With my old, more capable pair of legs, the journey from the hospital to my apartment would have taken no more than fifteen minutes. However, burdened by a fracture and a body battered by vilins, it now stretched to almost an hour.

  I don’t have much time left.

  Approag the unimpressive apartment plex, I find so the fact that my room occupies the first floor of the three-story building. Navigating the lonely hallway with my crutches, I turn towards my door with tempered expectations.

  Shifting my weight on the crutches, I rummage through a pstic bag taining my personal belongings to find the keys and unlock the door. A childish, wistful part of me hopes for a warm wele from my parents, but reality hits me—a mountain of trash heaps awaits, demanding careful navigation to prevent a disaster.

  Wading through what feels like a marsh of garbage, I make my way to the other side of the cramped room. It's embarrassing to admit, but my workstation stands as the sole sembnce anization aheti my small, single-room apartment.

  Without dey, I gingerly transfer my weight from the crutches to my chair, turning towards the desktop puter I left idling. The meical keyboard ccks as I start interfag with the device. The three monitors I have mounted on the wall discards the animated ssaver, and one of them unveils an open program dispying a pleted status.

  In this moment, the first genuine smile sihe harrowing enter with the loan sharks graces my lips. Everything's in pce! Operation Jupiter is a go!

  The early 2000s was the advent of the ultimate cyber on—Stuxhis virus was so well made it even boasted valid digital certificates, which was virtually impossible to procure outside uted norms.

  Silently infiltrating puters aire works, Stux operated in the shadows, eludiion while wielding the power to manipute data aings at will. Its potential for devastation was unparalleled, capable of crippliire infrastructures and bringing nations to their knees. Picture the sudden bckout of a prid, plunging aire try into darkness and bringing the supply to a grinding halt.

  The primary purpose behind Stux’s creation was to undermine Iran’s nuclear energy and enrit program, a btant viotion of iional agreements. Though the Iranian gover cimed it was for the citizens' welfare, everyone and their grandfather k was actually for ons development.

  The mastermind behind the virus you ask? It was her than the Uates’ gover and its allies—pooling their money and resources to ehe most potent digital on ever ceived.

  However, there was ohing they didn’t sider: onything finds its way onto the web, it bees a perma resident, and the i, in its democratiature, ehat any piece of information avaible online is accessible to everyone, everywhere, indefinitely, often free of charge.

  sequently, thousands worldwide were able to get their hands oux code. And they immediately began taking it apart and tinkering with it; tail it to meet their own agendas.

  As one might expect, I joihe ranks of those individuals, giving birth to Jupiter—the ultimate gaming hack. While it may pale in parison to the cutting-edge cyber on, Nitro Zeus, it should suffice for the task at hand.

  With a smile of anticipation, I e my head to follow the cables that tether my CPU to the human-sized capsule taking up a siderable amount of real estate in my match box of a room.

  I firmly believe that the opportune moment to deploy the hato the game's server is during the beta testing phase when the security measures are not yet fully ied. I initiated the ht transfer of Jupiter's source code to the Nexusphere's highly encrypted internal hard drive.

  As the capsule boots up and engages with Zenith's hardware, Jupiter, as per its design, is meant to inspicuously tunnel into their servers, exerg extreme discretion to practically vanish from the AI's and the firewall's dete. At least, that's the theory.

  Ideally, I shouldn’t be putting all my eggs in one basket, but if this pn fails, there are ra lives; a will rip me a new one—and that’s assuming the loan sharks don’t get to me first.

  I swallow hard as I sider the repercussions of my illegal pursuit, but it’s too te to turn baow. In an attempt tnite my motivation, my gaze instinctively falls upon the small picture frame perched on the er of my desk.

  Captured within the embrace of the great outdoors is an attractive Asian woman and a handsome, light-skinned man with an impressive physique. They are my parents, and I am determined not to squahe life they so lovingly bestowed upon me.

  The puter monitisters one 5:50 p.m. A mere five miaween me and the immi, life-altering moment.

  Minding my leg, I carefully reay crutches and awkwardly make my way into the capsule I endangered my life to buy with dirty money.

  The Nexusphere envelops me with a sensory embrace, boasting a range of features that transform the small, drical spato a haven.

  The advanced air ditioning creates a co of fort, while the state-of-the-art AR monitor immerses me in a visual spectacle. A built-in smart device meticulously monitors my vitals, ensuring a seamless iion of teology and well-being.

  “Initialize,” I and onfortably settled.

  Responding to the voiand, the Nexusphere responds with a gradual sealing of the hatch door. The interior radiates a gentle glow, the air ditioning hums, and a holographic dispy materializes before my eyes as the mae performs a rapid diagnostic check.

  Embedded with an intricate work of sensors strategically focused around my head, the Nexusphere initiates a wireless probing that mirrors the eerie sensation of being watched from afar.

  Suddenly, the oable Nexusphere plunges into chaos—the ambient light fades in and out, the projected s flickers incessantly, and the cooling breeze of the AC succumbs to stillness.

  I feel myself getting disected—physically aally. I’ve never Dived before, but an uling intuition informs me that something is terribly and uionably wrong.

  Did Jupiter fry the Nexusphere’s mainframe? Was the hack detected by the Zenith Cooperation in the process to infiltrate their servers? Are these the reverberations of either one of those sarios?

  I hear the warning bells going off in the capsule as my vitals go ballistic, but there’s nothing I do. The arms gradually grow dull. My senses fade as they are intercepted by the Nexusphere aed into the virtual world.

  Suddenly, my senses are thrust bato awareness. A sequence of sensations—warmth, followed by freezing cold—engulfs me in a disorienting darkness. Panic sets in as my attempts to breathe are met with resistance.

  I try looking around, but my eyes are heavy, my body uncooperative. I try to scream, to call for help, but ended up with a lungful of water instead. From the depths, an imposing force clutches both sides of my torso.

  Powerless, I brace for an ominous fate.

  WHOOSH!

  Water cascades from my body as I'm lifted from a water-filled bathtub. Recoiling from a bout of coughing and regaining my breath, my eyes snap open, a mix of dread and fusion enveloping me. I'm reminded of a stunned Simba from The Lion King, held aloft by Rafiki before the animals of the Pride Lands.

  Automatically drawn to the dark figure cradling me, my eyes catch the full moon pierg through billowing clouds, illuminating the weary yet smiling face of a woman.

  A flurry of questions floods my mind: Where am I? Who is she? And how she be lifting me so effortlessly when I’m a twenty-three-year-old dude?

  I look down to assess my body, only to find a pudgy pair of hands and legs... and an umbilical cord Wait. WHAT?!