It wasn't really a lizard, as anyone with even the slightest grasp of zoology would realize. Sure, it was green and scaly, with a tail, but its head was a strange shape, huge white fangs glistening, and it only had two legs and was walking upright. The clincher, though, was when the thing opened wide its mouth and spewed a green flame in Casey's direction.

Snapping himself out of his dumbfounded state, he managed to dive out of the way just in time. Apparently, this was one of the enemies. Casey tried to crawl away, but suddenly felt a stinging pain on his leg. The thing, like a chicken pecking for grain, had grabbed it with its mouth.

He gave a short cry. He couldn't help it. He hadn't expected the game to actually hurt him, although it had exceeded any amount of realism from past games, so he shouldn't have been too surprised.

With his free leg, he smacked the beast in the face. It squealed and let him go, but Casey wasn't going to give it the chance to back off. He got to his feet, too filled with adrenaline to notice the pain in his leg at the moment, and decked the creature squarely on the nose.

With one last scream, it fell on the ground, twitched a little, and then stopped moving. Casey kicked it a few times, just to be safe. He lifted his pant leg and examined the spot where the beast had bitten him. No broken skin, not even a bruise, so perhaps this game had more bark than bite. It still hurt, but not enough that he couldn't walk away.

He was about to do just that when the thing's body started glowing. Curious, Casey took a few small steps back toward it, not wanting to get too close in case something bad were to happen. While the corpse shined, it seemed to be shrinking, until there was nothing left of it except small green gem.

Casey picked it up. It was warm, but it didn't seem to be anything special. Still, it was a reward for killing the enemy, so he pocketed it and went along his way.

%%%

For what seemed like hours, Casey wandered along the edge of the lake. Eventually, he came across a new oddity.

It was a carrot with legs. At least, that's what it looked like from a distance. Approaching cautiously, in case it was another enemy, Casey realized that it was simply a man in a carrot suit, pacing around tirelessly like he was very perplexed.

"Oh, hello," the Carrot-man said when he saw Casey. He had a strange voice. Pleasant, but sort of echoey and ominous...

"Um, hi," replied the teen distrustfully. "What are you, an enemy?"

"No, I'm an NPC," was the reply. Nonetheless, Casey kept his guard up. "There's been a major slowdown of players recently, you know," the NPC went on. "You're the first I've seen in almost twelve hours."

"Whatever," Casey responded impatiently. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find Tim, would you? I started playing the game with him, but now I just can't find him."

Raising an eyebrow, the Carrot-man asked, "What do you mean, 'with him'?"

"Like, we both got in the machine and it started up."

"At the same time!" he cried, clasping both hands to his face in horror.

"Uh, yeah. What's the big deal?"

Lowering his voice, he replied, "You're not supposed to do that. Only one person is allowed to use a single Wild Side unit at once. The programmers haven't yet perfected local multiplayer."

Casey was silent for moment. "So...what does that mean then?"

"Well, you'll get in big trouble when you leave!"

"What about Tim, though?"

"What about Tim?"

"What happened to him?" growled Casey.

The Carrot-man shrugged. "Nothing, I assume. He's not part of the game, so the holograms are simply 'hiding' him. ANyway," he seemed to be trying to change the subject, "how do you like Wild Side so far? Do you have any other questions?"

"Er..." If what this guy was saying was true, Casey didn't really have to worry about Tim anymore. "Not reall-oh wait." He hastily pulled the little green jewel out from his pocket. "What's this?"

"A diamond," he replied disinterestedly, as if he had answered this question a million times before. "Enemies sometimes drop them, but you can also find them in P boxes."

"And...what are they for?"

"Buying things from shops, or casting spells. Of course, since you only have one, you can do neither of those things at the moment. You can carry them in this." He handed Casey a small brown sack.

Casey's eyes had widened when the Carrot-man had mentioned spells. It sounded neat. "How would I cast these spells if I did have enough diamonds?"

"That's a bit...complicated...it has to do with concentration..." he vaguely replied.

Oh well. "Then where are the shops?"

"There's one along the lake's shore. Just keep following it and you can't miss it."

"Alright. Thanks for the help then, um, NPC dude."

The NPC seemed a bit startled at this statement, then chuckled calmly, "If you have any more questions, I'll be right here. Not leaving anytime soon."

It sure was an advanced NPC, Casey thought as he walked away. To be able to hold up such a conversation must've taken massive memory. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was probably one of the developers, there to help since all of this was so new.

But then, why had he talked as if he didn't know all the arcades were closing? He glanced over his shoulder to see the Carrot-man pacing back and forth again. Just how long had he been there?

