I've never gotten used to the blackness of the void that is 'death' in this virtual world. No matter how many times I've gone through it. The vastness of an ocean of nothing.
I thought I knew what darkness was before I ever experienced this.
But now I know of its cruel existence much more than what I'd like to admit.
There is no standing, no floating, no floor, no sense of depth.
It just simply is.
It never lasts more than what I assume is but a few seconds of real-time. With no sense of time here, though, in this never-ending cycle of what isn't real, time has become nothing but a measurement that I cannot use during my imprisonment.
Inevitably, like all prior simulations that met the same end, somewhere above my head shone two bright and neon blue words.
"SIMULATION ENDED"
And as if it were scripted, I gazed upon these two words with hate and disgust.
"Great, super, fantastic," my words drawled out while my eyes rolled from one side to the other, "I get to leave then, right? Spit me back out to the real world?"
"We apologize for the inconvenience, Mir Oakley," Aurelius' dumb, booming, artificial voice echoed from all directions. "It appears as though your sudden exit from this simulation has caused a disruption in our system. We are addressing the issue as quickly as we can."
"My sudden exit?" My eyes narrowed along with my tone. "My sudden exit? You killed me! I didn't even do anything to warrant that ending this time!"
"According to our calculations, there was enough time to assess the situation and prevent said death from occurring."
"Oh, so you just think it's that easy to avoid death? Just because of some slim little number in your algorithm?"
"Yes."
After taking a deep breath to calm myself down, well, calm enough to make some sort of logical response, I spoke through my teeth into the void, "I think that's real dumb, Aurelius. You all spent so much time and money and people way smarter than the average person to make this whole program. You're telling me, after all this time spent in your stupid little simulation game, I still can't get out and go home for real?"
No response. Typical.
Before I could rattle off my next set of angered thoughts, the blackness around me glitched and transformed into a space that I knew all too well - my bedroom.
It wasn't my real physical room, of course, but it was the closest I could get to design it as. The twin-size bed in the corner of the room had red sheets and a cozy fleece blanket balled up with the memory of how I could never be bothered to make my bed each day. A dresser with a flat-screen monitor sat atop of it in the opposite corner of the room. On the adjacent wall to where my bed rested up against, a little plastic desk sat in front of a dirty old window.
I could never afford a real desk. Those plastic ones broke easily over time, but it was always better than nothing.
Sitting on top of that desk was a laptop that was open and on, the bright light emitting from the screen being the only source of light when I popped back into the room. It was enough to illuminate the dull blue walls.
I stood in the center of that cramped room, glaring out through the only window to see the artificial nighttime portrayed so accurately.
"While we work to resolve this issue," Aurelius' voice pierced through the silence of the room, "we have uploaded a number of new simulations to the database. If you wish to run one of the pre-selected simulations, simply click on the program. Or, you always have the option to customize any by using the menu in the upper right corner of the screen."
YOU ARE READING
Living the Life
Science FictionIf you could live any life imaginable through the means of some coding and digital imaging, wouldn't you at least be intrigued to try it out? What started out as one company's venture into virtual reality and simulation experiencing, governments all...