Hayley Reese Chow’s, A CHURN IN THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY, releases Sept. 16!!! And if you’re not yet sure this final book in the Into the Churn series is for you, READ ON to find out!!!

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Chapter 1

Micah

5.04.43B: T-minus 0 days until the BRR

It was going to be the best week of Micah’s life—the certainty vibrated in her bones. Alone in her tiny dorm room, Micah squealed for what had to be the hundredth time in the last twenty-four hours, her heart racing as if she were about to start the BRR instead of Ezren. A holo of the starting line spilled across her walls, the mauve expanse and jagged, stormy horizon lighting up the otherwise spartan room. Putting the final touches on her VSoc holo, she sent it into the ’verse, blowing it a kiss on its virtual journey. She let the meticulously edited holo play in the dim room, her irises and pigtail buns perfectly matching Team Belethea’s teal while the live feed of the starting line provided her background.

Good morning, Belroy boys and babes! This is the day we’ve been waiting for. Belethea is sending a doubles team to the BRR for the first time in thirty years, and it’s our OTP, Sterling/Hart. Not only did they have the best qualifier finish in Belethean history…

The holo cut to the highlights of their dramatic qualifier finish, tornadoes encircling them as they sprinted for safety.

But after all of your hard work, Sterling/Hart finally have the topsuits they deserve.

Ezren’s and Foster’s shocked faces from when Sylvia had surprised them with the suits that morning filled the holo. Ezren’s giddy excitement was too cute for words and even Foster had cracked a rare smile.

Thanks to your record-breaking crowdfunding sprint, Sterling/Hart have the top-of-the-line gear they need to even the odds, and as Ezren Hart said herself at the BRR Banquet, they’re here to win. I don’t know about you, my Belroys, but I’m ready to witness history this week.

While we’re waiting for the starting gun though, if you missed out on the topsuit fundraising sprint yesterday and want to get in on the action, Ezren’s official “Teal Skies for Belethea” fund is still open. If you want to give it a boost and help save our terraforming research from certain death, we appreciate each and every cred.

With that obligatory buzzkill out of the way, only T-minus sixty-three minutes until the race of the year starts, and I’m counting down every second! Don’t blink, kin, we’ll be following each step right here until Sterling/Hart crosses that finish line in the heart of the Churn Belt.

And you know they’re going to do it first.

Micah smiled to herself as the holo faded, and the comments poured in. Still high on the success of the topsuit effort, everything seemed possible. And even though Micah had barely closed her eyes in the last two days, the thought of sleep was nothing but ridiculous.

Because after a whole year of waiting, the BRR was happening.

With another excited squeak, she bounced around the room, projecting a half dozen holos of starting line coverage across the walls. Her cheeks already ached from smiling as she rapid-fired responses to BRR fans and fellow holologgers, all of them thrilling in their shared anticipation.

Thank the suns Dr. Lutz had given her the week off for the BRR. Of course, with the outpost’s impending closure, she was about to have a lot of weeks off. She’d barely let herself think about what she would do if Tuzuno closed. With most of the other terraforming outposts facing a similar fate, she’d probably have to go back home to Pyrrhia Station to live with her parents while she scrambled for a new job.

The thought of returning to the tiny space warren of Pyrrhia Station in utter defeat racked her shoulders with a bitter shudder. While her dorm here was small, her parents’ station-sized apartment was hardly bigger, and her parents hadn’t exactly been supportive when she’d struck out from Pyrrhia anyway. As station engineers, they were almost certainly rooting for terraforming to fail so the Beletheans were forced back to the stars, and she wasn’t sure if she could stomach their smug glee if she returned home.

Her hands tightened into fists, her lightning-bolt-adorned fingernails digging into her palms.

Nope. It wasn’t happening.

Because Sterling/Hart would win, and they would change everything.

Energized with fresh resolve, she pivoted to start a live stream when a priority comment chimed in her VSoc parlor.

The Royaler Review: Please keep in mind, as a rookie team, Sterling/Hart’s odds are still fifty to one. Drama does not equate to performance, and they’ve had a hastily promoted VSoc manager as an interim coach for the last year. Which means that Ezren Hart has never had a certified coach, and to date, Belethea’s only top-ten finish was exactly forty-eight years ago. Not to mention, every team that has ever won has had a second double as protection at the starting line, which we all know Belethea does not have.

Micah stopped her joyful bouncing, and her eyes narrowed. “That mother-fodder.”

