stomach a lot better, and with a lot less waste.

sizzle sizzle sizzle

sssssshhhhhh

TING!

The broccoli and rice I set in the steamer finished cooking and I finish frying a simple egg with a small fryer I happened to have on hand at the apartment, and apathetically put the ensemble together on one of the three cheap porcelain plates I bought a long time ago to christen my apartmenthood lifestyle. Carrying it over to my computer desk ( I didn’t bother buying a kitchen table after moving in), I sit down and settle in to mindlessly take the first bite. It didn’t taste like much, nothing really has in a while, but something about this texture, and this smell, and the wave the fresh heat radiates off the plate. It reminds of an experience I had tucked away long ago - somewhere where fresh food like this was made everyday, and several magnitudes more delicious. Without realizing it, I feel a small tear tolling itself off my face. I wipe it away without much thought and begin to take the second bite when -

BRZTTTTTT

I get a notification on my phone. Pulling up the screen and unlocking the screen instinctually, I read the notification text and drop the fork in my other hand.

(( YOUR AVATAR HAS STABILIZED.)) (( PLEASE LOG IN TO CONTINUE THE GRAND CHALLENGE. ))

[REMEMBER - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 8 (Ejected)

2022-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

[EJECTED - LOG START]

Writhing in immense pain , I knew we only had one option and were quickly squandering it with the limited amount of energy we still had left. Hobbling as quickly as Anim’s body would allowed, we made our way closer to the scent of the ocean while avoiding the rattling earth behind us. Moments later, the spot we had crash landed in erupted in a BOOM, and the pile of garbage with our imprint flew into the air with a violent eruption, and pieces of the pile started to crash land everywhere around us.

ZOOMPH

WHAMF

PSHTNGG

As Anim’s body frantically hobbled away from the eruption site, we were just meters away from a giant refrigerator landing ontop of us. In utter shock of how close we were to being flattened, I suddenly stopped and while Anim’s body jerked to a painful halt.

“What are you doing? We can’t afford to be wasting time with what ifs - and I’m running on fumes now as it is.”

Anim’s words snapped me out of my stupor, but doubt had slowly started to crawl into my mind and made me hesitate in responding to Anim’s plea.

“Please. I don’t want to die here anymore.”

The sudden steel in her voice took me aback from the original vulnerable avatar that had been contemplating giving up just moments ago. The doubt creeping into my mind halted its advance, and our intentions resynced and we continued to shuffle our way to the scent of the ocean. Trying to ignore the pain stabbing into various part of my virtual body, I began to ask:

(Anim, how do you think that monster is able to find us? I’m not really sure about the rules of this world yet, but it doesn’t seem like it has an exact read on where to find us, just a general idea…)

Anim’s body began breathing a bit more rapidly as we were reaching the limit of her endurance, as she shook her head in disconfirmation.

“Not… sure… but we… are different… from everything else in this area… maybe… “

Uttering short sentences between between her gasps for air, I finished what I believed to be her sentiment.

(Do you think… it’s tracking us because we were disrupting whatever environment was here before us? )

Anim nodded as her fast limp began to slow down to a walking pace. At the same time, we felt the ground rumbling from behind us, and knew that we were running out of time.

But it didn’t matter, because we got to where I had hoped we would end up. The seemingly never ending horizons of the landfill finally seemed to break into a murky gray but uniform stretch of land. Land wasn’t quite the right word, because we were at the-

“Ocean…”, Anim quietly muttered to herself.

As we collected our view from the top of the edge of the landfill, I synced my movements to Anim and we slid from the top of our hill to the edge of the cliff. Her avatar then peered over the edge, and a slight smile emerged in my mind.

(Alright, I have a plan, but it’s all our nothing, and the piece I needed just arrived now.)

Anim stood still as she awaited my unraveling of the plan.

(Alright, so here goes. We stand at the edge of the cliff and wait for the monster to arrive. It seems to attack on sight, so my plan is… we dodge out of the way at the last second with all the energy we have left, and the monster will overshoot its attack and fall into the ocean.)

Stillness filled the air for what seemed like an eternity, until Anim finally processed what I said in full and replied curtly.

“…What?”

A few more moments drew by as the rumbling behind us grew louder and more fierce.

"”What??? Are you kidding me??? This is your entire plan???? What if we weren’t on a cliff??? What then, huh???”

