20 years later

Jinki had never felt so free in all his life. Feet firmly planted to the board, he flew through the sky, surfing the wind. Beside him, Jonghyun was doing the same, a goofy grin plastered to his face.

“Wooo!” He yelled, dropping and circling around Jinki. Jinki grinned and shifted his weight, banking to the side and away from the younger.

Feeling adventurous, Jinki dropped towards the ground, pulling back up as he got close.

“Hey Jonghyun, watch this!” Jinki called out, before flipping off the side of the board and landing lightly on the ground.

“My turn!” Jonghyun shouted, mimicking Jinki’s smooth moves, albeit a bit shaky on his finish. The two grinned at each other and laughed, high on adrenaline.

“You two are idiots.” A voice said, crackling in their ears.

“Did you see that Bummie?” Jonghyun said excitedly, and to anyone else, it may have seemed like he was talking to no one. Jinki knew the truth however, that he was really just talking to Kibum through their headsets- the only thing that connected them with the real world.

Jinki glanced around, taking in the red-brown dirt, the rocks jutting from the ground and high into the air, the blue sky that was bright despite there being no sun. In the distance, he could see the edge of the forest sector.

Even now, it still amazed him that he was standing in a virtual world. That everything around him, no matter how natural it looked, was made up of pixels. It seemed impossible, but here he was, right in the middle of it.

The three had discovered the supercomputer that led to the virtual world of Aerok a few months prior. It had been nothing more than a lump of metalwork and wires at first, but after some work, Kibum got it running and they got their first glimpse of Aerok.

It was another month of Kibum rummaging through the computer’s database before he found something that changed their lives forever. Suddenly, the tanning bed looking things in the corner made sense.

Kibum had found a program to digitalize a human being.

They couldn’t believe it at first; was it really possible for a human to enter a universe made up of pixels? It made no logical sense, how could you take carbon and turn it to codes? Something like that would only kill a person... wouldn’t it?

Except it didn’t, they found out a week after Kibum uncovered the program, running it for the first time and sending both Jinki and Jonghyun into Aerok.

After the initial shock wore off, the two had laughed until they cried, shocked and amazed and mostly because the program made them look like something out of a historical drama.

It was an intriguing place, Aerok was. A vast virtual world, made up of mostly desert, forest and the digital sea. Spread far and wide were several towns filled with AI (artificial intelligence), each vastly different from the one before it. The two had thus far discovered four communities: SM Town, YG Family, Woolimville, and J. Tune Camp. Each had its own ideals, own system of operation.

It had amazed Kibum to no end; not only were there innumerable digital beings roaming the landscape, they worked together, with vastly different personalities. It was almost as if they were living, breathing human beings. Except instead of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, they were made up of codes and pixels.

At first, they had avoided the communities like the plague; who knew how the AI’s would react to the two? From what Jinki and Jonghyun had observed, the towns were run on very clear cut, although quite different, patterns, and Kibum worried that talking to them might disrupt said patterns and send the whole place crashing to the ground.

It wasn’t until a child AI happened to discover Jonghyun peeking from behind a rock and dragged him back to SM Town did they realize no such thing would happen. There was some suspicion among the group, but otherwise, nothing terrible.

Since then, Jinki and Jonghyun had gone in nearly every day to talk with the AI’s and scan the untouched land, searching for data to help uncover what Aerok was made for.

From the reality side, Kibum sifted through insurmountable files, occasionally finding something that might actually help them, but in general just finding programs to generate random things: Like the skyboards, for example.

The two would like to say they spent their time towards helping Kibum find the answer, but if they were being honest, they spent most of their time just goofing around and seeing what limits they could push their virtual bodies to.

While there were many things they liked about the virtual world, they were also a few things they despised beyond reason.

The first was the digital sea. Despite its name, it was hardly something you would want to swim in. The first time Jonghyun and Jinki had seen it, they had both nearly jumped in for fun, only stopped by Kibum’s scream.

Anything that goes in doesn’t come out. A mass of incomplete coding, it would tear any complete form to pieces, until nothing was left but a jumble of numbers floating along with the rest. And if, by some freak of nature, something did make it out, their coding was so screwed they’d be better off dead.

A second thing was the language. Being a world founded on pixels and coding, it only made sense that everything was in binary, but as far as reading it goes, the two were hopelessly lost. That sort of thing was Kibum’s forte, and when left to their own devices, no progress was ever made.

The worst part, the two agreed wholeheartedly, were the swarms. Monsters, created for whatever reason, that would pop out of nowhere and attempt to kill the two. They’d come across several different types since they first stepped foot in Aerok, each more terrifying than the one before.

There were normal ones, such as giant spiders, scorpions and ravenous birds, and then there were ones you’d only find in nightmares: crab-like crawlers that were upon you before you knew what was happening, looming humanoid giants with glowing red eyes.

It was a good thing Kibum didn’t take long finding the program for creating weapons, or else the two would have died several times over by now.

Life in Aerok wasn’t all about survival and gathering information. Some days, when there was little to do, Jinki and Jonghyun would enter the world to play while Kibum scrolled through files. This was one of those days.

Jinki and Jonghyun sat down on the ground beside their boards and leaned back against their arms, cooling off from their skyboard joyride. While Jinki pulled at a blade of grass in the ground, Jonghyun chatted with Kibum. Or more accurately, he was talking and Kibum was rolling his eyes from his place at the monitor.

“Come on Bummie. Can’t you at least look for one?”

