I hoped my two-hundredth journal entry might have been more spectacular. I wanted an occasion to revel in victory rather than dwell on defeat. Yet here we are.

I tried to keep journals when I was in the real world, but I never had anything interesting to write about. Now I have plenty of material, but often it hurts to put events into words. Catharsis isn’t synonymous with happiness. It’s more like a much-needed release, for better or worse. Still, in this place record-keeping saves lives, so I keep meticulous notes. Too meticulous. My Vambrace’s computer is close to running out of storage space.

I restarted recently, but new participants haven’t shown up yet. I figured I’d read through old journal entries and see if I could save storage space by cleaning up the text. I cringed at the earliest entries: My writing style, thoughts, and decisions confused and bewilder me. But, I’d like to think that cringing means I’ve changed for the better. What’s more crucial is that want to remember my past before taking the next step.

But, here, let’s begin before any of this started.