The Gamer

Ash was curled up on the couch, head resting on Valentina's lap as they watched the news in horrified silence. Reports of people all over the city suddenly dying, their bodies destroyed by "seemingly endless electric shocks that persisted even after death." Every single report was the same: the gaming companies servers had been hacked, and millions of accounts had been stolen, including any data that would link a person's account to their bio-hardware.

Valentina slowly ran her fingers through Ash's hair, trying in vain to comfort her. She swiped a strand of hair behind Ash's ear, and her hand came to rest on a metal chip tucked behind Ash's ear, a dim red light periodically blinking. She took a cautionary glance towards Ash's mother, who was bustling about the kitchen nearby and looked down to the carefully guarded face on her lap.

"Do you want to head in your room?" she prompted, tapping Ash twice behind the ear to let her know what was up. Ash slowly nodded and sat up, silently heading off to her cramped room.

Once the door was closed, Valentina traced her finger around the edge of Ash's bedroom door. After a brief prompt from a computerized voice that Ash confirmed, the room was made sound-proof.

Valentina moved to where Ash was sitting on the bed and tapped the red light. A screen flipped over Ash's eye and she tried to offer privacy as Ash watched a video message from Jonah. Despite trying her hardest not to listen, she could hear his hushed voice, panic seeping into the edges.

The message ended, and the screen flipped away at Ash's prompt. She merely stared off into space.

"Kaleb's dead," she breathed, her voice straining to reach anything louder than a whisper.

"What?"

"Apparently he was killed, just like all the others on the news."

"That's awful - is it not just a glitch?"

Ash shook her head solemnly. "Jonah is sure this is deliberate - he and Kaleb were both locked into their accounts. Kaleb was signed in when he died, even though we all saw him sign out. Jonah logged in to..." Her voice cracked as she tried to shake away the mental image of Kaleb being electrocuted. "... to help, but now he can't sign out."

Valentina checked her wrist. "I'm still logged out."

Ash did the same. "Me too."

"So this was only some people?"

Ash shrugged. "Apparently. Jonah seems to think something bigger is coming though."

As if on cue, Ash's eye piece flipped back out, and Valentina found a news broadcast projected directly onto her eye - a piece she had gotten fitted for years ago. Soon, though, the reporter was replaced with a young, severe-looking man. He had a widow's peak, and was clearly rich, judging by the multitude of visible piercings he had, and more than one tattoo. He was noticeably lacking any sort of bio-hardware, making him look strange and foreign. Valentina had heard of "purists" that insisted of keeping their lives free of tech.

"Welcome, fellow citizens," he started, his voice professional and scarily calm. It seemed to hide an inner madness - as if he had a carefully orchestrated plan that would bring them all down. "You may call me 'The Gamer'. I am here to show you how little any of your lives matter in your little pocket universe you all keep yourselves cooped up in. I'm here to show you how fragile your little 'society' is. To show you how quickly you'll all turn on each other.

"I was a gamer, like so many thousands in your city are. They've all been living right under your noses, and could be anyone - your partners, your children, your friends, your newscaster." He held up his arm and rolled down his sleeve, revealing a long, jagged scar that ran the entire length of my arm. "I cut my GamerPass out of my wrist when society declared us monsters - when society proved how little it cares about anybody.

"I have already killed ten people with a simple line of code. Within twenty-four hours, I will kill ten more, and on, and on, until one million people are dead, or your society crumbles - whichever comes first."

He leaned forward, a predatory stance that made Valentina unconsciously lean back, despite being unable to escape him. A sickening grin revealed rows of pearly teeth, reminding Valentina of the "sharks" she had seen in her books. He leaned back into his large executive chair and spread his hands wide.

"Let the games begin."