Facing Fear | ✓ ONC 2023 Honorable Mention

2 | Get in the Game

All she could gather was that the game had deviated from its original purpose as a self-help simulation. Players were to have been given a safe bubble to try new things and learn to be better people. Instead, they'd been thrown headlong into a fight for their lives.

Soon, if this wasn't a scam, Mori could be deep in the gamer equivalent of a mosh pit.

When they arrived, Mori paid and got out. In the daylight, her destination probably looked like a normal office building, but in the dark hour before dawn, it appeared more like a haunted mansion with the lights on.

The mansion's keeper, a heavy-set man in a guard's uniform, stopped her at the door. "I'll need some identification, Miss."

Mori showed him the email on her phone, after which he tipped his hat and slid a card key through a scanner to let her in.

The bright lights in the empty hall burned her eyes as she took in the pristine white floor, the decorative plants, and the elevator. Right as she was considering going back outside to ask the guard for directions, the elevator dinged open and a woman with wild red hair rushed out, glasses askew and sweatpants hanging loose around her flip-flops.

"Perfect timing! Perfect timing," the woman said, grabbing Mori's hand and dragging her back toward the lift. Once inside, she released Mori, scanned her card with a practiced flick of her wrist, and took a slurp from a huge coffee mug. Quiet elevator music played in the background.

"Umm." Mori paused. "I got an email about—"

"About FF, I know. I sent it." The woman chugged down the rest of her coffee and sighed. Between the disheveled hair and the dark circles under her eyes, she looked like she hadn't slept in a month. "Thanks for coming."

"You're Skye then?"

"I'm Skye." The elevator stopped but as the doors started opening, Skye punched a button and they closed again. "I'm sorry to call you in like this, but we don't have many options."

Mori leaned against a rail and tugged on the cord at her neck. "Are you saying I'm a last resort?"

Skye stared into the depths of her empty mug as if it held the answers to the universe. "Facing Fear's program was created to adapt, to grow. We didn't count on it analyzing and adapting to us, the developers. Yet, it hasn't surpassed us to the point where it is beyond human fallibility." She leveled her gaze at Mori. "FEAR has locked anyone involved in its creation out of the game—from tampering with its systems—and I think I know why."

Skye talked about the program as if it were her child and it struck Mori with an inkling of where the game developer might be heading. "Why?"

"FEAR is afraid of being shut down," Skye said softly. "Ironic, isn't it? So with arguably the most competent people barred entry, who would you hire to go in?"

Mori nodded along. "The people who want to—who aren't afraid."

"Bingo." Skye smirked. "And you're far from a last resort, Mori. I understand you have a background in professional gaming. It's rare to find someone like that who isn't already trapped inside."

"Hardly an asset. I stopped gaming almost eight years ago."

Skye slumped against the elevator wall, as if they were colleagues chatting on coffee break and had all the time in the world. "Why'd you quit?"

Mori tapped the yen coin on her cord. "Fate said it was time. My parents encouraged me to study harder and have a steadier career. I work in accounting now."

"Hmm..." Skye closed her eyes for a few seconds, letting the faint music wash over them. "To give you some idea of what you're getting into," she whispered. "The game will make you face your fears. I don't just mean that if you're afraid of spiders, FEAR will send giant arachnids after you, The Hobbit-style. I mean that if you're afraid of rejection, of pain, of death, the game will make you look those things right in the eyes and unlike with our original design, there's no escape.

"Or well, almost no escape." Skye pulled a tiny disc out of her pocket and held it out on her flattened palm. A holographic image of a silver ring appeared and spun when she swiped her finger through it. "One of our associates at the Tokyo branch created this. The ring links to your self-construct before you enter Valor so FEAR is unable to touch it. When the four gemstones on the ring are simultaneously pressed, you'll be transported back out of the game."

Mori tapped her chin. "That eliminates a lot of the risk involved."

Skye closed her fist over the disc, the pixels evaporating like mist in the air. Her expression clouded over. "Not entirely...it seems the ring only works once. We sent someone in twice with the expectation that they'd return both times. They didn't. The ring doesn't protect you from dying either."

The elevator lights flickered. "You're not being very convincing, Skye."

"This isn't a decision one person can make for another. Your life is on the line and if you enter Facing Fear, there's no guarantee that even if you return, you'll ever be the same. If you die in there...there's no coming back."

Mori met Skye's eyes and thought about the guilt the woman and her coworkers must be battling with, knowing that they'd doomed thousands of innocent people with their creation. The helplessness they must feel at not being able to go in and fix the problem themselves. "You hinted at sending volunteers to shut down FEAR. How do they do it?"

A spark like hope's flame flickered in the blue of Skye's eyes. She walked over to Mori and opened her fist again to display an image of a glowing white cube. "This is it. When placed on the creator's pedestal at the center of Valor, this cube will reset the game and we'll be able to set everyone free."

Mori stretched out her fingers and brushed the hologram before her, rotating the cube. If she could find Shiori...her sister could use the ring to escape. It didn't really matter what happened after that, but the dormant gamer in Mori stirred at the challenge of clearing Facing Fear. "You can get me in?"

"Do you dare to go in?" Skye asked. "Do you dare to face FEAR?"

"Only one way to find out." Mori untied the cord at her neck and slipped the go-en piece off. "Rice plant or sprout?"

"Sprout?" Skye repeated with a puzzled frown.

"Rice to go in then." Mori flipped the coin—watched it ping against the elevator floor and wobble before it settled rice plant side up.

"You settled that with a coin flip," Skye said in disbelief. "You didn't even ask what's in it for you."

Mori stooped to pick up her coin and restrung it on her necklace. "How soon do we start?"

Skye punched a button and the elevator doors parted to reveal a bustling room of people. Screens filled every wall, with rows of desks and computers in the space between. "We can get you in the game right now. But really, I don't understand why you're agreeing to this. The others who volunteered had guts. They wanted glory. We're rewarding anyone who resets the game, but that's hardly worth the risk." Skye placed a hand on Mori's shoulder. "I don't usually say this to people I've just met, but I'd really rather you didn't die," she said with a tense laugh.

They must not know about Shiori. If they did, would the game creators deny her entry? Skye wasn't wrong. If not for her sister, Mori wouldn't have even taken the cab here.

Mori shrugged. "Accounting was getting boring anyways."

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Chapter Word Count: 1883
Total Word Count: 4518