I sat down in the dark living room of my small home on the little red sofa I always found myself on in the evenings. My favorite show was on. I hurriedly turned on the television and scrolled through the channels. Finally, the title screen appeared “Reality Rift”.
“Just in time”, I whispered to myself in relief. I couldn’t be more obsessed with anything other than this show. It called my name from the very first episode. The premise circled around groups of eager highschoolers, which led the show to rack up millions of auditions each year from around the world, where their conscious is placed into a virtual world of challenges and survival. It’s quite entertaining, at least to a fellow high school student like me with no social life. I’ve even bought hundreds of dollars in merchandise that decorated my room from the walls to even my clothing; wearing the licensed outfits from the winners of the previous seasons.
This whole television show may not seem like a big deal, but it is watched by millions of people with every season that releases on live television! Families gather on the special nights like these to watch the action of the battles between these young students. My favorite part is being able to see the contestants’ actions in real time. My family doesn’t watch along with me though. They are never around. My dad is always working late and for my mom, she is currently visiting my grandmother across the country because of her increasing illness. It’s not like either of them care about me anyways. I was never good enough for them because of the lack of talent I have. I can barely pass my classes for crying out loud! Under these circumstances I am left home alone. No family, parents or siblings.
It would be so much better to just risk it all and participate in the “Reality Rift” games. Nobody would care if I was dead or alive. But perhaps if I did win, maybe they would notice me. Everyone would see just how useful I am with my winnings in the form of cash and fame. These thoughts stirred in my mind as I kept watching. This evening a new group of contestants entered the virtual world they call the “rift”. Every single student they gather is either incredibly smart or strong, with talents that surprise even the sanest adult. I am still blown away by how effortlessly this show finds such well-versed students for over 50 seasons now. This season there are sixteen students; each with their own skill that sets them apart from the others.
As the episode ends for the night, seeing all the contestants sleep within the rift, I turn off the television. Nothing much happens the first episode because the contestants are still getting to know each other as well explore the map. They always act as if they don’t know what is going on and questioning how they got there. I think it’s just an act they put on for more viewers. I push the thought to the back of my mind as I prioritize my exhaustion and head to my room to sleep.
The next day I find myself waking up to the sound of my doorbell ringing. “What?” I mumbled as I stumbled to my feet and creeped towards the front door. I slowly move my eye towards the peephole. Nobody is there. I open the door, and step outside. I look around to see absolutely nothing. “Did someone seriously prank me at 8 in the morning?” I yell out in frustration, making sure whoever did this to me could hear my anger, but as I was about to head back into my house, I thought I saw a person in the corner of my eye which caused me to whip around to see nobody there. I am still standing outside of my door as I hear nothing but the birds chirping around me and the leaves on the surrounding trees sway. As I process what had just happened, I look down to see… a letter on the ground. Curiously I pick it up. Inspecting it I notice it is sealed with the logo of…. “Reality Rift!” I shouted in the silence of the morning. I rip the envelope like a madman to uncover the letter that was lying beneath. My eyes dash across the words of the letter to quickly reveal its purpose. “Is this real?” I whispered under my breath. The letter stated that they “humbly invite me to audition for the next season of Reality Rift.”
No way….NO WAY! I was in disbelief. Me? How did I qualify for a game of such intelligent people? I barely even thought about the logics of this letter because of how excited I was. I read further for the information on where to be and what time. “Our personal cars will be there to take you to our audition building! Good Luck!” And that was all, besides the signature of the creator of the show himself, Mr. Rift. So, I waited about a few days after receiving the letter and that day came where I saw a car pull up to my house that had a huge “Reality Rift” logo on the sides. I nervously walk out to the car. As I walk up to the doors suddenly a group of people take my hands in a hurry and shove me into the vehicle. I feel myself lose consciousness from the adrenaline of the situation…
Reality becomes a blur as I start to hear the murmurs of others around me. I don’t know how much time had passed since I was last conscious or where I even was now. I don’t remember anything that had happened. Someone was standing near me as my eyes flutter open and adjusted to the lighting around me.
