The Holo Earth

Chapter 29

Liam sat at his kitchen table, staring at the official letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission. His hands trembled as he re-read the carefully worded request for his "voluntary cooperation" in their ongoing investigation.

The words seemed to leap off the page: "patent violation allegations," "insider trading suspicions," "unusual stock market gains." Each phrase was a damning reminder what he'd done.

He thought back to that day when he'd anonymously reported the supposed patent violation to a rival company. Now, things had snowballed into a full-blown SEC investigation that threatened to unravel everything.

The letter mentioned "unexplained" profits from his recent stock trades. Liam's stomach churned as he recalled how he'd used Zolok's knowledge to make those investments. Now, faced with the cold, impartial language of the SEC, the true magnitude of his actions began to sink in.

The request for "voluntary cooperation" felt like a thinly veiled threat. Liam didn't know much about SEC investigations but based on the information in the letter, they already had substantial evidence. His cooperation wasn't truly voluntary; it was his one chance to possibly mitigate the coming storm.

Liam's eyes skimmed over another concerning detail in the letter. The SEC noted that upon further investigation, the patent violation that had destroyed the rival company was likely unfounded. His nausea grew.

As the weight of his situation pressed down on him, the air in the room seemed to thicken. A familiar, otherworldly presence filled the space, and Liam knew without turning that Zolok had appeared.
"Well, well," Zolok's voice was smooth, almost amused. "This is no doubt the work a hostile Xenumia. It seems our little game has caught the attention of the authorities. How inconvenient."

Liam's grip tightened on the letter, crinkling the official letterhead. "Game?" he spat out, anger and fear warring in his voice. "You call this a game? Do you have any idea what the SEC can do? People's lives are ruined over things like this!"

Zolok chuckled, the sound devoid of warmth. "Oh, Liam. You still don't understand, do you? It's all a game. Your life, your family's suffering, this entire world – it makes the best entertainment we Xenumia have managed to create."

Liam slumped in his chair, the SEC letter falling from his nerveless fingers. It fluttered to the floor; These legal troubles, as serious as they were, might be the least of his problems.

Liam stumbled back, collapsing onto the couch. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me enlighten you about the true nature of your reality," Zolok began, his voice taking on a lecturer's tone. "We, the Xenumia, have been controlling your world for thousands of years. Those myths of gods and demigods visiting Earth? That was us, having our fun with you make-believe creatures."

Liam's mind reeled, trying to process the information. "But... why?"

"Why not?" Zolok replied, his tone nonchalant. "You play video games, don't you? Do you feel guilt when one of the NPCs dies? What about watching movies or shows? Those aren't fun for the characters but they're fun for you. Your world is our playground. Of course our physicists didn't create it for that. They created it to study what kind of intelligent life could exist in a greatly simplified universe of only three spatial dimensions and one time dimension. But as a by-product your species and all its drama became the premier entertainment destination for us. The scientists may have cut off our ability to create tangible avatars but those limitations made the game more fun. The Veritas Society, in their fumbling way, got it partially right. They're desperately searching for a bug in the simulation to keep us out, but they're doomed to fail. Our scientists are far, far too advanced for that. The Xenumia do not create bugs."