Year 2066.
In a quiet messy basement of a small one story house where the only things visible are a huge screen TV on the wall to the right of the door of the basement, right in front of the TV is a very comfy looking chair with a helmet connected with many electrodes on top of it. In front of both the TV and chair is an iron table with many electronic gadgets and high tech tools on top. The floor is littered with scrap iron, aluminum, copper and pieces of wood. The basement itself was only 8 meters wide and 6 long, so it wasn’t too tight or too comfortable with all the things in here.
A person was sitting on the chair looking like he was out of the shower except it wasn’t water he was covered in but sweat. He was smiling while looking at the TV as if expecting something. Then a sound came from the TV suddenly “I still don’t understand why you exercise in such an unorganized space instead of a clean room filled with fresh air”.
The person sitting on the chair then spoke and said “O come on, Bemo(pronounced B-mo), that’s not what you are supposed to tell me, you should have said “good job, Kira, keep up the good work “ or something like that” said Kira with a sad expression on his face. Looking closer at the TV there was a person there with a grassland behind him.
Then the TV… or Bemo said “It’s not a good job to work in such an unhealthy environment, Kira, it will only expose you to a higher probability of injury and sickness” with a straight voice devoid of feelings.
“But it’s no fun otherwise man” said Kira, trying to persuade Bemo. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Kira” replied Bemo with the same straight voice.
Kira stood up with a hopeful smile on his face and told Bemo with a slightly higher tone of voice “don’t you worry once we are done and I am inside with you we’ll work on way more than just your feelings problem” then Kira turned around and showed slightly sad look while whispering to himself ”… and hopefully on mine as well”.
Kira’s expression turned to its normal cheerful look very fast while he headed to the bathroom to take a shower.
Once he got out, he got a brush to start brushing his slightly spiky, dark brown, hair. Kira looked at the mirror with his eyes, which were just as brown as his hair and said to himself “as average as ever” while giving out a dejected sigh. Though he looked even less than average in reality with his crooked, slightly round, nose and thicker than average eyebrows that were only thick but not connecting into a unibrow. His only good feature was his military styled hair cut that suit his face quite well, though his body was that of an athlete’s at 178cm with strong arms that weren’t as thick as a bodybuilder’s and slightly thicker than a fitness practitioner.
Kira then proceeded to drink some water, said good night to Bemo and went to sleep.
It has been 10 years since Kira decided to make virtual reality himself and he is now 26 years old. Once he decided to do it, he brought all the books related to virtual reality and studied them with his school material. Kira didn’t have a photographic memory but he studied mnemonics, speed reading and mental math when he was young so whenever he wanted to memorize or study something worth it, he could always do it faster than others… way faster than others. Through much studying and hard work, Kira got a scholarship to a VR department in computer science. Thankfully by 2056 the technology of VR had been already achieved. The only things Kira needed to do by then was to study the materials and connect the dots.
But Kira faced an unexpected road block. Once Kira made the VR machine, he wanted to make a world almost identical to this one but for that he needed knowledge far more than he could gain in a hundred years. After much thinking Kira decided to stay within his expertise and make an AI smart enough to think on its own and gain knowledge on its own. Though such a thing was taboo in society because of the dangers it could bring, like the robot overlords and such, and it was also a very serious crime. But he didn’t care, even while knowing the consequences. Thankfully, Kira’s father who was a millionaire who loved his work and his family just as much, made Kira a time deposit when he was young and he was to be able to withdraw from it when he was 21 years old. At 21 Kira was two million dollars richer.
So Kira travelled from his family’s home in Japan to Egypt, bought a piece of land in the middle of the desert, close enough from the Nile to get enough water and made a small farm something he always wanted to do, but also the place was perfect to hide a possibly apocalyptic machine. Because Egypt was still a developing country that didn’t care for technology enough, they wouldn’t be able to find out what he was up to since the only thing visible from outside was just a plain farm with a small house. He also made a deal with a man named Ali, who he found honest and trustworthy, something that not many people had in this country,, that he would deliver to Kira all the resources he needed for the set amount of money.
Though Kira wanted virtual reality, he didn’t really want to enslave mankind. So he made the AI completely separate from the internet. He built the whole system in his spare room, connected it with his empty VR world and connected it to show on his basements TV. So the AI would be trapped in the VR world, with Kira giving it knowledge to grow, adapt and make things. But giving emotions to the AI was too complex and time consuming for Kira right now and he estimated such a thing would stay complex for tens of years still. By then Kira had an insight and thought *everything I need from now on is too complex for our time and will need more time still, so why not make it that I have even more time than what was given to me?*
Time dilation was what Kira was thinking about. By slowing down the minds perception of time with a specific set of enzymes and chemicals like what happens when the world seems to slow down at a moment of life and death. Then all Kira would have to do was to speed up the game itself to match his minds perception and that’s it.
