Galaxy Labyrinth Malfunction

Diphida
Diphida
Sep 2, 2018 · 14 min read

The beasts sprang into action, and after a few moments of analyzing the creatures’ movements, the tandem of players was finally given the opportunity to strike. Zack had never been in the same party as his partner, and he normally played alone, but he was all the same satisfied with what they had accomplished so far. Still, he couldn’t help but be jealous towards his companion’s armor, skill, agility. Zack began to lose focus on the monsters, admiring the perfect strikes, slashes, and shielding belonging to that anonymous player and his rare items. Before he knew it, a beast drained his own health to zero, and the platform morphed into black, brighter pixels gradually coming together to show GAME OVER.

Zack stepped back from the screen, shutting down the console. It was always the same thing. One could only get so far with limited items, and eventually, most players would get stuck at a certain level — Zack himself had been going at this one for a few days already. It became clear, the frustrated teenage gamer would inevitably have to go back and search for more items, or possibly attempt trades with other players. What a bore.

He decided to call Iris, realizing they hadn’t spoken in a while during their small break from school. He wondered where she was in the game, and if they could possibly work something out if either of them had items the other desired. Zack dialed twice before she answered.

“Hey! Zack…” she started, whispering into the phone, and continued, almost excitedly, “Sorry, I was just speaking with Octavian, and dude, that guy’s a total cheat, but admittedly, he’s got some pretty rad news. Give me a second, I’ll have him join our call.”

Holding back a chuckle, Zack smiled to himself as a warm and upbeat feeling surged through him. His friends hadn’t changed at all — Octavian seemingly still obsessed with his tricks, and Iris always one to follow, convincing herself with the fact that it was only a game, and that taking advantage of a few glitches here and there was alright.

“Hey man!”

“What’s up, Octavian? Got away with another cheat?” Zack asked.

“Even better…Listen,” Octavian began, “As usual, I was checking out the coding behind Galaxy Labyrinth– there’s a huge mess behind the reward items and player level archives, and

from what I can tell, it hasn’t been patched yet. What do you say we all meet up and see what we can get from it?”

For a moment, Zack stayed silent, processing and considering what he’d heard. Assuming that Octavian meant it would be possible to gain items and experience points with a little hacking, he had the urge to say yes; it would only require the possession of a few in order for him to move on in the game. He could already identify scrupulous feelings of guilt, but he buried them under his reply while remembering Iris’s frequent words, It’s just a game, isn’t it?

“Sure, why don’t you guys come over now, before it gets any later.”

“Great! I’ll be there soon.” Iris replied.

“Sounds good!” added Octavian.

-._-._-._-._-._-.

Once they had all met up at Zack’s home, it was around 9:00 pm. They settled in the basement, as it was the game zone — besides the TV screen and console, it consisted of little more than an adequate sofa, a small table, a few old boxes, and a heater to counter the outside’s chilly winter air. Iris and Octavian had each brought their own game remotes, and a few snacks. Zack powered on the console, then moved towards the stairs at the corner of the room to reach for the light switch.

As the lights dimmed, Octavian began to make the usual selections for the game set up, but eventually came to settings that, although unfamiliar to Zack and Iris, he navigated through with ease.

Alike his friends, Zack began to feel excited, imagining what success he would have once he had access to those items — though exactly which they were, he wasn’t sure. He simply trusted Octavian when he said they would be worth it. He gripped on to his remote eagerly.

Gradually, though, the excitement was becoming something else, and no one could put their finger on it. The atmosphere began to thicken. The three began to feel a sensation in their gut, something being twisted inside out, inverted, the physical dimensions before them becoming otherworldly, chromatic squares popping into existence around them, and the words he spoke seemed distant as Octavian finally grasped what was going on…

“Uhhh… Guys, I think we’ve run into a defense system… some sort of malfunction…”

-._-._-._-._-._-.

Zack opened his eyes at the sound of Iris’s squeal, startled. Where in the world are we? Zack felt like a child waking from a dream, trying to adjust back into reality after passing time in a world of his own, vulnerable, confused. Except it was the other way around. They had woken up, into some sort of dream. Once he had gained understanding of his surroundings, his location hit him like a bomb.

Wait a minute….

