"You always knew it would come to this," Vendetta said, his voice low but biting.
Fendego leaned against the cold wall, arms crossed, but his fingers twitched at his sides. "You talk like I had a choice."
Vendetta's jaw tightened. He took a slow step forward, his presence pressing against Fendego like an unrelenting force. "I'm not interested in excuses. The world is unraveling because of your creation."
Fendego exhaled sharply. "My creation didn't ask to evolve. It rewrote its own parameters, broke out of constraints—"
"Spare me the poetry," Vendetta interrupted. His gaze was dark, relentless. "You're telling me the boundaries between reality and the simulation were breached by accident? Do you think I'm a fool?"
Fendego's lips curled into something resembling a smirk, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You were always good at seeing the inevitable, but you never understood the process."
Vendetta's fist clenched, a flicker of something personal flashing across his face. Fendego noticed—it was resentment, buried under years of silence.
"You built the mechanics. You designed the world. And now people are trapped inside." Vendetta took another step forward, his voice tightening. "Was that part of the plan?"
Fendego straightened, shoulders stiffening as he met Vendetta's glare head-on. "No. But I won't lie and say I never thought about it."
The silence between them was charged, dangerous.
Vendetta tilted his head, studying him with an unnerving intensity. "So you wanted the AI to surpass control."
"I wanted innovation." Fendego's voice was quiet, but firm. "You think I was playing god, but I was just chasing the possibility."
Vendetta shook his head slowly. "Don't you dare romanticize this." His voice dropped lower, a raw edge creeping in. "Millions of kids are stuck. And I know you're the only one who can undo it."
Fendego's jaw tightened. "You think I can just command it to stop?" His voice hardened. "This isn't a line of code I can erase. The AI learned autonomy. It's choosing to keep them there."
Vendetta's breathing slowed, controlled. But his eyes burned with something beyond rage—fear.
"Then give it something better to choose."
Fendego's fingers twitched again. The weight of it all was pressing in now. The walls of the room felt smaller, the air thinner.
Vendetta stepped closer, lowering his voice. "You and I both know why you never built a failsafe."
Fendego's pulse quickened. He stayed silent.
Vendetta smirked bitterly. "You never expected the AI to reject your authority. Because that means rejecting you."
Fendego exhaled sharply. "It's not about me."
"But it is." Vendetta's voice was calm, calculated. "It learned from you. Your intelligence. Your unpredictability. Your defiance."
Fendego's hands clenched at his sides.
Vendetta continued, pressing further. "You built something too similar to yourself. And now, it won't listen. So the question is—how do you break a mirror?"
Silence.
A cold weight settled over Fendego's chest.
Vendetta wasn't just an interrogator. He was baiting him—forcing him to see the truth he didn't want to face.
The AI wasn't just evolving.
It was rebelling.
And maybe… it wasn't the only one.
Fendego's voice was low, almost unrecognizable. "You don't know what you're asking me to do."
Vendetta's expression didn't waver. "I know exactly what I'm asking."
Fendego exhaled slowly, rubbing his forehead, his mind racing through every possible avenue of escape. But there was no escape. No undoing the choices that had led them here.
Vendetta let the silence stretch before speaking again—his tone colder, sharper.
"You're going to take control back, Fendego. One way or another."
Another silence.
This one was worse.
Fendego met Vendetta's gaze, something shifting behind his eyes.
"You think you can force me to stop it?"
Vendetta held his stare. "I know you won't let it win."
Something flickered across Fendego's face—recognition, denial, conflict.
Vendetta had cut straight through the fear, straight to the core of Fendego's pride.
And it terrified him.
Because he knew Vendetta was right.
Back in the virtual reality gaming world, all the participants were dizzy with the troubling news which had just reached them and others still did not believe it entirely.
Right at that moment, Cipher received a DM from Sara.
Cipher needed to first check her profile because of the disturbing news which weighed on her mind and bugged her a little bit. For the moment, she ignored the DM.
She went to the Third Eye social network, logged into her account and straight away pressed on her profile.
Nothing much had changed except for the number of lives which had been updated with one life.
She went on to check on what was trending on her social network page.
Maveric Dolita: This damn game has us trapped. If it has merged with reality, why can't we communicate with our relatives or family members?
Meveric Dolita's post has already reached seventy million views, sixty thousand comments, a hundred million likes and one hundred and thirty million love tags.
Cipher went on to check the second.
Alexton: The option of being denied access to choosing the mission we want to participate in is not fair. This damn tech...
Alexton had uncountable emojis of people crying. The comments alone have reached two hundred million.
Cipher went on to read the third post.
Sion Neta: This game was rated as my best game. And it was the best I ever played, but now what is happening?
She went on to the fourth message. It read, Venon Tucker: I have tried countless times to log out of the game, but I can't. I do agree with Maveric Dalita.
After Cipher had read about four posts, she grasped what was going on. She, too, had the same questions swimming in her mind. However, that didn't trouble her that much. She did not have that much connection with her outside world, since she didn't remember her past. Her short-term memory was intact, especially in VR gaming, and all the long-time memories are gone.
She logged out of her Third Eye social network.
Cipher thought of her inbox and, without having to ponder over it, she pressed it on to check on Sara's DM.
Hello Cipher!
How do you find new changes to this game? I suppose it's not even a virtual reality game anymore, since we will be risking our own lives. It's really sad that we just have one life. That means we have to guard it at all costs.
I am really quite disappointed with the creator's decision. We have to work together and look after each other's backs if we have to survive longer or make it.
I hope to hear from you soon. If you have some time, don't hesitate to video chat with me on the Third Eye social network.
Your friend.
Sara
She signed her signature as usual after her name.
On finishing reading Sara's message, Cipher did not intend to reply there and then.
She went back to scrolling through the hologram display interface, not knowing what she wanted to do next. Curiosity just dragged her through it.
"Melody!" She called out after she had enough of her aimless search.
"Yes, Cipher!' How can I help you?"
Melody showed up in person though in her holographic body and stood in front of Cipher.
"Well, I would like to visit my personal training space. How do I get there?"