The furniture in the computer room on the top floor of the villa had been rearranged. In the center of the room were four of the neatly cleaned lawn chairs, covered with soft, bright red cushions. All of them had cables attached to their headboards. These cables led to the red, high-powered computer, the interface. Almost all of the TRAP agents were gathered in the room. Harry, Abigail and Yuri were still sipping their sour tasting vitamin cocktails. Yanny had insisted that the three of them drink this liquid before the mission. After all, there was no way of knowing exactly how long the following procedure would take and how much time the companions would spend motionless on the couches. One thing was clear: it could not last more than three days. Three days was the absolute maximum for a stay in cyberspace. Anything longer would mean too long a recovery period in the real world, and they couldn't afford that.
"When we are inside your mind, what will it be like? What exactly awaits us? I know the forest simulation you were in, but what does your own *mind* look like?" Abigail asked Yanny.
"Visual surfing of the teletext Internet, whether superficial or in the extensively encrypted DarkWeb, is generally malleable to one's own desires. A neutral place where you can create the illusion of any world you want. It is actually just a pure visualization language that interprets existing information from the web. In the simulation, an obstacle can be represented as a ravine or a fence, and the process of overcoming the obstacle can be performed by climbing or jumping over it. The framework of the represented worlds generally remains coherent. However, my own mind, my own world of thought, differs from the big networks in one respect...", Yanny explained at length.
"Yes? In what way?" Abigail asked and everyone looked at the cyborg with anticipation.
"The question about my mind has already hit the nail on the head. When you are connected to me, this world will not be shaped by your ideas - by the users - but by mine. It is my daydreams that you will find yourselves in," Yanny replied in a softer voice, playing with her fingers. It seemed as if she was slightly embarrassed. The others still looked at her expectantly.
"Daydreaming?" grumbled Yuri.
"Don't look at me like that. You know I'm a total fan of the *Heroes of Ulthrard* series..." she replied a little more quietly.
"You really have daydreams that revolve around that cartoon series?" Harry asked in surprise. Of course, they had all noticed how much the Cyborg loved the series and never missed an episode of it on television. She had been collecting the action figures for quite some time, ever since Ralph had bought the first one, the hero *Caine Powerheart*, from Dr. Niclas Ivanov, the ancient languages specialist at the university.
"Uh-huh," Yanny said curtly and nodded, giving Yuri a piercing look. He had recently caught her playing with the figurines in her room with the door open. The whole thing was still very embarrassing for her. Yuri kept his poker face and didn't say a word about the incident. He wasn't surprised, as she seemed to be going through several stages of development at the same time and was constantly learning. Wasn't it normal for her to play with dolls? You could talk to her about philosophical questions, and half an hour later she was jumping up and down enthusiastically when Ralph brought her a new kind of lemonade from the supermarket.
"Right, so we come to fantasy world of Ulthrard and then what we do?" asked Yuri calmly.
"The defined goal is to remove the barrier to my combat abilities. But I can't say exactly what that will look like. The barrier is in an area that I can't access, that I can't control - so it's pretty much like the human subconscious. So maybe the barrier is something symbolic, like in people's dreams," Yanny explained.
"For example, if you see a spider in a dream, is that a sign of creativity? Is it something like that?" said Abigail. She didn't think much of these rigid interpretations. Wasn't the psyche far too complex to be reduced to such simple equations?
"Yes, that could at least be an approach," Yanny nodded. "And I wanted to add: I will be able to observe you on your journey, but I won't be able to influence anything. We won't be able to communicate."
"Anything else we should know about?" asked Harry. He had watched a few episodes of her favorite series with her over the last few weeks and knew roughly what it was about. The fact that Yanny herself didn't know what they were supposed to be looking for in this world didn't make it any easier.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"Yes, you mustn't forget that the dangers in cyberspace are still real for you. If you die there, your brain will be irreparably damaged by a complete sensory overload while directly connected to the interface. This risk is unavoidable when connecting such a sensitive organ to a machine. Some hackers have already paid for their missions with their lives," she reminded the group of the most important detail of all. "On the other hand, if you *only* get seriously injured, you can still disconnect from the simulation, but you can't jump back into the ongoing process." Yuri ran a hand over his beard and thought about it, while Abigail sipped her drink loudly and with thin lips. The computer specialist tried not to think too much about this worst-case scenario. They were risking their lives again, and not even for much money. They were doing it for a chance to save this city - again. Abigail held her nose and poured the rest of the sour juice into her mouth. When this was all over and she asked Yuri nicely, would he perhaps force the mayor to erect a bronze statue of her in the city park as a fitting tribute?
"How many chances do we have?" Harry inquired.
"Only one," Yanny said as a matter of course. "A system under attack will reposition itself as soon as it detects and successfully fends off an attack. My subconscious won't be much different. If it increases its security measures afterwards, a second attempt will not only be much more dangerous, but we will also run out of time."
"She's right. It can't be long now until the cyborg from Project Lazarus reaches Elysium..." Abigail agreed, wiping the corners of her mouth. Harry took a deep breath. He still didn't like the whole thing, but what choice did they have?
"Okay, let's not waste any more time. On the benches," he said.
"Totally agree," Ralph rumbled from behind, stomping into the room with his legs apart and standing in front of the assembled group with his chest outstretched. He was dressed in full leather armor and chains, a shotgun in his hand. He even wore a full cartridge belt.
"Are you going to war?" asked Abigail, her eyebrows raised.
"Well, Madame told me to protect you while you sleep here," the old punk explained loudly, nodding to Yanny. "And I'll do that, of course. If anyone comes near the villa, I'll blow their fucking head off."
"Tonight or tomorrow morning I'll get another package of blank disks delivered. It would be cool if you didn't kill the delivery guy," Abigail sighed as she lay down on one of the couches and plugged the data cable hanging at head height into the new socket at the back of her head.
"I'm never allowed to do anything! But okay, that's fine," Ralph grinned and gave a mock salute, casually tapping his temple with two fingers.
"If that guy who always wants to sell sports magazines comes back, please kill him," Yuri grumbled and lay down on one of the couches, which creaked under his weight. Harry said nothing, just rolled his eyes. Was it really such a good idea to have Ralph take care of them? Did they have to expect the mansion to be surrounded by a police task force when they woke up from the simulation?
Then he settled into one of the two remaining chairs and connected to the interface like the others. The plug snapped into place with a quiet click. Apart from a slight tingling sensation on his scalp, nothing else was noticeable.
"We're ready," Abigail confirmed.
"Then let's not waste any more time," Yanny replied, taking a seat on the last chair to Harry's left and plugging in the cable as well. "I need you to close your eyes now, just relax." They closed their eyes and followed her instructions. Ralph went to the light switch and turned off the overhead light. He took one last look at his comrades lying quietly, made a thoughtful face, and then quietly left the room. He had been told that it would be enough to check on them every half hour or so.
"Relax... Just relax... Just breathe..." Harry heard Yanny's voice, which had taken on a pleasantly calming tone. A soothing buzz spread through his body. As he drifted off to sleep, he felt something. It was Yanny's warm and velvety hand holding his left hand. With the last bit of consciousness, he returned the touch, squeezing it gently. Then he fell, weightlessly downward.