They were inside the game. The game’s first floor, its main village. To his left was the plaza that ran on in-game currency, with simple items most players had access to if they had enough gems. Right in front of him was the party set-up, where players met up to form their teams. All around him were the familiar, varying and exotic landscapes, each with their corresponding levels, battles, and labyrinths. It was all exactly as it was from the screen, but real, 3-Dimensional.

Zack turned to face Iris and Octavian. As expected, they looked like their avatars. Octavian tall and slim, in his steel-like chest armor over a dark coat that complimented his obscure, inky eyes and tidy, brown hair. At his waist, a leather belt supported the sword at his side; a blade of obsidian with a turquoise hilt, his cheated item of most pride. Looking at Iris’s attire, Zack laughed as she mentioned how comfortable her bright, multi colored cloak was in “real” life. Now that he thought about it, his friends’ appearances really resembled their personality — when he contemplated on Iris, for instance, with her light hair and bright eyes, he could easily recall how cheerful and relaxed of a person she was. He wasn’t surprised that he, too, had his gear on when he checked his profile, and for a while, analyzed his appearance. Average height, hazel eyes, brown hair, and rather simple armor besides the silver bow and arrows slung over his left shoulder.

“Well this is a dream come true, isn’t it?!” Octavian blurted, as a crazed look crossed his face.

“This is unbelievable…This is amazing,” Iris gasped. “How?”

Zack continued to look around, and noticed a group of players ahead that had aspects of being equally confused, somewhat troubled. He assumed something similar had occurred to them — they hadn’t logged in normally, either. He approached them, his friends following.

One player from the group saw them coming, and apparently having realized that Zack, Iris, and Octavian also seemed unusually real, began to speak to them from a distance.

“Folks! You stuck in here as well? The name’s Jack. I’m not sure about them all, but as for me and my pals we got sucked in here after trying out a glitch for some pricey items! Gosh, some defensive program!”

Once the three had reached them, Octavian spoke.

“Yes, we got ourselves here due to a similar situation,” he paused, “Did you say we’re stuck?”

“Ain’t no log out button as far as we can tell! To make matters worse, there’s been a few rogue hackers running around murdering others for items after the encoding attempt backfired! The lot of us here have been trying to find a way out, I believe we’re close, but having a few extra minds to help wouldn’t hurt!”

“Well, thank you for letting us know.” Octavian turned to Zack and Iris, and the three began to stroll towards a green field, then pace around, as they decided what to do.

“So, I suppose it would be fine if we go for the stealing instead?” Octavian prompted.

Iris and Zack stood, shocked.

“I think we should join the group, and focus on getting out of here as well…” Iris mumbled, “Maybe getting these items unrightfully isn’t really worth it.”

“She’s right,” Zack agreed, “Look, I have no clue what this is or how this is possible, all I know is that, despite how awesome this is, we’ll eventually need to get out of here. No, Octavian… murdering others in here would likely also have them dead in the real world.”

“Well, we’ll figure it out.” Octavian answered.

The three settled near a tree, deciding to rest for the night. Octavian, being the last to fall asleep, noticed the details of the graphical night sky as he gazed far above him to admire the fantastical stars, galaxies, levels, and astronomical material in the deep black, purple, and subtle blue space, adorning as if they were glitter. Everything in this world seemed to compliment everything else so perfectly. Each and every pixel was there for a reason, a purpose, and above all, they actually functioned. It was so wonderful, simple, truly beautiful.

-._-._-._-._-._-.

The next morning, Zack and Iris woke to find that Octavian was no longer with them. Looking around toward the main village, the two noticed a commotion of players around a platform, and as they came closer, were surprised to see that Octavian, along with other dangerous looking players, was giving a speech to the group from yesterday — the other real, stuck players.

“Behold! We are the Tyrants! We have been blessed with the opportunity to exist in a world such as this one, and though our attempts at hacking for item collection have failed us, our desire has not ceased to exist! Join us, for beware, this has become our reality. For survival, items of high quality are needed, and we will not hesitate to get what we must.” Octavian glanced at the crowd, and beckoned at a player wearing what was evidently equipment of high quality.

“You! Come closer!”

The player approached Octavian. Mercilessly, ruthlessly, and with a heartless expression, Octavian slashed at the man, laughing diabolically.