Any comment from VSoc accounts with over a certain level of cred got a priority label and floated to the top of the hololog until someone with more cred commented. Though she’d certainly had a few fritzes with The Royaler Review before and was well familiar with their complete disdain for Team Belethea, she wasn’t going to let them ruin the BRR start with their ugly comment on her hype post.

Micah: With all due respect, RR, odds don’t equate to heart. Something all of my Belroy boys and babes know, but you, my soulless net leech, do not.

Still internally fuming, she jumped to the Review’s VSoc parlor, which was filled with race-day interviews, commentary, and footage from the starting line. Jealousy twisted her gut as the fans screamed in the massive spectator dome outside of Petraskis. She would’ve given her left kidney to be there, but Dr. Lutz could barely afford to pay her as it was, and even though she’d officially graduated with her terraforming engineering degree a few months ago, she’d be paying off her tuition for another three years.

And yet, somehow, The Royaler Review had four people there in the thick of everything. Her lips tightened as she clicked to read their hololog bio, looking for more ammunition she could throw in their troll face.

As with the majority of Beletheans, the RR founders hadn’t been born on Belethea, but had moved there to start their hololog only a few years ago. Micah’s lip curled. What a shaft move to set up their miserable operation on Belethea only to spout chaff about their team. Still… they’d risen so much in that time. Though Micah’s following had skyrocketed along with Ezren’s own trajectory, she was nowhere near the RR’s credibility and wider brand recognition. At the end of the day, the BRR was her passion, but not her job, and the RR didn’t have that distinction.

Even if they were a bunch of fritzers.

The Royaler Review: When you have measurable stats on “heart,” feel free to contact us.

Micah wrinkled her nose. While still annoying, the comment was at least preferable to the last one they’d left, and… when Sterling/Hart did win, the poetic justice of replying to this comment would be so fodding crisp.

Leaving it unanswered, she instead sent a message out to all of Tuzuno Outpost.

Micah: Don’t forget the BRR starting-line party in the atrium!

A flurry of excited replies flew into her goggs… but of course it was the one sour one that stood out.

Beatrice: I’ve told you a million times to leave me off of your idiotic mass messages. Why don’t you put your energy to good use for once instead of wasting your time obsessing over some stupid sporting event and your brain-rotting hololog.

Micah let out a tense breath through her cheeks, steam practically hissing from her ears as she snapped back.

Micah: Okay, no one let Beatrice in. Her fun allergy might be lethal.

She probably shouldn’t have sent it, but… oh well. A smug, bitter-tasting grin tilted Micah’s lips. Although most everyone in Tuzuno had gotten behind Sterling/Hart and the funding effort to raise creds for high-end topsuits, the lab’s finance manager had been downright appalled that Micah had “put mass entertainment over the jobs and well-being of everyone in Tuzuno.”

While Micah had tried to explain the ties between Sterling/Hart’s performance and the lab’s fundraising efforts, she couldn’t deny the guilt that twinged her gut. After all, she’d spent nearly every spare moment outside her day job trying to promote Ezren and Foster through her hololog. Hours upon hours had gone into tweaking her brand for optimal performance and presenting statistically-proven narrative themes paired with perfect holos for maximum impact.

If she’d used that time and energy to help Tuzuno instead, maybe they wouldn’t be facing mass eviction. Maybe she wouldn’t have a string of failed relationships that couldn’t survive outside of VSoc’s cultivated sphere. Or the long string of insulting messages and dismissive sneers that made it no secret what the world thought of fangirls like her: mindless spongers, opportunistic groupies, groveling wannabes…

She shook her head, defiance heating her skin all over again. No, she wasn’t wasting her time. This meant something. Not just for her best friend, but for the system as a whole. The BRR was the linchpin that brought them all together, and she refused to let someone steal her joy. Setting her jaw, she tapped out another response. After all, if everyone was getting fired next week, she might as well burn this bridge while she could.

Micah: And don’t worry, when Ezren wins and saves this outpost, I’ll remember to leave you off the invite list for our celebration.

This was Belethea’s moment, and if they believed hard enough, she knew Ezren and Foster would feel it all the way from the starting line. Together, they could change everything. She’d known it since she’d first seen Ezren and Foster terrasailing through the storm in the Belethea open tryout.

They were a legend in the making.

Micah marched out into the corridor on her way to the atrium, her smile faltering at the circling holopro notice of the outpost’s shutdown .

Sterling/Hart had to be a legend.

Because she’d put her everything into this, and if they weren’t a legend, then she’d be just another heartbroken, useless fangirl with no idea what to do next.