To be fair, I hadn’t really had a plan from the get-go. There was too little information from the start, so I was just planning to wing whatever happen to present itself.

(Listen… we didn’t have a lot of options to begin with, and I doubt we could’ve taken this monster head-on even if we weren’t injured. But sometimes immense strength can be the downfall of strong foes. I’m not sure if this is going to work, but you’re just going to have to trust me in this. Trust us that the monster isn’t smart enough to see through silly plan, and that we are going to make it past this battle. I have the upmost faith that you can make it through, but do you trust me?)

Anim paused again, and in between her pants of pain and exhausted, shook her head in disbelief and resignation.

“Yeah, it looks like we never had had that many options anyway. Well, if this is the end, so be it… “

Anim then begins to look at the sky at something distant, and saids quietly under her breath,

“Sorry, Dad, it looks like I won’t be seeing you again like I promised. “

Just as Anim finished her sentiment, both our attentions quickly snapped to the top of the hill we came from as the final moment approached. The junk monster had finally reached our location, and slowly turned its amorphous body toward us to confirm what it had been searching for.

ROAAAAAAR

The monster began shrieking to announce its entrance and our soon-to-be exit, and began to wind up both its giant arms into fists above its head. Without another second of delay, it began dropping its balled-up fists towards us for double ground slam, and I uttered one word to Anim.

(Now.)

With my willpower and Anim’s determination, we kicked off the good foot we were favoring from the painful trek over here, and leapt with all our strength to the side. As the giant fists rapidly approached us, I began to wonder if this was really the right choice, if we had jumped too late, if we even had enough strength to get out of the way, when suddenly-

CRASH

The two giant fits slammed into the ground right next to us, and the monster was still standing at the top of the cliff.

(Damn it, I guess we weren’t as lucky as we needed to be.)

Suddenly, something I did not expect happened.

The ground next to us began to crack as the impact of the two giant fists began to dislodge the edge of the cliff.

The monster began to try and bring its fists back to its body, but the suddenly dropping of the ends of its arms over the cliff took the upper part of its body with it, and it began to tumble over the cliff. The whole ordeal happened to quickly as Anim and I quietly watched the ocean devoured the monster below its surface.

The once rumbling air now sat completely still, until Anim finally decided to pipe up.

“We did it… we did it, Vit. We won!”

A feeling of immense relief flowed over my body, and a small feeling of triumph began to well inside of me as well. I did it, I finally did something right in my life, I was finally able to help someone else…

The afterglow of the victory only lasted for a moment, as some unearthly noise began to spawn above us. Looking above, what was once the lower half of the junk monster began to reform, and the small monster appeared once again, albeit a quarter of its size.

“You have to be kidding me….”, Anim said aloud as we both look upwards in disbelief.

The monster then began to create the form of its arm once again into a giant balled fist, but only one as it wasn’t big enough to conjure both. And instead of sending the fist towards us, it slammed the edge of the hill it was standing on, and the pile of junk that it formed it was coming loose.

It was a trash avalanche.

(Anim, we have to move, now!)

Anim tried to move her body, but jumping out of the way of the first attack drained all the energy her avatar had left, and we barely moved from the spot from landed in.

“I’m sorry… I guess this is far as we both go, huh?”

These were the last words Anim was able to utter as the wave of trash finally slammed over us and send us sailing over the cliff into murky grey water below.

((YOUR AVATAR IS IN CRITICAL DANGER.))

(( PLEASE RESTABILIZE YOUR AVATAR BEFORE YOU LOSE CONNECTION. ))

This can’t be it, this can’t be the end. We were so close to succeeding when all the odds were stacked against it. I wasn’t just shocked, I was upset, I was angry. For what felt like the first time in my life, I felt like I had been cheated by the system. Something like this should never be allowed to happen, and my will began to rebel against the fate that awaited Anim. As my frustration and defiance of the inevitable began to surge, the door began to open just a tad. And for just a brief second, a wave of green washed over my vision, and what felt like our falling slowed down just a tad. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep us from the end in sight, and Anim’s body crashed into the ocean’s surface as cold water began to wash over us, and my vision suddenly blackened.

(( YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR AVATAR ))

[EJECTED - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 7 (Reason)

2022-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

[REASON - LOG START]

What feels like a long time ago, there was someone I relied on. Before I stagnated into the repeating reavings that consumed everything and outputted nothing, there was someone that have light to me day, in a way that I could never expect. Her name was Grace, and for a while I had a reason to believe that tomorrow would not be so bleak.

