By the time Klic arrived at school, the usual buzz of Millfield’s floating halls did little to distract him from the strange feeling that lingered after last night. His friends were there, chatting excitedly as usual—Ty with his latest glitchy AI necklace, Dan rambling on about soccer tryouts, and Reya pretending to be uninterested but clearly adjusting her boost-mod for his stat modules.
Klic moved through the crowd, trying to keep his thoughts from drifting back to the weirdness in his head. He had to focus. Today was just another day in VR.
But as he approached the group, Jennifer’s eyes found him, and for a moment, it felt like everything else melted away.
“Still feeling… off?” she asked, her voice soft, her concern genuine. She had a way of seeing through the cracks, always knowing when something wasn’t right.
He shrugged, trying to look casual. “I’m fine.” His voice didn’t sound convincing, even to him, but Jennifer only nodded, accepting his answer for the time being. She wasn’t pushing, but he could feel the weight of her gaze lingering on him.
Before Klic could say anything else, Principal Durney’s voice crackled through the intercom, cutting through the chatter.
“Students, please welcome our newest transfer. Straight from the Nomadic Nodes of New Europa… meet Sirius Vale.”
The room went quiet.
Klic’s eyes immediately flicked to the front of the hall. There he was—Sirius Vale. He stood tall, calm, his platinum school coat glowing under the fluorescent lights. His silver eyes flickered as if scanning the crowd, an unsettling presence in the midst of a group of normal students.
Nova, who had been watching from her console, tilted her head. “No digital footprint. At all. No tags, no records. That’s… not normal.”
Sirius caught Klic’s gaze, and for a brief second, Klic felt an inexplicable chill run through him. Then, Sirius walked toward him. No one else seemed to notice how the space around him felt heavier, like the air itself was waiting for something to happen.
“You’re a nodewalker,” Sirius murmured, just loud enough for Klic to hear, his voice smooth like it was part of the quiet hum Klic couldn’t seem to shake. “You’ve been accessed.”
Klic’s heart skipped. What did he mean?
Sirius didn’t give him a chance to respond, already moving past him and blending into the crowd. But Klic’s head was spinning, thoughts colliding. He didn’t need any more complications. He just wanted things to stay simple—normal.
Act Two – “VR Survival Simulation”
The VR lab was bustling with energy as Ms. Hexley announced the day’s simulation assignment. “Today, we’ll be doing a survival challenge in the Neural Forest. Your task is to find and decrypt a hidden node before time runs out. Remember, the terrain is unpredictable, and the code is constantly shifting. Stay alert.”
Klic didn’t need to hear the rest. His eyes drifted to the partner list on the screen.
Klic and Sirius.
Dan and Jennifer.
Reya and Ty.
It wasn’t like he was bothered by being paired with Sirius. At least, that’s what he told himself. But when he glanced at Jennifer and Dan, standing next to each other, their avatars loading side by side, he couldn’t help the tight knot that formed in his stomach.
Dan was already grinning, practically glowing with excitement. Jennifer was by his side, matching his enthusiasm with a subtle but unmistakable warmth in her smile. The two of them looked good together. Too good.
Klic looked away quickly, a wave of frustration washing over him. It wasn’t jealousy. It couldn’t be. They were just friends, right? He tried to push the feeling down, but it bubbled back up every time Jennifer laughed at one of Dan’s dumb jokes.
Meanwhile, Sirius was standing a few paces away, waiting without a word, his eyes fixed on Klic. He didn’t seem to care about the partnership, didn’t show any sign of excitement or frustration. His calmness made Klic uneasy.
“Let’s go,” Sirius said simply, turning and walking toward the simulation entrance.
Klic hesitated for a moment but followed. Just get through the simulation. Focus. It’s just another exercise.
Inside the simulation, the environment warped around them. Trees flickered in and out of existence, their trunks shimmering as if they were made of code rather than wood. Vines twisted unnaturally, their shapes constantly shifting, and strange AI creatures with glitching faces leered from behind digital foliage.
Sirius barely seemed fazed. “Have you ever heard the trees dream?” he asked, his voice calm, almost distant.
“What?” Klic snapped, irritated. “Stop with the weird poetry.”
But Sirius was already walking ahead, leaving Klic to trail behind. The whole thing felt like a waste of time, especially when Dan and Jennifer’s avatars were so perfectly in sync, laughing and working together like they’d been doing it for years. Klic felt like he was the third wheel in his own simulation, watching them interact without really being part of it.
Sirius turned back to Klic, his eyes unreadable. “You’re distracted,” he said. “They’re not the ones you should be focusing on.”
Klic clenched his fists, frustration rising. “I don’t need you to tell me what to do.” He tried to log out, but the exit nodes were locked. A small alarm went off in his head. Something was off. He tried again—nothing.