“Hey, he’s waking up!” someone with a higher pitched voice in the group said. I finally felt my strength come back to me as I sit up. At that very moment I feel a massive pain in my head.
“What happened?” I muttered, cupping my hand to my head.
“I don’t know, sorry can’t answer you on that one dude.” Responds a tomboy girl, with short brown hair, wearing a t-shirt and shorts and looking over towards me while sitting crisscrossed on the tile floor. I flinch not noticing her presence.
“Haha! He got so scared! Just look at him!” She yelled.
“Hey! We still need to observe our surroundings. We don’t even know where we are or why. So, let’s not start teasing others now.” Says another girl who sounds very mature and knowledgeable. She had long black hair, glasses and a private school uniform on.
“It looks like were trapped within a building.” The black-haired girl adds. “Let’s try getting out of here and investigating.”
This felt so familiar, and I didn’t know why…What could it mean? The three of us wondered out the small room we all happened to appear in and made out way down a dark hallway. We were met with another room that had about a dozen other high school students waiting for us. The others looked at us surprised when we entered the large, dimmed room that appeared to look similar to a gymnasium. The group of students shared their confusion with each other and all I could do was look around. Nothing seemed real, as if it was a dream. Like it was all a game I was playing. The people around me looked slightly, uncanny. Their features looked so real yet something unhuman about them made me shiver. But these people didn’t act as such, but I could feel the emotions of the people surrounding me. Could this get any more confusing?
Out of nowhere a man shows up to the front of the gym where he promptly gatherers the everyone’s attention. Clearing his throat he starts to speak,
“Hello fellow students! Welcome to the best opportunity of your lives!” What does that even mean? I thought to myself.
“This is something you have all wanted for years, you just don’t know it yet!” A few murmurs spread across the gym in confusion. It was like we had all lost our memories.
“Here is all you have to do…Survive!” He said joyfully. I was not excited rather terrified by what that could mean. As his words echoed across the gymnasium, I felt the ground shake underneath me. When I looked down, the floor seemed to disappear. We were all in free fall. I could hear the screams of the others until it all just stopped. I opened my eyes and looked around. We were now in the woods.
I felt like this whole “game” was something to mess with my brain. What was this world?! Everyone was scattered throughout the land and even from afar I could see their confusion. Then came the sound of metal clanking as it hit the ground. There was armor and weapons hitting the ground like rain. It felt unbelievable, like a premise of an action cartoon. Everyone scrambled in fear and picked up the closest weapon. I was frozen in place. I couldn’t move my body. Then suddenly I was running away from everyone. I ran as far as I could. This wasn’t reality. I was sure of it, but right now that didn’t matter, I had to survive this game. I wasn’t sure if anyone has noticed yet because all I could hear behind me was the fighting of other students against each other.
I decided to hide somewhere. I found a grassy area where I snuck deep into some bushes. I know I am a coward, but that’s all I could do in the moment. So, I sat there and waited. It felt like hours before I could hear an alarm go off, signaling that this “round” was over. “I guess I survived?” I whispered to myself before being somehow teleported back to the same gymnasium where we all started. What was different this time was the fact that only three of us remained. I never would have guessed it but the two girls I met earlier were standing right beside me.
“What a coincidence.” Said the girl with short brown hair.
“Oh, you survived?” The girl with long black hair added.
“Uh, yeah. I guess I did.” I replied, looking nervously at them.
What do we do now? I looked around the room. It seemed like the mysterious man who appeared once before was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m Alicia by the way”, said the long-haired girl. She held out her hand, which looked pixelated, but I reached out my hand to shake it anyways.
“I’m Harold.” I replied. Alicia and I turned towards the other girl waiting for her introduction.
“Why are you two looking at me like that?” She huffed, looking offended.
“Just tell us your name, girl.” Alicia replied, looking unamused.
“The names Charlie.” The girl responded.
As we got to know a bit more about each other I realized that these girls were just average people. They were the only ones that seemed “real”.
“Isn’t it weird that everyone else just failed that game immediately? Something seems off here.” I implied.
