Sherry returned from the mountains to find her cozy little apartment looking different.
“Holly! The place looks great! I can’t believe I never thought of arranging it like this. Thank you!” she exclaimed.
“Glad you like it.” Holly smiled. “How was your trip? You’ve been gone for weeks.”
“It was fun. We did so many different things. And we didn’t mess with a single NPC.” Sherry dropped her bag by the door. “I’m exhausted.”
“Of course that’s what would make you tired…” Holly mumbled.
Sherry pretended not to hear her.
“But… I do have a new project for you.”
Holly immediately rolled her eyes. “What is it this time?”
“It’s not what you think. I actually did research this time. Scientific research. And I have a theory.”
“Go on,” Holly said, suddenly intrigued.
“So, evolution is kind of accelerated by mass extinction events, right?”
Holly raised a finger. “Uh-oh. No. We are not causing one.”
“No, I know. Just hear me out.” Sherry sat down. “Every time there’s a planet-wide extinction event, life gets a reset. New species adapt, the ones that can’t disappear, and evolution keeps moving forward. It’s been happening for billions of years. I know we’re in a simulation, but I think they copied that part from the original version of Earth before it was destroyed and before we got trapped in endless loops of simulated realities.”
“Hm.” Holly nodded. “You might actually have a point. Carry on.”
“Based on that theory, it’s reasonable to assume that humanity would eventually evolve toward self-sufficiency. Efficiently using all of the sun’s energy, not just to power civilizations, but to power their own biological systems too. Millions of years from now, obviously. Kind of like plants, except as complex life forms.”
“Interesting.”
“So what if we just… sped the process up?” Sherry asked. “Use fungi, genetics, whatever simulation magic you’ve got, and code it directly into the NPCs. Into this reality. Like theoretical time travel, except sci-fi because we’re already inside a simulation.”
She paused. “Can you do that?”
“Yes. At some point, I probably can.” Holly leaned back thoughtfully. “And honestly? It’s one of your better ideas. Self-sufficient humans would eliminate scarcity. No scarcity means less survival pressure. You’re actually making a solid argument.”
Sherry grinned triumphantly.
“But first,” Holly continued, “do you want to check your texts?”
“Huh? My phone? What does that have to do with anything?”
Sherry unlocked her phone and started scrolling. “Oh. My date is going to a birthday party in another city on the day I arrive instead of hanging out with me.” She shrugged. “That’s fine. We can see each other the next day.”
“Yes,” Holly said. “But do you remember how you reacted the last time something like that happened?”
Sherry groaned. “With Darrell?”
“With Darrell.”
“Oh gosh. Yeah.” She laughed despite herself. “I was triggered to the moon and back. And it’s hilarious that the birthday party is in the same city too.”
Her smile faded slightly. “You know… if I were him, I probably wouldn’t have liked me very much either. I used to get triggered and act completely insane.”
Holly grinned. “How many times has your life repeated itself like this?”
Sherry thought for a moment. “Way too many. Guys after Darrell kept putting me in almost identical situations. The difference is that I reacted completely differently. Which just made me realize how awful I used to be.”
“You weren’t awful.” Holly shook her head. “You were growing. At approximately the pace of a ZZ plant.”
“Hey! That’s one of the slowest-growing plants out there.”
“True. But after the separation, you started growing more like a golden pothos.”
Sherry laughed. “Okay, fair. I have been doing that.”
“Exactly.”
“Good for me, I guess.” She smiled. “Anyway, you’re distracting me again with my behavioural patterns.”
“Your changing behavioural patterns,” Holly corrected.
“Fine. My changing behavioural patterns.” Sherry leaned back. “I have a question, though. Why does my life keep repeating itself like this? Is the simulation just running out of ideas? Is it testing me? Or is it trying to torture me with reminders of how I treated Darrell?”
“Honestly?” Holly said. “A little bit of all of the above.” She crossed her legs. “If you spend all your time dwelling on the past and burying yourself in regret, your emotions will keep getting the better of you. But if you notice how much you’ve changed and keep moving forward with your life, that’s a much better outcome.”
“And the repetition?”
“The simulation repeats things. That’s just what it does.”
“Tell me about it.” Sherry rolled her eyes.
She paused. “But doesn’t the fact that I’m conscious change anything?”
“It changes how you respond.” Holly nodded. “Not necessarily the events themselves. Although eventually, the simulation starts working with you instead of endlessly throwing lessons at you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re trapped inside a reality built from your own conscious blueprint. It keeps pushing on whatever can still shake you until you finally understand the point.”
“The point?”
Holly smiled. “That you have more power than you think you do.”
Sherry frowned. “But we’re already rewriting the code?”
“I’m rewriting the code.” Holly pointed at herself. “Right now, you’re dependent on me. I have the power. You’re the idea person.”
“Ouch.”
“You come up with the concepts. I do the reality bending.”
Sherry narrowed her eyes. “…That’s possible? Doing it myself?”
“Very much so.” Holly winked. The look on her face suggested she was planning something Sherry definitely wasn’t going to like.
To be continued…
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