Living the Life

Chapter 1

My eyes peeled open with the bright shine of the morning sun piercing the threshold of comfort with in which I grew so fond of. How cruel of the sun to believe it had any right to disturb me from peace.

After all, it's not like those beautiful morning rays, glimmering through the vastness of that inevitably blue sky, was actually real.

None of it was real.

Despite knowing this fact, I still decided to be bothered by those artificial rays of sunlight and start my day. Besides, work started in about an hour, and I hated being late.

Of course, not that being late mattered. It all just feeds into the program and alters whatever digits it needs to in order to spit out some response as to why I'm not following my own set of rules.

Once I pulled myself out of bed, my feet dragging across the vinyl flooring of this unnecessary penthouse I've chosen to house myself in, I eventually made it to the bathroom. As I hovered over the marble sink, fingers clutching onto the edges until they turned white, I took a moment to look at my reflection. Not in the way to acknowledge the disheveled mess of black hair that sat atop my obviously sleep deprived head, but more so in the way to make the declaration that shaped my goals for the day.

"Today's a new day."

I nodded to my reflection.

"None of this is real."

Another nod.

"I'm gonna punch Mike Schwartz in his stupid CEO face. My dominance will assert myself as the new boss. Everyone else will be so impressed. They'll have to listen to me!"

With a hearty laugh, I stepped back from the sink with my head tilted backwards. A little circular sensor on the ceiling with a single blinking green light caught my attention.

"Right, Aurelius?"

It took a couple of seconds before the green light flashed orange. Through a set of speakers lining the ceiling edges of the room, a delightful and pleasant voice chimed in to answer me. "I'm sorry. I did not catch that. Could you please repeat yourself?"

I rolled my eyes. Artificial intelligence had come a long way, but it somehow still had flaws. "You technically woke me up. How can you just not be paying attention when you're the one that woke me up?"

"I'm sorry, Mir Oakley, you do not have any alarms set for today," the polite voice informed me in an almost passive aggressive way, "I can set an alarm for you now if that's what you would like."

"Skylar," I could have only wished for more emphasis to invade my tone. "My name is Skylar Oakley. I know you're programmed to be formal and to address me in such a way. And, quite frankly, it does match the simulation I'm running right now. However," I paused to clap my hands together, "how long have you been putting me through these things? I believe we've passed the formalities portion of knowing each other."

"Your purchase of the Deluxe Virtual Experience Package provides optimal service to fit the needs outlined in your original contract when investing in the Aurelius Life Enhancement."

"Well, apparently I didn't read the fine print about how annoying the AI would be inside of the simulation," I mumbled to myself while finally letting the squabble go to get ready for the day ahead.

I was running late.

I had a CEO to punch.

Living in a penthouse had its positives. I could live this extravagant and luxurious lifestyle. The view, regardless of the weather, was immaculate. And being so high up meant I didn't really have to deal with anyone outside of whom I called up to my place.