The Holo Earth

Chapter 31

Liam paced his living room, his mind racing with the weight of everything Zolok had revealed. The ceiling lights dimmed slightly in response to the setting sun outside. He collapsed onto his couch, burying his face in his hands. "There has to be a way out," he muttered. "There has to be."

Liam opened his tablet's mind mapping app and began furiously scribbling down ideas, desperate for any solution that might free him from Zolok's grasp. As he reviewed his list, a mix of hope and desperation washed over him. But as he considered each option, the harsh reality of his situation began to sink in.

"Simulation bugs," Liam muttered, tapping his stylus. He thought about the countless glitches and exploits discovered in video games over the years. But this wasn't just any game—this was reality as he knew it.

"What if I could find a glitch?" he said silently. "But then what? Would I just... disappear? Or would Zolok catch me before I could use it?"
He shook his head. "Focus, Liam. One step at a time."
"If there were easy exploits, wouldn't the Veritas Society have found them by now?" he reasoned aloud. "They've been searching for bugs to keep the Xenumia out, and they haven't succeeded."
Still, Liam couldn't shake the feeling that there might be something they'd missed. His mind wandered to Aurelio. If anyone could uncover a flaw in the fabric of reality, it would be someone like him.
Liam jotted down possible angles to explore:

Quantum entanglement at macro scales
Dark energy manipulation
Patterns in seemingly random events

But as he stared at his list, a new problem emerged. How could he possibly convince Aurelio to help?

Liam's pen tapped rhythmically as he brainstormed:
Present ideas as thought experiments
Frame research as testing the limits of known physics
Subtly guide Aurelio's existing work towards potential "glitches"

Yet even as he plotted, doubt crept in. "Even if we found something, would we know how to use it?" The steady, unchanging nature of scientific laws suddenly felt oppressive. Liam realized that even identifying a potential flaw in reality wouldn't necessarily mean he could exploit it to escape.
And worse, what if involving Aurelio put him in danger? The memory of Calvin's fate sent a chill down his spine. Was he willing to risk Aurelio's life too?

His eyes fell on the next item: "Ethical boundaries." Liam's stomach churned as he considered the implications. "If extreme unethical behavior could break the simulation or trigger intervention, wouldn't we have seen that already?"

He thought of the atrocities committed throughout human history, the cruelty humans had inflicted upon each other. Undoubtedly, most of those events had Xenumia behind them. But then a new idea struck him. What if it wasn't about the scale of the atrocity, but about the intent behind it?

Liam scribbled frantically:
Perform an unethical act with explicit intent to crash the simulation
Test if knowledge of the simulation affects ethical boundaries
Attempt to create a paradox of ethics within the simulation's rules

Yet as he reviewed his notes, a wave of revulsion washed over him. Could he really bring himself to commit atrocities, even in the name of escaping the simulation? And what if it worked—would that make him just as bad as the Xenumia?

"No," he said, crossing it off the list with a shaky hand. "Humanity has been pushing those boundaries for millennia. It clearly doesn't make a difference. And even if it did... I can't become a monster to defeat one."

Liam turned his attention to the idea of computational overload. He started researching the current state of cryptocurrency mining and distributed computing projects. As he delved deeper, he realized the futility of this approach. "The computational power needed to simulate just one town, let alone the entire world, would dwarf anything I could contribute," he concluded, shutting his laptop with a sigh.

The notion of breaking routines seemed promising at first. Perhaps he could go somewhere before it was rendered. He even went as far as to check flight prices for a spontaneous trip. But as his finger hovered over the "Book Now" button, he paused. "How many people make split-second decisions every day? How many lives take unexpected turns?" he mused. The world was full of chaos and unpredictability, yet the fundamental nature of reality remained constant. There would be no way to reach a spot and see if it rendered in front of him. Nobody had ever reported such a thing, at least to his knowledge.

As night fell and his more conventional ideas proved fruitless, Liam found himself considering more esoteric options. Exhausted but desperate, he dimmed the lights and sat cross-legged on the floor, attempting to mentally reach out to any benevolent Xenumia who might be listening. The silence seemed to mock his efforts.

Perhaps there were Xenumia out there who could save him, but Zolok had shown no signs of being especially able to read his mind. In a final act of desperation, Liam decided to call out loud. "If there's anyone out there, anyone who can hear me," he began, feeling foolish but pressing on, "please, help me. Show me a way out of this." His words echoed in the empty room, met only by the soft hum of his electronics.

Another idea came to him and he yelled, "I no longer consent to being in a simulation!" Still silence.

Liam slumped back onto the couch, exhausted and disheartened. None of his ideas seemed viable. Each attempt to find a loophole in reality only reinforced how trapped he truly was.

He decided to reach out to the Veritas Society. With trembling hands, he composed a message to Anna, detailing everything he had learned and experienced. He hit send and waited.

Liam's fingers drummed against his desk, each tap matching the anxious rhythm of his heart. He refreshed his email for the twentieth time, his screen's blue light harsh in the darkening room. Every notification sound made him flinch – a friend's text, a spam email, a system update – but nothing from the Society.

Had he made a catastrophic mistake reaching out? Was the Society even real, or just another layer of manipulation in Zolok's grand design? Maybe just reaching out to them would enhance Zolok's wrath.

When his phone finally buzzed, Liam nearly dropped it in his haste to check the message. His hands steadied as he read Anna's words: "Are you truly prepared to sever all ties with them?"

He sat up straighter, shoulders squaring. "Yes," he typed back, each letter feeling like a step toward freedom. "I want out."

The response came quickly this time, the words filling him with a fierce kind of joy: "Tomorrow evening. HQ. We'll be waiting."

Liam set the phone down on his desk, a smile tugging at his lips. His hands were steady now, fingers flexing with fresh purpose. The decision was made. In the corner of his eye, he caught his reflection in the darkened window – tired, yes, but with a spark of determination he hadn't seen in weeks. Now he just had to survive until tomorrow, and for the first time since this began, he truly believed he could. Somewhere in the city outside, a siren wailed, but it no longer seemed ominous. Instead, it felt like a herald of change, of possibility, of hope.

The cleaning robot emerged from its dock, beginning its routine with the soft tapping of its many legs. Tonight, its familiar mechanical rhythm felt almost comforting, a reminder that some things remained predictably normal even as his world tilted on its axis.

He lay in bed, mind racing not with fear now, but with possibilities. No longer was he alone in this fight, fumbling in the dark against forces he barely understood. Tomorrow could be the beginning of real answers, real solutions.

Still, caution tempered his optimism. He thought of everyone he needed to protect. If he could find a way out, maybe he could help them too.

His last conscious action was to grasp the pendant, not in desperation now but in defiance. "I'm coming for answers," he whispered, as sleep claimed him. For the first time in a long time, his dreams were not of darkness, but of light breaking through clouds.