Chaos/Order Re:Start - Prologue

Lydia Richter

The hallway seemed endless. The entire HEXA Corp. building captivated her with its size, so much that even this one mere hallway felt as if it went on forever. A shiver went down Lydia’s spine as she approached close enough to see the door she was meant to take upon the horizon of the daunting corridor. It didn’t feel like just another meeting. This wasn’t just another pitch. This was the pitch. Lydia couldn’t help but center herself underneath the lights leading her way towards the most important doorway of her life.

“Never compromise.” Lydia thought to herself, what a joke.

She’d spent well over a decade on her life’s work, and this was all it has amounted to. Keeping positive was a key component to her success up to this point, but positivity was now overwhelmed by the memories of her failures flooding back into her mind with each step closer to that door. Lydia told herself before entering the building she wouldn’t let it get to her, but those words wouldn’t go away.

“Never compromise.”

Lydia directed all of her aggression into a balled up fist, knowing full well compromise was all she had left. It was her last resort. Now it was all or nothing. All she wanted was to make something beautiful out of something she’d always thought was just misunderstood. Now all she wanted was to kick and scream and cry. Every other hallway she’d walked down filled her with confidence that she would make her dream a reality, but this hallway filled her with dread. When her journey to make this happen began, her entire team had accompanied her. She felt alone now, as each and every one of them had lost hope.

If anything, I need a Priest reading my last rites. Lydia thought as she’d reached the end, prepared for her execution. She opened the doors - hit with the intense smell of nicotine wafting through the air, staring down with the shadowy jury who would make or break her.

She couldn’t make out any of their faces from the darkly-lit room where they all sat together at a conference table. Not like I want to know them. She thought as the doors closed behind her. The only one she needed to know was the man at the far end of the table. The man everyone in this city knew of. Lydia stepped forth in front of the darkened figures.

“Hello,” Lydia spoke, “My name--”

“We know who you are.” the man at the end of the table interrupted, “You’ve got thirty seconds.”

Thirty seconds?!

The pressure and anxiety hit Lydia like a brick wall as she felt each precious second begin to pass away - every one worst than the last. Did she do something wrong? Was it her clothes? They were all dressed in expensive suits and all she could muster together was her usual coat, shirt, shorts, and necktie. Lydia could already see her future slipping away, realizing what kind of waters she trespassed in. These men were sharks and she was chum, not even fit to be an inferior fish in this ocean.

How much time do I have left?! She thought as her panic grew worse. Lydia did the only thing she could: Pitch her idea.

“I... “ the words weren’t coming to her. How much could she say in the last seconds she had been given for this pitch? “... Have a game. A virtual reality game that--”

Lydia’s heart sunk as she watched the man at the end of the table raise his right hand to silence her before she could even finish her sentence.

“No.”

One word has crushed everything Lydia had worked towards for all these years. She felt weak as a nearby man in a suit and sunglasses began to usher her out of the room. She couldn’t face her team again. She couldn’t face her family or her friends again. It was all for naught. Everything. Lydia had spent so long trying to build something, and now it felt as though all she had done was dig a grave and now the dirt began to seal her away. Every word imaginable bounced off her panicking mind as she approached the doors.

“Chaos/Order!” was all she could say.

The doors began to open.

“Stop.” Lydia could hear the man from the end of the table speaking up. “Bring her back.”

Lydia knew she had reached the point of no return as she was marched back into the spotlight in front of the businessmen who remained in silence aside from the one at the end of the table. She had done everything in her power to keep people from knowing the truth about her game, but it was bound to happen. No one wanted a part of anything like this, not after what happened so long ago.

“Chaos/Order was shut down many years ago.” spoke the man at the end of the table, “Are you desperate enough to lie?”

Lydia hesitantly shook her head.

“My team…” Lydia found it hard to admit it, “... We found the source code for it. For Chaos/Order. Nobody knew about it. We tried to keep it under wraps. We believed we could build something from it that could--”

The man raised his hand to silence her once more.

“How many died? Thousands? Had to be hundreds of thousands, actually, yes? What use is this to me?”

Lydia felt defeated. She wanted to make a game. One people could enjoy.

“I know who you are.” Lydia finally replied, “You could use it. I can revise it and you could use it.”

“And who am I?” asked the man.

Lydia knew he just wanted her to say it for him.

“You’re Vincent Murrow… You’re one of the most powerful men in this country…. And you have an affinity for high-stakes gambling.” she finally uttered.

“Ah.” said Vincent, standing up from his seat. He casually made his way towards the brighter side of the room until Lydia could get a look at him. He was everything she’d expected: old, repulsive, and shady.

“So that’s why you came to me. Everyone else turned down your little game, and now you’re willing to turn it into a playground for me if it means getting the money to build it. Is that it?”

“Never compromise.”

“... Yes.” replied a humiliated Lydia, “I can make it so it’s something that would entertain you. You can involve money--”

“And lives.” interrupted Vincent, his stoic expression shifting into a twisted smile. “We could involve lives. You know that’s the only valuable currency to me here.”

“Never compromise.”

Lydia reluctantly nodded.

Vincent’s smile evolved into a wicked grin at the thought of it. “Don’t worry, I know exactly who we can get to participate. Those who have no value anymore. The ones in debt - I’m a merciful man, so I’ll give them a chance to dig their way out. In fact, I’ll make whoever’s lucky enough to survive rich. They need this. They’ll accept. They always do, even at the cost of their lives. It’s better to rule in Hell than it is to serve in Heaven, right? They’ll come, and they’ll kill if it means saving themselves.”

Lydia did everything she could not to walk out and leave this place. Her vision of building something people could enjoy faded away, and in its place was a lethal death trap constructed to entertain the wealthy who want to see those in debt kill each other.

“Never compromise.”

“But they can still win the game.” Lydia sternly spoke up. She refused to let him get rid of that. It was all she had left.

Vincent took a moment to ponder Lydia’s words. He chuckled before his wicked grin receded into a phony warm smile.

“Of course.”, Vincent kindly replied, “they can still win the game, on the appropriate terms, of course. And that is, if they don’t go killing each other off before a thought like winning a game ever enters their minds.”

Vincent pulled out a checkbook, writing upon it as Lydia felt relief and yet anxiety as she’d both won and lost simultaneously.

“I expect for this to be as entertaining as possible, and you will certainly abide by everything I want in it. Do you understand?”

Vincent pulled the check out. Lydia’s golden ticket. It was finally in her reach, and yet, it felt like she was the one about to enter a debt she’d never climb out of. As if a piece of her was about to leave and never come back. A deal with this devil was all she had left if she wanted the tree of her work to bear any fruit.

“I understand what you wanted to build.” spoke Vincent in a kind voice, “But if making that World mattered enough to you, you wouldn’t be here right now. You think you’re better than me. You’re not. You’re as sick and twisted as you’ve heard I am. You’re selfish, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get what you want when it comes down to it, no matter what morals you thought you had before all of this. You’re only realizing now what kind of weapon you picked up off the ground, and now you have to decide something, Lydia Richter. Do you want to aim it at others… Or do you want to aim it at yourself? Make the decision. Survive.”

Lydia hated herself with every fiber of her being. More than she despised Vincent Murrow or any of the other men in the room with her. She hated knowing what she’d become. She hated knowing what she’d let her precious World become. She hated watching herself reach out to take the check from this vile human being. She hated it.

“Never compromise.”