“Jjong, I love you, but I’m not going to try to find a program for a torpedo launcher.”

“But it would awesome!” Jonghyun whined.

“it would be ridiculous, not to mention dangerous. You’re lucky Jinki hyung forgave you after you blasted him back into the real world with that flaming crossbow I mistakenly made for you.”

“It was an accident!” Jonghyun protested, and Kibum just sighed.

“Okay, okay. No torpedo launcher... but how about a lightsaber, like in Star Wars?”

“You’re impossible.” Kibum groaned, but Jinki could sense the smile in his words. He shook his head and went back to pulling grass, smiling to himself as the two continued to bicker.

As annoyed with each other as they might seem at times, Jinki knew it was all just a show. In his entire life, he’d never seen two people who loved each other and were as made for each other as those two. Everyone else saw it too. Even the conservative old teachers at their school didn’t speak against their relationship. The two might as well be married, and with graduation just a few months away, Jinki knew it was just a matter of time before Jonghyun popped the question.

Jinki on the other hand was a loner, but it didn’t matter much to him. He was young, he had plenty of time to meet someone and fall in love. He wasn’t going to fret over his non-existent love life for no reason.

“Huh, this is interesting.” They heard Kibum mutter in their ears.

“What is it Bummie?”

“A file card. You know, like the ones created for you two after your first scan?”

Jinki and Jonghyun exchanged glances.

“Are you saying someone else has been in here before? Like, another human?”

“That’s what it looks like.” He replied, silence following.

“So... are you gonna open it or what?” Jonghyun said, hands on his hips as he stared at the sky.

“I guess I might as well? I mean, what’s the harm?”

“Maybe we can finally figure out who created this thing.” Jinki added, trying to contain his excitement.

The identity of the mastermind behind the supercomputer had always been a mystery, a blank space in their knowledge of Aerok. Not even the AI’s knew, or, if they did they refused to admit anything. Not knowing the identity of the creator had been like an itch he couldn’t scratch; it was no surprise he jumped at the chance to finally uncover the truth.

“Okay. Here goes nothing.” Kibum said, mouse moving to click on the file card.

After a moment, the two heard Kibum gasp, and whisper in disbelief, “No way.”

“What is it Bummie? Who is it?” Jonghyun questioned, bouncing from foot to foot impatiently.

“You won’t believe this-”

Suddenly, there was an awful screeching sound, similar to the feedback of a microphone, and the headpieces crackled loudly in their ear. Jinki and Jonghyun collapsed to the ground, hands automatically moving to cover their ears, despite the uselessness of the act.

“Damn, what the hell was that Kibum?” Jonghyun complained, frowning as he rubbed his ears.

“I...” Kibum began, the audio breaking up.

“Kibum?” Jinki asked, voice hesitant.

“Guys, I need you to remain calm, but I think there might be something wrong....” Kibum’s voice faded, the fuzziness of the audio drowning out his words.

“Kibum? Kibum are you there?” Jinki called out, feeling nervous.

“Kibummie? What’s going on?” Jonghyun asked, slightly panicked. Kibum’s voice came through, cracked and broken. They could only make out a few words, but even so they could tell he was terrified.

“The file card... incomplete data...”

“Kibum, calm down and tell us what’s happening.” Jinki commanded, trying to calm his own racing heart.

“I don’t......computer...error...”

The two paled and turned to each other, eyes wide with fear.

“Tell me this is a joke.” Jonghyun said, voice harsh. “Because if it is, it’s not funny Kibum!” His usually happy demeanor was gone, replaced with a body wrought with tension and eyes flecked with thinly veiled terror.

If Jinki were human right now, he bet his heart would be racing, beating its way out of his chest. Except he wasn’t human right now, he was a bunch of pixels. A bunch of pixels that might be scattered in the non existent wind if Kibum didn’t figure things out quickly.

“Not a joke...” Kibum’s voice cut out again, and Jinki fought the urge to freak out. He needed to remain calm, and do what he could from his side to help Kibum however he could.

Jonghyun, on the other hand, wasn’t so calm.

“Then take us back! God dammit Kibum, get us out of here now!”

“Trying.” Kibum replied faintly.

“Well try harder!”

For a long, tense moment, there was no reply. When it finally came through, it did nothing to ease their worries.

“Can’t get....transfer codes are jumbled...”

“Can’t get...? Kibum, are you saying we’re stuck here?” Jinki said loudly, alarmed.

“I think....virus...screen is frozen-” And the sound stopped, leaving their ears ringing. Not even the buzz of feedback could be heard. It was totally silent.

“Kibum?” Jinki called out nervously. There was no reply, not that he expected one.

“Hyung, what happened?” Jonghyun’s voice was weak and laced with disbelief and horror.

“The system must have crushed. I’m not sure how... it could have been a virus, maybe a single error.” Jinki tried to shrug it  off as nothing, but he knew the truth. Something very, very wrong had happened back in the real world.

“So what happens now?” He already knew the answer, but it seemed he needed to hear JInki say it before he could believe it himself.

“We’re stuck here.” Jinki whispered.

Jonghyun sank to the ground, as if his legs were unable to hold him. He shook his head wildly, refusing to accept the fact.

They stood in silence, letting the realization sink in. It was too surreal, too impossible, as if their worst nightmare had suddenly come true.

They were stuck inside Aerok.

And they were never getting out.

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Well here's chapter one. I hope you all like it and please comment!