In the following years, Kira and Bemo the AI (which was named because the first thing that popped into Kira’s head was a behemoth and not for some deep scientific meaning at all) worked together on improving Bemo and making time dilation real while also improving the VR world itself.
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Four years have passed since then, Everything will finally be ready tomorrow to venture into the unknown or in this case the known.
Kira woke up to the morning sun, slightly more energetic than usual today. He started his morning routine which started with washing his face and ending with breakfast, then he went to the basement and said “good morning, Bemo. How are you today?”
To which Bemo replied “Good morning, Kira. All of my systems are functioning normally as usual”
Kira gave a tired sigh at this and said in a slightly annoyed tone “If they are then just say I’m fine. I don’t even know how long I’ve been telling you this”
Once Kira finished Bemo swiftly replied “This is the 1628th time you have told me, Kira. However you also told me that I don’t have to listen to your orders all the ime” still in a deadpan voice.
Kira turned his eyes away while pouting and said “At least you’ve started showing signs of favoritism, but why does it have to be on that particular speech pattern” finished Kira with a sigh.
After a moment of silence Bemo started talking “Kira I’ve set up the worlds as you’ve told me to. We can start immediately once you’re in”
At that Kira showed his usual cheerful smile “Finally! Then let’s start right away”
Kira proceeded to the comfy chair while stripping naked and put on the helmet. Suddenly, the chair started changing and instead of its leathery sides they flipped sides to show a smooth white iron and behind his legs the chair extended upwards at a 45 degree angle. From below the extension a u-shaped iron tube extended with a mechanical sound and once it was in front of his legs, it split into two parts with the upper part going in a semi-circle to the other side covering Kira’s body completely in a transparent bubble like dome.
Then the seat itself that Kira was sitting on suddenly got hollowed in the middle of it showing a closed hole 2 meters beneath it that would open only when there was weight on the surface(for the bathroom and all -_- ). While to his right arm a breathing device with a small tube attached to it got out with a *POP* sound. Kira took it and put it on his mouth and nose and finally closed his eyes.
Even with all this technology, Kira was only able to stay inside for one month before having to get out again or risk malnutrition. Whether or not that was enough time though, was up for debate. Then again he could always get in again.
Kira opened his eyes as if awakened from a dream. Looking around himself, He saw wooden room with only a bed, which he was currently occupying, a closet and two of the same chair he used to log in, right in front of each other. The closet was right in front of the bed and beside it was window, showing a grassland outside with a big umbrella in front of the doorstep, which was right beside the window, under it there was a table and two chairs.
Kira got up and right as he was about to stand he saw the same usual expressionless face with white hair and bright blue eyes.
“Welcome, Kira” said Bemo.
“Woah, you scared me, man” said Kira with a surprised face.
Bemo didn’t reply and simply turned around, walked to the chair and said “shall we?”
“Yeah, let’s go” Kira said with and energetic expression.
They both proceeded to hope on the chairs, naked, infront of each other.
And the same process happened to both of them.
They both woke up in beds of their own that were beside each other with a little space in the middle. They got up and waked through the wooden room that had 2 closets in front of each bed, two windows and a door in the middle however this time it was a farm outside with all kinds of crops outside.
Ignoring all that. The two of them walked beside their closets where their chairs laid. They sat on their chairs, stark naked as the first time with Kira showing a dejected expression but he closed his eyes and just waited on his chair.
And they woke up again. In beds beside each other however this time it was a stone room. Looking outside from the two windows, that were both on Bemo’s side of the bed, showed they were on a cliff with the sea all the way to the horizon while the sound of waves crashing on stones could be heard from under there.
They stripped again and sat on the chairs in front of each other while behind them were their closets.
With Kira’s expression worsening he told Bemo “R-remind me again why the chairs are exactly in front of each other?” he started stuttering a little.
Bemo told him emotionlessly “you told me to do it that way”.
“Yes, but why did you listen to a stupid request like that, which I might have said absentmindedly. And you still refuse to say “I’m fine”?” said Kira with shallow eyes and a hopeless expression.
Without a reply they both closed their eyes.
On the fifth stage which was in a cave with a forest outside.
Kira said with an expressionless face “I’m starting to hate this”.
To which Bemo replied with the same face “you can go back, and make me configure the worlds to your liking if you wish?”.
But Kira just said with a sigh “No, it’s my fault and it’ll just take more time. Let’s just get this over with”
On the eight stage, Kira started slapping himself.
“Why are you slapping yourself?” asked Bemo.
“To never forget such a mistake again and also to try and stay distracted” said Kira trying to not look at Bemo.
While Kira was slapping himself he was thinking *Why the hell did I make him guy? I could’ve been having so much fun right now).
The rest of the stages went on in almost the same fashion until stage 20. Where they were in a shack with windows showing nothing outside but a desert.
This time Kira got off from the bed in an energetic run while stripping and getting into the chair fast and right before he closed his eyes he said “Finally!”.