Vyvani
“How are you feeling?” Sabina asks me.
We are sitting at a table in the middle of the street. The Crystalline Towers loom behind me, and Handata City sprawls for as far as I can see.
“I’m fine,” I say.
“Good, good,” Sabina says. “Well, your vitals are looking good, Vyvani. Your brain is functioning just fine. The neuralNutrients seem to be working as a substitute for food. Have the optical sensors been effective in determining your circadian rhythm?”
I nod. “I sleep fine. Like how I used to.” I feel helpless, alone. I have never been so dependent on another to do everything for me. My mind is perfectly functional and whole, but without the neuralNutrients Sabina feeds my brain in the real world, without the cycling through of artificial day and night in the lab room so that my optical sensors may detect them, I am as helpless as a newborn baby. If Sabina were to forget her maintenance tasks for even a single day, I would be starved of food or sleep and who knows what else.
“Right now, my team is developing a mechanism that would allow your hypothalamus to be directly wired into this VR world. If it works, you won’t need the optical sensors anymore.” Sabina says it as if it should comfort me. It only reminds me of my helplessness.
I shake my head as I attempt to suppress the bitterness.
“Can’t you already do that with VR pods?” I ask in feigned cheerfulness.
Sabina chuckles. “A rudimentary system, at best. What we’re working with here is a substitute for reality. It is a far more complicated task.” Her face suddenly lengthens into one of seriousness, and the air is weighed down by solemnity. “How are you getting through the news?”
I stifle the ambush of a sob. Soon after Sabina had broken the news to me, I had surfed the web for news. Disbelief swallowed me deeper into its jaws the more I read and watched. Vorin found dead, with no sign of his father. Kazin missing, his father dead. Shora dead, discovered by Muzgal in her apartment, executed by suspected Joryoku.
Sabina tells me that we are unable to charge Akato for his attempt on my life, as Muzgal, the only witness, has disappeared; and I, as a subject of this secret project, cannot be called as a witness. None of it makes sense to me, but this much I know: that somehow I feel like all of this is my fault.
Each night I count off my blunders. I should have kept Vorin’s secret to myself. I should have failed that interview with Shora. Then, perhaps, everyone would still be alive, and the only misfortune would be that I must search for another internship. But instead, I had to be selfish and get what I want no matter the cost, causing everyone else to suffer in the process.
“Still trying to understand,” I tell Sabina. I look down at the table. “I’d like to see my parents.”
Sabina shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Vyvani, but they cannot know that you are here. In fact, other than myself and my team, no one else knows that you are here. Not even the people who run this institution.”
“What about Muzgal?”
Sabina sighs. “Muzgal is still gone. No one knows where he is, but I would not be surprised if the Joryoku had him murdered as well. Doctor Anzano, on the other hand, was told you did not make it through the procedure alive.”
“Who?”
Sabina jerks her head up, then realizes that I would not, could not know. “The surgeon who operated to remove your brain from your body.”
My eyes are glued to the tabletop. Moving them would take the weight of the universe.
I can feel Sabina’s gaze upon me. Even worse, I can already see the pity in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Vyvani. I truly am.”
I don’t answer. We have gone through these steps already. I ask for my parents, she informs me of its impossibility. But every day, I find that I am unable to give it up. To her credit, each and every time I ask, Sabina is patient with me—almost loving, like a mother. Her kindness only works to make me miss my mother more.
Sabina sighs before continuing. “I know it may not mean much, but I had my team write a special segment of code for you today.”
She taps on her tPanel, and suddenly our table is populated with food. They are all foods I had liked when I was still real: shoyu ramen, Takoyaki, deep-fried pork cutlet, French fries. There is even ice cream and cakes on the side.
“With each bite you consume here, our system out there will pump hormones into the tank, in accordance with the amount you eat. While there won’t be any nutritional value, your brain will register that you are full when you’ve had enough.” Sabina smiles sadly. “They’ve even created the flavor profiles for the food, so you’ll be able to taste it somewhat.”
I take a bite, believing myself to have no appetite. But when I discover I truly can taste the foods laid out before me, I begin gorging myself. It is utter bliss. The tastes are a little off—somehow artificial, like the difference between a soda and its sugar-free version—but after not feeling like a true human for so long, I am thankful for this sensation. As I am getting on with my meal, tears start leaking from my eyes. For some reason, this one thing is something they have coded extremely well into this simulation.
