Day 48

[from GodMode]

For the next couple of days, Jun continued to ponder the meaning of his brief encounter with the strange hooded girl. What reason could there be for him to have to delete the GodMode app? And furthermore, why would he even want to? In spite of the girl's cryptic warnings, he had continued to make liberal use of the app, and it had only served to improve his life, with no apparent drawbacks. It didn't even seem to drain his phone's battery. Whatever this app was, and whoever had made it, it was truly a miracle, and Jun was not willing to give it up just because a stranger had told him to. He had, however, abstained from telling anyone about the app. It was his own little secret.

As he walked home from school on Friday evening, Jun was once again experimenting with the app. He had discovered a "BARO_SHIFT" function that created localized weather conditions within a 200-yard radius, and as it was raining heavily that day, he was using it to create a localized dry patch that moved with him as he walked. It was even better than having an umbrella, and since it affected entire streets rather than just himself, he didn't get odd looks from passers-by who might otherwise notice that he was the only bone-dry person in the vicinity.

Speaking of which… Jun suddenly noticed that the street around him was suddenly deserted. The cars driving past, and the people on the sidewalk around him, had all completely vanished. This was very strange indeed. Jun navigated to the main menu to open another function, "VISION_SHIFT", which he had found allowed him to look around the entire city without physically moving, like a ghost. He wanted to see just how far this sudden desertion extended to, but before he could, he was interrupted by a voice.

"So you're the heretic who's been abusing the powers of God," said a sneering voice from behind him. Turning round, Jun found himself confronted by two people, a man and a woman, wearing strange black-and-green robes. Both of them were staring at him with visible contempt on their faces.

Before Jun could ask who they were, and what they were talking about, he suddenly felt a great weight pressing down upon him. As the pressure intensified, he was dragged to the ground by it, lying flat on his back with his arms spread. He clutched tightly onto his phone, but the force pushing down on him was now so intense he could barely lift a finger to tap the screen, let alone raise his arm up so he could see it. It took him only a moment to realize what was happening: whoever these people were, they were using GodMode to manipulate gravity. They were trying to crush him to death.

The woman stepped over him, holding up her phone and sneering down at him. "Only we, the chosen few, are worthy of wielding this divine power," she said. "You, who are not, shall be put to death for your heresy."

The pressure crushing down on Jun grew even greater, and he felt the air start to squeeze out of his lungs. As he gasped for breath, Jun finally realized why the strange hooded girl had warned him to delete the app. She had known that this would happen, that these people would come for him, whoever they were. She had tried to save him. If only I'd listened to her, he thought desperately.

"Leave him."

Could it be…? Jun could not see, as he could not move his head, but that voice sounded just like the girl in the white cloak. Had she come to save him? If she had, she would have to be quick about it; as Jun continued to struggle for breath, it was starting to become hard for him to stay conscious.

The robed woman grinned. "So the false shepherd has come for her stray lamb," she said mockingly. "You are too late. In a few moments, this heretic will be history, and then you will be next!"

A moment later, Jun heard a sickening sound, and found himself being showered in a thick red liquid. At the same time, the crushing pressure lifted completely  from him, and though his body ached too much to move yet, he could finally breathe again. Managing to lift his head, a horrifying sight met his eyes. A large spike had suddenly shot up from the ground at an angle and speared the robed woman straight through the chest, killing her instantly; the liquid he had been showered in was her own blood, pulled towards him in the instant before gravity returned to normal. Had the strange hooded girl done this? It had to have been her: there wasn't anyone else it could have been.

"You bitch!" cried the male, his attention now focused on the murderer of his companion. "Burn in the flames of hell!" Navigating to "TEMP_SHIFT", he swiftly began raising the temperature around the girl to unbearable degrees. A second before the tarmac beneath her spontaneously ignited, the girl activated "USER_SHIFT", dodging well out of the way, before activating "GROUND_SHIFT". A large hole opened up in the ground beneath the man, sending him plummeting downwards, then before he could react, the chasm slammed shut again. A fountain of blood squirted up from the ground as the man was instantaneously crushed.

Jun did not move, remaining on the ground as he tried to come to terms with whatever had just happened. Two people, seemingly religiously-motivated, had attempted to kill him, only for the girl who had confronted him two days ago to viciously murder them before they could do so. And now she was walking towards him. In his present state of shock, Jun immediately began to panic that she might kill him next.

The girl did not attempt to kill him. Instead, she knelt down beside him. For the first time, Jun could see her face, and he noticed that she was rather beautiful, though her face was cold and expressionless. "I told you to uninstall the app," she said.

Jun forced himself to try and calm down, but it was hard, given the circumstances. "If you'd told me that people were going to try and kill me, then I would have!" he retorted.

"I wanted to keep you out of this entirely," said the girl, "but that is no longer possible."

"What is "this", anyway?" asked Jun. "Who were those people, and-" Jun felt a sudden stabbing pain in his side and fell silent, gasping in pain. The crushing had taken its toll on his body.

"Hold still," said the girl. "I will heal you. And since you are now part of this, whether you want to be or not, I shall explain everything to you." Navigating to "HEAL_OTHER", the girl activated the app's healing effect and held her phone close to Jun. Gradually, he felt the pain in his body begin to fade away.

With her other hand, the girl swept back her hood, fully exposing her face and head. She was about the same age as Jun, and even with her blank expression she was rather beautiful. She had long white hair that complimented both her cloak and her expressionless demeanour. "What would you like to know first?" she asked him.

Jun still couldn't quite speak, but this gave him a little time to decide which of his many questions he wanted answered first. Eventually he settled on, "What the hell is this app?"

The girl's answer was simple. "It is a miracle."