I shot a panicked look over at the others. Aech took a tentative step toward Anorak.
“What do you mean, you’ll ‘release’ us?” she asked. “Release us from what?”
“From the OASIS,” Anorak said. “It’s the world’s biggest party, and I’ve just crashed it.” He chuckled softly to himself. “Get it? It’s funny because you can ‘crash’ a computer simulation, but you can also ‘crash’ a party.” He glanced around at our blank faces, then shrugged. “That latest firmware update to your ONI headsets—the one you all downloaded this morning? I modified the code, to create my own version that I jokingly refer to as ‘infirmware.’ When all of you installed it this morning, my new infirmware disabled your ability to log out of the simulation. Which means I have also disabled your ability to wake up from your ONI-induced coma.” He smiled. “In other words, you’re all trapped inside the OASIS until I choose to release you. And I won’t do that until I have the Siren’s Soul in my possession.”
He pointed at me.
“If Parzival here doesn’t bring it to me before he runs out of time, then it’s Game Over for all of you,” he said. “Both here in the OASIS, and out there in the real world.”
I immediately pulled up the OASIS account menu on my HUD. Anorak was right, I couldn’t log out—that option was grayed out. And I could see by the horrified expressions on each of their faces that the same thing had also happened to Faisal, Aech, and Shoto.
I looked over at Samantha. She wasn’t accessing the OASIS with an ONI headset. She was using an old-fashioned visor and haptic gloves, so I knew she could still log out at any time. But she looked just as worried as the rest of us.
“It’s true!” Faisal gasped. “I can’t log out. I can’t log out!”
“You guys really should’ve listened to your friend Samantha here,” Anorak said. “She was right. You guys all watched both Sword Art Online and the Matrix films and yet you still thought it was a good idea to hand over control of your brain to a computer?” He snorted out a laugh. “I mean, just look at what can happen!”
“Guys, I’m about to lose my shit over here,” Shoto said as he began to shake his head vigorously from side to side. “Anorak just went Sonic.exe on us! This is so bad—”
Anorak loudly cleared his throat.
“Would you please let me finish, Shoto?” Anorak asked impatiently. “I haven’t even gotten to the big reveal yet, dude! OK. Everyone ready?”
He pretended to do a drumroll on his knee.
“You aren’t the only ones trapped inside the OASIS right now,” Anorak announced. “So is every other ONI user who downloaded the new firmware before they logged in. That’s nearly half a billion people. And counting.”
“Oh no,” Aech said breathlessly, closing her eyes.
“Oh yes,” Anorak replied, nodding his head vigorously.
“Sweet Jesus,” Faisal whispered. “That means—”
“It means that if I don’t get what I want by around dinnertime tonight, you and half a billion of your customers will begin to suffer the effects of Synaptic Overload Syndrome, which include but are not limited to: catastrophic brain damage, heart failure, and death.”
I felt my blood run cold. I’d read several reports about the effects of SOS. They were horrifying. Giddiness and uncontrollable laughing fits were two of the early warning signs of the onset of Synaptic Overload Syndrome. One of the dirty secrets about SOS was that several of the early test subjects who had lost their lives to it had literally died laughing.
“This isn’t happening,” I heard Faisal muttering to himself. “This can’t be happening.”
“It can, it has, and it is happening, my young friend!” Anorak said cheerfully. “Have a look.” He opened a browser window in the air above his head, displaying the current ONI user count. The six-figure number continued to scroll upward for a few seconds, climbing faster than the national debt. Then, just a few seconds after it crossed five hundred million, the counter suddenly froze.
“Ah!” Anorak said. “Your admins have finally managed to disable any further ONI logins. So I only managed to take five hundred and fifty-one million, one hundred ninety-two thousand, two hundred and eighty-six hostages! Including all of you.” He locked eyes with me. “Is that enough incentive for you to cooperate, Parzival?”