The Eye of Minds Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lifeblood Deep

Michael, playing around with friends in the VirtNet, is tasked with preventing a woman from committing suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge to earn experience points. When he arrives, however, he finds that not all is as it seems. The woman is distraught and mortified, even though it's all just a simulation, and despite any attempts to talk her off the edge she reaches into her temple and begins deactivating and removing her Core, the item grounding her and preventing an influx of information from destroying her in the real life. She successfully removes the item with masterful programming before the two of them plunge over the edge. Before going over, she mentions that Kaine can't trap her there in an experiment anymore.

They both hit the water below and Michael awakens in his coffin in the real world. After disconnecting from the game, he comes to terms that the woman is most likely dead, her body unable to cope with the removal of the Core. He'll no doubt be set back from his goal of reaching Lifeblood Deep-- a game so immense and detailed that it's almost like real life.

After meeting with Sarah and Bryson, his best friends in the VirtNet, Michael heads to school. En route, however, he ends up getting chased into an alley by a black sedan. Taken into their custody, he ends up in a parking garage operated by masked figures before being brought to their leader, a woman, Agent Weber, who insists that they need his skills help to stop the Mortality Doctrine, a secret code, possibly used by Kaine, to perform horrible experiments on people in the VirtNet. He has no real choice but to accept the offer.

Answer: Coding

Michael is forced to escape the parking garage out a back entrance when it's revealed that he was followed. Nonetheless, he's told to tell his friends and start searching the seediest parts of the VirtNet for Kaine. He does this, meeting with them and telling them the whole story (to their disbelief), but the three of them are found by Kaine almost instantly. He transports them to his own creation; the world dissolves around them and they're all expelled from their Sleep. The next day, Michel discovers that he and his friends have been cut off by the VNS (VirtuNet Service), and he's forced to confirm that he will work with them.

When Michael, Sarah, and Bryson return to the game they head to their hidden fort in the forests outside New York City and code themselves some protective programs to safeguard against their new enemy. With these piled on, they head to gather information from an elderly barber in the shadier part of the city and discover that they need to speak to a woman named Ronika in the Black and Blue Club. She can tell them how to find Kaine, and direct them to The Path.

Answer: Wolf

Deciding to infiltrate the Black and Blue Club, but clearly underage, the trio investigates the area, eventually settling on the back door as their entrance. The only issue is the two bouncers standing outside. Hacking into their personal files, they end up bluffing their way through the door, ending up on the dancefloor of the lavish club.

They are, however, found almost instantly and brought to Ronika's room for a chat. She hears them out in a sensible manner and, when they mention Kaine, Bryson is alerted by one of his safeguards; Kaine is close by. Ronika is unfazed by this announcement, mainly because she illegally saved his prized Tangent.

She informs them, quickly, that The Path leads to a location known as the Hallowed Ravine, where Kaine codes. To get there they need to enter through a weak point in Kaine's firewalls known to be in the game 'Devils of Destruction'.

This is about as far as she gets with her information as the gang is forced to flee from their enemy's KillSims, virtual creatures designed to, in a sense, kill them.

The enemies put up a strong fight but after finding their weak points-- their eyes-- they're able to escape, though not before losing Ronika to the beasts.

Answer: Greenland

Michael and the others plan for their investigation of the 'Devils of Destruction' game by reading up on the War of Greenland which took place with brutal weaponry in 2022. In the midst of their research, Michael is given a note sending him to an alley in the real word and there he meets a mysterious person named Agent Scott who warns him of Kaine and the others; no one is to be trusted. Along the way he becomes a victim of piercing headaches resulting from the KillSim attack.

When the trio heads to the gaming boardwalk they discover that 'Devils of Destruction' is a 25+ game; they're too young. They make an attempt to code their way through the issue but are stopped by a tangent named Ryker who attempts to force them out with sawed-off shotguns. Luckily, Bryson can hack her before any real damage is done. They head into the game.

Answer: Michael

Getting into the game, the three gamers stock up on items and coded gloves/hats to protect themselves from the cold, foreboding battleground outside. What they find first is that their guns don't work. As they crest the hill, what they find next is carnage; all of the combat is intended to be bloody and personal.

They don't get to the trenches before they're attacked by another opposing trio and Michael, while able to kill one, is also killed. All of them realize that they'll need to split up, play ruthlessly, and bring modded items from other games.

After twenty-seven deaths over three days, Sarah ends up finding the portal in a well-guarded trench.

Answer: 10 o'clock

With portal found, Michael, Sarah, and Bryson decide to force a full-out assault on the specific trench using both their grenades and a spark spell pulled from the code of another game. They make it to the proper spot, but not before Michael is warned that Kaine may not be who they think he is. Soon enough, the three end up crawling through the darkness of the path, afraid to fall into the oblivion, but they emerge on a floating disc occupied by an old woman named Satchel.

