Ian stormed inside his home and smashed the door behind him. “Charlie… John… I knew it.” His hands were trembling when he pushed the button on his phone. Trembling with fury.

John used to be his friend in highschool, and that was where the problems started. Ian was taking a strict diet, working out every day, and practising his pickup lines. Only to see girls to flock to John, who didn’t even greet them till he drank his whiskey.

When Ian finally got the dream job, John still found a way to beat him. He aced the testing for QA and apparently didn’t even try. His boss mentioned John a few times, which was the worst thing in the world.

So, after Ian squeezed into the live game, he thought he won. No. John somehow gender-swapped into a beautiful girl and became a hero.

A hero.

As the phone rang, Ian angrily took out his frustration on his desk with a powerful smash.

“Yes?” a female voice answered.

“You were right. It is him. I’m in. I don’t care what I need to do, but I’ll ruin his game.”

As the sun's rays touched my face, I woke up and stretched my muscles. Where the hell am I? Bed. Duh, I was in a bed, but not mine. As I was looking around the bedroom, only one word was trying to get my attention - luxurious. I scanned the room and concluded that it must be Lucas's bedroom. The realization brought a sense of ease, and I allowed myself to smile.

What, no! I jumped up and threw a blanket away. I frantically ran around the room, clothed only in a black shirt with long sleeves featuring a strange picture of an anonymous mask.

That must be his shirt, but why am I here?

With every passing second, I could feel my breath speeding up as I noticed various items scattered on the floor of the bedroom. Things such as my left shoe, bra, the right shoe… What the hell happened?

The last thing I remembered was Ian’s face entering a bar, and we drank whiskey. After that was a haze, where I used a toilet again, a weird experience, and… nothing.

This body is so useless, I can’t even have three drinks without passing out!

I put on my bra, then shirt again, but kicked the damn shoes to the corner; these evil things must stay away from me. As a precaution, I opened a bedroom door ever so slightly, and peaked out; nobody waited for me in the living room.

With a relieved mind, I swung it open and walked towards Lucas’ kitchen with a yawn. A hiss caught my attention, and I smelled Lucas' tasty breakfast cooking. Yeah, and the sweet fragrance of melting butter made my mouth water.

How to ask him about what happened? Can I just say it? While I was thinking about it and sat down at the table, he put the omelet in front of me. “Good morning, Charlie.”

Nodding, I buried the spoon in the omelet and tried to smile. Nope, still gloomy, not happening, so I said, “Morning. Can you tell me what happened yesterday?” I tasted the breakfast. The warm egg flavor melted on my tongue, and it was so mushy I had to close my eyes. Yummy!

“Nothing!” he said so fast and loud, I almost gobbled the entire spoon.

“I mentf, wfy we afe here?” I said with my mouth full, not risking it, and couldn’t stop chewing. How can something so simple taste so perfectly? So I swallowed the piece and beamed at him. “This is so good! I love it! What’s the secret, and how did you do it?”

Lucas sad down across the table and put another serving in front of him. “Thank you. It’s nothing special. About last night… You got drunk at the bar, but aside from talking without stop about that we are living in a simulation. Everything was okay.”

“Then why are we here?” My question resulted in his hearty laugh. Hmpf, I furrowed my brows and kicked him under the table. “Not helping!” What the hell am I doing? I’m John and I don’t act like this!

“Sorry, sorry! Well, I wanted to call a taxi, but you insisted on conquering the devil's shoes; yet you couldn’t even walk barefoot without my help. When we got to your apartment, you insisted you will carry me in the game and for that you need to learn to walk; so we went to my place.”

“And?”

Lucas diverted his stare down and said, “I gave you my shirt, because you fell a few times outside and dirtied you dress, then I slept on the couch.”

I nodded at him and yawned again. “Yeah, that sounds like me. That’s it, right?”

“Of course! Nothing else!” That was a relief; no shady people were following us.

I scarfed down his tasty meal and finished right when his watch went off. Lucas only glanced at the message, but his expression froze and his spoon, halfway to his mouth, fell down, ringing a few times on the floor. Oh, what a waste!

“Charlie… You were right. You were freaking right!”

I rubbed my eyes and glanced at his watch, but he already dismissed it. “Hm, I’m always right, but what specifically do you have in mind?”

“The reality… Is a simulation. My friend Pearl confirmed it. He suspects that the game was the original source code we are living in now, that we are… only NPCs,” he said, his voice cracking and his hands shook as if he couldn’t control them.

“Oh, that. Yeah, I knew that. Something among the lines. I’m a clever girl. I mean, what would change with you knowing it? It’s not like you can hack the system; if you could do that, you would be a god.” I paused, because a dirty thought came into my mind. The world is a game? “Maybe we can somehow exploit it,” I said aloud, and a million ideas about how to exploit a reality filled my head.

“True! But what if we are only the NPCs for the players?” Lucas glared at me, his face pale as bar’s white wall.

Thinking how to calm him down, I clutched his hand. “So what? What exactly is going to change after you get to know you are an NPC?” after I said that, I rose and pinched his cheek. “Look at me! I am a girl. Was I a girl before? No, I wasn’t. The world’s a weird place. The simulation, game or whatever this is, is weird. So what?”