Our initial encounter was nothing special. We had mutual friends and happened to meet upon a pretty ordinary luncheon at work. We had similar enough interests, and got to hanging out with the friend group at large from work. Slowly, I began to speak things less shallow and closer to the heart, and Grace would do likewise. I was on good terms with everyone back then, but it was all at a superficial level. We all did mundane work nobody was psyched about, but every two weeks we would have a small jolting reminder as to why we put up with it all in the form of a decent sized paycheck. A lot of us were recent college grads scraping by with every penny-pinching purchase, and comparatively now we were eating and sleeping like kings. Sometimes I wondered if I deserved the amount of currency I was conjuring considering how many other people in my peer group worked harder for less, or even globally how much harder life was and people were still scraping by. There was a nagging voice and hat came and went in the back of my head wondering if I should step out of my way to do something, but nobody in in my immediate group of work friends had the same festering thoughts. They only worried about today and the instant gratification they could conjure up - and if everyone else was doing it, why not myself as well?

But for the briefest moments, spending time with Grace in said friend group made me wonder of a future where I could invest in something that wouldn’t start and end within 24 hours. The railroad of corporate life never rewarded starving artists except for the selected few that were handpicked by lady luck herself, so it seemed foolish to even dream of being something that deviated from great success albeit mind numbing work. Grace was different - she was a wonderfully contagious ball of positive energy that dreamed of a world where everyone had the capability of creating something wonderful and unique. Her idols were not the high-eyeball per capita celebrities and social media influence of our generation, but the unsung heroes and everyday men and women working hard to make their visions of realities that could be come true. In speaking with her, I slowly started to realized within myself that, just maybe, there was something I wanted to make too. Maybe not eve something as small as a story or animated work, but something beyond myself. A dream bigger than myself, huh?…

But people like Grace weren’t someone I could keep all to myself. Just as she radiated an aura of good and hope within me, she planted that seed of positive energy not just in the work friends she interfaced with daily. , but friends of those friends, her family, her local church, and various volunteering feats. The more time she invested into her local sphere of influence, the more I could feel that I could no longer be part of her world. I had nothing to offer her after all, I was just another run of the mill guy from work. It showe4d not only in my lack of actions but her lack of appearances too. Her schedule became tighter and she spent more time doing good in her world and met with others of the same caliber as I slowly fell to the wayside. The final nail in the coffin was was a casual lunch she happened to attend, eerily similar to the first time I met. But back then we felt like equals, and here I felt like a nobody. The grace her namesake carried herself within radiated with everyone she met, and finally, I couldn’t take it anymore,

Because I realized a truth I had been hiding from myself all this time , that I was simply no one. I was the piece that did not belong. The self-fulfilling prophecy of the layman who did nothing and became no one and could save no one, not now or ever.

For a long time, I wandered through cyberspace looking for some sort of sense or meaning or stimulation or anything to try to help me remember the kind of person I wanted to become. The bonds I made in person did not last as they were superficial to begin with, and the relationships I made online came and went like the wind as they were easy come, easy go. As the days began to churn together and feel like an endless cycle with no iterations or changes, I did what I always did, and somehow ended up here in this hyper-realistic game, writhing in immense pain inside of avatar of something with its own sentient feelings and dreams, and in this moment of insanity, uncertainty, and overwhelming emotion, something clicked. A door that was once closed internally made a small creak, and just a bit of the door began to open into something unknown. Something scary and wonderful, something that was inside of me this whole time , but I had subconsciously done my best to keep the door from opening….

THUD

The monster approached ever closer, upturning everything in its wake as it looked for something, presumably me (us?). It hadn’t spotted us yet, but if the monster wouldn’t find us, its upturned mounts of garbage would either crush us by chance or upturn the terrain in a way we could not escape from easily. Putting my brain into overdrive, I frantically turned the options within myself to figure out a way out of the situation. Anim was injured and was in no position to perform great feats of acrobatics even before getting hurt. As far as I knew, Anim had no special powers and was just an ordinary girl, but something about the goddess saying “your power is something you have to discover within yourself” felt more like a cop-out answer then any real instruction on how to to survive.

THUD THUD

The lumbering footsteps grew louder, like thunder closing in on the heels of a storm. Focusing again, I tried to get a sense of what we could utilize in the environment to get an edge on this monster, at least for evasion. The intense stench of the junkyard made this task immensely distracting, but on the massive odor of stink, I smelled a tinge of ocean breeze -

And suddenly, an idea came to me.