Following our daily session, Sabina takes her leave, and I am left alone in this world. Purple, pink, and orange fingers stretch across the sky as fake evening rolls over the day. I stroll through the streets of Handata City, trying to kill my time.
During our second session, I told Sabina that the empty city was uncanny and terrifying, that it reminded me too much of my own artificial nature. Silence and loneliness leads people to go mad. I experienced it firsthand while living in this city devoid of all signs of life. The sound of true silence is a terror all its own. Sabina immediately got her team to work, and the city was soon populated by entities akin to NPCs. They only walk around, not engaging with me in any way, merely running through the tasks assigned to them with code, but their presence did add an element of the corporeal to this world.
As I continue with my stroll, I can hear the music playing from shops, the burble of conversation from passing pedestrians, the clatter of cutlery as diners pick at their food in eateries. There are even several hovercars traveling along infinite loops far overhead. I had never realized how empty the air would feel in their absence, or how accustomed I had been to hearing their steady drone in the sky.
I see a tall brick building in the center of a junction. It is shaped like an arrowhead, and it splits one oncoming street into two. That is when I realize that I have stumbled upon Byanza Quarter. The building is the old Tower Hotel, a landmark of Handata City.
I am feeling a happiness granted by the sight of the familiar, so I decide to explore the building for a bit. I make my way through the doors, and I come into the lobby. The walls and floor are of magnificent stones and tiled designs. Columns run through the length of the hall, elaborate lamps dot the walls, and chandeliers hang from the high ceiling. It is decorated in the art deco style of the past, and I find that I don’t half hate it. In fact, I can admire the realism of the place, although that unnerving fakeness is still present—that off-putting, uncanny feeling reminding me of the artificial nature of it all.
This place is one of fond memories for me. When my father worked as a flightCraft pilot, which allowed us an upper-tier life, he would bring my mother and I to the restaurant located within the hotel for dinner every weekend. Then, we would stop by the speakeasy for a drink—technically I was not allowed entry, but my father was familiar with the manager, so I was the exception to the rule. Following dinner, we would head to the rooftop theater for a viewing of the classic movie being played that night.
I make my way to said restaurant, and I am overwhelmed by memory and emotion. I’ll never get to see my parents again. When I think of this fact, a part of me begins to eat away at me to reveal a hatred for Shora. Who was she to make such a decision? She had no right to tear from me my life in such a way. But then the rational part of me understands that she wanted to save my life, that this was the only way to do so, and that the choice made was the one she thought best in the urgency of a terrible moment.
Out of curiosity, I head to the retro vending machine out in the back corridor, wondering if they have even coded and designed the speakeasy into this place. Sure enough, the vending machine is there.
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“Damn,” I mutter to myself. “They really nailed the city down to the nail.”
I press the silver button on the panel on the vending machine; and as I had only half-expected, it swings out, revealing a vast chamber inside.
I laugh despite all my woes, and I walk into the familiar site. Velvet sofas and divans line the walls. At the far end is the bar, the countless shelves above it decorated with glowing bottles of liquor. Because I was younger at the time, my family wasn’t able to sit in the main area. There was a private room in the back that the manager would loan out to my father, and it was there that we would sit while Father and Mother enjoyed a drink over warm conversation while I poked at vanilla ice cream over steaming chocolate chip cookie.
I make my way to that back room. I pass through the speakeasy, admiring all the sights along the way, and soon I arrive at the double wooden doors leading into the private room.
I smile, and open them.
I gasp. “What the…”
Rows and rows of cylindrical towers rise before me like skyscrapers. Physically speaking, none of this should be possible. Each tower is greater in height than the Tower Hotel—before me is a city of blinking lights and steel cases. It’s almost as if I’ve stumbled into some other world entirely. The sky far overhead is blue, and it appears to be covered in webbed glass. It is night out in this virtual world, I know, but in this place, it is day.
My curiosity gets the better of me, and I begin lurking through the area. I start wondering if Sabina knows of this place. An inkling of a suspicion slithers its way through my mind, and for the first time since I've been here, I find myself wondering what the true nature of these Crystalline Towers is. Sabina claimed that it was the only place that could have saved my life in the state my body was in—I am sure that statement contained no lie, but what more is there to this place? Why was this place created?
I decide to inspect what these towers are comprised of. I near one of the towers and press my hand against it.
It goes through.
