C0NV3RG3 (Sequel to M3RG3)

Chapter 2

Thursday

Lyla

"Today, we will be finishing up your built-in simulation. If some of you are fast, you may get the opportunity to try it on a candidate of our choice." Rebecca fixed her frizzy black hair into a ponytail, her eyes narrowing at her Tabloid screen through her rectangular spectacles. I took my serum out from the cabinet. The only thing missing was the transmitter, the heart of the simulation. All my coding and hard work had been carefully transferred to this tiny transmitter chip. When it was finished, the serum would broadcast the simulation I wanted the participant to see and feel, allowing them to completely immerse into the simulation.

Fortunately, I had fast fingers and could type at a 90 WPM steadily. As I gradually corrected some minor errors and glitches inside the simulation, I could sense it becoming more lifelike and immersive - the original goal of building a simulation.

In the beginning, I wanted to conduct a research project based on the Wastelands and create an immersive simulation for people to understand what it felt like to be Deformed. However, that idea was quickly rejected by the Republicans and I was forced to conduct my project on the Affluents, an area where buildings were of the highest technology and people lived pristine and glamorous lives, the opposite of the Wastelands.

The graphics were easy. I borrowed a 360 Camera and walked around an Affluent house while holding it steady. After adding more general textures and sounds to the appropriate places, the majority of the graphics display was finished. The tricky part was to transfer all the coding into the serum and make the simulation as realistic, immersive and smooth as possible, which was why I had to do multiple final checks on the simulation. Occasionally, glitches would occur, and I would have to reboot the simulation to change that little part of coding to ensure that it wouldn't cause problems again.

With a satisfying pop, the tiny transmitter ejected itself from the desktop. I shoved it into my Tabloid, watching the graphics whirr to life. Using the automated controls to walk around, I identified and corrected some minor errors or glitches that were likely to be hidden in the secluded areas of this Affluent house. Fortunately, after a final walkthrough, I didn't find any more errors in my simulation. Ejecting the transmitter from my Tabloid, I carefully coated it in a transparent protective gel, sealing up all its accessibility. That way, no one could steal my work through the transmitter, as its only job now was to send signals, not receive them.

Carefully, I dropped the transmitter into a boiling tube before adding the tonic in. According to the textbook, the tonic was a complicated mixture of numbing serums, transitional serums and pain serums. If the amounts were just right, the tonic by itself was a numbing agent or pain stimulator. It was a great way to torture people to answer questions they were unwilling to answer.

"You're done?" Rebecca smacked her lips together as her fingers reached for the boiling tube. "What is it about?"

She had asked me this question at least 5 times already. "It's a simulation based on an Affluent house. The aim is for people to understand the lives of the Affluents better."

Rebecca nodded her head in approval. "I can get our first candidate to test your simulation next lesson. For now, you can take a break."

I nodded. "Okay, thanks."

As Rebecca strolled away, I discreetly pulled out my Tabloid, opening the document labelled 'Merging Process'. Most of the entries were just a mix of jumbled words and sentences. I had written most of them during my 'blackout' when I was feeling exceptionally nauseated and dizzy. The entries at the start were very frequent and written at very random times. As the weeks passed, they all started to be stationed at a certain time: 9:30 pm.