“You’re not the only one.” Alicia replied looking around to room. “This is not reality.”
“Are we in some game?” Charlie asked.
“Well, look at us. We aren’t completely realistic looking. We must be playing as an avatar of some sort-” As soon as Alicia said those words, I looked up to see the man from earlier. He was unbelievably tall, at least not realistically. He was towering over us. This was my last straw. I was fully convinced that we were in some sort of game. I knew I had to fight back to escape this, I don’t care if there is a purpose to this or if I wanted it or not. I would not take this psychological torture any longer.
“You! What have you done to us? Why are we like this?”
“Why? Oh, you should know why! You wanted to be in this game and that is just what you got!” He replied.
“I never asked for this! None of us did!” I yelled. “And what happened to the others? Are the hurt or worse?”
“They aren’t real you idiot.” He chuckled.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you are in the game! You’re in Reality Rift! It’s been each and every one of your dreams!” The tall man said proudly. Reality Rift…I couldn’t remember what it was but it sounded so familiar.
“Oh, that’s right. You can’t remember anything! You don’t need those silly memories anyways! At least while you’re stuck here in this world!” I felt trapped, like there was nothing I could do.
“We need to remember what this whole game is and why we wanted this so badly!” Alicia said to the two of us. “Think! Just think! It’s gotta be in your head somewhere!” I tried to tune out the wacky world that was now creating a storm of flying objects and loud noises. We were floating inside of what looked like a tornado. Think….Just think…How did I get here? I know it wasn’t by my own will. I had to be taken!
“We were kidnapped!” I shouted. “And this world…It’s definitely virtual!” I yelled over the high winds blowing us off our feet.
“Then we are playing as avatars!” Charlie chimed in. “Then just how are we going to get out of here?”
“We can take on that insanely tall man who seems to be the man behind all of this!” Suggested Alicia sarcastically.
“Oh, you want to take on me?” He laughed. “Go ahead and try!” As I tried to strategize, it seemed that the only way to make him stop this madness was to find his real identity. Think! Who else would control a game to this high of a degree. Aha! The creator.
“You’re the creator of this game, aren’t you?” I yelled.
“Huh? And how do you know that?” The man said, thrown off.
“I remember.” I said confidently, making him stop everything. His name appeared in my mind. It seemed the more I was able to throw him off the more I was able to remember.
“You’re Mr. Rift! You’re behind this whole scheme!” I spoke. Finally, he froze before us.
“Well, you kids got me.” He laughed.
“Huh?” I said in disbelief.
“It seems my little experiment is complete.”
“What experiment?” Alicia asked.
“Eh, I thought a wacky turn of events would make a great next season for Reality Rift!”
“What? Seriously? This was just an experiment?” Charlie said, completely baffled.
“I mean yea, you guys signed up for it remember? Oh, wait you guys don’t remember that part! I took away those memories.”
After a moment of silence, I found myself gasp as I awoke with something over my eyes. As someone lifted the heavy equipment off my face, I see the warm smiles of my family and friends. My mom, dad, and grandma. Also, my friends Alicia and Charlie.
“So, was it realistic enough for ya?” Teased Charlie.
“You looked pretty terrified, even though I couldn’t see your whole face!” Alicia chuckled.
“Ha ha…yeah it was pretty intense. This whole virtual reality thing needs some work. A storyline about a high school student obsessed with a television show about other high school students fighting each other virtually? Sounds pretty lame in my opinion. And the graphics were totally unrealistic, even the NPCs noticed they weren’t fully rendered!”
Bibliography
“Social Interaction in VR.” Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Accessed April 22, 2025. https://vhil.stanford.edu/publications/social-interaction/social-interaction-vr.
This source shows how it is difficult to fully be able to communicate properly within a virtual setting. It changes your speech and view of the world you are placed into.
“Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.” Spike Chunsoft. Accessed April 22, 2025. https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/games/danganronpa-v3-killing-harmony/.
This source is the game in which inspired this story. Only a few aspects were taken from the game such as the references to a virtual world, high school students participating in a game that involves violence and intelligence as well as a villain who oversees the players.