“Behold!” Jackeye shouted, his hands outstretched toward the blue sky.

They both materialized in the middle of the meadow, aka the starting point.

"Allow me to introduce you to the wondrous world of..." Out of the corner of his eye, Jackeye noticed movement. He turned just in time to see Tejeda walking away, his back to him. "Where are you going?"

“The edge of the forest is like a canvas of colors, and I think I can see people.”

Frustrated by the lack of consideration, Jackeye trailed behind Tejeda. "Of course, there’s the harvest festival that got ruined for the second time... No, I think it’s the... You know what? Forget it!"

"Hmm? What should I forget?" Tejeda asked with genuine confusion. Then he stopped his trek, staring at the stalls. "What’s wrong? From what I know, festivals mean hustle and bustle, but here nothing’s moving."

"My abrupt departure from Jackeye's World caused a connection failure. Everything froze, awaiting reconnection." Steffen looked up just in time to see Tejeda lifting his right brow. "Don't look at me that way! It's my world, and I get to name it whatever I like."

"Okay, but you're back. Why hasn't anything begun to function yet?"

“I have a few failsafes in place. Until I give the resume command, everything remains blocked inside the reconnection loop.”

Tejeda whistled, gazing at a bird frozen in the sky with its wings wide open.

“Oh, that’s Shoim. Do you like it?”

“Meh…” Tejeda shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Jackeye asked, almost on edge.

"It's too far away to provide much more than a 'meh'. Let us now proceed to the more crucial items on our agenda. Like the fact that something is wrong with your construct."

“I’ve already explained, but you weren’t listening. Nothing's wrong with Jackeye’s world.”

“That old lady over there hasn’t got a nose. I wonder how she smells,” Tejeda said, pointing toward a white-haired woman.

"Dreadful, believe me." As though he could smell her from there, Jackeye fluttered his palm about his nose. "And she looks just like she ought to. I messed up her nose, so I removed it altogether and gave her a tragic backstory about why and how she lost it."

Tejeda moved closer to the people frozen in time. “I must observe more generated characters to see if any other errors occurred. Can you unfreeze one at a time?”

“Yes. That’s easy.”

“Let’s start with this guy.” Tejeda pointed toward a tall man over the apple stand. “I want to talk with him.”

“Jackeye’s World, resume NPC R312.”

The tall man continued his previous action, polishing the apples in front, those that the customers could see. The fine trickery embedded at the core of a virtual reality brought a smile to Tejeda’s face. Some things never change!

The Nubilae approached the NPC. “What’s your name?

“Rorororo Lolololo.”

“See? Another error!” Tejeda turned to Jackeye, pointing to the tall man who looked at them before returning to his chore. “Are you a stutter, Rolo?” Tejeda asked again.

The generated character shrugged, bothered that he couldn’t resume his work. “No, my father was.”

“See? Perfectly legit backstory!” Jackeye laughed, getting a frown from Tejeda as a reply.

Something had seeped into Tejeda's core as a result of the complete stillness. The reason may have been that everything around him was fake, or perhaps that every detail was so exact that it was easy to mistake for the real thing. He reached for Carmen and discovered it. However, this did not make him feel any better. Carmen was only as genuine as everything else around him.

Tejeda’s worry disappeared as he set his gaze upon another man. The latter stood a few feet away from the stalls, his hand raised in a pose as if he wanted to protect himself from something.

As Tejeda drew nearer, his suspicions multiplied. A slanted silver line stretched between the NPC’s eyes and ended at his hairline near his left ear. It appeared as though a sword sliced his face.

"Don't tell me you messed up this one, too," Tejeda sneered. "I can bet on your world that the breach through which that woman came in has split this man into slices. This poor unlucky NPC found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time."

“Why do you bet on something that’s not even yours?”

“That makes things more interesting.” Tejeda laughed yet again and followed with his fingers the silver line on that man’s face. When he reached the edge near his ear, Tejeda continued onward, his hand hovering in the air.

As his fingers pressed forward, a silver gap emerged in the continuation of the one existing on the frozen man’s face. Tejeda slinked his other hand inside and, grabbing both edges of the line, he cracked it open. The crevice expanded until it became large enough for a man to crawl inside.

“That…” Jackeye stuttered. “You were right. That has to be the rift between the two worlds.”

"Of course, I was correct. When was the last time I was mistaken about something?"

“Are you really asking this question? You literally have been wrong about almost everything around here.”

“What did you say? I wasn’t paying attention.” Tejeda smirked. “Well, I guess here we part ways. There’s no point in taking you with me and endangering your life. Just stay here or go back to reality. If you go back into the world of the living, check on me and try to keep me alive.”

Tejeda peered through the silver gap. He tingled with excitement. He had no idea what awaited him on the other side. That stirred him up more than anything else. Few things seemed more thrilling than what he was doing right now. Taking a step into the unknown. Literally.

Another thing enthralled him like the icing on a cake. The possibility of encountering a nemesis. This was something worth putting everything on the line for. He walked beyond the threshold, a sheepish grin on his face.

A roar of emptiness erupted from the chasm of oblivion. Tejeda sought but failed to summon E00. He had crossed the line between the two realities, and now he had no control over this construct.