FragmenTale

***

— «Mom! Look! That game! You promised me what you'll buy it for me if I pass all school tests for good grades! You promised! " — a child of years ## stood near the shop window, looking with his eyes, in which small lights of desire were burning, at a woman who, being nearby, corrected her makeup, looking at her face in a small pocket mirror. — «Yes, I remember.» — the mother of the child answered with some severity in her voice. — «But I also remember about literature and history grades, which are not good.» — she continued, removing the mirror and cosmetics in her black purse, hanging on her side over her shoulder. — «But mom! This teacher gave me a bad mark for being late, when there was a blizzard on the street, then late was-» — the child did not have time to finish, interrupted by his own parent. — «And the other grade? If I said no, then no.» — the woman folded her hands on her chest, looking at her child. The child, of course, was upset. The lump came to his throat, the feeling that tears were about to flow from his eyes was growing. But the little man was silent, noticing that his mother was looking at him, who would not tolerate objections.

***

— «One game was very popular at the time. Old, but many know about it, it is being modified for new realities. This game was called «Undertale.» Now they are trying to turn it into virtual reality. This was done so that people had more interest and emotions from the process of passing the game. And for those who have reviewed this pixelated work before, it acted as nostalgia and also gave rise to a «childish» interest among the older generation.» — the middle-aged man replied when asked in an interview what the guest's favourite childhood game was. Century of technology prosperity. At such a time, people were very much needed who understood computers and could work with a large number of programming languages, systems, as well as have a good imagination and be able to do one thing in three, or even five different ways. The interview flew quickly, as if this lesson took only a couple of minutes, and not an hour and a half. After this event, the person left the building where the studio was located and, saying hello to his driver, said to keep heading towards the city center. Sitting in the car and listening to quiet music, he reflected on how and what to develop further in his project. Pavel Sergeevich Syrnikov, this name was known to many people, since the man was a famous developer of various kinds of games. However, he also had fame in film and poetry. Pavel had many interests and excelled in many ways. And this person could become even more famous, but so far the names of all the «Undertale_RV» participating in the project have been classified and all employees have signed papers on non-disclosure of this information. This game has not yet been completely reflashed for the new time, but many were intrigued by some test footage that was published on the official website, so a large number of people were waiting for the release of this creation. In fact, most of the work was already done, all that remained was to fix some problems and bugs, as well as slightly correct the graphics and voice acting of the characters. Upon arrival at work, the man entered the building, immediately stopping, preparing for a check from the guard. He got used to the order in this place quickly, he himself understood perfectly well that a large company simply did not need unnecessary scandals. — «Oh! Hello, Sergeevich, how was the interview?» — asked the guard as he approached Pavel. — «Greetings for you too, Stepanovich. Quietly, peacefully and calmly everything passed.» — the man replied, extending his arms perpendicular to his body. Syrnikov has been working here for almost six years, has long managed to make friends with colleagues and other employees. He communicated with others in an affable manner, but knew the value of his knowledge and help, for this he was respected by many young workers, at least he thought so. The old guard, in turn, always communicated with everyone with a touch of fun in his voice, constantly «grandfatherly» joking, as if he had seen his grandchildren in all the local people. After passing the check from Danil Stepanovich, Pavel walked up the main staircase to the second floor, entering the second office. There was already some of the group of people with whom Syrnikov had met for the past three years. They all worked together on this promising project. Everyone in this team did their own thing, in which they excelled the most. Pavel greeted those present and, wearing a «VR» helmet, turned on the game. The role of the second code developer, the tester, fell on the man's shoulders, and he also had to work on the background in some parts of the game as an artist. Launching the game, going through the location, talking with characters, restarting, going through a different scenario, fixing bugs and glitches. Everything went gradually and at its own pace, it remained a little until the final, just a little before the release of the game for general use.

***

«Something changed a week later, with the change of director of the company. He, unlike the previous one, was young and arrogant, while the past was a calm and reasonable person in age. But it was time for him to retire, he could not work to death. The new boss had no patience in work and did not understand how much and painstaking work the employees were doing. Some left the company in the very first days, but only those who did not have a long contract could do this, and I could not afford such a luxury. People worked almost as usual, only the terms began to be shortened, and they had to work a little more.»

***

«Everything became bad a month later, when people from other, third-party companies began to be brought into this company. It was a kind of move of the new boss, apparently, he wanted to pass off other people's works as their own. Most of the people on the team I worked with, left when the contract expired, and I had to keep working. Due to the fact that the third-party workers who came did not conscientiously do what they had to do, I had to work myself.» Pavel put the equipment on his head with a sigh, looking out the window for a second before that. There was darkness and raining noise, cold drops knocking on the building and the road, which was lost in the fog. During this time, under the new boss, in addition to a clever move, a number of changes were made to the work of employees, forcing people to work more, and some new rules were significantly annoying with their meticulousness and stupidity. Pavel Sergeevich managed to notice a pair of gray hair on himself, and his girlfriend, somewhat younger than the man, left him for another person. This angered Syrnikov, because he was already thinking about proposing to the girl, and she turned out to be a simple flirt.

***

In reality, the new boss was not so strict, and the rules that were created under him were not so absurd, they just pushed people to work more than they were used to. Syrnikov actually perceived all the advice from other workers not as help, but as words of envy, not wanting to change anything. He believed that the part of the job he was doing was the most important. Most of the people from the team who worked with Pavel did not quit, but transferred to other departments, they just said so to the man, because they knew that if they told him the truth, he would not accept it normally, and especially criticism in his direction. People from other companies were invited because there were not enough workers. And the girl left Syrnikov because the man was more interested in work and in many ways limited his beloved.

***

The launch of the game was successful, but outside, on the street, a loud dull sound was heard. Pavel opened the glass on his helmet, as if it were a motorcycle helmet, looking out the window. The first thing the man noticed was the darkness in the room. «Apparently, something with electrical wires» — concluded Syrnikov, based on the situation, trying to remove the helmet. But it was removing by pressing one of the buttons on the remote control, and without light it did not work, and there was no «emergency button» on such a device. – «Well, it's not that bad, someone turn on the generator soon anyway.» — the man said quietly to himself, involuntarily twitching when thunder thundered outside the window, and lightning flashed nearby. — «Yeah… The weather went wild.» — Pavel exhaled, squatting down, waiting for the emergency power source to turn on. The man sat there for a couple of minutes when he noticed that the bulb on the ceiling was flashing slightly, and thunder clapped too close outside. No sooner had Syrnikov got up than lightning struck the window and electrocuted the cable to which the gaming device was connected. Pavel fell face down on the carpet, the glass on the helmet cracked and closed due to a sharp change in the position of the human body. The man's arms and legs sometimes twitched in a slight convulsion. It darkened in the eyes, many black dots ran from side to side in front of him. When the man completely closed his eyes, his body relaxed, and the light in the office finally caught fire.

* Force start initiated… *