Another beep came, and I could even feel fear from his look. Had he found out that the Terminator was right and the robots were going to replace us?

“You need to go. Go now! The back window, you can jump!” He grabbed my forearm and dragged me. I struggled to free myself, but his grip was too much to handle for my weak body. After dragging me to the living room, he threw me into the bedroom and closed the door before I could yell at him.

I raced from one wall to another, then placed my hand on a knob, but hesitated. He wouldn’t drag me here for no reason. So instead I thought about how much I was going to slap him when I heard muffled voices from the living room. Voices? I pressed my ear on the door so I could gauge how dangerous they were.

“Lucas, why are you doing this? We told you, no more questions. And yet, you kept asking and asking,” a female voice lectured him.

Lucas’ voice said back, albeit weakly, “I only owe you money, not my soul. I can ask as much as I want!”

“Then pay up.” After a pause, I heard steps advancing. “No? Until you clear the debt, do not contact Pearl, or anyone else, especially not them. Do you understand?” a second voice pressed him and something broke, probably a vase with that beautiful fake flower.

“Our boss doesn’t like questions,” the first voice yelled.

Should I go in? I was weighting my options when I heard a sound that I couldn’t confuse with anything else.

In the past, one night, when I was sleeping, weird noises woke me up. I went down from my room and heard exactly this sound. The next moment, someone shot my step-parents, and what did you know? Yes, they died in front of me.

I always thought that night something broke in me, because this was my first memory, the memory of a seven-year-old kid. My head felt heavy, like a piano dropped on it, just from thinking about it. Next, my palms got sweaty as to tell me: ‘You can’t go there!’

No, I will save him! I pressed a sleeve to both of my eyes and ran to the living room. Correction - I didn’t move. Why was I rooted to that spot? Move! Go, go! It was my fault! He contacted that stupid Pearl because of me! He can’t die because of me! I will protect him!

An unspeakable feeling filled my soul. I slapped myself, and then finally kicked the door and screamed, scared to the death, “Honey! I have something in my eyes I can’t see! Please help me!”

After that unexpected barge, I stood in the door with sleeves pressed to my eyes so I couldn’t see. Anything at all. What a brilliant strategy. They could kill me any moment and I wouldn’t even know it. Great, that thought made my tears go out. One more plus for my acting career. I braced for an impact, but I only felt a hard body with a familiar smell getting closer, hugging me and patting my hair.

“Sweetie, give me a moment and I will help you,” he whispered in a strange sweet voice and hugged more tightly. That gave my mind a sense of security and my weak knees gave way.

“Pcht. Very well, kid. Saved by a girl, pathetic. One more week, you hear me? One week.” Two footsteps seemed to move towards the main hallway, and the unknown lady slammed the door.

Lucas sighed with a sadness in his voice. “I want to kiss you now, you know that?”

“No.” I pulled out from him before he could get a wrong idea. “Tell me. What was that?”

“I told you I owe a lot of money, right? They want ten thousands by the next week.”

“Sell the apartment.”

“I live here, yes, but only because I helped the lady who owns this building; one time I saved her the almost lost videos of her dead husband. I can live here, but it’s not mine. Even if I sell everything I own, I can get only a few thousands. That’s selling my computer, scanners, monitors and capsule. That won’t help me, anyway. They will come the next month for another ten thousands.”

“I understand, I will carry you,” I said to him with a resolute voice, and stomped back to the bedroom for my lovely shoes. He watched me as I put them up. It was my fault. My fault, dammit!

As I was struggling with undoing straps with my still shaking hands, he tried to help with it, only to get his hand punched away by my fast palm. With nothing better to do, he leaned on a door and was watching me. “Charlie, you can’t go outside like that. Here, take your clothes and change…” Pointing to his drawer, I finally noticed a sport bag and grabbed it.

“Pcht! I can, watch me!” I tried to walk, but I stumbled and had to catch that same drawer to steady myself. Okay. The shoes went down; no constraining me anymore.

“Wait, please wait! You can’t help me in the game! Do you know how much gold you would need to amass? You need to get a third of sales. I already checked that! Third of everything sold in the game!”

“Little over five thousands gold. Doable. Now move!” I pushed him away from the door. Well, I tried to. He used his strength and didn’t want to let me go.

“Fine,” I said, grabbed my shoes by the straps, swinging them over my shoulder and pulled through a gap on his left side. Too bad for you, my smaller frame meant I had easier time avoiding you, mate!

“Charlie, please!” he glared at me, but didn’t stop anymore.

With a sad smile, I looked him in eyes and nodded. “Hush. Log into the game; I need you to identify something.” I ran downstairs and tears ran down my face. A lot. Ignoring the stare of a receptionist, I ran outside and couldn’t stop the tears the entire trip to home.

Lucas, you will not die. You hear me? Don’t you dare to die again!

Fine. Fine, you stupid world. I'm gonna take the risk and do this exploit, even if I end up getting banned!