Sirius gave him a knowing look, unbothered. “The system is keeping you here, Klic. It wants you to stay. But you can’t leave until you understand what’s really going on.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer and Dan were working effortlessly together, uncovering pieces of corrupted data, their bond evident in every action. Klic couldn’t deny the bitterness that twisted in his stomach. They were fine without him, laughing and talking like they didn’t need anyone else.
Stop it, Klic told himself. They’re just friends. They’re just doing their job.
But the pang in his chest wouldn’t fade.
Inside the simulation, the Neural Forest was a place of chaotic beauty—trees that flickered between solid matter and pixelated code, vines that spiraled out of control, and animal NPCs that spoke in riddles, their forms distorting like glitching sprites.
Klic followed Sirius through the dense, glitchy forest, trying to ignore the strange hum of the environment. His mind was elsewhere, mainly on Jennifer and Dan—who were already too far ahead of him in the simulation. They were laughing as they cracked jokes, running circles around corrupted data nodes like it was the easiest thing in the world. Meanwhile, Klic was stuck with this weird, cryptic new kid, Sirius Vale, who kept throwing out nonsensical questions.
“Have you ever heard the trees dream?” Sirius asked again, his voice smooth as silk, eyes glinting in a way that made Klic want to punch him.
“What? No, I haven’t, Sirius.” Klic rolled his eyes. “And I’m not planning on it.”
Sirius didn’t seem phased. He kept walking, effortlessly dodging the shifting terrain. “You should. The trees are connected to something much older than the system. They can feel the code, Klic. You can, too. You just don’t know it yet.”
Klic snapped, his patience wearing thin. “Listen, I came here to get the node, not to have a philosophical debate with a walking glitch. Can you just focus on the mission?”
Sirius tilted his head, amused. “You’re not exactly focusing on the mission yourself, are you?”
Klic clenched his jaw. He hated it when people were right.
He stared ahead, trying to push Sirius’s words out of his head. Focus. He had to stay focused. Jennifer and Dan were probably a few nodes ahead, working together as if they were in perfect sync. Klic felt like a third wheel on his own team.
But then—something caught his eye.
A flash of silver in the trees. Klic’s heart skipped. For a moment, he thought he saw something familiar. He took a step forward, but the ground beneath him shifted. The trees around him flickered like bad video feed, their shapes twisting and contorting, pulling him in different directions.
“Where are you going?” Sirius called from behind, his voice eerily calm.
“I saw something,” Klic muttered, squinting into the trees.
Before he could react, a sharp crack echoed through the air, followed by a high-pitched whistling sound. An enormous, digital wolf—its pixels jittering and breaking apart—charged at Klic from the glitching underbrush. Its eyes burned with bright, unnatural light.
Klic didn’t even think—he bolted, his feet pounding the ground as the creature chased him, snarling and snapping. He could hear Sirius’s voice behind him, unbothered as usual.
“Run faster, Klic. You know it’s not real, right?”
“Thanks for the life lesson, Sirius!” Klic shouted, not slowing down. His heart was pounding, his breath ragged. He darted through the forest, weaving between trees that flickered and vanished as quickly as they appeared.
He looked back. The wolf was getting closer, pixelated teeth glinting in the virtual moonlight.
Klic swore under his breath and tried to jump over a fallen log—but his foot caught the edge, sending him tumbling to the ground in a heap of limbs. The wolf was upon him in seconds.
With a wild, desperate scramble, Klic pressed a button on his wrist console and activated a defensive firewall program. The wolf paused for a second, glitching violently. But it was only a temporary fix. It circled him, its distorted growls growing louder.
“Sirius!” Klic barked. “I need backup, now!”
“You’re doing fine, Klic,” Sirius said, his voice still annoyingly calm. “Just breathe and keep going.”
“Are you kidding me?!” Klic snapped, finally pushing himself to his feet. “Do you even care about this mission? Or are you just here to watch me struggle?”
Sirius stepped forward casually, his steps completely unfazed by the chaos. “Struggle is part of the process. But if it helps you, I’ll help you take care of the wolf.”
Before Klic could react, Sirius raised a hand, and the wolf suddenly flickered out of existence, disintegrating into a cloud of static. Klic blinked. “How—?”
“Impressive, right?” Sirius shrugged nonchalantly, like he’d just taken care of a pesky fly. “I’ve been here before. It’s not all that difficult once you understand the code.”
Klic gaped, mouth open. “You let me almost get eaten by a digital wolf?”
Sirius gave him a dry look. “You were handling it. You just got distracted. Same as you’ve been this whole time.”
Klic’s face flushed with irritation, but he didn’t have time to argue. A loud, distorted voice boomed from the sky:
“DECRYPT THE NODE. TIME REMAINING: 10 MINUTES.”
A countdown began, flashing across the sky, and the forest around them seemed to shift again, growing more chaotic as the seconds ticked away.
