Chapter 8 - What Happened?

I woke up with blurry vision and a terrible headache, I can remember the restaurant and the convenience store but that's about it … Wait, I know what happened. The power plant, the underground entrance, the sleeping gas, we're inside that organization right now...

Eventually my vision cleared up, I was in a white room that had a computer on a table, and a large screen connected to it hung from the wall. There was a white door on the right of the room and a metal door on the left. The metal door had a turning wheel instead of a doorknob. After trying to get up, I noticed I've been tied to a chair with rope! Looking around, the rest of us were also tied to chairs.

"Guys! Wake up!" I called to them, and I noticed my mouth was dry. We must've been here for a couple hours.

"Ughh… Yooooo what the fuck. What the actual fuck!" My friend said, they tried to shift around in the chair but the rope was too tight.

*Yawn* "That was a good nap… Ah HELL." Ryan was more irritated than anything.

"That room was a trap, I should've known..." Valerie was looking around the room.

"I ain't into this kinky shit, goddamnit!" My friend yelled. I almost laughed, but now isn't the time for jokes.

We heard footsteps. The white door opened, a man in a white lab coat stepped out. He looked old, with combed-back greying hair and a small beard on his chin.

"So what brought your four to our underground facility? I didn't expect visitors…" The man said.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is not important, though I am the leader of this organization. We are a group known as 'Perfect World'. And we aim to solve big issues of this planet. Pollution, overpopulation, many things... We aim to fix these problems by-" Valerie cut the man off.

"Shut it! I know of your flawed agenda!... Perfect World is developing malicious AI to infect games and spread it over the wifi connection. It will invade that online community and soon enough, the rest of the internet!" Valerie was angry. This must be what she was rambling about from before.

"And you plan to make technology so dangerous that the world will stop using it? You think that'll work?!" Valerie barked out.

It was satisfying to watch Valerie call them out, but she didn't tell us all that earlier... The man was surprised, maybe even impressed.

"Well what do we have here? A user of the Dark Web? That's very interesting." The man said, he walked around us in this all-white room.

"You just gonna walk circles around us all day?" Said Ryan.

"Yeah, old man! Never seen PEOPLE before!?" My friend added in.

"Oh but I'm dying to know. How you just 'found' the underground staircase. Near an isolated power plant, so far from the city… We never shared this location on the Dark Web… Anyone care to explain?" He walked in front of the computer desk.

I hardly knew what was going on, only Valerie or possibly Ryan would know. Though it WAS Valerie who lead us here.

"... Don't you recognize me? Take a good look at my face. Who do you think I am?..." Said Valerie with a cold stare.

He stepped forward.

"... Shizuko?!... You're alive?..." The man took a step back.

"Valerie, why is he calling you that?..." My friend asked, but she did not respond. Ryan seems to have already known, since he didn't react. Valerie continued to glare blankly.

"I assume that you HAVEN'T told them... Why don't you introduce yourself, 'Valerie'? Heheh…" He scoffed.

"... About 10 years ago, I've been told that working for a certain organization will benefit all of humanity. Just had to make software, artificial intelligence, and occasional hacking…" We all kept quiet while Valerie explained.

"I created some well-functioning AI and softwares, thinking many people would benefit… When I found out what they ACTUALLY used it for, I made an escape. But I knew they'd be after me..."

"I returned home, one last time. Telling everyone what happened, and that I had to leave. It was the only way to protect them from Perfect World's reach."

"I never contacted them again, I changed any means of identification, I faked my own death. 'Shizuko' had to die, in order for them to stay alive..." The tone of anger in Valerie's voice began to fade.

"My AI eventually got programmed into a Nintendo 3DS game, you three know which one. I'm the reason 'Pit .exe' existed. Sorry I couldn't tell you until now…" She finished explaining.

So that's what happened with her and Perfect World? Shizuko was a worker here until she ran away from Perfect World and her old life. She changed name to Valerie, and her AI made that Kid Icarus game 'cursed'?

Now everything makes sense, in the end, it was none of our faults. Valerie worked for them, but the organization lied to her. Ryan used their cheat code, but he wouldn't have known it'd bring the game to life. And we played the game, but there's not much we could've done about it.

"Valerie… Don't blame yourself, that wasn't your fault… " I said quietly.

She didn't say anything, a dead silence filled the room. The man in the lab coat spoke.

"... Anyways, we don't let trespassers leave this place knowing everything about us… But because your 'leader' used to be one of us, I'll make an exception..."

"Come back to us, Shizuko. Your skills are exactly what we need! And the rest of you have to stay here, but you'll witness a new era of mankind!... But if you won't cooperate, the four of you will die... So, do we have a deal? Take your time..." Asked the Leader of Perfect World.

This is a tight situation. It's either Valerie says yes, or we'll be killed down here. What would she decide? I'm starting to wish I never payed attention to that newspaper article at work yesterday...

(Author's Note: I thought of "Perfect World" because they want to make the world perfect, but I believe absolute perfection is impossible to attain. Everything will have some sort of flaw or downside.

They think they can kill a ton of people to reduce the overpopulation, and make technology dangerous that people will stop making/using it. Because factories pollute, making smoke and devices that don't biodegrade. That's just my explanation of what this fictional organization is.)