Bob walked through the Principal Office, Phong following beside him, looking around at the structure around him with a certain degree of awe. So very short a time ago, it had been a ravaged and dying place, the signature of Megabyte written all over it. But now it was pristine, restored to its proper state by an act of the User. Perfect.

Bob’s brows furrowed slightly. Too perfect, come to think of it. He’d been here several times before the war had begun, so he’d come to know the Office reasonably well. There was no doubting that it was the same place, but it seemed…sharper, somehow. More polished, more efficient.

"Phong," he asked, "is there something…different about the Principal Office?"

The old sprite looked up at him curiously. "Why do you ask, my child? Is something wrong?"

"No, that’s the problem. Nothing’s wrong at all. It’s perfect."

"I believe that was the point of the system restart, Bob."

"Yes, I know, but…it’s not like it was before. It’s better!"

Phong scratched his chin a moment, then raised one finger. "Of course! I had completely forgotten that you had already left when the upgrade came!"

"Upgrade?"

"Yes. We received an upgrade from the User just after you were launched into the Web. It did little to help us against Megabyte, but it was an upgrade nonetheless."

"Well, every little bit helps, I suppose. What was it?"

Phong thought a moment. "As I recall, it was merely an overhaul of the BSnP subsystem."

"BSnP?"

"Yes. The upgrade eliminated a great deal of unnecessary commands that had been present before, thus freeing up resources that resulted in increased system-wide bandwidth."

"Hmmm…that would explain why everything seems to be running smoother than before…" Bob paused a moment, thinking about something.

"Correct. The increased bandwidth allows for more channels of higher-resolution data to be transmitted--"

Suddenly, Bob slammed his fist into his hand with a look of triumph.

"That’s it!"

Phong looked at him curiously.

"What’s it?"

"I knew there was something different about her!"

"What was different about who?"

"Dot’s in stereo!"

By this time, Phong looked quite thoroughly confused.

"Excuse me?"

Bob looked down at the elder sprite, somewhat embarrassed.

"Well…you know…"

"No, I do not. Could you explain?"

Bob began making awkward curvy motions with his hands. "You see…because of the previous BSnP codes…Dot’s, ah…attributes…she used to be in mono…but now she’s in stereo…full duplex…double crested…"

Phong’s eyes widened.

"Y-you mean…you are talking about her…her…" Phong began making even more awkward curvy motions with his hands than Bob had been.

"Yes, exactly! Hey, wait…come to think of it…if she’s in stereo…" Suddenly, Bob broke out into a grin, turned around, and started into a dead run toward the nearest exit.

"Wait, my child!" Phong called after him. "Where are you going?"

"Two channels is enough to carry a signal!" Bob yelled back without pausing.

"What kind of signal?"

"Surround sound!"

With that, Bob turned the corner and ran out of the Principal Office. Phong merely sat there, dumbfounded, looking after him with wide eyes.

"Oh dear…"