“Alright,” Klic muttered, his earlier frustration bubbling to the surface again. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Sirius smirked. “I thought you’d never ask.”
As they moved through the increasingly unstable simulation, Klic’s frustration only grew. Every corner they turned, they were faced with yet another glitching AI creature or shifting piece of terrain. The forest seemed to react to their every move, as though it knew exactly what they were thinking.
Klic, trying to keep his temper in check, grabbed a vine that flickered in and out of existence. “What’s the deal with all this? Why are we even here? What’s the point of this whole simulation if it just keeps throwing curveballs?”
Sirius didn’t answer right away. Instead, he studied the environment, his eyes flicking back and forth as if calculating something unseen. He wasn’t even sweating, as if he was completely at ease with the chaos around them.
“Maybe the point is to break you,” Sirius said softly. “To see what you’ll do when you can’t control anything.”
Klic threw him a frustrated look. “That’s your answer? Just be broken?”
“No.” Sirius turned to face him, his expression unusually serious. “The point is to learn how to fight back—how to adapt when everything around you is trying to fall apart.”
Before Klic could argue, the environment shifted again—this time into a dense, foggy marshland. In the distance, a massive, glowing node pulsed ominously, but it was guarded by something far worse than the wolf. A shadowy figure, a humanoid with shifting glitch patterns and no real form, stood in their path.
“You’re not going to like this,” Klic muttered, stepping back.
“Not again,” Sirius groaned, almost sounding annoyed. “If I have to defeat one more corrupted ghost, I’m going to snap.”
“Maybe you should stop talking and start doing,” Klic retorted, his frustration spilling over.
Sirius cracked a smile, his eyes glinting. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The figure moved toward them, the air growing thick with digital static. Klic’s heart hammered as the node in the distance seemed to pulse even more intensely.
“Here we go again,” Klic muttered, already preparing for the next round of chaos.
Sirius looked at him, unbothered, as he cracked his knuckles. “You know, Klic, you might just be getting the hang of this.”
“Glad someone thinks so,” Klic shot back, taking a deep breath as the shadowy figure lunged toward them. “Let’s just finish this and get out of here.”
As they prepared for the final challenge, Klic’s mind raced. Was this simulation just a test of skill? Or was there something more hidden beneath the surface? Something about this wasn’t just random. There was a deeper mystery here, one that even Sirius seemed to understand more than he was letting on.
And Klic wasn’t sure if he was ready to face it.
Inside the Simulation – Final Stretch
The fog had thickened into a disorienting wall, and the glowing node pulsed in the distance, shimmering like a far-off star in the center of the marshland. Klic tried to focus, tried to drown out the growing feeling of being off-track, but every time he glanced to his right, his eyes would inevitably find Jennifer and Dan, still far ahead of them in the simulation.
Dan and Jennifer’s avatars were working in perfect harmony, coordinating their movements with ease. Klic could see them laughing again, low and quiet, a shared moment of victory. It was easy for them. So effortless.
His hands tightened around his wrist console, but his thoughts were already elsewhere, spiraling. He couldn’t help but compare himself to them—why did everything seem so natural for them? They didn’t need to work at it, not like he did. And Sirius, with his constant weird questions and detached attitude, wasn’t helping.
Focus, Klic told himself again. But it was like trying to hear someone speaking clearly underwater.
“Do you think the node knows we’re coming for it?” Sirius’s voice cut through his thoughts, soft and smooth, like he wasn’t even worried about the time limit ticking down above them. The countdown read 2:00.
Klic snapped his head back toward Sirius, trying to mask his irritation. “What are you talking about? Of course, it knows we’re coming for it. It’s a simulation, it’s programmed to react.” His voice was sharp, the edge betraying his frustration.
Sirius didn’t seem bothered by Klic’s tone. “Ah, but there’s a difference between reacting and anticipating.”
Before Klic could retort, a low, humming sound filled the air. The ground shook slightly, a strange energy pulsing in the very air around them. The node was close now—so close. Just one more push, and they’d have it.
But Klic’s thoughts were elsewhere again. He glanced up just in time to catch a glimpse of Dan and Jennifer, their avatars standing shoulder to shoulder at the center of their own node, a strange aura of success surrounding them. Jennifer’s face was lit with an easy smile, her eyes sparkling as she looked over at Dan.
Klic could almost feel the connection between them, like an invisible thread that tied them together. It wasn’t just friendship. It was something else, something Klic couldn’t quite put his finger on. And for some reason, that something gnawed at him.
A flare of jealousy twisted in his gut. He wanted to be the one who was in sync with Jennifer, to be the one who could laugh freely with her without the looming sense of distance.
Screw it, Klic thought. He couldn’t do this right now. He couldn’t focus.
“Let’s finish this,” he muttered, but it was more to himself than to Sirius.