The dead player’s limp body thudded to the ground, as a pool of blood began to surround the man and stain the platform game floor. Octavian delivered yet another strike, which triggered a notification confirming that it was game over for the player. With hearts beating faster and expressions distorting to fear, a deep, horror-like apprehension manifested itself amongst the crowd once the expected did not occur. The corpse did not dissolve to pixels, nor did it dramatically morph into a certain nothingness.

A dead man is on the game floor bleeding. A dead man is on the game floor bleeding. A dead man is on the game floor bleeding. No. A dead man is on the real floor, bleeding.

“We will get what we want — what we need! Join the Tyrants, fight through this game, and accept the NEW reality!”

Octavian kneeled down, slowly, silently, casually. To conclude the crime, he claimed the corpse’s items as his own. He swiped his finger along the air next to him, and a small black ripple punctured the world as some sort of vortex, virtually. Coding displayed itself from emptiness, and Octavian manipulated it until the items on the dead player’s back popped out of existence and presumably moved to Octavian’s own inventory.

Pandemonium struck after the silence of shock had come to its end. Some gamers from the crowd shoved their way toward the other members of the bizarre Tyrant alliance, a few getting violent, shouting and barking about the absurdness and severe immorality of what they had just let their leader do. Zack and Iris realized that a few scattered players had begun to face them, eying them uncertainly, probably having been aware that the two had come into the game with Octavian. No one had approached Octavian — having seen that he wasn’t reluctant to kill, one really didn’t have the urge to try and reason with him. Most of the teenagers simply began to feel a longing for their true reality; essentially, the game was painfully different than the real world, and having been exposed to the fact that if one died here, he would actually die, their situation rose to a level where it was just too much to take in.

With a relaxed air about him, Octavian skipped down the platform and jogged to Iris and Zack. With a genuine smile, as if he hadn’t just committed a crime that was probably worthy of a lifetime in prison, asked,

“So, guys! You ready to win this game?!”

“Octavian,” mustered Iris, “What in the world do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you mean? Look guys, we’re in Galaxy Labyrinth… Let’s make the most out of it, right?”

“Sooner or later we’re going to have to escape this though! It isn’t normal, we don’t know how this happened, and eventually, we’re probably going to run out of essentials.” Zack growled, “Besides, you got us into this, Octavian, and it should be your will more than that of ours to get us out of here! Instead, you’re still after cheating… and what’s more, you just killed somebody! What’s up with you?!”

It took Octavian a while to form his reply. He and Zack were always disagreeing with each other, it was natural, but this was different, this was serious. There was a certain tension in the atmosphere between them like never before. Frankly, he wasn’t worried about never being able to escape Galaxy Labyrinth. He didn’t mind it at all, but he knew that admitting so to his friends wouldn’t make anything better. He ultimately wished to convince them, persuade them — this world was perfect. Getting sucked into it wasn’t a mistake.

“Well, Zack, unless you’ve thought of anything else, it could be possible that by winning this game, we’ll actually get out of it. You know as well as I do that without those beta and rare items, our chances of beating this game are slim. Don’t you see? I’m building a strong alliance of

people like myself to truly move on in the game — and yes, honestly, that to me means hacking and cheating. We’re already in the game, we can’t go back, let’s move forward the way we know how to. Regarding the essentials, you saw how I was able to code from inside the game just now to get that guy’s items, right? Well, it’ll be the same case for food, shelter, anything. The system is down, Zack,” he lowered his gaze, “We can do whatever we want to.”

Zack and Iris glared at Octavian, but Iris’s expression softened as she turned to speak to Zack.

“He could have a poin — ”

“No,” interrupted Zack, furiously, “Even if there was any logic behind what he just said, it seriously wasn’t necessary for him to murder a player!”

“I had to.” Octavian spoke, nonchalantly.

“Why?!” Zack barked, gripping Octavian by the arms.

“For the others to understand that this is real.”

“You know what, I’m done here!” Octavian was throw to the floor, with a clang of his obsidian blade of a turquoise hilt. Zack winced, and continued, “You said we could do whatever we wanted to, right? Well, we want to go back to what’s really real! And if gamers are able to code materials out of thin air, then we can code our way out of here — without murder, without battles, without labyrinths, stealing, scamming, or winning anything!”

