The Multiversal Crisis

Chapter 5: Extraction

When Matt woke up, he was in a giant city, one sprawling with different alleyways and buildings of varying heights. This city, however, was in ruins.

Most of the buildings had giant gash-like holes in them where something may have crashed or blew up. There were vines growing on them, and some were even toppled over against one another. He wondered to himself what calamity had caused this city's condition.

When Matt looked up, not only did he see ruined skyscrapers approaching the heavens, but he also saw something shiny above the skyscrapers: A glass dome of some kind that appeared to surround the whole city, spanning from roughly 100 meters behind him, all the way to the opposite horizon.

He couldn't tell which way was north due to the glass dome obscuring the stars. He decided to explore the city and try to find Jack. Somehow, he still had his super speed in this simulation of a city, but the city seemed too big for him to explore all of it. As he began to run, he suddenly heard a booming voice with a British accent coming from inside his head.

???: "Matt! Matt, can you hear me?"

Matt (now slightly hard of hearing): "AAAGH! HELLO?! GOD, IS THAT YOU?!"

???: "What? No. This is Mark. I'm communicating with you from outside the simulation."

Matt: *calms down* "Oh...hi Mark. Didn't expect you to be able to talk to me."

Mark: "Yes. It's quite fascinating actually. By matching the electrical signals your brain is emitting from inside your pod with the ones in this system, I'm able to communicate with you while you are inside this simulation. Anyway, speaking of simulation, what do you see?"

Matt: "I see...a destroyed city. With a dome around it for some reason. So uh...what happened here? Why is everything destroyed?"

Mark: "Ah. This is one of the first simulations we created for our test subjects. The goal was to see whether they could survive in a post apocalyptic environment without any memories of previous social interaction. This is where Jack was first sent."

Matt (with a hint of sarcasm): "Hmm. Sounds fun...so what exactly am I looking for?"

Mark: *sighs* "I'm not able to find Jack or the Paradigm because neither are connected to the system out here on the island. I need you to find Jack, and then reconnect his signal to this system so I can pinpoint his location. You need to go towards the center of the city and look for a really tall building. That's the Nexus facility for this simulation. There should be a working lab there that can connect with the real world."

Matt: "Oh okay. Yeah sure, that's fine. Just one question: HOW AM I GOING TO FIND JACK IN THIS GIGANTIC CITY?!", he yelled at Mark.

Mark: "Quiet down! You don't want the Paradigm to notice you. Just find Jack, and get the hell out of there. Besides, you have super speed, right? Just use that."

Matt: "Uh, have you seen this place? There are tons of gaps and craters in these buildings and roads. I'll have to do more climbing than running if I want to find Jack since everything in this place is so damn tall that I can't get a good vantage point."

Mark: "Hm? Well, maybe climb...at super speed? I don't know. Do whatever you feel like."

Matt: "Are you sure you're a scientist? Shouldn't you know this stuff?"

Mark: "With my line of work, technically no. BUT, since I'm a scientist, technically YES. If you can perhaps run at such speeds to generate enough force to counter the force of gravity, it should theoretically allow you to reach greater heights. This simulation runs exactly like it would if it were the real world, so feel free to try anything."