Virtuality

Vanessa

It's the year 612. A peaceful morning awaits. I'm currently a High School student. I'm currently alone in my house right now. Mom and Dad are working most of the time, so it's just me here. I have no siblings. I just live alone.

I'm currently 17 years old. Oops, I'm 5 minutes behind on my schedule. I must get ready so that I can go to school already.

Now I'm finish taking a bath. I prepared all my notebooks and other necessary stuffs for school. I'm off.

Our world is currently closing in on a great discovery. Flying cars were already invented, but this new discovery is much more breathtaking.

If they're successful, mankind will now be able to transfer one's consciousness to a particular vessel.

Yup, it was at this day. During this moment, I was unaware of my surroundings, I kept enjoying what I have and what I'm about to do. It was after a few hours that the tragedy started.

I'm now on my way to the music school. In this era, almost everything is pretty much decided by music. Your popularity, social status, and above all, your future.

I learned a lot in this morning's lecture. I was taught more about musical theories, and also how to appeal to another person's auditory sense.

I approached Sir Colin to ask a question.

Sir Colin Neumann is a great musician. Aside from being the top of his batch, he has created wonderful masterpieces that is very calming to listen to.

Vanessa:
"Uhm, Sir Colin, I want to clarify something."

Colin:
"And what may it be?"

Vanessa:
"How do you put additional notes on improvisations when creating an improved version of a musical piece?"

Colin:
"As expected of the top student. Your question is quite startling. Not that I'm comparing you to others. I can answer that, but it will take a bit of time. Why don't I show you to my workplace? It's just a bit of a distance from here."

Vanessa:
"Really?! I would love to go there."

And so, we went to Sir Colin's headquarters where he makes his music and where most of his equipment is kept hidden.

As the both of us arrived at his house, I felt very nervous thinking about what instruments does he have in store. I felt nervous, thrilled, and excited at the same time.

Sir opened the door to his house and as I was following him, to my surprise, it was revealed that he has an underground pathway inside his house.

Sir entered the password, let the iris scanner scan his eyes, and he also entered his biometric handprint.

I'm now thinking to myself how terrifying this has become when I saw that there are a lot of security measures before we can get inside his underground 'hideout'.

It's now opened. I slowly followed Sir towards where he was going.

Colin:
"The switches for the lights are located below which is why we need to use flashlights. Sorry for the inconvenience here."

Vanessa:
"N-no problem, sir."

As we reached the flat surface already, the lights above opened one by one.
My heart raced the moment I saw the things being kept hidden by the light.

It's like a secret fortress of musical art. There are a lot of instruments, and also computers and some machines that I don't know.

Vanessa:
"What is this machine with like a chip inside?"

Colin:
"Oh, that. That's a top secret synthesizer. The memory chip is also the processor. It serves as the heart of this machine.

Vanessa:
"Ahhh, I get it now. So what will you show me, sir?"

Colin:
"You see this box? I'm going to show you what's inside."

Sir Colin pulled out a key from his right pocket and used it to open the chest-like box.

Vanessa:
"What is with all of these papers, sir?"

Colin:
"This is my legacy. My ancestors passed this sheet from generation to generation. I, myself, can't decipher it. It has been said that this will reveal the true nature of our universe...... and music."

I wasn't able to speak after that. I just stared at the papers that I don't understand. They seem to be old already, but they're firm and by how they look, I can deduce that they were taken care of very well despite the age.

Finally, after some deep thinking, I was able to ask a question.

Vanessa:
"But sir, don't you have a family? Why are you showing this to me?"

Colin:
.................

Colin:
"That's not important for now. It's not just the musical sheets that are present there. The blueprints of the synthesizer is also there. I will let you take all of this, including the Main Chip."

Colin:
"You shouldn't ask too many questions for now. They know that I'll be here. At least, you should take this and keep it hidden.

I am speechless once again. Is sir like, a legendary fugitive or something? I'm really confused right now.

After some seconds of silence, sir told me to put everything inside the box. Instead of going out of his house through the pathway of how we entered in, he brought me to a secret backdoor of his house that leads to an abandoned place outside.

Colin:
"This is my stop. I'm gonna pack some things. You should go and no matter what happens, you should never show that to anyone. I entrust it to thee."

I nodded 2 times, and started walking hastily towards my house with the box kept inside my bag. Phew. Quite a relief that the box can fit inside my travel bag.

It took me 30 minutes to arrive at the house. I immediately went inside my room, and brought out the box from my bag.

I was unaware. I was merely focused on what was inside the box. I was unaware that the world..................

Nearly ended.