I look around me, to check if there is anyone else present. Of course, I’m alone. As always. I take a deep breath and walk into the tower. I stumble into a dark chamber filled with hyperservers. The sum of the blinking lights proves blinding to my eyes. I shield my eyes and squint until my vision adjusts accordingly. I can hear the cooling systems working. When my faculties have adapted, I step towards a server tower. Each one has been labeled.
100234.
I’m not sure what that means, so I move on to the next tower.
101455.
A blinking light just beside the number fires off, and it is what I see then that catches my eye. There is an engraving of a circle, struck through with an arrow pointed downwards to the southeast. That is the logo of B.Ridge Corporation, the same corporation that bought out Sakranada Motors in a hostile takeover. Have I unknowingly stumbled upon a corporate server room?
Against the far wall of the room stand black, steeled double doors. I walk to them and try the handle. They are locked.
I flip my brain upside-down, trying to think of a way to get the doors to open. If doors open with keys in the real world, how do I get them to open in the virtual? Code. I need to hack into the place. I need a key.
That is the only thing I can think of the next day when Sabina and I have our daily session. I choose not to reveal to her my discovery, because I don’t know if I can fully trust her, or if she even knows about the secret database city. I myself am too vulnerable right now, too dependent on Sabina for too many life functions, and so I decide to minimize my risks.
“Professor,” I say over a plate of sushi. “I kind of…” I pause for dramatic effect.
“What is it, Vyvani?” She seems happy that I requested a food item today. She believes that I am growing accustomed to this place, which means that her job, whatever it is, has become easier.
“I would like my own house.”
Sabina nods happily. “That’s perfectly reasonable. You’re adjusting. I’m happy to hear that.” She taps a few times on her tPanel. “I can ask my team to have that ready for you in no time. Depending on the size of the place, it can take a couple of hours to a couple of days.”
I nod. “That would be fine. But I also have another request. Please don’t think it strange.”
She peers over her techSpectacles. “Yes?”
“I would like a mansion with seven rooms and eight bathrooms, but I’d like a different key for every single door, including the doors for the front, back, garage, etc.” It is a convoluted request. I realize its stupidity even as I speak it.
Sabina frowns. “That is…strange. It’ll take longer, you know.”
I nod. “I know. But after my encounter with Akato…I’ve—I’ve become paranoid, professor. I don’t know what to expect anymore.”
“You are alone here, Vyvani,” Sabina assures me. “There’s nothing to fear.”
“I know, but I can't control how I feel about it,” I insist. “I’d feel much more at peace.”
Sabina sighs. “It’s just a bit more code, so there’s nothing to it. I’ll let my team know. Will you be alright, though? Having to switch through so many different codes just to get into a room—that seems quite the hassle.”
I nod. “Which is why, I’d like a master key.”
“I see.” Sabina picks up a salmon nigiri from her plate and dips it into her soy sauce. “I’ll have my programmers code it into your virtual cTab.”
“But,” I say carefully, “I’d also like a master key that works in every single building in the city.”
Sabina looks at me strangely.
“Well, since I have the whole city to myself, I might want to try things that I never had the chance to in real life,” I say, saucing a bit of yearning over my voice. “I’d like to try sleeping in an Indato estateTower for once, or Meradon Hills, for example.”
Sabina’s face crumples into an expression of bemusement, then she breaks out into laughter. “Vyvani, you're so mature for your age that I sometimes forget you're just a teenager. I remember when I was your age.” She nods. “Alright. My coders know this place through and through—they’re part of the team that programmed it in the first place, after all. Hm…A master key. I think I can ask them to create a backdoor of sorts, to override the code for doors and such. It’ll be no problem.” She gives me a smile so genuine it almost makes me feel guilty. “Live out those small fantasies here, Vyvani.”
“Thank you, Professor,” I say meekly. We go on to finish our dinner over lively conversation. I haven't felt so good in ages.
Sabina is either naïve, baiting me, or she has no idea of the existence of the database city. Several days later, she hands over the keys to my mansion, which itself is located just beside the Crystalline Towers. Technically, the key is a cTab, but it is the code programmed into the cTab that matters.
“Just hold the cTab over any lockpad, and it’ll work the code to either unlock, or lock that door for you,” she says.
I nod. “Thanks, professor. I’m planning on trying out Indato for tonight.”
After she’s gone, I run back to the Tower Hotel. The restaurant’s still there, the speakeasy’s still there, and the database city is still there. I stand in front of the tall steel doors and take a deep breath. I hold the cTab over the lockpad, and I hear the exhilarating sound of a beep.