CHAPTER 11

After a few days, it was the day of the launch of the N.P(New Purpose) gaming tournament.N.P honestly added a bit of flavor to the name. It was Glenn's idea to give it the abbreviations to make it sound cooler. It was a good thing that DC was able to make the game. On top of that, I added an entire crew to help with managing the game just in case DC failed to spot human errors during the game. It was also the crew that would check on the participant's speed, the time they spend and methods they would do to find a solution.

I went through tons of emails and voice messages from Digicliff. It should have not been possible to spam a company so fast. After the launch, in a span of eight hours about one thousand people registered to take part in the game. Honestly, I was surprised that even a thousand people would want to participate so fast. As much as I did believe in the game itself human factors were always the hardest thing that could be controlled in terms of users. It was probably the high rewards and partnering with extremely famous companies that convinced people that they wanted to participate.

N.P being a computer-generated game by an advanced supercomputer or in my case, the most annoying piece of device you could ever create, was based on basic programming skills which as you continued involved hacking. All this was placed in one hundred levels of increasing difficulty. At the end of each ten levels, there was a big boss challenge with the last final boss being an extremely difficult challenge. All these could be solved by anyone who was extremely talented in computer skills the main thing was to observe how they solved each problem and the time they took. Each time you advance in your grouping another person is defeated and must start all over again. It was more like mentally torturing young people when you thought deeply about it. It slowly took a dark turn into my mind and actually pitied all those who tried it.

As much as we placed it in a tournament arc format. We made sure to quantify the amount of time each player took. The tournament part of it was just to give them pressure and observe how they would react under pressure. Together with that, we left the entire game for anyone to join at the time they were interested in the time the game would run. Miranda suggested that part since she said that XR might not be easily provoked to a simple game until others try it and give positive feedback or until he sees an opening to try it when others continuously fail.

In the meantime, all we could do was watch and wait to see if things would fall into place or we could fail miserably. It was not the best thought to place in my mind but I thought it was best to keep my options open especially at a time like that when people's lives were in endanger. Plus if I want some breath of positivity I would just have to watch non-sensical videos of pandas doing something cute, like sneezing. Only panda bears could make sneezing cute, well Miranda could do that too if she was not embarrassed whenever she was caught off guard.

Anyway, N.P was a well-thought-out game and it ensured maximum efficiency and saved a lot of time. At the very least it was a way to eliminate those who we would be sure were not XR. I was not sure if that was pure cruelty but at least it would help people who are actually dying out there in Gendwall. Paradise city residents did always love overreacting in situations but I know they would overcome the pain of losing in a gaming tournament. Hopefully.

As usual, I still had to control my company and made sure everything was working right especially the huge project which was the expansion of the transport tubes to other cities. In those few days, when we were preparing to get the game up and working, Miranda was a big help in the company. She did a great job establishing her status as Jen Blue and it seemed most of the members of staff were on board with her ideas .she gave me constant updates on the research projects making extremely comprehensive reports. You could feel her emitting big brain energy when she was just walking in the corridor. If it was not for the current mission I would have placed Miranda as one of the heads in a heartbeat. She could have even advanced Digicliff more if she was the C.E.O. I had always had immense faith in her skills as a computer specialist. Her innovation was always impressive and at some moments I would start fantasizing a world in which we were happily running the company together.

Sometimes I stared at my ceiling and just tried to believe that all this was happening. I could have been having an extremely intense fever dreaming and all of Miranda was an image I placed to fill the emptiness of my being. It was a huge possibility but Glenn would have already pointed out to me that I was going crazy so that was not an option. Sometimes the memories when Glenn said I she was hiding something from me would come flooding in. I hated not being able to trust someone who I extremely cared about. Either way, I had to admit that it was my idea to be left in the dark in their little secret. Was it even the right choice?

**************************

Well, it did not take too long until I decided that I probably did not make the right choice after all. Although it had been a few days the thought of not trusting Miranda was eating me away. That could have been a reason or it was the childlike feeling of always wanting to know what your friends know. I wanted to know and since the entire game had finally released I knew I could focus on what they hid from me.

It was an extremely selfish thought but I just could not take the burden of not trusting her. It was pathetic of me to feel that way but I just could not help myself in that situation.

I timed a night where Miranda and I were on X-floor where I could see her actual face and not a holographic image that was nothing like her. We sat in silence as I went through some files and made sure to time myself perfectly. The moment when she was not on high alert and showed signs of relaxation. My plan was to stare at her until she got noticed, got uncomfortable, and then I would ask her a couple of questions. Staring might have sounded like a dumb idea but as long as it would work I never cared.

