Eniola felt like she should’ve been doing more to help Zaira, but after their meeting and barely surviving leaving Tokjin, Zaira went silent.

Eniola called those thoughts away as she flew on the hover with her team in the loud and cheerful arena just as it has always been, as they surrounded Eunji on the big hover. Eunji’s outfit today was quite an eye-catcher. She corseted tightly her pink dress at her waist and a huge slit split it down the middle, revealing tall black boots that went all the way up her thighs. Shifting flower petals tied around her dress and regularly changed colour and type. This time her bob was a striking blue instead of purple.

The arena was pulsing again as they were waiting for the second official round to start. Yesterday’s side challenges were even more challenging than they had ever been, and Eniola, for the first time, felt truly exhausted after playing SCOPE. They played in Atlantis, battling the other teams. Not only was it a new world, but there were also new opponents. They probably only won half of the games they played.

They eliminated 14 countries. Eniola couldn’t remember all of them off the top of her head, but she was sure Australia, Kazakhstan, and Liberia were there.

Eniola looked beside her on the floating hovers before spotting Stavros and Artemis not too far away from them. They and their team waved more enthusiastically to them, and Eniola happily waved back. It was nice to know their friends and allies were still here. If they didn’t, Rogue would have to do the unthinkable.

Socialize out of their circle.

Now they would enter the newest SCOPE world, not yet revealed. Thrilling adrenaline and nerve-wracking fear ran through her veins. Eniola inhaled, then exhaled.

The lights finally illuminated them and darkened over the audience. The crowd’s cheers turned to excited hushes, and the mood that hung over them was tense.

They officially started the second round. Eniola took in a deep breath, then exhaled it into the air.

“Welcome fans and players to the second official round of the 2057 International SCOPE Championships. The newest world is the City of Ruins,” Eunji announced as the holo-screens shifted into images of a broken-down city overrun with vines. Those are what cities might’ve looked like if no one dealt with climate change all those years ago. Eniola was just happy it wasn’t here now.

“There is a twist for this round,” Eunji began, and Eniola knit her eyebrows. The twists were usually reserved for the last round, but she guessed anything could happen on this global playing field.

“This round will have 2 teams merge to create one team to work together. We will double the points that an individual team would score not only for the joint team but each player adding up to team scores,” Eunji explained as expressions of shock went around. “However, the benefit will only come into play if a combined team is part of the top 18 teams to finish the second round.”

Shock ran through Eniola, but she didn’t show it. These teams were the best in the world and showing any weakness could be a sneaking point for them to dominate. But seriously, this was going to be one intense round. How would playing with a new team even go?

“Ranking will match teams up,” Eunji said, as the holo-screens once again shifted into the current scoreboard. Rogue was at 18. “For example, if you are in 5th place or your 5th from the bottom, we will pair you up. 10th place from the top and 10th place from the bottom will be matched. 17th and 18th will go together.”

“First off,” Eunji began. “Sweden and Panama.” And so she went, pairing each high-ranking country with a low-ranking one. Rogue was in 18th place, meaning whoever was in 17th place would be their temporary teammates.

“Finally,” Eunji began. “USA and Egypt. Please meet with your teammates and make your way down to the playing pit.”

The hover floated them down into the wide playing pit, where two flags marked each team slice. Eniola felt it drop before immediately walking out onto the slice marked with the American flag and the Egyptian flag. A second hover dropped and 5 SCOPE players, 5 girls, shuffled out.

“Hey guys,” Theo began, but they swiftly ignored him. Eniola almost froze over from the icy stares they all got. So much for being teammates. The one girl in the middle felt like she was the captain because something about her exuded captain-ness.

She had striking green eyes, and that was all that was visible because of the niqab covering her face. When the time came, they all put on their SCOPElenses and their helmets and prepared for the game. For a short time, Eniola pressed the new widget in the corner of her SCOPElenses before a light scanned over the middle girl and a flurry of data came up and her photo.

Eniola read their data, and it confirmed that the girl was the captain. Her name was Bassant Al-Sadat. She was only 12, and already a 3-time national champion. How was she already such a prodigy?

