AT around half-past twelve in the afternoon, the sun was high up in the ocean blue sky but the weather was surprisingly cool instead of the usual scorching heat. According to the weather forecast, it was a great day to go out on a picnic or stroll outside with your friends or special someone. But ignoring the weatherman's suggestion, cooped up inside a quiet, huge office, a man in his late 20s was comfortably sitting on a leather office chair. He was wearing a white button-down long sleeve tucked in black slim-fit trousers. His hands were tightly clasped together while his elbows were resting on his massive table.
Across the table, there was a huge monitor with different channels, looking like a broadcast monitor inside a control room of a media company. His eyes were specifically fixed on the two which had the labels: World 2 and World 3. He never took his eyes off those two channels for almost thirty minutes ever since it suddenly shut down and went black.
Seemingly in deep and suspicious thought, he slowly placed his chin on top of his intertwined fingers. His eyes narrowed and his gaze grew deeper as he bit his lower lip and cocked his head on one side. The look on his face was mixed with different emotions, but curiosity overpowered everything.
In the middle of peace and quiet, a Filipino-Indian descent man suddenly barged inside the office without knocking. Despite his calm expression, his steps were fast and frantic like he was in huge trouble. He was wearing smart casual attire with an identification card hanging around his neck where his name was written.
Sanjay Raj
"Sir Melendrez," tawag ni Sanjay sa lalaking nakaupo sa swivel chair nang nakalapit sa lamesa. "I have to make a report about a recent incident."
Like the man he was speaking to couldn't hear anything, he just kept his eyes on the monitor. Sanjay cut his eyes while staring at his superior with confusion.
"Sir Melendrez―"
"Shh..." the man cut him off and pointed at the monitor using his lips. "Look at the monitor."
Still feeling lost and confused, Sanjay turned his head towards the monitor. He didn't know what his boss wanted him to see at first, but then his eyes widened when he saw the two channels down. Mabilis na nilingon ni Sanjay pabalik ang lalaki sa gulat at pagkataranta.
"Sir, that's what I'm going to report about!" he said, slightly feeling nervous. "We detected that the Esoterra devices in World 2 and 3 underwent self-destruction. But before that, we recorded a high frequency of electromagnetic waves from both devices a day before. We tried contacting the person assigned to both worlds but we couldn't get through because we lost the connection."
"And Alter went down as well in those worlds, right?"
"Yes. We tried fixing the system but to no avail. I'm afraid we might have to take the application off the stores. It will take time to develop another Esoterra. But regarding Alter, we found something else..." Sanjay placed a paper on top of the table. "We did some quick research and found something odd between these two users from the app but we couldn't get into it further," he explained. "Rest assured, we will continue the investigation and retrieve their conversation to find more information. But for now, that's our initial report about the current situation."
BINABASA MO ANG
Against Alter
Science FictionAs if willed by fate, college students Elrond and Elora find themselves connecting through Alter--a popular dating app among the youth. But when they discover that their realities aren't what they seem to be, can they be brave enough to risk it all...