It wasn’t supposed to happen. The VR headset we designed was meant for a simple simulation—nothing more than a test of our programming skills. But something went wrong, horribly wrong.
Orin and Liora were the last two left in the lab when the glitch happened. One moment, they were tweaking the code, adjusting variables to smooth out some rough edges. The next moment, the room around them dissolved, replaced by a world they hadn’t programmed.
“What… is this?” Orin asked, pulling off the headset—except, it didn’t come off. The lab, the computers, the walls—they were gone. Instead, an endless field of crystalline grass stretched out under a sky full of unfamiliar constellations.
Liora stood frozen, staring at the horizon. “This isn’t part of the simulation.”
A faint hum began to echo in the distance. Something—someone—was out there. But this wasn’t a game anymore.
“We’re in it,” Liora whispered. “We’re actually in the code.”