I stared at Miranda until she was point-blank confused. It was an actual process when it happened. Miranda was a tough nut to crack. It took some minutes before she reacted to my staring at her shoulder. She never even squirmed or felt my eyes on her. It was as if she actively ignored it in her mind and her body language did not reflect it. I was not sure if that was in her rebellion training handbook, But if it was I was extremely impressed.

"Miranda, how did you get back here ?"

"I told you on the first day I stole away on one of the planes . Why are you staring at me, Cy?"She asked now looking at me with her sudden cold lifeless eyes.

"Okay, how old are you ?"

"Twenty-one. We both know that. Cy where are we going with this ? and why are you asking me these extremely obvious questions?"

I felt terrible for interrogating her but I had a feeling in my heart that something was off and it had been off ever since she came back. That time around I had to try getting rid of that feeling for my own sanity.

"What was the last thing I told you before you left for gendwall?"

I had to ask a non-factual question, one that she would only have to know. . A question that only both of us would know.

"I don't remember, I'm not sure it was a hectic day," she said clearly lying through her teeth to me.

As much as Miranda was not like me in terms of lying, she would never lie about something like that. It was clear that she never remembered, or to clarify it was as if it never happened in her mind.

"Miranda we never saw each other that day, you ran off and you forgot that. You are uncertain of yourself you are never uncertain. Miranda, you don't remember me." I said looking at her to check for any sudden shift from that statement.

We stood there looking at each other she was in a daze she lowered her face and covered her face with her hands. I was blank. I had hoped it was not true, I prayed that I was the one hallucinating or I was just being anxious. I just assumed that's why she was acting odd. It was a statement that I had felt for some time but after she was back the last thing I wanted was her to completely forget Me. She could duplicate a Miranda and act and behave the same way but I knew Miranda well enough to know when she is herself and when she is not. She removed a neatly folded paper from her pocket and handed it over me.

"Read it."She said weakly.

'Find Cyrus Mayday, find XR. Save gendwall. From Miranda"

That was all it was written. I was confused by the letter. Did Miranda write it to herself? and why?

Knowing Miranda she would have added a bit of more information. The vagueness of the message felt like she was trying to command herself to complete the actions she never wanted to do.

"It was a letter, I found after I got injured in one of the raids. I never mentioned that I lost some of my memories even to my teammates. It was like a certain part of it was deleted or there is more somewhere. Don't say that I don't remember you, Cyrus. I could never let you escape from my past life. I remember you and Glenn but only when we were kids in middle school and for some reason when I saw your name on the missions I felt happy and I never knew what happened. Just the very few fragments of our friendship are what I could gather. Nothing else. Glenn found it in ease I guess I gave it away but you also noticed so I have to be the problem here."She said biting her lip, she would never cry in from of me but I could tell that she was crying on the inside.

It was shocking, my thoughts were everywhere. Honestly, I felt like an idiot for not knowing sooner. At the same time, Miranda went through a lot and I could only blame myself for what happened to her in Gendwall. It was a moment at which time had stopped and I felt like I was being dragged back into my nightmares. It felt chilly that the hairs on my body stood straight. I looked at the floor and all I wanted to do is crawl and hide somewhere. I felt like the only reason Miranda went through all that happened was because of my own carelessness. Sadness flooded into me and I never wanted to feel that way but I could not easily fight something that had been slowly killing me for years now.

When I went through this entire crisis I could feel Miranda slipping her hand through mine as she still looked sad, She was trying to be strong for the both of us. I felt even more pathetic. I was supposed to be the one to comfort her and yet she was the one comforting me.

"Miranda...."

"Cyrus I know how you feel and you are the most selfless person I have met despite what you think of yourself. In the few days that I have been here, you have helped me more than I thought could be possible. Now," she said slowly raising her voice, "Stop blaming yourself. How many times do I have to tell you that you should stop blaming yourself! If leaving was a decision the old me made then it was for a reason! " She said biting her lip harder now having a little blood flowing down her chin.

I wanted to say something but it was not the right thing to do at that moment. I took her hand and held it. I was tired of being as pathetic I had been. If holding her hand was the right step to take I was going to do just that. It was an uneasy moment and I could feel both of us trembling. I remained silent and strengthened my heart for both of us. I could not imagine the trauma she went through but I had to be willing to put aside my own pain to solve the issue.