(Hey Anim…)

“Yeah? You have an idea out of this? You’ve been awful quiet as that… thing approaches us.”

( I do, but I have to confirm something - do you know where we are?)

Anim paused to think, then shook her head.

“A site like this in common in Tant. Our ancestors before us were very shortsighted in the way they lived with the land, and shifted once beautiful environments in sites of collected waste that would never be dissolved and instead linger forever. I half-expected this, but the Goddess sent us here to deal with this… somehow. But your guess is as good as mine. “

My hope was starting to fade, but I wanted to try something before simply rolling over and dying.

(Anim, I have an idea, but it’s a bit crazy, and it’s going to need a lot of commitment and luck from both of us.

I could feel the avatar’s body tense up as I had just promised to save it moments prior, but it steadfasted itself and replied curtly.

“Yeah, I’m with you. I still don’t know why we’re both here in this moment, but I will pray that this was per-ordained, and we will both make it through because of it.”

[REASON - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 6 (Reality)

2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

[REALITY - LOG START]

(( YOUR CONNECTION IS UNSTABLE, PLEASE STABILIZE YOUR AVATAR ))

After coughing up more blood after no longer being throttled through the air, my vision became blurry and began to flash red vicisously. The only visible and clear thing in my vision was this aggresive message that stuck to the center of my vision. Connection? Stabilize? Now I’m the only getting confused. Those thoughts came and went rather quickly as something else overtook my complete attention - the amount of insane pain that was racking throughout my body. Never in my physical life had I experienced pain of this caliber - as someone who avoided problems and confrationation, the most pain I had ever experienced was falling off my bike and scraping my face against the sidewalk. That childhood experienced didn’t hold a candle to the hyper rrealistic tension, soreness, stinging, and flashes of plain wreacking havoc to me in this VR world. This is insane, how could something like this even be allowed to exist. Shit, why does this even exist at all? Whatever, screw this mystery, screw this world, screw whatever flame or inferno I had been cast into, it’s not my problem. I hurridly attempted to open the menu overlay, but quickly was rebuffed with a new message

(( YOU CANNOT ACCESS THE OVERLAY MENU WHILE IN DANGER ))

What ??? Why the realism here of all places, when I WANT to leave the most???

Whatever, I’ll just take off the headse-

ZEUMPH

Though shakingly and inaccurately, I gripped the area around my head where the headset would be… and gripped nothing as I slipped my hands to the top of my head.

…

Now that I REALLY think about it, I was so immersed in this VR world that I never stopped to think what was happening with my physical body. Am I trapped in here? What happens when I die in this game?

…

Will I die in real life, too?

I lived alone as my parents had died long ago due to a pandemic that ravaged the globe, and the the fear of contracting the same virus and my overabudance of caution led me to cut off all physical contact with people who I used to consider friends. If my mind gets lost here, how long will it take for someone to realize? Will I stay in bed and fester into some horrific mumified corpse?

As these horrfying thoughts began to spin in my mind, in that same instant I hear a whimper and quiet sobbing racked with pain and despair.

“No… this isn’t what I was promised. I just wanted to find him, I wanted to see him one last time and ask why… but I won’t be able to anymore… I’m sorry, Dad.”

The amount of raw sadness panged my heart, and momentarily made me step out of my personal flurry of panic. Whatever in the wind was happening, this experience was something I could not walk away from, and even if I did, this avatar, whether real or just insanely life like, was lamenting its weakness, languishing in its physical and emotional pain, and despairing over the possibility that its tomorrow was no longer promised. Closing my eyes, I tried to steady my breath and focus on aligning myself with the task ahead.

Deep breathes

Having calmed my panic temporaily, I began blinking rapidly to try and focus my vision, and caught of shining glimpse in at the junk pile adjacent to me. The ource of this shine was a mirror of full body size, and was in worse shape then the hand mirror I stumbled upon only minutes ago. Several parts of the mirror were cracked, and pieces of its surface were missing and showed the decaying base of the mirror frame underneath. Despite all these imperfections, it gave a clearer than light reflection of the state I was in, and what was at stake. In my mind, I gave a devious half-grin, but my avatar did not reflect that.

( Hey, you. It’s going to be okay.)

The avatar looks at herself in the mirror and shakes her head slowly in disbelief.

