I crawl through the entrance of my hideout, HoloPad in hand, backpack slung around my shoulder full of snacks. When I open my eyes after passing through the viney entrance, I see Crystal, leaning on a wall, playing on her own HoloPad.

She looks up. “Hey there, captain.”

“I’m no captain, Crystal,” I respond, sitting down next to her and booting on my HoloPad.

“You any good at Geometry Dash?” She asks as I pull out a chocolate chip granola bar from my backpack.

“I’m pretty good at it. You?”

“Don’t laugh, but I’m trash at it.”

“What level are you on?”

“Level one.”

She’s right about being trash. I take a big bite into my granola bar and turn on YouTube.

“How long have you been playing?”

“About a week.”

“Ok, don’t feel bad if you can’t get past level one in a week. It took me a month before I got the hang of it.”

“That somehow reassures me.” Crystal responds as she begins to attempt do beat level one.

I pull up some YouTube videos about building mini-bases and battling it out in a Nerf war. I quickly finish off my granola bar while watching, and as I’m about to reach into my bag for a second, I hear that same monstrous stomping from earlier.

“Mute anything that’s on!” I whisper to Crystal. She immediately does so, and we sit in silence for about a minute before the stomping dies down.

After waiting another thirty seconds to make sure that the probably-monster isn’t nearby, I pull back up my HoloPad interface and continue watching YouTube again.

“I can assume that it’s safe now?”

“Yeah. I don’t think the monster is anywhere near now.”

We sit in the hideout for another half-hour before I get a call on my HoloPad from my mother.

I answer.

“Where are you, Max?” My mom instantly says.

“I’m hiding from this monster that I heard about an hour ago. I feel like by now it might be on the news feeds.

“I haven’t heard any stomping for at least forty minutes,” my mom says. “It should be safe to come home now.”

“To be completely honest, mom, I thought that you would’ve patronized me for hearing a sound that no one else heard.”

“But I didn’t. Please come home now.”

“Alright, mom.”

I hang up.

I really hope that that’s the last of the monster that I see. I don’t want it coming in and wrecking my house.

“I think you’ve figured it out by now, but I’ve gotta go, Crystal.”

“No. I had no idea.” She said sarcastically. “Bye.”

“Yeah, bye. How about some VR later?”

“Yeah, sure.”

_____________________

It’s been a while since the incident with the “monster” (we aren’t exactly sure what it was, but it sure sounded like it was a monster).

My classes for being an Intergalactic space pilot begin in four days, and as always, when school is near, I spend most of my time relishing the amount of time I have left at home before more than half of it is consumed at school.

Right now, I’m playing on my HoloPad, as usual. Nothing exciting has happened, and (to my surprise) my mom wasn’t that upset about me being gone from home when she got there. At least from the circumstances, as in any other time, she probably would be pissed.

I close out the tab on my HoloPad (of course, Geometry Dash) and set it aside. Then I boot up my PC and run steamVR. I then put on my VR headset and haptic gloves.

I turn my attention from the haptic gloves now, and focus on the screen in front of me. I sift through my steam library until I find the thing I want to play at this time: Climbey.

The lobby loads in, and I look around, finding where I want to go.

I see that there are two flags to the left of me, and I walk over to them: one of them is for playing the campaign, and the other for the level editor.

I grab the flag that says “Level Editor” and wait for it to load.

While I’m playing, my HoloPad starts buzzing, as someone is calling me.

I take off my gloves and VR headset and walk to my bed, where my HoloPad is still buzzing. And of course, it was one of my only contacts, Crystal.

I answer the call.

“So,” Crystal said once I answered the call. “I hear you’re going to train to be a space pilot?”

“Yeah,” I respond. “I thought that it would be a fun career to pursue. Class starts in about four days.”

“That soon?” Crystal asks incredulously. “It’s been only a month!”

“Yeah… college does that.” I say, laughing a little. “But the training to be a pilot these days isn’t as bad as you might think. You only need about three months to train and you have the job.”

“That seems awfully simplistic.”

“Yeah,” I say. “So you wanna play any VR?”

“Of course I do. What are you thinking”

“Maybe some Climbey. I’ve already launched the game on my side, I’m in the level editor.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Alright. Bye, for now.” I say as I hang up the call.

I put the haptic gloves and VR headset back on, and return my focus to the game.

I continue working on my custom level. The part I am working on at this time is a part where you’re supposed to grab onto the ground and slingshot themselves to another platform that was about 15 in-game units away.

As I’m playtesting that part of the level to see if it even is possible (spoiler alert, it is), text appears on the bottom of my screen:

Cryst4lz has connected.

She immediately connects to voice chat. “Hey there!” She says.

“Hello,” I respond as I return to the editing phase and work on a few lava jumps you need to work past, on non-grabbable walls.

As I am working on this section of the level, I see Crystal’s nameplate appear on my screen.

I turn around and see Crystal’s character.

“What’cha working on here?” She asks.

“Some decently hard level,” I respond.

“Definitely seems decently hard.” She responds as she switches to playtest mode.

After a while of me continuing to work on the level, Crystal finally pops back into editor mode.

“I found a lot of things wrong with this that you can do. You shouldn’t really fix all of them though, since that would ruin the fun.”

“Then why’d you tell me this?” I ask.

“I don’t know”

________________________

The final four days before my classes start passed by quickly. I (of course) spent most of my time playing video games, but I did other things like ride my bike, and try my best to avoid the forbidden lands.

It's the day that the classes start. I wake up at about eight in the morning this time, so that I have enough time to prepare for the college class. One thing I really like about college is that I don't have to wake up as early as I needed to when I was in high school.

I walk to the kitchen and pull out a plastic bowl and a carton of cereal and another of milk. I pour the cereal, then pour the milk in, put the two cartons away, and pull out a spoon. I sit down at the table, and begin eating.

About five minutes later, the standard time it takes me to eat my cereal, I put the bowl and spoon in the sink and walk back to my room to get dressed.

After I've done that, I have another hour to do whatever I want before I have to leave to go to school. I decide to lie down on my bed and watch YouTube on my HoloPad.

I watch some of the ancient videos of people playing Minecraft a few centuries ago. It's still really fun to watch them play, as the version they're playing is the most recent version available to play: 1.21.

After an hour has passed, I boot off my HoloPad, grab a composition notebook, put on my shoes, shove everything I need into my backpack, and ride my bike to college.

Once I reach the building, I lock up my bike, readjust my backpack, and walk inside. I immediately see the clerk from a month ago, and she winks at me. She obviously remembers the fact that I forgot when college started.

I locate the elevator and walk inside. Then I press the button that says "11" and wait as the elevator reaches the floor. After it does (it took a minute) I walk out, walk down the hallway until I see the room I need to be in: room 1131.

I take a deep breath and walk in.