%%%

The shop was empty. It was a round, purple room with curtains, like a swami's room. There was even a crystal ball with a black stand sitting on a little table at the back.

"Hello?" Casey called out. Silence. He walked to the middle of the room and tried again. "Anyone?" Still nothing.

At that point, he turned and noticed that the crystal ball was sparkling eerily. He went over to it and realized that it was hollow and full of diamonds.

"I'm going to take these diamonds if no one answers me!" Casey yelled, but the room was just as quiet as ever before. He meant it to be an empty threat, but it suddenly occurred to him that that wasn't a bad idea. The Carrot-man hadn't told him how many diamonds it would take to cast a spell, but here was enough to probably cast fifty!

But wouldn't that be stealing? He shook the question from his head. Of course it would be stealing, but that's a perfectly acceptable action in most videogames. Looting graves, entering houses without permission, smashing pots...and even if this was like Baldur's Gate where legions of wizards appear out of nowhere for even the slightest offense, it was still just a game.

Despite all that, he reached for the sphere hesitantly, then slowly lifted it...

"HEY!"

Casey started, almost dropping the treasure, and looked over his shoulder. Nobody still. Then who...?

"Hey, dammit! Whaddya think your doin'?"

And then it hit him: the high-pitched metallic voice was coming from the crystal ball's stand. He saw a red digital face light up on it and glare at him. At the same time, a spaghetti-like robotic arm popped out and pinched his hand with its claw.

"Ow!" He dropped the globe back onto the stand.

"Thought so," the stand-robot grunted. "Don't try taking anything again, or I won't be so nice."

"Well...I tried getting your attention before," Casey replied defensively.

The robot snorted again. "Yeah right. But on second thought, I should expect as much when I fall asleep on the job. That's not my fault, though! I haven't seen any players for more than ten hours!"

"So this is a shop, right?" Casey tried to change the subject.

"Of course it is!" It cried. "But what makes you think I'd sell to a would-be thief like you?"

Casey was about to say something when he realized it wouldn't do any good. This shop owner was probably programmed to refuse any people who attempted thievery; the price for stealing.

But even as he left, he felt somewhat disturbed by the place. That robot could not have been human, but it seemed just as intelligent as the Carrot-man. Besides, refusing to sell to someone was the least that could happen in real life, given the situation. As a whole, Wild Side was disturbing.

Disturbingly real.

%%%

The flag was obviously the goal of the level. It was guarded by no less than seven of those lizard-things. Also, it had the word "end" written on it in big red letters, but Casey was too distracted by the monsters to notice that at first.

All the lizard-things seemed much smarter than the ones he had fought on the way here. And since there were a bunch of them, there wasn't much time to beat up one when another was sneaking up behind.

Casey retreated for a moment so he could rethink things while the lizards moved back into their protective circle around the flag. He was covered in bites that hurt like crazy. There were even teeth marks! Not knowing his HP meant that he was either good for a couple more hits, or on the brink of death.

Not real death, of course. Hopefully not. Even though it was preposterous to think that the game would kill him for real, Casey had resolved to not take any more chances.

Clearly, his only chance was to break through quickly and reach the flag before he took any more damage. But how? If only he had figured out how to use magic. He had twenty-seven diamonds from other enemies burning a hole in his pocket, but they wouldn't burn through anything else.

At that point, he remembered the Carrot-man mentioning concentration. How would that help? Could Wild Side read minds now? Still, he didn't have any other options, and what was the worst that could happen? Damnit, I probably jinxed myself for thinking that!

Nonetheless, he grabbed a handful of diamonds and tried to relax his mind, but what was he supposed to concentrate on? To his surprise, he somehow "felt" the answer. A rush strength, and suddenly, the world around him fell under a green tint. When he looked back at his hands, he saw the diamonds had crumbled to grey dust.

"I guess...something worked," Casey mumbled, a bit bewildered. He didn't know what had happened, but now was probably the best chance he had of beating this crazy game.

He rushed at the seven lizards, who bared their teeth and swarmed to meet him. The first one leaped at him...and dissolved as soon as it touched the green force-field around him.

Casey was dumbfounded as the other lizards shrank away from him in terror. A clear path! He snapped himself out of his shock, rushed passed them, and grabbed the flag...

...Immediately, the world around him darkened, fading away. The flag slipped from his hand as he entered an ominous black void. Only when the familiar orange grid reappeared did Casey let out a sigh of relief...

...Too soon, as Tim was still gone.