Odyssey of the City of Lights

Odyssey of the City of Lights - Book 1 - Chapter 9

I kept glancing at the young woman who seemed to stare at me from across the room. Aaron laughed it off and led me up to an empty chair, the dim lights casting eerie shadows around us.

"Alright, Eli," he said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "You know my glasses, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you called it AR?"

"Exactly," Aaron replied. "That's Augmented Reality. It's a layer of digital information over what you see. VR, or Virtual Reality, is a few steps deeper than that. I have AR goggles at home. Deep Dive VR is full emersion and well isn't exactly...common, or allowed in our city." He gave me a conspiratorial wink.

I looked confused as Aaron helped me sit down and positioned a strange hat-like device on my head. "Regular VR, like goggles and gloves, is normal. That actually might have been the better thing to start with. But we are here, and this...this is way deeper. Now lay back and wait for it to map you." He tapped his watch to the display, and my brain felt fuzzy as if I were submerged underwater.

Trying to speak, the words came out garbled, a mess of syllables. My brain felt sluggish, random sensations pulsing through my body. Aaron shook his head. "Wait. Don't talk. It takes a few minutes."

So I obeyed. I closed my eyes, letting the sensations subside. The odd taste that formed in my mouth was almost metallic but sweet at the same time. Something dinged inside my head, and I opened my eyes to see Aaron smiling reassuringly.

"Okay," he said, "I'm going to activate this now. You'll feel weird. Just close your eyes and wait for me. This will take a few seconds for me to catch up to you." He pressed something on the pad, and my head fell back, my vision tunneling into darkness as another strange sensation filled my body. I tried to open my eyes, but all I saw was a strange grid and a pale light.

"Is this normal?" I thought, my heart racing with anticipation and fear.

Panic rose within me as I stared at the blank blobs that were supposed to be my arms. My breathing grew shallow, and I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead. I think that's my forehead. It doesn't quite feel like mine. This wasn't what I had expected, and it scared me.

Suddenly, a door materialized out of nowhere, accompanied by Aaron's voice. "Okay, buddy, you need to allow a link-up. I'll walk you through." Desperate for some sense of control, I scrambled towards the door, willing it to open with all my might. With a creak, the door gave way, revealing Aaron on the other side, looking just as strange as everything else in this bizarre grid space.

"Oh, I forgot what blank slates looked like," he said, an amused smile playing on his lips. I tried to speak, to ask him what was going on, but my voice failed me once again. Aaron seemed to understand my confusion. "I can't give you a mirror to show you how you look right now. I'll take a snapshot and show you at home."

Determined for guidance, I focused on Aaron as he made shapes with his hands. "For now, let's make a basic avatar to not waste time and money," he said, conjuring a mass of text around me. "Can I give you a basic build on the custom bio method?"

I willed myself to speak, and finally, a sound came out: "Yes." Relief washed over me as Aaron clicked some buttons, and I watched my hands take shape. They looked strange – flat, almost puppet-like. As I examined them, Aaron spoke up. "Good enough. This isn't your personal account, anyway. It's just a guest account. Ready to go?"

I nodded, feeling my head move and not move. "Yes," I said in a voice that didn't quite sound like my own.

Aaron pointed, and another door appeared before us. "Let's do a quick tutorial level," he said. I willed myself forward, my heart pounding in anticipation. Glancing down, I realized my legs were missing. Panic surged through me, but then I noticed that I was still able to move forward without them. As we stepped through the door, I gasped.