Chapter 1

*This is the rough draft version of the novel. The polished novel will be posted at a later date.

Chapter 1: Enter the Hub

Day 2

A young man began to stir awake on the cold, glossy floor. His brow furrowed as his blue eyes opened, and that expression from his brow stayed as he took in his surroundings, and where he lay. He stood up, swiping a hand over his face then up through his short brown hair with its unique mix of blue streaks. He exhaled a little as his expression softened, and walked silently out from the room into the more open area. A young man stood with his back toward him, tapping away at the terminal standing at the center of the place.

"You're awake," he said as he finished tapping a few more screens, then he turned to face him. "Do you remember me, or how you entered Remnants, Aitheros?" he addressed the tall young man.

"No," he replied, with slight pause before adding, "Honestly, nothing you said really means anything to me, I just woke up here."

"You're surprisingly calm," the young man at the terminal remarked.

"Should I be panicking?" he asked with the same level of stoicism.

"No, it's a lot better if you can stay calm," he said with a smile. He turned his head, looking back behind Aitheros at someone now peeking around the corner. "...And what about you? I take it you just woke up as well? Do you remember anything, Atrinity?"

Her eyes widened. She stepped out where they could both see her, her shoulders stiffened and her hands clasped together.

"Ah-I don't know!" she replied, trying to speak up while keeping her distance. "I don't know how I got here, or anything," she explained with distress.

"Do you either of you remember what you were doing before you woke up here?" the young man standing by the terminal asked.

"I was working at my café, then I went home. I was just getting ready for bed, I got a strange notification on my phone, and... I opened my eyes to find myself here," she explained, then she glanced down at her hands which she had brought up to her chest as she spoke. Her brown eyes widened yet again, and she darted them to the floor as she tried to maintain some composure. It was only at this point that she had noticed the soft pink top and bottoms she was in. I'm... still in my pajamas?! Everything's okay! Just act calm.

"So I'm the only one..." the young man said softly. "I'll do my best to explain then," he turned to pull something up on the terminal.

No one has noticed, right? Atrinity thought to herself as she cautiously lifted her head back up to look at them. While one young man stood in a long black coat with green and yellow accents, and the other in a black hoodie and track pants, she had an entirely different presence with pink and white polka dots. Perhaps it was harder to notice at first that she was not properly dressed, what with her long dark blonde hair still pulled up in a high ponytail, not yet down for going to bed. She turned her head to look at Aitheros, expecting that he would be paying attention to the young man in front of them, but their eyes met, and she hastily turned her gaze back at the other man, while tucking her long bangs, half pink and half blonde, back behind her ears. Aitheros' gaze lingered a moment longer on her face, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowing in for a moment before breaking away. Had she not turned away and looked so uncomfortable, he might have asked her if they had met before.

"Remnants is a virtual reality game, created to test the future of VR technology," the young man began to explain, brushing his black hair out of his face after leaning over one of the screens, and turning to face the two of them as they drew closer to listen. "We signed up and were selected to test it. This is the hub, which connects to all of the games we're supposed to be testing," he said with a wave of his hand at the area around them. "It should also be connected to the real world, but I can't make contact. We can't log out," his tone was calm, but severe. "...At least, not on command. I've come up with one possible solution, and that is that Remnants was built with an automatic exit for participants once the all of the games had completed a main objective. My thought is, I can get you two in and out of the games from here, you can clear the objectives, and once every game in Remnants has been handled, we can get out of here. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Aitheros spoke up, "Will beating the games actually work?"

"Good question," the young man smirked. "Unfortunately, we won't know for sure until we try, but we don't have any other options right now. That's not even to mention the fact that our actual bodies are wired up to machines."

Atrinity's shoulders stiffened up again. "Wh-why can't I remember coming here? I don't feel like I would ever choose to be a part of something like this!" she protested.

"I can't say for sure why you and Aitheros don't remember things, but the developers said we could be subject to testing 'Memory Download.' To my understanding, they aimed to plant instructions for the games into our minds directly, but that must have backfired," he explained with a shrug, while Atrinity looked horrified.

"They... messed with my head?" she said.

Aitheros frowned, and his brows slightly furrowed.

"Comes with the territory," the young man replied. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, what's your name? You know ours but never said yours."

"My name?" the young man questioned with a hint of surprise. "...Of course!" he continued, "...Glitch," he said as his left hand stroked over the glowing green scar on his face. "Just call me Glitch."

"All right, cool," Aitheros replied in his nonchalant way. "So, where do we start?"

Glitch held up his hand with fingers extended. "There are five games we need to handle; a shooter, an action fantasy, a sci-fi city game, a horror, and a date simulator." Both Aitheros and Atrinity looked a bit uncomfortable by the end of his list.

"Not a chance I'm doing horror," he said.

"A dating sim?" she questioned with a flushed face.

"I only need one of you in each. It's best that we start with Red, the shooter, because of how that game works," Glitch explained.

"I'm good at shooters," Aitheros said with a happier expression.

" Good, then we'll start by sending you in," Glitch replied as turned back to the terminal and swiped through a screen. "Just wait there a minute while I get everything ready," he said before grabing a ticket and a phone. "All right, the game is queued. Here, you'll need these."

"This looks like my phone," Aitheros observed.

"That's how you and I will be communicating from now on. Everything's ready, so you can go through the portal I've opened. It's a good sign that it's working. I'll explain more once you're inside," he assured.

Aitheros walked into the room with a glowing portal ahead. "Got it," he said, showing less stoicism and a bit of confidence as he walked through, and the portal vanished with him.

Glitch tapped on a cyan device that was in his ear, and screens appeared in front of his eyes. "Let's make sure he got there okay before we go any further," he said to Atrinity.