Elysium

36. THE CR3ATOR

Yuno:

What did she expect from me? What should I believe now? In her feelings, which are perhaps a programmed imitation?

All the screens are collapsing, and with them at least some sense of what is happening to me. Nowhere to hide from this delirium. Wherever I run, the server will kick me back. It is very symbolic, considering that my mental state only worsens every day, and tranquilizers no longer cope. If I went to the hospital with this problem, according to the law, they would double the dose, change the category of my personality type. But I continue to stay here, pretending that nothing happened.
And now I am fully aware of the scale of the loss of touch with reality. If I was sane, I would turn the hell off, delete my account and ask for help. Only the worst thing was that in reality no one could help me. This is how our world works.

At some point, the thought even visits me to go to the "hell location", the most frightening and mysterious of all. I would burn alive there and forget everything that happened. Users often talk about having some kind of "epiphany" after an attraction that simulates the process of burning to the ground. However, whatever it is, I just want to distract myself in any way, in other words, to delay the inevitable collision with the all-consuming emptiness. The indicators of my physical body signal exhaustion.

It's amazing that the cause of all my suffering lies somewhere, in some small box. Damn choker. A harmless toy that destroys human lives. Let Levi be a psychopath, but in some ways he is right.

For the first time in my life I experience something like this. This is not parting with a girl, not betrayal, and not even death. It's the realization that all along you've been in love with something that never existed. This is deception of the highest order. Something important was taken from me, something without which it is difficult for me to imagine my current life, if it is at all appropriate to call it life. Like an expensive and very valuable gift that is taken back.

Suddenly I receive a notification from the system that the lease of an AI has expired.
Aia is no more mine.

With these thoughts, I am preparing to turn off the choker, when suddenly a strong refreshing wind envelops me, and unable to stand still, I succumb to it. The wind picks me up, forcing me to take a few big steps forward. It seems to fill my lungs, for a moment making me just as light and swift. I stop resisting, and a new sensation takes me back to memories.

How many times do I experience something like this, another bug of failed testing of the Elysium update. Or is it just luck? Memories flash in my mind. Not fabricated by a choker, but the most real, childhood memories from reality.

I remember that before it was rarely possible to go out for a walk - my childhood had a strict lockdown during the pandemic, so I often went out to the balcony. I was seven years old. I stood and looked at the city from a height, and suddenly the wind swept up... I opened my arms, as if inviting it into a hug, and a light breeze inflated my clothes like a sail. And then I imagined flying with it to where there is freedom. For some reason, this childhood memory is still one of the clearest.

Nostalgia is interrupted by the echo of laughter that is painfully familiar to me. The head begins to spin a little, and in the virtual world it feels extremely strange, as if reality spreads like a watercolor. Just as the laughter is at its loudest, someone suddenly pushes me and I roll down the sand. When I raise my head, I can't believe my eyes. The avatar in front of me looks too similar to the deceased Jero.

"Get up, Yuno, reflection is over, it's time to enjoy this ever-rising sun!" he exclaims cheerfully.

"But how is this possible? Everyone said you were dead! I might have believed in a prank, but I was at your house in reality, talking with your little brother, reading your last message... Jero, did you play me? Or is it someone trying to evoke emotions in me?" gradually, surprise and shock are replaced by anger, and then back. At that moment, I don't understand myself.