The Eden Crisis
Chapter 23: Victory

I appear high in the skies of Eden. I look around, wondering why I am here and still alive. Or is this death? “Dante,” I hear a female voice say. I turn and see Claire. She walks up to me and hugs me. “Dante, did you do it? Did you beat him?” she asks. I whisper yes into her ear as I tighten the hug.

Claire lets me go. “Then maybe we get to live despite dying in the game. I haven’t seen the others . . . maybe they are out of the game . . .” she says with hope. I sit down, and Claire joins me. Despite the air being solid when we sit, it’s as if our legs are hanging off a ledge. We look down at the continents of Eden. They are falling apart down below into an endless-looking ocean.

“What is going on, Dante?” Claire asks. “I’m not sure . . . but, Claire,

um . . . call me Jordan, please. If this is the end, I want to die as Jordan and not Dante.”

“Sad, isn’t it?” someone says. Claire and I turn to see who it is. It’s Veren. He walks up in front of us. “The world we all called home for a year is now falling apart,” he says forlornly. This time he doesn’t seem to be looking to fight.

“Why are you here?” I ask him. “What’s happening to the continents?” He smiles. “I am here because the game is over. You beat me, and now the end of the story is happening. When the hero proves himself to Veren, the continents shall fall and Eden shall be whole again. I designed the game so that when the final boss is beaten, the world heals as the game’s backstory says. When you beat me, Dante, you fulfilled the story.”

“What about the other—the players still in the game?” I ask. “The moment my HP hit zero in my final form,” Veren says, “every player inside the game was logged out. They are all safe and free.” Claire asks Veren about the players who died in the game.

“Sadly, those players are dead, as I said they would be, although there is a chance they will just be in a coma.” He looks up and back at us. “It is time then . . . congratulations, Jordan,” Veren says before fading away from the game once and for all.

A bright light shines, and my vision is consumed by white. Finding Claire, I squeeze her hand tightly for comfort. But it isn’t long before I feel her touch no more.

Epilogue

“It’s been one year since the Eden crisis. For those who don’t remember, the crisis began when a mysterious hacker trapped thousands of people inside the first virtual reality video game, called Eden. The world was able to watch the game live for just over a year as players fought to stay alive and figure out how to escape the game. When the player known as Dante, or the Crimson Knight, went to Castle Infinity with his group, the world was no longer able to watch them as for some reason the castle events weren’t recorded. When the hero player, Dante, defeated whom we now know to have been Lucien Crescent, everyone left alive in the game was freed. We remind you of these events because today we are outside one of the many game stores selling the newest VR equipment and Eden 2: The Second War. Why are these people, who know fully that Eden trapped players before, out here buying the latest game? The new president of Dignitas assures them that the tragedies of before will not happen again. Nevertheless, it begs the question of why risk it? Veren Tempus, the president of Dignitas, says he designed new VR equipment and a protective AI in this new version of the game to ensure the protection of the people. It can only be hoped that things will be different this time around. This is Jessica Gardner, Channel Five Eyewitness News.”

The news and their misinformed bull. It’s been a year since the events of Eden, all right. And I have nightmares to prove their existence. I survived the game. I wasn’t the only one. Claire, Cloud, Zack and Nero also got out despite having died in the game. It was good to see them again and know they were OK.

Those of us still in high school got to test out and go to college. Claire and I decided to wait a year and then we both decided on Saint Louis University, or SLU as its known informally. After a lengthy recovery period in the hospital due to my prolonged exposure to the game, I officially asked Claire to be my girlfriend in real life, and we’re dating now at SLU. As I write this, we’re on break visiting my brother Jon.

Jon needed money flowing into the house, so his best friend Zack, or Matt as he is known in real life, moved in with him. The two still work for Dignitas. They are guards as before, but this time for their newest game director, my best friend in the game, Raziel, or Adam Crescent as he is really known.

After the events of the game, I got to meet Adam in real life. He was happy to see I had survived and succeeded. He doesn’t fault his brother for his crimes and readily forgave him. I thought such forgiveness surprising, but I couldn’t blame him. I love my brothers and I’d always forgive them. Adam is going to SLU as well, despite being very well off and being director of the gaming department in one of the biggest companies in the world.

He and his friend Josh are roommates. Josh was Lucifer in the game. To our delight, Claire and I also got to meet Nero in real life. It turns out he is a teacher at my former rival high school. He teaches history and runs the fencing and martial- arts clubs.

Sadly, Apollo died in real life. His name was Morgan. He was a board member at Dignitas. He sacrificed himself for us, and for that and much more I will always remember him.

Then there is my twin. He is alive, but he is stuck in a coma. The doctors tell me that his brain activity is as though he were still in the game. I visit him a few times a week. I miss him so much. I tried to get revenge for him by exposing Veren, but without evidence there was no way to prove he was to blame. As Jon and Matt have contracts with Dignitas that specifically forbid discussion of all company activities, even if they wanted to reveal evidence, they couldn’t without facing major legal issues with the company.

How did Veren survive? I asked myself for a while. It was because, as expected, he didn’t interfere with his VR equipment. So when I killed him in the game, he was fine in real life. With his genius, he was able to pin everything on Lucien and thereby get his revenge on his adversary. Claire refuses to associate with him despite their sharing blood.

I turn the TV off because I am sick of hearing about Eden. The door opens and Jon comes rushing in. “Jord, I need to show you the trailer for Eden 2: The Second War. There’s something you need to see!” he says with enthusiasm. He sits next to me and loads a video onto his laptop.

“I don’t care about the dame game,” I say. Jon ignores me and makes me look at the screen. “Watch, damn it!” he says. Doing as he demands, I watch the screen and view the details of the game. I must admit it looks amazing. Right now it is showing a video of the first war that Eden always referred to in its backstory.

“What am I looking for?” I ask. Jon ignores me and pauses it when he gets to what he wants me to see. I look at the screen and I see nothing at first, and then it hits me.

“Jason,” I say to myself. Jon nods. “Yes, Jordan, Jason is in the game.”

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