Danny was forcefully logged out of the game once again by Jim and Thomas. The last five times that had happened had made Danny fear for his life, but not so much this time. Sure, the presence of the two gangsters still made his heartbeat uncontrollably, but Danny had won the game.

  He had fulfilled his promise, so they had no reason to take his organs now—right?

  “See? I... I did it. I won,” Danny said, jittering. He was prepared to take off at any moment, shooting several glances toward the door of his apartment. The only problem was Thomas. He had caught Danny the last time he attempted to make a break for it. It didn’t matter; he would still try running if Jim went back on his word.

  For the short, uncomfortable time that Danny knew him, Jim didn’t seem like someone who would always honor their deals. He could kill Danny right here just out of spite.

  Jim looked down at Danny, who still lay in the chair. He reached his hand toward him. This is it! He’s going back on his word. I have to get out of here now! Danny thought.

  He braced himself for what Jim was about to do to him. When Jim had his hands on him, Danny would shake it off and run to the exit. The hand got closer and closer, and Danny lifted his back off the slanted seat, preparing for his escape.

  Jim placed his hand on Danny’s head and began rubbing it, like one would pet a dog. This surprised Danny. He had expected a grab at his neck or arm, but not this. Jim began to laugh loudly. “What did I tell you, Thomas? You gotta have faith in the kid! I’m sure glad I did. Now he’s going to make us buckets of money,” Jim said, grinning widely.

  Thomas folded his arms and pouted, clearly disappointed at the current situation. “Yeah, yeah. This kid finally got lucky. It just took hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money and six tries,” Thomas said.

  “My money, Thomas. Mine!” Jim corrected him. Thomas looked away from Jim. “And besides, all that’s in the past. Because this knucklehead is going to pay me all back plus interest. Right, Danny?”

  Jim’s face turned from gleeful to threatening. His gaze held steady, eyes slightly narrowed, and his lips hinted at a smirk. It was subtle, but Danny understood what it meant. Danny gulped before answering.

  “Of course I will. That was the deal, after all,” Danny said, chuckling nervously. Jim stared at him for a while before his smirk returned to a grin. “Glad to hear it, champ,” Jim said, removing his hand from Danny’s hair.

  “So now that you’re an official racer or whatever in this game, I expect my money, Danny. I’m not expecting it now, of course, so I’ll make it easy on you. Let’s say... a hundred and fifty thousand in a month. You think you can manage that?”

  Danny jerked up from his seat, wanting to argue, maybe reduce the high sum Jim was asking for, but he remembered his situation. Jim wasn’t asking Danny if he could make that much money—he was telling him. Danny had no choice.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He shut his mouth and gave the answer Jim wanted to hear. “Yeah, I think I can,” Danny said.

  “Oh, I know you can. Because if you don’t, the three of us—you, Thomas, me—we’re all going to end up back here in this same situation. And no one wants that. Especially not me,” Jim said with his sadistic smile.

  A reminder of how his words and expressions contradicted. It was what made Danny so terrified of him. Someone who could do what Jim did was, without a doubt, a psycho.

  Jim looked at his wristwatch. “Would you look at the time? Come on, Thomas, we gotta go to that thing. The thing about dismembering a guy,” Jim said. The last part caused Danny’s eyes to widen as he shifted a little further away from Thomas.

  “I’m right behind you, boss,” Thomas said. Jim walked away from Danny, heading to the apartment’s door. Thomas followed but stopped and turned to look at Danny, giving him an uncomfortable stare before resuming following Jim.

  Jim and Thomas walked out of the door, but Jim had some words for Danny before he truly left. “Start making my money, Danny, or else….” Jim shaped his hand into the form of a gun, his index finger aimed at Danny and his thumb cocked back. With a quick jerk, he mimicked the recoil of a shot fired.

  Jim laughed and shut the door. Danny let out a big sigh. “That never gets easier,” he muttered, looking over at the VR console at his side. He quickly grabbed it, put it on, and turned it on.

  As he connected to the virtual world, the environment around him shifted. First, the walls of his apartment faded into translucent layers, revealing a vast, endless space beyond. It was like floating in a dark, endless ocean with only distant, faint stars dotting the horizon. Gravity felt loose and strange as if his body were drifting, weightless, yet anchored by the headset. His hands, his feet—his entire physical self began to dissolve into a disembodied consciousness, the only sensation now a soft hum filling his mind as he fully entered the game’s realm.

  In the emptiness, two large 2-D boxes appeared in front of him, floating in a vast galaxy of swirling gray mist and white, moving stars. The space was both daunting and mesmerizing, with stars zipping by in streaks, leaving trails of light. The first box read: “Enter Private Track.” Its outer edges glowed a radiant white, each line traced with precision, while the lines of the second box barely flickered, almost blending into the background.

  The second box held a different command altogether: “Enter Overdrive Online.”

  Danny’s mind almost recoiled with excitement at the sight of it. His entire being pulsed as he focused on the command, unable to believe that this choice was finally within his grasp. He couldn’t move in the traditional sense—there was no body here, just his awareness—but he felt a powerful pull toward it, like his mind itself was leaning forward, aching to cross a threshold he’d dreamed of his whole life.

  Hovering on the edge of the choice, he selected the second box, his very thoughts guiding him. The glow around the first box dimmed, and the second one flared to life in a brilliant, electric white. The light enveloped him, flickering across his awareness like static, crackling in his mind as if the very fabric of his consciousness was being rewoven.

  This was it. Everything he had wanted since he was a child, and he was just a click away. It felt surreal, like the climax of a dream, teetering on the edge of waking.

  “Okay. I’m ready,” Danny whispered to himself. With a final, focused thought, he selected the second box, and his mind was instantly pulled through a vortex of spinning lights and sounds, a rush of colors and sensations filling the void where his body should be.

  He was being drawn in—sucked into Overdrive Online.