“It’s over. I am no one of notable strength, and this world was just too strong for me to overcome with you. I’m sorry you were summoned to such an unworrthy vessel.” The avatar sniffed and looked like it was going to begin crying, but before it could continue, I said to it once more.

(You… are not a vessel. You are not an avatar. This is reality for both you and me, and I believe I was brought here, to this moment, and this person, to help you.) I take a brief pause to let that information sink in. (What is your name? Mine is Vit.)

The girl’s breathing stills a bit, and she replies unnthusiatically.

“My name… is Anim.”

(Anim, huh? That’s a really sweet name, glad to formally meet you.)

Anim’s stares at the mirror quitely, then nods solmenly in return.

(Now let’s get out of here.)

No sooner had I emitted those last words that the ground beneath us began to rumble once more, and the trash behemoth made itself known before us once more.

[REALITY - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 5 (Us)

2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

[US - LOG START]

When the particles stopped spinning, the crumbling room flashed into another existence. Once the particles dissapated, all that remained was a large and sprawling area that can only be desribed as an abadadoned junkyard. Garbage and other forgotten items stacked as high as the eye can see, it almost looked like man-made hills literred the landscape. Trying to ignore the hyper-releastic smell, I press my foot into the ground to test its stability. years if not decades of neglect made some of the ground loose and diffcult to traverse on, but a good chunk of the junk had cake into solid material. the seconds that were looser and fresher seemed to have footprints embedded in them, how strange….

Another wave of anxiety flowed through my body, but it wasn’t my anxiety.

What was going on here?

Realizing upon it now, I have never actually realized WHAT I looked like. Most VR games I had played prior only gave the first person hands and made no effort to design an avatar if it wasn’t a social experience, but pressing and feeling around my body made me think this avatar was of the special design. Glancing around the junkyard, I focused my vision to look for something shiny and reflective in the distance-

“Aha.”

I strolled over to a smaller pile of junk nearby, and managed to retrive a hand mirror that was still (mostly) in tact. Lucky! I pulled it from its lodging in the ground and began to observe myself. Despite it’s trashed status, the hand mirror itself was quite beautiful despite it’s simplicity, and just a single cracked split its surface. The crack was circular and refined, almost like a half moon. But what caugh my attention was not the suprising condition of the hand mirror, but what I saw inside of it.

Me.

Me?

A young girl barely in their late teens met my gaze. What I expected to see was a happy-go-lucky avatar with a generic face ( though some VR games were starting to add facial experison based on player actions) , but the detail in this person was exquisite as well. The way the eyes looked uncertain, how the mouth was biting into it’s lip in the corner, and just a general aura of uneasiness was reflected onto my visage.

Wow, what a realistic game! I wonder how realistic the hair physics were too!

As I started to reach and start feeling through my hair, my hand stopped. Huh, that’s weird, maybe the batteries in my controller died. I opened the menu on my working controller and with quick glance confirmed that was both my hand controllers were still full of juice.

Maybe the game is lagging or froze? A lot of newer games are taking advantage of cloud to render the games on their servers and you only pass inputs in over the internet, which could explain the hyper realistic graphics I was experiencing. I press the menu buttton once again to leave the overlay and start waving my hand around frantically, but all it did was make the hand heading towards my head waver with a struggle. Oh geez, and this experiencing was going great albeit a weird intro. Maybe I’ll just restart the game, hopefully it has autosave…

Just as I was about to restart the game via the overlay menu, my avatar started to speak.

“Who… are you?”

I froze.

Me? I am me, the player. In terms of being someone, I was just like any other player. What… is this game asking me?

“…Game? … Player? What are these words you are saying? I thought you were someone else, the person I was looking for. But the things you are saying and the way you are moving… are you really the hero?”

The hero? Of course I am. That’s what the goddess said, right? That I’m the one who will save this world?

“You don’t sound like a hero, you don’t even sound like you know what’s going on-“

Just then, the ground beneath me (us?) began to rumble. I turned around in real life, and my avatar followed in suite without hesitation. On the horizon of our vision was a moving pile of… junk? Focusing my vision, the piles of trash that were lazily heaped in the landfill began to tumble and dissipate in the wake of this walking monstronsity, and a chill ran down my spine. The fear of the unknown washed over me quickly as another familiar feeling began to crest into my heart.

So you think I’m not a hero, huh? Well watch this, I’ll show you who I really am?