Theo began, “So for game strategy, I think we should-

“I say we fight to win,” Bassant interrupted in a small voice. “SCOPE isn’t about strategy, it’s about brute force. That’s the way I’ve won all these times. It’s all about the adrenaline.”

“So you’ve just been winging SCOPE this entire time with no strategy?” Lucia wondered.

“You can renounce us when you place higher than us,” another teammate said. Her info came up in Eniola’s lenses. Her name was Salwaa. She was 13.

The landscape shifted into the city streets. Crumbling, broken, and desolated buildings surrounded them on the ashen streets, with thick vines going through them. Eniola sniffed in the dusty and smoky air, as she felt the breeze of cinder fly over her avatar’s skin. The point was to survive in an apocalypse. Perhaps with 5 other people, this might be easy.

The countdown went off, and the SCOPE alarm blared into the air, declaring the games to start.

Immediately the girls in Egypt ran forward at rapid speed on the streets, and Eniola spread out from her team following the apparent adrenaline Bassant was talking about. Eniola called her bike to go under her before riding through the busy streets.

Eniola zipped across a corner of the street, following the map in her SCOPElense’s vision before she screamed and screeched her tires to a halt. People with sickly green skin, veins popping out of their skin and bloodshot, all moved in a staggering gait as they groaned.

The City of Ruins had come with zombies. And they were coming for her.

“Don’t pass the first corner!” Eniola yelled to her teammates with panic running through her before she hopped off of her bike and ran in the other direction.

A rough hand clasped against her ankle and Eniola screamed as she tried to pull it in front of her. Eniola quickly selected the ‘O’ ring from her inventory. Her eyes flitted over the selection quickly before a gun formed in her hands. Eniola spun back before she shot bullets into its lack of brains. They turned into a bunch of coins. Eniola was happy to take them, but the satisfaction wasn’t long.

The zombies staggered to her, preparing to make her their next victim before her eyes nervously flitted over to the destroyed buildings. Eniola took in a nervous breath before shooting the zombies that crowded against her.

Eniola turned back and ran down the street corner again before moving into the huge street where everyone was in. The zombies have congregated on the street corner. Jay and Iris both drove their bikes into the crowd in one synchronized joyride as yeons spread out.

Theo and Lucia were running across the street, dodging zombies, before Lucia took something out of her belt and threw it in the crowd. Something egg-shaped was flashing, and all it took was a wild guess for Eniola to run out of the place before the already broken street exploded.

“Woah!” Jay yelled, before coming back to an enormous expanse of yeons they all happily collected.

“Here’s a thought,” Theo began. “We should divide into different parts. We need defence against zombies and offence against other teams. I think we should also designate a team to seek the disk.”

“Who made you in charge?” Bassant said through her microphone.

“It was just an idea,” Theo sighed. “For Rogue, I want Jay and Iris on defence and Eniola to join us on offence. When we find out the location of the disk, we can break away and get it.”

“Or you stop wasting time on strategy and simply go for it,” Bassant told them. Eniola fought the urge to put Bassant in her place. On the map is her vision. The dots that represented Egypt were already a long way away.

Eniola moved her gaze quickly before a flash of colours caught her eye on another street corner. Slowly, she tip-toed across the broken streets before sliding into an alleyway. Floating right in front of her was a black and yellow cube. The info on her SCOPElenses was already there before Eniola could think about it outside of its marvel.

Secret Eyes. With this power-up, you could choose any team you wanted and you could have all access to their team views and their microphones and you would be transported for 30-seconds to get intel on what they were doing.

This was a jackpot.

Eniola reached her hand up to grab it, before a supernova of technicolour lights spread out from her touch and into the landscape. The City of Ruins exploded into a blinding blur of pixels. Then a rush of sudden pain ran through her body and screamed at her insides.

The glitch stopped and Eniola collapsed onto the ground as a painful scream tore through her throat.

“Eni!” a voice yelled, increasing in volume as it got closer. Eniola blinked through her eyes to find Jay at her side, who propped her up. “What happened?”

