Multiverse

Chapter 2

Zane was amazed when the box spoke, but he was having a little trouble deciphering what it said. It said that virtual reality becomes reality in it. Perhaps it meant that the box would produce a virtual reality movie, game, or a small clip which would be so good that it might be exactly like reality. It must be named Multiverse.

"Hmm... what are you? What do you do? " Zane asked, and carried it over to his worktable and placed it next to his laptop. "Let's see what's in you." He typed something into his laptop and lifted the box above his head, searching for a way to connect a USB cable to it. Finally, he found a USB port. He plugged in a wire and connected it to his computer.

Zane stared at the screen for a long time, then said "Wow! There is some serious programing done in this! " Dexter, his dog, barked at him. "Shh, you'll give our location away," Zane joked.

At once, the box started beeping and the red bulb started blinking again. "Now what?" Dexter started barking loudly at the box again. "No. No no no! " Zane tried to calm the dog down. He unplugged the box from the laptop to hide it under his pile of clothes to muffle the sound, but when he unplugged it, the beeping stopped. "Well, that was easy," he said, "Now, what should I do with this?" As if in a reply, Dexter barked. "Yeah, let's keep this for tomorrow, I have to build my hologram too," said Zane and pushed the box to the side.

He brought the bag to his worktable and spilled the contents onto it. They fell down with multiple thuds. The hologram was very easy to make, much easier than he thought it would be. He only had to replace some burnt wires and a fried circuit and it was as good as new. Zane could have made another one, but he hadn't brought a lens, and he regretted it now.

He ate half a pizza and ate it early. Dexter greedily ate the pedigree he was given, which was also stolen. Zane had a quick swim in the nearby lake since he still had to equip the garage with a shower and went to his sofa to sleep early too. He was very tired today, as he always was. Sleeping on the sofa wasn't as good as sleeping on a bed, but it still was better than sleeping on the floor. The sofa was small and cramped, but Zane managed to sleep well, with Dexter at his side.

Today, however, the night was long and sleepless. Zane was almost caught. He had to be more careful. He decided to go and cover up the tyre marks with a layer of paint tomorrow, so that also meant that he had to steal a paint bucket, or buy one, wasting most of his scarce money. Although stealing was cheaper than buying – actually stealing needed no money – Zane decided that the risk was too much. It would have been simple for him, but the incident that had happened earlier today had shaken him quite a lot, so he decided to buy it.

He was awoken by a beeping sound. It was the box again. "What now?" Zane murmured sleepily. He walked over to the box and searched for a way to stop the sound. The box was starting to get very irritating. What was it anyway? A movie set? An Xbox console? Zane soon found out what it was.

"If you are tough and daring enough to play this game, please press the yellow button." the robotic voice in the game said

"So, this is a game. Cool, " Zane said and pressed the yellow button.

"You will now be entering Multiverse. Please stay still. You will be issued with a tablet containing the rules once you have entered the game. "

The satellite dish on the side rose up and began buzzing, and the rod inside it began to spark."Wait. What is this? Are you going to explode my home! " Zane was about to take the box and throw it into the bin, but just as he took a step forward, a bolt of energy was shot at him from the satellite dish, and the world started to dissolve as Zane vanished into thin air.