In Vitality – Edge of the Emerald Reaches
Cassian's boots crunched lightly on luminous moss as he emerged from a fading teleport glyph near the treeline. The air was unusually still—no ambient music, no wind track, just the soft hum of the Obsidian Veil as it calibrated.
He was alone.
His HUD flared briefly:
"Zone: UNREGISTERED – Network ID: Legacy_EVR-203.AX"
Map Status: NULL
Ping: 1,748 active user connections.
But there were no guild flags. No activity logs. No combat trails.
That shouldn't be possible.
He moved forward slowly, sword sheathed but hand close to the hilt. The Emerald Reaches were an old part of Vitality, meant for early-mid-level quest chains before SynapseCorp repurposed the map. He knew these trees. He built the way they bent toward the light.
But this part? This part had been scrubbed before launch.
---
After twenty silent minutes, the trees opened into a glade wrapped in soft, unnatural light. A small village sat nestled at the heart—cobblestone paths, glowing paper lanterns, and perfectly looping birdsong. Trees shimmered overhead like glass filigree, swaying to no wind.
Dozens of players walked the paths—smiling, waving to each other, tending crops or painting walls with idle animations.
None of them spoke.
No global chat. No whispers. No UI pings.
Cassian's Veil pulsed.
**Scan Active:
Player ID: Confirmed
Neural Interface: Stable
Command Input: 3–5 seconds delayed**
Behavior Pattern: Repetitive Loop Detected. Manual Control: Inactive.
He frowned.
These weren't bots. They weren't NPCs.
They were real players.
Logged in. Connected.
But looping.
---
He passed by a man fishing at the pond—pole never cast, eyes fixed forward.
A woman rocked a pixelated infant that didn't blink.
A child avatar rode in a circle on a wooden horse, smiling eternally.
The whole place smelled like curated peace—a patch update frozen in time.
"Welcome to the Everdream," read a nearby signpost, carved with hand-shaped tools. "Here, all burdens are lifted."
Cassian scanned for a terminal. Found nothing. No world objects, no quest items, no triggers.
His grip on his sword tightened.
---
Then, one of them stopped.
A girl avatar in simple robes turned as he passed. Her head tilted, eyes flickering with a pulse of something else.
"You…"
Cassian froze.
The girl's body trembled.
"You're… wrong. You're not part of…"
Static crackled in her voice. She took a step forward—and then her model buckled. Limbs distorting for a moment before she collapsed to the ground.
Cassian stepped in, scanning fast.
Vitals: Stable
Cognition: Spiking
Override: Triggered
Logout: Forced
She vanished—leaving behind only a faint echo in the Veil's memory scan.
---
Cassian's screen flashed with an alert:
> "Anomaly Triggered – Uplink Echo Detected."
"External Process Override Active."
"Signature… masked."
Someone had just forcefully disconnected her.
He slowly turned back toward the village.
The others kept looping.
Pretending.
Living.
---
He took one step toward the center of the Hollow.
Another ping.
This time subtle. Not in the UI. In his ears.
A whisper buried in the system's sound layer.
"Leave us alone."
He stood still.
The wind didn't move.
Then, quietly, he activated a silent beacon inside the Veil—calling for a trace.
---
End of Chapter Six
Side note:
HUD stands for Heads-Up Display.
In the context of Vitality (or most games/VR systems), the HUD is the layer of visual information that the player sees overlaid on their screen or in their vision while they're playing. It's a core part of the user interface and shows key data without disrupting immersion.