Welcome to the Essence. Please be patient as the system calibrates.
To Diana, the silky-smooth voice of the Essence, a virtual reality system, was all too familiar. Every day, she heard the voice when she put on the headphones and strapped herself into the virtual reality gear. And every time she slipped the VR headset on and waited for the images to appear in front of her eyes, her breath quickened in anticipation, excited for her chance to escape her reality and immerse herself into a world where her schoolwork didn’t exist and her loneliness didn’t bother her.
As the system finally loaded, a message popped up on the screen: The last game you played was The Legend of the Seven Stone Kingdoms. Would you like to resume?
Diana tapped the yes button with the controller she held in her hand and watched as the landscape of the game unfolded before her eyes. She glanced down at her hands to make sure that her avatar in the game had loaded completely. Sure enough, her avatar was wearing the brown explorer outfit, beige khakis and grey boots along with a leather jacket and plain white t-shirt — the simple default outfit. Then, she lifted her eyes to see the familiar seven paths laid out, each leading to a different realm.
The main objective of the game was to journey through each realm and complete tasks and battles to obtain a gem. Once all seven gems, one from each realm, had been collected, the player needed to bring them to the central kingdom located in the middle of the realms and restore peace to the kingdom.
Diana scanned her surroundings, noting the paths that led to the ice, the forest, the water, the rock, the cloud, and the fire realm were glowing green, indicating that she had already received the gems from those realms. The only path illuminated in red led to the metal realm, the last realm that Diana had yet to explore.
Logically, Diana should’ve chosen the red path. Instead, she turned around, sprinted along a green path, and entered the fire realm through the entrance of a dark cave. Once inside, she expertly leaped from one rock to another to avoid the lava bubbling menacingly around her. Her familiarity with the terrain allowed her to sprint forward confidently without worrying that she would fall victim to the hot lava.
Diana’s feet pounded against the platform she stood on, but she was running in place, held steadily by the band around her waist, which was attached to the platform with sturdy supports. Although her footsteps were loud, Diana didn’t pay any attention to the noise, drowning it out as she focused on reaching the one person she was looking for. Well, the character she was looking for.
Her eyes lit up when she saw the red-haired girl wearing all black sitting on a floating piece of rock, and Diana rushed over towards the character, still staying careful enough to avoid falling into the bubbling lava.
The Legend of the Seven Stone Kingdoms was clustered with NPCs, non-playable characters. However, unlike other games, the NPCs adapted to the player’s responses and almost served as an AI, learning and modifying their behaviors depending on the evolving situation and the knowledge they gained from the players. That’s why the girl turned around with recognition in her bright purple eyes when Diana called, “Zara!”
“Diana! There you are. I’ve been waiting for you,” Zara grinned, scooting over on the rock to make room for Diana. Diana mirrored Zara’s smile and took a seat next to her best friend – yes, her best friend – as she took a sandwich out of her backpack, splitting it in half and handing one half to Zara. Yes, Diana’s best friend was an NPC in a virtual reality video game.
Diana could clearly recall the time they met. When she reached the end of the fire realm for the first time, prepared to find the third gem, she was greeted by Zara, the protector of the gem. Zara had snarled, a sword gripped tightly in her hand, and recited her programmed lines: “Prepare to face defeat, traveler.”
“Is your name defeat?” Diana joked as she reached into her backpack to grab a weapon, just in case. Fighting NPCs was always Diana’s last resort but sometimes, she wasn’t able to talk her way out of a brawl.
Zara blinked in surprise and broke out of her fighting stance. “No. My name is Zara.”
“Yeah, I know. I can see your name above your speech bubble. I was just joking,” Diana chuckled, finding Zara’s confusion endearing.
Still staring blankly at Diana, Zara questioned, “What’s a ‘joking’?”
“You don’t know what a joke is? C’mon, let’s sit down and talk. We can worry about the magic rock later. Learning about jokes is more important,” Diana stated as she carefully placed the knife she was clutching onto back into her backpack and sat down on the floor.
Zara watched Diana suspiciously and mimicked her movements slowly, refusing to inch closer to Diana. She didn’t let go of the sword, but Diana hardly seemed fazed. Instead, she set her backpack aside and held up both of her hands before beckoning for Zara to scoot closer. “Come closer. I won’t hurt you. I don’t have any weapons on me.”
Zara’s naturally programmed urges to fight Diana were overridden by her curiosity, a personality trait the programmers decided to add for fun, and she finally moved closer to Diana. Smiling, Diana began explaining some of her favorite jokes (she shared the joke “A guy walked into a bar. He said ouch.” and Zara shook her head, replying “I don’t get it.”) and some classics, like knock-knock jokes and “why did the chicken cross the road” jokes.
Letting her guard down, Zara listened diligently and absorbed all the information Diana shared. Then, Diana heard the distant sounds of her mother calling her to go eat dinner. She reluctantly turned to Zara and sighed, “I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“Will you be back?” Zara sounded hopeful. She had been lonely guarding the gem by herself, and Diana was the only person who had ever truly kept her company. Similarly, Zara was the only person who had ever been willing to listen to Diana ramble about trivial topics.
“Of course,” Diana reassured, patting Zara on the back before she stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
From that day on, Diana returned to the fire realm every day to visit Zara. As Diana and Zara sat together on the rock and ate their halves of the sandwich while watching the lava bubble.
“So, how was your day?” Zara questioned, biting into her sandwich. She had no need to eat — NPCs didn’t have an energy bar — but ever since Diana introduced her to food, Zara loved eating the sandwiches Diana always brought.
Diana shrugged and pulled her legs closer to her as she responded, “It was okay. Boring, as usual. I ate lunch in my U.S. history teacher’s classroom today instead of eating with my English teacher so that’s cool I guess.”
Zara shook her head, taking another bite of the sandwich before musing with a mouth full of bread and ham, “I still don’t get how you don’t have many friends at school. You’re so funny and cool.”
“Yeah, I don’t know either. I guess reality isn’t just as nice as this. I’m the happiest when I’m in this game,” admitted Diana. In all honesty, she didn’t have the heart to tell Zara that in real life, she wasn’t as cool as she was when she played the game. In the game, Diana was a confident, witty girl who could fight any challenges thrown her way, but in real life, she was a meek, quiet girl who rarely tried to make friends because everybody was too loud and intimidating.
Regardless of what Diana’s personality in real life was like, Zara still adored Diana. Zara often wished that she wasn’t a video game character so she could protect Diana from the horrors of reality.
A brief silence fell over the two friends as they finished their halves of the sandwich. Brushing the sandwich crumbs off of her lap, Zara cautiously looked over at Diana. “How far along are you in the game?”
“I have 6 gems so far,” Diana replied, patting her backpack as if to affirm that she had her gems in her bag. “I just need to go to the metal realm and get that gem. And then I’m done.”
“You’ll have to move on eventually, right?” Zara tried to keep the heartbreak out of her voice, but she failed.
As she shook her head adamantly, Diana insisted, “No, I don’t. I want to stay here forever with you. I don’t have to finish the game and leave. We’re going to be best friends forever and nothing will change that.”
Smiling at Diana’s determination, Zara brightened, sitting up a little straighter. “Alright. If you say so.”