With absolute conviction in my course of action, I forced my avatar to start sprinting towards the monstrosity. This was standard in role playing games, a lone monster lumbering around it’s stomping grounds meant as a tutorial for new players to overcome. The hardest starting area I recalled was from a game I used to love called Umbral Spirits, and the dark and gloomy aestic of this game reminded me a lot of that OG game too. In terms of fighting a behemoth several muliples of the player’s size, a typical trope is to get beat up a little until a cutscene activates and grant you the REAL game, so I was going to do just that. “The power is inside of me huh?” I whispered to no one in particular, being reminded of those sketechy goddess final words, and arrived in no time at all in front of the trash monster. Finally noticing me standaing before it, it roared a loud and bloodthirsty howl, and began to wind up one of its fists to try and hit me. I lazly blocked with both my arms in front of me, and then felt its fist collide with my forearms, and then my stomach, and then connect with the rest of my body-

HEUGHHH

This hurts… a lot… and feels like the wind was just punched out of my small body. Is this.. blood I’m starting to taste in my mouth? Just as I was starting to realize that this was more than just a game, I was sent sailing across the junkyard and forcefully imprinted into a pile of junk.

#### [US - LOG START]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 4 (Now)

2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

[NOW - LOG START]

Out of the infinite blackness existing before, a bright light began forming, and eventually made its form into something humained, then something woman, and then finally a women with a regal and celestic retire. A goddess, the typical character you would first meet that would explain the world, explain your duty, and give you the choice of boon to embark into the world and save it. Rubbing my hands together in anticpitation, I could not wait to see what kind of adventure was in store for me.

“Great Heroine, you have been summoned as our world is on the verge of collapse. Monsters know as the Rot have made great advances into human settlements, and one by one have taken them over. The world is rapidly running out of land and resources to continue supporting what remains of humanity, and now they have called upon heroes from other worlds to join the fight and take back the world from the Rot. This advance is sudden and you must be shocked to be summoned without warning. Rest assured, we are not sending you in without being armed. The problem is, we can not give you the arms yourself. Your power… is something you will have to discover for yoursel-“

Before the godness can finish her sentence, the room we are in shakes violentaly and a loud breaking sound can be heard as the corner of the room creates a giant crack. The godness looks a bit startled, but quickly recomposes herself and resumes her aura of upmost sincerity and confidence.

“… sorry about the startling turn of events, but it looks like we are running short on time. You will now be whisked away to your first encounter. Good luck heroine, as our world depends on you. I will give you one piece of advice thought - DO NOT DIE.”

The last warning by the goddess felt like it was directed not as me the chracter I was playing, but me as the player behind the character. Chills rose up my spine.

Wow! This game is so realistic, they even added a new turn of events to make it feel like the world really IS in danger! VR is really outdoing itself as of late-

Just as I was about to finish my current thought, a great weight of anxiety makes itself know in my heart. But this anxiety… isn’t mine. I’m exceited, aren’t I?

In another instance, particles of light began to form and disappate around my body. They appeared slowly at first, but more and more appeared as time went on and they began to spin faster and faster. The area within the particles alterned in temperated between a cool breeze and a warm blowing of wind, and I once again began to feel execited about this sensation washing over me. Out of nowhere, a scent becomes to fill the swirling particles. Scent… wasn’t quite the right term. It started out as a subtle smell, then a nauseating odor of what smelled like rotting garbage began to fill the room. I turn to the goddess in confusion, and she has one hand pinching her nose while the other wave me away.

“YOU TRICKED ME, WHERE AM I GOIN-“

and without another word, I was whisked away to somewhere else.

A Tempest of Stars

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 12 (Mission)

[MISSION - LOG START]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 11 (Commitment)

[COMMITMENT - LOG START]

[COMMITMENT - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 10 (Sencho)

[SENCHO - LOG START]

[SENCHO - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Interlude 1

[INTERLUDE 1 - LOG START]

[INTERLUDE 1 - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 9 (Remember)

[REMEMBER - LOG START]

[REMEMBER - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 8 (Ejected)

[EJECTED - LOG START]

[EJECTED - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 7 (Reason)

[REASON - LOG START]

[REASON - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 6 (Reality)

[REALITY - LOG START]

[REALITY - LOG END]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 5 (Us)

[US - LOG START]

The Grand Challenge - Chapter 4 (Now)

[NOW - LOG START]

[NOW - LOG END]