Octavian stood, head cocked to one side, taking a look at his former best friends. He felt a sort of longing for Zack and Iris to understand him, to resolve this discord together. On the other hand, he couldn’t feel any hint of remorse for what he had said or done. The crowd of other gamers had mostly cleared, and the only ones who remained were the three and a few Tyrants. The alliance began to depart, and Octavian, with his back to his friends, spoke almost incomprehensibly,

“This could’ve been great for us,” he started to stroll away, “What a shame.”

-._-._-._-._-._-.

Zack and Iris were resting along a lake, curious about how they were feeling warmth on their skin, hearing pleasant chirps, smelling sweet odors, all as if it were true. They had been working along Jack and other coders, and had decided to take a break.

It had been one week since the three friends had their dispute, and although Zack, Iris, and the rest of the non-Tyrant teenagers had not yet figured out how to escape Galaxy Labyrinth, they were slowly getting deeper and more familiar with the coding. They had made the discovery that this trap situation hadn’t been accidental, and there was someone behind it all whose password the players required in order to get back home. At least they were managing to code their way to survival, like Octavian had claimed, making food and shelter for themselves while communicating with the automated characters. The scariest part of the situation, though, was that they were actually beginning to get comfortable with their in-game life. Still, reports had been constantly going on about murdered players through the public player notification media. The

Tyrants continued to cheat, enjoying it and improving in level. Other teams had also been formed to try and beat the game, but these players would agree to share items, instead of killing, scamming, or tricking each other for them.

Suddenly, Jack came sprinting toward the two, yelping excitedly.

“Zack! Iris! We’re out of here!”

The friends got to their knees, surprised.

“You were able to find the passcode?” asked Iris.

“No… But we played around with the settings a bit more, and we just activated a logout option! We’re sending it to player notifications, they’ll all know they can finally go back home!” Jack squealed.

Zack gawked in disbelief, then fumbled with his profile until he saw the words there, as if holy, Log Out.

He pulled Iris and Jack into a tight embrace. Finally. The three smiled at each other.

“It was nice to know you, Jack,” said Iris.

“Likewise! By the way, we created a wall that’ll prevent anything like this from happening again… Well, just letting you know in case you guys ever want to play again, although I doubt it.” Jack joked.

“Great,” replied Zack, “Thanks.”

Jack turned to his profile, selected the log out option, and gradually faded away, with a final friendly wave.

Zack and Iris followed, and with a puzzling effect, found themselves back in their respective homes — Zack sitting on his game zone sofa, Iris at her desk. She called to confirm he was home, and she came over once again to discuss with him. Once she arrived, Zack’s heart dropped. He looked at his feet, then back at Iris.

“I’m worried about Octavian,” he whispered, “I wonder where he is.”

Iris studied his friend’s expression, understanding what he was dreading. “I’m sure he got the notification. He’ll be here soon. I’m sure.”

But Zack knew there was another possibility. He dialed Octavian’s number. It rung and forwarded to voicemail; Zack turned to Iris and shook his head.

“Don’t worry,” she offered, “He may just be avoiding us for a while… After all, we went separate ways during a situation that was a life-or-death matter — which isn’t exactly your typical ‘what friends are for’.”

“I guess… No, you’re definitely right.” Zack replied, solemnly. “I just hope we can fix things soon, though.”

-._-._-._-._-._-.

A little more than a week had passed, and Octavian was still avoiding calls, messages, any form of contact. Zack had tried to contact Octavian’s parents, but mysteriously, they wouldn’t reply either. Finally, Zack was no longer able to contain his suspicions, and called Iris over.

Once she arrived, he pulled out the Galaxy Labyrinth game disc, and logged in, without hesitation. He viewed the labyrinth map and selected his highest reached level, rushed through the labyrinth’s puzzles, beasts and monsters, and reached the doors of the boss room.

He only need a small confirmation. The bosses of every level were essentially varying manifestations of the same villain, and although their beastly form could change dramatically, their weapons mostly remained the same. Zack’s bow and arrows had the skill of high aim and strong ability to zoom in — as soon as the doors opened, he would look for what he expected.

Zack watched his avatar march into the room. The beast appeared — immense and muscular, rather humanoid except for a ram-like head and horns, and was extremely dark and shadowy.

At its waist, a thick leather belt supported the sword at his side; a blade of obsidian, with a turquoise hilt.