She warns them that escape from the Path may be an issue; they can either die and never return or "figure out the time".

As she departs, she gives a riddle and leaves them to figure out the problem as the platform crumbles away. With quick thinking, they deduce that they platform is a clock and they need to find 10 o'clock.

Then, there's nothing to do but leap through the portal.

Answer: Bryson

When the three break through their difficult clock puzzle in the Path, they land in an infinite hallway occasionally bombarded by the sound of ghoulish shrieks. The ghost calls for Michael as they search for an exit and, when they search the code, they find one in the side of the wall-- they simply break through and fall into the darkness, eventually sinking into black sand and sliding down onto a thick stairwell. Realizing how long they've traveled, they decide to sleep on the stairs. After realizing how long it's been since he's seen his parents, Michel finally konks out.

They finally reach a doorway at the bottom of the staircase and, when they open it, they're shocked to find an endless hallway of corpses, all staring at them as they make their way inside. What they discover is that harsh movement awakens the bodies, and as long as they move slowly they can get to the other side without any danger. As they make it to the end, Bryson begins to realize that Kaine may not actually be a gamer; he breaks into a run and the others watch as he is torn apart.

Answer: Demonic animals

Opening the door at the end of the corpse hallway, Michael and Sarah find a location known as Forest Mendenstone where a man in a cloak named Master Slake leads them on into the woods. Arriving at a sanctuary they're fed dinner (by a troupe of friendly forest critters) and Slake is revealed to be missing gamer Gunner Skale.

He informs them that Bryson was right-- Kaine is not another gamer, but a rogue tangent. They discuss the fact that there are many deep games (like 'Lifeblood Deep') and that Kaine built the Hallowed Ravine but later that night he says that he will be forced to send them back to their coffins, never to walk on the Path again, since he is the guardian of this area.

He sics his demonic animals on them intentionally, but using Skale as a human shield they're able to back out to the nearby chapel, pull in some weapon coding, and fight their way to a sliver in the code that they can use to escape into the next part of the Path.

Answer: His core is destroyed

Michael and Sarah emerge in a black stone cave composed of hardened magma and realize that they're in the belly of a large volcano. As they start to move through the caverns they come across an enormous pool of lava and are forced to cross it together. On the other side, however, Sarah is struck by a lava ball and burned to death. She's sent back to her coffin leaving Michael alone. Hours pass in sweltering heat and, as Michael reaches the end of the corridor, the passageway gets smaller and smaller until he's forced to crawl on his stomach. He gets stuck but pulls his way to the portal on the other side, finally pulling into a metallic room.

The metallic room, he finds, is populated by a single robotic creature who allows him to eat and drink before the stakes are raised. Until this point, Michael's failure would've only resulted in his awakening in his coffin. The robot, however, destroys his core. If Michael dies beyond these crossroads, he dies in real life.

When Michael's core removal is complete, he is faced with a choice: head onward to the Hallowed Ravine or leave the Path. Considering his options, he heads onward to his goal.

Answer: Yes

Heading into the Hallowed Ravine, Michael finds himself in a desert with only one structure on the horizon-- an outhouse. As he proceeds, however, he;s stopped by a man who tells him not to carry on through the doorway or else his headaches will persist. Instead, he can live in ignorance, alive but safe from Kaine, if he doesn't ask questions. Instead, he refuses and carries on into a stone corridor, at the end of which is Kaine. Kaine, speaking to others from an altar, says that now is the time at which they will become human. That's when Michael is captured by the guards.

...but he's able to make a hasty escape and not a moment too soon-- VNS breaks in and starts an assault on Kaine's fortress, allowing Michael to escape outside while he still can. It's not long, however, before the tangent is able to scoop him up and bring him to a safer place for a quick talk. The truth is, Kaine says, Michael's parents are dead and all of the challenges he's had to face thus far only prove that he was meant to be there to help him. Michael makes another escape attempt back towards the fortress to find that the place is a site of utter destruction. As KillSims bear down on him, he finds himself surprisingly calm and, rather than manipulate the code, he decides to obliterate it. While he destroys the world, he collapses to the ground...

...and awakens in his coffin. Surprised to be alive he emerges from the corner of his room to discover that he's not in his room at all. In fact, he's in a different body. When he checks his messages he finds one from Kaine and discovers that he has been a tangent this entire time; he's the first test of the Mortality Doctrine, allowing tangents to replace the minds of human beings in the real world. All this time, he'd been living in 'Lifeblood Deep' and playing the regular 'Lifeblood' game with real people Bryson and Sarah. Kaine used him as a pawn to start pushing tangents into the real world and he hopes to continue using him for this plan. Agent Weber appears at Michael's door and apologizes for being so cryptic. She persists that Kaine must still be stopped and that she hopes he will still aid the VNS in bringing him down. In the meantime, he'll have to be the human he's inhabiting.