Sirius raised an eyebrow but said nothing, his face unreadable. He was already moving toward the node, his steps smooth and deliberate.
The ground trembled again as the final wave of distortion hit. Trees bent and flickered around them, AI creatures now rushing toward them from all directions.
Klic’s eyes darted around, half-heartedly dodging the creatures but his mind still not in the game. He wasn’t in sync with the mission anymore—he was lost in his thoughts, lost in the feeling of being left behind, of being second best.
Just finish it, he told himself again, but the knot in his chest tightened.
Suddenly, a crack split the air. The node flared, its pulse quickening. Klic’s eyes snapped back into focus just in time to see the last critical line of code flashing before him. They had seconds—seconds—to complete the decryption.
Klic reached out, but his hand hesitated, and in that moment, the system glitched. The code scrambled. The node flickered, then collapsed, dissolving into a flurry of static.
“No!” Klic swore under his breath.
Sirius didn’t even seem surprised. His expression remained neutral, but his eyes lingered on Klic for just a moment, a flicker of something unreadable passing through them. “You didn’t finish,” he said quietly, but it wasn’t accusatory. It was just… a fact.
Klic gritted his teeth, the frustration welling up inside of him. It wasn’t his fault. He’d been trying. But the world around him—Jennifer and Dan’s flawless teamwork, the eerie calm of Sirius, the pressure of it all—it was too much. He’d failed.
And just like that, the VR world around them shuddered. The static began to swirl, consuming everything.
Reality Check – Back to the Classroom
The sudden jolt of being pulled from the simulation felt like being ripped out of the air. Klic stumbled as his avatar faded and his real-world vision snapped back into place. He looked around, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights of the classroom.
The students were all back in their seats, and Ms. Hexley’s voice filled the room, cutting through the lingering disappointment that sat heavy in Klic’s chest.
“Well done, everyone!” Ms. Hexley said with a grin. “You all showed impressive teamwork today. And I have to give special congratulations to Dan and Jennifer—who finished the simulation with perfect synchronization!”
Klic’s head snapped up, his eyes darting to Dan and Jennifer, standing side by side, beaming with pride.
Jennifer’s face was flushed with the thrill of victory, her smile warm and wide as she received the praise. Dan, ever the showman, was already waving his hands dramatically, soaking up the attention.
Klic felt a rush of heat flood his cheeks. It wasn’t fair. They hadn’t even tried as hard as he had. Their success had come so easily, so naturally. And here he was—standing with Sirius, who had been more of a burden than a help, barely hanging on to the last bit of dignity in the room.
“Jennifer, Dan—really excellent work,” Ms. Hexley continued. “You two were an example of what happens when partners work in perfect sync. This mission demanded cooperation, and you both nailed it.”
Klic could feel the words like a slap across his face. He looked down at his desk, his heart sinking. He wasn’t part of that perfect sync. He’d failed, and now everyone could see it.
Beside him, Sirius was unusually quiet, almost like he didn’t care about the outcome at all. Klic glanced at him, but Sirius seemed lost in his own thoughts, his gaze unfocused.
But Klic didn’t want to think about Sirius right now—or his cryptic comments, or his damn detachment. What Klic wanted was to not be the guy who couldn’t finish the simulation, the guy who couldn’t keep up. The jealousy curled up tighter in his chest, sharper now.
“Are you happy now?” Klic snapped, his voice low, but the bitterness was clear.
Sirius blinked, looking up at Klic, his expression unreadable. “Happy? I don’t think happiness is the right word here.”
Klic’s breath hitched. “Then what do you call it?” he growled.
Sirius tilted his head, watching Klic with the same calm indifference that was starting to drive him insane. “I call it understanding. You’ll understand when the time comes.”
“Whatever,” Klic muttered, pushing away from his desk, not wanting to deal with any more cryptic nonsense. He turned his gaze back to Dan and Jennifer, their laughter echoing across the room. He hated the way his chest tightened every time he saw them together. He hated how effortlessly they worked as a team, how they seemed perfect together.
Jennifer’s voice reached his ears again as she and Dan joked about their victory, and Klic felt an ache in his chest. Maybe it was jealousy, or maybe it was just the sense of being left behind that hurt the most.
The truth was, Klic didn’t just want to be part of the team—he wanted to be enough. And right now, he felt like he wasn’t.
Sirius, ever the enigma, leaned forward slightly, his voice smooth but heavy with meaning. “You’re a nodewalker,” he said, low enough that no one else could hear. “You weren’t supposed to be awake yet. But now that you are… they’ll come.”
Klic froze, his heart stuttering for a moment. Nodewalker? What was that supposed to mean? His mind was still unraveling the significance of those words when Sirius’s figure shifted, blending into the crowd of students. By the time Klic looked around, the moment had passed—except for the shiver crawling down his spine.