After giving it some thought, Jeff decides the best way to see if the program really is able to do all those things, is to test it out on his favorite RPG game “Polaris: The City Of Possibilities”, the teen grins, ‘IF the program can extract my favorite NPC from the game into reality, THAT will defiantly convince me,’ he thinks to himself.
Jeff opens the game on his second screen, while keeping the Chronivac running on his main screen. The boy opens the transformation option tab of the program and scrolls through all the options, until he spots what he is looking for: “extraction of a fictional character”. When Jeff opens the option he sees various types of options to choose from:
- Extract character from a game
- Extract character from a comic
- Extract character from a cartoon
- Extract character from a novel
When Jeff selects the “extract character from a game” option the boy is asked to select a game followed by a list of all the games he has installed on his Laptop. Jeff scrolls through the list until he finds the one he had opened earlier.
Jeff is then asked to select either a character, which is controlled by a player, or an NPC, Jeff selects the NPC option and a window opens, displaying all the NPCs from the game, with the images of the character and their names.
The teen scrolls through the characters until he finally finds the one he wants to extract: a red anthro Fox wearing a black hooded cape, black leather pants, a white shirt and black leather boots, his name: “Astral”.
When Jeff selects the character, he is shown the character’s stats, including its name, gender, abilities, personality and just anything that makes up the character. Jeff smiles, “if this really works,” he mutters to himself, “it would be amazing!”
Jeff confirms his selection, “are you really sure you want to extract chosen character from the game,” the program asks, and Jeff, without hesitation confirms it.
The moment Jeff confirmed his selection, the teen feels a weird electric tingling, it seems as though his whole room is electrified, all the hairs on his body standing straight up, then his eyes widen when the air in the middle of his room starts to glimmer, like on a tar road on a hot summer’s day and a faint outline of a figure starting to appear, becoming more and more solid and clearer, soon a 5’7’’ tall anthro Fox, who looks to be in his early 20s, is standing in the middle of Jeff’s room.
Jeff can’t believe what he has just witnessed, staring wide eyed and opened mouth at the figure standing before him.
At first the Fox doesn’t seem to move but then his eyes blink and he looks around in utter confusion, then stares directly at Jeff, narrowing his eyes, “you better start explaining what crazy magic you’ve used and where the hell I am,” he growls.
“It… it actually… worked,” Jeff finally manages to croak out.
“What worked,” the Fox asks, “I can’t sense any magic coming from you. So, how the hell did you manage to teleport me to this weird place?”
Jeff takes a deep breath, “I… I’m honestly just as surprised as you are,” he says, he then starts explaining what had happened.
When Jeff had finished explaining everything to the Fox, Astral rubs his temples, “let me get this straight,” he says, “you used some kind of technology, which supposedly is able to not only transform people, animals and objects into various things, alter the reality, but also seemingly is able to extract “characters” from a video game and other fictional things?”
“Ye-yeah,” Jeff says.
“And you decided to extract ME from that video game of yours, because you think I’m cool,” he asks, staring at Jeff’s screen where the game he came from is still to be seen.
“Well… yeah,” Jeff again says.
Astral shakes his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe, all this time I thought I was living a normal life, that I was born like anyone else, I’d NEVER would have thought for a second, that I’m nothing than ones and zeros, controlled by some stupid human made entertainment bullcrap!”
“I… I honestly didn’t believe it would actually work,” Jeff admits.
Astral looks at Jeff, “I believe you, Jeff,” he says, “so, since I’m now in your reality, does that mean that I’m no longer bound to the rules of the game? I’m free to do anything I want?”
“I… I believe so,” Jeff says, unaware to Jeff, Astral is considered a “predator”, a character who has powerful magical abilities and takes fun in manipulating so called “prey” characters, transforming them into anything imaginable.
Astral smirks mentally, ‘this fool has no idea what he has done,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I hope my abilities are truly mine and not part of the game. Only one way to find out,’ the Fox looks directly at Jeff, the teen not noticing the golden eyes of the Fox in front of him starting to glow.
Jeff suddenly feels weird, he feels as his mind and body relaxes, before he is even able to realize that something is very wrong, he feels his mind pop and the teen suddenly goes rigid, staring blankly in front of him, Jeff is still aware of everything around him, though he is unable to move and talk. The popping-sensation in his mind felt like someone pushing a button, or flicking a switch, that “deactivates” the teen’s ability to move and speak, keeping everything else “activated”. Panic starts to fill Jeff, ‘wh-what is going on,’ he thinks to himself, ‘w-why can’t I move? Why can’t I talk?!’
Astral smirks, “hehe… looks like my powers work just fine,” he says, “now, what to do with you, Jeff my boy? Hehe… I think I do owe you thanks for freeing me from that fake reality. Hm… I have so many ideas… it is hard to decide”.
‘What… what is he talking about,’ Jeff asks himself, his panic increasing, ‘how… how is it possible!? I… I thought, when extracting him, that his powers wouldn’t work! I… I thought they were also controlled by the game! Why… why does he have his powers? What… what will he do to me?!’