“Something,” she hissed shakily, unable to finish her sentence. “Was it a glitch?”

“Yeah,” Jay replied before the rest of her team was beside her with worried faces. “That’s never happened before.”

“It never has,” Iris reminded. “We’ve also never played SCOPE when a glitch happened.”

Suddenly, the simulation all around them receded, transporting them back to the arena.

Confusion filled the air, with wondering hushes from the audience. Every team was spread out over the playing pit, with confused expressions still in their gameplay. Eniola clutched onto her side again, before raising an eyebrow at the lack of feeling in her body. Just a minute ago, her body felt like it was being torn out inside out, but now she felt fine. Virtual pain.

A hover dropped into the playing suddenly, but it was med-droids, who some were carrying a body pod that all filled one area.

“What’s going on?” Theo said through the noise.

“Look,” Iris said, as she pointed. Eniola turned around with them to see them carry out a person. Teammates surrounded them, with red faces and tears in their eyes. Then the reality sunk into Eniola like a weight.

Body pods were for dead people.

◣

To make a long story short, they put the international SCOPE championships on hold because someone from the United Kingdom died during the game.

SCOPE was supposed to be virtual. It was realistic, but it wasn’t real. Once you got killed in the game, you came out of the simulation. It was all fake. Wasn’t it?

From what Eniola heard, the person had a seizure and died on the spot. The games and arena were called off for the day, and everyone retreated to the village. Later, Eunji and the SCOPE committee put the games on hold indefinitely until they figured out what went wrong with the glitches. No one wanted to risk another player.

Eniola sat on the hotel bed, wrapped in the soft blankets on her bed, staring numbly into imminent space. The place where Eniola was filled with excitement was now void and eating away at the rest of her. Eniola didn’t know the person at all, but it felt personal. It connected everyone through some invisible connection by SCOPE, so they all felt it.

What was even worse was that no one could go home. Travel restrictions were going to be put in place because the glitches were now messing with the plane interface. Everyone had exactly two days to go on a plane before airports worldwide would shut down. Plane tickets were dirt cheap and now people were flaunting their cheap, life-risking tickets to their dream vacation. That was all the news she consumed until she turned it off and let the silence shroud her.

The better part was, that Eniola could make this stop. Rogue could. Now that they had Zaira on their side, and were in South Korea, they could stop Paradox once and for all and get home easier.

Eniola’s phone buzzed again, and she groaned at the notification. All anyone could talk about nowadays were Kain and Matrix Man and the glitches. It got annoying after a while.

Suddenly, the door to her room flew open, revealing Iris, whose smile seemed to be big and wide despite the situation. Eniola squinted her eyes at the brightness that came from the outside world.

“Woah, it’s dark in here. Eni!” she said excitedly. “I’ve got a message from Zaira. You should come and see.”

Eniola sighed before peeling herself off the bed and slowly following Iris. This house felt like a dream when they first came in, but now all it felt was confinement away from SCOPE. It was like someone had put her vision into a gray filter, as she could only see desperation lingering in the air. And someone wouldn’t be returning to their SCOPE home.

They came downstairs to see everyone sitting in the living room looking indifferent. Lucia had curled up against Theo tightly like she was melting into his arms and he was there to keep her together. Jay sat on the other end, clutching a pillow to his chest.

Iris flipped open her finger to the chip Zaira gave her and projected a screen from her eye. It was a video message from Zaira.

“Welcome friends!” she began chirpily. “It is I, Zaira Khalif-Yang, and I have news for you. I’ve been able to track Paradox and get more readings on the signals from airwaves. He came to Portland last time, and so far those signals have been moving with Paradox. I’ve found where they are and how they model SCOPE. And I know where Paradox is.”

Eniola listened further. Lucia suddenly got up and squinted her eyes as she could only see something suspicious. “He’s here. In Seoul, South Korea. I’m so good, I tracked down an exact location that I will send over to you. I have a plan, but you guys are going to need to help me. Meet me there tomorrow at 10:00 pm.”