Cytronica

Ten

Hunter couldn't remove the smirk from his face. The virtual world of Cytro now had an added layer of realism, almost to the point of making it indistinguishable from their actual home.

He stood proudly at the bottom of the stairs of Central Station, spinning around and facing the others. "Are you seeing this!" his voice roared, startling the surrounding bots.

Jiaying's eyes were wide. "I ... I don't believe it."

Zack was just as bewildered. "They look so much more normal now. They don't have that robotic way of walking."

Hunter tapped a businessman as he passed. "Excuse me, sir?"

The bot stopped for a brief moment. "Yes, young man? Can I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could get your opinion on ..." he paused and tried to think of an intelligent question.

"Sorry," the bot said, its answer abrupt—but still relatively polite, "I don't have time to chit-chat. My train leaves in a few minutes." He walked away hastily, climbing the stairs.

Hunter's jaw dropped. "My god! Did you hear that?"

"That was pretty cool," Priya confessed.

Even Diego was impressed. A slight smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth. "This is ... something else."

"Right?" Hunter called. "I seriously can't tell if we're in Cytro or back home."

Sure enough, his observation was accurate. The bots no longer walked in a synchronised fashion, nor were their facial expressions blank. They seemed to display real emotions, real features.

Hunter stepped onto the road, causing a passing car to brake hard.

The driver inside slammed her fist on the horn. "Watch where you're going, please," she said, sticking her head outside the window. "You're going to get yourself hurt."

Hunter held his hands up. "Sorry!"

She drove around him and continued on her way.

"Amazing," Jiaying laughed.

Hunter jumped back onto the path and wrapped his arms around Zack. "This is incredible!"

"I know. We should find Casey."

"Deal. Let's move."

Hunter raced across the road, much to the annoyance of the other drivers who had to stop for him. More horns were tooted. He received many peeved stares.

Zack laughed at his antics. "We did it. We actually did it."

"And it was so easy," Priya said. "It was only a few lines of code."

The four followed Hunter across the road—although much more cautiously—and stood at the entrance to the common where hundreds of other students were waiting.

Beck saw Jiaying approach. She stepped forward and kissed her girlfriend.

"Wow," Beck breathed, wide-eyed.

"I know."

"Is this ... real? I can't tell if I'm dreaming or not."

Zack turned his attention upwards, staring at the towering buildings around him. For the first time in three years, Cytro actually felt like a proper virtual world. Adding autonomy to the bots was so easy. So simple.

Yet so effective.

Gone were the days of logging into a hollow realm, devoid of any purpose.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, raising his arms. In an odd way, he felt home.