Here is the corrected version of chapter 1 of Just a Game.
Edited on 27 March 2025 with the final corrected chapter.
CHAPTER 1
Oceane was sitting by the lake, beneath the shade of a large willow tree. When she was younger, it was her favourite spot to gather her thoughts or just admire the view and relax. Being here was helping her dive back into her memories. Those simple times now seemed so distant. Before… Before it all started. Long before the Great Nap happened. When will they all wake up? The city was silent and deserted now. Asleep…
She was recalling that one evening, when she was seventeen. During dinner, she asked her dad about his job. He dodged all her questions, as usual. Every time she asked, he merely gave vague answers, claiming it was not interesting. The most he ever said was that his job consisted of monitoring, making sure there was no downtime, debugging, and doing all kinds of boring tasks.
Oceane’s dad was a programmer. He worked for both simulations. He always assumed that when Oceane asked about his job, she meant the hangout simulation, and that, like virtually everybody who had asked him before, she believed he was having a lot of fun at work. Moreover, many young people dreamed of becoming a simulation idol, and that was what they had in mind when asking about working at the hangout simulation. His job, however, was less about glitz and glamour and more about code and debugging.
The hangout simulation was a virtual world where people from the four corners of the universe could spend time together and enjoy all kinds of activities, like ice skating, skydiving, or attending digital concerts, and even play out a virtual life. It was fun. Oceane had been connecting since she was fourteen and had made some friends there. She also had a cute boyfriend whom her parents didn’t know about.
“It’s not for real,” the boyfriend often said. “It’s just a game, a simulation. It’s not real life.”
Oceane wasn’t happy about this. To her, it was real. She was young and didn’t know any better.
What was really piquing her imagination and interest, though, was the other thing her dad was coding for: the historical simulation. People weren’t allowed to play with that one. It was for historical and archiving purposes. Oceane couldn’t understand why it wasn’t open to the public or why this type of knowledge wasn’t shared with everyone. Her dad would simply answer that he didn’t know and that he wasn’t the one to decide.
She figured this topic wasn’t welcome either. She had been scolded once for questioning what seemed to be a paradoxical statement about some historical events and people. She couldn’t understand why the teacher had reacted that way, but it taught her to keep things to herself or search online. She would also save her questions for when she visited her grandparents. Where they lived, things were more laid-back, and people weren’t scolded for merely trying to understand. It wasn’t just a different planet; it was really a different world.
Oceane didn’t like history. She dreaded those “lessons about wars and dates to memorise.” She made it clear every time her parents wanted her to watch a history program: “It’s always the same! They fight and kill everybody for questionable reasons. War is bad; we get it. It’s so boring.”
On the contrary, she was fond of anthropology and had already decided it would be her field of study at university. Anthropology is different from history; it’s about the people, the tangible reality of their daily routines, their beliefs, and how they celebrated life in general. She was deeply fascinated by extinct civilisations and their cultures. That’s why she was so curious about the historical simulation. She often imagined all the things she could do with it, how it would allow her to virtually recreate life as it was in these ancient societies. It would definitely be the best way to experiment and further her studies. She already had a specific project in mind, for which she had secretly been learning how to code. Little did her dad know about this.
“What about the historical simulation? What do you do there?” Oceane asked her dad.
“I’m not usually onsite, but I regularly go for code maintenance. It’s all automated; I only need to make sure everything runs smoothly. Unless there’s an issue. In that case, we’re expected to show up immediately when we’re called in. The server administrator, he doesn’t mess around.”
“But what if it stops working for an hour? It’s not like the hangout simulation; no one is inside it. Why does it matter?”
“Because it would create bugs and inaccuracies. The simulation calculates and interprets data. Any system downtime can cause errors that would render the whole calculation void. The purpose of the historical simulation is to understand how things got to this point and to ensure these bad things will never happen again. Nuclear wars… It will take thousands of years for the radiation to no longer pose a health risk and for these planets to become habitable again. Yet they wouldn’t stop, until they completely extincted other populations and themselves.”
“I was thinking…” Oceane said, “for my graduation paper… I would like it to be about the historical simulation.”
“The historical simulation? Are you sure?” he replied, surprised.
“Yes. It would be great if you could take me to visit…”
He looked bothered.
“Well, I don’t think I can bring you with me to work, but they frequently organise tours. I’ll ask when the next one is scheduled. You should be allowed to join.”
“That would be perfect!” she exclaimed, overjoyed.
***
Oceane was tormented by all these memories. She often wondered how things would have been if she had never gone to the historical simulation. Yet, she had no regrets. Love… and the people she met there. It was all worth it.
The Great Nap happened much later, decades after the chaos she had created and the events that followed. It would have happened either way. All because of that evil man. He was more evil than his dad ever was.
