Reality Shift
"Wh-h@w/s Hqpp3 n1n@?" stuttered Isaac, as both the visual and audial aspects of reality began to fail around them. For one sickening moment, all of time and space was frozen around them in a blur of graphical smears and awkward colors. Then, with a snap, Isaac found himself standing in a small grey room, with an upload pod and a simple computer display.
"Does that happen often?" asked Vince. Isaac spun around to find Vince standing behind him, near the room's only door.
"That doesn't happen at all," said Isaac, shaking his head. "In fact, I bet we'll be getting a server-wide announcement about the ordeal in a few-"
A fatal exception 05 has occured at 0028:c001e36.
A full reset has been deemed unnecessary.
All users have been returned to #$home while the problem is being resolved.
Please refrain from folder movement until the issue has been satisfactorily resolved.
"Well, that sucks," said Vince, scuffing his foot against the ground. "I wonder how long that will take."
"I'd like to know why we weren't sent to my house," said Isaac, slightly worried. "We should have gone straight to #Isaac's_Bitchin_Sweet_House_Hell_Yeah... I wonder what happened?"
"Well, we were grouped together to run sims, right? If I was set to be the leader, then I bet the failsafes would have tried to take both of us to my home."
"Which doesn't exist in this server," realized Isaac, following his train of thought. "But it had to send you somewhere, so it defaulted to one of the Hub Central pods! Oh, man, I wonder how long we're going to be stuck here..."
"Hey, Isaac, look at this!" Vince was examining the monitor near the upload pod. "This should be displaying a list of all of the servers, but none of them are shown!"
"Well, that makes sense. If the server is undergoing repairs, they're going to take it offline until the repairs are complete."
"But we're not offline!" said Vince, pointing at the monitor. "All of the servers are gone, but there's a name on the screen!"
Isaac looked for himself. Sure enough, there was a single filename on the screen: User #55814-0000. "I didn't think it was even possible to have a quad-zero designation," he said, staring at the screen in wonder.
"I'm more curious to see what it means to transfer into a person, not a server. Dude, Isaac, we've got to try this out. Get into the upload pod."
"What? Why me?"
"Because I thought of it, duh," said Vince. "Besides, you're a native here. If we get caught, we can pretend you were just being dumb and trying to get home."
"Hang on, that makes no sense," said Isaac, holding up his hand. "You're the foreigner, wouldn't you be the one who would try and use the upload pod to go home?"
"Yeah... except I'm highly knowledgeable in server transfers, and you're not. It's still less suspicious this way. Besides, Hub Central is closed off to everyone, even the authorities- you heard the announcement. Who's going to stop us? Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"
"They could delete us," spat Isaac, trying to discourage Vince's enthusiasm with skeptic glares.
"Oh, please," replied Vince, with a laugh. "Now you're just being ridiculous. At worst, they would just roll back our memories to this morning. Stop being such a baby. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity here! You said so yourself that you've never seen anything like this before. If you don't get in this pod, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life."
Isaac let out an exasperated sigh.
"Does that happen often?" asked Vince. Isaac spun around to find Vince standing behind him, near the room's only door.
"That doesn't happen at all," said Isaac, shaking his head. "In fact, I bet we'll be getting a server-wide announcement about the ordeal in a few-"
A fatal exception 05 has occured at 0028:c001e36.
A full reset has been deemed unnecessary.
All users have been returned to #$home while the problem is being resolved.
Please refrain from folder movement until the issue has been satisfactorily resolved.
"Well, that sucks," said Vince, scuffing his foot against the ground. "I wonder how long that will take."
"I'd like to know why we weren't sent to my house," said Isaac, slightly worried. "We should have gone straight to #Isaac's_Bitchin_Sweet_House_Hell_Yeah... I wonder what happened?"
"Well, we were grouped together to run sims, right? If I was set to be the leader, then I bet the failsafes would have tried to take both of us to my home."
"Which doesn't exist in this server," realized Isaac, following his train of thought. "But it had to send you somewhere, so it defaulted to one of the Hub Central pods! Oh, man, I wonder how long we're going to be stuck here..."
"Hey, Isaac, look at this!" Vince was examining the monitor near the upload pod. "This should be displaying a list of all of the servers, but none of them are shown!"
"Well, that makes sense. If the server is undergoing repairs, they're going to take it offline until the repairs are complete."
"But we're not offline!" said Vince, pointing at the monitor. "All of the servers are gone, but there's a name on the screen!"
Isaac looked for himself. Sure enough, there was a single filename on the screen: User #55814-0000. "I didn't think it was even possible to have a quad-zero designation," he said, staring at the screen in wonder.
"I'm more curious to see what it means to transfer into a person, not a server. Dude, Isaac, we've got to try this out. Get into the upload pod."
"What? Why me?"
"Because I thought of it, duh," said Vince. "Besides, you're a native here. If we get caught, we can pretend you were just being dumb and trying to get home."
"Hang on, that makes no sense," said Isaac, holding up his hand. "You're the foreigner, wouldn't you be the one who would try and use the upload pod to go home?"
"Yeah... except I'm highly knowledgeable in server transfers, and you're not. It's still less suspicious this way. Besides, Hub Central is closed off to everyone, even the authorities- you heard the announcement. Who's going to stop us? Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"
"They could delete us," spat Isaac, trying to discourage Vince's enthusiasm with skeptic glares.
"Oh, please," replied Vince, with a laugh. "Now you're just being ridiculous. At worst, they would just roll back our memories to this morning. Stop being such a baby. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity here! You said so yourself that you've never seen anything like this before. If you don't get in this pod, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life."
Isaac let out an exasperated sigh.