Literature Club: Return to their reality

Prologue: Retracing

A cute but very sad girl crying on her childhood friend's shoulder. Him trying to assure her they will pull through together, no matter what. Her wanting to believe, yet afraid of facing what's to come. A glimpse of hope or a prelude to disaster? And what's my part in all of that?

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Start from the beginning? Well, this probably wasn't the best idea in the first place. Expensive newest generation VR system with prototype neural interfaces, highly intelligent narrative engine (basically, virtual game master, rumored to be capable of visualizing books – albeit with weird results), tons of extra plugins (some hacked), hours and hours of working on all the configs... And for what? Porting an old-fashioned 2-d game! And one having such minimalistic amount of details and locations, that even with a ton of visuals from fan works (and I did make sure no altered scripts get dragged with that) it's still up to the narrative engine and hacked neural feedback to plug the plot holes and build some semblance of a world...

Yeah, an old game that wasn't that new even when I first found it back in the days – and that's the first thing I try to enter, having finally laid my hands on this VR tech! Even despite all the warnings that such games just don't really mesh with immersive VR anyway. Let's just say I got my reasoning to at least try... but do I really want to re-experience THAT? Or will I be able to..?

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The first impressions were kind of mixed. On one hand, it got properly visualized (I was still half-expecting anything down to cardboard cutouts) and everyone moves and talks very smoothly. On the other hand it got a bit too faithful to the original in the very places you would expect to be better in VR: literally almost no player control (the avatar pretty much acting on his own), time skips all around, even plenty of telling instead of showing when it gets confused about the narration.

But my main question – could this VR simulation bring the characters to life – is just left unanswered. They do seem very lifelike, but what can I tell if the scenes are just played out word for word with no input accepted from my side?! However, a certain pair of emerald eyes did give me shivers a couple times... but would that be expected from the visualization or is this really a hint?

Day after day, scene after scene, scenario retraced step by step... Until we reach the point when I perfectly know I'm going to regret letting it play out any further. Then again, I might regret trying anything anyway... Come on, this is the kind of experiment where wrong action is always better than wrong inaction! Yet, still unsure of how to break the script, I just start switching my viewpoint around this newly established couple, searching for clues that might not even... Bingo! Another observer! Someone looking at the couple from behind a tree – and being not very happy with the scene.

I start shifting my viewpoint closer to her – and get some weird glances I barely manage to avoid. Is it actually creating a visible camera object?! Or is she really able to..?

I put myself behind her back and see how, having lost track of whatever anomaly she almost caught, she shrugs, sighs, and makes some weird gestures in the air. And a file window appears in front of her.

I move even closer and read the title. No surprise at all.

Sayori.chr

And her hand reaches for a slider which reads Depression. It's already almost maxed out and she is going to increase it even further...

Pause simulation! And let me finally do something for real...