A machine measured everyone. Then it collected.
A small top-down school world you actually walk around. One campus, seven classrooms, a sports field, a staff lot and a bus loop — and a five-part heist you carry out during break.
Blockside High used to be loud. Then Principal Vex Sternum installed the GRADE-O-TRON 3000 — a machine to measure every student's Vibe Score, so the school could finally prove it was doing well.
It measured. Band practice: redundant. Dodgeball: no measurable outcome. Art club: unquantifiable. One by one the notices went up and the clubs came down, and everybody agreed the numbers looked healthier than ever.
Then it stopped measuring and started collecting. It pulled the funk out of the building and wound it onto five cassette shards, wired into its own core behind a sealed door in the admin block. The campus went grey — the paving, the buses, the sky over the bus loop. Nobody remembers it being any other way.
You get off the bus on your first day as the only kid still in colour. Your locker is #404. Whoever had it before you left a busted Walkman, a photo of a marching band mid-jump, and a note: "5 tapes. 5 crews. Get them back."
GRADE-O-TRON 3000 · TERMINAL READOUT
Every shard is buried in a mission on the board — hand in homework, work the drains, trade at Rico's counter, put the clubs back up. Do the work, get the tape. There is no combat and nothing to lose.
Nine real buildings with floors, walls, windows and doors you walk through. Step inside and that building's roof fades off so you can see yourself, the furniture and everyone in there with you.
Rico runs the counter and buys anything. Gus mops and knows about the ladder. Mr. Whiskerton wins every staring contest. Hallway chat runs all day and notices when you land something rare.
The admin block hums and stays sealed. Mission nine asks you to hold 500 $FUNK at once — an unmeasurable number — and walk in.
AFTER·BELL