A World Online

01

Year 2237 | Panganiban Residence

In a simple futuristic room, 8 gaming pods are lined up — 3 on both sides of the room, and 2 are at the other end of the door. And each was blinking green.

Inside one of these pods was Jaden, who was standing still, waiting for the body scan to be over before everything went dark and her feet left the cold ground. She felt like floating in the water yet free from friction.

She took a deep breath as she closed her eyes, the small ring on her temple glowed green as she entered the game.

--

Parallel World Online.

A new game was released by Candra Corp., claiming that players can use their abilities in-game without suffering from their drawbacks, especially, death. But of course, the player has to 'level up' by gathering EXP before they can use their abilities without a problem. And the fact that the Association was their partner in making the game, gathered more attention.

--

When Jaden opened her eyes, she was in a white room. It was so white that it looked endless. "Oh, oh! Wow, I'm in heaven." She blurted.

"Hey, Jay."

Jaden turned around and saw Ella, her twin sister. Her skin is as white as it can be, with shell-like luster and visible lines that made her look more like a robot than a human. The indigo-colored neural whips for hair were slowly turning into regular hair as the tips are in dark brown, a sign that the unfolding is near. And her blue crystal-like eyes were so enchanting and beautiful.

"Hey, sis." She waved her hand, "What'cha doing here?"

"Because we're twins. Didn't you read the official site?" Ella tilted her head.

Jaden froze for a moment before smiling like an idiot. "Oh, that? Duh~ of course, I did. I remember." She laughed and Ella stared at her, not believing a word she said.

Jaden noticed her stare and stopped smiling. She sighed, "Okay, fine. I didn't."

"You just looked at the pictures?"

"I-I mean..." Jaden tried to deny but gave up, "Yeah. Didn't bother reading it."

"Oh, okay." Ella nodded in understanding of Jaden's reliance on the fact that she would have read the entire site. She glanced around and loudly muttered, "Huh, it does look like heaven."

"Right?" Jaden asked with a silly smile. "Should I knock off 'seeing heaven' on my bucket list?"

Ella glanced at her and hummed, "I don't think you'll ever see heaven."

"Wha-hey, are you damning me in hell?"

"Huh? No! I mean, it's impossible to see heaven. You'll be dead." Ella crossed her arms as she muttered, "And with our record, I don't see why not."

"Ah-record-Oh, come on! A prank is a prank, there were no hard feelings. It was the family's annual war, what can we do about it? Why would we be damned in hell for that?"

"Uh, we made a homemade bomb. We almost went to prison for that."

"Hey, I didn't know the app was used by terrorists." Jaden crossed her arms. "It had a cute cover. I just download it. It was an honest mistake."

"Yes, downloading it was a mistake." Ella nodded. "But you cracked it."

Jaden froze.